Dev D - A Review

Grade: B

The most talked about film of the season and I finally got around to watching this. Anurag Kashyap has the most violent cult following in Indian cinema (yes his fans are more passionate than the fans of Rajnikanth and AR Rehman). By the time I had seen Black Friday, Anurag had already developed quite a following but it wasn't a cult as of yet. Black Friday was a remarkable effort (weak in some parts) and it was the dispassionate tone of the film that impressed me the most. For No Smoking he was lauded by his fans as the new David Lynch and some said he was the new Luis Bunuel ( I told you "It's a cult !"). I am not ready to buy into this hyperbole. But the fact remains that he is a very talented film maker and one who is willing to experiment even if it might kill him.

Dev D is far subtler than it appears in the advertisements. It's a fairly accurate portrayal of the path to self destruction that a lot of alcoholics, drug addicts or addicts of any kind embark upon. The "Boyle" school's camerawork is put to surprisngly good and restrained use during the drug scenes (I feared the overuse of this technique more than anything else). Anurag at last showed on screen what the actual deal is with the character of Devdas. He is not a Shakesperean tragic character by any stretch of the imagination. Infact he is a self obsessed man who thinks he loves a girl because he ought to. His self destruction is not born out of dejection or rejection. The story of Devdas for me was always about addiction and Anurag conveyed that interpretation of the story throughout the film. There are many instances where Anurag shows the complete lack of true family support for Dev but keeps reminding us that his requests for money are never turned down. One of the best scenes in the film is the one where just after his father's funeral Dev's brother gives him money for his legal battle but none for Dev's personal use. Dev promptly asks him for money but the request is, for the first time totally disregarded. Dev's journey on his path to recovery has begun.

One of the most discussed aspects of this film is the portrayal of Paro and Chanda. Anurag shows women in his film as GOOD human beings WITH DESIRE and its a leap forward for the portrayal of women in " Hindi Multiplex Cinema " ( Yes even in multiplex cinema! and I have always wondered why it took so long. Oye Lucky nervously flirted with this idea ). The Hindi Parallel Cinema movement had long broken this barrier and hopefully the multiplexes will act as a catalyst for this change to be adopted on a wider scale.

The other widely discussed aspect is the ending. The ending shown in the film doesn't mean that the textbook ending is still not possible. Anurag chose to walk away from Dev because he wanted to do so. Dev might have relapsed and died or Dev might be in rehab undergoing treatment. Choose an ending that suits you. Thats how every film should end.


Of course the film has its flaws: Anurag makes the mistake of marrying the Devdas story with a couple of social scandals of our times: the DPS MMS clips and the Sanjeev Nanda BMW case. I don't understand why the character of Chanda should have the MMS background to become a prostitute. I would have preferred Chanda to be a prostitute out of choice (there are many in Delhi who are just like that and in fact hail from respectable families and who attend reputed schools) or the background not even discussed. The whole background episode of Chanda dumps unnecessary sentimentality on the film and reduces the impact of what is a very interesting performance from Kalki. The BMW episode is dealt with in a better fashion and in fact compels the audience to think who Sanjeev Nanda actually is and humanizes him (going beyond the usual rich,spoilt and arrogant impression that we might have formed of him).


On the whole its a film that should be definitely rewatched. The first watch would allow the viewer to get past his curiosity regarding the retelling of the Devdas story. It's the second watch, I suspect, that will make the movie more interesting to many viewers. And of course the song. Do I even need to say anything about it ?


PS: For me from the MMS clip episode popped up a situation which I think is worthy of a film itself : The moral quandary of a father whose daughter in involved such a scandal.
(naturally Anurag has no time to devote to this issue in detail as he has other issues to attend to and thereby zooms through it)