CAPITAL LETTER
This love note to Delhi is beautifully written and crafted, even if it completely falls apart towards the end.
FEB 22, 2009 – ABHISHEK BACHCHAN IS POSSIBLY the greatest strength as well as the crippling liability of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Delhi-6. This isn’t about the actor’s performance as Roshan, a symbolic outsider, the NRI who, in many ways, is more Indian than most of us within the country. I refer to the baggage that a popular star brings with him when he looms on the posters of a film that features AR Rahman’s finest soundtrack in a while, and is advertised as hailing “from the makers of Rang De Basanti,” that explosive pop-culture touchstone which instantly hot-wired itself into the zeitgeist. The expectation is that of yet another audience-pleasing blockbuster entertainer, whereas Delhi-6 is really a densely layered, beautifully textured multiplex movie – in the niche sense of the word – whose pleasures are far more understated.
It’s not that Delhi-6 wears its grim intentions like a proud badge of honour. When Lalaji (Prem Chopra) enters a Ramlila celebration with his young wife, it’s hard not to laugh when the latter is blessed with the benediction, “Sada suhagan raho.” (The old goat must be pushing eighty, but when have such pesky considerations been taken into account while social rituals are being mindlessly observed?) Even when Mehra uses a sexually charged gag from Midnight Cowboy (the one involving a remote control), he is canny enough to set up a payoff shot with a wicked visual pun. And yet, despite this humorous undertow, Delhi-6 isn’t what you’d call a casual entertainer, the kind that instantly works its way into the bloodstream and triggers the relevant brain centres for “laugh” and “cry” and so on.
In a way, Mehra lets us see what Swades might have resembled had it been tailored towards a multiplex audience. The gears of this story are set in motion when Roshan’s grandmother (Waheeda Rahman) expresses a wish to relocate from the US to her Chandni Chowk home, to live out her last days. (Her words, “Jahan ki mitti, wahin mil jaaye to achcha hai,” recall one of the most beautiful lines in Swades: “Apne hi paani mein pighalna barf ka muqaddar hota hai.”) But where Ashutosh Gowarikar employed his hero, played by Shah Rukh Khan, as the epicentre of epiphanies, Mehra reduces Roshan to one of the many players in a dynamic ensemble. And where Swades was developed scene by detailed scene, sequence by expository sequence, Delhi-6 comes across as if Mehra dynamited a similar story and reassembled a film out of the charred scraps that survived.
Rarely has a message-heavy movie seemed so weightless – at least till the shockingly graceless final stretch, which implodes under the treacly burden of its good intentions – and seldom have the stories of so many characters (extensions of Kunal Kapoor’s family in Rang De Basanti, the other side of the Delhi yuppie) been orchestrated with such fluidity. Delhi-6 is so extraordinarily written, the i’s dotted and t’s crossed with such unblinking attention to detail, even a radio set gets something of a graph, evolving from broken family heirloom to playing Mukesh hits from Teesri Kasam. The film opens with a man awaking at night to relieve himself, and in what’s possibly the most liquid leitmotif committed to celluloid, even this apparently insignificant act is echoed throughout. The one thing Mehra and his writers cannot be accused of is laziness; the script submitted to the studio was undoubtedly pockmarked with footnotes and annotations.
The characters aren’t developed through conventional devices (instantly identifiable quirks; long lines of establishing dialogue), and yet, to the last person, they register as fully formed human beings, real enough to be sitting in the seat next to us. We get to understand people like the smarmy photographer Suresh (Cyrus Sahukar) by piecing together the scraps of information Mehra provides, in vignettes that sometimes flash by in a matter of seconds. Through his scenes with Bittu (Sonam Kapoor), we know Suresh is an unconscionable flirt. We know he owes Lalaji money. Through the scene where he offers an “imported cigarette” to Jaigopal (Pawan Malhotra), we know they share some sort of boyish friendship, a notion that’s bolstered when, on a scooter, they pass by Jalebi (Divya Dutta) and whistle at her. We even know what happens to Suresh at the end, in a wordless shot that generously provides closure to this minor character.
Other characters are developed on the margins of the marvellously filmed song sequences. (One of the reasons Delhi-6 feels so fleet, clocking in at two hours plus change, is that Mehra marshals every screen second towards the telling of his story. In other words, cigarette breaks these songs aren’t.) Within the span of the Masakkali number, Bittu is presented to us as someone who’s beginning to find Roshan interesting (he’s accompanied his grandmother to India), someone who’s bent on becoming Indian Idol, and also someone who’s conservative (and considerate) enough to serve refreshments to prospective in-laws who’ve come to appraise her worthiness. (Sonam Kapoor is quite wonderful as this young girl torn between the traditional Indianisms hard-coded into her genes and the laidback charms of Western culture, which just lets people be.)
Roshan, meanwhile, is defined by the surreal dreamscapes of Dil mera (set in motion by the magic of the full moon). As he ambles through the bylanes of Chandni Chowk and lands up in Times Square, now populated with his family from America as well as his newfound acquaintances from India, we gather that the lines are beginning to blur, that India is beginning to feel as much home as America. (The end of this sequence even anticipates the end of the story.) In a span of just two features, Mehra has established himself as a man who knows his music and believes in songs as an intrinsic part of his storytelling. The first half of Rang De Basanti ended unexpectedly with a song (Tu bin bataye, which left us with a happy image of the group of students to hold on to, as we negotiated the sadness of the second half) – and here too, the first half ends with the Kala bandar number, a happy montage which foreshadows the sadder latter portions of the film.
About three-quarters of Delhi-6 is a gently probing masterwork, and a master class in editing and photography and writing a sprawling, serious film that’s utterly light on its feet. The irritants in these portions are mostly minor, arising mainly from Mehra’s itchy inability to keep from flagging us with his Big Points – the spiritual side of our great nation (exemplified in a scene where, as the character played by Deepak Dobriyal so memorably puts it, “mother cow giving baby cow”), the politics inherent in Indian-American relations (Bittu accuses Roshan of poking his nose where it doesn’t belong), the messy cohabitation of politics and religion (a sadhvi interrupts a Ramlila segment, as Ravana drags Sita away; the gods on stage bow before her), or the heavy hand of patriarchy that strangles individual dreams, especially those of women.
When Bittu remarks that she wants to become Indian Idol because that’s the only out for an “ordinary middle-class ladki” like her to make the transition from a nobody to a somebody, the line grates – a sweetly personal dream is inflated into a thudding aspirational reality for a certain segment of society. And the icky symbolism of likening Bittu to a pigeon with its wings tied is the sort of thing that sounds good in poetry and on paper; when blown up to the big screen and presented in all its vulgar finality, the delicacy in the thought is lost. But at least, through his expert staging, Mehra coats these conceits with enough sugar and honey that they go down easy. (And besides, this being the film with the shortest shot lengths in recent memory, where entire scenes pass by in the blink of an eye, the annoyances don’t linger.)
Where Delhi-6 begins to seriously unravel is towards the end. There’s a moment where a television screen flickers with reports of a black monkey (namely, the Kala bandar) that’s terrorising the neighbourhood, while another channel extols the Chandrayan mission – and it appears that this dichotomy (between superstition and science, between the old and the new) is, in a way, reflected in the film too. You begin to wonder if (a) Mehra wanted to experiment with structure and storytelling rhythms and therefore decided to take on an idiot-proof plot with a clichéd Hindu-Muslim bhai-bhai message, or (b) after the success of the well-intentioned Rang De Basanti, he was hit by one of those warm-fuzzy thunderbolts that unfortunately fills moviemakers with missionary zeal, and realising that merely the clichéd message wouldn’t cut it with a jaded modern audience, he decided to experiment with structure and storytelling rhythms.
What’s also frustrating is that Mehra can’t seem to decide if his protagonist is a mere mortal or… something else. Towards the end, Roshan – whose very name smacks of the illumination he’s going to bring to the dark corners of the Third World – remarks, “India works. The people make it work.” But the way Mehra stages his final scenes, it appears otherwise – that a God is needed to make India work, a deity that resides within each one of us, and yet is only capable of working through the pure heart of an Indian from outside India, someone who’s imbibed all our good qualities (love, respect, and so on) and has transcended the bad ones like our faith in superstition and the class system. (In a strange coincidence, the Tamil filmmaker Bala’s recently released Naan Kadavul is also about a man who just can’t help being God.)
During the shadowy dance-drama behind the opening credits, against a red-orange sky silhouetted with skeletal trees, and as a fearsome Ravana terrorises the land, the voice of God promises, “Ati sheegra Avadh mein aata hoon.” And that coincides with Roshan’s arrival in India. And thereon, Mehra loses no opportunity to parallel the events in Roshan’s life with scenes from the Ramlila. (For instance, when Roshan offers to help an untouchable, we cut to Rama accepting the low-caste Shabari’s hospitality.) Roshan is the product of a Muslim mother and a Hindu father, but it’s a third religion that’s invoked as he evolves into a reluctant messiah who suffers for his fellow-man’s sins. (This transformative arc even has a resurrection scenario for a coda, along with a spectral sequence that oddly reminded me of the meeting between Harry Potter and Dumbledore towards the end of the final book in the series.)
And yet, Roshan isn’t a catalyst as Shah Rukh’s character was in Swades; he’s a passive onlooker, who, at most times, is all too human. All of this was no doubt fascinating during the discussion stages, but up there on screen, these whimsical metaphors become unbearably literal. (It’s far easier to accept the idea of a kala bandar, illustrated by a camera that jumps about like a monkey on steroids, than to actually see the creature take concrete shape.) The mad-fakir holding up a mirror is another dreadful miscalculation, a moral science lesson delivered with the kind of simple-minded sincerity that’s downright laughable in these cynical times. Poor Atul Kulkarni, playing the Chandni Chowk equivalent of the wise fool, is stranded with the unenviable task of mashing these conceits into sound bytes that can be digested by the average audience member.
