flixtime

Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey (Hindi, 2010) - To expand on my previous post, I did find this thoroughly disappointing on all fronts. The pre-intermission 80-minute opening was flat and dull. It started promisingly enough with some nice opening credits followed by opening narration over a map of India that slowly glides you in to a spot on the map over the town of Chittagong where the action takes place. The opening scene then shows you nine teen-age boys kicking a ball around until they are approached by a body of British soldiers who order them off the land so that the British can use it as a camp. A following scene shows one of the boys slapped around by a British fellow after the boy tries to remove a "No Dogs and Indians Allowed" -type sign. The boys then seek out a local teacher - played by Jr. Bachchan - who is known to be a freedom fighter/revolutionary. We are also introduced to two female characters - one played by Deepika Padukone - and the other played by an actress by the name of Vishakha Singh. We also learn that Jr. Bachchan is the the leader of a group of about seven revolutionaries...all that is remaining of a larger band who are already in jail. One of these seven is played by actor Sikander Kher (who is the son of Hindi actress Kiron Kher, and stepson of actor Anupam Kher). Now I mention all this because this secondary romantic couple - Sikander Kher and Vishakha Singh - were really quite good in their roles (despite Vishakha being a little too glamorous)...and one of my early thoughts was that they should have bumped Jr. Bachchan and Deepika Padukone out of the movie and given the lead roles to Sikander Kher and Vishakha Singh instead. So we spend the opening eighty minutes in cookie-cutter fashion with this band of nine boys, plus two more who are also introduced, Jr. Bachchan and his small group, and the two female characters....and later another 43 boys are recruited to round out our group of 60-something who plan to start a revolution against the British by attacking official British buildings in Chittagong. So you get standard scenes of characters learning to fire weapons and scouting the attack sites...and this all didn't really need to take eighty minutes and even despite that runtime the filmmakers didn't really do much of a job in uniquely developing the characters. Basically a rather snooze-inducing pre-intermission segment. Post-intermission opens with the attack and extended aftermath. I thought the battle/action scenes were rather poorly done...one minute our protagonists seem entirely incompetent while at other times they fight with the skill of elite commandos. Jr. Bachchan was the non-factor I expected he might be...just no presence for this type of role. In general, apart from some limited exceptions, the acting by all involved seem rather stiff and artificial. Even the production/technical values seemed rather mid-grade. I never really got much of a feel of being transported to 1930's India and it felt like most of the performers were play-acting aka they didn't make their characters come to life. I recall the women's field hockey film from a few years back - CHAK DE INDIA - and I recall being impressed by the young female cast members in that film...in contrast the young male cast members in this film failed to impress. I'm actually rather surprised Director Gowariker turned in such a poor effort...but then again I shouldn't be as Indian directors seem to be wildly inconsistent such that I really begin to question if they are indeed the ones who deserve fulll credit when a film is good or if it is more a result of the technical crew, producers, actors, etc.. NOTE: I play along - for simplicity sake - with contemporary acceptance of directors as auteurs (but truthfully I think it is rather a bunch of crock for the most part...but that would be a whole other rant). Anyway, Director Gowariker turned in a rather uninspired effort and really brings nothing new to the table that we haven't seen done better before, and even some of the scenes felt very familiar including the final scene which seemed far too similar to the ending of THE LEGEND OF BHAGAT SINGH. The whole film in general felt like the work of a far more inexperienced director. At least the action/thriller/suspense-oriented second half moved along at a less flat pace, though it too was not well done. The only new point of merit being an actor - who looked like a young Kabir Bedi - who played an Indian army officer working for the British. The non-Indian actors were mostly a non-factor as there really wasn't anyone in a significant role as there was in LAGAAN or MANGAL PANDEY (and MANGAL PANDEY despite not being very good, at least wasn't as flat as KHELEIN HUM JEE JAAN SEY). There wasn't any dancing that I recall, while the music was fine but limited...though the too early placement of the first song - a romantic number - was a poor decision. The end credits of the film were nice too with photographs of the actual freedom fighters on one side of the frame while the actor photograph who featured as the character in the film on the other half of the frame. So, yeah, just rewatch THE LEGEND OF BHAGAT SINGH for a similar experience to this movie, or rewatch LAGAAN...or even MANGAL PANDEY...and you'd have things covered as KHELEIN HUM JEE JAAN SEY is only a fair effort and provides nothing that wasn't done better in earlier movies...or maybe just keep your fingers-crossed that 2011's CHITTAGONG turns out to be a better version of this tale.




