Mango's Guide to Finding Bollywood and All Things Desi in New York

So this is a little outside of my usual realm of Bollywood reviews, but this is something I wish I had been able to find a couple of months ago when I moved to New York.

A Guide to Finding Bollywood and Desi in New York (Mostly Manhattan)

Basically, I want to put out there what I’ve learned so far in the hopes that it might help someone else.

Here’s the knowledge that’s easy to find on the Web: Little India, Jackson Heights, Queens is the place to go for all things Indian. Cheap DVDs, food everywhere, sari/clothing shops, jewelry stores — everything is in Jackson Heights, right off of the subway stop.

But what if you can’t get out to Queens? It’s a long haul from Manhattan to Jackson Heights. (Honestly, I’ve only made the hour-long trip once so far and am going again next weekend.)

Here’s what I’ve found in Manhattan:

Music of India at 28th and Lexington, on the second floor above a cafe. This is my Bollywood DVD store in NYC — and, of course, it can be your music store too, if that’s what you’re after. The DVDs range in price. There’s a four for $20 rack, some $9.99, some collection sets… It just depends. But the selection is pretty darn good.

Now where to see the new releases?

Well, there’s a few options. On the Upper East Side, you have BIG Cinemas Manhattan (formerly the ImaginAsian) on 59th Street near Second Avenue. This theater is very small, though, and is usually showing only one or two films at a time. BIG Cinemas also has a larger theater that shows Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Hollywood films out in Flushing, Queens, (the Bombay Theatre) but it’s hard to get to (requires subway and a bus or at least two buses). Honestly, the one over the river in New Jersey is easier to get to, and it’s also large and multilingual. Both of those other BIG theaters are also cheaper than the Manhattan one, though it may even out with transportation costs.

Actually, your best bet for Bollywood is the AMC Loews theaters. Some of these are also in Jersey, but the AMC Loews Village 7 in the East Village is easy to get to (really, really easy for me) and it’s usually carrying at least one and sometimes two Bollywood films at a time. PLUS, if you can catch a movie before noon (I’ve been going on Saturday mornings), it’s only $6.

Now let’s move past Bollywood to other things desi.

Little India at 28th and Lexington (near Music of India). This grocery store isn’t the best (last time I went in, there were flies everywhere) and it’s kind of pricey, but this is my Indian grocery. It has almost everything you could want. Also at 28th and Lex, there’s plenty of restaurants, including Curry in a Hurry (which isn’t always in a hurry but is nice anyway).

Heart of India at Second Avenue and Fifth Street. This is definitely my go-to Indian restaurant. It’s in the East Village not far from my apartment, the food is SO good, the atmosphere is classy, and the prices are CHEAP. Now, the one possible complaint about the food is that some of it is occasionally bland by Indian standards. But speak your mind on spice and that shouldn’t be a problem. The waiters are all SUPER nice too. Also nearby to Heart of India is a sari shop of which I don’t know the name and the Pak Punjab Deli.

Oh, and then of course you can go see Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan at Madame Tussaud’s in Times Square, but you probably knew that already. ;)

NEW: Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara: An adventure in Spain and in life

Ahhhh! I’m back! Finally! Due to extreme busyness (if you follow me on Twitter, you know about what), I haven’t had time to consume Bollywood in almost two weeks (apart from Murder 2). I was going through some serious withdrawals and yesterday ended my busyness... So! Once again, I completed the now-ritual weekly trip to the theater for a dose of Bollywood.

Yesterday, it was FINALLY one of the ones I’ve been waiting for, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. And when I say waiting for... I use that somewhat loosely. I’ve been anticipating it for a couple of months, but nothing near my fangirlish anticipation of Ra.One, Mausam and Don 2.

Speaking of which, I saw the trailers today for those last two and OMG SO EXCITED. (I’m glad I didn’t see a Ra.One promo though; it would have sent me over the edge!)

