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Love Between the Covers – a great documentary about the wonderful world of Romance novels

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Laurie Kahn (A Midwife’s Tale, Tupperware) captures the wonderful world and community of Romance novels in the documentary Love Between The Covers, now streaming on Netflix in America.

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I love romance books.  I pretty much exclusively read romance, and I try to attend the RT convention each year (sponsored by Romantic Times Book Review magazine.)  Kahn captures a lot of what I love about the community surrounding romance.  There’s a special relationship that exists between the authors and their readers.  The pay it forward feeling among fellow authors also seems to be truly unique, and she shows an aspiring novelist being mentored by an experienced author.

“Susan: This is a female powered engine of commerce. And it’s a multi-billion dollar industry. Celeste: An industry that would falter and crumble without romance. You know, we pay the bills. Susan: For all of fiction. For all of popular fiction. Celeste: Yeah. We’re the ones who keep the lights on.

— Susan Donovan & Celeste Bradley

The Romance genre is a billion dollar business but it gets no respect.  As the authors in the doc point out, no one makes fun of men who watch Schwarzenegger movies knowing he’ll live in the end, or criticizes the formalaic nature of mystery novels.  But romance novels are derided for always having to have the HEA, or Happy Ever After ending.

lenbarot_squareThis documentary has several of my favorite authors, and I love that Kahn included Beverly Jenkins (above in the purple), one of the pioneers of historical African-American romances.  The doc even shows one of the yearly historical trips Jenkins goes on with her readers, visiting the settings of her novels.

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when-beautyAnother author highlighted in the film is Eloisa James, one of my all time favorite authors.   She is also Mary Bly, tenured professor of Shakespeare at Fordham University in New York.  James talks about how unsupportive her parents were of her writing romance.  Her father is a renowned poet and her mother a short story author.  She led a double life — even though her novels were on the NY Times best seller list, she was told not to reveal that or she wouldn’t get tenure.  She famously revealed her secret in an op-ed in the NY Times.  And at one conference I heard her tell the tale of how she told her fellow professors at the university by dropping stacks of her books on the table at a faculty meeting! In the documentary she reads a passage from my favorite book of hers, When Beauty Tamed the Beast, which is based on the TV character House (but set in Regency era.)

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Kahn also includes one of the biggest authors in same-sex romance, Len Barot who has the pen name Radclyffe.

“I love fiction because it’s fiction. Fiction is not real and it’s not supposed to be. Fiction is a dream. Fiction is a desire. Fiction is hope.

— Len Barot/Radclyffe

Barot was a surgeon who wrote her novels at night and on the weekends.  I haven’t really read much lesbian fiction, but I do read m/m.  Sarah Wendell of the review site Smart Bitches, Trashy Books  introduced me to the great romances in m/m, and she’s included in the doc, too.

I even loved the graphics in the doc which mimic romance covers – and of course she includes a photo shoot for one!

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These are my people!  I’ve met most of the authors in film through the RT conference, except for Nora Roberts, the Queen of all Romancelandia.   Some of my favorite authors in the doc are Jill Shalvis, Nalini Singh, Eloisa James, Sherry Thomas,  and Jennifer Crusie.

So if you’re a woman who’s gotten that look when you read a romance on the subway, or just someone curious what this world is all about, I highly recommend Love Between the Covers.  

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When I showed a Bollywood film (Bang Bang) to friends who had never seen one before, my best friend said during one of the songs — “I get it now.  These movies are just like the romance books you read all the time!”  Exactly so.

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Mr. India – MovieMavenGal Khush Hua

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I attended an academic conference on Popular Culture last weekend as a friend was giving a talk on SRK and Fan.  One paper presented was on the Indian Superhero and Mr. India, which until last night I had never seen.  Tanushree Ghosh of University of Nebraska focused on the reverse of gender stereotypes in the 1987 cult classic Mr. India.

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Anil Kapoor is Arun Verma and his hat and beat up coat obviously are an allusion to Raj Kapoor’s tramp character from Shree 420.

