Mini reviews: playing catch up.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan - When you haven't been watching any Hindi films for months and months on end, it feels rather lovely to be swept up in the melodrama again, and this Salman Khan starrer certainly fit the bill, what with Pakistan-India unity themes and the missing mute child of it all. I can't say I hated it, but towards the end it was just a tiny bit too much. Loved seeing Nawazuddin Siddiqui pick up that mainstream paycheck, even if I wasn't huge on his role in this.

Oh, and Kareena Kapoor Khan was in this film, too, a fact I barely remembered until just now. I don't want to say she should pick better films, since maybe none are coming her way any more (lamentable fact of life for married actresses) but I do miss her putting in better work than this.

Dil Dhadakne Do - Speaking of Kareena, would have loved to see the original cast for this, which was Ranbir-Kareena as the siblings who were eventually played by Priyanka Chopra and Ranveer Singh, and Madhuri as the mother (a role that went to Shefali Shetty, who is great here). Still, had that happened, what would have ended up on the screen probably would have been the same, middle-of-the-road family drama with some emotional moments, comedy and dance numbers. I really enjoyed this one, but with the caveat that from the intermission I knew it would be a hopelessly forgettable film. The characters are just a little too bland and stereotypical, the drama predictable and even the twists rather unexciting. It's pretty and it's fun, and then you never think about it again as the credits roll. Indeed, my biggest take aways from the film were the following three things:

1. It is exciting to see Priyanka Chopra still in this familiar environment now that she's set to lead a major US network drama series. I've never been a huge fan, but I've also been the first to admit her talent. 7 Khoon Maaf is still her finest work, but if her mainstream US success leads to more people discovering that Bhardwaj gem, I am all for it. 
2. Farhan Akhtar looks really good in a t-shirt. 
3. ...but Farhan Akhtar annoyingly wrote the character he himself played the Righteous Male Feminist dialogue. Okay, buddy. Okay.

Any Body Can Dance 2 - This one blew my hair back. Is this a movie? Is this just things happening on celluloid in a somewhat sequential manner? Was ABCD the first this bad and I just didn't notice, too swept up in the glorious dance sequences? ABCD2 sure feels like a non-movie, with things happening to characters one barely knows, with every frequent conflict solved two lines of dialogue later by multiple deux ex machina, with cardboard cut-outs having emotions like stickers attached and removed easily for plot convenience. The dance sequences are okay, but with absolutely no emotional connection to anything else that is happening, they feel strangely hollow. I enjoyed seeing the familiar faces from the first film, including Lauren Gottlieb, but holy moly. Don't suffer through this one like I did, even for shirtless Varun Dhawan and some okay naach-gaana.

Badlapur - Am I going to hate Badlapur, I asked my Twitter timeline multiple times, seeing the review summaries pop up here and there, and for the most part people either let their silence on the matter speak for itself, or just told me a flat-out "most likely". But what with director favourite Sriram Raghavan (yes, I know Agent Vinod happened, but I blame that one on Saif), established favourite Nawazuddin and emerging favourite Varun Dhawan, how was I to ignore this film? It was the bane of my existence until I would finally see it. So I did. 

In another mood, another time, this might have become one of my flawed favourites, one that I could re-watch and re-examine for themes and nuances in performances, but at this time, during the mood I was in, I checked out about 40 minutes into the film and never quite checked back in.The tale of revenge turning one man (Dhawan) into a monster as the culprit (Siddiqui) withers in jail is certainly an intriguing one, especially held up against the empowerment through revenge narrative that was Raghavan's first film Ek Hasina Thi (11 years old this year, wow). And yet, when it was all said and done, I wondered if I should have just rewatched his debut.

Raghavan remains a capable director, allowing his leads to shine and for audiences to gain new appreciation for their range, but the "women problem" remains. Huma Qureshi, Yami Gautam, Divya Dutta and Radhika Apte all feature and do great with what little they're given, but the way the other characters or the camera and narrative choices treat them doesn't sit right with me. Sexual coercion can be played up in a way that empathises with the victim and recognises the perpetrator as vile, but instead such scenes are merely used for titillation for the camera and as a demonstration of the male lead's sickening power over his victims. It is disturbing to me when the narrative doesn't condemn a morally ambiguous character's misogyny but instead throws it up on the screen unquestioningly as a fact of life. It's all about choices in portrayal, and Raghavan seems to make the least considered ones each and every time. 

Some years back I talked about how Kucche Dhaage, a 70's drama thriller, deconstructed the revenge tale so often found in Indian films. It portrays the horrible things people do for revenge, and also how this desire to avenge wrecks the people involved psychologically. In some ways, it lets these human monsters off the hook a little too much, giving them a redemption arc on the second half, whilst also showing that since they've devoted themselves to the violence of revenge, they can't ever lead normal lives after it. Badlapur, in many ways, is an even more brutal, and unrelenting deconstruction of revenge narratives, but as Indian films often are, it's still too concerned with its murky lead, not his victims.

As much as I hated this film, I'm not ready to give up on Raghavan yet, such is my deep affection for his first two films. But would I recommend this one? No chance in hell.

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. 

Kaminey picspam.

