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Post by moviemavengal on May 2, 2016 16:42:51 GMT
Whew! It's been a while since I've posted to this thread. Hindi films - Fitoor - Pretty to look at, but meh. Saw it in the theater with some Indian friends who totally didn't get the Great Expectations references. Airlift - Akshay was about as good as I've ever seen him. Neerja - Sonam was so good! Really cried at the end during the mother's speech. Eklavya: The Royal Guard - Really enjoyable. Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaaye - I didn't think I could hate a movie with Rani and Salman together. Just not a very good remake of The Wedding Singer, but it had a few nice moments. Anand - I'd heard it was great, but I wasn't prepared for HOW great. Oh, my gosh. My first Rajesh Khanna film, and so glad I own it. Baadshah - (Oh, Baadshah, Baadshaaaaah.) - Very fun. Those music numbers! Kapoor and Sons - I LOVED this film. I saw it twice in the theater. Fawad Khan was AMAZING. Full thoughts here.Ki and Ka - So disappointing! I was hoping this would be better because I love Arjun. Review here. Hawaizaada - Pretty production design, but didn't captivate me so much. Khamoshi: The Musical - Really, really enjoyed this one. Jaan-E-Mann - Kind of crazy, but I liked it. Fan - I saw Fan three times in the theater. I think this is one of SRK's best performances as an actor in years. Full thoughts here. Munna Bhai MBBS - So heartwarming!! I loved it. Aurangzeb - I thought Arjun did a good job in this double role. Something crazy happened. I answered a post on Quora about non-Indians liking Indian movies, and it got thousands of views and hundreds of comments, because I, perhaps foolishly, asked for recommendations of films. People from India on Quora just seemed to find it unbelievable that a non-Desi has watched that many Indian films, and liked them. Go figure! I made a Letterboxd list to keep track of all the recommended titles, and the list is up to almost 400 films, of all languages. So, I have ventured even further afield into Regional films lately. Ahalya was my very first Bengali film. It's just 14 minutes long, and is here on Youtube. Go watch it!! It's the Ramayana crossed with a Twilight Zone episode. Very creepy little thriller. Lucia - my first Kannada film. Just absolutely amazing and mind-blowing. Read about it here on my blog.Enakkul Oruvan is the Tamil remake of Lucia with Siddarth in the lead. It's good, but not as great as the lower budget Lucia. Fandry was my first Marathi film. So heart breaking! It's about an untouchable boy in a rural village. (Fandry means Pig.) My review here of Fandry. It's on Netflix streaming. More Parallel cinema, and played film festivals. The director based it on his own life. Don't want to lose all I've typed, so continuing in another post.....
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Post by moviemavengal on May 3, 2016 21:37:55 GMT
Mikko, I finally saw Mahesh Babu's Dookudu! It was so good!! My library actually had the DVD, but I'm going to have to buy this one. Great action, fun romance, and the comedy uncles were woven in and actually funny for once. Full review writeup here. So entertaining!
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Post by moviemavengal on May 4, 2016 14:30:21 GMT
Hum Saath-Saath Hain: We Stand United (1999): what a flop for me, I got disappointed. I wanted to watch a romantic comedy, and I falled into syrup (I don't know if this is correct in English). Boring during two hours, each character smiling as the camera approaches for a close-up, every minute. Then, at last, a semblance of drama, when the family begins to split. Too many cheap sentiments, it didn't work on me. When will someone recreate the magic of KKHH? patapin totally agree with you about HSSH. So syrupy!
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Post by ShantiSal on May 6, 2016 0:49:03 GMT
O Kadal Kanmani - enjoyed watching this and wondered how they would handle the 'split', thinking perhaps they would split leaving an opening for OKK2 where they would meet up again a few years down the track. But that didn't happen Kapoor & Sons - when I saw the trailer I wasn't sure I would see it as it appeared full of high octane melodrama - plenty of shouting and yelling at each other. Sure there was that but balanced with quieter moments. It was very well done and I hadn't expected the tragic bit towards the end. Well worth watching.
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ranranbolly
Guest appearance
Posts: 108
Favorite actor: Ravi Teja
Favorite actress: Deepika Padukone
Upcoming release you're most excited about: Bengal Tiger
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Post by ranranbolly on May 6, 2016 1:49:35 GMT
Happy New Year (2014) - I noticed something odd about this movie. Everything else I've seen of Farah's had very fast pace and editing, but this one...not so much. The pacing actually really drug at some points, and I think it's because they were just kind of packing in too many jokes or too much story, and it never seemed to find the right balance. I mean...I didn't hate it. Definitely Masala. But I don't want to get bored when I'm watching a mindless movie, I guess? I got bored a few times. Not her best, but not the worst movie on the planet. Felt like the only reason Deepika fell for SRK...was because he was SRK. Didn't really see any actual development there either. Again, I know it was supposed to be mindless. So not going to over-analyze it.