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Arun is a down on his luck violin player, who has taken in several orphan children, since he lost his parents at an early age himself.  But what Ghosh points out is how Anil Kapoor’s character is introduced to us.  His very first image on screen is of him cooking breakfast for the children in his kitchen, normally a female space.   He then proceeds to wake up all the children and get them ready for school.  His early scenes don’t show him at work, but doing the household shopping, and other more typically female occupations on film.  He is both mother and father to these children.

 

 

In contrast, SriDevi’s character is introduced in her workplace as a reporter.  She rents a room from Arun because he lies to her that there are no children.  She is the character who can’t stand children.  Her softening to the antics of the adorable children is normally the plot track of the male hero.

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Our villain is Amrish Puri as the iconic Mogambo.  His famous catchphrase is Mogambo Khush Hua (Mogambo is pleased).  Mogambo is like a Bond villain on steroids.  He’s an evil general out to take over the world, and of course India.  He’s searching for a secret formula that makes a person invisible.  Turns out Arun’s father invented it and was killed for it.

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Ghosh discusses all the humiliations that Arun goes through in the first half of the picture, the affronts to his masculinity as head of the household.  He can’t pay the rent or feed his family.  It’s only when SriDevi realizes the children are starving that she brings in food for them.  At his lowest point, his father’s colleague reveals his father’s secret legacy – a watch that makes one invisible.

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The scene where he practices making himself invisible with one of the children in tow, is one of the most joyful superhero origin stories I’ve ever seen — right up there with Spiderman flying down New York streets over the traffic on his webs.

Sridevi as intrepid Lois Lane type reporter impersonates a night club singer to find out the villains’ evil plan.  The song sequences in this film are really delightful, but this one Hawa Hawai shows off her comedic chops.  I had no idea she could be so funny.  The song sequence takes an unwelcome turn into blackface backup dancers, though.

Arun comes to the rescue invisibly, and calls himself Mr. India.  He’s just a common man out to right wrongs.  Of course SriDevi falls in love with Mr. India even though she can’t see him!  There’s both a humorous title song where she proclaims her love for Mr. India to Arun, not knowing he is our hero, and then a very sensuous number where she meets Mr. India and he invisibly kisses her.

One of my favorite sequences had SriDevi dressing up as Charlie Chaplin to win money at the villain’s casino with Mr. India’s invisible help.  She is so funny in this movie!

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Ghosh pointed out in her paper how this common man Indian superhero contrasts to the Westernized Ra.One with his blue eyes.  Mr. India rights wrongs like punishing people who adulterate the food supply of regular people!

This film, with all the kids who both get kidnapped and participate fully in the fight to escape made me feel like it was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang crossed with Goldfinger (in a good way).   I can totally understand why this was a blockbuster hit, and a cult classic.   It’s just silly good fun.

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And Amrish Puri is the ultimate campy villain as Mogambo.  MovieMavenGal Khush Hua!

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Just read that even with the flop of Mrizya, Boney Kapoor (producer of Mr. India) is talking about Mr. India 2 with Harsh, and Anil Kapoor playing his father.

 

Aloha – Kind of a Mess

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Sometimes even I am too tired to watch a movie with subtitles.  I picked Aloha on demand because it wasn’t too long, basically.  Wow, what a mess of a movie.  I knew it had gotten lots of bad press because of the whitewashing casting of Emma Stone in a character that is supposed to be a quarter Hawaiian and part Chinese , Captain Allison Ng.  Cameron Crowe has made some really fantastic films, but lately he seems to have lost his way.

My issues with the film are beyond the whitewashing, but why Cameron Crowe didn’t just make Emma Stone’s step-father Hawaiian or something, I don’t know.  She’s supposed to be a believer in Hawaiian legends and superstitions in the plot.  I guess he based the character on a real red-headed Hawaiian woman, but he should have seen the controversy coming.

aloha-2015-movie-screenshot-john-krasinski-john-woody-woodside-5But moving on from that, there were plenty of times in the movie where I could not figure out what was going on.  This is basically a rom-com dramedy and I couldn’t figure out why the main characters were acting the way they were.  There were some shining moments to the film,  especially the performances.  Crowe assembled a great ensemble cast.  Rachel McAdams is military contractor Bradley Cooper’s ex-girlfriend.  The always great Bill Murray is Cooper’s wealthy eccentric boss, and I just loved him in this.  John Krasinski is Rachel McAdam’s military pilot silent stoic husband, and I just adored his performance especially.

