Cindy's Bollyblog

Prema Katha

2010-03-24T19:30:00.001-07:00

In 1988, director/producer Nasir Hussain launched his nephew Aamir Khan's film career with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, a tragic story about two doomed young lovers. In 1999, actor/producer Nagarjuna launched his nephew Sumanth's career with Prema Katha, a tragic story about two doomed young lovers. Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak is a tragedy along the lines of Romeo and Juliet, although I prefer it to the latter for basically the same reasons stated in this review. Prema Katha, on the other hand, strikes me as a tragedy more along the lines of Hamlet: nothing happens and then everyone dies. (The similarities end there, however, so don't watch Prema Katha just because you're looking for some good existential quotes.)

Prema Katha begins with a somewhat crazy-looking woman telling some kids that she wants to tell them her son's love story.

Her son, Suri (Sumanth), is the type of filmi hero who lives off his hard-working dad's earnings with the excuse that he's holding out for a better job, although he makes no efforts to secure employment of any kind. The type of guy who scolds his mother if she's not around to prepare him food at the very moment when he wants it. He's not a bad guy, but he prefers to spend his time dancing and hanging out with his friends in the village rather than doing anything productive.

One day, a new girl (Antara Mali) shows up, and he instantly falls for her. She's a rich and somewhat clueless girl from the city who quickly comes to appreciate his sense of humor and carpe diem approach towards life. But, then comes bad news.

Naturally, the girl has a homicidal, honor-obsessed brother (Manoj Bajpai), who isn't too happy when he hears about what's been going on in the village. That brings us up to the intermission, so at this point you'll want to skip to the last paragraph if you don't want to read spoilers for the second half.

After various things happen, the girl finally decides to run off with the boy. His parents, her aunt and uncle, and his friends convince them to hide from her brother, who is angrily searching for her. I thought at this point that they might die together -- especially given some apparent foreshadowing about flooding in the place where they were hiding. But no, the movie had something much worse in mind. The brother is temporarily thwarted, the hero and heroine are fine, and everyone gets set for a wedding.

There's a very nice wedding song, my favorite part of the whole movie, which is ruined when the brother shows up with a bunch of armed goons. And then the film degenerates into a terrible bloodbath in which basically everyone with a speaking role gets massacred, starting with the boy's dad and the girl's uncle. The girl asks the boy to do her one last favor and tie the marriage thread around her neck, but he dies before he can. She manages to tie it on herself and promptly dies as well.

And we cut from this lovely scene back to the present, where the poor kids who listened to this story have probably sworn to themselves not to fall in love, since love obviously brings a lot of trauma along with it, for all of your friends and family members as well as you.

So, in conclusion, I would not really recommend this film, unless you're a huge fan of Sumanth and/or Antara Mali. And if you do watch it, prepare to be traumatized.

7 reasons why I love 70s films

2010-02-28T21:44:00.001-08:00

Reading other people's posts for 70s week this week has reminded me just how great 70s Bollywood films are. So, here's my list of 7 reasons why I love 70s films:

1. They tend to revolve around ideas of family ties and societal responsibilities and other values I generally agree with.

2. Instead of trying to surprise you with emotionally unsatisfactory twist endings (I'm looking at you, Shahrukh's Don), they just surprise you with their creative ways of doing things. Even though I generally can anticipate the basic plot outline, I still find myself being surprised by, for instance, the sight of a purplish horse jumping over a castle wall, or Amitabh Bachchan in an Easter egg.

3. So many attractive and distinctive actors (and actresses). And they're attractive in a real way, rather than looking like they've come off an assembly line at a gym or plastic surgeon's office.

4. Also on a superficial note, have you seen the bellbottoms and other awesome clothes? Not to mention the amazing villains' lairs and other impressive locations. Sometimes I think I'd like to live in a 70s film, minus the kidnappings and lost children and other unfortunate circumstances.

5. The music. Many of my favorite film songs are from the 70s.

6. They've got action and romance and family melodrama and, well, pretty much everything you might want to see in a film, plus a lot of things you never realized you wanted to see until they happened.

7. They may not always be "good" by critical standards, but they're almost always entertaining. And that's what I watch films for.

