Tango

Komal Nahta reviews DELHI 6 (along with opening day report and predictions)

UTV Motion Pictures and Rak­eysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures Pvt. Ltd.’s Delhi-6 (UA) is about one’s roots. Roshan (Abhishek Bach­chan), born to a Hindu father, Rajan (Indrajeet Sar­kar), and a Muslim mother, Fatima (Tanvi Azmi), comes to India – Chandni Chowk area of Delhi – from the USA to drop his paternal grandmother (Waheeda Rehman) back as her only wish is to breathe her last amidst neighbours and friends, in their an­cestral home. Having been born and brought up in the US, Roshan is both, aghast and amused, by what he sees of India.

The love and close bonds people share, the festivals and celebrations of India, the family feuds and the bickerings, the customs and traditions, the modernity going hand-in-hand with the antiquated beliefs, the communal harmony which turns into hatred, all of these consume Roshan who also soon finds himself falling in love with Bittu (Sonam Kapoor), their neighbour and family friend’s daughter. Bittu wants to make a name for herself and, without the knowledge of her family, gets selected in a television reality show for which she has to go to Bombay. Of course, her father, Madan Gopal (Om Puri), will not hear anything of it and so, she decides to run away with a lecherous photo­grapher, Suresh (Cyrus Sahu­kar).

Bittu has a paternal uncle, Jai­gopal (Pawan Malhotra). Bittu’s father and uncle can’t see eye to eye over a family dispute but the ladies of the house are close to one another. The two families live under one roof, divided by a wall. The neighbours comprise Ali Beg (Rishi Kapoor), dim-witted Gobar (Atul Kulkarni), Lalaji (Prem Chopra) who has a wife one-third his age, Mamadu (Deepak Dobriyal), the Muslim sweetmeat shop owner, and another Muslim man, Haji Suleman (K.K. Raina) etc. The area has an arrogant police officer, Ran­vijay Chaudhry (Vijay Raaz). There’s also a sweeper, Jalebi (Divya Dutta), who is treated like dirt by almost everybody.

During Roshan’s stay in Delhi, the story of a mysterious monkey man striking in the dark of night is doing the rounds. In the otherwise peaceful Chandni Chowk area, discussions on the monkey man spark off a communal disturbance which threatens to turn into a riot. How Roshan saves the day forms the climax.
The story and screenplay, written by Rakeysh Mehra, Prasoon Joshi and Kam­lesh Pandey, are well-intentioned insofar as they seek to tell the viewer that there’s a monkey man (evil) hidden in all of us. But the execution of the plot to pass on this message is so weak and boring that it tests the audience’s patience.

A good part of the second half, in which the issue of the monkey man be­comes the central plot seems ridiculous if only because it was never meant to be so, going by the first half. In fact, even as far as screenplay writing is concerned, the monkey man is treated as more of a laughing matter in the first half. But suddenly, after interval, the comic track becomes the main story. It is akin to signing Johny Lever as a comedian in a film and suddenly making him the hero post-interval because he succeeds in evoking laughter be­fore interval. Another defect in the screenplay is that Roshan, the hero of the drama, is never a part of the monkey man issue; rather, he is an outsider in more ways than one. He doesn’t even become a part of the problem but is conveniently made to appear like a solution, probably because he is the hero.

The first half, especially the initial reels, is quite engaging because of the light moments, the unfolding of so many characters, the wonderful songs and the old Delhi ambience. But the pace slackens a couple of reels before interval and, in fact, the interval point comes rather abruptly. In the second half, there’s repetition and more repetition what with the Ram Leela going on and on at regu­lar intervals and the monkey man issue snowballing into a communal issue. The philosophising of the monkey man drama will go over a lot of people’s heads. Even the tan­trik trying to misguide people by de­manding a hair of the monkey man entertains upto a point only, after which it be­comes jarring. The climax, in which Roshan is almost dying, will not be liked by the majority. Roshan meeting his grandfather (Amitabh Bachchan) in heaven, looks gimmicky.

The film has no romance to gladden the heart. Although Roshan and Bittu are youngsters and start getting attracted to one another, thereby giving the feeling that there would be romance between them, it never happens. Likewise, emotions fail to touch the heart. Even Rosh­an’s nobility in the end doesn’t bring tears to the eyes for two reasons – firstly, he was an outsider and looks forced into the monkey man issue, and secondly, the issue itself was treated too lightly in the first half for the audience to accept it as the central plot thereafter. So, when the plot itself is unpalatable, its resolution would, obviously, not create the desired or, in this case, the intended impact.