But if the missteps in the closing portions appear egregious, it’s also because the earlier achievements are so extraordinary. For all its problems, Delhi-6 is a genuinely challenging and rewarding film, filled with what has become one of the most welcome clichés in recent Hindi cinema: a large cast of actors who can actually act, not just in the broad, gestural sense of the word but in terms of embodying lived-in characters who seem to have lives outside of the stories they appear in. Whether it’s Rishi Kapoor playing a melancholy variation on his lover-boy persona as a man of a certain age who let The One get away, or Prem Chopra distilling a lifetime of onscreen disreputability into the oily character of a moneylender, or even Abhishek Bachchan (surely the most reluctantly heroic of our stars) slipping into the skin of a reluctant onscreen hero, it’s an intriguing toss-up whether Delhi-6 is driven by life imitating art, or art imitating life.
Copyright ©2009 The New Sunday Express. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Vikas Bhargava
February 21, 2009
A surprisingly positive review from your side. hmm
The movie was about an “deeply felt emotional journey” of Mehra’s growing days. The promos gave the idea of a lilting urban coming of age romantic journey into the rustic lazily beautiful heart of Delhi.
What I instead got was a terribly flawed, often boring, boiled potato mashup of a movie which destroyed and killed every promise that the pre-publicity offered.
A Kaalaa Bandar infested script which pandered to themes like religious co-existence, friendship, relationships, caste system (sic) in the most unoriginal and the most predictable way.
Delhi-6 seemed like a very bad extended episode of Nukkad. Going further, Mehra massacres some very beautiful Rahman numbers by either doing sound edits to shorten things up (you can hear the audio snips) or place them at the most inopportune moments (Rehna Tu went completely wasted) or completely making a mess of their picturization by ineptly handling the Delhi visuals.
A total complete mess of a movie. Delhi-6 makes Rang De Basanti seems like an act of God,never to be repeated again by Mehra at least.
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Godard
February 21, 2009
Bang on Sir!! Exactly what I felt after watching the movie. Extraordinary screenplay. Mehra knows well how to tell a story. I disagree with you on the “mad-guy-with-mirror” character though. Gels well with the “Jhak khud mein woh na tujhse door hai”. What did you feel about the placement of the song “Rehna tu”? I feel it has been used to interpret Roshan’s love towards India or city of Delhi. Do post your comments on that please. 🙂
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Satyam
February 21, 2009
Bravo Baradwaj! Outstanding piece. But this is only par for the course for you. It is incorrect to suggest (as I have many times before) that you are India’s finest film critic. You might be the ONLY one worthy of the name. When one reads your reviews it seems to me immaterial whether one agrees or disagrees. And this is ultimately the hallmark of a fine writing voice. Of course you are also a good critic in Wilde’s formulation whereby all good criticism is necessarily autobiographical.
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sougata mitra
February 21, 2009
Awesome review boss of an awesome movie. It felt nice to see Rakesh Mehra take on such an unconventional movie after the powerful but conventional RDB. Somehow reminded me of his work in Aks…..Respect for Abhishek also increased on seeing him take on such a movie…..the movie falls apart towards the final segment…but by then it has provided such an abundance of riches that Rakesh Mehra can be excused… 🙂
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Anand
February 21, 2009
BR: Remarkable as always! And the irritating cameo in the end..it was way out of the league of the film.
There are some really good “mainstream” moments in the film, like ‘Mard Banao’. And the scene where Atul says, “Woh Bhagwan hai ji, unko sab allowed hai”.
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Krishna D
February 21, 2009
Was awesome to read this :).
About the last sequence, without giving much away:
I can’t fit it in with the movie.It did look like he filched that part away from HP7.
He did go and do something similar when the last part of RDB was generously served up from Gladiator.
There’s so much in the movie, I want to watch it again just to sink in all that was packed into the script – but the prospect of revisiting his ennobling evangelism scares me :d.
Hope you keep writing. Will keep coming here for sure.
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Aditya Pant
February 21, 2009
i have fallen so deeply in love with the first 100 minutes or so of this film, that i would just like to forget the messy conclusion. I always used to think that if the conclusion of a film leaves me unsatisfied, I can never develop a liking for the film. But here, it just doesn’t seem to matter. The tapestry of myriad characters and vignettes is woven masterfully by Rakeysh Mehra, Prasoon Joshi and Kamlesh Pandey. Each character is precisely written, irrespective of the length. Like you so aptly said, they are “lived-in characters who seem to have lives outside of the stories they appear in?”
The film was filled with a lot of humour as well. My real lol moment was when a person who claims to have seen the kala bandar is being interviewed on TV. “Maine Dekha Hai, wo invisible hai”, he says.
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Priti
February 21, 2009
friends complained about delhi 6 being medicore because it lacked the hoarse-throated blatant activism of rdb. i really quite liked the sublety and the “lightness” like you put it, until in the end, like almost every message movie, it ended in expository monologue by a character (who is a cliche – the dimwit who has more insight than the sane ones). but i didn’t like rdb’s climax either. rakeysh mehra seems like someone who starts off building meticulously, until in the end he doesn’t know what to do with what he has built so far.
the music is so brilliant and used extremely well, but i couldn’t help feeling a little cheated by the way they were so sparingly used. i wanted to see more done with them.
but i am outraged with what they have done to arziyaan. how dare they unleash something so beautiful on us? sheer manipulation. 😀
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Nandita
February 21, 2009
I thought of Dumledore and Harry too! Lovely review BR. My favorite portion of the movie was the Dil Gira sequence. Though I think the end ruined the movie a little more for me.Especially when Atul Kulkarni talks for what seems eons about the Kala Bandhar, before someone has the common sense to call for an ambulance.
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Ramesh
February 21, 2009
(since I was quoted in one of your previous reviews , quite without my knowledge, please allow me the compliment of commenting on this review of delhi 6..)
it reminds me of the my fair lady song…
“Words! Words! I’m so sick of words!
I get words all day through;
First from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do?”..
unless youre getting paid by the word…in which case, to quote Janakaraj inmaniratnam’s agni nakshatram “enjoy setty! “
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Anonymous
February 21, 2009
‘In a way, Mehra lets us see what Swades might have resembled had it been tailored towards a multiplex audience.’
Tahnk god, swades wasn’t crafted as a multiplex movie, which to my mind, judging by this reviewer’s criteria seem sto be another word for ‘shallow’ ‘ without depth’ .
That way we got a brilliant, though faulty, masterpiece than this mish-mash mess called Delhi 6.
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Utkal Mohanty
February 21, 2009
“In a way, Mehra lets us see what Swades might have resembled had it been tailored towards a multiplex audience.’
Thank god, Swades wasn’t tailored towards a multiplex audience. Otherwisw instead of a charming, mostly brilliant film we would have had to suffer this boringly intolerable mish-mash.
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Saad
February 21, 2009
Very nicely written review! I read the reviews complaining of no plot, before watching the movie. So I went in without expectations of a plot, and got a very beautiful collage, albeit preachy. I felt there were alot of funny scenes to balance the overt preachiness..”Maine dekha hai bandar do..woh invisible hai”. But overall I loved it immensely, the collage was just too brilliant. This was in contrast to Swades in that Roshan has no gigantic aspirations, he immediately loves India as it is, vs. Mohan who had to realize it later on.
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Utkal Mohanty
February 21, 2009
“Abhishek Bachchan doesn’t play a ‘Delhi 6’ type. Unfortunately no one in this film does. Bachchan’s character, Roshan, is an American, whose parents moved to the States before his birth. He’s neither been to India before, nor to a foreign-exchange counter. He tips in US dollars; wears aviator sunglasses, all decked up at his own terrace. The annoyingly constant expression on his face is either of sullen, deep thought (second-half). Or, a dry sarcastic smirk that holds back a laugh (before-interval). He rarely talks.
When he does, he goes, “India works,” or nudges his grandmother watching Ram Leela, “Hey daadi, look, it’s the golden deer.” The tongue rolls along the ‘r’ in a fake twang mostly acquired from airports like the JFK. In fact it should be called the ‘airport accent’.”
From Mayank Sekhar’s Mumbai Mirros review
JUST ONE MANY THINGS THAT MEHRA DID NOT GET RIGHT IN DELHI 6.
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Utkal Mohanty
February 21, 2009
“Abhishek’s Roshan isn’t quite on a homecoming trip. He’s merely there to drop his ailing grandmother off to their ancestral home. He sticks around doing nothing in particular. I’m not sure of his future. He certainly has no past or present. The silly, supposedly suave hero appears at best a jobless bummer prying into people’s private lives. No surprise, everyone mistakes him for a mysterious serial-attacker called ‘monkey man’ who’s been hounding the neighborhood and national news for a while.
The actual distance between this Walled City and a swanky world city called New Delhi is about five minutes on the Metro. It doesn’t show. This Roshan-boy is likely to spend more time in cafes, bookshops and bars in and around Connaught Place.”
SOME MORE POINTERS AT HOW SHODDILY THE FILM IS WRITTEN,
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brangan
February 21, 2009
Godard: I really liked the placenment of all the songs. When I heard Rehna tu (the audio, that is), it felt like a “night” song, and it was exactly that here. I loved the pool-beer session that followed. But I really didn’t care for the mad-fakir at all. Of course, the character goes well with the looking-inside and all, but it was too literal for my taste.
Satyam: Thank you. About “criticism is necessarily autobiographical,” that’s what makes the writing so scary. You’re really putting yourself out there, not knowing if you’re going to be feted… or fitted into a straitjacket 🙂
Anand: Oh, there are a lo more mainstream moments. What about the condescending haar-jeet platitudes that Abhishek feeds Sonam, and she replies that she’s been selected 🙂 (Her expression is to die for.) But yeah, the ‘Mard banao’ bit was a scream.
Krishna D: “but the prospect of revisiting his ennobling evangelism scares me” – so just watch the first three-quarters and get out. Easy 🙂
Aditya Pant: “I always used to think that if the conclusion of a film leaves me unsatisfied, I can never develop a liking for the film.” Yeah, you usually take away the climax, but the earlier stuff is so mindboggling, I could watch it over and over.
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Utkal Mohanty
February 21, 2009
Abhishek’s Roshan isn’t quite on a homecoming trip. He’s merely there to drop his ailing grandmother off to their ancestral home. He sticks around doing nothing in particular. I’m not sure of his future. He certainly has no past or present. The silly, supposedly suave hero appears at best a jobless bummer prying into people’s private lives. No surprise, everyone mistakes him for a mysterious serial-attacker called ‘monkey man’ who’s been hounding the neighborhood and national news for a while.
