Tag Archives: Deepika Padukone

Movie Review: Desi Boyz (2011)

4 Replies

2 Stars (out of 4)

Buy the DVD at Amazon
Buy the soundtrack at Amazon

Desi Boyz borrows liberally from the plots of movies like The Full Monty and Loverboy while failing to really understand either. Both of the Hollywood comedies are about ordinary men pressured into selling their bodies (in one way or another). In the process, they learn that romance is about more than looks, and that men and women both have insecurities about sex.

Debutant writer-director Rohit Dhawan misses the point of the movies he’s aping, and instead casts two of the hunkiest actors in India — John Abraham and Akshay Kumar — to play a pair of down-on-their-luck Londoners forced to dance at bachelorette parties for dozens of sexy, scantily clad women.

Abraham plays Nick, a financier, and Kumar plays Jerry, a mall security guard and (gasp!) college dropout. Jerry is  responsible for his young nephew, Veer, following the deaths of the boy’s parents. Nick is planning a dream wedding for his girlfriend, Radhika (Deepika Padukone).

Their plans fall apart when they are both laid off. In order to keep child services at bay, Jerry signs on with an escort service called Desi Boyz. Nick reluctantly agrees to help Jerry for Veer’s sake. While their new careers forestall financial ruin, child services take Veer when they learn the source of Jerry’s income. Radhika spots the guys performing at a bachelorette party and dumps Nick.

While film’s promos focus on Abraham and Kumar as strippers, that plotline is dropped after the first half of the movie, never to be resurrected. The second half falls into the doldrums as Jerry goes back to college and Nick tries to win Radhika back by living in a trailer on her front lawn and smoking pot with her dad, played by the always delightful Anupam Kher.

All of this is supposed to enforce the tidy moral messages that dignity shouldn’t be sacrificed for short-term gains and that one can only succeed with a college degree. So why does Jerry, immediately upon getting his degree, blackmail someone into giving him a job with false accusations of sexual assault? What kind of moral message does that send?

There’s similarly inconsistent character growth in the Nick and Radhika storyline. Nick, the supposed champion of hard work, ultimately wins Radhika back by being a slacker. Radhika is no peach herself, leading on a nerdy suitor played by Omi Vaidya solely to make Nick jealous.

Desi Boyz would’ve been more interesting had Vaidya and Kher played the guys forced to become strippers. Or Nick’s character could’ve been marginalized, shifting the focus onto Jerry as he supports Veer and pays his way through college working as a male escort. (How did broke, jobless Jerry find the money for college anyway? The movie doesn’t explain).

Rohit Dhawan has some potential as a filmmaker if he can keep his stories focused and his characters consistent. I like his debut better than most of the movies I’ve seen by his father, filmmaker David Dhawan.

Links

Opening November 23: Desi Boyz

3 Replies

Desi Boyz — a Hindi remake of The Full Monty — hits Chicago area theaters November 23, 2011. Though its official release date is the 25th, American theaters are getting it a couple of days early to take advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday. The movie stars John Abraham, Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone.

Desi Boyz opens on Wednesday at the Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles, AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington and Regal Cantera Stadium 17 in Warrenville. It has a runtime of 2 hrs. 2 min.

Rockstar carries over at the Golf Glen 5 and South Barrington 30, having earned $911,064 in its first two weeks in U.S. theaters.

The Golf Glen 5 is also carrying Hero Hitler in Love (Punjabi) and the Telugu films Oh My Friend and Sri Rama Rajyam.

Movie Review: Aarakshan (2011)

8 Replies

1.5 Stars (out of 4)

Buy the DVD at Amazon
Buy the soundtrack at Amazon

As a general rule, a movie should only have one main idea or theme; anything more complex than that, and the messages can get muddled. Filmmaker Prakash Jha overreaches with Aarakshan (“Reservation”), his meditation on the failings of the Indian education system.

The title refers to the Indian government’s version of affirmative action, by which a percentage of government jobs and spots at public universities are held for members of the lowest caste. The policy aims to level the playing field for people denied such opportunities in the past, to the chagrin of some in the middle and upper classes who feel the policy denies them opportunities in the present.

In Aarakshan, the policy pits two college friends against one another: Sushant (Prateik), who opposes it, and Deepak (Saif Ali Khan), himself a member of the lowest caste. Caught in the middle is Deepak’s girlfriend, Poorbi (Deepika Padukone), whose father, Professor Anand (Amitabh Bachchan), runs the college they attend.

