Dev D

Dev D is one such flight of fancy from the filmmaker that definitely defies all conventions and demolishes all moulds. The director of the film Anurag Kashyap has always been a contrarian filmmaker, consciously steering away from traditional Bollywood with films like Black Friday, Paanch, No Smoking.

Dev D is like that heady cocktail which has the vodka pitched perfectly with the tang. Set against the rich rural backdrop of Punjab and Paharganj (Delhi), the film traces the self-destructive sojourn of a young, contemporary hero who mirrors the existential angst of the proverbial outsider, made legendary in the writings of Satre, Camus, Kafka, Kerouac and the ballads of Kurt Cobain.

But Dev D (Abhay Deol), unlike Devdas, isn't a blast from the past. Dev D is indeed a coming-of-age film, not merely for the protagonist, Devender Singh Dhillon, but it is a brilliant breakthrough for Bollywood too.

It really doesn't matter whether the film ends up as a box office scorcher. What matters is the fact that for the discerning viewer. Anurag Kashyap, however, gets even more adventurous and adds a progressive flourish to both the plot and the characters which are played to perfection by the three lead players.

If Mahi and Kalki are riveting new finds, assured of a long innings in cinema, then Abhay Deol adds a whole new meaning to the term `Unconventional Hero'. Dev D is the class act from the Deol who cleverly flew over the cuckoo's nest.

Dev D is purely a musical love story, with zany numbers like ‘emosanal atyachar', ‘saali khushi', ‘nayan tarse' and many more.