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Regular readers of this blog (pray who?), might remember that I wasn’t too kind to Rakesh Mehra’s Rang De Basanti when reviewing it. I found that movie irresponsible, and sending a terribly wrong message, not to mention equating terrorism with patriotism.

With Delhi 6, Mehra continues in the same vein. While I’ve been twittering about my feelings about this movie, I really thought it needed a longer post, simply because this is a movie I had been waiting for a while. Any how, I am not very keen on discussing plot, acting, and other technicalities here, but simply list out the problems I had with this movie, and why I think this Mehra just jumped the shark on this one.

~ First off, what was the message of this movie? A large part of this movie is dedicated to introducing caricatures of Delhi 6, who by the looks of it have not ventured out of that zip code for their lives. Making a 2 and half hour Nukkad episode gets gyrating after a while.

~ Had the movie simply tried not to get serious with its own message, it might have worked. When the Kala Bandar becomes the central focus of the plot, it really gets on the nerves. The ending is not just ludicrous, but incredibly hackneyed; to even equate the Ramayan philosophies to Hindu-Muslim tensions and people doing their “We are all good, but need to fight the black monkey within us” is so far fetched that its laughable.

~ Coming to Kala Bandar itself, we know that this monkey has created menace in the nukkad well before Roshan arrives to Delhi; yet its very convenient for everyone to assume Roshan is the kala bandar. How?

~ Since when was under-age (and I mean really under-age) smoking so much fun in the movie? If the movie was a light comedy, perhaps it could be dismissed in a lighter vein; However trying to package this as a light scene in a message movie doesnt work Mr. Mehra. Its highly irresponsible to show that these kids who smoke are not even reprimanded by anybody for the same. Is that the message that was meant to be conveyed – that it purani dilli, it was ok to be a kid and smoke?

~ “India works, because its people make it work” is not a self congratulatory note to Indians that Roshan is trying to imply. So is Roshan really saying, look, its ok to get beaten by a cop, or a cop to trying to attempt a rape on low-caste girl, or a low caste girl not allowed entry in houses, because well, thats how India works, and the people have accepted it and hence it works? Is this the message that Mehra conveniently says – well, if you live in Delhi 6, expect this and more, but then it works, because the people make it work? I almost laughed out loud when Roshan says this on screen.

~ Oh please, Mr. Mehra, I know you have a penchant for repetitiveness. You should have learnt from your previous movie that when you say “Na Koi Martha Hain Naa Koi Maartha Hain” hundred times in a movie, it usually suffocates the viewers out; Well, your never-ending ram leela sequences are just that. Enough Ram hamming.

~ Obviously, every American Indian must travel to Taj Mahal no?

~ What a massacre of music in the movie. Why bother trying to picturise half songs with so many edits? What a disaster. None of the songs even registered in the movie, save for Dil Gira Da-Fatan.

~ Overall, I thought the movie made a mess of what it wanted to convey; Mehra seems to be in a boat where he wants to convey social message through his movies, but wants to do it in a “different way”. And like his last attempt, it falls flat as simply irresponsible piece of film-making!

All things considered, I still think Rakesh Mehra, you could be a terrific film-maker if you simply abandons your quest for beaming public service messages through your movies. Leave that for Raju Hirani will you? Meanwhile try to find the dark side of life like you did in Aks for your next movie. We know you are capable, just simply leave your moral science teacher hat at home