Fan Review – Some of Shahrukh’s best acting in years

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When I first saw the trailer for Fan, I was frankly creeped out by the look of the character Gaurav (the Fan).  Through the use of prosthetics and major CGI, the filmmakers have made Shahrukh look just similar enough, and just different enough that it’s eerie.  The eyebrows are straightened out of their normal “S” shape.  The cheeks are too wide and the teeth different, and mostly, he looks so young!

But once you watch the film, it’s great, because Shahrukh Khan the actor has been able to create two distinct characters in this film.  Aryan Khanna is for the most part the real SRK, a little more arrogant and less warm maybe.  And Gaurav is the young obsessed fan from Delhi.  The prosthetics and CGI let you see them as two different people immediately.

I was fortunate to see Fan before I really read any reviews or saw anything about the plot.  Of course, I had my suspicions that this would be a darker psychological  thriller, and it most definitely is.  I was traveling for a conference in Las Vegas on Friday, and asked at an Indian restaurant which of the total two theaters in town showing Fan would be a safer neighborhood to take an Uber.  Totally worth it to see it the first night!  I knew a bit what I was getting into, that there would be no songs, but I think the audience I was seeing it with really didn’t know.  As the end credits started, the guys behind me said out loud, “What, no song?”  The tone and moment that the film ends with, I’m glad that we didn’t have that peppy Fan Anthem song over the credits.  It would have been jarring.  (Like the credit song was for Badlapur!)

I don’t want to spoiler the movie at all.  I’m just going to tell you that you should really see this film.  It is a return to Shahrukh the actor, which I had been hoping for!  This is acting of a level with Darr, with Swades, or Chak De!  Yes, it really is that good.  It’s up with all the great performances.  I’ve already seen the film twice and I plan on seeing it again in a few days with a friend.  For a Shahrukh Khan fan, there is so much to delight in references to real past movies of SRK’s.  Real old interview footage, footage from his SLAM! Tour in the US in big stadiums –  they even filmed at his home Mannat on his birthday to capture the craziness.

You can guess from the trailer that it’s about a super star, and an obsessed fan, and things are going to get crazy.  I’m giving it four and a half stars out of five, because I loved it that much, but there were a few logical leaps in the second half.  I’m not sure the logic of the thriller completely worked, but I just loved watching it unfold before my eyes anyway.  The action set pieces are really good, and Dubrovnic is gorgeous!!  (That’s the rooftop chase from the trailer.)

I’ve seen people say this is a copy of the Robert DeNiro/Wesley Snipes film The Fan, and it really isn’t.  Yes, you have an obsessed fan in both thrillers, but that’s where the similarity really ends.

None of the other actors in the movie are big names.  There’s another rival “star” in the film named Sid Kapoor that I think is supposed to be a take on Hrithik.  I recognized the character actors playing Gaurav’s parents, but really the movie is Shahrukh vs. Shahrukh.  I also admire Shahrukh for poking a little fun at his own stardom.  There’s a scene where Aryan is performing for a wedding for a huge fee, and even him punching the star Sid Kapoor at a party could be reference to real dustups that Shahrukh has had in his own life.  Aryan is an aging star, who has declining box office for his films, and Gaurav at first won’t stand for any rival to take his God, HIS star’s place.

What is fantastic in this double character study is that your sympathies go from one character to the other and back and forth again.  There are shades of gray to both characters, and I loved that.  This was writer/director Manesh Sharma’s dream project for years.  Yash Raj had him prove himself with a few other films first, and he started with Band Baaja Baaraat, and what a debut that was!  He had to wait fot the timing to be right for Shahrukh to be involved — really I don’t know if I can think of any other Bollywood actor more perfect for this dual role.  It’s a triumph for Shahrukh, Manesh Sharma and the VFX team.

I’m so excited for Raees now!

 

 

Some of My Favorite Indian Cinema Rom Coms

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Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order, although number one is my top favorite.

  1. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi — Can’t even count how many times I’ve watched this one.

2.  Jab We Met

3.  Band Baaja Baaraat

4. Dil Chahta Hai

5. Hasee Toh Phasee

6.  Dum Laga Ke Haisha

7.  Khoobsurat — Fawad Khan Fever!

8.  Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

9.  Tanu Weds Manu

10. Queen

11. Bunty Aur Babli

12. Dostana

13.  Bang Bang

14.  Mere Brother Ki Dulhan

15. Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania

16. Main Tera Hero

Does DDLJ count?  🙂

And if you’re willing to go outside Hindi cinema, I have a few South Indian films that are great rom coms:

OK Kanmani – 2015 Tamil Mani Ratnam film (currently on US Netflix streaming)

Bangalore Days (Malayalam) – Multi-starrer about three cousins and their romantic adventures

Ohm Shanti Oshaana (Malayalam) – A fantastic female centric coming of age romantic story.

