Dev.D Reader Reviews
Dev.D Reader Reviews
iView Author: Gaurang Joshi (Pune, India)
Email: j.gaurang [at] gmail.com
Dev D: my greatest Cinematic orgasm
“Watch Dev D get bombed, and then go watch it again”
-Raja Sen
After a tumultuous day in life (I banged my car into another, my bike got picked up from No Parking and finally when I reached Rahul I saw HOUSEFULL board, bought tickets in black, but by mistake booked 1 ticket less, when I realised, it was late, everything was sold out, I gave the tickets to my friends and I fleed to Mangala) when I settled in my seat to witness the spectacle, I couldn’t help but feel the buzz, the excitement in the dim lit cinema hall, with people shouting hooting singing EA even before the movie started. I was damn sure, this was gonna be a helluva ride. And it was much much more than that. It was….. hmmm.. Read on.
From where the hell should I start.
The film begins with the clash of Dev and Paro. They flirt, dirty talk, make out but just before the finale the misunderstandings trigger their arrogance, temper and egos. They just hit off each other. Sparks fly here and there. And after finally bad mouthing each other they settle and decide to move on. But for Dev, the emotional Atyachaar has just begun. And then, as the age old story of Devdas goes, he drowns himself in booze, dope which finally leads to self destruction.
So now, as I’ve unburdened my self of introducing this piece, let me get straight to the point. Dev D is an ‘out of this world’ experience. It is dazzling and for most of its running time, jaw dropping. The scenes , the dialogues and most importantly the music, are such an onslaught (in the most positive of connotations) on your senses, that towards the 2nd half I was like “thts enough for today, or I’ll die of AWE” . The jaw dropping dazzle just didn’t seem to end!!!
Anurag Kashyap has created an incredible musical setpiece that you’ll be run out of breath. An emotional punch… bang… song kicks in… and I was swept off my feet. And this continues for a mind blowing 135 minutes.
For my sensibilities and preferences, the characters were sufficiently fleshed out and the motivations behind their actions were very much palpable and relatable. It laid a perfect and a very sound foundation for Anurag Kashyap to indulge and shake the living daylights out of the (average Indian movie) viewer. As I read in a review “The only intention of the movie was to make your jaw drop”. And it did it with devastating (again, in the most positive of connotation) effects.
The main ‘attraction’ of the movie was indeed ‘Emosional Atyachaar’. People were actually singing along in Mangala. And what a song. And what a ‘music video’ !! Patna ke Presleys kick start the song with sheer retro/whacky brilliance. Paro cuts loose on the dancefloor, and apna Dev boozing to the brim vomits, then trying to walk up to Paro collapses. Whoa!!! I just cant stop gushing. EA was an event!!!!!
The movie’s progress was totally guided/dictated by the songs. The lovely rustic flavoured Dhol Yara Dhol introduces to the world of Paro. The free spirited Yehi meri Zindagi takes us through Chanda’s backstory. Pardesi plays during Abhay’s first real ‘trip’ in an underground pub. Look out for the Dev’s dip in water and the visuals that follow. The movies from the west have used it often, but to see it on the Indian screen was a treat. The three break dancing dudes stuff was pure insane brilliance. Also look out for the three dudes when they sing Saali khushi. Hilarious!!!!
But that kick which we all aspire in life and mostly while boozing and doping, is here delivered by the intoxicating visuals which follow the glass break on the wall. EA rock version plays in the background and hits you like a snort of coke (just imagining..).
If I were to write an analytical write up on Dev D, I’ll have to watch it couple of times over, to just get over all the awe and gush. But, I just feel like getting over it. I just wanna savour and reel in this cinematic orgasm called Dev D.
Anurag Kashyap and Amit Trivedi, take a bow!!!!!!
