Basti hai mastaano ki dilli dilli.
Gali hai deewaano ki dilli 6!Having read a terribly negative review of the movie that appeared non-biased, I was disappointed! I love the songs of this movie. Their melody is refreshing and they grew on me almost instantly. I had to watch this movie simply because of the songs... I chucked the negative review aside and roped in a few buddies to go and watch the movie. They too were hyped up about the movie! "
This is a sequel to RDB" said one of my friends. "
Oh is it... I didn't know that" I replied with a smile. "
Well, not exactly a sequel, but its made by the same director on similar lines". "
Oh, I see. then it must be a good movie." "
Yes. It has got 4 stars. I checked the review". I exchange looks with my other friend - we had read a bad review of the movie before booking the tickets. It was merely a 2 star bad review. Little did any of my friends know about the absolute negative review that I had read of dilli-6.
There are 3 reviews that can be written on this movie depending on the target audience.
1. A review for the entertainment seeker.
2. A review for someone expecting a repeat of RDB from the movie.
3. A review for someone wanting to watch a sensible movie.
Dilli-6 has something in it for all 3 class of cinema goers.
Let me say something positive by reiterating that I absolutely love the
Masakali song! Its fun, light, flirty, deep and it makes u want to listen to it over and over after u finish hearing it and still feels fresh! I love the
dilli-6 song too... Its contemporary and yet it has a rustic feel to it. Since I'm a fan of fusion music, I love that song :D Well, that and its melodious too.
"
I cant wait to watch Sonam Kapoor" Said my friend. "
Is this her 1st movie?" I ask innocently. With his expression changing from happiness to one of utter indignation coupled with severe disdain for me, there is a complete transformation in the face of my friend "
She was also in Saawaria no! She looked so nice in that movie". Faking a loss of memory to avoid more wrath I reply "
Oh, so that was her in that movie?" (To self - I have no clue about Saawaria except that I was warned to stay away from the movie) :-)
To get back to the review of dilli 6 - The entertainment seeker will like this movie because the purpose of this genre of movie goer is to "take light" while watching the movie. This breed is not in the hall to watch cinema as an art form. Their primary reason for coming to the hall is to accompany a friend to the movie, to stay in tune with the latest "happening" movie for a water cooler discussion at work, or to simply kill time! For them the purpose is served because as long as the movie makes some sense, does not take too much resources of the brain and the movie is "good". This genre is easily impressed because they have very low expectations from movies as compared to a movie aficionado - our 2nd category of viewer.
For the 1st category of viewers, the 1st half of the movie is a good watch. The 2nd half may not be quite as enjoyable, coz they might find it to be too preachy.The movie aficionado has exceedingly high standards. For them, its not about money spent on a movie - for them its about wanting to see something creative on the screen each time they go to the cinema hall. They will judge the director and will expect the director's current work to surpass the previous ones every time. They want dilli-6 to be better than RDB!
This genre should like the 2nd half of the movie as it seek to bring about transformation and asks the audience to shed prejudices! The effort to bring the story together is genuine and the aficionado will appreciate it.The 3rd category of audience wants to see a sensible movie thats light hearted. A movie that does not have too many subplots brewing. A movie where songs are shown in their entirety and are not just renegaded to being a mere background score. A movie where the hero-heroine will meet, fall in love, be torn apart and after several setbacks, some fight scenes and a headache later, the hero will reunite with the heroine and everyone feels good in the end! This genre wants the movie to be at least 10-11 reels long and not just be of 8 reels! This genre wants the movie to be simple and long and sensible and light and fun with numerous complete songs being shown in the movie. They expect the movie to cater to their complete emotional range so that they get full bang for their buck - total paisa vasool hona chaiye!
Sadly, for this category Dilli-6 is only 8 reels long :D"
Yaar, they didn't show the complete songs in the movie!" complained the Sonam fan. "
The movies these days are made like this only" replied another friend. "
If they show complete songs in the movie, how will the music channels survive?" I added. "
point hai!" said the fan, but not to be deterred, he found a solution "
Looks like I have to go to YouTube. I know the aim is to try to pack as many shows as possible in the multiplexes to maximise profit, but still, there should not be so much cost cutting!".
What works for the movie is -
The hype!
It is being released on a long weekend in India.
It is being released at a time when it has no competition from any other movie.
The music album of the movie is already a huge hit (at least 40% of the BO collections can be attributed to this fact!)
On the acting side - Rishi Kapoor was very good and so was Waheeda Rehman! They are acting stalwarts and they felt like they were just being themselves in the movie. That being said, I felt the entire cast had been hand picked for the movie! I loved every character in the movie and the actors have have got into the skin of their characters and they take you TO dilli-6!
Then why the disappointment in the movie?
For me , the lead pair of AB and SK fail to act well! Now, let me say that I was never a fan of AB's acting except in Guru, where I give most of the credit to the director for making AB act well. As I am kinda biased against him, I'll stop commenting on his acting skills - or the lack thereof.
Sonam Kapoor! I had so much expectations from her. Sadly, all the good acting parts of her were already seen in the movie trailer by me. Without running her down, let me sum this up quickly thru the words of my friend (who is smitten by her and is a huge fan) - In one scene Sonam is supposed to let out a wail - When she did that, my friend retorted "Oh God!" as if she had puked on him while he was trying to kiss her! (That was entirely his reaction and by quoting that, I can get away by not saying anything negative about Sonam). Personally for me, a side character played by Divya Dutta was much more impressive than SK in the lead role. Am saying this after I completely loved SK in the songs (even in the short version shown in the movie) and think that she is delightful on screen, but a little too skinny for my taste (personal gripe)!
Together, the pair of AB and SK do manage to look cute together, but then anyone can do that for 10 minutes in a 2-2.5 hr movie! No points for that in my book!
Apart from the lead pair's sub-par acting, I feel that the movie was a let down (primarily) because of the complexly interwoven threads of sub-plots that were supposed to culminate in a grand final product that will blow away the audience. The intent was to make a wonderfully woven cashmere cloth with a beautiful design on it. You can see the effort (to weave this cloth) in the movie and you want to appreciate it. Alas, the final result is a glaring pattern on a roughshod cloth that jars the skin and the eyeballs (well, almost).
Summing up!
You want to say that the movie is good because of the effort put into it, but you cannot and you wind up saying "What is that?". Yet, the movie manages to strike a chord amongst all the chaos portrayed on screen - at least it did it with me - but only after my brain was fried and re-fried and short-circuited with water several times! (Those who have watched the movie will know what I mean!). At times I felt like I was watching a new version of the hit TV serial "
Nukkad".
The friend who belongs to the 3rd genre of movie goers said, "I think Rakeysh got some good songs written and then he threw some story in between them." "Lets go home and watch RDB once again to wash away the taste of this movie from our mind" added the SK fan (although my guess is he went straight to youtube to find the complete song videos of dilli-6)
All that being said - its not a bad movie! Just one that it leaves the audience hungry, but not for the same dish! If you are confused after the review, don't worry - AB was more confused than you - He even cries in the movie and says "Daadi, bahot confusion hai - kuch samaj mein nahi aa raha!".
Yeh Delhi hai mere yaar, bas ishq mohabbat pyaar... Prasoon Joshi ROCKS!!
Footnote!
If the critics of Slum dog Millionaire were aghast with what was shown in SDM, then Dilli-6 should be a blasphemy (in some parts)!
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