Indian Film Festival Houston 2009

The Indian Film Festival will for the very first time be held in Houston, from Sept 21-25 2009. Local papers like the Voice of Asia have been covering this first-time-ever event, and in yesterday’s paper there was a full page ad for it. Their website has a schedule of the films being shown, with links to the various introductory shindigs, and the yet-to-happen post-event gala. In the shindig category comes the party at the Consul General Sanjiv Arora’s home and the photo on the main page prominently features folks like director Sutapa Ghosh, who is Houston based, and actually President of a company called CinemaWalla (I clicked on the link at the bottom and found that CinemaWalla actually has ventures in film, wine and steel – yeah steel !)

The film selection is a little desultory – I had hoped to see films like “Little Zizhoo” and “Sita sings the blues” here, but the only one I recognize from the festival circuit is “Smile Pinki”. Premiering here is Deepti Naval’s “Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane Ki Baarish”, and Sushil Rajpal’s Antardwand. “Do paise ki dhoop, chaar aane ki baarish” premiered in Cannes, so it isn’t exactly the World Premiere (as stated on the Website), unless the US is the world 🙂 . It stars Rajit Kapur and Manisha Koirala, and if Naval is as good behind the camera as she was in front of it, this will be a film to wait for.

And Antardwand actually released in 2007, and hasn’t seen the light of day in the US until now – it will subsequently also be screened at the South Asian International Film Festival in New York this October . It is about the practice of bridegroom abduction, (common I’m told in parts of Bihar) and stars among the known faces, Vinay Pathak and Raja Chaudhary.

Supriyo Sen’s 10 minute documentary titled “Wagah” will also be screened. Wagah won the 6th Berlin Today Award at the Berlin Film Festival, 2009. Wagah , which is about the change of guard ritual at the Wagah border, is Sen’s third film.

Posted in 2009, film festival, recommended | 4 Comments

Bollywood dance as genre

The series “Bollywood Hero” starring Chris Kattan and Neha Dhupia started on TV sometime back. I posted about a Flash Dance Mob which happened in Times Square, here. Fellow blogger Shelby, who blogs at BelbCorinne posted a comment on the blog with various video links of “Bollywood” dances outside of India, some done as a genre in TV programmes like “So you think you can dance !”.

I do watch “So you think you can dance” sometimes but must admit have never seen these dance performances. These technically are quite superb. The dancers themselves are so physically fit, that they seem to have no trouble in difficult squatting motions, or those requiring some athletic ability. I don’t think there are many Bollywood stars in India that are this fit. Bollywood dances are a lot of gyrations – and they are a lot. The dance steps change every 10 seconds, and you do not actually realize this until you try and copy the exact movements and discover that they are a lot harder than they look.

However, what didn’t work for me in these technically great performances, was the lack of emotion or “bhava”. Besides that, in most of the typical Bollywood-ian dances, it’s 30% dance and 70% attitude. And if it seems that the dancers are dancing without understanding what they are dancing to, or not in touch with the “meaning” of the song, then it does lose some beauty.

So while these guys (Caitlin and Jason) are technically good, they are for one, a bit too ballet-ish, and appear to not understand the song (which they probably don’t). Plus I’m cringing at her split skirt, and some of her out-there dance movements.

In terms of athletic and dancing ability, I do think there is none better than Hrithik Roshan in Bollywood. His “Main aisa kyun hai” routine in Lakshya is superb. I watched this on a program on TV first being done by the choreographer, Prabhu Deva (who is also a very good dancer) and then Hrithik in the film, and it looked better on Hrithik than on his teacher !

And while am not a big fan of Govinda (that Supreme Pelvis Grinder), he really is a very good dancer – dances like he’s having loads of fun and feeling it. Here’s a fun vintage Govinda-Raveena number :

Posted in 2009, bollywood, dance | 2 Comments

Blogging update

Currently this blog contains movie review, previews, film recommendation lists (Top 10 by genre, Top 10 by year etc.), while my other blog “Review Room” contains general Bollywood related articles, Hollywood movie reviews, book reviews, opinion pieces and posts of a general nature. I have been contemplating bringing all the movie related stuff under one roof, or one blog (so to speak), so I will be moving all the filmi stuff (Bollywood and Hollywood) from “Review Room” to this one, and making that a purely “general-stuff” blog, and this one focussed on films and filmy news. What that means for you as reader is additional :

– Hollywood reviews, such as this and this
– “Newsy” articles/opinion pieces relating to the film industry such as this and this
– Frequent and fresh blog posts !