Khoobsurat (2014) - Really...really enjoyed this one. Absolutely sweet story. Feel-good. About a family who've basically closed themselves off after an accident in which the son died and the father lost the use of his legs. They bring in a doctor, one of many who've come through, and despite their best efforts (it seems) to drive her away and keep themselves miserable...she drags them each kicking and screaming out of a mourning period that went on for way too long. Very much enjoyed it. Very sweet movie.
Total Siyapaa (2014) - Sometimes a BW movie starts great on the first half and drags on the second, because there's just not enough real material to actively need the story to be that long. Sadly, this was one of those. However, acting was good. Comedy was good. First half was hilariously cute. Loved the Mr. Bean Wannabe, too.
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Post by moviemavengal on May 7, 2016 23:32:16 GMT
Khoobsurat (2014) - Really...really enjoyed this one. Absolutely sweet story. Feel-good. About a family who've basically closed themselves off after an accident in which the son died and the father lost the use of his legs. They bring in a doctor, one of many who've come through, and despite their best efforts (it seems) to drive her away and keep themselves miserable...she drags them each kicking and screaming out of a mourning period that went on for way too long. Very much enjoyed it. Very sweet movie. Totally agree about Khoobsurat. That was my first Sonam movie -- I've grown to appreciate her more over time. But Fawad Khan!! oh, my goodness. Very sweet movie.
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Miss Braganza!
Junior artiste
Posts: 60
Favorite actor: Rahul Bose, Irrfan, Ranveer Singh, Rajesh Khanna
Favorite actress: Konkona Sen Sharma, Vidya Balan, Sharmila Tagore
Upcoming release you're most excited about: Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Dear Zindagi, Befikre
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Post by Miss Braganza! on May 8, 2016 10:48:08 GMT
So, I too jumped on the Sanam Teri Kasam wagon after all the enthusiastic reviews here , and I quite liked it also. Particularly Mawra Hocane I thought was just wonderful. Not sure yet about her male counterpart as he wasn't given much to do I felt, although he did look very nice. So lovely to see the hot guy fall for the dorky girl instead of the reverse all the time! I also really loved the family apartment; it was decorated quite nicely although obviously supposed to be a regular middle-class apartment. Then I had a few days vacation and miraculously both Piku and Bajirao Mastani, which have been on my watch lists forever, were finally available from Erosnow. I will attempt to control my squee. I really liked Deepika in Piku. I think this makes the first time I was genuinely impressed by her in a movie (although she isn't bad in YJHD or Karthik Calling Karthik). I just really loved the nuances in the parent-child relationships which are so often black and white in Hindi films. Again, due to Deepika in large part, I feel. She just was so good at portraying someone loving and sacrificing and grumpy and angry and sometimes unlikeable. And I loved the part in the car where they sing Ei Poth Jodi Na Sesh Hoy--a reference to the most famous song from the most famous film of Uttam and Suchitra! Tres Bengali. And also, not to make this a long post about set design, but I loved their apartment also. The Kolkata haveli is great, but I really liked the Delhi apartment. That apartment is my interior design goal. And then Bajirao! Also extremely enjoyable and visually fantastic. I have to confess, as soon as I finished watching I went to Youtube to see if I could find a tutorial on how to do Deepika's makeup. (Yes. Plenty, in fact). And the dancing, and the music . . .and Ranveer! I really like big, big matinee idol charisma in my movie stars: Uttam Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, etc. Ranveer is the only one of his generation who has it, I feel. (Counting his generation as anyone under 40, so the Khans don't fit). Possibly my most enjoyable week of Bollywood ever, so much so that I'm reluctant to watch anything since it will inevitably pale in comparison. But I think I'm in the mood for something old, so going to check out Madhubala in Howrah Bridge tonight.
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darshana
Dancing in the chorus
Posts: 13
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Post by darshana on May 10, 2016 5:01:52 GMT
I totally agree about Ranveer Singh. He's got it, so far nobody else "new" does. He'll have as long a career as he wants - he also seems to make some decent choics about his movies,though it may just be that I've seen the ones I would like (Bajirao, Band Baja Bharat, and Lootera). Anyhow, happy to have found him.
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Miss Braganza!
