Yes, it’s another discussion post! But one I am excited about and hope you respond to because I think you will all have ideas. What movie did you love, except for the ending?
I just reviewed Veer-Zaara which I found SO FRUSTRATINGI I loved the first half, was tepid about the second half, and then loathed the ending and desperately wished I could rewrite it and fix it so it was as good as the rest of the movie. What film is like that for you?
(My Veer-Zaara Ending: Veer has only been in jail for 5 years and has been trying to get a lawyer and be heard that whole time. He finishes telling his story to Rani, and then she decides to track down his parents in their village. She finds Preity living with them and gets Preity’s side of the story, how she heard of Veer’s death, was inspired to confront her parents and suddenly realized the falseness of their values. Also ended her marriage because now she had the strength to break free all by herself. And Divya has a touching scene when she offers to come to India with Preity. Amitabh and Hema, heartbroken, still manage to welcome Preity with all the honors and ceremony they would give a daughter-in-law. Preity adopts an orphaned little girl and slowly starts to come to life again, while still crying and cursing fate that Shahrukh died before they could be together. The rest plays out as before, except Rani also manages to get a deathbed confession from Manoj, dying of cancer and believing it is his sins that are catching up with him. Shahrukh and Preity return to the village, their love rewarded by the miracle of Shahrukh being saved from death thanks to the Manoj’s interference.)
dontcallitbollywood 
ADHM. That ending doesn’t belong in a modern movie. Totally killed an otherwise worthwhile movie for me. I get your argument that death is the only approximation for heterosexuals of the homosexuals finality of unrequited love with a heterosexual. But maybe the reveal could have been gradual instead of sudden. Like she’s been nursing a cough occasionally throughout the movie, and the reveal is a serious conversation instead of a bald head and dancing.
You know, if you looked at what a high percentage of Hindi films include seemingly able bodied adults under 40 dying, you’d think that India had an insanely high epidemic of adults under 40 dying compared to the rest of the world.
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Oooh, good one. Maybe Anushka could have renounced the world and become a nun. Buddhist or Catholic, either would work.
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Oh, I really love that! If they had put little clues along the way to her religious leanings, and then the reveal that she was somehow unsatisfied even when married to the man she loves and the reveal that now she is some version of a Nun.
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Oh oh! What if with ADHM, she’s been dying all along! That’s why she and Fawad broke up to begin with, he couldn’t handle it, but then he decided he could and they got married, only it got to hard again. She has been keeping it from Ranbir because she doesn’t want him to feel obligated (like Fawad did). And then the ending could be about Ranbir proving true love and friendship is more faithful than romantic love.
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For me, the only good ending of ADHM would be Anushka finding a new good man. Somebody completely different from Ranbir and Fawad, a serious, good guy she can rely on. This way Ranbir, and the public would learn that woman can love many times, and that she isn’t obligated to love a man only because he loves her.
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Sure, so long as it is clear that she doesn’t not love Ranbir because she loves someone else, but just because she doesn’t love him.
Oh oh! Anushka starts a relationship with Aish!!!!! They are both better off without Ranbir and SRK dripping around them, and they have a nice happy relationship without agony and heartbreak.
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I love your ending for Veer-Zaara! I’ll have to sleep on this question, though. Nothing’s coming to mind.
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I can list several.I have different expectations from Hindi films compared to other languages.So I’m willing to tolerate quite a few outrageous things but at the same time have less patience for unconventional endings.Imran Khan and Kareena’s ‘Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu’ is a good example.After suffering through an unconventional romance with two leads who have zero chemistry together,I’m to be denied even the satisfaction of a HEA.Supriya Pathak and Imran make a great mother-son pair though.Their scenes looked so natural.I’d have loved to see Imran and Kareena end up together along with some saas-bahu drama between her and Kareena.
Chandni would have been tolerable if Sridevi had sent Rishi on his way. The man loves to indulge in his melodrama and self-pity.Heaven forbid, if there was another accident the silly idiot would indulge in another round of histrionics and send Sridevi packing again.Did he really think she is a toy that he could throw away and pick up whenever he wants? Vinod on the other hand is more mature,self-aware and if placed in the same situation would be a lot more appreciative of her love.And Chandni herself could do with a lot more self-esteem.Why marry Vinod if she wasn’t fully convinced? Forget about joy and romance.She didn’t even seem to be looking forward to the preparations of the wedding.More like she couldn’t see a way out of it. If I had my way,I’d arrange different love interests for Vinod and Sridevi.
