Chennai Express – Hindi movie /Tamil movie review

I saw Chennai Express when it opened in August 2013.  It is now available for rental in most places. It’s a very funny movie and the audience howled with laughter throughout. The thing is, to understand half of the jokes, you have to have seen Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge . To understand the other half of the jokes, you have to understand both Hindi and Tamil – because there are a lot of jokes about language confusion. Fortunately, I was sitting next to an Indian who helped me understand the jokes I missed.

But if you speak neither Hindi nor Tamil, this movie is still highly enjoyable. Just, make sure to see Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge first because this movie is essentially a remake of that movie. My bollywood friends didn’t see it that way, but it basically has the same plot sooooooo, I'm not sure why they didn't make the connection. Especially given that the introduction of our two lovers is exactly the same and uses the same exact music for comic effect, and for really really obvious foreshadowing, and again, did I mention that  the plot is basically the same.

What is the plot? 

Boy and girl meet on a train and they fall in love. Unfortunately, the girl is engaged to a bad ass guy who is completely wrong for her. Boy has to go to the middle of nowhere rural India and fight the bad ass guy to win the girl.  Or, at least that was the plot of Dilwale. Filmed in 1995 by Aditya Chopra. Shahrukh was still young then, only 30 years old. He was still capable of playing a teenager in love.

SRK is now 48 and he needs to stop playing teenagers. The problem is he’s not a very good dramatic actor. What he does well is puppy love and comedy and it’s kind of unseemly for a middle aged guy to be in puppy love. Which is where Chennai Express comes in.

In Chennai Express, SRK basically gets to redo Dilwaye Dulhania but as a 40 year old who has never had a girlfriend and has never been married (because he grandparents never approved), which means he can play someone near his age and yet still get to fall in love on screen – which is what all us SRK fans want to see.

This remake is silly, but it works precisely because it can be a love story standing on it’s own and a remake of a classic and an homage to SRK’s career and a send up of his entire comedic career, with elements of a Rajnikanth movie (Tamil language star) all at the same time . Which is why we were all laughing so hard throughout this movie.

This movie is directed by Rohit Shetty, who I’m not a huge fan of. He’s an action director, but his movies tend to lack humanism, so while I am entertained, I’m also a little annoyed by the morality of it all. I liked this one because Rohit was constrained by SRK romance rules, which require a strict adherence to certain moral codes, which is why our hero has to fight for the girl at the end.. The other thing Rohit in did well in this movie was constrain SRK’s tendency to overact. I realized that part of the problem is that other directors linger on his close ups and if you cut away sooner, it’s not as cringe worthy. So good job Rohit.

At the beginning, SRK’s character’s grandpa dies leaving him free to finally go to Goa with his guy friends to meet some ladies. Unfortunately, his grandma wants him to spread his ashes south in the waters between Tamil and Sri Lanka – the complete opposite side of the country. SRK decides to head south to appease his grandma and then get off at the first exit and then head north to meet his pals in Goa. As he is getting off the train, a girl is running – to the music from Dilwale Dulhania and he helps her get on, just as in the original. Then as he is getting off, a fat guy is running, to the same music. Happens 3 more times. It just gets funnier and funner. By the time he gets everyone on, he can’t get off and he is stuck. And, it turns out that the girl was running away from the big thugs and he is now stuck as is she. And the setting for the reluctant romance is begun.

There are several really funny devices that keep our reluctant couple together long enough for them to fall in love, like they have to pretend to get engaged so that he isn't killed by her criminal boss of a father. He is hidden to wait for a morning train out, but it turns out he was hidden on a boat run by smugglers that is caught and he is brought back to the town where people want to kill him for being engaged to a girl engaged to someone else. You get the idea.

What I liked.

Our heroine is kick ass. At no point is she helpless.  SRK is really in his element and quite funny in this movie.  The songs are fun, but not memorable, so, the music didn’t really stick with me in the same way that the music in Dilwale does. Mostly what I remember music wise is the reuse of famous songs from other SRK movies. The final fight is well done, even though the product placement elements of it are over the top funny. Like at one point SRK is completely covered in blood, except for the label on his undershirt, which is clean and cleverly placed for us to see it. And for some reason during the fight scene, you hear the sound of the TARDIS. I was half expecting The Doctor to show up. Alas, he didn't, but SRK prevails and gets the girl and everyone is happy, including her ex fiance who never wanted to stand between her and true love anyway.

Conclusion:

This is a very funny movie. But to enjoy it fully and to understand what the film makers were doing, you really do need to see Dilwale Dulhania first.

