Delhi 6 Movie Review - A Spoiler free initiative by Darshit :-D
Each time when I saw posters of Delhi 6, they got me confused. And worried. Cause it states 'From the Director of Rang De Basanti'. This is very heavy burden, what Rakeysh Mehra has on his shoulders. And everyone can't help but compare both the movies. So by that warning, I kept very low profile about the movie since its promos. And that helped me a lot while watching 'Delhi 6'. The most anticipipated movie of first quarter of 2009. I did never compare the two movies any time, just to make sure I can get more out of this.
Delhi 6 is a story about Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) who returns to India with his ailing Grandma (Waheeda Rahman), cause she wants to die in her homeland-India. Both comes to their old home, in Chandni Chowk. Here the journey starts towards love-hate relationship with the Walled Delhi. How interestingly he gets involved with riot of emotions and madness of Chandni Chowk, is worth to watch out for.
Pen, Paper & Projection:
Making a concept movie is very dangerous in Bollywood. Rakeysh did this once (Aks) and failed miserably. Still he was sure about this one, and man he succeeds by far. On a thin storyline of 'Black Monkey', Rakeysh has weaved such a strong movie. One just wonders how the connections are made. Movie starts with the aerial shot of Chandni Chowk. [the same in promo]. I got goosebumps all over. till a minute or so. And main theme starts unfolding. Suddenly we are taken to New York where Roshan and Grandma are about to leave. And comes to their ages old Haveli in Delhi. Till now we see grandeur journey of Delhi. Not the delhi which we are used to see, like Red Fort or President Bhavan. But real delhi with choked up roads, with mad people. With lively relations.
In the first half, which is light hearted, I was totally in love with the gully and nukkad of Chandni Chowk. One by one each of the fabulous ensemble cast is introduced. And that too, coming with a unique point. Unique moral is attached with each character. Like issue of being untouchable, being a muslim, being an unmarried sister who is getting older, dowry, being extreme hindu or a muslim; each characteristic is introduced along with the character. And that works the most for the movie.
The beautiful concept of 'seeing God in ourselves' shown with the help of a Mirror is so touching. I would love to make a special mention to it. Beautiful thought which can inspire a lot. This is why we got the dialogue in soundtrack. 'Zarre Zarre mein usika noor hai...'.
Another special mention is to 'Ramleela' scenes, which takes the movie forward at one by one points. Ramleela sets are done fantastically. I would love to be a part of such large magum opus.
Story is somewhat lagging in between the movie, because idea of the movie is quite different then usual. But its the screenplay, SUPERB cinematography and performances [including Rahman's - music] which holds the viewers. Editing is good cause movie gets wrapped up in perfect timing of 2.5 hours. ONe of the biggest strong point of the movie is its art direction and cinematography. One just can not identify whether any portion is shot on a set. Everything looks so real.
Performances:
The Biggest Strength of the movie is its ensemble cast. One of the finest I have seen recently. It would be unfair to praise only a selected person. Because everyone has just perfected themselves. I just cant help though. So here are my favorite from all - Divya Dutta as Jalebi - an untouchable.
Atul Kulkarni-a cowering guy who knows much more then others. Pawan Malhotra-an aggressive guy. Deepak Dobariyal-Finest performance. Om Puri, Prem chopra, Vijay Raaz, all just all of them played their part so brilliantly.
Besides them, main leads are also in full form. Abhishek does a great portrayal of confused desi who just has seen this crazy world around and how he behaves to that. By the time movie grows, he gets more better. Sonam as a Delhi Firecracker girl is just awesome. She looks so ravishing you can fall instantly in love with her. Besides that, She acts flawlessly.
Lovely Waheeda Rahman as Grandma is so adorable. She reminded me of my own Dadi. She is the one who still proves that bollywood owes her a lot.She is here since long time and man, how awesome. she is. Similarly Rishi Kapoor, who is getting better and better by his age. After LuckBychance, this is the movie where he once again shines with his act.
Music :
When its an A R Rahman movie, you have to make sure you got all songs right, at right place. The placement of the songs is always a tricky zone. And RDB was a brilliant example of such weaving of songs into a movie. Here Rakeysh has tried the same, and somewhat he is succeed. I dont want to compare at all. So as a standalone, this is very nicely done. One thing I liked that songs are used at complete different situations. [except one/two]. I had imagined certain situations for songs, but I found them at different situations and I loved them for that.
