I would say the movie needed a little less. It needed:
- fewer eccentric characters
- fewer types of music
- fewer visual themes
- fewer social issues
- fewer narrative themes / metaphors
The movie felt like a collage of great visuals, good music and good performances. But that's what spoilt it for Delhi-6. The task of weaving them seamlessly wasn't a simple one; they were brought together eventually in quite a style but not with the required intensity.
The movie would have been far better made had there been a simple focus on the Abhishek-Sonam relationship with a backdrop of Hindu-Muslim tensions and mediated by the incident/metaphor of Kaala Bandar. The distracting visuals, music, characters would have automatically fallen in place.
Rare is a case where almost all the parts are perfect but the whole is less than perfect. Such is the perfection of each part that each one of it should ideally stand on its own and be converted into a separate movie.
Think about it. Does not each of the issues highlighted deserve a movie in itself? If that's the case, why complicate matters by mixing it all up in just one movie.
Photo courtesy: www.planetbollywood.com