Onwards and upwords, sayeth the Blogger !

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Review : A Wednesday

  • Rating : Above average (3.85/5)
    Genre : Drama
    Year : 2008
    Running time : 2 hours 15 minutes
    Director : Neeraj Pandey
    Cast : Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah, Jimmy Shergill, Aamir Baashir, Deepal Shaw
    Kid rating : PG13

A WEDNESDAY : SMART, SUSPENSE-FILLED DRAMA

“A Wednesday” is a small budget movie. Yes, it does star Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah, but is a plain, rather stark drama, without the usual song-dance-melodrama routines. So it didn’t get released in the theater here in my city; it probably didn’t make commercial sense, and I, for lack of a better alternative, saw it on DVD.

This film hinges on 4 main characters, 3 of them policemen. Anupam Kher plays Police Superintendent Prakash Rathod, while Aamir Bashir plays Inspector Jai Singh, and Jimmy shergill Inspector Arif Khan. The three are honest, able police officers, doing their duty diligently. One fine day, they receive a call from an unknown person who threatens to place bombs around the city and kill innocents if certain terrorists, currently in police custody, are not handed over to him. The cops are in a fix, because letting the terrorists go back to their compatriots is an untenable option, but so is allowing the bombing of citizenry. Their only hope of preventing disaster is finding this mystery man before he can do damage . . .

This is an unusual drama for a Bollywood film, because it totally lacks masala – no romantic angle, no dances/item numbers, or the sheen of expensive cinematography. It is a straight-up drama focusing on the characters and the story. While the story is an attention-grabber, and the pace of the film brisk, the direction is just about adequate, and the editing, at times, a bit abrupt. There are also moments in the film, where the director/script-writer went over-board trying to be edgy, and then the dialogues seemed a little unreal/clichéd.

However the film cannot be faulted on its cast. Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah need no introductions. They carry the weight of the film, and quite rightly so – their performances are flawless. Shergill suits his character – that of a young, angry, violence-prone officer, while Bashir brings credibility to his calm, composed character. Deepal Shaw (remember her from the music videos ?) has too small a role, as a journalist, to be of any consequence.

On the whole, an interesting, smart, suspense-filled drama which keeps one guessing, this one is very much worth your time. If I could fault it, I’d fault it on the technical aspects (like editing, and a screenplay which seemed amateurish at times), and on trying too hard to “get with it”. However, considering the fact that we have not very many movies of this genre, and these are generally not commercial successes, the director and producer must be lauded on bringing such a worthy product to screen.

Kidwise : This one is relatively clean film, but gets a PG13 rating for it’s adult theme, and violence.

Posted in 2008, bollywood, drama, rating-PG13, recommended, thriller | 3 Comments

Review : Kaminey

kam01

Note : The edited version of this review appears at Planet Bollywood, here.

Rating : Excellent (4.4/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2009
Running time : 2 hours 15 minutes
Director : Vishal Bharadwaj
Cast : Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Amole Gupte, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Tenzing Nima
Kid rating : PG-13

KAMINEY : ENGROSSING MIX OF ARTY AND COMMERCIAl CINEMA !

Need I spell out the obvious ? Need I tell you that it’s all true – the hype, the adoring reviews, the awe ? Because it is; Kaminey is all I’d hoped for and then some. Vishal Bharadwaj’s directorial venture after his last Omkaara, which released in 2006, Kaminey is the ultimate mix of arty and commercial cinema, giving us quality-hungry folk what we desire most – a classy, captivating film.

As I said in the preview this is the story of two unique heroes, twin brothers with speech impediments; Charlie lisps, and Guddu stammers. Good-natured, honest Guddu is in trouble with Sunil “Chopper” Bhope (Amol Gupte), a Maharashtrian political criminal, when Bhope finds out that Guddu has impregnated his (Bhope’s) sister Sweety (Priyanka). Small-time crook Charlie, having gotten his hands on some contraband, finds it being whisked away from under his nose, and digs in his heels. Both must fight their way out of this chaos, Guddu for the love of his life, and Charlie for his big-time dreams.