Anukokunda Oka Roju

2009-09-12T10:55:00.000-07:00

Anukokunda Oka Roju is one of the most suspenseful Indian films I've seen. Of course the basic premise -- girl is drugged at a party and wakes up not remembering anything that's happened -- lends itself pretty well to suspense, but apparently the Hindi remake, Sunday, got rid of a lot of the suspense in favor of comedy. (I haven't seen Sunday, so I'm just basing this opinion on the reviews I've read. It is clear from these reviews, though, that there are some significant differences between the two, not just in tone but also in plot.)

Sahasra (Charme) is an aspiring singer and college student who lives with her father, evil stepmother, and half-brother and sister in a typical busy neighborhood. When her family goes out of town, her friend drags her along to a wild party, where some guys slip Rophynol into her drink. After joining in the party for a few minutes, she wanders off into the darkness -- and wakes up in her own bed with no memory of anything that happened at the party or afterwards.

She looks at the clock, sees that she's going to be late for class, and runs off to school, only to discover that it's actually Sunday and there are no classes. Apparently she never keeps track of the date well, because she just shrugs this off and goes back to normal life without any concern about the mix-up. But then, strange things start happening.

A taxi driver starts following her around insisting that she owns him money. A doctor notices fingernail marks on her neck, and she can't remember how they got there. Someone tries to kill her, and the policeman who comes to her rescue seems much more interested in her than in her attacker.

Gradually, the story of what happened to her while she was drugged unfolds. And by the end, everything actually makes sense. (Well, almost everything. I still don't understand how she could be so oblivious to the fact that she has no memory of a day of her life, especially after she's been given reason to wonder whether anything happened the night of the party.) Even the comic relief guy ends up being relevant to the plot in the end.

If you want to see a rare heroine-centric Telugu film, if you're a fan of Charme, or if you like well-scripted, suspenseful Indian action films, you might want to give Anukokunda Oka Roju a watch.

Chatrapathi

2009-06-13T18:30:00.000-07:00

I have to start any recommendation of Chatrapathi with disclaimers: This film is pretty violent. It's a hero-centric film where the heroine gets less screen time than the hero's muscles and is mostly just there for the songs. And the songs are, with one exception, totally unnecessary and rather goofy.

????

That said, I love this film. There are two main reasons why. First, I love 1970s masala, especially plots about heroes saving the downtrodden and being reunited with their misplaced family members, and Chatrapathi is very much in that style. Second, after about twenty minutes of not-so-subliminal messages, I gave in and agreed with the film that Prabhas is a very attractive man. And, the film has good pacing and great (albeit plagiarized) background music (which you can check out in the trailer here).

70s ishstyle

In a prologue that will seem familiar to anyone who's seen many 70s masala films, Chatrapathi begins with two young brothers and a widowed mother. In this case, the younger brother is totally psycho. He's clearly not going to grow up to be a light-hearted Shashi-type brother. He is psychotically jealous of his mother's love for his half-brother Shivaji, and thus, when the inevitable separation takes place ten minutes into the prologue, he tells his mother that his brother has died.

Creepy little brother

Not Shashi

Meanwhile, our young protagonist ends up in a refuge camp run by a very evil gangster/smuggler. He grows up smuggling and surviving constant threats from the police, rival gangsters, and his own boss. And after twelve years, he turns out to be ~~Prabhas~~ pretty darn awesome. Where 1970s masala heroes sometimes proved their toughness by wrestling with unrealistic stuffed tigers, he proves his toughness by fighting off an unrealistic animated shark.

Putting the "special" in special effects.

Sharks may pose no problem for our intrepid hero, but his life is certainly not problem free. He and his friends must decide whether to rebel against the powerful gangster who controls them, putting all of their family members and friends at risk, or to live with oppression and deal with it the best they can. (There are some shades of Sholay here.) While he continues to search for his mother and brother, he is unaware of the extent of his brother's craziness and doesn't realize that their reunion may not be as great as he hopes. And of course, this being a South Indian masala film, there are corrupt politicians to spare. It's fortunate he gets a love interest so he can take a break every once in a while from all of the demands of being an action hero.

Chatrapathi may not be a great film, but I find it to be a highly entertaining and emotionally satisfying one. Just keep the disclaimers in mind if you decide to watch it too.

