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.

Kal Ho Naa Ho

Film: Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003)
Language: Hindi
youtube links

Synopsis: Naina lives in New York with her family minus her father who had committed suicide some time ago. She's pretty irritable between the loss of her dad and her grandmother refusing to acknowledge her granddaughter, Naina's sister. Enter her visiting neighbor from India, Aman, who proceeds to initially irritate her more and turn her world upside down. And by upside down, I mean fall madly in love with him. But the entire time, Aman is hiding a secret and works his magic to get Naina together with her friend/classmate Rohit.

The Good
+ Acting, by everyone. Even though the storyline wasn't entirely anything new, it was very well acted.
+ The movie kept me completely invested the entire time. Typically if I'm watching a Bollywood film on my own at home, I never watch it all in one sitting. For this film, I actually did. It never grew sluggish at any point to me.

The Bad
+ The messed up "Oh, Pretty Woman" song. I guess it was great for the hilarity of it all, but bad song cover is bad.
+ The blatant racism against the Chinese. What was up with that? Totally not needed to be in the film and rather surprising it was. Even though, I have to admit the Lagaan song playing during that scene had me chuckle.
+ Some of the wardrobe choices. From SRK's crazy BRIGHT orange pants to Saif's questionable clubbing shirt, I don't know what was going on.

Final Thoughts: This is definitely one of my top 5 favorite Bollywood films, and probably my favorite SRK film. He tends to go over the top in his films (which, honestly, I don't mind typically until he starts crying), but I felt he kept himself in check in this film. It had the right amount of comedy, sadness, and all over joy.

Rating: 4.5/5

Favorite Song: It was hard to pick... It's the time to disco & Kal Ho Naa Ho. (Of all the playback singers, Sonu Nigam is the only one I know/can pick out easily. I LOVE his voice, and feel it fits SRK almost perfectly for his lipsynching)