Director's Elegant Version. Review on Dev

Normally I do not watch new Hindi films, having come to expect nothing but formula fare or sleazy nonsense in modern Indian Cinema but this time around I decided to venture out expecting no major miracles, to see this movie Dev mainly for Amitabh Bachchan and Om Puri and believe me the movie was worth the efforts.

Dev narrates the story of an upright police officer who believes that the law should always be enforced irrespective of the consequences and the moral paradox he finds himself engulfed in, when his seniors side with the law-breakers and become mute spectators in an orgy of communal hatred.

The film appears to be inspired by the Godhra carnage and it's beauty is in the fact that it manages to make it's say without resorting to gimmicks and without making a scapegoat of any one side to the conflict. While doing so, the film manages to break new cinematic ground and actually can be considered one of the best movies ever made on the theme of Communal Problem, right up there with M S Sathyu's Garm Hawa.

Amitabh Bachchan once again proves his thespian skills and delivers one of his best performances in the last few years. As Dev, he simply lives the role and two of his scenes stand out for special mention- the first when he breaks down while explaining the burning of a minority colony to his wife, Dr. Bharati (Rati Agnihotri) while he stood near unable to prevent the gory incident and the second when he's trying to reason out with Farhan Ali (Fardeen Khan) on the futility of terrorist methods. Both scenes make for an interesting observation in the art of acting.

Om Puri is simply devastating in his role as Sp Comm Tejinder Khosla and his confrontations with Amitabh are one of a kind. It's after quite a long time that a confrontation of this sort has been captured beautifully in a Hindi movie. Om, as is expected from him lives his role to perfection and his hatred for the minorities can be well understood in the scene where he beats up Fardeen in a lock-up which incidentally is one of his best scenes in the movie.

Fardeen Khan in the role of the Muslim lawyer-turned-terrorist Farhan delivers one of his best performances and is simply an absolute original in his confrontation with his father, convincingly played by Pramod Mahto.

Kareena Kapoor as Aaliya shows that she can act beyond the Poos of this world and I think this film along with Refugee should rank among her best films. Her on-screen chemistry with Fardeen is superb as has been carried to town by the glossies.

Rati Agnihotri delivers a restrained performance as Dev's wife and brings a convincing colour to a role which makes us regret how a good actress of her caliber was wasted in her heydays just running around trees. The scene where she diffuses the tension between Amitabh and Om with her vision of a dream future is simply well done.

Amrish Puri, Ehsaan Khan and Milind Gunaji play their roles to perfection especially Amrish who literally goes into the skin of his character of a vile and communally partisan CM and makes you feel repulsed everytime he's on the screen. Ehsaan on the other hand goes overboard at times although he’s quite convincing at most of the times.

Zubin's background score is fabulous and so are Sharmishta’s production values.

Govind Nihalani proves yet again that genius is not a commodity to be sold on marts for all the Johars and Chopras of the world to buy neither is it a corporate product but a talent that's simply beyond all. I would say Dev is one of his best directorial canvases in a long time, although the climax could have been better.

In all and all a classic, maybe 10 years ahead of it's time