Nothing, not even the quirky intelligence of Anurag Kashyap's earlier works could ve prepared us for the stunning beauty of his latest film Dev D. The film is based on Saratchadra Chattopadhyay's doomed young man who drinks himself to death: Devdas,, the quintessential loser protagonist is blinded by a haze of alcohol and ego, is unable to marry his childhood sweetheart.
Dev has always been a brat, the son, the scion, the young Punjabi male. He is the sugar factory owner's son, she, the manager's daughter. The background of the wedding, against which the drama of Dev and Paro's meeting will play out is an another old favorite, all expected, what we do not expect is Paro's blazing outspokenness.
Told a lie about Paro's sexual appetite Dev is driven to rage and according to him a woman must retain her virginity even if the male doesn't. Paro points out this hypocrisy to him with some choicest of words of abuse and liberating candour. After this angry exchange, Paro gets married to a rich widower from Delhi, Dev grabs a bottle of Vodka and drinks himself into senseless stupor.
He runs away to Delhi where he ends up with a sex worker named Chanda, who was once a named as Leni and a daughter of an Indian father and a French-Canadian mother, who goes to college by day and lives the other life by night.
Amit Trivedi's superb music is integral to the film, the 18 compositions add layers of texture and mood. "Emotional Atyachar" in its first band version is raunchy and hilarious. but the rock version is intriguing and accompanies Dev on the road to self destruction that remains with us.
Kashyap has said that he believes in second chances and so should we all. But at the end Dev is a rhetoric.....just into the one way mirror
