Happy Wednesday! Halfway through the week! And halfway to Noor FINALLY releasing! This release has been pushed back and pushed back and pushed back. Which is a terrible sign for the film, but I don’t care, I put in so much energy reading the book and I want to get some of it back.
This is where we all get to chat about everything we have watched. Which is hard for me, because usually I’ve already written big long posts about everything I have watched. Or else I am planning big long posts and I don’t want you to get too excited.
Let’s see, what I can tell you without spoiling anything is that since last Wednesday, I showed Dhanak to a friend who LOVED it. Friday, as you know, I went to see Arijit Singh which was amazing. Saturday, I was completely exhausted because I went to see Arijit Singh, so I stayed home and watched movies instead of doing anything productive. All of which have been or will be posted on soon.
For reading, I am back to slooooooowly making my way through Thugs of Hindostan. The Victorians really liked their flowery dialogue and taking the scenic route through their plot. Oh, and I did read that thing in the Washington Post on “male saviour” problems with feminist films in India. Nothing terribly new, just kind of a round up of the same think pieces that popped up in Indian sources when all of those films came out. I don’t necessarily agree with her arguments, because it seems a little naive in terms of how the industry works, it’s not just about having stronger female characters, it’s about having actresses with enough star power to open a movie, and producers willing to take a chance on them, and so on and so on. But, this is a fairly short article for the American audience with no background to draw on, so good enough for that. Oh, and I find it hilarious that an article on the “male saviour” troupe and how women should be allowed to speak for themselves, is in fact written by a man.
dontcallitbollywood 
I must know what the Thugs of Hindostan book is?!! The source material for the movie, I’m assuming. Tell me more, please!
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Never mind:) I put my librarian skills to work and found it in a quick search!
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Oh yay! Now you can read it and tell me all about it and I can stop reading it. Victorian writers really really like their descriptive passages and flowery language.
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 8:35 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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If you love obscure Victorian faux-memoirs, this is the book for you! It’s on Gutenberg, it was a minor bestseller when it came out. The opening is our noble British soldier telling the people back home of the mysterious east. In which there are these terrible people called “Thuggees” who kill without remorse and worship a dark goddess. And then he explains that he knows this because he captured one of these people and, as part of a plea bargain, he agreed to tell his whole life story.
And then we get a couple thousand pages of first person narration of the Thuggee’s life story. With lots of “oh, if only I had not done this, how I now regret it!” so our Victorian morality can be assuaged and we won’t feel guilty for reading about a bunch of violence and cruelty instead of collected sermons or whatever Victorians are supposed to be reading. I am only 8% in now, he just killed a tiger with a sword and is preparing for his first pseudo-spiritual experience of killing as a Thuggee.
I’m really fascinated with the idea of this being made by Yash Raj with Aamir and Amitabh in the cast and the Dhoom 3/Tashan director. All of these people are really really smart and sophisticated in how they deal with narratives, so there must be a reason they chose to make a film based on this terribly Orientalist book. I am assuming they will be doing something super clever with reclaiming this myth from the Victorian British legend, and not just do it straight. Because the book is soooooooooooooo over the top, I honestly don’t think you could do it straight. I would love it if it is either a story of a bunch of Indian freedom fighters inventing this whole fake story to trick a gullible white dude, or if it is told straight but with the Thuggees as heroes instead of villains, or even some random small time thieves who start up this whole legend to scare people.
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 8:33 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m very tempted to read it, too. But the Orientalism coupled with the Victorian prose may be too much for me, too. I’ve never read Rudyard Kipling either for the same reason.
I’m getting more and more intrigued by the upcoming film, too. I kept thinking it was going to be a Pirates of the Caribbean rip-off, but now that I know about this source material it makes more sense that Aamir Khan attached himself to it. And as a fan of the cult-classic Tashan, I’m excited for the director they picked. Though Aamir Khan is usually not a draw for me and his performance in Dhoom 3 as the wide-eyed innocent exemplified why I can’t stand his performances even if I can recognize that the films themselves (this one and PK especially were well put together). My favorite Aamir Khan characters/performances were Dil Chaata Hai and Talaash and even Dhobi Gaat was mostly boring, but I liked him in that kind of role. It’s strange to me that he has all of this “serious, method actor” cred when some of his best known films are totally filmi and his performances are so over-the-top in them. And another thing I’m not a big fan of is his almost self-righteous (I don’t know if that’s the right phrase though) choice of roles…from Rang de Basanti to his tv series to Dangal. All are definitely impactful and truly important stories to tell, but there’s just something so arrogant about him that I can’t stand. And his snubbing of award shows is so obnoxious. I know there are serious credibility issues with some Indian film awards, but you could say the same of the BAFTAs and Oscars in any given year. And the way he appeals to upper class NRIs is fascinating to me.
Back to Thugs, the rest of the cast looks cool…Jackie Schroff could be amazing in this context. Except Shraddha is rumored.
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NOOOOO! NOT SHRADDHA!!!!! She is rapidly reaching Nargis Fakhri levels of “I hate you for ruining this movie” for me. Although if she actually manages to pull off Half Girlfriend, maybe I will forgive her. So far it doesn’t seem likely, but anything is possible.
Totally get what you are saying about Aamir. Although I think I dislike him more for how he is used by his “fans” than himself, you know? Like, he was happy to do Talaash and Dhoom 3 and other sillier roles. And his cameo appearances in Delhi Belly and Secret Superstar look completely unselfconscious. And it feels, to me, like a lot of his social activism comes out of a sincere interest in doing good. And even his anti-awards show stance, I’m not hearing him trumpeting it around a lot. It’s more his fans that can’t stop talking about how much “better” he is than the other actors, and how his films aren’t the usual “masala” trash and so on and so forth. I mean, I’m still a little mad at him for Mangal Panday, and he is the Khan I would least like to be stuck in an elevator with (Shahrukh would keep me entertained the whole time, Salman would climb through the roof of the elevator to save us, Aamir would talk about the underlying social problems that lead to this elevator failing for 6 hours straight until I want to drill a whole in the side of my head to stop listening), but I would still rather spend time with Aamir than one of his “fans” who talks about how all of Indian film is worthless and hollow except for Aamir Khan you-know-Lagaan-was-nominated-for-an-Oscar.
Oh, and I love Kipling! But I was inculcated early, my grandfather used to recite Kipling poems to us when we were kids. So he is less “boo, colonialism!” for me and more “awww, Poppie!”
