Okay, so me, Mango, and Papaya went to see Thank You in the theaters tonight. Which Mango probably is writing about or in the middle of writing about as I type this, lol. I know there have been A LOT of bad reviews for this movie. But I so happen to love this movie.
A funny note for this movie though... I think Akshay Kumar doesn't seem to like pants in this movie, lol. He wears a lot of robes as do others in this movie. And when the first part where Akshay jumps up and you see sensor blocks, I thought I was just seeing things, lol. I was completely startled. I didn't really enjoy that part; I just don't see why they couldn't have covered it up a little more... cleverly? lol. Not that there was really anything to see, I think he had shorts under... I... please don't tell me I opened a can of worms? lol.
Oh! but him wearing a pink sari? That was priceless! Even though you did see it in the trailer, it still kind of shocked me and was like 'oh my gosh', lol. He played it off well, with no indicator he felt embarrassed or shameful. Kind of cute if you ask me ;P
I liked the directing and producing though. It was different... the camera shakes and such (sorry I'm not a pro, I don't have big words to use for it). As Papaya had quoted me before, please don't think I'm out of line:
"lexiburpsalot Elysa: (discussing #ThankYou & what we did/didn't like about it) "I liked it. It was spazzy and it was like you're on acid but you aren't." " -- lol, I thought it was funny.
As for those who said it wasn't funny, I found it freaking hilarious. Laughed throughout the whole movie. There wasn't really a time I wasn't at least smiling.
Oh I'm going to end my little tidbit with the fact that Bobby Deol's hair bothered me in this movie. I know we're going "retro" with the 80's... but that hair is not the way to go... and there was one scene where his hair was cut decently, but it was just a tease! The next scene it went back and you never saw it that way again. What a tragedy. You can't see it too terribly well here, but trust me. If only he would've cut the back bottom of it, it would have been much, much better.
However, I will give this movie a 4 out of 5 stars. I will probably buy this movie, and add it to my growing collection of movies I love : ]
Oh! And (in response to those who say he should retire) I don't care what they say, keep Akshay! He can't retire yet! lol : ]
So I actually wrote up this post a while back when I first watched this movie (as in, before we even started the blog), but I just now realized that I never posted it! Whoops!
So here we go: Love Aaj Kal(Love These Days).
Even though both Papaya and Kiwi will drastically disagree with me, I really enjoyed this movie.
It’s sort of a double movie, happening on two timelines at once. One story revolves around British Indians Jai (Saif Ali Khan) and Meera (Deepika Padukone), a ‘modern’ couple who fall in love but agree to keep cool and not be too over-the-top; it’s supposed to be all carnal. The move is pure logic, because Meera wants to go to India to work on restoration projects and Jai wants to go to America to work on bridges. But the pair agree to remain friends and keep on talking to each other once Meera moves to India.
Then Jai, who’s dealing with missing Meera even if he won’t admit it, meets Veer Singh (Rishi Kapoor), an older man who owns a café. The second timeline then appears when Veer begins recounting to Jai the story of his youth in 1960s Delhi, when he crossed India for Harleen Kaur (played by some random Brazilian actress), a woman that he never spoke to but loved anyway. (In the flashback timeline, Saif also plays the young Veer and does a good job of switching back and forth between the two.)
Overall, this film was really Westernized for Bollywood. At least in the modern-day timeline of Jai and Meera. Lots of kissing, talking about sex, the whole storyline… I know Bollywood movies are increasingly set abroad, but this one really could have been a Hollywood movie if it wasn’t in Hindi… Well, and if there weren’t songs and dancing. Those don’t really happen much in American movies.
Which brings me to the foremost thing I learned from this movie: Saif Ali Khan cannot, cannot dance. When I saw Kal Ho Naa Ho about a month ago, I thought, “Maybe it’s just because he’s next to SRK and you can’t really compare them.” Like seeing Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan dance next to one another in Karan Arjun – Sallu just moves so differently than SRK that you can’t tell anything about either one’s dancing with them next to each another. But after seeing this movie, my theory is confirmed: Saif cannot dance. (I know, let she who has rhythm cast the first stone… I can’t dance, but I’m a darn good stone-caster!)
