Dedh Ishqiya seems to be a muslim social---almost....
Dialogues in some parts of the movie are in chaste urdu that recalls the bygone era of nawabs and begums....
And interspersed in between dialogues are urdu shayaries delectably chosen by born conneissuers of the language.....
It seems the era of old films like ' Mere mehboob ' is back.....
But alas.....the people inhabiting the film are nothing but crooks and charlatans of the first order....
And crooks and charlatans are bound to come down to street level language every once in a while....
....So the film swivels between the tongue of high class high brow royals in some scenes and co{censored} abuses in other scenes.....
And the boom of guns and the thud of beatings is heard every once in a while....
Typically , it ends in a free for all between the characters on a railway station where all pretensions of class have been dropped way back and the crookedness of the characters manifests itself....
Yet in the midst of all this , some of the crooks have time for falling in love.....
Yes , true love....
But is it destined to remain one sided love ?? Go and watch the film for that....
Of the two main crooks , Naseeruddin Shah can show class and charm in spite of his crookedness , while his sidekick Arshad Warsi is a street level thug....
And the interesting chemistry between the differing personalities of the two gives rise to a number of comic situations....indeed , the audience was laughing throughout the film....
Mirroring the chemistry between the two male characters is the chemistry between two females---Madhuri Dixit and her confidante Huma Qureshi ; or did I see a hint of lesbianism here.....??
Madhuri is Begum Para , whose husband the nawab of Mahmudabad died long ago asking her to remarry so that Mahmudabad could have a new nawab---but under the condition that the new nawab must be a born poet who can invoke the choicest urdu verses.....
And Naseer and Arshad arrive at the venue where urdu poets from all over the country have assembled to impress the Begum and win her dainty hand....
Yes , inspite of her years Madhuri looks good enough to eat and so does her confidante Huma Qureshi.....
Not surprisingly , the two crooks Naseer and Arshad fall for the beauty and looks of the two women....
But there are other men in the fray for wooing the Begum---mean and dangerous ones at that , like a fake Nawab played by Vijay Raaz and his goons.....men who are not averse to using violence to get rivals out of the way , and who above all have far more money power and manpower to get what they want.....
As the competition for winning the hand of the Begum hots up , we see shayars trying to excel each other in shayaris and poetry.....
And when the competition hots up further , we see fights and kidnappings and daggers drawn....
So are the Begum and her confidante worth all the trouble ?? That I am keeping in suspense.....
The film has been made on a low budget and the sets are not impressive at all....
But real hard work has been done on the dialogues , both of the finer urdu variety and the gutter level obscenities....
Only one or two songs and only so so music....
But the film does give some entertainment.....
Verdict---not fantastic but good enough .
Dialogues in some parts of the movie are in chaste urdu that recalls the bygone era of nawabs and begums....
And interspersed in between dialogues are urdu shayaries delectably chosen by born conneissuers of the language.....
It seems the era of old films like ' Mere mehboob ' is back.....
But alas.....the people inhabiting the film are nothing but crooks and charlatans of the first order....
And crooks and charlatans are bound to come down to street level language every once in a while....
....So the film swivels between the tongue of high class high brow royals in some scenes and co{censored} abuses in other scenes.....
And the boom of guns and the thud of beatings is heard every once in a while....
Typically , it ends in a free for all between the characters on a railway station where all pretensions of class have been dropped way back and the crookedness of the characters manifests itself....
Yet in the midst of all this , some of the crooks have time for falling in love.....
Yes , true love....
But is it destined to remain one sided love ?? Go and watch the film for that....
Of the two main crooks , Naseeruddin Shah can show class and charm in spite of his crookedness , while his sidekick Arshad Warsi is a street level thug....
And the interesting chemistry between the differing personalities of the two gives rise to a number of comic situations....indeed , the audience was laughing throughout the film....
Mirroring the chemistry between the two male characters is the chemistry between two females---Madhuri Dixit and her confidante Huma Qureshi ; or did I see a hint of lesbianism here.....??
Madhuri is Begum Para , whose husband the nawab of Mahmudabad died long ago asking her to remarry so that Mahmudabad could have a new nawab---but under the condition that the new nawab must be a born poet who can invoke the choicest urdu verses.....
And Naseer and Arshad arrive at the venue where urdu poets from all over the country have assembled to impress the Begum and win her dainty hand....
Yes , inspite of her years Madhuri looks good enough to eat and so does her confidante Huma Qureshi.....
Not surprisingly , the two crooks Naseer and Arshad fall for the beauty and looks of the two women....
But there are other men in the fray for wooing the Begum---mean and dangerous ones at that , like a fake Nawab played by Vijay Raaz and his goons.....men who are not averse to using violence to get rivals out of the way , and who above all have far more money power and manpower to get what they want.....
As the competition for winning the hand of the Begum hots up , we see shayars trying to excel each other in shayaris and poetry.....
And when the competition hots up further , we see fights and kidnappings and daggers drawn....
So are the Begum and her confidante worth all the trouble ?? That I am keeping in suspense.....
The film has been made on a low budget and the sets are not impressive at all....
But real hard work has been done on the dialogues , both of the finer urdu variety and the gutter level obscenities....
Only one or two songs and only so so music....
But the film does give some entertainment.....
Verdict---not fantastic but good enough .
