Review of movie DAAS DEV

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Rating:3/5

 Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel, Devdas has captured the imagination of filmmakers in the past and continues to do so even today. Set in contemporary times, filmmaker Sudhir Mishra's Daas Dev borrows not just from this novel but also from William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, to tell a story that essentially tries to capture the dynamics of dynastic politics in India. In this retelling of the classic novel, Dev (Rahul Bhat) is a reluctant political heir who loves Paro (Richa Chadha) immensely, but falls prey to the machinations of his uncle Avdhesh (Saurabh Shukla). Paro, doesn't allow her love for Dev to blind her, she places her pride above all else and in the process locks horns with her beloved in the political circuit. Meanwhile, Chandni (Aditi Rao Hydari), 'the other' woman is a fixer who does the dirty job for politicians and is inexplicably drawn to Dev. 

While Mishra is ambitious in setting his film on a large canvas, politics plays centrestage in the narrative and usurps what is a love story. The screenplay for a large portion of the film focusses on the family members orchestrating Dev's entry into politics and Avdhesh’s ambition to ensure that politics continues to be a dynastic game. In the process, Dev and Paro's romance gets overshadowed. Even Chandni's affection for Dev doesn't manage to pique interest. As an audience, one is not pulled into the love story of Dev and Paro sufficiently to be invested in them and their journey. While Rahul Bhat gets ample scope to showcase his acting chops which he does too, but he lacks the screen presence required to pull off a character that has been immortalized on screen. 

The two leading ladies Richa Chadha and Aditi Rao Hydari, are consistent with their performances, though they underplay their parts in portions where perhaps a little theatrics could have helped uplift the energy of the film. The screenplay by Sudhir Mishra and Jaydeep Sarkar is not seamless throughout.