Mausam (2011)

Here is a grainy screencap of Shahid Kapoor in a kilt. It’s the primary redeeming feature of this movie.

There. I have just saved you 2 and a half hours.

Mausam is the first (and so far only) movie directed by Pankaj Kapur, starring his son. If the cinematography is any indication, he seems to love Shahid very much. I also love Shahid very much, but this does not actually make it a good movie.

Anyway, on to the epic “love story beyond romance”, featuring our two protagonists, the unluckiest couple in the world. They hit no less than 5 notable violent world events over the course of about ten years, which alternately bring them together or force them apart. I’d give them more slack about their tempest-tossed relationship if they had given me any reason to root for their love, but they don’t, so neither do I.

Bananas in Banares: Raanjhanaa

Raanjhanaa hua main tera, kaun tere bin mera...

I did not expect to like this movie. The reviews debating the stalkery romance plot were enough to keep me away from the theater, but eventually the song promos and internet hubbub drew me in, and I found Raanjhanaa to be a nuanced and very human story. And despite what I expected, I think it’s watchable from a feminist perspective.

It’s the story of Kundan (Dhanush), the son of a Tamil priest in Benares who falls in love with a Muslim girl, Zoya (Sonam Kapoor). It’s an obsessive, selfish, and unreciprocated love in all its human messiness. It’s not just that they are from different classes or religions. Kundan is in his own world, one where there is only the Zoya of his dreams, who is rather different than the Zoya of reality. I never thought I’d say this, but Sonam was really well cast here. I just can’t connect with her characters, but Zoya can’t connect with people either. She’s not always a sympathetic character when she uses Kundan’s devotion for her own ends, but she’s three-dimensional and we see glimpses of why she acts the way she does and how she feels so trapped.

2013 Mini-Reviews: The Great

These are most of the movies that I was eagerly waiting for last year, and for everything on this list I had to run out and get the dvd as soon as I could. I’d say 2013 was a pretty good year, Bollywood-wise.

Phata Poster Nikhla Hero

I just loved this movie to bits. It’s like Rajkumar Santoshi got a list of all the things I like best about Bollywood (goofy Shahid Kapoor, melodramatic mothers, ridiculous schemes going out of control on three different levels, loving filmi in-jokes, and all the warm and fuzzy songs) and wrapped it up in a package with my name on it. I can get why it wasn’t that popular, but I really can’t imagine enjoying a lot of the more successful movies (for a timely example, say, The Lunchbox…) as much as I enjoy this one.

Lootera

This was probably my most anticipated movie of the year. I was hooked as soon as saw the first trailer, with its melancholy voice over and beautiful shots of Sonakshi and Ranveer. And it completely lived up to my expectations. It was romantic, beautiful, and melodramatic in a very quiet way that really took the actors seriously. Not that I don’t also love Ranveer and Sona in their commercial films, with their flashy dance moves, but this gave them the scope to do some acting and it really paid off.

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

I know I gave this a bit of a “meh” in my original review, but the fact is that I’ve watched it more times than any other movie from last year, I listen to the whole soundtrack every couple weeks, and most of the song picturizations have made it to my youtube favorites. Now that I know what I’m getting into, I can appreciate the story for what it is and I think Ayan Mukherji did a good job capturing that sense of friends reuniting and feeling like everything has changed around you.

Raanjhaana

This odd genre of stories about love that aren’t love stories is something that I took a while to warm up to, but it was worth it. I avoided Raanjhaana in the theaters because of all the talk of glorifying stalkery romance, but the promos finally sucked me in and I really enjoyed it. There’s even a review languishing in my drafts folder about how I was able to pry a semi-feminist reading out of the story’s presentation. Dhanush was fantastic, and to my surprise, so was Sonam Kapoor.

Dhoom 3

This is a worthy sequel. There are so many motorcycle stunts (including magical transforming motorcycles which fly and become speedboats when necessary) and Aamir Khan has the best scowl, even if he doesn’t have the same bromance with Abhishek that Hrithik did in Dhoom 2. I liked the circus glamour and the way they played with the camera angles to get Katrina and Aamir in the same shot, plus the emotional narrative really worked for me.