Bollywood movie reviews, anyone?

[ashdoc]

Would you people mind if I started a separate thread for my Bollywood movie reviews ??

I promise to keep my Bollywood movie reviews restricted to that thread and that thread only , and not flood this forum with those reviews .

That way I can become a more regular contributor to this forum , unlike now when my participation is occasional .

I see Bollywood movies more than Hollywood movies , and you will get reviews of latest newly released movies .

Of course , no one is asking you folks to see those movies . But inspite of the risk of being accused of praising myself I would like to say that those who read my Bollywood reviews say that it's fun to read my reviews rather than watch the movies themselves .

Let me say again that I will not flood the review section with my Bollywood reviews . I will keep them restricted to one thread only .

Lets poll on this.....

[Yoda]

Go for it! :) I think we're lacking in this department, so I hope you do.

[ashdoc]

Thanks admin sahib ;)

[ashdoc]

Don't be surprised if some Bollywood movies have english names .;) Some Bollywood movies are copies of Hollywood movies anyway .

[ashdoc]

Also most Bollywood movies are musicals ; that is , the characters break out in a song and dance every once in a while.....

I am just penning my thoughts as they occur to me .

[cricket]

I probably wouldn't look at the thread much but I say you should definitely start one.

[Jack1]

I'd read them. Not an area I know a lot about so'd be interesting to read.

[bluedeed]

Are you familiar with Pakeezah, ashdoc?

[ashdoc]

Are you familiar with Pakeezah, ashdoc?

yeah , but i haven't seen it . it was produced more than 40 years ago when i wasn't even born .

in the urdu language pakeezah means one with a pure heart---pak means pure . its a story of a prostitute with a pure heart . the film is half urdu and half hindi in language . urdu is the language of upper class muslims in the indian subcontinent . pakeezah is a muslim prostitute and the entire film is set in a muslim milieu .

not surprisingly , the film became more popular in pakistan than in india . maybe they liked the ' pak ' in the name---pakistan means PUREistan , made pure by ethnically cleansing it of hindus and sikhs who inhabited it as minorities earlier .

the movie is regarded as a classic . but i don't really have a liking for muslim socials .

[Tyler1]

Sure. What about non-Bollywood Indian cinema? That's something quite lacking in this site too.

[Nausicaä]

I probably wouldn't look at the thread much but I say you should definitely start one.
^ This. I'm not a fan of Bollywood, it's rare that I enjoy what I see but do make a topic, everyone is free to do so.

[christine]

Sure, I'd be interested to read them . They can be overly lovey-dovey though for my taste ;)

I might go and see The Lunchbox next week, directed by Ritesh Batra. It stars Irrfan Khan - I really like him. Have you seen that ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJIGJtb_N7E

[ashdoc]

Sure, I'd be interested to read them . They can be overly lovey-dovey though for my taste ;)

I might go and see The Lunchbox next week, directed by Ritesh Batra. It stars Irrfan Khan - I really like him. Have you seen that ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJIGJtb_N7E


no , to be honest i haven't seen it .

[ashdoc]

This is review of 'The lunchbox ' by an internet friend (his ID is GFB from Fundoozone which is an Indian forum ) He has given me permission to post this review here---

Story:
The story is set in Mumbai. Ila (Nimrat Kaur) lovingly cooks for her husband (Nakul Vaid) because she thinks that the key to a man’s heart is through his stomach. However, due to a mix-up by Mumbai’s dabbawaalas, the Lunch Box lands at the table of Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan). Fernandes is a widower and is in the last month of his early (voluntary) retirement in the Claims Department. He wants to leave all his memories in Mumbai and settle down in Nasik. For his lunch, he has arranged it from a Dhaba guy but is fed up with the tasteless food that they serve him every day.

Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is the new recruit who is to take on Saajan's job in the Claims Department, after his retirement. Shaikh is a nuisance, who keeps approaching Saajan to get him to do things he, Saajan, doesn't want. Shaikh understands he is being avoided, and yet keeps his dignity intact.

When Saajan receives wrong lunchbox, he devours Ila’s delicacies and returns the completely empty box as an evidence of his enjoyment. Ila learns that her husband was not the recipient of the tiffin and is annoyed by the stranger's lack of thanks. When she sends another lunchbox next day, she puts a sarcastic note inside the lunchbox and Saajan responds to it. Thus begin their exchange of notes; she shares her story, while Sajjan narrates his. Suddenly, the two are writing daily, sharing jokes, fears, passions and getting more and more intimate every day until one day, Ila expresses her desire to meet.

I won’t write more as I don’t want to write spoilers.

Comments:
I had not watched this movie earlier (it was released in September 2013) as I generally don’t watch these type of slow, art movies. However, I was recently watching Filmfare awards and saw that this movie won various awards (mostly critic awards). Since there was nothing else to watch at the moment, I thought it is worth watching this movie. Hence the late review.