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 1:04 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Such high hopes for Half-Girlfriend based completely on my love of romantic/creepy Arjun! We’ll know soon if she ruins it for us. Having watched Rock On 2 and not being completely nauseated by her, I have a glimmer of hope. But her total absence of relatability or chemistry with Aditya Roy Kapur in OK Jaanu (or any other of her co-stars so far) does not bode well. Is there one film she’s done that has had good chemistry between her and her love interest? Even Shahid Kapoor’s intensity in Haider didn’t pull anything out of her. The role was underwritten for sure but Ophelia being played by a cardboard cut-out would have had more impact than her performance did.
Great assessment of Aamir’s faults in comparison to the other Khans. What would my favorite Khan, Saif Ali Khan, do in the elevator situation? I think he’d make casual small talk about books and art and he’d be texting with Kareena the whole time, because he’s a true Renaissance man and a family man:)
Re: Kipling
Sometimes we love things regardless of how the world perceives them and that’s one of the best reasons.
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I think you are completely right about Saif in an elevator. I also think that he would never voluntarily talk to a stranger (unlike Shahrukh and Salman, and even Aamir, who would absolutely strike up a random conversation and be super interested in your life). But he is so much of a gentlemen, that if it was an elevator stoppage situation, he would feel obligated to entertain the “Lady” trapped with him.
I kind of liked Shraddha with Siddharth in Ek Villain, but that was really a meeting of equals charisma/acting-wise.
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 1:42 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Also, totally have my idea for this Sunday’s speculative post!
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The latest news I saw was that Aamir is pushing for Fatima Sana Sheikh to be cast as the heroine. I think that would be really weird since she just played his daughter. A picture from her look test even came out.
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Well, maybe it’s not a romantic heroine, maybe she’s playing his daughter again or something. She was a good actress, I wouldn’t mind seeing her in something again.
On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 5:04 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I thought she was nice in Dangal and I wouldn’t mind her in Thugs of Hindostan. I just hope it’s not a romantic heroine. Based on all of the names that I’ve seen come out so far (Shraddha, Vaani Kapoor, Alia, Sara Ali Khan, Fatima) it looks like they want someone young. So maybe it isn’t a romantic role.
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The book (only 88% left to read!) is about an adoptive father and son. I was assuming that Amitabh is the father and Aamir the son. But now I am wondering if maybe Aamir is the father and they are turning the adoptive son into a daughter? That would be really cool!
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The Fatama Sana Sheikh look test is very cool! Her name is on imdb, too and Shraddha’s is just rumored. It’s got to be a father/daughter thing then, that would be really promising! I think even Aamir, who loves to play college aged young men post 40, wouldn’t romance on screen an actress who he just mentored in her first major film AND one in which she played his daughter.
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@filmilibrarian — I completely agree about the kind of roles and public image Aamir has maintained after Mangal Pandey. I think its failure (relatively speaking), plus his divorce and remarriage around the same time made him much more conscious about his public persona (he was quite conscious even before). If you haven’t seen the ads he did for the Government of India Tourism department, consider yourself lucky. This preachy persona completely ruined TZP, as well as 3 Idiots, two films that could have been great if his character didn’t completely warp the film and other characters.
As for his fans being more vocal than him, that’s only nowadays. Before, he had to do all such talk himself. 🙂 I think this new fandom really came after he started making box office records, starting with Ghajini. Before that, his fans’ argument (to SRK’s fans, mostly), was “So what if he doesn’t have big hits? He makes *quality* films! Box office doesn’t matter!” Then the same fans started boasting about his box office collections. 🙂
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I watched Mangal Pandey early on in my Hindi film watching, shortly after finding Lagaan soooo boring and I think this may have cemented my early impression of him and my “meh” reaction to both films made me think I was missing something when everything I read and heard told me that Aamir was such a big deal.
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I think Aamir is quite good at picking good scripts (though I’ve lost my confidence in his script skills after the way he ruined TZP and 3 Idiots. The less said about Dhoom 3 the better, as I think there are many parties to share the blame. I haven’t been motivated to watch his films after that.
I never found his acting so great — it was always too studied for me. There were always a few moments in his films where he was natural and conveyed the required emotions effectively. But much more often, what I saw was not a character reacting, but an actor thinking, “OK, now I have to widen my eyes to convey fear. Now I narrow my eyes to convey anger. Now I grunt to convey dissatisfaction”, etc. I could always see the thinking behind the acting, which completely took away any impact.
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I think you articulated something that has kind of bothered me about Aamir’s acting as well. And strangely it is something I only notice in his “good” movies, his recent ones. I think he is brilliant in Ghulam, in Sarfarosh, even in Andaz Apna Apna. But when he is being a “serious actor”, there is just something off about it. The only recent role where I remember being really emotionally affected by him, not just admiring the technique, was Talaash. And honestly, I think it was the mustache? I think maybe having that artificial thing on his face forced him to change his mannerisms just a little to work around it, and it made him seem so much less studied.
On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 8:33 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well, I actually noticed this aspect of his acting in just those three movies — Andaz Apna Apna, Ghulam, and Sarfarosh. In AAA I thought “that other guy” was a lot funnier (turned out to be Salman, whom I didn’t know at that point). In Sarfarosh he was completely blown away by Naseeruddin (not surprising, perhaps, but all I knew at that point was “Who’s the actor playing the singer? He’s really good.”). Heck, even Sonali was better than him by being more natural. But I only started to “articulate” it in Ghulam. There were some scenes where it was just too blatant. But, at the same time, there were a few scenes where he was completely natural and convincing.
I haven’t seen Talaash yet. But I remember during the promotional interviews of DCH, he said that he had to completely unlearn whatever he knew about acting till that point, and relearn a new way of acting under Farhan’s tutelage. And when I saw DCH some time later (after having watched the above films), I felt it was completely true, as it was a very natural performance. I still rate it highly among his films.
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I think a big advantage with Talaash, and DCH, is that he had a real ensemble to play off of. Too often the more recent Aamir Khan movies have really been “The Aamir Khan” show. But in Talaash he was opposite Kareena and Rani much of the time, and he had to kind of bend to their acting style a little more.
On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 9:52 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I was able to watch Manje Bistre this week. It is not easy to find theatres showing Punjabi movies in Mumbai but I was able to find a theatre nearby me. It is a good movie. It will not make you LOL but will keep a smile on your face. It delivers on what it promised. MAY BE I am biased due to nostalgia.
Plot is smple. Sukhi(Gippy) goes to wedding of his sister at his uncle’s village. There he falls in love with a friend of his cousin Rano(Sonam). Rest is wedding preparation and Sukhi’s attempt to get married to Rano.
It gives a authentic feel of 1990s village. Short streets, houses, wedding preparation etc feel real.
