Delhi 6 Movie Review | Review of Delhi 6 Movie

Delhi 6 Movie Review | Review of Delhi 6 Movie

Film Review: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Delhi 6

Film: Delhi 6

Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Cast: Waheeda Rehman, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Divya Dutta, Om Puri, Supriya Pathak, Vijay Raaz, Sheeba Chaddha, Cyrus Sahukar, Prem Chopra, Pawan Malhotra, Atul Kulkarni

Rating: 2/5

After watching a film, you walk out of the cinema hall having a rather clear picture or none at all of what the film was about. Delhi 6 steals that very right from you, walking out you can’t exactly pin point what the film was about in the first hour and what it was in the next.

Delhi 6 begins as this beautiful and awe striking visual of a Delhi that perhaps we could only read or witness through those who lived there. It begins by taking us through the lives of the residents of Delhi 6 and the nitty-gritty’s of their lives.

Warring brothers, the close knit women, communal harmony, the bordering on dangerous glorification of religious conviction; the film in bits and pieces explores it all. It soon enough begins to moves focus into the life of U.S return, Indian at heart boy Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) and his involvement with the residents of Delhi 6.

Doing that, the film also manages to go into this other tangent of exploring wannabe Indian Idol and neighbor, Bittu’s life (Sonam Kapoor). An hour into these many stories and lives, with all but a banal reason the film moves into exploring the monkey man incidents that hit Delhi and soon enough communal tension. Quintessentially because there is a male actor and a female actor the film also has the love angle. Eventually in the end the film moves into this preachy overtone of good and bad and while all this happens you are expected to sit patiently.

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Delhi-6 clearly isn’t an autobiographical take on Rakeysh Mehra’s childhood days in the capital city. That’s because the story is set around the monkey-man episode that made headlines in Delhi some years back and Mehra surely wasn’t a child then. The treatment of the film, however, gets childishly corny at places. Of course do not expect a thriller treatment with the monkey-man chapter. Rather, Delhi-6 thematically apes the banner’s (UTV) own Swades (2004) and remains a social drama all through.

So you have the purported protagonist Rohan Mehra (Abhishek Bachchan) coming to India, though this time not to fetch his nanny, but to get his granny (Waheeda Rehman) to Delhi gullies where she wants to spend the final phase of her life. In the bylanes of Chandni Chowk in old Delhi, Rohan is introduced to customs, conventions and relations alien to him. Meanwhile panic spreads in Delhi as news of random attacks by a mysterious creature titled monkey-man makes headlines.

Muddled up between the liking for his land and ladylove Bittu (Sonam Kapoor), the movie progresses as monkey-man gives ways to discuss social and political issues like the Hindu-Muslim and upper-lower class divide.

The movie makes an interesting start as it introduces multiple characters and gets into multi-track storytelling. But soon the characters and the tracks start jumbling up, giving way for continuity lapses in the multi-dimensional narrative. It’s surprising that the same multi-layered storytelling that Rakeysh Mehra exploited brilliantly in Rang De Basanti , intermittently handicaps the narration in Delhi-6 .

Midways the movie, it’s still difficult to comprehend what’s the central lead of the story amongst Rohan’s love for Bittu, Bittu’s quest for Indian Idol independence, grandma’s loyalty towards motherland or a family feud (Om Puri – Pawan Malhotra sibling rivalry). Unfortunately even the monkey-man track doesn’t help connecting the individual installments and rather works only on peripheral level. However, it resolves all above conflicts in a single-stroke climax, in addition to an Ayodhya-Babri Masjid kind of issue it incites towards the end.

The core theme bears a striking resemblance with Swades which is augmented by the theatrical Ram Leela episodes and the cast-and-class concerns it tackles. But while Ashutosh Gowariker had a direct approach of facing the issues of India in Swades , Mehra handles it indirectly using the monkey-man metaphor. While the screenplay remains cheerful in the first half, it doesn’t escape the preachy trappings in the climax.

