[Review] Nigahen
Muffy St. Bernard
http://freewebfile.com/bollybob/rnigahen.html
since it also features a "Best Male Wig" competition that I haven't
included here}
It's an old, hoary cliché that sequels are always worse than the
originals...but clichés often come about for a reason, and -- except for
"Mr. India" (AKA "Shaan, part 2") this usually seems to be the case.
This might be because the original film needs to be good enough or
popular enough to warrant spending the money on a sequel (or at least,
enough money to buy a few snakes and paint them black). So a sequel
automatically has some stiff competition.
The year after "Nagina" came out (1987, now known in some circles as
"AN," or "After Nagina"), Harmesh Malhotra must have had some divine
artistic inspiration, and I bet it went something like this: "I know!
I'll direct a sequel and make a big load of cash!" When contacted to
play the daughter of the character she played in the original film,
Sridevi probably said "Neat-o, sure!" and do you honestly think Anupam
Kher was going to refuse ANY role, especially one where he was not only
PERMITTED to sweat profusely, but was ENCOURAGED to do so? Also
reprising his original "Nagina" role is the guy who played the servant
in the first film -- you know, the one who always complained about how
fat his wife was -- but I don't know anything about this particular
comedian other than that his landmark scene in the film "Suparman"
involved him having to go to the bathroom really, really badly on an
airplane.
So you've already got a rather...well, shall we say uneven cast.
Throw in Bobby Deol as Sridevi's snake-boy paramour, and you've got a
lopsided film built much like one of those strikingly irregular
asteroids that NASA keeps discovering, with incredible talent and
potential on one side, and pedestrian money-grubbing treatment on the
other. I've always suspected that, considering how those lopsided
asteroids are shaped, if I put one on a stick and started spinning it
around it would break apart into tiny pieces. This is what happened
(figuratively) to my "Nigahen" DVD when it started spinning around in my
DVD player, so I figure I just saved NASA a lot of money by doing their
experiment for them.
For starters -- just to sort of ease into this review -- let me
enumerate why I like Bobby Deol so much:
1) He is attractive, in a rugged, bruised-up sort of way, without
looking unnatural or blown out of proportion through the use of steroids
and exercises which probably involve a cricket bat. As a result, he's
allowed to keep his shirt on in his movies, for which I'm eternally
grateful.
2) He plays characters who are simultaneously sweet and tough, and
he usually spends more time being nice to people in his films than he
does smashing their heads through car windshields. Usually.
3) In his first big movie -- "Betaab" -- he threw live chickens at
Amrita Singh...and he got away with it! Though no doubt she sent her
bodyguards out to beat him up years later, and I bet she jumped around
during the beating yelling "Kill him, bodyguards! I won't spare him! He
threw chickens at me!" or some other such filmi dialogue.
With all of these things going for him, Bobby Deol does a passable
job in "Nigahen" playing Anand, a young man with a rather disturbing
childhood history. You see, when he was 7 years old he was kidnapped by
Garaknath, an evil sadhu played here by the sweaty-wigged and bug-eyed
Anupam Kher. But instead of just chopping little Anand into pieces or
selling him into child slavery (which is what more reasonable lunatics
would have done), Garaknath threw black beans at him and turned him into
a snake. As if that wasn't bad enough, he kept little Anand in a basket
for 14 YEARS, while his widowed mother sat at home wondering if her son
was ever coming back and if she should just go out and buy the groceries
herself.
Why did Garaknath do this? Well, that's a little hazy. But it
involves his never-ending quest for "the gem," a magical item which his
mentor -- Bhairavnath -- died trying to steal from Sridevi in the first
film. It seems that Garaknath hasn't quite clued in that this gem is bad
news: even though it's supposed to offer limitless power to those who
touch it, everyone who DOES touch it gets killed by Sridevi's snake
guardians, which is a pretty raw deal if you ask me.
Meanwhile, the triumphant couple from the first film -- Sridevi and
Rishi Kapoor -- have died in a car crash, leaving their daughter Neelam
in the care of Raaja Saab. If there was a "best male wig" competition
between Raja Saab and Garaknath, it would be a toss-up who would win.
Besides, what sort of prize could be offered? What do you give a man
who's already got a great wig? Well, maybe we could get Raja Saab some
common sense...at one point in the film he decides to just "give" the
gem to Garaknath:
ANAND: Don't give it to him! He's insane!
RAJA SAAB: This gem has divine powers. It shouldn't be with
householders.
That's all fine and good, Raja Saab, but does that mean you should
give it to the craziest freaking sadhu in India? Still, this fits in
with a not-so-subtle message that pops up repeatedly in the film: you
shouldn't kill hermits, no matter how dangerously insane they are.
This movie isn't really a "miraculous snake" film at all, and to
it's credit it never claims to be. Neelam, unlike her mom, doesn't ever
turn into a snake, but her primary power seems to lie in her gigantic
eyes which -- after touching the miraculous gem -- have an eerie
blueness to them. Continuing the Nagina tradition, Neelam is the REAL
hero in this film...forget about Bobby Deol, he's too busy changing back
and forth into a snake and driving his tractor around. But Neelam knows
the score, just like her mom did. She's pretty tight with her two snake
guardians, who share reptilian wisdom and power with her occasionally
while she's just trying to get some sleep. Neelam is prepared to
protect Anand at any cost -- she needs to, afterall, because he gets
himself into a mess whenever she turns her back. She performs a sexy
dance number to keep him from wandering off where he could get killed.
She'll even catch a bullet in her bare hands if it means saving her
handsome, naive, lunkheaded and stubborn husband.
Throughout all of this Garaknath stalks around trying to snatch the
gem, recapture Anand, and kill Neelam. He's a very unlikely villain,
looking more like some friendless, way-too-serious neighbour who's just
stepped out of the shower to answer the door in his bathrobe. But
Garaknath considers himself quite the evil hermit, and Anupam has thrown
himself into the role with wild abandon. Unfortunately, in the process,
I think Anupam missed the role entirely and ended up falling out a
window or something. But still, he's entertaining for a while,
especially when he starts muttering his magic words like a stockyard
auctioneer in insulin shock.
A quick warning to those considering buying this DVD: It seems the
esteemed people at "Spark Entertainment" decided that proper subtitles
were too good for us common folk, and they discontinued them entirely
after the first half hour. From there on in the movie's suspense really
starts to build: "will the subtitles ever come back?" I kept wondering.
