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Post by moviemavengal on Nov 7, 2015 0:15:13 GMT
Last weekend I watched Aamir Khan in Ghulam. I hated that they dubbed Rani's voice!! I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I was hoping, but Aamir was excellent as always. For SRK's birthday, I watched One 2 Ka 4. What a schizophrenic movie! I adored SRK's chemistry with Juhi and loved him being the uncle of 4 unruly kids. Juhi teasing him, and flirting and making SRK all shy and flustered is my total catnip. The action plot, however made little sense and seemed to just be there to let Shahrukh run around with a gun holster as a cop. And the A R Rahman score was just okay. I'm used to great things from him, but this is a lesser one for him. The clown number may have scarred me for life. One 2 Ka 4 marked my 44th Shahrukh Khan Film. I bought this one, and I'll rewatch just for the romance parts. Last night I watched Bombay Velvet. Oy. There's a reason this film flopped. Several reasons in fact. The direction and editing make this film move so slowly. There was no movement or dancing to the songs -- which were all slow stand-there-and-belt-it-out torch songs. It's set in a freakin' club! There could have been dancing for cripes sake! Anushka was okay, Karan wasn't menacing enough when he needed to be, and Ranbir just didn't have the goods. The film itself compares him to Jimmy Cagney, and Ranbir, you're no Jimmy. I adored Ranbir in Barfi, but he wasn't well served by the script -- how many times DO we need to see him get beat up in a cage fight?? The moments I should have felt an emotional impact, like his friend's sacrifice, didn't evoke anything in me. You know who would have been a better Johnny? Varun. And several other Bollywood actors.
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Post by jabimetbollywood on Nov 7, 2015 0:58:25 GMT
I was able to get to the theater last week and see Shaandar. It was the first time I got to see Shahid on the big screen, and he looked gooooood! The movie was absolutely pagal-kookoo-nuts. I had so much fun watching it! I would totally watch it again. The Indian box office and me, we often just don't see things the same way. But I can see how the kookiness wouldn't work for everyone. It really didn't have much more than a bare excuse for a plot line, but what it had worked to keep the crazy antics and the fractured-fairy-tale atmosphere humming along. I'm glad that even the negative reviews tended to admit that the performances were strong, because I think everyone was pitch-perfect, and I hope those mentions are some kind of consolation when a film tanks like that.
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Post by ShantiSal on Nov 7, 2015 7:15:00 GMT
Since I'm rather incapacitated this weekend (I threw a hip out and have to use a cane for a bit, making walking very difficult and painful), I decided to watch all the new films I received. So i started with Bāhubali: The Beginning. This film came highly recommended by my friend Shiraz. He said even his wife enjoyed it so I should give it a try. The visuals were exceptional and beautifully done. I’ve never seen Prabhas in anything before but he’s quite something isn’t he? It was a bit “bloodier” than I had anticipated, but the story is very interesting and I enjoyed every minute. I can hardly wait for the conclusion. Piku with Deepika, Irrfan and Amitabh was next. Hmmmn, what can I say. The acting was good and quite true to life. I have noted in the past how certain old men become very fixated on their “bodily functions” so I really had to laugh about some of it. I had rented LOC: Kargil from Netflix because it has so many stars in the group. Rather reminded me of some of the older Hollywood war films with large star casts (D-Day come to mind). I’m not sure I’d recommend it, but hey give it a try if you like war films. So that pretty much took up my Saturday. This morning I was up at 4:30 (daylight savings time ended last night so it was my 5:30). Decided I needed a SRK fix and wanted something funny, so in went Chennai Express. I know this isn’t one of his best, but I do like it. The scenery is to die for and the interactions between him and Deepika are cute. Especially the song conversations. I gave LOC: Kargil a go, watching it over two nights. It was OK but could have been shorter if they had cut out much of the girlfriend/wife/fiancé scenes which I felt were a little superfluous.
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Post by dancelover on Nov 7, 2015 20:30:56 GMT
But, those girlfriend/wife/fiance' scenes are so ... not just Indian, but Human! Their point is to show that Real People, with real Families and Loves, are going off to kill or be killed, not just characters in a video game.
War produces Bravery, and Teamwork, but basically it is a Horror Story, and all good War Movies are Horror Stories. Howard "Dancelover" Wilkins
[snip - d] I had rented LOC: Kargil from Netflix because it has so many stars in the group. Rather reminded me of some of the older Hollywood war films with large star casts (D-Day come to mind). I’m not sure I’d recommend it, but hey give it a try if you like war films. I gave LOC: Kargil a go, watching it over two nights. It was OK but could have been shorter if they had cut out much of the girlfriend/wife/fiancé scenes which I felt were a little superfluous.