The story is a lark and Bhardwaj has fun with it. Along with subtle humor, we are also treated to moments of irony; Guddu, who for his NGO, advocates the usage of condoms, doesn’t wear one himself, and lands himself in a predicament. There are gun-toting, eccentric villains galore, from the trio of Bangla brothers for whom Charlie works, to the very Mumbaikar Bhope and the North-eastern Tashi . And the story uses their “local” nuances to define their characters; the Bengali brothers spout Bangla in passion, Mumbaikar Bhope has an aversion for the migrant U.P-ite, while Tashi must prevent a business deal with his African brothers-in-law from going sour.

One might not imagine that heroes with speech impediments would actually hold interest, but then one probably hasn’t figured Shahid Kapur into the mix. Shahid plays both Guddu and Charlie with aplomb; ruthless Charlie smilingly telling Bhope that he pronounces “Fa for Fa” (Fa for Sa), or Guddu stammering so hard on being questioned by the cops that one wondered if he would even finish the sentence. Shahid was always a good actor, but in this film, we finally glimpse the acting chops he has inherited from his father, Pankaj Kapoor.

Priyanka also outdoes herself as Sweety. Shrill in anger, squeaky with relief, or tremulous with emotion – she does it all well. Amol Gupte, the writer of the sensitive kiddie film “Taare Zameen par” makes a convincing villain, as ready-to-sell-my-own-mother Bhope. And Chandan Sanyal was impressive as Mikhail, Charlie’s friend and partner-in-crime. The rest of the supporting cast is also very effective and believable.

The film’s screenplay is delightful, and Bharadwaj, as expected wields the directorial reins firmly. Kaminey has some excellent music, also provided by Bharadwaj ; while the almost cult number “Dhan-te-nan” is dance-floor and action-groovy, the soft ballad like tones of “Mohabbat ki hain” are firmly entrenched in new-found love.

Kaminey (Bollywood Movie, Indian Cinema, Hindi Film / DVD)Kaminey is a good film – the kind of film that I would want more of, and more often. However if there was one thing that I would have qualms about, it would be the almost potboiler-ish ending, because it seemed so in-your-face and obvious for an otherwise subtle and nuanced film.

Kidwise : This gets a PG-13 rating for gun-fight sequences, and some strong violence.

Tags : Kaminey movie reviews, Kaminey film reviews, Kaminey review, Kaminey reviews, reviews of Kaminey

Posted in 2009, All Netflix, bollywood, drama, Hindi movies on Netflix, outstanding, rating-PG13, recommended | 13 Comments

Upcoming films : August 2009

This is a new “column” which will appear at the begining of every month, with information on the new films of the month, their directors and actors. Here’s the first one for the month of August :








Release Date Film Title Genre Director Actors
Aug 14 Kaminey Drama Vishal Bhardwaj Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Amol Gupte
Aug 14 Life Partner Comedy Rumi Jaffrey Fardeen Khan, Tusshar Kapoor, Govinda, Genelia D’Souza, Prachi Desai
Aug 14 Mohan Das – A man lost in his own nation Drama Mazhar Kamran Sonali Kulkarni, Sushant Singh, Nakul Vaid
Aug 28 Kisaan Drama Puneet Sira Jackie Shroff, Sohail Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Dalip Tahil, Dia Mirza
Posted in bollywood, Previews | Tagged | Comments Off on Upcoming films : August 2009

Preview : Kaminey

And now that you’ve read the background on Vishal Bharadwaj, you know why “Kaminey” is one of the most anticipated films of the year.

kaminey1Keeping in line with his previous films, this one stars different people (unlike say the Bhatt or RGV camp where films star the same people over and over again). There’s Shahid Kapoor in a double role – and what’s with the double role these says ? There was the lovely Mithya, and Love Aaj Kal (well sort-of) and now this. Are we seeing a resurgence of the campy 80s style of story-telling ? And there’s Priyanka Chopra. Now she’s been getting meatier roles recently; there was Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion, which actually gave her room to emote, and she did good. And there’s Amol Gupte, write of “Taare Zameen par”. Am curious to see him – what exactly do writers look like on celluloid ?

