10 Years of Delhi Belly: A masterful comedy about a city, its characters and chaos

`Delhi Belly` Poster Picture Courtesy: Mid-day Archives

Aamir Khan as a movie producer can be as exciting and engaging as Aamir Khan the movie star. He produces most of his outings now, so apart from the brand that he is, the coherence of plot is simultaneously taken care of. At times, we see something nobody ever dared to show before. In ‘Delhi Belly', director Abhinay Deo and writer Akshat Verma gave the genre ‘adult comedy' the smartness it desperately needed and deserved.

Hindi filmmakers often confuse sexual innuendo and double entendre as funny when it comes to making comedies for adults. Deo and Verma first attack the plot, fill it with ingenious characters, give these people sharp and clever lines, and then stuff situations that can explode when they happen with them. For a film that's made for a crisp 90-minute that seldom allows you to pause for breath, the opening stretch is quite… slow, but also very amusing.

It gives a glimpse of the impoverished lifestyle of our three central characters. As the camera traverses through their dilapidated apartment, a K.L. Saigal number in the background adds more efficacy to their dishevelled conditions. The first conversation that they have is who's going to open the door and who went the last time. There's not a single joke yet, and the laughter has begun. We haven't even seen their faces yet, and we are already invested in their lives.

One of the other takeaways is how Jason West shoots the film and the city it's based in. Deo and West immersed themselves and their audiences into a crackling experience in the underbelly of a city we never witnessed and filmmakers barely explored. The name itself was so unique, the film had to be equally riotous.

‘Lost and Found' and ‘Mistaken Identities' transformed into a genre in themselves with the Manmohan Desai brand of cinema. Deo and Verma went a step further to give us ‘Exchanged Products'. Diamonds are accidentally exchanged with poop, which kicks the narrative of bedlam and bluster. Everyone has a struggle of their own in this comedy, Vir Das' boss cannot decide how to make the bananas smile, his girlfriend has cheated on him that leads to the disruptive ‘Jaa Chudail' number, and he decides to shave his head off for an unknown reason.

Kunal Roy Kapur eats chicken tandoori at a stall that leads to dysentery that leads him to seek help from Das' orange juice since there's no water in the house. Imran Khan is the only character for whom life seems perfect until Vijay Raaz arrives, evoking a blend of horror and humour with vacant gazes, deadpan demeanour, profuse profanity. The dialogues are far more contagious on screen than they sound on paper. A priceless reaction on seeing poop has now transformed into a meme.

Also read: Abhinay Deo: It is a fresh story in the same mould

What makes this film more sparkling is the groundbreaking music by Ram Sampath, especially the throbbing ‘Bhaag DK Bose', that may have compelled all the people with this moniker to despise what they are named. With his nuanced understanding of music, his creations masterfully blended with this dark comedy's roaring storyline.

This is that rare Hindi film that sounds cooler and funnier when viewed in English. The writing and the language feel more natural and crisp. ‘Delhi Belly' taught us two things- Always be careful while consuming orange juice, and shit happens (which is also its tagline). If shit can be so much fun, let's have some more.

Also Read: For Aamir Khan Kaalakaandi made him laugh like Delhi Belly did