I'm finally off school and can watch all the films I want, except for the fact that I've got exams to do and a poetry anthology thingy to hand in! But a lot is riding on me getting a good report this term as I've applied to Uni too! Enough of the personal patter, more importantly I've caught up on all filmi watchings! Of course this won't be objective despite the fac that I'VE GOT A JOB AS A FILM CRITIC! YAHOOOOOOO!
Ishqiya - As a dutiful passenger on the "Arshad Warsi is Wicked!" train, I just looved this film! It was one is best roles that he's done for a while, instead playing the second banana roles in the awful Shortkut or the helpful saving grace in Krazzy 4! I really enjoy Vishal Bhardwaj's school of quirky cinema, its a refreshing change from the rest of the usual releases. And I must say I've learnt a looot of swear words to shout at my sister when I'm angry! It really resembles a cool neo-noir with the sexy femme fatale, a bag of paisa, and two hapless heroes falling for the bad gal! The relationship between Khalujaan(Naseeruddin Shah) and Babban(Arshad Warsi) and Krishna(Vidya Balan) is so well etched out, we love how Khalu melts into a puddle when she gives him a hug, and when Babban is pursueing her! And my goodness that kiss! It was pure animal lust but goodness me, Hot Stuff!
Aandhi - One of Gulzar's masterpieces! This was a really good watch to see the controversy over why it was banned! And I can see why Indira Gandhi would ban this as its a very veiled attack on her, with the ambitious father grooming his daughter(Suchitra Sen) for political stardom, having some daddy issues, marrying a normal guy that opposes her ideals. But if you didn't know the backstory of the film then its just a very intimate look at relationships and a good political drama. Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen give wonderful performances that are revealing and imbue such pathos into their conflicted characters. When i first watched this at 16(Of course!) I read all the feminist manifestos by Germaine Greer, and shouted at my Sanjeev, "Why cant you let her be a politician you Bastaaarddd!" but as a distinguished cinephile(ignore my boasting, I'm just overly happy for landing that job!) i realized that he just wanted his wife to be part of the household and she too was manipulated by her dad to do his bidding. But its still a bit iffy in some parts but all in all its a commendable film for its time, to tackle the lady in power
Chandni - My mum and dad are quite awful, bringing me up on 1942 A Love Story, and Yashraj films that gave me my BollyHollyMusicalitis! Truly this is the film that started it all for me, especially with the daydreaming I was such a wicked dancer like Sridevi, that I had a lovely jumper-clad first love, and a steaming HAWT replacement Vinod Khanna! Alas after many failed attempts of a Chandni-esque love life, I grew up! Nahiee, but when i revisited this film on the weekend all my loony behavior came back! Chandni's one of those kinda movies, you either love it or you hate it, in the case of my maaw she hates it because of "Shrill-devi"! But as a masala victim and Yashraj prey, I wholeheartedly love this white marshmallow film! Whether its the hilarious moments in Switzerland (Filmi Girl, Beth, and co book that Yashraj tour ASAP) where random people on the street act clumsily around the camera, or the fantabulous jumpers Rishi wears - half the budget must have gone on those printed crazy jumpers - or Vinod's general hotness in later age! Its just fluff and I luvvv it!
