Jab We Met

Jab We Met (2007)
Language: Hindi
DVD

Synopsis: Aditya (Shahid Kapoor) is a businessman who wanders off on his own with after the loss of his girlfriend being married to someone else and the death of his father. On a train, he has no destination in mind and even contemplates suicide until he meets Geet (Kareena Kapoor), who is extremely loud, bubbly, and obnoxious. Geet is on her way to elope when she pulls Aditya into her complicated plan, thus making things greatly chaotic.

The Good
+ the music, catchy and with some nice costumes
+ The storyline isn't exactly new, but it's a really fun movie to watch
+ dynamic between Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor. It's sad they're no longer together in real life, since they do really well on screen together. I doubt we'll see these two team up again.
+ The "dramatic hug scene" as a I call it. Makes me laugh every time I see it!

The Bad
+ the graphics. There are some scenes of horrible green screen work, and using toy/models for a exterior shots that are painfully obvious that they had a tight budget.
+ There are moments where dialogue really drags.
+ Joking about rape. This scene makes me uncomfortable every time I see it. That is not something that should be joked about. Maybe there was a translation error.

Final Thoughts: Was it worth watching? Yes! This is one of my top 5 favorite Bollywood films. I've seen it numerous times and enjoy watching it every time. I'm not a big fan of Kareena Kapoor, but I find her highly enjoyable to watch as a crazy woman. Shahid Kapoor is a favorite actor of mine to watch (mostly for his excellent dancing), but really, his acting is hit or miss. This is definitely a hit for him.


Fun Fact: Although I have not seen it, the Hollywood movie Leap Year is based off this movie. That's right, a Hollywood movie inspired from a Bollywood film. Usually it's the other way around. That being said, I've heard it's horrible.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Song: Nagada Nagada (it's no secret that I love bhangra)

Aagey Se Right

Aagey Se Right (2009)
Language: Hindi
Netflix streaming

Synopsis: Dinkar is a police officer who doesn't care for his job. During his commute to work, he ends up getting his gun stolen and is in a wild goose chase to find it again. Every time he comes near to reclaiming it, he finds himself stuck in bad (and hilarious) situations that some how turn him into a citywide hero. During this time is a terrorist, Janu, who decides to part from his line of duty in pursuit of love.

The Good
+ shortness of the film: 125 minutes, which allowed it to not drag too much
+ I wouldn't consider the movie hilarious, but it was pretty funny at times
+ Actors I've never seen nor heard of, so it was nice coming into this completely unbiased.

The Bad
+ the randomness of the plot. One minute you're at this point, then next minute you're at another. There were plenty of times where the plot would jump around, and you weren't given too much detail as to...how they got there.
+ Because of the randomness, I personally had a difficult time keeping up with who was who, mainly with the girls.
+ some of the acting was hit or miss, but never completely distracting or terrible.

Final Thoughts: Was this movie worth watching? Maybe. It was entertaining and cute, but I most likely won't ever watch it again. It has it's funny parts, but not exactly a movie I can watch over and over (such as Dostana).

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Song: Mahiya - I think this is my favorite, just because of the funny picturization.

Robot

Robot (2010)
Language: Hindi dub
in theaters

Synopsis: A scientist creates a first of it's kind android, named Chitti, who can do just about anything. He wants to try and sell Chitti for use with the military, but after a failed interview with the board and his mentor, he was rejected. Being told that Chitti can't be used in the military since he has no moral values (i.e. he would kill on command even if it's subject was the commanding officer), Dr. Vaseegaran gives him a moral code/philosophy which causes Chitti to fall in love with Dr. Vaseegaran's girlfriend Sana. Things begin to get complicated after that...

The Good
+ graphics... this was the most expensive Indian film to date made with a budget of $35 million. C'mon USA, if India can make something this well done with half the budgets we use? Very well done CGI, and the action scenes were fantastic.
+ action! It's been a while since I've seen action this well done/creative.
+ Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was SMOKING HOT. Seriously, she was so gorgeous! Flawless make up, amazing outfits... she's seriously becoming a favorite actress of mine.
+ Song picturizations... this movie probably has some of the best song cuts ever, just for the costumes and filming style alone. Did I mention Aishwarya was smoking hot?
+ the dubbing. I pretty much forgot this was a Hindi dub of a Tamil film. I could tell Aishwarya dubbed her own voice, is that the case for the other actors too?