When Anand expresses his belief that the policy of reservation could have some merit, it gives his opponents on the school board a chance to oust him. He’s replaced by his slimy vice principal, Mithilesh (Manoj Bajpayee), who’s gotten rich by running a chain of tutoring centers on the side. Mithilesh doesn’t show up to teach his college courses, which forces kids to pay to go to his tutoring centers if they want any hope of passing the class. Evil genius.

Despite the title’s nod to the more emotionally charged social issue, Aarakshan is primarily about education’s change from a right to a marketable commodity. Reservation is hardly brought up during the second half of the film, as Anand wages a personal battle against those who would turn his college into a diploma factory.

This is where Jha gets in to trouble. Aarakshan tries to be too many things. It’s a drama about a friendship riven by a controversial policy. It’s a warning against the diminishing quality of education. It’s a story of one man struggling against a corrupt system.

There’s no way to successfully shoehorn so many themes into one movie. Characters are reduced to giving long-winded speeches defending their positions, accompanied by dramatic music. (Wayne Sharpe’s background score is one of the film’s few highlights.) It’s an artless way of making a point, and it inflates the movie’s runtime to a boring 2 hours and 45 minutes.

What’s more unforgivable is that, during all that time, only one character undergoes any development. Sushant realizes that belittling Deepak’s heritage has cost him his two best friends, so he relents his opposition to reservation. Had the movie focused on the three friends, the development would be significant.

But, because of the sweeping societal criticism Jha invokes, it’s notable that none of the movie’s bureaucrats or officials have a change of heart by film’s end. All remain steadfast in their opposition to reservation and their support of for-profit education.

During the climactic showdown, Anand emerges victorious simply because his supporters outnumber those of his opponents on that particular day (and thanks to a little help from a deus ex machina). He gains no converts, and all of the bureaucrats with their bulldozers and eviction notices live to fight another day. The system doesn’t change, nobody has learned anything, and there are no consequences for being on the right or wrong side of the issue.

With significant editing, Jha might have been able to make a statement with Aarakshan. But the movie is too dense and ponderous to provoke any meaningful consideration of educational policies. If the characters within the movie aren’t prompted to change their minds, why should the audience?

Links

Opening August 12: Aarakshan

Leave a reply

Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone star in Aarakshan, a socio-political drama opening in Chicago area theaters on August 12, 2011.

Aarakshan debuts on Friday at the Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles, Regal Cantera Stadium 17 in Warrenville and AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington, which lists the movie under its English title, “Reservation.” Theater chains list the film’s runtime as either 2 hrs. 15 min. or 2 hrs. 45 min.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara continues to draw crowds, earning $2,855,673 during its four weeks in U.S. theaters. It hangs around for another week at the Golf Glen 5, South Barrington 30 and Cantera 17. Singham carries over at the Golf Glen 5.

The Golf Glen 5 is also carrying Dhada (Telugu), Kandireega (Telugu) and Rowthiram (Tamil) this weekend.

Movie Review: Dum Maaro Dum (2011)

9 Replies

1 Star (out of 4)

Buy the DVD at Amazon
Buy the soundtrack at Amazon

Copious amounts of sex, drugs, rock n’ roll, fights, chases and torture fail to liven up the dull and disorganized Dum Maaro Dum.

An opening shot of a dead body, accompanied by a voiceover by Abhishek Bachchan about the deadly drug trade in Goa, suggest a riveting tale of murder and corruption in a beachfront paradise. As soon as the opening credits finish, boredom sets in.

The movie is immediately mired in the backstory of one of the side characters, a teen named Lorry (Prateik Babbar). Lorry can’t afford to join his girlfriend at college in America, so he accepts a job as a drug mule, in order to earn the money for tuition. What I just summarized in one sentence takes up 25 minutes of screentime.

Twitchy-looking Lorry gets busted at the Goa airport by Kamath (Bachchan), a formerly corrupt vice cop trying to redeem himself after the accidental deaths of his wife and son. Kamath sends Lorry to jail, but the kid won’t reveal the whereabouts of the mysterious drug kingpin “Michael Barbosa.”

Kamath gets help from a musician name Joki (Rana Daggubati) in exchange for leniency for Lorry. Joki’s ex-girlfriend, Zoe (Bipasha Basu), is currently seeing another major drug dealer, Lorsa Biscuta (Aditya Pancholi). If anyone knows where Barbosa is, it’s Biscuta.

The plot isn’t nearly as straightforward as the above recap. There are flashbacks to pointless backstory, which prevents giving the characters enough time to grow (and grow on us) as events unfold in the modern-day.

