Analysis :

There shouldn't be any doubt in the fact that Dedh Ishqiya is in many respects appreciably more charming than Ishqiya. Pertaining to a theme, the follow-up casts its net far wider and comes up accompanying striking insights into the imperfection and peculiarity of people who haven’t lost their flair for the flashy irrespective of their lives having hitting the skids.

The screenplay is connected smoothly with acidic wit, the comic touches are subtly playfully artful, and the on-screen performances are marvellously modulated. Dedh Ishqiya entertains, on the contrary does so in a manner that does not deal lightly not accompanying the intelligence of the audience.

In other words, here is an exceptional film that does not have to negotiate the kind of facile crowd-pleasing narrative formulations that most Bollywood flicks must necessarily wade through in order to get to the Rs 200-crore mark. Dedh Ishqiya might not get there, but it is a triumph of measured craftsmanship and storytelling finesse.

Supporting post by producer Vishal Bhardwaj’s razor-sharp dialogues and rare musical score, Dedh Ishqiya looks, sounds and feels like nothing that the Mumbai movie industry has produced in a while. It is more an Urdu film than a Hindi one, with a majority of the characters speaking lines in a language and with the kind of mellifluence that have gone out of Mumbai cinema.

As a special mention, the quality of the writing and the sharpness of the editing (A Sreekar Prasad), as well deserve an equally large measure of commendation. Each neatly constructed sequence leads into the next flawlessly and without leaving any wrinkle behind.

Performance :

Dedh Ishqiya is filled with several high degree of pleasure. The repeated teasing remarks between Khalu and Babban, Khalu’s efforts to woo the Begum and bring her out of her self-imposed exile from dance, Babban’s typically shameless attempts to win Munira over, and of course the dangerous cat-and-mouse game that they all play with the merciless Jaan Mohammad. All of this works wonderfully well because the acting is of a consistently high order. The two spirited women in this male-dominated landscape play second fiddle to none and get their own back with ease.

If it is difficult to take one’s eyes off the screen when Madhuri is on it, it is no less a joy to watch Huma Qureshi effortlessly matching strides with the veteran, move for move.

Naseeruddin Shah captures the essence of the worldly wise Khalujaan with the kind of acuity that only an actor of his proven calibre could have. Arshad Warsi, as always, is a livewire who injects full-on fizz into the proceedings without breaking into a sweat.

As a special mention, the filmmaker also extracts outstanding performances from the supporting cast. Vijay Raaz as the villain who is reluctant to take no for an answer, Manoj Pahwa as the poet in captivity who never tires of displaying ostentatiously his Italian origins and Salman Shahid as the peculiar gang lord are first-rate.

Final Word:In one word, Dedh Ishqiya is a must watch. I am giving 4 star rating for this film. Dedh Ishqiya Releases on 10th JAN 2014.

Dedh Ishqiya Releases on 10th JAN 2014