Movie Review - Dedh Ishqiya

There are outright good movies and absolute trash ones as well, and then there are a lot of them which are in between. How much a viewer enjoys these movies depends on a lot of factors often related more to their personality than the movie itself.

Dedh Ishqiya will remain in the domain which caters to a select audience and is surely not a film for the masses.

Director Abhishek Chaubey has been working with Vishal Bhardwaj for quite a while now, having written scripts for several of his films and also been an associate director on atleast 4 projects. Vishal bharadwaj films have co produced this movie in association with Shemaroo, to bring on screen the sequel to the 2010 hit – Ishqiya.

Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi are back as the pair of Ifthekaar Hussain (Khalu) and Babban -the criminals with a heart...a heart that falls in love and breaks all too easily. The duo is into robbery and petty crimes and the movie starts with them doing a heist at a jewelers store and escaping with a very expensive necklace. Pretty unplanned the whole robbery, and it leads to them running hamper scamper to save themselves from the cops during which Babban is separated from Khalu(and the necklace).

Babban lands in a soup, and is seen standing in a grave dug up to bury him alive. What ensues is a hilarious sequence wherehis captor is deciding whether to chop off his head or his private parts. In fact several such sequences and intelligently written dialogues throughout the movie keep viewers smiling for the most part.

Khalu is next seen portraying himself as the Nawab of Chandpur and trying to woo the begum of Mahmudabad, who holds a Swayamvar every year to find a suitor for herself. Babban manages to reach there and rekindle his love hate relationship with Khalu, who fools him into believing he didn’t desert Babban to flee with the necklace.

Madhuri Dixit is marvelous as Begum Para of Mahmudabad, a small town in U.P. And her accomplice and caretaker Muniya(Huma Quereshi) suits her role perfectly.

The swayamvar involving romantic shayaris and a shooting contest among others goes on for several days and Khalu’s main opponent turns out to be Jaan Mohammed(Vijay Raaz) who is a local MLA and gangster.

Some wonderful funny sequence’s unfold on the screen during the next half an hour during which each tries to outwit the other while Babban falls in love with Muniya. Khalu is there for love, but Babban looks to rid the Begum of her precious belongings, during which he has a sexual encounter with Muniya and she gives him the idea of kidnapping the Begum.

While Khalu has been wooing Begum Para and winning her heart, he is surprised and disgusted when he discovers than Jaan Mohammed has been chosen by her as the winner of the Swayamvar.

The last half an hour is where the drama unfolds and we discover why and how the kidnapping has taken place, and what finally happens at the end is something I would like you all to see for yourselves.

The movie is very nicely directed and despite it’s slow pace it doesn’t leave one bored as there are a lot of witty sequences and dialogues. The direction and writing of Abhishek and Vishal Bhardwaj sure has a distinct stamp of its own with shades of Guy Ritchie at times. The writing is very intelligent and screenplay is great.

All the actors have done a fabulous job, not to be missed also is Italvi. I won’t disclose much about him though J

The seven stages of love are laid out in front of us, and the lyrics from the song sum up the state of the love filled hearts of our heroes. “Chotein bhi khaye, aur muskuraye. Aisa hi tha yeh, aisa hi hai yeh”.

The movie won’t appeal to everyone, but people looking for quality cinema should watch it. Will go with a 4/5 for it.