The Bollywood Thread

[chonies]

Bumping...

Netflix has delivered me two Bollywood classics. Barsaat (1949) has excellent music but the cheapish production really took me out of the film, and by cheap, I mean driving scenes where the car just kind of bounces up and down while scenery goes past on a scroll, and you can tell. Lots of Orson Welles-y angles, and Raj Kapoor is Filled With Angst. Oh, Nargis nose-acts, and goes through so many ordeals I got whiplash. BUT great music (for a long time, I knew it only as the B-side to my Shree 420 tape) and the sub-story was actually pretty sad.

I'm watching Mughal-e-Azam now, and I would definitely recommend it to any fan of Jodha Akbar, as well as classics in general. The disc I have is colorized, but its not distracting at all.

Any interesting recommendations or must-avoids from the past year or so?

[MrsCatHead]

watching this thread cuz I've renewed my interest in Bollywood films.

[ishtarzana]

I saw "3 Idiots", while I was in Mumbai last month. I dug my heels in about going, and it wasn't captioned in English. But it was amazingly good. I could see how Aamir Khan's character had grown up but was still very much the same child in some ways. The pressures of college/parental expectations in students was an important storyline, I felt.
I'm hoping to go see "Rann" next week, here in Seattle (well, Totem Lake if you live here) as the reviews have been really good. It's not a song and dance Bollywood movie. If I want to see that I'll go see "Chance pe Dance", which didn't have good reviews but it has a chestful of Shahid Kapur in it...so who needs good reviews...lol.
I saw "Kaminey" recently, it was good. I thought Priyanka Chopra was great in that. I found the story to be a little confusing at first, not realizing Shahid was playing twins. My fault for not paying attention.
I rewatched "Rang de Basanti" last week. As with most of my Aamir Khan viewings, I find him appealing in the first half, not so much after the intermission.
Last night I watched "Life In A....Metro." I thought it was a good movie. Konkona Sen Sharma and Irffan Khan were really good. The different love stories were decent. I thought Shilpa Shetty was quite believable, but anytime I saw Shiney Ahuja all I could think of was his real life rape charges. The band/music interludes tho, I fast forwarded through them. Ech.
Netflix 'watch instantly' has a decent chunk of movies from last year.

[spycandy]

I loved 3 Idiots. I thought it was one of the best movies of the year, and I wasn't that enthused about seeing it at first either.

[ishtarzana]

I saw Chance pe Dance this weekend, and it wasn't too bad. I watched it with 6 other women (3 of which are not familiar with Shahid or Bollywood) and OY, the squeeling!

[MrsCatHead]

I'm sick so I'm home all day and in bed. I watched the incredibly long Devdas and just cried my eyes out. Also, it made me angry. But it was purdy and has one of my fave Bollywood dance sequences (Dola re dola).

[eclair]

Jonathan Ross had Shah Rukh Khan as one of his guest tonight, and SRK was hilarious. He talked about how he won't kiss on screen or ride horses. Then he ended up giving John Barrowman a kiss on the cheek.

[spycandy]

I saw SRK on Jonathan Ross! I loved when he kissed John and John promptly fell over on the sofa. Still haven't seen My Name is Khan, but I've heard it's fantastic

[MrsCatHead]

If a friend hasn't seen ANY Bollywood films, what would you suggest showing her? It'll be Girls Night In, if that helps.

[Mutagen]

Is anyone else watching Anil Kapoor on 24? I generally find that show borderline hilarious, but he's quite good. And not just because of his hair. He even got a great moment of badassery last night!