Krrish

Film: Krrish (2006)
Language: Hindi
youtube videos

Synopsis: A rough sequel to Koi...Mil Gaya (which I'll write the review eventually). Krishna Mehra (Hrithik's character) is a kid who is super awesome at EVERYTHING. He's super smart, super fast, and super socially awkward (albeit less so than his daddy in KMG). Anyway, he meets the love of his life, Priya (Priyanka Chopra with extremely long hair). Naturally, she plays on his super social awkwardness and adoration for her and convinces him to come to Singapore. When there, he becomes a SUPERHERO!

The Good
+ the graphics were pretty amazing. Very few Bollywood films are this well done.
+ nice action scenes/stunts along with cinematography

The Bad
+ TOO LONG
+ This movie was all over the place to me. Starting out in happy rural city, to Singapore, it just seemed so disorganized.
+ Bad acting. Bollywood really needs to stop finding random foreigners that agree to be in their films. Their poor acting just really makes a nice moment into a hilariously bad/awkward one.

Final Thoughts
Was it worth watching? Maybe. Yes, it was a campy film that gives you something to be amused with and smile about, but at the end you can't help to think you wasted 3 hours of your life watching something that should've been cut down to 2. Priyanka and Hrithik work well together, but I can't say they're a favorite pairing of mine. Apparently they're going to make a sequel for this, or at least there are talks of one. I'll wait for it to hit youtube or come on video. Can't say I'll go out rushing to see it. Also, all I could think about during this film was how much I wanted to cut Hrithik's Jesus hair. It was driving me crazy!

Also, I'm not really sure why I liked Koi...Mil Gaya better, since I'm probably the only person to say that. I just felt it didn't jump all around/be so disorganized. It at least had a consistent location. Who knows. Maybe Krrish 2 will be better.

Rating: 2.5/5

Favorite song Koi Tumsa Nahin

Raavan

Film: Raavan (2010)
Language: Hindi
in movie theater

This film was directed by Mani Ratnam, who was the director of the last film I saw (A Peck on the Cheek). No doubt he is an amazing director. I can't imagine Aishwarya and Vikram doing all this twice. They had to have some pretty serious bruises/cuts.

Synopsis: Based off Ramayana. Dev is a police inspector out on the hunt for Beera, a well known outlaw said to have "10 heads" who steals Dev's wife, Ragini. It's a wild goose chase that lasts 14 days, all the while Ragini stays fiercely loyal to Dev, she does witness the more human side of Beera.

The Good:
+ The cinematography! O.M.G. This director is known to travel all over the world to get the 'perfect shot' and rightly so! Next to Devdas, I'd have to say this was probably one of the most beautifully filmed movies I've seen in Bollywood.
+ The music! Again, A.R. Rahman doesn't let us down, but even the score was amazing. I really wish I could get the score... The music really fit the location and added to atmosphere. The songs never really seemed out of place or completely random (there were a couple moments in the score that did seem out of place, however)
+ Aishwarya was the best actor in this film. Again, I've never been crazy about her, but in nearly every movie I see her in, the more I like her (especially Devdas and now this one).
+ Abhishek was freaking CRAZY in this film. It's so different from anything he's done before. Despite alot of criticism he's been getting, I thought his performance was excellent. Unfortunately, it seems I'm in the minority here.

The Bad:
+ some of the camera work was a little crazy. They abused the whole 360 spinning around effect. At one point, I thought I was going to get motion sickness, because it was at least 2 minutes of spinning around and around Abhishek (granted at that time it did make sense), but there were times where I think the same power/emotions would've been felt if they DIDN'T spin around the characters.
+ Vikram's Dev. First of all, I think Vikran is a scary looking guy so he did work as the police inspector. But there were far too many frustrated/guttural war cries from him for my taste. I wonder what his interpretation of Beera is like. I heard him and Abhishek's performance are quite different.

Final Thoughts: Was it worth watching? Yes! Bollywood is looking more and more like Hollywood if they keep up at the rate they're going. I loved my friend's comment of "I'm amazed. I mean, it doesn't look like they shot it outside their garage or anything". I must admit, the first half I was kinda "ehhh" about the film, but by the end (esp the climatic Beera vs. Dev scene) I was like "Oh.My.God!"

Rating: I really debated whether it's 3.5 or 4, but I'm going to give it a 4/5 really to the beautiful scenery, music, and seeing Abhishek like you've never seen him before.