For example 'Rehna Tu...' you must be thinking of mushy moment between couple. But wrong, see the movie, its beautiful on screeen. And a superb innovative picturisation of 'Dil Gira Daftan' that I am in love with it. Many pieces from the soudtrack are used at different scenes throughout the movie [like flute sound from end of 'Rehna tu..' is used as Nostalgic moment]
'Maula mere Maula' is picturized awesome that my eyes got widen a lot. :-) I was struck by beauty of wide angle shot of Jama Masjid and area around. Also many aerial shots makes it worth another watch. 'Masakali' is also a beautiful track with beautiful Sonam. She looks lovely with the pigeon [and yes, pigeon is not 'Stuck' on her head, don't worry PeTa]
All in all, as my favorite critic puts it - 'this is a movie with heart, and that makes it worth'. Really, what is spread all over is Rakeysh's love for his beloved Delhi and we could feel that. Watch it for brilliant performances by all actors from whole cast. Watch it for beautiful 'Dil ki Nagari [city of hearts] DILLI.
My Rating : 4 out of 5 stars !!
Each time when I saw posters of Delhi 6, they got me confused. And worried. Cause it states 'From the Director of Rang De Basanti'. This is very heavy burden, what Rakeysh Mehra has on his shoulders. And everyone can't help but compare both the movies. So by that warning, I kept very low profile about the movie since its promos. And that helped me a lot while watching 'Delhi 6'. The most anticipipated movie of first quarter of 2009. I did never compare the two movies any time, just to make sure I can get more out of this. Delhi 6 is a story about Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) who returns to India with his ailing Grandma (Waheeda Rahman), cause she wants to die in her homeland-India. Both comes to their old home, in Chandni Chowk. Here the journey starts towards love-hate relationship with the Walled Delhi. How interestingly he gets involved with riot of emotions and madness of Chandni Chowk, is worth to watch out for.
Pen, Paper & Projection:
Making a concept movie is very dangerous in Bollywood. Rakeysh did this once (Aks) and failed miserably. Still he was sure about this one, and man he succeeds by far. On a thin storyline of 'Black Monkey', Rakeysh has weaved such a strong movie. One just wonders how the connections are made. Movie starts with the aerial shot of Chandni Chowk. [the same in promo]. I got goosebumps all over. till a minute or so. And main theme starts unfolding. Suddenly we are taken to New York where Roshan and Grandma are about to leave. And comes to their ages old Haveli in Delhi. Till now we see grandeur journey of Delhi. Not the delhi which we are used to see, like Red Fort or President Bhavan. But real delhi with choked up roads, with mad people. With lively relations.
In the first half, which is light hearted, I was totally in love with the gully and nukkad of Chandni Chowk. One by one each of the fabulous ensemble cast is introduced. And that too, coming with a unique point. Unique moral is attached with each character. Like issue of being untouchable, being a muslim, being an unmarried sister who is getting older, dowry, being extreme hindu or a muslim; each characteristic is introduced along with the character. And that works the most for the movie.
The beautiful concept of 'seeing God in ourselves' shown with the help of a Mirror is so touching. I would love to make a special mention to it. Beautiful thought which can inspire a lot. This is why we got the dialogue in soundtrack. 'Zarre Zarre mein usika noor hai...'. Story is somewhat lagging in between the movie, because idea of the movie is quite different then usual. But its the screenplay, SUPERB cinematography and performances [including Rahman's - music] which holds the viewers. Editing is good cause movie gets wrapped up in perfect timing of 2.5 hours. ONe of the biggest strong point of the movie is its art direction and cinematography. One just can not identify whether any portion is shot on a set. Everything looks so real.
Performances:
The Biggest Strength of the movie is its ensemble cast. One of the finest I have seen recently. It would be unfair to praise only a selected person. Because everyone has just perfected themselves. I just cant help though. So here are my favorite from all - Divya Dutta as Jalebi - an untouchable.