To follow-up on some long-ago off-topic discussion, I did finally watch AVATAR...the DANCES WITH SMURFS analogy was entirely too accurate. I thought the movie overall was average-to-good...with the "good" aspect being credited to the impressive technical aspects of the film...aside from that it seemed like a Sci-Fi (or whatever that new abbreviation is) Channel movie...so fair-to-average if it weren't for pouring all the cash into the latest and greatest in movie technology. I actually watched PREDATORS (on Blu-ray!!!) a short time after AVATAR and found PREDATORS to be a more satisfying experience. I also watched the HBO Iraq invasion miniseries GENERATION KILL recently and came away quite impressed, and it again reinforces my belief that HURT LOCKER really wasn't deserving of its accolades. I expect that fans of JARHEAD would quite enjoy GENERATION KILL. So, my position as mentioned sometime in the past, most certainly still holds....Tarantino and INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS got thoroughly robbed at the Oscars.

toddly6666

Flixtime,
Thanks for saving me 20 bucks! I guess it was a good trailer/bad movie movie! And as usual, I agree with all your comments, except what you said about Predators. Since you just saw in recently, you may think it good, but give it time, and it's just as forgettable as all the other Predator sequel films. I liked it a lot right after seeing it in the theaters and even planned on buying the blu-ray. But as a couple months went by, and it came out on blu, I had no desire to see it again.

nitin77

flixtime,

so going by past experiences with bollywood films, I should get out to see this movie ASAP

btw, Generation Kill is also by David Simon, the man behind The Wire. I have that, as well his latest show Treme, on my eventual to watch list.

flixtime

I'd actually be quite pleased if we did indeed find ourselves to be in perfect synch in this regard...it'd make me feel as if my long-winded ramblings here were indeed somewhat useful. In this particular case, if I had to bet on it, I'd actually say this might be an exception and your take on the film might not be too dissimilar to mine...maybe.

Actually GENERATION KILL is a curious case for me because it slipped through my radar almost entirely. It only caught my eye because I was reading some user reviews for THE PACIFIC HBO series at IMDb recently and one of the fellows wasn't overly impressed with it and instead mentioned GENERATION KILL. Now I seem to perhaps have some recall of the title but I really wasn't much aware of it other than that. I might have thought it was some sort of documentary or something like that but I certainly hadn't been aware of the show as being something similar to JARHEAD, otherwise I would have bought it a long while back. So I picked up both THE PACIFIC and GENERATION KILL...since I like war films/shows. And "yes" once I started reading up on GENERATION KILL and saw David Simon's name attached that certainly gave me confidence in making a purchase.

I'll avoid spoilers but maybe just give a little idea as to what to expect with GENERATION KILL. First off, I think the promotional art on the DVD and such is somewhat misleading, and secondly I'd say even the title itself is misleading (they explain the title if you watch the extras after you finish watching the series). The series is more low-key and slice-of-life, and with a general warmth for its characters. It isn't really plot/story driven at all, and it isn't really about story arcs for the characters either. It's more days-in-the-life of this Marine unit as they go from point A to point B during the Iraq invasion. I could see where some folks might find it repetitive after the first few episodes and think the whole thing could have been wrapped up in maybe a few episodes instead of the actual seven. Still, I found it quite fascinating as a peak into the real world of these Marines...and it seemed a fair and balanced portrayal of the military. Actually, the military powers-that-be deserve some credit for allowing the reporter to do this ride-along and write about it in such an unfiltered manner.

And after you're done watching it you can be truly annoying to your friends and family for the following few days by talking in Marine-speak all the time.