I really want to see the Tamil version, since I heard it's better.

Favorite Song: Behene de

Kannathil Muthamittal

Film: Kannathil Muthamittal (A Peck on the Cheek) (2002)
Language: Tamil
Streaming on Netflix

I've had this movie sitting in my queue for almost a year, and I finally decided it was time to watch it. As you can see it, it really is not a Bollywood film, but a Tamil film (I'm not sure what they call the southern Indian film industry?) I've seen "Tollywood" and "Kollywood". Ok, I just looked it up. Tollywood = Telugu films, Kollywood = Tamil films. The film industry outside of Bollywood is entertaining for the fact it's clearly lower budget, but anyway... Tamil is interesting because it definitely is different from Hindi. It seems more sing-song in my opinion - very pretty.

This film was directed by Mani Ratnam, who next to Karan Johar (kuch kuch hota hai, K3G, KANK, MNIK), is the only name I'm familiar with as far as Indian directors go. He did Dil Se, Yuuva, Guru, and now Raavan. So I knew this film would be visually appealing, and it definitely was. Also, A.R. Rahman did the score/music and he can do no wrong in my eyes.

Synopsis: The movie starts off in Sri Lanka with a man and woman getting married, but their happiness is disrupted by the fight with the Tamil Tigers. Fast forward time, there's a family in Chennai with a engineer/famous author father, mother and 3 kids: 1 girl and 2 boys. The girl's 9th birthday comes up and the parents decide to tell her that she's not their biological child, that she's adopted. This sets off her obsession to try and find her biological mother and finally her parents agree (after she runs away twice) to go with her to try and find her. The warring Tamils & Sri Lankans make things chaotic during this journey and is a bit of an eye-opening experience to the girl.

The Good
+ The first song is kind of silly, but the rest of the music is really good. Again, A.R. Rahman can do no wrong
+ Excellent acting by everyone
+ Different storyline from what I've mostly seen
+ The different viewpoints. Again, alot of Bollywood is told from a male perspective, and even though they have that here, I'd say a good 50% is from the child's POV

The Bad
+ the subtitles were kind of off. Sometimes they'd be slow, or obviously they had left out subbing something. There was 1 song where they didn't bother to subtitle at all, which I thought was weird. But it was never enough to where I felt like I lost meaning or didn't know what was going on

Final Thoughts: Was it worth watching? Yes! I thought the storyline was really well done, all the acting was excellent, and liked how they spliced storylines nicely (biological parents history, girl's story, and adoptive parents history). I never felt like the movie got too over dramatic either.

Rating: 4/5

Random thoughts: The actor Madhavan (who is totally hot, by the way!), is apparently well known in Kollywood, and has done a few Hindi films that are well known: Rang de Basti, Guru, and 3 Idiots. It took me a while to make the connection that he was in 3 Idiots, and then I found it hilarious because the 3 idiots, who were college kids, were played by much older actors. (Madhaven who had to be about 39ish during filming, Aamir Khan is in his 40's, and Sharman Joshi is in his early 30's)

Favorite Song Kannathil Muthamittal

Kabhi Kabhie

Film: Kabhi Kabhie (1976)
Language: Hindi
netflix streaming


Synopsis: 2 people in college fall in love and want to get married. Girl finds out she's arranged to be married with some other guy. Amitabh angsts and decides to quit writing poetry. Fast forward 20-ish years, and another wild college party a boy and girl fall in love and want to get married. Girl finds out a huge family secret and decides to go sort things out, boy follows her because he's in love. And all the characters connect somehow and chaos ensues.

That description fails on so many levels, but I didn't want to give spoilers.

This is what Netflix had to say: "Forced apart by their families, poet Amit (Amitabh Bachchan) and his true love, Pooja (Rakhee Gulzar), marry other people. But years later, when Pooja's son Vikram (Rishi Kapoor) falls in love with a girl named Pinky (Neetu Singh), their connection forces everyone to reexamine the past. As secrets are revealed, Amit and Pooja must come to terms with their history in this romantic Bollywood drama directed by Yash Chopra."

ANYWAY...

