Hamlet was the first parallel that came to mind way before Sarat Chandra's much used/abused classic did.

The prince of indecision might well be compared to the excessively excessive Devdas of yore and today's junkie who just can't wallow enough in his own misery, our homegrown Dev D.

Gone is the lonely loser of the far more opulent Devdas (Bhansali, remember?). Kashyap's take is far more gritty, far more kitschy and far more real.

It helps that it's an adaptation for today's generation and not a remake. Anurag sees not just Devdas, but also Chanda and Paro losing in equal measure time after time their dignity, their pride, their love.

Amit Trivedi's folksy and fultoo frollicking musical score beat the crap out of so-called versatile soundtracks this year. Anurag calls him (I feel a bit unfavourably) 'the poor man's Rahman'.

On the second DVD, which features the making of the film reveals that the idea of making the film actually came from the film's lead, Abhay Deol.

'Over two hours of footage' screams the blurb on the cover. It's well packaged and quite well edited. There are separate sections that focus on the film's strengths: most notably, the director's vision, the well-defined characters, the remarkably good locations, the quirky sets and the crazy photography.

Trouble usually is, most of the trivia we know about the stars is stuff we've usually already heard to read about. Hearteningly, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes action.

The eternal grouse is always going to be the film's care-a-damn ending. It just didn't seem... real enough. Redemption isn't that easy.

Dev D
DIR: Anurag Kashyap
LABEL: Moserbaer
PRICE: Rs 149
REGION: Free
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