flixtime

Link to [PART 1] aka "If you enjoyed the movie "Gandhi" I highly recommend........" of this thread follows:

Bollywood-Hindi-Indian films [PART 1] - aka "Gandhi" thread



The next film I plan to watch will be Hathyar - a gangster film starring Sanjay Dutt - but until then, I thought that I'd start things off in this new [PART 2] thread, by posting the following brief Bollywood-related article I found on IMDb.com:

Bollywood to Produce Cross-Over (It Hopes) Musical

Hoping finally to find a market for its movies in the U.S., Bollywood is producing a new version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that will be set in India, the U.K. and the U.S., the BBC reported today (Thursday). The film will be directed by Gurinder Chadha, who helmed the British hit Bend It Like Beckham. "This film will combine the spectacular visual extravagance of Bollywood with commercial Western storytelling," Chadha told the BBC. She said production is due to start in March of next year.

darius

Hey flixtime, thanks for your response. I kinda agreed that the boyfriend-girlfriend story (Hrishita Bhatt / Jimmy Shergill) was really fun but I assumed before watching the film that it would be R. Madhavan (the singer)'s movie - so in that retrospect I wasn't disappointed. Besides the music was so awesome that I wasn't looking forward to any story at all!!

Ok on to Hathyar which I just saw yesterday. In a brief summary it is no better than your average gangster film. It has a typical storyline, with the predictable amount of acting, and a typical non-surprising climax. But HOLY ####, it's friggin' violent!! Guys, you won't believe the amount of blood and gore in this film - Sanjay Dutt does go over the top and kill atleast 100 people, most without any justification.

And while Dutt has done these roles in the past, he's still pretty good in the role. In Vaastav (which was way too overrated) he actually brought a new angle to this character (his drug addiction) - which was rare to Bollywood. In here, there's no such angle, and he's just a vicious psychopath on a rampage - which is still cool! Another pluspoint of the movie is that the story is given a mature and sensitive direction (no silly comedy bits or insane amounts of songs) and the plot zooms by really quick. The movie is also very short at only 139 minutes.

In short, while this is no Company or even Satya, Dutt brings a good amount of dramatic starpower to his character, and there's enough violence to satisfy even the most sceptic action fan. It's a well done gangster movie, even though we've seen the story way too many times in the past. It's atleast worth a rental, and I might even buy it - when Indiaweekly has it for $5.99 or less!

By the way, if you guys like this - you might want to check out the film's predecessor - Vaastav. I thought it was barely ok, but people rave about the film and Dutt's performance in that film one him his first (and only) Best Actor award.

flixtime

darius, thanks for the review of Hathyar. As for its predecessor Vaastav, I think we are in agreement on that film. I thought it was a respectable gangster film but no more (not what I would consider a classic (as I had heard mention) and certainly not in the same category as Satya and Company). Keep in mind that I saw Vaastav after seeing both Satya and Company so I think any other gangster film would pale in comparison to those two. I'm looking forward to Hathyar and won't be going into it with the unfair expectations of seeing another Satya or Company.

Just curious since you're more in the know than I, what lead you to that assumption (trailer, etc.)? I don't recall ever seeing R. Madhavan before so that is why I was a little surprised that his story received so much play (plus I thought he was just so-so in the role). Is he someone of note?

And finally, since I (and darius too) posted a short list of our favorite Bollywood films in another thread in the Movie forum, I just thought I'd repeat the list here.

I do acknowledge that my Bollywood film experience is still rather limited, nonetheless, here are my top 4 (in no particular order):
The Legend of Bhagat Singh
Lagaan
Satya
Company

I'd be interested in seeing what some others would list as their all-time favorites (maybe top 5 or top 10, or even more if that is the case).

darius

R. Madhavan is actually a North Indian (who speaks Hindi as his primary language), but is a Tamil superstar in the Tamil Film Industry. He's as big as someone like Hrithik Roshan (or even Shahrukh Khan possibly) in the South. He's only made one hindi film - last year's "Rehna Hai Terre Dil Mein". The film was a decent romantic comedy, but the main girl was superhot - Diya Mirza from "Tumko Naa Bhool Payenge". Saif Ali Khan was pretty good in it aswell.