The actual distance between this Walled City and a swanky world city called New Delhi is about five minutes on the Metro. It doesn’t show. This Roshan-boy is likely to spend more time in cafes, bookshops and bars in and around Connaught Place.’
POINTERS TOWARDS SHODDY WRITING ALL THROUGH THE FILM.
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Utkal Mohanty
February 21, 2009
“Mehra sets a disjointed Delhi-6 in a strange space-vacuum, more like RK Narayan’s Malgudi or Saeed Mirza’s Nukkad. Nuance may be a purpose. Yet not one character is even loosely established; none, vaguely captivating; no one you may care for. Everything is a caricature, everyone over-the-top. Communal riots break out. The hero bumbles on.”
I THINK A MORE PERECEPTIVE PERSPECTIIVE ON THE STYLE OF THE FILM.
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Good movie
February 22, 2009
Delhi6 is not about Roshan Mehra. Its about Delhi and people of old Delhi.Abhishek new what his character would like in the end product.Considering this Abhishek should be congratulated. No wonder Hrithik and others did not do the film.I think Abhishek did it for Rakesh only.
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Nitin
February 22, 2009
Out comes another atrocious Abhishek Bachchan movie and Mr. Rangan gets into the applause mode.
I still remember his accolades for Naach.
Keep it up Mr. Rangan.
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Arif Attar
February 22, 2009
Great piece, BR. Beautiful film, and I have to watch this one again and again. I went to the cinema 4 times in 4 weeks for Rang De Basanti. I can safely say Rakeysh Mehra is my favourite now.
A lot has been said about the climax sequence. Yeah you do get the feeling, with the dialogues and screenplay in some of the riot sequences that it’s all going haywire and looks all ridiculous. But I thought, the whole point of the sequence was to show the whole ‘senselessness’ of the situation. It was supposed to be Mehra’s mirror.
And yes this guy knows how to make use of the songs. The ‘Rehna Tu’ sequence was interesting. Not sure I get the whole point behind it.
Your use of the ‘blurring of the lines’ phrase reminded me of the deleted ‘blurring of the lines’ scene from Rang De Basanti. I have never understood how he could dare to remove such an important scene.
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Arif Attar
February 22, 2009
Mayank Shekhar saw a film where Waheeda Rahman plays an “…angelic, Muslim grandmother”.
That puts things in perspective.
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s
February 22, 2009
After a long time, I got to read your review after watching the movie. Thank you. it is such a joy to see all the points that we enjoyed so much on screen getting covered here. And I am so glad you gave the movie its due.
That Sonam’s statement irritated me as well and it got noticed because the other parts of the movie were beautifully crafted. the whole parallelism didnt work for me. But filmmakers are known for this, once they have discovered a device(unique/introduced by them, in this case atleast to indian cinema) that works they repeat it forgetting one time is a charm, he has employed it again. On second thoughts, it isnt the device as much as the execution(only for the parallelism).
I did have trouble accepting abhishek because an ABD is more likely to be awkward in real life than accomodating. That can be ignored though.actually there is one point I would agree to with the spammer here that Abhishek is more likely to visit the plush places than styaback in d6. that occured to me as well.
i felt the movie is superior to Swades in terms of direction but Swades’s heartfelt moments were more powerful(not making it in your face must have also taken off some vigor of the emotion we should feel).The perfomances are so on the note. This was such a spot on review!!!
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Vivek Gupta
February 22, 2009
Beautifully written review as usual, if only the movie lived up to your words. This is a movie which even though I loved in parts, failed to hold itself together to become something of a cimematic achievement . There were some beautifully written moments, some great ensemble acting, and of course, astounding music but alas, a narrative arc, which could bring all these elements together in a coherent manner and fuse life into this beautiful body, was sorely missing.
You sum up the movie for me when you say
“he was hit by one of those warm-fuzzy thunderbolts that unfortunately fills moviemakers with missionary zeal, and realising that merely the clichéd message wouldn’t cut it with a jaded modern audience, he decided to experiment with structure and storytelling rhythms.” That really is the problem, after an interesting (though hardly original in terms of narrative) first half, the film loses itself into the clichéd territory and becomes in your face message movie. The events and counter events become so
predictable, you can set your watch by it, and all this was executed with the sensibility one will associate with the direction of an expensive play. In fact, for an extended part of second half, I really felt as if I am really inside a theater witnessing the events unfold on a stage rather than a screen.
One more aspect of the movie I have a gripe with, is the use of soundtrack. Rahman’s music for this movie is so magnificent, it deserved a better treatment, even though the Mehra’s use of music in the movie strictly speaking will not qualify as bad. The treatment of ‘Rehna Tu’ song was the sorest of sore thumbs, it really did not fit the situation and left me wondering of the point of the whole song. Even ‘Dilli meri Jaan’ could have been executed with more verve and so did ‘Gendaa Phool’, however, in all fairness, it must be said that ‘Dil Gira’ and ‘Arziyaan’ left one gaping with their exquisiteness.
All in all a disappointing effort, made all the more disappointing by the realization that with a little more thought in the story, they may have succeeded in recreating the magic that was RDB.
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Godard
February 22, 2009
Yeah, Rehna Tu did feel like a night song when you hear it first. But the sheer romance in the music and lyrics made many think that it would be pictured on Roshan and Bittu. Before watching the movie, many people in ARR communities and Delhi-6 communities online were criticizing that. So the song comes totally contradicting what viewers had in mind.
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Alpesh
February 22, 2009
“But if the missteps in the closing portions appear egregious, it’s also because the earlier achievements are so extraordinary”
I totally agree with this, as I left the cinema I could not help feel so disappointed.
I agree with you on the aspects of the film which work.
What didn’t work for me was
1. Abhishek Bachchan….to put it simply he was poor. His worse crime was that he made his character annoying.
2. The whole hindu-muslim thing….it was the wrong direction to take the film. For me, what would have been the more interesting story is the sibling rivalry that was playing out between Om Puri and Pavan Malhotra, which was so hillariously during the scene where they were both singing the bhajan (although I did seem to be the only person in the cinema hall laughing out loud at this)
3. Waheeda Rehman seemingly getting sidelined in the second half of the film.
Actually the film had so many rich characters, Mehra should have had a choice of numerous endings which would have given sufficient justice to the first 3/4 of the film…..like I said what was chosen was the wrong story to pick.
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brangan
February 22, 2009
Arif Attar: “I have to watch this one again and again.” Join the club 🙂
“But I thought, the whole point of the sequence was to show the whole ’senselessness’ of the situation.” You’re right. That’s why the scene with Akhilendra Mishra as the sadhu is treated like high comedy, with the “kaale bandar ka baal” and all that. Mehra is saying that the most senseless/ridiculous things can trigger off tragedies. But my problem was how it was staged. Something was too preachy about it, and too sudden.
BTW, can you give me a link to that deleted scene from RDB? I don’t remember if I’ve seen it. Thanks.
s: “Abhishek is more likely to visit the plush places than styaback in d6” – But why? Different strokes for different folks, no? Remember his first word when he wakes up and sees the horse and stands up and sees the huge crowd around him? He smiles and says, “Awesome.” (We, on the other hand, who are used to this sort of crowds and animals, would have been put off by this.) Maybe he’s like those hippies of the 60s who wanted to experience a world away from their materialism. Who can say?
“i felt the movie is superior to Swades in terms of direction” – Oh, definitely. This is a landmark film in terms of writing/craftsmanship. I like a lot of individual moments in Swades, but it did take the easier route of “explaining” people and what drove them, which is hardly the case here.
Vivek Gupta: Of course, the ending didn’t work, but there’s such an abundance of riches earlier, this wasn’t THAT much of a deal-breaker. I remember how I felt almost betrayed as the second half of Taare Zameen Par unfolded. Somehow the shift in tone here didn’t bother me to THAT extent — in the sense that it didn’t work for me at all, but there wasn’t that sense of betrayal. (Perhaps, because ROM had given us clues all along that this was where he was headed?)
But I’d disagree about the music. I thought it was used perfectly. It was a part of the tapestry like everything else in the film. Not one song was a “filler.”
Alpesh: “The whole hindu-muslim thing….it was the wrong direction to take the film.” I don’t agree that the *direction* was wrong. I thought it was developed too hastily. For a film that’s in such beautiful slow-burn for 3/4 of the duration, the last 1/4 almost appeared to occur in fast-forward mode. Above all, it was this “jaldi karo, agle show ka time ho gaya” attitude that screwed things up towards the end, I thought.
And yeah, that bhajan scene with the two brothers outshouting one another was howlarious. Also, the scene where Om tries to undermine Pawan’s short-circuit theory with the badal-bijli analogy 🙂
But “Waheeda Rehman seemingly getting sidelined in the second half of the film” – that didn’t bother me at all. She’s just the reason to kickstart the story. She serves the purpose. Though I’m curious about one editing decision in the film, when Roshan is beginning to get beaten up, and we get a flash cut of her, a lamp, and the sound effect of a match being struck. I didn’t get that link, unless it’s the most obvious explanation (that if it weren’t for her wish to return, none of this would have happened).
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O(h)m's Law
February 22, 2009
“..Om tries to undermine Pawan’s short-circuit theory with the badal-bijli analogy” – hey, sounds too much like V=IR, no? 🙂
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maruramu
February 22, 2009
Having been a regular reader of your site, this is my first post here, as this is the first time I watched a movie before reading your review. Now coming to the movie, when the first half was over, I thought, okay, let’s see how he integrates all these things and tie up into a cohesive conclusion. Instead what we got here was a madcap rush to the climax where everything was put hastily which leaves a sour taste in the mouth after all this. Why? Because is it not the most important part for a movie like this, the climax, to culminate into something extraordinary or at least satisfactory????? The purpose itself is lost towards the end which makes the whole exercise, for me futile.
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Shalini
February 22, 2009
As someone who loved both [yes, even Aks:-0] of ROM’s previous films, I went into Delhi-6 wanting and expecting to love it as well. And I did, all the way up to and including, nay *especially* “dil gira daftan mein.” Then something heartbreaking happened…Shani Baba enters and the whole movie explodes AND implodes into nonsense!
