Every fan knows that when you go to see a new Dev Anand film, you can expect the unexpected. In a stunning break from tradition, Dev abandons his classic chaotic, non-linear story telling and simplifies it just plain chaotic story telling in his 2001 classic "Censor". In many ways, this is his most personal movie ever and in a courageous move, he takes on the powerful and suffocating power of the Indian Censor Board.
Starring a massive number of out-of-work stalwarts including the always available Jackie Shroff, Rekha, etc - the film showcases an unprecedented appearance by Randhir Kapoor in a daring interpretation of his father - the plump and cloying Raj Kapoor's overfed tramp persona. It is akin to a boy's slaying of his father on screen (so that he can become a man at last) when Randhir appears in a scene (attired in Japanese shoes, English pantaloons, and red Russian cap) where he zips his fly after apparently urinating on a wall, and then bursts into a touching song on national integration to children who have been threatening their playmate with a future spent on cleaning the excretions and shoes of his peers. (No kidding here!) The narrative is a David Lynch like story of a film within a film. Director Dev Anand plays a director (Dev Anand) who makes a masterpiece movie that is blocked by five members of Censor Board but all this is embedded in a non-linear fashion within the movie - or something like that. In a Rashomon-like editing style, Dev inter cuts the actual move with the movie within the movie, until one is the other and the result incomprehensible to all but the chosen few. In a triumph of continuity and consistency, both movies are equally badly made in terms of technical accomplishment, acting, editing, camera-work, etc - all Dev Anand hallmarks. How did they manage to do this? As it turns out, the film (within the film) is a masterpiece, and has been blocked by each member of the board for personal reasons such as corruption, bribery, old enmity, and - hold your breath - the rejection of one members sexual advances on the 80 year old but eternally attractive Dev Anand. Thankfully, a US citizen takes note of the films virtues and submits it for an Oscar, which it wins by a mile - all leading the climactic address by Dev to the Oscar audience (and televised to the world) - sort of Dev's Dogme manifesto to urge filmmakers to adopt his deconstructionist approach to film making.
The Oscar sequence involves close-ups of Dev speaking, roughly edited with video captures of the Oscar show from TV - all edited to look like the real thing. This magic special effect has only been emulated by Dev himself in his recent "Love at Times Square" when he witnesses the 9-11 attacks in person, and donates several millions of dollars to reconstruction efforts in NYC.
Clearly after years of being cruelly ignored by the tainted Oscar committee, sort of like Martin Scorcese, Dev has decided to take things into his own hands and award himself the Oscar. Lets see if the gritty Scorcese has the GUTS to claim his Oscar like Dev just did. Ha! For those of you who know what I am talking about, thankfully, Dev also includes the expected perversity, crudity and exploitation of nubile young Dev discoveries - the continued supply of which is as baffling yet as gratifying as the mysterious source of continued funding for his films. Could this be the work of cross-border evildoers from an unnamed neighboring country? All in all, Censor is a return to form for the legendary Dev Anand - a hard-hitting film that is a must-watch for fans of the genre of Dev Anand films, and a masterpiece that packs off the yelping Kurosawas and Kubricks of the world back to film school with their tail between their legs!
