Noble Intention...No Execution

I went twice to the multiplexes nearby, first on Wednesday then on Thursday, to get my tickets for the paid preview. I go for paid previews for only selected movies. This time I had to, it was Rakeysh Mehra's product, after 3 long years. So the anticipation was obvious. Add to that Rahman's treat had made create a picture of my own for this movie, Delhi 6.

Delhi 6 starts with few lines from Big B's voice and gets repeated twice during the movie including the climax. Rakeysh has tried to make those lines the theme of this movie. He also included many shades of the human nature, the way we think and the way we live... in the Indian way. Hmm...many noble causes, just like "Rang De Basanti". In one of his pre-release interviews he also emphasized on the scale of the movie which he believes is bigger than RDB, but to be honest this movie has a limitation not in one but many dimensions and it really looks like a movie with small angles. Be it the locations, the scope & space given to its power packed actor line up or it's magnitude of execution of thoughts. I mean when you have people of the stature of Waheed Rahman, Rishi Kapoor & Om Puri and host of young & serious actors like Supriya Pathak, Atul Kulkarni, Pawan Malhotra & Divya Dutta; you should give them that much of screen space to extract the best out of them. To sum it up, I would say the real problem is the script or may be the characterisation itself. And few dialogues were so outdated and obvious that you will ask yourself is this really an Rakeysh Mehra movie!!!

I feel bad, I feel upset, because I expected a lot from somebody who has made RDB. There some basic flaws which Mr. Mehra could have easily taken care of; like Abhishek's weird US accent which was hardly understandable with his added heavy voice or for that matter a lacklustre climax which could have been handled in a much better way. For Abhishek, there was simply not enough script. Sonam does well in her small role and I believe she is here to stay for long. All the cast did their bit efficiently. Waheedaji still looks stunning and grace personified. And finally I must confess that Chintoo uncle shines in his small role. He is picking some nice roles of late (his last was Luck by Chance) and I believe if he continues this streak he could give a run for the money of actors of his movie (it also includes you, Mr. Big B).

In the plus factors are those few moments that you can carry with you home...The music where Rahman again delivers a masterpiece with songs from all genres...and finally a noble theme...a theme that shows our divided religion, our policemen, our society, basically our diversity...but this is perhaps what may work against Mr. Mehra. As he neither executed these thoughts not he can expect the mass to put their head so much in understanding such intricacies that exists in our country.

I am disappointed, not because it is a bad movie, but I put Rakeysh in the top league of directors of our time. I would not have been so critical if it would have been directed by a debutant director. A nice theme & a noble intention, but where is the execution mere jaan!!!

Verdict: 2.5 out 5