90 % of movie takes part in just a single home. It is not a big house. Occupants of the house are well off but not super rich. It is a good thing. Sometimes small is a welcome change. It is not complete glitter. It is not grand Punjabi marriage like DDLJ and other bollywood movies. It is a fun and simple marriage. It shows you how real marriages take place(atleast in 90s. Even Baarat arrival and final wedding takes place in a tent not in a fancy palace.
There is no complex character development but we know enough about character.We know that SUkhi is a normal guy and Rano is a normal girl.
Acting wise, Gippy is very good in it. Sonam Bajwa plays her part. She is good and easy on eyes. Gurpreet Ghuggi steals the show in his guest apperance. Rana Ranbir,Sardar Sohi, BN sharma are also excellent.
It is supporting characters that make the movie actually click like the old wedding chef, Record player. Sukhi’s friends, Sukhi’s aunt, Rano’s uncle etc But main characters dont take a side seat to anyone.
Pacing is absoluetly steady. It neither starts with a bang nor ends with a bang. It maintains steady pace. You will love this movie if you are sucker for Punjabi village life. Its lighting, fields, streets, houses etc give you feeling of villages.. In one scence, there are 2 kids dancing. It reminded me of me in the weddings of my childhood. May be, my nostalgia bias gets better of me.
It is a good movie. I would suggest you to watch it as a break from grand movies.
And
Why didn’t you watch my videos?
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I’ll try to watch the videos tonight, I didn’t even have time yesterday to do more than one blog post (my regular Tuesday post is now a day late), let alone watch videos.
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 8:55 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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okay, I understand
How do you like my review?
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It was good! I appreciate you keeping me up to date on Punjabi films, if I can’t watch them, I at least like to know what is coming out and why it is popular.
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 9:42 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Thanks for your apprreciation. I am obviously biased towards Punjabi movies. You post a lot about Hindi and South indian movie. I feel that I could slip some punjabi movies in here.
Punjabi movies are quite few in a year. Next movie, next awaited movie is Lahoriye starring Amrinder Gill and Sargun Mehta. Do try to watch that on 12 may. Also another movie Saab Bahadur.
Problems of budegting and infrastructure plagues. Punjabi cinema is still only in growth phace. Good movies are coming through
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Thanks for the background on the industry! That was my impression, that it was still growing. When I read Indian film history, I never really heard about Punjabi film pre, say, 1970s/80s. And just last year it seems like they made a huge leap forward, getting a large percentage of the international box office that used to only go to Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.
Unfortunately, as we’ve talked about, that international box office is not coming from the US, so I am still on the outside looking in in terms of following this industry.
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 9:56 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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According to wiki, big problem was partition of Punjab. Infrastructure was destroyed. Audience was divided. Artists got divided between Lahore and Bombay. It is reason that there are so many Punjabi actors in Bollywood.
I used to watch some old Punjabi movies in my childhood on local channels. There production values were very low. You can see cinematography. It was obvious that they were low budget movies. In 1970s and 1980s only about 5 to 6 movies were made in a year. It is impossible that you will hear about them. Gurdas Maan kept Punjabi music alive and he is reason that parallel Punjabi music industry exists. In 1990s we did have some good movies like Shaheed E Mohabbat, Mamla Gadbad Hai, Shaheed Udham Singh etc They had virtually no market in big cities. But in late 2000s budget was increased and movies were shown in big cities. Yaar Naal Baharan, Yaar Anmulle, Mel Kara de Rabba etc did make some strides. Their production value was a significant improvement over movies of 1980s and early 1990s. They get released in metro cities and sometimes even challange Bollywood movies in Punjabi dominated areas. I remember that in 2013 Punjabi movie Lucky di Unlucky story out performed Aashiqui 2 in Punjab. Similarly movies like Ambarsariya, Jatt and Juliet 2 have been able to make Bollywood sweat in North India.
I wont go overboard and say that Punjabi movies are marvolous. A great many of them are outright ridiculous but ridiculous movies are flops. Only good movies are able to get any sort of audience. The movies that I suggested you are the ones that are liked by even South Indian people.Punjabi people are now demanding good Punjabi cinema. The crowd at manje bistre was small but they were enthuastic. They were whistling and laughing. Too bad I was sitting too far away from them. It is a learning curve and hopefully there will be a time when there will be a biopic on Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Banda SIngh Bahadur etc. A movie like bahubali on Battle of Chamkaur
Here is wiki page of Punjabi cinema. Here is written that there are some Punjabi movies will be get remade in Bollywood and SOuth Indian cinema. Please write it down, if you know something about them
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_cinema
Punjabi dispora is mainly in Canada and Australia. Unless, I move to the USA, very few punjabi movies will get released there
Just let me know, if you have heard about Jatt and Juliet, Singh vs Kaur, Bhaji in Problem being remade in SOuth Indian cinema
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That backstory makes sense, and matches what I have heard about the early Hindi filmmakers who came from other areas. I remember that Lahore had a really thriving film industry pre-Partition and half those artists moved to Bombay, and half stayed in Pakistan.
In terms of the Hindi industry in general, there is a lot of talk and evidence of how starting in the early 2000s it has been getting more and more global, more focused on the multiplex audience and NRIs. Lots of Hinglish, everyone lives in Australia or London, everyone has fancy MNC jobs, and so on. And what’s happening is that the non-multiplex (“multipex” meaning a kind of audience) is drifting more and more away from Hindi films and towards regional options. And the same thing is happening overseas, more and more the audience that wants that nostalgia and feel for the India they remember is going to regional films, because the Hindi films have lost that distinctive “flavor”.
It sounds like the Punjabi industry is hitting at just the right time, finally getting the funding and infrastructure it needs just as the audience is craving this kind of authentic Indian flavor and the Hindi films are no longer providing it.
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 10:34 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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You make sense. I am finally able to figure out why I dont like Bollywood any more. It is too much style and lack of correspondence substance. I was unable to figure out why I get disappointed after watching Bollywood movies now a days. I didn’t know what was missing. It is too much style. There are a lot of big things. Not enough small things.
Amongst new gen, I only like Alia Bhatt.
And also, I have much easy access to Hollywood and american TV now a days. I can watch TV shows like Game Of Thrones, Arrow, Designated Survivor very easily. It can be the reason that I dont like new Bollywood movies.
Do you watch Game of Thrones?
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I also appreciate your enthusiasm and info about the Punjabi film scene. I’ve seen a few and I own copies of Ambarsariya and Saardaarji. Obviously, I’m a big Diljit Dosanjh fan but that’s been my only entry point for Punjabi films.