I've heard about Dil Vil Pyar Vyar along time ago, back when they announced it last year. It was initially a very big tribute to R.D. Burman, and the initial rumours were that Madhavan would play a Burman-like character, who's married to a much famous singer (in real life it was singer Asha Bhosle). Then the other stories were added in later. And if you look at the commercials, Madhavan and Namrata Shirodkar (his wife in the film) were always visible so I assumed it would be their story. Before watching the film, I thought that the Madhavan portions and the other brother-sister portions would be the best (cause they're the most dramatic), but like you I thought that the Jimmy Shergill portions were the best, and the most fun. I also wish that that story was given more weight. Yeah none of the actors did particularly great, but they did a decent enough job - no one was annoying.

And perhaps you were bored by the two singers' storyline because you just witnessed it in a much better story - SUR. To tell you the truth, if you want to check out the original film, which these movies copy from, you have to see a '70s film called Abhimaan starring Amitabh Bachchan and his real-life wife Jaya Bachchan. AB plays a famous singer who meets and marrries a girl and then persuades her to sing. Of course she becomes more famous than him, and his jealousy breaks their marriage apart. The movie features some pretty good song and some amazing acting from then newcomer Amitabh. Jaya's pretty good in it too.

flixtime

Thanks darius for the detailed explanation. I had no idea that R. Madhavan was already an accomplished actor (I actually thought he was entirely new to the industry and perhaps this was his first film), I understand now why his character and story was given so much airtime. Perhaps the story would have been been better-served if the dramatic portions were executed in a more "artsy" manner such as in the film Sur as opposed to being delivered as mainstream Bollywood entertainment.

I'll check out my local shops for Abhimaan. Though given my past experiences with trying to track down some of these older films, I don't hold out much hope. But maybe I'll get lucky for a change.

SamirS

I have not seen it mentioned so i thought i would one of my favorite indian gangstar movies is agneepath featuring Amithab Bachchan and Danny. By the way great threat keep it up

jmcnally

I just rented Mohabbatein and am looking forward to watching it this weekend. I'm sorry, I'm a bit of a sap for the romantic/sentimental films and haven't really watched many of the gangster films you mention. Has anyone seen this one, though? I've heard good things about it but it was also dismissed as sentimental, etc. I love Shahrukh and am looking forward to seeing Amitabh in something newer. I'll try to keep contributing to the thread but it's hard for me to find the time to watch too many films these days, especially 3-hour Indian films!

flixtime

Welcome aboard SamirS! Thanks for de-lurking; it's always a pleasure to hear from someone new.

I've heard of Agneepath but haven't watched it yet. It is one among a few of the older Amitabh Bhachan films that I would like to see. The others being Shakti, Deewar, Zanjeer, Don, and Aakhree Raasta. Unfortunately for me, Shakti is the only one I've found that is available locally (in shops) with English subtitles. The others are on the shelf too but they are initial-release versions without subtitles.

Mohabbatein is also one of the films I've been meaning to get to. Everytime I think that I'll finally get around to renting it, I end up renting one of the newer just-released DVDs (not that Mohabbatein is old).

jmcnally, any contribution you can make is always appreciated. I understand your struggle with trying to find the time to fit in a Bollywood film, although you seem to have done a good job with finding the time to watch Mohabbatein (it's over 3 1/2 hours long! - come to think of it that's probably another reason I haven't yet gotten around to watching it). I've had a pretty good run on Hindi film viewing this last couple of months but I have a feeling my Bollywood film viewing might diminish somewhat due to the Holiday season approaching, plus (hopefully) some good films will be released in theaters over the next couple of months. Also I've got some catching up to do on some recent U.S. DVD purchases. Despite that, I'll, of course, still fit in Bollywood films. And on that note, I'll be watching Hathyar this weekend and I'll post my thoughts in a few days at the latest. Let us know what you think about Mohabbatein, maybe a from you on the film will motivate me to check it out sooner.

