The Movie Recommendation Thread

[ashdoc]

Fedora ( 1978 )

William Holden plays Barry Detweiler , who wants to make a film starring an old reclusive actress called Fedora ( Marthe Keller ) because he has a crush on her since his boyhood days when he was spotboy for her film shoot and had the good fortune to see the full glory of her nude breasts from up close while tasked with placing flowers over them as she was shooting in a pool . And she had taken a liking for him and called him to her room and asked him if he found her nude body hot , and had said that he must be a pansy if he did not like her body----meaning she would feel insulted if he did not admire her flesh ; a true narcissist our Fedora , just like a true film star....

Having briefly dated this famous movie star a long time ago and been on long drives in her car with her , Barry just can't get her out of his mind . And here he now , trying to meet her decades later on an island where she has mysteriously disappeared after leaving films and joining them again . And he closes onto the villa where Fedora lives , only to find out that it is heavily guarded by tough looking humans and even tougher dogs .

But Barry is nothing if not persistent , and he soon makes contact with her . But she tells him that she is being held captive by a countess and her men . When Barry tries to renew the contact he is beaten and left unconscious by one of Fedora's overseers . When he wakes up , he finds out that she is dead having committed suicide .

As he comes to pay his last respects to her body , Barry accuses the countess and her husband of having conspired to kill Fedora . And the countess is then forced to blurt out the jaw dropping truth . That Fedora was actually she herself and she was even more narcissistic than Barry thought . That in order to satisfy her narcissism she used to take regular treatments from her doctor that one day had the opposite effect of disfiguring her . And she had gone into hiding . But when she got news that the academy award had been awarded to her , she had prepared her daughter to receive the award impersonating her . And the impersonation was so good that the daughter soon was working in films as Fedora , impersonating her of course .

But when the daughter fell in love like all young women do , she wanted to reveal the secret to the young man she loved . That she was not older than him as he thought and that they could be together without any age gap between them . But the idea of the revelation of this secret exploded the vanity of the older real Fedora like a poisonous snake being disturbed , and she did the most cruel and vile thing that a woman could do---held her own child drugged and captive .

Seeing the film I was disgusted with these filmy people and their horrible ego and their self absorption . More so because such people actually exist in the film industry and are not fiction . The film evokes Hollywood of the forties---extravagant sets and movies and even more extravagant egos .

And yet people are willing to pamper and pander to these extravagant egos . For Barry agrees to keep the secret of the countess , as Fedora is called in her new avtar . And why ? For old times sake of course....to remember with happiness the time he had briefly dated this great star .

The film is suspenseful in the beginning and the explanation of the suspense is even more shocking than we thought . In that sense the film exceeds our expectations . Acting and photography is okay but colours are not great . Background music is okay too .

Verdict---Good .

Three and a half stars out of five .

 

[ashdoc]

Sunset boulevard

The movie is from the black and white era .

William Holden plays an out of luck movie script writer named Joe Gillis whose scripts are not accepted by most directors . While running away from men trying to take his car because he has not paid it's dues , he accidentally stumbles into the mansion of a forgotten movie star of the era of silent films named Norma Desmond ( Gloria Swanson ) . She lives in her own world where she is still supposed to be a great star with a huge fan following , though it is actually her own butler ( played by Erich von Stroheim ) who writes the fan letters . And he too was a former movie director who had discovered Norma but whom she married and later divorced , but became her butler because he could not live apart from her . Can things get quirkier than that ?

Yes , they can get quirkier . Because Norma takes a fancy to Joe and decides to make the much younger Joe her keep , and Joe accepts because he has run out of funds . Norma wants to make grand comeback to films even though she is 53 , and Joe becomes the scriptwriter of her bizarre comeback movie . But actually he is interested in another girl called Betty ( Nancy Olsen ) and soon Betty spurns her fiance for him .

But Joe has got too much entangled in the situation created by Norma to ever get out . She wants the great director Cecil B. DeMille to direct her film , and her faded but still remembered star power is on display as she enters his shoot to be warmly greeted by him and recognised by people . But he is not really interested in directing her .

The crisis occurs when Norma discovers that Joe and Betty are in love . And when Joe tries to walk out with some harsh words of truth , she fires a gun on him....his fate is like the male spider who mates with the female spider only to find that there is no release as she devours him . As the police come to arrest Norma with reporters for shooting the arrest , she has gone sufficiently mad to think that the scene is of the shooting of a film being enacted .