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I wish the film had been from the perspective of either of the central women figures in the script, because I was most interested in their stories.  But of course, this is Cameron Crowe, so it’s all about the journey and perspective of messed-up-and-at-a-life-crossroad Bradley Cooper.  He can’t move on to a romance with Emma Stone until he resolves his issues with ex-girlfriend Rachel McAdams.

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The complicated confusing plot about launching a satellite that might have weapons and all is incidental to each actor getting a little flourish of an acting moment.  While there were some scenes that were brilliant, the whole didn’t hold together.

You, dear reader, are unlikely to watch this film, so I’m spoiling the ending because it annoyed me so much.  Rachel McAdams and Cooper broke up 13 years ago when he did not show up for an important weekend vacation.  She has a 12 year old daughter and had married John Krasinski shortly after the breakup.  Yep.  Everyone does the math.  The final scene shows Bradley Cooper looking through a window at his daughter in her hula dance class.  She looks out and he beams and nods.  The young actress is great in doing what Crowe asked her to do — look surprised, then tearily happy, as she runs out to give Cooper a hug and then run back to class.  Really??  A pre-teen girl figures out that the father she’s known her entire life is not her real father, and this near stranger just nods at her and it’s all good?  Yeahhhh, I don’t think so!  She doesn’t first think, hey it’s creepy that this old friend of my mom is staring at me?  Or have any anger at her mother or him?  Of course not, because her part in this movie is just to tie up Bradley Cooper’s character’s life up with a pretty bow.

I did like the Hawaiian setting.  My in-laws used to have a house in Hawaii, and there are not enough movies set there and celebrating what’s unique about it.

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Oppam – Mohanlal’s Masterful Performance as a Blind Man Accused of Murder Elevates This Thriller

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In the thriller Oppam [Together] Mohanlal plays a blind man suspected of murder.  Mohanlal was predictably fantastic and subtle in the ways he portrays his blindness.
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Because it’s Mohanlal, with his innate intelligence, we can totally believe that the blindness of his character has led to super senses of smell and hearing.  He’s not quite  Daredevil level superhero, but he does have a couple of dramatic fight scenes.  He’s proficient in martial arts despite his blindness.  (Of course he is.)
I still need to see Drishyam (the DVD is in my pile!), so this is my first Mohanlal thriller.  Without him, this film just would feel formulaic.  Mohanlal brings just that extra special something to every film.
The film starts with the negotiations at his home village for his sister’s wedding.  Innocent has a nice cameo as Mohanlal’s uncle (shades of Devasuram!)  There’s some money issues as Mohanlal has loaned someone money and hasn’t had it returned, and the family is worried that there will be enough both for the wedding and to keep the ancestral home.
 This is just the beginning of the lengthy setup before any real action occurs.
Mohanlal is an elevator operator at a fancy apartment building, but he has a close relationship with a retired judge who lives in the building (Nedumudi Venu).  The judge has secrets, even from his own family, but entrusts Mohanlal with them.  He explains that he made a mistake in an old rape case and the perpetrator’s entire family committed suicide.  (This part was a little confusing to me, and I felt like the subtitles left something key out.)  He drives Mohanlal out to the country so he can meet with someone involved with this old case, as he has heard that anyone involved with it has been murdered with their index finger cut off.
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Then he drives Mohanlal to a boarding school.  Mohanlal is the  guardian of this young girl, but the judge has been paying all her school fees.  The judge’s family think it’s a bastard born out of wedlock, but she has something to do with this old case.
 The song sequences in this film were all just delightful.  This one, Minungum Minnaminuge shows the close relationship of Mohanlal and Nandini and how he teaches her a song for her class assembly.  He is the father figure in her life, the only one that she has seemingly ever known.  Baby Meenakshi as Nandini is one of the better Indian child actors I’ve seen.  She did a great job.
The murder happens during a wedding scene, which is kind of brilliant.  The judge has helped broker an interfaith marriage when two young people are found in a compromising situation in the apartment complex.  The wedding celebration is at the apartment building and there are tons of extra people around for it.
This song sequence was my favorite of the whole film.  I think the marriage is a Sikh girl and a Hindu boy so the lyrics seem to be a mix of Malayalam and either Punjabi or Hindi.   The dance goes from bhangra which the girl’s relatives teach the groom, to garba all wonderfully mixed together.  Mohanlal manages to dance along, as a blind man, and make it believable, which is not easy.
Who the villain is, is never a surprise to the audience, and Mohanlal fights with him at close quarters after he discovers the body.  But since he is blind, he can’t identify the man, except by his smell.  There’s a really unnecessarily long Who’s On First type attempt at a comedic scene with the police officer who comes to investigate as he questions the watchman.  “So he saw the body first?”  “No I saw it first after he found him.”
Chemban Vinod Jose as the police officer just wants to solve this case quickly, and is happy to frame a blind man for it.  The second half of the film is this cat and mouse between Mohanlal and the villain who keeps turning up.  There’s a really great scene in an elevator with the villain and Mohanlal.   Mohanlal is desperate to keep little Nandini safe, as he’s convinced she will be the next victim.
Malayalam films can be so sprawling, and a thriller like this could just be more tightly edited to be more scary and effective.  I felt like the film dragged at several points.
I also have issue with the music background score —  Not scary enough!!  I kept thinking that while we needed quiet in certain scenes for Mohanlal’s super sense of hearing to work, some soft tense violin held notes would have done wonders for tension.
Mohanlal has almost ninja like fighting skills in a couple scenes, but there is one police beating scene that gave me flashbacks to Devasuram.  There’s something about seeing big Mohanlal beaten that just really gets to you.
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He is so intelligent and so great an actor, that I could fully believe he had super smell and super hearing like a blind Sherlock Holmes, but this big bear of a man is also completely vulnerable with his handicap.
I wasn’t shocked or stunned by the ending reveal, and while I jumped a couple of times, I think there could have been more tension and thrills in this film.  Mohanlal is what elevates the whole thing, and I just adored the special relationship he had with little Nandini.
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Song of the Day – Daawat-e-Ishq