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For Chandni, Juhi has a secret twin who appears suddenly and wants to meet her dead sister’s husband? Vinod finds happiness with Juhi again? And Sridevi gives a speech to both men about their selfishness and walks out. Finds a new job where her co-worker is freshfaced Anil Kapoor, they work together as equals and both try to please the boss Anupam Kher, Anil tries to get her to go out for dinner but she keeps saying “no” until she finally says “yes”. They date in a normal way and slowly get to know each other, and then Anil takes her home to meet his family (mother, father, older brother and sister-in-law), they all like her, Anil proposes and she says yes, spends 6 months happily planning a wedding, they fight over normal stuff like him spending too much money on her gifts when they should be saving for the future and so on, his brother and sister-in-law take a hand and gently help the younger couple, they get married, keep working together until she gets pregnant and he gets a promotion. 40 years later they have a couple kids and grandkids, Anil retired with a nice pension, they still live in a combined family and are very happy.
Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, I have to confess that I had someone tell me the ending and decided I never wanted to watch it because it sounds way too frustrating. But sounds like a better second half would be “they fall in love for real, decide to make a go of the marriage, fight constantly because they are so different, break-up, and then are sad and realize they really love each other, rush to the airport”.
On Sat, Jun 1, 2019 at 4:01 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Your alternative ending for Chandni is so much better.Sridevi and Anil have so much chemistry together.He’ll always try to make her laugh.Vinod’s character does have a similar arc in Insaaf- his comeback movie- where he falls for his dead girlfriend Dimple’s twin sister.
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Poor Sridevi, for some reason she always seems to be stuck with guys who are too old for her. Anil is her costar that feels the most equal to me, and then in Lamhe they ended up aging him up so much that it felt like she was stuck with an old foggy all over again.
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I hate the ending of Petta, with Rajinikanth, Vijay Sethupathi and others I’m not familiar with. The film was decent but not a stunner. My dear Vijay disappointed me, but I can sort of see the furor Rajinikanth arouses. He is a compelling presence although I doubt he can play against type.
The WTF ending smacked me right in the face. Rajinikanth aims a gun at Vijay, smiles, says “Should I kill you or not?” and the movie ends. You may or may not hear a gunshot. Did he shoot? It’s important to know for Rajinikanth’s character to make sense. I’m not certain which I would choose. Maybe that’s why the director ended it up in the air like that.
I’d change the end of Kalavaadiya Pozhuthugal, a 2017 Prabhudeva film, whose theme is, I suppose, “You only have one love in life and first love is the true one”. I enjoy Prabhudeva even when he’s not dancing. He’s not much of a romantic hero and he definitely doesn’t have that soulful, sexy stare that Shah Rukh and others have. But he moves with masculine grace and can make me laugh. Plot: Prabhudeva and Boomhika Chawla, are desperately in love but her dad trumps up a charge to have him sent to prison thereby killing the nuptials. Years later, the couple meets again. He’s a taxi driver, married to a nice country girl whom he treats with offhand condescension, and they have a daughter. Boomhika’s also married, at her father’s behest, to wealthy Prakash Raj. They are childless. Through a series of circumstances, Prakash Raj gives Prabhudeva a job in his company and they all end up living in the same big, extravagant house. Prabhudeva and Boomhika are still in love but he tries his best to keep it on the down-low, avoiding her and her incessant calls. However, she’s obsessed with their past. She hounds him, plays all kinds of tricks to be alone with him, even threatens suicide. Finally, afraid she will kill herself, he goes to her and she throws herself at him. He starts to succumb then fends her off; she takes pills and is rushed to the hospital. Prabhudeva, distraught, leaves all his money and expensive trappings behind and runs back to the country with his now pregnant wife and daughter. His wife is sad to leave her new prosperity, but she loves Prabhudeva and tells him not to worry, all will be fine, he is a wise and good man. In the last scene, we see a hired car taking them back to their old, meager life.
Now that is wrong in so many ways. First of all, Prakash Raj intuits that Boomi and Prabhudeva were lovers once, but he’s calm and understands even tho it’s clear his wife adores another man and doesn’t care for him. Huh? Prabhudeva, on the other hand, never tells his wife his secret. She is left in the dark about why he quit his lucrative job with Prakash Raj and why they are giving up everything and going back to being poor. In the last scene, we see them leave in a hired car. He breaks down and sobs, leading the viewer to believe his decision was reluctant and that he will always love only Boomi. Moreover, Boomi, who caused all this turmoil, survives to go back to her nice life and forgiving husband while Prabhudeva has condemned himself and his long-suffering wife to a life of misery. It’s not fair. Boomi should have died for her sins and Prabhudeva should have realized what a jewel his wife is and become kind and loving to her. The last scene should have shown him burning the photograph he took in happier days with Boomi, parking his taxi, and going home to dinner with his wife, daughter and baby son.
Sorry this is so long. It’s Saturday and I’m easy.
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For Rajinikanth, check out Kabali. Similar ending to Petta, but one that resolves all the character parts and just leaves you an interesting thing to think about. And a really interesting and good Rajinikanth performance, plus lots of fun Malaysian politics! I knew nothing about Malaysia going in and now I know so much!
