Re: not the usual bollywood crap

by swapna Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:05 pm

bw wrote:
Kris wrote:
bw wrote:watched 'maqbool'. the director has no business calling this a macbeth 'adaptation'. the guy here is driven by love and not by ambition like macbeth was. it is a very loose, flawed adaptation, at best.

in short, a slightly toned down bollywood melodrama. father-son sentimental mush was a bit too much. why are two good actors reduced to providing comic relief? irrrrfan khan is a good actor.

>>> I vaguely remember watching this and doesn't particularly stick out in mind as good work. In general, I am leery of Bollywood adaptations. I agree with you on Irrfan Khan. There was a show that ran for a few weeks on cable in which he plays a middle aged Bengali widower who has come to live with his son and american daughter-in-law. The premise of the show was therapy sessions with a specialist who helps his clients, Khan's character being one of them. He actually steals the show with his natural easy acting.

from what i read of "omkara", it seems the director wanted to ensure commercial success with that one and made sure it had the right elements for that. not too inspired to watch it.

i picked up 'maqbool' from someone's place yesterday. as soon as i saw the DVD, i said "oh, i want to watch this, may i borrow it? do you have omkara too?". unfortunately, she didn't have that but the auntie of the house was so impressed by my sudden interest in and knowledge of bollywood movies that she handed me several more movies. i turned them down claiming lack of time but she insisted that i must watch "atithi tum kab jaoge?". said it is very funny. guess that will be my next movie.

perhaps the "atithi" movie is full of puns of the bhenkatrao kind. please write a review of it here.

by Kris Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:42 pm

bw wrote:
Kris wrote:
bw wrote:watched 'maqbool'. the director has no business calling this a macbeth 'adaptation'. the guy here is driven by love and not by ambition like macbeth was. it is a very loose, flawed adaptation, at best.

in short, a slightly toned down bollywood melodrama. father-son sentimental mush was a bit too much. why are two good actors reduced to providing comic relief? irrrrfan khan is a good actor.

>>> I vaguely remember watching this and doesn't particularly stick out in mind as good work. In general, I am leery of Bollywood adaptations. I agree with you on Irrfan Khan. There was a show that ran for a few weeks on cable in which he plays a middle aged Bengali widower who has come to live with his son and american daughter-in-law. The premise of the show was therapy sessions with a specialist who helps his clients, Khan's character being one of them. He actually steals the show with his natural easy acting.

from what i read of "omkara", it seems the director wanted to ensure commercial success with that one and made sure it had the right elements for that. not too inspired to watch it.

i picked up 'maqbool' from someone's place yesterday. as soon as i saw the DVD, i said "oh, i want to watch this, may i borrow it? do you have omkara too?". unfortunately, she didn't have that but the auntie of the house was so impressed by my sudden interest in and knowledge of bollywood movies that she handed me several more movies. i turned them down claiming lack of time but she insisted that i must watch "atithi tum kab jaoge?". said it is very funny. guess that will be my next movie.

>>>Proceed at your own peril is all I can say. There is an Indian family across the street from us and the lady of the house had been asking if we wanted to go to a shah rukh khan show (or maybe it is a movie) and wanted to buy tickets. I overheard my wife tell her to (please!) not buy one for me. A woman who understands her husband and is protective of him.., wow!

by bw Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:45 pm

swapna wrote:
perhaps the "atithi" movie is full of puns of the bhenkatrao kind. please write a review of it here.

i will.

aside: are you in touch with a certain physics prof that you had talked about a while ago?

by bw Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:52 pm

Kris wrote:
>>>Proceed at your own peril is all I can say. There is an Indian family across the street from us and the lady of the house had been asking if we wanted to go to a shah rukh khan show (or maybe it is a movie) and wanted to buy tickets. I overheard my wife tell her to (please!) not buy one for me. A woman who understands her husband and is protective of him.., wow!

ugh@SRK.

he is the worst of the lot. i can't bear the sight of him. i watched an interview with him as the kolkata iPL team owner and he talked in the melodramatic, bollywood style even there!

your wife is a wise and caring woman. treasure her! Smile

by michelle2 Sat Aug 16, 2014 10:33 pm

bw wrote:
swapna wrote:
perhaps the "atithi" movie is full of puns of the bhenkatrao kind. please write a review of it here.

i will.

aside: are you in touch with a certain physics prof that you had talked about a while ago?

