Good but........ Review on Delhi 6

Some movies have a kind a charm about them which you can’t explain, you just feel it. I felt that charm while watching Delhi 6. But as I walked out of the hall, I felt kind of…..cheated.

Story:-

Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) lives in the US with his parents and Dadi (Waheeda Rahman). Dadi is diagnosed with cancer, and she decides that she wants to spend her last days in Old Delhi (Pin Code 110006 i.e. Delhi 6), where she has lived all her life. Roshan undertakes the responsibility of taking her to Delhi. Delhi is a new experience for Roshan. He is amused, excited, shocked, disgusted with Delhi but can’t help falling in love with it. The warmth of the people, the spirit of the city fascinates him. So does his neighbour Bittu (Sonam Kapoor) who is a feisty girl with high ambitions but is forced to keep them hidden because of her orthodox family. At the time of their arrival in Delhi, the city is under threat of a ‘kala bandar’ who is terrorizing Old Delhi (reminding us of the monkeyman who used to terrorise Noida a few years back). As its terror increases, different superstitions and religious feelings get provoked. This results in some horrific incidents which motivates Roshan to take the matter in his hands.

Impact:-

Delhi 6 started very promisingly. The initial introduction of all characters was heartwarming. The main character is Old Delhi itself. The Jama Masjid, the joined & cramped houses, the small bylanes, the innumerable pigeons, all make such an authentic background that I couldn’t help but share Roshan’s fascination. The other characters-

Mamdu - the good natured Muslim jalebi-wala who is also a devotee of Hanuman (Deepak Dobriyal)

Gobar – the resident idiot with a heart of gold (Atul Kulkarni)

Ali Baig – the grand old gentleman who was in love with Roshan’s mother (Rishi Kapoor)

the two warring brothers who have put up a wall dividing their house (Om Puri & Pawan Malhotra)

their wives who stay connected through a lose brick in the wall,

their children who understand more than what their elders think,

Jalebi - the untouchable sweeper who has more wisdom than the powers-to-be (Divya Dutta)

the money-hungry old lala with a wife young enough to be his grand-daughter (Prem Chopra)

the sleazy and smooth-talking photographer (Cyrus Sahukar)

the hatred-spewing saadhvi,

the corrupt and bullying police officer (Vijay Raaz)

• all of them together create a world which has as much good as it has bad, but somehow the good seems more prevailing. Each character is full-fledged and gets his/her own individual moment, and each such scene is a gem its own right.

Introducing all the characters took its own time and the narration moved forward at a very slow pace but it never seemed boring. The Ramleela and Kala Bandar were used as metaphors to bring out the ugliness of our society which was good but got repetitive after some time. By the interval, I was thoroughly enjoying myself though I still did not know where the story was going.

It was post-interval that the movie started going downhill. The love-story between Roshan and Bittu was not developed properly. The way ‘Kalabandar’ issue escalated into a communal issue was quite convincing but the way it was resolved was incredulous. The last half-an-hour must have seemed good in the director’s mind but on-screen it failed to create the impact. There was too much preaching, too many issues were juggled. Also the brilliant metaphors were ruined by too much explanation; it was as if the director felt that the audience is not intelligent enough to understand the nuances.

Performances:-

Delhi 6 is not a lead-pair based movie. Each character is as important as the hero and each performance outshines the other in its brilliance. Waheeda Rahman looks ethereal and is dignity personified. Rishi Kapoor shines as a sophisticated and romantic Nawab.Vijay Raaz is brilliant as the corrupt cop. Deepak Dobriyal as the jalebi-wala is the most poignant performance of the movie. Om Puri, Pawan Malhotra and Atul Kulkarni are perfect – not a step out of place. Divya Dutta is a gem, a real gem. The rest of the supporting cast – Supriya Pathak, Prem Chopra, Cyrus are all good in their respective roles.

Sonam Kapoor is very pleasant. What she lacks in the performance level, she makes up with genuine charm. The only one who disappoints is Abhishek Bachchan. He does not look the part, his accent is unconvincing and in the midst of such great performances, he comes across as an oddity. He is not bad, but he fails to make an impact in what could have been the role of a lifetime.

Technical:-

Rakeysh Mehra direction is brilliant in places. The subtle nuances are unique. His main objective is to showcase the fickleness of human nature and he succeeds in that. But he fails in two things – the love track between Abhishek & Sonam, and the ending which borders on the weird.

The screenplay is the high point of the movie. The art direction needs a special mention – the aura of old Delhi has been beautifully created. The cinematography is also brilliant. So are the dialogues. Editing was just okay. The choreography is not regular bollywood and gels with the mood of the movie. A.R. Rahman is at his best – his music and Prasoon Joshi’s lyrics create magic. Its difficult to imagine Delhi 6 without its music.

My Final Take:-

Delhi 6 is slow and messes up big time in the end. But it has its heart in the right place. Yes it did not meet the expectations but then every movie can’t be Rang De Basanti. All said and done, Delhi 6 worked for me.