This presents a serious problem, as Kamath — the presumptive, though not explicitly defined, lead character — is a monster. In addition to Kamath’s corrupt past and his penchant for beating up suspects, he sodomizes a drug runner with a pistol in order to make the guy confess. The movie’s villains may rack up a higher body count, but Kamath’s methods are more brutal and vile.

Substituting backstory for character development brings the action of the film to a crawl. Boring exposition about events not germane to the current situation is punctuated by party scenes, sex scenes and fight scenes. If you spend most of the film rudely texting on your cell phone, only to look up when the music cues something exciting on-screen, you might be fooled into thinking Dum Maaro Dum is an exciting movie.

The climax of the movie is actually pretty clever — so much so that the producers canceled the gala premiere in order to preserve the secret ending. But it seems as though writer Shridhar Raghavan started with the climax and struggled to craft the story that leads up to it.

Perhaps the poster tells us everything we need to know about Dum Maaro Dum. The poster features the svelte torso of Deepika Padukone, who makes a special appearance in a performance of the title track. Padukone is onscreen for all of five minutes, in a dance number that happens one hour and 45 minutes into the film. It is the best part of the movie.

Links

Movie Review: Break Ke Baad (2010)

3 Replies

3.5 Stars (out of 4)

Buy the DVD at Amazon
Buy the soundtrack at Amazon

I have a hard time being objective when it comes to Deepika Padukone. I adore her. She’s one of the world’s best actresses at the moment, and she’s only 24. But I think I can say with some measure of professional detachment that Break Ke Baad (“After the Break”) could be her most nuanced work to date. It’s worth seeing just for her.

Padukone plays Aaliya, a 20-year-old wild child who aspires to an acting career against the objections of her mother, Ayesha (Sharmila Tagore), herself a former screen idol. Aaliya’s in a relationship with her childhood best friend and long-time sweetheart, Abhay Gulati (Imran Khan). With Abhay poised to take over operations of his dad’s movie theater, everyone assumes that “Al” and “Gelato” will soon be married.

This is fine with Abhay, even though he hates his job and has no life outside of Aaliya. But Aaliya wants to experience the world first, though she doesn’t come out and say it. Instead, she secretly applies to a one-year Communications program in Australia and only tells Abhay about it when she complains that Ayesha won’t let her go.

Eventually, Aaliya leaves for Australia, and she gets Abhay to consent to “a little break.” But, to Aaliya’s annoyance, he won’t stop calling, going so far as to show up at her house one day. Aaliya finally breaks up with him for good, but Abhay refuses to leave Australia without her. He works a variety of jobs in the hopes of finding one he really likes.

Writers Danish Aslam and Renuka Kunzru have a real understanding of what it’s like to be at that age where you’re desperate to chart an independent course for your life, but still eager for parental approval. The dialog is thoughtful, as when Ayesha tells selfish Aaliya that people don’t love her because she’s special, she’s special because a few people love her intensely.

Nuanced writing requires skilled acting to make it come to life, and Padukone does that with Aaliya. Aaliya is careless of others’ feelings in a way unique to pretty girls in their early twenties. She usually gets her way, so she doesn’t worry about the manner in which she does so.

Padukone is careful to make Aaliya simultaneously lovable and frustrating. Aaliya’s obviously fun, and she is caring, but she also deflects blame onto others and fails to consider their feelings before she acts. Padukone manages to show Aaliya’s potential for growth despite her current faults.

Khan has a somewhat detached performance style that actually works for Abhay, who’s simply going along with whatever life throws at him. He doesn’t get worked up about much because he doesn’t know what he wants, nor does he consider the possibility that things won’t work out for him. Khan does a nice job playing low-key opposite Padukone’s more dynamic character.

Supporting characters Nadia (Shahana Goshwami) and Cyrus (Yudhishtir Urs), beach-bum siblings living off their inheritance, keep the plot moving. Misanthropic Nadia’s sarcasm is on point and forces Aaliya and Abhay to act. Horndog Cyrus provides the comic relief. The lead characters’ parents are also good, though I would’ve liked to see more of their relationships with their kids.

Break Ke Baad may not be as universally relevant as some romantic comedies, but it knows its characters well and portrays them with sophistication. This would be a great movie to show to teens as a guide for “how not to act in a few years.” Not that they’d listen, of course, but at least they’d be entertained.

