Delhi 6 – Review

Rang De Basanti was a super movie. There were a lot of expectations from Delhi 6. Unfortunately Rakesh Omprakash Mehra has got it all wrong this time.

 

Delhi 6 is about a young man coming back to his roots and deciding to stick on. Abhishek Bachchan plays the protagonist, who decides to bring his ailing grandmother back from America to her hometown, Delhi. Delhi 6 is the name of the area where they live. Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) falls for the neighbourhood girl Bittu (Sonam Kapoor). Surprisingly she has acted well, although the chemistry between Roshan and her is non-existent.

 

Anyway, back to the plot. Roshan tries to get accustomed to the unusual Indian norms of living. Hindus and Muslims live happily together in the area until an unknown monkey man – you will recall the capital’s monkey man murders where a guy in a furry suit (or the abominable snowman with a tan, whichever pleases you) destroys the peace. The Hindus say that the man in the suit is Muslim and that’s the reason it killed an innocent Hindu girl and the Muslims say otherwise. Yes, however stupid this may sound, this is how the divide starts. Abhishek’s attempt to make sense fails — even he is accused of being biased. The movie needs no more explination because it’s boring.

 

AR Rehman has once again proved to be the saving grace — the music of Delhi 6 is fantastic, although it hasn’t been able to hold the film. There are a few good moments, but sadly that’s about it — they don’t last too long. This movie is no Saawariya or Drona, but I never expected it to get even close to those clunkers. The intention is good but the movie isn’t. Om Puri could have been given a larger role. Abhishek Bachchan is no Aamir Khan or Shahrukh Khan and it shows. Sonam Kapoor looks like the character she plays and I think she is the only one who has done justice to her role.

 

Overall, Delhi 6 fails to do what Rang De Basanti managed to do effortlessly. The good dialogues are few and lack essence. The director is capable of much more and let’s hope he makes a good one before going on vacation.

RishiO Meter 1.9/5

DevD Review

Dev D is a movie that shouldn’t be missed. One of those films that you love so much that you want to watch it repeatedly — or hate as much as the bully from Class III. But then you grow up and get to college and that very same guy becomes your friend and you laugh about what happened back when you were kids. Did you get the analogy?

I loved it.

 

Most of us know the story of Devdas. A novel written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhaya, that stalwart of Bengali literature, it is world-renowned although most of us know that it’s a downer, spiraling into the death of its protagonist.

 

Dev D is a new spin on this classic tale. Abhay Deol plays Dev, a modern-day Richie Rich who hails from a khandani Punjabi household. Since childhood he has been outspoken and at most times annoyingly cheeky and his society-conscious father, fearing that he will prove an embarrassment to the family, decides to send him to London to study. Paro, Dev’s childhood sweetheart is played by newcomer Mahi Gill.

 

All grown up, a sexually charged Dev comes back from London and meets Paro. A passionate romance starts off from here. A family worker from the nearby fields tells Dev that he has had an affair with Paro. Dev’s sick and old-school I-want-an-untouched-woman mentality makes him believe is the story. He insults Paro and waits for no explanation. Paro gets married to a widower and Dev’s downfall begins.

 

Dev meets a prostitute Chanda, played by newcomer Kalki. Chanda falls in love with Dev but he thinks of no one else but Paro. He drowns himself in alcohol, ganja, LSD, ecstasy, coke and all kinds of drugs. Chanda keeps trying to win his heart over, but Dev just can’t get Paro out of his head. He gets drunks as usual one day and meets with an accident, killing seven people. Hailing from an affluent family, he manages to get interim bail. His unhappy ailing father dies. This is emotionally the lowest point in Dev’s life. After paying his respects to his father he returns to the city. He finishes all his money buying Coke and alcohol. Then comes the twist.

 

In Chattopadhyaya’s book, Devdas dies in the end. That’s the difference between Dev D and Devdas. Dev just misses being hit by a car. Realisation dawns upon him. His close proximity to death makes him believe that things can change. He goes to Chanda and tells her he wants to be with her.

