Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A.Kashyap is angry and it works!!



No Smoking could have been a masterpiece if told simply and of course, if John Abraham himself understood his character a little better. Dev D and Gulaal, however, have turned the tables in favour of a trend that was increasingly losing its stronghold in Hindi cinema. 'Anger' that made Amitabh Bachchan the legend that he is and 'Revenge' that cemented SRK's career is now being re-invented by Anurag Kashyap to tell it as it is.

Dev D, a take-off on Devdas, the legendary lover a.k.a loser who 'sacrificed' his life in the name of unfulfilled love re-looks at the character of Devdas as he was probably originally written. Having read Devdas in the original, I can vouch for the fact that the one thing that the author did not want to do was glorify Dev's submission to alcoholism which is exactly what every movie interpretation- from greats like Bimal Roy and not-so-greats like Bhansali have done because creating sympathy for the protagonist is Bollywood formula. Even if you create a flawed character, you have to justify the flaws to the audience because according to trade pundits, the intelligence of the Indian movie-going audience does not allow them to accept 'simply flawed' characters without any emotional baggage. 'Pure evil' remains unacceptable, even in the movies.

Dev-D and Gulaal challenges that in a way. Kay Kay's character in Gulaal is supposedly a leader of a separatist movement that has no clear objectives. What becomes increasingly clear towards the end of Gulaal is that he is amoral and arrogant and will go to any lengths to achieve his ends (Rajasthan for Rajputs), whatever the means. Ransa, living in a ramshackled palace turned Democracy bar with strobe lights and Bob Marley life size posters is a bundle of contradictions. He wants no part of his father's aristrocratic legacy yet is dependant on that very legacy to sustain himself. He does not work, drinks and philanders yet is idealistic and moral in a way. Although he does not know what he wants, he seems to know what he does not want. Dilip Singh, on the other hand, just wanted to get a law degree but gets entangled in this dirty mesh of campus, family and gender politics. Naive as he is, when asked, what he knows of Rajniti, he says 'Politics'!!. In love as he is, he believes that his lover's abandonment was not an independent decision and was guided and manipulated for political gains. True as that may be, the audience is left to wonder as to who was really exploited by whom and for what purpose? Brother exploiting sister, Rajput exploiting co-Rajput, half Rajput leading Rajputana movement...what for?? Did any of the characters in the film know what they stood for despite their strong political ambitions and definitive plans of action? Casting Jesse Randhawa and that new girl in their respective roles was probably not a good idea but may be, Kashyap could not convince our 'holier than thou' Bollywood actresses to play murky female characters. While the female characters are not unimportant in the scheme of things, they are not fleshed out as well. This is a male film with female catalysts. Powerful performances were delivered by the 'male' cast and the music was phenomenal and very. very, well placed in the context of the film.

Coming to Dev-D...Dev is no more than a spoilt brat who cries because he did not get his favourite toy. Nothing exposes the subtlety of gender equations in Indian society as this film. Dev does not want Paro when he learns of her sexual history. This he does when he himself is 'sleeping around' to use crass Indian English. Paro abandons him....oh wait..Paro VOLUNTARILY abandons him...no family pressures here!! Now, that, of course, virtually kills Dev..it's not love, it's the male ego that is crushed to pieces in the process. Dev's ultimate rejection, of course, comes, when the very married Paro comes to meet him in the shady Paharganj hotel room, shows him she cares by offering to wash his dirty clothes and then leaves when they are about to make love...That, my friends is 'emosanal atyachar'...the brutal fact of rejection by a woman and not some cooked-up, well-packaged romantic idea of unfulfilled love that we've been fed for generations that we almost believe to be true. There would be no Devdas if the decision to split came from Devdas himself-Go figure!!

Unlike Devdas in the novel, Kashyap's Dev gets to mend his ways and interestingly enough, he does not flush it down the toilet (not in the movie climax anyway). Chanda, the escort girl by night and college student by day encounters Dev surrounded by a haze of drugs and alcohol. As is characteristic of Dev, she is spared no part of his ego-centrism but she stands her own-loving and supporting him yet not submitting to him. When Dev hits his lowest lows and finds himself alone and abandoned serving momos at a streetside food joint in Dilli, life gives him a second chance and he embraces it. But knowing Dev, a relapse is not totally out of character but for now, he seems to have found his feet.

Kudos to Kashyap and looking forward to his next..Meanwhile, KJo's masterpiece on the aftermath of 9/11-an untold story is also sincerely awaited!!