My Film Reviews
I rarely watch Hindi movies. But I have had seen a few of the more famous ones -yes, the 'famous' ones, not necessarily 'great' ones. I will now give my ratings to some of the movies that I have watched over the past few years:
1) Rang De Basanti (2006) -1/10 (Director: R.P.Mehra)
Positives: You can play the songs at some party or cultural programs and people will love them, maybe even dance to the tune.
Negatives: Absolutely hopeless construction and presentation of the storyline, extremely contrived and stretches way beyond the boundaries of rationality and often resorts to naive styles in plot developments. This film should have never been nominated by the Indian Govt. for the Academy Awards' category of the Best Foreign Language Film. Not surprisingly it wasn't shortlisted. It was also nominated for BAFTA awards, where it thankfully lost heavily to Pan's Labyrinth, an amazingly rich and artistically talented fantasy film from Mexican director Del Toro.
2) Devdas (2002) - 0/10 (Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali)
Positives: Retains the Bollywood trend of songs and dance in gorgeous costumes and locales, so it is good as long as it is kept out of sight from the international film critics to save Bollywood some embarrassment. But the culturally and aesthetically retarded committee working on the behalf of the Indian Govt. chose to nominate it for the Academy Awards.
Negatives: This film should serve as an example of how badly Bollywood can mutilate a great novel for commercial purposes and entertaining the masses. It is a sick movie.
3) Swades (2004) - 1.5/10 (Director: Ashutosh Gowarikar)
Positives: Mellifluous music. Good acting by the supporting actors, esp the lady who played the role of Shah Rukh's ex-governess.
Negatives: Too unrealistic and didactic, the film relies on incessant fingering of the audience's nostalgia, hoping to be able to make them emotional. The film director seemed to be too pretentious and wrongly over-confident about the nobility of making a film that would perhaps parade around like a great moral book and the epitome of nationalism.
4) Chadni Bar (2001) -3.5/10 (Director: Madhur Bhandarkar)
Positives: A great film when compared to the rest of the crap that Bollywood churns out every year. The film had a very great potential. Tabu was great in her performance.
Negatives: Though the initial part of the film had a great story evolving, the things changed towards the end; it plummeted from the great altitude where it was soaring high, because the director in an effort to move the audience to tears once again dumped all suffering on the protagonist, and even went to the extent of ridiculous plot developments to achieve his goal. I say that this film is an example of a great potential lost due to the immaturity of the director and writer.
5) Water (2005) - 6.5/10 (Director: Deepa Mehta)
Positives: More than the film, the circumstances surrounding it made it more interesting. The best thing about the film is the fact that this film was eventually made; it should serve as a tight slap to those fundamentalist Hindu organizations who have no respect or understanding for art, understandably so, because their members and leaders are after all fanatics and ignorant philistines. The settings of the film were great, but I should also mention that in spite of having all the modern facilities and color films, it won't stir in you the same joys as of the lyrical art house favorite 'Pather Panchali'. Somehow this film strongly reminded me of R.K.Narayan's novel, "Waiting for the Mahatma," possibly because of interweaving the plots with Gandhi and India's independence movement. My favorite line from the film is where Shakuntala (Seema Biswas) tells Sarala (the child widow) that if God wishes then Patiraji will hopefully be born as a man in her next life -this, to me, summarized all the plight and suffering of the widows and their desires to live a free life, in a very beautiful way.
Negatives: She had to force in that 'Piya Ho' song! Didn't she? How much would she have lost if she hadn't included that song? All I can say is that she killed her chances at the Oscars because of such songs forcing their way into the movie! I believe that in most cases, taking resort to the lyrics of a song to convey ideas and feelings of the subject is an artistic failure for the director. Also the dialogue was sometimes kiddish. However this film might leave an uninformed viewer with very wrong notions about Hinduism, and many may end up believing that most Indian widows still have to live in similar conditions. In context of India, economic hardship of women is not necessarily a strong fighting point for feminists, because it has much to do with prevalent poverty than to pure oppression by males.
6) Black (2005) - 4/10 (Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali)
Positives: Although it is a welcome departure from the usual Bollywood melodrama, it is after all it is an adaptation of Hellen Keller's autobiography, The story of my life. Great acting by the little girl.
Negatives: Not original, therefore unsuitable for much competition.
7) Dhoop (2003) - 5.5/10 (Director: Ashwini Chaudhury)
Positives: Quite a nice film.
Negatives: It couldn't fly too high because of the same reason as that of Satyajit Ray's 'Ganashatru', well presented film, but didactic in approach- a few virtuous men against the rest of the world.
