Dilli 6 - Movie Review

To Swati. She encouraged me to watch the movie.


Before the Movie:

I knew that ‘Dilli 6’ would be hard-hitting for sure. Hard-hitting either in the sense of ‘RDB’ which achieved a never-before status among the youth or in the sense of ‘Ramgopal Verma ki Aag’. Just that the latter hit me hard in the brain. The Mumbaiya term for such a ‘hit hard in the brain’ is.. ‘dimag ko shot’ by the way. :)

After the Movie:
‘RDB’ compared a historical story with a story of today. ‘D-6’ compares a mythological story with a story of today. The general premise is, hence, identical. The path taken this time is different.

In one line, however, the movie is AMAZING!!

What’s bad:

• Abhishek Bachhan jumps from a terrace and lands perfectly on the terrace of the adjacent, closely-located building! I could almost hear AB saying, “I had taken this training for Drona. You didn’t watch Drona, hai na! Ab bhugto!!” and he jumps again.
• Abhishek Bachhan fakes the ‘Amarikhen’ accent. Boo!
• Why on earth does Amitabh Bachhan appear at the end? Though must say that the NDE (Near-death experience) is a first in a Hindi movie.
• The dream song, though cutely picturised, looks utterly out of place and needless. Dream songs forced into a film is Karan Johar’s prerogative, Mr. Mehra!! Originality rakho yaar!
  

And what’s good:

• The Masakkali girl Sonam Kapoor looks absolutely gorgeous. Most women and some men (*wink*) in the cinema hall wish they looked like her. She is an able performer too.
• All the songs have a different flavor altogether. There is an Amba-maata bhajan and there is a light romantic number ‘Masakalli’. There is a ‘Rehna Tu’ and there is a ‘Kaala Bandar’ song! A nice mix of songs!
• Atul Kulkarni and Divya Dutta shine among the ensemble of actors the film boasts of. The two get into the skin of their characters with the accent and the body language perfectly chiseled. (And Darling Katrina Kaif, you always thought getting into the skin of the character for a film meant colouring your hair and hiring a new fashion designer, didn’t you?!)
• The film captures on reel amazing visuals of Dilli 6 – a section of the Indian capital which is, in a way, very reflective of the diversity that one sees in India.
• The star of the film is its story and the screenplay. The film uses several metaphors to make its point – the ‘Kala bandar’ is only the most obvious of them all. For example, the untouchable girl who helps the resident of the city at the end isn’t an untouchable girl at all. She stands for the potential untapped talent of the society. What I mean to say is that every character is a metaphor for a set of values, beliefs and energies that reside within the Indian society. Above all, all the characters have the strong ‘Dilli’ flavour.

What one notices is that the movie sticks to being a hardcore satire rather than being preachy (except at the tail end which is only fair enough.). The movie exactly knows where it is going.As the ‘Kala bandar’ mystery builds up, you keep hoping that the climax is as good. The best part of it is that it is so.

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (I hope I’ve got the spelling right.) does it again, in a different setup, in a different form and in a different style!