What the hell happened? I can’t remember the last time I wanted a movie to end as badly as I did during the irredeemably ugly last third of this one.:-(
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DesktopFixture
February 22, 2009
“When Bittu remarks that she wants to become Indian Idol because that’s the only out for an “ordinary middle-class ladki” like her to make the transition from a nobody to a somebody…”
It seems people from Mumbai or even the whole of India think of Delhi to be limited to old Delhi (Chandni Chowk with pincode 6 I suppose), much like how the Slumdog Millionaire crowd thinks of India as only poverty ridden.
Which is kind of funny and unbelievable because I am born and brought up in Delhi and old Delhi is like another era or another state in India (not to mention, it’s become a rather small part of a larger Delhi in the last 60 years). The middle class Delhi I have seen in my 25 years of life lives a much more upscale life, and in fact the image one would conjure up on thinking of a “middle class Delhi girl” would be a fashionable girl wearing jeans and top/T-shirt who wouldn’t have any shortage of opportunities.
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Aditya Pant
February 22, 2009
DesktopFixture – But this film is about Dilli-6, isn’t it. I don’t think ROM wanted this film to be representative of Delhi as a whole. If at all, he was trying to represent Dilli-6 as a microcosm of India as a whole. Delhi, by itself has such diversity – you have the Punjabi Bagh middle-class (portrayed so authentically and wonderfully by Dibakar Banerjee in KKG and OLLO), you have the South Delhi middle class (not protrayed on film yet) and then there is the Dilli-6 middle class. It’s just that we Delhi-wallas tend to look at Dilli-6 in a stereotypical way (something like what Mayank Shekhar mentions in his review).
Btw, I was born in Delhi and have spent 3/4th of my life here.
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Pradyumna M
February 22, 2009
I watched it first day first show and came away somewhat disappointed with the ending and the way the music was used in the movie.But watched it again today and i actually liked the movie more on second viewing and I thought the music was used very well,especially ‘Rehna tu..”[I know a lot of people will disagree]
As for :
(….along with a spectral sequence that oddly reminded me of the meeting between Harry Potter and Dumbledore towards the end of the final book in the series.)
Yeah it did! And If I heard right Roshan calls him dad when he’s supposed to be his grandad! 😀
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raj
February 22, 2009
“a sadhvi interrupts a Ramlila segment, as Ravana drags Sita away; the gods on stage bow before her”
Now, where have I seen this before?
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raj
February 22, 2009
I dont know about the whole movie and Baradwaj’s review is a beautiful piece of writing and Mayank Shekar is true to his level of writing with those pieces quoted here. So I’d rather believe Baradwaj but I cannot but agree with Shekar’s observation that Abhishek has exactly two expressions – in the trailers, that is. Hope he has done better in the whole movie
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vivek
February 22, 2009
I am not sure if this movie was a small guy with big ambitions or a giant with a sensitive heart. It was as if gautam menon directed dasavatharam.
Anyway can’t wait to watch kadhal2kalyanam. If the exquisiteness of the writing here is even matched there we could have a memorable movie on our hands.
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Arif Attar
February 22, 2009
Here is the deleted scene I was talking BR.
I wonder if it has anything to do with Soha using the mobile phone.
Coming to Delhi 6, oh there are so many gems in this one. I have just realised that both ‘Rehna Tu’ and ‘Dil gira dafatan’ are more odes to Delhi-6 than to Bittu.
I have recently finished reading William Dalrymple’s ‘The Last Mughal’. It is more about old Delhi than the last Mughal himself. I have never been to Delhi, but fell in love with it the way Dalrymple described it. And I can understand where Mehra’s coming from when he picturises ‘Rehna Tu’ the way he does.
“Kaun jaye Zauq, par Dilli ki galiyan chodkar”
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brangan
February 22, 2009
vivek: You do realise K2K is just a rom-com, right? I hope you aren’t going to walk in expecting a densely layered metaphorical treatise on the Indian microcosm 🙂
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Aditya Pant
February 22, 2009
Arif – I agree completely about The Last Mughal. Dalrymple had described the city so beautufully. And of course, Zauq’s classic lines are truly an ode to the city. So are Mir’s:
Dilli ke na the kooche, auraaq-e- musavvir the
Jo shakl nazar aayi tasveer nazar aayi
I have talked about these couplets in my thoughts about this film on my blog.
http://urgetofly.blogspirit.com/archive/2009/02/22/delhi-6-review.html
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Utkal Mohanty
February 22, 2009
Another point to note is the lack of details and credibility, right from the beginning. Waht does abhishek do? Is he a student? Is he working? What is he going to do in India? Doesn’t that figure in his calculation for staying in India?
If it was film by a lesser mortal like David Dhawan, we would be saying this is what hapens in a Bolywood film. Compare this with the clarity in Swades. Every charcter and its motivation so detailed.
” masterclass’ in writing? Crappy and superficial would be my opinion. Rakesh Mehra and Kamalesh Pande can not write anything much better than this of course. RDB is as good as they could get.
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Utkal Mohanty
February 22, 2009
Also, just consider Abhi’s statement ‘ But India works. It’s the people who make it work.” Now how did Abhi come to the conclusion? Based on his experience in the film, his conclusion should have been just the opposite. ‘Masterclass’ in script writing? hardly.
This ‘kala bandar’ and the mirror business places Rakesjh Mehra in the same class as Manoj Kumar with his ‘ Jab zero diya mera Bharatne’ tone.
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RandomBystander
February 23, 2009
PHEW!!. Thank you Bhardwaj, I think you’re one of the few people in this country worthy of being called a critic…
To all those who so sanctimoniously proclaim that Roshan would be more likely to hang out in coffee shops than connaught place…really? I visited India for the first time in 7 years last month, and everyone and sundry wanted me to check out the latest malls and restaurant in a bid to show “look how america-ish it is here” but why would anyone spend that kind of money to see what they already have in an upgraded version? The vast rural landscape of India is far more enticing that its cities…
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Sruthi
February 23, 2009
The characters didn’t work for me. The women of the house seemed too ‘fall-at-your-feet’ or ‘cry-into-pallu’ types to be true.
The genda phool, such an amazing number, shot with those women bothered me quite a bit. Dilli 6 on the other hand was shot perfectly.
The first half was fanstastic and I think it was because of the music. He had exhausted almost all the songs of the movie in the first half, didn’t he.
During the interval there was this major anticipation of the second half, for the drama to begin as the setting had been established. Nothing came. The script was like a case Poirot describes — fish covered with lots of sauce. Once you remove the sauce, there is very little meat.
The niftily crafted threads and the Kala Bandar device have to come together like the climax of a well-crafted piece of music. If not, the device seems like a contraption and all I am left with is a sense of betrayal. Rehaman’s finest score in recent times I think deserved a better vehicle.
Anyways. 🙂 Till the next movie…
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Raj Balakrishnan
February 23, 2009
What a beautifully written piece. That was fantastic! One of the best reviews that I have read in a long time.
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Vikas Bhargava
February 23, 2009
Whoa.
Seems like we are really trying hard to like the movie!
Half cooked characters, like Roshan who hangs in a limbo is deemed “passive”. Where Roshan stands personally in his view of Delhi or the USA is absent. Well, thats not a problem but him having a “India Works for me” moment doesn’t go down too well. I never could really pinpoint what exactly caused this sudden outburst of India love. Poor Waheeda Rahman is abandoned totally. Well she’s the story engine spark plug you see, can be discarded. From the moment a US doctor utters his first diagnosis in Hindi (perhaps for the benefit of single screen viewers who may stray into a multiplex), the engine starts with some really plastic dialogues by Grandma. Then Bittu’s character does nothing more than occupy screen space with some dead pan whittled out romance. Then the story is held together by Mr Monkey Man. Ah! the Delhi visuals. Bittu is shot twice climbing the stairs of the metro dancing. Twice! some creativity there. When you suddenly get a beautiful shot of hundreds of pigeons flying with Bittu in the frame, the scene is suddenly cut (short shot technique, smirk). Then ofcourse there are 10 really funny dialogues in the movie. “monkey man invisible, motherboard blah blah blah”. Then the charcters keep adding “Dilli 6 Dilli 6” in their dialogues as if to make sure we dont mistake the title to being “Monkey Man Chronicles”. Then the utterly atrocious last 20 minutes of the movie is just “things falling apart”. and so on and so forth.
If Mehra’s intention was to make a hatke movie, it has sooo bombed. The only redeeming quality perhaps was Rishi Kapoor. Inept script, Inept direction, Inept use of soundtrack, Cheesy characters, Monkey Man Monkey Man Monkey Man.. dude.
arrgh.
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Ramkumar R. Aiyengar
February 23, 2009
One of the really subtle dialogues which told a lot about how panic overcomes reason, and thankfully, all the rivalry; was when Om Puri, of all people, commands people to get water to pour on the Kaala Bandhar 😀
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Venkatesh
February 23, 2009
Raj: “a sadhvi interrupts a Ramlila segment, as Ravana drags Sita away; the gods on stage bow before her”
Shaant gadadhari Bheem shaant.
Couldnt resist it.
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brangan
February 23, 2009
Nice. After a long time, a film that has split viewers right down the middle, into two polar camps (I-love-it-despite-its-faults vs. I-hate-it) 🙂 I’m trying to remember – was JBJ (another “episodic” film, which was largely absent of “plot”) the last time this happened?
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raj
February 23, 2009
venkatesh, that one’s close but not quite. I have seen this before – the question wasnt rhetoric – I am trying to remember that movie where a similar dynamic is caught.
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V
February 23, 2009
A movie works it the viewer can connect with at least one of the characters. In Delhi-6 I just could not connect with either Abhishek or Sonam. All the questions Vikas Bhargava asks, I had them too. I mean does Roshan not have a life in the US? AT no point did he actually feel like an outsider..and we had to be reminded that he is an American from the dialogues etc.
” Rarely has a message-heavy movie seemed so weightless …” So weightless that the messages were totally lost….
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Utkal Mohanty
February 23, 2009
I will quote the review by Khlaid Mohammad to provide a different perspective, one that I agree with, but Could never be vicious enough to put it that way.
Bleat. A goat is nabbed by the throat. A bachelor miyan bhai is into dropping heavy duty quotelets (“Ever since I lost my love, I only buy empty havelis”… wow). Everyone here resembles a burnt toast. How your brain roasts.