And to follow-up on the profanity issue that I kept bringing up in regard to THE WIRE, for whatever reason, I found the profanity aspect of this show to be a more natural element and thus not off-putting as compared to THE WIRE.

And since I'm off-topic, and though I expect you weren't planning on watching ASHES TO ASHES since you didn't care for LIFE ON MARS, I did finish ASHES TO ASHES...it was just okay...if you are curious as to the ending of ASHES TO ASHES (since it offers some explanation as to what everything is about...and thus relates to LIFE ON MARS)...then just let me know and I'll spoil the ending of ASHES TO ASHES for you in this thread (of course spoiler-protected so others planning on watching the show won't have the experience ruined).


toddly, yeah PREDATORS is cookie-cutter and it too can be labelled as Sci-Fi channel material except with a better budget. I think it was a case of me not really expecting much out of it except for it to be an entertaining, see-it-and-forget-it, B-movie...as I experienced with Nimrod Antal's other two Hollywood films - VACANCY and ARMORED. So basically I had some idea of what it might be and the film delivered upon that as best as I could have hoped. I wasn't expecting it to be anything extraordinary or for it to necessarily give new life to the PREDATOR franchise.

nitin77

flixtime,

hang on, I thought the ending to Life on Mars was clear enough? What does AtoA add?

speaking of brit shows, watching Being Human right now which is quite good.

And I just got my blu ray of Dabangg (and Don) so I might actually have some on topic comments soo

flixtime

Uh, ohh, I'm really nervous now because I really liked DABANGG. I certainly don't have any issues when you end up liking a movie I hated, but - even though I know you consult many other reviews/opinions also - I still feel the guilty party when you end up not liking something that I enjoyed. I'm curious to see what you think of DABANGG...I'm not sure it's your thing...you haven't liked some of the fluff that I've been high on such as JAB WE MET. I recall you might already have watched DON (the remake) and I seem to recall you thinking it was decent but not liking it as much as I did.

BEING HUMAN, eh? I think I might have caught a glimpse of it while channel surfing, and although it did catch my attention, I surfed on away because - with the success of TWILIGHT - I'm just avoiding all twentysomething vampire stuff until the dust settles and I can figure out which are the winners - and then which of those might interest me. I value your opinion so I'll make note to try and sample a full episode if they show it again on BBC America. Or, once they get done with the show, and if the quality holds throughout, then I'll just blind-buy any complete boxset-type release they might do. I like to wait for complete sets for TV shows. I almost picked up DEXTER and MAD MEN seasons during the Amazon Black Friday sales, but opted instead to wait until they finish their runs and come out via compete sets.

Okay, here goes with the spoiler talk for ASHES TO ASHES...aka DO NOT READ IF YOU PLAN TO WATCH THIS LIFE ON MARS FOLLOW-UP:


If you want any clarification just ask.


I watched MATRIX IMPOSSIBLE aka INCEPTION and didn't much care for it - average-to-good - for a variety of reasons...didn't think it was especially well cast...it was too long...I certainly didn't find it as "intellectual/intelligent" as the majority of viewers seem to have done...maybe the material is fine for a shorter B-movie or a Sci-Fi anthology show but I thought the movie was rather full of itself overall. It would have been better as a smaller film focusing on DiCaprio, his wife, and Ellen Page, while scaling down the action set pieces and trimming back all the other characters (but I didn't much care for the performances/chemistry of the aforementioned three either, so that is still an issue). In general, too many movies nowadays are just too self-indulgent with bloated runtimes to make them feel more important than they really deserve. I think I'm totally out of touch with the types of films that seem to be winning over the masses, and critics too. You guys know I seem to have had terrible luck with high-profile films over the last few years.

nitin77

I thought Jab We Met and Don were both decent (also have the latter on blu now) but I honestly could not say I found them more than that. I think I just have to adjust my mindset watching indian films.