I love the way this movie looks and feels. The oppressive but calming blue tones with occasional flashes of red and gold just seem to add to the gripping atmosphere.



Things only go from bad to worse, and the descent is beautiful to watch, and re-watch, for that matter.

Somehow, Omkara with its tragic ending still feels more rewatchable to me, but Kaminey is just so good, and so well-executed, and with such beautiful music and performances that I couldn't help but love it.

Teri Meri Kahani, or: Mr Kohli's History Lesson.

You all know I am rather fond of Kunal Kohli's work, so it breaks my heart to say that his latest, Teri Meri Kahani, just doesn't quite work. It's got all the filmi traits we know Kohli by; the improbable romance, the poetic love confessions, the tributes to films of the past. And yet, the film is actually among his very worst, all-in-all messy and almost annoyingly mediocre. 

Teri Meri Kahani tells three love stories; the first one begins in Puna, 1960, and as it winds up we go to England, 2012. The final story, from Lahore in 1910, is one that the film spends the most time with and deservedly so. The 60's romance between a film star (Priyanka Chopra) and a struggling musician (Shahid Kapoor) takes place in a strange, blatantly phony and filmi milieu. With studio sets and computer effects, Kohli seeks to create a true period setting, but it just doesn't work, so much so it jerked me right out of the story. 

Not that the story was all that engaging. The first two stories, we're watching Priyanka and Shahid doing their damnest to sell characters with flimsy characterizations falling in love and making googly eyes at one another. There's a strange discrepancy between the stories; while the first tale of love and loss feels inauthentic and self-aware of its filminess, the second tale is supposed to be hip, modern and grounded in our current reality. Only it doesn't quite work, and I didn't care for the characters in the least. Even the song they have is painfully bad.

Thankfully, these stories wind down and we finally get to the third story, in 1910 Lahore, where the village casanova Javed finally meets his match in Anuradha. I strongly suspect this is the story Kohli had the strongest connection to personally. It's full of Urdu shyaari and each couplet is more romantic than the previous - just these little touches bring an extra something that the other tales fail to have. There's a joy to this story; it feels like an actual setting, actual characters, actual passion. It's still filmi and melodramatic in true Kunal Kohli style, but it's his essence, rather than some vague imitation of it. 

It also contains the film's best songs and picturizations.

I'm not a fan of Priyanka Chopra, so if I'm not won over by her in this film, it's hardly surprising. However, I wouldn't say a word against Shahid in this; his charm just about carried my interest, and without it (and him looking spectacularly adorable, as usual), I would've turned this film off before the second half. He's great, simply put - now I just wish he was in better films.

Where does my man Kunal go from here? I'd tell him to stick to his strengths; the poetry-filled romance and strong melodrama is clearly what good Kunal Kohli films are made of, and with the strong cast to perfect them (think Aamir-Kajol, think Saif-Rani), they make for compelling watches. Over-complicating things with three parallel stories, where only one is actually interesting, is not the way to go about these things.

And for god's sake, always have an antakshari scene in there somewhere!

30 Days of Film: Days 21, 22.

21. Favorite action movie

Yeah, Salman looks tired and those less bulky Southie youngsters can dance him under the table. Even so, I think as a remake, Wanted just works superbly well with balancing intrigue, action, romance and all the rest of it, and it's one of those absolute gems that never fail to entertain me, no matter how many times I find myself rewatching the film.

It has a charm and the great cast (Ayesha Takia is so good in this and enough can't be said about Prakash Raaj's Prakash Bad role!) under Prabhudeva's competent direction just heightens the whole thing.

22. Favorite movie from your least favorite actor

(Originally "favorite documentary" - feel free to change if you like.)

Try as I might, I don't like Priyanka Chopra. My dislike for her has never had anything to do with the rumours I hear about here these days - it's more a lukewarm feeling about performances that moved into active dislike when I saw how she was in a lot of films, and supposedly very appreciated for her acting and I just didn't see it at all. If anything, I found her grating on-screen. I thought Fashion was an okay-made film that sent a bunch of horrible messages, and all of her other performances ranged from inoffensive to just model-acting. She wasn't painful to watch or anything, but she was just so overrated I began to get annoyed.  At least Kareena had to put in some really solid, good performances to truly become A-list.

But I can honestly say I love her character and performance in Kaminey. If anything, this was the National Award-worthy performance, not Fashion; well-written role about a young woman who made her own choices and stuck by them, hell or high water, and who seemed like a very grounded, real character the whole time.

To have and to hold, in sickness and in health - 7 Khoon Maaf.

A woman, and her seven husbands - all dead. The premise sounds macabre and exaggerated. But I'll never forget discussing wanting to see this film with an Indian guy I met during my recent globetrotting, and his (paraphrased from my memory) comment on the title.

"Khoon is like, sin. But then you add maaf, and it's all forgiven."

His point was, as I understood it, that there's a poetic tone to the title, and that same poetic tone underscores the movie. This film isn't rough and rustic like Omkara, or slick with dirty urban rain like Kaminey. It's part realism, part fantasy-like. Sadly, not all stanzas are equally strong.

