The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Totally away from the classic

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Sunday, Feb 08, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Totally away from the classic

It’s different: Abhay Deol is the modern Dev D

Film: Dev D

Cast: Abhay Deol, Mahi Gill

Direction: Anurag Kashyap

As you watch the first few scenes of the film, you (those who swear by the classical Devdas of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay made by Bimal Roy) only start thanking your stars that this Dev D is not a copy of the classic but it borrows only the idea of obsessive love and loyalty to some extent and then separates this one completely from its classic counterpart.

Here, our modern Dev (Abhay Deol), a spoilt brat of a successful businessman of Punjab not only dares to call his father by name but also is not loyal to his childhood beloved Paro (Mahi Gill) and initially wants her because of her physical beauty. Even the modern Paro lives by her impulses. She is carefree, independent, decisive and has little moral sensibilities. So what, she is the picture of today’s youth, director Anurag Kashyap attempts to make us believe. And she marries an older man with two kids because Dev insults her for having no morals, looks and status! This Dev’s Chandramukhi is not a courtesan but is made a sex worker. Anurag Kashap has tested Indian audiences’ sensibilities or shall we say newer sensibilities through course and crude dialogues through which he made up for the scenes he knew the censors would never pass even with an ‘A’ certificate.

If you try connecting with old ‘Devdas’, you would miss that purity, love and all goodness. And if you watch it detached, you would find it dark, macabre, oscillating between quite Indo-western values – perfect for the ‘I care a damn guys’.

RANA SIDDIQUI ZAMAN

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