Dev D.

Spoilers. There's a lot of spoilers up ahead.

Saw "Dev D," recently.

It's a modern representation of the classic tale of Devdas. It's one of the several remakes, the only difference here being, it's set in present time.

So instead of abusing alcohol by itself, Dev from this one has the luxury of adding cocaine and pills to the self destruction.

It was an eye opening and surprising glimpse into the venture of Bollywood towards realism and tasteful drama, as opposed to it's usual escapades with over amplified melodrama and huge list of cliche's. It was also pretty darn relatable.

So, there's "Paro," right. The love of "Dev's" life?

They fall apart though, pretty early on too. Something about both of them having huge insecurity issues. Also, their egos are too big to fit in the same room at times, so there's that constant collision of their spiritual beings on the celestial plane (or whatever the fuck.)

But they were lovers at a point and what not, you know? So it takes them a bit to get over that little piece of information.

I mean, Dev goes in to his drug fueled depression because he doesn't have Paro anymore. Paro goes ahead and gets married to someone else, within like, a week. Seriously. Like, two to three scenes away from her falling out with Dev. Yeah, just like that.

But anyway. It's safe to say they have a falling out.

So he starts drinking and doing cocaine a lot, and also hangs out with some pretty shady people. One of them is a pimp, who introduces him to ... uh ... a European girl with a backstory, who likes bollywood, so she takes up the alias "Chanda."

As in "Chandarmukhy." The original ... uh ... what were they even called, back in the day? Oldest profession and all, but do I need to use the old word to be politically correct, or what? How does this intellectual writer shit work, I ask myself sometimes.

She danced a bit and slept with dudes for money. Basically.

Her backstory though, she's like, European Indian or something, and her family throws her out because she gets intimate with a dude, and it's a really long shaming story, I really don't want to go into the details. I mean, that further into detail, anyway.

So yeah. She becomes a prostitute. (Obviously, there's a bunch of more interesting shit that goes on in the transition period from a. to b.  but I'm distracted by Method Man talking like his lips are numb, in the background.)

But Dev meets Chanda, she's super nice to him and shit. While he tries to get back with, whats-her-face, the first one. The one and only, har har.

She comes to see him and shit, and his room is a mess (fucking d'uh, he's depressed and shit. She doesn't rub it in his face more, and say he's just being a drama queen and shit, like some people would. She's not that cruel, clearly.)

But she actually cleans him up and shit, I mean relatively at least. She doesn't hook his body up to any medical equipment to pump out all the good stuff or anything like that, but she cleans up his apartment.

Oh, also, they get reaaaal close to getting jiggy with it. I mean, having sex. I mean, well, they were about to, before Paro's all like, fuck that, I ain't into it any more. Although, I did imply or hint at the idea that I might be willing to cheat on my husband right here with you... in this random ass hotel, with all these beer bottles and other ridiculous shit around us. But no, I changed my mind.

Well, Dev's like, all right, you sucked anyway. He's still chill though.

It's when she gets to the damn door, and says something so fucked up to Dev, that he just loses it. I mean, I'm not siding with Dev or anything, don't get me wrong.

But, she says the exact thing that is required to drive him over the fucking edge. To really, really make him mad. Something that really pushes his button.

Well, d'uh, she fucking knows Dev like the back of her hand. She's trying to hurt him, for some fucked up psychological reason that is unbeknownst to me, and she knows exactly what to say to poke that metaphorical needle through his spine. So she does.

He flips it, in typical fashion. I mean, why wouldn't he, right, what else can he do? Come up with something bitchier to say? No, he doesn't do that, he's probably still hungover anyway.

So he just yells and throws her out, tells her to fuck off or something.

Here's the ridiculous shit though, Paro starts fucking crying as she starts to walk back home. Like, what the fuck? What the fuck is that?

I guess that's one of the big questions that the movie raised for me and I just don't understand.

So, clearly, she's sad. Which is exactly what I don't get it, I don't understand why she's sad. She was a total bitch to Dev just a minute ago, right? I mean, she very apparently and blatantly want to hurt him. How was she not expecting to get lashed at then? What did she think he was going to do, smile and ask her to fuck off in a kinder manner?

Is she just upset at herself that things didn't work out, and she's constantly reminded of that so she lashes out in the only way she sees right in front of her?

Is she just hurt because she thinks things could have worked out before if Dev wasn't such an idiot? (She needs to get a grip on reality if that's the case though, because, uh, takes two hands to clap and shit? You know? You need to put in some effort too? Etc, etc?)

Is she sad because she actually doesn't want to go back home to her husband and wishes she could somehow go back in time, and make shit work with Dev, or just stay at the hotel without being classified as a horrible person?

And those are just some of the reasons I can come up with. But the truth is this:

I don't fucking know.

That one scene and that one thought process of Paro's symbolizes a huge aspect of my relationship with women.

Those four words, in fact, sum up a lot of it by themselves. I just don't fucking know.

Like, what's going on in Paro's head right there? It's some ridiculous mystery to me.

It's like the Moriarty to my Sherlock. Really. Gets me every time.

Anyhow, Dev continues to go buck wild, and ride the lightning. Until he bites the bullet. (I can go on with these forever.) Which he finally does and shit goes very, very horrible for him.

He finally realizes, perhaps because he's off of drugs after a really long time, that he should have just stuck with Chanda because she actually took care of him and didn't judge him.

You know, because she knows what it's like, being judged and shit. Everyone else does that to her, except Dev, so she's intrigued by that. She also knows that only someone that doesn't like themselves can be someone that don't even bother judging anyone else.

Or, no, actually, it's probably the other way around. Maybe he doesn't like himself, so he ends up constantly judging everyone else? Right? That makes sense?

What is it then, that makes Chanda fall for Dev D?

My god, here we go again.

The point is, he gives up trying to beat a dead horse, and trying to kill himself in the process, and ends up happily ever after with Chanda. Who hopefully gives up prostitution, because Dev's ego can't stand his lover with another dude, as it is.

I mean, finally. It's a hell of a journey though, and the fun being in the journey - not the destination. That kinda thing.

And yeah, pretty interesting. Really good cinematography, too. It's very refreshing, and displays a new age of filmmakers in the third world that are taking advantage of things like globalization and international standards.
They actually end up doing some pretty interesting things that seem very experimental, and in a good way, add to the appeal of this "remake."

I know, it's a pretty old movie by now, I don't know why I'm doing this shit review of it now. Or displaying my amusement by the portrayal of the human condition and pining for love and shit.

But yeah, I've been thinking of writing about things I enjoy more. So there. Maybe I'll do "Looper" next, because I finally saw it last night and fucking loved it. Added to my list of favorite movies? I think so.