kaminey2Anyway, Shahid plays Guddu – the good twin, and Charlie – the not-so good twin. Guddu, walking the straight and narrow, stammers. Charlie – taking the shorter route via betting courses, lisps. No love lost between these too, they keep away from each other. Guddu loves Sweety (Priyanka as a Maharashtrian mulgi), but complications arise. Charlie, is cheated on the job. Both twins are hot-footing it to get away from their respective enemies, when their lives intersect once again…

As a kid in the 80s I saw a whole lot of movies. And endured their sub-standard background scores. Recall, all of you that can, the music that would come on when something momentous was about to happen ? It was always the same, in each and every film. Whether it was Amjad Khan maro-ing an entry, as only he could, or the villain about to abduct the hero’s wife/mother/sister/girlfriend, the familiar “Dhan-te-nan” resounded in the background. So, it gives me great pleasure in realizing that this director has turned our collective exasperation into a wonderful number. The title ? “Dhan to nan” . Justice is sweet and melodious !

The song is picturised on an unusually aggresive-looking Shahid Kapoor (presumably as Charlie) – take a dekko :

And lastly, if you’ve not listened to the music of this film yet, please do – it’s high on the Awesomeness Quotient. See you at the theatre, August 14, first day, first show !

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Directors to watch out for : Vishal Bharadwaj

OmkaraThe filmi Gods are smiling down on me. Last week, “Love Aaj Kal” by Imtiaz ali, and next week, “Kaminey” by Vishal Bhardwaj! I am in Bollywood-ian heaven. Because really, I ask for so little; one fantastic desi film by a fantastic desi director, per week (or two).

Vishal Bharadwaj is that rare breed of Indian director, who can be firmly put into the “Bonafide Genius” category. If you’ve watched any of his past films (Omkara, Maqbool, The Blue Umbrella, Makdee) you already know this. His films are world-class; they certainly make it to my Top 10. The man not only directs, he also writes, and composes music. Wow ! And it isn’t ordinary direction, and it certainly isn’t ordinary music. I am so in awe of this director’s talent. When I retire because this blog has made me pots of money (yeah, right !) and I relax in the backyard, martini in hand, I WILL spend all my time composing odes to his work.

Here’s a short scene from Maqbool :

He started directing with “Makdee” which was a kid’s film, and starred Shabana Azmi as a “witch”. “The Blue Umbrella” is based upon Ruskin Bond’s book of the same name, whereas Omkaara and Maqbool are adaptations of Shakespeare’s work (Othello and Macbeth respectively).

Bharadwaj is also a music director and composer of some repute. He started off small, playing the harmonium for little known ghazal singers in the Delhi area, but has now given the music to most of Gulzar’s projects, including and after Maachis (remember “Chappa chappa charka chale” ?), and has also served as music director for films like Satya and “Dil pe mat le yaar“, besides his self-directed productions.

He is married to singer Rekha Bharadwaj – she of the nasal voice which sits so well on Bipasha Basu.

Posted in bollywood, directors, lists, recommended | Tagged | 2 Comments

Review : Luck

LuckRating : Below average (2.5/5)
Genre : Suspense/Action/Thriller
Year : 2009
Running time : 2 hours 30 minutes
Director : Soham Shah
Cast : Imran Khan, Shruti Hassan, Danny Denzongpa, Sunjay Dutt, Ram Kishen, Mithun Chakraborty, Chitrashi Rawat
Kid rating : PG-13

LUCK : THE 80s DONE WRONG !

I am so glad that Hindi cinema has changed for the better. Where once the old formulas of romance and dhishum-dhishum ruled we now have films which take on un-conventional (for desi audiences) subjects, like murder mysteries (Manorama six feet under), personal angst-causing tales (Main meri patni aur woh) or even thoughtful romances (the recent Love Aaj Kal). So, it’s kind of a major let-down to see a film like “Luck”, with it’s almost caricaturish villains, cryptic, loaded dialogues (do real villains really have the time to compose talk like that ?) and odes to mindless (and ridiculous) violence.