flixtime

I watched Hathyar this past weekend and must say that I enjoyed it quite a bit. Though certainly not in the same league as Satya or Company, based on the gangster films that I have seen, I would easily rank Hathyar in a second tier below Satya and Company. While there is nothing really extraordinary, unique, or unpredictable about Hathyar, for some reason the film just "worked" for me. Despite the short 2:19 runtime, the film still managed to retain an epic feel (the film moved along at an average pace, not too fast and not too slow). I thought the opening of the film was very well done; I don't know if my recollection of the beginning of Satya and Company is correct but when I watched the opening of Hathyar I thought it reminded me of those films. I very much enjoyed the opening song & dance number, as well as a later song & dance number with Sanjay Dutt's character and his entire gang in their hideout/hangout. Everyone seemed to be having a great time in those two numbers and it brought a smile to my face watching it (FYI: I really liked the Golimaar (sp?) number from Satya too). As you would expect with a gangster film, the body count is pretty high, yet the film isn't too dark as the violence is not too "ugly". The violence is delivered in more of a "fun/action movie" type of way. Hathyar is a sequel to Vaastav and though I am not as big a fan of Vaastav as some others, it was nice to see many of the same sets used again. There was not a lot of depth to the characters or story - especially early on - but it didn't bother me in the least. Come to think of it, given that Hathyar is a mainstream Bollywood film (and not an art film), I'd have to say that the "bones" of the story did have enough "meat" on them to make it acceptable; there was quite a bit of information (re-capping all the events since Vaastav) which had to be conveyed to the audience and any in-depth presentation of the story would have taken away from the focus on action and would have lengthened the film to an ineffective longer running time. The "outline" presentation of the story with many short scenes was effective and assisted in giving the film the epic feel which I liked. As far as the actors go, Sanjay Dutt was good in a role in which he should be very comfortable by now; the rest of the cast was average to good (except for - in a very minor role - the little girl who played Dutt's kid, she was smiling too much in scenes where she shouldn't have been smiling (must have been the producer's kid)). I can readily accept those who might feel that Hathyar is just a run-of-the-mill gangster film, but personally I'd have to say it measurably surpassed my expectations and I enjoyed it much more than its predecessor Vaastav. When I finally get around to it, I will certainly add Hathyar to my collection and would strongly consider adding Vaastav too just based on how much I enjoyed Hathyar.

darius

awesome, we agree yet again flixtime!!! You just HAVE to see Mohabbatein now

on Hathyar, yeah man just wait for the price to go down at Indiaweekly. Did you know that alot of movies released by Eros ALWAYS go down in price over there.... I bought Indian (Sunny Deol) for $12.99 when it first came out and now it's 5.99. Luckily I bought Maa Tujhe Salaam (again Sunny) for $4.99 so that made my day. I'm pretty sure that Hathyar will go down in price really soon - I'd say January-February then we can buy it. I realize that these copies *may* be used, but they work perfectly fine on my dvd players.

oh and if you liked this Hathyar, you should check out the other "Hathyar", also starring Sanjay Dutt, and Sunny Deol's father - Dharmendra (the guy from Sholay). It's a much better gangster movie and it's the only urban movie directed by J. P. Dutta (who made REFUGEE and BORDER). Basically Dutt plays a reckless punk who comes to the city with his father. A lot of bad situations happen which eventually leads to his father's death and Dutt then joins the local gang and becomes the right hand man to the big boss (Dharmendra). The story is very very good, and the film focuses on a lot of the drama instead of violence (which is miniscule compared to the new film). Dutt was quite young back then (and looked VERY VERY different - almost as thin as Edward Norton) but was quite convincing as a young reckless gangster wannabe. I would say that film displayed some of his best acting ever - and he was 20-something at the time. The film is quite old (1989) and I don't even know if it's available on DVD but it's worth tracking down.

oh and btw - Hathyar means weapon.

now onto the next bollywood releases - Jeena Sirf Merre Liye, and Wah Tera Kya Karna. AVOID ANNARTH AT ANY COST!!! IT"S A HORRIBLE FILM AND SANJAY DUTT IS ONLY IN IT FOR LESS THAN 20 MINS!!

flixtime

Too bad we're not in charge of trying to bring peace to the Middle East, we'd settle things right quick...............but then I suppose we'd both be assassinated by zealots from either side and things would revert back to the butchery which is going on now. All in all, we'd best stick to movie reviews.

Well since there's nothing that I'm really dying to see, and if DVDTalker jmcnally pops backs in with a quick on his viewing of the film, there's a good chance that I'll give Mohabbatein a spin next.

Yeah, I've noticed that prices on most Bollywood DVDs tend to drop rather quickly. Good for the consumer. Thanks for the FYI that the DVDs may be used copies. Based upon your saying that they play okay, combined with the fact that most of the DVDs I rent - which look like they've been through a war - seem to play okay leads me to have very little concern over purchasing a used DVD (especially at such low prices).

