Oh, no darlin, we didn’t hate Delhi Belly.
Au contraire, it’s a pretty decent English film.
At least by Indian standards, Delhi Belly is most certainly an entertaining movie.
Paisa Vasool, as all ye putzheads like to say.
It’s just that we’re amazed to see Aamir Khan forever chomping on one film-maker or the other’s drill-bit.
This time, Aamir Khan goes down on British film director and former Mr.Madonna Guy Ritchie and neatly slides it down his cavernous, stretched throat abyss.
Boy, Aamir Khan must have liked the experience so much. For it shows in Delhi Belly, which is a very slick movie, at least, for most of its 1hr-42min playing time.
BTW, one of the main characters in the movie even boasts about a blowjob he got from his girl-friend (at her wedding to another guy) and then gets into a rollicking, disco song.
Delhi Belly is in the mold of Guy Ritchie’s crime films like Snatch, RocknRolla and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels featuring a bunch of oddball, colorful characters with all the frenetic momentum, wild antics, weird twists and bullets flying. But all of it happens in Delhi Belly within the confines of an Indian setting.
You’re unlikely to get your undies wet if the Guy Ritchie genre is familiar terrain but you’ll likely still find Delhi Belly an enjoyable experience.
Now before you schmucks jump down our throat, Aamir Khan is the producer of Delhi Belly and makes a fleeting appearance as well in the film toward the end.
A fast-paced film centering around three youths (also roommates in a dingy place) who are trapped in a diamond smuggling enterprise accidentally, Delhi Belly is a wild-ride for those of you schmucks habituated to crude Bollywood drivel like Ready or boring romcoms like Tees Maar Khan.
The three guys Tashi (Imran Khan), Nitin (Kunaal Roy Kapur) and Arup (Vir Das) find themselves in outlandish situations, some of it self-inflicted and a lot of it thrust on them.
Much of the antics we found amusing and occasionally downright hilarious although over time the Delhi Belly problem plaguing Nitin got on our nerves. Seriously, how much crap can you take! 🙁
We liked the two girls Poorna Jagannathan and Shenaz Treasurywala, who play second fiddle to the three guys.
Like us, if you’re the sort that likes ’em tatas nice and swinging, well, Treasurywala has bigger treasures in her blouse. But Jagannathan has the better looks.
The acting is decent all round and the movie trots along at a fairly brisk pace.
Delhi Belly is not without its weaknesses though.
For one, the the English dialogs are not powerful enough to match the vivid images.
Second, the movie tends to slow down a bit in the second half but fortunately picks up steam again.
Third, the photography is pedestrian. Nothing that jumps out at you.
Will someone get off his couch and tell the Indian movie-makers mothaf*ckas that a movie is a visual experience?
Still, all its weaknesses aside Delhi Belly is worth watching for the break it provides from the relentless, mindless garbage Bollywood keeps shoveling at you.
Go for it, folks. Don’t miss Delhi Belly.
Delhi Belly – Aamir Khan Gives Guy Ritchie a Neat BJ added by SearchIndia.com on
View all posts by SearchIndia.com →
This time Indian BO sentiments matches with your review (unlike ready). DB opened to good response while BHTB to extremely poor.
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=3104&nCat=box_office_news
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=3105&nCat=box_office_news
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Ha ha ha, Big B is going the Small B way!
Just back from delhi belly. I think Vijay Raaj was the best actor in the film. He is so effortless.
Sir, if you are planning on rewatching MATRIX (& reviewing it ofcourse), you might find another seemless actor in the lady who plays The Oracle in the film. I loved that particular part when Neo meets the Oracle. Its a 2-3 minute scene & she displayed a wide range of histrionics in that short span, like some magic!
Hi SI,
My very first comment here. Been following your blog for over three years.
Delhi Belly is entertaining. But it lacked the finesse and magic touch of a director like Vishal Bhardwaj.
Remember the scene in Kaminey when mafia drug gang go to the ‘bad’ Shahid Kapoor’s den and catch hold of his friend for the drugs the two have stolen from them. That confrontation between mafia guys and ‘bad’ Shahid Kapoor’ friend was excellent. But a similar scene in Delhi Belly where Sonia is kidnapped by the bad guys in the hotel room was not as good. Wasted opportunity.
I thought Kaminey was overall better executed compared to Delhi Belly. In Delhi Belly,the bad belly of one of the friends accidentally leads to a confrontation with the bad guys and in Kaminey the two petty crooks accidentally steal drugs while settling a score in a posh hotel room.
BTW, the drug lord’s name in Kaminey is Tashi. In Delhi Belly, Imran Khan’s character is also named Tashi.
But Kaminey has more local roots whereas Delhi Belly has gone out all the way reminding the viewer of Guy Ritchie style.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Maybe, it’s time for us to rewatch Kaminey.
BTW, we liked Kaminey too.
off topic:here’s a great one for you guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0MegWvFOes
like to see your bollywood or tollywood do that!
It seems like I am the only one who would strongly disagree.
Amusing and hilarious?I felt those jokes to be disgusting. I was expecting some kind of intelligent humor.
Only the goons made me laugh at times, but then again the concept of weird camera angles and goons have been overdone.
You say that Super 8 is just okay and V is time waste. I would watch Hugo Weaving in V n times rather than watching this crap which had nothing to offer.
If you really want to watch a good bollywood movie, go watch Udaan.
There was a non Indian couple sitting next to us and I still can’t forget the way they looked at me when the movie was over.
Do you guys enjoy watching all the movies which make viewers think India is the worst place to live in the whole world?
Everyone in the theater was laughing when the old lady character yelled ‘I told you we would go to Disneyland’.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: I was expecting some kind of intelligent humour.
Hey, crass humor is humor too.
Haven’t you heard of toilet humor? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_humour
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2218968.ece
There are reports of a couple of lawsuits too. One by a 24 yr old lady for misuse of burqa and hurting religious sentiments. The others are I believe for the film being vulgar and obscene.
Frankly, I am surprised it took this long and all the accusations are true to my knowledge. But the question is whether it is any ground for punishment. BTW, I found the ‘necrophilia scene’ quite distasteful. Nobody was laughing in the theater either. And later the dead guy appears as a photoshopped lust object on the wall of their room. Quite perverse and NOT funny. And finally, were you aware that DK Bose if said repeatedly as in the chorus of the song is a hindi swear word (Bhosdi ke)? Ingenious.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: There are reports of a couple of lawsuits too.
Hey, in India anything you do or don’t do upsets someone or some group. And there’s a lawsuit.
If you call your movie Billoo Barber (Shahrukh Khan), some people get upset. If you call your movie Deiva Thirumagan (Vikram) another group gets upset. That’s why it’s Incredible India. We wouldn’t read too much into those lawsuits.
2. On the Burqa issue, we favor its abolition by the state since the Burqa is an oppressive act against women.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ban_on_face_covering
3. Yes, we’re aware of the impact if DK Bose is repeated fast. So what?
In our not-so-humble-view, India’s Censor Board should be stripped of its censoring mandate and restrict itself to a rating system awarding grades like G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Association_of_America_film_rating_system
4. Vulgarity is universal but on occasion very subjective too.
Overall, we found Delhi Belly an entertaining film in the Guy Ritchie mold. As we said in the review, producer Aamir Khan has provided a neat BJ to Ritchie!