I did it, I watched Prithviraj’s first film! And I have to say, compared to Malavaardi Arts Club and Nivin and ABCD and Dulquer, it’s a lot less stomach churning. Mostly because he has a lot less to do, really it’s a movie about the 3 women, Navya Nair and Revathi and Kaviyoor Punnamma.
Happy Friday! My goodness this has been a frustrating day. The second I get in to anything at work the phone rings and I have to stop. Whether it is blogging or sending an email or doing accounting stuff for work-work, I just don’t have long enough to be able to focus on it. I am writing this right now at about 2pm, we’ll see if I am able to finish and publish this thing before midnight. Anyway, Red! For AIDs and Christmas!!!
I was all nice and daughterly and granddaughterly yesterday, now it’s time to be completely inappropriate and put up my TGIF post! And as a special treat, I am posting it early in the day. It should still keep you entertained all day, since I think this is my longest TGIF post ever. And it also includes a complex and objective rating system, that you can feel free to disagree with, modify, or use for your own ratings in the comments
Happy Coffee Day! I will not be celebrating, because I never have coffee on Fridays so I can sleep in on Saturday (unless, maybe I can make an exception because I will have to stay up super late for Judwaa tonight? No, better not)
I avoided this movie because it looked scary, and I don’t like scary movies! But it really wasn’t bad, because it was less about the “scary” parts, and more about the character parts. The specifics of the danger weren’t the point, it was the way our heroine rushed headline into the danger that was the point. Because young women are very very foolish!
I watched Double Barrel! Only one Pellissery left to see. And I think this might be my least favorite of all the Pellissery’s I have seen? Which doesn’t mean I didn’t like it, just means I didn’t like it as much.
My second Pellissery Monday! And 3rd Pellissery week over all (counting the Tuesday I saw Angamaly Diaries). And this movie is rawer, but still better than Amen. But not as good as Angamaly, which combined the powerful spirit of this film with the technical brilliance of Amen.
I already put up my NO SPOILERS review, and my podcast, now it’s time for the SPOILER review. I recommend reading this before listening to the podcast, since the podcast assumes that you already know what happens in the movie.
Mohzin on my Wednesday Watching post recommended a new interview with Prithviraj, which I was able to watch after work today, and it was fascinating! Probably in a bunch of ways I missed, but also in some I managed to actually catch despite knowing almost nothing about his industry. And then separately from that, trailer for Sarkar 3 came out! And it is kind of fascinating to look at the two of them in terms of how Hindi film stars present themselves versus Malayalam.
I went to see a Malayalam movie in the theaters again! Actually, I saw two, and was completely unproductive otherwise all Saturday. It was a great weekend. And next Monday, you get to see a review of the other movie!
Am I correct that this is not the best movie? I am never sure with my Tamil/Telugu/Malayalam films, if I am missing something really subtle that makes it into a brilliant classic. I only picked this one because it had Prithviraj and was available through Netflix. While a good movie and one I enjoyed watching, it didn’t quite have that “BRILLIANT!” feeling. Although the songs were great. And the plot is delightfully complex
I don’t know enough about him, and Hema exhausted me, so Prithviraj has to content himself with a simple dozen reasons I love him.
I already put up my non-spoiler quick little review. This is the bigger one with lots of plot details. I won’t be doing the full summary, like I do sometimes, but I will be revealing all the plot high points. So if you are kind of curious about this movie, but not curious enough to spend the money and time going to a theater, read this! Normally I try to encourage people to see the movie anyway, but in this case, I can sincerely say, “don’t bother, just read this.”
This was…..fine? A couple of clever ideas in the script (could tell it came from the same mind as Drishyam), Prithviraj did a good job (of course), and I guess the action was all right? But it was just sort of missing something.
This movie is about a lot of different things, but what leaps out at me is they way it handled the hero’s childhood adoption into an American family. It managed the difficult task of avoiding any easy answers, acknowledging the challenges of the situation without blaming anyone for them.
Now, if you remember, I looooooooved Ohm Shanti Oshaana. Whole-hearted no reservations loved it. And the big main thing I loved is still there in Aiyyaa, that it is a love story from the female side instead of the male, the woman gets to fall in love at first sight and be the stalker and make all the big gestures and stuff. But, all the little things in Aiyyaa are just WEIRD! Weird weird weird! I can see why it wasn’t a hit.
I finally watched Aurangzeb! Which I have been nagged about from all sides. “All sides” meaning Arjun Kapoor and Prithviraj fans, and Jackie Shroff/Amrita Singh ‘shippers. And all of those people were correct, it’s a great movie for Arjun and Prithviraj, and Jackie-Amrita (Jackrita?). But some other things weren’t quite as strong as they could be. Anyway, I wanted to put up a post in honor of A Flying Jatt, for the Amrita-Shroff connection.
At what point does Ranveer stop being charming and start being irritating? ANOTHER twitter video in honor of a Khan? Come on, Ranveer! Get a new schtick!
I finally watched Ennu Ninte Moideen! After people telling me and telling me that I should see it. It was SO FRUSTRATING! But I’m not sure if I was frustrated because that’s how the filmmakers wanted me to feel, or if I was maybe a little more frustrated than they expected.
That’s a little unfair, it really doesn’t have much in common with Dr. Kildare, beyond the basic set-up of the wise older doctor mentoring the young one. But it’s in the country instead of the city, and there is a whole bunch of other stuff going on in the plot as well.
This movie was very very well-made. And it managed to tell a familiar story in a new way. At least, familiar to me, since I’ve read a lot of books on film history and the same horribly depressing things always happen to the early filmmakers. Although, like I said, this film took a slightly new tack on it in a couple of ways.
Such a surprisingly good movie! Okay, that sounds insulting to police films. Such a surprisingly different movie! It looks like the standard police film, everyone has a mustache and the title is even “Mumbai Police“. But then, right away, it’s clear that it really really isn’t.
This is a movie I started and then rewound to rewatch bits a bunch. And then realized that I didn’t really have to rewind that much, because it was just moving forward, without much discussion of what we saw in the past.
dontcallitbollywood 