I'm going to spoil the suspense for you: yes, they do, but they come
back in a very mysterious way. You see, the subtitles in "Nigahen" come
in 3 flavours: existant, non-existant, and delayed. In the final 90
minutes they each appear on the screen about 5 seconds too late, so that
whenever somebody is talking, the subtitle you see is actually what the
person BEFORE them was saying. This induces the same sort of
brain-melting headache that you get from watching a 3D movie, but
without the benefit of having Sridevi jump out of the screen and sit in
your lap. Instead, you keep wondering "why would Neelam say THAT?"
Believe me, you eventually get the hang of it, and it adds a bizarre new
dimension to the film: time itself becomes fluid and relative, which is
an effect few movies can boast.
Despite the warping of time, most of "Nigahen" was surprisingly dull
and -- shockingly! -- devoid of camp. Sridevi is always entertaining to
watch -- even when she hasn't got much to do -- and she REALLY shines
during the last half hour when she finally gets a hold of her snake
power. Anand, as I said, spends most of his time either looking puzzled,
looking slightly frustrated, or looking like a snake in a jar, and his
character is a bit of a buffoon as he is duped by Garaknath time and
time again. Still, he spent 14 years in a basket...it's a wonder he can
even speak or feed himself anymore.
My favourite Garaknath moments all occur near the end, when he
starts a frenzied campaign to get the jewel as opposed to just dickying
around. Using his magic been -- a boon from Kali -- he manages to
hypnotize Neelam AND change her outfit. He also builds a mongoose out
of bread, which probably results in a very yummy animal who kills
snakes. The final dance number -- a reprise of the "Dushman" song from
the first movie -- is a a lot of a fun, with Sridevi striking down her
opponents one-by-one and doing an odd "duck-walking" maneuver while
resisting the power of the been's music: which will give up first,
Anupam's lungs or Sridevi's dancin' feet?
You can probably guess. With the combined powers of Neelam and
Anand, how could a sweaty guy in a bathrobe possibly win?
Muffy St. Bernard
Rocky Raccoon
news:3B7B2022...@hotmail.com...
> For starters -- just to sort of ease into this review -- let me
> enumerate why I like Bobby Deol so much:
Nigahen had 'Sunny Deol' not 'Bobby Deol' - brothers - Gharam Dharam's
sons.
Sunny is outstanding in
1) Arjun (dimple + sunny)
2) Damini (meenakshi + rishi + sunny)
and many more action movies - he is totally lost in lovey dovey
roles. I'll post the other movie names later, but these 2 are a must
see - especially Damini for which Sunny got the national award.
Fantastic movie + Powerhouse role for Sunny as Govind Shrivastav.
Muffy St. Bernard
Jeez, I must be exhausted, did I actually write "I like Bobby Deol?"
Oh no.
A quick moment of editing is called for here...
Muffy.
Ravi Krishna
"Rocky Raccoon" <rro...@bigfoot.com> wrote
> Sunny is outstanding in
> 1) Arjun (dimple + sunny)
What??? Sunny murdered Arjun with his wooden acting.
The movie was GRRRREEEEAT and all acted well except
Sunny.
Wish Amitabh acted in that. But then in 1985 the story
of that movie should have been altered to show the
hero as a laid off middle aged worker rather an
unemployed youth :-)
However the same Sunny improved by leaps and bounds
in Ghayal. And yes he was very good in Damini too.
RK-
Rocky Raccoon
"Ravi Krishna" <srkrishn...@mail.com> wrote in message
news:9lf8cl$907md$1...@ID-75254.news.dfncis.de...
>
> "Rocky Raccoon" <rro...@bigfoot.com> wrote
>
> > Sunny is outstanding in
> > 1) Arjun (dimple + sunny)
>
> What??? Sunny murdered Arjun with his wooden acting.
Sunny was terrible before Arjun (& even today in any lovey dovey
role). Arjun was the first time Sunny did an angry young man role
& I felt he did it reasonably well. I totally enjoyed the movie.
Of course he improved a lot afterwards, but I felt that
was the defining point in his career, after which he started
getting these angry young man on a vendatta spree type of
roles.
Another thing is that I haven't seen Arjun recently, i.e. after I have
seen Damini/Ghatak/Ghayal/Ziddi. So maybe the contrast is a lot.
> The movie was GRRRREEEEAT and all acted well except
> Sunny.
Who all ??
Dimple hardly had a role. Other than that, I think, only
Anupam Kher had a substantial role.
> Wish Amitabh acted in that. But then in 1985 the story
> of that movie should have been altered to show the
> hero as a laid off middle aged worker rather an
> unemployed youth :-)
>
> However the same Sunny improved by leaps and bounds
> in Ghayal.
Sunny is very good in Ghatak, Ziddi & Ghayal.
> And yes he was very good in Damini too.
Damini is a fabulous movie. Everyone is good in that
Rishi, Meenakshi. Sunny of course is outstanding.
His scenes with Vijayendra Ghatge & Amrish Puri are
awfully good & funny.
Ravi Krishna
"Rocky Raccoon" <rro...@bigfoot.com> wrote
> Dimple hardly had a role. Other than that, I think, only
> Anupam Kher had a substantial role.
Besides Kher, Prem Chopra, Anu Kapoor, Paresh Rawal
(his first movie), Shafi Inamdar, all friends of
Arjun (Satyajit) acted well. Each one played his part
very well and realistically. The one who was bad
was Sunny.
There was a joke about Dimple's role, which she herself
told. Anyone who can spot me in Arjun, I will give him
a kiss :-).
A trivia: Which scene of Arjun was shot live, that is
it was shot without any one knowing that a film was
being shot (except of course the actors in that scene).
RK-
Rocky Raccoon
>
> "Rocky Raccoon" <rro...@bigfoot.com> wrote
> > Who all ??
> > Dimple hardly had a role. Other than that, I think, only
> > Anupam Kher had a substantial role.
>
> Besides Kher, Prem Chopra, Anu Kapoor, Paresh Rawal
> (his first movie), Shafi Inamdar, all friends of
> Arjun (Satyajit) acted well. Each one played his part
> very well and realistically. The one who was bad
> was Sunny.
Saw if more than 15 yrs back - in high school. So you probably
may be right.
> There was a joke about Dimple's role, which she herself
> told. Anyone who can spot me in Arjun, I will give him
> a kiss :-).
>
> A trivia: Which scene of Arjun was shot live, that is
> it was shot without any one knowing that a film was
> being shot (except of course the actors in that scene).
Was it the market scene, where they run after this guy with a
sword ?
Habshi
being good at English cant subtitle properly .
http://freewebfile.com/bollybob/rnigahen.html
Throw in Sunny Deol as Sridevi's snake-boy paramour, and you've got a
Ravi Krishna
"Rocky Raccoon" <rro...@bigfoot.com> wrote
> > A trivia: Which scene of Arjun was shot live, that is
> > it was shot without any one knowing that a film was
> > being shot (except of course the actors in that scene).
