Blog | Amodini's Movie Reviews - Part 48Amodini's Movie Reviews | Movie Reviews by Year, Genre and Rating

Movie Preview : Bewakoofiyaan (releases 14th March 2014)

Posted on March 13, 2014 by amodini

Bewakoofiyaan releases tomorrow. High expectations from this one, because it is directed by Nupur Asthana who also directed the rather cute “Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge?”.
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Posted in 2014, bollywood, Previews, romance | 1 Comment

Movie Review : Queen (2014)

Posted on March 10, 2014 by amodini

Rating : Very Good (4.5/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2014
Running time : 2 hours 26 minutes
Director : Vikas Bahl
Cast : Kangana Ranaut, Rajkummar Rao, Lisa Haydon, Mish Boyko, Guithob Joseph, Jeffrey Chee Eng Ho
Kidwise : A, R

I had a pretty good idea, from the trailer, what this film was about. So no surprises there; the film is predictable. There is no hero (almost); only Ms. Ranaut to carry the film on her shoulders. She does it well. This film works. And how!

The film is about Rani (hence the title : Queen), a girl from Rajouri Garden, Delhi. Rani’s dad owns a mithai ki dukan, a sweet shop and they live in middle-class affluence; a conservative Punjabi family with a sweet, docile daughter. In time, budding engineer Vijay, the son of family friends, falls in love with this docile, obedient girl, and the two being willing, a date is set for the marriage. Vijay (Rajkumar) returns from London, where he is working, for the wedding. The day before the wedding he summons Rani to a cafe and calls off the wedding. Rani is shocked and flustered, and after much weeping, decides to go on her honeymoon alone. That is when her journey really begins.

I have very few complaints with this film. The story, screenplay, direction and acting was great. The characters felt very real, from Rani’s protective parents to Vijay and his smarmy family. The settings feel authentic and the little details are just right. Rani herself was beautifully drawn, a hesitant, unassuming plain jane, going to college and helping out at the shop. All she’s ever done is listened to her parents, and done what everyone wanted, and what was “allowed”, as she puts it. Her lonesome honeymoon is her own little rebellion, a trip she says she will not take if her parents disapprove. They, concerned parents that they are, let her go, with admonitions to be very careful, and to talk to them everyday.

Conservatively brought up Rani is shocked out of her middle-class sensibilities when she meets leggy, liberated Parisian hotel-maid VijayLaxmi (Lisa Haydon), and later other folk from different countries. This feel-good film picks up steam as Rani goes about her adventures, her eyes and her mind opening wider and wider to the array of possibilities. Kangana is spectacular as Rani, preserving Rani’s core of grace and good-heartedness throughout her transformation. Thanks to Kangana (and the script), towards the end of the film Rani does not turn into some revenge-seeking harridan (not that I’d have a problem with that), but a quiet, confident, and still soft-spoken woman. It is lovely to see!

Haydon does well as VijayLaxmi. The non-Indian cast of Mish Boyko (playing Russian Oleksander), Guithob Joseph (playing French Tim) and Jeffrey Chee Eng Ho (as Japanese Taka) were good, although the Japanese character seemed a tad cliched. The music of the film is another big plus, with the thrumming “London Thumakda”.

Importantly, this film shows how women are “kept in place”, by telling them that the restrictions on them are for their own good or because their actions will dishonor the family. It shows how docile daughters are created, and then turned into obedient wives who can’t work outside the home, can’t dance as they please, can’t roam around alone. It also shows how patriarchal society colludes to make girls believe that marriage is the ultimate goal, and that women denied that goal (like Rani) are only worthy of pity. When Rani discovers the truth, it sets her free.

In Bollywood where feminist films are rare, Queen is a breath of fresh air. It’s theme of empowerment/finding oneself is similar to that of “English-Vinglish”, but Queen does it better. Highly recommended!

Kidwise : This film is mostly clean. There are some scenes filmed in a sex-toy shop, and around women pole-dancing, hence the R rating from my side.

Posted in 2014, bollywood, drama, feminism, humor, outstanding, rating-A, rating-R, recommended, social issues, women | 16 Comments

What to Watch on Netflix Instant : Edition #16

Posted on February 20, 2014 by amodini

[amazon_link id=”0792846427″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]- Fargo (USA, 1996): I’ve watched this film a couple of times; it is an impeccable Coen brothers film. Frances Dormand is absolutely fantastic as pregnant Sheriff Marge Gunderson of Brainerd, Minnesota. William H. Macy is Jerry Lundegaard who is the manager of his overbearing father-in-laws’s car dealership. Jerry is in some financial trouble and all his attempts to extract money from the old man have proved futile. It’s too bad the police are involved now.

