Cast-Rahul Bhat, Richa Chaddha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Saurabh Shukla, Vipin Sharma, Anurag Kashyap, Dalip Tahil, Sohaila Kapur, Vineet Kumar Singh, Anil George
Director- Sudhir Mishra
Writers- Sudhir Mishra, Jaydeep Sarkar, Shubhra Chatterji
Is a political thriller with love angle between Dev and Paro set in today’s time.
It’s another one in the long list of adaptations of the classic Dev Das with a reverse twist and hues of Shakespeare thrown in.
I would say that that it was quite ambitious on Sudhir Mishra ‘s part to write this cocktail of love, jealousy, treachery, ambitions, greed and violence. Indian political scenario is something that always allures our film makers, for ,its warps and wefts provide a perfect base to create any artwork around it. But its execution that decides if the product that turns out is average or great.
Dev( Rahul Bhatt) is the scion of a powerful political family but completely good for nothing and deep in drugs and alcohol. He’s in love with Paro(Richa Chadha) whose father, Nawal Singh (Anil George) is a loyalist to the political family but side-lined for political differences. Saurabh Shukla plays Avdesh ,Dev ‘s uncle and head of the political family.
SK ( Dilip Tahil ) is business/political associate/trouble shooter for Avdesh. SK ‘s aide Chandni (Aditi Rao) has been given the task of getting Dev back on the tracks and hone him & guide him for his political career.
Also a part of this milieu , are Ramashray (Vipin Sharma) ,a political rival who eventually marries Paro (no spoiler here .. we all know Paro had to get married to someone else ) .His nephew Vineet Kumar (Mukkabaaz fame) also fancies Paro. Anurag Kashyap in a guest appearance plays Dev ‘s father.
As expected from a story set in this backdrop of politics, it has all the twists and turns of deceits, lies and treachery. You get to see the fixings and power broking in its glory. We have an impressive ensemble cast adorning all the characters big or small .The story manages to keep you hooked with its thrills and since it’s an adaptation, it’s fun to keep guessing the next twist considering the originals in mind. Many a times you would reminisce Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti which had a similar set up as backdrop. But of course that film was much superior in all aspects.
Disappointingly the screenplay was not able to rise beyond the average. Despite having a great plot and a fine set of actors , I would call it lacking on Sudhir Mishra ‘s part that the movie was not as impressive as it could have been .
The biggest flaw to remark upon is the lack of passion in the three lead characters. Whatever the adaptation, passion has to be an intrinsic part pf Dev,Paro and Chandramukhi (whatever be the avatars) .
For want of better writing of their characters or their own lacking, Rahul Bhatt and Richa were very average in their performance.
Aditi did bring some intrigue as well emotions to her character.
Saurabh Shukla (everyone ‘s favourite), Anil George (last seen in Baboomushai Bandookbaaz , Mardani ) ,Vineet Kumar Singh ,Vipin Sharma (most remembered for Tare Zameen Par ) have all played well here. I would have to say they are capable of much more than what they delivered here but were a pleasure to watch nevertheless.
Music was impressive. Some of the tracks were great. There was a varied collection by Atif Aslam, Rekha Bhardwaj, Swanand Kirkire , Javed Bashir.
The punjabi number by Javed Bashir and one by Swanand were very earthy and melodious .
Not all movies are meant to wow you. Sometimes it’s enough if they keep you hooked and entertained. This is one of those . It could be a good one time watch. A political thriller, with good actors and good music is not a bad idea after all .
Score 7 on 10