"Dev,D"- justice done to Sarat Chandra, at last!

Arguably the best contemporary movie to have hit Indian theaters in the Hindi-language.
I will try to justify why I think so, and in the process, you can choose to agree or disagree with my notions, but you can't choose to ignore the movie- that's the overall impact of A-K's "Dev-D"!

Dev.D happens to be the recent'est of the numerous cinematic-adaptations of the famous Sarat Chandra novella "Devdas", which tells the story of a man and his obsession with two women. Devdas falls in love with his childhood-companion, but since she isn’t of the same ‘class’, he refuses to marry her (although continues to pine for her throughout the novel/movie). Later on in life, he gets intimate with a caring ‘tawayaf’ (prostitute/social-dancer) who loves him, but Devdas refutes her advances and pines for his old-flame, which is irritatingly-everlasting. Meanwhile, he continues with his sad, brooding, self-deprecating/apologetic/pitiable life-style until the very end. Overall, Sarat Chandra's imagery of the male protagonist is that of a confused, wide-eyed narcissist, who ends up losing both women to his indecisiveness and inability to take a stand.
"Dev-D" does justice to the novella, by picturising Devdas not as a hero, not as a pitied-victim of circumstances but a loser, who gets back what he sowed. The scoring point of the movie is the way the character of  the female leads have been developed - self-assured, confident, powerful, almost-invincible yet soft, caring and vulnerable. It's sheer magic!!

Director’s work:

What director Anurag Kashyap has done to the old story is to give it a very contemporary,  urban, women-centric expression, which the earlier adaptations of Devdas lacked. While attempting so, he almost tramples on Almodovar-land with his astute imagination and re-interpretation of the role of the two women in the novella. And, he refuses to relinquish any moral-space to the male protagonist and relegates him to the distant fringes of celebritydom.

This audacious attempt at re-framing an oft-reeled and read novel, knocks at, if not breaks, a lot of our inane moral and social ghettos, stereotypes and sets a definite ‘standard’, if you may, of deviant imagination.

Dev is the son of a rich industrialist, who is sent away to London when he was 12. Dev [played by the inimitable Abhay Deol] returns to his hometown and to Paro [Mahi Gill], his childhood sweetheart. She creates a character to connect with and admire, a gypsy, a free-spirit, well in touch with her sexuality and delightfully unbridled of tongue. As adulthood approaches and both reinforce their intimate ties, Paro sends Dev her nude pictures and has no qualms in carrying a mattress on her bicycle to the field, where she intends to have comfortable-sex with Dev-a rather insecure, immature, selfish, quintessentially-stereotypic chauvinist who does'nt think much about bedding multiple women, but develops moral-cramps upon hearing exaggerated claims of her sexual prowess from a source; giving Indian cinema a refreshingly irrepressible, deliciously-amoral and innocent dollop of sexuality. This unusually mature, detached, non-conforming visual-rhapsody on the prevalent notions of sexuality and contemporary-life is maintained throughout the movie, which is a welcome-breath away from the a-amorous ‘petal-touching’ scenes of yore.

Although they seem inseparable, a pilot-scene where Dev ‘justifies’ his stand of not marrying her, apparently alluding to their difference in ‘status’ and insults Paro, sets the stage for the amazing sequence of events which  would send their lives in a tizzy. Paro is married off to someone else and Dev goes into severe depression; digs deep into drugs, booze and women for salvation. He stays away from home, but lacks the dignity to call off the financial-assistance coming from his doting father.

Lenny [Kalki] likes to live her life on the edge -- a rich student with a penchant for adventure. After an unfortunate MMS-‘scandal’, she's abandoned by her family and is forced into isolation. As a runaway, she finds shelter with Chunni, a pimp. With great determination and inner strength she adopts an alter ego – Chanda.

As Chanda, she gets to be a high profile escort by night, while Lenny remains a college student by day. At this juncture, Dev enters her life, courtesy Chunni. Lenny, falls in love with this  confused-wastrel, who pines for Paro, tries to bed her sis-in-law and ultimately comes around to find peace with Lenny.

As the movie unfolds, Dev goes around his numerous flings, gets dumped but is still neck-deep into Paro, who comes over to meet him one last time; dumps him the way he deserted her, with an excellent deja-vu parting-shot. It was time to square up positions, and she does it with panache!

Extreme haughtiness, perhaps even arrogance dominates the entire movie-length, which is delightful. Scenes, dialogues, character-sketches, lyrics, music are irreverent, unapologetic, non-conforming and borders on the eccentric. Perhaps, its expected, given it's a A-K movie. Kashyap goes to great lengths to provide some deliciously-delirious visuals, totally out-of-the world songs and some great screenplay.

Remarkably and thankfully so, in this Kashyap-esque version of Devdas, both women enjoy extreme character graphs, independent in thought and action and importantly amoral and non-judgmental-- but Dev 's  character is a wastrel you're really just meant to feel sorry for,  a creepy fellow who is just not  in touch with his priorities or his life. Full marks to Abhay Deol, for fearlessly playing the loser’s role to perfection!

Another highpoint of the movie is it’s highly musical narrative. The astonishing Amit Trivedi's awesomely heady cocktail of myriad emotions, elevates the film itself to another level. Remember, it’s a 18-song movie, all of which totally justify their inclusion!

The biggest USP of the movie, is perhaps the unpretentiously-bohemian and 'intoxicated' manner in which the story is retold. The spontaneity of the delicious-profanity, sexuality sans vulgarity and the dignity of the free-spirited women and the awesome sound-tracks make this movie totally out of any stereotypic Hindi-movie genre and an absolute must-watch.

Further reading: None. Don't waste your time, go watch it!!

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