Also interesting note, I saw this film in an AMC theater, which is closer than the Big Cinemas theaters but where the audience is usually different and much smaller (and sometimes bizarre, like when I saw Murder 2). This was the first time I’ve seen a Hindi film in an AMC theater and been part of an actually decent crowd. One of the old white men from before was there again and was kinda obnoxious (in fact, he bought his ticket ahead of me and TOTALLY botched pronouncing Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara), but the crowd was mostly desi. :)

Synopsis: As Kabir (Abhay Deol) prepares to get married, he and friends Arjun (Hrithik Roshan) and Imran (Farhan Akhtar) set off for a “bachelor trip” across Spain. But Kabir is struggling relationship stres, financial trader Arjun is obsessed with money and never stops to enjoy life, and Imran is hoping to meet a man he only recently found out was his biological father. The three longtime friends set out to capture life and bond anew over adventures that also run them into Laila (Katrina Kaif), a half-white half-Indian free-spirited girl who travels at her whim.

First, let’s get the obligatory out of the way: Abhay Deol is FREAKING ADORABLE. Hrithik Roshan is a mighty fine-looking man, especially with his curls kicked into high gear by the salt water and a little bit of tan. (Although, random side-note, Abhay’s character struck me as randomly metrosexual at times and Hrithik kept wearing cuffed pants that showed off his ankles, which is SO annoying to me.)

Now if you read my Kites post, you know that besides Indian culture, I am all about Hispanic culture too (especially Mexico). Although I admit I don’t quite include Spain on the same level as my Latin American loves (and admittedly Spain Spanish is almost obnoxious to me; I blame it on spending too much time around Mexicans), the traditions of Spain have a certain special place in my heart too. So, you should know this film was almost destined to be a hit with me right off the bat just by blending Hindi and Spanish. And it certainly does that in a pretty fabulous way. (Also, random side note, but Hrithik speaks no less than four languages in this film: Hindi, English, Spanish and Japanese.)

And in truth, this song Señorita was one of my favorite scenes in the film (and is already on my iPod) partially because of the Hindi-Spanish blend. It also has the added amazingness of the three leads having actually sung the song (Abhay’s voice is, in the words of Papaya, “almost silly” but I LOVE it) and this awesome fun dance number.

(Video is promo with partial song.)

I joked to my Papaya that ZNMD is the bromance that Delhi Belly wishes it had. The camaraderie in this film is gorgeous; the men struggle, help one another through fear and emotional turmoil, laugh, cry, joke, talk women and cars, and do everything together. Farhan Akhtar’s Imran reminds me of that somewhat douchey but thoroughly hilarious friend that everyone has.

This film is about three men who thought they knew who they were, what made them happy and what they wanted from life... Finding out they didn’t really know at all. So they go on all sorts of adventures in Spain that force them to confront their fears and their confusion. It’s about living and letting go of things you don’t want to let go of. It’s of course too idealistic in that way that all films are, but that’s OK because all films are like that. In truth, some scenes drag out for a long time like they’re supposed to be super meaningful but they take it too far, but for the most part, I thought the message of this film connected. It was a nice emotional ride.

The movie was also funny -- at some point, at least everyone in the theater from young to old laughed. It’s got an element of that gene that all men have where they never quite seem to grow up or grow out of silly pranks. And there are enough jokes about enough different things that it keeps you entertained and smiling.

There’s also kissing and sex, but it’s surprisingly well done and not awkward like most of the other stuff I’ve seen lately.

 And while on the subject of physical love, the love story in this film was pretty nice too. Laila (Katrina Kaif) basically teaches Arjun how to live in the moment and experience life, and he falls in love with her in the process. Now, often to me Katrina Kaif is annoying, maybe because she’s so often given preppy, kind of dumb-blond roles. But in this, the girl she plays is amazing and I love it. Laila is someone who lives life on her own terms and doesn’t stop to think about what other people think. She’s also a deep-sea-diving, motorcycle-riding kind of girl who’s not afraid to get dirty. I love this empowering view of women in a movie that’s basically about bachelorhood.

I just wish they hadn’t played out female stereotypes in the character of Natasha, Kabir’s fiancée. Natasha is basically, pardon my language, a bitch who takes over everything and only thinks about herself. And she’s the stereotypical rich bitchy woman who also can’t drive (because we all know that women can’t drive *eyeroll*).

Overall, though, I don’t see why anyone shouldn’t enjoy this movie (except for maybe little kids), although from reviews, it appears that a lot of people didn’t.

