Devi Aur Hero

I stumbled across this movie from an insta reel - really glad the makers made it available for free in YouTube itself!

Saw it - what a movie !

Each scene, each dialogue, each emotion all are works of art. The story is dark, but real - make you uncomfortable, pensive and question : a great movie should do this and kudos for director, camera and actors in achieving this !

There is very little fluff or commercial elements, song sequences, flashy cuts or flashbacks etc. The film showed more than tell - I liked that.

Now the thing I felt it did not that great was with the ending and prologue or a lengthier one at that - I felt a few more scenes around it could have helped - particularly around the doctor - whose story though well etched, feels slightly incomplete.

There is now a certain expectation when you watch a film made by Aditya Kripalani. That he is going to bring up front, close and personal real issues. Stark and unfiltered. To the point of deglamourising them that they hurt and connect with you. That is not intentional, that is just the way the director, Aditya Kripalani deals with his subjects. Devi and the Hero, is on the face, Kaali Ghosh, a sex slave who not only has to manage her traumatic past and reality but has a mental condition of multiple personality disorder. Enacted by the endearing and pretty Chitrangada Chakraborty, who has grown in her acting prowess since we last saw her in her debut Aditya Kripalani's film, Tikli and Laxmi Bomb. This film sees her straddle her past, her dreams and nightmares and her desires with a whimsical innocence and a hidden hunger. The film is a telling of her journey and how she achieves clarity and confidence and finally an acceptance of her truth. How she unbundles all of them through conversations with her near messed-up psychiatrist. So, while the film is the unravelling of Kaali and her many minds, it twists to lead up into the head of her shrink, too! A sexual addiction that he is grappling with and how Kaali, as his patient becomes a compatriot in his struggle. This is a very interesting turn in the story. How do professionals who help others, in this case, the psychiatrist, Vikrant Saraswat, played by Vinay Sharma whom you might grow to get comfortable with, what happens to the likes of them? How do they un-box their struggles and manage them? With this narrative, Aditya Kripalani has, in his version of being true to real, layered his film with multiple themes. The whole gender piece with Kaali and her empowerment asked me the question, "Is the Devi or the Hero? Or, both?" And this. While the psychiatrist whose addiction for his patient turns to form a relationship of friendship, of protection, of empathy. The ability to bring to screen topics on sexual abuse, mental health, addictions; with a female lead as a Devi and Hero, reflects the ability of a director who is willing for his viewers to question and dialogue and in the process bring to the mainstream hitherto many insofar, undiscussable societal truths. The highpoint of the film is the end which allowed me to make peace and is the very reason why you should see this film - emerging from oppression, a vibrant, pulsating and evocative dance drama that beckons hope and optimism.

"Devi aur Hero" a movie about real life issues which is often looked as a controversial topics to talk about. It has been handled very carefully and crafted beautifully without any screen violence and brutality. Excellently captures - struggles, emotional and physical turmoil, angst of two people who help each other to heal. Actors have done impeccable work and lived the characters so beautifully that it left me wanting to know more about them, DEVI and HERO. More realistic than we usually "want" to acknowledge.

Some actions as a woman you would want to take in order to take revenge. Stories that may be real in some parts of the world, truth nothing but truth.

Devi Aur Hero, loved everything about the movie, not just one but for many reasons. For a perfect cast that could handle intense skill that this movie required, for picking up the topic that main stream cinema hardly dares to, for crafting it in a way that it brought out its true essence. The movie felt so real, I did have a hate spell for the obsessiveness and compulsiveness of your male character and his pain and remorse was equally felt. I could feel the story of Kaali, I was one with her throughout, her character made me believe in her.

I simply wow at the director Aditya Kriplani's capacity to handle so many themes and subjects in frame and justify each one of them. His talent for layering those and then weaving and summing them all together and then bringing them to a perfect closure is worth an applaud. Congratulations on picking up sensitive topics and bringing them to the world's platter. Topics that have been long lost in a glamour world of glitzy Bollywood. Waiting for more meaningful art from his side, he is a true hero who braved to pick this topic, all the best for your future!