Lakshyam (2007)

I'm not sure what to say about this film, except that I enjoyed it and that I would hesitate to recommend it to most people.

Gopichand's character manages to be both mischievous and likable. His chemistry with Anushka is good, and their scenes together are adorable and very funny. The songs are also very good, with very fun picturizations, including one where Spiderman shows up as a backup dancer.

On the other hand, the film is quite violent, and I fast-forwarded some good chunks where the machetes were out meaning business. The plot was somewhat scattered, although on the whole not a bad version of a typical Telugu action storyline. Here is how the film opens:

In the midst of wedding preparations, Anushka is shown happily getting ready to be the bride. When she is dressed she wanders out and sweetly greets her groom, who seems a bit of a goober. She tricks him into helping her over the wall, and she gaily escapes on her scooty. A police officer recognizes her as they wait at a light and chases her out onto a lonely road, where Gopichand stands waiting for him. Gopichand blows up the policeman, hops on her scooty, and they ride off into the sunset. And then the movie goes back a few months and starts at the beginning, before Anushka and Gopichand have met.

As I said, I liked it, but I think I would only recommend it to those already familiar with Telugu action films.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008)

Surinder (Shahrukh Khan) is a mousy middle-aged man who attends the wedding of his professor's daughter, the much younger Taani (Anushka Sharma), and is immediately smitten by her beauty and vivaciousness. Surinder had been a favorite pupil of his teacher, so when Taani's fiance dies in an accident on the way to the wedding and the professor suffers a heart attack, the professor asks Surinder and Taani on his deathbed to marry so that he can die in peace. They promise, and after their subdued marriage ceremony Surinder brings his grieving new bride to his home in Amritsar, giving her her own room and plenty of space. As their relationship remains formal and distant, Surinder turns to his flamboyant friend Bobby (Vinay Pathak) for advice.

From here the plot takes a turn for the worse. Surinder ends up adopting an alter ego, Raj, to spend time with Taani and to try to make her happy. The Raj persona is developed from film heroes Taani has admired and is Surinder's perception of a cool, uninhibited stud. Raj becomes Taani's partner in dance class, and his totally different personality begins to confuse himself as his flirting begins to confuse Taani. Surinder wants Taani to fall for his Surinder self, not his Raj ruse, but he doesn't do much to sway her in that direction.

And this is where the film really starts to fall apart, in my opinion. Frankly, although Taani's relationship with Raj is a little problematic, I actually prefer it to her one with Surinder. They have almost no scenes together with him as Surinder, and in those few scenes, both of them seem so awkward and uncomfortable that it's rather painful. She seems stifled and unnaturally silent, and his body posture makes him look like an abused puppy. They never seem to talk or connect in any way. Raj, on the other hand, gradually loses most of his bluster and aggression and becomes a confident expression of Surinder's inner sweetness. Also, Taani is much more herself when she's with Raj. Unfortunately, Raj is really Surinder inside-out, with his discomfort suppressed instead of his love, so Surinder's issues don't really leave Taani with any good options.

I ended up not really disliking this film, but not really liking it either. It basically only has three important characters, and perhaps that along with the rather hopeless and bleak storyline was what made the whole film end up seeming a little empty. But in the middle of all that emptiness there was a little tiny romance that you'd have to have a hard heart not to pity.

Vinod Khanna

Vinod Khanna has an enigmatic element to him that makes him difficult to characterize. This enigmatic quality is heightened by his incredible amount of charisma and his wonderful acting. His facial expressions are so subtle, yet so expressive, that he can barely move a muscle and emote radically different moods.


My first Vinod Khanna movie was one of my first Bollywood 1970s movies, Amar Akbar Anthony, and I love him in that kind of role. On the other hand, I adored his portrayal of a light-hearted simpleton in Jail Yatra, and I have really liked everything else he's been in, too (except The Burning Train--that one was kind of a wreck). His total believability in all of his roles is impressive.


I have trouble describing exactly what it is about him that makes him so magnetic and appealing, (as I said, he's enigmatic), so I've compiled a list of a few of the things other people have said about him. I am pretty much in agreement with all of them.


Beth's comment: The Khanna men, I swear, they have some sort of freaky pull on me. I'll watch any of them do anything.


Pessimisissimo's comment: As for my favorite 70s hero, I have a fondness for Vinod Khanna: a lover and a fighter who somehow never seems to get the girl.


Todd's comment: Also, I think that Vinod definitely deserves to be in the top tier of 70's men, though he's a little harder to stereotype than the others, as he comprises equal parts AYM, badass, and sensitive Shashi-type.


bollyviewer's comment: And nobody has the kind of sex-appeal that a Vinod Khanna or a Feroze Khan or a Kabir Bedi had back then.