I didn't have very high hopes. I'm not sure what I'd read but something told me this wasn't as universally praised or as liked as Kaminey. There are probably good reasons for it. There is plenty good, though - starting with the fact that Priyanka does well in her performance, and to compliment her acting, the way they've aged Susanna over the years feels realistic. Susanna gains a certain weariness as she ages, but never loses her spark. At times it seems like she's lost it completely, but somehow she's still in control, or about as in control as she can be, of her own life. I end up sympathising for a killer - not enough to think what she did was justified each time, but enough to hope she gets out of it, somehow.

The husbands are well cast. It's difficult to name stand-outs, to be honest. They all rather fit their roles and brought the essential core of each role, whether the husband was to be terrifying from the outset, lying but lacking malice or surprisingly menacing.

As ever, with Vishal Bhardwaj films, the music completely makes the movie. Almost every song is a treat, from the hard rock songs (O Mama & Dil Dil Hai) to the Kalinka-inspired Darling, where Rekha Bhardwaj delivers a song so catchy you almost wish you'd never heard it. A lot of the film feels, looks and sounds exactly right - these are the hallmarks of a Bhardwaj film. You are sucked into the world and unwilling to leave.

But like I said, there are weak stanzas. While John Abraham does fine in the role of the second husband, there is something that feels weirdly out of place about his segment of the story. Maybe it's the way the songs are picturized, his character's style that just kind of goes a little over-the-top, but something about it felt a bit off. The picturization for Yeshu could have been a little more subtle, and the comedic elements in the story of the Russian husband, while certainly appropriately dark, could have been toned down a little.

And let's face it, it's not easy to watch the suffering of a woman for over two hours. Not that a Bhardwaj film is ever all fun times, but there was something about the unrelenting circle of her life, even at the moments when the whole audience laughs darkly at the interval screen ("Four more to go.."), that makes me unsure I want to return to this film, solid though it may have been. Bhardwaj-saab, mujhse maaf kardo.

--

And some less organised thoughts..

- Another example of National Awards really jumping the gun. She gets one for Fashion (bloody Fashion), and then goes and makes this one? What nonsense. (See also: Saif for Hum Tum. Dude goes on to make Omkara.)

- Neil Nitin Mukesh, despite being all menacing and the character being a bag of dicks, looks really good with a moustache ....so yeah.

- Seriously, I was in musical heaven throughout this movie. Can Vishal Bhardwaj come score my life so I can just have that on my iPod and not ever listen to anything again?

- Konkona Sen Sharma was barely there but left an impact. Anybody surprised?

- I haven't read the Ruskin Bond novel but I'm assuming it's a pretty good adaptation. Once Vishal Bhardwaj has scored my life, can he just adapt every book ever written? I'm thinking Jane Austen. It is a truth universally accepted, that every behenchod in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Gangsters, nautsch girls, the whole works.

No? Fine, I'll just keep day-dreaming, then..

Fashion and a bit about Madhur Bhandarkar in general.

Beware: lots of major spoilers in this review, and very, very, very ranting.


Fashion was just this exercise in annoyance. I really liked the film at first. It wasn't perfect, it was predictable, but it was fun to watch, fashion escapism with a bit of a real edge to it, and a cast of characters I wasn't emotionally attached to but didn't mind watching, either. Then the plot took some turns and I was still watching it keenly, just noticing that I preferred the storylines of Janet (Mugdha Godse) and Shonali (Kangana Raut) to that of Meghna (Priyanka Chopra), our main character with the dream of becoming a super model.

As Meghna makes her dream into reality, the predictable thing happens: her success goes to her head in a massive way, she becomes a relentless bitch, an annoying diva, who snaps at everybody, is mean to everybody, and doesn't even notice how her behavior affects those around her. Eventually she gets on the path of substance abuse, just like her predecessor super-model Shonali, and hits rock bottom.

This is where the film really goes off the rails. If Meghna is an unlikable character for me but the film has more to offer than her storyline, as it at first seemed to, I'm game, but eventually the film becomes all about Meghna and I'm expected to care about her, when she essentially ruined her life with her own choices and poor consideration. Add to that the blatant racism of the scene where she realizes she hit rock bottom after sleeping with a black guy. Because the fact your boss essentially gave you the boot, your friends more or less all deserted you, your alcoholism, and then taking drugs, that's not enough to make you realize you may have deeply messed up your life. No, it's a one night stand with a black guy. Oh the horror! (Not to mention the implication that she wouldn't have had sex with him if it hadn't been for the drugs. Gah, just typing this makes me angry.)

Then the film fuses the storylines of Shonali and Meghna and this is where I tune in again, but of course, Shonali's messed up life is disposed of to make way for Meghna's self-actualization, so that she can shine again or whatever the hell.

Beth had a lot of good points in her Fashion rant, and one of them was regarding that we never find out why Meghna wants to become a super-model. I'd add to that a flaw that makes Fashion a weird one; it can be seen as a shockingly realistic expose on the drugs, the sex, the casting couch, the corruption of the fashion world, but at the same time, Meghna's "salvation" can only come from her getting back on the runway, the one thing that essentially destroyed her. It also annoys me that everybody encourages her to do so - the world that she first desired, then burned herself in, is the one she needs to become complete in some kind of twisted way. Stardom as a model is what we see her accomplish, even though the whole point of the film was to hammer in the message that this world is cruel and Meghna didn't know how to handle it, and neither did Shonali. Except now, at the end of the film, she's fierce and she can handle it? But what did she learn, in the end? Don't do drugs? Don't sleep with black guys? God, the writing is supposedly thought-through but has all these glaring mistakes.

