http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/delhi-6-film-review-1004010568.story
VENICE -- Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's "Delhi 6" is a slightly
different version from the one that opened in India some weeks ago.
Mehra calls it a "director's cut" that he felt compelled to exercise
after releasing his movie. The change may not exactly go well with an
Indian audience used to seeing feel good and lived-happily-ever-after
endings.
The film could have certainly had a tighter script, for
it takes a long time to come to the point. Too many characters flit in
and out of the screen, and in the end they appear two-dimensional and
rather flat. Mehra and the other writers probably wanted to present a
kaleidoscopic view of old Delhi (the 6 in the title represents the
area's pin code), where the story is set, replete with the local
flavors, bickerings and general pandemonium.
Roshan (played by
Abhishek Bachchan) is an Indian-American who escorts his grandmother
(brilliantly essayed by Waheda Rehman, one of India's most talented
actresses), who wishes to die in the land she was born. Roshan is soon
caught in the web of his relatives' petty quarrels and larger political
rivalries that have communal connotations.
The fact that his mother is Muslim and father Hindu makes it somewhat
uncomfortable for the neighborhood to accept him without reservations.
And when he begins to show an interest in Bittu (Sonam Kapoor) -- who
is so desperate to break out of the conventional shackles that she is
even willing to elope with a scoundrel -- we know there is trouble
brewing.
Unfortunately, Mehra jumps from a small, intimate ring
into a large broad-based one by introducing caste-based politicians and
a devilish though fictional character in the form of a black monkey
that is out to rape women and loot property. It is into this trap that
Roshan walks in, his American upbringing making him incapable of
understanding the conspiratorial mood in "Delhi 6." The multiplicity of
events and the last scene where Abhishek and Amitabh Bachchan are
talking (most likely in Heaven) are absolutely bizarre.
A.R.
Rahman's music is certainly not his best, and the editing that appears
in such a tearing hurry to push each shot away does little to give a
real feel of the situations or the characters. In the end, "Delhi 6"
remains just a bird's eye-view of a locality with men and events
disappearing as fast they appear.
Rahman fever
His Music ~ My Mother Tongue
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