I mentioned last Monday that I saw two Malayalam movies in the theater. This was the other one! The showtime gods were kind to me, I realized I could catch a matinee of Ezra, grab a lassi at the concession counter, and then move right into the show for Fukri.
Guide part 3! This is what happens when I write about Great Movies, I just go on and on and don’t know how to stop (16 parts into DDLJ, by the way, and not even to intermission). But I am going to be firm with myself this time and try to keep it down to just 3 parts. Especially because, unlike DDLJ, this isn’t a movie all my readers will necessarily have seen. (part 1 gives no plot details of the film, just background on the pre-production, part 2 starts with a general discussion of the style and techniques of the film before getting into plot. Read them both before you read this, because I will be referring back!)
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!
This was not a good movie. And, to save you all from it, I am going to provide a summary here that you can read instead of sitting through the whole 3 hour mess like I had to. It is my gift to humanity! And if, for some reason, you feel the need to actually see it, you can always read my No Spoilers review instead.
I already said in my no SPOILERS review that this is a great great rom-com! And you should definitely go see it if at all possible. Don’t just read my SPOILERS review! Only read it if you have already seen the film, or if you are one of those people who can still enjoy movies even after reading all the spoilers.
As I mentioned in my non-SPOILER review, my Grandpa loooooooooves submarine movies. Well, really all boat movies, but sub movies are his favorites. And because of that, I have seen a fair number of submarine movies myself. And I have to say, this is a very very good example of the sub movie genre. I would have liked it even better if we’d gotten to the underwater warfare part sooner.
I don’t have that much to say about this movie, really, but I also thought I should put up a post before Naam Shabana comes out. And there is no news today, or anyone’s birthday, or any other possible topic for another post, so I thought I might as well put it up.
This show was SO GOOD! But I think I might like Humsafar better? Just personal taste, Humsafar was kind of cleaner and simpler. This one had all these layers and perspectives and complications and different philosophies and feminist statements and all of that and it just MADE MY HEAD HURT!
Part 5! I always forget how much faster it moves once I get into the second half. Because I’ve already done all my discussion of the underlying motivations and blah blah, and I can skip all that. I have great hopes of finishing entirely in one more part! (part 1 here and part 2 here and part 3 here and part 4 here)
Okay, I did a mini-spoiler review, a no spoiler review, and a full spoiler review. Now it’s time for the scene by scene shot by shot breakdown!
So, I saw Raees for the second time last night! Some things were better on this watch, and some things were worse. But, knowing how it ends, I was able to pay more attention to various hints and clues that were dropped along the way, and I think I have a better sense of how the whole thing was built piece by piece. So I can do my “real” spoiler review, instead of just a mini one.
I’m tired, it’s late, but I also really want to start talking about Raees with you guys! And I want to do it in a place where we won’t spoil it for those poor people who haven’t been able to see it yet. And thus, a mini-review! I still get to write and put up a better review sometime tomorrow, but this is just something to hold you over until then.
Okay, I’m going to try something. Before, I would get a big DVD order or have a slow week at work, and post a ton of blog posts from Kerala or Tamil Nadu or whatever all at once. And then hit a point of being busy at work and running out of DVDs or whatever and post no reviews at all for a while. But that’s not good, this start and stop. So, now that the big Hindi release season is about to end, I am going to try to stick to a schedule, Monday Malayalam, Tuesday Tamil or Telugu. And then Hindi or whatever other random thing I am watching (Zindagi Gulzar Hai?) the rest of the week. Continue reading
Is this my first Chiranjeevi movie? That can’t be right! And yet a search of my archives for “Chiranjeevi” comes up empty! Oh! Magadheera! He had a little cameo in that, right? Okay, so I’ve seen him in one movie.
I finished it! Thanks to my disastrous start to the new year (landlord says maybe I can move back in on Tuesday), I spent the weekend huddled in my parents’ guest room, with nothing to do but watch Pakistani soap opera’s on Netflix (yes, I did start Zindagi Gulzar Hai also). And so I finished 23 episodes on 24 hours. Which doesn’t sound that impressive until you remember to subtract sleep time. Well, not that much sleep time. Like 5 hours.
In preparation for Raees, I am zipping through Humsafar, the show that made Mahira Khan famous. It was a bit of a slog at first, but now I am addicted and am rapidly making my way to the end. Along the way, I wanted to pause and give some summary and discussion of the episodes. I already did 1-8 here, now it’s time to move on to 8-14.
As I am sure many of you know, the two big hit Pakistani soap operas, Humsafar and Zindagi Gulzar Hai, were just added to Netflix. They’ve been available through other less-good sources (ErosNow, youtube) for a while, plus of course their original broadcast, so there is a good chance some of you are ahead of me in watching them. Anyway, since enough people are seeing them now, and especially because Mahira Khan starred in Humsafar and is about to star in Raees, I am putting out a review/summary of the episodes in 3 parts, starting with the first 8. There will be a little bit of non-spoiler to start if you want to decide if the show is for you before reading on.
I put up my NO SPOILERS review last night after I got home, and then I slept for 5 hours, and now I am at work and all ready to write my SPOILERS review. And then right after work is family dinner tonight, and then I come home and do laundry and wrap 37 presents and empty my sink of dirty dishes and maybe think about finishing decorating my trees. Christmas week releases are not the easiest. So forgive me if this review sounds a little punchy.
I watched Happy! Because I wanted Bommarillu and I got confused. But this one was still cute. Is it possible there is a whole genre of “Genelia D’Suoza rom-coms”? Just because she has such a young perky face, she ends up in cute young perky love stories?
No big massive full summary coming for Befikre! Partly because Dear Zindagi exhausted me, partly because my sense is that my commentators aren’t as interested in a massive discussion of this movie, as they are of other movies. But mostly because I don’t think it is analyzable, to take it apart would be to destroy it.
So, back at Thanksgiving 2 weeks ago, I saw this movie for a second time. And I am just now getting around to writing about it, because Christmas and work and Dear Zindagi, and it’s all been a very stressful time. While I was visiting her for Thanksgiving, my sister and I had a wonderful time watching sappy romances, but it is always a bit of a quest to find a movie that would suck in my brother-in-law. Bahubaali worked wonders last year, and this year I did the “just keep us company for the first 5 minutes” trick with Bakshy!, and by ten minutes in, he was asking us to pause it when he ran into the kitchen for more pizza, because he didn’t want to miss a minute.
Ha! I originally had a typo of there, making it “the heat of Alia’s dysfunction”. Which sounds kind of sexy, but also kind of sci-fi-y. And, maybe, this scene is “sexy” in that caring and sensitive men are always “Sexy”, but it’s not sci-fi-y at all. So I went ahead and fixed the typo. (part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here, part 5 here)
dontcallitbollywood 