Movie Review of Dev D. Review on Dev D Movie

Director – Anurag Kashyap.

Screenplay– Saratchandra Chaterjee, Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane.

Plot.

Dev (Abahy Deol) and Parminer “Paro”(Mahie Gill) are childhood friends. While Dev is the som of a rich industralist, Paro is the daughter of his manager.

Dev is sent of to London for further studies at the age of 12. He till manages to keep in touch with Paro and both love each other. When he completes his studies and comes back to his native town to pursue his father’s business, he decides to marry Dev.

A misunderstanding between them causes Paro to marry a widower and leads Dev to be a chronic alcoholic and a drug addict. Dev goes to Delhi, stays in a hippie joint and is either always drunk or high on Drugs.

He finds solace under the companionship of a prosti*ute, Lenny aka Chanda(Kalki Koechlin) but somewhere deep down he still loves Paro and is unable to forget her. His alcohol habit drives him to stray from his family and eventually lead to his downfall.

Critic’s Comments

Saratchandra Chaterjee’s literary work has been adapted to screen 6 times in the past. This one has been adapted to suit more recent time and age. Something that was attempted with Great Expectations in 1998. Anurag Kashyap is known to make Dark movies and Black Friday will go down in History of Indian Cinema(atleast in my books) as the top 10 hindi movies ever made.

His previous, No smoking, was abstract and Dark and definitely not for a regular movie buff. Dev D falls somewhere between the 2. The adaptation has been very good and very realistic. There is no melodrama and no breaking in to song and dance situation(Thankfully Indian Cinema has now come of age with such movies).

The acting has been very good and Abhay Deol has broken the mold of a regular movie actor by being a part of such dynamic film maker’s movie. Mahie Gill looks very attractive and sensual and Kalki is good as the young sex worker.

The movie, is not meant for someone who goes expecting a popcorn fare. The cinematography by Rajeev Ravi and Editing by Aarti Bajaj is top class. The real winner of the movie is actually the brilliant soundtrack by Amit Trivedi, who , in my books, has already won the award for Best Score unless something equally mind boggling comes in 2009. Watch it for a very different cinematic experience.

*Psst –

1)The movie was earlier titled Aaj Ka Devdas with Shiney Ahuja in the lead.

2)The actual lyrics of the popular “Emosanal Attyachar” had lot of cuss words which was not allowed to be screened by the Indian Censor Board so they had to change the lyrics entirely. They, however, allowed to use the word Wh*re.

3)This is the first hindi movie which has the F word used and the first to actually show the middle finger gesture.

4)A love making nude scene was deleted from the movie.

5)The MMS controversy and the BMW road accident in which 7 people died, shown in the movie, are based on real life incidences.

6)The outdoor shooting was taken in actual New Delhi drug joints. *

Quotes

1)“I want to make love to you, paro.”

2)“You always want to F; Don’t you ?”

And none of this I could notice.