Saturday, February 21, 2009
Delhi 6
Delhi 6
Delhi’s Chandni Chowk is waking up to tourism-via-Bollywood potential—Black and White, Chandni Chowk to China and now Delhi 6 in quick succession, take viewers to this fascinating part of old Delhi.
The houses have joint terraces, neighbours become extended families, life is as leisurely as a ride on a cycle rickshaw, kabootarbazi, jalebi breaks and nine-day Ramleelas — charming, more so for foreigners, NRIs and other ‘outsiders’. So when Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s hero Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) brings his dying grandmother (Waheeda Rehman) to her old house in Delhi, and you see this crazy cornucopia through his eyes, it draws you in. You are even amused at the scene in which a cow giving birth in the street stops traffic for miles and makes the collapsed granny get up in a jiffy.
After a while, you begin to realize that it’s all atmosphere and a clutter of characters, but, is there a plot? Among the many people Roshan encounters are an aristocratic Ali Uncle (Rishi Kapoor), two warring brothers (Om Puri-Pawan Malhotra), their families, a retarded odd job man (Atul Kulkarni), a mad fakir, a rude cop (Vijay Raaz), a Muslim Hanuman-devotee (Deepak Dobriyal), an untouchable cleaner (Divya Dutta) and of course the girl next door, Bittu (Sonam Kapoor), who aspires to be on Indian idol.
Punctuating life in Chandni Chowk, and the nightly Ramleela, is the threat of a mysterious Kala Bandar, that is supposedly terrorizing the neighbourhood and driving residents and TV channels hysterical. There is also a cursory romance between Roshan and Bittu, and then a communal conflagration which throws the peaceful lanes and havelis of Chandni Chowk into a tumult. All of which leads to a very obvious ‘brotherhood’ sermon and the NRI conclusion : “India Works.” Indeed?
Roshan (who is he? What does he do?) has a back story that includes his parents' inter-religious marriage, which prevents them from returning, and eventually affects him when he is caught between the Kala Bandar madness and religious fervour on both sides. Some of the characters are wonderfully etched and well enacted (Rishi Kapoor for one), but what are you to make of a heroine who flounces around, preens, giggles and gives up her ambition when the hero confesses his love? Sonam Kapoor just needs to drum up enough cuteness, when she could have been given some more substance. Abhishek Bachchan (accent and all), looks comfortable in his skin, and performs with the ease seen in his recent films like Dostana, but the vague script lets the actors down. However, Binod Pradhan’s cinematography, AR Rahman’s music and Mehra’s feel for the place cannot be faulted.
Still, imagine a director today, showing a scene of his hero having a chat with his deceased grandfather (Amitabh Bachchan) in a white ‘afterlife’ over jalebis. The Village Voice critic wrote something delightfully apt about Delhi 6, that is has “each of Bollywood's four food groups-- corn, cheese, treacle, and nuts-- present and accounted for.” You couldn’t agree more.
Delhi’s Chandni Chowk is waking up to tourism-via-Bollywood potential—Black and White, Chandni Chowk to China and now Delhi 6 in quick succession, take viewers to this fascinating part of old Delhi.
The houses have joint terraces, neighbours become extended families, life is as leisurely as a ride on a cycle rickshaw, kabootarbazi, jalebi breaks and nine-day Ramleelas — charming, more so for foreigners, NRIs and other ‘outsiders’. So when Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s hero Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) brings his dying grandmother (Waheeda Rehman) to her old house in Delhi, and you see this crazy cornucopia through his eyes, it draws you in. You are even amused at the scene in which a cow giving birth in the street stops traffic for miles and makes the collapsed granny get up in a jiffy.
After a while, you begin to realize that it’s all atmosphere and a clutter of characters, but, is there a plot? Among the many people Roshan encounters are an aristocratic Ali Uncle (Rishi Kapoor), two warring brothers (Om Puri-Pawan Malhotra), their families, a retarded odd job man (Atul Kulkarni), a mad fakir, a rude cop (Vijay Raaz), a Muslim Hanuman-devotee (Deepak Dobriyal), an untouchable cleaner (Divya Dutta) and of course the girl next door, Bittu (Sonam Kapoor), who aspires to be on Indian idol.
Punctuating life in Chandni Chowk, and the nightly Ramleela, is the threat of a mysterious Kala Bandar, that is supposedly terrorizing the neighbourhood and driving residents and TV channels hysterical. There is also a cursory romance between Roshan and Bittu, and then a communal conflagration which throws the peaceful lanes and havelis of Chandni Chowk into a tumult. All of which leads to a very obvious ‘brotherhood’ sermon and the NRI conclusion : “India Works.” Indeed?
Roshan (who is he? What does he do?) has a back story that includes his parents' inter-religious marriage, which prevents them from returning, and eventually affects him when he is caught between the Kala Bandar madness and religious fervour on both sides. Some of the characters are wonderfully etched and well enacted (Rishi Kapoor for one), but what are you to make of a heroine who flounces around, preens, giggles and gives up her ambition when the hero confesses his love? Sonam Kapoor just needs to drum up enough cuteness, when she could have been given some more substance. Abhishek Bachchan (accent and all), looks comfortable in his skin, and performs with the ease seen in his recent films like Dostana, but the vague script lets the actors down. However, Binod Pradhan’s cinematography, AR Rahman’s music and Mehra’s feel for the place cannot be faulted.
Still, imagine a director today, showing a scene of his hero having a chat with his deceased grandfather (Amitabh Bachchan) in a white ‘afterlife’ over jalebis. The Village Voice critic wrote something delightfully apt about Delhi 6, that is has “each of Bollywood's four food groups-- corn, cheese, treacle, and nuts-- present and accounted for.” You couldn’t agree more.
Labels: Cinemaah
