Indian movies on TCM: some reviews

Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 08:04:34 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.local.indian
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Someone needs to question what made TCM select some moron from UK as the
"curator" of the festival. This person made some dreadful selections for the
TCM crowd.Also let's sentence that boring Ismail Merchant for a week sifting
through Habshi and JaiMaharaj postings.
Let's take the first week.
DDLJ: Supposedly this is the longest running movie in india according to the
website. Well, all i can say in favor of this movie is that it was one of
the very few Shah Rukh Khan movies that I have found watchable. Let me
repeat .. watchable.. not necessarily very good. And this movie is the
longest running? And while the songs were OK, I don't see anything that
special with the songs. Maybe I would have liked the main song better if
they did not repeat the same damn part of the melody over and over and over.
Visually, the movie wasn't too shabby compared to some of the Hindi movies
of this period.
Bombay: I saw only a few minutes of it. I did not understand why that guy
was emoting so badly amidst crashing waves and sitting near some rocks. The
song, supposedly south indian, in origin sounded weird in Hindi. I had to
watch something else.
Amar Akbar Anthony: After a fun beginning, the movie really reaches down low
to putrid depths. Some of the "comedy routines" were pure torture to watch.
I would have edited out a good hour from the middle. And that main title
song was a joke. "Amaaar, akabar, anTHoneee". It was like watching a
Telemundo movie. Oh yeah, and that lady regaining her sight was a big hoot.
And someone explain to me how the hell does Vinod Khanna not recognize his
mom.
Rangeela: Never saw a Ram Gopal Varma movie until this. The guy is a homey
from my parents state. So I figure that I'll give my homeboy a chance. This
movie was joke in parts. And these songs were lame. No melody. Some half
assed cheap syntheiszers and laughable panting and epileptic moves were used
to create a westernized look and sound . But the songs just lacked the old
hindi song melodies while at the same time, lack the westernized oomph in
the beats of the songs.
Not to mention, Urmila in some old early 80s era tight outfits was hilarious
to watch more than sexy. Her short legs didnt do her any favors in these
clothes. She was more impressive in the Chama Chamma song from CHina Gate.
Supposedly AR Rahman did Lagaan which had much better songs (and a much
better vehicle for Aamir Khan). Poor Amir did the best he could. But the
movie just looked damn cheap. It's amazing how primitive Hindi movies looked
even as recent as 5 years ago. I think the older HIndi movies look visually
better than some of these early 90s hindi movies.
Dil Chahta Hai: My favorite of the series. The acting was excellent for the
most part. Only flaw was this movie could have done without most of the
songs . This movie has no business being a 3 hour plus movie. It should have
been edited down to two and a half hours. I can't see why they couldnt have
made a foreign edit for the movie. Keep the first song, just to please the
Indian audiences' and edit out the remaining songs. Shorten some of the
overlong Amir Khan romantic plot by about 15 minutes and you got yourself a
2 and a half hour movie.
Sholay: Saw this a long time ago. Fell asleep during the middle because it
was too late. It was still engaging even if the movie looks a bit smaller on
scale now.
Awara: about the only movie in this series that has fit the TCM mold. TCM
should have opened the festival with this movie. Visually it doesnt look
inferior to american movies of the same period that are shown on TCM. The
acting was great all around. Nargis did not suffer from stupid retarded fake
sounding giggle syndrome that affects more modern Hindi actresses. Actually
this movie was my favorite of the series so far. There is a maturity in the
filmmaking language of this movie that is badly lacking in many of the other
hindi movies shown in this series so far.