not exactly, but have been wanting to be. i heard interesting news about someone related to him. is that what you have in mind?

by bw Sun Aug 17, 2014 1:29 am

michelle2 wrote:
bw wrote:
swapna wrote:
perhaps the "atithi" movie is full of puns of the bhenkatrao kind. please write a review of it here.

i will.

aside: are you in touch with a certain physics prof that you had talked about a while ago?
not exactly, but have been wanting to be. i heard interesting news about someone related to him. is that what you have in mind?

no. i sent you a note about it.

by Guest Sun Aug 17, 2014 5:45 pm

lunch box.

loved the movie, is gonna keep me depressed for a day or two.

by bw Wed Aug 20, 2014 9:40 pm

swapna wrote:
perhaps the "atithi" movie is full of puns of the bhenkatrao kind. please write a review of it here.

i tried watching this movie last evening. i got to know who ajay devgan is. the story is about an "unkal" from some remote village planting himself at this couple's house forever - the guest who overstays his welcome and pokes his nose into everything. the movie (whatever i watched) was remarkably bad with a generous sprinkling of crude, scatalogical humour and inanity that even a 5 year old may not find amusing and of course, there was no logic or reason. i wasn't expecting the latter but hoped for at least a few laughs. at about 15 minutes into the movie, my older son rushed out of his room and asked me if i am watching a cow die since he heard such sounds! i told him that it was the unkal gargling. he said "oh!"and returned to work with his dad. i soldiered on, thinking of all the lovely meals auntie-ji has treated me to, over the years. i was hoping for at least one scene or line that will make me smile, if not laugh, and then i could truthfully tell auntie-ji that it was "funny". at about 40 minutes into the movie, my younger son came out and joined me in watching the movie. he watched for about 5 minutes, got up, rolled his eyes at me and said "really, mom? and you say *i* should watch only classy stuff" and went back to his room.

by now, the scene was a party at a movie studio (the ajay guy is a script writer) and for some reason, there were always blonde girls in bikinis shaking their wares in the background while some idiotic thing was happening in the forefront. at that point, i had it and pressed stop.

since i was in the mood for an indian movie, i started "bhumika", the shyam benegal movie with a very young smita patil and naseeruddin shah. boy, what a contrast! i hope auntieji doesn't bring up this atithi movie when i meet her next. oh, if there was any humour of the bhenkatrao kind, i missed it.

by MaxEntropy_Man Wed Aug 20, 2014 9:58 pm

i don't quite remember the genesis of bhenkatrao, but from the usage here it seems that it is something regarded as a pun by some, that isn't really a pun. a non-pun that is. did i get that right?

by nevada Wed Aug 20, 2014 10:04 pm

Watched a few more "off-beat" movies recently.
Ankur Arora murder case
B.A.Pass
City Lights

by b_A Thu Aug 21, 2014 3:19 pm

I can;t stand the usual melodramatic or exploring the various aspects of human relations / preachy ~~bollywood~~hindi movies . One of the recent bollywood movie that I watched and liked is "Special 26" . You can guess the plot within 5 minutes and the some can even guess the climax but it is still entertaining and good for a couple of rewinds to watch some of the scenes again for clues that you missed in the first watching. Akshay kumar's doesn't do his usual clownish stuff and his acting can even be termed decent. You can safely fast forward the scenes involving Kajal and the ridiculously long chase by Manoj bajpai a little after the introduction of his character.

by bw Fri Nov 28, 2014 7:51 pm

watched 'ship of theseus'. it is heartening to know that there are more interesting movies being made in india. i was tired of repeatedly listing ray, adoor g, benegal whenever asked for some interesting indian movie suggestions.

while the movie as a whole was a good experience, it did not arrest me enough to watch it in one sitting. i watched it over a couple of days. it consists of three stories about characters dealing with some changes, physical and emotional. the issues they tackle leads to some deep questions about one's identity. i did not find any of the characters real enough. the ending that brings the three characters together was a nice touch.

overall, am glad i watched it. any other recommendations for such offbeat movies from india?

oh, this movie reminded me of "four adventures of reinette and mirabelle" by eric rohmer.

by FluteHolder Fri Nov 28, 2014 7:55 pm

'Lunch box' was okay.

by bw Fri Nov 28, 2014 7:57 pm

FluteHolder wrote:'Lunch box' was okay.

i watched that and liked i. i think it has been discussed somewhere in this thread.

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