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Western reviewers effusive with praise after film's New York premiere
Rakeysh Mehra's Delhi-6 opens today, but the world premiere happened in New York a few days back. Here are the first few reviews from the foreign press applauding the film.
Jurgen Fauth for About.com
Whimsy and a generally warm mood inform most of the character sketches and handsomely shot vignettes of local life during Delhi-6's first half: reverse-culture-shock jokes, a lavish production of the story of Ram and Sita, a visit to the Taj Mahal, and a cow giving birth in the street.
In the film's final hour, more serious themes unwelcome traditions and smouldering religious hatred come bubbling to the surface and erupt into a do-the-right-thing climax that took me by surprise.
Maybe the runaway success of Slumdog Millionaire will inspire western audiences to sample more authentic Bollywood fare; with its first-rate music, world-class stars, and postcard-ready views of India (not to mention the relatively reasonable running time), Delhi 6 presents an especially welcoming option.
Rating: ****
Michelle Orange for The Village Voice
Could a true-blue Bollywood film ever represent something other than the highly referent, tightly clockworked chaos of Bollywood cinema?
While Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Delhi-6 the story of an American-born Indian who accompanies his ailing grandmother (Waheeda Rehman) to Delhi and, duly appalled and enchanted by what he sees, undergoes a cultural conversion and rather brutal baptism attempts to address the generational, economic, and religious problems dividing modern India.
It does so in an unapologetically broad, whacked-out way, with each of Bollywood's four food groups (corn, cheese, treacle, and nuts) present and accounted for.
Which is to say, of course, that it's pretty much irresistible and, in that sense, represents todays's enigmatic India as well as anything ever could.
Verdict: Must watch
Rakeysh Mehra's Delhi-6 opens today, but the world premiere happened in New York a few days back. Here are the first few reviews from the foreign press applauding the film.
Jurgen Fauth for About.com
Whimsy and a generally warm mood inform most of the character sketches and handsomely shot vignettes of local life during Delhi-6's first half: reverse-culture-shock jokes, a lavish production of the story of Ram and Sita, a visit to the Taj Mahal, and a cow giving birth in the street.
In the film's final hour, more serious themes unwelcome traditions and smouldering religious hatred come bubbling to the surface and erupt into a do-the-right-thing climax that took me by surprise.
Maybe the runaway success of Slumdog Millionaire will inspire western audiences to sample more authentic Bollywood fare; with its first-rate music, world-class stars, and postcard-ready views of India (not to mention the relatively reasonable running time), Delhi 6 presents an especially welcoming option.
Rating: ****
Michelle Orange for The Village Voice
Could a true-blue Bollywood film ever represent something other than the highly referent, tightly clockworked chaos of Bollywood cinema?
While Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Delhi-6 the story of an American-born Indian who accompanies his ailing grandmother (Waheeda Rehman) to Delhi and, duly appalled and enchanted by what he sees, undergoes a cultural conversion and rather brutal baptism attempts to address the generational, economic, and religious problems dividing modern India.
It does so in an unapologetically broad, whacked-out way, with each of Bollywood's four food groups (corn, cheese, treacle, and nuts) present and accounted for.
Which is to say, of course, that it's pretty much irresistible and, in that sense, represents todays's enigmatic India as well as anything ever could.
Verdict: Must watch
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