Abhishek Bachchan does well and remains true to his character. However, he ought to change his expressions rather than keeping the same one, whatever the scene. Since it is a synch-sound film (and, therefore, the dialogues are not crystal clear) and Abhishek speaks accented English, some of his Eng­lish dialogues are difficult to understand. Cine­matic liberty demanded sacrificing authenticity for clarity. Although the below-mention­ed has nothing to do with his performance, the fact that he is a passive observer for a good part of the drama, will not go down well with his fans.

Sonam Kapoor is endearing and gives a free performance. The roles of both, Abhishek and Sonam, are not long and good enough to befit the hero and heroine’s characters. Both have relatively small roles. Waheeda Rehman is lovable. Om Puri and Pawan Malhotra play the estran­ged brothers very ably. Supriya Pathak and Sheeba Chaddha play the two wives of the brothers, with perfect understanding. Aditi Rao, as the un­married sister of Om Puri and Pawan Malhotra, is nice. Rishi Kapoor makes his presence felt in a small role. Atul Kulkarni is superb. Vijay Raaz does a splendid job. Divya Dutta is also effective. Akhilendra Mishra impres­ses with his ‘okay’ dialogue, ably emulated by Atul Kul­karni later. Daya­shankar Pandey is fine. Tanvi Azmi is good in a brief role. Deepak Dobriyal is excellent. K.K. Raina is effective. Prem Chopra, Cyrus Sahukar, Indra­jeet Sarkar, Rajat Dhola­kia (as the mentally retarded beggar), Khalid Mohamm­ad, Geeta Agarwal and Geeta Bisht lend the desired support. Amitabh Bach­chan (guest appearance) is wasted. His very presence in the film looks forced. Raghu­bir Yadav has also been wasted.

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s direction caters to the class audien­ce. His understanding of the medium may be good but the same can’t be said of his understanding of the public tastes. His shot compositions and takings are excellent. Note in particular, the scene in which Abhi­shek is rushing his grandmother to the doctor in a hand-manouvred cycle-rickshaw passing through the overcrowded streets of Chandni Chowk and how the mohalla wallahs come to his help. Or the scene in which sweeper girl Jalebi gives strands of her hair to Gobar and asks him to give the same to the tantrik, passing them off as the hair of the monkey man. The undercurrent of tension betwen the estran­ged brothers, the camaraderie bet­ween neighbours, the communal undertones, all these are excellently projected. How­ever, Mehra loses grip on the audience when he meanders into the boring and philosophical territory. In fact, the viewers are at a loss to understand what Mehra wants to convey when he gives a philosophical twist to the drama. Besides testing the audien­ce’s patien­ce, the last few reels also make little sense.

A.R. Rahman’s music is extra­ordinary. The ‘Massakkali’ song is already a rage, having caught the fancy of the nation. The ‘Genda phool’ number is also a super-hit song and its rendition (by Rekha Bhardwaj) only adds to its rustic appeal. ‘Maula mere maula’ has a lot of melody. The other songs are also wonderful. Picturisations of ‘Massakkali’ and ‘Genda phool’ songs are very appealing. The ‘Dil tera’ song, in which New York and old Delhi have been juxtaposed, is truly terrific and a visual treat. Pra­soon Joshi’s lyrics deserve special mention. Binod Pradhan’s camerawork is marvellous. Whether it is the streets of Delhi or the sets, they have been captured splendidly. Dia­logues (Prasoon Joshi) are very real. Action (Allan Amin) is good. P.S. Bharathi’s editing is efficient. Technically, a superior product.

On the whole, notwithstanding its wonderful music, high-budgeted Delhi-6 is too metaphori­cal for the liking of the masses. It will appeal to a section of the multiplex audience in the big cities (mainly of North India, be­cau­se of the North Indian flavour of the film) but that just won’t be enough to cover its heavy cost. It will face rejection by the majority and will, therefore, prove to be a losing fare.

Released on 20-2-’09 at Regal, Eros, New Empire (daily 2 shows), Maratha Mandir and 90 other cinemas of Bombay by UTV Motion Pic­tures. Pub­licity: extraordinary, quantitatively speaking, and fair, quali­tatively speaking. Opening: below average. Also relea­sed all over. Opening was good at places and dull at most others.