Dev D Movie Review

Just one word – Fabulous!
I finally saw this movie on Sunday and thank God I waited to watch it in a theatre. One of the best Hindi movies I have seen. Anurag Kashyap and Amit Trivedi – take a bow!

Yes, there are those who didn’t like it, but I liked it and that’s all that counts. I don’t care who gave it 5 stars and who gave it 1 star; a movie like this is beyond ratings.
I really wish people would decide what kind of a movie they expect before they step into the theatre, that’s where I believe most people end up not liking movies. What one gets in Dev D, is some great acting, great direction and above all great… great music and lots of it, there’s little else that you can ask for.
What I liked about the movie was that even though you know it’s a Devdas remake, you still are surprised with the total angle change and twists in the story. I for one loved the role of Chanda, seriously well etched out. Paro was also fine, but the best acting performance was by Abhay Deol, from whom one now can just start expecting great performances and nothing less. I had also seen “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye!” a few weeks back and he did brilliantly in that too. While the movie is a serious one it has some great humor in it, the “Sattu” scene at the start, Emosanal Attyachar [Brass Band version] with those two hilarious singers and a host of other moments in the movie. The entire movie is intelligent and is entertaining. Some people have complained about the songs and stuff, but I didn’t really have an issue since I loved the album [which has been on my playlist since the last month] and the handling of the scenes, especially between Chanda and Dev is superb.
Chanda, played by Kalki is a revelation; her entire story arc starting from the MMS scandal to the last scene is amazing. One was really pleased the see the way the whole MMS issue was handled in a completely non-sleazy way in the film. One can only imagine what the directors of the 90’s and 80’s would’ve done with that kind of subject matter! I don’t know what people were saying when they complained about Chanda’s accent, she’s not playing a Bharatiya nari types as it is.
The strength of the movie lies in the depth the female characters are given. While it is true that in most Bollywood movies, female characters are just eye candy; Anurag Kashyap gives us Chanda who is not only eye candy, but also has a huge role to play in the movie itself. Even Paro did a great job in the movie.
What I was also glad to see was that the theatre had quite a decent crowd, even though the movie is relatively old now.
Now the music, enough has already been said about how awesome it is, but I think it’s necessary to mention how well it has been used in the movie. By far one of the best soundtracks to come out of the Hindi movie industry!
To finish this review, which is mostly a recommendation for this movie – one hopes that the Anurag Kashyaps of Bollywood prevail over the mindless trash made by the Nikhil Advanis and Aneez Bazmees of this world.