Tag Archives: Shahrukh Khan

Movie Review: Dulha Mil Gaya (2010)

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1.5 Stars (out of 4)

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When a character chooses to do something he or she wouldn’t normally do, that’s character development. When an outside force makes a character do something he or she wouldn’t normally do, that’s plot-driven development. By confusing the two, Dulha Mil Gaya keeps its two selfish protagonists from becoming the heroes they’re supposed to become.

Dulha Mil Gaya (“I Found a Groom”) is primarily about Shimmer and Donsai, a model and a playboy enjoying the single life in Trinidad. Shimmer (Sushmita Sen) has a wealthy but absent boyfriend she has no intention of marrying. Donsai (Fardeen Khan) is a serial heartbreaker who lives off of his recently-deceased father’s fortune.

Donsai’s lawyer finds a clause in Dad’s will stating that Donsai needs to marry a particular Punjabi girl he’s never met within 15 days or he’ll lose his money.

When Donsai and the lawyer meet the girl in Punjab, she’s shy, conservatively dressed and wearing glasses; there is undoubtedly a makeover scene in her future. The girl, Samarpreet (Ishita Sharma), consents to wed, and she and Donsai get a quickie courtroom marriage. He leaves on a “business trip,” promising to come back for her. He never does.

After three months with no contact, apart from a monthly check in the mail, Samarpreet flies to Trinidad, where she sees Donsai carousing with another woman. Distraught, she runs into Shimmer, who agrees to help, out of a small degree of compassion and a larger desire to cheat Donsai out of his yacht.

The movie proceeds as expected. Samarpreet gets madeover and reborn as Samara, and Donsai pursues her. While Samarpreet is just happy to finally have his attention, I wanted to tear my hair out. Donsai may not know he’s pursuing his wife, but the audience does. So why are we supposed to root for him to get with Samara?

When (spoiler alert) Donsai finally remembers that he ditched a wife in Punjab, it’s only because his butler finds out about it and makes him feel guilty. Donsai doesn’t independently realize that he’s a louse. Even after the predictable “happy ending”, I couldn’t help but feel that Samarpreet got cheated out of a relationship with someone who really loved her.

Shimmer’s love story is just as unsatisfying. Her boyfriend, PRG (played in an extended cameo by Shahrukh Khan), shows up for the last 50 minutes of the movie, announcing his arrival with something like, “Everyone’s been talking about me, and now I’m finally here.” We understand that casting SRK was a stunt; you don’t have to point it out to us.

PRG is a version of his “Shahrukh Khan” character: charming, brave and irresistible. Shimmer puts off committing to him until Samarpreet gives her the stock “It’s time to give up your career and start having babies” speech. As with Donsai, Shimmer wouldn’t have chosen to marry PRG unless someone else told her to.

In addition to the problem of mistaking plot development for character development, Dulha Mil Gaya stereotypes gay men with the character Lotus, Shimmer’s butler. He wears a peach-colored suit and flounces about, exaggeratedly calling everyone “darling.” It’s not until halfway through the movie that he gets to deliver dialog without affectation.

It’s a shame that the only Hindi movie I’ve seen that portrays gays as real people is Dostana, where two straight guys pretend to be gay. They do so by being themselves, but professing to prefer romantic relationships with men rather than women. You know, like real gay people.

Note: Dulha Mil Gaya‘s listed runtime of 1 hr. 48 min. is wrong. It’s more like 2 hrs. 35 min.

Opening January 8: Dulha Mil Gaya and Pyaar Impossible

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Love abounds this Friday as two new, romantic Hindi movies open in the Chicago area. First is Dulha Mil Gaya, listed at some theaters under its English title, I Found a Groom. The film interweaves the stories of four characters, all with different takes on love. Shahrukh Khan features in approximately 50 minutes of Dulha Mil Gaya‘s 1 hr. 48 min. official runtime.

This weekend’s other new release is Pyaar Impossible, an unlikely love story about a beauty and a geek starring Priyanka Chopra and Uday Chopra (who also wrote and produced the film). It has an official runtime of 2 hrs. 20 min.

Both Dulha Mil Gaya and Pyaar Impossible open on Friday, January 8 at the AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington and AMC Cantera 30 in Warrenville.

After earning nearly $5 million during its first two weeks in U.S. theaters, 3 Idiots is sticking around for a third week at the South Barrington 30, Cantera 30, AMC Loews Pipers Alley 4 in Chicago, AMC Randhurst 16 in Mount Prospect, Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles and Cinemark Tinseltown USA in North Aurora.