The film’s plot centers on “lucky” people. Almost all the main characters are lucky people, a fact noticed by “luck-trader” Musa bhai (Sanjay Dutt). Ram Mehra (Imran), Ayesha (Shruti), ex-jailbird Raghav (Ram Kisshen), Major Jabbar Pratap Singh (Mithun), Short-cut (Chitrashi Rawat) are considered lucky and happen to be desperate for money. Musa along with his henchman Lakhan Tamang (Danny) rounds up these people and persuades them to enter a life-and-death game with a high payout. If they survive they get the loot. If they don’t – well, dead men don’t talk, much less ask for their share.

There are lots of things wrong with this film. Firstly, the casting – Imran Khan is the spitting image of Mr. Goody-2-Shoes, so why cast him as an aggresive, possibly negative character ? He might work (and I’m just speculating here) in a film like “Johnny Gaddar” or in a “Khosla ka Ghosla“, but in a movie where there is no dearth of menacing faces, he doesn’t stand a chance. Then there is Chitrashi Rawat, who plays a camel jockey. Now I’ve got to hand it to her, for her short stature she has a large swagger. She’s a decent actress, but where’s the personality ? Ram Kisshen is paisa-vasool though; his sneering I-know-something-you-don’t attitude works quite well here. Sunjay Dutt is in his “bhai”-wala avatar, so it’s all dark glasses and glowering glances from him. And Danny is Danny and Mithun is Mithun – predictable and boring.

And now for the debutante of the week (or not) Shruti Hassan, Kamal Hassan and Sarika’s daughter. I was pretty curious to see her in action, because (and I’m probably dating myself here) I remember reading about Kamal Hassan’s controversial break-up with first wife Vani Ganapathy – Vani castigated the affair in print (Filmfare et. al.), slapped Sarika, the works. One is therefore naturally curious to see how the product of that union turned out. Shruti looks a lot like her mother, tall, graceful, slim and svelte and dances well. She can’t emote though, which if she’s inherited her acting genes from her parents, might improve with time.

“Luck” tries to be a “thriller”, but also has the obligatory romance-dance routines. There is also the “desi” emotional pull – Ram has a Maa to please, and army-man Singh has an ailing wife. This is a mish-mash of all things masala, with nothing done right. Directorial focus is a thing unknown here and the script, merely a tool to thread together the item numbers with the inane stunts. All that said, if I had to choose the worst thing about this movie, I’d say the dialogues were atrocious – and Danny had the major chunk of the worst ones. The songs might be the only silver lining – and it’s a mighty thin lining at that; I quite liked “Jee Le”.

The director Soham Shah also directed the very forgettable “Kaal“, so it’s not like I was expecting quality here, but “Luck” turned out to be ghastlier than expected. It starts off OK, but morphs pretty quickly into a C-grade film. Verdict : Keep away.

Kid-wise : This earns itself a PG-13 rating, for the violence and glorification of the “bhai”/criminal types.

Tags : Movie Review Luck, Review Luck, Luck Review, Luck Movie Review, Luck film review

Posted in 2009, action, bollywood, drama, rating-PG13, thriller | 2 Comments

Review : Love Aaj Kal

Note : The edited version of this review appears at Planet Bollywood, here .

Rating : Very good (4.3/5)
Genre : Romance
Year : 2009
Running time : 2 hours 30 minutes
Director : Imtiaz Ali
Cast : Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Rishi Kapoor, Rahul Khanna, Raj Zutshi, Vir Das, Giselle Monteiro
Kid rating : PG

LOVE AAJ KAL (MOVIE REVIEW) : ROMANTIC RAH-RAH !

Romeo and Juliet, Heer-Ranjha, Shirin-Farhad and all those other love stories – they are only for the books and the movies, right ? Ever seen it happen right in your midst ? (And I don’t mean neighboring Gupta aunty’s daughter who eloped with her motorcycle-wala boy-friend in the middle of the night). What I‘m asking you to do is re-ponder the age old question : What is love ? Does it exist ? More importantly, does it ever happen to us, the aam junta, the mango people ? Fear not – I have not had one drink too many on this Friday night, nor am I drowning in existential angst (not yet anyway) – I am merely quoting a line from “Love Aaj Kal”.