The film actually is in touch with the truth , for in the film industry there are several former stars who live in the memory of the former halcyon days . The Bollywood actor Rajesh Khanna was one such person , who was constantly reliving his former superstardom long after it had perished . The dialogue by Norma in the movie saying 'I am big . It is the pictures that got small.' aptly sums up this attitude . Not surprisingly , the film is regarded as a classic . Acting is good , if you are willing to tolerate Gloria Swanson's overdramatic acting as Norma Desmond . Photography is good if you are willing to tolerate black and white colours and small screen format .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .

 

[cyclops]

A dark coming of age movie.
5 out of 5 BrahMos.

 

[ezsasa]

Vivien Leigh plays Scarlet O'Hara , the daughter of a cotton plantation owner in southern United states . They have black slaves on the plantation , but the movie shows them to be treated more like servants than slaves and they fuss over Scarlet . But at the time of the beginning of the movie itself , their whole world is on the verge of collapse . The northerners have declared war on the south to free the slaves and history tells us that the south was defeated .

But the southerners are full of martial spirit and scoff on anyone who tells them about the superiority of the northerners ( yankees they are called ) over the south in terms of resources . One such person is Rhett Butler ( played by Clark Gable ) , some kind of freelance warrior and philanderer who visits prostitutes .

In typically filmy fashion , Rhett falls in love with Scarlet at first sight . But Scarlet loves another man who rejects her and she marries a boy to spite the person she loves . Soon she is a widow as her husband is killed in action . Similar is the fate of the whole southern armies as the yankees invade Atlanta in Georgia and bring fire and destruction with them . Scarlet who is in Atlanta is helped to escape to Georgia by Rhett , but arrives on her plantation to find her mother dead and her father gone crazy due to the destruction of everything near and dear to him ; yes the plantation has been destroyed .

But Scarlet is determined to survive and stands like rock commanding everyone to help rebuild everything . She grows up from a young girl being fussed over by everyone to be a strong lady...and Rhett Butler does occasionally drop by because he still loves her . But he refuses to financially help her and Scarlet marries second time to an older person to get his money . But he is killed too and Scarlet finally accepts Rhett's proposal .

They have a daughter and but she dies too . And Scarlett continues to love the man she loved from the start . His wife is kind and understands , but she is dies too , asking Scarlet to look after her husband . Rhett realises that it is time a reunion of Scarlet with her man and decides to move out .

But the man says he loved only his wife and too late Scarlett realises that she was so mistaken in rejecting the love of Rhett , but he is gone . She decides to go back to her place of strength---her plantation , from where she will again make a move to regain her lost husband . Not a loser or sissy is our heroine....

And I found myself sympathising with Scarlet O'Hara , the woman who knew no fear and fought like tigress among all the vicissitudes of fortune . And among all these vicissitudes , these southerners yearn for their past . The past where there were huge plantations of which they were their owners and had black slaves and grew cotton . Of grand parties on those plantations . All of which has been swept away by the tidal wave of history....gone with the wind !!

The movie shows the black slaves loyally co operating with the southern ( confederate ) forces and talking of licking the yankees , a fact that I found incredible . The yankees were coming to liberate them weren't they ? And no scene of blacks being ill treated or being unhappy at their position . In the world of Margaret Mitchell ( the novelist who wrote the novel on which the movie is based ) the blacks are satisfied with their position in the existing order and indeed co operate with preserving it . No hint of revolt . A conversation says that the whites treated their black slaves well . Sounds unreal and full of blissful ignorance at best and neglect of the situation on the ground at worst .

I would have been more happy to see Scarlet and Rhett reunited at the end , and was disappointed to see him go . Yet I liked the movie . Colours photography and music is good and Vivien Leigh has put her heart and soul in her acting . Much appreciated by me and of course much loved by the public which made the movie such a huge hit .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .

Yup, I believe there was a time when blacks were on the side of their masters. My assumption here being the blacks working on the plantations would have known very little of their world outside of their plantation. Their masters were their lords within those huge plantations.

A Stockholm syndrome of sorts.

 

[Tactical Frog]

Yup, I believe there was a time when blacks were on the side of their masters. My assumption here being the blacks working on the plantations would have known very little of their world outside of their plantation. Their masters were their lords within those huge plantations.

A Stockholm syndrome of sorts.

Sure , some Black slaves might have suffered from Stockholm syndrome. But at the same time, there are plenty of stories of slaves killing their masters, burning the plantation, or simply escaping and hiding in the woods.

 

[ashdoc]

Souten ( 1983 )

Set on the beautiful island of Mauritius , which has a majority of Indian descended population , the movie has an interesting and modern take on the relationship between hindu God Krishna and his chief wife Rukhmini and the other woman in their life of whom Rukhmini is constantly jealous . This is Radha , the eternal devotee of Krishna with whom he has a deep but platonic relationship . Unlike Rukhmini and Krishna who have physical relations , Krishna and Radha do not have physical relations but instead a deep love that is so legendary that they are worshipped together as if they are a couple and many times we find idols with Krishna and Radha together....but never is an idol found of Krishna and Rukhmini together . This is of course a constant source of anxiety to Krishna's chief wife Rukhmini , and the film is based on this triangle . But an interesting twist is added in the film---Radha in the film belongs to the lowest caste in Hinduism which is considered untouchable by upper castes ; that is , even touching people of her caste is considered filthy by upper castes .