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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 Nov 9, 2015 1:21:16 GMT
I finished Satyagraha this weekend. I was all excited because I really liked Raajneeti--one of the films that got me into Bollywood, in fact. Then it got shellacked by the critics and I was less excited. It wasn't really as bad as all that, but not great either. It's sort of a reverse of Raajneeti because where everyone in that film is bad, everyone in Satyagraha is good. (This may be a bit of an oversimplification). Except the bad guy, Manoj Bajpayee, who was a sort of a cross between Alan Rickman and Fred Willard in this film and I thought he was hilarious, but I'm not sure I was supposed to. Except for him, everyone was a bit underutilized: Amitabh Bachchan in a near coma, Kareena doing the wet-eyed thing, and Arjun Rampal standing around looking hot in a kurta until he's needed for the final scene. The music is AWFUL.
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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 Nov 9, 2015 3:44:08 GMT
Just finished Hero (2015). I've never seen the original but the script seemed to have a good movie in there somewhere. The direction of the film was all over the place and Nikhil Advani has disappointed again. There are always moments of brilliance in his films (John Abraham/Vidya Balan's story in Salaam-E-Ishq, getting a good performance from Akshay in Patiala House, etc) and D-Day so far is his best achievement and one of my favorites of all time. Still haven't seen Katti Batti, but not expecting much.
I really enjoyed Athiya Shetty in Hero. Yes, she does remind me of Sonam Kapoor (which isn't a terrible thing...and I have to say she may be even more stunning). Hopefully, she will get more opportunities to grow and learn as an actress. Sooraj Pancholi was fine, but not as convincing. I'll be curious what he does next. I'm a sucker for a good sibling relationship and Radha's brother Dheeraj was a great character playing against expectations (and reminded me of the brother roles Suneil Shetty has played interestingly enough).
Besides the title track, the song picturizations were disappointing except for the goofiness of Sooraj's gang in the song in the cabin. So, overall, underwhelmed, but I hope these debutantes have better second films because they were both interesting to watch...
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Post by chrisanthi on Nov 9, 2015 6:48:49 GMT
Taal - I've wanted to see Taal ever since I first saw the trailer for it - mainly because of the crazy, over the top outfits that Aish wears. Theoutfits totally lived upto my expectations though I was dispappointed that there weren't more of them. Having said that, Aish also wears some very pretty Desi clothes that I would totally wear. Aish is stunningly beautiful and this is the kind of role that she plays well. She and Akshaye made a really cut couple. Initially I found Anil Kapoor's breezy, overly jovial acting to be irrtitating but then I realised that his character was playing a role and it made sense to paly him like that; I liked how the real person would sometimes come out. I usually like Alok Nath but I didn't like him in this - maybe because I didn't particularly like the character he played and what was up with those hair extensions? Amrish Puri was woefully underutilsed - there is no such thing as too much Amrish Puri. Overall, I enjoyed it. And yes, I did keep my eyes peeled for Shahid's blink and you'll miss it appearance. Even thogh my motivation for seeing this film was Aish's outfits, the most wacked out outfit was actually worn by Anil Kapoor.
Dil Se - The vocals in one of the songs in Taal reminded me of the vocals in Chaiya Chaiya so I decided to watch a few scenes and ended up watching all of it. This is the third or fourth time that I've watched it and I found little things, especially in SRK's and Manisha's performances, that I hadn't seen before. Dil Se may not be one of my favourites but it is defintely a film that I appreciate.
Madhumati - I don't know how this originally showed up on my radar - I think it was because I had read somewhere that this was an inspiration for Om Shanti Om and you can definitely see that. I think that if I had been watching this when it first came out, I would have found the effects to be quite impressive (now they look quite old but I imagine that in those days they would have been impressive). I Particulalrly liked the use of shadows, billowing curtains and fog to create atmosphere. This is my second film with Dilip Kumar (the first being Devdas). Devdas is quite an unsavoury character and Dilip Kumar had made no impression on me but after this film I can totally see why he became the huge romantic hero - those eyes! He and Vyjayanthimala also made a nice couple. I've seen Pran in a few films and have always enjoyed his performances but I never realised that he could be so menacing. Johnny Walker is always a delight. There was a lot of singing and dancing (this is not a criticis nor is it a bad thing; it's just an observation and a comment on how few songs there are in modern Bollywood films; personally I liked the music). Another enjoyable film.
