The journey with Dev

If you can’t stand raw expletives, wild intimacy (without nudity of course) and psychedelic trance beats splashed with foot-tapping Bhangra, Dev D is not for you. Also, if you love the Shah Rukh version of Devdas, please stay away from this movie. Ok, so now that you all have been warned, let me continue.


I decide on whether to watch a particular movie, when I come across the initial announcement of the movie. Sometimes the uniqueness of the plot will catch my attention, sometimes the director or star cast. Then sometimes it’s simply the brand names, like Yashraj or the Khans. But for Dev D, it was pure word-of-mouth publicity that made me get back to Sathyam after a long time. The choice of Dev D as a weekend movie was highly debated. Devdas will obviously die in the end, and nobody wanted to witness tragedies, especially on weekends. Still, it was chosen, more as an experiment watch.

We were late by some 3 minutes. The lights were all switched off, and we had to grope our way towards the last row. I guess I missed the opening sequence. The very first scene I saw was, young Paro running through the fields, with a dabba in her hand. And young Dev eating paranthas from that dabba. I was about to yawn watching this typical starting sequence consisting of "bachpan ke saathi". But the dialogues and the attitude of our young protagonists, made me sit up straight. No, it was not the usual lovey-dovey, mushy-mushy stuff. A defiant, abusive Devdas and an equally fiery Paro. That was the beginning of the journey with Dev D.

In many ways, Dev D is freshly out of the oven. Instead of using “suggestive” technique to show sentiments, Dev D consists of scenes which unabashedly portray a very genuine and often uninhibited display of emotions. Some scenes are incredibly funny; you simply end up marveling how the hell did the writer came up with these. The scene of Dev eating up a bus ticket; and his encounter with Paro’s father who caught them red-handed after a passionate rendezvous, are simply hilarious. Instead of narrating the same old tale of doomed lover-boy, Anurag Kashyap tries a different level of perception. The movie has a number of deviations from the original story of Devdas. It is a brilliant move by the maverick director, to shift the plot from Victorian Bengal to “Sadda”Punjab. It infused the story with a new, colorful and endearing kind of charm. The big-fat-booze-flowing Punjab wedding is very nicely captured. But the best of the deviations will be how Dev and Paro get separated. Also, watch out for the scene when Paro and Chanda meet.

Heartbroken (????!!!!!) Dev follows Paro to Delhi, where he meets Chanda, a callgirl-by-night and student-by-day. Chanda has a devastated past, courtesy a MMS clip circulated by her boyfriend. Abandoned by her mother after her father’s suicide, she lives in a dingy room full of mannequins, dressing up in a new fancy outfit every night. As per the tradition, Dev spirals into drugs and booze. In a big way. The drunken and ecstasy-snort scenes resemble scenes of the movie “Trainspotting” directed by our Danny “slumdog” Boyle. Nevertheless, the camera work and is brilliant. Music is yet another plus point. I need not mention too much of that; as all the songs are already chart busters. Still, my personal pick is “Pardesi”. The choreography and the entire appeal of the song are simply outstanding.

The only drawback of the movie is, it gets a bit stretched towards the end. The whole episode of drunken-driving case looks a bit forced and out-of-place. We get a feeling that AK is overdoing it. The whole process seems repetitive. Some clever editing (towards the end) and a tauter screen play could have converted this to a modern classic. The star cast is perfect to the T. Abhay Deol, once again excels. His choice of films is to be applauded. The titles show that the original concept behind the movie is of Abhay’s. He breathes life into the whole movie. He effortlessly fits into the role of rash, spoilt, selfish and often confused Dev. Kalki Koechlin is good and provides excellent support. But the surprise package is Mahie Gill, who plays Paro. She is neither strikingly beautiful, nor elegant. Not the typical bolywood heroine material. But the rustic sexuality that she exudes on screen is tremendous and that is what makes her so appealing.

But the real star, is the director Anurag Kashyap, our own version of Quentin Tarantino. I must confess the first thing I did after getting back home from watching Dev D, was to Wiki “Anurag Kashyap”. That says it all.

My rating – 4 out of 5