Links

Movie Review: Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey (2010)

3 Replies

3.5 Stars (out of 4)

Buy or rent the movie at iTunes
Buy the DVD at Amazon
Buy the soundtrack at Amazon

Sixty-three years after the end of the British Raj, it’s clear that the Brits were in the wrong in their oppression and exploitation of South Asians. At the time, however, both sides — the oppressors and the oppressed — felt victimized when they were on the receiving end of a violent attack. One person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.

Oscar-nominated director Ashutosh Gowariker’s latest, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey, tells the story of one act of rebellion during the Raj: the Chittagong Uprising of 1930.

At the time the movie takes place, groups of freedom fighters, impatient with the slow progress of Ghandhi’s passive resistance, opt for violence as a means of ousting the British from India. In Chittagong, the local resistance group is led by Surjya Sen (Abhishek Bachchan), a schoolteacher who uses his meager salary to organize a small group of fighters.

Surjya is able to expand his plans to drive the Brits from Chittagong when a simple act brings a large group of new recruits his way: the army takes over the local soccer field to use as a camp. The town’s teenagers, outraged at being evicted from their pitch, ask for Surjya’s help in reclaiming it.

Surjya hatches a plan to simultaneously take over strategic points in town, including the telegraph office, the armory and army barracks. He’s aided by two female recruits, Kalpana (Deepika Padukone) and Pritilata (Vishakha Singh), who engage in reconnaissance by posing as maids.

Before the plan can be executed, Surjya must train his army of gangly teens. Though the boys are committed to the cause, they’re still kids and not eager to martyr themselves. As one boy observes, what good is freedom if you’re not alive to enjoy it? The first half of the movie covers the group’s preparations, and the second deals with the raid and its aftermath. (Given that the British didn’t leave India until seventeen years later, I suspected the raid wouldn’t be a complete success.)

Stills at the beginning of the movie state that the plot is taken directly from written accounts of people involved in the Chittagong Uprising. Gowariker chooses realism over big-screen clichés in his portrayal of the moving story. Characters act like real young people faced with mortal danger for the first times in their lives would: scared and confused instead of fearlessly self-assured. The absence of timely motivational speeches is refreshing.

That realism makes the movie engaging and the story of their rebellion that much more inspiring. A lifetime spent watching movies with happy endings makes you believe that maybe these plucky kids really can drive out their oppressors and go back to playing soccer. But, from our experience with the characters, we know that isn’t possible, even if the teens think it is.

The performances are solid throughout. Bachchan, Padukone and the other adult characters are riveting, as they begin to realize how they’ve endangered the teens in their care. The teens are endearing, both awkward and noble as they muster up all the courage they’ve amassed in their limited amount of life experience. The soundtrack is catchy, yet appropriate for the somber story.

I just finished reading the book Three Cups of Tea, about one American’s attempts to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In it, he recounts a story of American military helicopters flying low over an open air girls’ school, the resulting wake knocking over and breaking the school’s only blackboard.

Civilian casualties and night raids on houses get all of the publicity, but we can never know what small act — like taking over a soccer field or, perhaps, destroying a blackboard — might be the final straw that pushes a young person to violence. I wonder how our own treatment of the civilians under our care will be viewed 63 years after we leave Afghanistan.

Links

Opening November 24: Break Ke Baad

Leave a reply

Give thanks for the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s the reason why America gets Break Ke Baad (“After the Break”) two days before the rest of the world. The romantic comedy stars Deepika Padukone and Imran Khan as a pair of childhood sweethearts struggling to make their relationship work as adults.

Break Ke Baad opens on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 at the AMC Loews Pipers Alley 4 in Chicago, Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles, AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington and Regal Cantera Stadium 30 in Warrenville. Click here for a nationwide theater list. The movie’s runtime is listed as two hours.

The wonderful drama Guzaarish continues through the holiday weekend at the Pipers Alley 4, Golf Glen 5, South Barrington 30 and Cantera 30, having earned $488,121 in its opening weekend in U.S. theaters. The Golf Glen 5 is also carrying over Golmaal 3, which has earned $1,132,192 in the U.S. so far.

Other Indian movies playing in the Chicago area over the Thanksgiving holiday include Chekavar (Malayalam), Karma: Do You Believe (Telugu), Orange (Telugu) and Tere Ishq Nachaya (Punjabi) at the Golf Glen 5. Sathyam Cinemas in Downers Grove is carrying Orange and Enthiran (Tamil and Telugu versions).

