Column

Sixty years or so ago, the American writer Henry Miller wrote Tropic of Capricorn and set about a literary revolution in English writing. The book broke all the rules of novel writing in form and substance and its mixture of mysticism, philosophy and sex won him many admirers in Europe. The book was banned in the US and face a series of obscenity trials.

Miller laid the groundwork for the emergence of writers like William Burroughs whose Naked Lunch was also banned for its sexual content. Burroughs, with his experimentation with mind-altering substances, was among the earliest of the group that included Jack Kerouac and which came to be called the Beat Writers.

That led to the beat Generation and subsequently the Hippie movement which created the sexual revolution. All these subversive developments challenged the prevailing establishment, both social and literal and changed the world then and forever.

Now, Dev D, which can be called as India’s first ‘Beat’ film, has taken that tradition forward. Much has been written on Dev D, which has caught the fancy of the young and urban film buff. With its uber-cool sensibility, it has struck a chord with the Facebook generation. The story, even if it is a well known one, has a contemporary riff to it; the telling is unconventional to say the least, like one long acid trip; the dialogues push the boundaries and the sex and sexual references are more explicit than anything attempted in Hindi cinema.

What drives the film is its sensibility — modern and hip and rooted in a world many of us know about but which rarely makes it to the Hindi screen. There has been no dearth of youth-oriented films in India — every generation has one seminal movie that caught the zeitgeist. But they all stayed within the general limits of what society could bear. Rebellion — for love or social change — was tolerated as long as it led to some adjustment with the status quo.Sometimes mainstream producers were ready to experiment — I would put Hare Rama Hare Krishna in that category for its portrayal of the dope-smoking scene. Yet, Dev D is unique in that it is after a long time a truly subversive has been made in India.

It showsa young Indian not aiming for an MBA degree or about changing the world but as a nihilist wallowing in his own fear and loathing. Nor is it smart or pretty like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai or Dil Chahta Hai.

By now everyone knows that Dev D is based on Sarat Chandra Chatterjee’s maudlin novel Devdas. Many versions of Devdas have been made in Indian cinema and most of them worked for that period. The Bimal Roy version, with Dilip Kumar’s outstanding performance, portrayed the eponymous hero as a loser who cannot stand up to societal pressures.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s confection, made nearly 50 years later, had lush sets, gorgeous women and terrific saris, all perfectly pitched towards consumerist middle-India. Anurag Kashyap, and Abhay Deol, who is credited with coming up with the idea have located it in the milieu of the disaffected urban youth which is not interested in jobs, social change, revolutions or the like; Dev D is a slacker with minimum ambition except to enjoy himself. And for him the good life constitutes drugs, music and sex.

Dev D falls in the category of what is called the Indie film, small budget with minimum big names, foreign locations or huge song and dance routines. The Indie film phenomenon is not particularly new but what really gives the contemporary crop a boost is the emergence of multiplex cinemas. Indie films are also supposed to take more risks and have more integrity since box-office compromises do not have to be made, given the minimal costs.

The media has boosted Indie cinema because it represents a welcome alternative to the blockbusters that appeal to the lowest common denominator with their fantastic scale and nonsensical story lines. But in the process, they also overlook some of the sins of these films — so while an Aamir is hailed for its unconventional story line and treatment, its disturbing take on terrorism among Muslims is ignored. Indie films can also be plagiarised or plain mediocre, but they are enjoying a good critical run.

But Dev D is in a class by itself. It has pushed boundaries in every which way (18 songs, one by bandmasters). Many reviewers have said it is not a film to be seen along with your parents; I am not sure it is easy to see by yourself. Kashyap is not into mere titillation; he wants to challenge the viewer on every front. The relentless journey of the protagonist into his own private hell startles the viewer in the way Last Tango in Paris did 35 years ago.

Kundan Shah did Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, India’s most subversive political film ever and then could not repeat it with anything half as innovative. Kashyap has already done the gritty Black Friday and the self-indulgent No Smoking. With Dev D (despite its optimistic ending, a kind of cop out) Kashyap has set the bar very high, for other film makers and for himself. It will be a tough act to follow.