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.