>
> Was it the market scene, where they run after this guy with a
> sword ?
Not that one. Another one in which Sunny chases and beats one
of the killers of his friend Satyajit. They fight for around
half-a-minute before cops come and take them away. It was shot
in the morning during busy morning commute. Cameras were placed
at the roof top of the building and the whole scene was shown
as a long shot. The scene showed crowd running towards these
two guys without realising that it was a not a real fight but
a film shooting. Of course they must have realised after
recognising Sunny. I believe it was meticulously planned
so that there was no retake.
RK-
yeskay
>
> Who all ??
> Dimple hardly had a role. Other than that, I think, only
> Anupam Kher had a substantial role.
>
I liked Hangal as the battered baap. All his friends acted well.
Anupam kher and how can forget Chopra, Err... Prem Chopra.
>
> Sunny is very good in Ghatak, Ziddi & Ghayal.
>
Ziddi was a horrible movie. In that movie, he rips off a hand of a
sidey. classic comedy, I say, Medically!
> Damini is a fabulous movie. Everyone is good in that
> Rishi, Meenakshi. Sunny of course is outstanding.
> His scenes with Vijayendra Ghatge & Amrish Puri are
> awfully good & funny.
But, not worth giving a national award!
Rocky Raccoon
news:3B7BC2...@my-dejaNOSPAM.com...
> Rocky Raccoon wrote:
> >
> > Who all ??
> > Dimple hardly had a role. Other than that, I think, only
> > Anupam Kher had a substantial role.
> >
>
> I liked Hangal as the battered baap. All his friends acted well.
> Anupam kher and how can forget Chopra, Err... Prem Chopra.
>
> >
> > Sunny is very good in Ghatak, Ziddi & Ghayal.
> >
>
> Ziddi was a horrible movie. In that movie, he rips off a hand of a
> sidey. classic comedy, I say, Medically!
Just because of that one scene !!!
The movie was not a great movie, but Sunny was awfully
good in the movie.
>
> > Damini is a fabulous movie. Everyone is good in that
> > Rishi, Meenakshi. Sunny of course is outstanding.
> > His scenes with Vijayendra Ghatge & Amrish Puri are
> > awfully good & funny.
>
> But, not worth giving a national award!
If that role wasn't worth an award, I don't know what
was. I consider it to be one of the best male roles done
in the last decade. And it was won in the face of stiff
competition. Raj Kumar Santoshi was in love in Meenakshi
& made the movie totally for her to get the National award.
It was like Ramesh Sippy & Dimple in Sagar. Sunny had a
much smaller role than Meenakshi but he stole the scene from
her (Though Meenakshi was also very good) & got the
award.
yeskay
>
> Just because of that one scene !!!
> The movie was not a great movie, but Sunny was awfully
> good in the movie.
>
I don't care too much for shouting screming and banging head against the
wall. It was different and fresh in Ghayal, OK in Ghatak. But he is
getting typecasted. And now Gadar.
> If that role wasn't worth an award, I don't know what
> was. I consider it to be one of the best male roles done
> in the last decade. And it was won in the face of stiff
> competition. Raj Kumar Santoshi was in love in Meenakshi
> & made the movie totally for her to get the National award.
> It was like Ramesh Sippy & Dimple in Sagar. Sunny had a
> much smaller role than Meenakshi but he stole the scene from
> her (Though Meenakshi was also very good) & got the
> award.
What was the competition? He got the award for Best Supporting actor.
I don't know the other nominees, but usually there would be umpteen
number of offbeat parallel cinemas which deserve awards and the
exposure. Sometimes such awards are the only renumeration these people
get.
Anyway, I don't believe in commercial Hindi cinema getting national
awards. Tabu was better in Astitva than Raveena in Daman. But Raveena
gets the award. I know they were not released in the same year. There
is a lot of politics and nepotism that goes in these awards
especially when commercial cinema is concerned. Amitabh deserved an
award for his other movies than in Agnipath. Indian (KH) is good but not
award-winning.
Arjun Pandit
>Anyway, I don't believe in commercial Hindi cinema getting national
>awards. Tabu was better in Astitva than Raveena in Daman. But Raveena
>gets the award. I know they were not released in the same year.
Huh?!? Daman is commercial hindi cinema and Astitva is not? Or Astitva is
parallel cinema and Daman is not? Whats the basis? Both were released with the
same amount of publicity in India FYI ....
yeskay
>
> In article <3B7D21...@my-dejaNOSPAM.com>, yeskay says...
>
> >Anyway, I don't believe in commercial Hindi cinema getting national
> >awards. Tabu was better in Astitva than Raveena in Daman. But Raveena
> >gets the award. I know they were not released in the same year.
>
> Huh?!? Daman is commercial hindi cinema and Astitva is not? Or Astitva is
> parallel cinema and Daman is not? Whats the basis? Both were released with the
> same amount of publicity in India FYI ....
>
No, the point was, even if the awards were given to commercial films,
pick one that is atleast believable.
Rocky Raccoon
> Amitabh deserved an
> award for his other movies than in Agnipath.
Agree. Agnipath was one movie which was very difficult
to sit through. Amitabh with his Marlon Brando voice was a
pain.
Arjun Pandit
Have you seen Daman? I am just asking and not pointing out you know ... :)
I saw a couple of scenes of it and felt Raveena in those scenes was as good as
Tabu in Astitva. My mom sat thru the rest of the movie and was full of praises
for Raveena the next morning ...
BTW: How was Daman less believable than Astitva. Astitva was directed by one
Mahesh Bhatt clone in Mahesh Manjrekar (3-4 average movies being directed at one
shot with none being pathetic nor spectacular) and Daman was directed by one
Kalpana Lajmi.
cheers
yeskay
I have seen both the movies and all was IMO. In terms of acting, R was
nowhere near deserving an award, but I felt, Tabu acted well in Astitva
(forget Direction) and we could believe if she had got an award.
Arjun Pandit
>
>Arjun Pandit wrote:
>>
>> In article <3B7D28...@my-dejaNOSPAM.com>, yeskay says...
>> >
>> >Arjun Pandit wrote:
>> >>
>> >> In article <3B7D21...@my-dejaNOSPAM.com>, yeskay says...
>> >>
>> >> >Anyway, I don't believe in commercial Hindi cinema getting national
>> >> >awards. Tabu was better in Astitva than Raveena in Daman. But Raveena
>> >> >gets the award. I know they were not released in the same year.
>> >>
>> >> Huh?!? Daman is commercial hindi cinema and Astitva is not? Or Astitva is
>> >> parallel cinema and Daman is not? Whats the basis? Both were released with the
>> >> same amount of publicity in India FYI ....
