![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieYes, another Bollywood post. My apologies to everyone who couldn't care less, but Veronica Mars and BSG are both on a break :)
I have a movie to recommend: Being Cyrus. It's an Indian movie, but it's not Bollywood. It's under an hour and a half, it has no songs, and if you want sweetness and light, look elsewhere. The characters in this one are beyond fucked up. And it's entirely in English. It centers around a drifter (played by my favorite Saif Ali Khan, looking hotter than he's ever looked IMO) and his interactions with a wealthy Parsi family in the course of a year. To say more would be to spoil it. I did a picspam of it here My spoilery review is behind the cut.
Just saw that (btw, my DVD was Eros and quite good quality).
I am still trying to wrap my brain around that, but whatever it was, I want more of it!
It also confirms to me that Saif is fast becoming one of my favorite actors. It actually might be his best performance yet, broken boy, violent mess, cool sociopath, ultimately hollow, still fragile. I think he carries the movie. Even though I knew nothing about the movie going in, I kept getting a faint sense of unease from him even though he was well-behaved and mild-mannered. It was in the little things: the way he showed too much response to some things and not enough to others. He percieves the world at a remove, through a very thick and twisted glass, and the one way he connects and experiences emotional immediacy is through nightmares or through his memories of abuse. Not a happy way to be human.
I do think that the ending is hopeful for him. He broke away from his sister, he refused to continue in the life of murder, and hopefully he is right and he's left that part of himself behind. He can start fresh. But maybe I am an optimist. I thought Simone Singh gave a wonderful portrayal. She is much more collected and much more cold and clever and irrevocably gone than Cyrus.
I found all the characters twisted and futile and sad. Nasser Shah who squandered his promise for no good reason, Dimple his wife, who is grabbing at life desperately because she can feel herself getting old and that is her last chance. There is something of tattered innocence about her, and remnants of beauty and charm, and that makes it all the sadder. Boman Irani who is a monster, not feeding his father, but who is so everyday, little-things about everything, bad stuff included.
Even the old man (I am not sure who played him), who evokes pity but who lorded it over others quite gloatingly in his day. I do love how Cyrus is falling apart when the old man reminisces about hitting Irani with his ring (the feeling about abuse is so huge in his world, the memory of it has shaped him so much, it has taken so much of his childhood, that his relation to it has passed any rational control stage, and you get the feeling of his keeping his sanity together with some frayed bits of string). Is it what gives him the final push to stab the old man?
I loved Cyrus' dream most of all, the nightmarish image of the abandoned rag doll (agree that this is what Cyrus really is), his guilt taking shape in the form of Shah and Dimple, his embrace of the beggar woman (giving her candy as a good thing) turning into the old man (the plan is to kill him, a bad thing) as he holds her.
The sad thing about the characters is that of them all, Cyrus is perhaps the most humane and the least damaged (Shah might be more humane but his brain has left a long time ago. He is basically a vegetable). Cyrus is capable of feeling sorry for the old man even as he stabs him. And that's a very sad statement about the rest of them.
And even though the world of Being Cyrus is so grim, it has a certain deliciously dark and gallows humor about it. I am a bad bad girl, but I loved it.
And throughout it all, inside Cyrus there is that hollow little rag doll, a boy who never grew up normally or completely, who fits into the world at odd angles. It's a great performance by Saif and makes me really yearn to see Omkara.
On the other end of the spectrum is the atrocious Love Love Love, a 1980s movie. If any movie had the power to stop my Aamir obsession cold, it would be it.
Oh My.
If there ever was a movie that could nip in the bud my new-found Aamir obsession, LLL would be it (luckily, I am made of sterner stuff). My DVD died about halfway in, and I found myself relieved. On the plus side, this movie makes "Ishq" seem a masterpiece. Ahhhh, the 1980s, how unkind you were!
The plot of this movie is pretty simple: Aamir falls in love with Juhi who is from an evil and rich family. But if you are watching this for the plot, you are watching a wrong movie. Actually if you are watching this at all, you are watching a wrong movie.
This movie's dialogue consists of large indigestible chunks that an exposition fairy would love: characters routinely talk like this: "I am blah blah blah, son of blah blah blah who runs this town. This is my friend blah blah blah, son of blah blah blah. And this is Juhi, his sister and also my girlfriend." In the middle of a dance party, for some reason! It is also possessed of some spectacularly awful dancing: I've never seen worse choreography. Juhi is a good dancer and Aamir can do fine with good choreography, but here they move like stop-motion puppets in the hands of a spastic five year old. To be fair, these are probably convulsions on having to be in the movie. It also boasts mediocre (to be kind) music, and fashions that make me want to be blind. Even the filmmakers realize that this movie is an atrocity and try to ease the audience's burden by making large chunks of the movie too dark and poorly filmed to see. Bless them!
Aamir and Juhi do their best, and try to act in the middle of this hideous swamp, even if they are hampered by the script written by a mentally-challenged five year old, and outfits that only a masochist could love. There is a very cute kiss between them, Aamir has one effective scene where his bycicle gets vandalized by the evil gang Juhi runs with (she is portrayed as a brat at the start but then a switch is flipped for no reason), and the director couldn't kill their chemistry despite trying his best. But still, skip it!
Also, Aamir channels early SRK and gets beat up a lot. Unfortunately, the way these scenes happen is the funniest thing in the movie.
A masterpiece. Of a kind.
