My Affair with Indian Cinema

Really like Anurag Kashyap after watching
Dev D. When the trailer was first out, I betted it was going to be a flop
because it looked like Trainspotting. I thought it’d be pretentious. But it
turned out to be a hit and it was highly praised!

 

The first thing that I want to say about
this movie is the song Emotional Attyachar. It’s really popular and I can’t
understand why. (I didn’t understand even after reading the translation of the
lyrics. Maybe it’s a language thing. So bad that I can’t understand Hindi.) Bt
I have to say it’s a song that stuck in your head after listening to it. Other
songs from the movie are also marvelous. They’re of very diversified styles and
don’t sound like typical Bollywood songs.

I like Anurag because he knows what he’s
doing. I don’t think I can say it’s the case for the majority in B-town. He’s a
good storyteller. Devdas is a story of lover. Anurag has trned it very “real”
and human. I enjoyed the story much better when the characters can communicate
in the modern ways. It justifies the relationship between Dev and Paro so much
better. (Dev D: email & long-distance calls Vs Devdas: the 4 letters that
Paro held on to for 10 years?)

Okay, on to the characters. Dev in Dev D is
totally a “good-for-nothing”. You don’t have a single bit of sympathy for him
in the 1^st part of the movie. Life/fate definitely serves him right.
Abhay Deol played this character right and should have been nominated in
Filmfare!

 

Despite all the praise for Abhay, I’d say
it’s a movie of heroines. Paro and Chanda simply rock, rock and rock!

Paro is played by Mahie Gill. She doesn’t
have that great a part in the movie. But she got the Best Actress (Critics) in
Filmfare. I love her performance too. She’s very natural in the role. The new
Paro is feisty and has strong characters. She’s loyal to her lover. She’d get
rid of anything that gets in her way. Especially love the scene she ran after
and threw a horrible tantrum on the gossipers who badmouthed her in front of
Dev. She also has the guts to stand up to her parents.

 

Paro becomes sensible and rational after getting married. But she’s still there for Dev.
The scene that she visits Dev in Delhi
really struck me. She’s no longer a servant girl. She’s married to a rich
family. But when she helped Dev with the chores, it’s like everything is still
the same as old times.

And –
the best bit about the movie – Chandramukhi, played by Kalki Koechlin. I’ll
have to save it for next entry!

Just too lazy to continue with my Siddarth Series on my Chinese blog (typing Chinese is quite a bit of work) so here's a short entry on what I think about Chance Pe Dance.

Perhaps I didn’t have great expectations for Chance Pe Dance so I end up thinking that it actually deserves better review. I enjoy it a lot. I don't understand why it got such bad review when it's released.)

The story is simple. Sameer (Shahid Kapoor) is from Delhi and he, like many people, thinks that he has the potential to make it in Bollywood. He goes to Mumbai to fight for his dream. A lot of disappointment in between. A lot of difficulties in life. Then he meets a choreographer for movies Tina (Genelia D'Souza) and things seem to be looking up with some good opportunities waiting for him.

I think Shahid performs better in Chance Pe Dance than he does in Badmaash Company. I think he’s much more natural and the character of Sameer has more dimensions for Shahid to explore as an actor than Karan in Badmaash Company. It’s probably because he can see his past in Sameer. It’s not Shahid’s best performance but it’s really natural. I also like his optimism, particularly the part when Genelia finds out he lives in the car :) This film is a feast for Shahid’s fans- lots of close-ups and dancing scenes. (and, according to Gelion, a Taiwanese blogger – lots of close-ups of Shahid’s muscles!) I also enjoy Shahid’s serious scenes. He doesn’t overact and get unnecessarily emotional. I’m very happy about that because when I watched Badmaash Company, I start to get bored with Shahid just playing the “cool, confident dude” without a character well-supported by the story/plot. (Despite how I don’t always enjoy the Unintentionally Funny, Must-Watch Bollywood Movies commic strips on the blog “Off the Record”, I agree that the characters in Badmaash Company have a sudden change of personality that isn’t well justified.) Hope there will be more challenging roles for Shahid in his coming movies.

I guess it's what Gelion said about Shahid's muscles!

As a big fan of Genelia, it’s a bit disappointing that her character Tina doesn’t have a larger part in the movie. The portrayal of Tina is also less detailed than Sameer. But what I like very much about Tina is that she’s supportive. When things are not going Sameer’s way, she’s there for him. Not trying to change anything or offering to help. I think it’s a healthy attitude in relationships. (Not that I’m qualified to judge that……….) It’s usually quite difficult for filmmakers to get it right when the girl is doing better than the guy. The usual plot is that the girl tries to help and the guy feels that he’s good-for-nothing, having a confidence crisis. Although I love the typical bubbly girl Genelia plays in Southern films, it’s still good to see her doing something different once in a while. It’s just that the plot doesn’t give her enough to shine. (That’s why I’m really looking forward to the release of It’s My Life!)

Love the scooter in the movie!

To me, the music’s above average. The songs and the picturisations are good. But they lack something to become a really good soundtrack. I don’t have the answer to it. But all the dancing scenes are worth watching. The song Pal Mein Hain is very sweet and I love the picturisation although it’s a bit cheesy and predictable. (it’s part of the Shahid magic!)

Shahid and Genelia is a very sweet couple. But my focus is totally on Genelia's bangles :P (Bangle's really my weakness! I love how she wears lots of bangles in the movie!)

The final scene - Pump it up!

Pe Pe Pepein - the song isn't particularly important in the movie. But somehow it's really popular among Bollywood dance teachers here in Hong Kong....

It's a little surprising (even I myself find it so). But I'm kick starting my return to blogspot with a short piece on Kick!

Forgive me for the cheesy title - I just can't help it.

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I've decided to do a bilingual entry after scribbling some notes on Kick. I just meant to write some notes in English for the sake of convenience. But it turns out that it will be more precise if I convey my ideas in English (regarding what I want to say about this movie).

As we Hong Kongers are looking to the North nowadays, people in the tinsel town are definitely looking down south! There are so many remakes from Southern hits in progress. There's this piece of news about Asin on Behind Woods and it prompts me to write about Kick!

To me, Kick is quite a special movie. As I”ve confessed to my Taiwanese blog mate Amanda, this is the first Southern movie with an “uncle-looking” hero. (that's how we call heroes with very obvious south indian looks for fun in Chinese) I struggled so much before I watched it. But it is an interesting movie and totally deserves to be one of the biggest hit in the Telugu cinema in 2009.

I’m predicting the failure of the Hindi remake of Kick if Salman Khan is to be the hero. Ravi Teja, the actor in the Telugu version, is not that young himself but I’d say Salman Khan is not suitable at all. He doesn’t possess that randomness (based on the bits and pieces of his performance I’ve seen – yea, I know that doesn’t sound like a "responsible” bollywood fan) that Ravi Teja illustrates in Kick. The protagonist Kalyan is a person going after thrills and risks in life, or “kick” as he calls it. And he’s such a chatterbox! Salman Khan maybe fine in Wanted. It’s a character that requires him to look cool and not having to speak too much (I only guess it from Pokiri)

Ileana and Ravi Teja as a pair looked a bit weird to me at the beginning. But they have very good chemistry. I've read a lot of comments about how Ileana can't act. (I also don't find her performance in Pokiri outstanding) But I guess it's mostly about her earlire works. I think she did well in Kick and she's cute enough for me to overlook her less-than-1st class acting.

The film is full of craziness and it made me laugh so much (also probably because I was having my exam at that time so basically anything other than textbooks and notes were funny).

Kick has references to other movies like Arundhati and Ghajini -