Desicritics Author: Beth Loves Bollywood

Movie Review: O Brothers, Wherefore This Race?

Beth Loves Bollywood — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:12:32 EDT

What does it say about Abbas-Mustan's new thriller Race that its biggest surprise was the appearance of Johnny Lever?

Not that there was much room for him: Anil Kapoor, the non-badge-wielding policeman, had already been established as the goofy comic character, and he was already augmented by poor Sameera Reddy's brain-dead role. (The universe must be paying attention to my passing thoughts. Halfway through the movie I had been thinking it might be made more exciting by a surprise cameo. And just a few days ago I had been wondering what Johnny had been up to lately. Be careful what you wish for!)

I think Race's problem lies in how small it is. From the beginning we are told that the lives of the four main characters - Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna's brothers and Bipasha Basu and Katrina Kaif's women who love them - are intertwined and forever changed. But with Anil as the only other character of substance to enter the film as it progresses, we know all the plot twists will have to come from within, which doesn't leave much room for surprise. There are only so many things that can happen, so the "what" of the story is not terribly interesting. The "why" of the surprises is mostly left unexplored, so there's little psychological tension linking these people and their triple-crosses. To the film's credit, the "how" of the surprises is better, with a handful of fun action sequences (two of which are replayed in flashbacks, feeling a little bit like resting on laurels), but even that didn't build up suspense. A thriller, especially one named Race, needs to be taut and fast, and this one just isn't. Bluffmaster, another twisty film with the same number of characters, was much more effective: the players come in one by one, and their effects are allowed to build and interplay.

The film is also bogged down by a lot of extra paraphernalia. I don't necessarily mind if a movie goes for style over substance, and I don't necessarily mind gadget-heavy style (think Don: The Chase Begins Again), but I didn't think all the toys and props communicated as much as their ubiquitous presence would suggest. A lot of stuff does not equal a lot of style. (And in the case of Anil and Sameera's characters, the constant fruit-eating and palm pilot-scribbling seemed to elbow in as actual character traits, not just habits.) Try to keep track of all the sunglasses and the number of times characters fiddle with them, I dare you! There's a lot of skin, too, some of it relevant and some of it not. (Note to costume designer: some of her skirts were so short and the camera so pleased with her legs, you could almost see Bips's bits. Don't get all Britney on us now, please.)

Even though seeing them together just made me long for Dil Chahta Hai, my favorite moments were courtesy of Akshaye and Saif, when they managed to keep the dramatic tone controlled or chose to let a sense of humor wink out from among all the jaw-clenching. These are two of my favorite actors, and frankly I felt the project was beneath them. Oh, and the cowboy/country line-dancing song ("Dekho Nashe Mein"? I've already forgotten), that was fun. Seeing Akshaye Khanna in a fringed leather jacket was worth the price of my ticket. I was also grateful to have female characters have actual plot-related things to do and not be relegated to accessories; while I wanted to shake them and say "Why are you getting into race cars with the death-wish brothers at the wheel?!?," at least they were participating in the plans. Fans of 1980s and 90s villains also might enjoy Dalip Tahil as the initial bad guy, and he gets in some typically bad-guy smarmy chuckles.

But other than that, I had to look for my own fun in Race. For something that could have been a slick timepass joyride, it really didn't make much of a showing.

Movie Review: Do Anjaane - Relationships Found and Lost

Beth Loves Bollywood — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 00:15:28 EDT

The description of the plot of Do Anjaane (1976) had me confused before I even started. Amitabh (Amit) and Rekha (Rekha) (yeah, a big yawn for naming) are married but then something either devious or accidental (depending on what you know) happens and he has is de-train-estrated (like "defenestrated" except not from a window) and loses his memory.

They go their separate ways, only for him to lose his memory again a few years later and slowly realize that he once knew her, at which point he goes on a mission to get their lives to overlap again, although his ultimate goal isn't unveiled until the last two minutes of the film.

One memory loss might be standard filmi or soap-opera goodness; two seems beyond excessive, especially because they're seen in quick succession at the beginning of the movie, leaving most of the film to be a flashback, and because the major plot elements could have worked without either.

