'ye duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai' revisited

Piyush Mishra has carried forward from where Sahir had left-off. In his mesmerizing words he reminds what a worthless life it is and what worthless causes we are chasing at our own expense. He also makes a reference to Iqbal's sitaron ke aage jahan aur bhi hai beautifully.

 
O ri Duniya…
Surmayi aankhon ke pyaalo ki duniya
Satrangi rangon, gulaalo ki duniya
Alsaayi sejon ke phoolon ki duniya
Angdayi todey kabootar ki duniya
Karvat le soyi hakeekat ki duniya
Deevani hoti tabiyat ki duniya
Khwahish me lipti zaroorat ki duniya
Insaan ke sapno ki, niyat ki duniya

Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai

Mamta ki bikhri kahani ki duniya
Behno ki siski, jawani ki duniya
Aadam ke Havva se rishte ki duniya
Shayar ke pheeke lafzon ki duniya

Ghalib ke, Momin ke khwabon ki duniya
Mijaazon ke, un inquilabon ki duniya
Faiz, Firaq-O-Sahil-O-Makhdoom, Mir ki, Zauk ki, Daagon ki duniya

Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai…

Palchhin me baatein chali jati hain
Palchhin me raatein chali jati hain
Reh jata hai jo savera vo dhoonde
Jalte makaan me basera vo dhoonde
Jaisi bachi hai, vaisi ki vaisi bacha lo ye duniya
Apna samajhke, apno ke jaisi utha lo ye duniya
Chhut-put si baaton mein jalne lagegi, sambhalo ye duniya
Kat-pit ke raaton mein palne lagegi, sambhalo ye duniya

O ri duniya…

Vo kahey hai ki duniya ye itni nahi hai
Sitaron se aage jahan aur bhi hai
Yeh hum hi nahi hai, vahan aur bhi hai
Hamari har ek baat hoti vahin hai
Humey aitraaz nahi hai kahin bhi
Vo Aalim hai, Faazil hai, honge sahi hi
Magar falsafa ye bigad jata hai jo vo kehte hain
Aalim ye kehta vahan Eeshwar hai
Fazil ye kehta vahan Allah hai
Qatil ye kehta vahan Eesa hai
Manzil ye kehti tab insaan se ki
Tumhari hai tum hi sambhalo ye duniya
Yeh bujhte huay chand basi chiraagon
Tumhare ye kaale iraado ki duniya…

'sarfaroshi ki tamanna' revisited

piyush mishra re-wrote the legendary song for the movie 'gulaal' keeping in mind the current scenario. and he has done a wonderful job.



sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mei hai
dekhna hai zor kitna bazu-e-qaatil mei hai
waqt aane pe bataa denge tujhe aye aasmaan
hum abhi se kya bataye kya hamare dil mei hai

o re bismal kaash aate aaj tum hindustaan
dekhte ki mulk saara kya tashan kya chill mei hai
aaj ka launda yeh kehta 'hum to bismil thak gaye
apni aazaadi to bhaiyya laundiya ke til mei hai'

aaj ke jalso mei bismil ek goonga gaa raha
aur behron ka wo rela naachta mehfil mei hai
haath ki khaadi banaane ko zamaana lag gaya
aaj to chaddi bhi silti angrezo ki mill mei hai

dekhna hai zor kitna bazu-e-qaatil mei hai
waqt aane pe bataa denge tujhe aye asmaan
hum abhi se kya bataye kya hamare dil mei hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mei hai

devaa aa gaya … DevD has arrived

“devaa aa gaya”… announced Dharamdas[Tiku Talsaniya] in 2002’s version of Devdas. But my Dev hadn’t arrived yet. What SLB did was excellent, poetry on celluloid; but what AK has done is more like a sonnet. I would not like to compare the two becasue SLB had his version while AK has his own subversion [pun intended].