>> >>
>> >
>> >No, the point was, even if the awards were given to commercial films,
>> >pick one that is atleast believable.
>>
>> Have you seen Daman? I am just asking and not pointing out you know ... :)
>>
>> I saw a couple of scenes of it and felt Raveena in those scenes was as good as
>> Tabu in Astitva. My mom sat thru the rest of the movie and was full of praises
>> for Raveena the next morning ...
>>
>> BTW: How was Daman less believable than Astitva. Astitva was directed by one
>> Mahesh Bhatt clone in Mahesh Manjrekar (3-4 average movies being directed at one
>> shot with none being pathetic nor spectacular) and Daman was directed by one
>> Kalpana Lajmi.
>>
>
>I have seen both the movies and all was IMO.
"In my opinion"
> In terms of acting, R was
>nowhere near deserving an award, but I felt, Tabu acted well in Astitva
>(forget Direction) and we could believe if she had got an award.
"We could believe it"
Why drag me if its your opinion? :)
cheers
Rocky Raccoon
> I have seen both the movies and all was IMO. In terms of acting, R
was
> nowhere near deserving an award, but I felt, Tabu acted well in
Astitva
> (forget Direction) and we could believe if she had got an award.
I haven't seen Daman - but I didn't like Astitva. It was slow, boring,
sermonizing &
dragging movie. The movie had enough content for a 60-90 minute
movie, not for a full feature Hindi movie.
I think it got all this attention solely because it was different -
not because
it was 'different good'.
Ravi Krishna
> sermonizing &
> dragging movie. The movie had enough content for a 60-90 minute
> movie, not for a full feature Hindi movie.
> I think it got all this attention solely because it was different -
> not because it was 'different good'.
OK agreed to some extent. But let's cut to the chase. Which one
you prefer. A slow, sermonizing movie like Astitva or a movie where
the hero gets in the car in Mumbai and comes out in London. For me,
the latter is eminently avoidable.
I don't know whether I am ruffling some feathers here. But I
would any day prefer a movie like Die Hard series to all this.
My wife asks me "do u think Die hard kinda thing happen in
real life". My reply has always been the same. "It is still
more believable than hero-gets-in-the-car-in-mumbai stuff".
RK-
Shyamal Pain
> "Rocky Raccoon" <rro...@bigfoot.com> wrote
> > I haven't seen Daman - but I didn't like Astitva. It was slow, boring,
> > sermonizing &
> > dragging movie. The movie had enough content for a 60-90 minute
> > movie, not for a full feature Hindi movie.
> > I think it got all this attention solely because it was different -
> > not because it was 'different good'.
>
> OK agreed to some extent. But let's cut to the chase. Which one
> you prefer. A slow, sermonizing movie like Astitva or a movie where
> the hero gets in the car in Mumbai and comes out in London. For me,
> the latter is eminently avoidable.
These are two different types. The typical Hindi movie is which you
watch with your brains turned off. There are some fun movies among
that category. Astitwa belongs to the so-called art movie category and
should be reviewed with that in mind i.e. measured against a much
higher standard.
Rocky Raccoon
As long as 'hero gets in the car in bombay' thing isn't central to
the movie ( i.e. the story doesn't depend on whether he could have
driven from bombay to switzerland in 10 minutes) it doesn't matter to
me as long as it's the whole movie is not based around silly stuff
like this.
BTW, I am a big big Die Hard fan & a bigger Bruce Willis fan (from the
Moonlighting days). I have seen Die Hard & Die Hard
with a vengeance 5 times each. The only sad thing is that Bruce Willis
doesn't use his fantastic sense of comic timing (which he showed in
Moonlighting)
much in his action movies - though he delivers the funny one-liners
very well even
in the Die Hard series.
Ravi Krishna
> As long as 'hero gets in the car in bombay' thing isn't central to
I used that 'hero-gets-in-the-car-in-bombay" just as an example.
I meant any ridiculous unbelievable stuff which is a routine in
bollywood movies.
Taking the Die Hard series comparison (Like u I too love DH series
and has seen that .. god knows how many times) vs Gadar. Ok both
are not possible in reality. But.. there is a difference. In DH
series, in not one scene, Bruce Willis takes on 10
people at one ago and comes out unscathed. All the fights he
has is with guns and brains. He will intelligently beat the
crooks in their own game. OTOH Gadar ( a super hit movie) shows
Sunny Deol fighting with 10 pakistanis with bare hand and coming
out unscathed. In one scene he yells out a war cry and Pak army
runs away????. It is this kind of stuff which puts me off.
There got to be a limit to bullshits.
Sadly most of the indian movies is like that only.
RK-
Rocky Raccoon
I do agree that Hindi movies have more garbage than the Hollywood
ones, but our perspective is also skewed by the fact that
we see only 'A' Grade English movies but see 'A', 'B' & 'C' Hindi
movies.
The one area where all of Hollywood always shows stupid things is
Technology, even the A-Grade ones. "Independence Day" is a prime
example, but you see it in 100's of other movies also.
All computers in Hollywood movies are AI, even the ones inside a
clerk's office. You have always have a command line interface, where
you can type any question you want just like you are talking to your
professor in college , & it will vomit data like nobody's business
on a green terminal. And anyone & everyone can hack into the DMV,
the FBI, the Banks even if he just has used computers for a
few days.
If you really want to see the most unbelievable scenes in Hindi
movies, you should watch "Kehne me kya Harj hain" a show hosted
by Sajid Khan. Every episode, he used to spend 10 minutes on
the most crazy stuff happening. & He had Joginder specials all
the time.
My personal favourite stupid scene is in 'Mard' where first Dara
Singh is tied to 4 horses & they all run in 4 diff directions.
Instead of Dara Singh being torn to pieces, because of his immense
strength, all the 4 horses get immobilized. In the same movie,
either Amitabh or Dara Singh (I don't remember) lasso a airplane
to a standstill. i.e the plane is about to take off & the person
lassoes it as if it's a horse & pulls it back.
Tera Baap
In any case both were better than a third-class Govinda "acting" in some cheap
David Dhawan flick.
Tera Baap
Of course. In any case, any of third-class Govinda acting in some cheap DD flick
were way better than any first-class Shahrukh monkey khan's acting in any of his
flicks.
Ravi Krishna
> I do agree that Hindi movies have more garbage than the Hollywood
> ones, but our perspective is also skewed by the fact that
> we see only 'A' Grade English movies but see 'A', 'B' & 'C' Hindi
> movies.
I don't think so it is true while we are living in America.
I see what, almost 2 movies per week and surely not all are A
grade.