Don't watch this movie, Mom.

according to the text

2009-06-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

Khatta Meetha

2009-05-31T17:14:00.001-07:00

After a spree of watching masala Tamil films, I was in the mood for something sweet, simple, and non-violent. Khatta Meetha turned out to be just the right choice.

His kids: the shiftless one; the musical one; the sporty one; and the little one.

Homi Mistry (Ashok Kumar) is a widower with four sons, and Nargis Sethna (Pearl Padamsee) is a widow with two sons and a daughter. Their kids, like most kids, are a bit self-absorbed, and they don't help much with the housework and other family concerns. At the instigation of some mutual friends, Homi and Nargis meet and decide to get married to have someone to help carry the load. It doesn't hurt that they really hit it off as well.

The first meeting.

Neither set of kids is pleased by the news that their parents are getting married, and they're even less happy when they discover after the marriage that they've acquired new siblings as well. They squabble constantly with each other, while their parents handle the whole situation with grace and patience.

One of my favorite scenes: the oldest son gets ready to duke it out with the sporty kid

who charges straight past him, maintaining his karate stance the whole time.

Of course, the family members have their own personal problems as well. In particular, Nargis's eldest son (Rakesh Roshan, sporting some really ugly 80s glasses) is in love with the daughter of a rich businessman (Bindiya Goswami) who does not approve of the match, while Nargis's daughter Freni (Preeti Ganguli) is constantly being teased by her brothers about her weight and fears she'll never get married.

As they deal with these individual issues and as problems arise from outside, the family members learn to pull together and really become a family. The movie isn't amazingly thrilling or anything like that, but it's got a lot of sweet and funny and touching little moments. As usual, Ashok Kumar puts in a great performance as the humble but dignified father of this blended family. If you're looking for a sweet movie about familial love and you've exhausted your Sooraj Barjatya collection, Khatta Meetha might just hit the spot.

Badaltey Rishtey: I don't know how I feel about this

2009-03-27T23:52:00.000-07:00

Badaltey Rishtey is the story of a love triangle, with a rather unusual twist: an astrologer has predicted that the heroine's first husband with die within the first 40 days of her marriage and that she will be happy after she remarries.

I was totally engrossed by the film the entire time, although with mixed emotions: I really liked the first hour, was distraught by the way things were going in the second, and was surprised by the last ten minutes, which finally made the whole movie make sense to me. Perhaps I should have been able to predict where the movie was going, but I certainly didn't. (I'm a good audience for screenwriters -- I willingly accept things that don't quite fit, without realizing that this signals a potential twist, but after something unexpected happens, I'll think, "Oh, that other thing that happened before now makes so much sense! What a brilliant script!")

That said, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this movie, and especially the resolution. If you haven't seen it yet, please come back to discuss after you do. If you have seen it, I'd really like to know what other people think, because I'm conflicted.

***Warning: Major spoilers below.**

My thoughts about this film are all mixed up with my thoughts about Woh Saat Din and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, both of which I have conflicted feelings about as well. (The fact that I was still surprised by the ending of this movie perhaps indicates how bad my plot-predicting skills are. I was shocked (and distressed) by the ending of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, the first one of the three I watched, and although I initially thought that Woh Saat Din would end the same way, I started second-guessing myself when Naseeruddin was listing the reasons why he thought the fictious film-within-the-film could and maybe should end differently. So it's pretty funny that I was once again blind-sided by this ending.)

In some ways, this film worked better for me than the other two. With Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, I felt like the filmmakers wanted me to believe that the girl ended up choosing her husband out of love, but I didn't buy it. Maybe this is partly because Ajay Devgan doesn't appeal to me, but the husband had seemed so sullen and stalkerish in most of the film that I didn't see why she would like him, especially since her love for the first guy had been so clearly established in the first part. And in Woh Saat Din, I saw a lot more reason for the heroine to like her husband, but the way she seemed happy to ditch him until she was asked to physically remove the mangalsutra made me think that she was choosing cultural beliefs or values over love, which isn't an entirely satisfactory ending for me.