Junior artiste
Posts: 60
Favorite actor: Rahul Bose, Irrfan, Ranveer Singh, Rajesh Khanna
Favorite actress: Konkona Sen Sharma, Vidya Balan, Sharmila Tagore
Upcoming release you're most excited about: Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Dear Zindagi, Befikre
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Post by Miss Braganza! on May 10, 2016 12:41:43 GMT
I think you're right about his movie choices. I think he's done eight films so far, and one got creamed by the critics (Gunday), one was kind of meh (Kill Dil) and one was OK but he did not stand out in it (Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl--it was either his first or second movie and they didn't give him a lot to do). The rest I think have been really good, and BBB is outstanding as a romcom. I think that's a pretty good record, and I hope he keeps it up.
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Post by chrisanthi on May 15, 2016 22:02:06 GMT
Shaandaar - I loved the animation - I thought it was cute. I always enjoy watching Shahid's father. I liked the father's relationship with Alia. All in all, I thought it was a cute movie. I didn't realise that the sister was supossed to be he fat character; it was only when they had her in the extra small choli stuffing her face with laddoos that I realised. In which universe is this girl fat let alone obese? I did like her speach about liking yourself the way you are which was ruined by Alia saying that if she wanted to lose weight all she had to do was work-out; as someone who has been trying to lose weight for thirty years let me tell you that that's just not true (ok I'm getting off my soapbox now).
Dilwale - This is a very pretty film to look at - some scenes are beautifully shot. It was a bit predictable (I guessed most of the twists) and a bit too violent for my tastes. My main gripe, however, is that the emotional scenes weren't emotional - there was just no feeling there. I wouldn't have minded the predictability or the violence if there had just been some feeling there. I loved the two side-kicks who owned the cafe (I, too, thought that they were life partners). I'm not particularly fond of Kajol but I've never seen her look so beautiful. I agree with whoever it was that said that the stylists must have hated Kajol - although a lot of the outfits she wore were pretty, they just didn't suit her and don't let me get started on the shoes they made the poor woman wear. No complaints with her hair, make-up or saree looks though. I had forgotten that Kabir Bedi and Vinod Khanna are also in this so that was a pleasant surprise. SRK should never, ever, ever shave his beard.
Oh. I forgot to add that I hated Boman Irani’s don - when Boman Irani is bad, he’s really bad.
Brothers - I loved the grey hair and beard on Jackie Shroff - I think he should adopt it in real lfe as well. In some parts he was very good and in others not so good but in the parts he was good, he was excellent. Jacqueline Fernandez was also very good. The girl playing Jacquline's and Akki's daughter was adorable and the three of them had good chemistry together. I loved the salt and pepper beard on Akki. I thought he was very good and the expression in his eyes and face towards the end was amazing. I think Akki is a much better actor than one would think based on his film selections. My final comment on Brothers - it's always the films that you don't expect it from that get to you.
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Post by ShantiSal on May 16, 2016 2:40:30 GMT
Dilwale - don't let me get started on the shoes they made the poor woman wear. The shoes were way too clunky... After Margaret's dontcallitbollywood blog about Indian cinema and Shakespeare I watched Dil Bole Hadippa. It didn't have a good rating on IMDB but, you know what, I didn't mind it. Not sure if it resembled Twelfth Night much apart from the girl-dressed-as-boy bit - but then I haven't seen Twelfth Night for more than 30 years... I think Rani enjoyed playing the Veer alter-ego and she looked cute as a guy. Shahid is always good to look at. Haven't seen much else lately, apart from a re-watch of Neerja. I have been binge-watching House of Cards on Netflix and the weekend was occupied with the Eurovision Song Contest.
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bollylitsa
Dancing in the chorus
http://letterboxd.com/bollylitsa/
Posts: 30
Favorite actor: Anil Kapoor
Favorite actress: Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi, Nithya Menon
Upcoming release you're most excited about: Baahubali 2
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Post by bollylitsa on May 16, 2016 6:05:29 GMT
I watched Sanam Teri Kasam because everyone was raving about it in facebook. I must confess it was a guilty pleasure; great songs, Harshvardhan is a very good looking actor who also has a certain impact on screen, Mowra is a natural performer, and the movie was in general well executed with great photography. BUT... the messages the movie was puting out are just awful... both the protagonists come through as weak and undecisive which is kinda lame these days... The movie I enjoyed thoroughly in all departments, acting, direction and story is the tamil "Thani Oruvan". It has a brilliant script with some dark funny moments. Arvind Swami is back and he is still great. I hope he continues like that. The beginning might seem a little confusing and boring but have a little patience because the badie is the major plus of this film and he makes his appearence later on. and has a great song by the beach...
