Archive for January, 2010
Movie Review: Rann (2010)
2.5 Stars (out of 4)
It’s both sad and comforting to know that, on the other side of the world, people are as distrustful of the mainstream media as they are in America.
Rann (“Battle”) explores news organizations’ struggle for ratings supremacy and their ability to steer public opinion based on their coverage of news stories.
Amitabh Bachchan stars as Vijay Hashvardan Malik, a TV news pioneer who prides himself on truthfulness. As Vijay’s network loses advertisers to rivals that engage in tabloid journalism, his son, Jay (Sudeep), struggles to convince him to add more sensationalism to the network’s broadcasts.
With the network’s financial trouble widely known, Jay’s brother-in-law, Naveen (Rajat Kapoor), proposes to Jay a plan to save the network: favorable coverage of a shady politician named Mohan Pandey (Paresh Rawal) in exchange for advertising dollars from Naveen’s company.
Jay conveniently comes into possession of a video that tarnishes the reputation of Pandey’s main political rival. Jay convinces his father to broadcast the video in the name of truthfulness, and suddenly the network’s financial problems disappear.
A new reporter at the network, Purab (Ritesh Deshmukh), grows suspicious and investigates the politician’s story. What he discovers shakes his faith in the industry and in Vijay, the man who inspired him to become a journalist.
The collusion between the industrialists, politicians and networks is eerie and believable. Bachchan and Deshmukh are quietly effective as a pair of idealists who come to realize that they’re playing a rigged game. Rawal is especially creepy as Pandey, who laughs off the bloodshed he inflicts as though it were a natural part of politics.
[I have a question for any Indian readers: Pandey is flanked by bodyguards who openly carry machine guns. I've seen this in other Hindi movies as well. Do politicians in India really travel with such visibly heavily armed guards? Just curious.]
Despite the universal appeal of the story, American audiences may struggle with poorly translated English subtitles. The subtitles also occasionally get lost against background shots of news programs with moving crawls at the bottom of the screen.
I’ve only seen two of Ram Gopal Varma’s films, but it’s clear that he’s an auteur with a distinct style and a love of filmmaking technique. In fact, I’d say he suffers from an over-reliance on camera technique. His cameras constantly swoop for dramatic effect and zoom in for close-ups of the actors’ faces. On those rare occasions when the camera is static, it’s positioned underneath a glass coffee table, or the shot is framed by an actor’s foot resting on said coffee table. Varma also inserts hilariously over-the-top musical cues to alert the audience whenever anything of import happens.
I found these directorial tics distracting in Varma’s Sarkar Raj, and they bugged me in Rann, as well. Rann‘s plot is riveting and so well acted that I wanted to focus on the story, not on the cinematography. With a story this good, we in the audience know how we’re supposed to feel without the aid of directorial gimmicks.
Rann‘s runtime is 2 hrs. 25 min.
Movie Review: Veer (2010)
1 Star (out of 4)
Veer‘s historical setting is just window dressing for a typical Salman Khan film.
The movie’s action begins in 1862 in Rajputana (now Rajasthan), before the birth of the title character. The king of Madhavgarh aligns with the occupying British army, betraying the Pindari people and driving them from their homeland. The Pindari split up into smaller bands, biding their time until they can take their revenge on the king and the British.
Veer (Khan), son of one of the Pindari chiefs, grows up indoctrinated with his people’s desire for revenge. As young men, he and his younger brother, Punya (Sohail Khan), raid British trains for treasure. But with victory elusive, Chief Prithvi (Mithun Chakraborty) sends his sons to England to study British military tactics in university.
In England, Veer falls in love with an Indian princess, Yashodhara (Zarine Khan, no relation to Salman or Sohail). The brothers run into trouble with some of the wealthy Indian students at the university and must flee home, but not before they’ve learned valuable information that will finally help the Pindaris avenge their betrayal.
Veer shares much in common with other characters Salman Khan has played recently. He yells a lot, is irresistable to women and possesses superhuman strength. He can grab the blade of a sword midswing without getting his fingers lopped off, and the men he punches fly ten feet into the air. All of Khan’s recent characters are a grade school boy’s fantasy of idealized manhood.
