Movie Review: ‘Delhi - 6’

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Review of ‘Delhi 6’, 20th Feb 09
Posted by Neha Aggarwal
February 19, 2009

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Rokeysh Omprakash Mehra made two movies earlier – Aks and Rang De Pasanti – the latter sweeping the mass appeal and a box office hit. Now the same director brings out his third movie “Delhi 6” and already the film has started sending ripples among critics and expectations of “Bollywood” movie lovers. It is said that Omprakash Mehra has made this film, based upon his own growing up as a lad of Chandni Chowk area of Old Delhi.

The story moves around a young man from the foreign soil to his family roots in Old Delhi. Incidentally the Postal Code Number of Old Delhi is 110006 and the title “Delhi 6” denotes old Delhi conversely. Abishek Bachan (son of the greatly popular Amitabh Bachchan of Indian Cinema) is the hero Roshan – an Indian-American guy. His grand mother (Waheeda Rahman) is ailing and wants to be at her native place, Chandni Chowk of Old Delhi, at the time she breathes her last. Just to fulfill the last wish of his beloved grandmother, the hero takes a trip from America to India, least knowing that what was planned as a quick-trip (for the very first time to India) would meet with many developments and thrills to end well.

Once reaching Delhi with his grandmother, the hero meets Bittu (Sonam Kapoor) a beautiful girl and daughter of a neighbor. This being the first visit of his to India, everything that takes place in India, that is Delhi with its rituals, the religious beliefs, the food, the culture and friendly attitude of people fascinates him. But as he sees the hypocritical tendency of his neighbors, in concealing their evil side behind a friendly mask, Hindu Muslim religious riots, attributed to a phantom figure “Black Monkey” and every other thing an American can see in India, he gets upset. How he resolves all his problems is rest of the story you can watch on the silver screen.

The supporting roles of Rishi Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Om Puri, Divya Dutta, Tanvi Azmi, Supriya Pathak and Pavan Malhotra are accomplished by the artists finely. The fans of Hindi Hero Abhishek Bachchan and Bollywood buffs await the release of the film in India on 20th February.

Now some of the inside stories doing rounds about the much awaited film are – Director Omprakash Mehra, during the early stages of development of the film wanted to introduce new faces for the lead roles and changed his mind due to commercial compromises. Headlines about frequent changes of choices for the hero appeared in News reports – first with Hrithik Roshan set to play the hero, but was dropped out due to scheduling problems. Then Akshay Kumar was considered and the idea was dropped as he refused. The ultimate cast, Abhishek Bachchan got the nod and later Mehra stated that he was his first choice.

On December 20, 2007 the film started production and grew, but Mehra said he was not involved in the editing of the film. At the Dubai International Film Festival, the movie unveiled first and following the screening, the director and the cast of the film answered questions from the audience.

Februay13 was the date originally the movie was scheduled to be released, but consequent to the release of another much talked about film “Billu Barber” on that date, to avoid conflict the release date was rescheduled to February 20. But the premier screen went off at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, on 15th February.

A.R. Rehman, the first Indian Music Composer to win the prestigious Golden Globes for his numbers in “Slumdog Millionaire” and has been recommended for 3 Oscar Awards , has done music to the film “Delhi 6”. The music tracks and sound tracks were released on 14th January at the Indian Idol 4 competition. Since then positive reviews are pouring about the songs of “Delhi 6” (Prasoon Joshi is the lyricist).

The first video of the song “Masakalli” featuring Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam with a pigeon was released. This song is not there in the original film. The Director reasoned out later about the cut-off, as a song about a dove will not fit in a film like “Delhi 6” and only after nearing the climax scene shooting he realized it.

A load of positive reviews about Rehman’s album release have come up and here are few excerpts –

“Delhi 6 – is as rich, just as powerful, and just as awe-inspiring, as his work in Slumdog Millionaire. As we take the timeless stroll down the streets of Delhi-6, let us rejoice the phenomenon that is Rehmania”

“Delhi 6 is near perfect. If one thought that Slumdog Millionaire, Ghajini and Jane Tu Ya Jaane Na were superb, then listen to Delhi 6 once.”

“Rehman beats his own score with Delhi 6, which would easily go down as one of his best scores till date.”

With such encouraging reviews, fans are anxious to see for themselves what is in store for them in “Delhi 6”.