The Good
+ the 70's goodness, from the awful clothes to the awful hair
+ pretty scenery
+ good storyline
+ So many hilarious moments. I'm not sure if they were intentional, but most likely not.
+ over the top acting at it's best

The Bad
+ the 2 young girls were annoying.
+ the music... ear-piercing. Make sure you turn volume down. Apparently the music was a big deal, according to Wikipedia, but I'm sure this was typical music for the time.
+ length: 2hr45min

Final Thoughts: Was it worth watching? Yes! Despite watching this over a course of a week, I really enjoyed it. I was curious how things were going to play out, and when I thought some things would never be answered, they did at the end. Also, if nothing else, the last 20 minutes rivals Dhoom in ridiculous-ness. Like I said, there were so many hilarious moments (and if you find the scene where it goes from summer to winter in a matter of frames, kudos to you! That really threw me off and I had to rewind the video to do a double take). I was curious to see an older film, and I liked it alot.

Rating: 3.5/5

Interesting facts/thoughts:
+ Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh were love interests in this film and for a few others. They later got married. (I find that so cute with couples in films ending together... well, in Bollywood world, I do. Not so much American because they're typically going to divorce in about 5 or less yrs).
+ There's moments of Amitabh where you can really see resemblances of Abhishek.

Favorite Song Chahe Chale Churiya

Paa

Film: Paa
Language: Hindi
youtube links


Synopsis: Boy & girl meet in college, fall in love, and someone forgets a condom. Girl is preggers, boy tells her to abort the baby, but she aborts him and keeps the baby. Years later, Progeria!Amitabh impresses some political figure with art and becomes popular in the news, causing drama. Drama indeed ensues especially when the truth comes out about political figure and Progeria!Amitabh's momma.

The Good
+ excellent acting by Abhishek & Vidya
+ good storyline/message
+ movie was roughly 2hr10min. It fit the time perfectly and never really dragged too much, at least I felt it didn't.

The Bad
+ a couple awkward moments
+AMITABH OMG, WHO PICKED HIM FOR THIS ROLE!? I hated his character! They should've had a normal kid, or if they really wanted to do the whole Progeria thing, to NOT have picked Amitabh. It was hard to take him seriously when they didn't try manipulating camera angles to actually make him look like a kid. Seriously a 6ft man is hard to take serious towering over these children and stuff.
+ lack of songs

Final Thoughts: Worth the watch? Yes and no. I liked the story & acting, but Amitabh really ruined the film for me. I know I'm being like the worst Bollywood fan ever for saying that, but he really did. They should've casted a real kid in the role.

Rating: 2/5

Favorite Song Mudhi Mudhi Iteffaq Se

Socha Na Tha

Film: Socha Na Tha (2005)
Language: Hindi
on DVD


Synopsis: Boy has been dating a catholic girl for 3yrs and wants to propose to her, but she's pretty demanding/bitchy, and his parents don't know about her. Boy's parents says it's time for boy to get married and introduces him to another girl (G#2) but they mutually decide to reject the marriage proposal. Boy goes on vacation with buddies and G#2 and falls in love with her. Drama ensues, esp when he does propose to Catholic girl and his parents surprisingly approve.

The Good
+ Not exactly good, but it was hilarious in that the boy was incredibly ridiculous and SO DUMB.
+ so the movie itself was lol-worthy
+ interesting drama, I'll give it that.
+ Ayesha Takia is adorable, though!

The Bad
+ Did I mention the boy was SO DUMB!?? He was at least persistent (was kicked out of G#2's house, so would climb walls and stuff to meet her, called G#2 ALL THE TIME in front of Catholic girl) I don't know why G#2 liked him, he was clearly mental.
+ THE MUSIC! omg, the music... Singing was horrible (not horrible voices, like Veer-Zaara, but just Z-listed background singers), stupid lyrics

Final Thoughts:Worth the watch? It was truly entertaining, I was laughing at the ridiculous-ness the entire time. However, I don't think I'd sit through it again. Interesting fact: This is Apoorva Jha's only film. She decided she didn't want to be an actress and went on to get her MBA at USC Marshall.

Rating: 2/5

Favorite Song ummm, none. Sorry!

Badmaash Company

Film: Badmaash Company (2010)
Language: Hindi
in Theaters

synopsis: 4 friends graduate from college and decide to start a "business" smuggling in foreign goods to India, thereby avoiding the heavy import taxes. Calling their venture "Friends and Company", they proceed to make a large fortune, smuggling expensive foreign goods in from Bangkok. They go to USA and more or less do the same thing. Entertainment and major drama ensues.

The Good
+ Shahid was super hot, I mean, hotter than I've ever seen him before.
+ the clothes were amazing!
+ the clothes they wore to con people were often hilarious, and there were quite a few funny moments.
+ pretty decent acting, and clever conning.

