Delhi 6 Movie Review

As I Hail from the north, this Rakesh Om Prakash Mehra flick got me really nostalgic. I had already heard about Delhi6 being a bore, waste of time and all that but watching the film changed my perception.

For a change, this Delhi6 is different in the true sense; we don’t have a hero, a heroine and villain. The movie is made of real people, intricately woven in the background of Delhi, its love, belief and vulnerability. We as people are still naïve and ruled by our hearts and I can’t think of anyone but the Rang De Basanti director to catch it on screen with such élan.

Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) is born of a Muslim mother and a Hindu father and brings back his grandmother to India from the US to fulfill her dying wish. From the day he lands, he strats getting a taste of the real Delhi. As a newcomer to this country, he can’t understand the selfless warmth of his neighbors, a cow delivering a calf in the middle of a street and people treating that as a lucky omen and the caste difference among people, where you are compelled to purify yourself if you touch the lower caste. There also a love angle where Roshan developes a soft corner for Bittu(Sonam Kapoor) who harbors an ambition of becoming the next Indian idol which she believes will bail her out of her boring life. Somewhere, Bittu represent the India that we all have today, where we all want to make it bigger and better at the quickest time possible.
The story also has the back drop of the monkey man and how people have used this horror to their advantage. From the pickle preparation on the terrace teamed with a folk song to Jagrans, the movie gives you a delicious taste of the raw, real Delhi.

The first half was much better than the second half, where it’s a little hard to understand the last few minutes, as there was too much happening at the same time. The soulful music by AR Rehman just adds to the experience called Delhi6 with some tastefully choreographed songs.
From the senior lot like Rishi Kapoor,Waheeda Reahman, Prem Chopra to the fresher ones like Sonam Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan, Mehra has been able to get some brilliant performances. Even the characters played by Pavan Malhotra and Om Puri strike a chord.
Dlehi6 is definitely worth a visit.

My rating ***