Yeh Dilli Hai Mere Jaan

DILLI 6:

I am not a big fan of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, or his earlier Rang De Basanti, the abode of dumb stereotypes, and James Dean wannabe Siddharth, but decided to watch Dilli 6 anyway, especially for the absolutely breathtaking music by Rahman, again dwarfing the tripe that was Slumdog Millionaire and to watch Sonam Kapoor gyrate to Massakali. This time around I wasn't especially disappointed.

Although the movie, or its plot aren't anything to write about, the performances and the subplot keep you involved. And the number of wince worthy moments are close to zero, another landmark for a Hindi movie. The movie starts with another recent bollywood cliche, India through the eyes of the phoren return desi dude. Who is amused by everything around him, and is surprisingly ready to accept the chote gallis, the overly familiar people with no real sense of personal space, the dirty clutter of the houses and the mind numbing inefficiency of the Indian public works department. Our hero's arrival coincides with the infamous monkey menace that plagued the capital a couple of years ago, and through his moments of self discovery, we are kept informed about the daring do of the monkey menace (there is a song too). During the course of the movie, we are treated to many occurrences within the hero's community, which the trigger happy residents happily pawn off on the 'kala bandhar', which should make us question the credibility of all those rating hungry news channels and the 'aam aadmi' pining for his 15 seconds of fame.

The movie is brimming with excellent performances, notable among them are Vijay Raaz, who is shamefully underused by the industry, Atul Kulkarni, Deepak Dobriyal, Aditi Rao as the harrased bua and Rishi Kapoor with his second extremely poignant performance of the year and Divya Dutta. Waheeda Rahman gives an excellent portrayal of the dying grandmother and still looks beautiful while Sonam Kapoor breezes into the movie as the effervescent Bittu, with dreams of becoming the next Indian idol, seems to glow with an ethereal beauty (the massakali dance haunts me still). The only person who seems woefully outcast is Abishek Bachchan, with his super bad shot at an Amreekan accent and his stony faced attempt at a (again) James Deanish nonchalance.

What I hope people will think about after watching this movie is about the amalgam that is India. At every level we see people of a thousand different personalities and likes living and loving as a family, even outsiders are welcomed into the folds of our gallis and nukkads. The old quarters retain the flavour from a bygone era, its smells, sights and sounds live with you forever. But this type of coexistence is sometimes extremely volatile, and the slightest spark can throw everything into chaos. The jalebiwalla played by Dobriyal being the case in point, the victim of the closed mindedness of the communal tensions sparked by the to and fro of Hindus and Muslims, he is transformed into a seething point of hate and driven to murder. The politicians here as always surface only to fuel the fire that can add reinforcement to their political pile of crap. Although the message in the movie unfolds in a seriously chaotic melodrama, it still is relevant, and hugely invisible to our superstitious and bigoted people. Except probably people are actually bastards, and the facades they pull over their faces to hide that takes tremendous work to maintain.

Also evident is the plight of women in our male centric culture, how being unmarried or abandoned kills a woman's spirit and how hard our families try to kill the dreams and aspirations of our girls in the guise of wanting better lives for them or how a squabble leaves friends and relatives torn apart. The harassment of the simpleton and the lower caste garbage lady (untouchable unless you want a good time) makes you question your own actions from the past. The layers of life are myriad in a community, and you can never touch upon them all in a couple of hours.

The movie also showcases a brilliant Katha Ramayana, with the show being interrupted for the political power play of a wannabe politician, and is also the stage for the monkey madness, a very funny roll in the sack and video montage bit, which probably gets a bit overlong, a traffic block to allow a cow to give birth , although it makes me wonder if the same treatment would be given to a buffalo or a pig or mans best friend, and the Indian idol aspirant video.

Where the movie falls flat is not in content, but in focus. Mehra decides to leave every possible story in the background and focuses on the social commentary, which ultimately falls flat. The scene with Amitabh was unnecessary, as were the parkour sequences of Junior B....he seriously does not look like a parkour guy. Also the 'Kala Bandhar' fiasco blows into full scale riots way too easily, which is questionable. Also for an area of the city teeming with atmosphere, the area seems devoid of interest or life....we just see the same handful and hear no real noise or activity that make you feel like a speck. Then there are the unnecessary bath towel slip scene and the pathivritha -you amreekan types wont understand moral speech bit and the many cases of amreekan Indian rebellion against the Indian shortsightedness, a love and spiritual awakening happens against the backdrop of the Taj Mahal montage and a babul song on the rooftops. Also why did they have to wait for a whole speech from the simpleton before they called for an ambulance?

Saving the best for last, the music of Dilli 6 is absolutely breathtaking. Rahman has not given us such a brilliant set of songs since Kannathil Muttamittaal. Masakkali is wonderfully sung and picturised (excuse the obsession with the Kapoor lass), the title track is soulful and peppy in equal measure, the babul song, ghenda phool is well executed, arziyan is soulful, rehna tu is a nice lil ballad, the wonderful aarthi song and the wonderfully soulful Dil Gira Dafatan, with is my favourite track.

Score - 6/10. Watch it for the performances, detatch yourself from the rest of the movie.