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filmilibrarian
Guest appearance
Posts: 102
Favorite actor: Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor
Favorite actress: Vidya Balan, Rani Mukherjee, Anushka Sharma, Konkona Sen Sharma, Deepika Padukone
Upcoming release you're most excited about: Padmavati, A Gentleman, Lucknow Central, Bareilly Ki Barfi, Mubarakan, Simran, Chef, Ittefaq
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Post by filmilibrarian on May 17, 2016 15:31:28 GMT
I hate it when I've basically caught up with all the films I wanted to see and I have to wait for new releases to get to DVD and that's where I'm at...a minor Bollywood slump. However, I did see Kapoor & Sons last week and really loved it. All of the acting was fantastic (with kudos to Siddharth for trying to emote). I love that for his second film in Bollywood Fawad Khan chose this role. Rishi Kapoor was delightful, especially in the pot-smoking scene. Alia Bhatt is really growing on me. She has a natural likability and casualness (which is a strange word I know) to her acting.
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Miss Braganza!
Junior artiste
Posts: 60
Favorite actor: Rahul Bose, Irrfan, Ranveer Singh, Rajesh Khanna
Favorite actress: Konkona Sen Sharma, Vidya Balan, Sharmila Tagore
Upcoming release you're most excited about: Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Dear Zindagi, Befikre
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Post by Miss Braganza! on May 18, 2016 12:57:51 GMT
I think you're right about his movie choices. I think he's done eight films so far, and one got creamed by the critics (Gunday), one was kind of meh (Kill Dil) and one was OK but he did not stand out in it (Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl--it was either his first or second movie and they didn't give him a lot to do). The rest I think have been really good, and BBB is outstanding as a romcom. I think that's a pretty good record, and I hope he keeps it up. Aaaaaaaand rumor has it he's going to do Dhoom 4! Never mind! Preparing for a conference this weekend so just had time for one movie: Howrah Bridge. I've seen one other movie with Madhubala (Mr. and Mrs. 55) and I love both of them and they are both a bit problematic: Mr. and Mrs. 55 because it is overtly anti-feminist and Howrah Bridge because it's kind of racist. However, being racist in the 50s is arguably more understandable than being racist in the early 2000s (*cough* Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani *cough*). Howrah Bridge is kind of noirish but not really. Madhubala is delightful. Beautiful shots of Calcutta and of course the lovely music. Don't watch if you don't want to spend the next 48 hours singing "Mera naam Chin Chin Chu, Chin Chin Chu baba Chin Chin Chu" and occasionally doing Helen's little wiggly dance if you aren't careful. I was interested to see that it was directed by Shakti Samanta, who did two of my other favorites, Aradhana and Amar Prem.
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filmilibrarian
Guest appearance
Posts: 102
Favorite actor: Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor
Favorite actress: Vidya Balan, Rani Mukherjee, Anushka Sharma, Konkona Sen Sharma, Deepika Padukone
Upcoming release you're most excited about: Padmavati, A Gentleman, Lucknow Central, Bareilly Ki Barfi, Mubarakan, Simran, Chef, Ittefaq
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Post by filmilibrarian on May 19, 2016 2:01:05 GMT
Having a cold sucks but using a day off to catch up on Bollywood and other films I've missed recently isn't so bad! I watched Sanam Teri Kasam and fell in love with this ridiculous, regressive and overwrought story. I'm a librarian so I enjoyed how the library setting played a part in the romance. (Sidenote: Also enjoyed Aaiya with Rani Mukherjee partly for the same reason....I wonder what other movies are out there in Bollywood where libraries play a big part?) Both actors were great eye candy (her clothes after the trippy makeover and his muscles and tattoos) and they both have lots of potential. Definitely repeat-value.
My other favorite of the day was Neerja. Sonam Kapoor has hit a milestone in her career, carrying such a serious film so well. A powerful film.
Other watched... Wazir - only watched it for Farhan and was bored and figured out the twist almost immediately
Fitoor - classic case of beautiful actors with absolutely no chemistry in a story where that chemistry needs to exist in order for the story to work, Tabu in a retread of Haider role, production values were exquisite and almost wish I could like this one for that reason alone, but I guess there's a reason I never really liked Great Expectations or any of the filmed adaptations...still have hopes for Aditya Roy Kapoor's career but would could care less about Katrina still.
Spotlight (US, Best Picture winner) - definitely see why it won
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