***** Please don't think this to be an abuse to the movie... This is the rating that was given to Dev D, the movie by Anurag Kashyap by various film reviewers... A five star rating ... Rang De Basanti didn't deserve it, Taare Zameen per didn't, Jodha Akbar didn't .. But DEV D did...
So what's in the movie that got it a 5 star rating ? Well firstly what would you like to see in a movie ...
As a normal viewer who doesn't care about the cinematography, direction, screenplay etc etc... I would want the movie to have
a) Entertainment value
b) Script
c) Viewer might feel emotionally associated to the movie
d) Adventure, fiction, way of presentation etc
e) Music
Well Dev D doesn't have any of these... It is an extremely boring movie which you would start hating from the time you start seeing it... The director has tried to present the legendary movie Devdaas in a contemporary manner, and in doing so screwed every aspect of Indian culture and youth... I don't understand why on the name of freedom of speech and expression these kinda directors try to show only the dark side of indian youth... The movie is a pity effort to sensationalize one of the most talked about MMS scandle of India. It also feature an ugly representation of a Punjabi lower-middle class girl who doesn't have any shame, and tries to seduce DevD in the middle of a marriage... Meanwhile to use as much masala the director also adds the (in)famous BMW drunken driving case.
Probably many of you would disagree saying that this is what goes on in modern India and is a symbol of the growing, shining, modern India. I agree that these incidences have considerably grown up since the last decade... but to glorify, highlight these in the form of a movie and trying to defend the actual wrong doers would only contribute to the upsurge of such events. There might be many reasons why the Indian youth finds pleasure being intoxicated... but one being the glorification of the characters on the big screen. Union Health minister A Ramadoss urged the Indian cinema to avoid showing start smoking on screen (survey - 52 % children start smoking imitating film starts).
Anyways so question still remains why the movie has got 5 stars... Well I would completely blame the media for creating so much of hype for such a third grade movie. Most surprisingly TOI giving it a five star rating really is a mockery of the people who tend to make an opinion about a movie by reading reviews... All in all, one thing that Anurag Kashyap really does well is to choose absolutely controversial topics, string them into a movie targetting the metro audience, and earn money.