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Daawat-e-Ishq (Feast of Love) is not the best movie, I’l admit, but I still adore this song.  I love the whole concept of this restaurant owner and chef winning over his prospective bride with a feast.  A feast of all his specialty dishes, and a promised feast of love.  One taste and she’s hooked.

This song came up on shuffle today and it never fails to bring a smile to my face.  I think Aidtya and Parineeti were very cute together.

“Qubool!”  Aditya, I accept!

This video has no subs, but you can find the lyrics and translation here on Bollymeaning. (My godsend site.)

I had an Indian/Pakistani buffet lunch today, ironically, and the waiter wouldn’t let me go until I tasted the rice pudding dessert sprinkled with pistachios.  He did not ask for my hand in marriage, but wanted compliments on the naan he made himself.  (OMG it was so good! I almost proposed myself.)

Sunshine Blogger Award

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I was just nominated for a Sunshine Blogger Award by Reviews by Rhiannon.

Thank you! Rhiannon reviews both film and TV.  I’m not caught up on the new Poldark series as they haven’t been airing yet here in the US.  Rhiannon is lucky as she’s already been watching and reviewing each episode of Season 2 on her blog.  I’ve been avoiding reading your posts yet Rhiannon as I don’t want any spoilers!

The Sunshine Blogger Award is a chain-letter project to recognize and celebrate fellow bloggers.

Rules:

  • Thank the blogger who nominated you
  • Answer the 11 questions
  • Make 11 new questions
  • Nominate 11 bloggers you enjoy and think deserve the award

 

These are my answers to the questions Rhiannon sent me:

Who would you choose to play you in a film of your life?  

I’m not British, but I love Emma Thompson.  Just saw her again in Bridget Jones’s Baby and I’ve always loved her no nonsense wit.  Plus, she wrote and got an Oscar for Sense and Sensibility, a movie I always have to stop and watch if I come across it on cable TV.  She’s just the best.

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Would you prefer to watch a film or TV series?

I go back and forth, but right now I’m on more of a film kick.  I enjoy a good binge watch of series, too.  Latest binges were Stranger Things and Transparent (and I heartily recommend both).

What was the last film you watched?