So on to the story of the movie---Shyam ( another name of Krishna ) is played by Rajesh Khanna who is the Krishna of the movie , and he is a self made man who has risen from humble origins to become a successful owner of fishing ships . One day a man called Gopal ( played by Sriram Lagu ) from the untouchable caste comes to him for a job and begs him to give him the job as his daughter is not even having food to eat at home . Shyam takes him in and soon is impressed by his devotion to his work , so he makes his second in command in his venture . Gopal is so grateful to Shyam for this promotion that he daily tells about the kindness of Shyam to his beautiful daughter Radha ( played by Padmini Kolhapure ) and hearing his stories she soon falls in love with Shyam even without meeting him .

Shyam is ambitious and goes to meet the head ( Raisaheb played by Pran ) of a finance corporation to get a loan for buying more ships . Raisaheb is impressed by his plans and arranges the loan and also invites Shyam to a party , where he is introduced to Raisaheb's daughter Rukhmini with whom he develops an instant attraction . Rukhmini is stunning and stylish and fashionable and hungry for love . Inspite of opposition from her maternal uncle ( played by Prem Chopra ) and her mother , she gets married to Shyam . When Radha hears of this , she is obviously disappointed that she could not get Shyam . But she quickly adjusts to this reality and continues to love Shyam without even having met him once !! But Rukhmini detests these lower caste people and refuses to associate with Radha's father Gopal .

Being from a very rich family , Rukhmini is used to having her way and her passion for gambling brings out friction with her husband Shyam . One day she on the advice of her mother gets herself operated for not having children for a long time because she does not want to lose her figure in pregnancy . But the operation results in her becomes never capable of having children , leaving Shyam devastated . The couple begins to draw apart .

In the midst of all this , Gopal invites Shyam to his house for lunch and Shyam and Radha finally meet . Shyam is instantly drawn to Radha and he begins to meet her regularly to soothe his mind . The much in love Radha gladly obliges . One day a big ship that Shyam has purchased on the loan he got capsizes and loses all it's men and his money . Once more he goes into the arms of Radha to forget his troubles and this time she holds him in her embrace . And forces him to sleep that night in her house because a thunderstorm has made it impossible for him to move out . But there is no sex between them and the relationship remains chaste .

But Rukhmini's maternal uncle seizes the chance to claim that they ( Shyam and Radha ) slept together and rouses the jealousy of Rukhmini . Mad with jealousy , she invites Shyam and Gopal and Radha to a party where she dances with lascivious movements in exposing clothes and becomes increasingly drunk . And at the end she confronts Shyam over his relationship with Radha . Angry and frustrated over her behaviour , Shyam admits to loving Radha and in return gets slapped by Rukhmini . She runs to her father with the news and gives him a heart attack by which he dies . But she continues to love Shyam still . It is upto Radha to clear the misunderstanding and bring the couple she worships ( Shyam and Rukhmini ) together . And to do so , she plays the ultimate price....gives up her own life .

Embellished with beautiful background music and superb songs , the movie was the last triumph of the superstar of yesteryear---Rajesh Khanna . For it was his last hit as hero of a film . His then girlfriend Tina Munim played Rukhmini with aplomb and looked stunning in the latest fashionable clothes and styles . Today when the untouchables have begun to forsake the hindu religion for buddhism , it was nice to remember a time when the role of hindu God Krishna's companion Radha was done by a girl shown to be of the untouchable caste in hinduism . And nobody complained . Padmini Kolhapure has done justice to that role .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .

 

[Dovah]

@ashdoc Request: Please review Padmavat.

 

[ashdoc]

@ashdoc Request: Please review Padmavat.

http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/threads/ashdocs-movie-review-padmaavat-3d.80706/

 

[Singh]

Is there any thread for TV series ?

 

[ashdoc]

Ek baar phir ( 1980 )

The Indian star system of Bollywood in the 1970s---full of tyranny of the top film stars . Mahendar Kumar ( played by Suresh Oberoi ) plays just such a film star . He arrives late for shootings keeping his producers and directors waiting even though their precious money is on the line . Sometimes when he does not have the mood he simply skips the shooting wasting the time resources and energy that has been spent creating the movie set . Reason---he is sleeping with some woman . Producers literally have to fall at his feet and beg him to resume shooting . He forces changes in the dialogues of his films to favour himself and sometimes changes entire scenes to suit his star status . No one dare reproach him for his misbehaviour for he is the darling of the masses ; the man for whom people come to watch films .