The other thing this movie confirmed about Saif? Even if there’s no way he could ever be a young Rishi Kapoor, he looks better as a hairy-faced Sikh. I’m often a fan of facial hair on guys though not often a fan of facial hair on Indian guys, but I have to say, it’s becoming on Saif.
Anyone else think Saif needs to keep the facial hair?
But back to the music – I’m pretty sure I could have done without all of the music in this movie. That silly “We Twist” song annoyed me to no end. It served pretty much no purpose whatsoever. That being said, I don’t mean it would be fine without the songs (well, except that one). The placement for songs was fine. Just the quality of the songs themselves had me retching.
But overall, I really loved the movie. I thought it was of great quality and quirky to boot. It was distinct, which I feel is a quality that Bollywood movies (and also a lot of recent romantic Hollywood movies) struggle to achieve.
It also felt like a good dip in the darker, more complicated side of love – and mixing love and logic – that still has that wildly romantic, satisfying Bollywood happy ending. For the Veer-Harleen timeline, Veer shows up to thwart Harleen’s wedding after being beaten by her family, and Jai finally realizes what an idiot he is and leaves San Francisco to come to India for Meera. That doesn’t mean along the way there isn’t a chance for heartbreaks: It takes Meera actually marrying someone else for both Meera and Jai to come to the realization that they love each other.
The scene where Meera leaves her new husband (yeah, plot aside, leaving Rahul Khanna should be a crime!) in order to be with Jai and calls him just to have him announce that he’s moving to San Francisco? Probably one of the most heart-rending scenes ever.
SO SAD. And so brilliantly acted by Deepika.
But ultimately, it’s all OK in the end because Jai comes to his senses and comes after her. Like I said, it’s still got the happy ending you’re looking for, even if it explores a lot of pain along the way. Ultimately, it’s the pain that stretches across most of the film that makes the happy moments – and especially the ending – feel so much more powerful and worth it.
Now I know Paagal Papaya already weighed in on the film “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” but I figured I would go ahead and drop my two cents too because I felt like I had a lot to say, even if it is somewhat similar. (Now, I watched the movie before I brought it to Papaya, so if there are similiarities, she’s the one stealing from me! :P)
My primary reason for wanting to watch this movie, I’ll admit, was wanting to see Aishwarya Rai and Salman Khan together. As much as I’ve read about, well, their tumultuous story, it made me curious.
Well, let’s just say as far as that goes, I certainly wasn’t disappointed. The electric chemistry of a couple falling in love is so thick in the first half and the forced separation that brings you up to intermission is so painful that it’s beautiful. The wild, carefree, mischievous relationship that evolves between fiery-spirited Nandini (Aish) and free spirit Sameer (Sallu) felt like gold to me in the first half.
When I first started this movie, I was wowed by the quality of everything. The sets are lush and beautiful, the camera angles are great, the story pretty well-crafted, the relations between characters are rich, the whole thing is upbeat, and believe it or not, the thing is darn amusing. The music and songs, too, are simply wonderful, from the painful ones to the joyful.
Love this song!
I think Sallu was my biggest shock in this movie. OK, first, let me list the other movies I’ve seen with Sallu in them: Marigold (2007), Karan Arjun (1995), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1997) and his cameo in Tees Maar Khan (2010). Yes, I know, that’s very limited. Lots of other Sallu movies are on my Netflix queue; I just haven’t gotten to them yet. I’ve also watched plenty of interviews with him, clips from other movies and some performances. I guess based on what I’ve seen, my image of Sallu is of the too-cool-for-you, arrogant bad boy. Even his dancing (which is so stiff and unenthusiastic) has relayed that image to me. Don’t take that the wrong way – I’m just being up front in that that’s the image I had formed in my mind.
This movie blew that image away. As half-Italian, half-Indian singer Sameer who’s come to India to learn music from Nandini’s father, he’s crazy, joking, hilarious, adorable,
mischievous, an artsy musician… Everything I’ve never seen Sallu be. I’m
sure this isn’t news to anyone else, but it was so different for me and
I loved it. I could stand to watch so much more of this Salman Khan than the sulky bad boy we seem to have now. (Don’t take this joke the wrong way, but I remarked to Papaya, “This must be what a young and in-love Sallu was like, not the bitter old man he is now.”)