– 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days (“4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile”, Romania, 2007) : This is a gut-wrenching film about Gabita, a young pregnant woman who wants an abortion.

[amazon_link id=”B001NE5IZ4″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]The film is situated in Romania of the 1980s, under the Ceausescu regime, so abortions are illegal. Gabita’s roommate and friend Otilia helps her find an abortinist, a quack who warns and threatens, offers no guarantees and finally demands outrageous forms of payment for performing the illegal procedure.

This is a pretty stark film about the desperation of women who have been shorn of their reproductive choices, a bleak lesson to those of us who would want to suppress women’s rights in the name of religion. This excellent film won among others, the Palme d’Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

[amazon_link id=”B0041KT3NK” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]- Cairo Time (Canada, 2009) : This wistful romantic drama stars the luminous and graceful Patricia Clarkson as Juliette Grant, visiting her husband in Cairo. As her husband is embroiled in some emergency or other, away from Cairo, Juliette is shepherded through town by her husband’s friend, Egyptian native Tareq Khalifa.

American Juliette, unused to the jostling, staring men on the streets and the spaces reserved exclusively for men, finds comfort in Tareq’s erudite company and he comes to value hers.

This is a slow paced, delicate film, wonderfully wrought.

[amazon_link id=”B00BMW82YG” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]- My Worst Nightmare (“Mon pire cauchemar”, France, 2011) : I could almost see this as a Bollywood masala film, since this was a trifle outlandish, but overall fun film. Agathe’s son is great friends with the son of uncouth oddjob-man Patrick. When her husband (Andre Dussolier) hires Patrick to do some longstanding repairs at their home, Agathe (Isabelle Huppert) finds him constantly underfoot, butting in with his opinion and unwanted advice.

This unusual romance has humor and the very French quirkiness I’ve remarked on before. Do watch.

[amazon_link id=”B0041ETK0M” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]- Udaan (India, 2010) : This is one of the few remarkable films to come out of India, and I’ve seen it more than once. It is about a father-son relationship, the father rigid and harsh and unyielding and his teenaged son, home from boarding school, on the cusp of youth, hopeful and tentative and wanting his father’s affection.

Great performances all around, and some very slick direction make this moving, poignant film stand out. Here is the detailed review, and here are clips of the wonderful poetry featured in the film.

Posted in 2014, All Netflix, bollywood, comedy, crime, drama, feminism, foreign, french, goofy, Hindi movies on Netflix, Netflix Recommendations, romance, social issues, WhaTWON, women | Comments Off

Movie Preview : Shaadi Ke Side Effects (28th Feb 2014)

Posted on February 15, 2014 by amodini

Remember Pyaar Ke Side Effects? Here’s life a few years later : Shaadi Ke Side Effects by the same director Saket Chaudhary. SKSE stars Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan.

Posted in 2014, bollywood, humor, Previews | Comments Off

Movie Review : Hasee Toh Phasee (2014)

Posted on February 9, 2014 by amodini

Rating : Below Average (2.5/5)
Genre : Romance/Comedy
Year : 2014
Running Time : 2 hour 20 minutes
Director : Vinil Mathew
Cast : Parineeti Chopra, Sidharth Malhotra, Adah Sharma, Manoj Joshi, Sharat Saxena, Nina Kulkarni
Kidwise : G

This film is billed as a rom-com, but alas, it is neither. I did not like it. If you have pre-made your mind about seeing this film, read no further, since I will tell exactly you why you shouldn’t. You’ll have to go the theater with a sad face, and who wants to do that?

Nikhil Bharadwaj (Sidharth Malhotra) meets Meeta Solanki (Parineeti Chopra) briefly. She disappears and he moves on with his life , meeting and falling in love with Karishma (Adah Sharma). Nikhil is on the verge of tying the knot with Karishma when Meeta reappears. Chaos ensues.

