The first thing that strikes you, when you watch Dev D, is that the movie does not conform to conventions at all. It presents the ancient story of Sarat Chandra's Devdas, but with a modern-day outlook. Right from the screenplay to the cinematography, plot narration and dialogues, every aspect of the movie reminds us of the 'modern world' as its milieu. More than a heartbroken hero, the Devdas in 'Dev D' is representative of the present generation 20-somethings, who are stuck between traditions and modernity.

Dev (Abhay Deol) is the son of a rich industrialist. He is packed off to London by his harsh father who senses his growing fondness with Paro (Mahi), a teenager from a less affluent family than theirs. When Dev comes back from London now as a grown up youth, his love for his childhood darling is in fact much multiplied. But he is not allowed to marry her because of differences in cast and status. While Dev is sent to Delhi, Paro is married off to a rich but aged widower who has kids. Not one to take on responsibilities for his acts Dev digs deep into drugs and alcohol for salvation. He stays away from home but his finances still come from a loving father.

An escapist nature and a huge ego leads him into an pointless search for lost love that pushes him further into an chasm of darkness and hopelessness soaked in self pity. During these times he meets a prostitute Chanda (Kalki). What follows next in Dev’s journey towards self-destruction forms the rest of the plot!

Aiming it to be a modern day version of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic novel Devdas, Anurag Kashyap’s Dev D has ended up being not everyone’s cup of amusement. With many things more awful than appealing, Dev D may evoke irritation and bad reaction from fans of the former versions and the novel. Though Kashyap gets it right by making his three principal characters (of Dev, Paro and Chanda) stronger and belonging to today’s age group, the overuse of abusive language, drugs, alcohol and sex makes him somewhere lose the point he is trying to express. It goes onto become much darker than it should have been. Kashyap has tried to play around with his tale style by incorporating 18 songs (some very short). But some coming one after another in succession make you really jaded. He drops certain delicate laugh out moments visually and through the dialogue but they are not enough to keep engaged. Also, the over two and a half hour running time feels far too long than it really should. The sudden end may leave many baffled.

The two leading ladies Mahi Gill and Kalki somehow salvage the movie to a large extent. Mahi not only looks gorgeous but also is a tremendously natural bringing out her rawness of her character astonishingly well. Kalki is a find. She intensely brings out the duality of her role - her childlike purity and her no regrets attitude about the way she lives her life. Dibyendu Bhattacharya as Chunni the impetuous and loud pimp succeeds is bringing out a little laughs.

Amit Trivedi’s music is good at places with Emotional Atyaachaar being already a hit. Amongst the many songs, the rock version of Emotional Atyaachaar has been beautifully picturised. The camerawork by Rajiv Ravi is extremely top class, especially when it captures the neon lit by lanes of Delhi’s Paharganj. The sound design is fine.

Not only Devdas, the movie shows all the characters of Sarat Chandra's novel in a new light, consistent with the present-day world. While Paro knows how to move on in her life, Chanda (Chandramukhi) is a school student who has ended up working as a sex worker at night. One thing that disappointed us was that sequences between Dev and Chanda lacked sparkle. Even the exchange between Dev and Chunni lack the spark that it needed to create.

Kashyap's direction was on top of things and there was hardly any character in the movie, who could not justify his/her presence. Abhay Deol is getting even better with time. His eccentric hero image, carried forward from 'Manorama Six Feet Under' and' 'Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye', impressed us this time as well. While Mahi played her part to perfection, Kalki wasn't too bad either.

All in all, this is a film you wouldn't mind spending your money on.