Retro Review: Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)

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ddlj4 Stars (out of 4)

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In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, demure Simran (Kajol) takes a European trip with her girlfriends as a last fling before her prearranged marriage. But she falls in love with a mischievous fellow traveler named Raj (Shahruhk Khan) after they are stranded in Switzerland.

Raj must use every trick in the book to convince Simran’s father to call off her marriage — not an easy task considering Simran’s father, Chaudhry, is played by Amrish Puri, the actor best known in the U.S. as Mola Ram from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

The song and dance numbers are memorable, and the acting is terrific. DDLJ‘s charming love story has made it the most popular Indian movie of all time. If you’ve never seen a Bollywood movie before, start with this one.

Movie Review: Billu Barber (2009)

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billu_barber2.5 Stars (out of 4)

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He might be the title character, but Billu the Barber gets eclipsed in his own movie by Shahrukh Khan.

Billu (Irrfan Khan) is a poor barber struggling to earn an honest living. The one thing that his wife and bratty kids respect about him is that he knew superstar actor Sahir Khan (Shahrukh Khan) before he was famous.

When a film crew arrives in the village, Billu’s kids quickly spread the word that their dad is a friend of the movie’s hero. Billu, who’s not even sure Sahir would recognize him — even if he were able to get past the actor’s bodyguards — becomes a celebrity in his own right. Suddenly, the barber is showered in gifts and attention from neighbors who want to meet Sahir, to the dismay of Billu and to the delight of his family.

When the story focuses on Billu, the film is an insightful examination of the price of fame. Lara Dutta gives a nuanced performance as Billu’s wife, Bindiya. She’s not greedy, just tired of being poor, so she encourages her husband to contact his old friend.

As the film progresses, most of the insight on fame comes in the form of speeches by Sahir Khan. At those points, Billu Barber feels like a Shahrukh Khan vanity project. The ending is sappy and predictable, right down to Khan’s trademark tears.

If you’ve seen a few SRK dramas before, you might as well leave the theater at the intermission. You already know how the film is going to end.

Opening February 13: Billu Barber

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Shahrukh Khan’s latest film, Billu Barber, opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, February 13. SRK has a cameo role as a movie star who interrupts the life of a barber named Billu (Irrfan Khan).

In the Chicago area, Billu Barber is scheduled to run at the AMC Cantera 30 in Warrenville and the AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington, which is also carrying over Luck By Chance for a third week.

Movie Review: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008)

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Rab_Ne_Bana_Di_Jodi3.5 Stars (out of 4)

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Aditya Chopra and Shahrukh Khan, the director and actor responsible for the Bollywood classic Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, succeed again with Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.

In RNBDJ, Khan plays Suri, a mild mannered guy who fulfills his mentor’s dying wish by marrying the mentor’s daughter, Taani (Anushka Sharma). Though Suri’s older and less flashy than she is, Taani accepts her new role as his wife, with the caveat that she’ll never be able to love him because of her broken heart. Timid Suri, unable to show his wife how much he loves her, secretly invents a flashy alter ego named Raj in order to bring some joy into Taani’s life.

Chopra thoroughly explains the emotions motivating Suri and Taani, and Khan and Sharma perfectly portray the characters. The relationship between the pair is believable, despite the age difference between the duo (Khan is 43 and Sharma is 19). Sharma’s nuanced performance makes it hard to believe that this is her first film.

Cases of mistaken identity are often hard to pull off onscreen, but Khan looks and acts so differently as Suri and Raj that it seems totally reasonable that Taani wouldn’t know that the two men are the same person.

RNBDJ trips up late in the film during a sequence in which Suri battles a sumo wrestler. The scene is so long and out of place that it completely brought me out of the movie. While the scene intends to show that Suri would do anything to make Taani happy, I would rather have seen more examples of that interspersed throughout the film. Taani continually performs small acts of kindness for Suri, while Suri’s affection seems to stop after providing Taani with a place to live, only to rekindle during the over-the-top sumo showdown. Suri doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d  try to impress his wife with a big spectacle.

Apart from the one misstep, the movie is flawless. Chopra’s attention to detail is especially obvious during RNBDJ‘s big dance number, “Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte.” I’m almost always distracted by the background dancers in item numbers: one dancer is out of sync with the others, another is wearing an unflattering outfit, etc. No such worries, here. When I noticed the background dancers in RNBDJ, they looked spectacular. But most of the time, my attention was on the lead couple, as it should be.