Going by the trailer, I was so looking forward to this film. That trailer is actually better than the film, since it takes all the good parts (few though they were) and strings them together. You’d think that a romance starring a good-looking young man and peppy Parineeti Chopra would succeed, but director Mathew manages the impossible: he sucks out all the spontaneity and the joie-de-vivre out of this film with a lazy, laggard screenplay.

The first half of the film is SLOW. By the intermission, the hero-heroine have barely set eyes on each other. I for one, was still trying to figure out logistics, because this is a love-tale with large families included – one Gujju and one Punju. Hilarious right? Or so the director thinks. The play-by-play is exhausting, especially pre-interval, because it is spent in very slow build-up.

For a romance to work on screen, there must be a reasonable lead pair (there is), and sparks must fly (they didn’t). No snap, no crackle, no pop. No oomph! Nikhil Bharadwaj and Meeta Solanki talk to each other in half-phrases, all raised eyebrows, and contrived situations. They might connect on cricket talk, and yes, we do see them gallivanting over to late-night eateries, where they split drinks, but I’m not sure if it goes any deeper. Where is the love/passion/warm-fuzzy-emotion-thingy? Is this what a modern lovey-dovey pair looks like? Is this how the young talk and serenade each other now? And are they really this boring? Someone fetch me a pillow already!

The lead pair aren’t very realistically defined. The guy owns and runs an event management company, so he is, we are led to believe, a somewhat pushy, street-smart Punjabi brat. Now Malhotra is many things, but he does not look like a rugged, jugadu sort of a person. He’s got the Matt Damon kinda face – he looks like a nice person, a good guy. So, he’s a bad fit for this role. The girl is an IIT-ian, a female nerd, who goes to great lengths to continue her scientific research. But then, and this is where I have problems, this lady geek also very easily dons a backless choli and lehenga and becomes the life of the party – very inconsistent. Also, it’d have been nice if we had some evidence of her great brain-power, because all this supposedly smart person can do is get into mounds of trouble and run back to family/look to the hero to extricate her. The romance, such as it is, stems from the 2 person Pity Party – she is pitiful, and he pities her.

I mean, I can picture what the director thought he was making : Jugadu Punjabi Brat with Heart Of Gold meets Helpless Almost Bi-polar female Gujrati Nerd. And, and . . . (wait for it) Love Blooms! Unfortunately, this film is far removed from that vision, or very close (and really, I am not being sarcastic AND bitter), depending on your point-of-view.

What worked? Very little. The songs are lovely. Some of the minor characters were very well-done – like Nikhil’s mom (Nina Kulkarni) who is a placid housewife with an unexpected talent for classical singing. Then there is the beat-bopping weirdo cousin who fancies himself the Almost Kanpur-ia Idol and has a thing for Meeta. Adah Sharma does very well as the we’re on-we’re off fiancee.

This film is an exquisitely wasted opportunity; in the hands of a director who knew what he was doing, HTP could have been spectacular. As it is, it is a mildly boring snoozefest.

Kidwise : Clean. As clean as it gets.

Posted in 2014, bollywood, cringe-worthy, rating-G, romance | Comments Off

Movie Review : The LunchBox (2013)

Posted on February 6, 2014 by amodini

Rating : Very Good (4.5/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2013
Running time : 1 hour 45 minutes
Director : Ritesh Batra
Cast : Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Lilette Dubey, Nakul Vaid
Kidwise : G

The film starts off showing us a young Mumbai housewife Ila (Nimrat Kaur), carefully packing lunch for her husband. The lunch is picked up by a dabbawala and dropped off at her husband’s place of work. Cut to an office-goer opening up his lunch, dabba by dabba (or layer by layer if you please) entranced by the smell. When the lunchbox reaches back to the housewife that very same afternoon, (such is the dabbawala efficiency) she finds to her amazement that it is completely empty, every morsel eaten, as though it had been licked clean.

Ila is extremely happy, we can tell. Later in the evening, the husband (Vaid) returns, and lo and behold! It is not the same man. Her carefully packed lunch has been eaten by a stranger, a fact she realizes as she questions her non-effusive, bored husband. The next day Ila puts in a note to the stranger, and thus begins a story in notes, non-committal and wary at first, but steadily confiding in each other daily musings and infractions. Ila has found a friend in Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan), a reclusive, curt office-worker set to retire very soon.