I know this genre Madhur Bhandarkar enjoys delving in - the genre that takes an idealist person who wants to achieve something big in a world most of us find interesting and glamorous and read about, and then shoves that person into that world, as they climb the social ladder that gets them there. The person goes through a transformation, and that transformation alienates them from their friends, family, their old comfortable ordinary life, essentially. But as glamorous and amazing as their new life is, they quickly see how shallow and awful and cruel and corrupt and full of bad people it is. It might also be stressful and all these other things that lead them to having an utter breakdown, and that breakdown makes them go back to their roots; where they began and then they discover that partner that dumped them, and those friends, and that family, and that knitting club and a big mug of tea every morning; the ordinary, comfortable life. Eventually the person goes onto do something else; something that makes them whole but keeps them away from the world they visited and now know to be bad. "Many cakes are pretty on the outside", goes a Finnish proverb, reminding us that appearances are indeed deceiving.

It's an age-old tale. And you know what? It's one I can enjoy. One of my favourite chicklit novels is Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger, which has a plotline essentially what I just described. Predictable, unoriginal? Yes. Satisfying read on a rainy day? Absolutely.

The problem with Fashion is that it doesn't do the twist where the breakdown is followed by self-actualization in the comfortable middle-class life Meghna used to have, with friends and whatnot. Meghna just freezes while time continues around her. She can't live if she's on that catwalk. But geez, that catwalk wasn't very good to her! And I never understood why she needed the catwalk for her self-actualization anyway.

The journey to a glamorous but rotten world can result in a fairly life-affirming story (in the sense that the viewer feels their own ordinary lives may be drab and they don't do Jimmy Choo photoshoots, but at the same time they've got a nice family, their job is less high pressure, they can eat big meals etc) while still being realistic and tackling some real issues, like casting couch, drug abuse etc. But Fashion is predictable without following the trope to its satisfying ending, and it also focuses on its least interesting character (I vastly preferred storylines of Shonali and Janet).

There was some good stuff in there, too; I seriously wasn't very annoyed until the coke-snorting and black-dude-morning-after scenes, but overall, the movie sort of undoes itself by the end. I just couldn't enjoy the ride anymore.

---

But about Madhur Bhandarkar some more. I've only seen Page 3 and now Fashion, and both of those stories had some similarities, in that they're exposés that reveal the underbellies of celebrity and fashion industry. These sort of stories are pretty old in American/European entertainment, I feel. We all grew up watching them, and learning that celebrity is a double-edged sword and all is not as great as it seems and people in places that focus on appearance are superficial up to a fault and all this sort of stuff. So it feels kind of dull to watch these stories in an Indian context. I don't follow gossip much. I don't want to rub elbows with celebrities. I mean, I wouldn't mind meeting a few stars, but I'm not focusing all my energy on such a goal because I know it probably wouldn't be worth it, struggling to get into that world.

It's tough to evaluate these stories, because of how old they feel to me, but how new they might be in an Indian context, to the audiences who might mostly have seen the dream factory stuff. Are these stories worth telling? It's not really up to me to decide, certainly, but I still feel like Bhandarkar could draw something new out of this formula. A lot of the disappointment just comes from the hype surrounding these movies, especially Page 3. I mean, it was okay. It didn't make any favourite lists for me, though.

Something I told Beth in chat, while processing my thoughts on P3 and Fashion, was that essentially I saw an old Hollywood story formula in Rock On, too. And yet, I loved that movie to bits and enjoyed its simplicity and purity. It felt like a new story was being told in the Indian context where rockbands do not reign supreme, and I could appreciate it, and felt it would be good if it were to increase awareness of the country's underground rock scene. Perhaps the difference between this formula and that of the exposé films was that Rock On brought on the positive vibes and celebrated a world while showing its rough edges (the dicky record label guy, the pressure to sell out). These exposés rarely do. So I guess in the end what makes me so unenthusiastic about them is not the "what", it's the "how".

---

I also keep thinking about how I'd written Meghna's ending. I might've kept the fashion world as a terms of self-actualization but changed the setting. Perhaps she writes an exposé on the world, and finds her true calling as an investigative journalist. Perhaps she goes into fashion design herself. Perhaps she begins coaching new models to put her posing skills and her experience into good use to make sure other models don't mess up like she did. One thing the film completely ignored about the world of modelling is the short career models have. You start at sixteen, you retire at 27. What then? You do what Meghna did and spend two of your work years messing up your life and then building it back up, your career's going to be over in a few years. Of course, there were plenty of other realism mess-ups but you know, if this film actually inspired some people to go into modeling, they're gonna learn about some actual realities of that world pretty soon. And that learning's going to be more harsh than Meghna's downfall.

Thoughts on awards, functions and what any of it means.

