Not all movies need to have stories – some get along just as well with lovely portrayals and bits – and while this movie did have quite a few of those, there was something lacking that made it fall apart.
It seemed like there was so much going on, so much that the director wanted to tell us, and unfortunately, his screenplay and editors wouldn’t let him do so, so he packed all he can that he thought made sense and put it in 2.5 hours. What a waste of stories/thoughts that could have really given us some poignant moments to take away from the movie?
Anyway, I’m sure the movie’s been hacked to death by many reviewers, but here’s what I liked:
1. Abhishek. Not only was he cute – the first ever time I have found him so! – I think he pulled off the American thing well. The good thing about his character was that he didn’t smirk or frown at the various things Indian – no ‘I have to carry this bucket into the bathroom?’ or ‘I want mineral water’ or unnecessary ‘In the US we do this-and-that’. He slipped easily into India and everything Indian, determined to have a good time. I wish someone had dubbed the American accent for him, though. Couldn’t pull it off.
2. The spontaneity with which Abhishek slapped the local inspector and landed in jail. The naivety with which he remarked ‘You are a public servant!’ which earned him the slap. No random huffing and puffing about India and stuff. Borrowing his oft-repeated phrase, ‘cool’.
3. Rehna Tu and Dil Gira. Very, very, lovely. Though I thought Rehna Tu was a song on the lady, it was a fresh idea to picture it on something else. Dil Gira.. was heavenly. I loved the colours, the painting-like-finish, and I’ve just fallen in love with the song even more.
4. Ali Uncle (Rishi Kapoor), Mamdu (I don’t know his real name) and Gobar (Atul Kulkarni). Among the few people in the movie that I thought had some strength to their characters.
5. The movement of the camera, be it jumping like the kaala Bandar or as Abhishek jogs through the street or the scene in the mosque that made me gasp in awe; the lighting that was so pleasant and complemented the mood and feel of each scene.
6. The way various things in Hinduism were portrayed, without making fun of them – the cow giving birth in the middle of the street (‘Mother cow giving Baby cow’) and how Waheeda Rehman is simply back to normal.
These are pretty much all I remember from the movie. The rest of it is a hazy hash of random things happening, sniggers from the cinema audience when people cried in the movie, and the other miscellaneous things that I cannot remember.
7 comments:
Now.. i am wondering to see this movie or not.. but i just love the music...
but for me--- music is the highlight. i think ARR should a oscar for this. its fab...all of it.
no word on rahman?
luckily, i did went to johor bahru, malaysia and got the delhi 6 movie but havent watched it yet.. once i see it, shall post my comments onto here, alright?
Why your latest blog post doesnt have a link to post the comments?
Heres to that : Well, you have to watch the english film JUST MY LUCK..
Hi! I am back as I have said, I watched the film just now. DVD. As got it from Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Well, your reviews on the film sounds exactly true. Kudos! You can be fit to be a film reviewer. Much better than the Hindu newspaper's friday review column where they review on films. Hehe..
I always admire one thing which the film wanna portray, well, I mean there is a sense of belonging in India, even amidst the chaos and madness.. Abishek Bachchan also says this in another way in the film, about India. That angle and scope of the film about having an attachment to India is what I really liked in this film. Makes me want to go to Coimbatore asap.
But stuck here. :-(
Glimpses of a Delhi without soul - Delhi-6
Genre: Romance
Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman and Om Puri
Storyline: A simple love story of a New York-returned Old Delhi guy, who takes time saying those three crucial words to his lady love
Bottomline: Keep the barometer of expectations low.
Yesterday never dies. It merely wraps itself around us masquerading as the present. Want evidence? Just walk across to Shahjahanabad, the 17th century city of Delhi named after the Mughal emperor, and you will know yesterday never concedes much. Her e history comes to a standstill. In Bollywood’s new obsession, the neighbourhood halwai happily shares space with McDonald’s. Here cars and carts use the same road, man and animal walk the same lanes, science and superstition stay in perfect harmony, and followers of Hinduism and Islam stay, well, cheek by jowl! This is a unique throb of life, a little slice of a city known to the rest of the world by the last digit of its pin code! Nobody calls Parliament Street, New Delhi 1, but everybody calls the Walled City, Dilli 6! It is this world that Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra draws us into. Unfortunately, it is a world he only shows glimpses of, the soul is left untouched.
Comes alive in parts
In parts, Old Delhi comes alive: there are loads of women of all shapes, sizes and ages. There are small-time shopkeepers who share joy and sorrow and everybody minding everybody’s business but his own! Then there are tethered goats, a cow giving birth on the road. And the usual simpleton, the source of easy gags. Not to forget the aartis, the wedding song and the dargah track. It is all there. All decorative props, some wonderful symbols for a city that has accepted the winds of change with the reluctance befitting an anthropologist. All of them provide little nuggets, but add up to only a nice skeleton. What is missing is the flesh, the soul.
Mehra tries to narrate a simple love story of a New York-returned Old Delhi guy, Abhishek Bachchan — stiff and withdrawn — who takes time saying those three crucial words to his lady love, Sonam Kapoor — even more withdrawn.
Along the way, Mehra gives the film a contemporary touch by sneaking in the monkey man story that hit the headlines a couple of years ago. He just makes a little alteration: kala bandar steps into the role of the monkey man who came unannounced and plundered unseen! Of course, this monkey creates problems beyond the immediate and gives Mehra some scope to take a dig at the electronic media in the habit of feeding off fear, and a society constantly on the edge of trouble. A few jokes enliven the proceedings along the way. There are sporadic moments of merriment too. Like when A.R. Rahman beckons us all with his varied allurements. One moment the masses sing along to ‘Masakalli’ and the next they find the ageless Waheeda Rehman doing a little jig to ‘Genda Phool,’ a wedding song rendered with great relish by Rekha Bharadwaj. Then there is the Rahman special: a Sufi song!
However, for all Rahman’s brilliance with the music score, the compensations the film offers are too meagre, gratification too delayed. Mehra’s Old Delhi remains cosmetic: there are no women in black burqas in his film. And no men with flowing beards, so common to Old Delhi. There are no cockfights, no pattebazi. Just little long distance shots of Jama Masjid and Eid prayers. And not much of the famous Gauri Shanker Mandir or the Digamber Jain temple! Much like the treatment of the patangbaaz and kabootarbaaz, the ubiquitous symbols of a city that has not changed its ways of recreation. It seems they were all put together as an afterthought! His characters’ attempts to sound like a purani Dilliwala are laboured. And the street language of the sweeper here — played with great aplomb by the gifted Divya Dutta — is completely misplaced.
Yes, ‘Delhi-6’ has its moments. Little minutes when the director holds you in thrall: some banter between women like Waheeda, Supriya Pathak, some sensitive ones with Atul Kulkarni and Divya Dutta. And occasionally the cinematographer gives us slices of life in the city. But the cake is not quite there. All good toppings, the inner layering is missing. So unlike his own ‘Rang De Basanti.’
Post a Comment