I honestly don’t understand why others didn’t like it, but maybe I enjoy it more because in a lot of ways, I have a “man’s” taste. I can appreciate the epicness of skydiving and running with the bulls and a roadtrip in an awesome car (I think but can’t confirm it’s a late-40s convertible Buick Eight). But whatever the reasons, I certainly enjoyed it and would definitely recommend seeing it. :)

NEW: Murder 2 (2011): What a THRILLING Ride!

In continuing my sometimes blind quest to enjoy the availability of Hindi films in NYC theaters, I traipsed down to the local AMC by myself today to catch a matinee of Murder 2. Mostly driven by the fact that it was cheap and in Hindi, I went into it not knowing much other than the brief movie summary on the theater’s website, that Jaqueline Fernandez (whose name I cannot get over) was in it, and that it was a sequel. Bright of me, I know.

Well, I was surprised to find out that it’s not the rollicking or ridiculous film I may have been expecting (the name is Murder 2, which sounds super tacky; and the description of the first film sounds utterly ridiculous), but instead a legitimately creepy, terrifying and exhilarating thriller about a psycho serial killer. Don't let the posters fool you into thinking this is just a sexy story between Jaqueline Fernandez's character and Emraan Hashmi's (although there is plenty of sex) — this one's definitely taken over by the killer.

Synopsis (doing my best to give a gist without giving anything away): Ex-cop Arjun Bhaagwat (Emraan Hashmi) is living a confused, drifting life on the edge of Goa’s underbelly, doing jobs for pimps and gangsters while struggling with some sense of morality (he donates to the church though he’s an atheist). He’s also unable to commit in his tempestuous three-year relationship with model Priya (Jaqueline Fernandez). Pimp Sameer offers Arjun a fat sum to figure out why his prostitutes have been going missing, while at the same time cops are searching to find tourist women who have gone missing. Threads lead back to Dhiraj (Dheeraj?) Pandey (Prashant Narayanan), a crazy man who in a burst at the police station admits to killing the missing women while later rescinding that statement. With nothing to hold Dhiraj on, it’s up to Arjun to prove he’s a serial killer and find missing 16-year-old prostitute Reshma (Sulagna Panigrahi), before the night is up.

Before I get into the film, I want to talk briefly about my theater experience watching Murder 2. Now as I’m sure many of you readers also know, being a non-Indian (read: gori) fan of Indian film is sometimes a very interesting experience. I’m usually the only non-Indian in the theater anytime I go see a film (unless, of course, Kiwi and Papaya are with me), even when the theater is nearly vacant. Today was actually different — there were three separate old white men and an older black woman in the theater for this film. And ZERO Indians. THAT was interesting and I still haven’t quite figured it out.

But anyway, onto the film!

I usually LOATHE thriller/scary killer movies (Red Eye is the only one I’ve ever liked) and avoid them like the plague (I don’t see the point in scaring oneself), but this one was actually pretty fantastic. It was smartly done with the killer and the storyline, and the suspense and spine-tingling was quite real.

There’s also a pretty fair amount of gore that amazed me with how well it was done — I mean, come on, let’s be honest, Bollywood can’t even do fistfights well, so how is it supposed to do brutal murder scenes? The answer is I DON’T KNOW BUT IT HAPPENED.

Dhiraj kills several people on-screen and it’s eye-averting-ly (yes, I wimped and looked away a couple of times) realistic and gruesome. After torturing and then brutally murdering women in a room of his house, he then hacks up the bodies and dumps them (some in garbage bags, some not) into a well behind the house. So yes, there is a well behind the house full of DEAD BODY PARTS. EEK! (One of the most gruesome scenes in the movie for me was when Reshma, beaten presumably to death by Dhiraj and then dumped whole by him into the well in a haste, wakes up amid the dead body parts!)

And while we’re on the subject, Prashant Narayanan is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC as Dhiraj. Make no bones about it, he is the wicked, demonic villain AND the absolute star of this film (and I am not one of those villain-loving film-watchers either). I thought almost everyone’s performances were pretty top-notch, but Prashant’s is head and shoulders above the rest. He was terrifying and PSYCHOTIC and somehow that I don’t understand HOT at the same time (and yes, I am well aware that this makes ME psycho). As much as this film wanted to be about the cop’s pursuit of details to take down the killer, Prashant’s performance ensures the film is about the killer.

