After the first few reels I asked my friend...Who are all these people! Roshan(Abhishek Bacchan) has come to India with his ailing Grandma, and is forced to meet the entire Dilli-6 community. Everyone keep bumping in, greeting with a namaste or a hello. Then, you see Roshan visiting a temple first, and later a mosque. Again, a little unusual to the innocent audience. The characters start to unravel themselves. Bittu ( Ms. Kapoor) opens up from the salwar kameez to the babe, Cyrus Sahukar has a sneaky image, the brother-duo of Om Puri and Pawan malhotra have a wall dividing their houses. Some more gharelu issues which you really do not care about. But, there is a connect between these random people with Roshan.
To add to the neighbourhood issues is the kala bandar "breaking news". Roshan ends up using the rumor to solve his purpose and ends up getting involved in a big mess which is a lead up to disharmony and violence between the two communities. Clearly, Rakesh mehra excels in the communal/secular debate like in his previous flick, and the moment this angle appears, the movie is elevated. The seriousness is back and the purpose resolved.
High Points:
Dilli-6 community: Very bizaare, random, but you love all of them. The inspector (Vijay Raaz), or Pawan malhotra with his bright shirts, or the mimicry of the stocky muslim guy(I forgot his name),Rishi Kapoor and his umrao jaan style and of course the two kids. "jalebi, hume mard bana do!" They do not add any value to the proceedings, but who cares, you enjoy their presence.
Bittu: Sonam Kapoor is a revelation. She looks damn cute in the masakali number. However, the director does fail to provide a fulsome role to the lady. Her ambitions are somehow felt mid-way and ignored.
Picturization of Dil Gira Hai: This is clearly the highlight of the film. Innovative and one of the best representations of a dream.
Abhishek: Earnest and subtle.
Dialogues: The crisp communal tone, the urdu nawazish, or the Bittu-Roshan chit chat, all of them bring a fresh perspective.
Blah Blah:
The Amitabh-Abhishek sequence!! Clearly broke the seriousness of the climax!
The picturization of all the other songs left a lot to be desired.
On the whole, the movie was slightly on the slower side, bizarre at times, wayward too and intentionally subtle. But it had its heart in the right place. Kudos to Rakesh Mehra for trying out something intelligent and full marks for his subtely and the represention of his Chandni Chowk
I give it a 3.5/5
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Dilli-3.5
at 2/24/2009
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11 comments:
Wow!!...Couldn't have put it better myself...Initially when you bombarded me with "What a superb movie" moments!!..I was kinda...is it????
But I guess you needed time to see some loopholes...overall...I like the movie for the sheer masala..drama...and at the heart of it all "Delhi"...
Sorry ATul didnt see the movie .. actually tried to see the movie but gave up after the first 15-20 minutes ... instead watched "Magic" which By the way rocked ... Sir Anthony Hopkins at his very best, and i thought no one could top Silence of the lambs
Anyways,looks like there is nothing in the horizon to look forward to ..
apt review I must say...though I would have given a 4/5 for my sheer love for Abhishek! ;))
BTW...the song's "Dil gira dafatan" ...and not "Dil gira hai"! I loved the video of this number!
This movie is one of those "watchable once" type.
i loved it cuz m a delhhiite by nature :D
I could have sworn, that could have been mistaken for a professional critic's review. Top Notch stuff!
Totally Disagree! Deserves a 2 at max. I think you have just taken the contrarian view.
I thought the movie was at max watchable once, that too if the guy is a critic like you!
i don't agree with the rating... overload in the first half...major letdown in the 2nd half...
I guess these so called intelligent directors love to insult the intelligence of the public:
Kaala bandar.... i know it happened in delhi once...but to overuse the concept ad nauseum...only to reveal that kaala bandar in all of us....is like making a 2 hour+ movie with a katha saagar idea
The same reason I did not like swades.... the smartest thing big nasa guy comes up with is hydel power... why did we need nasa in that movie....ya he wanted to show those taarein in that song...
@Sai: Your POV taken as far as Dilli6 is concerned. But you have to look at these films with the context of the directors. Both Mehra and Gowarikar had huge hits in the form of Rang de Basanti and Lagaan resp. The onus on them is to make something serious/thought provoking, at the sametime enriching their knowledge of cinema without bothering about commercial formulae. That is precisely what you will see in both these films. They do not follow the set pattern of Hindi movies.
I think overall the movie deserves a good rating for its subtle handling...but what probably went wrong was the introduction of too many plots...the kaala bandar...the himdu-muslim stuff...the NRI stuff...it was good in moments...and I dunno why the Amitabh part reminded me of Chopra style of film making..totally irrelevant...
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