A lot of people warned me about watching Delhi 6, the reviews weren’t entirely flattering and a lot of my friends simply refused to watch the movie. Despite all that I was determined to watch the movie and judge it for myself. One of the best decisions I have made off late :)
Delhi 6 is possibly the best encore Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra could have made after Rang De Basanti. The two movies deep down endured the same villains and told beautiful narratives yet the fact that Rang De Basanti was such a huge success, I think has more to do the subtle difference in the message between the two movies.
The one thing that struck me almost immediately about D6 was the beautiful writing. From the beautiful poetry to the amazing link between one scene to the next, this movie has a screenplay that is awe-inspiring. Every dialogue is worth its weight in gold and that is a telling point about any strong script.
Watching D6 is like looking at Delhi thru a kaleidescope of characters and incidents. The movie starts out introducing the characters to the audience, Roshan(Abhishek Bachchan) being the narrator of the incidents that follow on his first trip to his roots. The basic idea of the movie was to show the change in attitudes and opinions of characters as this very strange set of events happen around them.
The quality of a filmmaker is judged by is ablility to control the emotions of his/her audience. In the 150 odd minutes of the movie I saw hardly one point where the audience reacted in a different way to a scene than expected. The magic was when he would drive the audience to silence almost immediately after a rip tickling sequence. ROM stood in the by lanes and stole the show.
The movie is a winner in the regard that it manages to do exactly what it sets out in quest of. On the flip side the lack of all the young charm and self discovery that was Rang De Basanti leaves the audience missing something. But the fact is RDB was RDB and D6 is D6, both touched the core of the Indian idea but in different ways. The fact that the general public could digest RDB easier than D6 is a telling fact about what Indians are all about.
As always ROM payed a lot of attention and gave a lot of love to each of his characters. Everyone that was on screen in the beautiful ensemble was a living breathing personification of real Indians. Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor had little to do as the lead, their designation a mere formality for a movie that was carried well on the shoulders of its characters. The true protagonist of this work has to be the old city of Delhi, that moves, laughs and cries from its static streets.
AR. Rehman’s magic prevails once more to set the mood and the interludes in the chapters of this enormous story. Rehna Tu, Delhi 6 and Masakali stand out as the favorites but the beautiful Arziyan, Dil Gira Dafatan and Aarti (Tumre Bhavan Mein) hold the attention of the audience at the right moments. Genda Phool & Bhor Bhaye serve well as unexpected but beautiful songs in the script.
Like Roshan says in the movie “Indian works, The people make it work.” The truth about this movie is “Delhi 6 works, The characters make it work.” If you needed an open mind to watch and appreciate Rang De Basanti, you need an open heart for Delhi 6.
The biggest disappointment for me was the last five mins of the movie. Personally it ruined a spectacular experience for me. There was a bit of leap of faith there (no pun intended) but it took things in a very different direction than the normal flow. I would have given this movie 4.5 on 5 but that 1/2 star will have to go thanks to that ridiculous climax.
Delhi 6 isnt a revolution, it isnt a classic entertainer either. But there a lot of things Delhi 6 is that dwarfs almost every movie made before it.
I wont recommend this movie to people I dont know much about. Watch it if you want, but if I do tell you personally to not miss this movie then I do so knowing that you will appreciate it :)