As for Inception, its flawed for sure, but I loved it. The execution certainly doesnt match the ideas but, for what's essentially a blockbuster, to try those ideas in a reasonable manner is good news in my book.

flixtime

You guys know that RAKHT CHARITRA 2-part movie that just came out (directed by Ram Gopal Varma). It is a based-on-a-true-story tale of the real-world rivalry between two gangster/politicians. Well, it looks like the last remaining half of the rivalry - the real-life guy Suri was just assassinated yesterday.

In the movie, the character meant to represent Suri is played by Tamil actor Surya. And just to be clear, Surya the Tamil actor is perfectly fine. It is the real-world gangster/politician Suri who was assassinated.

toddly6666

Anyone see Guzaarish in here yet? It's on DVD now...Hisss is on DVD too (but I wouldn't spend more than 5 bucks on that film)

zombeaner

Don't spend $5 either, Hisss is terrible. Guzaarish is pretty decent. Somewhat low key for an SLB film. I'll pick it up when is comes to blu-ray. Hrithik Roshan overplays his part a bit, but Aishwariya Rai is very good, and gorgeous, of course.

nitin77

so finally watched Dabangg and ugh, I cant say I liked it.

Its made well enough to not make me call it a bad film but boy is it stupid. I really have to change my attitude towards indian cinema if I'm going to try and watch the massive pile of Bollywood stuff I have

I'm not asking for serious drama, I dont really expect that from bollywood, but does everything have to be really dumb and silly and not have any strain of logic, all passed off in the name of entertaining.

toddly6666

What? Very very good time pass masterpiece. Very good actions. Very good first half. Very very good second half. Super story! Salman has never been so cool. Very good dramas. Very good. Instant classic! Full-on blockbuster!


(I'm just kidding. I haven't seen this film. I'm just doing an Indian review imitation.)

zombeaner

I want to see Dabangg. I've grown the Indian film enjoyment gene. Logic is overrated.

flixtime

nitin, yup, I had a feeling - as mentioned earlier - that DABANGG wouldn't be your cup of tea. Did you like the item number - MUNNI BADNAAM - at least? I love that song!!!

If you are dreading future Hindi viewings, I prescribe that you subject yourself to some South Indian cinema...the Hindi stuff will seem much better after that.



Maybe I simply had my mind wired for it (and too that they followed up some South Indian viewings), but I did rather enjoy a number of recent Hindi viewings:

RED ALERT: THE WAR WITHIN - starring Sunil Shetty, and a runtime under two hours if I recall correctly so less an investment of time if that is an issue.

PEEPLI LIVE - India's Oscar submission was very enjoyable (though I wish they reworked the very end)...sort of a descendent from something like Billy Wilder's ACE IN THE HOLE. Another short runtime of maybe 105-minutes or so.

AAKROSH - the 2010 version...is a straight remake of MISSISSIPPI BURNING with civil rights being replaced by honor killings in North India. Yup, it is pretty much a straight lift of everything from MISSISSIPPI BURNING, but if you can put that aside, I thought it was quite good...they of course toss in more action scenes and some song/dance (including a good item number).

LAMHAA - with Sanjay Dutt wasn't bad either...uneven in tone early on as it drifts between masala action movie and Kashmir issue-oriented social melodrama and even something else that escapes me at this moment...but it settled down later on...and again under two hours if I remember right.

RAKHT CHARITRA 1 and 2 - I quite enjoyed Part 1 and maybe the runtime again was just a shade over two hours. Part 2 had maybe just a slightly longer runtime but fell short of Part 1 because it felt somewhat padded and they made two significant style errors...one, all the actions scenes were presented in slow motion...very annoying....and they use this upside down camera technique which was fine the first time they use, but quite silly the next two-three times they pull out that technique. Also, for the sake of self-preservation, all the gangster/politician types are presented in a positive light...meaning they were simply victims of circumstance like the old Jesse James/Billy the Kid Westerns. But given the complications of presenting a film on these types of people, I can accept that the filmmakers had no choice but to play it safe. Still, they do shape it into a commendable story with the theme of showing a circle of violence and how violence begets violence and will continue to do so...that "eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" saying.


