Delhi 6

Let’s start with the story/plot first. Abhishek and his grandmom return to Delhi from US. Grandmom, Waheeda Rehman, has come here to die, and even begins shopping for her funeral. The neighbourhood they live in appears to have Hindu-Muslim unity stamped all over it. Example: a Muslim jelaabi seller is a Hanuman bhakt, Abhishek is the product of an cross-religion marriage, Rishi Kapoor, a Muslim, is a close family friend and so on.
The town is a far cry from a space-launching India. Untouchability is still practiced. Waheeda, faint from a stroke is being taken to the hospital in a cycle-richshaw. Just as Abhishek gets into a heated argument with a crowd gathered around a pregnant cow, we see Rehman limping for a darshan of the cow herself. Meanwhile a man dressed as the Kaala Bandhar wreaks havoc in the neighbourhood. Rumours, mostly exaggerated or wholly untrue, surround this creature. In no time (jusht two hours) suspicion of the Kaala Bandar’s identity divides the Hindus and Muslims. Politicians and police join in and the focus now shifts to a masjith, which some claim was built on a mandir.
The storyline evokes images of a quintessential, Indian small town, seeped in old-world charm. If the director also sought to add vignettes of neighbourly camaraderie, illogicalness of superstition and the ignorance about fashion and technology in his Delhi 6, the film had to be light footed, part-whimsical, part-satirical. And we have those moments too - when two warring brothers finally look at each other in the eye and a brick falls on the old radio making it finally sing in years. Or when the older brother advocates his younger brother’s water strategy to ‘short-circuit’ the Kaala Bandhar, or when two children walk with a lit cigarette down the street, feeling very grown up. There are several postcard scenes and their depiction is bang on right.
But then Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra also wanted a message delivered. And not subtely either. When Abhishek is pushed down the stairs of a mandir, he picks himself up (so much like his papa’s 80s films), and, with two feet clearance around him, delivers a speech on the mad fakir’s mirror. No, don’t ask.
The climax is again a tug-of-war between Bollywood old school (like the scene described above) and Mehra’s attempt at a tragic-comic situation (which, according to me, should have been the chosen style). The movie constantly shuffles between the two, blocking the possibility of either working.
The editing was just bad. So was the camera work. Would it have killed them to have two cameras? There’s just so much twirling-bluring-why-is-she-laughing-now one can take. And god, the songs were placed so randomly. And the actors lip-synched! (Told you, old-school). Even RDB spared us effort of trying to believe that Shreya Goswami’s rich voice could come out of Sonam or that every now and then we all do a cool gansta’ walk down busy streets, rapping.
Finally, the message. It doesn’t work for many reasons - overstatement, everything ending so pat, Abhiskeh’s rendezvous with his Dad in Heaven (I swear I could see myself in pigtails and uniform chanting ‘Our Father in heaven, holy-beed-ai-name’!)
Something tells me Mehra took a long vacation post production, because way too many things are messed up in this department. I’ve mentioned sound and editing already, haven’t I?
Performance wise, Abhishek was just ok. Waheeda Rehman is was the best.
Anyway, the film wasn’t anything of what I had expected. Disappointing, in a word.

**Update: It all makes lots of sense now. The editor was none other than his wife Bharati. "I've now left Dilli 6 to her. She's now trying to make sense of my nonsense," chortles Rakeysh. I told you he wasnt around, ha!

Millionaires all the way to the Oscars

English (A)
Cast: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan
Director: Danny Boyle

Ten Oscar nominations and four Golden Globes! Looks like everyone whose opinion counts has spoken. That’s the penalty a delayed release levies on reviewers - a predisposed audience. So we better like it or have serious grievances and iron-clad defendable points.

That isn't my problem because I LIKED IT, this dark, quirky yet romantic movie.


‘You’re on your own’, says Prem (the mean-spirited game show host played by Anil Kapoor) and so you are, as you follow the travails of a boy who goes from living in a slum to becoming a millionaire. A ruthless, but touching story about two brothers, Salim and Jamal Malik, who make it big chasing their individual obsessions. Salim, ‘eldest of the family’, wants money and power while Jamal wants to reunite with Latika, his childhood sweetheart.

In their determined pursuits, the boys take us through slums alongside railway tracks; through communal riots, brothels, gang wars and gameshows. Danny Boyle does India no favours in his portrayal of a cruel, danger-ridden Mumbai, but he tells no lies either. The story has everything we have grown up watching – sinister villains, gallant heros, brothers pitted against each other – and in the middle of it all – a desperate love story. So dont be surprised if this UK stuff pales in comparison to our home-grown Bollywood drama. I was more 'emotionally' invovled watching Jab We Met than this. But then I am a drama queen in real life. I wont take it out on Danny boy if he didn't make me cry.

There are a few inconsistencies, however, such as 18-year-old Jamal’s Scottish accent, Salim’s sudden change of heart and the one-crore game show being converted to a 20-million rupee, ‘live’ one. Why did the movie suddenly switch to forced English second half. Clearly this movie wasn't intended for Indians, we're just a by-the-bye bonus. Hurrrmph. But it thoroughly entertains, nonetheless. As Irrfan Khan, who plays the role of a police inspector interrogating Jamal, summarises – ‘It is bizarrely plausible’.

Music by Rehman lends satire and pathos, perfect in its seamless integration with the narrative. But again, dont expect to be 'blown' away. We, who've been heard everything from Roja to Rangeela to Yuva, know this man is capable of much more. Yet, it makes me very happy he is getting recognition like he is now. (As an aside, Rehmad so represents diverse India. He is a South India singing in Hindi, a Hindu converted to Muslim. Love strange stuff like this.)

The cast looks and plays each part adequately, particularly Madhur Mittal as the older Salim and Anil Kapoor. If Dev Patel as Jamal is convincing at all (which he barely was), it is thanks to the younger actors (Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and Ayush Mahesh Khedekar) and their astounding control over a wide range of emotions, who give context to their older counterparts.

Boyle’s direction is understated and it is something akin to a thrill to catch his genius in a cinematically perfect shot, in dogged chases, in an opera seen between the audiences feet or in a flashback played backwards (when Jamal traces Latika's scar).

The fast, rivetting pace of the movie has rightly earned the editing team an Academy nomination. The movie would never have worked if not for editing team. It made a very predictable plot interesting. In fact I wasn't particularly excited by the screenplay. I am sure the book was very boring. And Jamal should not have won in the end. If you haven't seen if and are mad I spoilt it for you, I dont care. Shame on you, actually.

With so much talent coming together to create this piece of good cinema, ‘Best Picture’ is the most telling of all nominations.

Rating: *** 1/2 and maybe even ****. It's long since I saw it, nearly three weeks.