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

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+.

Posted in 2014, bollywood, drama, goofy, quirky, rating-PG13, sequel | 3 Comments

Movie Preview : Hasee Toh Phasee (7th Feb 2014)

Posted on January 23, 2014 by amodini

You might remember Siddharth from “Student Of The Year”. Here he returns with peppy Parineeti Chopra (of Shuddh Desi Romance fame). HTP is produced by Karan Johar and Anurag Kashyap; Kashyap’s inclusion gives me hope that this will be more than Johar-esque flimflam. Here’s my favorite of the nice soundtrack – I like this better than the official trailer :

Posted in 2014, bollywood, Previews, romance | 5 Comments

What to Watch on Netflix Instant : Edition #15

Posted on January 18, 2014 by amodini

[amazon_link id=”B00BB8XEJY” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]- Little White Lies (“Les petits mouchoirs”, France, 2010) : I loved this film. This is a fine, fine film, and one of the best movies I have seen recently. The movie is about a group of friends who vacation together every year, and it focusses on the relationships between them.

It is directed by Guillame Canet who also directed the thriller “Tell No One”, and it stars lovely Marion Cotillard, Gilles Lellouche (who was also in the fantastic “Point Blank”) and Francois Cluzet among others. For Hindi film lovers, this is like “Dil Chahta Hai” + “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara”. But better.

[amazon_link id=”B001FOPOD8″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]– Timecrimes (“Los cronocrímenes”, Spain, 2007) : This is my favorite kind of sci-fi film – a time-travel movie. In this film, our very ordinary protagonist Hector travels back in time by one hour, via a handy-dandy time-machine. Trouble is, he’s not the only one using the time-machine. Plus there’s a masked man running around with a very sharp object. Things get messy, and keep getting messier as Hector attempts to sort out the original problem.

This film has a nice dose of suspense, with some violence and general creepiness. Don’t take any bathroom breaks during this one, or you’ll lose the plot.

[amazon_link id=”B0036RPM8Y” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]– The Messenger (USA, 2009) : Woody Harrelson is one of my favorite actors. He delivers in every role, making you believe he is what he says he is. In this film he is Captain Tony Stone, the bearer of bad news, because he is the messenger who delivers news of death to a soldier’s next of kin. He is joined by Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) who is back in the States recuperating from a war injury.

It is a hard job, delivering this message to wives, parents, husbands and it takes a toll on the stoic messenger. Harrelson and Foster make you feel for them and for the many innocent victims of war. Great film, if a bit of a downer.

[amazon_link id=”B005MMY7GO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]- Kai Po Che (India, 2012) : A Hindi film about three fast friends and their struggle to maintain their friendship, this was one of my Top 10 Films of 2013. Kai Po Che is based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel “The 3 mistakes of My Life”. It’s heartfelt, with realistic locales and language, and develops each character finely.

Here is the complete review.

– Bill Cunningham New York (USA, 2011) : This documentary is about fashion photographer Bill Cunningham, his work and the city he did most of his work in – New York. The film focuses on the 80 year old photographer, and his point of view, chronicling the way fashion sensibilities change. We see him on the street taking photos of passers by, at home and with other personalities of the fashion business, all of whom seem to hold him in high regard. A very interesting film indeed!

Posted in 2014, All Netflix, bollywood, book to film, documentary, drama, english, french, Hindi movies on Netflix, hollywood, Netflix Recommendations, recommended, sci-fi, spanish, suspense, WhaTWON | 1 Comment

The Music of Mademoiselle Chambon

Posted on January 13, 2014 by amodini

[amazon_link id=”B0045W9D3E” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]I recently saw Mademoiselle Chambon on Netflix, and while I didn’t care for the film too much, the soundtrack of the film is magnificent. It is composed of classic violin pieces, played in the film by the female protagonist, school teacher and accomplished violinist, Veronique Chambon. Vincent Lindon also stars in this film; I’d rather you see his 2009 movie “Welcome” rather than this one.

Anyway, here are three of the violin pieces Mlle Chambon plays in the movie – “Salut d’amour” by Edward Elgar, “La Valse Triste” by Franz von Vecsey and Ange Ghinozzi’s “Remember Time”. There is also 1 vocal “Quel Joli Temps”, which appears in the film towards the end, as the credits roll. The remaining 5 pieces in the the video below are from movies I haven’t seen :-). Regardless, enjoy!

Posted in 2014, All Netflix, drama, foreign, french, music | Comments Off

Movie Review : Dhoom 3

Posted on January 9, 2014 by amodini

Rating : Average (3/5)
Genre : Action/Thriller
Year : 2013
Running time : 2 hours 52 minutes
Director : Vijay Krishna Acharya
Cast : Amir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Katrina Kaif, Uday Chopra
Kidwise : PG-13

Many die-hard Dhoom fans have told me that they didn’t like Dhoom 3. I wasn’t too thrilled with it myself, but then I didn’t like Dhoom 1 or Dhoom 2 either. I have to admit though, that relatively brainy and exacting Amir Khan’s entry into a heretofore brawn-preserve had upped the ante; I’d been looking forward to this just on the basis of his reputation. Alas it was not to be (Big Sigh); happiness eludes me yet again; my tears pool at my feet etc. etc.