Scene from the movie:

I could not find a version of this with subtitles. Basically, they are communicating via song. They are famous songs from other SRK movies that everyone knows, but they are changing the lyrics so that they girl can explain the situation she is in to SRK without the Tamil speaking thugs knowing what they are saying.  The Tamil thugs go into Chitta Chitta - which is also famous, but from a Akshay Kumar movie.

The juxtaposition of famous love songs with lyrics switched out for dialogue like - meet me in the bathroom and bring your phone is really really really funny.

R. Rajkumar – Hindi movie review

Just saw R... Rajkumar. It delivers everything you expect it to deliver from the previews.  Shahid is adorable and wonderful. Sonakshi is wonderful and beautiful and fierce. And Sonu Sood is a) incredibly handsome and b) too handsome and beautifully handsome to be the evil villain he plays. He does a great job, but his handsomeness was a bit distracting for me.

Dancing

This movie is written, directed and choreographed by Prabhu Deva, so the dancing is amazing and technical. If you are a dancer, watch this movie. Seriously. Some of the stuff Shahid was doing is nothing short of amazing and of course Prabhu has a cameo in one of the songs (Gandi Beat).  It was nice to see that Prabhu is capable of dialing it back when he needs to as the “we both just realized we are in love fantasy dance sequence” was low key, and beautiful without all the complex technical moves of the other numbers.

Action

Speaking of choreography, this is an action flick. And some of the fight sequences are beautifully choreographed as well. Most of them are jump cut so the flow doesn’t allow you to see extended sequences and they could very easily just film individual action shots and cut them together. But there is a fight scene in the middle of the movie where Shahid is fighting 60 guys (again, Hindi Masala action flick – accept it for what it is), and we get a long sequence of uncut moves that are really well done.

The final battle between Shahid and Sonu is in sepia tone – to give it more gravitas. It’s hokey, but it also works. They may have chosen that to hide flaws in Shahid’s make up because at this point his character had been stabbed twice, beat up and buried alive before heading into the final battle, so... he had a lot of fake blood on him and it might not have looked right in regular color. Anyway, the sepia is a nice effect. The battle itself reminded me a bit of the final battle in the 3rd Musashi movie except without the swords. They rush at each other. Fight a bit. Rush at each other and eventually, Shahid, after nearly dying 3 times in the battle manages to land a punch to the throat and they just stand there. For a long while. And no – I’m not giving anything away – obviously Shahid was going to win this battle – duh. Anyway, I thought it was a nice touch and used the main elements that everyone remembers from the final Musashi battle well.

Technical Details

As for what I didn’t really like. Some of the editing was really odd and distracting. One of the first expository scenes is jump cut with odd angles of the faces talking, ending with extreme close ups. It didn’t really add to the emotions of the scene and I found it really distracting. It was like reading a comic book actually and that might have been what they were going for, but I found it distracting and annoying, especially since I was trying to read subtitles.

The other odd choice was that just before the final battle where our two antagonists are sizing each other up and talking tough, there was a jiggling earthquake effect on the film. They had done this earlier for comic effect and that worked. But here, again, it was distracting and didn’t really add to the scene. Those were the only two moments where the editing was distracted. The rest of the movie was well done.
The love story was ok – I have mixed feelings about the first half since it involved Shahid stalking Sonakshi and having been a victim of a stalking, it didn’t sit well with me. And yes, I realize that is an element of Indian courtship, but I don’t normally get that sort of reaction from other movies where this “following” happens. Normally, I think – ahhh. But I did react badly here so I think they missed the mark. It wasn’t romantic to me. Even with Shahid’s adorableness, it was upsetting. Once the girl falls in love, I was ok – but up until that point, it was a bit creepy to me. Although, you know she is going to eventually figure it out that Shahid is the guy that rescued her at the beginning of the movie, what he was doing, wasn’t ok.

Sonu Sood is really handsome

My conclusion

If you like rough action masala – this movie is great. If you like amazing dancing. This movie is really great. Love story? Meh.  Really handsome actor – Oh YEAH!  Sonu!!!!  Music – fun.  Worth seeing? Probably.

Hindi Movies

5 Favorite Bollywood Remakes

Bollywood has done some tremendous remakes of western classics. Here are 5 to get you going.

1) An Affair to Remember  - The Bollywood version of this is Mann starring Aamir Khan and Manisha Koirala. The story is told a bit differently, and we get more of a back story on the character played by Aamir/Grant – which is really welcome. His transformation from playboy to lover is more moving as a result. The scene where they meet the grandmother on the island is so faithfully recreated you will think they are on the same exact set. On the other hand, the penultimate scene where Aamir/Grant realizes why Manisha/Kerr didn’t show up as planned is less intense in the Indian version. But, because it’s a Hindi film, we do get a wedding scene and the movie wraps up better. If you are a fan of this movie – see the Hindi version.

