Opening July 31: Love Aaj Kal

Opening Friday, July 31, 2009, is the Saif Ali Khan-Deepika Padukone romance Love Aaj Kal (“Love Nowadays”). The movie follows the story of two love affairs, one taking place in 2009 and another that happened in 1965. It’s reportedly a remake of the Taiwanese film Three Times.

In the Chicago area, Love Aaj Kal will run at the AMC Loews Pipers Alley 4 in Chicago, Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles, AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington and AMC Cantera 30 in Warrenville. The film’s runtime is listed as 2 hrs 10 min.

Sanjay Dutt’s Luck is getting a second week at AMC South Barrington 30 and Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5, which is also carrying over New York for a sixth week. Luck earned $112,309 in its opening weekend in U.S. theaters.

Another Indian film opening in the Chicago area this weekend is the Telugu movie Magadheera, playing at Sathyam Cinemas in Downers Grove.

Opening July 24: Luck

Sanjay Dutt’s latest film, Luck, opens in theaters this Friday, July 24. Dutt plays a gangster in a movie about the role luck plays in several characters’ lives. Luck will run at the AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington and at the Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles.

Both theaters are carrying over New York for an impressive fifth week in U.S. theaters. As of last weekend, New York has earned $981, 866 in America.

The Golf Glen 5 will also feature Akshay Kumar’s Kambakkht Ishq, which has so far earned $1,408,522 in the U.S., as well as the Tamil movie Achchamundu! Achchamundu! and the Malayalam film Pattanathil Bhootham.

Opening July 10: Short Kut

This is the fourth consecutive week of new Bollywood releases in the Chicago area since the strike ended. Opening in theaters on Friday, July 10, 2009 is Short Kut: The Con is On, a movie about a small-time actor (Arshad Warsi) who steals a script and becomes a Bollywood star. Hilarity (allegedly) ensues when the script’s writer (Akshaye Khanna) gets his revenge.

Short Kut will run at the Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles and at the AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington. It’s runtime is listed as 2 hrs 19 min.

The AMC South Barrington 30 and the AMC Cantera 30 in Warrenville will both continue to run New York and Kambakkht Ishq. Both movies have already earned nearly $1 million in the U.S.

Kambakkht Ishq is also getting a second week at the AMC Loews Pipers Alley 4 in Chicago and at the Golf Glen 5.

Other Indian movies playing in the Chicago area this weekend include Bhramaram (Malayalam), Oy! (Telugu) and Made In China [which may be a rerelease of Chandni Chowk to China, I'm not sure] at the Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5. Sathyam Cinemas in Downers Grove is showing the Telugu film Gopi Gopika Godavari.

Here’s a trailer for this week’s new release, Short Kut:

Movie Review: Kambakkht Ishq (2009)

1 Star (out of 4)

Download Kambakkht Ishq or
Buy the DVD at Amazon

By this point, if you’ve seen one Akshay Kumar slapstick comedy, such as Chandni Chowk to China, Singh is Kinng, or Welcome, you’ve seen them all. Kambakkht Ishq is no different, except that producer Sajid Nadiadwala cast three American movie stars, in the hopes of making this film a crossover hit. But the publicity-stunt casting can’t save this cliched comedy.

Kumar stars as Viraj, a Hollywood stuntman who thinks women are only good for one thing. Kareena Kapoor plays Simrita, a supermodel-surgeon (seriously) who thinks men are dogs. While trying to convince their families and friends that romance is for suckers, they inadvertently fall in love with each other. It’s a plot that’s as old as the hills, and this movie does nothing to freshen it up.

There are a number of reasons why Kambakkht Ishq won’t appeal to American audiences the way Nadiadwala hoped, beyond the predictable problem of Hindi wordplay jokes that aren’t funny when translated into in English.

First, the casting of American actors didn’t work. It was cool to see Sylvester Stallone in a Bollywood movie, but Denise Richards and Brandon Routh barely qualify as “stars” in the U.S. I’m guessing Denise Richards is referred to only by her full (and real) name throughout the movie so that Indian moviegoers can look her up on IMDb after getting home from the theater.

More confusing is the inclusion of a bunch of Australian actors in the movie, even though it’s set in Hollywood. Aussie singer Holly Valance makes a cameo appearance, despite having little name recognition in the U.S., apart from a few small parts on some canceled TV shows. And nothing snaps you out of movie faster than an L.A. thug who sounds like Crocodile Dundee.

Along those lines, the dialogue in the movie is lame, and having American actors deliver awkward lines in English just emphasizes the poor quality of the writing.

Also problematic for American audiences is a scene in where Simrita watches Viraj film stunts for a movie. The set Viraj is working on is clearly that of the Waterworld stunt show at Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. There are even empty bleachers in the background of one of the shots!

Yet the biggest reason American movie fans won’t like Kambakkht Ishq is its style of comedy. Most egregiously, some of the jokes are racist, such as when Viraj dons an afro wig and blackface makeup to trick his sister-in-law.

The rest of the slapstick-style comedy is old-fashioned by American standards, and not well executed. There are pratfalls and pies in the face, all done with over-the-top, silent-movie-style acting.

There’s also a bit with a doctor who’s lost his hearing aid that inspires predictable jokes like this:

Viraj: “I need you to check!”
Doctor: “You want to have sex?”

All of the jokes in Kambakkht Ishq have been done before, and they’ve all been done better. Given the dismal reviews American critics gave to Chandni Chowk to China, which was distributed by Warner Bros., it’s time for Indian producers to rethink pinning their hopes of achieving crossover success in the U.S. on Akshay Kumar, at least until he starts making more sophisticated comedies.

Links

• Buy Kambakkht Ishq on DVD at Amazon
• Kambakkht Ishq at Wikipedia
• Kambakkht Ishq at IMDb
• My Review of Chandni Chowk to China
• My Review of Singh Is Kinng
• My Review of Welcome

Opening July 3: Kambakkht Ishq

This holiday weekend marks the long-awaited release of Kambakkht Ishq, a romantic comedy starring Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor. The pair play a bickering stuntman and supermodel who try to break up a wedding. As with most Akshay Kumar movies, expect slapstick wackiness.

Of interest to American audiences are cameo appearances by actors Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards and Brandon Routh. The majority of the movie was shot at Universal Studios in Hollywood, a first for Indian cinema.

Kambakkht Ishq will open in the Chicago area at the AMC Loews Pipers Alley 4 in Chicago, the Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles, the AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington and the AMC Cantera 30 in Warrenville. The Cantera 30 is featuring a special midnight showing of Kambakkht Ishq on Thursday night (technically 12:01 a.m. Friday). Eros Entertainment’s website has a list of all theaters in the U.S. and Canada showing the movie, which has a listed runtime of 2 hrs 20 min.

Last week’s big Bollywood release, New York, made an impressive showing in U.S. theaters. It earned nearly $500,000, to finish in 16th place last weekend, with a better per-screen average than the debut of Cameron Diaz’s film My Sister’s Keeper.

New York is carrying over for a second week at the AMC Cantera 30, the AMC South Barrington 30, and the Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5. It’s definitely worth checking out; I gave it 3.5/4 stars in my review.

The other Indian movies playing in the Chicago area this weekend are all in Telugu, including Oy! at the Golf Glen 5, and Kick and Evaraina Epudaina at the Sathyam Cinemas in Downers Grove.