Babul and Marigold: Salmaned out
Dec. 10th, 2006 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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missusk and myself watched Babul last night.I had a better time than I would have otherwise by myself, because when it got too dull we could whisper-talk and ogle Salman and/or John in unison.
The movie? Uneven. Some lovely bits but the message didn’t work for me.
THE GOOD:
The first half was largely delightful. Sweet, funny romantic comedy. Rani and Salman had great chemistry, Salman looked hot, and I really bought them as a couple, especially after some cute married moments.
The songs: I really liked the picturizations for almost all of them, and ditto on the music. My favorite was the Salman/Rani wedding night song (H-O-T. I will probably buy the DVD largely for that. Mmmmm….seriously) and the song John sang at that concert to Rani (blanking on the name).
John looked good in his wedding outfit at the end.
The movie really got me in places. I was wiping my tears away after the intermission. And actually wanted Salman not to die.
The death scene? Loved that there was some moaning and groaning and writhing in pain but no long speeches.
The little boy was adorable.
Did I mention Salman looking FINE and my wholehearted approval of all his clothes including the bedsheet as wrapped around him and Rani?
THE NOT SO GOOD
The second half DRAGGED something fierce.
missusk can testify to me miming a ff button repeatedly: long long slow shots of people staring while their hair blows or talking in platitudes does not a pleasant hour and a half makes. John. Now, I am a John fangirl. The man is HOT. Heck, I’d go as far as to say he is HAWT. But this is so not his kind of role and his kind of movie. Mind you, he had the most thankless role in the movie (a sweet personalitiless doormat) but it’s also not really his range at all (he is good at guys with an edge, not sugar spun stuff) so it was outside his ability to bring anything extra when the role itself had nothing. So basically for most of the movie he was a gorgeous, sexy block of wood. It’s the first movie I didn’t care for him in.
I was amused at the fact that Amitabh’s first glimpse of John is in some bar, performing a sexy dance with some scantily dressed ladies and half-unzipping his shirt in manner of guy expecting dollar bills for his trouble, and his thought was? Yay, this is a neat husband for my widowed daughter in law. Hum.
The speechifying end. Unless Amitabh is Jesus (anything is possible) or similarly divinely powered figure from any other religion, his ability to convince his elder brother was as farfetched as…well, at least half of Baghban.
My biggest problem? None of these. This movie set out (I assume) to have a message that widow remarriage=good. Burying woman alive in house=bad. Fine and praiseworthy objectives. But movies like Hum Tum (where Rani explicitly tells Saif that she doesn’t need to be complete with a man) and even Andaaz (which is no masterpiece, God knows) handled this issue much better. The movie shouldn’t have had the first half at all, much as I loved it. It should have been about a widow who learns to love again, slowly, even as she is conflicted because of love for her dead husband and because of traditions. And Amitabh would be conflicted too. But then, hey, it would be Andaaz.
Here. Rani is not in love with John. She never has been, she isn’t now, and if the fact that she’s known him for so long without showing even a glimmer of interest or a twinge of awareness of him as a man, is indicative of anything, she never will be in love with him either.
She is still in love with Salman’s character and she married John basically to oblige her father in law. What Amitabh does to Rani is just as high-handed as what Om Puri does to his widowed sister in law. Om Puri makes Pushpa sit inside, wear white, and not get married, regardless of what she wants. But Amitabh treats Rani just as much as a thing. What Rani wants (to remain a widow for now) is immaterial to him. Heck, at the wedding itself, she is not upset it’s stopped, she is upset Om is insulting Amitabh.
The woman is not ready to get married. Her husband only died recently, and it’s not as if they are making her wear no colors and sit inside the house. She can do anything she like and go out. She just doesn’t want to get married yet. I see no problem with it. Maybe, in five years, if she is still like this, it’s another matter. But to foist a husband on her regardless of her wishes is making a chattel out of her every bit as much as Om Puri made a chattel out of Pushpa. She loves her husband, let her grieve. Let her be ready on her own terms. She isn’t going to die being without a man for a year. Grrrr. I would give the movie some slack for it because of the idea that this is how Amitabh is grieving because he thinks this is what his son wanted, but I don’t think the movie really wanted to go there.