2) Sabrina  - The Bollywood version of this is called Yeh Dillagi and stars Akshay as Linus, Kajol as Sabrina and Said Ali Khan as the younger brother (except their names are all Hindi names – don’t ask me what they are). This movie translates very well into Bollywood. Because of the added time (Western movies are about 1 ½ hours long – Bollywood closer to 3 hours long), we get to explore these characters motivations more. Akshay’s character has a fabulous “I just realized I’m in love fantasy dance sequence” that is seriously one of my all-time favorite fantasy dance sequences. He’s beautiful to watch. The tension surrounding both men’s desire to marry not only the same girl but a girl of lower class/caste really works well in Indian cinema because even today couples are killed when they do this. Akshay and Kajol are brilliant and Said does a great job in his supporting role.


3) Romeo and Juliet  - probably the best remake of this in India is Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (QSQT) starring Aamir Khan and Juli Chawla (both in their first roles).  Again, because we have added time, we get more of a backstory about why these two families are feuding so that when our young lovers do fall in love and run away together, we understand better why the families care enough to hunt them down. Additionally, there is a caste problem and this is a love marriage. The story works very well as an Indian movie and even in his first role, Aamir is a star.

4) The Shop Around the Corner/You’ve Got Mail – This is one of my favorite stories in all its forms (including the delightful musical She Loves Me). The Indian version of this is Na Tum Jaano Na Hum and stars Hrithik Roshan and Esha Deol. This is a very odd movie, but I still enjoyed it. First, the things I liked. I think the addition of the love triangle was brilliant (the odd man out is Said Ali Khan).  The best moment of the movie is when Hrithik realizes that the girl he arranged for his friend to marry is the girl he is in love with through the letters. It was poignant and beautiful and I was crying. Now for the problems. From that point, they change the story and they really shouldn’t have. I think if they had resolved this movie the way the original stories do, this would have worked brilliantly. Second, the artistic choices made by the director of this movie are a bit ... odd. First, you have Hrithik, one of the best dancers in THE WORLD, and they don’t have him dance. At all. He is relegated to posing pensively. It’s a waste. There is a lot of dancing in this movie. It’s just really strange dancing, with bizarre patent leather costumes and fire with fantasy metaphors that are impossible to work out. And don’t get me started on the choice of playback singer who sounds nothing like Hrithik. It’s jarring. I still recommend this movie because even with its flaws it’s still Shop Around the Corner and I still love it.

5) Stepmom starring Ed Harris, Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon in the west was remade as We are Family in India starring Kareena Kapoor (as the Julia Robert’s character), Kajol (as the Susan Sarandon character) and Arjun Rampal (in Ed Harris’ role).  I realize this is not a remake of a classic movie, but I loved Stepmom and I loved We are Family even more. This is a tearjerker (I am welling up just thinking about the ending) and Kajol and Kareena carry this movie together wonderfully. This is a movie where the women rule and your heart burst with love. Worth watching.

10 Silly but still wondefully enjoyable Bollywood movies.

Having just published a list of 10 great Bollywood movies. I thought I should also publish a list of 10 Silly but still wonderful Bollywood films. My feeling on films is that they are first and foremost entertainment. If I am entertained, the movie was good. So here is my list. (Note: technically, these are not all Bollywood movies. (There are Telegu and Tamil language movies in this list).

10 Silly But Still Worth Watching Movies

1) Rowdy Rathore – low brow kick ass movie starring Akshay – he’s brilliant. This is a self-aware comedy that is beautifully done with a tad bit of sadism at the end that makes it not kid friendly – but it’s necessary for plot development so deal with it.

2) Makkhi - a story about a man who is murdered reincarnating as a fly and taking revenge. Sooooo satisfying. And yes, Masala - the only downside is that Rani dies pretty early on and so we only get one hunky guy soaking wet dance sequence. He is delightful. Stay for the credits where the flies do a bollywood dance number that includes chitta chitta from Rowdy Rathore.

3) Fruit and Nut – Doofus bumbles through an underworld plot to take over the city. Includes a great transvestite dance sequence and an old man evil old guy dance sequence that is really worth watching. It’s so funny. Just give yourself over to it.

4) Chandramukhi –Here’s what you need to know. Rajnikath is investigating a haunted house. That’s pretty much sums it up. Once you watch this you will understand why Rajnikanth is the most popular actor in all of India.

