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 22, 2013 12:24:39 GMT
Rubicon wrote, in the most recently seen movies thread:
I started this one a while back out of curiosity about the songs and the cast, and need to finish it sometime, I guess-the pointless sounding suicide of a major character just seems like a real downer.
In the first half, Aditya did an impressive job of making me sympathize with a type of character I usually detest, while Shraddha was decent when she was given anything more to do than be a placeholder for the female viewer's fantasies-in some ways, I liked her better in the bits I've seen of Luv Ka The End, where she at least gets to be bubbly and kind of feisty. I agree about the songs.
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victoria
Dancing in the chorus
Posts: 48
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Post by victoria on Nov 22, 2013 18:34:12 GMT
My main problem with this movie was that they didn't develop the characters enough. What was Aditya's character beyond just being an alcoholic? Addiction as an element of a story can be interesting but it can't be the WHOLE story, it gets boring watching him trash rooms and down bottles of alcohol after awhile. And Shraddha's character was a doormat from beginning to end. There was something really engaging about the two of them together, they had good chemistry (although I'm not really sold on Shraddha's performance, she's so lovely and I think she has a lot of promise), but by the time Aditya's character committed suicide I was almost grateful that sham of a relationship was over.
I just think they could have done SO much more with the premise than they did, you know?
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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 Dec 2, 2013 18:58:29 GMT
Finished Aashiqui 2; felt like the first half set us up to learn more about the characters and the music recording industry and somehow we never did. I found the story's ending kind of infuriating: it glorifies the male character's suicide and arranges matters so that basically what he wants/needs continues to dominate the heroine's life after his death.
The young lovers' obsession with sacrificing EVERYTHING for each other is only palatable, marginally*, if you can accept it as a bit of cathartic but morbid fantasy, like the South Indian Laws of Masala Physics. The moment you start thinking about how psychologically messed-up the characters would need to be to act like this, or about the idea of impressible young people holding this up as some kind of ideal love, you will probably get very grumpy. Songs are pretty and Aditya was very good at fleshing out a simplistic alcoholic/suffering artist character and stirring up some kind of empathy for the character without trying to excuse what he did. Shraddha's mournful innocent schtick got old quickly, but she was cute in the brief happy scenes, and I liked her anger and frustration towards the end of the movie.
*I fastforwarded through most of the segment where Aditya's character turns abusive, but I had the impression that the filmmakers shouldn't have gone there. They treated the issue respectfully, didn't try to excuse it (although the girl does IIRC), but the film's just not real enough at a psychological level to support it; it's a fairy tale about a saintly Mary Sue character and the handsome, tortured soul she chooses to expend that saintliness on.
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Post by Ally Kumari on Dec 3, 2013 10:27:40 GMT
Bits from my review (because I cannot put it down better than I already have):
I still don´t get the massive appeal of Adiya Roy Kapoor among girls, but while he may have not gained another stan in me, Aashiqui 2 did managed to get a special entry into my „good Bollywood films of 2013“ book. It reminded me why 90s films, often flawed and far from perfect, are still ruling over hearts. It is not just about the technical aspects or acting, it is always about the story and the way it is told. Aashiqui 2 feels VERY 90s to me, and in a certain way reminded me of the first Aashiqui, even though it had nothing in common with it in terms of story, neither were there any references. I think it was the passionate love that just wants to exists, and also that the two leads are (were – till the film released) not well-known and not exactly great actors.
First Aashiqui was basically about jealousy on the professional level (where the boy couldn´t cope with the fact his girlfriend had a successful career – unlike him. Booo.) and judging by the first part of the film, I assumed it would be the same case for this one as well.
It is not so though. We are not concerned about something as shallow and superficial. Love between the two protagonists has something not many movies can portray – purity. This is a love story that doesn´t waver. In a way it reminds one of Rockstar (2011), which was even higher on emotion, passion and self-destruction, but the love in Rockstar has lot of selfishness to it.
Aditya Roy Kapoor is not a bad actor, and he does his job well, he however lacks screen presence for me, neither do I find him an eye-candy. Shraddha Kapoor, whom I previously loved in Luv Ka The End, is extremely lovely to look at, having a gentle grace of vintage actresses, sadly her dialogue delivery completely sucks (to the point I wonder if she was dubbed in LKTE) and is so monotonous it makes one cringe. She saves her performance by emoting with her eyes and face, but she will indeed have to work hard.
Looking back today I would rate the film with 6/10. It was not great, but not many films of 2013 were.... this one at least had something to offer. I also think that the massive success of it shows that young people are in search of their own, new iconic romance - sort of what Bobby was in the 70s and of course MPK and DDLJ in the 90s.
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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 Dec 3, 2013 14:29:34 GMT
I didn't care for Shraddha's diction either-she has a weird, nasal style of talking similar to Sonakshi in her early films, only more so. I don't really get why these people in the industry can't be bothered to put their daughters through a speech course or something. I felt she did better delivering her lines in the bits where she's supposed to be kind of loud-the opening scene where she's mad at Aditya's character, and when she trashes the apartment after his death. I stumbled across an interview where Aditya described her as a prankster and very much one of the guys IRL so maybe the character was just too ladylike for her.
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