Daas Dev
Rated: 7/10
If there is Devdas, Hamlet and Sudhir Mishra embedded in the film, would it not mean that there are lofty ambitions that the movie and its maker savour? Daas Dev is built up wantonly on these there distinctly different pillars and tries to find a balance despite the vast distance of genres that it straddles and moulds.
The delightful thing about the film, however, is that it does not take these names in vain and using “inspirational value” from all the three concocts a syrupy political thriller that is high on energy, engaging and never out of sequence. That is Mishra’s cinematic acumen but also the over-confidence of pulling it through at play.
Having said that, the old world and simplistic Sharat Chandra may turn in his grave at this interpretation of his superhero of doom Devdas who has, incidentally, seen close to 15 incarnations on the Indian screen in various languages. Dev D interpreted it the modern way for the first time. Though the film on its own was an uneasy mount that tugged at your interest in a negative kind of way, Daas Dev is aggressively modern, political and full of the screechy white energy of power and intrigue.
As Mishra promotes his film as a take-off on the novel Devdas, you are compelled to constantly compare the characters and the situation but fact is that they are all different from the original as chalk from cheese. Paro (Richa Chaddha) is a plain Jane wearing a post-modern garb of slit dresses and red lipstick, taking salwar kurta and pitaji-mataji breaks in between. Chandramukhi (Aditi Rao Hydari as Chanda) is ethereal in looks, power-hungry and yet an empty shell of personal disappointments and loneliness trying to find her want in an exploitative world of politicians and contractors.
And Devdas holds the unscrupulous political legacy which flowers in the crime-ridden Hindi heartland of mining mafia and land sharks, deriving its sweat and blood from familial murders, benami properties, power brokering and everything that makes people sub-human. Alcohol gets a high with drug injects to make Devdas a total loser, not so much in love but in his overall circumstances. Shakespeare takes charge of the uncle angle and there is nothing that is not ugly in this political family which Devdas has to handle, of course with failure, disappointment and loss.
As a political thriller, the film towers and keeps you compelled to be with the unfolding story. But as a Devdas makeover, it fails on many counts. There is little or no chemistry between the three characters – Richa, Rahul and Aditi. This is something which goes totally against the grain of the novel and its spirit. Other than that, Daas Dev is a good, well-paced, tightly edited and well crafted thriller.
Saurabh Shukla as the uncle is the high point of the film and peps it up whenever he visits the screen. Wish there was more of him. Other characters live up to the landscape well and are fleshed out aptly. Dilip Tahil does his bit with minimum fuss. Aditi is good with her big vacant eyes telling her own story of doom. Richa is neither here nor there as Paro. Rahul does his best to bring in the glazed look but is so pre-occupied with his alcohol-ecstasy injects into his personality that he forgets to weave in the essential romance that was meant to be the DNA of his persona.
So, if you see Daas Dev with just the straightjacket of a modern day political thriller, you will like it. Of course, Sharat Chandra won’t, Shakespeare just might and Mishra will.
Source: The Pioneer, 29 April, 2018