dteaj
Dancing in the chorus
Posts: 14
Favorite actor: Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar
Favorite actress: Rani Mukerjee, Kareena Kapoor
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Post by dteaj on Feb 23, 2014 12:37:02 GMT
I really loved this film. A little atypical for Bollywood, it has a strong female lead and theme. With an A. R. Rahman score the music is bound to be good, and so it is, but used in a more Western way built into the movie intrinsically. Though Randeep Hooda is good in a major role, this is Alia Bhtt's movie to win or lose. At turns a sedate young lady, the most naive person you can imagine, a young child, and a wild creature, she breathes her character into being.The starting premise of a highway abduction is not promising from the point of view of those who care about how women are treated in film. One of the delights of this movie is the upturning of expectations.
Things to look for:
For those who know Hindi: early on gangster talk which left the audience around me howling in laughter. The one very atypical dance scene. The beauty of the (seemingly, of course) unedited view of Indian highway scenery. No mustard fields here, but beauty amid the dust.
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Post by ShantiSal on Feb 24, 2014 11:29:59 GMT
Would like to see this but might have to wait for DVD or online streaming. It is on at inconvenient times at a distant cinema here.
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Post by corbie on Feb 24, 2014 15:52:34 GMT
We saw it yesterday. I declare it awesome. It had depth, emotion, the reasons why, Alia in the role was amazing. The scenery didn't hurt either.
The two people coming together from their damaged pasts was very well handled.
My question at this point is why are parents bringing their children to these films? The one last week, Gunday and this one had no place for kids to even be there. But no, screaming children bored. We had to get a manager. There hasn't been problems before. But suddenly there is.
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Post by Prem Rogue on Feb 24, 2014 17:17:17 GMT
My question at this point is why are parents bringing their children to these films? The one last week, Gunday and this one had no place for kids to even be there. But no, screaming children bored. We had to get a manager. There hasn't been problems before. But suddenly there is. That happens all the time whenever I see Indian films at the theater. I don't think "babysitter" is in Indian parents' vocabulary. Very annoying. Even if the film is inappropriate for kids or it's something the kids will find uninteresting, parents drag them there anyways.
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Post by dancelover on Feb 24, 2014 19:32:50 GMT
The thread for Highway in "Upcoming Films" is at bollywhat.boards.net/thread/43/highway-randeep-hooda-alia-bhat?page=2# D I really loved this film. A little atypical for Bollywood, it has a strong female lead and theme. With an A. R. Rahman score the music is bound to be good, and so it is, but used in a more Western way built into the movie intrinsically. Though Randeep Hooda is good in a major role, this is Alia Bhtt's movie to win or lose. At turns a sedate young lady, the most naive person you can imagine, a young child, and a wild creature, she breathes her character into being.The starting premise of a highway abduction is not promising from the point of view of those who care about how women are treated in film. One of the delights of this movie is the upturning of expectations. Things to look for: For those who know Hindi: early on gangster talk which left the audience around me howling in laughter. The one very atypical dance scene. The beauty of the (seemingly, of course) unedited view of Indian highway scenery. No mustard fields here, but beauty amid the dust.
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Post by Prem Rogue on Feb 25, 2014 5:19:03 GMT
I liked this a lot. Depending on your POV, you may have to suspend your disbelief somewhat, but no more than for a typical movie. This isn't the spoiler thread, so I won't go into details. You just have to go with the flow and accept certain things happening. Veera and Mahabir are both given good depth and backstory, and their interaction was touching. These are two people from very different backgrounds with heavy hearts. Mahabir doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve, and his change is gradual and makes sense for his character.
My quibbles were mostly stylistic, rather than with the story or characterizations. Some of Veera's dialogue overly spoonfed her state of mind ("Why am I doing this?" kind of dialogue) The second half relied too much on song montages to convey feelings. It was an odd juxtaposition of a cliched, overused device, and evocative images. An instrumental score would have been more cinematic than a flowery piano ballad in the background. Patakha Guddi and Sooha Saha were well done, though.
The performances were terrific all around. I'm glad Alia Bhatt chose something like this for her sophomore film, rather than some glossy rom-com. She's very talented, and I hope there are more good roles in store for her.
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Post by MrB on Feb 25, 2014 12:55:22 GMT
+1 to Prem Rogue's comments. I found the plot weak in places, and the transition from kidnap victim to fellow traveller too hurried, but still liked the film very much and recommend it. All the acting performances are well-judged, and Alia Bhatt is particularly good - credit to her for for choosing the role, and to Imtiaz Ali for making it possible (and for selecting an actress rather than a Nargis Fakhri). The locations and cinematography also very evocative - India is a fantastic place for a road movie.
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Post by dancelover on Feb 25, 2014 17:01:08 GMT
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Post by karanjoharfan on Feb 26, 2014 6:09:46 GMT
Liked the movie okay, though it felt longer than its running time.
Isn't this the spoiler thread and the "Upcoming Films" one the non-spoiler thread? So be warned, I'm including lots of spoilers in this!
I thought having the abuse that had happened to Veera when she was younger be included was forced and over the top at first when she was telling it to Mahabir, but it made sense why it was there at the end. I felt Veera was selfish (as she herself acknowledged) and caused the tragic ending though by not leaving when she should have -- or at least calling home. She was a child of privilege "slumming it" when Mahabir didn't have that luxury. I felt she was self-righteous railing against her family and the system, when the bullet that ended her dream and her "freedom" was from people who were most likely genuinely concerned about her and trying to rescue her, even if they had covered up what had happened to her.