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Thanks for your appreciation
If you are fan of Diljit then you must watch Punjab 1984. It is Diljit’s best movie. There are other movies like Love Punjab, Carry on Jatta, Angrej which are better than Ambarsariya and Sardaarji. These are simple comedy movies. I would suggest Angrej to people who want to know about Indian culture.
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I had time to watch only two movies this week.One was awfully good standing the test of time and the other was so horrible that I couldn’t finish it. Khilona (Toy) (1970) had Mumtaz as the tawaif with a golden heart who is hired by Sanjeev Kumar’s parents to cure his madness. Sanjeev Kumar chose to depict his character’s madness with exaggerated gestures and grimaces.But no they had to make it worse by making him rape Mumtaz as well.She managed to forgive him soon enough. Not even Jeetendra and Shatrughan Sinha in all their 70s glory could save the movie.I just couldn’t finish it.
Now on to the good one.Once I tracked down Aparan (Doppelganger) for Margaret with English subtitles, I had to watch it once again.Back when I watched it in the 80s, I didn’t have Shahrukh’s Don or Fan for comparison.It had me thinking, what if Vijay from Don liked being Don a little too much.The fast cars,beautiful women the thrill of living on the edge.What would his police handlers think? What if by the time the original Don returns, Vijay is not so easy to be disposed of.But Vijay had Deepu to keep him grounded and he has a strong identity of his own.Even Gaurav in Fan is satisfied with being himself, even after impersonating Aryan Khan all over the world.Both Vijay and Gaurav have a strong sense of self. Which is what Jayaram in Aparan lacks.Harassed by the figures of authority in his life,suffering for the doppelganger’s misdeeds Jayaram claims to hate the doppelganger.But he has a reluctant fascination all the same.
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Now I really want to watch Aparam! I’ve finished my Pellissery journey, so I can watch whatever Malayalam I want.
And I kind of also want to watch Khilona. I just can’t believe Sanjeev Kumar could do a poor performance! It must be the only one of his career, surely that is worth searching out?
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 9:44 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Khilona is the Hindi remake of the Telugu film “Punarjanma” (Rebirth), starring ANR and Krishna Kumari. Since Margaret always wants to watch the original first, I’m alerting her, though I’m not sure you can find the Telugu film easily, and probably not with subtitles. I watched the Hindi version because I am a huge Sanjeev Kumar fan. Though it was directed by the same director as the Telugu version, as usual, the Hindi version was less authentic/rooted/simple than the Telugu one.
@datablue — he doesn’t exactly rape her. He’s sexually aroused by her, but is still too “mentally ill” (movie mental illness) to know right from wrong, or how to control his impulses. By that time she’s sufficiently in love with him that she doesn’t want to thwart him by protesting/fighting (or it might increase his mental illness), so she let him have his way. (Besides, his having any kind of desires at all is a step toward progress in overcoming his illness.) After he becomes “sane”, he feels incredibly guilty over this act of his, and wants to do everything to make it up to her, so this film doesn’t fall into the category of films which justify rape.
When I watched the Telugu film, I was so young that I had no idea what was going on, because the whole incident was couched in so many euphemisms (and of course the actual act itself was not shown). So I kept hearing all the other characters talk about “she has made a sacrifice that no woman should make”, “she gave everything to him”, etc. and couldn’t figure out what “it” was. I’m including this here in case you want to think that my interpretation was influenced by my naivety at the time. However, I watched the Hindi version many years later, as a fully grown adult, so there was no confusion. I just felt it was overdone compared to the Telugu version.
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She does put up a fight (both times) and is physically overwhelmed by Sanjeev Kumar’s character the second time.Yes, he wasn’t in his senses.Since they had a fake wedding he assumes that she’s his wife.But it still counts as rape in my book.I don’t think she succumbed because she was in love with him (or believed having sex would cure him).She certainly forgave him because she was in love with him.
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Well, if you can stand the melodrama go ahead 🙂 There are some unexpected gems – Jeetendra refers to Mumtaz as Belgium chocolate, flash a torch light and see Sanjeev Kumar cower etc. Aparan is a good movie, but unfortunately I can’t say the same about the picture quality.
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I just looked up Khilona, and it won FilmFare that year! Once again proving that FilmFare is more a popularity contest than a quality contest. Also, the same scriptwriter wrote Sharmeelee, which is kind of cool and clever. While also being ridiculous.
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 10:19 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Filmfare in those days actually had credibility (they didn’t lose it till the 1990’s), even though fans did vote, as well as industry people.
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Saw “Take off”(Malayalam movie) today excellent( best movie I’ve watched in 2017 in any language) movie based on true events happened in iraq you should watch it
It’s a heroin movie (Parvati Nair) male actor are only as supporting role(Fahad,Asif, kunchako boban)
And saw nivin pauley’s sagav
Bad movie wasted money and time
Saw the founder(McDonald movie) not bad but not excellent either
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Well, I have officially missed Take Off in theaters, I will have to wait until it pops up streaming.
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 2:45 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I watched Running Shaadi and I didn’t like it as I thought I will. The movie is not bad. Has potential but there was something missing. I’m not sure what.
And today I started malayalam movie White (with Huma Qureshi and Mammootty). Unfortunately didn’t have time to finish it, so I can’t say if I liked it. The beggining was lame, and seemed more hindi movie. Than when it started to be more interesting, I had to put it on pause. The good news is that I can’t wait to continue, so maybe it won’t be bad.
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I’m interested in your thoughts on Running Shaadi. I loved it, but I would have loved if more if there’d been a bit more, I don’t know, sparkle? A fantasy song, a big dance number, something like that. Is that what you felt was missing? Or something else?
And I’m also very interested in your thoughts on White! It’s been available streaming for a while, but I somehow haven’t been very excited to see it. Possibly just because the poster and the title didn’t pique my interest. So let me know if you feel like it is worth watching once you’ve gone through to the end.
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 2:55 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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White is the biggest malayalam flop of 2016. It was a complete disaster. Critics and audience panned the film.
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“White is the biggest malayalam flop of 2016. It was a complete disaster. Critics and audience panned the film.”
Oh, so not only the beginning was bad. But I’ll finish it anyway. I’m curious about the story and don’t like leaving movies uncompleted (with exception for annoying movies like Happy New Year)
@mredlich21 THE SPARKLE! That’s what Running shaadi is missing. Something magical. Maybe more scenes with love. I liked the part when Nimmi was injuried and Bharose took care of her. I felt the love there. But I wish there were more moments like this, especially before they run together. Something that would make me say: Aww they are so sweet together. Fantasy song sounds like fun to.