At home Mahendar's wife Kalpana ( played by Deepti Naval ) is subject to a different kind of tyranny . She has to suffer neglect as Mahendar is away for shooting leaving her alone at home . But many times his keeping away from home for shootings is nothing but an excuse for sleeping with other women . Not that he takes much care to hide his affairs . Women lie half naked on his lap in parties in front of Kalpana and make a beeline for sleeping with him because they want roles in films through his recommendations .

Kalpana who has married him thinking how lucky she is to marry this great film star remembers with regret the carefree days of her youth where she used to frolick with her friends before marriage . She feels humiliated by Mahendar's open dalliances with other women in front of her eyes while she has to play dutiful wife dancing on his tune . But this is India in the seventies and women have to live lives hidebound by tradition . In real life too wives of film stars like Raj Kapoor and Dharmendra had to live long suffering lives where they were not allowed any freedoms while their husbands opening cavorted with other women .

One day on a shoot in London Mahendar as usual neglects Kalpana for shootings and also for other women and the thoroughly bored Kalpana is intrigued by the paintings of an Indian street painter ( played by Pradeep Verma ) called Vimal . Vimal sees her interest and asks her to pose for his painting . But rains pour in and he offers Kalpana a ride in his car . As they strike up a conversation they both realise that their common interest is painting . Kalpana had to give up painting after marriage as part of the sacrifices an Indian film star's wife had to do for her husband's household but she still dreams of painting . Vimal invites Kalpana to the painting class he learns painting at and she agrees . Her husband Mahendar is so distracted by other women that he goes for film shooting in Switzerland with his current girlfriend leaving her behind alone .

At the painting class the two are soon attracted to one another and are going out for outings in gardens . One day Kalpana visits Vimal's house and sees a nude painting of herself . She asks him if he dreams of her like that and the inevitable happens---the two bodies are drawn to each other for making love . But back at home Kalpana is riven by guilt . She after all is not a western woman but an Indian woman kept in chains of tradition and extramarital sex is taboo for women like her . She decides to break off with Vimal that very night and phones Mahendar to tell him that she wants to stay with him in Switzerland . But in the dead of the night the phone is picked up by his girlfriend . It is obvious that they are sleeping together . Sick of Mahender's philandering Kalpana decides to continue with Vimal .

However Mahendar's career receives a further boost as he gets a film in Hollywood . Overjoyed by this news Kalpana decides to give the marriage another chance and decides to accompany Mahendar to Hollywood . But Mahendar throws cold shower over her plans by refusing to take her with him . Angered by this Kalpana gets ever closer to Vimal and dreams of making love with him when her husband is making love to her . She compares the two and finds Vimal to be caring attentive and gentle to her . While the wives of real life film stars like Dharmendra and Raj Kapoor stayed with their husbands for their money Kalpana is not swayed by such considerations because she is made of sterner stuff . She wants a man who is totally for herself and Vimal is not a philanderer like her husband .

But a woman carrying an extramarital affair would have been castigated by the backward Indian society in the seventies and this fact soon weighs on Kalpana . Mahendar as a man was free to carry on his dalliances with many women but Kalpana as a woman was not free to have a single affair . She decides to cut off Vimal....but he has grown too emotionally attached to her . He asks her to meet him just one more time . Actually Mahendar wants Kalpana to come to Bombay because the members of the press are going to interview him there and he wants Kalpana by his side just for photo ops and to present the perfect picture of him as a family man . But Kalpana relents for the sake of Vimal and postpones her flight to Bombay . And she goes to meet Vimal just one last time , to say goodbye . Vimal cries in her lap like a baby and implores her to stay with him for he needs her more than her husband needs her .

Torn between the two men Kalpana is at a crossroads of life . All of a sudden things are made easier for her by a phone call from Mahendar . He is freaking mad that Kalpana had not arrived in Bombay on the day he was to be interviewed by the press and could not give fake photo ops as the perfect family man . And for this perfidy Mahendar howls like mad dog on Kalpana on phone . Thoroughly humiliated by the shouting Kalpana finally does what is right . She tells Mahendar in no uncertain terms that she is leaving him and his life for Vimal .

As Kalpana packed her belongings and went to sit beside Vimal she still was wondering whether she had done right....or so said Vinod Pande the director of the film . But that has never stopped aficionados of true romance like myself and many others from celebrating her liberation....

