Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Mini-reviews, part char.

For new readers, this is basically a very convinient way for me to cover a big bunch of movies on this blog that I've seen but don't necessarily feel like like talking about at length. The list was randomized by an online randomizer, these are entries 31-40.

31. Chukkallo Chandrudu (2006) - One of Siddharth's short but quality list of youthful Telugu romcom's. He's written the story for this himself, romances three heroines while trying to pick who to go with, dances a bit in Germany, the usual. It's a fun movie but I tend to pick NVNV, Bommarillu or Aata over it. Still, the story is lovely and there's some awesome dancing - and guest appearances by Amitabh and Prabhu Deva!


32. Sharafat (1970) - Gorgeous Hema-Dharam jodi in one of their early films together, Hema plays a courtesan and has some awesome dance numbers. It's no mind-blowing stuff in terms of plot but for me, personally, it's memorable enough for the dancing. Discussed earlier here.

33. Thillana Mohanambal (1968) - Still the only Tamil oldie I've seen so far. Ironically, I really loved it and always wanted to see more but could never quite bring myself to just buy more Sivaji Ganesan films to sample some more oldie goodness. This one celebrates the art of Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam dancing, along with a love story and some awesome musical numbers.

34. Maa (1976) - Elephant elephant elephant. This is the Dharmendra movie with the elephant. And that's basically all you need to know, because the first half of the movie is painfully boring and dumb set up for some fairly fun elephant hijinks. Elephant!

35. Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) - The classic "three brothers separated and brought together" story by Manmohan Desai is, surprise to no one, one of my favourites. Not least of all because Anthony is a fantastic character, Neetu Singh and Rishi Kapoor are adorable together and Vinod Khanna is smokin'. Sigh. Earlier discussed here.

36. Imtihan (1974) - Fine, call me a cheater, I've still not finished this one yet. It started off okay but didn't go anywhere and showed no signs of promise so I turned it off. Anyway, Vinod Khanna plays an awesome professor who is seriously the best person ever on this planet. And he wears glasses.

37. Asoka (2001) - I feel all kinds of pretentious saying that my dislike for this film is largely due to the fact they didn't get to the good part of the historical Ashoka's life; Buddhism, spreading Buddhist beliefs etc. Why? Because the biggest expert on Indian history and Buddhism that I know lists this film as one of her favourites. Go figure. It's an okay movie, but I just find it a tad overhyped. Nice visuals, can't be denied.

38. Bommarillu (2006) - Oh, Siddharth. This initially disappointed me but later I grew a fondness for it, the originality of the storyline worked its magic and even the cheesy song picturizations won me over. Genelia may be Manic Pixie Girl - google it - but she works for me as the balancing factor for Siddharth's character's life, and how he comes to terms with the pressures by his father.

39. Na Tum Jaano Na Hum (2002) - The one, the only, epic Saif/Hrithik bromance movie. Served with a side order of cheese, and mostly just cheese, and sprinkled with Esha Deol's first-grade non-acting (her first role, bless her soul). This is one of those "so bad I kind of love it" films, but don't expect to find me rewatching it over and over again.

40. Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993) - This film is simply too adorable! I love it so much. Aamir Khan plays an uncle to kids who is left to take care of them and Juhi Chawla plays a runaway girl who befriends the kids on a fair and ends up rooming with them without Aamir's character's knowledge. As you can imagine, comedy and romance ensue. I also like Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak but I like my happy endings more, so this one wins in my books. Earlier discussed here.

2 comments:

anitarama said...

I agree with you on Asoka. The story isn't even remotely close to his real life, so if you look upon it in a historical context, it fails. If you just look at it as another film, it's good, though.

Wait, wasn't Koi Mere Dil Se Poochhe Esha Deol's first film. I remember my dad brought it home excitedly because we all wanted to see Hema's daughter debut, but my parents and I were SORELY disappointed. :P

veracious said...

I wish I could watch it as just another film but I can't! I had expectations! ;D

You might be right but the opening credits of NTJNH did say "introducing" hence my confusion.