Delhi Belly

Cast: Imran Khan, Vir Das, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Poorna Jagannathan; Music: Ram Sampath; Direction: Abhinay Deo

Abhinay Deo must be a fan of Coen Brothers.  The impersonation of the character Nitin is unmistakably that of Big Lebowski. However, the idea of ordinary people attempting and failing in crime is, thankfully, the only idea that Deo has borrowed from them. But then, there is so much more to this film than that. In Delhi Belly we get to see all you wanted to see in Indian cinema but were afraid to ask. It has profanity, sex (yes, including fake orgasm) and even jokes about excrement. Delhi Belly is a film that breaks all the traditions of a Bollywood film. And it does it with the flourish of Roland Emmerich. Manmohan Desai would have suffered a heart attack watching this film.
And another thing: Yes, yes...and this has been a relief. This film clears the doubt that has been lingering on my mind. In North India, people do live in squalid apartments with restricted water supply (whose roof cave in) and yes, there are cockroaches in some of their refrigerators. This clarity was crucial because the Johars and Chopras had confused a Chennai-born guy like me into thinking that all Hindi speaking people are rich. So rich that they lived in palatial mansions and travelled in helicopters and studied in London. Not quite apparently. At least not all of them it seems, if Abhay Deo is to be believed.

And yes, the actors don’t look good. They roam around with black eye, plastered face and bald head. There is no flaunting of six packs; if anything, there are only butt cheeks. And no heaving cleavages; only botched up oral job!

Delhi Belly breaks another tradition: The loud, lewd comedy of Hindi cinema. The Johnny Levers and Akshay Kumars and Priyadarshans have wrecked the genre so much that Hindi comedy had become quite allergic in recent years. Delhi Belly proves that even a joke about pooh can be made very subtle and enjoyable. In fact, the subtlety of these jokes is what makes you laugh the loudest. Because Deo doesn’t attempt to explain his jokes, as it is done usually in Indian cinema. It is sometimes necessary in order to reach a varied audience. But Deo is not aiming for them. He decided to narrow down his audience into the thinnest possible line. And he caters to them, amply.

The final word has to be about Poorna Jagannathan. Where was she all these years? And why are our directors stuck to actresses like Priyanka who has run out of her stock of emotions and Deepika, who can’t act to even save her life? Poorna is sexy and lively with such a perfect comic timing that you laughed by just seeing her close up shots. This is perhaps the first time where an actress was glamorous whilst being comical. Another tradition broken perhaps?

Delhi Belly succeeds in touching Tarantonian nerves in its profanity and singing ode to Coen Brothers whilst being firmly rooted in Delhi’s heart. Or perhaps in belly?