The film’s immaturity increases with the presence of Sohail Khan, Salman’s younger brother, cast in what was surely an act of fraternal charity. Sohail’s Punya is the film’s comic relief, which feels inappropriate in a historical epic. But Punya muddles along the streets of Victorian England nonetheless, clumsily falling on pretty girls to the tune of “boing” sound effects.
The sound effects are just one example of the many ways Veer resists becoming the inspiring patriotic tale it should be. Instead of aiming for period authenticity in its costuming (at least during the scenes in England), the filmmakers used cheap costumes from the local Halloween store. Synthetic fabrics abound, Yashodhara wears hot pink nail polish and one of the English actresses has a visible tattoo on the back of her neck.
Those bits of sloppy execution are merely laughable, but a number of other errors hamper understanding. English subtitles in white text are often set against white backgrounds, and the subtitles disappear entirely at a few critical moments. It’s not clear in exactly which year the bulk of the action takes place, nor is it clear just how old Veer is. He’s likely in his early twenties, or about twenty years younger than Salman Khan’s real age of 44.
There’s a lack of attention to detail throughout Veer, as though audiences won’t care because it’s a “Salman Khan” film. If there’s one thing I hate as an audience member, it’s being taken for granted. Khan himself should’ve demanded better from a movie that he co-wrote.
Runtime: 2 hrs. 40 min.
Movie Review: Chance Pe Dance (2010)
3 Stars (out of 4)
It’s hard for a movie to express that feeling of the first spark of romantic interest. I’m not talking about the eventual drama and passion, but that first giddy conversation in which you realize, “He/she is cute and nice and funny, and I sure hope that he/she feels the same way about me.” Chance Pe Dance nails that feeling.
Shahid Kapoor plays Sameer, a wannabe actor who moved from Delhi to Mumbai to pursue his dream. His biggest claim to fame after three years is an embarrassing commercial role as “The Sarong Sultan.” He auditions for roles he never gets and supports himself by working as a courier. He lives in a shabby apartment where he uses an iron to toast bread and stores his clothes in a broken refrigerator.
Things start looking up for Sameer when he meets a pretty choreographer named Tina (Genelia D’Souza) on an audition. He makes an ass of himself at first, but they part ways with some flirtatious teasing. That night, Shahid impresses a director at a dance club and lands a starring role in the director’s next movie, which will feature Tina’s choreography.
The good times quickly end when Sameer loses his courier job and is kicked out of his apartment. Because he won’t get any money from the movie role until the film starts rehearsals, Sameer takes a job teaching dance to a bunch of misfit elementary school students. He lives out of his compact car and washes up in the boys’ lavatory before school starts.
The interlude with the students is so brief that it hardly needs to be in the film. But the kids are cute and serve to keep Sameer from dwelling upon his misfortunes.
Dance Pe Chance gets a little sappy in its second half. One of Sameer’s auditions turns in to a corny speech about self-belief, and his reconciliation with his disapproving father feels forced. The movie’s brief (by Bollywood standards) runtime of just over two hours doesn’t allow some of the sideplots to develop as fully as I would have liked.
Also, for a movie with “Dance” in the title, the choreography is forgettable. It employs a slow style of hip-hop that emphasizes isolation moves, giving the routines a stop-start feeling. Most of the numbers feature Sameer dancing solo, without Tina. The climactic routine is edited to showcase more of Kapoor’s greased-up torso than his dance moves.
Those complaints aside, the movie excels at portraying Sameer and Tina as a likable, believable couple. Their relationship is based on mutual respect, not the usual plot-driven bickering that often precedes romance in movies. Tina encourages Sameer, and he does his best to live up to her belief in him. They bring out the best in each other, reminding us of the type of romantic partner we all strive to be on our best days.
Movie Review: Pyaar Impossible (2010)
1 Star (out of 4)
Pyaar Impossible undermines its titular impossible love story with shallow characters.
