More mini-reviews.

11. Bunty Aur Babli (2005) - What's not to love about this movie? Colourful, fun romantic comedy filled with catchy music, costume changes and hijinks. Brilliance! Rani and Abhishek are fantastic in it. It's also special for me as it was one of the first Bollywood movies - if not the first - I anticipated, listened to the music beforehand and was otherwise dying to see. It did not disappoint, and it got better with rewatches. This one's a favourite for sure.

12. Dushman (1998) - I watched this revenge story when I decided I needed to see more Kajol films, and somebody told me her performance had really impressed them in this. I have to say I agree. Nevertheless, great Kajol performance great movie does not make. The film itself feels trite and boring. I just wasn't feeling it.


13. Jugnu (1973) - A damn fine 70's masala film starring Dharmendra and Hema Malini. I believe I've talked about this before (indeed I have!) so I'll just say it's still on my "to buy" list as I can't find the DVD anywhere! Thankfully most of the songs are on youtube - this film has some awesome Hema dancing.

14. Paheli (2005) - Visually stunning film with jewellery product placement like whoah, starring Rani Mukherji as the unsatisfied just-married wife of boring businessman (Shahrukh Khan). Naturally she falls in love with a ghost (Shahrukh Khan!) who enters her life and seduces her. I'm not big on infidelity stories - it's one of those tragic real life issues I don't particularly want to mix up in my romantic movies. Still, this one's not too annoying, and I loved seeing Shahrukh in the role of the husband - so un-Shahrukh, it was certainly refreshing.

15. Omkara (2006) - Amazing film I have naturally discussed previously, Vishal Bharadwaj's modern Othello interpretation. Very near flawlessness. Awesome performances. Of course, as it stands, not an easy watch - nevertheless, I've seen it multiple times. I look forward to viewing it again, but I think I need somebody to share it with .. otherwise I'll weasel out of watching it all the way through, right to the heart-wrenching ending.

16. Kya Kehna (2000) - Life is wonderful! Or is it? Not if you take nearly 3 hours of your life watching this movie. Okay, okay, I'll admit: Preity Zinta does give us a great performance in it. Saif Ali Khan has an unbearable mullet and a douchebag of a character to play, however, the movie is tiringly 90's and it's just ..not very good. It's just one of those films I'd rather not waste time thinking about.

17. Pithamagan (2003) - Director Bala's best work that I've seen, Vikram's award winning performance, stellar Surya - this one is hard-hitting Tamil cinema overall. Of course I've reviewed it before but I suppose it never hurts to re-recommend it to people. Just remember: don't go in expecting light entertainment.

18. Eklavya (2007) - Christ, what a waste of great cinematography and casting this film is. I cannot believe Vidhu Vinod Chopra kept writing and re-writing this movie for aeons - you'd expect such a huge effort to actually produce a good story. But no, the story is cliché and trite, despite being packed into a short running time. Sigh. Original review here.

19. Johnny Gaddaar (2007) - I still prefer Ek Hasina Thi but this one is another nice proof of talent from Sriram Raghavan. It's a who-dunnit where you know who did it, but are still on the edge of your seat. The pace could be better but still, I really enjoyed this movie. Now I just need to find the time to rewatch it!

20. Bheema (2008) - My original review pretty much says it all - what a dull movie. I'm hoping Vikram's future efforts are more entertaining than this one. However, seeing as how the release dates keep getting pushed back, I have my fears..

Who's your daddy. Eklavya: the Royal Guard.

Eklavya is the film made famous not by its quality, its cast or its box office success (or even lack thereof) but rather the fact that India sent it to the Oscars and then retrieved it, after a scandal of the decision panel being biased (namely, one or two of the judges being involved in the making of the film itself). Some Indian film makers commented on the scandal and on the film, and the director Vidhu Vinod Chopra threw a public hissyfit, not doing himself or his film a favor - most people I saw commenting on the polemic didn't side with VVC.

But let's talk about the movie. I followed the promotion of it pre-release, being excited for the return of the Parineeta jodi Saif-Vidya, as well as Boman Irani, Amitabh, Sanjay Dutt and Sharmila Tagore in a special appearance. The film was delayed several times (never a good sign) and on my first watch of it, I was immensely disappointed. The story of Eklavya (Amitabh Bachchan), a guard of the royal court of Devigarh, in a world where the traditionalist views no longer seem to matter, and Harshwardhan (Saif Ali Khan), the prince seeing both the tradition and beyond it, seemed somehow empty. What could've been a wonderfully complex tale gets squeezed into just under two hours, and the one song number only seems distracting. There is enormous potential in the cast of talented actors, the interesting set-up and amazing pictures - the cinematography of the film remains memorable. But even so, I was left feeling frustrated. It's simply not as good as it could be, or even as good as it should be.