Tread warily, if you must, into Delhi 6 daftly directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and co-written with Prasoon Joshi as well as Kamlesh Pandey (yes, he’s still active). Their could-have-been-located-anywhere Rangoon De Basanti is pointless and painfully self-indulgent. Believe it or collapse, surreally the Statue of Liberty even lands up right next to the Juma Masjid. Go configure!
Indeed, the screenplay could have gambolled through any city anywhere. If you have ever been to Chandni Chowk (its postal code is 6), you can never forget its hunched calligraphy artistes, smiling dentists, 24 x7 tandoors, neharis on winter mornings, blue-marbled lemonade bottles, Parathewalli gully and Ballimaran lane where poetry was written by Mirza Ghalib. Sorry but Mehra’s recreation of this melting pot of cultures and faiths is about as authentic as a Rs 7 coin. Tsk.
Instead, this Mehrathon is about a cool US-born dude (Abhishek Bachchan). Hey howdy. He has arrived to drop off his granny (Waheeda Rehman), as if she were a sack of potatoes, at a home that’s more cobwebbed than the script. Granny-o loves her nattering neighbours, not to forget her daily paans-supari which magically keep her teeth vanilla white. Begin interludes of Ram Leela evenings, qawwali sessions and introductions to more characters than the strands of hair on your head.
Baldly put, you meet every stereotype here ranging from feuding brothers (Om Puri-Pawan Malhotra) and a plain pistachios nerd (Atul Kulkarni hamming) to a creepy Casanova (Cyrus Sahukar, not bad) and an ancient lech (incorrigible Prem Chopra). Grin grin.
Shockingly, there’s only one cop in all of purani Delhi. That’s Vijay Raaz hitting on all and sundry — even the bidi-puffing Divya Dutta (credible). Ouch. At long last, the crowd is completed by Muslim and Hindu fundamentalists who suddenly discover that they are at loggerheads. Pray, where were they living? Timbuctoo?
Next: Our Cool Dude’s eyes fall on Beauteous Bittu (Sonam Kapoor) whose wings have been clipped just like her dove Masakali’s. Sob. She is auditioned for the Indian Idol contest by turned-to-teak Javed Akhtar and frozen Anu Malik. Offended, her folks want to get her married off pronto to a local Gol Guppa. Ergo, Dude must rescue Girl Idol. Plus, he must restore communal harmony by breaking into thunderous Winston Churchill-like speeches. And he must also solve the curious case of the Monkey Murders by wearing a furry ape costume that someone scoffs just cost Rs 200. What a bargain!
Result: a cat’s cradle of confusion. What on earth was that bleached white rendezvous of Cool Dude with gasp… Amitabh Bachchan? Both munch jilebis. Sweet? Hardly.
Clearly the first mega-disappointment of the year, Mehra’s thesis that NRIs should return home (with the financial meltdown, do they have a choice?) has been attempted before in Aa Ab Laut Chalen and Swades. And the references to movie classics like King Kong (girl and ape atop skyscraper), Citizen Kane (a Taj Mahal objet d’art like Rosebud) and Beauty and the Beast, are just artsy-tartsy.
On the upside, count A.R. Rahman’s music score and Binod Pradhan’s camerawork. Of the performances, Rishi Kapoor is impressive in a cameo. Sonam Kapoor is a sight for sore eyes but wasted in an abbreviated role. Abhishek Bachchan is serviceable. His penultimate appearance in a monkey suit, though, is unintentionally howlarious. Truly, Delhi 6 could have been more aptly titled Apna Sapna Monkey Monkey.
——————————
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The Normal Guy
February 23, 2009
Vijay Raaz did a great job.
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Lee
February 23, 2009
@Utkal Mohanty, why are you on a mission to discredit Delhi-6? Fine, we get the point that you did not like the movie. But is seems you have a pressing need to convince everyone else that they too should hate the movie. Why? Do you have grudge against the director or the cast?
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raj
February 23, 2009
I hope this movie does well i am becoming a fan of sonam kapoor
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Jabberwock
February 23, 2009
Actually I think Utkal Mohanty is on a mission to discredit Khalid Mohammed in the most effective way possible – by letting the man’s writing speak for itself. Bleat!
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scribina
February 23, 2009
“@Utkal Mohanty, why are you on a mission to discredit Delhi-6? Fine, we get the point that you did not like the movie. But is seems you have a pressing need to convince everyone else that they too should hate the movie. Why? Do you have grudge against the director or the cast?”
That’s exactly what I have been wondering since the last two days, ever since he has been putting his long rants online, not just here but also on passionforcinema.
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ARJUN DEWAN
February 23, 2009
one of the most cerebral movies of recent times!loved it…understated,yet,always starkly reaalistic.may not go down with populart vote…but then what the heck….life’s never fair!
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Simi Sarin
February 23, 2009
This was one of the best reviews I’ve ever read on a movie..alomst capturing all nuances that ROM wanted to tell us. Regarding the climax I have a question..what was so unreal?..isn’t this happening in the “real India” we live in.
1)Our channels picking up a crazy story and airing it ad nauseam 2)Our religious and political leaders whipping communal frenzy over extremely trivial stuff 3)Don’t we all need to look at ourselves in the mirror 4)Admittedly the “kala bandar” was too simple to be a solution..but maybe we do need a simple solution!
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Vivek
February 23, 2009
@Baradwaj Oh I hope K2K has nothing to do with micorcosms of any type and the very fact that it is a rom com limits your boundaries significantly. The fact is since you have actually salavaged some pretty ordinary movies through your exquisite reviews, I am just hoping you will salvage what is probably one of the world’s oldest genres through some terrific writing. If I feel the same way after K2K as I do after reading your review (regardless of whether I actually liked the movie being reviewed) you would have a winner in your hands 🙂
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Utkal Mohanty
February 23, 2009
Lee, I am just trying to show different view points, especially those that are well argued. since I am very passionate about Indian cinema, and I feel one reason our films are not evolving as fast as they could, is because our critics are not backing the right films. So I really try to point out critical blindspots wherever I see them.
If pathbreaking and accomplished films like Dev D, Taare Zameen Par , Manorama Six Feet Under, Johny Gaddar and No smoking don’t get effusive approval from critics, and superficialor shoddy work like Black, Tashan, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Drona and Delhi 6 are made to look respectable, then I feel it’s my duty to try and show where the lapses are.
I am not talking about someone liking or not liknga film. That’s perfectly okay. The probl em is when standards are dishonestly or inappropriately applied.
For examples the same critics who ask of a Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai or K3G, But what does our hero do? why don’t we see him in the hospital ever if he is a doctor, forget to ask these questions with Delhi 6.
I have a problem with that and i try to point that out.
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Tambi Dude
February 23, 2009
raj,
That movie is Gharonda where Ramayan characters say “namaskar” to local politician.
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brangan
February 23, 2009
Simi Sarin: The climax wasn’t “unreal,” in terms of the things that occur. But the problems are (1) when 3/4 of the film is so exquisitely understated (to the point of feeling literally plotless), the dense, plot-heavy, message-heavy, preachy last 1/4 sticks out like a very sore thumb. (2) metaphors are fantastic when unstated. but when the “concept” of holding up a mirror to yourself is literalised by a man actually wandering around with a mirror (or the admittedly clever “idea” of the kala bandar” is literalised by a man in a monkey suit), it’s horrible.
Vivek: In that case, I’d have to send you the final draft of the screenplay. Then you could see just how well (or how badly) I fare as a screenwriter. As opposed to now seeing the finished product, which is totally the director’s baby. From what I’ve seen so far (the rushes), it’s shaping out quite well. The two songs that Yuvan has given are also very nice. And yet, when you’ve imagined a character a certain way, or a line delivered with a certain emphasis (and the actors look/speak differently), or if location logistics dictate that a certain scene is played differently than on paper, it’s hard not to break out in a rash 🙂
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Lee
February 23, 2009
@Utkal Mohanty Says:
Lee, I am just trying to show different view points, especially those that are well argued. since I am very passionate about Indian cinema, and I feel one reason our films are not evolving as fast as they could, is because our critics are not backing the right films. So I really try to point out critical blindspots wherever I see them.
If pathbreaking and accomplished films like Dev D, Taare Zameen Par , Manorama Six Feet Under, Johny Gaddar and No smoking don’t get effusive approval from critics, and superficialor shoddy work like Black, Tashan, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Drona and Delhi 6 are made to look respectable, then I feel it’s my duty to try and show where the lapses are.
LMAO – those are pathbreaking films? How? As s westerner I have seen all these films in some form already. Dev D is just your typical sex, drugs and rock and roll movie – good movie but nothing new. TZP is a standard TV movie of the week addressing a disability or disease. The others are basically copies of western movies – good movies but again not masterpieces.
So why single out Delhi 6 which at least has an original idea even if it is flawed?
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Shalini
February 23, 2009
“Rarely has a message-heavy movie seemed so weightless…”
BR, I’m not sure how to interpret the above statement…by “weightless” do you mean “subtle”?
Because, I thought Delhi-6 was the exact opposite of subtle when it came to making it’s “points.”
However if you were using the term to describe the plotless nature of the film, then I understand and agree. Frankly, I think the movie is the strongest when it’s pointless! It’s when ROM tries to be concrete that the movie falls apart.
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Shankar
February 23, 2009
Baddy…K2K, I never knew about that until now!! Wow!! Good luck, buddy…I can’t wait now!! 🙂
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brangan
February 23, 2009
Shalini: I meant that for about three-quarters of the film, you don’t even see the message pointers. It’s almost plotless, in a sense — though you are getting a plot in terms of the characters and their interactions, there isn’t a “narrative arc” kind of plot for a major portion of the film. That’s why it felt weightless. Looking back, after the film ended, I could see how he’d embedded the seeds of the final scenes, but while experiencing them for the first time, it was lovely to see a film that just… floated along. And the price we pay for this ambling is the sudden, unsubtle last quarter, which overdoses on plot.
Shankar: Vidiya vidiya… 🙂
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Vikas Bhargava
February 23, 2009
@Lee
I would say that “pathbreaking” is a contextual term. For a westerner, Dev D, TZP, No Smoking might not be pathbreaking when compared to (insert context here, I add Hollywood), but in the Indian context these are.
Saying that Dev D is nothing but sex drugs and rock and roll is akin to saying that Requiem for a Dream is nothing but sex drugs and techno music. Thats trivializing things.
