Main Tera Hero. It's a film. It exists. It's not very good.

Every now and then I wonder why I watch movies, besides the fact my life is boring and ultimately empty, and circle back to thinking that in some ways I watch each film with the sincere wish that it's so good I would want to rewatch it, and make it a repeat pleasure, as opposed to just a memory of a couple of hours spent (or wasted). Not every movie has to reach this lofty goal, and indeed, if only one in ten films I watch, that's still pretty good for me.

That's probably why I hadn't seen a David Dhawan film until now. Some directors just have a style that you don't really have to watch to know; watching a few songs, a scene here or there, and reading other people's writings, you kind of pick up on what makes a director distinct from others. And much as I love comedy, every comedy I consider fantastic is not described by adjectives like "brainless" or "ear-ringingly loud". So I just figured out his oeuvre wouldn't be my thing, so I smartly avoided it, until the point came when his latest film actually interested me a little, and I thought, "How bad could it be?"

And oh boy, was this terrible, and I laughed a lot, mostly at my stupid self. At least it didn't damage my view of anybody: I have some fondness for Varun Dhawan, and I think at one point I even had fondness for Ileana (see also: Aata obsession), and I think I still have the same fondness for both of them. But yeah, this was not great.

Main Tera Hero stars Varun Dhawan as Seenu, an unlikable human being who seems to be on some magical stimulant perhaps called life, who fails upwards into a Bangalore college and proceeds to torment the existence of beautiful Sunaina (Ileana). Woefully, Sunaine already has a stalker who only likes her because of her looks, the menacing Angad (Arunoday Singh), and therefore a game of groan-inducing one-upmanship ensues, and Sunaina looks beautiful during it. On the second half, this riveting tale is complicated by the appearance of Ayesha (Nargis Fahkri), who's in love with Seenu, only not really, because she's just kind of dim. Comedy!

For a comedy to be so loud and clichéd and still have a chance of working, everybody has to commit and go all in on it, and for the most part, the cast does so. Arunoday Singh as Angad actually does extra work, and something about his ludicrously massive body makes for surprisingly good physical comedy. Varun commits, too, but Seenu is such a loathable character to begin with, it's hard to truly enjoy it. Amidst the ridiculousness, you do see those glimpses of that 'it' factor that may be the thing that made Varun stand out in the Student of the Year trio, in my eyes, but those glimpses are rather fleeting. The actresses do fine with the pitiful little they're given to work with, the songs are grating, but the movie doesn't thankfully drag.

Still, I don't know, unless you're the type with the taste for this breed of comedy, it's not particularly worth your two hours. Unless, I don't know, Varun shirtless appeals to you on some kind of primal level, in which case, hey, have at it. 

Barfi.

As much as we may all miss the UTV hand, the new opener of UTV movies, with the three dancers and the banging drums, remains an early promise of a quality picture - especially when it comes to good, interesting stories. This is also the case with Barfi, the tale of a death-mute man (played by Ranbir Kapoor) in Darjeeling and how his extraordinary character and joie de vivre impacts the lives of two women - Shruti (Ileana) who Barfi falls in love with, and Jhilmil (Priyanka Chopra), the autistic girl Barfi knows from childhood.

This was India's Foreign Oscar contender of last year, and thus I am rather late to view and review the film. I guess one thing that could be said of it was the mixed reaction - while people applauded the performances, there was some grumbling about "inspired" scenes, which is precisely the kind of thing that puts a damper on a movie such as this one. Barfi tries very hard to be heartfelt, a bit of a tear-jerker and generally moving. For the most part, I felt like it succeeded. The performances are good, and the characters do come alive. The light-hearted comedy, even though quite silly and physical at times, never feels as out of place as it could be - Barfi does a good job in being half this sort of magical realism with its silliness, but also being a grounded film. I liked the film, but I didn't love it - at no point was I moved as much as I think the film wanted me to be. It didn't quite stick with me, despite having such good intentions, and generally doing a good job of fulfilling my expectations.

I guess as ever when stars of Ranbir and Priyanka's calibre pick up really unusual or challenging roles for them, that's the main discussion point of the film. I've got nothing of substance to contribute there - I thought both did well, as expected, and probably served some award nods for their performances, but I just didn't feel that special connection to either character, or the story itself. So despite all its goodwill and good facets, in the end, Barfi was just an okay film for me. 