While I enjoy desi movies, I have to admit that, as of yet,
our standard is still pretty poor. Ironically it is not in
technical dept where we lag behind. We have made tremendous
strides in the tech dept. It is in story telling and
narrative style. We still make juvenile movies which hardly
makes the viewer think bcos of utter lack of intelligence.
The result is that hindi movies hardly engross the viewer.
Few movies do, like Lagaan, or Hey Ram. HR would have been
a terrific movie if not for KH's narcissist obsession and
it's duration (could have been trimmed by atleast 40 min).
> The one area where all of Hollywood always shows stupid things is
> Technology, even the A-Grade ones. "Independence Day" is a prime
> example, but you see it in 100's of other movies also.
Totally agreed. Independence Day was a junk movie. And so was "Air
Force-One" (Harrison Ford). That was one A grade movie which had
bullshits of the magnitude of Gadar.
RK-
Shyamal Pain
> "Rocky Raccoon" <rro...@bigfoot.com> wrote
>
> > I do agree that Hindi movies have more garbage than the Hollywood
> > ones, but our perspective is also skewed by the fact that
> > we see only 'A' Grade English movies but see 'A', 'B' & 'C' Hindi
> > movies.
>
> I don't think so it is true while we are living in America.
> I see what, almost 2 movies per week and surely not all are A
> grade.
>
> While I enjoy desi movies, I have to admit that, as of yet,
> our standard is still pretty poor. Ironically it is not in
> technical dept where we lag behind. We have made tremendous
> strides in the tech dept. It is in story telling and
> narrative style. We still make juvenile movies which hardly
> makes the viewer think bcos of utter lack of intelligence.
> The result is that hindi movies hardly engross the viewer.
> Few movies do, like Lagaan, or Hey Ram. HR would have been
> a terrific movie if not for KH's narcissist obsession and
> it's duration (could have been trimmed by atleast 40 min).
I think our movie goers are responsible for this. They are indeed
juvenile in their taste and love the same formula being churned out
over the years. Most films that try to be different, fail in the box
office. How was, for example, Hey Ram's success in box office?
It was a good movie.
Rocky Raccoon
>
> "Rocky Raccoon" <rro...@bigfoot.com> wrote
>
> > I do agree that Hindi movies have more garbage than the Hollywood
> > ones, but our perspective is also skewed by the fact that
> > we see only 'A' Grade English movies but see 'A', 'B' & 'C' Hindi
> > movies.
>
> I don't think so it is true while we are living in America.
> I see what, almost 2 movies per week and surely not all are A
> grade.
>
> While I enjoy desi movies, I have to admit that, as of yet,
> our standard is still pretty poor. Ironically it is not in
> technical dept where we lag behind. We have made tremendous
> strides in the tech dept. It is in story telling and
> narrative style. We still make juvenile movies which hardly
> makes the viewer think bcos of utter lack of intelligence.
> The result is that hindi movies hardly engross the viewer.
Agreed. But a lot of movies are good - among the recent ones
Takshak, Zakhm etc were very good. Will probably see "Dil Chahta
Hai" on video tommorow.
> Few movies do, like Lagaan, or Hey Ram. HR would have been
> a terrific movie if not for KH's narcissist obsession and
> it's duration (could have been trimmed by atleast 40 min).
>
> > The one area where all of Hollywood always shows stupid things is
> > Technology, even the A-Grade ones. "Independence Day" is a prime
> > example, but you see it in 100's of other movies also.
>
> Totally agreed. Independence Day was a junk movie. And so was "Air
> Force-One" (Harrison Ford). That was one A grade movie which had
> bullshits of the magnitude of Gadar.
I saw "Captain Correlli's Mandolin" today [ didn't buy popcorn, sorry -
got in late ] total Hindi movie - not good not bad, but totally lacking
in reality - All Greeks & Italians & Germans speak English (though with
a wierd accent) - NCage slips into American accent couple of times in
between. German speaks with crisp American accent - The 2nd hero also
gives Qurbani of the heroine to Nicolas Cage - Hero's friends shields
Cage in the face of the enemies machine gun fire & saves him while dying
himself - fulltoo Hindi movie style.
Rocky Raccoon
> I think our movie goers are responsible for this. They are indeed
> juvenile in their taste and love the same formula being churned out
> over the years. Most films that try to be different, fail in the box
> office. How was, for example, Hey Ram's success in box office?
> It was a good movie.
Hardly, it was very boring movie. Just a good story does not a movie
make.
Tera Baap
HA HA HA. The very fact that you can never defend your third-class hero
without bringing other actors into the picture shows that you have nothing
worthwhile to defend about your cheapo Ghati idol.
Tera Baap
HO HO HO. In a discussion about Raveena and Tabu who brought in Govinda into the
picture digressing completely? Wait .... I had rather talk sense to Jai Maharaj
or Mo/Habshi than try and point out something sensible to you. I stand better
chance with Mo, I feel.
>
>
Arjun Pandit
Pain says...
>
>
>Ravi Krishna <srkrishn...@mail.com> wrote in message
>news:9ln57j$abcq9$1...@ID-75254.news.dfncis.de...
>> "Rocky Raccoon" <rro...@bigfoot.com> wrote
>>
>> > I do agree that Hindi movies have more garbage than the Hollywood
>> > ones, but our perspective is also skewed by the fact that
>> > we see only 'A' Grade English movies but see 'A', 'B' & 'C' Hindi
>> > movies.
>>
>> I don't think so it is true while we are living in America.
>> I see what, almost 2 movies per week and surely not all are A
>> grade.
If you are picking movies from Blockbuster, surely you are not picking up ones
which are B grade right? I agree with Rocky that there are hajaar b/c grade
movies made by hollywood.
>>
>> While I enjoy desi movies, I have to admit that, as of yet,
>> our standard is still pretty poor. Ironically it is not in
>> technical dept where we lag behind. We have made tremendous
>> strides in the tech dept. It is in story telling and
>> narrative style. We still make juvenile movies which hardly
>> makes the viewer think bcos of utter lack of intelligence.
>> The result is that hindi movies hardly engross the viewer.
>> Few movies do, like Lagaan, or Hey Ram. HR would have been
>> a terrific movie if not for KH's narcissist obsession and
>> it's duration (could have been trimmed by atleast 40 min).
>
>I think our movie goers are responsible for this. They are indeed
>juvenile in their taste and love the same formula being churned out
>over the years. Most films that try to be different, fail in the box
>office. How was, for example, Hey Ram's success in box office?
>It was a good movie.
Hey Ram was very boring. No doubt it flopped. Good movies backed by good
publicity are usually hits. I cant remember any good movie with good publicity
in the recent past flopping.
