Friday, February 27, 2009

Delhi-6, Saawariya, Yuvvraaj and so on...


Watched Delhi-6 today, Lets get straight to the point. Lets talk about it.
The best part about the film was its camera angles. Every shot seems to have been thought uniquely by the DOP of the film. Each and every shot is a gem in itself because of the thought that went into it. The height of their effort was that they even refrained from using the standard camera angle to show the beauty of Taj Mahal. Yes even the Taj Mahal was shot creatively and uniquely. The camera remains in the close up mode while shooting scenes of Chandni chowk and yes I could make out that it was an effort to get us closer to Chandni Chowk life, the jerky movements symbolise the abundance of activities in Chandni Chowk and the fact that if you stand in the middle of the road you will be pushed here and there. Beautiful!!

The other good thing was lighting and Color correction. Right from Ram leela in the night, to the morning as Delhi wakes up and to the afternoons on the terrace with Masakali a special effort was made to take care of the feel of the scene and what time of the day it is. One scene worth mentioning is the credits itself. Splendid!!

And then the genius of music, Rahman spun his magic all the way. Best track "Ye dilli hai mere yaar" a true feeling of morning in delhi as it wakes. Hear closely the very beginning of this track and you will find that the genius made the singer sing in a lazy drowsy tone as if she just woke up like 6 AM Delhi in the background. Slowly genius made the music go loud and more active as the activities of Delhi become fast and the later in the night Delhi goes back to sleep again with the music. Awesome!!. The song Masakali is beautiful and the back ground music rocks. Bravo!!

The editing was sharp and yes a little non orthodox. Loved it!!

But I want to ask one thing...
What is film making?
Is it only about taking the most unique camera angle for every shot?
Is it only about playing the best music in the background for every scene?
Is it only about taking care of lighting of every frame so that it looks like a painting?
Is it only about every dance, song or scene choreographed like an opera?
Ask Delhi-6, Saawariya, and Yuvraaj and many more like them...

In totality this film Delhi -6 was pure NONSENSE. What is the use of having collected all elements beautifully when they do not come together. The script was loosely written. The acting was a big let down. Cliches after cliches thrown to the audience on the face. Nothing was subtle, every thing was said on the face directly and in the climax scenes too.
The only subtle dialogue was about Masakali pigeon between Sonam and Abhishek.
No justification of so many colorful characters assorted just to entertain. No reason for the change of heart of any character. Rishi Kapoor in an interview about the film said that his character is about a person who is saving for a ferrari. Where was this in this film? Such loose definitions of obvious characters. And to top it all the arguments about mandir masjid looked childish. The build up of the climax was nonsensical and never looked real. I almost thought the intention was humor but later realised it was serious. Very serious.

Who goofed up?

Both writer and Director I think. It happens when your previous film is a big hit people do not ask questions while reading your script. Money is thrown wherever you point. And yes it leads to self indulgence sometimes (sanwariya) and sometimes it leads to false sense of creativity (Yuvvraj and Delhi- 6). Writer, director thinking they are doing something different bringing a faqir showing mirror, using Ramleela, using monkey man. COME ON GUYS give audience a break. Think about a cliche and its there in this film. Any cliche. If just shouting dialogues is going to resolve the conflicts of the film you can understand the shallowness in the script.

Actors were wasted. Even the fine actor like Atul Kulkarni looked clueless. False expressions of Sonam, totally predictable expressions of Waheeda, Wasted Rishi Kapoor and Abhishek Bachhan frustrated as an actor with nothing to do. Even if the character is just an observer please provide him something more to act. And what was that Amitabh bachan garbage? what for? laughable gimmicks used by the creative team.

The whole effort was to show the beauty of Delhi-6 whether in its harmony or its violence. It failed. The scenes of harmony were predictable while violent ones were childish.

And wake up Director sahab, all indian women do not sit on the terrace singing while sorting spices, and the new kind of women you wanted to show with Sonam trying for Indian idol failed to impress. All muslims do not eat Paan, All policemen do not speak Hariyanvi, And why the Rajasthani tone in the dialogues of jalebi? Wake up sir!! this is not expected from the maker of RDB.
Sir I can see where your story points came from. While you were writing the indian idol was going on so why not put a character which tries for it. This indian idol thing in the film was wasted but hey why not use it to create some talks because reality shows are frenzy nowadays. I can also assume while you were making the film Tajmahal was voted as one of the wonders so hey you thought lets use it and incorporate it after all NRI coming to india must visit Tajmahal. But sir, these scenes here and there spoiled the pace of your film.
Please explain why the nonsense Newyork and Delhi mix scene? I could not get it?
And what about this twisted timeline. The monkeyman attacted in 2001 how come metros, mobiles, crashing markets and indian idol with judges as Anu Malik and Javed akhtar was there? Even the fashion of 2001 was not used.
Every thing looked as staged and profiling of Indians in a disheartening manner without using heart. I am telling you this film is more digraceful to indians than slumdog millionaire(if it was).

I would give this film 2/5.


4 comments:

Ravali said...

u saw yuvraj without me?? x-(

jokes apart.... this is goin to b my next blog post too... i probably cant appreciate how well or how falsely delhi was shown in the movie (coz i heard ppl crib abt how artificial it was) coz i have never been thr.... but all i can say is.... i too didnt understand why half the characters were thr in the movie... esp those played by famous actors... the ailing grandmother.. wht abt her? rishi kapoor.... wht abt his character? except for music... i realy didnt see nething in the movie ... i wudnt even giv it 1/5

Vikash said...

"...all indian women do not sit on the terrace singing while sorting spices, and the new kind of women you wanted to show with Sonam trying for Indian idol failed to impress. All muslims do not eat Paan, All policemen do not speak Hariyanvi..."

Agreed! But, I dont think this is one of the drawbacks of the film. because some women sit on terrace n sing while sorting spices, some girls are like sonam trying to make it big in a reality show, some muslims do eat paan and some hariyanvi people are in delhi police. When a director chooses character, he is not representing 'all' people. He cant. He is just representing that particular character.

If you show a story where one person is depressed and about to commit suicide, then do u ask the similar question? Not all people are depressed and committing suicides. A character is never representative subset of a larger chunk. A character is only that character.

somehow I loved the movie. I enjoyed the nonsense chase of monkey as well. :) I will definitely rate it above slumdog. But again....its me. Not much knowledge about technicalities of films.

Vipin Kumar said...

Thats the problem with you...
tere saath movie enjoy nahi kar saktey ...movies ki maa behen karna banta hai tere ko ...
haan haan ab yahi bolega mein usi business mein hu and blah blah...
sometime...just stop bitching and enjoy the damn popcorn while some idiots move around on the big white colorful screen.

Anon said...

Your reviews are insightful :)
You watch movies with a keen eye

Would like to see more reviews coming up soon :)