Wah! Kya emational atyachar!

Dev D is supposed to be a modern day take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhayay’s classic Bengali novel Devdas. Anurag Kashyap claimed he did not want the film to look like a modernized version of Devdas (2002) by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. But for all we know, after the disastrous No Smoking, he needed to prove his worth as a director in the Indian Film Industry. And so he did!

The film is an offbeat, which seems like the usual masala but steers clear from the predictable demise of the main protagonist. Ideologically, the movie dives into the terrain of liberated female sexuality, his representation of a woman today. It did manage to create hype and lived up to its expectations. In the film, the three main characters – Dev, Paro and Chanda, are portrayed as strong, resilient; belonging to this generation entangled in the web of love, lust and ego. The characters of Paro, the village girl and Chanda, the innocent girl caught up in the famous MMS scandal of Delhi Public School, were shown to be sexually confident. The desire to ‘do it’ with a virgin female, a sad Indian male trait and the angst that of a women when termed as ‘infidel slut’ formed the undertone that Anurag wanted to illustrate.

In the movie, Dev ditches Paro as he disapproves the way she conducted herself sexually and doubted her sleeping with other men. Ironically, towards the end he realizes maybe he was never in love with Paro and ends up falling in love with Chanda, who since the beginning of the movie, was an innocent girl turned hooker; the object of fascination for many men who came to her doorstep for satiation. Wasted Dev suddenly realized what he was missing out on!

The concept of the movie was a brainchild of Abhay Deol, which was worked upon by Director Anurag Kashyap. As mentioned earlier, Kashyap did not want to make another remake of any nine previous film versions titled Devdas. He stuck to creating a modern take on the 1917 Bengali classic novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhayay infusing it in a different cultural aspect. Instead of Bengali, he chose the Punjabi culture.

After the failure of No Smoking, the economic effect were also evident on Dev D. Apparently, UTV had given the film a budget of 4 crores and was not happy when it reached to 8 crores. UTV was sacred that Dev D would meet with a similar fate and hence urged Kashyap to change the plot and the characterization; since all of them had grey shades and they did not expect the film would stir emotions. However, Kashyap remained adamant and refused to bow down to this sort of organizational influence.

He had decided he wanted to make his own version to reflect the novel but through the current generation perspective, which he believed, was more relatable to the masses today. His lead character Dev D was a debauching, hypocritical sensualist, who is self - destructive without knowing so. There was a debate about the progressive era the film was set in and it’s implications to which Kashyap explained the disturbing milieu today was in sync with the way he saw the movie to be, macabre and brutally fascinating.

The character of Dev D reflects the director’s life as a student in Delhi who got involved with doing drugs and alcohol and was confused and depressed. The reference was a personal influence put down in characterization. His references of Paro and Chanda, as being sexually and culturally liberal, is his intrinsic proclivity towards what Indians call ‘sluts’. He even wrote a screenplay called ‘The Girl Who’d Sleep with Anyone’. In the movie, he wanted these characters to be as powerful as Dev was.

The film appealed to the youth to an extent that “emotional atyachaar” is now a popular catch phrase. Many instances in the film were picked up from news headlines as the MMS scandal in Delhi Public School and ‘the drunk, rich kid involved in a car accident’ to see what exactly motivates the youth to do what they do. This cases were reasons that the media created wide spread publicity. The commercial influence aspect came in here, which helped the movie cash in on the box office.

Personally, I could relate to it because of the time it has been set in. Ideologically, the movie portrays a milieu, which is very predominant. Fast food, fast cars, fast cash! Where love is confused with lust and vice versa. Where one doesn’t know what they want. Drifting is the name of the game and people live from one high to another; everyone is looking for the next fix.