Another Allu Arjun film! Am I remembering right that his hair changes frequently? Unlike most male stars, where the hair and the whole look is kind of part of their brand? If so, I think he should keep changing, because this look is not the best.
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.
Thanks to badgering (in a nice way) from the comments section, I finally got around to watching this, my first Ram Gopal Verma Telugu film, and my first RGV Sridevi film. And it was a revelation! Not that different from his later Hindi stuff, but different enough that it made me look at his whole career in a new way.
It feels wrong to say that! The Hindi remake is always supposed to be the watered down less good version of the non-Hindi original. But watching this movie, I found myself missing the slight changes the put in to make it work better for the Hindi industry.
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?
Attakathi, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, Premam, and now this, they all have very similar content, the kind of content I don’t really see in American film, or even in Hindi films that much. The struggles and pain of being in love, and not being of an age for it. It isn’t something American movies deal with, maybe because it isn’t an issue in the same way in America? At least, not any more.
I got this DVD from Netflix and watched it a while back, and much of it went over my head. But what I could appreciate was the cool things it was doing with story structure and visuals. So that at least I can talk about!
I knew this movie was a big deal, and I knew it was inspired/related to Maine Pyar Kiya. But I didn’t know how innocent it would be! Innocent like Maine Pyar Kiya, but even more so.
Mani Ratnam strikes again! Another great romance with a complicated heroine and interesting supportive hero. Oh, and I am going to assume for this entire review that you at least know the big thing that is revealed 10 minutes into the film, so if you are obsessive about SPOILERS and don’t even want to know that, DON’T READ ANY MORE!!! But if you are fine with the 10 minute in reveal, but want to be protected from what happens in the remaining 113 minutes, keep going until the usual SPOILER marker.
I LOVED this movie! This is going to be my new happy making comfort food film every time I get down. Everyone is happy and good and does good happy things and has good happy things happen to them. And even if something bad does happen, not to worry! You’ll just get another chance in your next life!
I saw Nadhiya before in Mirchi, and was stunned by how the “mother” actress was so much more beautiful and interesting than the love interests. That is even more true in this film, to the point that it is almost acknowledged in the script, that Pawan Kalyan was more interested in bringing his aunt home, than in spending time with her daughter who he professed to be in love with.
This was such a good movie. SUCH A GOOD MOVIE!!! All these cool concepts and visuals and ideas! Really, the only flaw was that there were too many good ideas, it was kind of overwhelming.
Another Mahesh Babu movie! An odd one, half comedy and half cop thriller. And sometimes comedy and cop thriller all mixed up together.
So, moviemavengal is like totally in love with Mahesh Babu and has been telling me and telling me I need to watch one of his movies. And then last week I saw that Srimanthudu had just been added to ErosNow, and that I could now chromecast ErosNow to my TV, and I decided it was fate!
If you live in America, Rudhramadevi just made it to Netflix, and you should definitely watch it! It’s like Bahubaali, but with a feminist message and really really bad CGI. But I like the message so much, I can look past the CGI.
This post is really for moviemavengal, since she is the one who knows more about Mahesh. As usual with the regional industries, I am kind of in the dark and only know the little bit I have seen in the past few months. But, it’s his birthday today, and I feel like I should do SOMETHING! So here are a few songs from the few films I have seen, but I love the songs. Feel free to celebrate in the comments if you have something to add!
I was just searching through my email for something else, and I ran across the many many many things I had to say after I watched Mirchi for the first time last year. Mirchi was my first “real” Telugu movie, not counting Bahubaali. And I loved it, and it also inspired many many thoughts in my head. So, since it is a lazy summer weekend, I am going to be lazy and just copy my emails, and split my thoughts into 2 posts over today and tomorrow.
Yay, global figures are out! And, for the first time in weeks, there is an actual big name Hindi movie that I care about included.
Bollywoodhungama has the global figures for the weekend again. Yay! It’s my favorite part of the week! Well, not my favorite part (new release Friday beats it easily), but it’s up there!
I saw Varsham! The same day as Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, which was weird since they are very different movies who share an actress playing two very different heroines. But I think I liked Varsham better. At least, “liked” as in “willing to rewatch it multiple times and happy while viewing it.” Not so much “liked” as in “thought it was actual a deep and rewarding film with multiple layers and messages.” Continue reading
As a reward for letting Mani Ratnam make me cry again, I picked out a Telugu film that was recommended to me, and was available for free on youtube with subtitles. It did NOT make me cry, but it did make me go “wait, what’s happening now?” a lot.
So, I’ve been writing about and watching a lot of Malayalam films. But those aren’t appropriate for every situation. For instance, when I have a bunch of friends over who want to talk over/about a movie while we are watching it. In that case, I basically limit it to movies I have already seen on my own with complete and total focus, and also movies that still work even if you are wandering in and out of the room and telling me about how your classes are going and asking if you can make popcorn. So, last week we watched Magadheera (3rd time for me, 1st time with others in the room) and this week we watched Bijjugadu (4th time for me, 1st time with others in the room).
After seeing the news article yesterday about this movie maybe being re-released with Hindi dubbing, I got curious and tracked down a sort-of legal online source so I could stream it. And I am kind of stunned that it hasn’t been dubbed already, and that I’d never heard about it before.
So, I’ve been watching Hindi movies for over a decade, but there are still a few I haven’t gotten around to, and others that I’ve seen but still haven’t written about. And I’ve barely started on Malayalam films. And I’ve only seen a few Tamil (Jeans, Ok Kanmani, Kandukondain Kandukondain, etc.) and Telugu (Bijjugaadi, Bahubaali, Mirchi, etc.) as well.
You have all been super nice about giving me suggestions and requests, and rather than hunting through old comments and old emails from friends whenever I need to find something to watch, I am going to put them all in one place. And if you see something missing from my list, or a miss-spelling, or anything that should be removed/changed, or an additional note I should add to the film, just note it in a comment and I will update the list!
UPDATE: I’m working through the list, the ones I’ve already written about now have links to the related post.
UPDATE 2: If it is a Hindi film from 2016 or later, just assume that I saw it opening night and wrote a regular review and summary of it, and search the full archives of the site to find those. Too many of those to list here!
dontcallitbollywood 