Friday, April 29, 2011

Chalo Dilli- an incredile film with a message!


Chalo Dilli Film Stills & Gallery
This film Chalo Dilli drew my attention and attracted me as I also hail from Delhi!  I got what I wanted from the film- the Delhi style of behaviour, functioning, and take it easy policy, well enacted by Vinay Pathak and wonderfully supported by Lara Dutta who had the opportunity to show her acting skills.  The general behaviour of the Delhi men is reflected nicely in this movie with Pathak chewing Paan Masala all the time and looking for place to spit the same anywhere and everywhere!  This is one aspect which can be found in the capital region at any given point of time!  Sometimes, when you visit public places, you wonder if the staircases are painted in Red?  Such is the magical influence of Paan and Paan masala in the capital and further up north!  The Delhi wallahs have to be appreciated in one way that they tend to take anything and everything easy which enables them to tackle any problems in their day to day life!  "Le, phir ki Hoya" in Punjabi and "kaun si badi baat hai" in Hindi are the two sides of a coin which keeps the people get going and tiding over their problems!  The recent conduct of the Commonwealth Games in the Capital is one classic example of  how Delhites camouflage uncompleted projects to present a picture perfect view to the foreigners and the visitors from other countries.  Such is the quality of public relations strategies that are used by the Delhiwallahs to face situation of any sort and to befriend even the enemies for a specified time after which they can get out unscathed!
In their effort to reach Delhi from Jaipur as quickly as possible, both Lara and Phatak make several goof-ups to be circling around Jaipur!  The behaviour of the Taxi driver who doses off while driving and says that he has not slept for 72 hours in something to be believed.  Of late, it has become a habit amongst the Taxi drivers to say that they have not slept since the past 72 hours even in Chennai, when you engage them for going out of the city.  Probably, the drivers want you to pamper them with tips and dinners and could be a ploy too?
The typical "Red Tomato Palace" like hotels are in countless numbers all over the North and is well pictured in the movie.  The local "Dadas" picking up fights between rivals and the sounds of gun shots are something which is very familiar to people in the Northern States!  You can see local self acclaimed leaders with followers carrying double barrel guns and pistols and terrorise people just to pamper their ego and wishes of being a leader!  I must share my experience of working in Ludhiana, Punjab in the late 70s.  Quite often, I used to hear gun shots in the evening only to learn from the next morning Newspapers about a gang war which consumed some lives!!  The basic underlying current in this is that 90% of men in State consume alcohol in the evening and with guns on their shoulders and some so called "Chamchas" following them blindly, these people will pick up quarrels or fights on one pretext or the other resulting in gun shots being fired and Death!
The film maker has presented the quality of socio-cultural fabric of these states through which the couple Lara and Phatak travel in their urge to get back to Delhi.
The film maker has praised the atttitude of the people living in North and particularly in Delhi when he shows the wife of Phatak totally in a vegetable state in Coma!  Tears roll down when Pathak explains the background of her illness and the way he speaks to her without her giving any response!  He is confident as any Delhiite that she will be totally cured and recover from her illness one day to talk to him and oozes out the rays of hopes embedded in his character!  The acting skills of Phatak comes alive in these scenes and gently reminds the audience of the legendary great Raj Kapoor who had this capability of drawing sympathy from the audience by his expressions and dialogue delivery that even tears shed tears!!  Phatak is a talented actor and has won the hearts of millions of film-goers!  The film is a wonderful entertainment that has come to be amidst the challenges thrown by the World cup cricket fever followed by IPL which has eaten 1/3rd of the tinsel world's life!!  The Express Avenue Mall where the picture is screened has power crisis which forced the audience to sit and sweat it out for more than 2 hours but then at the end, one could hear people saying "Kaun si Badi Baat hai"?
Chalo dilli depicts a way of life that has to be followed in this otherwise difficult state of living in India!!

1 comment:

  1. I wasn't planning on watching this movie.. but now, aftr reading ur blog, i will. i want to c how 'tears shed tears' :)

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