Background music and songs are most perfect in the film , reflecting the mood of every moment in the movie . Colours and photography are very decent . Acting is good by both Suresh Oberoi and Deepti Naval as star husband and star wife . But Pradeep Verma brings real vulnerability to his role as lover ; he seems so gentle that any woman would find it hard to break his heart .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .

 

[ashdoc]

Is there any thread for TV series ?

started

http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/threads/tv-serials-thread.80778/#post-1405739

 

[lcafanboy]

My pick

"Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron" from 1980s

I think it's the most hilarious comedy of all time.

Starring Nasiruddin Shah, Satish Shah.....

It's about widespread corruption in govt departmental and India.

 

[lcafanboy]

Another one

"Golmaal"

again from 1980s starring Amol Palekar, bindya Goswami, Utpal Dutt.

It's about Amol Palekar two timing Utpal Dutt. Super hilarious.....

 

[dhananjay1]

I watched three movies by director Yuriy Bykov few months back. The Major, The Fool and To Live. All of them are pretty good.

 

[ashdoc]

Naam gum jayega ( 2005 )

I recently realised that I had not reviewed any movie of the actress whom I had loved during my youth--Dia Mirza . I fell in love with her while watching the movie 'Rehna hai tere dil mey' ( Want to stay in your heart ) and went on to watch that movie several times . But I have forgotten parts of the movie by now and a review of that movie will require me to see it again---a chore too much because I have already seen it too many times years back . Not in the mood to see it again , just like I am not in the mood to fall in love with Dia again .

So I watched 'Naam gum jayega' ( Name will be lost ) , a flop movie of hers ; most of Dia's movies including RHTDM were flops . Now don't ask me why I chose to fall in love with a flop actress . Maybe because the successful ones were all booked !! I chose the movie because it is set in my favourite setting---the high mountains what else , where beauty of nature is abundant and where we Indians rush for vacation to escape the hot climate of India .

So on to the story . Aryan Srivastav and Divya are off to vacation in the mountains . But as they are driving on the winding mountain roads , they see an unconscious girl ( Dia Mirza ) lying on the road . They revive her and hear her story . She says that her name is Natasha and she fell in love with a boy named Vishal on a college hike months ago . But Vishal was not ready immediately to marry her , so she gave him six months to think about it and came back after six months to meet him . But by this time he had sold the house and the new owner was Nalini Sen . Natasha was agonised by the disappearance of Vishal and Nalini kindly agreed to allow this disturbed girl to stay to see if Vishal ever came back in search for her . But whenever Nalini was out of the house an amorous professor used to come in the house to try to force himself on her . It was to escape his clutches that she was running from the house and fell unconscious .

Aryan and Divya take Natasha back to Nalini and tell her that they are occult specialists who investigate the paranormal , but usually find that possessed people are just mentally disturbed . They feel that Natasha is similarly mentally disturbed as no one has seen the amorous professor except Natasha . Soon they track Vishal , but he says that he has never seen the girl claiming to be Natasha !! In fact , he says that his girlfriend Natasha is dead and buried . On the other hand the body of the professor is found too . So who is the girl claiming to be Natasha ? Has she murdered the professor and is living with a different identity to hide that fact ?

But everyone feels that the girl is genuinely mentally disturbed and decide to let her have what she wants---company of Vishal , but without the knowledge of his real girlfriend's death . And the girl claiming to be Natasha is really happy with Vishal near her . And as expected , real love blooms between them as Vishal develops feelings for her .

But Aryan investigates the whole matter of the professor's death . And finds out that the professor had tried to force himself on the girl in the past . So who was she ? Her real name was Geetanjali and she secretly loved Vishal , who was her friend Natasha's boyfriend . But was mentally disturbed by the professor trying to force himself on her . The professor died by another reason however , and Geetanjali is innocent . Aryan uses hypnotherapy to force Geetanjali to come to terms with the truth . And with Natasha conveniently dead in an accident and buried , it is time for Geetanjali to get united permanently with Vishal . Alls well that ends well....except for the audience .

The movie which begins as a suspense thriller soon gets bogged down in too many twists and turns and eventually turns uninteresting . Background music and songs are just about okay , but photography is better due to the sights of the pine tree covered green mountains . Acting by everyone is all right . Dia looks okay in some scenes and not so okay in some . Not as good as in RHTDM....

But critical consensus says that the movie was appreciated by the audience more than I did . Something that gladdened my heart .

Verdict---Not good .

One and a half stars out of five .

 

[ashdoc]

Chudail story ( May 2016 )

The opening scene shows a car stopping on a road . A man and his friend get out to see an enticing woman with a lantern waiting for them at a distance . As the man follows her like a moth attracted to a flame , she draws him further into the jungle and then kisses him . But his friend follows in the car only to see the man dead and his eyes blackened . The sexy witch has claimed another victim....and I was hooked onto watching the movie . Because the movie raised hopes of getting to see a seductive witch entice more men into having hot sex with her and raising our temperature .