But that's trying to think of the movie too literally. The scenes were surreal in an "art movie" kind of way, and they worked in that way. Despite a little bit of railing against the rich, I didn't feel this was a movie that one could relate to or rally around generally (except perhaps the bit about not liking where you came from or where you're going, but wanting to stay on the road). It's more of a movie that one "appreciates."
Agree the unorthodox dance scene was one of the scenes that really worked.
Mostly what worked for me was not the "different" or "raw" feel (in fact, in general this bored me), and not so much the surreal scenes, though, but some more old-school stuff -- the importance, almost mythical importance, of a mother figure; the songs; the scenery. There were fields of yellow too featured at one point where Veera runs out into them, aren't those actually, yes, mustard fields? (I don't know for sure what they look like.)
Interestingly in the death scene, Imtiaz Ali chose to go with a more old-school Bollywood "show the same few seconds three times from slightly different angles one after the other" style. Despite shooting such a "different" movie, he too appears to know old-school perhaps works best at evoking response, by using it at the climax.
Alia Bhatt was great in a difficult role, and I'm glad that the "Student of the Year" graduates have both acquitted themselves well so far. Call me biased, but Karan knew how to pick 'em. No pressure on you now or anything, Varun Dhawan.
As for kids watching, that's why I am all for the Censor Board continuing to be careful about what goes out in all commercial movies. The fact is, kids will be taken to the theater. Movies are an event that the whole family gets taken to for many Bollywood filmgoers. That's a cultural and perhaps economic reality that needs to be recognized as reason for a due level of censorship of violence and vulgarity. Particularly when you consider violent action-masala movies tend to be the movies that are most popular in the interiors of India, it would be harmful for children to just be wantonly exposed to violence as a solution without any kind of censorship or monitoring from the Censor Board reining in the most excessive stuff.
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Post by Prem Rogue on Feb 26, 2014 7:13:41 GMT
As for kids watching, that's why I am all for the Censor Board continuing to be careful about what goes out in all commercial movies. The fact is, kids will be taken to the theater. Movies are an event that the whole family gets taken to for many Bollywood filmgoers. That's a cultural and perhaps economic reality that needs to be recognized as reason for a due level of censorship of violence and vulgarity. Particularly when you consider violent action-masala movies tend to be the movies that are most popular in the interiors of India, it would be harmful for children to just be wantonly exposed to violence as a solution without any kind of censorship or monitoring from the Censor Board reining in the most excessive stuff. Again, movies shouldn't be dumbed down because some parents with poor judgement MIGHT show them to their kids. Our movies have to evolve and branch out beyond every movie being appropriate for all ages. The censor board can give ratings based on the content, ask filmmakers to cut certain things to get lower ratings, and theaters should say that people below a certain age are not allowed into certain movies, but overly censoring the films themselves is creatively stifling. I thought this interpretation of the movie by a commenter on Baradwaj Rangan's review was interesting: In this light, perhaps Highway can be seen as a quasi-sequel to Student of the Year, in which Alia Bhatt escapes from the K-Jo universe
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gulfam
Junior artiste
Posts: 60
Favorite actor: Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan
Favorite actress: Alia Bhatt and Deepika Padukone
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Post by gulfam on Feb 26, 2014 16:05:51 GMT
I really loved the movie, the subtle yet powerful performance by both Alia and Randeep is what makes the movie. The locations are just as much a character as Veera and Mahabir. I'm actually surprised that the mainstream audience is loving the film; not that the film doesn't deserve all the love, it's just nice to see an atypical mainstream film getting some much deserved attention.
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gulfam
Junior artiste
Posts: 60
Favorite actor: Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan
Favorite actress: Alia Bhatt and Deepika Padukone
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Post by gulfam on Feb 28, 2014 16:24:53 GMT
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lydia
Junior artiste
Posts: 58
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Post by lydia on Mar 1, 2014 10:26:17 GMT
This was an effective film - closer to art house in style - gritty in parts but also very visually beautiful. It's intensity reminded me of Lootera. Interesting that new BW films are prepared to give up on musical fantasy, length, overblown emotion ... but the little coda at the end remains - kids playing in the sunlight.
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carla
Junior artiste
Posts: 62
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Post by carla on Mar 2, 2014 19:54:44 GMT
Somewhat underwhelmed by this one. I think I can't get past the ick factor of the kidnapping device, and how utterly tired I am of the notion that all a hardened, broken man needs to reach his chewy center is the sweet insistence of a naive, occasionally annoying young woman. Feh. Surely there have to be better ways to put two damaged people together if one wants to tell a story about them helping one another out of their damage. The end result is that although I can see objectively that the movie is well-crafted, I did not enjoy watching it or feel especially engaged or affected by the story. I can understand why others might find it moving, but it doesn't do a whole lot for me.
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odadune
Star of the item number
not around much due to stuff in my personal life.
Posts: 1,494
Favorite actor: Currently a certain Kumar, but I like most of them
Favorite actress: whoever's in films I'm interested in this week
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Post by odadune on Mar 3, 2014 1:08:26 GMT
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