I mean, I’m not one to rant about The Dismal State of Cinema Today, but this is such a classic. Yash Chopra just got it right. I keep trying to write this review, and instead going back and rewatching all those iconic scenes. (Also the Aruna Irani song.) Deewar is about right and wrong and the line in between, and what happens when that line is drawn through a family.
The filmmakers did kind of take the idea and run with it.
Ravi and Vijay are brothers who with their mother (Nirupa Roy) are forced into poverty in Mumbai, after their father leaves town in disgrace due to being blackmailed in a labor dispute. Vijay, the elder, works so that Ravi can be educated and despite their circumstances, they grow up into very different men. Ravi becomes a polite Shashi Kapoor, with a B.A., a police inspector job, and a nice girlfriend (Neetu Singh). Vijay is Amitabh Bachchan, a dock worker who is forced to pay protection money to a local gang. He grew up working on the street, defending his mother, and literally carrying the sins of his father tattooed on his skin, so it’s not hard to see why he seeks a more secure life. He moves into the more lucrative world of smuggling, and buys his mother a new house and all the comforts he can give her.
Religious discord in the family. But do you see that Vijay's badge is number 786? Do you think there might be some religious symbolism going on? I think there might be some religious symbolism going on.
Basically, I will watch anything if Parineeti Chopra’s in it, but I haaated Aditya Roy Kapur in YJHD. So I resisted seeing Daawat-e-Ishq for a while, but it turns out it’s pretty cute. Gullu (Parineeti) is a young women in Hyderabad, and her father (Anupam Kher) is looking for a husband for her. Unfortunately, the families of the educated men she considers her equals ask for a much higher dowry than her father can afford. After being humiliated when her boyfriend’s family asks her father for 80 lakhs of “help”, she cooks up a plan to catch a rich family asking her father for dowry, then threaten them with a case of dowry harassment and use the money she extorts to go learn fashion design in America.
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.
Damn, girl
Juhi Chawla in Gulaab Gang. She was a fantastic villain, and it works so well, I think, because she can be so charming. Just like I want to smile whenever she smiles, I want to recoil when she sneers.
Best actress
Tabu in Haider. I could complain that she’s playing Shahid’s mother at only 43, but if she gets more roles like this, I’ll be ecstatic.
Best comeback
GOVINDA, in everything.
Favorite Song
Besharmi ki Height from Main Tera Hero
Varun has to be the most enjoyable dancer to come around since Ranveer. Possibly even Shahid. And this song is such delightful pandering. Ileana poses on a motorcycle in skin-tight leather pants, Varun humps in the direction of a broken fire hydrant. The lyrics go “saari night besharmi ki height/ik tu, ik main/aur ho dim dim yeh light” and yet somehow they manage to make it cute instead of sleazy.
Biggest surprise
Alia Bhatt and Highway. I don’t think it’s the best performance of the year or anything, but she really did pull this off, and Imtiaz Ali made it all work.
Highway also takes best soundtrack, far and away. Tu Kuja is full of such raw despair and the pure human spirit that nobody can do like A.R. Rahman. Bonus points for a fantastic use of Alia’s voice in Sooha Saha.
Most heartbreaking moment
Parineeti Chopra at the end of Hasee toh Phasee. Through the entire movie, we’ve seen Meeta’s coping skills for all life throws at her. Her intelligence, her quirks, her self-prescribed medication, stealing, running away, everything. And yet, in this moment, none of it is enough.
And finally, my favorite movie of the year
Bobby Jasoos. It's seriously adorable. Bobby is an extremely enjoyable character, with strengths and flaws (not just quirks!) and despite it all, a very clever detective. Sure, it’s a little silly, and the ending is a little rushed, but watching her navigate her dreams and her relationships is charming, and it’s just got all the right Bollywood feelings. And in the end, it’s all about family. Plus, Vidya! How can you not love her?
I love this movie, but I try to watch it when no one else is home, just so I don’t have to explain it. It’s ridiculous. Quintessential Karan Johar fluff. I don’t care. Sometimes that’s just what you want, and Kal Ho Naa Ho (tomorrow may not be) has all of the feelings, every single one of them, and sometimes all at once.
