Abhishek Bachchan's latest fails to strike a chord, yet again
For all those of you who have come out with pitchforks against a certain Mr Danny Boyle, Delhi 6 is a must-watch.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's latest flick is set in what is now popularly perceived as 'real India'.
Unlike Jamal Malik however, Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) is no Slumdog. He is an NRI who accompanies his grandmother (Waheeda Rehman) whose last wish is to spend the remaining days of her life in Delhi 6, a locality she was married into.
Born and brought up in America, Roshan is fascinated with everything that happens around him. Traffic jams, Ram Leela, sweetmeat shops, bylanes, lack of water in loos – all of it to him is 'kewl'.
What mesmerises Roshan the most however are the human relationships in Old Delhi. "You don't know who is family and who isn't," he says to himself in one of the scenes where all the neighbours are present with his grandmother in the hospital.
Along the way, we are introduced to everyone from this neighbourhood – a sweetmeat shop owner, two warring brothers, an evil moneylender, his much-younger wife, a lecherous photographer, a local buffoon, a goat, a pregnant cow, an ancestral radio and god knows who and what else!
Delhi 6, we are told, is full of such characters – poor perhaps but with hearts of gold. And like in every story there is a pretty girl – Bittu (Sonam Kapoor) in this case – who catches the attention of our hero.
Roshan posits an interesting case. He is born of a Hindu father and a Muslim mother – the two prominent communities in the Old Delhi area. Before you know it, Roshan becomes part of this milieu and gets embroiled in the politics of hate.
Whether he manages to break out of this and show people the light is pretty much what the movie is all about.
Perhaps the biggest problem with Delhi-6 the film is that it is like Delhi 6, the locality. There's so much happening you don't know where to look.
There is no single story – in fact there are times you ask yourself if there is a story at all. You have so many minor characters popping in and out of the screen you begin to wonder whose film is it anyway. Actually the first time you properly hear Sonam speak you are about 40 minutes into the movie already.
Abhishek Bachchan too has very few lines to speak of (no pun intended). Whatever he does say however, he botches up with his fake American accent which keeps appearing and disappearing.
Delhi 6 brings together some of the best-known actors in Hindi cinema – Raghubir Yadav, Pavan Malhotra, Supriya Pathak Shah, Deepak Dobriyal, Divya Dutta, Vijay Raaz, Tanvi Azmi and Atul Kulkarni among others play prominent roles in it.
Yet none of the characters they play stay with you because all of them just flit across the screen and before you can say 'Delhi 6', they are gone!
Waheeda Rehman who also played the protagonist's mother in Rang De Basanti does her bit. Rishi Kapoor, playing Abhishek's father figure in India, stands out. His little back story is the most interesting of all, and yet is not developed enough to pull at your heartstrings.
The poor characterisation extends even to the lead couple. You never know what Bittu does other than prepare for Indian Idol and dance around in the Delhi metro. Roshan's dithering about going back to America also finds little justification.
There is never a good reason for anything anyone does in the film.
Not surprisingly, all of this affects the performances too.
Each of the brilliant character actors mentioned above is totally wasted. My heart bleeds for Raghubir Yadav who makes a brief appearance in a poorly lit frame, while his singing makes a better impact.
A special mention must be made of Aditi Rao, Sonam's unwed aunt, whose silent suffering makes a better impact than a lot of things that are said or shown on the screen
Abhishek Bachchan seems to have sleepwalked through this ordeal – it's probably the only way he might have emerged sane.
Sonam Kapoor manages to look pretty but does little else. And her pigeon Masakali seems to be nothing but a wasted metaphor.
The metaphors – from the kala bandar, to Roshan's parentage and the never ending Ram Leela – also get lost in the locality called Delhi 6.
Indeed, the film itself is lost out on you. It supposedly aims to give a moral but ends up being preachy.
The dialogues are so clichd, it's unbelievable. "India works! The people here make it work," Abhishek Bachchan tells Rishi Kapoor in his American twang.
What's worse is the way the film is picturised. Many of the sequences are shot against a croma background and digitally put together. Others are simply shot in a studio.
The entire essence of Old Delhi is simply missing. Delhi-6 even fails to be a touristy programme of the Nat Geo kind. There are some breathtaking shots of Jama Masjid but it pretty much ends there.
Even the parts at the Taj Mahal – some of the few scenes shot on-location – fail to evoke anything other than the 'move on, Rakeysh' sentiment.
Songs, like characters, simply make an appearance here or there never once justifying their presence in the narrative. Mohit Chauhan's Masakali, which became a talking point, is also randomly introduced. Ditto for the background score that never manages to gel with what's happening on screen. For instance, there is a riot unfolding before Roshan's eyes and all you can hear is some peppy track playing in the backdrop.
Delhi-6 fails in all departments – acting, direction, dialogues, characterisation and cinematography and even in its use of the songs.
Verdict: Don't bother wasting your money on this one. Mehra has got it all wrong.
Rating: 1/5
http://buzz18.in.com/reviews/movies/review-delhi6-is-disappointing/117032/2
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