Monday, July 29, 2002
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas gave me some food for thought besides a splitting headache and a bout of nausea.
1. If Bhansali’s film is supposed to be well-researched, then how come Aishwarya Rai — in the role of a zamindar’s wife — flings all inhibitions to the wind and launches into the “Dola re Dola” number with Madhuri Dixit, a courtesan of all people. I thought zamindar wives in those times would have been more circumspect about exhibiting their dancing talents so freely.
2. Why does Jackie Shroff’s character Chunni Lal flit on and off screen? Shouldn’t the character have been defined more clearly?
3. Why did the characters mouth all those inanities in Bengali? Shouldn’t the director have ensured that they at least they got the pronunciation right? And for God’s sake, Bongs don’t screech “eeessshhh” all the time!
4. Why were the sets so garish? Everybody was calling them ‘opulent’. My foot. ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ was opulent, this just showed a lack of good taste.
5. Also will Mr Bhansali ask his cinematographers to stop taking those bird’s-eye-view shots of whirling skirts. They had novelty value in ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’. Now, they look repetitive
6. Can Shah Rukh please take a break from movies and spare us the irritation of seeing perfectly good roles being done to death by him?
7. I didn’t know that the red light area in Kolkata used to be lit up like Disneyland in those times.
8. Also, did you notice, Devdas seemed to be spilling more liquor that he was actually drinking.
9. If there is a prize for ‘Worst Adapted Screenplay’, then Devdas deserves it for perverting Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s passionate love story.
10. And what was such a pathetic film doing in Cannes. Wouldn’t ‘Chandni Bar’ have been a better choice?
1. If Bhansali’s film is supposed to be well-researched, then how come Aishwarya Rai — in the role of a zamindar’s wife — flings all inhibitions to the wind and launches into the “Dola re Dola” number with Madhuri Dixit, a courtesan of all people. I thought zamindar wives in those times would have been more circumspect about exhibiting their dancing talents so freely.
2. Why does Jackie Shroff’s character Chunni Lal flit on and off screen? Shouldn’t the character have been defined more clearly?
3. Why did the characters mouth all those inanities in Bengali? Shouldn’t the director have ensured that they at least they got the pronunciation right? And for God’s sake, Bongs don’t screech “eeessshhh” all the time!
4. Why were the sets so garish? Everybody was calling them ‘opulent’. My foot. ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ was opulent, this just showed a lack of good taste.
5. Also will Mr Bhansali ask his cinematographers to stop taking those bird’s-eye-view shots of whirling skirts. They had novelty value in ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’. Now, they look repetitive
6. Can Shah Rukh please take a break from movies and spare us the irritation of seeing perfectly good roles being done to death by him?
7. I didn’t know that the red light area in Kolkata used to be lit up like Disneyland in those times.
8. Also, did you notice, Devdas seemed to be spilling more liquor that he was actually drinking.
9. If there is a prize for ‘Worst Adapted Screenplay’, then Devdas deserves it for perverting Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s passionate love story.
10. And what was such a pathetic film doing in Cannes. Wouldn’t ‘Chandni Bar’ have been a better choice?