Opening August 20: Lafangey Parindey

1 Reply

Only one new Hindi movie opens in Chicago area theaters this weekend. Lafangey Parindey opens on Friday, August 20, 2010 at the Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles, one of just nine theaters in the United States carrying the film. This is unusual, as movies produced by Yash Raj Films normally get a wide release in America. Perhaps theater owners were unimpressed by the movie’s strange plot: a gritty love story between a street fighter (Neil Nitin Mukesh) and a blind, roller-skating dancer (Deepika Padukone).

The only other Hindi movie showing in Chicago area theaters this weekend is Peepli Live, which earned an impressive $350,054 from just 64 screens in the U.S. its first week. Peepli Live continues its run at the Golf Glen 5, AMC Loews Pipers Alley 4 in Chicago, AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington and Regal Cantera Stadium 30 in Warrenville.

As for other Indian movies playing this weekend, the Telugu flick Don Seenu is showing at both the Golf Glen 5 and Sathyam Cinemas in Downers Grove. The Golf Glen 5 is also carrying Happy Happyga (Telugu), while Sathyam Cinemas has Naan Mahan Alla (Tamil).

Movie Review: Housefull (2010)

7 Replies

3 Stars (out of 4)

Buy the DVD at Amazon
Buy the soundtrack at Amazon

These days, it’s safe to assume that any movie starring Akshay Kumar is a slapstick comedy. Such is the case with Housefull. Yet the strength of the cast and some well-executed bits make Housefull better than the average Bollywood screwball comedy.

Kumar plays Aarush, a guy whose luck is so bad that a casino pays him to walk around the gaming floor when the house is losing too much money, jinxing the players just by being near them. When his girlfriend turns down his marriage proposal, he flies to London to commiserate with his childhood buddy, Bob (Ritesh Deshmukh).

Bob, a card dealer, is married to Hetal (Lara Dutta), who works as a cocktail waitress. Within hours of his arrival, Aarush accidentally destroys Bob & Hetal’s home, along with their pet parrot. Hetal takes pity on Aarush, who has no other family or friends. She herself is estranged from her father, Batuk (Boman Irani), who wanted her to marry a wealthier man than Bob.

The couple arranges a marriage between Aarush and Devika (Jiah Khan), the daughter of a wealthy casino owner. But on their honeymoon in Italy, Devika reveals that she agreed to the marriage only to pacify her father, who disapproved of her Anglo boyfriend. Distraught, Aarush tries to kill himself, only to be rescued by the lovely Sandy (Deepika Padukone).

Aarush’s bad luck inspires most of the jokes in the early part of the movie but becomes less important the more characters are introduced. Housefull transitions into a comedy about mistaken identities, usually involving characters pretending to be married to someone to whom they are not.

The slapstick humor in Housefull is, at times, surprisingly funny. One example is a fistfight between Aarush and a monkey. On paper, it sounds stupid. But slow-motion closeups of a human fist hitting a monkey in the jaw, followed by a closeup of Aarush taking a small monkey fist to the cheek, accompanied by a Rocky-inspired soundtrack, manage to be hilarious onscreen.

Chunky Pandey also deserves praise for his turn as Akhri Pasta, the half-Indian, half-Italian hotel owner (his father was named Spaghetti Pasta). He wears a leisure suit and speaks in a jumble of Italian, Spanish and celebrity names: “Mama mia! Gracias. Al Pacino.” Pandey takes the role far enough to sell it, but not so far as to be annoying. It shouldn’t be so funny, but it is.

Besides being a bit predictable, the movie has two big flaws. The ending scene is too long and unfunny. If a movie is going to last more than two-and-a-half hours, it had better be for a good reason.

The second problem is a moment of racial insensitivity. It’s minor compared to some other Hindi films (Kambakkht Ishq and All the Best, for instance), but it points to a lack of understanding of when a joke crosses the line.

In order to validate a lie, Hetal borrows a baby to pass off as her own. The only kid to be found on short notice is the son of her black co-worker. When Hetal’s father remarks on the unexpected race of his grandson, Aarush (who’s pretending to be Hetal’s husband) blurts out that his mother was from Africa.

That’s where the joke should have ended. But Aarush begins to jump up and down holding an imaginary spear, mimicking a Maasai tribesman.

It’s not a joke born out of malice, but it trades on a stereotype in a way that lacks self-awareness. It’s awkward enough to draw attention to itself, ruining the sense of being immersed in the movie.

* Housefull has a posted runtime of 2 hrs. 15 min., but it’s actually closer to 2 hrs. 35 min.

Links