Cut to the present . A car carrying five young friends ( three young men and two young women ) gets stuck on the same road in the same jungle . They decide to go to a huge mansion in front of them for help . But are warned by a crazy old man who suddenly jumps in front of them about the witch . Dismissing him as crazy , four of them go into the house and knock the door . And lo !! The door is opened by a goodlooking woman who totally outclasses the two girls in beauty .

Unsettled by her beauty , the two girls immediately make clear that the two young men are their respective boyfriends so that she does not make a move on them . It's too late , for the two young men are already mesmerised by her beauty . But as the car is not able to move , they are forced to stay for the night in the house .

The girls broach the topic of the old crazed man warning them about her to the woman , but she says that people are prone to say such things about her because she is a lone beautiful woman living alone . But soon she entices one of the young men by appearing wet and half naked in front of him when he is exploring the house and then begins to set him against his friends . He starts acting strangely making his friends uncomfortable .

The mechanic called for repairing the car then arrives and talks of the same story of the witch who never allows anyone who enters the house to leave....and sure enough , he is killed by a pike falling on him as he prepares to go out of the house . Not so subtle in her moves is our witch is she....? Well , I was hoping that she would show the same lack of subtlety in bed with one of the young men so that I could watch and salivate at the scene of her in the heat of passion....And sure enough , she soon entices the other young man and a hot love making scene cum song is showcased in the front of us .

What about the young women ? As expected , everyone in these horror movies is doomed . The other young man left to guard the car then arrives in the house with the same story of the mad old man warning him . The sexy witch then makes the young men fight with each other over the girls by making them believe that the girls are cheating on them with each other . One of the girls then tries to escape but she is dragged by the power of the witch back into the house . One by one each of the young people is killed by the witch , who is taking revenge over society over wrongs committed by her dead husband in the bygone past . She has sex with men and then captures their souls and makes them permanent prisoners of her harem , which is full of souls of dead people left hanging .

Preeti Soni acts as the witch , and does look sexy in backless blouses which she removes to make wanton love on satin sheets with the hero---one of the young men , played by Amal Sherawat . He becomes the prize catch of the witch's harem of souls of dead men she has fucked and discarded , but his entry in the harem comes at a price ; his girlfriend ( played by Nidhi Nautiyal ) has to be allowed to become the first woman to escape the house ever , the escape being the final act of proving his love for her even though he has succumbed to the charms of the witch . The other girl ( played by Menaka Lalwani ) is not so lucky , and neither are the other young men . This is followed by another hot song with the sexy Preeti Soni enjoying in bed with Amal Sherawat as the movie climaxes .

Acting by everyone is okay , and photography and colours are good . Background music and songs are decent . The movie rests on the sex appeal of the witch , and Preeti Soni delivers on that front very well . Some of the horror scenes are scary , but if you don't believe in ghosts like me you will find the movie more sexy than scary .

Verdict---Okay .

Two stars out of five .

 

[asingh10.]

Spring, summer, fall, winter -- and spring

 

[asingh10.]

Grave of the Fireflies

 

[ashdoc]

Prateeksha

This was my second attempt to review a Dia Mirza movie , and any review by me of a Dia Mirza movie is a labour of love....The movie starts awkwardly , but soon gets a grip as it progresses .

Kishen ( Jimmy Shergill ) comes from rural state of Bihar to the big city to study medicine . In the medical college he runs into Reena Brown ( Diya Mirza ) , who is a Christian and is beautiful and sophisticated and speaks english very well . She looks down upon Kishen as a rural bumpkin and the two are at loggerheads on several occasions . Reason is that Kishen speaks the hindi language in a rural style , and Reena feels that his English must be even worse . Reena has a boyfriend named John Clayton , and he is more understanding towards Kishen . But Reena tries to make her boyfriend play the game of one-upmanship with Kishen , but totally fails . In the college football game she tries to encourage John to score a goal in opposition to Kishen , but John gets injured instead letting Kishen the chance to score the goal . Reena organises a party where Kishen is not invited , but Kishen disturbs it by singing loudly outside it .

One thing that all this proves is that Kishen is talented in both sports and singing and his popularity rises in the college . Kishen pokes Reena by calling her 'memsaab' ( madam ) , thus making fun of the perceived difference between their status . When John opts out of playing Othello in a college play , it is to Kishen that everyone turns to play that role . Reena is to play Desdemona opposite Othello and detests the idea of Kishen touching her during the play . But Kishen surprises her by playing the role of Othello with aplomb and speaking perfect English while playing it . She is so impressed by his acting and his command over English that she herself touches him during the play and holds his hand in the climax .

