Like Khulujaan I am also a patient of love, in love with Good cinema & was thirsting to see a good Hindi cinema for the last four months. Finally my thirst got quenched by Dedh Ishqiya.
What was expected from this sequel (or predecessor as one of my friend rightly pointed) – the likable camaraderie between Khalujan & Babban; impeccable comic timing of Nasseruddin Shah & (under-rated as always) Arshad Warsi; dark quirky humor; shayerana Ada; katilana femme-fa tale; crime amidst rustic old-world romance; manipulative characters... You will get to see all of these, probably dedh goona zyada (1 n ½ times more)...
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This stylishly written twisted comic thriller scores with its absorbing narrative & well edged characters that keep you hooked to the proceedings & there's rich cinematography to compliment it. With the plot revolving around poets wooing the begum you can blindly expect some captivating sher shayaris & the film scores here as well. Luckily for the ignoramus lot (like me) SUBTITLES were thrown in to grasp the "lufth" of the Urdu mehfil.
The dialog by Vishal Bhardwaj are wacky & intelligent as the Characters wittily play with words; nowadays that's something as rare as searching for logic in a 200cr film. Kudos to Bhardwaj & Abhishek Chaubey for the screenplay; & obviously Gulzar Saab for the lyrics.. The background music is one of the most effective ones in any recent Hindi films.. Prasad' editing & Pande's cinematography worked magically just like Khulujan-baaban (or Para-Muniya) combo that uplifted the mood of the film.
And yes this time you have two Begums with the power to bring out a shayer in every Men with no hormonal infirmity... Madhuri Dixit - Nene & Huma Qureshi, ufffffff!!!!!! (And Madhuri mesmerizes in two dance sequences)... Both of them did justice to finely written strong female characters that's also an aberration to usual stuff served to us off-late. The lesbian angle depicted through shadows was a masterstroke... Mr Chaubey, looking forward to see more films from you...
Naseeruddin & Warsi are rock solid as usual. Manoj Pahwa & Salman Shahid gave commendable support in their respective cameos.
And then there's Vijay Raaz , one of the finest & under-utilized actors of Indian cinema who seemingly lighten up in every scene as Wannabe Nawab Jaan Mohd.. If he would have been in the west then Coen brothers would have surely lapped him...& academy would have been waiting for him..
And talking about Coen brothers, the film does seem to be heavily inspired from their films specially the one where Jaan's henchmen & Khalujan-Babban points guns at each other for the whole night in the middle of a road till dawn breaks in. The two parties parted off only when they heard an assembly prayer coming from a primary school near-by. And the brilliant action sequence in the climax, where we get to hear a haunting classical song playing in the background & things happening in a slow motion. The sequence was a tribute to Coens as well as Tarantino at the same time..
To sum it up I would quote a line from one of the leading Indian critic's review - "Like heady wine, it delivers a welcome kick."..
To all those who complains of dearth of Good Hindi films give Dedh Ishqiya a shot, u might not regret it....This is called "Intelligent Entertainment"...
P. S : The 6th stage of Love is Junoon which is similar to "chutiyapa" as it's followed by Maut..well suicide as some wise guy said...
