Very few hindi movies would give an etchy feeling. A feeling of darkness and gloom around the main character. Or, portray a leading character who is a loser in every sense and yet you cannot determine whether you should sympathize or hate the character. Dev D is one such dark experience.
The Plot: The basic plot of the movie is an overkilled Dev Das story. However, this movie is not an entire copy of the existing Dev Das story. Although the plot involves Dev Das rejecting Paro's proposal to marry her and then suffering at a later stage after realizing that he was wrong, there are major variations from the original Dev Das saga of love and betrayal. Anurag Basu has used his imagination and directorial independence to the fullest.
Difference from Previous Movies: One major difference in Dev D from its predecessors is the amount of lust and seduction that is portrayed in the movie. The independence with which the characters in the movie are shown to express their desires in the movie gives you a quesy feeling. This is one of the factors that give the movie a very dark aura. Chunni babu is a pimp persofied and Chandramukhi is a tart to the core.
Loop holes: The moment when Dev Das rejects Paro's proposal seems very sudden and you don't expect it to come at that given moment. One reason for this is that enough time was not dedicated to portray the relationship betwen Paro and Dev D. As a result, you tend to get the feeling that major USP of the movie was to make the audience feel for Dev Das by showing him suffer for major part of the movie.
Performances: Full marks should go to Abhay Deol for his performance in Dev D. In contrast to previous Dev Das movies where Dev Das is shown to deliver very heavy and at times funny (over-emotional) dialogues, Abhay Deol hardly has any dialogues. Yet, his screen presence and performance do the trick. New comer Kalki Koechlin does total justice to her character and deserves accolades for her performance. Mahi Gill as Paro also does well, but does not have enough screen presence to leave an impact.
To Sum Up: To summarize, Dev D is an experiment with the age-old Dev Das saga. However, it is very different from its predecessors. Hence, it is worth watching atleast once. But, please don't expect to come out smiling after the movie. It is a dark movie and a very different from typical Bollywood love stories.
1 comment:
The story of Devdas is a ready-made platform for endless psycho-analysis and study of contemporary social framework. The original tale relied on the notions of platonic love whereas Dev D is about physical love. It relies on on-face shock value! Devdas is a coward who is defeated by the social prejudices and carries the guilt throughout his life. He drinks in order to forget his cowardice. Dev D and all the other characters of Kashyap’s tale aren’t influenced by the social norms. Both stories thereby reflecting their specific era.
The character sketching is unique. Dev is played to near perfection by Abhay Deol, whose performance is quiet and confident. Paro (Mahie Gill) is no more the sacrificial damsel who lives physically and mentally with different men. Kashyap also maintains the audience’s distance from the characters using the brilliance in script and smooth editing. He never allows us to sympathize with the characters, thereby shifting the focus from one to the other- a rare work of imagery, indeed!
I strongly feel Kashyap could have gone with a better actress for Chanda (Kalki Koechlin). Chanda’s part was not exploited well. The psychological impact of the whole mms incident on her which leads to the suicide of her father never showed up. It was a perfect opportunity to tell the world about the feelings of a girl, and all the hardships she goes through because of one mms!
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