Some smart gems in the screenplay include the scene where a cow is delivering amidst jam-packed main road traffic and being worshipped by every passerby. And an abstract-cum-artistic sequence from the same screenplay includes an Indo-American fusion fantasy song ‘ Dil Gira Dafatan ’ which confuses in conveying its concept. There isn’t any conspicuous chemistry between the lead pair of Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor. And Amitabh’s intangible appearance in the last scene was absolutely avoidable.

The art direction decently recreates the Delhi set in Jaipur studio but is confined to four lanes at the Chandni Chowk crossroads. Binod Pradhan employs disturbing camera movements while Vaibhavi Merchant adds grace to Masakali movements. Rahman’s soulful music lacks a befitting body though.

From its eclectic cast, it’s startling to see that the supposed lead players Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor have very shallow characterizations and thereby weak screen-presence as well. With his existing image, it’s difficult to visualize Abhishek Bachchan as a NRI. It never comes across in his accent, attitude or outlook. Sonam Kapoor’s immature act isn’t impressive.

The better performances come from the character-artist cast of Deepak Dobriyal, Atul Kulkarni, Vijay Raaz, Pawan Malhotra and Om Puri. Rishi Kapoor is pleasing but his character is too short-lived. Same for Divya Dutta, who is likeable in her small role. Waheeda Rehman sounds stressed.

Comparison with Mehra’s last attempt is inevitable, thereby generating gigantic expectations. Rakeysh Mehra seamlessly connected with the audiences through his mesmerizing storytelling in Rang De Basanti . Sadly, Delhi-6 is quite colourless in that contrast.

By IndiaTimes

Some more Delhi 6 Film Review

With the glorious ‘Rang De Basanti’ in his track record, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is ready to bring out his next venture ‘Delhi 6′, to sweep the audience off their feet. Set amidst the backdrop of old Delhi (its pin code being 110006, thereby the name ‘Delhi 6′), the movie has Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor in the lead roles. With the likes of Rishi Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Divya Dutta, Om Puri, Pavan Malhotra and Supriya Pathak in supporting roles, the movie is surely being awaited by the movie buffs – especially those in Delhi.

‘Delhi 6′ pictures around Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan), an Indian-American guy and his ‘quick trip’ to India. Roshan goes to India to fulfill the wish of his ailing grandmother, that of taking her last breath in her own country. This visit, which is coincidently also his first one, turns out to be the most enterprising one he has ever made. Instead of being a ‘quick trip’, his visit to India becomes a journey, enabling him to know much more about his inner self, something which he was inadvertently unaware of. The movie also throws light on the multi-faceted people existing in India.

As Roshan reaches Delhi, he basks in the glory of his country, the traditions and rituals, the food, the religion and the culture. After settling his grandmother at her home, Roshan starts mingling with the neighborhood people. They behave aptly with him and are jovial and kind-hearted as well. However, little does he know that behind the friendly mask, they have an evil side as well, which is all set to take undue advantage of his naïve and gullible nature. Now, it’s for the movie goers to find out, how Roshan copes up with the highly hypocrite nature of man in the present times? Watch out for Delhi 6, set for a 20th February 2009 release.

Delhi-6 Review: Hindus, Muslims and the Monkey Man

After 2006’s Rang de Basanti, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra was feted as the chronicler of Indian dreams and disappointments. A title like that is a big cross to bear, especially when it’s time to make your next film. With Delhi-6, Mehra tries to make another what’s-wrong/right-with-India movie and–god I feel so bad saying this–completely loses the plot.

This time too, like in RDB, he attempts to weave together multiple narratives that you hope will meet in that Crash Bang Climax. Instead, he leaves us wondering What Just Happened.

Mehra sets his new film in the choked gullies of Old Delhi (recreated mostly in Sambhar, Rajasthan) where Hindus and Muslims live in apparent harmony. Simultaneously, he introduces the breaking news story of an infamous/mysterious Monkey Man (surely you remember him from Delhi circa 2001?). If you read the creature’s Wikipedia entry before you see the film, you’ll be familiar with a sizeable chunk of this part of the plot including the illustration and the theory about the motherboard concealed under its fur.

