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)

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

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