I still think that my original idea, about Salman coming back as a zombie and eating the tastee brains of guests would have made a better ending. But alas, it was not to be.
We also watched Marigold. I can’t really say too much because it was supposed to be a preview, so all I will say is I thought it was cute and funny and Salman looked incredibly hot in it (especially while wearing white). The director had a lot of interesting stories to tell, my favorite being the fact that he scheduled a half-an-hour appointment with Salman at his house in order to try to sell him on the idea of the movie (starring in it) and, he says, he showed up for that half-an-hour appointment and left Salman’s house four days later. Heh.
The movie is supposed to release sometime in March, Stateside.
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Date: 2006-12-10 09:30 pm (UTC)Dammit and here I was hoping for some scoop on Marigold. But good to hear that you liked it. How was Ali Larter?
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Date: 2006-12-10 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-10 09:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-10 09:33 pm (UTC)I liked Ali. I've never seen her in anything before, but she was funny. I mean, the movie is not exactly an in-depth character exploration or anything. It's more like a light comedy-romance. So no heavy lifting from anyone required, but it was very enjoyable.
The thing that I loved the most was you could tell the director/screenwriter had a great deal of affection for Bollywood. It really made a difference.
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Date: 2006-12-10 09:54 pm (UTC)I see Ali Larter in Heroes now and it cracks me up when I saw her name in the credits going "OMG, it's Salman's girl!!".
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Date: 2006-12-10 09:55 pm (UTC)I see Ali Larter in Heroes now and it cracks me up when I saw her name in the credits going "OMG, it's Salman's girl!!".
ROFL.
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Date: 2006-12-10 10:02 pm (UTC)I have to say though, during some of the comedy moments, I kept wondering if it isn't like "Hello Brother with a bigger budget". You know, just the type of easy, silly humor.
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Date: 2006-12-10 10:16 pm (UTC)As to Salman/Preity? I think I have a new fave jodi.
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Date: 2006-12-10 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-10 09:58 pm (UTC)But still, Rani/Salman!!! How can I resist?? (love the few stills of Salman with glasses I have seen. Sooo cutesy!)
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Date: 2006-12-10 10:18 pm (UTC)Rani/Salman in this one are adorable (and very hot).
But my problem (as I posted on Bollywhat) is the message:To me, the whole issue is not about remarriage=good, no remarriage=bad. The thing should be about choice. It is bad to bury a woman alive. It is equally bad to force her to marry against her wishes. She should be able to choose to remarry if she desires, but she certainly should be able to stay single if that is what she wants (and I am still boggling at the short timeframe. Rani barely had the time to wash Salman's clothes before Amitabh tries to marry her off). Rani is going to be just as unhappy as Pushpa, only in a different way because neither of them got what they wanted. The fact that the filmmaker doesn't see it is mindboggling.
(Darshana brought up the similarities between this and Pyar Mein Twist) I have PMT but haven't finished it. I think problem with Baabul is more severe than with something like PMT. In PMT, Dimple wants to marry Rishi but doesn't want to go against her family's wishes. That is an older version of a true and tried Bolly formula. But in a way, I find an affirmative push towards something a lot worse than negating someone's wishes. In a way, at the end of PMT, Dimple gets what she wanted (even if she wasn't strong enough to take it for herself). It's a happy ending for her. But here, Rani doesn't want the marriage. It is not a happy ending for her at all. In fact, she makes me think of no one as much as Nandini in HDDCS, only there, Nandini didn't know Vanraj when she was pushed into marriage and thus there was a chance that despite her past she'd grow to love him. But here, she knows John, known him for years, with no inkling of seeing him as anything more than a friend. She is not going to be happy in this marriage. To be rather blunt for a minute, she has to sleep with this man, whom she doesn't love, doesn't see in this way and while she is still in love with her dead husband. That's pretty darn miserable IMO.
The director wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to be pro widow marriage but he wants to have his widow be a good little girl and not want anyone except her dead husband. Give me Hum Tum or Andaaz any day.
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Date: 2006-12-10 10:45 pm (UTC)HumTum and Andaaz were great in that way because they *weren't* praised and advertised as great reformative pro-widow movies.
The director wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to be pro widow marriage but he wants to have his widow be a good little girl and not want anyone except her dead husband.
Yepp, sounds like you have the heart of the problem right there.