Dhobi Ghat

Title: Dhobi Ghat (2010)
language: Hindi, English
internet

synopsis: There are 3 interweaving storylines: a painter named Arun (Aamir Khan) trying to regain his muse, an American banker, Shai, is on sabbatical to take photos, and a washerboy, Munna, (Prateik Babbar) who lives in the slums and has aspirations to be an actor. Their stories revolve around each other as this movie looks at the different classes of people in India. ((Sorry this synopsis is kind of crappy. It's hard to summarize this movie))

The Good
+ a score from Gustavo Santaolalla, who's style is becoming quite recognizable but perfect for films such as this. He also did the score to Babel, also a movie about interweaving storylines.
+ Fantastic directing from a first time director (Aamir Khan's wife Kiran Rao).
+ Prateik Babbar, as often said about this film, is really the star. I was always left wondering more about him and his thoughts.

The Bad
+ There were some things that were kind of confusing to me, mostly the character Arun. I felt like he was the least developed of the 3 characters and had the least explained about his motives/drives.


Final Thoughts: This movie is a character study or a slice-of-life film. Therefore there isn't really an ending to it, or often people will say "what was the point?" I love these kind of films, but for some reason, I just didn't get as sucked into this film as I often do for this genre. I love that this is from India and so different from the stereotypical cinema coming from there, but there was just something that was lacking from it and unfortunately I can't put my finger on what that 'something' is. To quote an online friend of mine: "The most interesting character was the city of Mumbai".

Rating: 3/5

Favorite song None, since there wasn't anything beyond the background score

Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana

film: Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (2005)
language: Telugu
DVD

synopsis: Siri (Trisha) and her older brother Krishna (Srihari) grew up as orphans, making their way as farmers in the countryside. When one of Siri's childhood best friends is getting married, she meets Santosh (Siddharth) a wealthy NRI from London who drives her crazy. As the wedding draws near, Siri realizes that she feels 'something something' towards Santosh. In order for him to be with her, Krishna challenges Santosh to grow his own crop and have a better harvest than himself. Will he be able to do it with so many friends and family working against him?

The Good
+ Fantastic cast! All have excellent comedic timing and there was no flat acting anywhere.
+ This movie was hilarious - especially the usage of the American pop song Who Let the Dogs Out, and Siddharth's extremely expressive face.
+ Speaking of expressive faces, I like in the song picturizations how much they did use facial expressions to play off each other.
+ The characters were relate-able

The Bad
+ This isn't bad, just there were some gestures made and references to things non-Indian audiences (such as myself) wouldn't understand. But it never hindered the film.
+ There's one actor's voice that gets quite annoying. I felt sorry for the actor for having such a horrible voice more than anything.
+ Be prepared for lots of cow poop.

Final Thoughts: Was this movie worth watching? Yes! I'm beginning to think South Indian films > Bollywood, or maybe I'm just watching all the correct films. This movie was highly entertaining and I love the chemistry between Siddharth and Trisha. I've only seen Siddharth in dramatic roles (Rang De Basanti, Aayutha Ezhuthu), but I have a feeling comedic roles are his thing. My friend who is brand new to Indian cinema adored this film as well. Magadheera is the only other Telugu film I've seen, so it was kind of funny seeing some of the same actors.

Rating: 4/5


Favorite Song Adire Adire - c'mon COWS AND PUPPETS! Love it! (btw, this video has Slavic subtitles, so um... yeah) I love the costumes too

Housefull

Title: Housefull (2010)
Language: Hindi
internet

synopsis: Arush (Akshay Kumar) is a loser (no lie, they sing about it), quits his job, and goes to London to visit his best friend Bob (Ritesh Deshmukh) and his wife Hetal (Lara Dutta). Unfortunately for Bob and Hetal, Arush is full of bad luck and is jinxed, causing misfortune wherever he goes. Trying to get him off their back, they set him up to marry their boss's daughter. When the newly married couple go to Italy for their honeymoon, it sets off a series of events causing Arush to meet Sandy (Deepika Padukone) and fall in love with her. Calamity ensues when lies get spun out of control that eventually get worse when Hetal's father (Boman Irani) and Sandy's brother (Arjun Rampal) decide to visit London at the same time.

The Good
+ The music lyrics were HILARIOUS. By far the most entertaining songs I've heard in a movie.
+ Boman Irani, I've seen him in a ton of films, and he's definitely the best character actor out there. He always invests time into his characters and they always come out great. He's definitely under appreciated.
+ Despite not being an Akshay Kumar fan, he does have excellent comedic timing and you defnitely can tell the cast got along and had fun making this film.


The Bad
+ Alot of the scenes cause secondhand embarrassment. You can't help to feel more sorry for the characters rather than laughing. (Or maybe you laugh because you're embarrassed for them)
+ Weak writing which leads to weak or lame situations
+ I know it wasn't suppose to be anything like real life, but the ending was just too ridiculous to accept (but the Queen of England knowing Hindi was pretty hilarious)
+ I hate how older male actors get paired with female leads half their age... but Akshay painfully looks old enough to be these girls' father. I'd like to see him be paired with someone more age appropriate.

Final Thoughts: Was this worth watching? It's debatable. If you like slapstick comedy (which I personally am not a huge fan of) then this is definitely up your alley. If you like Akshay Kumar, than this is up your alley. Some scenes tend to be overacted (and that's mostly thanks to the poor writing) and just stupid but I did have a few good laughs. (Arush vs. the Italian monkey was hilarious if only for the fact there are no wild monkeys in Italy and a very WTF moment. Also the Italian hotel owner's comments trying to create publicity for Arush "attempting suicide" were pretty hilarious too.)

Rating: 2.5/3... there just wasn't enough good to outweigh the bad. And the fact they're making a sequel kind of makes me cringe yet slightly curious.

Favorite Song I really liked all the songs, they were all quite catchy, but this one won due to the song picturization (Arush's wedding night and has never slept with someone before, so he was just going to let his wife show him what to do)