The Malayalam film ABCD:  American-Born Confused Desi with Dulquer Salmaan.  It was pretty funny, but I didn’t get some of the Kerala specific political humor.

If you could only watch films by one actor/actress for the rest of your life, who would it be?

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That’s easy.  Shahrukh Khan.  He’s made over 70 films, so I’d have quite a variety!

Which country/place have you always wanted to visit but never have?

I think readers of my blog could guess my answer.  I’ve never been to India, but I would really love to go.  The problem is I want to go everywhere:  Dehli, Mumbai (Mannat!), the mountains in Shimla, Kerala, and on and on.  Will have to go multiple times, I guess!

What would be your perfect day off?

Watching movies, of course!

If you were to make a feature film, what genre would it be/what would it be about?

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Well, I’ve actually already been involved in the making of a feature film!  My husband and I were executive producers of a Rom Com set in Brooklyn that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2016.  Our friend Tahir Jetter, who we met at Sundance a few years back, asked for our help in getting his debut feature film made, and I’m really proud of How To Tell You’re A Douchebag.  I’m not sure I ever imagined I would produce an African-American romantic comedy, but it’s pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.  Seeing my name up on the screen at Sundance was like a dream come true.

Check it out on iTunes and Amazon or BET.

Do you prefer the city or the country?

I’m totally a suburban girl.

Would you rather watch a film alone, with family, or with friends?

Watching with friends or family is always better, but I’ve been going to films alone for decades.  I don’t need a companion to enjoy myself, but it’s more fun to watch a comedy with friends.

Is there any film or film genre you hate/can’t bear to watch?

Those torture porn horror flicks.  I have never seen one of the Saw movies, and I won’t ever either, if I can help it.

What is your favorite film?

This is hard for me, because I have many favorites, and it depends on my mood of the moment.  Probably my all-time favorite Hollywood film is the classic His Girl Friday with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.  “Oh, Hildy.”  “Oh, Walter!”

But my favorite film that I watch over and over is DDLJ – Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (The Bravehearted Wins The Bride).  I can’t even count how many times I’ve watched this Hindi classic.  It’s the film that I watched on Netflix (since you like romantic films, you might enjoy…..) and made me fall in love with Shahrukh Khan, and Indian Cinema.  Since I watched it a little over two years ago, I’ve seen almost 300 Indian films, and 50 Shahrukh Khan films alone.  There’s a reason this film has played for over 20 years at a theater in Mumbai!!

 

 

Bonus question (that Rhiannon answered, but did not ask me.)

What is your favorite childhood film and why?  

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  It’s just magical.  And it’s Dick Van Dyke. Do you know how happy this recent video made me?  In a Denny’s!

 

Below are the people I nominate for this award because I enjoy reading what they write (and I’m interested in their answers). Check their blogs out!

Don’t Call It Bollywood

Access Bollywood

Jay at Assholes Watching Movies

Screen Zealots

CharandtheWeb

Life With Bollywood

Monika Sulik

Being Prateek Naik

RJ Reed Films

The Cinema Station

Jinse Max Blog

 

 

And your questions are:

  1. Who would you choose to play you in a film of your life?
  2. What is your favorite childhood film and why?
  3. What was the last film you watched?
  4. If you could only watch films by one actor/actress for the rest of your life, who would it be?
  5. Which country/place have you always wanted to visit but never have?
  6. What would be your perfect day off?
  7. If you were to make a feature film, what genre would it be/what would it be about?
  8. You have the chance to interview five people from any aspect of films and filmmaking, dead or alive, who would you pick?
  9. Would you rather watch a film alone, with family, or with friends?
  10. Is there any film or film genre you hate/can’t bear to watch?
  11. What is your favourite film?

 

I like to participate in these kind of chain posts, because I like learning more about fellow bloggers, beyond our normal review posts.  Thank you for reading and to my followers.

ABCD – The Dulquer movie, not the Prabhudeva one

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ABCD, the Malayalam film, is not Any Body Can Dance (the Prabhudeva film), but American-Born Confused Desi.  The comedy was released in 2013, early in Dulquer Salmaan’s career (after Ustad Hotel in 2012), and is obviously a showcase for him.

The interesting thing is that he plays a spoiled brat jerk who really doesn’t reform by the end of this comedy.