And a Telugu film-   Mr. Perfect, a rom com with Prabhas of Baahubali fame:

(This post is adapted from a Quora answer.)

The heartbreaking Fandry – my first Marathi film review

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Fandry was my first Marathi film.  It was recommended by several people on my Quora post about why I love Indian cinema.  I foolishly asked for recommended films of the commenters, and the list is well over 300 films long now.

I was delighted to discover that Fandry, a film festival favorite, was available on Netflix streaming.

Jabya is an untouchable. He’s the sweetest, most adorable intelligent 7th grade boy who is in love with a fair-skinned higher caste girl. He can’t even bring himself to speak to her. His family are the poorest in the village, and his father and the rest of the family are expected to do all the menial work in the village that no one else will do. The title means “pig” because chasing and killing the wild pigs that live around the village is something no one else will do. Anyone else who is even touched by one of the pigs is defiled.

Your heart bleeds for this boy, and his dreams. His father doesn’t want him to go to school, just wants him to help earn money for the family. Jabya is mortified that his classmates see him having to do horrible jobs, and in the end climax, the verbal abuse piled on him by other men and boys in the village becomes overwhelming rage in Jabya. The final moments of the film left me stunned with my hands over my mouth. So powerful, so heartbreaking.

This is the director’s debut film. No one else was telling his story, so he made this film to tell it.   I highly recommend Fandry.  It is an incredible parallel cinema film giving you the perspective of an untouchable young boy.

4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Fandry is currently available to watch on Netflix Streaming.

My first Kannada Film – the Amazing Lucia! ****1/2 Film review

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On my Quora post, over and over again, the Kannada commenters listed Lucia by Pawan Kumar as a recommended film. I watched the trailer here and the film is a total mind f*ck kind of trip. Watch the trailer, and you’ll get a taste of what I mean!

First, the way the film got made is totally interesting on its own It was crowdfunded! One of the production thingies at the beginning is “Audience” films, and then they show a grid of like 100 youtube videos of people holding signs. 110 people contributed to make the film, for like $70,000. It won the audience award at the London Indian film festival, where it premiered, and was short listed for the Oscars film from India.

YES, it’s that good!!

It’s a micro-budget film, but one of those indie feeling films where they were super creative and did a LOT with very little. It would totally fit in at Sundance.

So, what’s it about? Lucia is the name of the Lucid dream drug. The movie starts with policemen investigating why a certain patient is in a coma — and news TV debates whether euthanasia should be allowed.

The movie is very non-linear. We flash from color scenes of Nikki, a “torch-shiner” or usher in a tiny little theater in Bangalore, who lives in a shack with 4 other guys. He’s an insomniac, and a local drug-peddler gives him a sleeping pill, Lucia, that will give him dreams so real, he’ll feel that he lived them. But if he stops taking the pills, the dreams become nightmares.

The dreams are in black and white, and suddenly Nikki is Nikhil, a movie star! It’s like Wizard of Oz in reverse, as all the people in his humble life are in the movie star life, which is black and white. His uncle the little theater owner, is now his trusted manager. The pizza parlor waitress girl he’s crushing on as Nikki, is his item number girl in the movie he’s filming.

Lots of meta commentary on the value of the little tiny one screen theaters. And life as a movie star in India, etc.

The main actor, Sathish Ninasam, who plays Nikki/Nikhil is amazing. He is this humble sweet poor schlub Nikki, who doesn’t even think he deserves a cute pizza parlor girl and then he has this amazing confident movie star air as Nikhil. The main actress who plays the pizza parlor girl and the item number girl, the love interest in both worlds, is pretty good. I especially love her as the spunky pizza parlor girl. She tries to get Nikki to learn English and get a job at a multiplex, which leads to some very humorous scenes.

The film has sweetness, and a very filmi romance while also being a near Matrix level psychological — which-world-is-real kind of sci-fi plot. This is an Indian film where the script is truly king. It is quite the story — certainly not like anything else in Indian film, and yet, with the dual role, so very filmi at the same time!

I now feel like I have to go back and thank each of those people who recommended this on the Quora post. So good and so interesting! I really enjoyed the roller coaster ride. The director’s next film, U-Turn, is evidently about to come out. Lucia got rave tweets from Irrfan Khan and Anurag Kashyap tweeted “My birthday gift to myself would be lucia…”

Highly recommend this quirky strange wonderful Kannada film.  4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Rent Lucia for $2.99 on Youtube with English Subs.

Fantastic Beasts Teaser Trailer is Here and I can’t wait!

