Dear Blogdosts. I am NOT being lazy. I wanted to share this with you, because it has generated a lot of comment - good and bad. Dev D is an important film in terms of what it is saying.... the rules it has broken. This column appeared last week in 'The Week'.
Ever since Aham initiated the Sita Sena, my inbox has been full and I am finding it hard to repond to each mail individually. Something good must come out of this. Something good has to start somewhere. Because we live in Mumbai, it is happening here. But the concern is not restricted to geography. It is a universal threat that has to be met. Pepper sprays and karate kicks are not the answer. I hate the idea of women being compelled to defend themselves. We have the right to live and act freely. The constitution guarantees as much. Whether or not Aham succeeds in getting the numbers at Gateway on the 8th of March, at least there is some awareness his actions will generate through the peaceful protest against what is going on in our society under the guise of 'teaching women a lesson.'

Dare to be Dev D

Now here’s a film that slipped into movie halls without too much of a band baaja, and has the urban, multiplex moviegoer gasping for breath. Most cinemabuffs cannot believe they are being ‘allowed’ to watch such a bold film in the first place, and without the lunatic fringe threatening to vandalise theatres screening it – oops, I hope I haven’t spoken too soon. Since the debate du jour revolves around these self-appointed moral scouts looking for evidence that nails culprits who defy their notions of ‘Bharatiya Sanskriti’, this film should be made compulsory viewing for the likes of them. Their arteries may pop, but with any luck their eyes will openas well as to what’s really going on in our metros, and how nobody is blinking! Here’s a 21st century version of Sarat Chandra’s classic, ‘Devdas’, which was first published in 1917. Anurag Kashyap’s interpretation is so wild and original, it takes a second viewing to register. Bollywood is finally waking up, coming of age and experimenting with terrain that is risqué, out there and outrageous. We all know the basic Devdas story. It revolves around an obsessive hero, who doesn’t have the guts to marry his true love, and chooses to drown his sorrow in a bottle…. till he meets the proverbial prostitute with a heart of gold, who loves him unconditionally, and puts up with his petulant crap. I have never understood people’s fascination for Devdas – I think of him as the ultimate loser. A self-pitying, weak and morose guy, who has only himself to blame. But Anurag’s version of this loser is far more layered and therefore more compelling. Abhay Deol has been given the credit for inspiring Kashyap to remake the classic in this dark and sinister mould. Deol stars as the protagonist, and delivers a competent performance. But the really riveting acts come from the two newcomers who play Paro (Mahie) and Chandramukhi ( Kalki ) respectively. There is nothing long- suffering about this spirited Paro, and as for Kalki, she gives phone sex in multiple languages in one key scene, with such ease, it’s disturbing. The film explores and exposes the grittiest aspect of Delhi’s seedy Paharganj district in cinema verite style. But it is when the camera closes in on the faces of the two women, that the film maker delivers that devastating punch in the gut. It is a ferocious portrayal of twisted lives gone horribly wrong. Dev descends into living hell as he abuses his body , subjecting it to a combination of drugs, booze and demeaning sex. Chanda (Kalki) as a garishly made up child prostitute, catering to kinky , game- playing, sado-masochistic clients, doesn’t flinch even once as she goes through the motions and mouths dialogues where she describes herself as a ‘randi’ and wonders aloud why society hesitates to use that word and prefers the euphemism of ‘commercial sex worker’ to its cruder, more direct version. Paro is sexually aggressive, an unabashed predator, who thinks nothing of emailing her bare breasted images to Dev while he’s in London, or strapping a mattress to the seat of her bicycle and setting up a tryst with her lover in the middle of a sugarcane field. Both the women are entirely upfront about their sexuality and have no inhibitions expressing their voracious desires, or using their bodies commercially (Paro who opts for an arranged marriage and dutifully sleeps with a husband she does not love, Kalki who cold- bloodedly trades her physical assets in order to continue her college education). This marks a first for Hindi commercial cinema, which for all its synthetic attempts at depicting today’s free thinking women still does not have the guts to show the heroine as anything but a vestal virgin. But here are these two actresses breaking hypocritical boundaries with boundless gusto and yet doing so with enormous grace and dignity. When Chanda calls Dev a ‘slut’, it is meant as a compliment. The language used throughout the film is raw, contemporary and lethal. But you don’t squirm, because you know instinctively it rings true. This is life on the edge, with all its perverse traps and hideous denouements.Dev D socks it to the audience. The women come out on top – sexually, literally, metaphorically. Good on you, Anurag. Attn: Renjith, Stan, Lukosem The Sexes 16th Feb 2009