The year end romantic film bloat: Khoobsurat, Daawat-e-Ishq & Kill Dil.

So it finally happened: Shaad Ali has has a misfire that I actually agree with the haters on. Jhoom Barabar Jhoom was a film not everybody was on board with (critics and audiences loathed it, but it gained a cult following that cannot stop rewatching Ticket To Hollywood), and Bunty aur Babli is not a universal dil squish, either, but I legitimately found myself telling a friend earlier this year, "He hasn't made a bad film yet." Well, he has now.

Kill Dil arrives limply clichéd from the get-go, but never catches fire in terms of story, visuals or emotions. The tale of two rascals (Ranveer Singh & Ali Zafar) separated by one of them wanting to turn good as love conquers all (Parineeti Chopra) while a father figure disapproves (a spry Govinda performance) just never really goes anywhere interesting, and it's a shame.

I get the sense it's trying to occupy some clever mid-ground between being an unapologetic tribute and/or parody to 90's cheeseball actioners and a more modern take on an age-old story, but it never reaches the point of just being a story you buy into. Instead, everybody in the film falters when the story provides such a shaky surface for them. Ali Zafar is good but doesn't frankly get to do much, Govinda has some great moments but his character is unlikable, and the main pair simply doesn't exude much of anything, despite trying very hard. I wish I had an explanation for why this doesn't work besides the obvious two: don't center your movie around cold-blooded murder, and aspire to be more than a tribute to older films.

Khoobsurat at least partly succeeds in being a part of the genre it aspires to be: a Disney princess romance in the 21st century. Sonam Kapoor's Milli is a your standard young adult novel heroine, sub-sect Mary Sue batallion. She's clutzy! She's good at her job! She cares about other people but has zero social skills! She says the wrong thing, it's awkward! A cute guy (newcomer, way-too-good-for-all-of-this Fawad Afzal Khan) is annoyed by her at first but really likes her, though, because she's just so lovable.

I liked this film for the fluffpiece that it was, and then I got increasingly impatient with it. I realised quickly I was no longer a young girl, but a young woman; I no longer want to be a princess. I can't believe in these inane fantasies anymore unless they have some sort of characterisation and fantastic acting behind them, and Sonam doesn't quite get there. It feels uncomfortable to watch her try; the best of acting is so effortless, you aren't forced to think about it as you watch somebody emote their way through a fairly simple scene. About an hour in the movie had lost me, and I wasn't going to be swept away by it. Ah well.

What a strange year for Parineeti, to start out as one of my absolute favourite newcomers of the past years and then end up with a confusingly mixed resumé towards the end, completely outdone by a woman whose first film was my worst film of 2012 by a long, long shot (Alia has come a long way, hasn't she?). I wasn't particularly into Hasee Toh Phasee, Kill Dil was disappointing, but hey, at least she had this one. Daawat-e-Ishq, a feast of love, was a vaguely food-themed movie that touches on the issue of dowry, and ends up being a modestly lovely little romcom. At the same time, however, it's all just so unmemorable I almost struggle to come up with other adjectives to describe it. There's some cuteness, delicious food scenes, and some solid acting by both of the young leads (Aditya Roy Kapoor).

The big conversation of the past few years has been the continued success or lack of success of the new generation of actors. Looking over at Parineeti Chopra's filmography, she seems destined to pick films that aren't quite amazing, and therefore never display her skills in a way that her fans, such as myself, would quite hope. It's quite easy to say "pick better movies" but who knows what kind of offers she's even getting. I still continue to hope for good things for her; she's got a spark that I think is missing from many of the other newcomers, so I hope that her presence is here to stay.

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As the filmi year 2014 draws to a close, I'll be writing up my year's end post, and once again must apologise for not maintaining the blog as diligently as I probably should've. Still, I did a lot of travel this year, as well as a lot of work, and I even crossed some things off my bucket list. I've also got some movies I've yet to write about - including my favourite film of the year.

Talk to you soon.

Three films I forgot about: Break Ke Baad, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, Love Sex aur Dhokha.

One of the ways this blog is supposed to work is as a sort of opinion repository, which I can access to recall what my initial thoughts on a movie were, or what my thoughts after a multitude of rewatches ended up being. But then it so happens that I am absolutely lazy and occasionally forget to write about films I watch. The following three are some films I watched in the last 18 months that I then completely forgot to write about.