A year goes by and eventually I bought the DVD, because I'm superficial and will purchase any movie where Saif Ali Khan looks this good in. In the back of my head I also knew I'd have to rewatch it one day and give it the benefit of the doubt. Rewatches often shape my views on films a lot - for better or for worse.

The second time around I understood the core of the story better. VVC is not an amazing director, and the family melodrama that he sinks into the plot of Eklavya is similar to the other film I've seen by him, Mission Kashmir. In many ways this film tries to be a Hollywoodian Hindi movie, but sticks its roots firmly in the filmi traditions of familial bonds, in such a way that it just feels cliché. On my second viewing, I was more accepting of this fact, but even after I've come to terms with the fact, the film is somehow less than the sum of its parts. The imagery is gorgeous, some of the performances are great (Saif, biased as I may be saying this, gives his character some interesting depth, Sanjay Dutt as a lower caste cop has only a few scenes but is very effective in them, Boman Irani delivers and I once again adored Raima Sen) and certain scenes really stand out in their execution (a certain dark scene, the narration during the credits, the final confrontation).

All in all, I wish this film had a better script - one that gave screen time to the backstory and all the different characters, their motivations and thoughts. It's basically a Bollywood story with a Hollywood script, and this is why both need to play on their own yards for now. The longwindedness of Indian cinema, the jumps in time and place, the song numbers that take place in the plane of imagination, all of these lend to the storytelling of a good Hindi film. When you take away all of that, what's left isn't a good film - at best its a summary of a good film, which is exactly what Eklavya feels like.

Filmi year 2007.

Aata - my film of the year.

2007 was quite an interesting year in films for me. I felt like there was a dry season between the early months of the year and the final months of it. This meant a large portion of my year was destined to be quite Bollyless (or more correctly, Indian cinema-less). I blame the films I anticipated - Guru and Eklavya were both enormous letdowns, and while I liked the former to buy on DVD and should buy the latter for Saif collection, the combination of unexciting Bollywood and the discovery of something new in East-Asian entertainment made me completely abandon Bollywood for a while.

I did still watch movies - when Siddharth's 2006 hit Bommarillu finally got a DVD release, I rushed to watch it and ended up loving it. But that was on the Telugu side of things, of course, and for months the movie was the only Indian film I saw.

So what drew me back in? Ironically, it wasn't Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, though the film was one of my biggest favourites this year. It wasn't Life in a ..Metro, another 07 movie I saw during this period of unenthusiasm. It wasn't even the Dharmendra starrer oldie I watched, Mera Gaon Mera Desh aka Vinod Khanna Is the Gabbar Singh of Sexy. The movie that drew me back into Bollywood in 2007 was ... drumroll please ..

Ek Hasina Thi!


Quite randomly I decided to show another Indian film to my friend who was coming to town, and had seen select favourites of mine (ranging from Bunty aur Babli to Sholay). I considered my pick, then grabbed EHT and went my way. My friend was critical of the movie, unfairly so in my view, but more importantly, I enjoyed my umpteenth viewing of it. And when I returned home, I sort of sat down and asked myself, "Hey, why did you ever drop out of Bollywood happenings?"

I made a list of recent movies I ought to watch and rushed to see EHT director's new film, Johnny Gaddaar, starring some newbie and Dharmendra. I expected to see a lacking movie, thinking maybe Ek Hasina Thi had been a fluke but what I got was quite something else..

Johnny Gaddaar is deliciously clever, awesomely edited and unpredictable like you wouldn't believe. It's also violent and a tribute to the noir genre, which is also fantastic. A tale of deceit truly done right. You know who betrayed who from the get go, but the way the story is told makes the ride enjoyable. Here's my longer review on Livejournal (slight spoilers in the last half of it).

In 2007 I also made this blog, listed my Top 10 Indian actors and did a massive update to my guide to Bollywood for complete newbies.

My favourites this year, by the way, are the J-films; Jab We Met, Johnny Gaddaar, and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. The film I fell most in love with, though? Aata all the way.

And as always, the year doesn't feel quite over yet. I've yet to see a bunch of 07 biggies, from Chak De India! to Tara Zameen Par.

Oh well. Maybe this year.