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I'm sorry blog! I've kind of been ignoring you. Can we blame it on the super mega hype that surrounded the My Name is Khan release? Now that the dust is settling and I can breath again, let's take a look at some of the films I've seen lately. NOTE: I did see the aforementioned movie this past opening weekend, but am seeing it again with my sister this coming weekend and will post my thoughts after the 2nd viewing.

A very muscly masala flick chalk full of action, bad guys that make me want to vomit and Salman Khan wearing the most atrocious outfits. While I can say that the fight sequences were exactly the full throttle intense kind of action that one would expect in this type of film (and executed quite well I might add), it was one of those movies that I watched right until the end and then wondered why. I don't know why I keep putting on Sallu flicks. Obviously I don't care for him, but whether it's optimism or a sadistic curiosity, he keeps finding his way onto my dvd player. Production values are high, but the camera work left me dizzy and the music left me disappointed.


I liked Ayesha Takia in this though (it seems I see her everywhere I look these days), and the film houses a very noteworthy performance by Mahesh Manjrekar, who plays the despicable "make your skin crawl" inspector Talpade - you hate his character but love his acting. Wanted goes for broad humour and cheap thrills and is, at times, downright stupid and unapologetically excessive, but it is also a B-grade crowd-pleaser that knows exactly who its audience is, that audience just wasn't me. Watch it if you love extreme violence, juvenile comedy or just a dose of the always shirtless Salman Khan.


My favorite part of this 170 min movie is the first 30 minutes where we see Shah Rukh play the free spirited Hari Mayur, complete with gypsy style Indian garb and long hair. After that it's a long boring story about British India-loathing Vikram, who travels to India to retrieve his nephew Nandlal, who, incidentally was raised by his young aunt who was just 8 years old when she kidnapped him and is now grown beauty Bijuriya (Sonali Bendre). Nandlad refuses to go back with Vikram until his aunt is married and taken care of, and in true Bollywood fashion, Vikram slowly starts to fall for her.


The film has all the makings of a great movie, it's just too bad that it feels so drawn out. However it does have a few pluses. The costumes are fantastic, especially the ones worn by Bijuriya during her first dancing scenes. Shah Rukh is as adorable as ever. *mini spoiler* I don't think I'll ever forget Hari and Katariya's death scene. It's weird and slightly comical. *spoiler over* It was fun to watch Shah Rukh and Sonali together again, though I enjoyed them more in Duplicate (even though the interaction between them was less in that one). For the most part, the music is forgettable, although I liked Dhol Baje quite a lot.



As the movie played on I found that I cared less and less about how the story was going to end. I had to watch it though, just to cross it off the list. Mission accomplished.



Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit star is this atrociously bland story of jealousy and friendship. I tried watching this probably over a year ago and could hardly get past the opening sequence with Salman (a very famous musical performer) in concert. It hurt my eyes so I shut it off. Then my sister borrowed it and insisted it was worth a watch, so I tried it again. All it did was make me angry. Angry and sleepy (I think I fell asleep a good 5 or 6 times).

The relationship between Madhuri and Salman was so over-the-top obvious, I wanted to yell at Radha - how could she not see how her closeness to Suraj was eroding her relationship with Gopal? It is also very frustrating that Gopal doesn't speak frankly with Radha earlier in the movie about his jealousy. Add to the unrealistic story, some sub-par acting. Madhuri is gorgous as usual, as is Shah Rukh, but they left me all just feeling a little cold. Salman is his usual clueless baffoonish self. Aishwarya has a very small cameo towards the end as a blind girl who embodies the metaphor "love is blind" perhaps. I didn't see much point in her small role.

Probably the one and only part of this film I really enjoyed is Gale Mein Laal Taai, a comical look at Radha and Suraj's relationship through Gopal's eyes.



Sorry Julie, I just can't even like this film. I tried though, I really did.

*spoilers*
Probably the best of the bunch in my eyes. Starring Emraan Hashmi and Soha Ali Khan as live-in lovers torn apart by "male insecurity syndrome", hereunto called M.I.S., who are brought together again 6 years later by water.

I've never seen Emraan in anything before and very little of Soha, so my expectations were very low. I actually enjoyed them both and think that Emraan is kind of a hotty, that is until we are hit over the head over and over again by his M.I.S. Thankfully, he redeems his character during the present day story line. We see their love story evolve through a series of flashbacks, from first meeting to consequent break up and you wonder if or how their reconciliation will occur. Watching Akshaye sabotage their relationship was painful for me though, and I wondered why she kept trying with him. Perhaps this is what makes the relationship believable. Couples fight over things all the time, sometimes they work it out, sometimes they don't, but at least it's a realistic kind of relationship.

I was quite excited to see this because of the disaster element, which is based on the 2005 floods in Mumbai. I was disappointed at the execution of the flood sequences though, and this is purely based as a spectator of the film (had I been part of the floods surely I would have reacted differently to this part of the movie). We see water levels rise amazingly fast until people are stranded in streets following cables that seem to have come out of nowhere and are attached to nothing. That is until they discover a bus which I guess serves as better shelter than any of the street lined buildings. Though to be fair Director Kunal Deshmukh the bus does serve a purpose, giving us a heart pounding action sequence that has people frantically trying to escape said bus as it turns sloooooowly on its side in a manner which defies the laws of physics, just because a tree branch has punctured one of its windows. Then our protagonists decide to leave their group (and Akshaye's best friend) in the street for shelter (duh!), but inexplicably buildings are not safe either as we see the the two get trapped in some sort of large broom closet by a towering tidal wave that appears on at least the 3rd floor of their building which is much higher than the level of water on the streets. They escape and head back to the street, face a completely unnecessary "blink and you miss it" tragedy and then all of a sudden Mumbai streets have miraculously cleared. Maybe that was what it was like, but I have a feeling that some creative license was used. Plus I kept thinking, why don't they just head for higher ground!

Despite all of this (and people said they had to suspend their disbelief for MNIK), I didn't mind Tum Mile and I enjoyed the music, especially the title track. If you're thinking of seeing this, watch it as a romance, not a disaster film and you might come away with an appreciation for it.



99
I just thought I would mention that I only kind of watched this. My copy has no subs and I was plenty distracted when I was watching, so I think it deserves a rewatch with subs.

Now off to place a bet....