At the outset, Daas Dev will make you recall your reasons for choosing to invest time and money in the film. Was it because of National Award-winning filmmaker Sudhir Mishra, who gave Indian cinema some unforgettable stories in Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin and Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi? Was it because it was a contemporary adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s 1917 classic Devdas, with some elements of Shakespeare's Hamlet thrown in? Or had it something to do with Richa Chadda, known for her smouldering screen presence? Could it be because you were hoping to be as floored as you were when you first saw Dev.D, Anurag Kashyap's smart, edgy and vital remake of Devdas in 2009?
Daas Dev, sadly, won't deliver on any of your lofty expectations.
Within the timeless framework of two intelligent and incredibly capable women mooning over a hopeless, self-destructive man, Mishra builds a political thriller set in Uttar Pradesh. Rahul Bhat, first seen in the popular tele-serial Heena, is Dev, the inexplicably conflicted alcoholic lover and prodigal son from an influential family in the Hindi heartland. He refuses to take on the mantle of his dead father and save his doddering political party. Dev's conniving uncle along with a shady businessman relative and his mistress Chandni (Aditi Rao Hydari), who is also the narrator, Chandramukhi and the hidden fixer in the film, convinces our entitled brat to stand for an upcoming election. Meanwhile Dev's political moves worsen his personal relations with his childhood sweetheart Paro (Richa Chadda) who nurses electoral ambitions of her own. Chandni's personal interest in saving Dev from dirty double-dealings and vicious relatives, Paro's unwavering love for Dev colliding with her family loyalties, and Dev's self-defeatist ways and tempestuous railings, all combine into a predictable nosedive with no redemption in sight.
All three central characters aren't given much material to play with. Dev drinks from the first scene to the last, only because as a Devdas-prototype, he is supposed to. His love for Paro is unalloyed, yes, but devoid of any real gravitas to merit sympathy from the audience. Paro doesn't transcend the seething mass of fraudulence around her and appears more helpless than she should. Chandni's attachment to Dev could have been the winning card, had it been more intelligently established at the start. In the absence of a gripping plot or a decent soundtrack, the movie limps and falters and never quite picks up pace.
It all boils down to a tedious march of trigger-happy goons and anti-heroes, alcohol quaffing, stolen kisses and contorted expressions of betrayal. A modern-day take on Devdas, specially if it is set in the Delhi hinterlands, deserves much more excitement.
Daas Dev
Director: Sudhir Mishra
Cast: Rahul Bhat, Richa Chadda, Aditi Rao Hyadri
Rating: 1.5/5