Sorry for blog silence. University stress hit me like a ton of bricks and my head hasn't been in the right place for Indian film watching/pondering. Except now. Thanks for the overwhelming response to the celeb Tweet posts, I promise I'll try to do more in the future.

So news hit today of various National Award winners and though I haven't seen that much response coming from people who enjoy Bollywood, there is some, and it is somewhat puzzled. People are used to thinking of Filmfare, Stardust etc as fluffy award ceremonies - watched for the stars, the performances, the red carpet photos and acceptance speeches. Nobody is necessarily under any illusion that the best movie will win, or the best actor, or indeed anybody. And yet the consensus seems to also be that it's nice to see your favourite films get a bit of honor.

National Awards is a different ballgame. This is the respectable, considered stuff. This is the stuff some Malayalam film you've never heard of wins. This is the awards Shyam Benegal has piles of in his cupboards. This is the awards that truly seems to look at Indian cinema at a whole; all industries. Therefore the winners are typically from Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali.. the biggest non-Hindi industries, with the occasional Hindi winner here and there (for example, the category for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment is pretty much always a Hindi film). The winers are typically from alternative, more arthouse cinema.

The reason I lay down these basics is that it seems some people are puzzled and a bit miffed that Priyanka Chopra got the Best Actress Award for Fashion. It does seem a bit odd. If they are looking at all 2008 Indian films, it would seem odd that Priyanka Chopra's, whose skills have frankly never really impressed me, rates above all of them. I haven't seen Fashion, but even so. I'm not against her winning; I just find it somewhat surprising.

With that said, I'm stuck because I keep landing on the question; does it matter?

The pictures in this post are of past National Award winners (none in the films their won for). Vikram won Best Actor for Pithamagan in 2004 and the next year, Saif Ali Khan won the same award for .. wait for it ... Hum Tum. Shabana Azmi has won Best Actress more times than I can count.

Vikram I'll honestly agree with, because I think even if I distanced myself from my insane love for his masala fare, the step he took as an actor in Pithamagan and Bala's direction complementing it is well enough. Saif's an odd choice. Especially for Hum Tum. I mean, I love him and I adore the movie - it's among my most rewatched Bollywood flicks of all time - but ...a National Award? In the same year he had Ek Hasina Thi? Oh, if only they'd known to wait for Omkara..

So there have definitely been quizzical choices in the past. And I'm sure every time somebody you've seen in a movie that didn't blow you away will grab one of these, it'll be a bone of contention. If it's a Southie flick you've never heard of, you're not likely to argue the issue, right?

But as I asked before, does it really matter, what wins and what doesn't? Be it National Awards, Filmfare, Stardust or Na-real? The more the global media is getting psyched about the Oscars and whether Avatar (ugh let's not go there again) will sweep it, the less I realize I genuinely care. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love some Oscar-winning films a ton. And sometimes those awards, be they from European movie festivals, Indian award ceremonies or the Oscars, make me appreciate the films I love even more. But in general, I don't really care. I rarely end up watching the Oscar-winning films. I don't necessarily even bother to keep up with what's winning what on the Bolly side of things.

What makes a film stand the test of time? I mean, we forget about stuff all the time, because there's only so many things you can remember. I suppose the worst thing for a film is not necessarily to bomb in the box office or not win any awards, but to be forgotten in the public consciousness. Not be remembered as a film worth watching, or simply not remembered at all. I remember looking through the list of past Filmfare winners and noticed some films I'd never even heard of. Consider for example, Be-Imaan, which swept the Filmfares in 1972. You seen it? You heard of it? '72 being the year of such films as Seeta aur Geeta and Pakeezah. How come those two are much more well-known and watched than this award-winner (as far as I know anyway)?

I don't know, how do you feel about this? Do awards matter in the long run? Or are they just good for entertainment, a bit of TV programming with stars, glitz and filmi jokes? What truly makes a film classic, one people will remember decades from now?

Pastiche of praise; Kaminey.

WARNING: I curse in this review. The title of the film gives me full license to, in my opinion. If you're offended by salty language, just don't read this one.

What do you say about a film as universally appreciated as Kaminey? How to phrase things you've read a million times in such a original, refreshing manner that your voice isn't lost in the sea of reviews?

Yes, I made the awful mistake of reading other people's reviews - tons of them - before writing my own. When you've read stuff penned by professionals and goddamn media scholars, why read whatever I have to say?

The problem isn't that my opinion isn't valuable, no, I would never lack the self-esteem to think that. As a blog writer, a certainty in my own views is absolutely essential. No, the problem only comes in when I realize that Kaminey was loved by me as it was by others, and there's nothing I can really add.

Vishal Bharadwaj is making some of the finest films to grace Indian screens this decade - and the upcoming ones, I'm sure of it. Shahid Kapoor, under his direction, has risen to new heights as an actor, carrying the personalities of two very distinct characters perfectly. Priyanka Chopra gave us a wonderfully complex, multifaceted female character. The newcomer character actors all shine.

The plot takes a while to get going but the storytelling is dense, with amazing eye to detail. While I thought the soundtrack was inferior to that of Omkara it is nevertheless worth mentioning. The black comedy is excellent, unexpectedly funny, and fits in well with the occasionally sternly dramatic thriller plot.

