Dev D
Back again, blogging after almost after 2 months! You know these end semester exams – they suck the life out of you.
So, I am gonna write about none other than my favorite theme – ‘cinema n music’.
This time around, I must say that I am heavily impressed by the work of Amit Trivedi – the musician behind the Bollywood flick ‘Dev D’ –a modern retake on the classic Bengali novel- ‘Devdas’. This movie begs to differ from the dragging attire of the previous 7 movie versions ,been made and remade by different filmmakers, depicting their interpretations of the original classic by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.The last one had Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit in the lead roles and was directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
But Anurag Kashyap, the director of Dev D, stands out with a complete makeover that is very bold in nature and is highly contemporary. I happened to watch this movie only recently and I must admit that I was jolted by the brilliance of this man. The same old theme, comes wrapped up in a new fabric, and it’s the frank attitude of its storyline that surprised me the most. Combined with the brilliant performances by Abhay Deol,Mahi Gill and Kalki Koechlin in lead roles, this movie is in my favorite list now.
You can read the plot of the movie from Wikipedia. Here’s the link : Dev D
Sorry, as always, I got deviated from the main thing -> the music of Dev D. Man, oh man! I must confess that the music album of Dev D simply rocks, comprising of 18 tracks – all different from each other as black is to white. The album has tracks belonging to different genres – hard rock,blue,Punjabi bhangra, folk, rap, band-baja, world music & almost everything else under the Sun, all amalgamated together by an outstanding musician in Amit Trivedi . I’ve not heard this name until recently, when Rohith told me that a track from the recent movie ‘Wake up Sid’ – the song is ‘Iktara’ – is done by Amit Trivedi. The song was really nice, but after listening to the tracks of Dev D, I really got a taste of what this guy is really capable of.
Personally, my favorites are – ‘Nayan tarase’ , ‘Pardesi’ , ’Saali Khushi’ , ‘Aankh micholi’ and the crazy smash hit ‘Emosanal atyachaar’ that has become a cult in itself. I am simply addicted to them and the reason is nothing else but the immense creativity & freshness that you can sense even if you are not that much into music. I don’t know whether everyone would be equally impressed as I am, but I am already a fan of Amit Trivedi and am looking forward to more of his work. You can listen to the tracks for free from http://www.in.com – here’s the link : Dev D songs
LAA : L'Aventure Ambiguë 
Couldn’t agree with you more.
And Guess what?…he’s goin to come up with more soon…new albums with fresh tracks are in the makin…lets savour the song!!
The story of Devdas is a ready-made platform for endless psycho-analysis and study of contemporary social framework. The original tale relied on the notions of platonic love whereas Dev D is about physical love. It relies on on-face shock value! Devdas is a coward who is defeated by the social prejudices and carries the guilt throughout his life. He drinks in order to forget his cowardice. Dev D and all the other characters of Kashyap’s tale aren’t influenced by the social norms. Both stories thereby reflecting their specific era.
The character sketching is unique. Dev is played to near perfection by Abhay Deol, whose performance is quiet and confident. Paro (Mahie Gill) is no more the sacrificial damsel who lives physically and mentally with different men. Kashyap also maintains the audience’s distance from the characters using the brilliance in script and smooth editing. He never allows us to sympathize with the characters, thereby shifting the focus from one to the other- a rare work of imagery, indeed!
I strongly feel Kashyap could have gone with a better actress for Chanda (Kalki Koechlin). Chanda’s part was not exploited well. The psychological impact of the whole mms incident on her which leads to the suicide of her father never showed up. It was a perfect opportunity to tell the world about the feelings of a girl, and all the hardships she goes through because of one mms!
Visit- http://souravroy.com/