Ever wondered why there are people selling pop corn, outside a theatre?! Well, that’s because they are too bored to go in and watch the movie. Take one look at Devdas and you will feel like doing the same.
Sanjay Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’ is a heart wrenching saga alright, the only thing being that at the end of the film, you don’t know whom to feel more sorry for, Devdas or yourself!
50 crores, ahem, that was said to be the budget of the film, and I’m willing to bet on Aishwarya Rai’s extra large wig, that half the amount would have been spent on buying glycerine bottles. Crying, that seems to be the sole aim of everybody in the movie, which naturally has a rub off effect on the audience, who ofcourse cry for totally different reasons.
Shahrukh Khan plays the Oxford returned Devdas who for the full length of the film, is content in wearing lemon couloured dhotis and who after spending 14 years in England, manages to learn only one English word – “Yeah!”(Which incidentally is American accented)
The picture perfect Aishwarya Rai, who doesn’t believe in plaiting her hair, even while dancing in her courtyard, looks suspiciouly like an orionthologist, as she goes around peeking into the house of her foregin returned neighbour.
Ektaa Kapoor, it seems has a mentor in Sarat Chandra, the novelist, as the character’s of Devdas’s mother and sisiter in law, will give all the modern day saas’s a run for their money. The story of the three hour ordeal, if told in a line would be, childhood friends, not allowed to marry and a third angle being introduced to distract the fidgity audience.
Chandramukhi, the slightly overweight dancer, appears in the second reel of the film and falls for the drunken gaze, garbled speech Devdas and begins to take care of him, like she were a Red cross volunteer. Before, this ofcourse, she prances in circles, crooning “maar daala” inadvertently killing half the theatre.
For those who manage to survive, the next one dozen scenes show Aishwarya Rai in and out of her haveli, Devdas’s house and her own, like she were on roller skates.
Kiron Kher, Paaro’s mom, who also stanchly ahere’s to the ‘Open hair philosophy’ ought to feature in the Limca Book of records, for being the first over 40, actress, to steal a full song and dance, right under the pointed noses of Madhuri and Aishwarya. Her character that vows revenge in the beginning, seems bored(like the audience) to carry it out, or even appear in the second half.
Paaro, who for 14 years, thinks nothing of wasting kerosene, by keeping alight a lamp for the dubious Devdas, in a fit of amnesia, forgets about her great love story and dances the length and breath of an overcrowded hall, with Chandramukhi, like they were school mates meeting up.
Yet the end, of this movie, is particularly poignant and you actually need to reach into your pocket for a hanky, to stop yourself from sniffing. But this sniffing ofcourse, is like the grand finale, for the tear gland exercise, that the Director made the audience, the actors and Abu Salem go through(He’s still sniffing, poor guy!) Milind Gunaji, as the lecherous brother in law, badly needs his beard trimmed and Jackie Shroff with his nonsensical limericks, only irritates. So that way, Devdas, the film can be seen, only if you enjoy watcing the background of every scene, while dabbing your cheeks alternately. Or else, you can always join me, in selling Pop corn!