Vinod Khanna fan site: The most handsome actor of the Hindi film Industry with an enviable physique and dimpled face.


veracious: The man is tall and handsome and intense and yeah, guh. . . . Not sure who coined the term "thinking angry young man" to describe his work in the 70's but I like it a lot.


Bollywood501: There is a kind of beautiful sadness connected with a Vinod Khanna performance. Khanna exudes an existential melancholy that one could mistake for quiet resignation if not for the very evident fire smoldering behind his smoky eyes. Introspection is a true part of his characters, the searching gaze, the million questions behind the face that barely conceals the pathos within.


Anonymous comment: For me, no one (Amitab Bachan et al.) could touch Vinod's capacity for pathos as an actor (to say nothing of looks!). Shashi is cute as a button, but that may also be what makes it difficult for him to communicate suffering to an audience or to elicit such strong feelings of sympathy for his character. Vinod is strong, vulnerable, and good looking. What more could one want?


Daddy's Girl: I like to call him sexy Vinod. Because that’s what he is! To be honest, when I watch his 70s films, the young Vinod Khanna doesn’t actually have to say or do anything to make me happy. Just looking at him – from those dark, intense, heavy-lidded, beautifully-framed, brown eyes, to the dimple in his chin, to his beautiful physique – that’s enough for me. When he doesn’t smile, he’s scorching hot. When he smiles, everything in his face lights up. He’s a gorgeous man, and as you can probably tell, I could talk about how hot he is for ages, but I’ll spare you… partly because I’ve probably embarrassed myself enough already, and partly because he’s a lot more than a pretty face. He was a really good actor too in his heyday – from the learned and anguished friend of ‘Muqaddar ka Sikandar’; to the serious policeman of ‘Amar Akbar Anthony'; to the intensely, evil-but-hot bandit of ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh’; to the stylish young stud of ‘Mere Tulsi Aangan Ki’, he just… gave all his roles that special touch… you know what, I give up - the truth is, I obviously can’t talk about this guy ‘seriously’. He just makes me melt. Sadly, I don't have many screencaps of sexy Vinod, and the pictures I've come across on the net don't do him justice.

Pyaar Impossible (2010)

I didn't expect to like this film, which is probably why I did. I'm not a really big fan of either Priyanka or Uday Chopra, but I actually liked them both quite well in this film. Priyanka is just right for the beautiful and popular girl on campus, and Uday surprised me by being a really sweet and believable geek.

Abhay (Uday Chopra) is a put-upon geek who has a gigantic crush on the most popular girl at his college, Alisha (Priyanka Chopra). When Alisha's father takes her out of school, Abhay has never spoken to her, although he did save her life when she drunkenly fell off a bridge. Seven years later, Abhay's innovative software technology is stolen and at the advice of his dad (Anupam Kher) he heads to Singapore to try to recover it. He doesn't have much luck with that initially, but while he's there he bumps into Alisha, who is now a single mother working at the company interested in the software stolen from him and whom he still idolizes. Alisha mistakes him for the new nanny sent to take care of her undisciplined daughter, and Abhay allows himself to be cajoled into the job. Then all he has to do is make friends with the daughter, get back his software, outsmart the villain who stole it, and win Alisha's heart. No problem.


The script, written by Uday Chopra, is not especially original, but it is played with so much humility and sincerity that it ends up being a sweet film whatever its faults. The comedy actually works pretty well, especially the Thai dinner scene. And Uday should only play geeks from now on.

Yuvakudu (2000)

Here's the back cover's take on this story, (spelling and grammatical errors preserved):

Siva (Sumanth) life long ambition had always been to join the Indian army. His father having died on the battle field serves to make his intention only stronger. However his attempts at getting into the army are not proving successful. When he meets sindhu (Bhoomika) and falls in love with her, he loses her by not declaring his love she treats him as she might any other friend. And when sindhu meets Padmavathi (Jaya Sudha) and agrees to marry her son, all hope for siva seems to be at an end. Will he ever realize any of his dreams?

Here's my take:

Padmavathi is a widowed mother who loves her son very much and is willing to do just about anything to make him happy. Her son, Shiva, is a spoiled, hot-tempered jerk who cares for nobody's feelings but his own. He falls for the beauty and compassionate heart of the neglected and love-starved Sindhu, but instead of trying to get to know her better or to win her favor, he arrogantly demands her hand in marriage. After she refuses to say yes immediately, he's barely civil to her, although he still likes her.* Padmavathi befriends Sindhu for the sake of her son's love, and Sindhu becomes attached enough to her to do anything for her. So Shiva lives happily ever after, sort of.

*I think his nastiness is supposed to show that he a tender heart that he's protecting with his arrogance. What he really has is a preoccupation with his own wants and a total lack of interest in what anyone else is thinking or feeling.

Why don't they hire me to write the back covers of these things?

