It's been busy, busy, busy around here lately. End of the summer meant no more school/camp for the kiddo (which means no break for mommy), we moved to the suburbs and are still climbing over boxes and unpacking, etc. Then I spent a week at home in Detroit helping my husband's niece settle in at University of Windsor (Canada). It's been a lot of running around and falling into bed exhausted at the end of the night.
But anyway, that doesn't mean that I haven't been watching movies. I have been. A good amount, actually. Not many count as true 'Bollystalgia' material, since they aren't old or favorite films, but I thought I'd just share what I've seen lately and my quick thoughts on them:
Patiala House (2011)
A pretty solid film, though a touch melodramatic at times. I am not a fan of
Akshay Kumar, but I'm beginning to like these films in which he plays a loser - he does it well.
Anushka Sharma is cute and charming in her role, though I am not fond of the blue-gray/hazel contacts. Of course, the highlight of the film for me was
Rishi Kapoor. I love him so much that it's very, very hard for me to see him as the antagonist, but he is such a beautiful, skilled actor and I am so glad his career is still going strong. Overall, a good film - worth seeing.
Kaavalan (2011)
This film is, as most people know, the Tamil version of the Malayalam film
Bodyguard (recently remade in Hindi with
Salman Khan - I can't wait to see it!). For the most part it seemed like your typical
Vijay stuff - fight scenes, romance, etc. Nothing astounding. The ending had quite a twist though and I was surprised by it. So I'll say the film was memorable compared to most other Vijay films.
Asin was the usual - cute but not extraordinary. I'm looking forward to the Hindi one to see what Salman brings to it.
We Are Family (2010)
I know this is unbelievable, but I don't think this movie was as bad as everyone made it out to be. I really liked the original Hollywood movie (
Stepmom) and thought it had good material for a Hindi remake - but honestly the casting was just all wrong. I wish
KJo had cast
Kajol in the
Julia Roberts role and chosen a mature woman for the
Susan Sarandon role - someone like
Madhuri Dixit for example. Anyway, I watched this film expecting to hate
Kareena Kapoor, like I always do. I ended up finding her the most tolerable of the three lead actors. I didn't expect much from
Arjun Rampal so I wasn't shocked when he didn't perform well, but Kajol was just awful. Unfortunately they stripped away all the complexity of Susan Sarandon's character and made Kajol's character really annoying. And yes, the "Jailhouse Rock" song was indeed a travesty. But the movie as a whole was ... ok. Very, very flawed, but still interesting. I think the standout from the film was
Aanchal Munjal as the eldest of the three kids - Aleya. She even looked like
Jena Malone!
Seedan (2011)
I saw this film a while ago actually, but I thought I'd throw it in here. I found it interesting and somewhat different from your typical Tamil hero flicks.
Ananya plays the lead and I thought she was really cute - though she did remind me quite a bit of
Devyani (not one of my favorite actresses). I'm not a fan of
Dhanush, but his character was quite special in this - no spoilers but I figured it out as soon as he appeared. The film deals with loss of faith in God after 'love-failure' and how it is restored. Not particularly profound or anything, but I just thought the film was simple and sweet and different, so I enjoyed it.
Apparently it was a remake of the Malayalam film
Nandanam (starring
Prithviraj).
Siruthai (2011)
Don't you just love that picture of
Karthi? It makes the film look a lot more rocking than it was. But don't get me wrong, it was fairly good. Masala-goodness with the likeable Karthi in a double-role (which requires the filmi suspension of belief about two totally unrelated people looking exactly alike) and
Kareena Kapoor Tamannah taking care of the glamour quotient. The first half was very light-hearted and fun while the second half was heavy handed with fighting and emotional drama. Most memorable was the song 'Chellam Inda Chellam' picturized on the beach.