Besides them, main leads are also in full form. Abhishek does a great portrayal of confused desi who just has seen this crazy world around and how he behaves to that. By the time movie grows, he gets more better. Sonam as a Delhi Firecracker girl is just awesome. She looks so ravishing you can fall instantly in love with her. Besides that, She acts flawlessly.
Lovely Waheeda Rahman as Grandma is so adorable. She reminded me of my own Dadi. She is the one who still proves that bollywood owes her a lot.She is here since long time and man, how awesome. she is. Similarly Rishi Kapoor, who is getting better and better by his age. After LuckBychance, this is the movie where he once again shines with his act.
Music :
When its an A R Rahman movie, you have to make sure you got all songs right, at right place. The placement of the songs is always a tricky zone. And RDB was a brilliant example of such weaving of songs into a movie. Here Rakeysh has tried the same, and somewhat he is succeed. I dont want to compare at all. So as a standalone, this is very nicely done. One thing I liked that songs are used at complete different situations. [except one/two]. I had imagined certain situations for songs, but I found them at different situations and I loved them for that. For example 'Rehna Tu...' you must be thinking of mushy moment between couple. But wrong, see the movie, its beautiful on screeen. And a superb innovative picturisation of 'Dil Gira Daftan' that I am in love with it. Many pieces from the soudtrack are used at different scenes throughout the movie [like flute sound from end of 'Rehna tu..' is used as Nostalgic moment]
'Maula mere Maula' is picturized awesome that my eyes got widen a lot. :-) I was struck by beauty of wide angle shot of Jama Masjid and area around. Also many aerial shots makes it worth another watch. 'Masakali' is also a beautiful track with beautiful Sonam. She looks lovely with the pigeon [and yes, pigeon is not 'Stuck' on her head, don't worry PeTa]
All in all, as my favorite critic puts it - 'this is a movie with heart, and that makes it worth'. Really, what is spread all over is Rakeysh's love for his beloved Delhi and we could feel that. Watch it for brilliant performances by all actors from whole cast. Watch it for beautiful 'Dil ki Nagari [city of hearts] DILLI.
My Rating : 4 out of 5 stars !!
The thin storyline that you mention is what concerns me about Delhi-6. I'm glad you liked it, and I'll definitely look forward to catching it at some point in the next couple of weeks. As always, thanks for your timely review!
ReplyDeleteOh, what I meant to say by the 'thin' was, the theme which it is based on. And how director developed story around it. Do watch it. It wouldn't disappoint at all.
ReplyDeleteAnd do watch in Theatre, for Delhi.
Nice round-up of the movie!
ReplyDeleteI loved every bit of Delhi-6. Only the cameo by Amitabh was a bit weird. I think it should be edited out.
Divya Dutta, Sonam and Waheeda Rahman were so so so awesome!!! I think I'll watch this movie sometime again next week :)
Glad you liked it; some critics have rated the movie so low, it's almost unbelievable. I think they've lost their minds and they give 3 or 4 star ratings to OSO and Billu Barber. What a shame!
Bhargav: Glad you liked my review. actually I was taking care not to add any spoiler, so I had not mentioned that cameo. But as you have put it, yes, it was bit weird. Unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteThe Women Brigad was absolutely brilliant. Me too, in line to watch this again (just for fabulous music and colors)
Critics are getting over the board. They are comparing it with a greatest movie like RDB. It is impossible. But yes, personally I loved OSO, it was bollywood masala at its best. I could have easily rated it 4.75 stars :-)
Hey Darshit, yeah, of course I'll see it in the theaters (I couldn't recommend others to see it on the big screen, and then not see it myself!).
ReplyDeleteCritics do as critics must. Comparisons to the director's previous products are inevitable. If the director uses the success of the previous film to advertise the current film (e.g. 'from the makers of RDB'), he really opens himself up willingly for that comparison.
I agree with you on RDB. The vast, vast majority of films will fall short of it -- even if the climax to it was different, it was still pretty darn good. That expectation is just unfair, in my opinion. When it wasn't the music (I think RDB's music is still way better than Delhi-6), or the subtleties of the script, it was the acting. I don't need to see a Delhi-6 to know that each of Aamir, Siddharth, R Madhavan, at the very least (maybe even Kunal and Sharman) are just better actors than Abhishek. That's not a shot at Abhi as it is an acknowledgement of sheer acting talent of the rest. There's a reason Abhi's struggled to get his solo movies going, and it's not always the director.
