Watching Dev D...Anurag Kashyap's take on Devdas

I watched Dev D at PVR's yesterday...I had wanted to see what Anurag Kashyap had done with the theme...I was not disappointed...in fact, I got more than I expected...the movie is an interpretation of the Devdas theme, first conceptualised by Sharat Chandra Chatterjee in his novel called Devdas...it was subsequently made into movies, and many movie stars in many languages in India immortalised the role of the hero...so much so that any young man in India who suddenly starts growing a beard is thought as growing it out of being rejected by his girlfriend...and is called 'devdas'... and if he starts drinking, the name becomes all the more appropriate...because all the movie Devdas-es start growing a beard and start drinking...ostensibly to forget the pain of losing the girl...Paro...

I often wondered why Devdas became so famous...in fact, he is a loser, who has commitment-phobia, and who didn't have enough guts to run away with Paro...and Paro having had enough, marries a widower with two kids... then Devdas starts pining... and in all the movies based on the novel, Devdas is shown as a tragic hero...

Anurag Kashyap shows Devdas as who he is actually supposed to be ... a loser ... the movie then starts becoming interesting ... and gives it a different spin... and the treatment that it gets is really edgy...it kind of flies very close to being 'dangerous'...but comes back to terra firma in time...

Anurag Kashyap thanks Danny Boyle in the initial credits and I again wondered what Danny Boyle had got to do with an essentially Indian themed movie...that too brought onto the silver screen many times over... and then when the movie started 'moving' and 'grooving,' I got it... Anurag Kashyap is obviously inspired by Danny Boyle's Trainspotting and it shows in the many ways in which scenes are framed... and sometimes some scenes and images are obvious nods to Trainspotting images...and the ending is, if I may so after reading so much about Danny Boyle's films and also having seen Trainspotting, is also inspired by Danny Boyle... watch the movie and you'll know... and surprisingly, I don't recall any review mentioning this Danny Boyle connection... maybe I didn't read all of them or didn't read whatever I read carefully enough...

Watching Jodhaa Akbar…

Hi world...
Caught up with the mughal-rajput couple yesterday late evening (18 Feb 08)…good show Ashutosh, Hritik, Aishwarya, and the greatest…Rahman…

The positives first…when I heard the songs, I was wondering how Gowariker would translate them onto celluloid…all songs have come out well and the best was khwaja mere khwaja…I think the best picturization of a sufi qawwali of all time…and I was delighted that the sufi song-dance was shot in the style of the Turkish whirling dervishes’ tranced singing-dancing…for me this itself was total paisa vasool…to see the emperor slowly coming down and joining the sufi singers in an impromptu trance whirl gave me goose pimples… the other songs too have come out well…mana mohana’s strains could be heard throughout as well as jashne bahara…personally, azeem o came across as too crowded and stagey…no doubt about the song though…the chorus, the percussion, the rhythm, the vocals, all were in good sync…

My missus suggested that Hritik gets lots of opportunities to act with his eyes…which shows that given a chance, he has the talent to break set acting moulds…Hritik was good…showing vulnerability, incredulity, bravado, and intelligence in good measures…wish he gets many more chances like this…Aishwarya is my major weakness…I will always defend her and her acting…I know she is not a great actress, but she tries hard…you only have to look at her in Iruvar (Mani Ratnam) and Kandukondein Kandukondein and you will know the acting she is capable of under good directors…I am happy that she has done well in her recent outings, especially Guru, and now Jodhaa Akbar…anyway, she is luminous in this film and comes across as a capable rajput princess who holds her own against the mughal emperor…the sword fights scenes are good…Gowariker has managed to get her eyes speak too…

Finally, this had to be a max 150 minute film…not more…too many palace intrigues, personal battles…a whole lot of Hritik’s personal fight scenes were adding to the length of the film…but what do you do with Hritik then…!!! The entire Ila Arun track kept dragging…it only made one specific point of planting some weird ideas in the emperor’s mind about his rajput wife…but we would have missed the rajasthani feast (oh…how hungry I felt when the scene was on)…and anyway Ila Arun was terrible… all these (and some more) tracks took the film away from its Jodhaa-Akbar-ish intentions…which was to show the love growing between the young emperor and his wife…amidst political expediency, fundamentalism, machinations, etc. Finally, the stolen glances, distant sightings, painful absences, electric touches… get lost in the crowd…but those brief moments are worthwhile…

Jai