The Bad
+ 1994 never looked so good (obviously filmed with modern-day clothes). About the only thing consistent to the time was the lack of mobile phones.
+ very predictable, but 90% of Bollywood is.
+ nothing about the film, other than the clothes, really stood out as "OMG awesome!"
+ The music was mediocre.

Final Thoughts: Was it worth watching? Yes. If anything it was pure entertainment. I thought the actors had a good chemistry with each other, but apparently some news stories say otherwise.

rating: 3/5

Favorite Song: Chaska

Fashion

Film: Fashion (2008)
Language: Hindi
Streaming on Netflix

Synopsis: The movie itself is about the behind the scenes look of the Indian fashion world and it's dirty secrets (cocaine! alcohol! SEX!). Priyanka Chopra's character is a small town girl wanting to be a model, so she goes to Mumbai to try and make it. LONG story short, she does and drama ensues.

The Good:
+ the movie overall ended up being good. Not fabulous, not OMG CAPSLOCK AMAZING, but good.
+ Priyanka actually acted REALLY well here. I thought her character was very believable. However, I wouldn't consider it award-worthy (it did win her best actress).
+ This is the first Bollywood movie I've seen where the entire story was told in a female's perspective. I've realized everything we've watched is told from the male's perspective, even when the story was suppose to focus on the woman, or they would for her then veer off and go back to him. (I suppose this goes with the fact that India is a male-dominate society?)
+ The other characters were great. There's this one model that goes spiraling down and crazy, and she was great. Very realistic, thus I felt really sorry for her.
+ This movie also talked about some hard topics: drug/alcohol abuse, sex (kind of) and its consequences, and the conservative nature of the country and the differences it has for modeling.
+ Music was good

The Bad:
+ There was a homosexual character that was over the top flaming. I don't know if homosexual Indians really do lisp like some English ones, but this guy was really over the top, even for Bollywood standards. I didn't really like how they portrayed this character.
+ Lack of dancing! Looks like more modern Bollywood films are going to have montages more than actual dancing. I kind of miss that.
+ The subtitles were lol-worthy at times. This movie had the most English I've ever seen spoken (I'd say a good 40% was in English), and the subtitles for the English bits... wow. Really makes me wonder what they're really saying in Hindi, but I guess not enough for us to lose the storyline.

Final Thoughts: Was it worth watching? Yes, I think so. This movie could've been at least 20mins shorter, I think. I thought it was good, but nothing I haven't seen before. Kind of like an American story made with Indian cast. I did find it interesting that they showed a sex scene, granted it was during a song montage and was maybe 10seconds long and nothing beyond kissing the shoulders was really seen, but It still shocked me. Also liked how they covered some topics not seens before (drugs, etc)

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Song: Mar Jawan

Wake Up Sid

Film: Wake Up Sid (2009)
Language: Hindi
Streaming on netflix

Synopsis: After graduating college, Sid is out in the real world... kind of. He's a spoiled brat from an extremely wealthy family in Mumbai and doesn't seem to have any work ethic or responsibilities except to party. Meeting a new girl at such party, he finds out she has just arrived to the city and trying to make a living for herself and they quickly become friends. Gradually, he learns to grow up and she learns independence with each other's help.

The Good:
+ a cast I've never seen before. I've heard alot about Ranbir Kapoor, since he seems to be Bollywood fandom's love child at the moment. The acting overall was very good
+ Nice scenery
+ Good time length of film: 2hr,15min. It never dragged and I actually finished it in 2 sittings. I could've sat through it all in 1 go easily.
+ I liked how Sid was a huge geek = Star Trek shirt, alot of American cartoon shirts, comic books

The Bad:
+ predictable, but really cute storyline
+ I wasn't a big fan of the music, but luckily it never really played a big role (mostly in background or montage scenes)

Was it worth watching? Yes. Very cute, campy movie. It kept me completely hooked the whole time. I kept hearing good things about it, so it was only a matter of time for me to get around to watching it. It also gives nice wrap for your apartment neighbors. If only it were that fun...

Rating: 3.5/5, If the music was better, I'd probably give it a 4.


Interesting facts: Ranbir Kapoor is Kareena Kapoor's cousin. Ranbir's daddy is Rishi Kapoor, whom I've seen in a few films playing someone's dad (He's also in Kabhi Kabhie). This film had controversy because I think they always referred to Mumbai as Bombay. Apparently people were offended.