Dev.D Reader Reviews
iView Author: Samir Ahmed Sheikh (Pune, India)
Email: ssahmed85 [at] gmail.com
P for Pain, D for Destruction, C for Closure
How does one deal with pain? Especially the one you have caused yourself…
Some people cry, some remorse, some deal with it. If only the last one was so easy. There are quiet a few who like to take the path of self-loathing eventually leading to self-destruction. This is what Devdas is essentially about. A man who could not deal with his own hypocrisy decides to destroy himself. This is not what Dev. D is about. Dev. D is about dignity, self-respect and even pride. Dignity that Lenny searches for, after her momentary mistake. Self-respect by way of which Parminder lets go of her childhood love and decides to avenge it. Pride, albeit misplaced, which Devinder lives in almost throughout the story. Abhay, Anurag & Vikramaditya (in alphabetical order) take the most famous Indian literary anti-hero & give him redemption in the only place that Devdas possibly could have found.
Now, how does one deal with pain caused by someone else? Mostly, by way of vengeance. For almost everyone, unless one is not ready to accept it, getting back at the person who caused you pain is the only way. Through a tragic misunderstanding, reminiscent of Othello, Dev gives Paro the kind of pain, which forces her to forgo her childhood love. From then on, it’s pretty much downhill for our man, except when another woman decides to save him. If there can be a woman behind every successful man, then Paro is the woman behind Dev’s fall from grace.
Some people deal with it, the pain. They really do. In ways that suits them, not necessarily everyone. She was hurt first by herself, then by everyone. Nowhere to go, she turns to the only thing that could be worse than the reason why she was there in the first place. She revels in it. She thrives. Until one day, a man decides to change it. The pain in this man reminds her of her own pain, the love, even if for another woman, reminding her of her own void. She is talented, she knows every language there is to know. Lenny transforms to Chanda in a few clicks of the button. Chanda is transformed by pain. To find another person with as much pain is rare, to share the pain is impossible. There is redemption, after all.
Dev. D has succeeded in exposing an archaic culture based on the pillar of hypocrisy and torn it to bits. The same culture which enjoys the latest scandal wants its youngsters to behave! The people who shag with the thoughts about a girl of their daughter’s age decide to be the so-called moral police. This is what is going to destroy us. The biggest success for the film would be the plot. The plot based on recent events seems believable and tells you there is lot more to the news than what we see. Delhi, haven for BMWs & whisky filled tanks has been shown in a light never seen before. You might romanticise it, but you cannot deny it. It’s one of these events that changes the course of the original Devdas. Anurag Kashyap has transformed Devdas into Dev. D with a concept driven by Abhay Deol. Both have been fabulous. Anurag in making a stylish literature based film with a lot of heart & Abhay in being the anti-hero. The structure of the film is something not tried in India before. Pre-interval tells you how each one reaches their breaking point, of course individually overlapping & Dev being the pivot. I want to reiterate the success of the plot. Nicely done, Sir. All the departments have supported well. Rajeev Ravi with his compositions, with just the right amount of flair gives a visual style, which makes the film almost avant-garde. I think that is a risk even Kashyap will be a little wary of. Aarti Bajaj also has supported film very well, though there are a few jerks, which kinda worked for me, whether intentional or not. I really do wish, this film had more jerks at the right moments. Amit Trivedi, as I’ve been saying since Aamir, is the next big thing for Hindi film music. This man knows his genres and can work in and around them. Abhay as Dev is egoistic, cold and in a league of his own. There is no one quiet like him in the industry. He is the hope of the young film-makers trying to make their way in this star-studded place. Mahi Gill, the punjabi actress is comfortable in her skin and the bursting-out-into-a-dance sequence deserves special mention. Kalki as Chanda is not so convincing in some places, bold in others and strictly believable in the remaining.
Anurag Kashyap has made an adaptation and paid tributes to Sarat Chandra, to Danny Boyle, even to Sanjay Leela Bhansali (maybe just to his Chandramukhi). He’s made a film which will mostly appeal to the youngsters. There are no undertones in this one, only overtones. In the olden days, love only meant the romantic kinds. Sex was magically excluded. It’s like people fell in love without sexual desires. He has to take the onus of the new-wave of film-making. I see him as the hope. I don’t want to burden you sir, but that’s that. Any of the 50+ adults trying to watch this film might be seriously disappointed unless you have the stomach, Children’s Guidance is advised (above 18).
