Delhi-6 (hindi 2009)

Delhi-6 opened to mixed reviews; the music by AR Rahman was considered one of his best scores - possibly better than SlumDog Millionaire, but the movie itself was given, on the average, 3/5 stars. Abhishek Bachchan stars and Amitabh makes a cameo appearance. The story involves an NRI returning home with his grandmother. Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) gets used to life in Dehli and grows to love it. He falls in love with Bittu and eventually declares his love, knowing it will prevent her arranged marriage. During his visit, the "Black Monkey" is running rampant and causing all sorts of havoc. In the final scenes of the movie, Roshan dresses as the Black Monkey to woo Bittu and is attacked by the neighborhood and beaten almost to death. This is a story of the gods and demons housed within all of us. It examines the importance of self reflection (symbolized by the mirror) and harkens to Plato's reminder, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

Kismat Konnection (Hindi 2008)

Kismat Konnection stars with Shahid Kapoor and Juhi Chawla. SRK is the voice of the narrator. This is a cute story about a guy who is at the top of his class in college and just has a streak of bad luck after. He meets a girl, Priya (Vidya Balan), and his luck seems to change. The movie is all about their relationship and the preservation of a community center. Plans are afoot to build a shopping mall on the property, but Priya has other plans and she's the one with luck! More than luck, it's a film about the value of personal relationship and networking, no matter how the relationships happen. The significant person who turns the tide is a "waving friend." For me, this movie was a good reminder about keeping in touch and maintaining relationships.

Jab We Met (Hindi 2007)

Jab We Met is a great little comedy with good acting from Kareena Kapoor (Geet) and Shahid Kapoor (Aditya). The two meet on a train. Aditya has just finished watching his girlfriend get married and is feeling very down. The talkative and sparky, Geet, befriends him and tries to cheer him up. In her attempts, she ends up getting off the train and being unable to reboard it in time. The two end up traveling through Northern India together in an attempt to catch her train and luggage. Aditya accompanies Geet to her Sikh home in Punjab. Aditya wants to elope so that she can marry her true love, Anshuman. Aditya is persuaded to accompany her and drops her off at the doorstep of Anshuman and leaves. 9 months pass. Aditya has become very successful in business and has had a positive change in attitude due to his meeting Geet. On the other hand, Geet's parents look him up and demand that he produce Geet. Geet is nowhere to be found. It turns out that Anshuman had rejected her and Geet had been living in a religious teaching order. Aditya goes to look for Geet to return her to her parents. Ironically, he ends up doing for Geet what Geet did for him 9 months earlier. All's well that ends well and the ending is a good one. I recommend this movie for music, fun, interesting culture, great scenery, and good music.

1942: A Love Story (Hindi 1994)

The story of revolutionaries involved in India's separation from Britain, 1942: A Love Story is set in the Himalayan Mountains of Northern India - possibly Kashmir. The scenery is gorgeous and I've seen some of the locations and houses in other movies ( Jab We Met). Naren (Anil Kapoor) is the son of a rich pro-English landowner. Naren falls in love with Rajeshwari, the daughter of a revolutionary. When Naren attempts to ask permission from his father to marry Rajeshwari, the father turns in the revolutionary and his daughter in an attempt to prevent the marriage. The father dies in a bomb blast and the daughter is saved by a fellow revolutionary (Jackie Schroff). The revolutionary attends a ceremony where he hopes to assassinate an English general. Naren, having broken with his family, attempts to help the freedom fighter and uses a pistol in an attempt to help the revolutionary plan. He is captured and taken to be hanged. The revolutionary saves him and they both accomplish the impossible together. This is a love story with a happy ending, unlike what the beginning of the movie leads us to believe.

The movie won several awards; the music is especially good.

Taal (HIndi 1999)

Taal is a love story between a rich returned from London son with the daughter of a famous folk singer. Aishwarya Rai plays Mansi who falls in love with a man who, returned from school in London, disregards social convention and courts a woman who is below him in caste. Though his father honors the father of the girl who is a famous folk singer in his village, he refuses to recognize him or give him honor in the city. Mansi, insulted on behalf of her father for the treatment he has been given, disavows her love and turns to Vikrant Kapoor (Anil Kapoor), a famous pop singer, producer, and director. Recognizing her talent as a singer and dancer, Vikrant Kapoor catapults Mansi to stardom and asks her to marry him. She agrees. In the meantime, her forsaken love, Manav, vows to win her back and follows her career and attends her wedding ceremony. While there, he confronts Mansi who is unable to hide her feelings for him. Vikrant sacrifices his own interests in the interests of true love and encourages Mansi to leave him and express her feelings for Manav. She runs from his car and embraces Manav as the two fathers forget their differences and embrace also.

