Dev D

Do you remember those Doordarshan days? When even the best efforts to create awareness among people (w.r.t. population control, safe sex, female contraceptives etc ) went absolutely hay-wire just because the India was not ready to accept the fact that the word Sex could ever make a respectable and meaninful sense. Either the TV was muted, or the kids were sent to bring water or the newspaper to kill those moments when such advertisements were aired.

Gone are the days, and the Liberalization braught with it an acceptable view point about the word 'Sex', and if not acceptable at least it made so much noise about Sex that no one remained untouched with the word. Good or Bad, but at least such ads are acceptable and even if the TV remote is handy, we try not to change the channel.

With Globalization and Liberalization being a part of our day-to-day life since more than a decade, its easy to find people expressing themselves more and more openly than ever. And Dev-D being one those expressions in the market these days. No wonder, the director has picked up all the clues from the contemporary society and a backbone which dates back to the original Devdas written by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhay.

Dev is one among us who grows up in an India going through the phase of transformation, and tries to maintain a mix of both within him. Paro and Chandramukhi of this setup belong to different ages, and Dev finds its difficult to match up to the change offered to him.

Dev-D is fully loaded with Free Sex, Drugs, alchohol, prostitutes, scandals, promiscious relations, skin show, and rich brats. But aren't these elements a way of India's collective hypocracy? Pick up anything shown in this movie and you would be surprised to note that none of them are unknown to the Indian society. Either the MMS scandal, Hit and Run episode, or the PaharGanj for its 'jugaad', everything which we might (and bound to) term as a taboo has been picked up from the real-life and are very much functional even today. So whats a taboo then?

Devdas, since ages and across all the movies spawned around the idea has always been treated as someone who chooses death as a part of his destiny. Devdas always dies for his mistake (you remember that dilaogue - 'You drink till death'). But this movie gives a refreshing break to the old setup and makes him choose life for the first time ever. Such a positive break-away from the old setup would not have been possible unless these were the times of Liberal thoughts. And I welcome this movie as one which is heralding the liberal thoughts.

[Points to look forward to in the movie - Emotional Atyachar and the youngest and the most sensible Deol ever].

Dev D trailer video below.....