Mehra bombards us with a dizzying array of characters in the first half of a film that’s as crowded as the lanes it’s shot it. But now I’m confusing you; let me start at the beginning.

Abhishek Bachchan is Roshan, a grandson who brings his ailing Dadi (Waheeda Rahman, beautiful as ever) back from the US to her home in Delhi-6.

When Bachchan first hears the story of the Monkey Man on the television channel above the conveyer belt at the airport, you think the NRI is experiencing just another we-are-like-this-only moment. But when the Kala Bandar begins to pop in and out of the plot with more frequency than many of the other characters; and when the Delhi-6 Ram Lila Committee and a strident sadhavi make their appearance, you get an inkling this is all going to end messily.

Dadi is welcomed back home by family friend Ali Baig (Rishi Kapoor) who was once madly in love with Roshan’s mother. She accepts his paan at the airport and declares: “Now I can die in peace”.

For the next hour, Abhishek meets the neighbourhood. Let’s see, there are two warring brothers and their families; Bittu, lead actor Sonam Kapoor, is the daughter of the grouchier brother played by Om Puri. Then there’s their unmarried sister, the low-caste garbage collector called Jalebi, the useless policeman Choudhary, the jalebi seller; the local idiot, the Muslim elder, the moneylender with his young wife who’s having an affair with the neighbourhood photographer who’s helping Kapoor fulfil her dream of becoming an Indian Idol (because “wohi to ek cheez hai jo ordinary middle class ladki ko nobody se somebody bana sakti hai”), the Kala Bandar of course and half a dozen other characters I’ve probably forgotten.

Waheeda Rahman looks like she’s having fun in the first half (before disappearing in the second half) as she does her own “maut ke liye shopping”. In another sequence, she collapses while she’s talking to her daughter-in-law on the laptop and is rushed to the hospital on a cycle rickshaw which is forced to stop because the road is blocked by a cow in labour.

There are funny dialogues, and nice insights about how backward (caste, arranged marriages, superstitions, religion) and forward (Chandrayaan) we are (and Bachchan records them all on his Motorola cell phone). If you thought Slumdog had Indian detail, wait till you see the kaleidoscope that is Delhi-6. But sometimes, when you’re so focused on getting all the little things right, the big picture can slip out of your hand.

After the Interval, the Kala Bandar momentum picks up; they’ve already merchandised the creature. Then, as if there aren’t enough characters floating around, Baba Bajrangi shows up to exorcise the creature–and floats the idea that it might belong to a specific community. Now everybody wants to know if the KB is a Hindu or a Muslim.

“Bandar ek musalmaan atankwadi hai,” someone announces. Abuses and counter-abuses are followed by riots and pronouncements that a mandir will be built. Delhi-6 burns even as Ravan’s Lanka is set ablaze by Hanuman in the other parallel Ram Lila track. By now poor Dadi is saying, “Ab to yahan marne ka bhi dil nahi karta.”

Bachchan gets embroiled in the controversy and it all comes to a head in a climax that I’m not going to reveal here (except to say that it almost seemed to me that co-producers UTV Motion Pictures suggested to Mehra that he change the dramatic ending to make it not so dramatic).

If one could judge a movie just by its soundtrack, this one would be brilliant. But even the songs leave you bemused in the film. At one point, three songs play almost back-to-back; Arziyan is shot to Rishi Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan playing pool. Bachchan and Kapoor have only one song together–he walks through a door to emerge at Times Square along with the cycle rickshaws and jalebiwalas in dream sequence Dil Gira. Don’t miss the Godzilla-inspired shot in this song.

Moral of the story? The Kala Bandar resides within us and not out there. But details be damned, Mehra’s tedious lectures about the way we are just don’t ring true.

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