Dev on DVD
Finally saw this movie. There has been much and much written about Dev D. Most of its been flattering. Its definitely to critic’s liking, that was obvious, and don’t get me wrong here but there is this genre of movies which seems to always appeal to the critics.
Anyway, I got this DVD, not expecting to like the movie. I was very much surprised. Any one of my friends who have seen this movie would have automatically told me not to watch it, the language is too crass for my taste. And just like the critics these are the sort of movies I never can make up my mind about.
I am sure Anurag Kashyap had a particular interpretation in mind and possibly subtle messages which I didn’t get.
But I liked it for what it was. It is a good rendition of Devdas, and unexpectedly a saner version for that matter.
There was a positive message hovering over the movie. It gives a fair hearing to Devdas’s urf the spoilt rich brat’s case. There are no real villans expect the public in general. And I am so happy to see a sensible end to the movie.
Must admit that I have never read the book, but I have seen the previous two versions of the movie.
It always felt that even though they had someone with a bigger screen presence playing Chandramukhi, the character was never justified. For that matter, I still don’t understand how or why Devdas became such a popular character, given that all that was ever stated was that he was in love with his childhood sweetheart, and he became drunkard unable to bear that she married someone else.
This is inspite of the fact that Devdas brought it all on himself and never attempted to fix his life except perhaps at the end when it was too late. Why Paro sustained her love for him or why Chandramukhi fell in love with him (other than the sympathy vote for him being in love with someone so long) never made sense. Also, the complete how Devdas treats Chandramukhi only makes his character more charitraheen (characterless)
So what I liked about this new and improved (at least i believe so) storyline? Its mostly the justification of Chanda’s character and that it makes sense why she likes Dev. Because Dev is actually nice to her and that one line when she asks ” Tum yahan hoge jab main college se aaongi” (You will be here when I come back from the college? ) and Dev replies ” Haan” (Yes). To which she says that she loves him. It just fits.
Paro’s character is pretty straightforward in the sense that she gets married to spite Dev but She makes an attempt to stay married. She actually moves on giving herself an explanation on why Dev never married her.
” Tum mujhse pyar nahi karte. Tum kisi se pyar nahi karte. Tumhe bas aaine ke saamane baithana chahiye.”
( You don’t love me. You don’t love anyone. You should sit in front of the mirror. )
Dev turning a new leaf! that part of the edit was a little to quick. that one instant where he should have died next to the dog and when he goes in search of Chanda….were a little too fast paced.
The ring, and its significance.. : good job there 
And finally, this bit about prostitution being choice..you can get in and get out of it.. that bit I don’t buy..
All in all worth a watch!
Tags: Dev D, DVD
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
If there are few reasons why I would watch the movie again and again, it’s the sets, the setups and the music. In fact I can watch a Saawariya five times just because of the sets used in the movie. :P While a lot of people dismissed both the movies for their alleged ’style over substance’, style is precisely I would watch them.
All in all, Dev D rocks. And the biggest reason is that at one level or another, every single male can identify with Dev. Unlike the previous Devd’asses’, whose reason behind self-destruction was a failure in love, Dev D fails at all levels because of his own demons. (”Dev to usad usad ke pass hua hai, Main to college top kittha hai ” Paaro says when her father mentions Dev’s British credentials – to show us he wasn’t even a bright student either.)
So, to male chauvinistic pig’ism..
Also, you can talk about additional features on DVD, that we missed by watching it in halls. ;)
who’s the epicentre?
should the script create characters or the opposite?
Dev D’s adaptation/inspiration is the perfect starting point for this debate.
Kashan – I think it just as easily goes either way! Perhaps depends on whether the story is character driven or event driven.
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Does anything really begin with just a character though? Because we can’t really know a person’s character unless they have a situation to respond to. So even if you begin with the character, I think you begin with a character in a situation, no matter how inconsequential the situation is. Or maybe “situation” is misleading… I think one tends to start with the image of a character at one particular instant in time… and then everything builds around that.
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If I were writing, I would have to begin with the character in a particular instant and not with any larger story the character might fit into. But, that’s just me. Interesting topic though.
tejas : the previous devdases subtly blamed paro for his drunkardness….although it was never clear why! this one was more straightforward. personally didn’t like saanwariya..the acting was a little over the top for my taste….
you should tell me about hte additional features, the DVD I bought is moserbaer three in one..has ek chalis ki last local and oye lucky lucky oye , so no additional features..
Btw the former is also in an interesting movie to watch
kashan, melanie :as far as this movie, other than the end it didnt really deviate from the story did it? all the events were there..they were presented differently and the interpretation of
the reactions of the characters were different perhaps.
@melanie
ya i do that too, begin with a character in a particular instant and let it take its own course after that. think of i as a 3X3 grid. the character stands in the central block (2,2); now it is free to move anywhere but it will take a course fit for it’s soul. A little abstract i know, but that’s me.
@ligne
the events were not the same or were ‘presented differently’ because the characters didn’t react in the same way as they used to in previous versions of devdas. what say?
I guess really what I meant that all the events were recorded..correctly.. they might have fit into the story differently then they were originally placed..
so that was cool!