In fact, there’s a section somewhere in the beginning-middle of the film after Dhiraj is thrown in jail and when Arjun begins his quest for details that focuses heavily on Arjun and for a good 20 to 30 minutes or so, the film loses drive and coherency. It was melodramatic and what Arjun was searching for/doing was completely unclear and you lost the grounding, authentic horror-fascination of Dhiraj.

Although that’s not to say that Emraan Hashmi doesn’t mostly hold his own as embattled Arjun. The layers of his character are numerous and deep and fascinating, and they’re wrapped up in a multi-level sort of performance. For example, there’s a fascinating sort of substory about Arjun’s personal battle with lost faith in God that Emraan played out nicely, and I also enjoyed the Arjun-centric part of the film before Prashant Narayanan even stepped on screen (though he certainly raised the caliber of the film once he did).

And Emraan’s not too bad to look at either, although he gets monkey face while making out and HIS HAIR WAS ATROCIOUS. Seriously, this is one of the WORST mullets I’ve seen in a LONG time, and I come from the Deep South, land of the mullet.

While on pure aesthetics, let’s switch to the female “lead” (if you can call her that; she's not around very much), Jaqueline Fernandez. The woman is pretty gorgeous, I’ll give her that, but sometimes she turns her head a certain way and does this mouth thing and, I’m sorry but (and Katrina Kaif can have this problem too) SHE LOOKS LIKE A TRANSVESTITE. It’s kind of annoying because the same expression that produces that transvestite look also gives her this kind of blah DUH face that makes everything feel empty.

If there’s one lagging character in this film, it’s that of Priya. Much of the time, Priya is just as embattled as Arjun, although her primary predicament isn’t religion or morality like his but instead her confused relationship with Arjun. And in that, she’s great. She has a wonderful distraught scene where she, drunk and hurt because he left after promising to stay, confronts Arjun about his inability to commit to her even after she says she loves him. A really fantastic scene. But then sometimes Jaqueline feels like she’s just there for the sex appeal.

For example! Her introduction scene basically has Arjun showing up, seeing her face on a magazine cover and flashing it at her, then her running away only to be pursued by him, pinned... And then we flash to a sex scene (which is about as explicit as you can get without showing any certain body parts) between the two.

Now as a general rule I abhor sex scenes because they’re SO AWKWARD and SO unnecessary and I just don’t want to see that, thank you. I especially abhorred this one because it was long and drawn out and it was a HORRIBLE way to introduce a character. At first, I thought Priya was just someone Arjun picked up at the party after seeing that she was a magazine model; only after the “after” scene did I realize they were an on-again-off-again couple of three years. The scenes with them also sometimes felt oddly placed in the film and maybe too sexed and intimate for a Priya who’s supposedly so deeply conflicted about the whole relationship.

And another thing, on the subject of the “girls who can’t fight”/helpless woman trope I was tweeting about the other day, this film had one of those infuriating scenes too. In the climax scene, Dhiraj has gotten Priya into his house so he can torture, murder and dismember her in front of Arjun. Despite the fact that Dhiraj has tied her hands and feet, Priya is still CLEARLY in a position to kick him, but she just lies there, whimpering and pleading, as he prepares to beat her to death.

However, in a film that hinges on one man’s rampantly despicable view of women (Dhiraj tortures and kills because “women tempt men”), the film actually had some great potential for being pro-woman. There are some fantastic strong women that unfortunately may have not been played to their best. Like my favorite scene of the entire film was probably where a female psychologist is brought in by the police to lock Dhiraj in a battle of the wits that draws out a confession. I wish I knew who the actress is because she holds her own against Prashant amazingly well. Unfortunately, though, she only shows up in this one scene.

Another potentially powerful (young) woman is Reshma, the prostitute “victim” of Dhiraj who survives (due to his slip-up?) and escapes through sheer will despite her terror. Unfortunately, though (spoiler alert), she escapes only to run into Dhiraj, newly released from jail, again, and, well, this time he succeeds. Her death is somewhat necessary to send Arjun over the edge, but I really wish she would have been the survivor.

Also, completely randomly, I really like this song (video is just song, no vid):

Sum total, despite some of its shortcomings and the fact that this type of film is SO not my genre, I really liked Murder 2. It certainly gave me more thrill than I was expecting to experience today.