I want to rewatch this, again and again, to catch all the details, all the layers to the storytelling, I want to show this to my friends, those who love Bollywood and those who know nothing about it, because this film is just that damn good.

And because I've read a million reviews of this by now, I can honestly say this: fuck Tarantino. Vishal Bharadwaj is not India's Tarantino. I realize getting called that is by no means an insult, but I feel like in some ways, it is. Tarantino makes films with very little heart or purpose, other than to show he's watches a lot of films and he really, really likes them. Bharadwaj has more of an auteur's touch to his films. He doesn't simply get inspired and spin his inspirations into stories, tying them together with quotable dialogue. His films seem to have more heart than that.

(That's not to say Kaminey isn't, in some ways, a very Tarantino-esque film. Comparisons to the good Guy Ritchie films also make a lot of sense. But in the end, Bharadwaj can't be India's Tarantino, because Sriram Raghavan, bless his soul, is India's Tarantino. End of story.)

This might not be the best review I could've written for this film but you know, it might not be the last. I'll be revisiting this film for sure. Hopefully on this blog, as well.

Tough luck. Salaam-e-Ishq and the wonder of rewatches.

Sometimes it's time to just face the facts. That movie you pretty much loved when you first saw it, as a celebration of what Bollywood is all about, back when it first came out, the movie you kept in the back of your head for a future DVD purchase, that movie you've been meaning to re-watch for ages ... that movie, it turns out, might not be as good as you thought.

What's even sadder is that you ( - me - all of us at one point I suppose) have always recognized its flaws. As any film, it certainly had some. But now, rewatching, you find yourself wishing it was at least half as exciting as the first time. This is the review of my initial thoughts, by the way. It's from 2007, obviously. But god, that date seems like ages ago.

As most of you probably know, Salaam-e-Ishq is Nikhil Advani's first movie on his own, without the ever-watchful eye of Karan Johar leaving its mark on the movie. It features, what, six different couples and their storylines as they deal with love; difficulties with it, rediscovery of it, or just fulfilling it. As you might assume, it's a little too ambitious a concept to pull off and keep it interesting - the storylines do cross over, but remain mostly separate, and as some of them are not as good as the others, the viewer does begin wishing they got back to those good storylines and just leave the rest be. The film runs long, even longer in its original theatrical version, and you can really feel it at times. The first time I saw it, I felt it would've made a better mini-series than a movie; too bad India hasn't familiarized itself with the format of a television mini-drama yet.

For me on this particular rewatch, only three storylines seemed worthwhile. The above screencap is the least entertaining of the three but fun enough all the same; Akshaye Khanna plays the playboy-like, commitment-phobic Shiven whose patient fiancee Gia (Ayesha Takia) finally ditches him so he may rediscover the meaning of love and whatnot. While this is one of the few Akshaye Khanna films I quite like (or don't actively dislike), the character being such an asshole does really get to me. He has quite literally no reason to act that way, and his progress of learning how to appreciate Gia is not very satisfying for me - especially because they cut one (slightly comedic) scene where he explains to a hallucination Gia why he's so afraid of commitment (my memories of this are fuzzy but that's how I recall it). That scene seems to have made all the difference for me.

I'm much less ambivalent about my adoration for this storyline; Kkamini (Priyanka Chopra), an item girl striving to be a fully-fledged heroine comes up with a plan to pretend to have a secret boyfriend, Rahul, until a mystery man (Salman Khan) actually enters her life - in front of all cameras - and claims to be said Rahul. I love everything about this storyline. It's self-referential (Salman addresses the audience, pointing at the camera), it's funny (this is possibly the best I've seen of Priyanka's comedienne skills), it's sweet (the slow falling in love, the reveal of Rahul's actual identity..) and most importantly, both actors absolutely excel in their roles. I'm still not huge on Priyanka but this is without a doubt my favourite performance of hers, just spot-on as the diva-like wannabe-starlet. And Salman is in his element, subtly funny and romantic and just a great presence against Priyanka's manic Kkamini.

Akshaye approves!

The third storyline, and who could've been stars of their own movie in my opinion, was that of Raju (Govinda), a taxi driver who dreams of love, and ends up trying to help Stephanie (Shannon Esra, a white South-African actress) find her Indian jackass of a boyfriend, even though Raju is falling in love with her as they journey around India. I'm not sure if this is the performance that brought Govinda back as I haven't seen much of him as of late, but it certainly is a solid one, and the romance developing despite communication difficulties is just so touching and heartfelt and punctuated by some of the best scenes in the film.. it's hard not to love this one. I was too busy enjoying it to screencap it, really.

So, what's the final judgment? I guess there isn't one, really. Maybe I'll rewatch in 2011 and realize what a wonderful joyride this movie is, despite its numerous flaws - the soundtrack is catchy and the picturizations are certainly memorable. Maybe this time it was just the wrong movie at the wrong time. The point is, I guess, that I wish some of these storylines had gotten their own films - their own chances to shine and be as lengthy and as elaborate as they needed to be. Then the filler stories wouldn't have had to be there. But it is what it is, I suppose. A tribute to love; through sickness and through health.

(And before you ask, I didn't mention John-Vidya because I am a heretic and not a huge fan of it. Vidya does some great acting but overall, I'm just not into it.)

