Delhi6 by Nikhil

Site: http://www.delhi6.co.in/

Verdict: A cacophony, that could have been a melody.

Yawn!: My opinion of the previous film by Rakeysh Mehra, that is Rang De Basanti, was very different from that of most of the people; I had found the mega-blockbuster to be a fairly stupid film, and Ive consistenly received a lot of flak over this opinion of mine. But I'm happy that Delhi6 has finally got me vindicated. A muddled plot trying to bring forth a zillion issues and emotions, with the clearly delineated 'lighter' first half and a 'heavy' second half, and an absolutely unconvincing depiction of things the way they happen in the normal world; Delhi6 was RDB repeated as per me. The director makes an absolute mess of trying to use a 'kala bander' as a metaphor for the evil inside every human being, focusing so much on its literal counterpart, you at times feel why was the movie not named Kala Bander instead of Delhi6! And the way he tries to explain the metaphor repeatedly at the end (at least three times!), you feel like the dumb student in a moral science class wherein the teacher is repeatedly explaining the moral of a story obviously assuming you didn't register anything while the story was being told! Delhi6 is a director's blunder and I hope Rakeysh Mehra learns from it. His supposedly intellectual creation falls flat on its face primarily because of an attempt to delve into way too many things at the same time: religious sensitivity, caste culture, the fight between good vs evil, personal introspection, love for one's motherland, social equations and so on and so forth... not to forget all alongside the depiction of life in the city of Delhi. And he gets it all wrong in an attempt to amalgamate them. Had he focused on just a few of them, we could probably would have had a nice film to watch.

Yahoo!: Certain elements though, are well depicted in the film, especially ones associated with the life in Delhi. Being from north and having spent a good amount of time in delhi, I did enjoy many moments that were just spot on, such as the incident where the ramlila is awkwardly stopped midway because of the arrival of the city MLA or when the traffic on a busy road comes to a chaotic standstill because of a cow delivering a baby. Some of the characters have been admirably depicted as well. I especially loved the one played by Pawan Malhotra, the over-confident, street-smart and worthless kind, that can literally be found in every street in north India. It is such beautiful elements that make you go through this film, though on the whole it is a pity to see them being part of an effort that focuses away on concepts far more poorly conceived and depicted.