The Lunch Box is a delicate film, subtle and unhurried, forcing us to pick-up on unseen threads. We come to know of Ila and her family, and the auntie the floor above, who keeps Ila company with her Hindi film music and the sharing of recipes and vegetables. We see Saajan’s lonely life after the death of his wife, and his slow friendship with newcomer Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) at the office. And we see his face light up as he reads Ila’s notes.

There are also little flourishes showing us Indian society – little snapshots of life appearing for a few seconds on the screen – Ila’s put-upon mother (Dubey) struggling to pay her husband’s medical bills with a married daughter who is of little help, Shaikh who loves and lives with Mehrunissa much against her families wishes, and Ila herself, helpless and trapped in a loveless marriage. This film treats each character gently, importantly, exposing before us the poignant, hidden details of their lives. There is such delicacy in this film and such hope.

Irrfan Khan is fabulous, and Nimrat Kaur, as the housewife teetering on the verge of giving up, puts up a performance to match his. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is a treasure, giving a gorgeous, finely tuned portrayal of the persistent office-worker who must take over Saajan’s duties on his retirement.

The Lunch Box is a gorgeous, gorgeous film – highly recommended.

Kidwise : Clean. Since this is dialog-heavy and nuance-filled, it might be boring for the little ones.

Posted in 2013, 2014, bollywood, drama, humor, outstanding, rating-G, recommended, social issues | 8 Comments

Movie Preview : Highway (21st Feb 2014)

Posted on February 1, 2014 by amodini

Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda? Who would’ve thunk it? From the trailer Highway looks like Stockholm Syndrome in Kashmir, but this is an Imtiaz Ali product, so there’s got to be more. Here’s a preview:

Posted in 2014, bollywood, Previews | 2 Comments

Movie Review : Dedh Ishqiya (2014)

Posted on January 28, 2014 by amodini

Rating : Good (4/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2014
Running time : 2 hours 32 minutes
Director : Abhishek Chaubey
Cast : Naseeruddin Shah, Madhuri Dixit, Arshad Warsi, Huma Qureshi
Kid rating : PG-13

“Dedh Ishqiya” is a better film than it’s prequel “Ishqiya”, and that, if you will recall, was not half bad either. In this too, we follow the colorful life of small time conmen Khalu Iftekhar (Shah) and his nephew Babban (Arshad Warsi). These two have gotten separated after their last heist – the theft of an expensive necklace from a jewelery shop. Babban searches for Khalu, but he seems to have disappeared.

Khalu Iftekhar finally resurfaces posing as a Nawabi poet at a swayamvar-styled extravaganza in Mahmudabad, where the late Nawab’s widow, the beautiful and wealthy Begum of Mahmudabad (Madhuri Dixit) will pick the best poet as a husband. Babban attaches himself to Khalu as a servant, and also attempts to attach himself to the Begum’s beautiful companion Munniya (Huma Qureshi). Together they plan a kidnapping.

The first half of the film is a little slow, dragging it’s way through shayiri and old-world romance. The Urdu is so dense that were it not for the subtitles I might not have understood some of the dialogues. The lead actors are all impeccable. Madhuri is diva-like as the beautiful Begum Mahmudabad, and Huma Qureshi delivers another class act. Shah and Warsi need no further accolades accomplished artists that they are. Vijay Raaz (remember him from “Delhi Belly”?), superbly portraying the villanous Jaan Mohammed, local MLA, goon and the Begum’s admirer extraordinaire, lends the quirk to this comely cast of characters. I must also mention Manoj Pahwa who plays poet Noor Mohammad “Italvi”, the sobriquet hinting at his Italian ancestry.

Post intermission, the plot thickens. The plot-twists pile up on each other. I can only describe it as Tarantino-esque; the characters reign supreme with their affected mannerisms and peculiarities, the plot unfolds with such zaniness and forethought that you are left chuckling after the fact.

The film remains true to it’s setting, and it’s well-done tone lets us sink back and enjoy this kingly drama. The characters might have mobile phones – there is a delicious scene where Babban is berating Muniya on her technological backwardness clinging to an iPhone 2, when he already has an iPhone 5 – but they remain robed in Nawabi attire, live in decrepit palaces, travel by tongas, and speak only the most chaste Urdu.

Dedh Ishqiya is an entertaining watch. You might require a little patience during the first half, but stick with it and all will be well 🙂 .

Kidwise : A few scenes/dialogues require some parental discretion, but on the whole pretty safe for 13+.