When I heard Anurag Kashyap was planning to remake Devdas I thought I heard it wrong. Why would anyone want to remake Devdas, forget Anurag Kashyap? MY RANT. It is inexplicable, our (Indian) fascination and adoration for losers, I wasn’t done loathing with Rama, oh god help me, and now it is this self loathing moron Devdas. But then it is Anurag Kashyap, you love the man so you watch the movie, even if with apprehension. After years of hearing about the loser and watching Bhansali’s Dev as a start of the series. It scares you, the success of these movies, even Bhansali’s dress parade. It reinforces you that the MCP is far from dead. I have heard many men say they see Devdas in themselves and it scares you if the author has succeeded in mapping the Indian male’s psyche. The snoozing feminist in me wakes up alarmed!
It is not just Devdas, the movies but the Average Joe Bollywood hero in some way or the other, at least the later part of the movie has the Devdas shade. There is no coming-of age with this guy.
And then you watch Dev D. And like masters should, AK manages surprise you. You want to go gung ho, you want to stand atop the theatre chair and whistle.
There is the AK touch of grim, power and underhand politics, in this case the tug-of-war between the sexes (but not gender wise because the women in the film are not the weaker sex, even when the world tries to rub that in their face); and it is great and even battlefield where liberated women do not shy from giving the men a hard time when they deserve it.
In short celebrate the death of Devdas, at least metaphorically, let’s hope that the 5000 year old fossilised Indian male’s psyche might begin to change.
PS: The choreography in most is beautifully done, especially the 2 dimensional, dark, hazy “pardesi” set in the nightclub. Also loved the a lil photoshopped Abhay Deol on the cover with a Dilip Kumar touch. Full marks for the casting.
Hi, great reviews although you have mentioned you dont call them reviews. What mag/paper do you write for? I had watched Dev D at a local film festival here in california and found it great. The young indian directors are really good and do not seem to ape the “masala” formula. I guess there might be great directors in the past too, I have just scratched the surface and hope to see more Indian films. And also more reviews from u. :). I will be checking your books section now hoping to find interesting stuff there too.
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