Here, the girl had a very good reason to make the switch. I think part of why the film was effective for me was that I went through the same emotional transitions -- at first, I just wanted her to end up with Manohar (Rishi); then, when she found out about the prediction, I thought it was great that Sagar (Jeetendra) was willing and able to be the sacrificial lamb, although I did feel a little bad that he didn't know the full circumstances. And then, when things started going crazy, I thought, "Wow, I thought Manohar was a bit pushy in courting her before, but that just seemed like normal filmi behavior, and I certainly hadn't expected that he'd turn out to be psycho. She dodged a bullet there. I just hope Sagar stays alive." This made the ultimate choice much more realistic and believable than the same supposedly emotion-driven choice in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. And, the fact that Manohar was able to quickly persuade her that he was nothing like she'd initially thought suggests that maybe she didn't know him that well in the first place, which made me feel not quite as bad for her as I would have otherwise.

The ending still leaves me somewhat dissatisfied, though. For one thing, I thought the way the prediction was handled was a bit of a cop-out. If her husband had truly been in grave danger and her loyalty had saved him, then I'd buy that this was a way of avoiding his fate. But, it hardly seems like they should have been able to avoid the prediction through a completely manufactured threat. I also generally have a problem with plotlines based on someone lying to someone they love for their own good. For one thing, I think people usually find out the truth sooner or later, and that usually just makes things worse. There's also the problem that once again the men in the movie are making the girl's choices for her, although I don't find it as offensive as usual in the context of this film.

Also, of course, I was very sad for Manohar in the end. I'm hoping he meant what he said in his drunken song about not letting one unfortunate love affair ruin his life. He didn't seem the type to go the Devdas route, so I guess there is hope. There's no reason a person can't move on and fall in love with someone else, but in the filmi universe that's not always the case. In fact, I think I'm just not a fan of movies about love triangles in general. I want everyone to end up happy. I know that doesn't always happen in real life, but if I were a huge fan of realism I wouldn't be watching Bollywood films in the first place.

The Mysteries of Patanga

2009-03-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

Contrary to what the subtitles might have you think, Patanga is not actually a movie about archaeologists or people with a skeleton fetish.

What it is all about, though, I still don't know. My DVD stopped working at almost exactly the halfway point, leaving me stranded in the midst of familial problems, melodrama, deception, and young hearts torn asunder. I'm assuming these difficulties get resolved by the end, but I have no idea how.

The internet is no help either, since there is a dearth of online information regarding this film. In fact, before buying the DVD I hadn't even been able to figure out what year the movie was released. Eros Entertainment listed it as a 1971 film, Nehaflix had a 1949 date, and Music India Movies said it was from 1960. Induna added to the confusion by suggesting that Shashi might have been in films called Patanga in both 1949 and 1971. Meanwhile, the pictures of Shashi from the DVD jackets seemed to place the film in the mid to late 1960s.

I ended up buying the DVD sold by Eros, which is never a good idea. (In fact, I bought two copies, both of which had the exact same problem.) This DVD is released by Samrat International, a company I haven't heard of before and have a very bad opinion of now. Oddly, the DVD jacket does not look like the picture shown on the Eros website but is instead the one shown on the Music India Movies site. The picture Eros advertised appears to be the same DVD jacket advertised on Nehaflix, which is purportedly the Music India version. It would be helpful if Indian DVD sellers would actually show the version of the movie they're going to sell you, but maybe I'm asking too much. I'd settle for them just selling DVDs that worked.

As for the actual date of the film, the certificate at the beginning verifies that it was in fact released in 1971.

Scenes in which Shashi looks more like this

than this

suggest that filming took place over several years, which explains the general 1960s look and the 1971 release date.

The film also includes an early appearance of that favorite 1970s plot element, the child lost at a fair who spends the next two decades on the streets as a petty crook.

A youtube search indicates that a film named Patanga was in fact released in 1949 as well. However, it strains credulity to think that not only Shashi but also Vimi, Ajit, and Rajendra Nath appeared in both the 1949 and the 1971 films. My guess is that at some point someone got confused and added the cast list from the 1971 film to the 1949 list. This error appears not only on Induna's site but on IMDB as well.

Although Nehaflix also uses the 1949 date, the cast list on Nehaflix appears to be exclusively from the 1971 film. Hopefully this means that Nehaflix carries the 1971 film, since it would be nice to finish it and get some resolution.

