BOMBAY TIMES (April 26, 2018)

Sudhir Mishra finds women, who are afraid of defying conventions and breaking stereotypes, boring. Which is why, you will never find such characters in his films. On the contrary, the women in Mishra’s films are as aggressive as the men, if not more. With his latest feature, Daas Dev, which offers a contemporary and political twist on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas, he presents Paro and Chandramukhi in an all-new light. They come with more than 50 shades of grey.

Mishra says, “When a woman stands on her own, when she stands up for herself or when she becomes a little competitive or aggressive she’s instantly labelled bad. Bad is used as a cliché. The film industry works with these tropes.” The feisty women in his film are hungry for power and cannot be tamed. “The women of Daas Dev are badass,” he says. The maverick filmmaker presents his views on the two complex and layered women who make the word ‘bad’ seem all too cool.

‘PARO IS NEITHER COY NOR HELPLESS’
Paro for me is not the Paro of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel. So I apologise for not allowing her to be trapped behind a big gate inside her husband’s house. My Paro is a modern, spunky, interesting woman who fights with the weapons she has and in the end confronts Dev. Paro hails from a family which is associated with Dev’s family in the political arena, but lower in rank. The young couple gets embroiled in the dynastic ambitions of their family and in this situation Paro rises to the occasion.

Paro is neither coy nor helpless. She knows her mind better than her heart. This makes her vulnerable and she is almost not aware of it. This is also what makes Paro of Daas Dev so endearing. You almost want to hold her and tell her that it will all be fine.

‘CHANDNI STRADDLES BETWEEN POWER AND LONGING’
Some might call Chandni a woman with questionable ethics, but in my version she is as close to Chandramukhi as she can get in this day and age. A money handler, fixer, manipulator, she is the one who services the political forces of our time. However, she has the essence of Chandramukhi and also the same blind spot, the same fatal flaw — her love for Dev. However, this does not prevent her from looking out for her own interests while confronting Dev’s weaknesses and aiding him to rise above himself.

The ease with which Chandni straddles between power politics and longing for Dev is magic. She is like the light at the end of the dark tunnel which Dev could have.

DAAS DEV TO GET CRUSHED THANKS TO THE AVENGERS TSUNAMI!

It’s going to be one of the most significant Fridays of the year. Avengers: Infinity War, the world’s most awaited film, has generated tremendous excitement in India as well. It’s a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the series has become big in India after The Avengers released in 2012. Moreover, Iron Man 3 [2013] was also a big success, despite not being a film of a group of superheroes, a factor that had increased the excitement for The Avengers. The new Avengers film is very exciting since it has more than a dozen superheroes, including Spider-Man, Guardians Of The Galaxy characters, Doctor Strange, Black Panther etc. To witness all of them team up against a common enemy would be something to watch out for.

The advance of this film started on Sunday in India and the response was huge. It’s all set to take the biggest openings for a Hollywood film and there’s a possibility that it might cross the 25 crore figure of Baaghi 2’s opening day. Baaghi 2 is the biggest opener of the year so far and if Avengers: Infinity War will cross this figure, it would shock and awe the trade and industry. Once the historic weekend and first week is over, it depends on the response. That would ultimately decide if Avengers: Infinity War would be able to cross the lifetime figures of 187.98 crore of The Jungle Book, which is the biggest Hollywood blockbuster of India.

It’s also important to note that the dubbed versions play a big role in ensuring that Hollywood films become a success. Otherwise, the English version and fans of Marvel can’t help in taking the film cross 100 crore, even though their number is sizeable. Thankfully, Avengers is a successful Hollywood franchise, even among the masses. And looking at the advance sales of the dubbed versions of Avengers: Infinity War, it seems like that the masses are also going to lap up this new film happily.

Interestingly, Avengers: Infinity War is not the only film release of the week. Sudhir Mishra’s Daas Dev also releases on Friday and it stars Rahul Bhat, Richa Chadha and Aditi Rao Hydari. It is a modern contemporary take on Devdas in a political backdrop. The buzz for this film is negligible. Even if it had not come with Avengers: Infinity War, it would have still had a tough time. But now with Avengers: Infinity War releasing, it’ll find it tough to even get decent number of screens.

WHICH FILM WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE AND WHY? DO LET ME KNOW!