Imran Khan Week: Delhi Belly (2011)

Continuing Imran Week, we come to what was supposed to be the highlight of the week (that has been less than expected because of certain bloggers' slowness; they swear posts are still coming). Well, it's unlikely to be quite so climatic as we predicted, so this is likely to be brief.

So, I don't know what we expected from Delhi Belly, even knowing it was rated R, but let's just say we were all a mix of over and underwhelmed.

Even after hearing that the language of the film is rather colorful, our poor ears were quite offended. We read that the Hindi version was "less offensive" and we probably should have seen that one. (We weren't in love with the idea of an English-language film in the first place for many reasons.) There's an obnoxious amount of F-bombs in this film. An obnoxious, awkwardly placed amount. The number of times that F was forcefully crammed into the dialogue detracted from everything else. The sex scenes were also mostly just awkward and nothing but that. Both the vulgar dialogue and the vulgar sexual stuff just felt like the film was trying too too hard to be edgy.

The film also has a lot of lead-in that's just obnoxious language and bathroom humor. Seriously, I sat through the first 45 minutes of the film wondering if anything was ever going to happen and where the humor was outside of the bathroom. (And if the bathroom humor could even be called humor; we usually find a certain amount of that hilarious [see: yours truly laughed at every single pee joke in Ready] but this... didn't make us laugh.)

For a stretch, once the plot got kicked into gear, it was really moving along. There was less cussing, more of substance happening and more actual subtle humor that drew laughs.

We appreciated getting to stare at Imran, who was looking mighty fine and mighty scruffy. We weren't overwhelmed by this performance from him, though, even if it's nice to see him branch out a little bit. But maybe branching isn't necessarily a good thing: He mostly felt like he wasn't a fit for the role.

And for a film with a premise essentially based on bromance, there was surprisingly little palpable bromance (compared with other great male-trio films like 3 Idiots, Dil Chahta Hai and even kind of Thank You). And there was also not nearly enough chemistry flowing between Imran and Poorna Jagannathan to win us over. (And for that matter, I was kind of annoyed with the idea that wealthy, prissy Soniya was so in love with the idea of marrying Tashi, who was basically a slob fruitlessly chasing a serious journalist's career.)

Oh, and as a journalist, I have an ever-increasing thing about the portrayal of journalists in film (sleazebags or crusaders; most of us are neither) and this one SUPREMELY bothered me. It's a horrible representation of our profession, way of life and codes of conduct (for example no self-respecting newspaper would let a journalist who went through all of that personally and committed crimes, etc., in the process write an article, especially of that magnitude, due to conflicts of interest). Oh, and on the note of Tashi being a slob, journalists are often known for being a bit lax, but anyone chasing the career of "serious" journalism doesn't seriously pursue it being a slob. (Another note being that I hate the stereotype of the writer pursuing being a "serious" journalist; most reporters honestly aren't like that and being a "serious" reporter is essentially a soul-sucking job.)

I've been told this film is a realistic portrayal of Delhite bachelorhood, which is perhaps a way of ripping the glimmering "Bollywood" sheen off of things. But then, to me, this begs the question... Is a comedy really the way to go with that? If you're trying to make a serious point, make a serious point.

Honestly, this was the best part of the film for us. (Also randomly note that we rather enjoyed the music.)

And we'll end it, like the film, with Aamir.

And on a note of things to come, despite our disappointment with Delhi Belly, Imran week should continue. Papaya and Kiwi promise me their posts are in the works and will be done around Monday. We'll see how that goes.

Imran Week: News on Upcoming Film Short Term Shaadi

According to the Times of India, Karan Johar is delaying Imran Khan’s upcoming film Short Term Shaadi to bank on Imran’s rising popularity. It’s only fair that I tackle this interesting development during, well, Imran Week!

Specifically, the Times says, “Karan Johar seems to have delayed the release of his film 'Short Term Shaadi' to bank on Imran Khan's rising popularity.”

Now I’m going to skip my high-and-mighty journalistic rants about the quality of composition in this little article (from the world’s largest English-language newspaper) and the fact that short-term should be hyphenated in the film’s title, and get to the real interesting thing here: KJo thinks he needs to wait to capitalize on Imran’s popularity.