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This is just my guess, but to me it felt like a function of the budget more than anything else. They had a great story and great actors. But no budget for extra song sequences, or even extra scenes, the whole film was only 2 hours long. I would have loved a few more love scenes, a fantasy song and a festival song, maybe even a big fight scene where Bharose defends Nimmi and vice versa. I also would have liked a flashback that filled in a few holes about how Bharose ended up working with Nimmi’s family and what their relationship was like before their romance started. But without the budget, maybe they decided to do just a stripped down version of the story with all the sparkle removed.
Everything that was there was perfect and I wouldn’t want to change it. But I want more!
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 4:28 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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My first thought after seeing this movie was: “ok, but it can be easily seen that it’s low budget movie”
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Definitely missing some sparkle due to the low budget and it shows! I still love it more for its potential. I wanted a little more heat to the romance, too. I had the exact same feeling about Sonali Cable, another low-budget film that had a central romance but also told a simple good story, too.
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@angie ‘white ‘ is waste of time.worst film ever
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I totally second it!
It’s one of the worst films ever!!!
Unfortunately I watched the whole movie thinking either Mammootty or Huma Qureshi would’ve seen something in the movie that they both agreed to act in it. But then there was nothing! According to some reviewers, “The Great Father” is even worse!!!
Like somebody pointed out earlier, Munnariyippu , “Pranchiyettan and the Saint” and “Paleri Manikyam” are the only “worth watching” films of Mammootty in the last decade.
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I can confirm now – White is a bad movie. Not the worst I’ve seen, but I understand why it was a flop. It’s like hindi b-grade movie (don’t know why, but it reminds me Hate Story 3 in the terms of making, but Hate Story is slightly better).
The plot (with spoilers): It’s a story about good Malayalee girl Roshni (Huma) who gets promotion at work, and move to London. There she saves a life of drunk man – Prakash. The day after she gets call from police, that the man she rescued is dead and they wanna talk with her. All scared she finds out that it’s not true, and that the guy is alive. She is furious, and hates him, but later she gets to know him and falls in love (surprise, surprise). Then there is a twist – Roshini discovers that she looks excatly like Prakash’s late wife. She doesn’t care, and want marry him, but he doesn’t want it (I don’t know why because I have already been in mood: Ohh who cares?). She come back to India, and he either. Obviously they met there and decide to be together.
What I didn’t like:
There are like 4 actors, and all other people are white extras, with zero acting skills. And of course all non-indian are portrayed in racist way:
Chinese: “Mr. Shan-Typical Chinese. There will hardly be any quality in his work, but it will always have a good look. ” (they really said that!)
White guy: “Macho, filrt, typical playboy. Avoid him at any cost”
Blonde girl = hooker
Random white people – drunkards
Black guys – steal on tube station
And it’s all in the first 30 minutes of the movie!
Mammootty drinks either, but he has trauma, and he has heart of gold, so he can.
The movie is slow as molasses in January.There are so many unnecessary scenes, zooms on white faces (maybe that’s why they called this movie White).
Mammootty character is so bad written and a bad person in my opinion (e.g he wanted to wish Roshini happy birthday, so he hire some guys with masks on their faces, who first scared the hell out of her on the desolated dark street, just to sing happy birthday later. And she wasn’t even angry ! I mean, I would get a heart attack and called the police)
What I liked:
Huma’s outfits, and make up.
Music wasn’t bad.
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Blech! I will definitely be skipping it.
On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 8:12 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I was either in conference sessions or hanging out with friends most of the time, but I did download Angry Indian Goddesses for the flight home (It was just the right length for one leg of the trip). I think it tried to tackle too many social issues in one film, but the ensemble was great and I was never bored. Still working my way through Ram Jaane.
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After “Pump Up the Bhangra”, everything else in Ram-Jaane is a letdown.
On Wed, Apr 19, 2017 at 3:13 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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So true.
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I’m still plugging away at my Twin Peaks box set. We had the most hectic weekend, with family dinners on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so I barely watched anything for three or four days. So, no new movies to talk about, Hindi or otherwise.
I did read Anupama Chopra’s DDLJ book. I liked it but I thought that it could have been so much more. It was super short (I read it during my downtime yesterday, in the afternoon and evening) and not nearly as in depth as I would have liked. She covered Aditya Chopra’s upbringing and how he was sort of a sponge for the Hindi film and entertainment business. The book explained how the actual film came to be, in a general but fairly effective way. I also thought that she did a nice job of analyzing why the film captured the hearts of the people upon release and became such a cultural phenomenon in the years after. She also dug into the film’s affect on Indians, in India and abroad, in the 90s and beyond.
I was kind of disappointed that she barely touched on the film’s production, really only a single chapter, and it wasn’t very extensive. She wrote very generally about the shooting schedule and gave a couple of short stories from the set, but that was pretty much the extent of it. The book succeeded in framing the film-the before and the after-but fell short on its actual creation. I would have loved an extra 100 pages of anecdotes, specifics of the shooting schedules and other production details of that nature. This is where the Spirit of Lagaan book, with its almost exhaustive day-to-day diary from the set, really captured my interest and left me feeling a bit more satisfied. The DDLJ book really left me longing for more. An interesting read anyway and well worth the $3 I paid.
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You should check out her Sholay book, if you haven’t already.
The BBC book, I am pretty sure, was struggling with the limitations of the series. I’ve read a lot of those books, and the 100 page limit seems pretty standard. And they also tend to insist on a focus on textual analysis, so that took up a lot of her limited pages.
In her Sholay book, she really expanded the content and took advantage of a longer length. And she did a ton of research and interviews with the people involved in the shoot.
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That makes so much sense! I read the kindle version of the DDLJ book and I didn’t realize that it was part of a series. It absolutely read like she was hampered by guidelines and a page count. I have seen her talk about the movie in interviews with such passion and reverence so I couldn’t understand why the writing in the book came off as dry and distant (minus the forward, in which she let her hair down a bit and discussed her personal relationship with the movie).
The Sholay book sounds so much better! I plan to watch Sholay as my 200th Hindi film (I’m at 182 right now). I’d planned to watch it for my 100th and then forgot my count and ended up watching Ta Ra Rum Pum (which definitely wasn’t very special, but had some nice songs and Rani-Saif chemistry). I’ll read the book right after! The paperback is only two dollars more than the kindle edition on Amazon, so I think I’ll treat myself. I still prefer the feeling of a book in my hands to cold, hard plastic.