That said, the two unknowns of the title weren't nearly as interesting to me as the depiction of gender- and relationship-based expectations. Our female lead - I can't really call her a heroine - is a shallow, unlikable person who makes selfish choices out of materialism and desire for fame.

Her unfaithfulness and fickle attentions upset me because I really didn't want to see a female character who has career ambitions and doesn't long to be a mother labeled as bad. At first I was quite sympathetic to her, convinced to marry by her family even though she had no wish to do so and trying her best to work on her career, but as soon as her eye turned towards someone else's lifestyle, we knew she was doomed.

I was a little frustrated that the filmmakers couldn't just let her be a more complex character - who was "bad" only because she didn't want a family and was interested in her own public passions - but instead they took the simpler route of making her shallow and an in-spirit-if-not-in-deed adulterer, and of such an upstanding man at that. I was frustrated to find myself siding with a man who seemed to want a traditional wifey-wife, especially one he wanted to marry based on physical appearance without even talking to her.

I felt bad disliking a woman who behaved in some ways as a feminist, and I wish we had gotten a more complicated story in which she was kind and considerate yet also driven and somewhat untraditional.

Both leads gave reined-in performances in roles that could have easily brought on histrionics. Rekha was feisty and confident about her ambitions and at the same time child-like in her wonder at expensive baubles. The character of Amit is virtuous, but Amitabh also made him very compelling, compelling enough for me to want him to get his revenge, with a great combination of sweetness towards his frankly undeserving wife and thoughtful realism in his concerns about finances and priorities.

While I have never picked up on the legendary Rekha-Amitabh chemistry, I liked them together here very much.

A tiny, irrelevant point of joy: this movie has both Amitabh and Mithun Chakraborty in it! I have since learned that four others do, too, but somehow I find it very satisfying that in his second film, Mithun finds himself as the neighbor of a huge star. Admittedly this is only delightful because I can look back and see their movie histories behind me - Don and Disco Dancer together! - but it's delightful all the same.

Javed Akhtar on Hindi Films as a State of the Union

Beth Loves Bollywood — Fri, 11 May 2007 00:44:38 EDT

A friend recently alerted me to an article in Outlook in which screenwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar is quoted with a fascinatingly filmi take on Bollywood's role in the everyday reuniting of the varied cultures of India.

He proposes that because they so borrow and synthesize cultural elements from across the nation, and are made by a crew of people from various places and religions, Hindi films are the country's greatest common language - and constitute a culturally ecumenical state of the union in which everyone can (and does) participate.

It's worth noting that the only direct quote from Akhtar is the introductory idea: "There is one more state in this country, and that is Hindi cinema." None of the explanation or expansion of this idea is attributed to him; all of that comes as an excerpt from a forthcoming book The Miracle That is India by Ramachandra Guha. (Does anyone know if this comes from a longer statement or larger context shared by Akhtar elsewhere?)

I originally brought this article to the attention of some of the Desicritics editors, hoping they might have someone in mind to write about the whole article, which I had only read for the passage on Hindi films. As a white girl born and bred in the US, entirely non-Indian except by interest, I don't think it's particularly important (or maybe even relevant) that I have anything to say about Akhtar and Guha's opinions.

However, as a Bollywood fan with a personal and professional interest in topics of culture and identity (I work in a museum of world cultures), I'm definitely intrigued. My preliminary thoughts are that the idea of Bollywood as the pan-Indian cultural mosaic is both a little bit brash and cheerfully tempting.

Though I spend no energy seeking out or engaging with the opinions of people who actively dislike Hindi films on anything more significant than the personal taste level (folks who dismiss all popular films as garbage, for example), even I can easily imagine people thinking "Oh no he didn't!" given, for example, the taint of corruption and immorality that some see in the film industry and some of its products and players.

From what I have seen over the 130-odd Bollywood films I've watched, I think there's a general tendency in the movies to be inclusive in very broad strokes; as a recent commenter on my blog pointed out, it's rare that a movie just lets a character be, for example, Muslim without making a big deal out of it or even building a plot around it.

