Dev D - Watch for its audacity

WHAT'S IT ABOUT: An Anurag Kashyap film is clearly not for the weak-hearted; neither is it for those who cannot look beyond conventional cinema. His new offering, Dev D, isn't a run-of-the-mill interpretation of Sarat Chandra Chatterji's Devdas either.

In fact, it soaks you in its sassiness and is in-your-face to the point of being brazen. This one's about Dev D (Abhay Deol), a rich guy and his childhood sweetheart, Paro (Mahi Gill) who are in love. When he snubs her, to spite him, she gets married to another man.

Only when she goes away does Dev realise that he cannot live without her. He leaves home and begins to punish himself by drinking himself to destruction. That's when he meets a prostitute (Kalki) who falls for him.
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Unlike the previous two cinematic versions of the classic novel (starring Dilip Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan respectively), Anurag's film comes up with a startling twist in the end.u00a0

WHAT'S HOT: The film is strikingly honest Anurag knows who his target audience is (18-35 age bracket) and aims straight at them. It speaks the language and the attitude of the youth.

The characters dress (jeans and tees for Abhay and casual Indian and Western wear for the girls) like everyday people; they canoodle in dark corners, snort 'Charie' and have graffiti on their walls. The dialogues are conversational and not for the prudes (sample this: Dev to Paro: "Do you touch yourself?" Paro to Dev: "You only like to fu**!"

Then he snaps: "Don't you?") While the previous Devdas avatars branded him a romantic hero for destroying himself over lost love, Dev D comes off as irreverent, selfish and not entirely loveable. The director has weaved in the Delhi school girl's MMS scandal into the film rather well.

The first half, which revolves round Dev and Paro, is supremely entertaining. The cinematography is stark and yet pleasing while the musical score is remarkably in tune with the flavour of the film. The biggest triumphs of the film are, without a doubt, the performances of Abhay Deol and Mahi Gill (spontaneous and spunky).

Abhay embarks on a challenge yet again and lives up to it. Kalki is as comfortable in a school uniform as she is having phone sex, role-playing and reading modern literature like Contempt by Alberto Moravia.u00a0