If being bold is pathbreaking in Indian context these days then yes Dev D is pathbreaking. If a child can hold half of a rather unconventional kind of Bollywood movie together on his own, then yes TZP is a pathbreaking movie. And so on and so forth.
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Virginia
February 23, 2009
To me, a “western” viewer: I admire the qualities you do, but in the end don’t arrive at such a positive assessment, though also think ORM maybe had a decent idea going. I assume I miss a lot but anyhow –
When things got overtly ugly, at first I was gratified, as I’d experienced a steady strain of ugliness amidst the details and nuances throughout, and I’d thought I was meant to notice them, because we have an “outsider” viewpoint character who, like me, is horrified at things like policemen punching people, fathers being abusive to their daughters, etc. (Though Indian audience in NY seemed not horrified, they laughed at most of these.)
When A’s character made his decision about where he wanted to be, however, I was dumbfounded, the timing made no sense to me.
That apart (issue of stay/go could have just been sidestepped – he could decide what he decided without making a speech) — IF all along I’d been shown (without speeches!!) that Abhishek’s conflicted reactions to disturbing things (e.g., what am I as a man if I don’t step in here to protect someone, can I live with myself? how totally do I alienate myself from these people if I do step in? ) were building up inside him, then I would have accepted an eruption of the pooled emotion in the kind of thing that happened, which was appropriately sane (I will take this on morally) & insane (how done).
I wonder if that was an idea in the writing that didn’t get translated in the performance.
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Arif Attar
February 23, 2009
@Virginia
The key to why he decides to stay back is in the sequence where he talks with his Dad’s friend played by Rishi Kapoor. He says something along the lines of ‘Jaisa bhi hai, yeh sab apna hai’. He talks about how his parents have tried to make a little India in their home in the US. But when you open the windows, the air outside is always alien.
That sequence is the crux really. Something similar to Aamir’s incredible scene where he cries on the dinner table in Rang De Basanti.
For someone who has been an Indian in the West for six years, that scene made perfect sense to me. ‘Jaisa bhi hai, yeh sab apna hai’.
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as349
February 23, 2009
Wow. I hated the movie! This was the first time I actually considered walking out of the theater because I was in such pain. I was ok with the slow first half, waiting to see where the movie would go, but the second half just did not work for me. Which sucks because I think that the concept was great, and reading the discussion here it does appeal to me on an intellectual basis.
I get that Roshan was supposed to be an observer, but my friends and I are were laughing in the theater because it felt like the story of a man and his motorola. He’s an outsider, he’s taking pictures, but does every other frame have to him taking pictures? He loved his phone more than Bittu! When exactly did he fall in love with her?
I really liked the characterizations though. Most of Delhi 6 characters were fairly typical, what I thought really stood out was Roshan. He wasn’t the stereotypical American in India and I liked that, because I feel like I have a very similar experience every time I visit family in Mumbai. But I felt like we didn’t get to spend enough time seeing him appreciate India (versus observe), so I really didn’t get where he was coming from when he says, “India works! It works because of the people.”
One of the things that I found interesting and wish they had developed more is that since Roshan is half-Hindu half-Muslim, is he either, netiher, or both? And the difference between self-categorization and how society views/defines him (they were getting to that when Om Puri wouldn’t let him into the mandir).
One part that I really found interesting is that Mamdu is Muslim, but a Hanuman bhakt. And when you see the Hindus destroy his store, they remove the picture of Hanuman. (Which is an interesting because Hinduism is so integrated with the social traditions of India that it’s hard to divorce the two. And many people from the other religious groups do participate in Hindu traditions. I remember reading a while back in the news that Salman Khan and his family have elaborate celebrations for Ganesh Chaturti. I’m Jain and while we technically don’t believe in Hindu Gods, my family and many other that we know do Laxmi poojas and other things.) In this case it’s that the Hindus don’t want a Muslim to pray to their God, they are telling him that he can’t be a Hanuman bhakt. The oppositve of conversion, self-segregation.
One more thing. I was watching an interview with Abhishek, ROM, Sonam, and Prasoon Joshi. Apparently in the first draft there was a lot of dialogue for Roshan in the first half and Abhishek asked it to be removed because he wanted the character to remain an observer. He likened it to staying quiet during meditation and/or trying to attain Nirvana. Also, in the original ending Roshan dies, but they decided to re-shoot it. Apparently, ROM’s wife was the one to convince Abhishek that having Roshan live and end the movie with hope was better.
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Utkal Mohanty
February 23, 2009
‘Saying that Dev D is nothing but sex drugs and rock and roll is akin to saying that Requiem for a Dream is nothing but sex drugs and techno music.’ And Godfather is nothing but a gangster film. And “pulp Fiction’is nothing but that..pulp fiction. Psycho is slasher film. You give me a film, i will find a label to dismiss it. Won’t take a second.
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Lee
February 24, 2009
@Utkal Mohanty, you said pathbreaking for the movies mentioned – Dev D, JG, Manorama, TZDev D, Taare Zameen Par , Manorama Six Feet Under, Johnny Gaddar and No smoking.
Please tell me what is pathbreaking about them? I see this word being thrown about and I’m curious as to what is your definition since I don’t agree?
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brangan
February 24, 2009
Virginia: Arif Attar has stated the reason for AB staying. (The “videshi hawa” speech.) But reg. “IF all along I’d been shown (without speeches!!) that Abhishek’s conflicted reactions to disturbing things (e.g., what am I as a man if I don’t step in here to protect someone…” Exactly. That was the way I felt it SHOULD have been done, from an individual-humanitarian viewpoint (which would have also added to the “reluctant martyr” aspect). ROM is obviously a clever man, so it should be interesting to hear his reasoning for the shocking obviousness of the last quarter. I’m guessing, at some level, he just chickened out and didn’t want to totally alienate the non-multiplex audience 🙂
as349: “it does appeal to me on an intellectual basis? – which I think is a part of the problem with the film’s reception. I think the expectation was that of a film with more direct emotional appeal, like RDB or Swades. This is a far more “aloof” film (which is what I like about it, in the first place).
Reg. “When exactly did he fall in love with her?” There is no “exact point.” Like all faling in love, it happened almost imperceptibly. Why is this such a deal-breaker for people? It’s very interesting you say this, because I’ve written a Tamil film, and this is the EXACT reaction the director and I got when we finished the first draft and sent it around for feedback. Many people were confused about WHY the hero fell for the heroine, and WHEN. We went mad trying to explain that it just happened along the way. Then they said, “Well then, they don’t even say ‘I love you’.” And we said, “But isn’t it obvious that they love one another? Why else would they be together like this?” But they didn’t budge. Finally, we wrote in an “I love you” moment in the least repulsive manner possible 🙂
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K
February 24, 2009
“I’ve written a Tamil film”
Please make sure it gets released elsewhere with subtitles…please…please…PLEASE!
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Utkal Mohanty
February 24, 2009
Lee, name me 5 Hindi films that you consider path breaking and why and I will tell you why I consider these films path breaking. Since I have named my 5 already, t is fair that you name what you consider path breaking ten we can discuss.
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Utkal Mohanty
February 24, 2009
The problem with words is that they reveal as much as they hide. with words one can justify or run down anything. “This is a far more “aloof” film (which is what I like about it, in the first place).”
Can be paraphrased by another reviewer : ” This is a far more “unengaging” film (which is what I dislike about it, in the first place).
With words very film, Drona, Ram Gopal VarmaKi Aag, Saawariya, all can be shown to have some merits.
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harish
February 24, 2009
its rite: words do change the way the movie can be seen. but its up to the reviewer to have a balance between what he actually saw in the movie and what was present. its more like whats in the script and what in the screen. one shouldn’t judge a movie only based on the script rather how well he was able to showcase it should be rated.
“And the icky symbolism of likening Bittu to a pigeon with its wings tied is the sort of thing that sounds good in poetry and on paper; when blown up to the big screen and presented in all its vulgar finality, the delicacy in the thought is lost. “
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bart
February 24, 2009
K2K! Kritic (the K denoting “King of Critics”) 2 Kodambakkam. All the very best.. Eagerly awaiting the unfolding on the big screens..
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The Normal Guy
February 24, 2009
brangan :
When is K2K coming out ? Its been a long time. 😡 What stage is it in .. Post Production ?
And I can already visualise the first half an hour of the film being a dense forest of characterisation with the characters speaking volumes about their backstories . And , I bet you are thinking , ” Huh. You think that’s what I’m about ? Wait till you see the film and then tell me what you are thinking ” 😛
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Fahim Farook
February 24, 2009
Beautiful analysis of an interesting movie 🙂 I’m torn about “Delhi 6” – I do agree that the characters were wonderfully delineated without resorting to heavy brushstrokes and that the story is unconventional and engaging in that it isn’t exactly linear (or should I say cause-effect bound?) like most stories are.
But at the same time, while I enjoyed the craft involved in the way the story was told and the tiny little touches all over the place which enlivened the story, I didn’t find the main characters all that engaging. I wasn’t invested in them.
With regards to the cameo at the end, everybody seems to have had HP on their mind but I was actually thinking “Bruce Almighty”. I haven’t seen “God Tussi Great Ho” but know that AB Sr. played the Morgan Freeman role … So that was where my mind led me 🙂
As far as the repeated posting by other critics with a different viewpoint over here goes, I think it’s in bad form. If you disagree with something, provide your viewpoint – don’t use somebody else’s words to bolster your own opinions. Own your words 🙂
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Priti
February 24, 2009
@ BR:
so much hype for K2K has happened on this blog. every reader waiting for it! 😀 i do hope there is no “you too, BR?” moment in store for you after the movie releases. does it not scare you, the way you have put all your credibility and reputation in line to write a movie? people are bound to pick on even the teeniest thing you said in some review, extrapolate it to your movie, and question every possible contradiction they see? considering all the flak sudhish kamath and khalid mohammad received, i am actually scared for you 😀 not that i am putting them on par with you, but it looks to me like you are putting a lot in line. good luck, and yeah, can’t wait for K2K!
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brangan
February 24, 2009
K: Sorry, not in my hands 🙂
The Normal Guy: June-ish, I think. The shooting is still on. reg. “the characters speaking volumes about their backstories…” Damn, you know me well 🙂
Fahim Farook: I didn’t think of Bruce Almighty. But now that you mention it, the aura is there.