But until then, I suppose the plot will have to remain a mystery.

smooth lines: Shashi Week 2009 edition

2009-03-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

After discussing a terrible pick-up line in my last post, I decided it would be appropriate to commemorate Shashi Week 2009 with a brief look at some fun lines from one of the best sweet-talkers in cinema.

Whether the line is spoken in jest,

devoid of any false modesty,

unspoken,

or surprisingly bitter,

he always brings the charm.

Done!

quick poll

2009-01-31T09:30:00.000-08:00

Is this the worst pick-up line ever?

I'm going with yes. It's tacky, creepy, tasteless, and neither flattering nor funny. But don't let that influence you.

Vote to the right, and if you want to explain your vote you can do so below.

Jail Yatra

2009-01-24T16:27:00.000-08:00

The plot of Jail Yatra is nothing special. It's got several of the standard masala elements, with separated family members, coincidences, irony, and plenty of dishoom-dishoom action, but it lacks the inspired lunacy of the best of genre. Still, it's an enjoyable watch, based mainly on the performances of Vinod Khanna and Ashok Kumar.

From the DVD cover, I expected Vinod Khanna to be playing a hard-bitten thug again, as in Parvarish and Chor Sipahee. This turned out, however, to be far from the case. In Jail Yatra, he plays Raju Verma, a good-hearted (and somewhat simple-minded) mechanic. Although Raju always has good intentions, he tends to wind up in trouble quite regularly.

He never spends more than about 5 minutes in jail, however, before his mother arrives and uses her special Nirupa Roy powers of long-suffering ma-ness to get him released -- everyone decides to drop charges against him just to get her to stop.

Fortunately for the viewer, Raju soon takes off for Bombay, leaving his mom behind to cry or whatever she does in her free time. Before he leaves, his mother finally tells why he never had a father around -- she left after discovering that his father was having an affair with one of his clients.

Before too long, however, we learn that Raju's father (Ashok Kumar) is innocent of such charges. In fact, he met the client in secret because her brother had just escaped from jail and wanted to obtain legal advice without alerting the police to his whereabouts. The poor man now lives a very unhappy life with a rotten scoundrel whom he believes to be his son (Amjad Khan) and a woman in a bad wig, who told him that his wife committed suicide and left their son in her care.

Fed up with his son (and his dietary restrictions), he decides to commit suicide by jumping in front of a car. It just so happens, however, that Raju is driving this car. He stops the car quickly and gives his unbeknownst-to-him father a lecture about how suicide is a dumb idea. This meeting naturally provides a chance for the movie to get in some requisite Hindi Film Irony.

More importantly, it also marks the begining of a beautiful friendship. Whether they're making fun of each other or singing a qawalli in disguise, these two are awesome together.

Raju finds his new friend a job and a place to stay, and Raju's dad helps him come up with a plot to win the girl he's in love with, a psychiatrist named Shanu (Reena Roy). At this point, we learn where Raju got his tendency to come up with dumb ideas for carrying out good intentions. They go to Shanu and pretend that Raju needs psychiatric treatment because, well, he's a traumatized rape victim who is now afraid of all women. This subplot is sometimes quite funny and sometimes rather uncomfortable to watch.

Overall, though, it's a pleasant little movie, with nice happy songs (including one where Vinod and Reena are amusingly dressed in matching overalls), lots of masala action, multiple subplots, and plenty of Vinod being awesome.

Oh, and there's a wooden horse that also serves as a bar. You've gotta love Hindi film interior decorating.

Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya

2008-11-07T17:35:00.000-08:00

I had a dream one night that one of my friends unexpectedly brought Abhishek Bachchan to a party at my house. Before I had time to register what was happening, Abhishek had dumped out several suitcases of dirty clothes on the living room floor and started doing his laundry in the washing machine in the hallway. I said, "Um, make yourself at home, I guess." Then I remembered that I'd left the library's copy of Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya out by the TV. I was worried that Abhishek would erroneously think I was a crazy fan-girl if he saw that I'd watched this film, but I told my friends that I was hiding the DVD because otherwise Abhishek might steal it and destroy it as part of his quest to get rid of all evidence of what a terrible actor he was at the beginning of his career. Everyone was like, "That does make sense. We'd better find a good hiding place." I'm not sure what this dream tells you about my subconscious, but it probably tells you all you need to know about this film.

