Very well executed

Let's be realistic.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Saw few minutes and gave up in disgust. There is a shot of this moron couple kissing in a chicken factory where chickens are caged up in miserable conditions. Saw few minutes and gave up in disgust. There is a shot of this moron couple kissing in a chicken factory where chickens are caged up in miserable conditions. Saw few minutes and gave up in disgust. There is a shot of this moron couple kissing in a chicken factory where chickens are caged up in miserable conditions. Saw few minutes and gave up in disgust. There is a shot of this moron couple kissing in a chicken factory where chickens are caged up in miserable conditions.

This movie has given me hope about Indian cinema. This is post modern Indian cinema. Anurag Kashyap demonstrates that it is possible to make a slick modern day cinema with characters that are very Indian. No need to resort to copying scenes from Hollywood big budget John Woo style movies to give movies a modern look. Dev D's India is modern India. Don't get me wrong. This is not an attempt to make a movie with a message or a moral. This is storytelling the way stories should be told. No overacting, not too many cinematic liberties, no in your face emotions. But you still feel the pain of the characters and maybe (if you have had dark moments in life) you can even relate to them.This is also not completely realistic. There are many surreal and psychedelic moments which have been appropriately depicted using interesting camera angles and even more interesting background score.Amit Trivedi's music is without precedence. The entire 18 song soundtrack can stand on its own independent of the movie. Yet in the movie the music is seamless except for maybe a few tracks which needed to grab your attention.The direction is excellent, realistic, almost flawless. The acting is superb. Especially Abhay Deol as Dev.All in all a movie worth more than one viewing. If you want to enjoy the direction, watch it at least twice.

Now that's a tall order when the film in question centers around the most boring, uni-dimensional character Indian literature could have possibly produced – the alcoholic, self-destructive romantic, Devdas. Add to that the fact that at least three Hindi films have already transported Devdas' tragic story to the screen.Still, director Anurag Kashyap's Dev D, is a fresh, original take on the subject and the characters, but it's also a long and tiresome film that is not for the fainthearted.Rooted in the real and the contemporary, Kashyap's film stars Abhay Deol as Dev, an aimless Benjamin Braddock-like drifter who returns home to Punjab after a graduation abroad, but has little in terms of future plans, except for getting into the sack with his childhood friend Paro, with whom he's spent many a long night talking dirty on the phone. On learning that she might have had a promiscuous past, Dev rejects Paro and her advances, driving her to marry a man she doesn't love, and landing himself in a downward spiral of booze and drugs and whores.Kashyap takes the basic structure of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's original story, but in setting it in the now, updates much of the film's narrative, and makes the characters' actions and motivations more relatable. So you get a back-story to the Chanda character, the hooker Dev hooks up with in his desperate, despondent phase; and sex itself becomes the invisible but omnipresent motivation that drives many an important plot-point.In its first forty odd minutes Dev D sucks you into its drama, shocking you with its brazenness, and more specifically with Kashyap's audacious re-imagination of the plot and its characters.Take that scene in which Paro (played by newcomer Mahie Gill) sends for Dev to join her in a dense field so they can get down to doing what they've been unsuccessfully trying to do for some days. Watch the manner in which she virtually attacks a reluctant Dev into submission; and then the following scene in which she heads back home, mattress folded and tied on her cycle, after Dev spurns her overtures.Watch also the fantastic song Yeh meri zindagi hai and the inventive manner in which Kashyap uses it to introduce Lenny (played by newcomer Kalki Koechlin), the character who goes on to become Chanda.But from the moment Dev's descent into despair begins, the audience too plunges into what seems like a never-ending roller-coaster ride of loud clanging music, neon lights and head-spinning camera moves. Using music instead of dialogue is a unique and interesting narrative tool, but song-after-song-after-song-after-song your patience wears thin.The film's second half is indulgent and repetitive to the point of being excessive, as it focuses much of its attention on Chanda; and let down by a disappointing performance and stilted dialogue delivery by Koechlin, it never really regains the momentum or the sheer bravura of its early parts.In comparison to Koechlin, Mahie Gill makes a more assured debut as Paro, investing both vulnerability and a cocksure attitude into her character. But it's Abhay Deol who's the real scene-stealer, holding together the film with a fearless performance that is so rare to find.Despite the clever new approach and its stylish telling, the flaw that hurts the film ultimately, is the fact that Devdas is never an engaging enough character and his story lacks soul. Speaking purely for myself, I was bored watching him repeatedly drown himself in drink and drugs. Self destruction is never an attractive quality.I'm going with two out of five and an average rating for director Anurag Kashyap's Dev D. It's one of those films that's likely to either dazzle you or drain you. There is no middle option. Watch it, and decide for yourself.

Dev.D, Anurag Kashyap's contemporary take on Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's classic novel Devdas is simply extraordinary. Kashyap's direction is excellent and his interpretation of the original story is a perfect example of how creative and artistic an adaptation of this sort can be. The film is set partly in Punjab and partly in Delhi and captures the atmosphere of both places with precision. Kashyap masterfully portrays the effervescence, colourfulness and rusticity of the rural Punjab areas from one side, and then explores the morbid and dark reality of the urban Delhi. The film is very realistic and aspects which contribute to this include the simple writing, the slick editing and cinematography and the natural acting. It deals with such themes as sexuality, love, drugs, prostitution, self-destruction, and complex relationships. The film's fast-paced narrative style, which includes authentic dialogues, serious proceedings and many many songs (all of which are lovely, modern, and appropriately selected), is very unique and matter-of-fact. Abhay Deol stars as a modern-day Devdas, and he does an excellent job. He shows Dev's confusion, complacence, gradual ruin, and later his self-acceptance and coming to terms, with conviction and depth. Kashyap introduces two young girls in the leading roles. Mahie Gill is the first, and she is first-rate in her debut performance as Paro - very believable and impulsive. Kalki Koechlin is less impressive at first, but grows on you as the story goes by. At some points in the initial portions it looks like she's struggling with her lines, but in the second half, she confidently turns into a charming young lady and ultimately leaves a mark. The film's ending is fantastic and unexpected. To sum it up, Dev.D is Kashyap's gem. It is a prime quintessence of Hindi cinema's capability and coming-of-age. I recommend you to watch it.