I don’t know that I came into it with any similar expectations or ideas with regards to Aish, but I will say the caliber of her performance was better than I expected too.
This movie threw me for a loop, then, in the first half, especially Sallu. It also contained what I hold to be the humorous scene I never ever never ever would have expected to see in a Bollywood movie, and thus probably the most hilarious.
That being said, I was surprised and dismayed by the mess of the second half. After reading the description of the movie, I probably should have known better than to expect an ending that brought about what the first half made me want. I mean, this movie was made by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the man who brought you Devdas (which I have not seen yet, but trust me, I know all about what happens). Once again, I should’ve known better.
After her father banishes Sameer back to Italy, Nandini is forced to marry Vanraj (Ajay Devgn), who fell in love with her at first sight while she danced and sang about lemons at a wedding. Yes, I kid you not. Then Vanraj is such a nice guy that he takes his wife that doesn’t love him all the way to Italy to hunt down Sameer. To spoil the ending, they hunt down Sameer only for Nandini to realize she’s matured in the process and now loves Vanraj.
After an extremely well-woven first half, the second half just entirely unraveled for me. There’s uber bad dubbing of the Italians, which is so bad it’s painful, and too many convenient near misses and too much bad luck for me. And Sameer and Vanraj meet and practically spend a whole day together without Vanraj realizing HELLO, this is the Italian-Indian musician we've been searching for? The well-woven plot, like I said, is just coming unraveled.
And let me say this before I go further: I sympathize with Vanraj a lot. Probably more than I ever have with any other peepeeman (for explanation of this term, see Papaya's post on this film). But at the same time, the spark that’s in Sameer and Nandini just isn’t there. Maybe it’s because you just can’t successfully throw someone else into the equation of a Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai that were actually in love. That being said, and please don’t to be getting offended, but I just don’t like Ajay Devgn. I think he’s a good actor, even amazing in the amount of sympathy he makes you feel for Vanraj, but I just can’t like him. Even in Chori Chori, which is the first movie I saw with him and in which he was clearly the hero, I couldn’t seem to like him.
And let me again preface a statement by saying, JOKE FORTHCOMING (because I accidentally offended Ajay fans on Twitter with a similar statement the other day): I mean, speaking purely on aesthetics, given the choice between Ajay Devgn and Salman Khan, who are you going to choose? I mean, really? Let’s be honest. Obviously Nandini did not think this through fully. ;)
Yes, on an intellectual level, I can understand the plot arc of this movie. It’s an attempt to fundamentally reaffirm marriage – even one arranged by your parents against your will – and a genuine self-sacrifice in love. It’s also about maturation and learning to appreciate what you have. But at the same time, even if I understand it, the ending feels marvelously unsatisfying to me. As far as I’m concerned, you don’t cross oceans and go through torturous pain for a love that doesn’t exist inside you.
So, I just finished watching Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and figured I'd do a little post on it. But it's late here and I'm very tired so you'll have to forgive me if the post isn't all that great. Sorry :)Mango watched this film before me and told me I wouldn't like it because of the way it ended. This is because, call me unrealistic, but I always like happy endings. I loathe sad endings and usually won't watch a film that has one (unless it has some super-spectacular acting skills and/or a great storyline that makes up for it). Or I don't like when films end up the way I don't want them to, like the person ending up with the person I don't want them to be with.
Ok, let me veer off course for a second to explain a term I will probably use in the future: peepeeman. I hope this term doesn't offend anyone, but it's a term we started using way before we ever started watching Hindi films. It basically means "the other man" or "the other woman" (the female equivalent being 'peepeewoman'), whoever we don't want the protagonist to end up with. Like I said, I hope this term doesn't seem offensive, it's not meant to be. It's just the term we've always used.
Anyways, back to the story. Like I said, I don't like sad endings, and while the end to Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam wasn't really sad (except for for Sameer [Salman Khan], poor guy!), I'm not sure it ended up how I wanted it to. I didn't want Nandini (Aishwarya Rai) to be with Vanraj (Ajay Devgn), but I did at the same time. Let me explain as I go along (I warned you, this will be unorganized).