And because no Bolly post can be complete without picspam, today's picspam is of Bunty aur Babli, a hilarious charming comedy about a couple of crooks who creat complex scams, fall in love, and try to outwit one stubborn police officer. It's one of my favorit movies from last year, and it stars Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherji (and boy do they steam up the screen). I've had posts and picspam on it here and here and here
I have a movie to recommend: Being Cyrus. It's an Indian movie, but it's not Bollywood. It's under an hour and a half, it has no songs, and if you want sweetness and light, look elsewhere. The characters in this one are beyond fucked up. And it's entirely in English. It centers around a drifter (played by my favorite Saif Ali Khan, looking hotter than he's ever looked IMO) and his interactions with a wealthy Parsi family in the course of a year. To say more would be to spoil it. I did a picspam of it here My spoilery review is behind the cut.
Just saw that (btw, my DVD was Eros and quite good quality).
I am still trying to wrap my brain around that, but whatever it was, I want more of it!
It also confirms to me that Saif is fast becoming one of my favorite actors. It actually might be his best performance yet, broken boy, violent mess, cool sociopath, ultimately hollow, still fragile. I think he carries the movie. Even though I knew nothing about the movie going in, I kept getting a faint sense of unease from him even though he was well-behaved and mild-mannered. It was in the little things: the way he showed too much response to some things and not enough to others. He percieves the world at a remove, through a very thick and twisted glass, and the one way he connects and experiences emotional immediacy is through nightmares or through his memories of abuse. Not a happy way to be human.
I do think that the ending is hopeful for him. He broke away from his sister, he refused to continue in the life of murder, and hopefully he is right and he's left that part of himself behind. He can start fresh. But maybe I am an optimist. I thought Simone Singh gave a wonderful portrayal. She is much more collected and much more cold and clever and irrevocably gone than Cyrus.
I found all the characters twisted and futile and sad. Nasser Shah who squandered his promise for no good reason, Dimple his wife, who is grabbing at life desperately because she can feel herself getting old and that is her last chance. There is something of tattered innocence about her, and remnants of beauty and charm, and that makes it all the sadder. Boman Irani who is a monster, not feeding his father, but who is so everyday, little-things about everything, bad stuff included.
Even the old man (I am not sure who played him), who evokes pity but who lorded it over others quite gloatingly in his day. I do love how Cyrus is falling apart when the old man reminisces about hitting Irani with his ring (the feeling about abuse is so huge in his world, the memory of it has shaped him so much, it has taken so much of his childhood, that his relation to it has passed any rational control stage, and you get the feeling of his keeping his sanity together with some frayed bits of string). Is it what gives him the final push to stab the old man?
I loved Cyrus' dream most of all, the nightmarish image of the abandoned rag doll (agree that this is what Cyrus really is), his guilt taking shape in the form of Shah and Dimple, his embrace of the beggar woman (giving her candy as a good thing) turning into the old man (the plan is to kill him, a bad thing) as he holds her.
The sad thing about the characters is that of them all, Cyrus is perhaps the most humane and the least damaged (Shah might be more humane but his brain has left a long time ago. He is basically a vegetable). Cyrus is capable of feeling sorry for the old man even as he stabs him. And that's a very sad statement about the rest of them.
And even though the world of Being Cyrus is so grim, it has a certain deliciously dark and gallows humor about it. I am a bad bad girl, but I loved it.
And throughout it all, inside Cyrus there is that hollow little rag doll, a boy who never grew up normally or completely, who fits into the world at odd angles. It's a great performance by Saif and makes me really yearn to see Omkara.
On the other end of the spectrum is the atrocious Love Love Love, a 1980s movie. If any movie had the power to stop my Aamir obsession cold, it would be it.
Oh My.
If there ever was a movie that could nip in the bud my new-found Aamir obsession, LLL would be it (luckily, I am made of sterner stuff). My DVD died about halfway in, and I found myself relieved. On the plus side, this movie makes "Ishq" seem a masterpiece. Ahhhh, the 1980s, how unkind you were!
The plot of this movie is pretty simple: Aamir falls in love with Juhi who is from an evil and rich family. But if you are watching this for the plot, you are watching a wrong movie. Actually if you are watching this at all, you are watching a wrong movie.
This movie's dialogue consists of large indigestible chunks that an exposition fairy would love: characters routinely talk like this: "I am blah blah blah, son of blah blah blah who runs this town. This is my friend blah blah blah, son of blah blah blah. And this is Juhi, his sister and also my girlfriend." In the middle of a dance party, for some reason! It is also possessed of some spectacularly awful dancing: I've never seen worse choreography. Juhi is a good dancer and Aamir can do fine with good choreography, but here they move like stop-motion puppets in the hands of a spastic five year old. To be fair, these are probably convulsions on having to be in the movie. It also boasts mediocre (to be kind) music, and fashions that make me want to be blind. Even the filmmakers realize that this movie is an atrocity and try to ease the audience's burden by making large chunks of the movie too dark and poorly filmed to see. Bless them!
Aamir and Juhi do their best, and try to act in the middle of this hideous swamp, even if they are hampered by the script written by a mentally-challenged five year old, and outfits that only a masochist could love. There is a very cute kiss between them, Aamir has one effective scene where his bycicle gets vandalized by the evil gang Juhi runs with (she is portrayed as a brat at the start but then a switch is flipped for no reason), and the director couldn't kill their chemistry despite trying his best. But still, skip it!
Also, Aamir channels early SRK and gets beat up a lot. Unfortunately, the way these scenes happen is the funniest thing in the movie.
A masterpiece. Of a kind.
And because no Bolly post can be complete without picspam, today's picspam is of Bunty aur Babli, a hilarious charming comedy about a couple of crooks who creat complex scams, fall in love, and try to outwit one stubborn police officer. It's one of my favorit movies from last year, and it stars Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherji (and boy do they steam up the screen). I've had posts and picspam on it here and here and here