Soon Reena and Kishen begin to hang out together and become friends . But Reena's personal life suddenly goes topsy turvy with her boyfriend John ( whom she is hoping to marry ) coming under the pressure of his father to marry Emily who has come from England . John does deeply regret not being able to marry Reena , and is hardly able to blurt out his refusal to her .

Kishen who is attracted to Reena from the start however takes to opportunity to woo her by being the person who comforts her in the midst of her heartbreak . And Reena soon turns to him to soothe her aching heart . She finds Kishen to be jovial and boisterous in nature , with passionate views on some subjects . Reena starts missing him if he does not come to the college on a day and goes searching for him to his hostel . And she takes the lead in proposing marriage to him....love is in the air again for her . The two go on dates together and dream of life in each other's arms .

The issue of their different religions does come up , but Kishen allays Reena's fears by saying that he is an atheist who does not believe in God and will not try to change her religion . They meet her father James ( Anupam Kher ) , who gives his blessings to the marriage . The couple decide to wear each other's religion's clothes for the impending court marriage . And I must say that Jimmy Shergill looks good in dark tie and suit , a far cry from the country bumpkin he started as in the movie . And Dia Mirza in saree looks simply divine....why is it that I was not in that dark tie and suit in Jimmy Shergill's shoes to serenade my darling Dia....?? why ??

But what is a movie without a twist , and the twist comes in due form with Kishen's father Pandit ( Govind Namdeo ) coming from his village to oppose the marriage . He is too conservative to accept a Christian daughter in law , and plainly tells Reena that he will cut off all relations with his son if he marries her . He says that she will be responsible for the breaking of relations between parents and son , and that no hindu will marry Kishen's sister if he marries a Christian girl . He berates Reena's father James for accepting the marriage and James decides to cut off the marriage plans . Reena comes under pressure to cut off the marriage and she has to tell Kishen that he cannot be her husband . Kishen tries to reason with her but in vain .

Devastated by all this , Kishen forsakes his family and goes away to find peace in a small town where both communities live in harmony ; Christians worship hindu saints and hindus go to Christian priests when someone is not well . He starts a clinic there and practices as a doctor . But on his table is a still a photo of Dia Mirza....uh , I mean Reena . Many years pass and one day Reena comes searching for him in a completely drunken state .

She tells him her story . After she tried to reason with her father James to agree to the marriage inspite of Kishen's father's opposition , James told her in a fit of anger that he did not want her anymore because she was brining too much trouble in his life . That she was actually not his legitimate daughter but rather his illegitimate child born of his affair with his maid , the same maid played by Zarina Wahab who had been taking care of the house all these years . The maid is hindu and he has not married her , nor has Reena been baptized . So Reena is neither hindu nor Christian . He then told the mother and daughter to get out of his life . Reena was forced to leave his house and sing in bars and nightclubs wearing exposing clothes and with patrons making advances towards her . She who was once totally against smoking and drinking had now developed habits of heavy drinking and incessant smoking to ward off depression .

But the real depression she had was of having ruined a good man's life....Kishen's who else....for she wanted to see him practice as a doctor in some big city and earn real money rather than waste his life in some small clinic in some small town . And here she is....standing in front of Kishen asking his forgiveness for ruining his life and his career and offering financial help to help him shift back to the big city , for her father James deeply regretted his treatment of his daughter at the end of his life and willed her all his estate and money .

But lo !! Reena is the one who gets helped instead . For Kishen has his own story to tell , of his sister marrying outside their caste and finally bringing his father Pandit out of his religious stupor . And the father contacting him asking to bring Reena as his daughter in law because he can't bear to not be with his son , and can't bear to see his son permanently unhappy and unmarried without Reena . And Kishen is willing to accept Reena even though she has had an unsavoury past and he is willing to be patient till she weans herself off her heavy smoking and drinking habits and does not care if she is an illegitimate child of a servant woman who does know if she is hindu or Christian....for he who was once an atheist has begun to believe in the kind of God that does not reside in temples or churches but instead resides in the hearts of true believers....and believers are those who forgive sins and serve others without caring for their faith .

True love never dies....and for Reena and Kishen , the long wait called prateeksha is truly over . And the long wait called prateeksha was over for me too , of seeing and reviewing a good film of Dia Mirza . For the climax of the movie filled me with emotion . Acting in the film was decent , and colours and photography was not bad too . Background music and songs were okay .

It was nice to see an interreligious love story come to a happy ending . Seen too many such love stories end up not so happy in real life , crushed as they were by the burden of tradition and the ancient religious codes of the land .

Verdict---Very decent .

