Dev. D - Anurag Kashyap

“How can you say it's good? It's an adult movie!” - A twenty four year old boy, commenting on Dev.D.

“A welcome movie, refreshing and thought provoking without being obscene or imposing.” - A fifty eight year old mother, after watching Dev.D.

Aptly, Dev.D is about the hypocrisy of today's youth. And unfortunately, it is for today's hypocritical youth. Allow me to explain. Dev.D is way too brave, way too beautiful and way too truthful for today's youth to digest. They are immature enough to leave the theatre after the 'good bits' of the movie are over. They are hypocritical enough to gorge on porn yet feel ashamed about the open display of sexuality in the film. And finally, they are coward enough to shudder at their own reflection in Devender Singh Dhillon.

To save you the bother of looking down the page in anger to find my age, I will confess it here. I have not seen the other side of thirty yet and am technically still a part of the populace I am bashing right now. But I bash only the majority. It is heartening to see the mature and sensible minority championing it for all the right reasons. (The imdb.com rating reads a whopping 9 out of 10).

I hear the movie is doing well in the box office. I hope it's not for the wrong reasons. Anurag Kashyap must be all smiles considering the irony of it all.

Now that I have got the rant off my chest, let's get on with the synopsis. Caution, gentle reader, spoilers abound. But then again, it has been nearly a month the movie has been released and if you haven't watched it yet, it serves you right.

Devdas, in his tenth silver screen reincarnation, is Devender Singh Dhillon (Abhay Deol ), son of a filthy rich Punjabi gentleman farmer. He has been, you guessed it right - in love with the neighbour's daughter Parminder a.k.a. Paro (Mahie Gill) since childhood. But he has this nasty habit of not listening to anyone and does things the way he damn well pleases. As a punishment, he is quickly packed off to England to study. By the time he comes back, his transformation into Dev.D has been complete and he is panting like a dog in heat to get on top of Paro. But things don't go as planned. A small germ of suspicion about each other's sexual escapades with other partners lead to a nasty rift and Paro getting married off to another man. And thus begins the descent of Dev.D into Technicolor hell, where he bumps into Chanda (Kalki Koechlin) the upmarket prostitute, a victim of an unfortunate MMS scandal. Their broken selves fit around each other like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and we feel there is still hope for redemption. Pretty much the same as the original.

The masterfulness lies in taking the character of Devdas and giving it a reason to be the way he is. Let's face it, the original Devdas is not only a weak character but a weakly written one. Don't take my word for it, take it from Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, who confessed it many a times. But Dev.D, by contrast, is a character extremely well-written. The demons controlling him are hypocrisy, selfishness, a never-ending thirst for instant gratification and above all, a deep lethargy. Not very unlike any of us, really. And yet  it's his deep vulnerability that has him clinging on to the only good thing he has ever known. Not very unlike any of us, again.

By now, you may have read all about the brainwave of Abhay Deol that led to Dev.D and the Canon Eos Camera Danny Boyle lent to Anurag Kashyap for shooting the hallucination scenes, so I will refrain from a barrage of trivia and stick to applauding the writing and the performances. The modern retelling is surely master-class. The obsession and taboo about sex, the complete and utter two-facedness of society and the I-Me-Myself motto of today's youth are shown in unabashed details.

It is Abhay's best performance yet. Right from coming up with the idea, to getting deep into the character to re-sculpting his body, this dude is all business. Mahie Gill, a great find from Punjabi filmdom, is brilliant in her audacity, exuberance and maturity. Kalki Koechlin tried her best but in some difficult scenes, especially the strong ones, it was not good enough. That and a little loose editing in the second half are perhaps the only two flaws this movie has. Dibyendu Bhattacharya as Chunni shines too, revealing one startling facet of his character after another.

The art direction of Dev.D touches perfection, especially when the film moves beyond the brief daylight of Dev's early life and descends into a never-ending night. Three places deserve special mentions. First being the neon-infested streets of Pahadganj, a seedy suburb of Delhi. In Anurag Kashyap's words, “That is where all the drug peddlers are and all the guys who want to end up with a white woman are found. All the white woman looking for nirvana end up here with some junkie or a peddler or a pimp. This place is like none else.” The second and third being Dev's and Chanda's rooms. Again in director's words: “Dev’s interiors of the room in Delhi and Chanda’s interiors were predesigned. My production designer Sukant Panigrahy (Chak De) and his art director cum actress wife Helen Jones brought in the pink in Chanda’s house. She went and got every property from the mosquito nets to the Che Guevara ashtrays and mannequins and the various wigs. Similarly the also brought in the graffiti on the wall of Dev’s room. The idea being, a lot of artists and musicians have passed through this room and have left something behind in a way that’s permanent, like art.” Together they take you to a world that's oppressive in his darkness, yet unabashed in celebrating it with Techicolor enthusiasm.

The music deserves another article altogether. But to quickly put things in perspective, Amit Trivedi's briliant debut (Though Aamir was released earlier, he started composing for Dev.D earlier) has made his life difficult indeed. Surpassing himself in his later ventures will be quite a task. Rajasthani folk, rock music, band-baajaa, Awadhi, semi-classical, Punjabi, Western Classical – all the disparate genres come together to form the delectable OST of Dev.D. “Baap of different genres” in his own words. The proof of their greatness lies in the fact that while the other hot tracks of the year have played themselves out (Yes, Slumdog Millionaire, you too.), the listeners are still hooked to Emosanal Atyachar and other seventeen utterly brilliant tracks.

And last but not the least, the marketing and promotion has left us speechless with its guts and ingenuity. From a breathtaking website to branded condoms to phonesex hotlines to planting the phrase 'Emosanal Atyachar' in popular consciousness to releasing x-rated versions of music videos to Dev.D tattoo launch, UTV Spotboy and Marching Ants have proved their mettle.

No masterpiece gets recognised instantly, it takes the distance of time to appreciate its true glory. Just like you need to stand at arm's length to enjoy a great painting. Whether it will be recognised as a landmark film is anyone's guess but Devdas by Sudhir Mishra (Set to release on July 26, 2009) will not have it easy, that's for sure.

Emosanal Atyachar: This year's landmark soundtrack?