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I watched Dabangg which I didn’t really like much. Dabangg is another movie that reiterates my notion that the Hindi Film Industry doesn’t know how to make fun action masala movies properly. Barring a couple Rohit Shetty movies (Singham and Chennai Express) and Sultan, I haven’t liked any of the other Hindi action masala movies I’ve seen. Another thing that doesn’t work for me is Salman’s action persona, I think I’ve watched enough of his movies to avoid these kinds of films from him in the future. I think the Telugu remake of Dabangg, Gabbar Singh, worked better for me due to the characterization of the lead. I actually appreciate the changes made in Gabbar Singh since I feel like they worked out better for the movie as a whole. Back to Dabangg, I did like Sonakshi Sinha and the romance in the movie. I also like the relationship between Chulbul and his step-father and half-brother though I think Gabbar Singh did a better job with these relationships. I also really liked Sonu Sood though I thought it was weird that he was the villain. He was like a foot taller than Salman! Overall, Dabangg was probably a decent movie but it just wasn’t the one for me.
Then I rewatched Main Tera Hero again 🙂
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Varun has got to make more movies, if only so you can stop re-watching Main Tera Hero so much!
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But it’s so fun! Plus he’s so cute in it 🙂
But I am glad Varun’s doing multiple movies a year. Mahesh Babu, on the other hand, only does one movie a year and the wait always seems endless
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As a Shahrukh fan, I have NO SYMPATHY for you!!!! Ever since 2004 it’s been a misery.
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Haha, wasn’t 2004 the year you started watching Hindi movies 🙂
At least Shahrukh has made 60 something movies! Mahesh has made only 23 movies in a career as old as me and the only time that he had two releases in a year recently was in 2014.
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Good point, that is when I first got into him! I knew it was before my memory, because I never remember a time when there was a new Shahrukh movie every few months. But I didn’t realize how close I came!
You are right, Mahesh Babu fans have it much harder, at least Shahrukh had that crazy productive period in his early years so his filmography is massive, even if his output has slowed down now.
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Mahesh is one of those actors who has been restricted by his status as a star kid and a heir to the legacy. He’s had to do the commercial action movies that appeals to his dad’s fans right from the beginning of his career. He doesn’t like working on multiple movies at the same time and he’s never really had to because he already had a fan base when he was launched. Can you believe that he’s never really done a proper love story?!?
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But he’d be so good in a love story! He’s got a great sort of sensitive acting style, and plays so well opposite every actress I’ve seen him with. That really is terrible.
You know, there’s all this talk about the unfair advantages of nepotism, which is totally true, but the flip side of it is that Shahrukh was able to be in a billion movies, hits and flops and in every genre, when he was starting out. He could experiment, because no one was paying attention to him. And find his own genre, because anything was possible.
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Yes, he would be really good in a love story! That’s why it’s so frustrating when he rejected a couple of Gautham Menon movies because of his image. The closest thing that he did to a love story is Murari which is also a family movie with some supernatural elements in it. You should really see it! Here’s a song where Mahesh and Sonali Bendre are both awaiting their soulmates:
Plus Shahrukh came into the industry when everyone worked on many movies. Mahesh debuted in 1999 which was close to the time when actors were starting to slow down and do 1 or 2 movies a year.
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I get only 2 or 3 Punjabi movies of Gippy, Amrinder and Diljit combined.
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Huh, that’s interesting. I would have assumed that a smaller industry like Punjabi would have actors churning out movies in a year. For example, Malayalam actors like Dulquer and Prithviraj end up making 3-4 movies a year. I guess this comes back to what you were mentioning when you were saying that the Punjabi industry doesn’t have infrastructure.
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Not super proud of it, but I actually rewatched Sanam Teri Kasam this week. It was my first full week of teaching, I was pretty wiped every night, and after reading your review I was flopping around in my chair flipping through Eros and I thought, “You know, I would really like to put on my wedding sari and a bunch of jewelry and get in a bathtub full of water and rose petals while Harshvardhan Rane kneels supportively next to me. ” But I could not in fact do that, so watching STK again was the next best thing. I agree, it is the perfect fantasy, sort of a mix of The Fault in our Stars and She’s All That (I guess. Haven’t watched either of those movies). But I love the bear suit and the mean cop who’s really nice. And the kitten–I wish it had had a bigger role. And a movie featuring either a makeover scene or a decorating-a-crappy-apartment scene is one of my favorite things, and this movie has a makeover scene and the crappy apartment does get decorated, although offscreen (and how does she all of a sudden get so much stuff?).
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Yes, the kitten should definitely have bigger role.
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She’s All That is SUPER fun! And it has the big party dance song that Sanam Teri Kasam is missing. And also a happy ending.
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No shame in rewatching this one! I’ve done it a couple of times myself. Why isn’t Rane getting more movie offers?!
I’m also a sucker for a good makeover, whether it’s for a person or a home! I want to live in Konkona’s apartment in Wake Up Sid (and pulling it all together with help from emo Ranbir wouldn’t be half bad either!).
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I just realized why I am having a hard time packing! (Have I mentioned I’m moving apartments next month?) Not enough musical montages. I need to watch that sequence from dostana a few dozen times and I will be all set.
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Combining all of these home makeover/move-in scenes in a fan video would be great! Or maybe an homage to great filmi interiors in general. Dostana is a fun one! Sometimes I just get lost in a movie’s art production or by drooling over the interiors and find I’ve missed dialogue. Alia’s apartment in Dear Zindagi and the Goa homes were great. I really liked Piku’s apartment, too.
I’ve made so many attempts at doing a Bohemian eclectic look in my own home, with Indian flair with cool textiles, and I can never get it right. I just bought a Sabyasachi designed pillow from Pottery Barn because it was the cheapest one I could find, even on sale, and it doesn’t match anything I have!
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My decorating scheme is “I inherited a bunch of heavy wooden antique furniture from my grandparents and parents and now I have to squeeze it into a very very small apartment”. Plus a bunch of Hindi movie themed pillows. Sometimes I have fantasies of flood or fire damage so I can get rid of it all without feeling guilty, and then replace it with a bunch of cheap lightweight Ikea stuff.
On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 9:02 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Piku’s apartment and Konkona’s in Wake Up Sid are favorites for me, and I think one of the reasons I don’t like Ki and Ka is that Arjun takes a perfectly lovely little apartment and wrecks it with a big trains set.
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I can’t believe it but I think I only managed to see one film in the last week, which is very unusual for me. I saw Chithram finally, which Margaret loaned me, and I was stunned by the change in tone by the last half hour. Back when Margaret wrote her review I did not read past the spoiler section, and I’m glad I didn’t so I could be completely surprised. Mohanlal slim and svelte doing all that physical comedy in the first part is something delightful to see. And then he breaks your heart in that last part.
