Friday, January 2, 2009

Bolly part 2

This is a follow up post to review Hindi movies that i saw last week. And this is the final post for the season.

To sum it up, i am damn impressed by the second set. All the movies have been very good and quite good. I will start with Dasvidhaniya starring the versatile Vinay Pathak. The idea to make a list before one dies is not original but the realization of that idea is brilliant. Add to it three great songs sung by Kailash Kher, and a good direction. But all credit must go to Vinay for delivering it as realistically as i could have imagined.

Mumbai meri jaan, 4 stories centered around train blast in mumbai with a star cast, it is a heavy movie with actors performing as they normally do. Kay kay menon is a delight to watch after a long time but the man to watch out for is Paresh Rawal. This movie is India's answer to Crash. Irrfan Khan's story could have ended better.

Next one was Shyam Benegal's Welcome to Sajjanpur. It was a surprise to see his name associated wit this movie. On some scene it bears his stamp, on some it looks like Shyam is also trying to keep the main stream audience in his mind. Clearly the songs need to be fwded while watching the movie. His depiction of villages is also not as crude as it used to be. May be India's villages have also progressed. Shyam still manages to address some hard issues in the process. But what makes the movie click for me is the ending which definitely gives an aha! moment not by the ending itself but by the fact that he has pulled it off!

And lastly I watched Mithya again. Directed by Rajat Kapoor with Ranveer in the lead, it is a dark comedy done quite nicely. Rajat has perfected the art of delivering good masala comedy movies with twists and turns at every corner. And its like a brotherhood of actors - Vinay, Naseer, Saurabh. If i see one in a movie, after some time, i see the whole brotherhood.

Indian indie-club is coming off quite good now. I also saw Rock on and it was a disaster to me. The ending is like a sugar syrup added to ice-cream which was going to melt anyways. I think 2009 will again be like 2008 and in 2010 Indies will compel these Johars, Chopras and Farha(n)s to change their attitude.