All the above are more serious in subject matter than something like DABANGG.

nitin77

Munni Badnam was ok I guess, I preferred the title song and the slow love song Mast Mast though.

I think when I can finally bring myself to it, Band Baaja Baarat is next.

zombeaner

Saw 7 Khoon Maaf last night. I liked it a lot. I have some relatively minor quibbles, but it was entertaining on the whole. The last ten minutes or so are great!

dvd_freak

Watched 'No One Killed Jessica' on Netflix streaming. A bit melodramatic at times but overall a good effort.

zombeaner

For anyone interested, I have a pretty lengthy review up on Twitch.

ian959

Band Baaja Baaraat is not a bad film, watched it a couple of times in the past week. Thought it a bit more coherent than many Indian films but let down a little by Ranveer Singh I thought and a rather trite ending. One day Indian cinema might realise you don't actually have to tie all the knots together at the end. Could have easily finished 5 minutes or so earlier.

nitin77

thanks for that, might try it this weekend if I'm in the mood.

zombeaner

I have Band Baaja Baarat coming up soon on my playlist. I picked up the blu-ray around Valentine's Day. I've checked out the songs, they are alright, but I've heard nothing but good things about the film.

I just posted a review of the Telugu film Brindavanam over at Twitch. I liked it, but there are WAY too many in-jokes for the casual viewer.

flixtime

ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA (2011 - Hindi) - I loved director Zoya Akhtar's brilliant debut effort LUCK BY CHANCE...if I recall correctly it was a box-office dud. This - her second work - was a box-office hit...I hated it. A rehash of DIL CHAHTA HAI (but not as good) delivered - for all intents and purposes - as a 150-minute infomercial for tourism to Spain...I kid you not...even after hit you play movie on the DVD you get a short thirty seconds or so commercial from some Spanish tourism organization before the start of the movie. This really rubbed me the wrong way. Setting that aside I generally avoid these types of movies (if it were American I wouldn't have bothered with it) so maybe I'm not the right audience. Good for the Akhtar's that they earned from this what they should have gotten on the earlier film. Still, I don't have much tolerance for this type of film...heartless cash-grabbing product for the masses (at least in my book). Also, the first time I recall disliking Hrithik Roshan in a film...didn't care for Farhan Akhtar either...watching characters in their mid-20's act like immature pre-teens gets on my nerves.

Watched the Indian re-working of South Korea's CHASER - MURDER 2. I wouldn't bother with it...that being said someone please take the villain(s) from this film and give them their own movie...that would make me very happy as the villain(s) were tremendous. And on that note, actor Prashant Narayanan is the most promising upcoming (I hope, but I doubt it) actor in Indian cinema....and similarly the now Mrs. Anurag Kashyap - Kalki Koechlin (Indian-born and raised, French ethnicity, acting training in England) - is the most promising actress in Indian cinema. She was really good in SHAITAN among others.

Watched HARISHCHANDRACHI FACTORY (2009 - Marathi) - India's Oscar submission from a couple years back...Dear India, please stop selecting amateurish Marathi movies to send to the Oscars...at least it was better than the godawful Marathi movie they sent some years ago. Still, this is the type of movie you give some sort of national, independent spirit award to...that's good enough...don't subject international viewers to it.

Thumbs down on Ajay Devgan's SINGHAM remake. Jr. Bachchan's GAME was actually rather okay. RAAJNEETI started out well, but it started to come apart somewhere in the second half...and I especially didn't care for the too many visual lifts from THE GODFATHER...don't mind the re-positioning of the story but they shouldn't have used the visual cues also. Director Santosh Sivan's Malayalam film URUMI did not much for me...not as good as the previous Malayalam historical epic PAZHASSI RAJA.

And I can't believe how many non-anamorphic Indian DVDs I've watched recently...new movies and they can't deliver an anamorphic transfer.

nitin77

I thought this thread was dead

I finally saw Band Baaja Baraat which was decently shot and characterised but had a rubbish ending and was as usual far too long given the fluffiness of the whole thing.