8) Chak De India (2007) -1/10 (Director: Shimit Amin)
Positives: A different kind of a storyline. 'Chak De India' song became quite popular I would say.
Negatives: Naive presentation, contrived plots. It seemed like the Director thinks that he can prove himself patriotic by making fellow Indians gulp down a sugar-coated pill of lies. Our sport teams are really so hopeless that we can only hope to win the World Cup in our movies, and strangely enough people seem to enjoy that fake glory and walk out of the theaters as proud Indians.
9) Lagaan (2001) - 2/10 (Director: Ashutosh Gowarikar)
Positives: Good songs and dance, enjoyable for entertainment.
Negatives: One man's battle against the entire of British regiment of a princely state. The storyline is basically silly, but it was presented in a way so as to make Indians love it; we all savored this big fat lie like a delicious chocolate cake and then thanked Mr. Gowarikar for it!
10) Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001) - 0/10 (Director: Anil Sharma)
Positives: There isn't anything positive about this movie, it is disdainfully crappy from the start to the end.
Negatives: It is a wastage of time, like all other Sunny Deol movies.
Some other movies that I am going to grade without discussing why I chose these numbers to save my time are:
11) Munnabhai MBBS - 0.5/10
12) Kal Ho Na Ho -1.5/10
13) Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham -1/10
14) Koi Mil Gaya -1/10
15) Kaho Na Pyar Hain -0.5/10
16) Hum Tum -1/10
17) Border - 1/10
18) Kuch kuch hota hain -0.5/10
19) Dil Se - 1/10
20) Roja -5/10
Two other Indian films in English:
A) Mr. & Mrs. Iyer (2002) - 5.5/10 (Director: Aparna Sen)
Positives: Another film that I hoped will knock some sense into the heads of the contemporary Bollywood directors. Konkona was good in her performance.
Negatives: Though it is a pleasant movie, it is not too great. Overall, it simply isn't the kind of film that can simply sweep one off his feet.
B) 15 Park Avenue (2005) - 5/10 (Director: Aparna Sen)
Positives: Good storyline, great acting by both Konkona and Shabana Azmi.
Negatives: Couldn't have a more weird and abrupt ending! An open ending should also end gracefully rather than something that looks like, 'Ok, time's up, end immediately!'
1) Rang De Basanti (2006) -1/10 (Director: R.P.Mehra)
Positives: You can play the songs at some party or cultural programs and people will love them, maybe even dance to the tune.
Negatives: Absolutely hopeless construction and presentation of the storyline, extremely contrived and stretches way beyond the boundaries of rationality and often resorts to naive styles in plot developments. This film should have never been nominated by the Indian Govt. for the Academy Awards' category of the Best Foreign Language Film. Not surprisingly it wasn't shortlisted. It was also nominated for BAFTA awards, where it thankfully lost heavily to Pan's Labyrinth, an amazingly rich and artistically talented fantasy film from Mexican director Del Toro.
2) Devdas (2002) - 0/10 (Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali)
Positives: Retains the Bollywood trend of songs and dance in gorgeous costumes and locales, so it is good as long as it is kept out of sight from the international film critics to save Bollywood some embarrassment. But the culturally and aesthetically retarded committee working on the behalf of the Indian Govt. chose to nominate it for the Academy Awards.
Negatives: This film should serve as an example of how badly Bollywood can mutilate a great novel for commercial purposes and entertaining the masses. It is a sick movie.
3) Swades (2004) - 1.5/10 (Director: Ashutosh Gowarikar)
Positives: Mellifluous music. Good acting by the supporting actors, esp the lady who played the role of Shah Rukh's ex-governess.
Negatives: Too unrealistic and didactic, the film relies on incessant fingering of the audience's nostalgia, hoping to be able to make them emotional. The film director seemed to be too pretentious and wrongly over-confident about the nobility of making a film that would perhaps parade around like a great moral book and the epitome of nationalism.
4) Chadni Bar (2001) -3.5/10 (Director: Madhur Bhandarkar)
Positives: A great film when compared to the rest of the crap that Bollywood churns out every year. The film had a very great potential. Tabu was great in her performance.
Negatives: Though the initial part of the film had a great story evolving, the things changed towards the end; it plummeted from the great altitude where it was soaring high, because the director in an effort to move the audience to tears once again dumped all suffering on the protagonist, and even went to the extent of ridiculous plot developments to achieve his goal. I say that this film is an example of a great potential lost due to the immaturity of the director and writer.