Mera Saaya - What a mysterious movie this was! I enjoyed this film a lot, it was the perfect mix of suspense and noir elements too! Sadhana was positively wonderful in this, she definitely has a mysterious enigmatic quality about which is why she was so perfect for this role and why Raj Khosla put her in soo many thrillers. She plays a woman who claims that Sunil Dutt is her hubby when she is arrested, Sunil is so shocked by how much she looks like his dead wife and sets out to prove her wrong. I love how Sunil Dutt is the most angry lawyer ever, it was like watching him in Waqt where his sheer badgering ability made the Shashi overact his pain of revealing the truth! He's not too OTT here, but he's an excellent actor and conveys all the pain of losing his love and being soo conflicted by this new gal~ A must watch 
Ishqiya - As a dutiful passenger on the "Arshad Warsi is Wicked!" train, I just looved this film! It was one is best roles that he's done for a while, instead playing the second banana roles in the awful Shortkut or the helpful saving grace in Krazzy 4! I really enjoy Vishal Bhardwaj's school of quirky cinema, its a refreshing change from the rest of the usual releases. And I must say I've learnt a looot of swear words to shout at my sister when I'm angry! It really resembles a cool neo-noir with the sexy femme fatale, a bag of paisa, and two hapless heroes falling for the bad gal! The relationship between Khalujaan(Naseeruddin Shah) and Babban(Arshad Warsi) and Krishna(Vidya Balan) is so well etched out, we love how Khalu melts into a puddle when she gives him a hug, and when Babban is pursueing her! And my goodness that kiss! It was pure animal lust but goodness me, Hot Stuff!Aandhi - One of Gulzar's masterpieces! This was a really good watch to see the controversy over why it was banned! And I can see why Indira Gandhi would ban this as its a very veiled attack on her, with the ambitious father grooming his daughter(Suchitra Sen) for political stardom, having some daddy issues, marrying a normal guy that opposes her ideals. But if you didn't know the backstory of the film then its just a very intimate look at relationships and a good political drama. Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen give wonderful performances that are revealing and imbue such pathos into their conflicted characters. When i first watched this at 16(Of course!) I read all the feminist manifestos by Germaine Greer, and shouted at my Sanjeev, "Why cant you let her be a politician you Bastaaarddd!" but as a distinguished cinephile(ignore my boasting, I'm just overly happy for landing that job!) i realized that he just wanted his wife to be part of the household and she too was manipulated by her dad to do his bidding. But its still a bit iffy in some parts but all in all its a commendable film for its time, to tackle the lady in power Chandni - My mum and dad are quite awful, bringing me up on 1942 A Love Story, and Yashraj films that gave me my BollyHollyMusicalitis! Truly this is the film that started it all for me, especially with the daydreaming I was such a wicked dancer like Sridevi, that I had a lovely jumper-clad first love, and a steaming HAWT replacement Vinod Khanna! Alas after many failed attempts of a Chandni-esque love life, I grew up! Nahiee, but when i revisited this film on the weekend all my loony behavior came back! Chandni's one of those kinda movies, you either love it or you hate it, in the case of my maaw she hates it because of "Shrill-devi"! But as a masala victim and Yashraj prey, I wholeheartedly love this white marshmallow film! Whether its the hilarious moments in Switzerland (Filmi Girl, Beth, and co book that Yashraj tour ASAP) where random people on the street act clumsily around the camera, or the fantabulous jumpers Rishi wears - half the budget must have gone on those printed crazy jumpers - or Vinod's general hotness in later age! Its just fluff and I luvvv it!Mera Saaya - What a mysterious movie this was! I enjoyed this film a lot, it was the perfect mix of suspense and noir elements too! Sadhana was positively wonderful in this, she definitely has a mysterious enigmatic quality about which is why she was so perfect for this role and why Raj Khosla put her in soo many thrillers. She plays a woman who claims that Sunil Dutt is her hubby when she is arrested, Sunil is so shocked by how much she looks like his dead wife and sets out to prove her wrong. I love how Sunil Dutt is the most angry lawyer ever, it was like watching him in Waqt where his sheer badgering ability made the Shashi overact his pain of revealing the truth! He's not too OTT here, but he's an excellent actor and conveys all the pain of losing his love and being soo conflicted by this new gal~ A must watchShootout at Lockhandwala - Yes I liked this movie to an extent. Simply for the sheer magnitude of sexy men in the cast Abhishek for two minutes, Sunil Shetty, Sanju baba, Arbaaz Khan(yes he was cute here) Amitabh, Rohit Roy, Tushhar(kinda good in a serious role) and VIVEIK!! I don't need to say more than i was just drooling through most of the film, Apoorva Lakhia is a director who knows how assemble a cast that makes a woman drool! It was a timepass flick of cops against gangstas, a bit tooo violent at times, kerb smashing anyone? But the acting was very good from Viveik's side he brought back all that raw intensity from his days in Company!