HouseFull (2010)
The first time I tried to watch the movie, I failed miserably ... somewhere around the point where
Akshay Kumar and
Riteish Deshmukh get electrocuted and the vacuum cleaner sucks up
Lara Dutta's pet bird. But the second time around I actually surprised myself by enjoying portions of it. It definitely got a few snickers out of me, though I wouldn't go so far as to call it a good movie. It's not even decent. It's silly, slapsticky and nonsensical - which is all great when you're in the right mood for it. But still, the Tamil film
Kadhala Kadhala - from which HouseFull borrows many, many scenes and situations - was FAR superior. I mean, Akki and Riteish can never be even close to as hilarious as the combination of
Kamal Haasan and
Prabhu Deva. Kadhala Kadhala is still one of my favorite Tamil movies to date and is truly hilarious. But HouseFull was brainless fun - and again, loser!Akki works for me.
Vaanam (2011)
I caught this film on Sun TV soon after we moved into our new place (and got Dish Network - woo hoo!) and was almost instantly sucked in. This was one of those films where multiple storylines are all running at the same time until they all converge in the climax. Running around are
Simbu,
Bharath,
Anushka Shetty,
Prakash Raaj and several other characters. There's so much going on that you end up a bit overwhelmed but it all comes together neatly at the end. A really, really interesting film and I highly recommend it. Standouts were Anushka Shetty in a somewhat coarser role than I would expect from her, and of course Prakash Raaj (he's so awesome!).
Peranmai (2009)
This film was quite a surprise! Another one I caught on SunTV, I found it very different.
Jeyam Ravi, who I've always seen as a 'chocolate hero' TOTALLY buffed himself up for this film. It's unbelievable! And he displays it quite prominently (read: NEKKID) in the beginning of the film. But it also stars a cast of young women who are in training as NCC Cadets - a striking difference from the glamour girls we usually see in Tamil films. Not only are these girls in training for physical combat, but they are also mean, spiteful, spoiled young girls who mistreat Jeyam Ravi's character for being of a tribal cast. Even the one girl we see as having a soft spot for Jeyam Ravi ends up betraying him pretty badly. Luckily for all of us, nothing brings people on opposite sides together like a little national threat - i.e. foreigners trying to sabotage India's fab new satellite launch. Jeyam Ravi is incredible in this - he's acted beautifully and physically transformed himself beyond any of our current, working action heroes. Color me impressed!
Mankatha (2011)
This is the first Indian film I've seen at the theatre in a while and I was super excited to see it! It was quite a whirlwind of a film too. I must say that by the end my head & eyes were actually aching from the furious pace of the editing and effects - it was a bit too much for me. But the stunts and action sequences were great. I also want to mention how pleasing it was to see two solidly middle-aged heroes (
Ajith Kumar and
Arjun) playing roles that were MEANT to be middle-aged. Ajith's new salt-and-pepper look was actually kind of hot! And 'Action King' Arjun looks slimmer and more fit than before. The film was a bit convoluted but reminded me a bit of Ocean's Eleven, The Fast Five and Sin City at different times. Some of the side characters were particularly compelling (
Vaibhav Reddy as Sumanth, for example).
Trisha was totally unnecessary in the film but I enjoyed the song sequence where the background kept morphing (I called it the HGTV/Ikea commercial song). I was disturbed by the pairing though - even though he's supposed to be much older than her, they just looked creepy together. Overall though the film was totally entertaining and great action fun, but man, if your eyes can't handle craziness then watch out!
Race (2008)
We ended up watching
Race right after we came home from
Mankatha because a family friend said that it was along similar lines. We stayed up until 3 a.m. watching it - which I'm still not sure was worth it or not. It was painful waking up the next morning. Anyway, there were definitely things about Race I really enjoyed - the tension between the brothers (
Saif Ali Khan and
Akshaye Khanna), Akshaye as a baddie, EVERYONE as a baddie,
Anil Kapoor as the fruit-loving cop, the slickness of it, guessing the twists, etc. But I think I started to lose it at the 3rd or 4th twist. I think it had a ton of potential and was definitely entertaining, but ultimately my favorite bits were ditzy
Sameera Reddy and
Johny Lever's cameo. Verdict? Fun but not amazing or re-watchable.
Anyway so that's it. I have a couple posts a-brewing and now that the kid is starting school maybe I'll actually find some time to organize my thoughts and write them!