5) Water (2005) - 6.5/10 (Director: Deepa Mehta)
Positives: More than the film, the circumstances surrounding it made it more interesting. The best thing about the film is the fact that this film was eventually made; it should serve as a tight slap to those fundamentalist Hindu organizations who have no respect or understanding for art, understandably so, because their members and leaders are after all fanatics and ignorant philistines. The settings of the film were great, but I should also mention that in spite of having all the modern facilities and color films, it won't stir in you the same joys as of the lyrical art house favorite 'Pather Panchali'. Somehow this film strongly reminded me of R.K.Narayan's novel, "Waiting for the Mahatma," possibly because of interweaving the plots with Gandhi and India's independence movement. My favorite line from the film is where Shakuntala (Seema Biswas) tells Sarala (the child widow) that if God wishes then Patiraji will hopefully be born as a man in her next life -this, to me, summarized all the plight and suffering of the widows and their desires to live a free life, in a very beautiful way.
Negatives: She had to force in that 'Piya Ho' song! Didn't she? How much would she have lost if she hadn't included that song? All I can say is that she killed her chances at the Oscars because of such songs forcing their way into the movie! I believe that in most cases, taking resort to the lyrics of a song to convey ideas and feelings of the subject is an artistic failure for the director. Also the dialogue was sometimes kiddish. However this film might leave an uninformed viewer with very wrong notions about Hinduism, and many may end up believing that most Indian widows still have to live in similar conditions. In context of India, economic hardship of women is not necessarily a strong fighting point for feminists, because it has much to do with prevalent poverty than to pure oppression by males.
6) Black (2005) - 4/10 (Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali)
Positives: Although it is a welcome departure from the usual Bollywood melodrama, it is after all it is an adaptation of Hellen Keller's autobiography, The story of my life. Great acting by the little girl.
Negatives: Not original, therefore unsuitable for much competition.
7) Dhoop (2003) - 5.5/10 (Director: Ashwini Chaudhury)
Positives: Quite a nice film.
Negatives: It couldn't fly too high because of the same reason as that of Satyajit Ray's 'Ganashatru', well presented film, but didactic in approach- a few virtuous men against the rest of the world.
8) Chak De India (2007) -1/10 (Director: Shimit Amin)
Positives: A different kind of a storyline. 'Chak De India' song became quite popular I would say.
Negatives: Naive presentation, contrived plots. It seemed like the Director thinks that he can prove himself patriotic by making fellow Indians gulp down a sugar-coated pill of lies. Our sport teams are really so hopeless that we can only hope to win the World Cup in our movies, and strangely enough people seem to enjoy that fake glory and walk out of the theaters as proud Indians.
9) Lagaan (2001) - 2/10 (Director: Ashutosh Gowarikar)
Positives: Good songs and dance, enjoyable for entertainment.
Negatives: One man's battle against the entire of British regiment of a princely state. The storyline is basically silly, but it was presented in a way so as to make Indians love it; we all savored this big fat lie like a delicious chocolate cake and then thanked Mr. Gowarikar for it!
10) Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001) - 0/10 (Director: Anil Sharma)
Positives: There isn't anything positive about this movie, it is disdainfully crappy from the start to the end.
Negatives: It is a wastage of time, like all other Sunny Deol movies.
Some other movies that I am going to grade without discussing why I chose these numbers to save my time are:
11) Munnabhai MBBS - 0.5/10
12) Kal Ho Na Ho -1.5/10
13) Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham -1/10
14) Koi Mil Gaya -1/10
15) Kaho Na Pyar Hain -0.5/10
16) Hum Tum -1/10
17) Border - 1/10
18) Kuch kuch hota hain -0.5/10
19) Dil Se - 1/10
20) Roja -5/10
Two other Indian films in English:
A) Mr. & Mrs. Iyer (2002) - 5.5/10 (Director: Aparna Sen)
Positives: Another film that I hoped will knock some sense into the heads of the contemporary Bollywood directors. Konkona was good in her performance.
Negatives: Though it is a pleasant movie, it is not too great. Overall, it simply isn't the kind of film that can simply sweep one off his feet.
B) 15 Park Avenue (2005) - 5/10 (Director: Aparna Sen)
Positives: Good storyline, great acting by both Konkona and Shabana Azmi.
Negatives: Couldn't have a more weird and abrupt ending! An open ending should also end gracefully rather than something that looks like, 'Ok, time's up, end immediately!'
posted by Soumya Sen @ 1:53 PM
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