Priti: I’d be far more terrified if I was directing the film. But as writer, I’m just curious about how it will shape up (because I know the script inside out, and I’d like to see how “different” the film is). Reg “i do hope there is no “you too, BR?” moment in store for you” – ah, but that sort of thing comes with the territory, no? Being able to analyse/critique a film and being able to write/make a film are quite different talents, IMO — in the same sense that you don’t have to have been an MP in order to be a good political commentator, or you don’t have to be a great chef in order to be a good restaurant critic. But yeah, bouquets, brickbats, whatever, bring it on 🙂
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raj
February 24, 2009
I think BR will be able to handle criticism much better than Sudhish or Khalid. As someone who has stress-tested him, I can vouch for this 🙂
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Nikunj
February 24, 2009
Very well written review
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J. Alfred Prufrock
February 24, 2009
I was once lectured (by Jai Arjun among others) for saying you were my “go-to critic”.
After some months, feels good that our opinions coincide so well.
On the other hand, leaves me no subject or material for a review post. Win a few, lose a few. Like Rakeysh Mehra, I guess.
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Arty Fact
February 25, 2009
There are days some of us are glad to not give in and participate in pointless quibbling when someone else calls the something that we’ve assessed to be a Millennium Tower of Manure, the Monument of the Millennium (or vice versa). And these are surely days when words such as those Patricia Herzog writes, have drifted our way: “Art is free to set its own terms, to aim at whatever it likes and exert whatever power it has to attract and hold our interest. But the critic is likewise free, and there is no reason to assume that the terms of criticism and those of art will be the same. A critic who understands what art is about and appreciates its success in achieving its aim can nevertheless condemn a work as unoriginal, trivial, pandering, or base. Art’s business is to persuade, proposition, seduce. The critic’s business is to respond, not just as an expert in this or that period or style, or as one whose powers of discrimination are surpassing, but as a human being in the fullest sense.
In judging art we judge the experience art has to offer. This experience requires psychological participation on the part of a real self, not a quasi one — a self with its own attitudes and emotions, a self that is wise or foolish, worldly or naive, prejudiced, conflicted, weak-willed, a self that is lulled into apathy or stirred into action, that has gone “beyond morality” or remained within the bounds of convention. What we are to make of art, how we judge it, will depend in part on who we are in relation to it, on how we are reflected in and affected by it. In the act of judging, we bring to art our whole self — a self that can be strengthened and preserved by art but also weakened and, in some, cases destroyed.”
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KPV Balaji
February 25, 2009
BR: Can you suggest some good books on movies and the film industry in general that would make an average movie buff like me to appreciate lesser known intricacies of movie making.
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brangan
February 25, 2009
KPV Balaji: I don’t know what you mean by “lesser known intricacies.” In general, I feel it’s more important to learn how to set up a dialogue between yourself and a film than it is to know about the technical stuff (unless you want to “make” movies). And in that light, one of the best books about watching movies and feeling about movies and talking about movies is Conversations, a book of interviews Michael Ondaatje had with Walter Murch.
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KPV Balaji
February 25, 2009
“I feel it’s more important to learn how to set up a dialogue between yourself and a film “..that is something very close to what i want.. when i mentioned “intricacies”..i meant to understand or interpret the directors vision..the depth or the hidden meaning behind a scene..understanding a metaphor..something like that…I have been reading your reviews/blog for the past two years..initially i found it hard to understand your reviews..( over petera irunthathu 🙂 )but now i have been able to understand it better and enjoy it..and i have been amazed with the things you interpret and write..nowadays i have been able to understand and enjoy movies in a better way..all thanks to you…no exaggeration here..would want to read any book that could have the same or even better effect as your reviews..
Anyways will check out the book you mentioned. Any other suggestions..and how i wish you had written some book 🙂
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KPV Balaji
February 25, 2009
“..In general, I feel it’s more important to learn how to set up a dialogue between yourself and a film than it is to know about the technical stuff..” Itha thaaan naan type panna nenachen..but typed out something else which totally dint mean what i wanted..you always come up with the perfect sentence.. Athellam thaana varathu la .naanum nyabagam vechukren… catch my point 🙂
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brangan
February 25, 2009
KPV Balaji: “Itha thaaan naan type panna nenachen..but typed out something else which totally dint mean what i wanted” – Dammit! And here I was thinking it was such a nice compliment. 🙂
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KPV Balaji
February 25, 2009
Does landmark have the book you mentioned…or Is amazon the only source to get the book…sorry to bug you too much 😛
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brangan
February 25, 2009
KPV Balaji: Don’t know dude. I got my copy from the US.
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KPV Balaji
February 25, 2009
found the book on the land mark site..thanks..
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The Normal Guy
February 26, 2009
kpv balaji : Brangan already has the book da . Go to his house instead . 😛
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Bigchubbyinad
February 27, 2009
Well…The review is brilliant. Metiously detailed. Sometimes, simple metaphors in the movie make the movie light and not serious enough. French and other European movies do this. I guess, it is a conscious effort. As I was reading the review, I felt as if my thoughts were written.
Overall, the movie was disappointing. It was too breezy and rushed towards. Severe cliches’. On the positive note, Ashibek looks good, Sonam is to watch out for (there should be tighter closeups of her in future), awesome photography and music by Rahman is topnotch.
Not a worthy follow up for RGB.
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SN
February 27, 2009
I saw the movie after reading a couple of very unflattering reviews and was prepared for something quite terrible. It was not but really it was not much better either. In the financial industry because of the downturn, we are used to sayign that flat is the new up (i.e. if some stock stays flat, then that is good enough becuase everything is falling anyway). So sure, compared to the rubbish that we usually get to see in teh name of Hindi cinema (Tashan, Rab Ne, etc), this is good. But is that a good standard to apply? And I am intrigued that you felt that the characters were real. I felt the same way about almost all the smaller characters except for the two most important ones, i.e. Abhishek and Sonam. I just couldnt figure out what they were about except for the superficial. And while you commend ROM for providing “closure” to Suresh, what does Roshan do? What was his upbringing like? and why for god’s sake does he have an accent like the one he has, which is so unreal (that I guess is just poor execution)? And almost the same things apply to Sonam – it seems like she is “doing” nothing except planning for Indian Idol. And you have panned the ending enough. Unfortunately, we expect more nowadays and seriously flat is definitely not up for Indian cinema becuase it has a fair distance to go.
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Rohit
February 27, 2009
I finally decided to watch the movie tonight after it got some mixed reviews. As you said Brangan, it works for most of the time except the climax. But the nunaces potrayed through the lower-middle class characters are so real – as I can vouche through my personal experiences.
The scence when Deepak Dobriyal’s shop is destroyed in the community brought to my memory of a muslim barber in our colony in my hometown Bhopal to whom I used to go for haircuts. His shop was destroyed in our hindu majority during post Bbri masjid riots and then he had to relocate to nearby muslim majority area. And after long time when I went back to Bhopal during my vacation I could see that he never financially recover from that setback.
Also there many girls who bury their ambitions just because they want to lessen the burden of their parents by getting married.
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Anonymous
February 27, 2009
Finally saw the movie, liked it, but wondered:
1) Why didn’t they call the movie Kala Bandar, since that pesky creature was present from start to end and threatened to overwhelm everything else?
2) What was the reason for the spinster aunt not getting married? Too old? Too plain? Involved in a inter-religious affair? Exploitative family? Didn’t really understand her story.
3) What’s the hoopla about Sonam K? She was a pretty clothesmare, that’s all. I know far more spirited women who deal with the conflict between modernity and tradition everyday.
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brangan
February 27, 2009
SN: Both Roshan and Bittu worked for me. It’s only at the end, when Roshan transforms from human being to martyr-god-figure, that he stopped working for me. About his accent and all, it wasn’t enough of a dealbreaker for me that it threw the film out of whack. But Bittu has a very solid character graph. She does more than just preparing for Indian Idol. We see her in relation to her elders (her marriage scenario), in relation to Roshan (the love scenario) and in relation to herself (Indian Idol scenario). How much more can you write for a character who’s not even a major part of the movie?
Anonymous: I thought the spinster aunt was a casualty of her warring brothers. And as she wasn’t the sort to speak up for herself (like Bittu), her life got sidelined.
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Anonymous
February 27, 2009
People complaining about Roshan’s accent in the movie, please read AB’s pre-release interview (on MSN, I think) where he explained how he practiced the ‘right’ accent with a coach for two months, but they ultimately decided to tone the accent down so local Indians would understand it. This was after they realized even English movies are subtitled on Indian TV because of the accents.
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ssrivast
February 27, 2009
Fantastic , go people go and watch it. Movie from heart.
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Tambi Dude
February 27, 2009
100+ comments. is this a first?
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Shankar
February 28, 2009
Tambidude, it’s happened a few times…even the recent NK article has over a hundred comments!! 🙂
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anupam
March 1, 2009
i don’t know why so much praise for a movie that obviously doesn’t hold the audience interest. if i had to listen to a lecture about the kala bandar in me i will visit athmram bapu. not get bored by a movie which is just an extended music video in the first half. more so, you don’t empathise with the characters. they don’t take you along with the story. yes, it is high on intention, low on content. could have done with a much better screenplay.
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Narsim
March 2, 2009
The problem with Delhi6 is that it is set in the same milieu as RDB , you get the feeling that the director has tried to fit in what he couldn’t fit in RDB. That is when you start comparing this film with RDB and things fall apart. Much like Shyamalan who has been doing trying to emulate the success of sixth sense so much that he is unable to explore anything else. Hope Mehra doesn’t fall in such a pit.
One of the biggest let downs is the way the OST was so callously treated in the movie. Atleast Rehna Tu deserved better than just the outro being played at some vague shots of NY and a bits and piece treatment in the middle somewhere.
The scenes where Bachchan Senior and Junior reminded me so much of the Harry Potter 7 where Potter and Dumbledore meet for one last time. Bachchan Sr will make a darned good Dumbledore though 🙂
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Santhosh Kottayi
March 3, 2009
I have a feeling that you are slowly forgetting the simple fact that a movie is just another form of entertainer! And the fact that a movie should be measured purely on whether we were entertained during the 2 and a half hours we sat to watch it! If yes, the movie is good…if no…the movie is bad! And if I measure Delhi 6 with this scale, it is a very good movie. It was like watching a great cricket match where the collections are diverted for a genuine charity…entertainer for a good cause!