Nandanam (2002)

This sweet film centers around a maid servant named Balamani (Navya Nair) who falls in love with the son of the household, Manu (Prithviraj). This is supposedly kind of presumptuous of her, but I don't see who could help falling for Prithviraj if he flirted with her. Look at this cute "candlelight dinner" he has with her out on a broken box in the back of the house.


But of course not everything can go smoothly (this is true love, after all), and issues come up. As much as I love Prithviraj, I'm glad the film was centered around Navya Nair instead of him, because every time I see his face in the second half of the film it makes me feel like I'm imploding, (and it's not because of his beard). He just looks so sad and restless that it breaks my heart.


I really like Balamani's character a lot. She lectures inanimate objects and sings and dances while she does her work about the house. She sticks up for herself but is also kind and compassionate. She's sweet and self-sacrificing while still being spunky and fun. She's believes in her dreams but is also a pragmatist. She's true to everyone, including herself. Basically, she's just a really good human being.


One of the characters I think I was supposed to like and I didn't was Manu's mom. She's introduced as being a lot like I see Balamani as being--strong, hard-working, loving, etc. However, when things get rough she puts her pride before her son's happiness.

Still, overall it's a lovely movie. Prithviraj and Navya Nair are adorable, and the storyline is pretty good. The songs are good and fit in nicely with the story. The pacing is slow but steady and right for this film. If you like stories about true love and religious devotion, this is the right film for you.

Fakira (1976)

I very much enjoyed this movie while I was watching it. It was fun and entertaining and I accepted what it had to offer without stopping to examine it too closely. The action starts soon and the craziness keeps going right to the very end. Sadly, once I'd finished the movie and started thinking back about some of it, I found it less satisfying.

For one thing, the romance has some creepy vibes to it. The age difference is enough that Shashi's cute romantic lines sometimes come across as a bit disturbing. Most of their scenes together are either song sequences or involve Shabana's character groveling at Shashi's feet. Also, the whole basis of their relationship is deceit, which I didn't feel was adequately worked through once things were revealed.

I feel like the other relationships were hardly given any attention either. I suppose masala films aren't known for realistic and deep relationships, but there was a lot of potential for more development here that just was not taken. Actually, in general, the characterizations seemed to be vague and ill defined.

Still, as far as action and fun and farce are concerned, it's a good choice. There were several very funny gags, (I especially liked the bomber pigeons), so if you're looking for a fun timepass (as Filmi Geek calls it), this is your movie.

Godavari (2006)

Anand wasn't exactly my cup of tea, (or coffee), and if I'd realized that this movie was by the same director I probably would have been less excited to watch it. Still, as it turned out, I rather enjoyed it. I also hadn't realized that this was the movie with the fabled animated talking dog, which I thought was rather pointless but wasn't bothered by.

My only beef with this movie was that although Sriram's self-absorbed cousin, Raji, isn't the most amazing person in the world, I didn't think she came close to deserving her fiance Ravi, who really is totally contemptible. I kept thinking, "Get out while you still can, girl!" So [*Spoiler!*] when she told Sriram that she wanted to elope with him, I thought that although that would of course be very sad for Seetha at first (who had a big crush on Sriram), in the end it would avoid much bigger heartaches. And I believe in maximizing total happiness. So I had mixed feelings about that not working out.

Still, on the whole, I thought it was a cute little romance. The pacing was slow, but it didn't drag too much. The characters were fun, and the ending was reasonably good.

Yamagola Malli Modalaindi (2007)

Indian religious films, I've been told, are always crazy, and this one was no exception. Luckily, I like crazy, so that suited me just fine. I really liked Srikanth and Vena when they were playing the parts of the gods Yama Jr. and Chitragupta Jr. (Yama is the god of hell and Chitragupta is his assistant.)


They were so wonderfully hammy. All the posturing and the crazy get-up suited them perfectly. I especially loved Srikanth's propensity to pull out the mustache twirling at every opportunity.


They come to earth to bring a soul into the next world and of course get caught up in all sorts of drama. One of my favorite episodes is when they go to a nightclub,


and decide to join in 70s style.


Which, in my opinion, was an excellent idea.



My other favorite episode happens when the heroine's aunt and uncle are out for a drive at night and a rascal tries to take off her aunt's sari. Yama Jr. decides to pull a Krishna, and the aunt is extremely pleased with the bundle of saris she gets out of it.


All of this happens in the first hour of the film. The next two hours of the film are much less entertaining, as there is a great dearth of Srikanth and Venu dressed up in god clothes posing. Srikanth occasionally still strokes his mustache, and they still ham it up a little, but it's just not the same. And the little romances do not make up for it.


The best part of the second half, sadly enough, is part of the comic subplot. This one is actually quite funny, though. The police had seen the last bit of the sari episode, decide that this rascal is a golden goose, and bring him to the inspector's house to pull the sari of the inspector's wife. Not such a bright idea.