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Dulquer is Johns Isaac, son of a millionaire doctor who I think owns some sort of medical company.  (The name Johns is odd — it’s not just John, and for awhile I thought he was being referred to by his last name.)  Johns hangs out with Korah (Jacob Gregory) his best buddy in New York, and they drive around in a Lamborghini.  Johns has flunked out of multiple colleges, and is a spoiled brat.  Johns gets into a fight with a black guy at a club, and the gangsters shooting up his parents mansion is the last straw for his parents.

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They send Johns and Korah to  the ancestral place in Cochin, Kerala.  Dulquer is expecting a luxury vacation, and is horrified at the house his father rented for them, with no A/C and an outhouse.  They blow through $20,000 staying at a luxury hotel until suddenly the credit cards are cut off, and they’re stranded in India.  They get scammed by a guy in their neighborhood, and are down to their last $10.  (Their neighbor was pretty funny, played by S.P.Sreekumar)

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Dulquer’s dad then phones to say that he will pay them 5000 a month if they go to the local college where he has already enrolled them.

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This is where this American-Born Confused Non-Desi got really confused.  They meet Madhumitha (Aparna Gopinath) who is an activist at their college.  She basically has this stern expression this entire movie, to be honest.  There is absolutely no romance in this film whatsoever, even though there is an epilogue over the end credits that Dulquer sends his love from NY and she sends it back.  But that part of the film is severely underwritten.  We’re just supposed to fill in the blanks I guess.  It’s like a hate-to-love that stays in the hate part for pretty much the whole thing.

Anyway, what confused me is that Aparna sort of set them up as if they are political activists, protesting the rising tuition that drove a classmate to suicide.  She’s trying to put these spoiled American boys in their place, but to her consternation, they become social media celebrities, and they get invited to join lots of other protests, which they do, because there is usually free food.  Interviews with press, free food.  It all snowballs until one protest turns into a near riot with police beatings.

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The competing political parties that want these two American kids who have supposedly rejected their families’s millions to live the simple Gandhi-like life — these scenes were probably hilarious to people from Kerala, but mostly went right over my head.  There’s a basic level that was still funny, but I know I was missing a lot of the subtleties.

Johns and Korah read in the paper that they are in competition for young activist of the year — the 1 Lakh prize money they are planning to use to get back to the US.  Their main competition is the son of a local politician, and played by Tovino Thomas.  Again, it probably would have been hilarious if I knew what political party their rival was, and why he derided them for being Communist (I think?)  The slapstick fights with him and all, still funny, but the political satire that is the basis of most of the second half is beyond my limited understanding of Kerala.

These two spoiled jerks never really learn their lesson or reform.  I guess I won’t spoiler how they do find their way back to the US.  The satire of second generation NRI’s being clueless about India and spoiled brats– that humor I could totally get, and it was pretty hilarious.  Dulquer’s time at Purdue University probably helped him nail that part!

So, an amusing film, but you can definitely tell just how far Dulquer has come in a few short years.  And while there was no Prabhu, there was one catchy dance number from the NYC beginning part of the film, sung by Dulquer himself.

 

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Bommarillu – Genelia D’Souza is delightful in this sweet Telugu romance

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The 2006 Telugu Rom Com Bommarillu starts with a father helping a toddler walk on the beach and the voiceover says — “Shouldn’t a father let go his son’s hand after 24 years?”
Siddharth looked SO young in this film!  Oh, my goodness, he barely had a little peach fuzz little goatee. 2006 was the same year as Rang De Basanti.
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Prakash Raj is the father, and  I’m enjoying so much seeing Prakash Raj in these father roles in Southern movies — rather than the villain heavy he plays so well in Hindi films.
He’s a loving — but very controlling father.  He gives all the luxuries to his kids, but picks out everything, down to the clothes he buys for them.  Siddhu (Siddharth) is smothered.  Prakash arranges a marriage for Siddhu with a girl who only parrots what her father told him.
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Then Siddhu meets Hasini (Genelia D’Souza).  Her unconventional fun loving attitude appeals to him, and he finds her calling him an idiot endearing.
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 Genelia D’Souza we all loved in Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na.  For Bommarillu she won the best actress South Filmfare award.  She is very much like Geeta in Jab We Met.  Genelia in Bommarillu is a little chatterbox, naive,  and brings sunshine wherever she goes.
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Siddhu leads almost a double life.  He tries to act as the perfect obedient son at home, and his parents never suspect he drinks, gets wild with his friends, and is trying to start a business.  There’s a lot of very funny  moments in this film, and Siddharth is great at the comedy.  It wouldn’t be a Telugu film without the comedy uncle Brahmanandam – here he plays the loan officer.  Comedic character actor Sunil Varma is the family servant, who frequently gets Siddhu out of whatever jam he’s in.