Tera Baap
>HO HO HO. In a discussion about Raveena and Tabu who brought in Govinda into the
>picture digressing completely? Wait .... I had rather talk sense to Jai Maharaj
>or Mo/Habshi than try and point out something sensible to you. I stand better
>chance with Mo, I feel.
Yeah, go ahead and limit your discussions with characters like Mo. My best
wishes are with you. It will save other sensible posters in this ng a lot of
bandwidth and time.
Habshi
are far more popular worldwide if you take into account the language
difficulties and resources available to them . They have the highest
per screen collection .
And they are far more entertaining than Hollywood movie . Even
in a three hour film there is something new happening each minute ,
song , comedy , dances , costumes , dialog . Ask Faddy he watches more
B than H movies and he was born here .
B movies should never become like H or the world will lose a
precious heritage .
On Sun, 19 Aug 2001 02:24:48 GMT, "Shyamal Pain"
<spai...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
Ravi Krishna <srkrishn...@mail.com> wrote in message
news:9ln57j$abcq9$1...@ID-75254.news.dfncis.de...
>
Tera Baap
>The result is that hindi movies hardly engross the viewer.
But you have no problems accepting the same faults of a Tamil/Telugu movie.
Saala Hypocrite.
>Few movies do, like Lagaan, or Hey Ram.
Yeah Lagaan had a terrific story telling in that it had no story at all and
managed to fool educated audiences with a juvenile script. And Hey Ram was so
brilliant with all the self-idolising from idiot Kamal Haasan who wanted to
prove that his character was greater than Gandhiji himself in the film.
Ravi Krishna
"Tera Baap" <tera...@minneapolis.com> wrote in message news:xBOf7.6849
> But you have no problems accepting the same faults of a Tamil/Telugu
movie.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
HA HA HA.
RK-
yeskay
>
> You guys are not living in the real world . Bollywood movies
> are far more popular worldwide if you take into account the language
> difficulties and resources available to them . They have the highest
> per screen collection .
And the lowest screens released compared to H ones. You can't compare
the per screen collection of B and H ones as the number of screens they
are released to are not comparable. Don't give the 'worldwide'
popularity BS. It is popular only among South Asian population living in
that country.
> And they are far more entertaining than Hollywood movie . Even
> in a three hour film there is something new happening each minute ,
> song , comedy , dances , costumes , dialog . Ask Faddy he watches more
> B than H movies and he was born here .
Both have their spate of good and bad movies. H caters to a wider range
of viewers and can afford to make movies about a wide range of ideas and
themes than B. But still B takes its audience for a ride more than H
does. WHen they make a movie like Gadar and it becomes the highest
grosser ever, why do they have to care to make movies that are less
believable and that respects the audiences' intelligence. Lagaan, tho
equally jingoistic, is atleast believable and far more entertaining
with the limitations of what Bollywood could offer.
B's movie makers are very lazy compared to H. Why break your head on a
new fresh idea when the audience laps up anything stale that is
served under a new title. There are exceptions in both cases, tho.
See Dil Chahta hai. A fresh idea of film making, but still the director
had to resort to a cliche'd climax and to popular stars to gain more
mass appeal for the movie. Atleast it is less pretentious and far less
superficial than a Mohobbatein / Kuch Kuch hota hain. I wish B would
come with more movies like DCH. It brings back the style of makers
like Basu chatterjee and Hrishikesh, but with the coolness appealing to
generation Y.
yeskay
>
> I saw "Captain Correlli's Mandolin" today [ didn't buy popcorn, sorry -
> got in late ] total Hindi movie - not good not bad, but totally lacking
> in reality - All Greeks & Italians & Germans speak English (though with
> a wierd accent) - NCage slips into American accent couple of times in
> between. German speaks with crisp American accent - The 2nd hero also
> gives Qurbani of the heroine to Nicolas Cage - Hero's friends shields
> Cage in the face of the enemies machine gun fire & saves him while dying
> himself - fulltoo Hindi movie style.
Rocky, You goose :) WHy do you give out spoilers like these when
somebody like me wanted to see that movie. But thanks, anyway, 'cause
I won't waste a $15.00 (ticket + popcorn + soda), I'd rather wait for
the Video/DVD (well within $4 with home cooked food and a beer) to get
released.
Ravi Krishna
"yeskay" <jeevk...@my-dejaNOSPAM.com> wrote
> See Dil Chahta hai. A fresh idea of film making, but still the director
> had to resort to a cliche'd climax and to popular stars to gain more
> mass appeal for the movie. Atleast it is less pretentious and far less
> superficial than a Mohobbatein / Kuch Kuch hota hain. I wish B would
> come with more movies like DCH. It brings back the style of makers
> like Basu chatterjee and Hrishikesh, but with the coolness appealing to
> generation Y.
I too saw it last night. Cool movie. Saif Ali Khan was best.
What a surprise from him.
RK-
Rocky Raccoon
>
> Rocky Raccoon wrote:
> >
> > I saw "Captain Correlli's Mandolin" today [ didn't buy popcorn, sorry -
> > got in late ] total Hindi movie - not good not bad, but totally lacking
> > in reality - All Greeks & Italians & Germans speak English (though with
> > a wierd accent) - NCage slips into American accent couple of times in
> > between. German speaks with crisp American accent - The 2nd hero also
> > gives Qurbani of the heroine to Nicolas Cage - Hero's friends shields
> > Cage in the face of the enemies machine gun fire & saves him while dying
> > himself - fulltoo Hindi movie style.
>
> Rocky, You goose :) WHy do you give out spoilers like these when
> somebody like me wanted to see that movie.
Sorry about that. But this is not worth watching on the screen. The
1st 1/2 especially is very boring.
And I think I gave out the spoilers because in a Hindi movie, none of
the above would have been considered a spoiler, would have been
expected.
shampa shilpa shetty shan
Rocky Raccoon wrote in message
<In the same movie,
>either Amitabh or Dara Singh (I don't remember) lasso a airplane
>to a standstill. i.e the plane is about to take off & the person
>lassoes it as if it's a horse & pulls it back.
as idiotic as that sounds, i'd like to see it!
David Chute
We often hear that of 800 movies released in India every year only ten are
hits. What happens to the other 790? And more to the point, what kind of
movies are they?
Habshi
five or so were hits ie recovered their money at the box office .
The rest are in other Indian languages and have a better hit
ratio .
On Sun, 19 Aug 2001 21:52:02 GMT, David Chute <dcc...@earthlink.net>
wrote:
Rocky Raccoon
I saw it now. Found it OK. Till the interval, the movie drags & is
very slow. It's very good after the interval but the climax as Sanjeev
said is totally filmi. Saif is very good. Aamir has become rather
repetitive in his 'tandel' type roles. He plays a serious role so
much better. Akshay Khanna does the whole movie with just one
expression on his face - a Bruce Willis like smirk.
