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)

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.