Movie Review : Dev.D

Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
Genre : Drama
Year : 2009
Running time : 2 hours 18 minutes
Director : Anurag Kashyap
Cast : Abhay Deol, Mahi Gill, Kalki Koechlin, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Parakh Madan
Kid rating : R


DEVD : THE POOR LITTLE RICH BOY !

Anurag Kashyap’s version of Devdas, is the classic novel set in the modern day. So the path downhill, which our Dev takes, is varied, but it is downhill just the same. Abhay Deol plays Devinder, our spineless, selfish hero, who spurns his almost-girlfriend Parminder, once he suspects her of being unfaithful (no cast/class card here as in the original). Pragmatic Parminder or Paro (Mahie Gill) moves on and marries Bhuvan, a middle-aged widower with kids. Once Paro is married, Dev pines for her, and having access to his rich father’s funds, runs himself down with drugs and drink. Possible redemption looms on the horizon in the guise of prostitute Chanda (Kalki Koechlin), an Anglo-Indian woman with emotional problems of her own. Does Dev finally find what he’s looking for, or do the two lost souls sink together ?

This film has a wonderful cast, Deol is fabulous as Dev, a spoilt, inveterate loser, with scant regard for anyone but himself. Kashyap’s Dev is a grown-up child, pining away for what he cannot have. Existing on the fringes of the adult world, flush with Daddy’s funds, and bereft of Paro’s legitimate affection now that she is someone else’s wife, Dev seems to exist in a hazy world propped up by alcohol and drugs.

Mahie Gill as passionate Paro, and Koechlin as Chanda, the well-to-do girl come down in the world, are very good too. As in the original the female characters are way stronger than the male, and yes, you still can’t sympathize with Devdas’s character. Paro, in her modern avatar, is still situated in a conservative setup, although she isn’t that demure herself. And Chanda’s story is probably inspired by the MMS schoolgirl scandal of a couple of years back.

This is a well made film with deft direction, great acting, and a pretty tight script. The music is in a class by itself, “emotional atyachar” probably everyone’s favorite catchphrase of the year; I quite liked “Nayan barse” myself. Kashyap’s work seems to exist in an alternate, somewhat whacky universe; while the film seems to have earthy roots, Dev and Paro’s families staunchly rural Punjabi families, we are also treated to surreal vignettes. There’s Chanda in a nurse’s uniform, in different wigs, mouthing husky French phrases, satisfying a client. There’s Chanda again, facepainting Dev ? And there is this 3 men performance (in a bar/pub), which I quite liked, but it seemed pretty far out. And then there is the “rock” version of “emotional atyachar”. Surreal just about describes it. But even Kashyap’s funky outlook on this classic, cannot change the fact that this is a journey down destruction lane, and mercilessly put, there is only so much voyeuristic “bird-watching” that one can do, before the novelty starts to wear off.

This film does not work on the general “good” protagonist scale, because there is not much redeemable about Dev, except that he does seem to have a smidgen of a conscience buried under all that vodka. As much as I admire Kashyap’s “vision” and his ability to give a modern twist to such an old classic, and so flawlessly weave it into contemporary life, this film did not work for me. Not so much his fault, as the film’s storyline’s. All that quality goes down the drain, because I can’t sympathize with the lead, and couldn’t care less if he jumped off the nearest cliff. Also, all you Friday movie-watchers beware, although it has its moments, DevD is a dark, and somewhat depressive film. Watch it for the director’s spin and the bevy of great actors that populate it.

Kidwise: Unsuitable for kids, this one gets an R rating.