The movie attempts to answer the above question by example. The questioner here is Jai Vardhan Singh (Saif) who’s living in the UK, dreaming of working for the Golden Gate Company in San Francisco, and in the meanwhile trying not to “pile-on” to beautiful girls. While trying the whole “don’t mean to pile-on, but” routine, he meets beautiful Meera Pandit (Deepika). They hit it off, which subsequently leads to a relationship. When their careers dictate that they move to different countries, they part amicably, and move on with their lives . . .

Championing the cause of true love in the film, is Sardar Veer Singh (Rishi Kapoor). A nosy old man who won’t stop prying into Jai’s love life, Veer Singh also relates his youthful tale of love for the beautiful Harleen Kaur. The Veer-Harleen sequence runs parallel to the Jai-Meera storyline, contrasting the ways of yester-year and modern day love.

This film with it’s dual-track love-stories falls strongly into the romance genre. However it’s not your frothy, bubbly romance, a la “Jab we met” , but more of a tale of “difficult” love – i.e.; finding “The One”, and on finding him/her (if you do), the more onerous task of knowing if this is it. Our protagonists Meera and Jai really don’t have a clue; they don’t appear to have thought that far.

Saif plays two characters in the film, that of suave city-boy Jai, and also that of the young Sardar Veer. He looked quite a “natural” Sardar, and even managed the Punjabi accent ably. Overall his performance was energetic, enthusiastic, and if not immaculate, really quite decent. Deepika is quite good as Meera. Meera is an unconventional Bollywood heroine, in that she is smart, has her wits about her, and is calm and reserved by nature. Thus, Deepika seemed a good fit for this role, although her monotonous dialogue delivery didn’t actually light up the screen in the first half of the movie. Her acting style is rather understated, which kind of works here, because that’s who Meera is.

This is a slow-paced film, livened up by some smart quips, and energetic dance sequences. A big plus is the melodious music; “Aahun Aahun“ is a peppy number with Punjabi beats, “Yeh dooriyan“ features Mohit Chauhan‘s soulful vocals, and “Aaj din chaddhya“ is sheer romantic poetry. The film is well-directed and the characters believably developed. Imtiaz Ali lives up-to his reputation and handles the finer sentiments of this film oh-so delicately. His sensitive portrayal of a love languishing, the rarefied disappointment of not knowing whether the one you pine for will indeed be yours, is moving.

It is clear after watching the movie, that the director had a “vision” of what he wanted to project. “Love Aaj-Kal” is an unusual love tale for Bollywood, because it lacks the “add-ons” generally seen in desi films of this genre – the over-the-top/quirky characters (a la Geet in “Jab we met“), the familial parodies (loud Punjabi families are frequently the butt of jokes) and the implicit vibes/coochie-cooings (he thrusts, she parries) between the love-struck pair.

The film when it started, presented the Jai-Meera story in a flurry of quick, short takes – I could just imagine the director yelling “Cut“ after every 10 seconds. Until about the interval, this was how it went, kind of abrupt, and cryptic – made me feel like I was getting the compressed version of the story. But post-interval Ali seemed to get his act together, and the squiggly little pieces of the plot seemed to come together and flow. Thus while I was beginning to have my doubts in the first half of the film, I must say I was floored by the second. The characters are hard not to like, and Meera’s predicament had me shedding a few tears of my own.

“Love Aaj Kal” is a film well worth your time, just don’t go in there expecting a happy-happy, smooth-n-snappy Friday night movie.

Kidwise : This is a clean, classy film, with nothing more than a few lip-locks, and one mugging scene. I wouldn’t actually recommend it for children under 13, because of the pace and nature of the film – younger kids might have a hard time getting it.

If you liked this film, you might also like :

Socha na tha
Jab we met
Rules – pyar ka superhit formula

Tags : Love Aaj Kal Movie Review, Love Aaj kal film review, Love aaj kal review

Posted in 2009, bollywood, rating-PG, recommended, romance | 7 Comments