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Film: Dedh IshqiyaStarring: Madhuri Dixit, Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi, Huma Qureshi
Director: Abhishek Chaubey
Producer: Vishal Bhardwaj
Banner: Shemaroo Entertainment, Vishal Bhardwaj Pictures P
Music: Vishal Bhardwaj
Just to hear these roguish, duplicitous
characters walk the talk is a pleasure beyond the ordinary. Make no
mistake. "Dedh Ishqiya" walks many extra miles beyond your highest
expectations. It negotiates a nawabi era long gone, or perhaps never in
existence. And it does so with a bracing bewildering beguiling blend of
aristocratic arrogance and ironic humility.
Welcome to the world of quaint
contradictions. This is Mehmoodabad, a place close to yet far from
Lucknow where time stops still. Where mushairas and mujras jostle with
very contemporary preoccupations, like making fast bucks.
The one thing that can be said with
supreme certainty about "Dedh Ishqiya" is that you've never seen such a
marriage of old-world charm and new-world subterfuge before.
Who in his right mind except the utterly
wacked-out Babban (Arshad Warsi) would say, "Tumhari saari nawaabi,
tumhare pichwade mein ghused dunga," and get away with it? Yup, nawaabi
gets its twinkle-eyed comeuppance in this tale of the fading Begum
(Madhuri Dixit) and her besotted suitors.
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There is a delightful sequence in
Madhuri's mysteriously-lit inner chamber where Naseeruddin Shah and
Madhuri exchange courtly confidence while their respective sidekicks
discuss the pluses and minuses of latest I-Phones.
A sequence such as this draws out the
dynamics of the old and the new world, and the ideological clashes that
define life in certain cultures which are defined not so much by
contemporary existences as by nostalgia.
This is a world that exists only as an
idea. Director Abhishek Choubey gives a tantalising tangibility to the
non-existent world in this boudoir-based burlesque where autumnal
characters filch resplendent Urdu poetry from their peers and pass it
off as their own to gain brownie points with the beauteous patroness of
the fine arts, who incidentally is not quite what she seems. But hush!
Without giving away the plot I'd like to say nothing is as it seems.
The roguish deceptions of two of the
four principal characters, Khalujaan (Naseer) and Babban are known to us
from the first film "Ishqiya", in which the Naseer-Arshad duo more than
met their match in the spunky Vidya Balan.
The location has now changed. And so
have the female protagonists. The rustic cow dung compulsions of Balan's
burlesque in "Ishqiya" are now replaced by the decorous ambrosial but
decadent tragic aristocracy of Madhuri's character - Begum Para.
When we first meet Begum Para, she
strikes us as a beautiful anachronism. Honestly, this is a 'Para'-normal
situation! Madhuri's lahja, tehzeeb, adaas, aahen gile-shikwe remind us
of Meena Kumari in "Pakeezah". But the lady has a past, and a future.
She is no walkover, although she pretends to be one.
Her lady-in-waiting (a very
Shakespearean touch, that) is played by the exorbitantly sexy Huma
Qureshi, who is growing into one of our more engaging contemporary
actresses.
I really can't imagine anyone but Huma
bringing the same spirit of libidinous chutzpah to the character. She is
in many ways superior to the film's main attraction, Madhuri who I felt
struck some wrong notes in her character's faltering firmament.
But when Madhuri dances to Birju
Maharaj's choreography we tend to forget and forgive all the false notes
in the characterisations.
We revel in the raga of a romance long gone-by.
The writing in "Dedh Ishqiya" and the
Urdu dialogues are among the best we've heard in Hindi films of recent
times. The language is a ravishing blend of the sublime and the smutty.
Never experienced, never felt...
The actors are supremely in characters.
Naseer with his wizened face and twinkle eyes conveys the full weight of
delayed ecstasy felt by a man belatedly in love. If recently you've
forgotten this actor's calibre, here's your chance to re-discover it.
The inimitable Gulzar has a load of fun
writing the songs. This is a world of poetry and music where there is
room for both Begum Akhtar and Yo Yo Honey Singh.
Giving Naseer tit for tat in every scene
is that bundle of implosive talent Arshad. Kohl-lined eyes, and a
sweeping vista of mischievous expression qualify Arshad's performance.
Indeed there is more ice and fire, courtship and lust, in Warsi's scenes
with Huma than there is in the temperate toned-down mock-tragic
togetherness of Naseer and Madhuri.
Indeed, the film is more about
same-gender bonding than about heterosexual love. I saw more chemistry
between Madhuri and Huma than I did between Madhuri and Naseer.
The film is outstandingly photographed
by Setu and edited by Sreekar Prasad. Both technicians here turn into
artistes, who must bring into play the thumris of Begum Akhtar and the
thumkas of Huma...a task easier said than done.
"Dedh Ishqiya" is at least 'dedh times'
more delectable, saucy, audacious and amorous than "Ishqiya". It
constructs the dynamics of love and redemption from the rubble of a lost
world.
It gets its indomitable storytelling
power from the writing and dialogues. The four principal actors, as well
as Vijay Raaz and Manoj Pahwa, imbue broad and bright shades to their
fey characters. Here's a world of poetry and parody that never
co-existed anywhere else.
The world created by Choubey is at once
archaic and immediate, frozen in time and yet laden with molten
emotions. This is a work suffused with a sighing splendour, giggly
groans and yes, a zingy 'zubaan' that yokes 'shayari' and
colloquialisms.
What an enticing start to the year!