 

Anurag Kashyap has shown the world what Indian cinema is capable of. Danny Boyle’s influence has rubbed off on him the right way. I believe that one has to change with the times and this change is delightfully acceptable. Abhay Deol has acted brilliantly. This outstanding work needs to be applauded. The whistles and claps in the theatres are merely a beginning. The cinematography defys the norms of film making text books but still manages to cease every moment with precision. The music is apt for this drama. There are 18 songs in this movie, but they are woven seamlessly into the fabric and only serve to enhance the overall experience. DevD is a celebration of Indian Cinema. Way to go Abhay Deol and Anurag Kashyap. Make more movies like these and we are sitting right here to experience them.

 

RishiO Rating – 4.4/5

Australia Review

Australia

It takes you Down Under – (Almost)

 

Baz Luhrmann, the man who made Strictly Ballroom, Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge has come up with this bonanza (a long one) called AUSTRALIA.

 

Don’t get me wrong, a long movie does not mean it’s a bad one. Australia does have the ability to take you on a free ride to a country infested with people clearly confused and insecure about their existence. Australia in the late ‘30s and ‘40s is portrayed in a very strange, dark and isolated way.

 

It’s a very simple story, narrated by a little half-white half-Aboriginal boy called Nulla. An Englishwoman, Lady Ashley (Nicole Kidman) goes Down Under to live with her husband, who runs Faraway Downs, a cattle ranch on ancestral property in the outback. Driven from the port to her destination across rough terrain by a hunky Australian cattle man Drover (Hugh Jackman), she arrives at the rundown ranch manor only to find that Lord Ashley, her husband, has been murdered. The blame is placed on an Aboriginal witch doctor nicknamed King George (David Guplili), who roams the mountains around the ranch, performing strange dances and rituals around bonfires each night.

 

Lady Ashley soon falls out with ruthless cattle station manager Neil Fletcher (played by David Wenham), who does his best to have her sell Faraway Downs to a competitor and   mistreats the Aboriginal servants of the household, particularly young Nulla — he is Fletcher’s illegitimate son and King George’s grandson. Left to her own devices, the aristocratic but enterprising Englishwoman engages Drover to help her run the ranch and predictably, a passionate relationship is born of this arrangement. When Nulla’s Aboriginal mother dies in a tragic accident, he completes the picture of domestic bliss, but the story is only half over.

 

Fletcher, married to a wealthy white heiress, is determined to ruin Lady Ashley’s life, seize the profitable Faraway Downs and have Nulla taken away by the authorities, since the fact that he is the boy’s biological father could destroy his reputation in society. In fact, Australian law back in the ‘30s and ‘40s dictated that half-white half-Aboriginal children be taken away from their indigenous families and put in the hands of the Church, so as to prevent their further ‘diluting’ genteel society through further procreation.

 

When Lady Ashley and Drover fall out over a domestic dispute and World War II breaks out, Nulla is taken away from the ranch and sets in motion another story, one that brings to light the suffering of the ‘Stolen Generation’ against the backdrop of a battle. For those interested in a little trivia, the practice of separating half-caste aboriginal children from their families was only abolished three decades later in the 1970s. In 2006, then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered a formal apology for the horrific practice.

 

Australia is not the kind of movie to encourage tourism, because the country has changed drastically since the early ‘40s. The first half of the movie is better than the second half, which tends to get tedious toward the end. The problem lies in its length. It could’ve been edited better — 15 minutes shorter than it is at present would have made a lot of difference. The music, however, is brilliant. David Hirschfelder, the musical director, has done a great job. The evergreen Somewhere over the Rainbow from the classic movie The Wizard of Oz is the theme song.

 

Overall Australia has its moments. Luckily, they overpower the bits of boredom. Some long movies have repeat value, but unfortunately this one misses out on that privilege.

 

RishiO Rating – 2.8/5