I have been reading Anand Neelakantam’s The Rise of Sivagami — which is the Bahubali prequel book with the queen (who raises Bahubali and Balladeva in the film) as a young teenager. I’m not enjoying it as much as I’d hoped because it has about a million characters and keeps changing from the perspective of each one. It’s also very derivative of Game of Thrones. Brothel scene. Crafty Dwarf. Evil scheming Eunuch. Yep No dragons though. 😉 Katappa is in it as a young man, too.
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Oh oh! Does it include a passionate affair between Sivagami and Kattapa that I have decided in my own head must have happened?
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Technically it’s no longer Wednesday as it’s after midnight, but I haven’t gone to bed yet, so I still call it Wednesday. 🙂 I want to share that I saw a very good documentary tonight, a Canadian film called “Driving with Selvi”, about a woman in India who gets out of an abusive marriage and her journey afterwards to make a new life. It’s very heartwarming and uplifting.
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That sounds fascinating! I hadn’t even heard of it before.
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As I already said, I watched Kaatru Veliyidai twice, and at first I was like It’s nice’. But on the rewatch I fell in love with it.
Then I showed Neerja and Kapoor and Sons to my grandmother. Neerja is such that even while watching it again and knowing how things will pan out, you still feel nervous and emotional in all the tense and sad scenes. Kapoor and Sons I enjoyed more on the second watch. Maybe its the acting, but I couldn’t make myself feel anything for Siddharth’s character. Fawad, on the other hand, had me rooting for him throughout the film (Zindagi and Humsafar effect maybe?)
I also watched Nil Battey Sannata, starring Swara Bhaskar (who I love). Such a warm, feel good movie with an interesting concept.
And finally, I watched Dharma Durai (2016), starring Vijay Sethupathi and Tamannah. An okay movie, nothing much to write about.
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You are braver than me, I will never be able to watch Neerja again. I barely made it through the first watch, so stressful and sad and scary. I really don’t want to do it again, especially now that i have confirmation that it is just as emotional on the second watch.
I think it’s Siddharth’s acting that not only makes his character hard to root for, but spoils the film a little. He’s supposed to be our entry point, our sympathetic person, and there’s just nothing there. Especially compared to the other actors, Rishi and Ratna Pathak and even Alia in her small part are all just perfect.
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Same! I love Neerja but I still haven’t been able to make myself watch it again.
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I finally was able to watch Raees last night (thank you internet!). I will probably buy the DVD, too. So I liked it, didn’t love it. It just didn’t seem like a big SRK release to me. I could have seen this being made with Manoj Baypee or Arjun Rampal and being just as good. Don’t get me wrong, I liked SRK’s mixing it up a bit and giving us some of the early dark SRK energy again. And I do like how he looks in this one, too, though I swear they were messing with his thinning hair a bit to make the old dude look younger:) And another idea for a TGIF post would be men rocking the kohl eyeliner with SRK and Aditya Roy Kapur at the top!
I thought the plot was a strong cop vs. robber setup and Siddiqui was great (though didn’t have much to deal with in terms of character development). SRK’s expressions in the penultimate showdown with Siddiqui’s cop were great. The menace, the fear. The songs seemed more out of place to me in this one. I think the movie could have been much stronger without them, but I understand why the producers, including SRK, needed to put them in.
Mahira Khan was really, really good. There’s definitely a quiet maturity to her that belies her age. It really would be a shame if she and Fawad Khan don’t find their way back into Hindi films someday. I’m not sure that she and SRK had a romantic kind of chemistry as a jodi, but I think that’s because of the nature of the film. They clearly understood each other, or at least she understood and supported him so well, that their connection was the “us against the world” kind of thing and not the “us and who cares about the world” kind of thing.
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Raees is one of those movies where you can feel the strain of trying to fit a superstar into it. Shahrukh-the-actor is perfect for the role. But because he is also Shahrukh-the-superstar, they had to put in songs, and change the love story a little. And the ending felt odder to me, because it’s Shahrukh, and he almost always has a happy ending, than it would have with a different actor.
More importantly, did you get the Muharram scenes?????? What was Shahrukh’s grown-up character intro? Because honestly, if those scenes weren’t included in the version you saw, it changes the whole flavor of the film.
On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 8:54 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think I got the Muharram scenes, the intro was the child turning into the man while performing the flagellation(?), not sure of the proper term though it struck me as closely related to the Catholic forms of punishment for sin. And then there’s the sequence where Siddiqui’s cop asks him if he went to “mourn” and we do see Raees with the rest of the men performing this practice (though just briefly in slow motion with his shirt on). I think when I rewatch this one I will like and “get” it even more because it does really tackle deep issues of faith and sin and guilt. I do think there was a bit of a sado-masochistic element to his character even as a child (when he stabs the guy as a kid, for instance). There are some serious psychological overtones to this film. The changes to the romance to make it more of an SRK romance also are a bit of a detriment to this tone. For the most part the romance is earthy and real but I think I would have liked the character to be more menacing, like Abhishek in Yuva, when it comes to his physical relationship with Mahira’s character. It would have seemed more realistic, I guess.
I think in the first watch, you have to just get used to SRK in this kind of role and, you’re absolutely right, it’s hard to divorce the ending from the way we expect SRK films to end.
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This conversation makes me think of the interview with the AIB guys. One of my favorite parts is when SRK calls out the fact that people tell him to do certain kinds of roles and then they’re like, no, now do a romance! I don’t think we’re doing that here, since I think many of us want to see him do different roles (or for me, any role where he keeps his beard and wears a white shirt that is either partly unbuttoned, tight, and/or wet…note that Dilwale, Dear Zindagi, and Raees all meet that criteria!)
Also, I am so hoping that the SRK/Anushka chemistry is as good as I hope in the upcoming film. It’s been a while since we’ve really had a great SRK romance…only in Diwale with Kajol did we really see that old magic. And, see, there I go thinking that’s all he’s good for is the romantic hero stuff! Oh well…
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Also Happy New Year! A flawed movie, but I can forgive a lot for the white shirt moment in Manwa Laga.
On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 10:44 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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This is a movie where I really encourage you to read my full many many part discussion. I saw it a bunch of times, and I felt like I got something new from each scene every time. Because it’s one of those movies that all the stuff that landed on top of it (Fan’s failure making them add songs last minute, issues with Mahira affecting the romance, etc. etc.) really obscured the message. Kind of like if you had a letter with coffee spilled on top and crumpled in the trash, and then you have to smooth it out and squint to see through the stains to get at what it says.