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YES!!!  Is there anyone more perfect to inhabit J. K. Rowling’s magical universe than Eddie Redmayne?  He’s always seemed like an actor from another time, so a period film like this is just spot on for him.  Super excited to see Colin Farrell as a wizard, too!

Some recommended films from around India

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For my Hindi pick, Paheli is certainly not one of SRK’s biggest films but I love it.  Fantasy films seem to be unusual in Hindi cinema, and in this film Shahrukh Khan plays a number counting merchant husband, and a Ghost or spirit (sort of a genie, really) who takes his place.  Rani Mukerji is the bride who captivates the Ghost, with Amitabh as a wise shepherd in a cameo.  It’s a fable that is also about women’s empowerment, and the scene where SRK tells Rani he’s a ghost is one of my all-time favorites.

And the soundtrack!!

   

My Tamil pick is Mani Ratman’s 2015 film OK Kanmani, with music by A. R. Rahman.  A young couple (the charming Dulquer Salmaan and Nithya Menon) wants to live together because they are cynical about marriage.  They learn about true love from an older married couple.  Prakash Raj (who we’re used to see as a villain in Hindi films) plays a devoted husband to his wife with Alzheimer’s.  If you live in the US, it is on Netflix streaming, and I highly recommend this wonderful film.  I sought out this film after hearing the song Mental Manadhil at an A. R. Rahman concert.  So glad I did!

Dulquer Salmaan from OK Kanmani is usually in Malayalam films, and that’s what brought me to watch the Malayalam film Bangalore Days.  This is my number one pick of Malayalam films I’ve seen so far.  It’s a wonderful coming of age tale about three cousins and has a great ensemble of young Malayalam actors in it.  Ohm Shanti Oshana is also a great woman centered film (with the same lead actress above), but Bangalore Days, Bangalore Days, Bangalore Days!

For Telugu films, there can be only one — Baahubali!  I was so blown away by this film, I watched it four times in the theater!  This film is available dubbed in Hindi, but you can readily rent the Telugu version on Youtube.  Prabhas plays a dual role, Shivuvu and Baahubali.  It is EPIC.  It’s a fantasy with stunning visuals.  S. S. Rajamouli cannot be matched for his imagination in film (have you seen Eega where the hero is a FLY?)   The battle scenes rival films like Gladiator, and there are several kick-ass women characters.  Mirchi is my second favorite Telugu film I’ve seen so far, also starring Prabhas with Sathyaraj (Kattappa in Baahubali).  It’s so long to wait till 2017 for part 2 of Baahubali!!

Why I Love Indian Cinema

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A few weeks ago, I answered a question on Quora, “Does anyone besides Indians watch Indian movies?”  This post is adapted from the answer I gave.  At first I gave a brief answer, but then people commented and wanted to know WHY?  Why would a non-Indian love Indian films?  Many commenters were at first incredulous, but then thanked me for showing them an outsider’s view of their cinema.   As of this writing, the answer has garnered over 170,000 views, and made me a Most Viewed Writer about Bollywood on Quora.  (Which still blows my mind.)

Netflix in the US has over 80 Hindi films at anyone time.  Because of the kind of films I enjoy, Netflix recommended I watch Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge about 2 years ago.  Since I fell in love with Bollywood, I’ve seen over 200 Indian films.  I’m lucky that in my area new release films play in a few local theaters.  I was able to see Kapoor and Sons just last night and I absolutely loved it.

I’m not the only non-Desi in America to love Bollywood movies, but I wouldn’t say it’s very common.

My father’s church has a monthly movie night, and he asked me to show a Bollywood movie last week.  I chose Dil Se, and showed it to 15 people, including my parents, who had never before seen a Bollywood film.  They all loved it!

Editing to add my answer from the comments below, WHY I love Indian films:

I also love old Hollywood musicals like Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly films.  Hollywood does not make them anymore.  I love the singing and the dancing in Indian cinema, but also the earnest love stories are not the kind of films that Hollywood makes either.  Rom Coms are becoming rarer and rarer in American films which tend to be more cynical.  The emotions in Bollywood films are something that is rare to see in Hollywood or English films.  People joke about how much Shahrukh Khan cries in his films, but I really respond to the emotions shown in Indian cinema.  Also, the colors on screen!  Bhansali’s film Ram-Leela is an example of this.

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I listen to Bollywood music all the time, as well.