Magnificent Obsession - Yep in my Douglas Sirk extravaganza I thought I'd start with his smash hit in his subversive women's films at Universal Studios. I love Douglas Sirk, he's a director after my own heart, he objectifies Rock Hudson to the maximum water-drooling-in-a bucket effect, symbolic and gorgeous colours, mirror effects, general goodness. I will cover that all in the jumbo post of my outpouring of pyar for one of my fave directors. But back to this, I loved it of course! Rock Hudson is the local rich kid in the town, on a bad day he gets into an accident, on the other side of town another guy is dying. The doctor uses the life saver machine on Rock, and the other geezer dies, bit of stigma sadness for ungrateful Rock, he tries to buy off the widow Jane Wyman who refuses, another accident late Jane goes blind - A long lost brother film to Manmohan Desai film naa? Then naturally Rock develops a Magnificent Obsession over Jane, pays her bills, conceals his identity, and they fall in love. First let me say a big AWWWWWW to this film, it did somehow pull at my fickle heart strings, and make me swoony over Rock. Lovely colours of course lots of greens but its a good watch to see Sirk's turning point and a film which people flock back to when they start their own Douglas Sirk journey! This really is a masala film that contains blindness, mistaken identities, colourfulness!
So here are some films I've watched, hope you check them out too. Let me know if you liked them too, and watch out for a Douglas Sirk extravaganza!
5 comments:
Congrats for your new job! You not only get to watch all the movies you want, and write about them, you'll get paid for it? Lucky girl!
I am totally on board with your Maa - "Shrill"devi describes her to a T. :-D And Rishi's magnificent jumpers? According to Yash Chopra and Karan Johar, Shahrukh recycled some in DDLJ!
I LOVE Magnificent Obsession, too. Its so mushily romantic and Rock Hudson is gorgeous. Its just a bit hard to suspend disbelief and swallow Jane Wyman as an object of Hudson's obsession, though. :-D
Bollyviewer - thanks soo much! I'm equally chuffed to bits about the job too!
Chandni was a nice marshmallow film on a rainy day, but Sridevi's voice starts to grate at times!
Magnificent Obsession is a fave of mine forever now, simply for the closeups given to Rock. Sure Jane Wyman isn't the greatest obsession object but alas she receives some help paying the bills and some lovin' too!
Congratulations on your Job Rum, I wish you all the best on it
@ Ishqiya its on my list of films to see
@ Aandhi I loved this film too, especially the music, 'Is se mod se jaate hai' is just wonderful& 'Tere Bina zindagi se koi' is one of my fave bollywood tearjerkers, i totally loved Suchitra in this movie and Sanjeev was so handsome even with the grey hairs and all. I knew very little on the background of Indira but i still enjoyed if from the point of view of the relationships as you've noted
@ Chandni I like this film but then i also hate it, i really dislike the way Vinod was treated, you don't leave people and then just come back in, hoping to begin exactly where you left off as Rishi's character did, i really wanted Vinod to get her
@ Mera Saaya I love this film to bits as well, one of the best use of 'benefit of the doubt' scenario i've ever seen.I kept thinking who's this crazy woman, can you imagine going through what Sunil was going throuh, it'd surely do my head in
@ Magnificent Obessission I wasn't so impressed with this, i found it boring compared to his 'Imitation of life' which is one of my favourite films very melodramatic for some but its just to my taste
That's an awesome job! I'm quite chuffed for you. ;-) Of the movies n your list, I think I've only seen Chandni, and Sridevi is a favorite so of course I loved it to pieces. Even Rishi's Cosby-era sweaters couldn't make me lower my score.
Bollywooddeewana - Thanks a lot! I definitely agree with you on the Vinod treatment in Chandni. He was just chucked aside when Rishi came back, which was very annoying coz Rishi was the one who tossed Chandni aside!
I'm covering Imitation of Life in my jumbo Douglas Sirk post, that was a jumbo melodrama that i love whole heartedly! Darn that nasty Sarah Jane!
Ajnabi - thanks so much! I'm super excited bout it too! Chandni is just the epitome of a Yashraj romance i think i had a dil-squish when Rishi dropped flower petals on her before falling out of the helicopter lol!
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