I'm going to be a little tied up for the next 10 days or so, so I doubt I'll fit anything in till then. I'm not sure what will be next, maybe Mohabbatein or the newly-released Deewanajee, or whatever my local shopkeeper happens to have on hand when I stop in.

jmcnally

Well, I just finished watching Mohabbatein tonight. I watched 2.5 hours on the weekend, and the last hour tonight. Overall, it was just ok. The music was really nothing special, in my opinion, and tended to annoy when the theme was insistently played over every scene. Also, the clever "leaves" effect between scenes was clever the first ten times or so, but wore thin. The acting was adequate. The main characters, Shahrukh and Amitabh, had more to chew on than the rest of the cast, but I still found Amitabh just a bit too stone-faced. Not his fault, entirely, as the character is written that way, but it seemed a bit far-fetched that he would be so cold. Shahrukh is just a cool guy, even though I winced through most of his "violin playing."

The younger actors were all likable, and the women were gorgeous (except for Shamita Shetty, who I found a little too brassy. It seems it's her only film role to this point. Anyone know what's happened to her?). But there weren't any particularly well-developed relationships in the film (as opposed to say, Shahrukh and Kajol in KKHH), so I doubt that this film will stick with me the way KKHH has.

As far as music goes, maybe it's just a matter of taste, but ever since I saw Kannathil Muthamittal, with music by A.R. Rahman, I can't get it out of my head. Are there any other good A.R. Rahman-scored films?

So, Mohabbatein would only score a 7 out of 10 from me. I would like to see the younger actors (Jimmy Shergill, Jugal Hansraj, and Uday Chopra) in something else, though, as opposed to the guys from Dil Chahta Hai who mostly suffered from the same arrogance that I despise in guys like Sameer Khan. I like guys who don't take themselves so seriously, which is why I like Shahrukh so much.

darius

jmcnally, you're pretty much on target (IMHO), but you should try watching it again after a while. When I first saw Mohabbatein, I was still reeling with amazement from Mission Kashmir (which came out on the same day) which I saw a day earlier. Suffice it to say that while I loved both Shahrukh and Amitabh, I found the movie derivative of the Yash Raj romantic films, and a little TOO serious and hokey for my tastes. It worked for sure, but it way way too long and some of the characters (heck everybody except for Jimmy Shergill and his girl) could have been taken out. And that annoying Sikh guy bugged me.

However a funny thing happened - I saw the movie yet again in theatres (only because of the Jimmy Shergill storyline and the SRK/Amitabh Storyline) and I ACTUALLY enjoyed it way more this time. I loved it quite a bit, and the movie (despite its long running time) didn't drag at all. Since then I have seen the movie about 7 times now (over 2 years, and keep in mind that I'm a hardcore Bollywood fan) and I really really like it. It's not my favourite Yashraj or Shahrukh film, but its still very good!

However, in the shadow of K3G, Mohabbatein has probably lost most of its appeal. Its like a modern hollywood blockbuster - you were first amazed by Jurassic Park, but then Twister blew you away, and then ID4 killed you, and now Spidey's all the rage!

Nonetheless, I still enjoyed Mohabbatein very much and if you give it time - the acting and songs will grow on you. And the scenes between SRK and Amitabh are worth the price of admission alone - even though both have made much better movies now - especially Amitabh with Aankhen and SRK with Devdas.

Flixtime, instead of renting an unknown newcomer movie, try watching Mohabbatein - pretend it's a like a Hollywood blockbuster and at the very least you'll like it better than Vaastav and Hathyar. Who knows, if you love KKHH, and K3G, you might even end up loving it.

JMCNally, if you like A.R. Rahman's music - you might try watching "Taal", "DIL SE", "Bombay" and "Lagaan". They all feature Rahman's wonderful scores - also "The Legend of Bhagat Singh".

And since you enjoyed "A Peck on the Cheek (sorry I can't spell that movie)", you might aswell watch an earlier movie with the same director and actor and A.R. Rahman - named "Alaipayuthe". The movie is a simple love story with some very good acting and an amazing sound track. And this is the movie that made R. Madhavan a superstar in the Tamil Film industry.

