Many would vouch for Black Friday, a few for No smoking, still fewer who boast of a pirated copy of Paanch in their collection may swear by it. But let us be unequivocal here. To me Dev D is the best of the lot Anurag has churned out so far.
‘Cause Anurag has made a virtue of his limitations here. Engaging in the intricacies of human relationships a la Bergman or Antonioni was never his forte. He has always dealt in the realm of the fantastic, the macabre. It is as true of Black Friday as it is of No Smoking. And Dev D is as seductive a danse macabre as ever was one.
And Anurag is a cinematic genius. That is, he revels in the medium of cinema and the most immense and bizarre possibilities it wombs. One only need watch Dev D to see what I mean. For Dev D is about the colours, the rhythm, the lines, the patterns, and shapes. It is the whole psychedelic experience that is cinema.
Every major character here is prominently etched out and each one of them is fiercely individual. Even so, they often seem to relegate into the background and become, so to say, an excuse to indulge in purely audio-visual sensations, to indulge in cinema, if you like. In that Dev D is cinema per excellence.
The most visible attribute is the colour. More than anything, it is the Dionysian carnival of colours that characterizes DevD. Every frame is suffused with a distinct hue, each object carefully chosen for their chromatic quality. The pink of Chanda’s room, the reds around Paro, the raunchy yellow of the marigolds, the piquant red of the cockscombs………………. Indeed, much of the sensuality of the film flows from the colourful palette Anurag makes use of. The seamy sides of the city, the seedy joints, night bars, back alleys, plush brothels, Paharganj and ‘Israeli street’- the ‘skid rows’ of Delhi, flirtations with psychotropic substances- all appear alarmingly alluring in this dazzling spiral of colours.
Even then the pace varies, between the scenes and within them. The abrupt fluctuations of the shot-durations jar on our senses and create a unique rhythm that verily adds to the theme of psychedelia.
But meanwhile, DevD is a musical, too. And Amit has been a revelation. Anurag confessed that after listening to Amit’s tunes, he revamped the whole screenplay and decided to turn it into a musical. In all, there are 18 tracks. A whopping number for sure, even for a bollywood film. But so embedded in the fabric of the narrative are they, you hardly notice. ‘Emotional Atyachar’ and ‘Paayalia’ are already doing rounds of the TV and radio stations, though the others are equally good. Amit excels in his use of electronic sounds, making liberal use of irregularities like echoes and distortions, sonic drolleries often seeming to hover on the thresholds of the bizarre, though really are a few quaint, playful gestures to comply with the atmosphere of the story. A highly stylized soundtrack for an equally stylized film,
So there you are. As for the story, we know it all. Devdas by now has become an adjective to an Indian audience. The novelty lies in the way Anurag turns this ever self-pitying, wimpish hero (the popular image of an archetypal Indian lover) into a troubled hedonist (a tautology?). In fact, that is the story of DevD. A reappropriation on the part of the filmmaker of heavily clichéd sequences so that they acquire a whole new look, as set in a different context and in a different style of filmmaking. The result is a totally trippy tale enough to make your head spin. And then you can always count on Anurag’s dark humour. He never fails to insert those tiny, little jokes he so loves to play on his audience. Won’t reveal any of them, though. Pick them up for yourself, if you can.
As for the acting, aint saying nothing. ‘Cause that will take us to Abhay (for the sake of the fact, this whole idea of a gen-x devdas was his brainchild-originally a wackier one considering he was thinking of a devdas in Los Angeles rather than in Delhi, as in the film). And a talk on Abhay in Dev D (with due respects to the superb performances delivered by Kalki and Mahi) calls for a separate article.
Only that there would be no Dev D without Abhay.
So all you muggers and potheads out there who haven't sen it yet, go viddy this latest offering from Anurag and you’ll be in for a trip.
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