All izz still well - Nanban.

Is watching Nanban (English: Friend), the Shankar-directed Tamil remake of Hirani's Hindi all-time blockbuster 3 Idiots, a bit like just rewatching the original? Yes.

Does it really matter? To me, it didn't.

It all comes down to the age-old question of cinema: what (if anything) should you remake, and how should you remake it? I think regional language remakes are universally accepted in Indian cinema. What about when the original is pitch-perfect film making? I get the sense the makers of Nanban did not want to mess with a good story that hits all the right notes, so what they did instead is go a little too faithful - every last little comedic detail is copied from the original, and only on occasion is a little local flare added.

The principals are all very good and true to their Hindi counterparts. Vijay especially manages to evoke with his acting precisely the same kind of character that Aamir made Rancho into. The same playfulness, optimism and good nature is present in Vijay's Pari. Some might say he's just aping Aamir, but in my mind more thought has to have gone into his process than merely taking cues from Aamir's original performance. The character of Raju is now Senthil, but almost eerily similar and played by a guy called Jeeva, who looks so much like Sharman Joshi it's a bit bizarre. Madhavan could've reprised his role as Farhan, I guess, but this Tamil counterpart is now called Venkat and played by Srikanth.

Kareena's spunky Pia has become Ileana's equally spunky Pia. The chemistry between her and Vijay never quite reaches the level that Aamir and Kareena achieved in the original, but they are helped along considerably by the two awesome songs they are given to perform together. But more on that later.

The two principals that weren't up to the task, in my mind, were the Tamil versions of Boman Irani's Virus and Omi Vaidya's already-legendary Silencer character. Both comedic villains come off as hopelessly cartoonish, which I suppose was a problem with Boman's character in the original, but not to this extent. They are just rather annoying.


As the plot is literally scene-for-scene recreated from 3 Idiots, let us focus on what's different. Shankar (pictured here with Ileana) has obviously wanted to honour the original - or was too lazy to think of ways to change things in his own version, I like to think it's the latter. However, the man (who is of course one of my favourite Indian directors) knows what people expect from him, and in not changing the original story or its execution, he does leave a mark on the film with the song sequences.

For those who are new to the magic that is Shankar, well, he really likes computer graphics. And I mean he really likes them. Can't get enough of them. This can be witnessed in nearly all of his films, be they mid-90's flicks where all that CGI thing was new or 2010 spectaculars. He also loves lavish song sequences. I'm pretty sure at least a third of Enthiran's budget was used on songs. Here, he takes the original Harris Jeyaraj soundtrack and spins it into a couple of very Shankar-like picturizations. So much so that "Asku laska", which takes place in the film where "Zoobi doobi" was in the original, is actually a brilliant navel-gazing exercise for Shankar, where he downright playfully parodies his own song picturisations from various films of his.

Suffice to say: it is brilliant.

I think Nanban does well in achieving a perfectly passable remake, that does shed some of the original's brilliance, but is nevertheless a fun viewing experience, filled with good performances (particularly Vijay and Jeeva). Some will harp on this film because it didn't change much, but the same folks would have hated it, had Shankar taken a more original route with his remake. It does feel like a rewatch of the original - but a supremely fun rewatch, and one that I certainly enjoyed.

Further firangi fame.

Wow, this is just too typical. I get e-mail interviewed and then it's a semi-random blog post that gets quoted. Still, I do rather like that there's the point to be made about non-Indian fans looking beyond the Mumbai fence for their dose of Indian cinema - I do try to maintain that mine is an Indian film blog, not a Bollywood blog since Bollywood implies Hindi and I have such a soft spot for Tamil cinema and the occasional Telugu wonder that I simply can't leave those out. Of course, regional cinema is often ignored simply because it's not as readily available for most people. And of course, some Hindi speakers don't want to read subtitles so they ignore those films. Just as well.

But anyway, here is something I wanted to be quoted on - when the journo responsible for the article asked me to compare modern stars to the past decades' big names. This was simultanously my most diplomatic answer and my least diplomatic answer.