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Post by ShantiSal on Nov 12, 2015 0:58:24 GMT
Phantom - OK action movie, Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif did well. The tag line 'A Story You wish Were True' is correct in its sentiment.
Have also watched some of Bangistan but, despite the trailer looking hilarious, not sure that it grabbed me enough to watch the rest of it. We'll see.
Am up to episode 26 or 27 of Maharana Pratap on Netflix. It does have that 'Days of our Lives' soap opera quality of things taking a long time to happen, lol, but it is keeping me interested so can't be too drawn out.
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carla
Junior artiste
Posts: 62
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Post by carla on Nov 14, 2015 14:02:23 GMT
I finished Satyagraha this weekend. I was all excited because I really liked Raajneeti--one of the films that got me into Bollywood, in fact. Then it got shellacked by the critics and I was less excited. It wasn't really as bad as all that, but not great either. It's sort of a reverse of Raajneeti because where everyone in that film is bad, everyone in Satyagraha is good. (This may be a bit of an oversimplification). Except the bad guy, Manoj Bajpayee, who was a sort of a cross between Alan Rickman and Fred Willard in this film and I thought he was hilarious, but I'm not sure I was supposed to. Except for him, everyone was a bit underutilized: Amitabh Bachchan in a near coma, Kareena doing the wet-eyed thing, and Arjun Rampal standing around looking hot in a kurta until he's needed for the final scene. The music is AWFUL. I don't know whether you've seen Mrityudand, a film by Prakash Jha from the late 90s, but please allow me to recommend it. If you like his style of complex political stories, you will like Mrityudand a lot. And the music is fabulous!
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Post by ShantiSal on Nov 14, 2015 20:47:03 GMT
I came across Listen...Amaya by chance. It concerns a young woman, Amaya, and her mother, Leela, a widow. Amaya finds it difficult to deal with the fact that there is now a man in her mother's life despite knowing and liking him. You really feel like giving Amaya a slap when she behaves like a petulant child but she comes right in the end. There is a sad twist at the end of the story which is hinted at during the movie. Don't expect masala song/dance etc... It is just a good 'life' story. Recommended. Mughal-E-Azam - finally got round to one of the 10 set black & white DVD pack from Induna. The DVD was labelled 'black & white' but about 10 minutes of footage in the middle of the movie and 20 minutes at the end were colourised which made the sparkly bits look so much more sparkly!
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Post by ShantiSal on Nov 16, 2015 8:10:17 GMT
My MCF friend and I saw Prem Ratan D.P. last night. It defies logic but we still enjoyed it. And coincidence - the actress who played Amaya (mentioned above) was in PRDP as the elder half-sister, Chandrika. I also hadn't recognised her as Payal in Tanu Weds Manu etc.. She does sullen quite well, lol.
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Post by moviemavengal on Nov 17, 2015 17:23:02 GMT
I watched Rebel with Prabhas and was disappointed. It's not as good as Mirchi. It has a few action sequences and fights that are quite inventive but the underlying story is not as good as Mirchi. What I didn't know going in as that Tamannah (Avantika!) is the love interest. Actually, there's a girlfriend from the past, too, so he gets to romance two girls again. Tamannah plays a hip hop dance instructor (and daughter of a gangster). Her big dance number you should watch for a few moments at least because it is actually called Google Search. I am not lying. I can't find it with subs at the moment, but basically the lyrics are How are you going to find on google search a girl as beautiful as me? In Rebel, Prabhas does get to do comedy, action, be tough, be cute, etc but way too much comedy uncle and other parts that aren't that great. And the romance can't compare to the one with the spitfire in Mirchi either. I felt like I'd been watching a string of mediocre Indian films lately, and needed something really good. I watched Highway and I was so blown away by Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda!! Oh, my gosh. I went in very skeptical of the falling in love with your captor thing, but it happens truly organically and gradually, and the reason she doesn't want to go back has the heft needed. That ending scene where she screams in the room with her family. Wow. Just wow. The scene where I started crying, though was when Handeep breaks down that he is not worthy of the little home she made in the mountains. And this time A R Rahman pulls out all the stops with the score. I just loved all the scenery driving on all those highways through the different regions of India. It must have been incredible on the big screen. I'm so glad I own this one!! I was looking for a shorter Bollywood film to watch, and realized I'd never seen Ek Main Aur Ek Tu. I really liked the chemistry of Kareena and Imran, and the setting in Las Vegas at the beginning was fun. But the ending!!!! OMG, it was purring along so well, and then the ending totally left me hanging. Not enough payoff for these characters! I felt totally gypped. It was more like a Hollywood indie film -- a Happy For Now, but not Happily Ever After. Blech!! You end the film with a title screen saying "The Beginning" What?? Possibly worst ending ever. I also saw Prem Ratan Dhan Payo and my thoughts are here. I liked it!