Indian films just give me things I cannot get from Hollywood or other Western cinema.  Plus Shahrukh Khan.  I’ve watched 47 of his films alone (which doesn’t count the countless times I’ve watched DDLJ.)  🙂

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I do love South Indian films as well, and I have seen a little over 30 South Indian films.  I fell in love with Prabhas after watching Baahubali last year (four times in the theater!).  I now own many of his Telugu films on DVD.

prabhas-shivudu-role-in-baahubali-movie_143140913210

Recently, I’ve been watching quite a few Malayalam films, especially recent ones with Nivin Pauly and Dulquer Salmaan.  I have watched fewer Tamil films, but I asked my neighbor to bring me back some DVD’s from her recent trip to Chennai, and have been working through the dozen films she brought me.  Last week, I watched Raja Rani, and liked it.

For those interested, I keep track of all the Bolllywood films I’ve watched on Letterboxd.com, and here’s my list of Regional films I’ve seen, up to 32 now after watching the Malayalam film Classmates last night.

I asked for commenters to recommend their favorite Indian films — and oh boy, did they.  I’ve created a Letterboxd list now of all the films recommended there in the comments that I have not already seen.  Now up to 372 (!!) films in several Indian languages:  Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, etc.  The question now is will I live long enough to watch even half of them!

My first Bollywood film ever was Lagaan, back almost 15 years ago when it was nominated for the Foreign language Oscar.  That was back when you could only rent Netflix movies via DVD in the mail.  I then watched Dil Chahta Hai, because that also had Aamir Khan.  But it was not so easy back then for a non-Hindi speaker to find out about other Bollywood films.  The internet has helped so much, and Netflix’s recommendation engine is the reason I fell in love with Bollywood 2 years ago.  DDLJ was recommended to me, then I was able to watch Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi right after that.  I texted my Indian next door neighbor for other suggestions, and she loves Hrithik Roshan and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was also streaming on Netflix and I was off to the races with my new obsession.

I have been mentored by two other non-Desi lovers of Bollywood who then suggested many other films for me to try, and in some cases pushed the DVD’s into my hand saying, “YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS!”

Kathy Gibson of AccessBollywood.net  and Margaret of DontCallItBollywood

Shout out also to the gang at Bollywhat forum!

Ki & Ka – Film Review

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The first thing you need to know is that I find Arjun Kapoor adorable in just about anything.  And I’m one of those people who enjoyed Tevar.  Still love Superman!

I had big hopes for Ki & Ka.  We haven’t seen Arjun in a film for over a year.  But Ki & Ka, while it had some enjoyable moments, was a disappointment.

I liked the chemistry between Arjun and Kareena, and am glad she broke her “no kissing” pledge. I feel like this is a film that had an interesting concept, but the script still needed work. And maybe a woman’s perspective on the script.

Kareena is Kia, a very ambitious marketing executive. She meets Arjun’s Kabir on a plane when he is sobbing over his late mother’s birthday.   They go out for a drink after the flight and he stuns her during a date by telling her he wants to be a housewife just like his mother. His father is a very wealthy builder, and Kabir has been a “topper” in an MBA program, but has no interest in the rat race.

He proposes they marry after a very brief courtship. He’ll create the home she’s never had (her single mother sent her to boarding schools), and she can pursue her career with no barriers.

Arjun’s character is just too perfect. There was really no comedy of him dealing with learning to manage the house. He’s a master chef. He redecorates (with model trains!!). He manages Kia’s mothers sugar levels by cooking healthy food. Kia gets home late, and rather than complain, he just massages her feet and covers her with a blanket. The conflicts are pretty predictable in their marriage, and are resolved very quickly.

Maybe it’s the Indian cinema thing about having a hero be perfect with no flaws. While advantageous in a crime fighting supercop, in a domestic drama it’s not quite as interesting.

This movie is not helped by the fact that I’ve just seen Kapoor and Sons twice. Now THAT is a domestic family drama where everyone is complex and has flaws.

The couple also don’t have children by the end of the movie. That’s the kind of thing that could have provided comedy by upsetting his perfect routine.  There is a pregnancy scare, and you can see Kareena added layers to her reaction that were probably not in the original script.  Kudos to her for trying to add depth.  But once the scare is over, the issue is never dealt with again.  Yet another missed opportunity.  So many directions this plot could have taken, that were just left hanging.  Balki, the writer/director is evidently known for these high concept films, but not great follow through.  Having more subplots and side characters would have helped this film, too.

That said, Kareena and Arjun give it their all, and I did like their chemistry. It was a pleasant timepass, but not the deep social commentary it was preaching to us about. The cameo by Amitabh and Jay Bachchan, though, was a delight!

I do enjoy this song!  But the rest of the soundtrack was just okay.

Kathy Gibson of AccessBollywood.net and I saw the film at the same showing.  She really hated it.   Margaret of DontCallItBollywood.com goes in depth into the missed opportunities in the film.  And gives a full summary here comparing it to a sitcom!