And if you prefer the Bollywood version - "Alaipayuthe" is being remade into "Saathiya" with Vivek Oberoi (Company) and Rani Mukherjee. And there's a very FAMOUS superstar in a guest appearance. The music is the same as the tamil version (again scored by Rahman) but the songs have been translated into Hindi from the Tamil lyrics. The movie's due out in theatres on Dec. 20 so the dvd release should be in January.

Bludhound

Wow, an Indian movie thread. Indiaweekly is the place to buy DVDs. It helped build my out of control collection, with those low prices.

I found Mohabattein to be a letdown. Aditya Chopra needs to redeem himself with his next movie. I think Karan Johar has surpassed Chopra in the art of making the 'family drama' so popular with Indians abroad.

Darius, the movie you're referring to with "A Peck on the Cheek" is Kannathathil Mutthamittal. The DVD is by Ayngaran and has english subs. It's one of the best movies I have seen this year. There are some great movies down south. Alay Paayuthey was great too.

Madhavan is ethincally south indian, but hails for the UP city of Bhopal. He's a natural actor, and I hope he gets more work up North. I loved Rehna Hai Tera Dil Mein and the Tamil original, Minaale.

I'd be interested in feedback with regards to Devdas. I saw in on the bigscreen, and can summarize this movie in one word, baroque. I didn't really care much for it....SRK has done much better work in the past, such as Kabhie Haan Kabhi Naa...

jmcnally

Just wanted to give the thread a bump.

Flixtime, did you watch Mohabbatein yet? What did you think?

mr_jbloggs

If you like A.R. Rahman check out the following site to listen to a couple of songs from the Tamil movie Kaadalan. It was my first introduction to Rahman's work. The movie was dubbed in Hindi and is called Humse hai muqabala and songs were redone in Hindi. Great dance sequences by Prabhu Deva.

Listen to tamil version of a couple of songs Here:
http://www.geocities.com/azhagan_tamil/arrehman.htm


Movie Details:
http://216.247.121.93/datacart/produ...ProductId=1212

flixtime

Hi guys, sorry I've been MIA for the past week or so, been a little pressed for time, and with what little time there was I wanted to take advantage of the limited-time only Westerns discussion going on over in the MovieTalk forum (plus I hadn't watched anything to report on).

Anyway, thanks jmcnally for the review of Mohabbatein. Since you guys sort of pushed me into it, I did watch Mohabbatein. I started it late last night with the intention of watching half last night and finishing it maybe today. For whatever reason, I wasn't too geared up to watch it. However, a funny thing happened. I watched the whole thing last night itself! (all 3 hours and 35 minutes worth). Much to my surprise I really liked it! I found it highly entertaining and involving (I grew to care about the characters), plus I felt that the film moved along at a fairly "breezy (quick)" pace. While I wasn't too wild about the 6 younger characters (especially the girls) at first, they grew on me steadily throughout the film. For such a long movie I did not feel that it dragged to any great degree. The first 1/2 hour was interesting but I thought a tad too "serious/heavy" and I kept hoping things would loosen up a little and become more fun, and that is what happened. I really liked the dramatic scenes between Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bhachan. As I've mentioned my opinion of Shahrukh Khan has been in somewhat of a freefall lately but his stock is back on the rise after seeing his work in this film. That's the Shahrukh I like (when he is a little more restrained and takes it easy with all the head nodding and twitching). While I found nothing exceptional about the 3 young guys performances, they grew on me and I did find them very likable; they delivered what was required of them. Though the 3 girls didn't do much for me (looks or performance-wise), as the film moved along I did care about their characters, so in that way at least they were effective. I understand this film might not have added anything new to the sub-genre but the film still worked for me (perhaps due to the fact that I haven't seen a lot of the older films similar to it). The film steadily gained momentum through and past the intermission, then it sort of coasted along for a while before building again to a strong finish. I really enjoy grand, lavish, and colorful song and dance numbers; the more traditional kind that feature a ton of people dancing on screen. The film delivered at least 3 of these which made me happy (the Holi one with all the colored powders, the "secret" dance at the guys' school where the guys were dressed in black and even the girls' headmistress got into the action, and one towards the end). I can't say that I found any of the songs great but they were effective and certainly enjoyable enough. In other films, I might have had a problem with the elder food stand owner character but I even liked him in the film; he delivered what I was looking for when I thought that the first 1/2 hour of the film took itself too seriously; I felt his scenes helped to keep things moving along quickly. While watching the film, every so often I would think to myself "I hope they don't go in this direction, or I hope they do this" and the movie really came through giving me just what I was looking for. All in all, Mohabbatein will certainly occupy a slot in my growing list of favorites.

