Pukar

Title: Pukar (2000)
Language: Hindi
DVD

Synopsis: Army officer Jaidev (Anil Kapoor) manages to capture terrorist Abhrush and becomes a national hero. Coming back to his hometown, he meets up with childhood friend Anjali (Madhuri Dixit) who has held a long time crush on him. While at a party, Jai ends up meeting Pooja (Namrata Shirodkar) and starts vying for her attention much to Anjali's jealousy. Angry corrupt politicians take notice and use Anjali's jealousy to help push forwards plans against Jai and of India.

The Good
+ Good music from the remake of Que Sera Sera, to the love song picturization in the snow
+ Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor actually make a good pair… and Madhuri is gorgeous as ever
+ There were plenty of unintentional funny moments… such as the scene with using rocket launchers to take out cars.


The Bad
+ The movie was SO LONG. Despite me breaking it up over a few days time, there were moments where I would lose interest
+ Anil Kapoor's character - the stereotypical SUPER SOLDIER. No one can shoot, fight, or know better than him. He's so good, he can beat up people while still successfully drive a car, and single handedly bring down a helicopter
+ This movie probably had the worst sound effects team ever. I think they only had 2 or 3 sounds in their inventory for fights… there's this one "slapping" sound they'd use that annoyed the hell out of me - it didn't even sound natural!
+ This is kind of embarrassing, but I had a hard time telling the difference between Madhuri Dixit and Namrata Shirodkar at times. Please don't hate me.

Final Thoughts: Was this movie worth watching? Kind of. I was interested in seeing an Anil Kapoor film (Sadly I've seen more of his daughter's movies than him, and he's by far a better actor) and Madhuri Dixit is always fantastic on screen… This movie really over played the melodrama, and successfully made you feel sad for Anjali, so I did really enjoy the love storyline. (I know, I'm such a girl). But some of the political parts lacked thought behind them.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Song: Kay Sera Sera... Madhuri and Prabhu Deva dancing together? YES PLEASE!

Sholay

title: Sholay (1975)
language: Hindi
DVD

synopsis: Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) are well known thieves. They end up being caught by police inspector Thakur Baldev Singh, go to jail, and later meet with him once again. Only this 2nd time, Thakur hires them to find and capture notorious bandit Gabbar Singh for a money reward, feeling they are the only two men capable of doing this. As the story progresses, you find out who Gabbar Singh is and why the inspector wants him captured so badly. Veeru and Jai accept this offer only to find out this request isn't as easy as they thought.

The Good
+ Loved how the comedy fit well with the action. The movie was never too serious or never too silly. An equal balance of both.
+ Despite the long running time (just over 3 hours), it filled up each and every minute. Sure, some of it might've been slightly excessive (but what Bollywood isn't like this?) but it never got overwhelming or too boring.
+ Each of the main characters were well fleshed out and developed.
+ Gabbar Singh, probably one of the few movie villains not afraid to do his evil-doings. He doesn't waste time.

That Bad
+ Basanti, played by Hema Malini, was annoying at times, but you couldn't help to like her anyway. Gorgeous, peppy, a good dancer - what's there not to like. Just she talked a bit too much.
+ 70's clothes, what can we say? Not the best era for fashion.
+ I always loved how old movies, whenever someone got shot/hurt, there was so little or no blood at all.
+ One scene was a bit ridiculous. "Dance or I will shoot him!" I'm not so sure how I feel that my life is in the hands of a girl dancing... Entertaining nevertheless.

Final Thoughts: Was this movie worth watching? YES! This was a fantastic film! No wonder it's often referenced and considered a "must see". It really did have a very nice balance between comedy and action... I was expecting it to be all action and was worried about it being so long but it really wasn't that bad (then again, I did watch it over 2 days). Also it was kind of fun seeing 2 well-known movie couples: Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri, Dharmendra and Hema Malini. And seeing the actors so young! Wow!

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Song: Yeh Dosti - funny video, nice song, nice friendship between the two characters.


From the Wikipedia page, I thought this was a nice photo of the main male characters.

Anjaana Anjaani

title: Anjaana Anjaani (2010)
language: Hindi
online links

synopsis: Akash (Ranbir Kapoor) and Kiara (Priyanka Chopra) have the worst lives ever and decide to commit suicide. Right at the moment Akash is about to jump off a bridge in New York he meets a drunk Kiara getting ready to do the same thing, but both end up getting caught and stopped in their process (him getting hit by a car, and her slipping and falling and hurting her neck). They both wake up and escape the hospital at the same time, and during the process strike up a strange friendship. Giving each other 20 days to spend together fulfilling wishes they had before finally carrying through with their decision to commit suicide.

The Good
+ the music. I downloaded the music before I saw the film, and I was already hooked on it.
+ It doesn't really have anything to do with the movie, but Priyanka Chopra causes the biggest hair envy I've known to exist within me. Her hair is always perfect - I wish I had her hair! It's so thick, nicely styled, looks healthy... ok, I'm done.
+ Ranbir and Priyanka are a cute pair, they had nice chemistry with each other and did look like they had fun together. That being said, they aren't my favorite couple. (I kind of like her and Shahid Kapoor together the best.) I saw them as better friends than potential lovers.
+ I thought the dialogue was funny/witty at times. I loved the bantering between Akash and Kiara.
+ I have an amusement in these films where a character has his/her own little theme song. All my friends remember "Sexy Sam! Sexy Sam!" from KANK, but the fact the CAR HAD IT'S OWN THEME SONG? I nearly fell off my couch laughing.

The Bad
+ Both character's reasons to commit suicide was selfish (but isn't all suicide selfish?). I was kind of angry that it was a little more evident that Kiara needed more help in the psychiatric department, but it was never addressed.
+ More horrible American acting... I don't know if Bollywood tries to find the cheapest white people they can find, but nearly EVERY SINGLE ONE is a horrible, horrible actor. Do Indian audiences notice how awful they are?
+ Bollywood manages to bring out the realist in me. That being said, I wish I was a waitress and living in that swag apartment Kiara had. I mean, really? In New York? That had to be at least $2,000 a month. You really have to suspend disbelief and go with it.

Final Thoughts Was it worth watching? Yes, for something light-hearted-ish and fun. Like I said, if you don't think about how dumb it is for their reasons to commit suicide, and if their lives are OMG SO HORRIBLE, how do people's lives worse than theirs look? Anyway, I wasn't exactly a fan of the storyline, but the silly bantering and their time with the car being stolen was rather entertaining. All that being said, I'm really glad I didn't spend money to see this in the theater, since it ended up being disappointing.

Rating: 3/5... if they had just revamped it as more of a road trip across the US, I think I would've enjoyed it more.

Liz's mini Bollywood rant: I'm getting tired of getting caught up in the hype of films, since it's obvious that nearly all the ones I get hyped up about end up being disappointments (I think Kites and Raavan have been the only two that lived up to the hype in my mind). I'm also getting tired of movie trailers that are better than the films.

For Anjaana Anjaani, I was so pumped after seeing this trailer:

I was totally expecting a fresh juicy drama after seeing this trailer. I remember thinking, "YESSS, this movie is going to be super cute and full of drama". WRONG. But this goes for American films too. Very frequently, the trailer is more awesome than the movie. I think I'm just a sucker for the whole longing/angsty look, or the glazed over 'I'm in love' eyes. I think I just need to see KANK again, since that fits my drama needs.

Favorite Song: This is hard, since I enjoyed all the songs, I Feel Good is a fun upbeat song.


I really should make a blog post of my favorite obligatory dance club dances in all these movies... here's the one for this one. (Love the song and the dancing, but not sure what the whole pants around ankles thing was about)