The basic premise of this movie is flawed. The Dabbawala community has been awarded a Six Sigma Certification. Six Sigma is a set of practices to systematically improve processes by eliminating defects. Agreed that a mistake can happen once, even by the efficient Dabbawalas. But to consistently hand over a tiffin to the wrong address to a wrong person for over a fortnight certainly makes a mockery of the fact that these guys have this Certification. What is even more shocking for one to imagine is that while the wrong guy gets the wrong tiffin, the tiffin meant for the wrong guy goes to another person, the husband, with the same consistency. This coincidence is baffling. And what is unacceptable is the fact that the husband who gets the wrong tiffin is not able to recognize his own tiffin! The service provider only ensures your tiffin reaches on time. How come the husband does not know the taste of his own home-cooked food and the colour and type of his Lunch Box?

Apart from this glaring mistake, I think the movie is nice and shows you a very unusual love story.

The use of story progression through notes/letters in lunchbox reminded me of Tumhari Amrita play (Shabana Azmi and Farooq Shaikh) where the story progresses through letters. Maybe the director/writer was inspired from that play and used notes/letters to progress his story in this movie.

Irrfan says very little, letting his body do the talking. He sniffs the dabba's aroma, lets a slow smile build across his face and you have to smile right back. He is sitting most of the time in the movie. At a desk, where he does this desk job. At a table in the office canteen, where he eats his lunch. At his home, cluttered with old memories. This is one of his best performances where he conveyed so much while speaking so less.

Nimrat Kaur did nice acting. Without a trace of makeup, she looked great as a normal housewife with a kid. Her acting was perfect and she showed all the emotions effectively.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is a supporting actor in this movie and justified his role. Even though his character is annoying at first, you start liking him after some time. He got Filmfare award for supporting actor for this movie.
There was a lot of furore created when this movie was not sent for Oscar. Even though this is a nice movie, I don’t think it is that great to be sent to Oscars. I don’t know which movie went to Oscar finally but I don’t see why people should be annoyed if this was not selected for Oscars.

Verdict:
Decent movie. This movie will be liked by those who love art movies. It will be too slow and dull for those who like masala/commercial movies as there is no action/melodrama in this movie. It is like Test Match of cricket, which you watch for the techniques and not for edge of the seat thrill that is in T20.

[ashdoc]

Are you familiar with Pakeezah, ashdoc?

http://www.upperstall.com/files/profile/wallpaper/meenakumari_1024x768.jpg

Pakeezah !! :)

Well , the very fact that you know about this film has evoked interest in me---for I am surprised that a westerner ( I am assuming you are one ) has heard about this film . So when I saw a DVD of Pakeezah I could not resist myself from buying it . When I get time to see this DVD I will write it's review .

But lets first introduce the actress playing the central character of Pakeezah---Meena Kumari .

Her real name was Mahjabeen Bano . She was a muslim ; not surprisingly , since only a muslim could master the complex urdu dialogues of a film like Pakeezah . But in the sixties and seventies only an actress with a hindu name could do well in hindi cinema . The audiences were parochial enough , for the wounds of partition were still raw.....
So Mahjabeen Bano was given the hindu name of Meena Kumari when she was introduced into films .

Meena Kumari was the tragedy queen of Indian cinema---the name Bollywood was not prevalent then ; it became prevalent only in the eighties . Her films always had a tragic melancholy air about them . I have seen her in countless films---weeping her heart out . And the audiences wept with her , especially the women . To my mother she was simply the greatest actress to have graced the silver screen .

And her real life mirrored her reel life . She never found happiness in her life . She was a hopeless romantic , but her lovers took advantage of her hopelessly romantic nature to use her for their own ends . She promoted their careers in the film industry , but having used her they left her after achieving success . Especially the actor Dharmendra became a huge star using her as a ladder but refused to leave his wife and marry her . Later she married Kamal Amrohi , the director of Pakeezah . But even he got her to sign her money in his name and dumped her after that . She was left with very little money at a time when age was beginning to catch up with her . But most importantly , she was without the companion she wanted . Not surprisingly , she turned to drink . In the end , she died penniless due to alcoholism .

But her real life tragedies enhanced her stature as tragedy queen , and in fact made her almost a mythical and legendary figure . Today her films are regarded as classics . And Pakeezah ranks topmost among them.....

Of course , I am not certain if a person like myself who was born in the modern era will like Pakeezah , for Pakeezah most probably has the old fashioned atmosphere of the early seventies when India was a backward society mired in socialism .. And the style of film making will be old too . But who knows , I may be surprised to find a rich vein of romance and some fabulous acting by Meena Kumari in a film which regarded as a classic . I am keeping my fingers crossed.....