The Bad
+ length. At least 30-45 minutes of the film could've been cut out. As I joked with a friend, I don't think Indian film believe in deleted scenes.
+ The biggest pet peeve I have with Indian cinema, I hate how they pair quite older male stars with female leads that are half their age, or in this case, old enough to be her father. At least it didn't feel too bad since make up helped him look younger.
+ The clear message that rich upper class is superior to the lower class. I can see this film not being popular everywhere in India for that. This was a friend of mine's first time seeing an Indian film, and even he noticed this.

Final Thoughts: Was this movie worth watching? A million times yes! Amazing action, costumes, graphics. It was just an awesome experience and excellent movie to show friends that were unfamiliar with Bollywood and the like. The only complaint I had was the theater I was in had their sound way too high, so I had to cover my ears occasionally.

Rating 4.5/5

Favorite Song: Naina Miley... this is the Tamil version of the song in the video

Magadheera

Film: Magadheera (2009)
Language: Telugu
youtube link

Synopsis: In the 17th century, there is a warrior that swears to protect a princess, and shortly afterwards they fall in love. A war breaks out and both are killed only to be reincarnated 400 years later. Harsha is a bike racer and one day out on the town with his buddy, he happens to touch the hand of a woman who sparks strange memories within him. Determined to find her (he didn't see her face), he stops the rickshaw to try meet this girl, only to meet Indu who says she can help him, knowing she is the one he is looking for. They couple starts spending alot of time together, only to have things grow extremely complicated when Raghuveer, Indu's cousin, enters the picture.

The Good
- The music. Very catchy, fun, and able to easily become stuck in your head.
- The story. The way they edited it, it seems confusing at first, but as events play out, you start to understand more and more.
- Again, the story - alot of masala as they say. Comedy, drama, romance, action... there's really no genre that was left untouched.


The Bad
- There were a couple times I believe the subtitles were off or incorrect, but it didn't deter from the story.
- Many loopholes in the editing, but can be overlooked if you're not paying alot of attention.
- There was a small dance scene towards the beginning of the film was so strange, yet hilariously bad. An older male actor was cartoon-ized to allow him to be an impressive dancer. It was just weird...
- I'm not sure if it was due to translation errors or what, but some things, such as the characters' relationships, were undefined. I was left confused trying to figure out if the man after Indu was really her cousin or not.

Final Thoughts: Was this movie worth watching? A million times yes! The end of the movie has been going somewhat viral lately on youtube which is what inspired me to watch it in the first place. There were so many hilarious parts, good action, and an interesting story. I ended up staying up to 3am watching it (It's a LONG movie). This is definitely a movie worth watching with a group of friends.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite song: Bangaru Kodi Petta

Kurbaan

Film: Kurbaan (2009)
Language: Hindi
streaming on netflix

Synopsis: Two college professors Ehsaan (Saif Ali Khan) and Avantika (Kareena Kapoor) meet and fall in love. During this time, Avantika is offered a job in the U.S. to teach at a university there. After accepting Ehsaan's proposal, they get married and move overseas to start their new life together. After moving in their new house, things change and their neighbors aren't who they seem, and soon both are involved in terrorism plots against the U.S.

The Good
+ Cinematography was top notch in the film, and the filming/editing in general. Once again proving that Indian cinema can be done just as well as American cinema.
+ Acting. As much as I'm not a fan of Kareena Kapoor or Saif Ali Khan, both of them really performed well in this film and their off screen partnership really helped their chemistry of their characters.
+ Pacing of the movie. At first I wasn't sure how they were going to drag out 2.5 hours of plot after giving away much of it within the first 45 minutes, but it all came into place and didn't seem to drag too much and kept things interesting.

The Bad
+ Many things about the story doesn't make sense. Many 911 phone calls not being made, immigration aspects that were over looked (getting a SSN before moving to the US), allowing public transport to continue to happen after shots fired. Just simple things that the viewer isn't suppose to think about.
+ Even though I said the pacing of the movie wasn't that bad, I still do think it could've been kept at 2hrs.

Final Thoughts: Was it worth watching? Yes. The movie's tension kept me interested and curious to know what will happen. This movie didn't perform that well and you can totally see why. There was ALOT of things that happened that were either 1. dumb 2. didn't make sense. I can't really go in depth without spoiling, so I'll leave that to be seen. I did like the film, though.

Rating 3/5

Favorite Song Music did not play a big part in this film, and nearly all of it was religious-themed relating to the plot. I'll have to skip favorite song this time.