5) Koi Mil Gaya – Hrithiki plays a mentally challenged young man who meets an alien in this Bollywood remake of ET – brilliant and silly and it spawned a series of superhero movie sequels.

6) Baasdhah – Shahrukh in a comedy of errors. Delightful – this is what SRK is good at. To understand Shahrukh’s appeal – you need to see this movie.

7) Oh My God – Akshay as Lord Krishna in a movie about an atheist who sues God – based on a true story (well, not the Lord Krishna part). Delightfully done. Krishna is a Humanist, as it turns out.

8)  Hisss – angry snake god takes on a sexy human form and goes on a rampage.

9) Jajantaram Mamantaram – Bollywood remake of Gulliver’s Travels involving mermaids and giant demons. Delightful. This is a children’s movie.

10) Bodyguard – starring Salman Khan – worth watching for the choreographed dance sequence that consists solely of peck pumping to the music. The whole movie is really fun and really enjoyable. It’s basically a movie where Salman makes fun of the kick ass characters he normally plays.

Again - these are not award winning films. But they are highly enjoyable. So give yourself over to them and enjoy. 

10 Great Bollywood Movies

Interested in Bollywood, but don't know where to start? I was asked by my mom to put together a top 10 list of movies I recommend. Here they are.

10 Great Bollywood Movies:

1) Veer Zaara - great movie - horrid acting at the start - stick with it, it's worth it.

2) Barfi! won 11 awards in 2013 - earned every one plus some it didn't. Wonderfully acted. Homages to Charlie Chaplin and Ranbir Kapoor's grandfather.

3) Jodhaa Akbar - epic period piece - has massive battles with camels and elephants and centers around an inter-religious love story and religious tolerance.  Beautifully done. Not masala - meaning - no dancing - but there are some musical montages. Gotta have a montage.

4) Lagaan - my hubby's first Bollywood movie - he loved it - centers around a love triangle and a cricket match and unfair taxes.

5) Ghajini - murder mystery love story. You ain't seen deep pathos until you see this film - basically a remake of Memento but WAY better.

6) Kites - mystery - they kiss - something bad has to happen. Set in Mexico - stars Hrithik and a famous Mexican actress. Don't see Kites Remixed - it sucks.

7) Swades - based on a true story - NASA scientist returns to India decides to stay - love story - dealing with corruption, masala. Shahrukh - wonderful movie.

8) Faana - first half=romantic comedy musical. 2nd half = Cape Fear with the occasional musical number thrown in for good measure. Seriously - this one is so well done and the moral dilemma so well done that you will mull on it for days.It is chilling.

9) Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham - family/father/son relationship movie with arranged marriages and adoption providing the plot. Don't watch this unless you have lots of tissues and make sure to hydrate yourself. I ran out of tears about 15 minutes before the end and it was really painful because I still had a lot of crying to do.

10) Dhobi Ghat - drama - no music. Really good thought provoking movie.

This list includes movies by all the great actors working today. Shahrukh, Hrithik, Aamir, Amitabh, Kajol, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Kukerji and more.  See these and you will have a good idea of who the famous actors are and why they are famous as well as a good understanding of the wide variety of types of movies that are being made in India.

Enjoy.

Cash - Bollywood Review - Skip to the End

Finally made it through the  movie Cash. It's a bollywood movie. Honestly, I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Too many characters, who were cartooned and when I eventually figured out who they all were, the movie ended. It's a heist movie.

The only reason I am even posting a review here is because even though I wouldn't recommend the film, the end credits, were super cool.  It's all done in one shot and it's well staged and the song is ok but I really enjoyed it.

So, don't bother sitting through this one.  Just check out the end clip here.

You Learn by Living - book review

 I was given given this book, You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life for Christmas. Because it takes me forever to read things, I only just finished it.  I have an excuse, I'm a mom and the only time I have free to read is my lunch break which is only really 1/2 hour long including food prep time.

Anyway, LOVED THIS BOOK!  I recommend it. In fact, if you are a Humanist parent, or a parent at all, you should get it. It contains so much excellent advice for raising kids in a humanistic way. It really does remind me of my own childhood and the approach my parents took with us kids.

If you are a fan of my writing (see http://jen-hancock.com/books.html ) I recommend this book as a supplement. I really feel vindicated in a way. My approach can't be half bad if it is the same advice that Eleanor was giving out.

She talks about the importance of critical thinking and of learning and learning to see beyond the obvious to what is really important. She talks about the importance of being genuinely interested in people so that you learn from them instead of seeing them as competitor. She talks about our responsibilities as citizens in a participatory democracy. And she does it all brilliantly.

If you are a Humanist, read this book, it provides important lessons in applied Humanism.