Sounds like your issue with the Prabhudeva movie is the same kind of thing that bothered me about Veer Zaara and 96, the depressing “true love, one love, can never get over it” problem. Even if you get married, even if for all kinds of practical reasons you should be over it, true love is always true love. Blech! Oh, and if you want a nice palate cleanser, Silsila and Kabhi Kabhi are the classic “eh, you can get over true love and move on” movies. At least, I think so, they are slightly open to interpretation.
On Sat, Jun 1, 2019 at 9:49 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I have one that I just finished watching: Lamhe. Anil and Sridevi shouldn’t end up together in the end. It’s not earned. Throughout the film you have a man who is living in a kind of dream state, lost in the past and refusing to engage in the present and having Pallavi’s daughter show up just reinforces that. Even though the film tries to sell you on the point that no, Puja is different because she loves Viren unlike her mother who never loved him, it’s obvious that he never sees the woman who is in front of him. It’s no coincidence that he finally accepts her only when they are back in Rajasthan, which exists more as a myth for him than a real place. Ideally Puja would realize that her longing for Viren is only because he rejected her for so many years and she lets Waheeda find her a nice boy who will worship her with no ghosts from the past.
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Lamhe was the movie Adi helped his Dad film and edit and stuff during college breaks, and according to a story in one of Anupama’s books, he was heartbroken by the bad opening weekend. He locked himself in the editing room and came out with a new version of the film that he thought “fixed” it. And his Dad had to teach him the sad lesson that the movie is what it is, and once it is out there in the world you just have to move on (kind of strange to think about how Zero on Netflix showed that isn’t actually true).
Anyway, I think Adi’s edit would fix part of your problems. He wanted to remove the childhood section and just go straight to Sridevi 2 as an adult meeting Anil. So you don’t have that set up of her longing and dreaming about him, she just meets and likes him as an adult because of who he is.
On the other hand, I am really pleased that the movie worked for you up to that point! I think Anil’s early first love is handled so delicately and subtely, along with the reasons he has never quite gotten over it. Did you catch that Sridevi 1 made a point of staying in touch with him over the years because she knew eventually he would grow up and see her for who she really is? Only, she died before that process could finish.
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I actually loved the movie despite its flaws. It’s absolutely gorgeous and it has a surreal quality I’ve never seen in other Hindi films. Anil’s performance is fantastic and Sridevi is luminous.
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Now you gotta watch Silsila, Kabhi Kabhi, and Chandni. Yashji’s other romantic masterpieces. Or, Veer-Zaara. It’s not as good as the others, but at least the hero is young and attractive.
On Sat, Jun 1, 2019 at 11:04 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani. Something about Deepika and Ranveer getting back together felt too forced, I actually would’ve preferred that they had that break up, parted ways and became friends or something. Naina was always too good for Bunny (in a romantic sense), and I think they made better friends than romantic partners. Also, some form of closure for Avi would’ve been nice, he had a very interesting character and just leaving him as an alcoholic sucks. If anything, I think I might’ve even liked a romance between Avi and Naina when Bunny comes back (really entering fanfic territory here).
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Oh oh! I wrote this fanfic!!!!
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I just rewatched Deewana, and when Rishi comes back, I just want to scream WHYYYYYYYYY? Isn’t the story of a young widow finding love again after a terrible loss enough to make a satisfying ending? And as much as I adore Amrish Puri and his delicious villainy, that entire storyline is unnecessary. Maybe it all boils down to: more Shah Rukh, please.
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Oh, this reminds me of another older film that I really hate the ending. Bandini, total classic, beautifully filmed, amazing lead performance from Nutan, and so on and so forth. But SPOILERS Nutan falls in love with older married man Ashok Kumar, ends up killing for him in a moment of passion, is sentenced to prison, where sensitive super duper hot young prison doctor Dharmendra falls in love with her and wants to marry her and take her back to his village. Seems like a nice story of a young woman recovering from a sad love affair and a man who is sensitive enough to see her worth. But then at the last minute Ashok Kumar shows up, now dying, and Nutan of course has to abandon Dharmendra and her happy future to serve as Ashok’s nursemaid for the rest of his life. BOOOO! END SPOILERS
Anyway, with Deewana I had never thought about it before, but I think you are right? I like the meaning of Rishi returning and Divya having definitely absolutely moved on and no longer wanting him. On the other hand, it could have worked just as well to have Rishi never return, or the bad guys, and the resolution be Shahrukh getting jealous of Rishi’s memory one last time or something and Divya reassuring him.
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Sort of Chalte Chalte with a stronger ex-fiance. I linke.
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Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Shahrukh is defusing a bomb. He looks up and sees Katrina standing watching him behind the barrier. His eyes moisten – they are reunited at last. He slowly rises to his feet as she moves around the barrier. She walks towards him, a gentle smile on her face….. boom!
It’s optional to have Anushka suddenly appear, a detonator hanging out of her back pocket. 🙂
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You are CRUEL!!!!! But yes, that actually would kind of make more sense. Tragedy would give the film meaning that a happy ending just doesn’t.
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This is not a tragic ending, rather a happy moment for the audience. 🙂
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