Like most people after watching Dev-d for the first time I felt it was a great, even amazing, movie! But after the shock (certainly wasn’t expecting a movie like this from the Bollywood stable) wore off I felt that the movie is not that good.
After watching the movie a second time I realised what a big fool they are trying to make of the audience.
Not that good at all.
For someone not exposed to foreign movies it is a shock. A shock to hear the kind of language they have shown. Shocked to see the kind of things shown. But in the end we find the director has picked up things from Hollywood… the smart prostitute (Pretty Woman?), down on his luck hero bent on self-destruction (shown in SO many Hollywood movies).
The file does break the mould of traditional Bollywood where the hero either dies running after the girl or gets the girl and lives happily ever after. Hollywood has been doing this for years though!
Is it a take on Devdas? No way! Devdas was about a hero bent on self-destruction. Here we have a rich dude, living off his father’s money, doping and drinking. What is so great in that?
We also find our rich, spoilt brat doing a bike tour of few hill stations (in a span of 10 minutes no less!). Then the ‘hero’ wimps out and heads back to Delhi! The hero magically gets a BMW which leads to the next part of the story (based on real life cases – HINT! HINT!).
The story gets lost after a while. The problem is that with the title the director committed himself to a theme. But mid-way I think the director realised that there was nothing much he could do different with the movie. Where is the similarity with Devdas I ask? If it is just the presence of a ‘true love’ and a prostitute well then half the movies should be called Dev-d!
I would say that the director is nearly there with this movie but other than crap language and attitude this movie has little of substance.
This movie is going to be a hit with people interested in smut or the attitude. Don’t look for a story here or any connection with Devdas.
On second thoughts I feel as if Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s version of Devdas should not be compared to this. Dev-d is trying to be Devdas while trying to grab the attention of the youth of India.
Watch this movie. So that you know what to look for in a movie of substance (which are the missing bits of the movie!).
:)
