Delhi Belly
Delhi Belly is a juvenile comedy that gets some of its biggest laughs from the use of the vernacular for crap (‘tatti’) and from the Indian ‘lota’ system. Three guys share a dump in Delhi that gets just two hours of water every morning. The idea in the film is to give one guy the runs and watch how ‘tatti’ triggers major script development.
It starts off from Mr ‘Delhi Belly’ in the loo without a drop to wash. He ends up using his roommate’s cartons of orange juice (later, he complains that his ass cheeks stick together). When he asks the roommate to take a packet of his stool sample to the lab, the fellow mixes up packages and delivers smuggled diamonds to the lab and a tatti sample to the diamond mafia.
If you enjoy that kind of humour, Delhi Belly is the movie for you. Unfortunately, the ‘Adults Only’ rating has shut out the audience that would hugely enjoy this film—kids under 12—reminding them, as it does us too, of diarrhoea episodes while stuck in classrooms.
The film moves rapidly from one absurd scenario to the next, with a romantic sub-plot created specially for one of the roommates, an unlikely Tibetan called Tashi Dorjee Lhatoo (Imran). His girlfriend is Sonia (Treasurywala), an airhostess unwittingly used as a diamond courier, but he falls instead for a hard-nosed woman called Menaka (Jagannathan).
The other two comedians (Das and Roy Kapur) more or less function as his side-kicks, and with Imran’s character being given a Tibetan name, the homage is clearly to the Aamir Khan blockbuster 3 Idiots and the name he had there (Phunsukh Wangdu).
The name Tashi, which is Tibetan for prosperity, may prove auspicious, but one can’t see how Aamir, who has a well-deserved reputation as a maker of quality cinema, improves his standing with this infantile movie.
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The movie perhaps is infantile in it's plot, story building and deserves no mention in front of a pile of Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie DVD's (both of whom have been heavily borrowed from) but since when has cinema been just about the things shown on the screen, isn't it also about who watches it? It's a bad caper if you judge by story but a landmark movie in Indian cinema for the sheer audacity of it.
Compare it with this, in an industry where a director shows all three of his lead 'heroines' in bikinis, has a double meaning song on the first night of marriage and yet claims that he makes movies for families and kids and has no elements of sex to titillate the audience, i believe Delhi Belly is a refreshing representation for this part of the world. Never have i felt this sense of freedom in a cinema hall, never have i been able to see a character speak like a majority of the people of that character's age do(read i do), never have i seen a movie in recent times that has asked for an adult certificate itself, never have i seen such a comic parody of such quality, of music that pretty much represents more than half of all pop music styles since the inception of Indian cinema(read mainstream). And for a A rated film it has surprisingly no nudity and just one sex scene(imran going down to ayesha is perhaps that one scene which truly represents an emerging indian male sexuaity like no other mainstream cinema has done, and is as i know you would agree, much realistic, accurate than may be paying a bomb to a leading heroine to wear a bikini and discuss on fancy talk shows about the Indian male sexuality). Add to that characters which people can relate to on a day to day basis, sans the moral correctness or the male sexual bravado so prevalent in movies, you sure have broken some stereotypes.
What's best is not that a mainstream cinema, backed by a one of the biggest stars has done this in a movie, the best part is that it was insanely successful while doing all of it. Perhaps some guy sitting in the theatre watching this movie will make a much better and innovative caper(not worried about whether audience will accept the lingo of this country and realistic character sketches in a cinema, not worried about showing sex for what it is) because somebody made this movie.
This is the legacy of delhi belly, its not a cinema, it's a stepping stone for others!!
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Sarat Kiran I as planing on skipping the film.
Now perhaps on reading your take I might.
thanks
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Extremely cynical review, almost half of the review questions the Tibetian origin of the lead. You found this juvenile and liked Double Dhamaal! Your reviews are an embarrassment for OPEN!
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Mr. Duara has taught me film studies amongst other things at college. We often have similar beliefs and thoughts on films, and though I slightly disagree with him on this one. However, it is amazing how week after week, he provides us with some of the greatest insights into films as we may or may not know them. OPEN Magazine, you may not have the most popular film critic in your kitty, but you definitely have the best.
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LOL..how does it feel now after the movie is such a big hit and acclaimed by every one? I thought this movie was one of the best of the year and only Amir Khan can release a movie with such a script as no one would dare enter such a territory.
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