Even today Dimple looks a million times better than her chakni daughter.
Arjun Pandit
Not a surprise at all. Saif has always been great in comic roles.
>
>RK-
>
Ravi Krishna
"Rocky Raccoon" <rro...@bigfoot.com> wrote :-
> I saw it now. Found it OK. Till the interval, the movie drags & is
> very slow. It's very good after the interval but the climax as Sanjeev
> said is totally filmi. Saif is very good. Aamir has become rather
> repetitive in his 'tandel' type roles. He plays a serious role so
> much better. Akshay Khanna does the whole movie with just one
> expression on his face - a Bruce Willis like smirk.
I agree. I would classify it as a good timepass.
The 'filmi' climax in that was very much expected, or at least
I was expecting it. Do u remember Rangeela. In reality Urmi
would have given a GPL to black ticketwalla Aamir and would
have happily setteled with superstar Jackie Shroff. But no
one would have liked it in the film. That's what films are.
Show reality, but not too much :-)
> Even today Dimple looks a million times better than her chakni daughter.
U bet.
RK-
PS: what is tandel.
what is chakni - is it opposite of chikni
yeskay
> Akshay Khanna does the whole movie with just one
> expression on his face - a Bruce Willis like smirk.
Ha, the smirk! Too bad that some movie critic compared his acting in
this movie with the veteran Sanjeev Kumar, the moving of lips and jaws
to emote!
yeskay
The movie is Mard, directed by Manmohan Desai. He was famous for such
happenings in movies especially in Amitabh movies -
- blind mother getting eyesight, courtesy Saibaba (Amar, Akbar, Anthony)
- Rishi kapoor carrying Neetu singh (India's answer to Dolly Patron),
and her father over a rope! (same movie)
- blind cop driving a motorcycle (Shashi Kapoor in Suhaag)
They are as credible as James bond fighting with a hit-man sikh on top
of a plane, bumps him off, and jumps with the girl off the plane, just
to land on top of a cliff while the bad guy dashes the plane to a rock
- remember Octopussy!
yeskay
>
> shampa shilpa shetty shan wrote:
>
> - blind cop driving a motorcycle (Shashi Kapoor in Suhaag)
This movie is a classic. Amitabh sits behind the blind cop shashi and
directs him in a busy street, when they are driving in the wrong way,
when Amitabh could've been driving!
Amitabh collects chanda for building a temple to his favorite goddess
durga, in doing so, he doesn't mind how he earns the money. He says,
"devi maa ke mandir ke liye, khoon karne ko bhi taiyaar hoon!"
(I don't mind killing for the devi!).
Rocky Raccoon
> PS: what is tandel.
Tandel is opposite of 'good, decent' types. It's not
a commonly used word. I couldn't think of any other
word when I wrote the post.
> what is chakni - is it opposite of chikni
Chakna is 'khaana' - cock-eyed - kahi pey
nigahen kahi pey nishana. Twinkle is very
very very slightly cock-eyed, if you notice carefully,
or it may be the dumb expression on her
face, or contact lens or something else which gives that
impression.
Cricfan
> Ravi Krishna wrote:
> > I too saw it last night. Cool movie. Saif Ali Khan was best.
> > What a surprise from him.
>
> I saw it now. Found it OK. Till the interval, the movie drags & is
> very slow. It's very good after the interval but the climax as Sanjeev
> said is totally filmi. Saif is very good. Aamir has become rather
> repetitive in his 'tandel' type roles. He plays a serious role so
> much better. Akshay Khanna does the whole movie with just one
> expression on his face - a Bruce Willis like smirk.
>
> Even today Dimple looks a million times better than her chakni daughter.
Interesting.
I wonder if, *where* you see the film makes a difference. My wife and
I saw it in a theatre and I think the large canvas, stereophonic sound
and staring at the close up of the actors on 70 mm made a huge
difference. I seriously believe that we wouldn't have liked it as much
if we have seen it on a smaller canvas. Ditto with say - Lagaan.
I am fairly convinced that it is useless watching Lagaan on video. You
have to see it with 500 other people in a theatre cheering and
laughing to enjoy the full atmosphere that Gowrikar so wonderfully
created.
All the three actors in DCH were quite brilliant. Thankfully, none of
them went overboard. Yes, the scene between Aamir and Preity during
the wedding prep could've been better. Apparently, the director was
under pressure from the producer(s) and may not be wholly blamed.
At least DCH was not phony like KKHH or the big-daddy of them all,
DTPH. Thankfully, it also did not have Shiamak Davar's choreography.
He dresses men and women in lingerie and makes them do PT exercises
:-) He is another one of those Saturday Times creations. No substance,
all hype.
Dimple did a great job, didn't she? Her character was very well
written. The last well written woman-alcoholic-character was Meena
Kumari's in that masterpiece, 'Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam'. That's the only
film in which I liked her acting:-)
Cheers
Arun
Niraj Agarwalla
> You guys are not living in the real world . Bollywood movies
> are far more popular worldwide if you take into account the language
> difficulties and resources available to them . They have the highest
> per screen collection .
> And they are far more entertaining than Hollywood movie . Even
> in a three hour film there is something new happening each minute ,
> song , comedy , dances , costumes , dialog . Ask Faddy he watches more
> B than H movies and he was born here .
> B movies should never become like H or the world will lose a
> precious heritage .
Personally, I believe it has already lost its heritage. Mangled
dialogue, cliched storylinke, pop songs, and horribly-choreographed
dancing. I yearn for the Bollywood of old where an Indian truly was an
Indian film, and not this pseudo-hollywood shit it passes for today.
--
Niraj Agarwalla - ni...@primushost.com - http://www.primushost.com/~niraj
Ravi Krishna
"Cricfan" <asi...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
> I am fairly convinced that it is useless watching Lagaan on video.
I saw Lagaan and DCH in video (DVD) and never felt that it should
be watched only in the theater. C'mon Lagaan/DCH, though being
good, are not Sholay or Titanic.
RK-
Habshi
maximal enjoyment .
Habshi
Bollywood movie ! We usenetters will be very old by then !
I think Bollywood movies have never been as entertaining as
now and I love to see on the big screen . Of course if you watch them
on crappy pirate videos and dvds you have only yourself to blame .
Rocky Raccoon
"Habshi" <hab...@anony.com> wrote in message
news:3b81a6c1...@news.dtn.ntl.com...
Arjun Pandit
Lagaan, the atmosphere becomes electric during the match which adds to the
experience. And DCH has a good feel to it which you may not see on small screen.
>
>
Tera Baap
>
> One day Niraj you will post a cheerful positive review of a
>Bollywood movie ! We usenetters will be very old by then !
