Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra thinks out of the box and it's more than evident now. First AKS, then Rang De Basanti, now Delhi 6. A two-liner of the story may give you an impression that it's similar to UTV's earlier outing SWADES, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker: An American of Indian origin returns to his roots and makes a decision to stay back in India. But Delhi 6 bites more than it can chew.

Delhi 6 is a pleasant musical run through the Hindu and Muslim cultures of Old Delhi as seen through the eyes of hero Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) who comes to India to fulfill the desire of his incurably ill Daadi (Waheeda Rehman) to spend the last days of her life in her homeland. As Roshan after a brief culture shock, tries to understand the complexities of relations that kept his people apart from each other as well as close to each other, he slowly gets attached to Bittu (Sonam Kapoor) and the chemistry grows, which is very convincingly directed using rich background music and plausible day-to-day situations.

The first half, though appearing a little lengthy focuses on reverse-culture-shock jokes, lavishly reproduced Ram Leela, a visit to the Taj Mahal, and a cow giving birth in the street. It is in the second half that things take a more serious turn. Undesirable traditions and smoldering religious hatred comes bubbling to the surface and erupt into a Do the Right Thing climax that takes everyone by surprise. Several characters and subplots weaved together to relate to the central plot of analyzing beliefs against rational thinking, with a touch of humor is quite entertaining but one has to endure the laborious and forced accent of Abhishek Bachchan throughout the film. Although at several places, the movie seems predictable, Mehra succeeds in putting surprises well in time and balance. The climax gets dragged due to cameos and voiceovers. Although Roshan’s attempts to put belief and faith in people ahead of belief in customs and religion deserve a pat, what disappoints is Mehra getting preachy at many places. Rahman’s touching music takes the movie to a totally different level altogether.

Mehra and his cameraman Binod Pradhan have succeeded in capturing the buzz of Delhi city very well in every frame. Those living outside of India will find that connect with that feeling of wanting to be in both places. The song in the second half, which juxtaposes Abhishek’s life in the US with the people, and life in India is wonderfully done as well. Hats off to the director and technical team there.

Abhishek has delivered one of his better performances but his American accent doesn’t really work. Sonam Kapoor doesn’t have much to do but except for the climax but she carries herself immensely well. Waheeda Rehman, Om Puri and Rishi Kapoor are simply outstanding. The huge ensemble cast comprising of acclaimed actors such as Raghubir Yadav, Pavan Malhotra, Supriya Pathak Shah, Deepak Dobriyal, Divya Dutta, Vijay Raaz, Tanvi Azmi and Atul Kulkarni do a superb job.

Just look at the diversity of topics addressed convincingly through dazzling performances and professional editing. It’s worth a watch!