Dev.D and Anurag – Drug, Revolution, Inspiration.
Disclaimer: *For all the people in India* If you haven’t seen the movie yet after 15 days, You fully deserve all the spoilers in this post. For the viewers who haven’t been fortunate with a release, the post is full of spoilers, please do not read it.
Tomorrow, it’s going to be Fifteen days, a fortnight; What a fortnight it has been. Film lovers of at least my generation have been treated to a big bang. Yes, Dev.D has been that film, where intensity has reached infinity and the resulting explosion has been so blindingly incandescent, the spectacle has left every body drugged, intoxicated, in a state of trance, incoherent. Fifteen days, five visits to the theater and the film still breaks your resolve, makes you slip into non-momentary lapse of reason and pushes you out into the fast winds, non linearity of traffic, the blur of the head lamps, neon signs outside the multiplex and you enter the black hole once again. Time and dimension ceases to exist.
Dev.D has been an event. A monumental event in commercial Indian cinema. Art and talent has overflown and the formula has been drowned. Anurag’s arrogance of imagination and wizardry of technique has finally given the broad spectra movie goer that snake bite, that dark reflection which has precipitated irreversible gratification and unbreakable intoxication.
What Dev.D has achieved is a rare feet. It has achieved commercial success without compromising quality and audacity of film making. The cinematography, the music and the narrative are so much in sync and so psychedelic, it has immense addiction and tremendous repeat watch appeal. It’s a revolutionary Hindi movie in its style, technique, imagination and audacity.
But probably, the rarest thing that has happened, and that’s the sole reason Dev.D is such an immense hangover, is that Dev.D has managed to inspire aspiring film makers. Many a young man caught in the cross roads of career choice, or going through the daily chores of a job with a suppressed burning passion for film making, have been ferociously stirred. It’s a dream movie because it makes you dream.
What more can be demanded from a movie?
I have this imaginary end to Dev.D in my mind where the movie ends when Dev is sitting by the brook and the flash back and emotional attyachar riff. The dialogue with the driver goes as usual till “Like a fish”. After that the driver asks him “Kahan chalna hai?” and Dev says “Chanda”. Fade in and the movie ends.
I won’t gush about the movie much here on this post. Because the focus of this post is not the movie. The focus is its impact. However, I’ll just mention the following moments of the movie which are staggering. And it’s these moments, for which I will see this movie in the theater any number of times.
1. Start of the chapter Dev.D – Dev.D is brought to Chanda by Chunni. He falls down on the bed, incoherently says Paro, slips into unconsciousness. The rock version of Emotional Attyachar and the acceleration of narrative. The 3rd and eponymous chapter starts with surreal out of this world visuals which have been hitherto uncoceivable in Indian cinema. The implicit speed of the narrative at this point is so rampantly accelerating, You want the music to accelerate even more.
2. Pardesi, the 360 degree, intermission and Pardesi again – special thanks or no special thanks, the imagery and accelerated camera movement was just drug. The background score, the accelerated circular movement, it beats all cinematic sensuality in its crescendo and climax. The underwater visuals and sounds, the body attached camera, Pardesi was cinematic outrage. Add to that the non linear repitition of Dev reaching Chanda, the incoherent “Paro” and the interval. Cut to the start of the second half and it’s Pardesi again. Psychedelia at its best, Dev.D with the monocular. Simply mind blowing.
3. Dev sitting by the brook, flash back and Emotional Attyachar rock – “Tum kisi se pyar nahi karte” “Tumhari aukaat dikhaa rahi hun.” “You are not so bad you know, I love You”. Emotional Attyachar’s rock riffs in the background. This scene is the soul of Anurag Kashyap school of film making. Actually, This scene, along with the scene in first half where Dev is standing by the wash basin, water flowing and emotional attyachar’s rock version’s riffs, the other scene with same feel is the one shot in blue where Dev, sitting in the pub imagines Paro in the bed. That scene has Bony’s superb rendition “Aankhon ka hai dhoka”.