The plot, which was apparently taken from a Jennifer Aniston movie called Picture Perfect, is pretty standard romantic-comedy fare. Pooja (Kirti Reddy), an employee at a Bombay advertising agency, meets Kabir (Abhishek Bachchan) at her friend's wedding in Agra. Kabir is smitten, and Pooja is oblivious. For some unknown reason, Pooja takes more time off work than her boss allowed, so the boss decides to fire her when she returns. Her assistant (Johny Lever) saves her job by showing the boss a picture of Pooja and Kabir and telling him that Pooja was held up because she got engaged. This causes some complications when Kabir arrives in Bombay and makes a good impression on the boss. Further complications ensue when Pooja falls for the boss's son (Sanjay Suri), who satisfies all of her requirements for a man because he drives a Mercedes, wears an Armani suit, and has nice shoes.

While good scripting and acting could have made quite a decent film out of this premise, the execution leaves something to be desired. None of the characters are all that sympathetic -- Pooja is shallow and vapid, Kabir is a bit of a simpleton (and stalker), and the boss's son can't seem to muster up the energy to care about anything one way or the other. (When Kabir and Pooja tell him that Pooja is madly in love with him, he thinks for a minute, then calmly says, "That's interesting. I like it.") And the less said about the acting, the better. On the plus side, however, this film is a treasure-trove of fugly clothing.

Maybe the filmmakers were trying to distract the viewers' attention away from the main actors' less-than-stellar dancing with the bizarre costumes in the background. If so, it worked.

Overall, I'd say my opinion of this film mirrors the boss's son's opinion of Pooja: I wouldn't mind having it around if I didn't have any better options, but I also wouldn't particularly care if Abhishek did decide to steal it away.

movie law: you're doing it right

2008-10-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

Movie Law, like Movie Medicine, tends to sacrifice realism in favor of drama and pacing. I'm generally okay with that, since I really don't want to spend my time off work watching boring lawyers make dry legal arguments and raise evidentiary objections. Sometimes the depictions of law on film do become so unrealistic that they're distracting, and I feel like I'm taking an issue-spotting exam for a law school ethics or evidence class instead of watching a film for entertainment. (I'm looking at you, Intolerable Cruelty.) Whatever the extent of the departure, though, I always expect Movie Law to differ from real law in crucial ways.

And that's why I was so surprised when I watched Veer-Zaara. In the midst of a highly dramatic story, the filmmakers suddenly threw me off with a courtroom scene that was, dare I say, realistic.

The courthouse might be a bit fancier than the ones I've been in, but this Indian film depiction of a fictious Pakistani proceeding is one of the most accurate depictions of a common-law trial court proceeding that I've ever seen in a film. (Of course, please keep in mind that I'm by no means an expert on U.S. law, much less the law anywhere else.) Consider the way the case proceeds:

The judge opens the proceedings and gives the prosecution and then the defense the chance to present their opening arguments. In opening arguments, each side attempts to frame the issues in a favorable way. The judge then permits the prosecution to call its witnesses. The prosecution examines its witnesses, and the defense has a chance to cross-examine the witnesses if it chooses.

To my great surprise, counsel appropriately restrict themselves to asking questions and don't testify, summarize, or argue during the examination of witnesses like Movie Lawyers almost always do. They don't jump in with questions when the other side is conducting the examination. Goodness, they even appropriately pass the witness when they are finished.

Truly disconcerting.

Other law-related aspects of the film rang true for me as well. For instance, you often see lawyers insisting on a yes or no answer to a question that really doesn't allow for a simplistic answer.

Here's a complaint you hear a lot.

And another.

And hey, I've got books just like that on my desk.

Even in more filmi courtroom scenes, Hindi films have occasionally surprised me with randomly realistic occurrences or questions. For instance, I was going along fine with the somewhat unlikely events in Immaan Dharam until they distracted me with the kind of foundational question that's so important in a real examination but rarely shows up in Movie Law. (Movie Lawyers tend to jump right into the heart of the matter without asking the essential foundational questions first.)

I'm pretty sure this exact question has shown up in one or more of the cases I've worked on. It's very disconcerting to see something from real life appear in a masala film.

On the other hand, bailiffs in the US do not dress like this:

Which is rather a pity.

