Trying to be smart,cool and clever is the name of the game in bollywood now a days. Every second movie boasts of a script that is 'clever' or one can say too clever. I really liked few of them i.e.Bhindi Bazaar Inc.,Yeh Saali Zindagi, The Film-Emotional Atyachaar,Utt Patang.But all of these were either small successes or failed at box office due to B or C grade star cast.
Now one of the biggest name of industry Aamir Khan tries the same formula with A grade cast in 'Delhi Belly',where plot is heavily borrowed from cult British films 'Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels' and its unofficial sequel 'Snatch'(the whole 'diamond' angle is photocopied from it) directed by Guy Ritchie.One should not have any problem with this as Aamir copied time and again (remember 'Ghajini',one of the worst remake of iconic Hollywood flick 'Memento' and who can forget disaster 'Mann', remake of another Hollywood classic 'An Affair To Remember') from Hollywood and he always prefers Oscar over any other mainstream Bollywood award so it is clearly known to everyone where his tastes and preferences lie. But then he also produced real gems like 'Taare Zameen Par' and 'Dhobi Ghaat' and not so bad 'Peepli Live' and without doubt he is a smart producer.
'Delhi Belly', one of those films where people frequently step out of character and say inexplicably silly things merely to give other characters in the frame room to react to this comedic full-toss, fire back a smartarsed preset quip, and win the moment. This convenient style -- that takes the challenge away from the character, and robs clever exchanges of their wit -- is however a minor niggle.
But i wonder that how 'Delhi Belly' connects with so called multiplex young urban audience on one level and at the same time many came out of the show in first 15 minutes or at the end of the show singing the number from the same film 'Bhaag Bhaag D.K.Bose' and most of them posted on Facebook that they want their money back which propelled me to write this piece.
As I already stated that anyone, who is watching latest flicks from new directors in last 2 years, is bound to find a sense of Deja Vu while watching 'Delhi Belly' where abusive language,casual kisses,vulgar sexual depiction, shooting and action on streets by college going urban youngsters (remember 'Shaitaan')on the name of 'reality' is a must. I make sure that I watch most of the movies in theaters in order to get pulse and real time reaction of audience. I remember either it was in the case of 'Yeh Saali Zindagi','Bhindi Bazaar Inc' or 'Delhi Belly', every time audience claps or whistles whenever there was any provocative language used or vulgar shots.It reminds one of sleazy songs and double meaning dialogues in Govinda's films in 90's or in Dada Kondke's films in 80's. The only difference in present scenario is that it is more driven by urban and educated crowd.
I was told that 'shit happens July 1' but I thought that the makers were kidding. But now anyone can wonder what is funny when a character is passing gas throughout the movie,when shit is lying on the table or the friends keep on using foul languages even if there is no comic sense in the situation. In 'Delhi Belly',characters petulantly insist on speaking the language even when sanity demands otherwise -- when a gangster is questioning them in Hindi while shoving a gun into the crotch of their pyjamas, for example. And even when English is the obvious choice, the delivery doesn't work. Some very good lines are flat-lined by the way they're delivered,It's actually quite fascinating to see that in the mostly-English version that I saw, all of the laughs came from the Hindi bits.
The matter of fact is that majority of crowd who thinks that 'Delhi Belly' is a path breaking cinema (oh!its nerve cracking for sure) is either the one who is in teens in terms of exposure to cinema (10 or less than 10 years of movie watching experience), has great exposure to adult contents on web or can enjoy anything that is praised by media or peers. For God's sake I don't know a sane man who can listen to this,'She gave me bl*w j*b and I fu**ed' her' or can see a photojournalist casually pinching a woman in brothel.And if this is comedy and that too an intelligent one (as suggested by few leading critics!), I better be dumb.
And in the end, I just want to add that with power comes the great responsibility and that applies to Aamir. He is in a position where whatever he produces is bound to get eyeballs but he needs to be cautious because making adult film with A grade stars is a very commercially viable business (Hollywood has proven it time and again and in India too, bold content is here to stay) but to decide the limit is tough because 'JO CHHAKKA ZYADA UDATA HAI USE 'CHHAKKA' HI KEHTE HAIN' ARTIST NAHIN' (dedicated to humor of 'Delhi Belly').