I loved the first half of the movie. It was funny and the chemistry between Aish and Sallu was nice, quite believable. Perhaps this was because that was the start of their relationship. Anyways, you could see chemistry. But that's what I didn't like at the same time; there wasn't as much chemistry between her and Ajay. So we see all this great stuff with Nandini and Sameer but then are just expected to forget when Nandini realizes she's in love with her husband? Eh. I don't really think so. I could see, though, how they were trying to show that Vanraj and Nandini were falling in love. I just wish they showed more of that, developed it more so that I could believe it more. But this is the thing - I don't think I would have been happy if she had ended up with Sameer either, because I think that, while they didn't do a great job with showing Nandini and Vanraj's love development, they did a good job of showing Nandini's maturation process. She kind of... outgrew Sameer, I guess. She went from being a young, headstrong, and maybe a little bit spoiled girl (the one who fell for Sameer) to being a more demure and less-willful woman (the one who ultimately fell for Vanraj). So, that being said, I didn't really mind the ending. As I said before, I just wish they would have shown their developing love more, because there's no way it'd just be like *snap* I love my husband now and not this guy I crossed oceans for! Yeah, not so much. Though you could clearly see Vanraj's love, Nandini's didn't start really seem to blossom much at all until the few scenes before it was time to say goodbye. So, to sum this up, I consider Vanraj to be the proverbial peepeeman, but overall I don't completely dislike him. He's the sweet peepeeman that I sympathize with and want to pity, but he's not the one I want Nandini to end up with. Oh, and he just falls in love with her after seeing her once? Maybe I'm just a little skeptical. Although, it is Aishwarya Rai, so I guess it could happen. :)
Also, that Nimbooda song will FOREVER be stuck in my head. Here it is so it can be stuck in yours too.
So there's my two cents. What do you think about the film (if you've seen it, that is)? (And I may edit this later when my eyes don't feel like they're gunna fall out of my head. Haha.)
So today we three made a pilgrimage to a nearby Indian bazaar for the first time. Talk about an experience. We heard about the place on good recommendation from a friend of Kiwi's and decided to check it out.
The place is an Indian restaurant that we didn't visit + an Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi grocery store with a wall of Indian films and soundtracks. Of course, we were mostly after the films even though we curiously browsed the grocery.
So, a wall of $2.99 Indian films -- many of the ones we've been yearning for and cursing Netflix for lacking -- was pretty much heaven to us, although we played it relatively conservative this time. We walked out with a mixture of films we've already seen and fallen in love with (Dostana, DDLJ, Welcome) and new ones (Dhoom, Dhoom 2, Chalte Chalte, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, Kambakkht Ishq). And you can bet we'll be back.
What was really nice was that the folks working there didn't treat us like three silly American girls out-of-place in the store. The man assisting us even recommended some Indian restaurants for us and brought an older man to make some movie suggestions too. Even though we've already fallen in love with his best suggestions or added them to our Netflix queues (i.e. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Jab We Met, Devdas), it was nice to have someone taking the time to make recommendations for us.
During our little chat with the folks, we also got a question that should probably be added to the Q-and-A: Do we speak any Indian languages? Do we speak Hindi? Well, the answer is complicated but mostly goes like this: Kiwi doesn't, Papaya knows words here and there, and Mango can painstakingly string together simple sentences. None of us can read or write it, and needless to say we're not confident in our speaking abilities to say anything to a native Hindi speaker, even one as nice as these folks.
Anyway, I guess that's all there is to say. This was mostly a rambling post of excitement about finding another outlet besides Netflix to fuel the fire of our obsession.
Also, T-minus five hours until the Cricket World Cup final! Go India!
Oh I'm going to end my little tidbit with the fact that Bobby Deol's hair bothered me in this movie. I know we're going "retro" with the 80's... but that hair is not the way to go... and there was one scene where his hair was cut decently, but it was just a tease! The next scene it went back and you never saw it that way again. What a tragedy. You can't see it too terribly well here, but trust me. If only he would've cut the back bottom of it, it would have been much, much better.