Still, well worth watching overall.

Also saw Delhi Belly two days ago which might be considered fresh for Bollywood standards (mainly in English, lots of swearing, interconnected story) but its the sort of film Hollywood has been churning out en masse since the success of Pulp Fiction.

As for Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, I am actually really looking forward to it, it looks at the very least like a real film

toddly6666

Thanks for the updates Flixtime! I can't believe you got through URUMI. There was nothing wrong with the movie, but I just couldn't continue watching it due to the constant advertising that pops up DURING the movie! I just don't get it. Any time a good scene came up, advertisting popped up!! What the hell is wrong with India? I'll try and watch the whole movie sometime - it did seem okay.

Ha, it's just that Indian cinema is dead in 2011! Flixtime just updated us with more Indian movies to skip and save our money!

flixtime

Hi nitin! Hi toddly!

nitin, a bit of advice for Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara...watch it on a Friday night...maybe a time when you'll only be around family or close friends for the following 48 hours...all this just in case you get bit by the "I'm a rock chick in a hard rock world" bug...the song appears in the movie and it really got stuck in my head...not a good thing being a dude and going around singing "I'm a rock chick in a hard rock world"...really thought I got over that issue after my Shania Twain's "Man I feel like a woman" phase from some years ago. One of the better scenes in the film.

As for it being a "real film" well here is my public service to you in piling on this film some more which, if nothing else, will lead to lowering your expectations so perhaps you will actually find the film more enjoyable. Of course the productions/technical values are on par for this type of high-profile Bollywood fare. The story not so much, if I describe the three male protagonists and lay out the three romantic storylines for each you can easily match each guy with his romantic subplot without even watching the movie. I suppose you can say that about a lot of films though...I like crime films and those storylines don't leave much room for surprise either. Some of the stuff that set me off, the presentation of Spain is just too "promotional"....superclean, no people (except when dancing in the streets, running from bulls, or throwing tomatoes at each other), no cars on the road...just an idyllic personal playground for our three leads...if I remember right there is even a part where Farhan Akhtar just blows through a stop sign making a rather less-than-safe left turn. Also, there's a section dealing with skydiving, and after just a few on-the-ground lessons, our three leads (one of whom fears skydiving) jump out of a plane and all of a sudden have the skills of experienced sky divers even meeting up in mid-air. So, this is sort of why I wouldn't call it a "real film" (though we might not be in-synch with each other on the idea of "real film" as it pertains to this specific movie). Actually, of all the Indian films I've watched recently, it is likely the one I'd label as most artificial...pure product. I'm curious to see what you think of the movie whenever you get around to it.

toddly, remember I still watch VHS, so I have a high tolerance for subpar video quality. But "yup", those MoserBaer DVDs sure suck...watermarked, huge ads popping up along the bottom, and some even with idiotic text message ads popping up along the top of the frame. And a bunch of Indian DVDs I've watched don't even display a "time counter" on the player display...instead of a time display it just says "play" the whole time. And of course other DVDs with unskippable ads and as mentioned non-anamorphic. And why is India the only country that can't seem to consistently list a film's runtime on the DVD packaging.

Despite what it may seem I've actually been quite okay with Hindi cinema as of late. Watched a bunch of crime films (SHAGIRD, BHINDI BAZAAR, BAABARR, ALLAH KE BANDAY, etc.)...wouldn't necessarily come in here and tag them as "recommended"...but as a bit of a crime film junkie I came away satisfied. Another Hindi film I rather liked was director Mahesh Manjrekar's CITY OF GOLD...sort of bittersweet, nostalgic, ode to a bygone era, family melodrama with elements of a crime film.

Actually, in a sense, Hindi cinema is currently in a more interesting place than Hong Kong/China/Tawain or say South Korea....note, I'm not claiming "better" just saying more interesting.

That said I'm still debating whether or not to catch RA ONE in theaters...oh heck with expectations set on low, I'll likely check it out. Have avoided all of the trailers so far...maybe I should sample them before making my final call...don't even know anything much about what the story actually is.