Looking forward to seeing my first Arjith film on the big screen. I’ve seen his Billa (but like the Prabhas version better.) Vivegam comes out Aug. 25th, but hoping for an early screening here in Chicago!
Month: August 2017
We LOVED Bareilly Ki Barfi – joint review with Margaret of Don’t Call It Bollywood
Margaret of Don’t Call It Bollywood and I met at the Chicagoland Indian movie theater lasts night to catch the new Hindi film Bareilly Ki Barfi with Ayushmann Khurrana, Kriti Sanon and Rajkummar Rao. It is SO GOOD! Cannot recommend this film highly enough. We absolutely loved it!
Rajkummar Rao was the main reason I was interested in seeing this film, because he looked so funny in the trailer. He is just delightful as a nebbish and then transforms into a tough asshole type as part of Ayushmann’s scheme. He was a RIOT!
This film has a fantastic script based on a novel. It’s very clever how the plot unfolds, and while I laughed my ass off so much, and then it had such an emotional ending that I teared up. Kriti had agency in the end, and that made it even better.
Plus, a woman director!! Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari in her second feature film knocks it out of the park.
Check out Margaret’s Spoiler Free review here.
Trailer Reactions – Solo, Bhoomi, Simran and Yuddham Sharanam
So many trailers came out last week! Here are my reactions to four of the new films that I’m looking forward to seeing.
Any new movie from Dulquer Salmaan is one I’m looking foward to seeing. After I posted this, someone commented that the film is an anthology and Dulquer will play several characters in the film. This is just the first character, Rudhra.
Bhoomi shows Sanjay Dutt as the father of his daughter Bhoomi. No subtitles but I get the basic gist that this is a revenge story. I’m looking forward to seeing Sanjay play a father role.
Simran is the “maid” picture that was filmed in the States. What I just learned is that the director Hansal Mehta is the same one who directed the fantastic Aligharh. No subs, but it looks super quirky!
Finally subtitles, although they don’t show up in my reaction. This is just a teaser for Chay Akkineini’s latest film, but it looks exciting. Chay is definitely a great action film actor, and I’m enjoying following his career.
Movie Review – Rana and Kajal in Nene Raju Nene Mantri
After the horrible events in Charlottesville on Saturday, on the spur of the moment, I went to a packed late show of Nene Raju Nene Mantri (I am the King, I am the Minister.) Whoo boy, it was not an escape from violent politics.
I did like the film, but the ending, not just the very last moments, but the last ten minutes or so were very much wtf plot turns. I left shell shocked and so did the audience. I had to approach some women in the lobby to talk about their reaction to the ending. I went by myself, and it was one of those kinds of films where you just have to talk to someone and say — what about that ending?? What did YOU think?? So please, if you’ve seen the film, please leave a comment and tell me what your takeaway was from that ending.
It was just delightful to see the chemistry between Rana and Kajal. This is a tour de force film for Rana Daggubati, but Kajal gets to show depths of acting that I have not seen in her other roles, especially in the melodramatic scenes. Rana starts the film very sweet – he’s a money lender, but a soft hearted one who helps poor farmers, not the kind who bashes heads to demand payment.
We don’t see the romance of Kajal and Rana, but do see a flashback of them as childhood sweethearts. The film shows them as an established happily married couple. Jogendra (Rana) is obsessed with keeping his Radha (Kajal) happy. When a tragedy befalls them, then he is hell-bent on revenge. He sees a path through politics to gain the power he needs to rain down justice. But then the power corrupts him as he climbs up the political ladder. Nothing and no one can stand in his way. He says it is from the love of his wife, but she points out that that is not really true.
Frankly, Jogendra becomes a monster. I felt like it was an abrupt change of his personality when the tragedy happens, but the descent thereafter was somewhat believable as the power corrupts him more and more. The last 10 minutes though. Yowza. I’ll leave this spoiler free, but again, please comment if you saw it!!
It was a worthy film to see, and Rana gave a great performance showing a range that he wasn’t able to fully show in the Baahubali films. The people in the packed theater were there to see him, and I’m looking forward to see where he goes next in his career. While the director Teja, tried to give a critical look at a corrupt political system, where he took it left me rather stunned as he showed crowds sympathizing with the extremes of Jogendra’s acts.
What was also fun for me was now that I’ve seen more Telugu films that just about every character actor in the industry had at least a small part in the film. There was a lot of “Hey, it’s that guy!” for me.
Movie Review – Dhanush’s VIP 2 with Kajol!
A month or so ago, I saw the teaser for the Tamil film VIP 2 with Dhanush and I was super excited that he was doing a film with Kajol. This is her first return to Tamil films in 20 years, and it was great to see a woman in the kind of antagonist role that usually goes to a man in Indian cinema, like Sonu Sood et al.
Commenters on Youtube urged me to see the first film VIP before going to the sequel, and I’m so glad I did.
VIP 2, unlike many Indian sequels, does indeed carry on the story of the unemployed graduate played by Dhanush. Pretty much all the main characters and actors from the first film are back, Dhanush still living with his father and brother, and his now wife played by Amala Paul. I was a little annoyed that the film kind of made Amala’s character into a harpy, but the marital discord has real underpinnings in Dhanush’s characters drinking (an issue in the first film as well), and Amala’s unhappiness at giving up her job to tru live up to Dhanush’s sainted mother’s housekeeping. At least the film showed that she regained happiness when she goes back to work when the family is in financial crisis — the title says after all that he’s an unemployed graduate!
Something happens near the end of the film which I won’t spoil that was the perfect way to bring Dhanush and Kajol’s characters together, and to make them resolve their differences. It was very specific to the place of the film. Dhanush himself wrote the script and dialogues, and his sister-in-law Soundarya (daughter of Rajnikanth) directed the film.
There are a couple of great dance numbers in the first half of the film, one very modern, and the other a more traditional style.
You can see and enjoy this film without seeing the first, but I’m glad I had seen VIP first because there are many references to the first film.
Pardesi – Launching my new YouTube Channel!
I have just launched my new YouTube Channel Pardesi with Kartik of Bollyfools. He first interviewed me right after that very first IMAX showing of Baahubali 2, and we struck up a frienship. After I did Indian Cinema reviews for the Bollyfools Youtube channel for the last few months, we’ve decided to strike out on our own with this new Pardesi Channel. We decided on Pardesi because I’m a foreigner reviewing Indian Cinema, and Kartik is an ex-pat in America.
I’ll be doing movie reviews for the most part in the four main Indian Cinema: Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. I’m going to try trailer reactions and song reactions. In fact I just did one for the first song Boom Boom from Mahesh Babu’s Spyder. I had to take the Picture in Picture and audio out from the song because I got dinged right away. I think I look ridiculous bobbing my head to silence but I have to know — why is there the word Hogwarts in a Spyder song??!! It’s so strange!
I hope if you follow me here, you’ll subscribe to my new Youtube Channel Pardesi.
Pardesi Reviews 