Benaam

2008-10-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

The opening scene of Benaam is indicative of the overall problem with the movie. While ominous music plays in the background, a man calls a woman and tells her she has to come with him. She becomes upset and says she doesn't want to go. Both their faces are shadowed, and the man toys with a knife as he speaks with her. And then the phone call ends and we quickly discover that the man is Amit (Amitabh Bachchan), a family man and upstanding citizen, and he was asking his wife Sheela (Moushumi Chatterjee) to come to a work party with him. The movie wants to be a thriller, but the things that happen aren't actually very exciting. Any suspense that the movie manages to generate is almost immediately undercut by the anticlimatic events that follow, and after several times of being told, "This is scary and intense! Oh, just kidding. Everything's fine," you stop taking the movie seriously.

The plot is relatively straightforward. On their way to a party, Amit and Sheela witness a crime, and Amit drives the victim to the hospital. His colleagues think he's a fool for becoming involved,

and his good deed does indeed cause some problems in his life. He receives threatening phone calls, and his dog is poisoned.

Then he keeps receiving threatening phone calls, the movie keeps pretending that something exciting will happen soon, and I stop caring. Finally, after two long hours, it ends.

Apparently the filmmakers seriously overestimated how interesting their ending actually was.

Moving on to more interesting topics, I was intrigued by the artsy photos on the wall in Amit's office.

As you can see in closer shots, his desk is tastefully decorated with Glaxose-D products.

In fact, this movie has some of the clunkiest product placement I've ever seen, and I watched Yaadein.

We're even treated to an actual Glaxose-D commercial, ostensibly because Amit needs to show it to his boss for approval.

I'm rather amused by Amitabh's noticeable lack of enthusiasm during all of these scenes.

I also enjoyed the brief appearances by Tun Tun, Iftekhar (as the police commissioner, of course), and Helen.

Helen and Amitabh dance a Viennese waltz together, which was unexpected. That might have been the most thrilling part of the whole movie.

Prem Kahani

2008-10-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

I think this is the only film I've seen where I was rooting for the hero to die for most of the movie. The putative hero, Rajesh (Rajesh Khanna), a poet-cum-freedom-fighter, seems to be headed in that direction from pretty early on in, but is apparently determined to spread as much pain and devastation in the lives of others as he can along the way.

Exhibit A: British woman who witnesses Rajesh murder her husband right in front of her.

Exhibit B: Dead niece, killed by her own mother to keep Rajesh safe.

Exhibit C: Widowed sister-in-law, whom he apparently never thinks about again after the extremely traumatic incident with the niece.

Exhibit D: Truck driver (Vinod Khanna) tortured by the police because he knows Rajesh's whereabouts.

Exhibit E: Jilted girlfriend (Mumtaz).

Exhibit F: Best friend (Shashi Kapoor), who just so happens to have married the jilted girlfriend on the day Rajesh arrives seeking help.*

Exhibit G: The audience.
I rest my case.

Also on my list of pet peeves: men who prioritize their male friends over everything else.

That's not to say that the movie is all bad -- I enjoyed some of the songs, Shashi and Mumtaz have some nice scenes together, and I thought Vinod put in a compelling performance in his small role. But, for me, these good things did not outweigh all of the aggravation.

* I watched this movie the night after watching Kabhi Kabhie, and I noticed a common theme here -- in both, a girl who's in love with a poet ends up being married off to Shashi Kapoor instead. I don't think that's such a bad deal. In fact, does anyone know a poet?

Mehndi Lagi Mere Haath

2008-10-18T23:28:00.000-07:00

I knew nothing about this movie when I bought it except that it starred Shashi Kapoor and came out in the same year as Prem Patra, a Shashi movie I had recently watched and enjoyed. I bought it hoping for some Shasiliciouness, and I wasn't disappointed.

Deepak (Shashi Kapoor), a young doctor, meets Rajni (Nanda) at his sister's wedding. It's clear that their attraction is mutual, although Rajni plays coy.

Naturally, Deepak adds some embellishments when he tells his friends about their meeting.

There's a mix-up with their luggage, which I thought was going to be the means of bringing them together but which ended up being resolved off-screen. I think a few minutes of the film might be missing here -- there's an abrupt transition, and then the characters refer to a conversation we didn't see them have.

