Who says a girl can't swing a bat?

Upon seeing the first pics of Rani and Shahid for this film, I thought this was a movie that was going to sum up everything I enjoy about romantic comedies. Usually I know I'm going to enjoy a rom-com before the opening credits even start, but at the end of it all I just kind of felt a little *meh*. There's been a couple of really great reviews on this film lately that delve deeper than the surface and look at theories such as "the sari point" over at Beth Loves Bollywood. Here's my take.

Rani Mukherjee shines in her media induced "comeback" (sorry Indiatimes, et al - in my books Rani has always been in fine form), as Veera Kaur, the small town girl who has big dreams of making it in the male-centric world of cricket. Realizing she has no chance to make it to the World Cup, she decides her only hopes to do so are to become male batter extraordinaire Veer Pratap Singh and try out for the local team set to play a yearly match against Pakistan. As Veera, she is the right combination of feisty and sexy and you want her to be successful in her endeavor. Veera's alter ego, Veer, is fun to watch but seems to have been created more for laughs than for any sexual tension it should have produced. Through it all though, Rani plays both roles with gusto and looks like she's having a good time doing it.


Playing Rohan, Shahid Kapoor is the captain of a English country cricket team. He returns to India to coach his father's cricket team, which has consecutively been losing the Aman Cup to Pakistan for the past 8 years, but only after his father fakes a heart attack to get him there. Classy. I usually enjoy Shahid's performances (though I've seen very few), but I found him almost completely expressionless for most of this movie. However, he does make up for it a little bit with some impressive dancing to compensate for his lack of acting ability (sorry Ajnabi!). Also it's easy to sometimes looks past the flaws because the man is so damn gorgeous. However, take a note: Shahid, seriously, if you are looking to shed the Shah Rukh Khan comparisons, doing a DDLJ reenactment is not going to help!


I suppose it wouldn't be a Yash Raj Film if we didn't have an amalgamation of themes all stuffed into one very colorful celluloid package. Anurag Singh gives us a plethora of plot elements (romance, sports, nationalism), but where I think the movie fails is in the execution of it all. The storyline is basic and certainly doesn't really offer us anything new, the romance between Rohit and Veera falls flat, the addition of Sherlyn Chopra and Rakhi Sawant contribute nothing to the film, and the climax is completely understated. I suppose the revelation of Veera's secret could have been way over done, but it's almost too subtle and you don't really get that big reaction that would then, of course, lead to the big reconciliation - even if I didn't buy their "love" to being with. However, I suppose Singh does deserve a shout out over trying to appeal to the ladies in the audience with an elaborate speech on women's rights.


Still cute though, na?

I liked Pritam's music in the film though, quite a lot, but anything that has a good bhangra beat to it is going to get my attention. Even the standard love song made it to my ipod. My fav's of the film are Bhangra Bistar, Ishq Hi Hai Rab, and Hadippa - the remix (good lord, Rani looks fierce and Shahid is GORGEOUS! -I could watch that man dance for hours!)





I was going to do this as a mini review (along with three other movies that are waiting to make there way onto the blog), but I guess I had more to say than I thought. Coming up: The Namesake, Bhool Bhulaiyaa and Chandni Chowk to China.

More SRK today

We are going to finally get a glimpse of My Name is Khan. Well, that is if you have access to any of the STAR networks. Shah Rukh will be showing a promo for the movie on December 16th at 10 pm (India time I'm guessing). I'm crossing my fingers that B4U will have it, but I don't think it belongs to the same network so I'll be looking for it on youtube and posting.

Check out the new commercial for his Dishtv ad. Even as an aging man he's still handsome and charming and the commercial is totally adorable.



And lastly, an interesting news article about how Shah Rukh wants to conquer the porn industry. Even though it was in gest I can't say I wouldn't want to see that. What a cruel joke.