Especially these scenes with Emotional Attyachar’s rock riffs remind me of everything Anurag. Some how it feels like No Smoking. I feel it has Kashyap’s soul.
Big thanks to Anurag Kashyap and Amit Trivedi for the cinematic addiction.
Tags: Amit Trivedi, Anurag Kashyap, Bollywood, Dev.D
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
I don’t know about Anurag’s arrogance of imagination but yours is in full show right at the beginning. Truck loads of arrogance!
Who the fuck gives you a right to decide when it is the right time for anyone to watch the movie? 15 days?! What about those who are impatiently waiting to catch up courtesy minimal and limited release? IMDb follows the spoilers ahead policy for movies even after years of their release.
You might have been excited, super excited as can be seen in your “eloquent” “ferocious” out pour. That doesn’t give you the license to say what you did to start off with. Keep such things to personal blogs and not on a platform where you are a featured author!!!
“Disclaimer: If you haven’t seen the movie yet after 15 days, You fully deserve all the spoilers in this post.”
Do you think everyone is as fortunate as you? Apart from India the movie hasnt got any release except 4 prints in US..so, do we still deserve the spoilers? Their is a huge audience for PFC apart from India
cheers
Dude.. It was good to find a disclaimer at the start and hence I decided against reading it… For people outside India, youtube is the only place where you can watch devd. And I dont like watching movies in a small dabba.. I haven’t seen the movie yet and I don’t deserve the spoilers either
There is a huge audience outside India which has not been able to see the movie and are waiting for it’s release, seriously who gives you the right to post SPOILERS? Who are you some tripped up brat who is drunk in pleasure of DEV D and can’t stop moaning about it?
Grow up Dude and let us all watch the movie please.
this piece reeks of nothing but hyperbole. the first paragraph literally smacks of that.
Oh! I am a dimwit who doesn’t seem to have sensed the hyperbole at the very beginning stating which the author has displayed his immense love for the movie and which he thought will absolve himself of all the screwed movie watching ethics and immaturity. I repeat what arrogance man!
Can’t this piece be removed from the site?
Agreed it’s an arrogant write-up. And all complaints against that are well founded. But I don’t see anything wrong in spoilers being posted. The author has started the post with a disclaimer to that effect (its arrogance is besides the point here) and anyone who hasn’t seen the movie can choose to skip the post.
Just my 2 cents.
My ^^^^^ comment was in response to Saurabh’s comment (#4).
“Agreed it’s an arrogant write-up. And all complaints against that are well founded. But I don’t see anything wrong in spoilers being posted. The author has started the post with a disclaimer to that effect (its arrogance is besides the point here) and anyone who hasn’t seen the movie can choose to skip the post.
Just my 2 cents.”
Agree TN…my comment didnt at all meant to sound agree, i was just “thinking loud” about our plight :-)
I am sure this is a wonderful movie and yes I know that from my circle of friends I am the only one who was in a way able to agree with No Smoking. I watched Black Friday last year before No Smoking and Now can’t wait to see the Deadly combo of Abhay and Anurag together for the first time in Dev D. So why spoil the fun for us who are waiting for the movie, you telling us the spoilers will not stop us from watching the movie but it purely sucks that someone who is passionate about the movie will do that. I did not even read your article completly as I was seething with rage. I know you are celebrating the success of the movie and are like us one of the many fans of AK but please do not spoil it by sharing spoilers with us.
Well guys, I think the disclaimer hurt you all. Actually, I could have written spoilers ahead. That sounded mundane. So I wrote the disclaimer that way.
It’s just a way of saying spoilers ahead. There was no intent to hurt anyone
>>Disclaimer: *For all the people in India* If you haven’t seen the movie yet after 15 days, You fully deserve all the spoilers in this post. <<
So the movie ought to be taken off the theatres going by your logic! Wonder how poor Anurag and the producers of the film feel about this.. tsk tsk
@bugsnest, Okay I can see in what variety of ways anyone can interpret it. But mine was to make anyone feel guilty about not having seen it yet if you had an option to do so. Who am I to make a judgement? None. Only that I have no doubt watching the movie in the theater (If you are in India) is loads of entertainment plus works in favour of the movie too.