I think each popular actor's popularity is a reflection of the times and the mindset of the audience of that era. I personally do not prefer older movies to newer ones or vice versa. I can appreciate "the angry young man" as well as Shahrukh's NRI dilwallah, Guru Dutt's tragic and poetic on-screen presence as well as Akshay Kumar's comedic Hera Pheri-avatar. This sort of variety is one of the things that makes Hindi cinema so appealing.

Why would this be my least diplomatic reply? Well, I just had this distinct feeling some people would get a heart attack upon seeing me praise Akshay Kumar and Guru Dutt in the same sentence. I couldn't imagine too actors with more different, distinct groups of fans. But hey, there you go. It's a varied field. There are a lot of good things out there. (Though I should also point out that like Amitabh's angry young man, I don't absolutely love SRK-the-NRI-lover in absolutely every movie. In moderation. Y'know.)

But yeah. Movies I hope to talk about in this blog soon: Kaadhal, Black Friday, Tashan. The first two I have seen but need screencaps for, the third is still on its way to me.

Anyhow, have a random gorgeous pic of Ileana, a Tollywood starlet. I got the photo from one of lapetitediva's picture posts, so a big thanks to her.

Once more, with feeling - Aata again.

The fact is, I'm sort of obsessed with Aata right now. I occasionally have these spouts of random enthusiasm for a movie, the kind where I rewatch the songs, listen to the soundtrack non-stop, screencap, icon and generally obsess over them. The weird thing here is, I feel like this time the movie deserves my enthusiasm, but it has to be recognized that it's not the best movie, though I'm treating it as that. It's actually kind of trashy in a genuinely not-that-good manner, but I love it for all of its ridiculous aspects. (I think a lot of this obsession can be contributed to timing but that's beside the point, really.)

It's a good movie, just not a great movie. I mean, let's take romance for example. In Aata it's ridiculously filmi to the point where I'm not sure if it even makes much sense. I'm not even sure if there's that much chemistry between the two leads. Their characters aren't exactly amazingly well-written or anything, and there's enough skin show and raunchiness to last a lifetime. But I still adore it, so so much. Maybe 90% of that appeal belongs to Siddharth, maybe I'm too biased to tell the difference anymore.

Another thing about Aata is how incredibly mislead I was by the promotional stills of the movie. Hence this post. I took an insane amount of screencaps and now will post the most representative of them so people may see what Aata is really like. On the other hand I have to recognize that I never looked up all of the promotional pics but the ones I saw seemed to suggest the film as oddly action-y.

Things You Can Expect to See in AATA

1. Siddharth is in lurve.


2. Ileana is not too impressed.


3. They're soaked. Get used to seeing this. A lot of this. All the time. Quite often, for no real reason.


4. Faces really close. You'll be seeing a lot of this, too. Sometimes their faces will even touch. Oh, and they're most likely soaked when doing it.


5. Ileana spends time hanging out in Siddharth's crotch. Didn't I tell you it was kind of trashy? Also, Siddharth in pink. If you're playing the Certified Aata Drinking Game whose rules I will eventually invent, you will have to take two shots now.



6. Guns, guns, and more guns. Also, henchmen dressed in black. Leather. Guns.


7. Siddharth being amazing. Which is basically equivalent to just being himself. Let it be once again noted that this is not a film for non-fans.


8. I want to tell you these sort of scenes serve a purpose in the movie, offering a rich detailry to the core symbolism of the socio-historical manifestation .. well, the point is, they don't. And do you see me minding? Not really.

9. Though I think my biggest complaint about the promotional stills was that they failed to show how wonderfully colourful and beautiful Aata looks most of the time. Also, I think this also showcases why I love Southie picturizations. Sometimes they'll just do the ordinary "dancing on a dusty street" thing, other times they pull sometimes friggin' amazing like this. I love the composition of even the most simple shots, like this:


I think that's it for now, about Aata. Though looking through these, I'm not how representative they are of the film. It's like there are two levels to the movie - clever, fun story and raunchy crowd-pleaser song picturizations. You can't screencap the story so what you get instead is this: the cracked out colourfest songs and other cuteness. Take it for what you will and remember I'm posting about a movie I'm ridiculously in love with right now.