Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Delhi 6

So, here comes yet another blog post of mine related to Bollywood (Hindi film industry, for the people who hate this otherwise very popular term). Well, I have been an ardent follower of Bollywood and those who know me very well, can vouch for the fact. Besides, I've been a regular in the first-day movie-watcher list of cinema halls. Consider my apologies in advance for being too generic; but what I believe is, any guy who has not watched any Hindi Film or has not ever played cricket has actually not lived in India. I've deliberately used the term "guy" and not "person" precisely because it is well known fact that most of the girls simply HATE cricket J

Anyways, this post is supposed to be about Delhi-6 so let me come to the main point. I watched the film, as obvious, on Friday but waited for this post till today so as to give the chance to you all to watch the film on last weekend before any spoiler from my side at least. Now, it's quite some time and I think I can go on with expressing my opinion about the film. To state in one line: "I loved the film"

The whole plot revolves around proceedings in Delhi and has typical Indian day-to-day life as its backdrop and I should say that the filmmaker has done full justice with both the walled city and our lifestyle. Still, many people might not have liked the picture, as evident from one of my friend's status message which reads like "Ban Delhi 6 | The Director himself is Kala Bandar" but I liked it a lot; I liked it for its cinematography, for the art direction, for the amazing individual performances by powerhouse actors, for its screenplay, for its music, for its metaphors, and most importantly, for the soul of the film.

I don't know about others, but I could relate a lot to it. For those who have lived in Delhi, or Jodhpur, or many such cities could have easily related to things like jalebi-wallah or nukkad-talks or the tulsi plant or patangbazi or the Ramlila and the extent to which they are embedded in our lives. But all this was related to just content; I found the effort exemplary even in context of treatment. The metaphors like the person holding the mirror, the "dil gira dafatan" song, etc. run throughout the picture and made this clichéd story a worth-watching experience. Take for an example, the whole Ram Lila sequence where events like Sita Haran, or Shabri-ber, or Lanka Yuddh happening in accordance with the real-time happenings in the area. Metaphors have not been very common thing amongst Indian filmmakers unlike the western filmmaking style; there have been though a few exceptions in say Vijay Anand's or Guru Datt's works. These things definitely add a lot of beauty to the picture and like Rang De Basanti, this time also Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra hits a home run in this regard. I guess, now I've praised Delhi-6 more than required so I should shut up; but I would beg your pardon to praise just one more area and that is acting performances; everyone simply brilliant.

Let me sign off by highlighting one more aspect. The other day, I was reading Big B's blog and found him sort-of ridiculing critics for the huge difference in their reviews. Well, I would say that difference in two opinion is definitely possible; and somebody may like a work very much or just hate it big time (like recently in case of public opinion about dev-d; which I've personally witnessed). So, that should not concern or bother anybody. However, the sad part was the review by one of the famous critics. He gave delhi-6 a 1.5 star but that's ok; the problem is – he said that it tried to be another RDB but failed miserably in reaching those heights attained by its predecessor. Co-incidentally, the same reviewer gave 2 stars to RDB (check rediff archive for the same); now was he referring that "2-star performance" as "those heights"?? Well, I'm confused.


 

5 comments:

Vinay said...

Girls may hate cricket..but my experience tells me they do love cricketers.....

Peyush said...

That's why Tikki, no girl loved you but there was always a crowd behind me during mbm days :D

Vinay said...

Girls n love me?? Man they wanted to kill me...infact I feel kisi ke dil me abhi bhi ye aarzoo hogi..

A Journey said...

hmmm..... I too hate cricket but used to play a lot during my childhood... Now regarding Delhi6.. I too loved the movie expect the stupid ending.... :P :) :|

Unknown said...

peyush boss,, movie rocked.
good to find people of same kind of interests
zaffar