Abhay (Uday Chopra) is a geeky software developer who still carries a torch for his college classmate, Alisha (Priyanka Chopra, no relation to Uday). He’s swindled out of a program he developed by a con man named “Sidhu,” played by Dino Morea, an actor unrivaled in his ability to grow a villainous mustache. The conman, whose real name is Varun, sells the program to Pinnacle Corporation.
Abhay sets up a meeting with Pinnacle’s PR officer in an attempt to get his program back and, wouldn’t you know, Alisha is the PR officer. Well, actually you wouldn’t, given Alisha’s wildly inappropriate office attire. Short shorts and a cleavage-baring top at work? Really?
After chickening out of the meeting, Abhay goes to confront Alisha at her home. Alisha mistakes him for the new nanny come to shepherd her demonic 6-year-old daughter, Tania. Abhay hides his true reason for coming over and agrees to serve as nanny.
They reach this unrealistic agreement using one of my least favorite movie conventions: Alisha won’t stop talking, so Abhay just goes along with whatever she says. With a simple, “Stop. That’s not why I’m here,” Abhay could’ve changed the entire trajectory of the film.
Pyaar Impossible proceeds to borrow liberally from any number of movies involving ill-equipped men caring for unruly children, including but not limited to the Hindi movie Thoda Pyaar, Thoda Magic and Hollywood films like The Pacifier, The Game Plan and all the Problem Child movies.
Little Tania lies somewhere between the kid from Problem Child and Damien from The Omen in terms of juvenile wilfulness. She delights in humiliating people, calling Abhay either “Froggy Four-Eyes” or “Stupid” and one of her grade-school classmates “Fatso”. This name-calling goes largely uncorrected by Abhay and Alisha, thereby undermining the movie’s argument that love is about more than looks.
The child’s use as a failed comedic plot device lies at the heart of Pyaar Impossible‘s problem: poorly developed characters. Alisha is hopelessly self-centered, treating Abhay like a eunuch servant without ever considering that he might find her attractive, let alone be a suitable romantic partner for her. Given those huge character flaws, the only reason Abhay could be so in love with Alisha is because she’s beautiful, which, again, undermines the message of the movie.
Abhay professes to want Alisha to fall in love with him because of who he is, and not because of his devotion to her, but there’s nothing to Abhay apart from his devotion to her. A romance between Alisha and Abhay isn’t inspirational, just the next logical step for a self-absorbed woman and the doormat who loves her.
Movie Review: Dulha Mil Gaya (2010)
1.5 Stars (out of 4)
When a character chooses to do something he or she wouldn’t normally do, that’s character development. When an outside force makes a character do something he or she wouldn’t normally do, that’s plot-driven development. By confusing the two, Dulha Mil Gaya keeps its two selfish protagonists from becoming the heroes they’re supposed to become.
Dulha Mil Gaya (“I Found a Groom”) is primarily about Shimmer and Donsai, a model and a playboy enjoying the single life in Trinidad. Shimmer (Sushmita Sen) has a wealthy but absent boyfriend she has no intention of marrying. Donsai (Fardeen Khan) is a serial heartbreaker who lives off of his recently-deceased father’s fortune.
Donsai’s lawyer finds a clause in Dad’s will stating that Donsai needs to marry a particular Punjabi girl he’s never met within 15 days or he’ll lose his money.
When Donsai and the lawyer meet the girl in Punjab, she’s shy, conservatively dressed and wearing glasses; there is undoubtedly a makeover scene in her future. The girl, Samarpreet (Ishita Sharma), consents to wed, and she and Donsai get a quickie courtroom marriage. He leaves on a “business trip,” promising to come back for her. He never does.
After three months with no contact, apart from a monthly check in the mail, Samarpreet flies to Trinidad, where she sees Donsai carousing with another woman. Distraught, she runs into Shimmer, who agrees to help, out of a small degree of compassion and a larger desire to cheat Donsai out of his yacht.