SLB took great pains to re-create the past, an old era near Hooghly while AK has done a whole lot of research to portray Dev for the present and future. He has set a benchmark for other writer/directors becasue this is a movie that respects the sensibility of a mature audience. AK has gone a few notches up in the story-telling department. Black Friday looked like a docu-drama and No Smoking went into a fantasy and looked like AK had lost control due to his over-indulgence; but DevD is a perfect blend between visual imagery and story-telling … like Coke with Vodka.

I have followed DevD diaries and have been reading about it from inception to conception to gestation and finally reproduction. And it was worth the time that it took, becasue he has got everything right; well almost. I thought the second half dragged a bit, lost a bit of momentum; but it ended well.

AK has moved Devdas to Punjab, from Kolkata, and rechristened him as DevD. That in itself is a huge shift and makes us realise that Dev belongs to Gen-X. He has pleasure trips, guilt-free sex, enjoys a good smoke and lots of liquor, has sex-chat with Paro; in fact his dad quips in that Dev has acquired new taste .. “chicken chhodke fish, whisky chhodke vodka aur asli ladki chhodke sookhi baas ki bamboo ke peeche bhagna”. Thats Dev, always running away; sometimes from Paro, sometimes from Chanda and most of the times from himself.

He loves Paro immensely but his arrogance gets the better of him. He loves her so much that he breaks a bottle on the head of one of the villagers who brags that he has had a nice fuck with Paro and that she is great in bed; but his chauvinism does not permit him to make love
to her. So great is his arrogance that he belittles Paro, breaks her heart and pushes her away to marry somebody else. The realisation dawns on him only when her ‘doli’ is about to leave with the blaring ‘Emotional Atyachar’ in the background. Perfect song that describes the feeling and captures the emotions of Dev.

Then enters Chanda in his life. A precocious girl who was wronged by her boyfriend, he shot a video of her giving a BJ and circulated it. The shame that her parents go through when media guys hound their house waiting to make a scoop, finally makes her run away. She has been disowned by her mom as well as her friends who refuse her calls and she finally lands up in a dingy brothel, or should we call ‘pleasure house’ where rich brats visit. Dev is also brought here by a pimp called Chunni.

Some people don’t find love all their lives, but Dev fortunately or unfortunately finds love twice; this time in the form of Chanda. But both the times he fails to recognize it. When he was with Paro he did not realize it was love till she left him, and now that he is with Chanda the thought of Paro keeps haunting him. He wants to meet her once, make love to her. Meet he finally does, but Paro has moved on in life. She has been mature enough to compromise and she accuses Dev of not being in love with anybody but himself. And thats the last we see of Paro, totally out of Dev’s life. While Dev is still not able to accept this fact he drowns himself in alcohol and in his drunk stupor
he over-runs 7 people o the footpath in his BMW.

In the final reels, after his dad’s death he has a near miss accident when a car crashes against a wall beside him. And that brings in a new consciousness and he decides that he has to move on. I shall not reveal the ending but all I can say is that this Dev is a guy of the new generation; and hence the ending had to be new and believable too. A special mention should be made of the fantastic music-lyrics duo, Amit and Amitabh have done an excellent job. All the songs are apt and they have been weaved into the movie; they are almost like a smooth narrative. Mahi Gill as Paro was brilliant in the movie. She has everything it takes to make an actress, an amazing range of expressions – from grief to grin, from anger to anxiety, from love to loathing…everything. Kalki as Chanda was good but she could not express herself through her voice and face; she needed lines.

The editing was slick and 360 deg camera rotation was used to great effect. Cinematography was fantastic, capturing the beauty of Punjab, the loneliness of Delhi streets, the filthy room of Dev, dingy brothel areas; everything was shot well. And finally, Abhay and AK…from concpet to conundrum…they created it. Abhay has rasied the bar for himself, he is no longer competing with anyone but himself. I am waiting for his next and of course AK’s next titled Gulaal. Until then
… dhol yaara dhol.

This post was first published on PFC