akshay shah

Akshay Shah Reviews DIL PE MAT LE YAAR (Hindi, 2000)

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Timing no doubt plays a big part on how a movie is recognized and appreciated, and releasing a film at the wrong time can often turn out to be the biggest curse. DIL PE MAT LE YAAR is one film that was unfortunately plagued by the curse, releasing towards the end of the year in 2000, despite the movie being one of the finest films to come out of Indian Cinema post millennium it’s one that is rarely talked about today, and possibly not even seen by many.

The story revolves around a simple, naïve young man called Ram Saran Panday (Manoj Bajpai) who comes from Jaunpur to Mumbai to work as a mechanic. Ram Saran is an honest and hard-working man who lives his life by the book and can’t stand the sight of injustice and corruption. Ram Saran’s best friend Gaitonde (Saurabh Shukla) is a cameraman who dreams of striking the big-time. One fine day Ram Saran meets a journalist called Kamya Lal (Taboo) who comes to have her car repaired at the garage where Ram Saran works. Kamya is extremely impressed by Ram Saran’s honesty, straight-forward manner and the way he always speaks his mind and decides to right a series of articles about him and his honesty. Ram Saran on the other hand has slowly fallen in love with Kamya and she too reciprocates his advances and becomes closer friends. Gaitonde’s best friend Tito (Aditya Srivastav) in the meantime arrives from Goa and tries to fill Gaitonde’s mind with impure thoughts on how he can make easy money. Gaitonde decides to take Tito’s advice and indulge in the nefarious activities suggested by Tito. This puts Ram Saran in a predicament as his illusions that the “world will become a better place one day” start to shatter, his best friend and the girl he loves all show their true colours and what seemed like a “perfect world” at one stage starts to show it’s ugly reality to Ram Saran. A shattered Ram Saran realizes that the only way to make something out of himself in this world so he can win Kamyaji’s hand in marriage is to take the wrong path, and thus begins Ram Saran’s descent in to the dark underbelly of Mumbai’s underworld, and the honest and simple Ram Saran is slowly lost forever..Or is he?

DIL PE MAT LE YAAR is a hard movie to confine in to a genre, and my definition of the movie would be a sociological study of Mumbai. Saurabh Shukla who wrote the story after his success with SATYA (1998) again chronicles the deep dark underbelly of Mumbai’s underworld, however SATYA and DIL PE MAT LE YAAR are entirely different films, while SATYA was a macro-level, birds-eye-view of the Mumbai underworld, DIL PE MAT LE YAAR is a comic drama which shows the process of how a honest man slowly descents in to the life of crime. However it would be unfair to call DIL PE MAT LE YAAR a “gangster” film simply because the movie is a character based drama of very “real” people where the underworld only plays a small part. That Saurabh Shukla is without a doubt one of the most underrated writers to come out of Bollywood would be an understatement. This is a complex, multi-layered story where Shukla initially presents the viewer with a optimistic view of Mumbai city and gives us a glimmer of hope, however slowly as the movie proceeds layer by layer the viewer realizes (along with Ram Saran) that there is more than meets the eye, and ultimately what initially looked like a ray of hope was a mirage, and as the old saying goes “if you dance with the devil, you don’t change the devil, the devil changes you…”. Shukla pens some of the most interesting characters that I’ve ever witnessed on celluloid, and as the characters in the movie progress with the story, the viewer’s emotions towards the characters too change. When the movie starts all of the characters in the movie are presented in a positive light, Gaitonde for example as the lovable roly-poly cameraman who proves to be a loyal friend in the first half is in many ways the epitome of “goodness” and “friendship” just as Ram Saran is a model of “honesty” and “integrity” however as life progresses for both of them the illusion is shattered the truth couldn’t be further away from this. The same applies to the characters of Kamya and Gaitonde’s wife Gayatri. When the movie starts Kamya ji is shown to be an honest reporter in a world of dishonesty, and this is what draws Ram Saran to her. He feels that she is “one of them” and despite being a “city girl” she’s someone that believes in humanity like him, however again by the second half we’re revealed with the “truth”, ditto again for Gayatri who is initially shown as the dutiful Indian housewife who wants a better life from Gaitonde with Tito playing the peacemaker in the middle, by the end we realize that that Gayatri is infact having an affair with Tito! It’s these characters that sets DIL PE MAT LE YAAR aside from the rest of the films churned out by Bollywood and makes it a unique viewing experience, hats off to Mr. Shukla!