While something of a cheesy plot, the acting is good and Aishwarya Rai is great as always.

Devdas (Hindi 1955)

This older Devdas with Dilip Kumar, Suchitra Sen, and Vyjayantimala was quite good. Filling in the story of Devdas and Paro as children, and then fleshing out the Chandramukhi (Vyjayantimala) character added quite a bit to the story. While much simpler than the more recent Devdas, the costuming and sets are simple, this Devdas delivers more of a story and provides more motivation for the characters' acting. Filled with longing, suffering, pride, and irony, Devdas is deservedly considered a classic. The musical score is also quite good. Dilip Kumar's Devdas is a weak man who can't come to grips with his decisions or lack of will power. He is impulsive, loyal, and prideful. His alcoholism seems accidental and then an excuse to avoid responsibility. On the other hand, SRK's Devdas is a tortured soul who truly seems to care for Paro. While I like the back story provided in the older Devdas better, I like the acting in the newer Devdas best.

Faraar (Hindi 1975)

Amitabh Bachchan is considered by many to be the King of Bollywood (compared to him, SRK is not even considered a challenger; however, SRK is the best.) As I have only seen Mr. Bachchan in recent movies, like Cheeni Kum, Veer-Zaara, Mohabbatein, Bhagban, Bhoothnath, and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, I wanted to see him in a movie from when he first became famous. Faraar was recommended to me by the very helpful person in the video store. In this movie, Raj (Amitabh Bachchan) learns of his sister's death at the hands of a person who is acquitted at the hands of the law. Raj takes it upon himself to see justice done and ends up murdering the man. He goes on the run and hides in the house of a police man, where he takes the policeman's son hostage. It turns out that Raj is intimately connected in the past with the policeman's wife. She discovers who he is when she overhears Raj singing a song the two of them had shared to her son as a lullaby. (The same lullaby she sings to her son...) What ensues is interesting. The acting is good and the action believable. A good human interest story. I'd recommend this movie also.

Cheeni Kum (Hindi 2007)

Cheeni Kum stars the very attractive Amitabh Bachchan who is the owner of the best Indian restaurant in London. He meets an attractive 34 year old Nina (Tabu), a flirtation ensues and love soon follows. The trick is to convince Nina's father to give her hand in marriage to 64 year old Buddha (Amitabh Bachchan). In a subplot, Buddha's neighbor friend, 10 year old Sexy has blood cancer and is very ill. A charming and entertaining movie, I recommend this one.

Kaal (Hindi 2005)

Kaal is a Hindi thriller set in the Jim Corbett National Park in the central northern part of India. Ostensibly a thriller about naive encounters with man-eating tigers, this is actually a story about a ghost who lures unsuspecting tourists who do not follow the park rules to their death. John Abraham, Laura Dutta, and Ajay Devgan star. This is an entertaining story with some startling moments.

Gaja Gamini (Hindi 200)

A movie unlike any other, Gaja Gamini is a meditation on women. Without plot, the movie proceeds as a collage of images and scenarios. Madhuri Dixit plays the mysterious woman, Gaja Gamini. Leonardo Da Vinci's muse, Gaja Gamini smiles secretively and personifies women across the centuries. The movie is set on a stage divided by a big black wall. On the one side is reason on the other, art. Madhuri plays five distinct characters. Shahrukh Khan makes an appearance. Some people really like this film and some people really dislike it. It is an art film, the subtitles are poor, only about 1/2 of the dialogue is translated. Much of the dialogue seems to be in couplets, but it's difficult to tell. If one thinks of this film as a play set on stage, fractured into pieces much like theater of the absurd, it's a little easier to accept. While I'm not sure that I'd recommend it, I found it very difficult to follow, it is interesting for what it tries to do and how it tries to do it. The director, MF Husain, is a famous painter and was 85 when he directed this film, supposedly inspired and dedicated to the leading actress, Madhuri Dixit. (The painting at the beginning of this post is by M.F. Husain.)