It may have its faults, but I was entertained and found the ending reasonably emotionally satisfying. And that's all I ask for.

Vaaranam Aayiram (2008)

Surya (Surya Sivakumar) loves his father, Krishnan, (also Surya Sivakumar) very much. He is his hero, and when Surya meets and falls in love with a beautiful girl on a train named Meghna (Sameera Reddy), he loves her with as much devotion and persistence as his father wooed his mother with. He follows her to the U.S. where she had gone for grad school, and she falls in love with him too. Their happiness is suddenly shattered, and dark days begin for Surya. His father and a stranger help Surya, but it takes him a long time to recover.

The song here is the flashback shown as Surya's mother tells him of the days when Krishnan was courting her. All the songs are very lovely.

It's kind of a strange story--sweet, bitter, and bittersweet--reminiscences of a son about his life and his father.

Parichay (1972)

I loved, loved, loved this film.

And I can't put my finger on what it was. There's nothing especially spectacular about any of its parts. It's a fairly straightforward remake of The Sound of Music, and probably has even less drama than the original. Still, Jeetendra, Jaya, Pran, and Master Rajoo Shrestha all do excellent jobs in their roles. It's hardly melodramatic, and yet it still had enough punch to make me tear up at one point. It's not eventful, but it's hardly boring (I never believe people when they tell me that, but really and truly it isn't). It's just a really sweet, heartfelt film, and I like that kind.

On a side note, it makes me laugh how much they apparently thought Vinod Khanna needed to be disguised in order to give Jeetendra a fair chance. Vinod Khanna, I admit, is an extremely attractive man, but I'm not sure they needed to go quite so far.


I quite liked Jeetendra in this film and began to wonder why I haven't seen more of him.


On the other hand, Vinod Khanna is Vinod Khanna, and his charm shines even through his bulky glasses and bad hair. So perhaps they had reason to be worried.

Umrao Jaan (1981)

Some adjectives that come to mind for this movie are beautiful, well-crafted, tragic, sensual, and unsatisfying.

The courtesan in this movie is about the same as the courtesans in Benazir, Devdas, and Mangal Pandey. She's gorgeous, well spoken, elegant, graceful, tragic, and hungry for love. Her love affair does not work out, in spite of her best efforts. The difference between this one and the others is that this one has the family story, too, which is also sad.

Artistically, it's a well-made film. The beginning and end mirror each other, the way jewelry and mirrors are used is significant, etc. The costumes, the songs, and Rekha are all lovely.

My least favorite part of the movie: the plot. I don't go in for tragedies that much. Especially ones about courtesans. (If it has to be a tragedy, I prefer something noble, as long as it isn't also pointless and stupid.)

My favorite part of the movie: definitely the songs. They were lovely, especially this one. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a version of it with subtitles, which are part of what I enjoyed about this song, but it's still lovely without.

Awara (1951)

My school library has a decent amount of Bollywood films, but not many oldies. That's why I was very pleased to see Awara on the shelf, and I checked it out immediately. After I watched it I glanced through a few Bollywood blogs, and I was surprised to see this listed on so few of the blogs I checked. I suppose there are reasons for it not to be a popular pick, but there are also some strong reasons to watch it. I'll just tell you two, these being:

Reason 1: Little Shashi! I make it a point never to read back covers before I watch the movie—they tend to give away too much—so I was very surprised and happy when Shashi showed up as the young Raj. He looks just like himself (i.e., adorable). He actually gets a fair amount of screen time, too, and acts extremely well. The cover informs me that this was the only child's role he ever played. See how cute he is!

Reason 2: The song at the end of this post. It's quite trippy, which is usually a plus in my book. I especially love the fallen column slide. Of course, the devils dancing in hell are quite entertaining, too. The helpful back cover informs me that this was the first dream sequence in Hindi cinema. Obviously, it caught on.

In case you were curious about what reasons would make you not want to watch the film, I'll share one of those. Prithviraj Kapoor plays Judge Raghunath, and Raj Kapoor plays his son, Raj. Judge Raghunath firmly believes that honesty is hereditary. Predictably, Raj becomes a thief, but he does inherit another characteristic of his father's—mistreating women. Judge Raghunath throws his wife out of the house while she's in labor with Raj because he suspects (falsely) that she was raped. Raj slaps his girlfriend until she falls to the ground when she tells him it's ungentlemanly to look her way when she's changing. (Both of the women seem to think they somehow deserve this treatment, too.) This made the rest of the story a bit less satisfactory.

Still, the movie has its points. I mean, it has Little Shashi! That's worth something. Also, it's a must-see if you're a fan of the Kapoor clan; it's got Prithviraj, Raj, Shashi, and Wikipedia says that "Prithiviraj's father Dewan Bashwanath Kapoor also played a cameo role in his only film appearance." I'm not quite sure, but I have a guess about who he played.