Welcome to Sajjanpur

With old man winter making a sudden and very rude appearance at my door, all of a sudden I have oodles of time to devote to catching up on some movies I've been waiting to see. Yesterday I finally managed to watch Shyam Benegal's Welcome To Sajjanpur. I didn't know anything about this movie when I recorded it except I liked the music and it starred Shreyas Talpade, who I had seen and enjoyed in Om Shanti Om.

This is not your typical cookie cutter family drama, masala piece or love story that generally makes up the majority of the Bollywood industry, and it certainly isn't like any movie I've seen so far. Oh sure, it does have a little bit of love story, but there is so much to this movie that is far beyond what I've been exposed to in Hindi cinema so far that I almost felt like I had to do oodles of research just to really understand what I'd seen.

The main vein of the film follows Mahadev (Shreyas), the only educated person in Sajjanpur. Mahadev, an aspiring writer, quickly realizes he can use his literary skills to make money reading and writing letters for the villagers, thus creating all sorts of opportunity for him to become entangled in their lives for good and for bad. Though Mahadev is used as the common link in the movie, Welcome to Sajjanpur is totally character driven, with each of the supporting characters given their own little piece of the pie. We see Yashpal Sharma as the scheming politician, the superstitious mother (Ila Arun) who's desperate to get her daughter married despite her bad stars, a eunuch (Ravi Jhankal) venturing into politics, and a Compounder (Ravi Kishan) crazy in love with a widow (Rajeshwari Sachdeva). Mahadev's personal story is that he falls for a childhood friend, the ever alluring Amrita Rao, whose husband is in Mumbai trying to earn money to bring her there.



Turn away now to miss the spoilers:
While each of the performances had their pluses, it really was the subject matter that held my attention the most. What is a eunich? Do people really marry their daughters off to dogs? Is it so hard to earn a living that one needs to sell their own body parts just to make ends meet? It seems as though Benegal has tried to fit as many social issues as he could into this varital sociological buffet, even approaching widow remarriage, which needlessly culminates into tragedy with an unexpected and unexplained honor killing.
Done with the spoilers.

For the most part, Welcome to Sajjanpur is a fun movie. The fast paced songs are catchy, the acting is done in fine form (with Shreyas being my favorite of the bunch), and the movie looks good. My only real disappointment with this film was the abrupt ending. We get a very convenient wrap up of everyone's stories, mostly with happy endings. Even Mahadev gets his happy ending even if it comes out of nowhere and then before you know it the credits are rolling.

My Name is Khan song?

Found this on youtube today. Not 100% sure if it's really going to be in the movie, but it's by Jal, and I liked it. If it is a song from the movie I don't imagine it will be situational. It definitely sounds like more of a background song, possibly underneath some serious movie moments.



What do you think?

Anyway, it according to my facebook countdown, we are 2 months and 9 days away from the big release. I read that there is a preview of the film at the beginning of the James Cameron movie Avatar which I am not interested in seeing but almost want to go just for the trailer! I'm crossing my fingers that that means I'll get to see it on my home turf.

I know these aren't new pics, but because I haven't posted any of him in a while, here's a few that I finally found and got to see from the India Vogue shoot with Kajol.

Duplicate

I knew from the moment that I stumbled upon a song that had Shah Rukh Khan dressed in drag that I had to see this movie. I was not disappointed. I've seen very few Hindi comedies, but most of them left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth. I thought maybe I didn't get Indian humour, but I think all I needed was a good dose of old fashioned comic masala, which is precisely what Mahesh Bhatt's Duplicate has done for me. Slapstick comedy, evil villains, great music, mistaken identities: all of it translates into what has become #1 on my list of favorite comedies so far.