Tags: 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
Hey Gaurang are you from MAE pune ….?
hey it seems PFC is all out to publicize DEV D… guys, i hv a feeling that this is not PFC, but a PR and marketing division for Anurag Kashyap. No doubt the movie is great, but so many articles? anyone reading all that out there will think that DEV D is the greatest movie made in the history of cinema… obviously, hats off to anurag, but guys, lets not get carried away please…
@Meghana
The regular indian movie buff has been treated to a spectacle. So it is but obvious that ecstatic write ups will be pouring in for at least couple of weeks…
And whats the whole thing abt PR marketing and all… I’ve been a nearly passive reader of PFC for the past year.. this is just my 2nd article on PFC… So wats the fuss… I felt like expressing, like many of PFC readers, and so we did!
@Anand
Hell yeah!!! Where did U watch it… The atmosphere was electric in Mangala…
I read reviews where they mentioned it is a 3 hr movie….however in NYC the one i saw was around 2 hr 15 mts…..can anybody tell me the length of the movie?????
Gaurang, i have not seen it as yet ….its not released in uk…dont know why also they are missing on large no of ppl here ……..watching movie in mangala ..wow…reminds me of good old days…
public opinion on DEV D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaUPLiHzaNE
Premiere of Dev D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn6JEFVPng4
I am going to watch Dev D again today… and I only saw it last night for the first time! Let me come back and write about it some more! And with all due respect to all those who think we are writing too much about this film – this film just deserves it. If this was a Karan Johar-Shah Rukh movie, noone would have questioned its popularity … why for this film?!! Move over you guys… the real film-makers are here!!
Really think the film raised the bar many notches in terms of film-making/ cinematography/ sound-design/ background score/ soundtrack/ attention to detail/ and good direction.
The film lacks in content, but I haven’t seen the other 2 Devdas films, and on checking I hear the original story is no great shakes or content anyway on it’s own. It’s more about how the films have been made.
Since I’d been waiting for this film for 4 months now, I tried my best to tone down my expectations before going in (also not having read a single review or line about it), but it just didn’t happen – having followed the making and everything else associated with the film for 4 months now, I was expecting a pretty mind-blowing film, and it did turn out very decent – definitely way above average and groundbreaking in ways. I am quite an Anurag Kashyap fanboy, but this film is certainly quite a few leagues ahead of all his previous work in terms of the way he’s shot it. There are way too many body-shots but they were done spectacularly. I can’t imagine what Kashyap can churn out if he actually has a story as powerful as the direction and looks of this film. I think Gulaal will be his real coming of age film. I can’t wait.
Back when the film production started, I couldn’t think an Anurag Kashyap film would actually work in the business sense, but the amazing soundtrack and the great marketing effort by UTV Spotboy definitely created a huge hype I couldn’t imagine a few months back, and DevD certainly delivered. The theatre was packed and people were having a good time – actually clapping when the credits rolled. Good for Kashyap he didn’t go abstract with this film. Am happy the film could make mainstream – this is certainly going to be a boon for indie films here.
Coming to the film – most of the acting was good – Abhay Deol is certainly one of my favourite actors (though his in-experience shows in the crying with mother scene – the only scene I found unconvincing) – but he’s certainly the reason this film has worked – he’s put in a great effort like all his films. The background score and soundtrack were used brilliantly – u don’t feel u’ve seen a film with 18 songs.
Oye Lucky stills stays a better film as an overall package for me, but the cinematography and screenplay here are pretty fucking awesome. I’ve seen the film just last night and can keep babbling for quite a few pages, so I’ll stop my incoherency here, I hope the film’s still playing when I get back to Bangalore – want to see it at least 2 more times before it goes.
More power to Kashyap, Abhay Deol and their ilk.
I am from Pune, and have watched Dev D twice already – once in City Pride, Kothrud, on friday itself, and the second time in Inox, Sunday afternoon. To be honest, both theatres were only half full, but that doesnt take anything away from the mild success of the movie. Hope it is doing better at other screens / locations.
Is this the same Meghana(comment #2)who wrote that crap of an article slamming Slumdog?
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