Hansal Mehta is a director who showed immense potential with his first two films, DIL PE MAT LE YAAR and his second outing CHHAL (2002) are two films I hold in high regard, and both films show Mehta as a path-breaking director who is willing to beyond the usual realms of commercial cinema and really present the viewer with a intelligent and thought-provoking film which is truly different. The manner in which Hansal takes the movie from an extremely optimistic and happy view of the world to a super pessimistic and negative view truly deserves distinction marks. Though the central protagonist Ram Saran Mehta creates a character that in many ways is the conscience of society, a model example of what a perfect citizen should be like, but in many ways it’s next to impossible for a man like him to exist in today’s world. In many ways I found similarities between Ram Saran and Ambi in Shankars ANNIYAN (2005). The difference being Ambi in ANNIYAN develops a multiple personality to rid society of crime, Ram Saran on the other hand becomes a very part of the same society that he’s so against initially. But he consoles himself by saying “aadmi thore hi burah hota hai..uska waqt bura hota hai”. What Mehta deserves a standing ovation for is directing a film that seriously makes the viewer think; this is not a straight-forward film with a “solution” at the end where everyone lives happily ever after, far from it. The open-ended climax of the movie is a master-stroke though one that didn’t go down too well with the viewers or the critics at the time the movie released. The end of DIL PE MAT LE YAAR see’s Ram Saran as a big-time crime-lord in Dubai with his best friend Gaitonde. The scene comes right after Kamya wins her Filmfare award for Best Story which is based on Ram Saran’s life itself, and there she states “Ram Saran and Gaitonde live happily ever after”-but do they really? When Kamya says “happily ever after” is becoming the rich and powerful Don meant to be Kamya’s world of “happily ever after”? Or is the sequence a dream one to contrast what really happened to Ram Saran and Gaitonde because as we know reality does not sell…?

That I regard Manoj Bajpai as one of the finest living actors in Indian Cinema today is something I don’t hide. On the mere basis of SATYA (1998), KAUN (1999), SHOOL (1999), AKS (2001), PINJAR (2003) alone Bajpai has proven that he’s a talent that can be ranked with the crème-da-la-crème of acting in Indian Cinema like Om Puri and Nasseridian Shah and despite a severe mismanagement of his own career with some tragic films and performances like INETQAM (2004) and BEWAFFA (2005) that doesn’t take anything away from Bajpai’s earlier works. This is undoubtedly the most intense performance of Bajpai’s career. Bajpai brings Ram Saran’s vulnerability, honesty and integrity to the fore with absolute perfection and his delivery, facial expressions and body language is an institute on its own. The slow descent of Ram Saran has been perfectly done, and sequences when he tries to express his love to Kamya or his breakdown after his first murder is ultimately so real it gives the viewer goose bumps. This is one of the few performances in Indian Cinema which I feel NO ONE else could’ve done to perfection except Manoj Bajpai..nuff said.

Saurabh Shukla too is absolutely amazing in a part which fleshes out with utmost conviction. The love-hate relationship the viewer shares with Gaitonde is a unique one and Shukla gets right in to the skin of the character. There are times the viewer feels immense love towards Gaitonde, however as the movie progresses we despise him in equal doses though still manage to identify with him..phew!

I must make a mention of the Bajpai-Shukla chemistry there. They shared an outstanding rapport in SATYA, and this was in my view a perfect follow-up to SATYA. The kind of natural chemistry the two have is rarely seen in Hindi films, and without a shred of doubt if the two had done further films in their career they could’ve easily been a darker confrere of a Sanju-Arshad in MUNNABHAI or Salman-Govinda in PARTNER (2007).

Taboo is excellent as always and goes through the various shades of her character with aplomb. Aditya Srivastav is outstanding as always, the talented actor has sadly never got his due despite some amazing performances in films like SATYA and BLACK FRIDAY. Harsh Chhaya, Vijay Raaz, Mahesh Bhatt (as himself) and Kashmira Shah (in a dance appearance) all make their mark.

Technically the movie is slick. Sanjay Kapoor’s camerawork perfectly captures the city of Mumbai with flourish, and is exceptional when the movie takes a turn switch to the dark side. Amin-Gani’s action scenes are great as always.

The music of the movie is superb. Vishal Bharadwaj with his mentor Gulzar as the lyricist deliver some knock-out tunes which create real atmosphere. The SWAGATAM SUKH SWAGATAM song at the start of the movie is ironical as the song is all about hope, and much like the title which tells us “don’t take it to heart” provides the viewer with hope even at the darkest of times. Raju Singh’s background score is spot-on.

DIL PE MAT LE YAAR is a unique viewing experience, and quiet frankly unlike anything else I’ve seen before. Criminally ignored, the movie deserves to be seen at least once as somewhere along the way DIL PE MAT LE YAAR becomes more than just a movie, it becomes an experience.

Overall Rating=9.0/10.0

A.Shah

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