Movie Name : Dev D
Movie Cast : Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin, Mahi Gill, Dibyendu Bhattacharya
Movie Director : Anurag Kashyap
Music Director : Amit Trivedi
Rating : 3 / 5
Not for nothing is Anurag Kashyap the bad boy of Hindi films and the 'rebel.' He has his very own, very individualistic, take on films and the most admirable thing about him is that he is willing to go with his ideas and give them free rein, without succumbing to conventional niceties. This is his strength, and it often turns out to be the cause of his downfall as well. There are times, specially when one is watching Dev D, as also his earlier No Smoking, when one feels that he gets too carried away by the idea itself. Sarat Chandra's Devdas has been done too many times in cinema, in Hindi, Bengali etc. But Kashyap's Dev D, while staying true to the original in some ways, marks a dramatic departure in other ways as well. Kashyap gives his deviant streak a free hand in Dev D and the result is, at times brilliant, mostly audacious, and quite often, bizarre.
Sarat Chandra's women are the embodiments of the ideal India woman, strong, willful, devoted, loyal, self sacrificing etc. These are the aspects that directors like the late Bimal Roy, Sanjay Leela Bhansali etc brought to the fore. But Kashyap's women speak a different language. Probably in keeping with the times, there is different kind of rebellious streak in his women, which runs quite contrary to Sarat Chandra's depiction of women.
Dev D's story begins, just like all Devdas movies have done so, with Dev (Abhay Deol) returning home, in this film from London, after completing his studies, to reunite with his childhood sweetheart Paro (Mahi Gill). But the lovers are separated due to a misunderstanding and Paro gets married to a much older man, Bhuvan, a father of two. Dev and Paro share a tempestuous, passionate relationship which ruptures as Dev is unable to handle her sexuality, or is unable to respond to it appropriately.
After being spurned by Paro, Dev leaves the locales of Punjab (yes, this Devdas is set in Punjab) for the gallis of Delhi's Paharganj area, replete with sex, recreational drugs and all that is bizzare. In severe depression, Dev D takes to drinking, doping and the like. Typefying the aimless, uprooted contemporary youth, Dev never once stops to take stock of his life, or take responsibility for himself, but goes deeper and deeper into the dark alley of despair, propelled by alcohol and drugs. Kashyap, very brilliantly, brings in this sociological factor into play, whereby, the Indian youth today, like Dev D, are growing up, caught in the crossfire of traditional, conservative society on one hand, and their liberal education and exposure to the West, on the other. It is a dichotomy which is not easy to straddle, and that is what seems to eat into Dev, who cannot see himself fitting anywhere. The dysfunctional, out of sync Dev goes hurtling into the arms of Chanda (Kalki Koechlin), a student by day and a hooker by night. She is no self-sacrificing, servile in love Chandramukhi. His Chanda, herself a victim of an MMS scandal, has been spurned by her family and runs away from home. Sarat Chandra's Chunni Babu is Chunni the pimp in Dev D and he shelters Chanda. The relationship between Dev and Chanda is fraught with derision, at least on Dev's side initially, till he believes that he may actually have been given a second chance in love.
What really lifts the film are the performances and the audacious screenplay, written by Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane. It tends to lack coherence in places though. After a while, the film does tend to get a little tedious and gets a little self indulgent, likes its protagonist.
Of the cast of players, Abhay Deol is a revelation everytime one sees him on screen. He seems to have made it his mission to shun all that is run of the mill and conventional in his choice of films and roles. He is brilliant as the dysfunctional Dev. Mahi Gill as Paro and Kalki as Chanda fit into their roles very well indeed. But it is really Abhay's film and he is quite flawless.
Much has already been written about the film's music. Composer Amit Trivedi, and lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya, have come up with a score which is as unconventional as the film and its treatment. Trivedi, who made his filmi mark with last year's Aamir, has really gone the full hog in this movie and experimented with all kinds of songs and different idioms, even creating an 'emotional atyachaar' at times. But it goes with the on the edge mood of the movie.
And finally, the true protagonist of Dev D, Kashyap himself. To be fair to him, there is no other way that he could have gone with the Devdas story. There would have been no point in making another film about the ill fated love of Dev and Paro and then Dev and Chandramukhi unless he had something different to say, or say it differently. Kashyap has been able to bring out so many other nuances from this done to death novel. He has, in his own, way, stretched the visual medium, especially in the manner in which his film unfolds. It is radical, it is different and a very brave attempt indeed.