I don't usually comment on the DVD quality itself but was it my imagination or did the picture look just a very little bit "squished from the sides", by that I mean that at times the characters/picture looked a very little bit on the tall/skinny side as if someone pushed the picture in on the sides at stretched it by pulling the top and bottom. Also, the subtitles were pretty bad. The font was a little small and some of the words were bunched together. Also during a pivotal dramatic scene near the end, the subtitles to Shah Rukh Khan's dialogue just drop out for 2-3 lines. I got the idea what he was saying but still it was a bad oversight by whoever put the DVD together. What did you guys think of the DVD?

darius (since you mentioned it above), believe it or not, I still haven't seen K3G! I guess I'd better put that high up on my "watch" list.

Also, I did watch Deewanjee with Ajay Devgan (who I like) and Akshaye Khanna (with a runtime of 2 hours and 48 minutes). It's Bollywood's version of the Richard Gere/Edward Norton film Primal Fear; though this version did score some big points with me for taking the story of Primal Fear and moving it further along. Basically, the Primal Fear storyline is completed by intermission and then they carry the story further (sort of a sequel to Primal Fear). Kind of two movies for the price of one. Deewanjee is most definitely a very Hollywood-style movie and it stands up well when compared to the typical Hollywood suspense film. The performances were solid (though not equal to Edward Norton and Frances McDormand's outstanding performances in Primal Fear, but there's certainly no shame in that). Despite the fact that it - generally-speaking - copied alot of it's first half from Primal Fear, I still found the film pretty enjoyable. Actually quite a few of the scenes seemed as if I've seen them in other Hollywood thrillers but I couldn't quite place them. Overall, I thought the Director did a very nice job putting the film together. While I did enjoy Deewanjee, it's not something I would add to my collection (doesn't hold much replay value for me). Basically it's too Hollywood for me. Meaning, if I want to see a film like this I'd be more inclined to pick up something put out by a Hollywood/American studio. I don't know how it did in India but I think Deewanjee is the type of film that might play better for Indian audiences as opposed to NRI/foreign audiences. Not a good example, but I could see the opposite happening with a film like Mohabbatein which might be just a little more highly thought of by foreign audiences when compared to an Indian audience (though I'm sure it played well in India because of the stars). So while I'd give a thumbs up to Deewanjee, it didn't really offer me too much different from what I could see in my local U.S. theater.

Nice to hear from you Bludhound!

I haven't seen Devdas yet (yeah I know I really have to get on the ball and revise my movie selection process - no Devdas, no K3G, and until recently no Mohabbatein). But I have heard quite a few negative things about the film. I'm anticipating that it's one of those films that might cause my currently on the rise opinion of Shahrukh Khan to start going back down. I'm going to hold of for just a while since Shahrukh is back in favor with me.

darius

hey, great hearing from you flixtime!! About SRK, yeah Devdas will kind of annoy you for the first half - as he does the same act during this time. However in the second half, he perfectly embodies the character and you really will get to sympathize with him (and feel his love for Aishwarya Rai) till the final scene.

About K3G, it's awesome, I love it, yet SRK does the same act. If anything - you might enjoy the second half where Hrithik and Kareena take the centre stage. AB is still very good, however he has a poorly-written role which practically makes no sense whatsoever. Still he does a good job with what he got.

However if you enjoyed Mohabbatein, then I'm sure that you'll absolutely love K3G, as it's just a million times more fun - and it doesn't even get half as serious as the previous film. The songs are also much better and better choreographed.