That gay movie which is entirely non-homosexual whatsoever, no, sirree: Dostana.

When reviewing Dostana, I find myself knee-deep in a dilemma. Sure, it's a fun light romantic comedy more than anything else, and over anything the film tries to emphasize (as can be seen in the title) friendship. At the same time, a lot of the promotion, a lot of the hype and yes, a lot of the discussion after the film's release discusses one thing in particular: portrayal of homosexuality.

A funny thing about the film's promotion is in a way very telling of the film itself. They flirt with the idea of homosexuality quite loudly all around, jokes are being made about John-Abhishek being "jodi number one" and the part of the plotline is heavily emphasized. Then it's time to pull back on the reins, underlining the fact that Sam (Abhishek Bachchan) and Kunal (John Abraham) are only pretending to be gay in order to land a sweet apartment in gorgeous Miami, they're not actually gay, they're womanizing, very very heterosexual guys. Time to say, "the movie is about friendship, it's not trying to send a message".

Honestly, I don't blame them. It's a commercial film and making a straight-forward message film or a social commentary might hurt its chances at the box office. Karan Johar may be considered brave for making KANK but he's also got a business sense. If India's the country where homosexuality is still technically illegal, it's probably not quite ready for a Brokeback Mountain.

So how about the film itself? There's good and there's bad. Some of the portrayal of homosexuals (because yes, the film features some genuinely gay characters) is undoubtedly stereotypical, but not mean-spirited at all. There's allusions made to gay people being "not-all-male" which I mostly found really misinformed. At the same time, we see general acceptance - it's played up for comedy, certainly, but it's definitely there.

As far as performances go, Abhishek and Priyanka Chopra (playing landlady's foxy daughter Neha) win all the way. Movies like these make you wonder why Abhishek bothers with serious roles at all; he's just that good at comedy. John Abraham left me cold (yeah, I know, what the--). Maybe it's the role simply being more restricted than Abhishek's. Maybe it's just that he's not that great an actor (sorry, fans!).

The soundtrack is delightful and while there are some definite flaws in the second half (so much so that for a moment the film becomes a borefest, not a funny entertainer), which I won't get into as I'm trying to keep the review spoiler-free, Dostana is quite a fun ride. Let's hope the director, besides stepping out of Karan Johar's shadow, might actually also avoid some typical KJo mistakes with his next project.

Where Sanni learns a lesson about remakes. Don (1978) and Don (2007).

WARNING: Contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for both films & rude language. Not recommended reading for those not familiar with BOTH films!




My Don reviews will be intertwined as I watched them nearly back-to-back, first the original and then rushing to my showing of the remake. But first, let's talk about me and Don. I'm a Leo and he likes wild cats but did I like him back? Not to begin with, no. See, I hadn't seen the original when the remake came out. However, I was uncomfortable with the premise of remaking a 70's masala classic and I couldn't care less about the movie itself, since it didn't star anybody I was nuts about (my favourite people in the cast to begin with were Boman and Kareena, and seeing it for just them didn't seem very clever). I was all, “Sure, director of DCH but Shahrukh, what are you doing yaar? Let's leave Amitabh roles where they belong – to Amitji, thik hai?”. So when it came time to choose in Diwali 2006, I chose Jaaneman (and haven't regretted, I loved JEM!). Don could go back to Malaysia for all I cared. As for the original? Well, I'd see it eventually, I figured. I wasn't the biggest Amitabh fangirl so all his 70's movies weren't on the top of my oldies to-see list.

So then the time came when I was forced to make an unpleasant choice between going to see Don or not seeing any Bollywood films on the big screen this year (seeing KANK again? Not an option!). I chose Don, and in retrospect, I'm so bloody glad I did.

I rushed to see the original first but thanks to circumstances, I was able to watch it only on the same day as the remake. This coloured my viewing a lot, in both good and bad. See, when you ignore a movie's existence for about a year, two things happen. One, you forget all those spoilers you read back when you didn't care. Two, you accept the fact the film has been made, released, and a lot of people seemed to enjoy it. Whether Farhan raped this or that about the original no longer seems like an issue – what's done is done. Now, I'll gladly save my rants for rumored remakes or ones that seem like very very bad ideas. This one exists, so be it.



So when I sat down with the original 70's funfest, I had this mental soundtrack of “I'm seeing the remake and they'll be doing this and that in it” running throughout the film. In a way it made me lose focus in the original. I was mostly watching it so I could aptly compare, and while it entertained me greatly whilst watching, I didn't ever fully submerge myself into its world. A lot of things about it were fabulous – the fact that the item number had a story behind it, everything with Zeenat and kung fu moves, the hilarious 70's masala features, everything with Pran's character, suitcases that explode, Amitabh's fashion... I thought the plot was overall awesome. It had a typically twisty 70's masala plot, full of evil guys and full of surprises along the way. But even that, the plot, couldn't save me from the inevitable thought pattern - “This is so awesome, no wonder they remade it!”.

I guess a part of why this otherwise fantastic movie didn't make its way into my heart was Amitabh. Don't get me wrong, he was great in the original but much like Shahrukh, he's not a favourite and he doesn't make my heart burst with joy to watch him on-screen. He was fun and cool, but just not to the extent that I'd absolutely adore him.