Naina (Preity Zinta) is an unhappy young women, living with her dysfunctional family in New York. Her grandmother blames Naina’s mother for her husband’s suicide, and constantly berates her granddaughter Gia because she was adopted. Naina’s mother Jennifer (Jaya Bachchan) is overworked, worried about money and keeps up an endless stream of bickering with her mother-in-law.
Then Aman (Shahrukh Khan) moves in next door to brighten their lives and embarks on a mission to cheer Naina up in the most annoying way possible.
Certainly this is the least interesting of the Student of the Year kids’ sophomore choices. But it’s the most fun, that’s for sure. Main Tera Hero is one of the more straightforward movies than most of the others I’ve watched this year. (Straightforward in the sense of narrative substance, not in the sense of who loves who and who was pretending to love who and who was pretending to be who because that approaches Housefull 2 levels of ridiculousness.) Varun Dhawan seems, unsurprisingly, bred to star in his father’s movies. He dances, (So much pelvic thrusting, you guys. So much.) he grins, he struts around and nails the physical comedy effortlessly. I’m not saying he’s the second coming of Govinda, but his loveable machismo is pretty damn endearing.
Varun and Ileana don’t have any particular chemistry, but they play well off each other, and I enjoyed her feigned melodrama as much as I did in Phata Poster Nikhla Hero. Nargis Fakhri is surprisingly bearable, to my shock. Her character is kind of a dip, but so is she. It all works out. The plot is both standard-issue Bollywood comedy and far more complex than I want to explain here. It’s really just a vehicle for Varun’s waggling pectorals and over the top dance sequences.
Total Siyapaa
Not actually the siyapaa (“mess”) that I was expecting from the reviews. Certainly if you are by some freak of nature immune to the considerable raw charisma of Ali Zafar, this movie would be unwatchable. (Also, I would feel very sorry for you.) It’s one of those slapstick, madcap comedies that just doesn’t really coalesce into an actual story, but that’s okay. I found it worth a one-time watch.
The story takes place over a single evening, when Asha (Yami Gautam) brings her Pakistani boyfriend Aman (Ali Zafar) home to meet her crazy Punjabi family. As you might imagine, there are many hijinks to be had. Kirron Kher is always a delight as the overdramatic filmi maa, but Anupam Kher as Asha’s father who’s struck with amnesia after being hit on the head with frozen soup is way too close to his crazy-haired character in Beta to be funny.
I was expecting more from an Ali Zafar soundtrack, but there are only a few songs and the picturization of Palat Meri Jaan in particular is completely uninspired.
Well, that was fun. This is a shiny, over-the-top remake of some random Hollywood movie that I haven’t seen anyway, so I can’t really bring myself to care that’s it’s not original. Originality is not what I’m looking for, which is good because Bang Bang! stars Hrithik Roshan as a dangerous yet sexy criminal, Katrina Kaif as carefree young woman caught up in international adventures, and Hrithik’s hair gel as an indestructible force of nature.
Harleen is a bank receptionist living in Shimla with her spunky Dadi, dreaming of far-off places and wearing very appealing knitwear. Rajveer has stolen theKohinoor diamond for an angry crime lord who wants to disrupt India/British relations, but demands more money and is pursued across the rooftops of Shimla by henchmen. He easily escapes, because he can jump from the highest buildings and come out with nothing more than stylishly ripped jeans. Harleen meets him when he’s mistaken as her blind date, but when she’s seen with him, she also becomes a target for the crime lord and is whisked away for more fights, more intrigue, and attractive international location songs.
Harleen is a very enjoyable protagonist, and Katrina is as cute as can be:
I assume this is what they were going for at the end of Ishq Shava, with the carefree attitude and miniskirts, but this actually works and I love it. With this and Dhoom 3, I'm now firmly on team Katrina. Plus, the songs are Harleen’s fantasies, not Rajveer’s, and while he’s unquestionably the hero, the story follows her instead.
The plot doesn’t actually make sense, but there is a scene with Hrithik fighting in the ocean with little jetpacks attached to his feet. Also one where he shoots a plane with a harpoon gun, then uses it to water ski and catch up with the plane. And there are these great shots from Harleen’s perspective with Hrithik all oiled up and posing like he’s on a romance novel cover. The point is, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this movie, and I left hoping that Harleen takes her Dadi on their next around the world adventure. She’d like it.
