IFAC #8: Wayback machine to filmi year 2006.

Decided to shorten the title; I think everybody's pretty aware of my spamtastic December posting dealio.

This is a classification of 2006 films, taken from my livejournal. It was posted in late 2006, and represents my views back then - some might've changed but overall I pretty much feel the same way. Consider the context when reading!


Creme de la creme

Omkara
Lage Raho Munnabhai

Both films exceptionally clever, entertaining and worth rewatching (I've already re-watched both an unbelievable amount of times). These are my two top favourites of the year and both have those tiny little things I'd fix about them, they're still awesome cinema in my eyes. Omkara naturally more of the artistically ambitioned, drama-heavy type and LRM commercial comedy, but both have fantastic writing and directing behind them and top-notch performances.


OMG-worthy

Rang De Basanti - All around interesting, daring movie. Fantastic cast and soundtrack, plus no matter what you thought of the ending, it did leave its mark on the audience. Good writing, too - I connected with the characters pretty much instantly.

Being Cyrus - Had its share of flaws (no debutant director can make that great a film) but boy, was it good. I'm totally biased of course, as a fan of Saif and a fan of really odd, black comedy type of films, but all the same, this movie pretty much succeeded in what it was going for.


Jaan-e-Mann - Same as BC when it comes to debutant directors. Shirish Kunder might be a overcocky a-hole but JEM still brought something wonderful on the table. Fab soundtrack, hilarious moments, even good when it gets emotional. Severe flaws but still filled me with all kinds of glee; the parody and self-referential humor owns me.

Flawed but oh oh so dear to me

Fanaa - I think the hype killed this movie for many, which is sad, because when you love it, you just do it and all the bad stuff just seems unimportant. That is, they don't distract me from enjoying this movie. The fantastic performances and the grippingly angsty love story blew me away. It could be so much better, I'll admit, but I'll take it as it is, flawed and wonderful.

Good, enjoyable

Pyar Ke Side Effects - It's like Hollywood shipped their format of romantic comedy to Mumbai, when they realized they couldn't do anything with said format, and the Indians spun it into a fantastically entertaining little romantic film.

36 China Town - Mispromoted, funny film with a working cast, the least annoying Himesh soundtrack of the year. Convinced me that Shahid's okay, Kareena can be hilarious and that Akshaye Khanna can be smoking hot. Okay, the last one didn't need no proving but all the same. One minus remains Upen Patel.


Dhoom 2 - Abhithik hotness, hilarious stunts and Uday being a clown definitely made it a film worth seeing. The girls I could easily erase, except Bips on the second half maybe, and the soundtrack is madly catchy. Overall vapid as hell but still great fun.

Better luck next time!

Phir Hera Pheri - Hit all the right notes on the first half and all the wrong ones during the second. Not a bad sequel but still the worst of the lot.

Ankahee - Esha Deol's learning how to act! Yay! Sadly the movie is hopelessly boring on the second half.

Gangster - Style over substance. I liked parts of it, visually nice (I love 'em filters!) but still failed to impress. Damn catchy, though rip-off soundtrack, though.

Malamaal Weekly - Goddammit, Priyadarshan, can we stop with the copy game? This one provided a few laughs but the shameless copying takes away a lot of the fun in hindsight.

I'll pay you NOT to make any more movies

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna - I don't understand how a film can aggravate me so much. I really don't. Whatever positives there were, well, they didn't make it worth the annoying, dragging second half.

--

Thoughts now: Wow, I was strangely glued onto Bollywood in 2006! But then, it was all too easy to be, considering all the fantastic movies that came out then. I can't believe I saw Malamaal Weekly and the likes - what was I thinking? I remember being hugely opposed to the Don remake, and 'lo and behold, when I eventually saw it, I quite enjoyed it. Shows you how minds change with the times..

I still adore LRM, RDB and Omkara. Rewatches of Jaan-e-mann showed me that film doesn't really impact me as it did on the first watch. I am thankful for it, though, because it showed me how enjoyable I can find Akshay Kumar - this was I believe the first film what I loved him in. Seeing Fanaa again has shown me I still adore the film, if only for the incredible second half.

Been a long while since I last watched Being Cyrus. It's a good film, but not one to watch on a rainy day. Still, 2006 was perhaps the best year to be a Saif fan ...ever. Oh, the good old days..

And two years later.. Jaan-e-Mann.

I haven't been blogging much. I haven't been watching much, either. Life's been a haze of studying, worrying about studying and random methods of procrastination. I keep up with Bollywood, just haven't been able to watch Hindi films as of late.

Then last night I needed a pick me up and put on Jaan-e-Mann.

When I first watched JEM, it was autumn 2006 and JEM was up against the Don remake starring Shahrukh Khan in the Diwali box office battle. Understandably JEM lost miserably; it had too many weird, meta-like references, Broadway-style song picturizations, a lot of plain silliness.. Watching it now, I can see that it's definitely a flawed film, but also carries a definite charm; the performances by Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta are solid despite the occasional failed punchline, and the songs are catchy despite obvious vapidness ("Udh jaana" I am looking at you).

Suhaan Kapoor (Salman), a wannabe-filmstar, has a problem. His former wife Piya (Preity) is suing him for unpaid alimonies and he has no money whatsoever. Oddly enough, a former geek and current astronaut, Agastya Rao (Akshay) lands on Suhaan's door step and thanks to a legal loophole that would get Suhaan out of trouble so long as Piya remarries, Suhaan hatches a plan to make Piya fall in love with Agastya aka Champu, who used to crush on Piya back in college.

Watching the film when it came out compared to watching it now shows how much the industry has changed in mere two years' time. When you've seen Jhoom Barabar Jhoom and Om Shanti Om, both more outlandish and colourful than JEM, the world of this film doesn't feel so alien anymore. Then you have the stars. Akshay's career really took off in 2007 and 2008 and now he's one of the absolute biggest names in the industry. Salman on the other hand has had his share of hits and flops, but still remains (as far as I know) a top star. Preity's career sank after JEM - or should I say, starting with KANK & JEM, but she's getting positive recognition from her latest films, thankfully.

You haven't heard much about JEM's director since the release of the film. Quite honestly, as much as I like the movie, I don't mind. After the film's release I happened to find an interview with the man and he was one obnoxious dude. If nobody is willing to finance his films nowadays, I'm not surprised. His touch shows in the film, though: check out how many frames of the film are tilted. I'm not what's the significance of the style choice, but well, it is a style choice regardless!

When I initially saw the film, it made me really like three actors I wasn't all that nuts about at the time. It's because of these actors that I still appreciate the most when it comes to Jaan-e-Mann. Salman is perfect at these self-parodic roles where he's allowed to also have emotional moments. Akshay makes for such a lovable goof and Preity is, well, Preity. As I've discussed previously, I can't not like her. This was one of the films where I came to that realization.