My favourite scene oddly enough – and one I'm weirdly sad about not being in the remake – is the one where Roma goes to seek martial arts training. It's so hilarious in its ridiculousness but at the same time, it's a very character defining moment and I like the part the teacher played in her revenge overall. I felt like maybe Priyanka's Roma could've used this type of a silly moment. The moment when Zeenat walks out, hair short and fully martial arts trained? Pure awesome. Made of awesome.



Then onto the remake, and whoever genius thought it'd be fantastic to run an outdoor theater in Finland in September, I must congratulate you. Thank god they'd at least set up warmers and things as a roof so we didnt have to sit in the rain. Anyway, the film starts rolling and I know what to expect – sleek look, high budget, professionally choreographed martial arts (not exactly Hong Kong but hey, they're trying!). Now, the look and feel of the movie was pretty top-notch maybe apart from a couple of things. Like I don't understand why the last fight needed to be partly slow-mo, it looked somehow vapid. Not that I wasn't having a ball, but regardless.

I'm quite fond of the soundtracks of both films, but don't absolutely love either. I love the catchy Khaike Paan in both movies, and the picturizations were a blast as well (for some reason the remake one reminded me of the good old goofy!Shahrukh who I haven't seen since I last watched Duplicate – I miss goofy!Shahrukh and the song was an awesome reminder), and Main Hoon Don by Shaan (in the remake, of course) makes me swoon (the picturization makes me LOL and not much else). Yeh Mera Dil in the original form as a song, is awesome, but Helen's scary contact lense eyes and all that shaking did not really give me the ultimate seduction song feel. Mind you, neither did Kareena's performance, but she was way hotter and I liked the moments when she looks uncomfortable, showing her true feelings. Now if only Shahrukh hadn't done his dirty old man face at her, I could've really enjoyed the picturization.

In the original, I really loved the song picturization where Zeenat looked gorgeous and danced in a blue dress. I somehow saw Aaj Ki Raat as its equivalent, and while AKR was lovely, I still prefer Zeenat looking gorgeous. I'm biased but forgive me that. Unpopular opinion? Amitabh with eyeliner in the Bombay song was just creepy.

Now, to me the remake performances aren't really about replacing anybody. Though if we were going to think about replacements, I would give the honor to Arjun, who actually made me tear up in his little backstory section. He owned Pran's role and with no offence to Pran, whose antics are classic in any role he played, Arjun just did fantastic in here. Priyanka is okay but I'm not really moved by her in here. Mind you, even in the original I thought the whole Roma-Vijay romance was feeble.

Shahrukh is being Don, is being Vijay but Shahrukh is also being Shahrukh. Being because Shahrukh's one of those stars who's perhaps a bit above acting, I realized. Shahrukh does a great job being Shahrukh. It doesn't always work for me, unfortunately, but when it does, it's a joy. In here, it was sort of half and half. Half was me loving the insane act that was Shahrukh, every mannerism, every look, every part of the act. The other half was me giggling at the ridiculousness of the act that is Shahrukh Khan, rolling my eyes and thinking, “Okay, yeah, Amitabh did that better.”

Boman's character brings me to the changes they made. I was initially looking forward to Om Puri turning out this nasty guy all of the sudden but I was confused about lack of Vardhaan. When the pieces finally came together, my jaw nearly fell on the ground. I say nearly because it wasn't that surprising, I did remember there being something fishy about Boman. He did a great job, naturally. He's Boman – do we ever expect less? Nah, didn't think so. I thought a lot of the changes were quite frankly unnecessary. Like, it seemed like they were stirring the pot just for the sake of stirring it. Of course, the fight on the mountain bridge is a handsome visual compared to the all-over-the-place cheesefest cemetary fight at the end of the original, but surely they didn't make all those plot changes just to have that scene? Hmm.

Somewhere in the back of my head I recalled a spoiler about them not killing off somebody. I thought it was De Silva, and I was like “Okay, Boman lives, rock on!”. When it turns out it's actually been Don all along, saving his own skin with the mask of Vijay, I'm sorry – my mind was blown. And right there I forgave them for stirring the pot unnecessarily earlier, and I finally understood why they'd cut what was Anita's character's most crucial moment in the original – the dialogue where she's miffed about post-accident Don preferring Roma to her, and somebody tells her, “Face it, Don didn't change – his girlfriend did.”

As weird and cop-out like (space for a sequel, isn't it, you greedy bastards?) as the twist seemed, to me it sort of crowned the otherwise entertaining movie experience of BOTH films. I loved the plot of the original – it didn't really need any changes – but for the remake, that was the kicker, the thing that sort of spices the whole thing up and brings it to the new millennium. A little bit unfair to the viewer, a bit of a 'fuck you' to anybody who didn't even consider the possibility of it (I did always find it fishy that Don didn't die right away, BEFORE they got in contact with Vijay) but it's what made me leave the theater with a huge grin on my face.

I still don't think we need to catch the motherfucker in a sequel, though.

(This post was shamelessly copied from my original livejournal post - I decided I liked it so much it didn't need much editing.)