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Author Topic: Bollywood  (Read 28966 times)

roujin

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Re: Bollywood
« Reply #130 on: January 31, 2015, 04:07:10 PM »
It's hated because it distorts pretty heavily the creation of Pakistan. But besides that it's completely inconsequential, even as a fan of Ranveer Singh, Irfan Khan and Priyanka Chopra.

Filmi Hero

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Re: Bollywood
« Reply #131 on: March 11, 2015, 06:00:21 AM »
http://www.timeout.com/london/film/the-100-best-bollywood-movies

Though, with Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani at #98, you might want to take some of the outliers with a grain of salt.

roujin

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Re: Bollywood
« Reply #132 on: March 11, 2015, 09:12:08 AM »
That's a pretty good movie. There are way worse choices (Ek Tha Tiger?)

Filmi Hero

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Re: Bollywood
« Reply #133 on: March 11, 2015, 03:42:02 PM »
There are definitely lots worse (lots and lots and lots), but I'm pretty sure there's more than 97 films that are better. Then again, collaborative "best of" lists are often a bit weird and arbitrary on the edges.

pixote

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Re: Bollywood
« Reply #134 on: June 30, 2018, 12:36:06 PM »


3 Idiots  (Rajkumar Hirani, 2009)

A friend insisted I watch this, and so I did. I had no idea it was as popular as it is (#91 in the IMDb Top 250, at the moment). That's ... surprising. roujin sums up a few of the movie's problems with appealing disgust:

Three hours of cliche. Sigh. Seriously, every single thing you expect to happen does happen. Every single plot strand gets tied up in just about the most predictable way. Every single time. Blergh.

Heh, indeedy. My reaction to the film's predictability wasn't as negative, though. Cliche can be pleasantly satisfying sometimes, and 3 Idiots is nothing if not pleasant — insistently so — which is perhaps ill-advised in a film that attempts to engage seriously with the issue of suicide. I honestly couldn't deal with the movie's visual aesthetic. It's like getting super high and watching ABC Family channel for three days straight. It's all too sunny, with the lighting scheme of a JC Penny commercial.

an adolescent, frat house sense of humor

Bondo's review finds the above problematic for just the first fifteen minutes of the film, mainly, but for me it was an issue throughout. There's a weird fixation on "potty" humor in the most literal sense, with probably a dozen different shots of characters pissing and another four shots of characters sitting on the toilet. I probably should have put "humor" in quotes, too, since little if any comedy emanates from these images. The film isn't even trying to be funny in some instances; it just seems genuinely fascinated by the expulsion of waste from the human body — or just by the dropping of trousers in general.

he was an aloof genius that I could immediately relate to

Nice humblebrag, by the way.

Aamir Khan has the most appealing star role here — pretty much playing a guardian angel in human form — but it was actually Sharman Joshi who made the bigger impression on me. His interview scene (pictured above) is the pinnacle of the film's satisfying cliches.

The present-day story makes no sense, by the way, but who cares, I guess.

Grade: C+

pixote
« Last Edit: June 30, 2018, 12:37:45 PM by pixote »
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Teproc

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Re: Bollywood
« Reply #135 on: June 30, 2018, 01:41:45 PM »
I don't get Aamir Khan, and especially not in this film. He's clearly supposed to be this all-knowing guy who's wise and always has an answer to everything, but I never buy it. He's at his best when he's goofy, but as a charismatic leader ? Nah.
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MartinTeller

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Re: Bollywood
« Reply #136 on: June 30, 2018, 02:17:00 PM »
My take from 2011:

Quote
I really tried to like this.  And just to be fair, there are a few entertaining moments, it’s professionally produced, and the performances for the most part aren’t that bad.  Heck, I’ll even go so far as to say all the protagonists are pretty good.  But good lord, what an awful script.  Melodramatic clichés galore, terrible humor (why so many pee and fart jokes?), simplistic messages, a hero who can absolutely do no wrong and villains for whom the phrase “one-dimensional” is generous.  It’s as if someone marathoned through the absolute worst Hollywood has to offer and took notes.  The sad scenes are laughable, the comic scenes are painful, and all of it is predictable (except the final little twist, which I admit was kind of a nifty surprise).  Much of the film resembles Real Genius, from the unflappable, infallible hero to the evil professor and the suck-up rival.  And that’s not a movie you want to aspire to.  And there’s a scene I know I’ve seen somewhere else before, but I can’t place it.  Teacher tells student his exam/paper won’t be accepted because it’s late, student asks if the teacher knows his name, teacher says no, student stuffs paper/exam in the middle of the stack.  It’d be a clever bit, if not for this nagging feeling it was lifted from something else.  Even the songs aren’t that great, although the accompanying spectacle is sometimes charming.  In the end, it’s the three leads (Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi and Madhavan) and the romantic interest (Kareena Kapoor) and their endearing performances despite the horrible material that save this from being a complete waste.  But I certainly wouldn’t recommend it.  Rating: Poor

Bondo

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Re: Bollywood
« Reply #137 on: June 30, 2018, 02:50:46 PM »
I really love Real Genius, so...

philip918

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Re: Bollywood
« Reply #138 on: July 01, 2018, 04:22:25 PM »
Looking forward to following the new A Passage to India column by Siddhant Adlakha on Slashfilm:

http://www.slashfilm.com/lagaan-revisited/

roujin

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Re: Bollywood
« Reply #139 on: July 02, 2018, 08:49:33 AM »
I hate 3 Idiots and Aamir Khan, but Rajkumar Hirani is an interesting popular filmmaker. I thought their follow-up collaboration, PK, which tackles organized religion is on the whole stronger and funnier.