Review: Delhi Heights

[roshcrazy]

Delhi Heights (drama)
Cast: Jimmy Sheirgill, Neha Dhupia, Rohit Roy, Simone Singh
Direction: Anand Kumar

Cities have often formed a live backdrop for many films, figuring almost as a character in drama, often causing it to take strange twists and turns by its special topography.

If Mumbai has evolved as the Maximum City for all underworld stories, then London has played footsie in most of the Hugh Grant romances and comedies. As for New York, it's almost synonymous with all Woody Allen capers.

In Hindi films, Delhi has just emerged as a serious player, specially after Rang De Basanti and the India Gate candle light protest which became almost iconic for the causeratti: a perfect venue to play out their Halla Bol howl.

Now we hear that Rakeysh Mehra is all set to pay a tribute to quintessential Dilli by locating his next film in the heart of Chandni Chowk.

But, for our debutant director here, it's actually quite difficult to fathom what the metro actually means. Is it a film about Delhi sights or Delhi Heights? Maloom nahin.

Even though the film kicks off at the onset with a definition of saddi city and why it is a cut above the rest.

Analyse this: Dilli aka Dilwalon ka shehr, paise walon ka shehr, gareebon ka shehr, a city for the young and the old, and above all, a city where they make more Chinese than China itself! That's it.

For the rest, Delhi figures neither as a metaphor nor a character in the film, other than being the name of the highrise apartment where the protagonists play out their sorry lives.

Protagonists: A bunch of yuppies who try hard to find love in a city that hardly seems to know the definition of love.

So we have an ad world couple (Jimmy-Neha) play out their Abhiman-ish fetish against a white-collared world. Both Abhi and Suhana love each other, but hey! somebody stole somebody's idea and intellectual theft is definitely not allowed in love and war.

Hence the tu-tu-main-main. For the second couple (Rohit-Simone), it seems to be a premature attack of the seven-year-itch virus which keeps striking playboy Bobby (Rohit), so much so, he even misses his million dollar meetings if he spots a single-ready-to-mingle miss.

Oops! Is Delhi all about this? Not even Rabbi Shergill can salvage the Capital spirit in this film, simply because his chartbuster Tere bin is Delhi history by now.

Nikhat Kazmi.