Hats off to Rakeysh Mehra for exposing the height of foolishness and the real reason for most of the communal/religious tension in our country in the most convincing way! And strangely, your review is just not touching that point!! It is like you totally ignoring Priyanka Chopra’s amazing performance in Fashion when you were pre-occupied in unfairly exposing Bhandarkar! Hope you are aware about all the accloades Priyanka got for her outstanding performance in that movie..!!
Abishek has come out with a very controlled and matured performance…and Sonam Kapoor clearly announces her arrival with a ‘neat’ performance which can compete with any established heroines! And the music by our one and only Oscar Rahman has given this poetic movie a soothing touch!
cheers,
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Praz (the artist formerly known as Akshay Shah
March 3, 2009
Hey RanganSir, FANTASTIC review as always. Just wanted to let you know i’ll be re-launching my website in coming months and writing as myself (Praz aka Prashant) instead of the Akshay Shah alias…will keep you posted.
In the meantime, I can be found at Satyam’s blog with my reviews.
Keep up the excellent work…
Aap ka fan
Praz (the artist formerly known as Akshay Shah)
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bart
March 3, 2009
The movie doesn’t create any curiosity factor in the first half and second half ending is tacky as pointed. Happy to see so many characters written neatly but somehow they do not put enough weight together in the final outcome. Delhi – single (;not a six 🙂 ).
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Badri
March 5, 2009
The film worked for me and even bulk of the climax was good.
The narrative and screenplay is very strong and all characters barring AB looked and felt real. AB’s character was an issue and his transformation was too sudden – was his love for ‘Bittu’ the driver or his genuine feel for India? How did he develop the feel to make sweeping statements like India works? Also not much background on what he does, how does he take to religion and his being half hindu/ muslim.
Music just rocks and Dil Mera is senational in terms of visualization. Rehna Tu is interesting in terms of placement and narrative. The background score of ARR in second half is a combined ripoff of from OST of Babel, Million Dollar Baby and Munich. Not expected from ARR, especially in his new role as a global ambassador of India!
The interaction with Amitabh as grandfather was needless and the varying cocky accent of AB Jr very flat. It was like seeing Hrithik in the insipid Yaadein.
Overall the movie works and might work better with a second viewing.
To me not in the league of Swades, which had more warmth and depth from the lead persona and supporting characters. And what Swades acheived or even RDB acheived, Delhi 6 does not. In that sense its a brilliant opportunity wasted 😦
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Pankaj
March 8, 2009
How can you write a review of Delhi 6 and not mention Aditi Rao’s performance even once!
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Chaitanya Dharurkar
March 16, 2009
Great Movie, Bloody critics they made me watch the movie almost after a month or two of its release.Superb, I would love to watch it a hundred times.The kids were great.It just has caught the essence of “India” and its people.Rakyesh Rocks.
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Hari
April 10, 2009
The movie worked for me perfectly; had a few questions unanswered for which I had to watch it again…
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Indian Homemaker
May 24, 2009
Loved the movie. Apart from the obvious delightful reminder of Delhi and life there, it broke so many stereotypes, loved the Masak Ali song, the women bonding, and a desire of the young and independent to break away from such a life…
And our fears of growing hatred and politics were also covered without takng any sides, because no matter what any politicians do or say, eventually it is the people who can refuse to participate in hate-games and violence. And now that he election results are out, it seems we have said a very clear no to such politics atleast for now.
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Varsha Ganesh
April 11, 2020
I just saw this movie on Netflix as the recent controversy had kindled my interest. It was lovely! I had the exact same thoughts about the savior sequence and the HP flashbacks towards the end. Also, I can’t believe THAT was Aditi Rao 10 years back. What sorcery! Sonam was so adorable, I couldn’t recognize and reconcile her with her current persona. It’s a treat to watch these old ones for the first time.
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brangan
July 25, 2021
I gave a largely positive review for this film, I thought, but the director seems to think otherwise 😀
In today’s TOI
“The shockingly graceless final stretch… implodes under the treacly burden of its good intentions,’ wrote blogger Baradwaj Rangan.”
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/the-debacle-of-delhi-6-sent-me-into-a-dark-hole-i-drowned-myself-in-alcohol/articleshow/84711390.cms
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Thupparivaalan
July 25, 2021
You’re the only person who recognized the film for what it was. Brilliant till the last 20 mins. Did he read the whole review? Or was he taken aback by what he read at the end?
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Rahul
July 25, 2021
But that is human nature. If you meet a friend and he tells you 10 good qualities about yourself but before leaving says one bad thing, then you will tend to overlook the good and ponder about the bad. In fact you will wonder if he said all those good things just to be able to say the bad thing.
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brangan
July 26, 2021
Nostalgic aside:
These were truly the glory days of this blog, when there were so many readers of long reviews and so many commenters 😀
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Yossarian
July 26, 2021
BR saar, I doubt that statement is true. I am pretty sure the readership is still strong (and has grown in the last 5 yrs till 2020) and so are the commenters. It’s just the long reviews that have gone missing 🙂 You can test that assertion with a long review of the next Bhansali or KJo movie 😉
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Madan
July 26, 2021
“Or was he taken aback by what he read at the end?” – Most likely somebody shared that one line as an excerpt with him and he reacted. I thought maybe wiki quoted that one line from BR’s review but no, it’s not that.
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Madan
July 26, 2021
” In fact you will wonder if he said all those good things just to be able to say the bad thing.” – Heh, on a tangent, I am reading Raghuram Rajan’s book I Do What I Do and I remarked to my parents that his well meaning letter to RBI employees on 31 Dec 2015 scared them into going upstairs to ask for him to be removed at the end of his term. Because he said a lot of good things while also issuing plenty of criticism.
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MANK
July 26, 2021
What i took away most form this film is how brilliantly the atmosphere of old Delhi was recreated. It was so immersive, i felt i was right in the middle of those houses, shops and streets while watching the film.
Yeah, but the last 20 minutes is still a big deal breaker
ROM has sort of lost his way in his last few films. AKS was brilliant in parts- Bachchan’s performance was phenomenal- but it was bogged down by his immaturity as a debut director. RDB and Delhi 6 saw him coming into his own as a filmmaker. I hated bhag milkha bhag, and Mirziya just didn’t work beyond the novelty of its formal experiment.
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Aman Basha
July 27, 2021
I feel quite sorry for Bachchan Jr. Lord Bobby has an exciting lineup, Arjun Kapoor gets film offers and he’s left replying to random people on Twitter. Even Manmarziyan seems to have done nothing to his career, incredible bad luck.
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Madan
July 27, 2021
I had never watched this film until today. The aforesaid Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra interview got me interested. To be honest, I had mixed feelings about RDB which was highly feted upon release. I thought the ending was too pat. While D-6 worms its way to a hopeful ending (which doesn’t feel like a bad thing in 2021, mind you), it at least passes through an arc of cynicism that makes it more palatable. But the ending aside, I have to say this is one of the flat out most brilliant Hindi films I have ever seen. I am not surprised that it didn’t do well at the BO because it deals heavily in metaphors and in 2009, a more of a look ma I am making phillum style of movie making was still prevalent. Delhi 6’s technique would be better received today. OTOH I would have to pray for Mehra’s safety if he made it today. Considering he received death threats even in 2009, heaven forbid…In a way, it seems as if Mehra is like Gobar. RDB or D-6 may have seemed like noble intentions back in the day but today, he looks like a really smart guy who had India figured out better than most of us. We were dismissive of him because we couldn’t see what he seems to have with stark clarity.
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Aman Basha
July 28, 2021
@Madan: I did ask a friend and he liked it, but said it left him cold and particularly said Abhishek Bachchan was simply not emotional enough especially in front of such a huge ensemble of actors. Did you like the film more or its politics?
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Madan
July 29, 2021
Aman : I thought AB was just fine for this role. He has to play a casual onlooker who, almost without fully understanding why, gets caught in the crossfire. And his casual tone suits the irony of the film itself. So I would say I like D6 as a film itself and not just for its politics. The ‘proof’ is that I had already enjoyed everything up-to the point where the stupid baba triggers riots in a once peaceful locality. Up to that point, the humour in the film was extremely sophisticated. And after that, the completely absurd manner in which we descend into riots was very apt. I think this may have been off-putting for viewers in 2009 but somewhat like Yes Minister predicting Brexit, we have now seen enough real life absurdity to relate to how Delhi 6 unravels.
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Anu Warrier
July 29, 2021
So glad to see the love for Delhi-6. I’d liked it immensely when i first watched it, but was disappointed with the ‘happy’ ending. Just read that there was a ‘Venice Cut’, which retained the director’s vision. Would love to watch it.
And I’m probably one of the few people who actually like AB and think he’s a competent actor, handicapped both by his legacy and his poor choices of scripts.
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Doba
July 29, 2021
AB is a bit of a snooze on screen. Lacks charisma, I feel. However, Mehra’s reaction to critics is heartbreaking.
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anonymousviolin20
July 30, 2021
Madan, What streaming platform did you find Delhi 6 on? And does it have subtitles?
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Madan
July 30, 2021
anonymousviolin: I could not find it on either hotstar or amazon prime. I found it on youtube here instead, absolutely free:
Note: This IS NOT the happy ending. And the ‘happy ending’ is not your typical happily ever after ending, it’s just one that ends on a hopeful note.
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Madan
July 30, 2021
It has subtitles which were pretty average. But OK to understand at least in context, I guess.
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Yossarian
July 30, 2021
anonymousviolin, Madan – It’s on Netflix with subtitles
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Madan
July 30, 2021
Yossarian: Thanks! I actually didn’t check Netflix at all. I didn’t think they would have an old Hindi film in their catalog.
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Senthil S
February 22, 2024
15 years of this film and this wonderful review. Just rewatched it and it’s just such a burst of energy and craft. The scene where the conflict between the brothers is resolved is so beautifully subtle and it’s emblematic of how well this movie was written. I think it didn’t work at the BO because it’s not plot driven at all and we are still a very plot centered audience.
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