And yay!!!!! You got the Muharram scenes! Did you watch it on DVD or streaming? Or illegal DVD based streaming? Because last report we got was that googleplay had removed them. I think they are super important partly for the reason you mention, giving us a hint of Raees’ innate masochism and sacrifice. But I also argue in one of my many many parts that you could see the entire film as a Muharram story, about loss and sacrifice, but how that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t honor the effort, and that it can succeed through inspiring those left behind.
On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 10:36 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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It was from a DVD torrent file and it seemed to be all there, but it jumped right into the regular credits with no corporate sponsors and smoking kills message. I do need to check out your recaps!
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did u see the manirathnam baradwaj rangan interview? its brilliant
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jB6ptbnWIX4&client=mv-google&hl=en&gl=IN
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Urgh, 38 minutes? I’m never going to be able to watch that.
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It’s over an hour long. It’s in three parts 🙂 I haven’t seen it yet but I will eventually
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I would like to review Shaheed-e-Mohabbat Boota Singh. You love romantic movies then this movie is definately for you. I love this movie and that is actually saying a lot.
This movie was original of Gadar . Both were inspired from a real life love story. But these movies are completely different. In gadar, politics were given same prominence. It was made by keeping Bollywood audience in mind. But Shaheed e Mohabbat focused on love story and everything else is background. Dont think that if you have seen Gadar, you have seen it. It is completely different movie. In this movie, there are not one or two Pakistanis helping Boota. There are a lot of people who help him. It shows Pakistan is much more favorable light. And bigotry is shown on both sides.
I watched it as a kid on TV. It is my mother’s favorite movie.
I think you know the basic synopsis. Boota singh is retired army man returns from second world war. He decides to get settled by getting married but he is old and there is no unmarried woman. His uncle hopes to get Boota’s property when Boota dies without heir. He one day saves a Muslim girl named Zainab from rioters. Rest is anyone’s guess
It stars Gurdas Maan(pride of Punjab). Everyone idolzes him. Even now, he is inspiration of every young Punjabi singer. Diljit, Gippy, Amrinder, Babbu Maan, Sharry Maan etc. Everyone touches his feet. Kapil Sharma always touched his feet when he came to his show. He delivers a brilliant performance. His face makes you pity him. Divya Dutta plays role of Zainab. She is also brilliant in her role.
It is a kind of movie that you dont watch for happy ending. It is not normal Bollywood style romance. IF you like happy ending, then dont watch it. It is a depressing movie. It is a good movie but not a jolly good feeling movie. It has sad ending.
I love Gadar. I am a much bigger fan of Sunny Deol than you are of Shahrukh Khan. But you watch Gadar for patriotism and Sunny Deol and you watch Shaheed E Mohabbat Boota Singh to see real life love story of Boota SIngh and Zainab
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Is it just me or does anyone else get Young Shahrukh vibes from Sushant in this song?
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Just finished the 1980 Khubsoorat and I thought it was adorable. It has genuinely funny writing and situational comedy (even the song that Manju sings to her sister in the beginning is legitimately funny). I find that Indian filmi comedy sometimes doesn’t translate well for me but her it does. Every character and performance was delightful and now I like the casting of the recent Khoobsurat even more knowing that the moms were played by real life mother and daughter…it’s the little touches like this that make me love Hindi film culture.
Rekha was so fun in this role. It’s such a fine line between annoying and adorable for a character like this and Sonam did the very similar role justice, too. A big surprise was that I enjoyed Rakesh Roshan. I’ve come to really, really dislike the films he’s directed and truly believe that Hrithik’s loyalty to his father’s brand (which is completely understandable and admirable, of course) has really hurt his career. I think I’ve said that elsewhere, but anyway…Rakesh is really quite charming in this role and the romance with Rekha was very sweet.
After watching Ittefaq, in preparation for the upcoming adaptation, and now this one. I’m really enjoying seeing these “updates” to older classics. Agneepath is another that I think was remade perfectly. I think, overall, I ‘d prefer more of these remakes of classics than more Southern remakes…which may be a trend we’re seeing.
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I haven’t seen Khubsoorat, but Hrishikesh Mukherjee in general is one of the few comedy directors in Indian film that I actually find funny. If you haven’t seen Chupke Chupke, you really have to.
I think the only early Rakesh role I have seen is in Khel Khel Main. Which, speaking of remakes, was the partial inspiration for Khiladi! Anyway, he was good in that, but I kept getting distracted by his like-Hrithik-but-not looks.
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I think you’d like Khubsoorat! It’s definitely my favorite Rekha role so far…
I’m watching Kaabil now and I think that Hrithik is starting to look more and more like his father and their hairpieces are equally egregious. I wonder when Hrithik will give them up like his father did? The first half of Kaabil is awful due to Hrithik’s terrible over-acting and the depiction of sexual violence and suicide. The second half actually seems to be more “entertaining” since it’s essentially a revenge drama and you want the bad guys to die horrible deaths, of course.
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It’s the fullness of the face that I start to notice. Hrithik’s cheekbones are getting more and more hidden and his face is getting more and more oval, like his father’s.
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Yesterday I watched Murari which is one of the few movies that I consider a romance in Mahesh’s career. One of my favorite Mahesh movies and performances. He was just perfect as the fun-loving Murari! Mahesh’s comic timing as well as acting in emotional scenes was really showcased in this movie. Apparently the story and the characters in Murari are based on the Mahabharata and I think Krishna Vamsi did this in a very clever way. I loved Sonali Bendre in Murari, and I wish she was paired with Mahesh in other movies since they have such good chemistry together. The rest of the cast was also pretty good. I love Krishna Vamsi’s trademark colorful frames full of actors, but I really liked and noticed his detailing in this movie.Overall, Murari is another gem in Mahesh’s and Krishna Vamsi’s filmography. I would really recommend that you watch this one if you can find it with subtitles.
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Looks like it might be a tricky one to find, but I’ll keep looking!
On Sat, Apr 22, 2017 at 5:41 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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You really should! I don’t think you’ve seen Mahesh in this kind of a character before and I think you would like this movie 🙂
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First of all – my springtime card arrived today. Thank you so much 🙂
I have commenced my quest to watch SRK movies in chronological order. Many will be re-watches though.
Started with In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones – if you blink you miss him (I didn’t blink) but still an interesting movie.
Then Deewana – a re-watch.
Then Chamatkar – chronic special effects but still enjoyable
And then a re-watch of Dil Aashna Hai.
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Isn’t it fascinating seeing him be the hero-but-not-really in those early films? He is the young charming romantic lead, but in Deewana he shares that with Rishi, and Divya Bharti is the real hero, in Chamatkar it’s all about Naseeruddin being charming but not handsome enough to be the real “lead”, and so on.
On Tue, Apr 25, 2017 at 11:15 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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