Thursday, February 27, 2014

2013 Mini-Reviews: The Good

Chashme Baddoor
Sid (an extremely charming Ali Zafar), Jai (Siddharth), and Omi (Divyendu Sharma) are best friends living together in Goa. They scheme and swoon over women and don’t pay their rent or bar tab. Their solution to their debts is to fix their landlady (Lilette Dubey) up with the cafe owner (Rishi Kapoor) who are completely delightful and, it is worth mentioning, behave like adults (albeit adorably infatuated ones) when Jai and Omi try to break them up when their schemes start going south. Unfortunately, Sid doesn't behave with the same maturity when his charming romance with Seema (Taapsee Pannu) is in jeopardy, so Jai and Omi have to come up with an even more ridiculous scheme to undo the damage they caused. Siddharth was kind of wasted as a sidekick, and Divyendu Sharma got on my nerves, but it's still a really fun, enjoyable movie.

See how charming Ali Zafar is?




Really freaking charming, that is the take-away from this movie. Taapsee is also pretty cute, and the whole movie is fun. I have to admit that I haven’t seen the 1981 version, but I think David Dhawan did a good job with this. It is stuffed to the brim with filmi references to Dhawan’s previous movies and many others (My favorite is Siddharth and Taapsee Pannu doing “What is mobile number?”) and it’s surprisingly family-friendly. That doesn’t usually top my list of criteria for a good movie, but it’s refreshing to have the David Dhawan fun without the gross-out humor, the random racism, and weird homophobia (I’m looking at you, Partner).



Shuddh Desi Romance
Honestly the promos for this didn’t interest me much, but I love Parineeti Chopra and I ended up liking the movie. As an American movie watcher, I'm pretty sure I've seen this plot before so I didn't get the novelty of the casual live-in relationships but it's a good example of the genre. With well-realized female characters, even. We get more backstory on Gayatri (Parineeti) and Tara (Vaani Kapoor) than we do for Sushant's character, but it's still Raghu's story, which is a little unfortunate because he's not nearly as interesting as Gayatri. They kind of try to remedy this by having little at-the-camera monologues where the women explain their feelings. Apparently nobody at Yash Raj has heard of "show, not tell", but there was this line from Gayatri that just killed me.


Sushant and Parineeti are adorable together, even when their messed-up ideas about love make you kind of want to strangle them (Raghu particularly, it should be noted). Jaipur is beautiful, we get lots of scenic landscapes and colorful streets and there's also Rishi Kapoor. He's Raghu and Gayatri's friend and employer (they moonlight as hired wedding guests) and acts as a steadying force between the two that's mature, but not quite parental.

Ram-Leela
It felt like this movie took forever to come out on dvd! Despite not liking a single Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie since Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (though I ended up watching Black the day before I watched this, and I liked it a lot, so go figure.) I was really looking forward to it, but missed it in the theater. I’m not sure it quite lived up to my expectations, but I also think I should give it another chance when I’m not all befuddled by cold medicine, because I kept mixing up which widowed bhabhi was which and who was trying to take down who. Either way, it was sexy and colorful and beautiful and melodramatic and Deepika was fantastic. Ranveer Singh was more than the abs and dancing of Tattad Tattad (not that I didn't enjoy that tremendously) and he and Deepika had great chemistry. Just look at the beginning of Lahu Munh Lag Gaya. Also, that mooche!



Obviously, I loved the songs. I think Laal Ishq is my favorite, but what was with all the horrible item songs last year? I liked the music to Ram Chaahe Leela but Priyanka looks like she’s teaching a yoga class instead of sexy dancing.


Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola


Most of the reviews agree: this movie is basically just Vishal Bhardwaj being weird for two and a half hours. I thought it was hilarious. Pankaj Kapoor completely steals the show as Mandola (please keep acting! Especially if it keeps you away from directing!), Imran Khan (Matru) looks really good all tan and bearded and Anushka Sharma (Bijlee) really nails some of the physical comedy, especially in the final scene. Also, I want her skirt SO MUCH.


Of course, if I think about it too much, I’m left with a lot of questions. Is this supposed to be a happy ending for the farmers? They’ll keep their land, but all the bourgeois scheming destroyed their crops. Has Mandola really changed? What will happen to the African dancers? Why did the subtitlers translate “bhenchod” as “bloody buffoon”?

As a satire, it's kind of inconsistent. There are some brilliant scenes, and then it all promptly turns into poop jokes or a pink buffalo. Which, honestly, is exactly how I like my movies but I can understand why it got panned by more serious folks who like more coherence and less flying buffalo poop.

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