> I think Bollywood movies have never been as entertaining as
>now and I love to see on the big screen . Of course if you watch them
>on crappy pirate videos and dvds you have only yourself to blame .
B>On Mon, 20 Aug 2001 20:17:32 -0400, Niraj Agarwalla
><ni...@primushost.com> wrote:
> Personally, I believe it has already lost its heritage. Mangled
>dialogue, cliched storylinke, pop songs, and horribly-choreographed
>dancing. I yearn for the Bollywood of old where an Indian truly was
>an
>Indian film, and not this pseudo-hollywood shit it passes for today.
>
>--
>Niraj Agarwalla - ni...@primushost.com -
>http://www.primushost.com/~niraj
>
>
Bollywood movies have never been as idiotic as now or for that matter Bollywood
itself. A newcomer after one fluke superhit is called a superstar. An actress is
called a superstar when she gets a superhit from a movie which was plagiarised
from another region of the country. Most movies are more gloss than substance
and are called revolutionising just because they show foreign cars and
lifestyle. A movie without any storyline is called Oscar material. I agree with
Niraj - the scene has never been as bad as now for Bollywood(rather call it
commercialisation of Bollywood synonymous with the commercialisation of India)
and there are many idiots like you who think we are progressing to a new era.
David Chute
A.R. Rahman, Kamal Hasan, "Lagaan," "Safarosh," "Hey Ram," "Godmother,"
"Shool"...
Don't forget Sturgeon's Law: "Ninety-nine percent of EVERYTHING is crap."
Habshi
<rro...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
100 quoted lines & 1 newly added line. Same as what I am doing.
It was carried to new groups .
yeskay
>
> I wonder if, *where* you see the film makes a difference. My wife and
> I saw it in a theatre and I think the large canvas, stereophonic sound
> and staring at the close up of the actors on 70 mm made a huge
> difference.
Yes, this movie has a lot of close ups of the actors which was pretty
brave of the actors to have agreed to do that. AKhanna's receding
hairline might be a big worry for him. He's what 24/25 (he was 22 in
Border). He'll soon become like Anupam kher. He should sport a la Bruce
Willis hairstyle (zilch!) and act in action movies. He has the same
smirk pasted on his face, anyway.
Another thing about this movie, one should never see this movie on an
empty stomach. There are so many 'eating' scenes in this movie, than in
any other movie I've seen till now. They are always having breakfast,
lunch, or dinners with wine and stuff. We were so famished when we came
out of the movie, that stupid clearview cinemas wouldn't even let us
go out on an 'interval'. Couldn't buy the popcorn as it was late when
we got in. :)
>
> All the three actors in DCH were quite brilliant. Thankfully, none of
> them went overboard.
Didn't like Akhanna too much. Till now, in all the roles I've seen of
him, he's a very confident look on his face. And the smirk, gets on my
nerves. And Aamir khan wasn't as natural as he usual is. Probably he's
done too many such movies.
>
> Dimple did a great job, didn't she? Her character was very well
> written. The last well written woman-alcoholic-character was Meena
> Kumari's in that masterpiece, 'Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam'. That's the only
> film in which I liked her acting:-)
Shabana in Arth.
Tanuja in Masoom.
Shyamal Pain
David Chute <dcc...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:B7A75242.10D6A%dcc...@earthlink.net...
> Ram Gopal Varma, Aamir Khan, Mani Rathnam, Manoj Bajpai, Nana Patekar,
Tabu,
> A.R. Rahman, Kamal Hasan, "Lagaan," "Safarosh," "Hey Ram," "Godmother,"
> "Shool"...
superhit films
like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, DDLJ, KKHH etc. One wonders how these films
almost devoid of any storyline, became superhits.
Rocky Raccoon
"Shyamal Pain" <spai...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:MVwg7.54819$gj1.5...@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
>
> David Chute <dcc...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:B7A75242.10D6A%dcc...@earthlink.net...
> > Ram Gopal Varma, Aamir Khan, Mani Rathnam, Manoj Bajpai, Nana
Patekar,
> Tabu,
> > A.R. Rahman, Kamal Hasan, "Lagaan," "Safarosh," "Hey Ram,"
"Godmother,"
> > "Shool"...
> These are decent films. I think the posters gripe was sensibly
against
> superhit films
> like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, DDLJ, KKHH etc. One wonders how these
films
> almost devoid of any storyline, became superhits.
DDLJ was a very good movie. Have you seen it ? It had a tight
storyline,
was very funny & was an out & out entertainer.
I'll take a DDLJ to any "Hey Ram's" or "Astitva's" or any of Nana
Paterkar's
movies.
Karen Lofstrom
Shyamal Pain wrote:
> These are decent films. I think the posters gripe was sensibly against
> superhit films
> like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, DDLJ, KKHH etc. One wonders how these films
> almost devoid of any storyline, became superhits.
You don't NEED a storyline for an opera. Music is actually better at
exploring a mood than it is at telling a story. You need just enough
storyline to set the scene for the moods which the music then illustrates.
I've been pondering HAHK and why it evokes such a love/hate response. It's
true that it's set in a dream world where everyone is rich and everyone is
*nice*. In that sense it's pure popular kitsch. But there's more to it
than that. I think it works *because* the plot has been stripped to bare
essentials. No cartoon villains, no fights, no chase scenes, no
long-separated twins raised in different households. Just observation of
developing relationships between people, illustrated by song and dance
numbers that are also family celebrations. The movie only descends into
melodrama at the end, and even then the implausibilities are limited.
By taking this leisurely approach, the film can focus on the ups and downs
of courtship, observed in loving detail, with lots of amusing
side-business.
It is not a naturalistic approach to film-making. It is not gritty
realism. It is not anything like Bicycle Thief :) It is folk tale, it is
a simple structure richly decorated.
IMHO, Indian cinema can sometimes do this sort of thing, and do it well,
where Hollywood would fumble it completely.
--
Karen Lofstrom lofs...@lava.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------
What does he expect from the computer community?
Normality? Sorry pal, we're fresh out. -- Bruce Sterling
David Chute
described HAHK to a friend as "'A Suitable Boy' done as an MGM
musical"--reaching for the ideas that are expressed so well here.
There are times when pure entertainment offers so much pleasure that it can
no longer be dismissed as mindless or a waste of time. When I watch
Amibatbh Bachchan dance in "Muqaddar Ka Sikkander," or Dev Anand flirt with
Vyjayanthimala in "Jewel Thief," or KamaI Hasan communicating in pantomime
in "Pushpak," I feel more alive. If you've never responded this way to a
perfectly executed scene in a "frivolous" movie, you have my sympathy.