The past few months have added more hindi movies to my experience as compared to the number and variety of hindi films I have seen in the past few years put together. I thought it was a good idea to write the names down, more for my reference given my bad memory with names. [Be it of books, movies or people J] And it might even help somebody with an interest to pick (what I think to be better) hindi movies. And if you are one of those who consider the previous sentence to be paradoxical, then go away. What follows is of no interest to you.
1. Utsav – An interesting movie with two gorgeous looking women playing the lead, one as the wife & other as ‘the other woman’ as you would say in hindi. It is amusing to see Amjad Khan playing Vatsyayan, the author of Kama sutra peeping around to catch inspiration to sketch & write. Loved two songs Sanj savere & aadhi raat ko in the movie.
2. Khosla ka ghosla – A satire on the situation with buying property in India today. Anupam Kher plays a middle class man retired from work. The story is his journey accompanied by friends & family in claiming his land as his. Quite funny with a reasonable star cast. Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Navin Nischol & Ranvir are quite good in their roles.
3. Life in a metro – Pretty good movie except for the annoying band that is desperate to show itself throughout the movie. The background score is not bad, but seeing those guys sing on bikes and railway terminals and everywhere else is no fun. Konkana Sen & Irfan Khan are awesome. Shilpa Shetty strangely seemed to act well too. Nafisa Ali & Dharmendra are awfully cute. Kangana Ranaut befits her role quite well, she was a major disappointment in gangster but doesn’t do much talking in this movie. Kay kay is good as usual.
4. Salaam e Ishq – This film flopped at the box office, but I quite liked it. Its towards the long side but I think it is a reasonably decent movie to watch. Ayesha has potential, Akshay despite his occasional overacting is quite hilarious, Priyanka is quite good – I think I liked her for the first time in this movie where she is actually acting, Govinda is not bad. If I had a choice I would have completely erased John Abraham & Vidya Balan’s story from the movie. Sohail Khan is a born comedian. Hats off to whoever wrote the dialogues between the newly wed couple Sohail & Isha. Anil & Juhi do justice to their roles. The two new women are quite good too. It’s a bollywood masala movie with song sequences & dances.
5. Traffic signal – This is about life around a Bombay traffic signal and no. of people who make a living out of those red lights that bring business. It is not the usual Madhur Bhandarkar film – at least not as strong as Page 3, Corporate (which I didn’t like) or Chandni Bar, it is more to the lighter side. If a firangi (foreigner) is going to visit India for the first time, I would recommend watching this movie.
6. Chak de India – This is definitely a director’s movie. After Ab tak chhappan , Shimit Amin’s second movie did not fail my expectations. The annoying thing about Shahrukh Khan is that the stardom he carries obscures everything & eventually gives a superman feel to all his roles. This movie however, did not do that. The movie has 16 women; (all new comers I think) constitute a hockey team. The choice of women renders a realistic view unlike the usual pick of pretty models decked in makeup (even on a field) in a commercial bollywood movie. The language, humour & attitude reflecting the regional behaviorisms are carried out well.
7. Honeymoon Travels – This was an okay movie. I liked the idea that people are trying different things in Bollywood. The representation of minority in mainstream hindi movies is usually as helpless or as being the laughing stock. To just see them as normal people in this movie was a pleasant change. The cast include Kay kay Menon, Shabana Azmi & Boman Irani. Also worth mentioning is that this is possibly the first Indian movie with a majority of women crew including camera person, director, asst director (3 levels deep) & choreographer.
8. Partner – I don’t like David Dhawan, I did not like Govinda in the past and I definitely did not like Salman + David Dhawan combo: Biwi No 1 was a little too much for me to take. However, despite all that watching the trio together (after much resistance on my part) wasn’t bad. In fact it was funny. I have a new found respect for both Govinda & Salman Khan. Both their characters could not have been played better or different by anybody in Bollywood today. Katrina Kaif looks sexy like always in the movie and Lara Dutt pretty. However, any young pretty face in Bollywood could have replaced them and the movie would have been just the same. Of course there are some classic David Dhawan moments in this movie like a little whiz kid making a rocket that can chase its target through air, water changing course & direction. My favorite part is Salman Khan talking in “Chinese” to the bus driver in Phuket.
9. Chini kum – Short & funny with a ~60 yr old Amitabh falling in love with 35 yr old Tabu and asking her hand in marriage to ~55 yr old Paresh Rawal (Tabu’s father). Amitabh looks very cute in his pony tail. My favorite character though is the lady who plays Amitabh’s mom. She is brilliant. Not the usual bollywood movie and so no songs & dancing around London’s eye.
10.Yun Hota Tho Kya hota – This is Naseerudin Shah’s first direction and he says the reason he made this movie is because he wanted to be able to tell the cast “Action” and “cut”. Oh well. The movie was an okay movie. It started out as a light & occasionally funny movie with a couple of separate stories and ended on a much more serious note.
11. Iqbal – I had liked Nagesh Kukunoor’s Deewarein and so I picked his next movie Iqbal. The cast is brilliant – the lead played by Shreyas Talpade, his little sister, his mother & father, his coaches Naseeruddin Shah & Girish Karnad are all great in their roles. Definitely a good movie.
12. Junoon – Roshan has a blog entry dedicated to this.
Some good but disturbing movies I watched include Maya, 15 Park Avenue (too much of a drag towards the end), Salaam Bombay, Khamosh pani aka silent waters , Water & Earth.
Wishlist includes Dor, Hey Baby (Akshay Kumar’s full monty – can’t miss it), Laaga Chunari Mein Daag among others.
Update (Sep 9): I saw Hey baby and it is bad. Hopefully that will save some prospective viewers.