Delhi Belly! What a ridiculously funny and thoroughly enjoyable movie! Another feather in the cap of AK Productions! Its difficult to make a movie of the genre that boasts of classics like Pulp Fiction, Lock,Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. After all, trying to emulate Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino is not a mean task! There's every chance of falling flat on your face. But director Abhinay Deo and writer Akshat Verma perform a fine job of not only sketching a loony story but also fleshing it out on screen with aplomb! Delhi Belly is pathbreaking for Hindi cinema for rarely have you heard such irreverent dialogue delivered so nonchalantly by mainstream actors in a supposedly indie film produced by a leading production house and released in all major centres across India and the world.Technically, the movie is fine with some razor-sharp editing, stupendous background score, great art direction and a deadly mix of subtle as well as in-your-face dialogue which basically elevates the movie several notches above regular comedies dished out by Bollywood. The music by Ram Sampath is creative and top-notch to say the least with almost all tracks including D K Bose, Jaa Chudail, Switty, Nakkadwaley Disco and the egregiously named I Hate You (Like I Love You) scoring on the ears as well as the eyes. Direction is spot on and although the movie starts off slow, it picks up pace pretty soon and doesnt slow down till the very end.
Of the cast, almost everyone does a near-perfect job. Imran Khan is excellent in the main protagonist's role. Vir Das is brilliant as the poker-faced sidekick while Kunal Roy Kapoor gets a crucial role which he plays with a lot of character. Aamir Khan was interested in playing this role when he read the script and although its a pity he couldnt, since it would have taken a lot of time to put on weight for the film, Kunal makes sure that doesnt have any negative impact. Poorna Jagannathan is hawt in an unconventional female lead while Shenaz is competent. The real scene-stealer though is Vijay Raaz with his wonderfully nuanced and understated act. There are plenty of actors who perform bit roles and have their 15 seconds of fame on screen viz. the "loondry" guy and the pervert landlord. Aamir Khan makes a "Look-I-made-an-insane-movie-and-still-made-you-enjoy-it" appearance in the end in the delightfully choreographed number with the zazzy Anusha Dandekar, which is like a tight slap in the face for the audience - a gift from AK Productions to you - which hurts and still feels good!
Delhi Belly is a fun, well-made movie, and while it may not be the best we have seen this year - Dhobi Ghaat, 7 Khoon Maaf and Yeh Saali Zindagi were probably better products - it is for sure something new and immensely enjoyable. As long as you dont shy away from a few expletives and some toilet humor, go get your dose of gross!
6 comments:
"Look-I-made-an-insane-movie-and-still-made-you-enjoy-it".. perfecto it is :D
Baap manus ahe Aamir Khan! :)
@shantanu:
why aamir becomes face everything he is part of & gets all credit for its success. :O
he was just producer for gods sake. He is probably finest actor in Bollywood. Here, please, give credit where its due: dialogue writers. Without dialogues of that quality this movie would have been forgettable copy of snatch.
For me it was 3.5/5. Sadly, Aamir-touch-hype is here to stay for long time to come....
Dude...please read the post again! Due credit has been given to everyone including the writer, director, music director and actors among others. And the reason for mentioning Aamir Khan is because it takes a lot of courage and conviction to back an unconventional movie and give someone the liberty of making it. I guess you are not familiar with the story of how Delhi Belly got made.
The writer of the film - Akshat Verma - lives in LA and had written the script 7-8 years ago. He had sent it to AK productions and it lay there for a year or two along with hundreds of others. One day, Kiran Rao happened to pick a few scripts at random from the pile lying in Aamir's office and of those 3-4, she loved this one as she found herself laughing hard multiple times. She recommended the script to Aamir, who as usual took his own sweet time to get convinced and finally decided to produce it. He contacted Akshat and put together the entire team, as a result of which the movie got made! Now if you still say he doesnt deserve any credit for the movie, coz "He's just the producer for God's sake!", I dont have much else to say. :) Again, I have never said in the post he deserves ALL credit, everyone did their job fabulously. But he sure does deserve credit for backing the project, getting it started and most importantly for the impeccable and well-directed marketing which ensured the target audience was reached.
Like the title u have given to this post...apt for the movie :)
Thanks Anu!
Post a Comment