The movie proceeds as expected. Samarpreet gets madeover and reborn as Samara, and Donsai pursues her. While Samarpreet is just happy to finally have his attention, I wanted to tear my hair out. Donsai may not know he’s pursuing his wife, but the audience does. So why are we supposed to root for him to get with Samara?
When (spoiler alert) Donsai finally remembers that he ditched a wife in Punjab, it’s only because his butler finds out about it and makes him feel guilty. Donsai doesn’t independently realize that he’s a louse. Even after the predictable “happy ending”, I couldn’t help but feel that Samarpreet got cheated out of a relationship with someone who really loved her.
Shimmer’s love story is just as unsatisfying. Her boyfriend, PRG (played in an extended cameo by Shahrukh Khan), shows up for the last 50 minutes of the movie, announcing his arrival with something like, “Everyone’s been talking about me, and now I’m finally here.” We understand that casting SRK was a stunt; you don’t have to point it out to us.
PRG is a version of his “Shahrukh Khan” character: charming, brave and irresistible. Shimmer puts off committing to him until Samarpreet gives her the stock “It’s time to give up your career and start having babies” speech. As with Donsai, Shimmer wouldn’t have chosen to marry PRG unless someone else told her to.
In addition to the problem of mistaking plot development for character development, Dulha Mil Gaya stereotypes gay men with the character Lotus, Shimmer’s butler. He wears a peach-colored suit and flounces about, exaggeratedly calling everyone “darling.” It’s not until halfway through the movie that he gets to deliver dialog without affectation.
It’s a shame that the only Hindi movie I’ve seen that portrays gays as real people is Dostana, where two straight guys pretend to be gay. They do so by being themselves, but professing to prefer romantic relationships with men rather than women. You know, like real gay people.
Note: Dulha Mil Gaya‘s listed runtime of 1 hr. 48 min. is wrong. It’s more like 2 hrs. 35 min.
Best Bollywood Movies of 2009
Despite losing a couple of months of releases because of a dispute with theater owners, Indian filmmakers released a number of terrific Hindi movies in 2009.
Dramas Kurbaan and New York addressed terrorism with boldness and honesty, examining the reasons ordinary people become extremists. Delhi-6 dealt with religious differences in a manner both compelling and accessible. American audiences will enjoy the soundtrack by Oscar-winning composer A. R. Rahman.
A live-action version of Aladin was a novel update of the classic tale, appealing to adults and kids alike.
Romance was, as always, a popular theme. Amusing romantic comedies like Dil Bole Hadippa! and Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani took a light take on love. Luck By Chance and Wake Up Sid, both of which starred talented actress Konkona Sen Sharma, took a more serious approach, addressing the challenges of pursuing career goals while maintaining a healthy relationship.
The best of this year’s romances was Love Aaj Kal. Telling love stories from two different time periods, the movie embraced traditional Bollywood romance conventions while showcasing contemporary relationship issues as well. The entertaining dance numbers will make American viewers feel like they’re getting a real Bollywood experience within a Westernized story structure. The modern relationships showcased in Love Aaj Kal, Luck By Chance and Wake Up Sid represent an important advance for Indian movie makers courting success abroad.
But the Best Bollywood Movie of 2009 has to be 3 Idiots. It’s a great comedy about friendship — with just a hint of romance — that features nuanced performances by Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi. The jokes are funny whether you’re listening to them in Hindi or reading them in English subtitles.
More importantly, 3 Idiots represents a step forward for Indian comedies. Most Hindi comedies released in recent years (excluding romantic comedies) have relied on slapstick humor: childish sound effects, comic violence and chase scenes that defy logic. There’s certainly a place for slapstick in modern cinema, but I don’t think this type of humor plays well in the international markets that Hindi filmmakers are looking to break into.
3 Idiots has its share of silliness, but it’s shown in a more subdued, realistic way that makes the characters relatable. It’s easier for the audience to cheer for the guys in 3 Idiots than for the farcical nincompoops in a movie like Do Knot Disturb (my Worst Bollywood Movie of 2009), because in 3 Idiots they seem like real people. When they succeed, despite being a bit goofy, it gives hope to the rest of us goofballs.