The love music numbers were pretty darn adorable.

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To convince his father that she is the girl for him, Siddhu asks if Hasini can stay in the family home for a week.  Siddhu’s sisters and mother won’t even speak to her at first, but her irrepressible charm slowly wins everyone over.
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But then Siddhu tries to repress her and make her quiet to please his father.  She innocently reveals all that Siddhu has hidden from his entire family, but especially his father.  There is a big final confrontation with the father.  The film has a nice message advocating love marriage, and even the meek girl fiancee gets her own little feminist moment at the end.
Genelia was just a bubbly delight in this movie — she so much reminded me of Kareena’s performance as Geeta in Jab We Met.  I think I’d only seen Siddharth in dramas like Rang De Basanti and Enakkul Oruvan and it was really fun to see him in a lighter Rom Com.
star_rating_3-5_of_5

Bridget Jones’s Baby – I laughed my ass off

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bridget-jones-gallery-01It’s been 15 years since Bridget Jones Diary came out, and 12 years since Bridget Jones:  Edge Of Reason.  For me, Bridget Jones’s Baby had the same delightful feel as the first movie, and there’s a reason — Sharon Maguire, who directed the first film is back for the third.  The second film wasn’t awful, it just had the curse of following such a beloved first film.  The only thing I really remember about it was that slap fight in the fountain between Hugh Grant and Colin Firth (those two commit, 120% in their slap fights!)

Bridget Jones’s Baby starts back in that old apartment, hitting the same beats as the first film, but then Bridget changes the music and dances around her apartment, happy in her singledom.

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Pretty much everyone from the original film is back in little cameos, but I loved the new additions, like Bridget’s co-worker and best pal Miranda, played by Sarah Solemani.  Bridget is still a bit clumsy, but she’s now a successful TV news show producer, and Miranda is the host.  I liked that Btidget is now a grown up and competent, even if she’s puzzled by the Millennials at work.

The only one not back is Hugh Grant.  His plane has gone down “in the bush”, and there’s a hilarious funeral scene with pews full of models and old girlfriends.

When Bridget’s old pals bail on her birthday celebration, Miranda surprises her with a girls’ weekend at a music festival.  She falls in the mud in front of Patrick Dempsey (Jack) and they end up hooking up later that night.

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The next weekend, she and Colin Firth are godparents at a friend’s baby’s christening, and sparks fly with them again after Darcy admits he and his wife are separated.

Bridget is happy to go back to her single life, and thinks that she and Darcy will never work.  They tried, but he is too wedded to his work.

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Well we know what happens next from the title!  She gets pregnant and has no clue which man is the father.  She tells both separately, and after being stunned, billionaire Jack (Dempsey) warms to the idea and actively woos her.

Darcy is thrilled that she’s pregnant, but decidedly NOT thrilled when he learns he has a rival.  He’s so Darcy buttoned up and reserved, with his seething feelings under the surface waiting to burst out.  Sigh.

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Emma Thompson is hilarious as Bridget’s doctor, with her witty wry humor (she even co-wrote the screenplay, and boy does it show.)  I loved that the doctor tells her she doesn’t need either man, and would be just fine with the baby herself.  “I did it!”

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When Bridget goes into labor, I was practically rolling on the floor with laughter as the two men try to carry her to the hospital, and make it through a revolving door.

You’ll enjoy the film more if you’ve seen at least the first movie, but one of the friends who saw it with me had no clue this was the third movie in a series.  She laughed just as hard as me (okay, maybe I really laughed loudly), so it’s very enjoyable to people new to all things Bridget Jones.

Very funny movie, and especially fun to see with gal pals.

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