Monday, June 29, 2009

Third installment of mini-reviews.

(For those who missed them the first two times; typical writer's block post fodder; randomized list of all the Indian movies I've seen to work through; as the name suggests, bite-sized reviews.)

21. Saamy (2003) - This is a pretty solid Tamil action masala starring Vikram that I saw as my third or fourth Vikram film. I remember being mildly disappointed that the plot had its draggy bits but overall not a bad film and I adored Vivek's comedy track in this. Trisha was cute, too.

22. Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) - Juhi's debut! Aamir's debut! Both of them so young and freshfaced and adorable! I remember really liking this movie, but also not enjoying it fully because the plot is violent and full of family rivalries of the bloody sort. I was a newbie when I saw it, so that kind of stuff was too much for me at that point - I only wanted fluff. Thankfully, this film had plenty of that, as well.

23. Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (2005) - Has anybody even seen this? Anupam Kher plays a man who starts thinking he was the one who killed Gandhi and Urmila Matondkar plays the daughter who has to deal with her father's mental imbalance. Quite an okay drama, though the ending was incredibly heavy-handed. As far as films that hammer in the message of Gandhi and how Indians shouldn't forget it, I much prefer Lage Raho..

24. Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971) - Um, remind me to rewatch this and properly review it because while not amazing, this is a memorable 70's film starring Dharmendra, Asha Parekh and of course, Vinod Khanna as the hottest, filthiest, most vile villain ever. If some of the other legendary villains are disturbing, then Vinod's character Jabbar Singh (check the year! not ripping off Sholay, vice versa rather!) is disturbingly hot. My brain is shortcircuiting just by looking at the screencap above (not mine, by the way, I think I took it from the great bollywood501. com). Oh, Vinod.

25. Salaam-E-Ishq (2007) - I talked about this here. Nikhil Advani's sprawling romantic magnum opus that sort of loses you on some couplings and wins you over with some. Oddly enough, the not-too-available nearly 4 hour long cut of the movie is the best one - the one that made it on DVD is okay, too, though. Excellent music, if nothing else.

26. Race (2008/I) - Worst film of 2008. I can't believe some people found this a fun popcorn thriller. I've not seen a recent Hindi movie be this stupid and attempt to be so serious at the same time. Cringeworthy on all accounts. I'm sure in 10 years' time I can hail this as a campy so-bad-it's-good masterpiece. Right now? Die die die in a fire, stupid movie.

27. Ghulam (1998) - Aamir classic! Aati kya khandala? I quite liked this, a typical 90's romp with the cheesy violence and whatnot, but well worth a watch. I wish Rani and Aamir would star together again. They're always so good together.

28. Sangamam (1999) - One of the most amazing AR Rahman soundtracks ever belongs to this sadly mediocre Tamil movie about a pair of dancers in love. The real tragedy of the soundtrack is that the main dude (whose actor's name my memory has blocked out by now) was just a dreadful dancer. But seriously, the soundtrack, oh my. Carnatic music on speed. Buy the record, go listen to it on a streaming site, just do it!

29. Jaan-E-Mann: Let's Fall in Love... Again (2006) - I reviewed this one already but let's recap: spoofy, goofy, batcrap insane romantic comedy that encapsulates a crazy universe. It's a little fourth-wall breaking, it's plenty funny, it features sympathetic performances by Preity Zinta, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar alike but. It's just not quite solid enough to be called flawless, and the director threw a hissyfit after being critisized. So it's with some sadness I say goodbye to whatever film could've followed up Jaan-e-Mann's type; perhaps better than JEM itself did.

30. The Burning Train (1980) - A disaster movie! A multi-starrer with some of 70's finest (Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Jeetendra, Vinod Khanna, Neetu Singh!)! Nutty and entertaining and actually with some really interesting dramatic scenes! I liked this, not quite enough to own on DVD but liked it all the same. Vinod and his romantic interest Parveen Babi's romance was an interesting ride - you see their marriage fall apart because of his workaholism. This film is also worth mentioning as the first film where I really liked Jeetendra.

Right, now to answer comments and then work on a blog review index..

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Little nitpick. QSQT was neither Aamir's nor Juhi's debut in the true sense of the word. Great set of movies in any case.

Rosalind Francis said...

I've seen Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara! I can't remember much about it but I'm pretty sure I enjoyed the beginning and middle more than the end. I especially liked Urmila dealing with ANupam Kher's dementia and thinking this was quite a nice film about caring for elderly parents with denetia.

ajnabi said...

LOL Love the S-e-I screencap--she's probably my favorite character in the movie. I like the mini-reviews--sometimes you don't need to get in-depth to figure out if you'll like something or not!

Anonymous said...

Yes Soha Ali Khan shows her intelligence in picking good roles. I have liked all the roles she has played so far in the movies I have seen - Dil Mangey More (she is one of the 3 girls in the movie but has done a good job), Ahista Ahista (both she and Abhay Deol did a good job - story was good too), Khoya-2 Chand (a woman oriented role) and Doondthey Reh Jaaogey. The true mark of an actor is to play a variety of roles instead of the usual singing running around the trees as a clothes horse.

I believe Soha has done her Bachelors Hons in History from Oxford and also a Masters in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

Anonymous said...

sorry, the earlier comment was a response to your review of the movie 99.

veracious said...

Anon - Oh, true. Still, they were 'officially' intro'ed by that film, I guess you could say, since people hardly remember their earlier works.

rossywar - Yeah, it's a nice film, but perhaps one that doesn't really stick with you .. and I've never wanted to rewatch it. But nice enough.

ajnabi - Kkamini is great! :D

Anon - Whoah, she's a very learned ladki! And yes, a nice variety of roles. She has a solid filmography, even if she's not one of the top actresses in the industry.