In any case, the symbolism here might have been overdone according to the 'critics', but I'm confident that given the theme, I'll enjoy it more than at least 80% of the other movies out there, which works for me :)
Hey Darshit!
ReplyDeleteI knew you’d written on this, but I didn’t want to read until after seeing the film. Saw it in the theater last night. Loved the music (of course) and my favorite picturization was the NYC/Dehli number. Lovely, fun and even touching. I especially had fun seeing this one since my recent trip to India took me briefly to Delhi. I thought the ensemble cast was FANTASTIC and you’re right about not wanting to single anyone out since they were all excellent. I especially loved Atul Kulkarni, Divya Dutta (WOW!) and Deepak Dobriyal…but then I also like Rishi, Waheeda, and Prem Chopra and…you get the point. :)
I though Abishek was also great, but I wished he could have pulled off a better American accent, since he was supposedly raised in the USA. I know, those “v” and “w” are nearly impossible, but his attempts at saying “typical” American stuff, like “whoa” and “Hey”, and “wow” weren’t too close to the real, but I forgive him. I would have happily spent some time over the phone coaching him, dude, for real man. :) I wasn't expecting too much from him, but was very pleased, but it definately is a film carried by the ensemble cast. I wasn't enjoying Sonaam Kapoor too much at all, she's lovely and seems to be a good actress, but I think I didn't connect with her character and found her unlikable and self centered, immature, so I can't really say. Maybe that means she was indeed great in the part. But how do you compare her to someone like Waheeda and the rest of the cast. Her part was almost filler.
Spoiler alert. I will try and veil what I right, so as not to be a big spoiler: I was a bit concerned about the ending and kept remembering the end or RDB when it got down to that part, I didn’t expect anything too happy. Yet when things turn around the other way I was almost more disappointed. It would have ended well either way though.
Like theBollwoodFan references above, the critic may be correct about the rather heavy handed symbolism, (the mirror, the RamLeela running through the story) but you know not everyone in the audience is so smart as we are, so they need that symbolism highlighted in an obvious way. :) I liked the simple symbolism of Abi's name being "Roshan," meaning light, hai na? See, even a simple gori like me can get that.
Just another lovely movie released from Bollywood this month that I was lucky enough to enjoy on the big screen. Thanks for the review yaar.
All the best!
Sita-ji
tBF: Yes, you are right. By putting RDB tagline he himself does comparison. RDB happens just one time in history. Never you can recreate such magic.
ReplyDeleteAbout your thought about Abhi, I think he himself has got fear about getting compared to BigB. So that he can never perform genuinely good. Though he was good in this. [my friend told, hasn't he spoke just 11 lines? :-D ] Less dialogues and more eye contacts made his act 'good'.
Sita-ji: Thanks for stopping by. I also do the same. I do not read any review before I watch the movie, cause a tiny line of story can ruin my experience. And you know critics these days, writes whole story expect climax. And that bothers me a lot.
On the contarary to your belief, I loved Sonam in this. She was more mature then Saawariya. And thats good. Given such a large cast, she could make her presence felt. Thats great for a one film old girl.
Oh yes, that climax was shocking. I was expecting something different. well...what to do now?
Loved <3 your thought about 'Roshan'. Bang on the target...Roshan...Enlighten...wow!! And many other symbolisms were great. I just loved mirror. [had you held it up till end credit? Its beautiful]. One another symbolism was, everybody considers 'Jalebi' [Divya Dutta] an untouchable. In very next scene, an Untouchable - 'Shabari' [character from Ramayana] feeds fruits to God Rama after testing them. That scene was wow. You oughta see expressions on Divya's face.
i too liked the movie a lot and the music of course was classic Rehman my favourite
ReplyDeleteRehna Tu ...
Hi, HariMohan
ReplyDeleteIndeed, music is the essence of this movie. It would be difficult without Rahman's stupendous work. Rehna Tu..is my most fav from the album too.
Thanks for stopping by.