Break Ke Baad was a plane film for me, so I must've watched it when flying to Asia in early 2011. Or flying from Asia, little later than year. I honestly can't recall. As a plane film, this one is perfect - I don't particularly care for either of the stars, so I wasn't very likely to seek this one out, but I was nonetheless very enthusiastic to see more of Deepika Padukone and Imran Khan. They are a part of the new generation of stars I rambled about in this post: the folks who haven't yet quite impressed me but I keep hoping I'll get on the bandwagon soon enough.

The film itself is a simple enough romcom story: two childhood best friends, falling in love, and complete with the sorts of misunderstandings and failures in communication that happen when you've got two very different people interacting in a new mode - going from friends to loved ones. I remember being very unimpressed with the film initially, but sometime over the second half I was won over. I'm usually more forgiving when it comes to plane films anyway. When you're on a plane, I find myself in that weird, almost unreal state between sleep and consciousness. My ears are clogged, there's a lot of background noise, I'm surrounded by strangers.. It's all just weird. So when at that point I can submerge myself in the world of a film, it works a little better than if I was on the ground, in my bedroom, watching it on my laptop. So by the finale I was in tears - Deepika has a monologue bit that just kind of broke me.

But then .. it was a plane movie.

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan seemed to have everything going for it but somehow still failed in my eyes. The quirky romantic comedy setting of Imran's character seeking a bride for his brother (Ali Zafar!), and finding one who he happens to have a past with (Katrina Kaif) sounds like a pretty solid Bollywood entertainer. Add good songs, lots of Hindi filmi referential fodder, and a flashy YRF coating on the whole thing, and I should be melted into a happy puddle at this film's feet, right? Correct! I'm not that hard to please, honestly.

And yet...

Katrina's character's "rocker chick" style and "outrageousness" felt so try-hard it was unbearable instead of just cheesy (and therefore acceptable, the kind of thing you forgive a film that's otherwise charming). The manipulation from the main pair of the whole situation would have been fine, had I liked either as a character, but they both seemed very cardboard and bland. Ali Zafar's character, regardless of the fact he was kind of an asshole, ended up winning my sympathies more and the secondary pairing was pretty much a highlight of the whole film for me.

And what about those filmi history references? They didn't even make me crack up a smile. It was like they didn't try very hard to make the references clever or creative, it was just reference after reference and after a while, it was just like "Oh you referenced that movie, oh you referenced another film, oh yes Sholay is a famous film, well done, yes Raja Hindustani did have a scene like that, you are correct!". It just didn't really come together. Of course, this is all entirely subjective. I'm the kind of reviewer that probably likes or dislikes a film depending on how much coffee I drank that morning. But still. I keep thinking of films I enjoyed which also had a ton of filmi references. And I just can't help but think they put more of a creative spin on those jokes than this film did..


This film is not very new by this point but I did only watch it late last year, and it's definitely worth talking about, for all those who didn't see it: Love Sex aur Dhokha is a little, more independently produced than mainstream Hindi film, that slots comfortably in the "found footage" film genre. It's composed of three, slightly interjecting stories of precisely what it says on the box. Since the actors are unknowns, the film manages a brilliant, slightly eerie vibe of how this could actually all be very real, even when at the back of your head you know it's a completely fictional story, if somewhat based on real events (such as DPS MMS Scandal).

A part of what makes LSD so brilliant is how it uses the "found footage" genre's tools to create smaller stories than previously (after all, the genre was kicked off by Blair Witch Project, a supernatural horror film, and later made it big when JJ Abrams did his Cloverfield, a found footage monster actioner). Horror is probably the automatic choice for this genre, because the idea of people going missing, vanished into nothingness, with all that's left is a recording of what precisely happened to them, is a powerful starting point for any film.

LSD does something more mundane - it makes the footage portray its characters in a way that feels intimate and real, and then when things go wrong, the viewer just feels for them. It's not horror, where you're asked to reflect their anxiety and terror yourself, but there's more range to the emotions than just running around scared. There's empathy, joy, uncertainty, betrayal... There is a bit of horror, too, but mostly at the fact that if you made the wrong choices in life, messed with the wrong people, stepped over the line one time too many, this might happen to you.

However, the benefit of sticking to realism, and not trying to showcase the supernatural or gruesome killings, is enormous, and this film is utterly worth watching, if only for how the stories seam together. The soundtrack - yes, there is one, and the way it's integrated is pretty interesting - is also very much worth listening to.