On the other hand, as a fan, I can imagine it being quite tempting to get to elevate your passion from entertainment, performance, and/or shared stories (and the values and ideas they comprise) to Indian Culture itself. I would love to believe that the rosy world of Bollywood could organically expand to politics, social structures, and cultures as they are lived. But even to me that seems a little too rosy.

That's just off the top of my head. I really hope others will respond to the article (rather than to my points, which I offer just as opening thoughts from one reader, not as anything definitive). In the words of one of America's greatest popular cultural ties that bind, "discuss amongst yourselves."

Movie Review: Aa Gale Lag Jaa - An Oldie, A Goodie, and ...

Beth Loves Bollywood — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:04:46 EDT

What makes a movie suitable material for one's Desicritics debut? Kudrat (even starring my almost-favorite Akshaye Khanna) was boring and Chokher Bali escaped me completely, so how about one that features a small but important plot point that a week of thinking still hasn't unraveled? Aa Gale Lag Jaa (1973) is the story of almost-couple Sharmila Tagore (Preeti) and Shashi Kapoor (Prem), who meet cute on roller skates, romp in the snow, and then get torn apart by her stern father, who doesn't think unemployed Prem can be trusted around his medical student daughter. Add in Master Tito as an adorable disabled child and Shatrughan Sinha as a skilled doctor (Amar) who is both threat and hope and let the weeping begin.

Spoilers follow.

You know how it's going to end, but this film requires more energy to sort all that out than some other Bollywood stories. And here's where the energy is needed: after the romp in the snow, Preeti falls in an icy stream, and when Prem gets her to the shabby mountain house, she's in such shock or fear or chill that she cannot speak - or get herself out of her wet clothes, so...well, you can guess. Prem has to do it for her, and he can find nothing to revive her except body heat. His discomfort over the situation plain on his face, he uncomfortably takes of his own wet clothes and slips into bed with her. A few scenes later, she's pregnant.

This scene probably does not merit the attention that my brain has been giving it in the days since I watched the film. But I cannot figure out what I am supposed to believe has just happened. Given that she was incoherent, could she possibly have been active in making such a decision? On the other hand, in the morning after, she's all sheepish smiles, which I have to believe means she made a choice and was happy with it. Surely a viewer isn't supposed to accept that someone would be sappily smiling after - not to put too fine a point on it - being raped? Frankly, that was a lot for me to deal with, and I wish I could ask the screenwriter what they intended me to think had happened. Any of the options I come up with leave me in bizarro world, in which either 1) our hero is a monster, 2) our heroine is happy to have been raped, or 3) we have to assume, with no actual information, that Preeti made a miraculous recovery from her hypothermia and was happy to sleep with Prem all in one short night.

But I'm a seasoned Bollywood-watcher, happy to put disbelief aside when needed, so I took #3 - but as you can see I'm still not entirely satisfied with that option, least of evils that it is. To my surprise, I found disbelief much harder to ignore when the social and emotional issues around the creation of a human life were involved. And anyway, the real villain is of course Preeti's dad, who twice schemes to keep the two lovers apart.

Aa Gale Lag Jaa has most of the Recommended Masala Allowance of family drama, comedy (though some of that is unintentional, as we watch Shashi Kapoor whiz around on skates and even take out four criminals, also on skates), and romance, though the elements are not as evenly distributed as I would like, with most of the comedy front-loaded, leaving the second half of the movie for Perm's broken-hearted suffering and Rahul's heart-melting antics that unknowingly bring about the reconciliation we've been anticipating.

In all honesty I cannot say this movie offers much that you haven't seen before - except maybe the roller skating, which really is quite enjoyable - but it you want a good cry, it's all but a sure thing. And there's certainly nothing wrong with seeing something you've seen before, put in a new package and delivered by a different combination of actors. I adore both the leads, and I can report that they turn in perfectly good performances, much stronger in the funny and sparring bits than in the melodramatic.