Devdas is worth watching for the lavish production design and the superbly choreographed musical interludes (not to mention the excellent acting), HOWEVER, you must be in a mood for a hardcore drama. Don't expect any comedy in it whatsoever (except for Jackie Shroff's abysmal performance).

and yes about Deewangee - I thought it was ok at best but I wouldn't buy it. The only reason I would have bought it so I can say that I have a movie featuring a villanous turn by Ajay Devgan, however he still isn't THAT great of a villain. And I have a feeling that since this movie was successful in India, Ajay would be taking on more of these type of roles (kind of like what Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar are experimenting with).

jmcnally

darius, I just noticed that you're located right here in Toronto. Can I ask you where you rent/buy your Indian DVDs? Are there any good stores that have original (non-bootlegged) stuff at decent prices?

flixtime

I think I might hold off on watching Devdas for a while but I'm very tempted to give K3G a spin. However, maybe it would be best if I give it some time before watching K3G, just to get a little distance away from Mohabbatein. Or I suppose, maybe watch it next which might make it easier to compare/contrast the two. Decisions, decisions............ I'm also interested in the new Jimmy Shergil film - Kehtaa Hai Dil Baar Baar (also stars one of the girls from Mohabbatein); I think the DVD is coming out next week. Anyway, I'll check back in as soon as I watch something.

darius

jmcnally, i rent (and occasionally buy) most of my dvds from a local neighbourhood dvd store in Scarborough, called S.K. Video. They're located on Birchmount Rd., a couple of blocks south of Ellesmere.

There are alot of neighbourhood video stores which buy/rent original dvds, and these shops are practically located in every major neighbourhood. What area do you live in?

You could also buy from the stores on Gerrard St. (known as India Bazaar), just west of Coxwell, but there are alot of pirates out there so beware.

I would suggest that you buy mainly from online retailers (such as Indiaweekly.com) because the prices in Cdn. $ end up being much higher on average. However you can get some good deals and some prices are more or less the same as the online retailers (ie. for the Yashraj releases or the Spark/Soven releases). However for Eros releases, you should definately buy online, as they end up being much cheaper.

however my recommendation is that you rent alot and then buy selectively (or buy 'em all if you want). Since mainly all stores rent original dvds you can practically go no wrong with renting.

indycohiba

I have really enjoyed the Hindi movies I have seen but have been quickly turned off in purchasing them due to the subpar dvd releases. What movies have been released on R1 or which other ones have a very good video and audio quality? I really wanted to get Satya and Company but have been put-off in buying them because of the reviews about poor quality. EROS wake up!

I am aware of the following R1 releases:

Lagaan
Mission Kashmir
Asoka
Monsoon Wedding

darius

Asoka doesn't exactly feature good video - but it does have AWESOME audio!!

just for audio/video quality, you can check out:

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
Kaho Naa Pyar Hai
any recent release by DEI (they have now gone bankrupt):
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
Ek Rishta
Tumko Naa Bhool Paayenge
Mohabbatein
even Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge isn't in that bad of a shape, especially considering its from 1995.
the new anamorphic releases of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Dil To Paagal Hai

For Eros transfers:
their very best are: Ajnabee (the english sub version), Pyar Ishq Aur Mohabbat

I was satisfied with the Company DVD (get it definately from Indiaweekly when it goes on sale).

flixtime

Hello all, I came across this article over at IMDb.com and just thought I'd post it here for those who might be interested:

Bollywood in Throes of Box Office Disaster

India's Bollywood film industry is experiencing its worst year ever, with only 7-8 percent of its hundreds of releases this year managing to do better than break-even business, the Sunday Times of India reported. The newspaper quoted veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who recently saw one of his own films fail at the box office, as saying, "It is a point of desperation because films aren't doing well and this year has been particularly bad for the film industry. And so obviously producers are tending to sell television rights of their films quickly." Distributor Manoj Desai noted that hardly any films have lasted for than two or three weeks. "A total unfortunate era has started with the film industry," he said. The Times attributed the box-office fall-off to the fact that the industry continues to churn out clones of the same romantic musicals. "Now the Indian audience seems to have become immune to the song-and-drama sequence," it remarked.

flixtime

Back again, I came across this article over at IMDb.com and just thought I'd post it here for those who might be interested:

Oscar Group Disqualifies British Foreign-Language Entry
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has disqualified the Hindi-language film The Warrior as Britain's entry for the foreign-language Oscar because the film is set in Asia, not in Britain. "If The Warrior had been about the Hindi-speaking community in the U.K., it might have got in," Academy spokesman John Pavlik told the British trade publication Screen International. SI noted on its website that the Academy accepted Sweden's Lilja 4-Ever, which was filmed in Estonia.

--Has anyone seen this film yet? It sounds interesting, but I don't think it is available in the U.S. or Canada yet.