movies of week 44 & 45.
Yeah, this is becoming bi-monthly because I'm superlazy. But whatever.
Also, I think I won't lock these from now on. It's not super personal which movies I watch weekly or what I think about them. And if some folk are still hanging around from the old fandoms I've more or less abandoned for the time being (Final Fantasy, Harry Potter..), they can have a good excuse to defriend me. (Folk I've not friended back, that is.)
Aradhana
A tear-jerker drama (I know, what Indian movie isn't a tear-jerk drama? - but seriously, this movie is so exactly that) with the golden jodi Sharmila Tagore-Rajesh Khanna. It may have been predictable but it was also lovable and had a nice soundtrack. Roop Tera Mastana is perhaps the hottest Hindi film song picturization ever. Yikes. Really liked it.
Down in the Valley
Oh Edward Norton. How you continue to be so very good. He really carries this movie, though the film itself or the other actors aren't bad per se.. The cinematography is also nice, but the film gets a bit dull on the last third. Good watch for Ed's performance, though.
Jaan-e-Mann
Sidenote somewhat unrelated to Jaan-e-Mann: 2006 has been an amazing year in Hindi cinema. I was ready to throw my hands up with Lage Raho Munnabhai - "Okay, Bollywood - that's it, you've given us all you can do best. Now you can churn some crappy movies for the rest of this year and I'll totally forgive you." But then I heard about Jaan-e-Mann, saw the trailer and became curious. Eventually I decided I really needed to see the movie.
And so I did. It was so much fun. I loved all the three stars, Salman, Akki & Preity, and its cleverness and its way of conveying the story. Hilarious comedy, surprisingly good emotional core. Soundtrack finally won me over, as well. It does have its share of flaws but I can forgive it those for it kept me so entertained.
Asoka
Somewhat of a let-down, though I did know it probably wouldn't become a new favourite movie. In case there are two people in the universe who don't know what the deal with Asoka is, here it is: Shahrukh Khan plays the legendary emperor Ashoka with hair extensions and occasionally without a shirt. They totally Shahrukhify the story to my disappointment - it's like, what Buddhism? It was nice visually but somehow hollow as a movie. And when Shahrukh's role was getting interesting, the movie ends. Meh. Kareena was nice enough. I need to give the soundtrack more listening to see if I like it.
--
At this point I feel a desire to mention that we've watched a lot of *really* early cinema in Film History class. So I've seen such classics as films by Lumiére bros, Cecil M. Hepworth's Rescued by Rover (the greatgrandfather to Lassie films), some Georges Méliès films, Pathé Freres films (including a delightful 1902 rendition of "Alibaba & 40 thieves", which now in my mind only rivals the 1980 Dharmendra film on the same story), hmm, well a bunch of films from that 1900-1910 era. It helps that they were all like a couple of minutes long.
It's been very interesting & I'm almost sad we're moving onto an era where the films are becoming too long for us to watch in class.
--
Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi
Totally lovable goofball comedy from the 50's. Madhubala is beautiful (duhh) and has fantastic chemistry with Kishore Kumar (an actor who really could sing!). Kishore's brothers bring the funny and there's a car involved. It's all good fun, gets a tiny bit dramatic towards the end but the climax is rightly amusing.
Antarmahal: Views of the Inner Chamber
Period movie from a Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh. In Bengali. Duhh. Besides Soha "My-family-is-so-damn-pretty" Ali Khan (in the picture above), it stars Jackie Scroff, Abhishek Bachchan (<3) & Roopali Ganguly (never heard of her before but she was damn good in this film. Superficially, it's a great movie. Everybody plays their parts well, whoever has the graces to look good, does & on the outside the story is logical and interesting, though moves slowly like some art films tend to. My only real problem with the movie is that I'm not sure about its real message. What was the point of the whole story? I don't consider myself an incredibly dumb viewer when it comes to these things but not necessarily a very observant watcher, either. So either a) I just didn't 'get it' and Hindi masala has corroded my mind so that I may never watch another poignant artsy film or b) the director was confused and didn't manage to convey the message or then the message just lacks any sort of relevance OR c) the message is there but needs to be dug up with re-watchings.
I like to think the real answer is c).
Ankahee
Anyone notice my theme these two weeks? A-movies ftw. Anyway. I have this thing where I sympathise Esha Deol. I don't love or adore her particularly but I'm supportive of her on-screen efforts. Okay, she's not the most amazingly beautiful Indian woman ever - but she is very pretty to me. She's not a great actress - but she's getting better. Ankahee is definitely a show of that. It gives the old cheating story with Esha playing the other woman part in a disturbed manner. I couldn't give a toss whether this movie is about Vikram Bhatt's alleged affair with Sushmita Sen (in his wet friggin' dreams, would be my best guess), but Esha plays a fucked up film starlet very well. Aftab & Amisha also do good, though in this case good means 'okay' - it's nothing amazing. The downfall of the film is that it just gets boring. Terribly "skipping entire scenes" sort of boring. The soundtrack makes for surprisingly nice listening.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
I found the *real* poster of this movie so insulting to everybody's intelligence, I decided to post a collage of cool Looney Tunes characters instead. Long story short; there was a special satellite channel offer, so we got access to the movie channels for one weekend. I watched this crappy film because it amused my 9 yr old brother so much. I must admit laughing a few times - there are a few moments where the film recognizes its own clichéd crappiness, thus becoming funny. Sadly it's mostly just clichéd crap. The kind that makes you groan in agony. Yeaaah.
To Have and Have Not
Oh, Humphrey. And Lauren. And old movie banter. One of my top favourite things about, well, most films of that time period. My brother kept pestering me while watching this movie because apparently boys his age aren't into classic Hollywood and consider it boring. Damn these youngsters! So the plot was kind of lost on me but at least the movie didn't get boring. I could re-watch it just for the banter.
So there's your report on how much freetime I have nowadays.
Also, I think I won't lock these from now on. It's not super personal which movies I watch weekly or what I think about them. And if some folk are still hanging around from the old fandoms I've more or less abandoned for the time being (Final Fantasy, Harry Potter..), they can have a good excuse to defriend me. (Folk I've not friended back, that is.)
Aradhana
A tear-jerker drama (I know, what Indian movie isn't a tear-jerk drama? - but seriously, this movie is so exactly that) with the golden jodi Sharmila Tagore-Rajesh Khanna. It may have been predictable but it was also lovable and had a nice soundtrack. Roop Tera Mastana is perhaps the hottest Hindi film song picturization ever. Yikes. Really liked it.
Down in the Valley
Oh Edward Norton. How you continue to be so very good. He really carries this movie, though the film itself or the other actors aren't bad per se.. The cinematography is also nice, but the film gets a bit dull on the last third. Good watch for Ed's performance, though.
Jaan-e-Mann
Sidenote somewhat unrelated to Jaan-e-Mann: 2006 has been an amazing year in Hindi cinema. I was ready to throw my hands up with Lage Raho Munnabhai - "Okay, Bollywood - that's it, you've given us all you can do best. Now you can churn some crappy movies for the rest of this year and I'll totally forgive you." But then I heard about Jaan-e-Mann, saw the trailer and became curious. Eventually I decided I really needed to see the movie.
And so I did. It was so much fun. I loved all the three stars, Salman, Akki & Preity, and its cleverness and its way of conveying the story. Hilarious comedy, surprisingly good emotional core. Soundtrack finally won me over, as well. It does have its share of flaws but I can forgive it those for it kept me so entertained.
Asoka
Somewhat of a let-down, though I did know it probably wouldn't become a new favourite movie. In case there are two people in the universe who don't know what the deal with Asoka is, here it is: Shahrukh Khan plays the legendary emperor Ashoka with hair extensions and occasionally without a shirt. They totally Shahrukhify the story to my disappointment - it's like, what Buddhism? It was nice visually but somehow hollow as a movie. And when Shahrukh's role was getting interesting, the movie ends. Meh. Kareena was nice enough. I need to give the soundtrack more listening to see if I like it.
--
At this point I feel a desire to mention that we've watched a lot of *really* early cinema in Film History class. So I've seen such classics as films by Lumiére bros, Cecil M. Hepworth's Rescued by Rover (the greatgrandfather to Lassie films), some Georges Méliès films, Pathé Freres films (including a delightful 1902 rendition of "Alibaba & 40 thieves", which now in my mind only rivals the 1980 Dharmendra film on the same story), hmm, well a bunch of films from that 1900-1910 era. It helps that they were all like a couple of minutes long.
It's been very interesting & I'm almost sad we're moving onto an era where the films are becoming too long for us to watch in class.
--
Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi
Totally lovable goofball comedy from the 50's. Madhubala is beautiful (duhh) and has fantastic chemistry with Kishore Kumar (an actor who really could sing!). Kishore's brothers bring the funny and there's a car involved. It's all good fun, gets a tiny bit dramatic towards the end but the climax is rightly amusing.
Antarmahal: Views of the Inner Chamber
Period movie from a Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh. In Bengali. Duhh. Besides Soha "My-family-is-so-damn-pretty" Ali Khan (in the picture above), it stars Jackie Scroff, Abhishek Bachchan (<3) & Roopali Ganguly (never heard of her before but she was damn good in this film. Superficially, it's a great movie. Everybody plays their parts well, whoever has the graces to look good, does & on the outside the story is logical and interesting, though moves slowly like some art films tend to. My only real problem with the movie is that I'm not sure about its real message. What was the point of the whole story? I don't consider myself an incredibly dumb viewer when it comes to these things but not necessarily a very observant watcher, either. So either a) I just didn't 'get it' and Hindi masala has corroded my mind so that I may never watch another poignant artsy film or b) the director was confused and didn't manage to convey the message or then the message just lacks any sort of relevance OR c) the message is there but needs to be dug up with re-watchings.
I like to think the real answer is c).
Ankahee
Anyone notice my theme these two weeks? A-movies ftw. Anyway. I have this thing where I sympathise Esha Deol. I don't love or adore her particularly but I'm supportive of her on-screen efforts. Okay, she's not the most amazingly beautiful Indian woman ever - but she is very pretty to me. She's not a great actress - but she's getting better. Ankahee is definitely a show of that. It gives the old cheating story with Esha playing the other woman part in a disturbed manner. I couldn't give a toss whether this movie is about Vikram Bhatt's alleged affair with Sushmita Sen (in his wet friggin' dreams, would be my best guess), but Esha plays a fucked up film starlet very well. Aftab & Amisha also do good, though in this case good means 'okay' - it's nothing amazing. The downfall of the film is that it just gets boring. Terribly "skipping entire scenes" sort of boring. The soundtrack makes for surprisingly nice listening.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
I found the *real* poster of this movie so insulting to everybody's intelligence, I decided to post a collage of cool Looney Tunes characters instead. Long story short; there was a special satellite channel offer, so we got access to the movie channels for one weekend. I watched this crappy film because it amused my 9 yr old brother so much. I must admit laughing a few times - there are a few moments where the film recognizes its own clichéd crappiness, thus becoming funny. Sadly it's mostly just clichéd crap. The kind that makes you groan in agony. Yeaaah.
To Have and Have Not
Oh, Humphrey. And Lauren. And old movie banter. One of my top favourite things about, well, most films of that time period. My brother kept pestering me while watching this movie because apparently boys his age aren't into classic Hollywood and consider it boring. Damn these youngsters! So the plot was kind of lost on me but at least the movie didn't get boring. I could re-watch it just for the banter.
So there's your report on how much freetime I have nowadays.