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Post by ShantiSal on Nov 29, 2015 3:39:26 GMT
The Attacks of 26/11 - seen through the eyes of the Joint Commissioner of police, Rakesh Maria. It was well done but with very vivid/graphic visuals of people being shot (had the divert my gaze with a game of mahjong on my ipad).
Cocktail - enjoyed this but did want to slap (or knee) Saif Ali Khan's character early in the movie as he makes advances on every nubile young woman he encounters. Was good to see the character of Meera growing in confidence as the story progressed.
Talvar - if this truly reflects the Noida case, what a cock-up of a police investigation in the initial stages and probably in later stages.
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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 Nov 29, 2015 4:37:10 GMT
Well, inspite of being distracted from NaNoWriMo by the Bajirao Mastani promos (yay), the Dilwale promos (eh), the Airlift teaser (yay), and about five billion Star Wars 7 commercials that seem to give away too much, I didn't actually sit down and watch any movies end to end until I was finished writing...
Kalicharan (1976) is generally considered to be one of Shatrughan Sinha's biggest solo hits, was remade all over the South Indian films industries, and is an early film by Subhash Ghai. The basic premise is interesting: an upright widower policeman (Shatru) is killed by the minions of Standard Evil Mumbai Gangster (Ajit), and his mentor/surrogate father figure/superior in the police force (Prem Nath) finagles imprisoned vigilante killer Kalicharan (Shatru again) into impersonating him and bringing the bad guys to justice. there are two catches: one is that the mentor doesn't know that his hotelier/philanthropist buddy Din Dayal is actually the Evil Mumbai Gangster they are searching for, and the other is that Kalicharan is not terribly interested in taking up this policeman gig, at least until he's guilt-tripped into it by the mentor's daughter (Alka?) moping about her dead adoptive brother, and the dead policeman's two adorable children latching onto him believing that he is their father. Along the way, he bromances (with fisticuffs) a minor crook (Danny Dezongpa), romances the mentor's daughter's friend (Reena Roy), she makes a brief and unsuccessful stab at investigating the death of her brother (the police informant who tipped off Dead Policeman about the Evil Mumbai Gangster), and we get some painfully random and mostly kind of boring song picturizations: Reena dances barefoot in a flurry of soap flakes snow in what is supposed to be some place near Simla, Helen does a faux flamenco number in the most unflattering hair and makeup ever and Prem Nath gatecrashes it dressed as Santa Claus,* Shatru dances in some kind of Krishna-oriented festival (Handi, maybe?) and then suddenly Reena is doing a romantic rain dance number to the same tune...they sound like they ought to be entertaining, but only the Helen number really got there for me. Songs are catchy though.
As for the rest of the movie, it's interesting in that the emotional content and the suspense often work in spite of the film's flaws, and seem to owe more to the inventive camera work and editing than to the occasionally random plot, the actors who go from reasonably good to painfully theatrical within the same five-minute scene, presumably due to poor direction, and the dialogue writer who is more interested in writing preachy lectures, catchy wordplays and punch dialogues than in making people interact in any meaningful way. I like Shatrughan and Reena well enough in general, and he has some fun with the uncouth convict impersonating the cop, but I don't think this film showcases them properly. Reena, for instance, was known for her dance numbers, but you would never guess that from her stiff, ill-at-ease poses in the songs here.
*Okay, I can't blame you for not believing me, but will you at least believe the evidence of your own eyes? (warning, stretched-format video, but it's the best quality I've found. Santa Nath enters around the 2:22 mark)
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Post by chrisanthi on Nov 30, 2015 3:18:31 GMT
Entertainment - I was a bit anxious about this (translation: I was expecting the worst) but it was actually kind of cute. some of the comedy was funny, some of it was silly and some of it was totally unfunny (Akshay in a fat suit saying "I didn't know how to placate my baby" and then "breastfeeding" said baby was not funny). Sonu Sood and Prakash Raj were caricature villains but it suited the film. Johnny Lever was, surprisingly, subdued. What was up with Akshay wearing the one trouser leg down and the other rolled up? Since we're talking aboout fashion, special mention must be made of Sonu Sood's white and black plaid trousers. I loved how Tamanah's character would quote dialogues from soap operas. The big star of the film was undoubtedly the dog - such a beautiful dog.
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