The story is as such stories will be. Wily illusionist/magician Sahir (Amir Khan) is also a skilled thief, looting big US banks with an unnerving sleight of hand. Saahir lives with a traumatic memory – that of his father’s (Jackie Shroff) death after the failure of his venture The Great Indian Circus. The cause of death as Sahir sees it, is evil, cold Chicago banker Anderson, and since Sahir is the dutiful desi beta, his life’s goal is revenge. A few greenbacks on the side wouldn’t hurt either.

Aaliya (Katrina Kaif) is the amazing circus girl who has a thing for Sahir. And Abhishek Bachchan as ACP Jai Dixit, and Uday Chopra as Ali Akbar, are the nincompoop Indian policemen hot on his trail. Really, this film treads the old comfortable path except for a very interesting twist towards the middle and the unexpected ending.

Now, I’m not one for appearances, but Aamir’s wardrobe in this film does him no favors. You’d think that they’d take care to NOT dress a short, stocky actor in skintight jeans, knee-high-boots, mock-necked shirts and a bowler, but amazingly this is what they do! Exactly! To the T! Thus, Amir loses the neck he has, and appears almost a dwarf. And really, if your hero is a dwarf who has to literally look up to every other character in the film, your film is shot. Not that the desi public bothers about minor details like this – the last I heard Dhoom3 was making its way into the 300 crore club.

Dear Katrina is in the film only sparingly. She is mostly seen and not heard, which according to my husband is a good thing. Jackie Shroff looks very zombie-like, all deathly, dark under eye shadows and sallow complexion. One had hoped to never see him grace the silver screen again, but oh well! Uday Chopra has risen from retirement for this film (one must wonder why), and I hope he will go back to where he came from. Abhishek Bachchan hasn’t retired yet although it sure feels like it – here’s hoping he’ll pursue an alternate career in 2014. I feel for the guy – I really do. He has two super huge personalities to contend with. There’s Superstar Dad Amitabh Bachchan and Wonder Woman Wifey Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and together the two cast such a glow that Abhishek Baba is having a hard time just coming out from under their shadows.

On the plus side – yes, amazingly there is one – there are some interesting chases and some good CGI. Amir does as Amir will, so some good solid acting in a weak, ill-defined role. The problem with this film, from my very informal survey, was that it attempted to infuse some story (such as it was) into a film that should have been non-stop, mindless action. D3 definitely had some drama going on, only it was a tad psychotic and banked on good old desi familial emotional blackmail and melodrama. You could seriously make a case for abuse for Amir Khan’s character; if he wasn’t in this film, he would have spent years in therapy.

Relatively speaking, this movie is the least annoying of all the Dhooms. All said and done, the verdict is : OK for a one-time watch. Keep your expectations low, and you’ll be fine.

Kidwise : Relatively clean. Nothing to scar the kids with except for one dance number, a PG-13 strip-tease disguised as a circus act. In it, Aliya auditions for the Great Indian Circus, starts off in loose-fitting dungarees and a floppy hat and ends up in a sports bra and fairly teensy bike shorts. If she’d gone any further, that circus would have done very well.

Posted in 2013, bollywood, crime, cringe-worthy, drama, masala, rating-PG13, suspense, thriller | Comments Off

Bollywood Roundup : 2013

Posted on January 4, 2014 by amodini

[amazon_link id=”B00FOP6SOI” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ] Chennai Express - DVD (Hindi Movie / Bollywood Film / Indian Cinema) [/amazon_link]Good Hindi Movies are like a mirage – the closer you get the more it seems to deteriorate. Pickings were slim this past year, but nevertheless, I valiantly cobbled together for you The Best Movies of 2013, and the very best non-headache-giving songs Bollywood had to offer. Now here are the rest of the Hindi films of 2013:

– Bullett Raja
– Ram-Leela
– Besharam
– Krrish 3
– Fukrey

[amazon_link id=”B00F1RTVWA” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ] Lootera (Hindi Movie / Bollywood Film / Indian Cinema DVD) [/amazon_link]- [amazon_link id=”B00EHI03JE” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ] Raanjhanaa Hindi DVD (Bollywood/Indian/Cinema/2013/Film) [/amazon_link]- Chennai Express
– Lootera
– Aashiqui 2
– Raanjhanaa
– Nautanki Saala
– Aurangzeb
– Go Goa Gone
– Ek Thi Daayan
– Table No. 21
– Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola