Saawariya & Jab We Met
sassiefin was on a visit to watch some Indian movies with me today. I have a huge pile of unwatched movies waiting, but tonight we watched Saawariya and Jab We Met. There are some spoilers in my comments to both movies.
Like all Sanjay Leela Bhansali movies, Saawariya looks absolutely gorgeous. His films are always so incredibly beautiful to watch - they really should be watched in a movie theatre, but alas, nothing such happening in this country :(.
There is something very theatrical and stage-like about the sets (it could very well work as a theatrical musical) and the lush blue-green tones used throughout the movie offer it a dreamlike fairy tale quality. Most of the time I was just staring stunned at the imagery used in this film, but that is what always happens to me with SLB movies.
The story, well, that was pretty simple, but still, there is longing, unrequited love, faithful waiting love, and a young man just bringing some light and warmth with his character into some people's lives. Ranbir and Sonam Kapoor (not related) were good in their roles, though both Sari and I thought Sakina perhaps wasn't completely sane, since her obsession with the absent Imaan and her mood-swings and giggling fits looked a bit manic-depressive...
Ranbir did a good job in his debut. One thing I love about Bollywood is that it doesn't just objectify women, men get just the same kind of scenes as well (Thinking of the song where he is only wearing a towel. Backlighted. Apparently the scene where he drops the towel was cut from the film since the censors insisted.) :D.
His optimistic young musician character is something very familiar from other SLB movies (Salman in HDDCS, Khamoshi). He brings brief happiness to the life of girl he suddenly meets, but she only sees him as a friend, not a lover. She has been waiting for her true love, Imaan (played eyelined, deep-voiced yummy Salman Khan) and in the end is reunited with him, leaving Ranbir's character adrift.
Zohra Sehgal and Rani Mukherji were wonderful side-characters in this film. Zohra became a mother figure to Ranbir's character and Rani was a friend, but felt like his friendship was maybe more. I really felt for her character when Raj came to her, heart-broken, and asked to stay with her and then offered her money in order to have her services like one of her clients. He clearly had no idea how much he was insulting Gulabji who had offered him her friendship just because he seemed kind and treated her as a human being instead of a prostitute.
The film looked wonderful, gorgeous, lush, beautiful, but somehow the story felt empty to me. Only a dreamlike sketch to justify all the wonderful sets and cinematography.
Jab We Met we both loved. The film is really heartwarming romantic comedy/road movie. And it's cute, but not saccharine. Shahid Kapur plays Aditya Kashyup (or Mr. Ketchup as we ended up calling him XD), a young man whose fiancee has abandoned him, his mother has eloped and his company is clear to bankruptcy. One day he just walks away without any goal and ends up in a train without even knowing where it is going.
On the train he meets a vivacious and very talkative young girl played by Kareena Kapoor. She just keeps talking and talking to him, and you can see his eyes glazing over after a while. He is contemplating suicide, but she doesn't leave him alone for a minute. And when she finds that he doesn't have a train ticket and doesn't even know where the train is going, she takes him under her wing.
But on the next stop, he gets off the train and she, thinking that he will miss the train, runs after him, causing her to miss the train as well. In the beginning he is exasperated that he still couldn't get rid of this chatterbox, but also feels slightly obligated to take care of her. And so begins their journey together.
She is in love with another man, and only travelling to meet her family before she plans to elope with him. Her exuberance is undeterred so he can't stay depressed forever. At the first, he is amused by her, but during their journey he is slowly falling in love with her even knowing that she loves somebody else. And in the end, he leaves her to go to her dream.
Several months later, he has found new enthusiasm and inspiration and has made his company a success, his life looks great, and he has also reconciliated with his mother. Then he finds out that her family hasn't hear of Geet since they left her home. Everybody thinks that she eloped with him, since they don't know about the man she loved and was going to meet.
Aditya goes to find her, and finds out that the guy she was going to meet is a complete louse and that she had pined after him for months after he abandoned her. He is determined to bring her home to her family and to cheer her up again. And of course there is the inevitable happy ending.
The story might sound simple, but this film was funny, cute, heart-breaking and wonderful. Shahid and Kareena had wonderful chemistry (I think they were still dating when this was filmed). And (Tarja turns 14) Shahid was so CUUUTEEE!!! (actually we both thought he was totally adorable in this film). And Aditya was so wonderful and just too good to be true :).
Okay, I've only seen Shahid in Ishq Vishk and this film. Has he made any other films that are watchable?
(Get the full-size picture by clicking on it)
Saawariya
Isn't she beautiful!
Rani looks wonderful!
Jab We Met
Kareena and Shahid
Isn't he cute!
Like all Sanjay Leela Bhansali movies, Saawariya looks absolutely gorgeous. His films are always so incredibly beautiful to watch - they really should be watched in a movie theatre, but alas, nothing such happening in this country :(.
There is something very theatrical and stage-like about the sets (it could very well work as a theatrical musical) and the lush blue-green tones used throughout the movie offer it a dreamlike fairy tale quality. Most of the time I was just staring stunned at the imagery used in this film, but that is what always happens to me with SLB movies.
The story, well, that was pretty simple, but still, there is longing, unrequited love, faithful waiting love, and a young man just bringing some light and warmth with his character into some people's lives. Ranbir and Sonam Kapoor (not related) were good in their roles, though both Sari and I thought Sakina perhaps wasn't completely sane, since her obsession with the absent Imaan and her mood-swings and giggling fits looked a bit manic-depressive...
Ranbir did a good job in his debut. One thing I love about Bollywood is that it doesn't just objectify women, men get just the same kind of scenes as well (Thinking of the song where he is only wearing a towel. Backlighted. Apparently the scene where he drops the towel was cut from the film since the censors insisted.) :D.
His optimistic young musician character is something very familiar from other SLB movies (Salman in HDDCS, Khamoshi). He brings brief happiness to the life of girl he suddenly meets, but she only sees him as a friend, not a lover. She has been waiting for her true love, Imaan (played eyelined, deep-voiced yummy Salman Khan) and in the end is reunited with him, leaving Ranbir's character adrift.
Zohra Sehgal and Rani Mukherji were wonderful side-characters in this film. Zohra became a mother figure to Ranbir's character and Rani was a friend, but felt like his friendship was maybe more. I really felt for her character when Raj came to her, heart-broken, and asked to stay with her and then offered her money in order to have her services like one of her clients. He clearly had no idea how much he was insulting Gulabji who had offered him her friendship just because he seemed kind and treated her as a human being instead of a prostitute.
The film looked wonderful, gorgeous, lush, beautiful, but somehow the story felt empty to me. Only a dreamlike sketch to justify all the wonderful sets and cinematography.
Jab We Met we both loved. The film is really heartwarming romantic comedy/road movie. And it's cute, but not saccharine. Shahid Kapur plays Aditya Kashyup (or Mr. Ketchup as we ended up calling him XD), a young man whose fiancee has abandoned him, his mother has eloped and his company is clear to bankruptcy. One day he just walks away without any goal and ends up in a train without even knowing where it is going.
On the train he meets a vivacious and very talkative young girl played by Kareena Kapoor. She just keeps talking and talking to him, and you can see his eyes glazing over after a while. He is contemplating suicide, but she doesn't leave him alone for a minute. And when she finds that he doesn't have a train ticket and doesn't even know where the train is going, she takes him under her wing.
But on the next stop, he gets off the train and she, thinking that he will miss the train, runs after him, causing her to miss the train as well. In the beginning he is exasperated that he still couldn't get rid of this chatterbox, but also feels slightly obligated to take care of her. And so begins their journey together.
She is in love with another man, and only travelling to meet her family before she plans to elope with him. Her exuberance is undeterred so he can't stay depressed forever. At the first, he is amused by her, but during their journey he is slowly falling in love with her even knowing that she loves somebody else. And in the end, he leaves her to go to her dream.
Several months later, he has found new enthusiasm and inspiration and has made his company a success, his life looks great, and he has also reconciliated with his mother. Then he finds out that her family hasn't hear of Geet since they left her home. Everybody thinks that she eloped with him, since they don't know about the man she loved and was going to meet.
Aditya goes to find her, and finds out that the guy she was going to meet is a complete louse and that she had pined after him for months after he abandoned her. He is determined to bring her home to her family and to cheer her up again. And of course there is the inevitable happy ending.
The story might sound simple, but this film was funny, cute, heart-breaking and wonderful. Shahid and Kareena had wonderful chemistry (I think they were still dating when this was filmed). And (Tarja turns 14) Shahid was so CUUUTEEE!!! (actually we both thought he was totally adorable in this film). And Aditya was so wonderful and just too good to be true :).
Okay, I've only seen Shahid in Ishq Vishk and this film. Has he made any other films that are watchable?
(Get the full-size picture by clicking on it)
Saawariya
Isn't she beautiful!
Rani looks wonderful!
Jab We Met
Kareena and Shahid
Isn't he cute!