Am really thrilled to be opening up the movie blog from this one!! Rake(y)sh Omprakash Mehra....or whatever convulsion you are using in your name presently...take a bow!! It takes a madman with a sincere heart to make what you did.
From the rustic Old Delhi(Dilli from here on) setting, to the people, the colour canvas, the absolute genius of ARR to the underlying current...fabulous!!
Unfortunately my friend, as you showed in the movie, you the madman, are showing us, the worlwide citizens of India, a mirror. And all we see in the superficial reflection of our visages!! Its a lost message...alas!!
I started to watch the movie after I had read some one line reviews...and was depressed, since they were negative. But man, talk about a changed perception!! I wanna watch this one again...for the sheer artistry with which you drive the message across.
I want to leave the readers of this blog to judge the movie by themselves. But after having watched the movie and knowing fully well that the web has criticised, i sat and searched for more reviews and read them all....I wanna add my comments to some of these...Here goes...
1. This is not Delhi - Exactly!! Did anyone say we are making a documentary on the city? No man!! Any story, in any film begins with the backdrop of a setting. He chose Delhi-6. A rustic old Delhi, wherein people are so closely cramped up that they invariably end up living each others lives...For the judgemental people, this can be a bad thing...but it could be a good one too!! A reviewer wrote he does not identify with this Delhi....he probably belongs to Vasant Kunj or the kothis that dot the outsirts...and hangs out at India Place eating 500 rupee pizzas @ The Hut!! Now, I never lived in Delhi...But am fairly acquainted with the lifestyle @ the Mumbai chawls...wherein the loos are outside the house and the rooms are so close and cramped that your problems are your neighbourhood's problems as well...and well...I have had one jalebi too many that was freshly fried in front of me @ the Jhama's in Chembur!! So...i do identify. Just cause the name said Delhi...dont start the lambasting!!
2. Boring. Where? Which part?
The part where a madman shows a mirror to people blinded with their self-perceived notions of propriety and they can see nothing but superficial reflections of their epidermis.
Or the part where an aged, dying Waheeda Rehman says "yaha to ab marne ka bhi dil nahi karta"?
Or the part where the long-lost Nawab, Rishi Kapoor, adds reality to our self confessed heavens!! "ghar chote hai isliye...hum kehte hai...dil bade hai" etc...
Yup, we are too skepticised with our daily reality that we want our movies to be a sing and dance routine in the Swiss Alps, sweet, honey-dipped romances, wherein the girl's pop is a lowly professor in some small-tome school, yet the leading lady changes 4 costumes in one song!!
Summarizing:
CONS:
1. A lack-lustre pseudo NRI Abhishek. A stronger performance would have added more charm. I miss Aamir or Siddharth from RDB.
2. Sonam Kapoor...that she is a star-kid, will give her more stamina to survive. But seriously, her performance and character left a lot to be desired!! This is one of the rare flaws from Mehra...the Indian Idol additions seemed to be from a commercial compulsion!! The story didnt gel too well in this mainstream.
3. The end...RDB was shocking and made one to stand and take note. While Delhi-6 came close to one such moment, some stupid commercial sense took over. This is plain wrong. A bullet should end in a life lost. We are done with enough of this romanticism of Hindi cinema wherein the hero cannot plain die, no matter tons of bullets are pumped into him.
PROS:
1. Amazing undercurrent.
2. Great characterization...from the Haryanvi pulice-wala, to the Jalebi-making Muslim halwai, to the testosterony men, to the untouchable sweeper...the list is practically endless.
3. The Kala Bandar...A classic re-incarnation of the Gandhi's "sin and sinner" concept of the demons within each common man
Heck...I wanna watch this again!!