“Disclaimer: If you haven’t seen the movie yet after 15 days, You fully deserve all the spoilers in this post.”
Dude I am in India and have yet to see the film. I am dying to see it but cannot dueto work pressures with the year end coming close. Does it mean that I fully deserve the spoilers?
dada, ektu beshi hoye gelo….
@14, Dada, ektu naa, onek beshi. Kichhoo koraar nei. Movie taai emon.
“going through the daily chores of a job with a suppressed burning passion for film making, have been ferociously stirred”–You said it man….this is the most immidiate impact that I have got after watching Dev.D thrice….
santosh pls dont over react
Coming to the content, u seem to have a fixation with emotional attyachar than anything else, come on dude, thats the most over rated song from that album, esp the brass version.
@18, Amit, It’s the emotional attyachar rock version that I always mentioned not the brass one. The rock one has tremendous psychedelia and depth.
I loved the movie. I think I’m going to love Anurag Kashyap and Abhay Deol for the rest of my life! No, really. The movie was AMAZING.. So truly amazing.
I mean, people are going to come up to you and say the same thing, but hey! I friggin’ loved it. SO much, that I ended up here, writing a comment. YAY!
Keep up the good work, Kashyap jee.
And, Monsieur Deol, je t’aime. Honest.
Anurag, are you planning to release the DVDs atleast in the overseas market, since there wasn’t a theatrical release. Man there is a huge market here and you are def losing out on a lot of revenue. Now that the film has made money in India why not spend it in taking the movie international. You dont have to spend too much on marketing as the movie has got good publicity and reviews anyways. UTV or Anurag if you are reading this…!!!
I really dont get what everyones crying about. The disclaimer clearly states not to read ahead if you haven’t watched the movie. fortunate/unfortunate, intentional/unintentional, arrogant, how the eff does it matter? the point i took is…its a fabulous movie…if u haven’t watched it yet…go watch it…stop reading…jst go watch it. and for all those less fortunate ppl abroad who didnt get a release (dat includes me, I live in Dubai) well…it wont get a release…so spoilers, reviews and downloaded stuff is all u have. Or do what I did…take a low fare ticket to India and watch it…totally worth it!! Me n my buddies spent an equivalent of $500…round trip…hotel stay, movie tickets, popcorn, softdrink, dinner and plenty of cheap bombay beer to go with it!!
stop acting like lil spoilt kids guyz…u can always stop reading!
>>Or do what I did…take a low fare ticket to India and watch it…totally worth it!! <<
You’re kidding right??!! That;s something else if you did!
I’m not kidding! Air Arabia return fare from Sharjah Airport, landed 2000 IST…Watched the 2215 show at Fame InOrbit, Beer was ordered into a vegetarian hotel, paneer tikka was our only “chakna”. Took the First Afternoon Flight Back…my cinematic thirst totally quenched.
Was completely worth every penny. Anurag Kashyap, my only request would be Gulaar dubai mein release kar yaar, fans ki kadar nahi hain kya? How r u any different from the yashrajs then? they make movies for the overseas audience to make money…and you wont bring it to us to save money! art ki toh bund par laath!!!
GULAAL**
Cliff – you ought to personally write to Anurag and tell him your Dev-D experience. Who knows, he may let you watch Gulaal with him at his place with beer and chakna ;)
cliff wow.. bugsnest is right.. if gulaal does not release there.. i will personally host you here..take you for the movie and drinks and dinner..
AK I’ll take you up on that.
Friday the Thirteenth March 2009.
Dude keep up the great cinema…drinks and dinner on me man, absolutely love ur work.
No Smoking is still my favourite though, K is a character I can really relate to, got nothing to do with the nicotine addiction.
Cant wait for Gulaal…Color me RED already!!
AK seriously consider Rang de Red as a marketing strategy. Holi is around the corner…you could set up a Gulaal cart outside the exit gate and color peoples faced RED. Word of mouth marketing is the best marketing these days. Push the envelope man…in the end economics is important!