I’m still rather new to the whole Bollywood arena, but it does seem to me that Imran is less of draw than even the others in the younger set like Shahid and Ranbir. Maybe we have the stronger attachment to Imran that we do because we watched an Imran flick (I Hate Luv Storys) before a Shahid or Ranbir one, but it seems that we’re in the minority. Imran is, though, somewhat younger to the business than Ranbir or Shahid, even though they’re all about the same age (Ranbir and Imran are 28; Shahid is 30).

But with today’s opening of Delhi Belly, which has been much-hyped, Imran appears to be looking at a possible launch (re-launch?) of popularity. At least that’s what KJo seems to think, and I may agree with him.

Another Imran flick, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, also starring Katrina Kaif is set to land Sept. 9 (the same day, mind you, as Ranbir’s Rockstar and Shahid’s much-much-much anticipated Mausam; theaters and yours truly are going to have some tough decisions to make). I don’t know much about Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, but it sounds like it’s set to be a decent draw too.

So, then, if Delhi Belly and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan are set to give Imran a boost, is Karan Johar wise to delay Imran’s next film? The way I see it, this decision has two sides to it. One, if Imran gets a boost from these next two films, holding off on releasing the next one instead of releasing it on the heels of a successful one can hurt you. The old adage strike while the iron’s hot.

But on the other hand, waiting to see how your star’s image comes out in his two preceding films can help you with your advertising and marketing plan. If Imran comes out well-liked, you slant the campaign toward the fact that it stars Imran. If Imran doesn’t get much of a boost, you focus on something else.

So, is KJo’s choice wise? The Times seems to think so. I’m on the fence.

This, I suppose, is one of those rare places where Hollywood and its one-film-at-a-time model have an advantage over Bollywood’s high-volume, one-on-the-heels-of-another output.

Read the rest of the Times’s brief article here, if you’re interested. Additional thoughts, anyone?

Imran Khan Week: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (2008)

So it appears that our Imran “week” will be something more akin to an Imran “days” as we’ll probably pack in our posts within the next two days and then have something on Delhi Belly after we see it Saturday. We just have ambitions  that are greater than our free time at the moment, it seems.

Of course, it appears to be only fitting that the film reviews of Imran Appreciation (insert word for short timespan here) starts with Imran’s first film as an adult: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. (And as probably could be predicted, it’s by yours truly, the Mighty Mango, because the others here are notoriously hard to get in gear.)

Synopsis: On the cusp of graduating and learning to make it in the real world, best friends Jai “Rats” Singh Rathore (Imran Khan) and Aditi “Meow” Mahant (Genelia D’Souza) face a lot of choices. They’ve been so close through school that everyone has assumed they’re together as a couple -- Aditi’s parents even ask seriously when the wedding will be. But Jai, who’s a pacifist, and Aditi, aggressive and impulsive, are convinced they’re all wrong for each other and each sets out to pick the perfect mate for the other, not realizing, of course, that everyone around them was right all along. Meanwhile, Aditi grapples with chasing a dream in America, and Jai unknowingly struggles to suppress a violent family nature that would fill his late father’s conditions for him becoming a man. The narrative is framed as a story recounted by Jai and Aditi’s group of friends -- Bombs, Jiggy, Rotlu and Shaleen -- to their new friend Mala.

Speaking of groups of friends, I feel like that’s a good place to start. This is a great movie about friendship and love. In case you haven’t already figured this out, I’m a big fan of fun friendship movies. I just feel like friendship is such a universal concept that an audience can connect with, and when real friendship works among the cast, it creates real chemistry that gives a film a firm foundation to build on. When you create that kind of atmosphere around a set, the film attains a smooth feel that almost guarantees a success.

And this film has a great bunch of friends who are the right mix of zany and serious. While I will say not all of the characters were necessarily deep enough to stick in my mind (had to look up almost all of their names for the synopsis), they were a delightful cast of supporters.

Of course the main feature of the film is the complicated friendship-relationship between Aditi and Jai. I think one of the big reasons that I like this film is that it plays with the dynamic of a friendship-relationship really well. Jai and Aditi understand that they love one another as friends and just don’t understand that they really love one another more than that. The film plays on the theme that love is based in friendship (Shahrukh is in my head right now saying, “Pyaar dosti hai: Agar woh meri sab se acchi dost nahin ban sakti toh main us se pyaar kar hi nahin sakta” [hopefully I said that all correctly]) but with the idea that they’re too confused by that love to chase it outright. It’s love and friendship with a twist.

