DELHI-6 : FILM REVIEW

DELHI-6 REVIEW
Here comes Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s latest offering DELHI-6, riding on the success of his 2006’s Blockbuster RANG DE BASANTI, a film about Indian Youth, their dreams and disillusionments and which has created a revolution.

Thru’ DELHI-6, Director Mehra makes an another attempt but I am afraid will not be successful this time in his latest venture, reasons – loose script with too many sub-plots and lots n lots of messages or lectures.

Well, now coming on to the story, film is about the journey of NRI Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) who lives is in New York and comes to Delhi, India with his ailing Dadi (Waheeda Rehman), since she wants to see her family home in Old Delhi, in her last days of her life.
Dadi & Roshan are welcomed back home with open heart by their family friend Ali Baig (Rishi Kapoor), who once was madly in love with Roshan's mother Fatima (Tanvi Azmi).
The film is all about the experiences of Roshan in Old Delhi leading to which he decides to stay in India. Initially it’s a cultural shock to him, but gradually he gets charmed by the joint family bonding, food and mixed culture, simplicity of people, Hindu Muslim love hate relations etc. etc.
He then also falls in love with a typical Delhi Girl Bittu (Sonam Kapoor) wanting to become an Indian Idol, she is the daughter of Madan Gopal (Om Puri), , in war with his brother Pawan Malhotra. This is not enough, there is an array of characters as untouchable garbage collector Jalebi (Divya Dutta) always spilling bad words (gaalis), jalebi seller, moneylender Lala Bhairam (Prem Chopra), his wife, photographer, Haji Sulaiman KK Raina, Baba Akhilendra Mishra, Atul Kulkarni, Supriya Pathak, Vijay Raaj as Inspector etc. etc. and to top it all the KAALA BANDAR aka MONKEY MAN. And pardon me, if I missed to mention a few characters.
Now you must be wondering who this Monkeyman is, hope you remember the histrionics of a mysterious Monkey Man some years ago, who played havoc in Delhi. By introducing this Monkeyman plot, it is where Mr. Mehra looses his film’s plot and goes haywire plus the DELHI-6 Ram Lila Committee and a loud Sadhavi, further makes the script messy and confusing.
Hang on there is more in the form of Hindu Muslim riots spark and our Hero Bachchan gets embroiled in the controversy leading to the climax, for which it’s better to watch the movie if you wish to. There are also doubts in the film as regards to the religion of Monkeyman whether he is a Muslim or Hindu ?
The problems in the film are plenty. No. 1 - Rakesh Mehra has tried to lecture so many messages in the film as Hindu Muslim Harmony, joint family culture and bonding, Indian youth opting to stay in India, plus he also portrays both the backwards of India as superstitions, caste/ arranged marriages, as wells as Indian progress vide recently launched Chandrayaan. Hence the film gets too preachy and boring.
No. 2 – Portrayal of lots of characters. No. 3 – Loose Script. Pre-intermission Mehra gets busy in building up and introducing the characters and then post intermission, Kaala Bandar controversy picks up. Even the Ram Lila sequences gets irritating and are too loud. Moreover the Love Story track between Biitu & Roshan is not inspiring and is very weak, barring some sequences, which are currently being aired on TV Promos.

Let’s now come on to the PLUS points, No.1 is the MUSIC by A.R. RAHMAN, which is just superb and outstanding and brings relief to our ears, his creations like “Masakali, Rehna Tu, Genda,n Ye Dilli Hai Mere Yaar, Maula” are just out of the world.

No.2 is the CINEMATOGRAPHY by Binod Pradhan, which is breathtaking and captures the mood of Old Delhi bylanes and it’s surroundings, although most of the sets are recreated in Sambhar, a small Rajasthan town. No.3 is BITTU (SONAM KAPOOR), who is just wonderful and fantastic while portraying a Delhi girl character. She looks simply beautiful and one would easily fall in love with her, the way she speaks “HAINJI”, and her MASAKKALI dance stpes are too good.

Coming on to the performances, unfortunately Abhishek disappoints, he gets lost among so many veteran actors. Sonam surprisingly is top class. Waheeda seen after a long time does justice to her role. Rishi Kapoor and Atul Kulkarni have been wasted in the film. Besides, Om Puri as usual is great, Vijay Raaj and Deepak Dobriyal are natural, Divya Dutta too is worth a praise. Others as Supriya Pathak, KK Raina, Akhilendra Mishra, Tanvi Azmi have played well to their characters. And last but not the least there is a special appearance by BIG B Amitabh Bachchan, in the climax, which unfortunately does not raise the excitement level.

Overall, the film is not up to the mark and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, with whom we had lots of expectation, lets us down this time. Screenplay by Rakesh Mehra, Kamlesh Pandey & Prasoon Joshi is just too loose and lacklustre. Mehra as a Director is OK, but no match to his earlier job in RANG DE BASANTI.

As regards to film’s prospects at Box Office, it will garner a good opening, but I doubt it will sustain later on.

I will give it 2 out of 5.

TITLES
Banner : UTV Motion Pictures & Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures
Released on : February 20, 2009
Language : Hindi
Genre : Drama & Social
Producer : Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra & Ronnie Screwvala
Director : Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Star Cast :
Abhishek Bachchan - Roshan
Waheeda Rehman – Dadi
Sonam Kapoor – Bittu
Rishi Kapoor – Ali Baig
Om puri – Madan Gopal
Prem Chopra – Lala Bhairam
Atul Kulkarni - Gobar
Divya Dutta – Jalebi
Tanvi Azmi – Fatima
Supriya Pathak - Vimla
AND Vijay Raaj, Deepak Dobriyal, Akhilendra Mishra, KK Raina, Cyrus Sahukar, Pawan Malhotra, etc.
Music on : T-Series
Music : A.R. Rahman
Main Singers : AR Rahman, Shreya Ghosal, Kailash Kher, Benny Dayal, Mohit Chauhan, Javed Ali, Naresh, Rekha Bharadwaj, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Shraddha Pandit, Karthik, Amitabh Bachchan…
Cinematography : Binod Pradhan
Choreography : Saroj Khan & Vaibhavi Merchant
Story : Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra & Kamlesh Pandey

Screenplay : Rakesh Mehra, Kamlesh Pandey & Prasoon Joshi

Photo Courtesy : "DELHI-6" Official Site