First, I have to mention that when I put this film on, for some reason I could not get the subtitles to turn on. However, I really wanted to see it, so on I forged. Something has to be said for a director who can convey the subject matter of his film beyond the barrier of language, which is exactly what happened for me. I knew what was going on from the first frame to the last despite my preschool Hindi (although I did understand some of the dialogues which made me very excited). Without seeing any of the great masala films from the 70's, I imagine that this film has some plot elements that would be right at home (death by television anyone!). However, there was one thing that had my sides splitting that was completely unintentional I'm sure. There is one scene where Babloo gets slammed into a large ceramic looking vase and instead of it falling and breaking, it simply dents a little when it falls. Classic.

Performance wise, this movie belonged to Shah Rukh Khan. Not only does he do a fantastic job of playing the naive, yet completely charming and perfectly innocent aspiring chef Babloo, and his nemesis, the leather wearing, evil gangster Manoo, but he maintains a distinction so clear between the characters that there was no mistaking who is on screen. When Babloo does impersonations of Manoo's tongue tweeks, I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. His nervous energy works in this film and I quite honestly couldn't picture anyone else even pulling it off. This is the Shah Rukh that is an acquired taste for sure with all of his over the top facial expressions and dialogue delivery, but is also a vital component in what makes Bollywood fun!

Duplicate features a full rounded cast too. Juhi Chawla plays Sonia Kapoor, the object of Babloo's affection and his boss. She is exactly as she should be in this film: sweet, comical and totally in her element. Farida Jalal, like Juhi, is always a pleasure to watch on screen particularly when she is given interesting roles like Babloo's strong, clingy, caring and loving Be-Be. Sonali Bendre is good as Lily, Manoo's girlfriend, though not a performance that lingers (though her sexy outfits do make her stand out while on screen). For me, she's the best in the song picturizations.

Have I said I love the music from this film? The picturizations are sometimes cute, sometimes funny, but all the time memorable and absolutely catchy and fun. Usually I post one or two songs I like, but it was so hard for me to narrow down my faves, so I've posted 4 of the 6 songs.

Babloo is probably the sweetest character Shah Rukh has played (though he does comes close in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa. How could anyone resist that smile?



Well, what movie would be complete without the standard falling in love song?



Torn between two women is hard I suppose. I love how Babloo continues to snub Lily's advances for his imaginary Juhi. We know where his heart lies.



The tune for Ladna Jhagadna reminds me of a nursery rhyme song or something from The Sound of Music, but regardless it's still instantly catchy. Plus, kudos has to go to the costumers for coming up with Manoo's *ahem* interesting shiny metallic spandex top.



Sorry for the lack of pictures. My dvd drive in my laptop is not working. Argh Dell!!! And there seems to be a lack of any pictures on the web. Darn it anyway.

Final thoughts: I loved this movie so much I want to rewatch it right away. I'm sure there are other comedies out there that might be better, but this one was just perfect for me. I'm starting to get really torn over whether or not I prefer Shah Rukh now or his earlier stuff. Makes me wish I'd grown up watching him.

Hindi Lesson #1

Alright, all my Indian friends, in an effort to align my visual skills with my audio, I thought I would ask upon your help to correctly spell those words which my ear has learned through a program called Pimsleur. For those non-Hindi speaking peeps, maybe this will help expand your knowledge as well.

want - chahta
understand - samajhta/samajha
to eat - khanna
to drink - bheena peena
please listen - suniya
but - mugar/laiken
where - kahaan/kidtar
a little - tori tori thodi thodi
much - zyaada
very - bahut
well/good - achche/achchaa
and - aur
or - ya
speak - bolte/bolta
please tell me - batayea
here - idhar
it/they - voh
over there - udtar udhar
something/some - kuch
know - jhanta/jhante jaanta/jaanate
at my place - mere ghar par
too/also - bhi
how - kaise
later - badme
now - abhi
in the ..... - ..... mein
okay/alright - theek hai
yours - tumhara
ours - humara
when - gab kab
afternoon - doopahare dopahar
to do - karna


Well, that will do for now. That covers pretty much half of my lessons. Any and all corrections would be immensely appreciated.

It's Official...

Interesting envelope in the mail came today...



So does this mean that I'm officially Indian? lol!