For example, take "Kahin To Hogi Wo." That whole scene just about makes me want to cry because poor Jai and Aditi are both hopelessly in love with one another, but they’re confused and with other people and both jealous...

But before we get to this whole mess, we have a bunch of wonderful friendship moments. Like, and sorry I’m going to refer so much songs here, but "Kabhi Kabhi Aditi," where Jai tries to cheer up Aditi and we’re treated to plenty of adorable Imran, and "Pappu Can’t Dance," which is a fun group song.

Speaking of people who can’t dance... I’m afraid I must add Imran to this list. I know I’m probably getting a reputation as a dancing critic after mentioning Abhishek Bachchan’s gangliness, Saif Ali Khan’s stiffness + lack of rhythm and Salman Khan’s infuriating lack of motion or enthusiasm, but when you have to watch so much dancing... You notice these things.

Imran’s lack of dancing prowess is much milder than those mentioned above, and it’s often well-hidden. I cite this film as an example. Imran doesn’t actually dance-dance very often, if you pay attention. And when he does, it’s in a group or goofing off, so you don’t really notice. Like, again, if you go back to "Kabhi Kabhi Aditi," Imran is just having fun through the song, being adorable. And honestly I’m convinced the fact that he can’t dance doesn’t at all detract from his appeal, either.

Instead of dancing, we get lots of this dramatic arm-fling during songs.

Now if I can refer back to the post I made earlier this week, you’ll remember I said while Imran lacks in overwhelming star power, he has instead a cool, relaxed demeanor. This film pretty much capitalizes on that in a way I don’t know that I’ve seen another film do. For most of the film, Jai is just kind of cruising along, all passive. But by the end of the film, Jai finally gets worked up enough to punch Aditi’s fiancé Sushant in the face and you get to rejoice that he finally got fed up enough to do it.

Speaking of that, the storyline about pacifist Jai and his true heritage -- as a member of the violent Rathore clan in which you must hit a man, go to jail and ride a horse to “become a man” -- was just about the strangest, most ill-placed element I’ve ever seen  in a film. (Well, perhaps it’s second to the headless horseman pot-growing detour in Tees Maar Khan. Perhaps.) Apart from the fact that the name Rat-hore made me laugh every two seconds, IT WAS SO WEIRD and had nothing to do with anything! In a film dealing with the complex line between love and friendship, there’s a dead dad painting that has arguments about manhood with Jai’s mom (who oddly never does much but lay around the house reading). There’s also Jai’s random cousins -- ironically played by two of the other Khans, Sohail and Arbaaz -- who have been obnoxious the entire film, that he meets up with in jail. They seem to have been chasing what it means to be manly in their family with little success.

Three Khan I mean Rathore jailbirds.

 Oh, and one more thing about that -- after getting out of jail to go after Aditi, Jai has to fulfill the third part of being a Rathore: riding a horse. So he rides a horse (quite well, might a person with some riding experience say) down Marine Drive (how epic would that be?!) at night... And has no problem with cars or people! Come on!

And then the film’s story (not the film because it has that convoluted framework) culminates in what has to be one of my favorite love-professing scenes of all time. Jai-Rats frantically runs from airport security to the terminal where Aditi-Meow is boarding her plane for America, gets tackled and still manages to both sing and meow (yes, meow) at her, much to the confusion of airport security officers. And, you can probably guess what I’m going to say about this scene and Imran in this scene. That’s right. It’s adorable. He’s adorable. It’s sweet and cute and a million other things. And I loved every second of it.

Another thing, I really like Genelia D’Souza. She’s cute but a kind of off-the-wall, atypical girl with some edge (like in Chance Pe Dance, where she sports multicolored hair). I love it when we get to have a girl like that who’s off-beat; it makes things so much more fun. She also just seems to radiate energy to me, especially in this role, which I think balances perfectly with Imran’s coolness in this film. And there, I will end this review on a positive note instead of going into the reasons that I think Meghna (Jai’s other love interest/the peepeewoman) is the most annoying character ever.

So! That's it. The debut of Imran, the debut film of Imran Week. Hopefully we'll have more for you soon. :)