London Paris New York: globe-trotting for the broken-hearted.

Two people meet, on three occasions, in three different cities, but always for merely one day.

Sound familiar? In some ways, it probably does. When Rum told me on Twitter that London Paris New York was accused of being a rip-off of Richard Linklater's classic Before Sunrise, I wasn't that surprised. The similarities are definitely there. But hopefully there's enough originality here for me to focus on.

LPNY actually reminded me a little of Hum Tum, which also has that whole "meeting in different cities on different occasions" going for it, and also the theme that both characters gradually maturing with each meeting. However, if Hum Tum was flawed in the random animation, it stood on firm ground when it came to characterisation; LPNY's biggest tragedy is perhaps that it quite doesn't.

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the characters - Ali Zafar plays Nikhil Chopra, a rich producer's kid who sees his future in films inevitable. He's as superficial and self-confident as you'd expect. Aditi Rao Hydari's Lalitha is from a different world - middle-class, feminist, book-worm, education-minded, with a clear plan in leaving a mark on the world. As filmi logic dictates, he must mock her for her seriousness and bookishness, and she must conclude he's kind of a sleaze, albeit an absolutely charming, adorable one.

Both leads have an easy chemistry with one another, and they chat to each other in a way that feels grounded in current reality. You feel as if you could actually meet these two people at an airport somewhere, and they'd be exactly as they are here.

The problem, however, is that I never felt like the characters actually mature enough. The complications to their relationship aren't all that well-written, and Nikhil is just kind of an ass in the way that he harps on Lalitha for her perceived flaws. Why does he like her so much if most aspects of her personality are so objectionable? How come her book of facts she's gathered about different cities of the world is not fascinating to him but makes her a bore? And for such a rational girl, Lalitha sure makes the most stupid mistakes to create conflict between the couple. The issues just feel so contrived that it removes the charm of the enjoyable dialogue between the two in each city. The script also makes the cardinal mistake of making Nikhil say he's matured, but failing to show it in his actions.

But as films go, despite these problems, it's not an altogether bad viewing experience. Ali Zafar is pretty close to making a fan out of me, and the songs are a delight (especially with Zafar's voice!). For a newcomer, Aditi Rao Hydari also does a good job - I look forward to seeing more of her.

Mini-reviews, lately watched: the Merely Okay Films pile.

Challo Dilli - This 2011 film was rather charming. I mostly watched it for the curious pairing (non-romantic) of Lara Dutta and Vinay Pathak. Both I like a lot, not typically to watch a film for, but I definitely enjoyed them in this. A story of two very different individuals having to road-trip to get to Delhi was paced nicely and shot prettily, showcasing northern Indian sights in a lovely way, and both actors did great. The ending delivers a bit of a heart-tugging twist, but you end up walking away from the film with a smile. S'all good.

Tere Bin Laden - The Pakistani popstar Ali Zafar stars in this and seems to be gaining popularity on the acting front in general. He's rather good! Sadly the film itself was not massively impressive. I think it suffered a bit from a case of overhype for me? It may been a positive surprise for everybody else but by the time I got to it, it was just okay. I enjoyed it, and it didn't drag on, but I doubt I'll ever feel the desire to rewatch and while as a comedy it worked, definitely better than I would have assumed going by the plot premise, it didn't become a favourite.

We Are Family - I know I'm a terrible Kajol fan because I only saw this film now. I've not seen the original film, Stepmom, but if this version is anything to go by, it's a solid, nice film. It's always refreshing to see a Bollywood movie adapt a Hollywood one honestly, with full credit & rights stated in the opening credits.

I grew up in what some people would call a "broken family" based on the fact that my parents were not together (a term I'd obviously disagree with - I know so many friends whose families are more broken than mine, whilst being together) so the topic was close to heart in some ways. I'm however too old to remember what it's like to dislike a parent's new partner instead of being open-minded and thinking "if this person makes them happy", so I didn't feel very sympathetic towards the kids and their little tantrums towards the beginning of the movie.

The other minor problem I had with the film was the role of the father, which was pretty much ..popping by every now and then. I don't normally get very feminist on my Indian films but this one annoyed me because couldn't Arjun's character have done a bit more to help out? It seemed sort of ridiculous it was such a strong assumption that all that housework/childcare was the women's work, not his business.

Other than those two minor annoyances, I enjoyed the film.