Three stars out of five .

 

[ashdoc]

Fever ( 2016 )

The movie starts with actor Rajeev Khandelwal walking on a mountain road in Switzerland after alighting from a bus , and actress Gauhar Khan following him in a car and offering him a ride to his destination . He recognises her and accepts the offer of a ride . But as she drives further she pushes him out of the car and he falls below the road in a valley . When he wakes up he finds himself in a hospital , where the doctor informs him that he has not been injured seriously . But he himself realises that he has lost much of his memory . He says that his name is Armin Salem and he is from Paris . But can't remember much beyond that . The doctor ( Victor Banerjee ) thinks that his patient is a good man in trouble and gives him money to survive till he regains his memory . Meanwhile he is discharged from hospital and starts staying in a hotel close by .

In the hospital and again in the hotel he finds that he is being stalked by the same woman who tried to kill him---actress Gauhar Khan . She entices him by parading in bikinis when he goes to the swimming pool and soon tries to get close to him . She promises to help him regain his memory and begins to embrace and romance him . Gauhar tells him that her name is Kavya . But does she really want him to regain his memory considering the fact that she tried to kill him earlier ?

Meanwhile Armin does get to remember something in a disjointed jumbled manner and thinks that he may have killed a woman named Rhea Wagner ( Gemma Atkinson ) and that he may have been a professional assassin before he lost memory---a contract killer . When he tells the doctor of this , the doctor plainly tells him that if this is the case then he might have been helping the wrong person and he regrets giving money to him .

Armin remembers Rhea Wagner further in front of Kavya and says that even though his assignment was to kill Rhea , he fell in love with her beauty instead and went on to have an affair with her . At this point we are treated to some red hot love making scenes between Armin and Rhea and boy!!....Gemma Atkinson does really look beautiful and hot with a lovely pink body and superb silky skin . And Armin fell so deeply in love with Rhea that he dropped the idea of killing her and confessed his real identity to her instead . She threatened to go to the police with the truth and in desperation Armin had to kill her to stop her from doing so .

But when he goes to Rhea's place , she is not only alive but says that no affair took place between the two and he had met her only once and later sent her some emails . That his real name is not Armin and he is a writer who writes suspense thriller novels . Meanwhile Armin returns to his room to find a woman murdered there . But Kavya helps him dispose off the body . But Armin is now confused as to whether he is Armin or Karan and wonders why Kavya is helping him .

It is on a car ride with Kavya that he remembers the earlier car ride in which he was attempted to be killed by Kavya and finally everything comes back to him . He is Karan , a writer and Armin is just a character from his novel . He is no contract killer but the contract killer Armin was an identity he picked up after he lost his memory as he could remember only that identity from his novel . And that Kavya is not herself but his wife Pooja . When he confronts Pooja / Kavya with this fact , she admits that she is his wife Pooja . That she left everything including her job for marrying him , but her obsessive love for him began to stifle Karan and he decided to break off from her . But she followed him and in a fit of rage tried to push him into the valley . But when Karan woke up in hospital she could see that he had lost his memory . Pooja felt that she could regain his love in this new condition and hence was helping him . But the girlfriend who he was shacked up with after leaving Pooja had followed him to his hospital and when Pooja saw her she murdered the girlfriend so that she would not come in between them again---the woman whose body was dumped in Karan's hotel room was his girlfriend .

Pooja now beseeches Karan to come back to her , and says that she has the courage to love someone who does not love back . That all's fair in love , and such quotations are made true by people like her who even murder for true love . But Karan can't bring himself to love a killer and once again Pooja pushes him off the car , but this time only onto the road . She sacrifices her life by deliberately colliding with an oncoming truck because she can't bear to be without Karan .

Among all these events I found myself falling in love with Pooja....where are these women who are ready to do and die for love ? I have never found one in real life . If I ever found one I would forsake the world and be off with her in a jiffy !!

Even though no sensational events occur in the movie , the director has kept the suspense running in the movie . We can't figure out what Armin/Karan is going to remember next . The end comes as a genuine surprise , even though some dialogues by Pooja in the movie do give hint that she is a woman desperate in love . Photography of Switzerland is absolutely breathtaking and is given additional lustre by the superb colours of the movie . Songs are really worth humming and background music is nice too . Acting is decent by everyone without being too spectacular . And everyone looks good ; Rajeev Khandelwal as Karan , Gauhar Khan as Pooja and Gemma Atkinson as Rhea . In fact it seems that all actors and actresses in this movie have been chosen for their good looks .

Having completed this review , I am going to be off in search for someone like Pooja for myself . Someone high on the fever of love....that is what the title of the movie meant , isn't it ?

Verdict---Very decent .

Three stars out of five .