The importance of being irreverent

DELHI BELLY

 This article might or might not contain spoilers, buy what is there to spoil anyway? It also contains a trailer, which is not safe for children but wont cause any deaths.So long.

If Ashutosh Gowariker had directed Delhi Belly, it would have been a sad tale about three youths struggling in the capital. The critics would have lauded it; they might have even packaged it to the Oscars. We are happy no such thing happened.

There is no dearth of serious movies in the country, even the ones which are intended to humor us do not help us in stretching any facial muscles and then comes Delhi Belly, and behind the screen of Tarantinoishness it is a truly funny movie. So true to its core that it raises the long criticized toilet humor and expletives (not forced) to a higher level.

Humor is a product of intelligence, whatever type it may be in and the reservation that only a certain type of humor should be encouraged is curbing creative thought.

Delhi Belly is a path breaker in many ways, in an age where comedy is stuck in semantics and the antiques of Akshay Kumar. The driving force of the movie is the peculiar reactions to time tested situations; take for example the love revenge rant by Vir Das. A typical sad situation in other movies becomes the laugh out loud ‘Ja Chudail’ in writer Akshat Verma’s hands.

For people who haven’t yet rushed to the theatres Delhi Belly begins unceremoniously in New Delhi airport with a smuggling racket, then involves three unassuming and wayward youths played by Imran Khan, comedian Vir Das and the funnier Kunal Roy Kapoor. Vijay Raaz makes the maximum use of his semi-erudite gang lord, the dress, the way he holds the mobile phone and how calmly he shows his irritation. Raaz’s Somayajulu is one of best villains in recent times. Worthy of mention is also the footloose journalist played by Poorna Jaggananthan.

It is time we made such movies, not compromising on talent just because it causes displeasure to the Sunday movie going family. It pays to be irreverent sometimes, you might burn some bridges back home but there is this undeniable possibility that you might find a whole new world.

And to top it all, there is Aamir Khan the producer who appears as a hybrid of the disco dancer and the gun toting crusader who gyrates with a smile to a psychedelic number; an antithesis to all the movies he has done before. Delhi Belly is an instantly likeable film; don’t please narrow it down to a ‘cult classic’. Hell breaking loose has never been funnier on screen.

AFTERWORD

An edited version of this article was submitted for a national news magazine, however it did not appear for obvious reasons.

The following trailer makes more sense than all that has been written above.

Delhi Belly : the trailer