At any rate, Deepak and Rajni are brought together soon enough when Rajni is hit by a car in front of the hospital. Not to worry though -- Deepak soon nurses Rajni back to health, and they begin a very sweet courtship, taking walks on the beach,

teasing one another,

and generally being cute and happy.

Sigh.

Obviously, something bad is about to happen. When Rajni goes to the village to tell her mother about Deepak, she overhears a startling conversation between her mother and some villagers.

Although her mother has an explanation,

she doesn't believe her and is worried that Deepak's life will be ruined if he marries an illegitimate child. So, in true Movie Martyr fashion, she decides that the best thing to do is convince Deepak that she doesn't love him, then sit around looking pensive and making enigmatic statements so that everyone knows what a martyr she's being. This kind of behavior always annoys me, but I'm willing to cut her a little bit of slack because I think there might be some cultural things going on here that I don't really understand.

To my great relief, Deepak does not become angry or act like Devdas, as film heroes too often do in this type of situation. He's just sad and bewildered, and I want to give him a hug and tell him that everything will be okay.

His distraction causes some problems at work,

although I'd still rather have him as my doctor than this guy, who says that he's dissected as many hearts as he could and reached the conclusion that

Will anything worse happen? Will everything turn out okay in the end? Well, you'll have to watch the movie to find out. Although it's not my favorite movie ever, there are some good songs, the romance in the first half is cute, and with the second half I'm willing to accept that there's a cultural gap between me and the intended audience. And, of course, there's Shashi.

list of movies watched

2008-10-18T23:16:00.000-07:00

36 China Town
Akele Hum Akele Tum
Apna Desh
Amar Akbar Anthony
Anand
Arya*
Baadshah
Bawarchi
Benaam
Blackmail
Brahmachari
Bommarillu*
Boys*
Bullet
Bunty Aur Babli
Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi
China Town
Chor Chor
Chorni
Chukkallo Chandrudu*
Chupke Chupke
Daag
Devi*
Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke
Dharam-Veer
Dil
Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere
Dil Chahta Hai
Dil Deke Dekho
Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin
Dil To Pagal Hai
Dillagi
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
Disco Dancer
Do Aur Do Paanch
Don (1978)
Don (2006)
Ek Ajnabee
Fakira
Guddi
Half Ticket
Hare Rama Hare Krishna
Haseena Maan Jaayegi (1968)
Hera Pheri (1976)
Hum Aapke Hain Kaun
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke
Hum Saath Saath Hai
Immaan Dharam
Inkaar
Ishq Vishk
Izzat
Jab Jab Phool Khile
Jab We Met
Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Jail Yatra
Janwar
Jeevan Mrityu
Jewel Thief
Jheel Ke Us Paar
Johnny Mera Naam (without subtitles)
Jugnu
Kabhi Kabhie
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
Kaho Na Pyaar Hai
Kal Ho Naa Ho
Kannathil Muthamittal* (A Peck on the Cheek)
Kandukondain Kandukondain*
Kashmir Ki Kali
Kasme Vaade
Kati Patang
Khubsoorat
Koi Mil Gaya
Krrish
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
Kuch Naa Kaho
Lagaan
Lakshya
Manchali
Mehndi Lagi Mere Haath
Mere Apne
Mere Humdum Mere Dost
Miss Mary
Mr. India
Mujhse Dosti Karoge
Namastey London
Naseeb
Neend Hamari Khwab Tumhare
Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana*
Om Shanti Om
Parichay
Parvarish
Prem Kahani
Prem Patra
Professor
Purab Aur Pachhim
Pyaar Mein Twist
Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha
Pyar Kiye Jaa
Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak
Raja Saab
Rang De Basanti
Rangeela
Salaakhen
Seeta Aur Geeta
Shaan
Shakespeare-Wallah*
Shankar Dada
Sharmilee
Sholay
Slumdog Millionaire*
Socha Na Tha
Suhaag
Swayamvar
Teesri Manzil
Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya
Tumsa Nahin Dekha
Veer-Zaara
Vivah
Waqt (1965)
Welcome
Woh Saat Din
Yaadein
Yes Boss

*Not technically Bollywood, but we're counting it.