With Junior B, Sonam Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman, Rishi Kapoor, Om Puri and a handful of very competent actors lead by Rakeysh Mehra, the man who directed the heart warming Rang De Basanti, you'd expect another soulful film this time. There is every reason to spend those ten dollars which seem like 100 in this economy to catch this long awaited movie. But sadly, we are let down by a story which is just a set of isolated sketches from the director's personal life without any kind of coherence between the myriad plot lines.
Roshan(Abhishek) is an NRI from America who brings his ailing grandmother to India since she wants to spend her last moments in the country of her birth. So they land up in Delhi 6 or better known as Chandni Chowk. Here he encounters new people, friends and neigbours and becomes a part and not to mention interference in their lives. He observes and learns their lifestyle by capturing all experiences through his camera phone and providing an accompanying and engrossing narration along with it. The characters include a former lover of Roshan's mother, warring brothers, their gossiping wives, a dim witted temple helper, a low caste sweeper, a shrewd money lender and an amiable jalebi wala. There is also the sweet and beautiful Sonam Kapoor who like the dove wants to spread her wings and fly in order to become an Indian idol.
The incidents vary from the mundane to the purely hilarious like the cow in labor pains blocking the traffic because people have gathered around to see it giving birth. Interesting characters and occurences they are but only in fits and starts because therein lies the problem. The director has tried to pack a lot of things in the 2 hours 18 minutes of runtime. It is as if the director is not really sure whether to shoot this movie as a ensemble or connect the story lines. As a result, the story meanders ina desultory manner and each one of the characters remains half baked as my neighbours' choclate chip cookie(sorry Maria aunty, I do love your pizzas though :)) . None of the plot lines have been taken to their apt conclusion.
The second half of the movie hams and gets on the nerves because of its over preaching on communal tensions and caste discrimination. And all this is juxtaposed with the monkey man theories which stretches the climax unbearably to shoddy proportions. The message is sincere but doesn't really hit you hard and gets muddled somewhere in the confetti of characters.
Coming to technical aspects, the bylanes of Delhi have been captured magnificently by Binod Pradhan's lenses. Musically Masakali, Arziyaan and Genda Phool are amazing compositions by Rahman. Unfortunately their impact is diluted by their irregular placement. Songs just start of on their own, at one point 3 songs are thrown on to us back to back. Acting honors due to incomplete outlines go to none. AbhishekBachan who is as much a victim of a bad role as his own poor acting, makes no impact whatsoever. Waheeda Rehman,Om Puri, Pawan Malhotra, Supriya Pathak, Prem Chopra and Deepak Dobriyal just hop in and out playing their roles adequately. Rishi Kapoor and Atul Kulkarni are wasted. Vijay Raaz, Divya Dutta and Sonam Kapoor are the only ones that stick.
Overall, Delhi 6 which starts off at a canter hits a speed breaker so badly that for ninety percent of the movie, it is similar to the traffic halted by the pregnant cow. Cinematography, music and a few hilarious desi garma garam vignettes apart this movie is not recommended. We expected better from the Rang De Basanti guy. And what was that scene from heaven anyway??
Roshan(Abhishek) is an NRI from America who brings his ailing grandmother to India since she wants to spend her last moments in the country of her birth. So they land up in Delhi 6 or better known as Chandni Chowk. Here he encounters new people, friends and neigbours and becomes a part and not to mention interference in their lives. He observes and learns their lifestyle by capturing all experiences through his camera phone and providing an accompanying and engrossing narration along with it. The characters include a former lover of Roshan's mother, warring brothers, their gossiping wives, a dim witted temple helper, a low caste sweeper, a shrewd money lender and an amiable jalebi wala. There is also the sweet and beautiful Sonam Kapoor who like the dove wants to spread her wings and fly in order to become an Indian idol.
The incidents vary from the mundane to the purely hilarious like the cow in labor pains blocking the traffic because people have gathered around to see it giving birth. Interesting characters and occurences they are but only in fits and starts because therein lies the problem. The director has tried to pack a lot of things in the 2 hours 18 minutes of runtime. It is as if the director is not really sure whether to shoot this movie as a ensemble or connect the story lines. As a result, the story meanders ina desultory manner and each one of the characters remains half baked as my neighbours' choclate chip cookie(sorry Maria aunty, I do love your pizzas though :)) . None of the plot lines have been taken to their apt conclusion.
The second half of the movie hams and gets on the nerves because of its over preaching on communal tensions and caste discrimination. And all this is juxtaposed with the monkey man theories which stretches the climax unbearably to shoddy proportions. The message is sincere but doesn't really hit you hard and gets muddled somewhere in the confetti of characters.
Coming to technical aspects, the bylanes of Delhi have been captured magnificently by Binod Pradhan's lenses. Musically Masakali, Arziyaan and Genda Phool are amazing compositions by Rahman. Unfortunately their impact is diluted by their irregular placement. Songs just start of on their own, at one point 3 songs are thrown on to us back to back. Acting honors due to incomplete outlines go to none. AbhishekBachan who is as much a victim of a bad role as his own poor acting, makes no impact whatsoever. Waheeda Rehman,Om Puri, Pawan Malhotra, Supriya Pathak, Prem Chopra and Deepak Dobriyal just hop in and out playing their roles adequately. Rishi Kapoor and Atul Kulkarni are wasted. Vijay Raaz, Divya Dutta and Sonam Kapoor are the only ones that stick.
Overall, Delhi 6 which starts off at a canter hits a speed breaker so badly that for ninety percent of the movie, it is similar to the traffic halted by the pregnant cow. Cinematography, music and a few hilarious desi garma garam vignettes apart this movie is not recommended. We expected better from the Rang De Basanti guy. And what was that scene from heaven anyway??
