Vivah (or Vivaah): A very simple fairytale

[dangermousie]

I have fallen in love with a very unfashionable movie: Vivaah.

Vivaah is a sweet, charming, very unpretentious Bollywood movie about two youngsters (Shahid Kapoor and Amrita Rao, both adorable here) who slowly fall in love with each other during the engagement for their arranged marriage, and said love overcomes some last minute hardships.

It’s a totally unfashionable movie to love, and actually even far from what I normally would go gaga over: there are no villains. There is not much melodrama even. There are a bunch of nice people, rather old-fashioned in their out-look, who go on with their lives and celebrations. The youngsters both voluntarily agree to the arranged marriage, and get to know each other and fall in love. There is no angsty lover lurking in the wings for a dramatic wedding denoument, to take the bride away. There are no evil relatives (Amrita’s aunt is cranky at her being prettier than her own daughter, but she hardly boils her in oil).

So why do I love it? It’s pretty, it’s sweet, it’s a traditional utopia of sorts, and sometimes I just want a fairytale, a bit of sweet unrealistic cinematic happiness, with adorable couples, and colorful dancing, and danger averted thrown in.

Perhaps significantly, Vivaah is by the rather old-fashioned fimmater Sooraj Barjatya, who revolutionized Bolly industry with his 1994 super hit Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, which its detractors (and I am one of them) labelled a three-hour-long wedding video, where nothing happens, but whose crazy blockbuster status led the shift to less violent, more romantic and family-oriented Bollywood fare. But since then, SB, even though his movies have done well, has been left in the dust, while the screen is ruled by the Westernized, much hipper spiritual descendants of him. (Karan Johar is very much SB’s disciple in his love of grand large happy families, festivals, etc, but he is like the young stylish nephew of the stodgy uncle: Western locales, cool melodrama, tongue-in-cheek humor). Interestingly, Vivaah was a huge hit last year, but most of its money came from B & C centers in India (smaller towns) as opposed to being popular with the hip urban multiplex crowd. And it was sort of left out of poppy awards too…

Ah well.

Just look at the pretty and tell me you don’t want to give the cuteness a try:

Comments

[plazmah.livejournal.com]

wasabi_girl1 saw this movie and really liked it, so I'm inclined to think that it can't be all bad. ;) As an aside, Amrita Rao is, like, the master of metamorphosis... she looks different from one picture to the next! And I've never seen her look the way she does in some of those pics! Iiiinteresting!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It's very very cute. Worth at least renting to see if it appeals.

[wasabi-girl1.livejournal.com]

Smi, dad and mom saw it, and liked it to! Of course, it's very traditional, so they would.

Y'know how I love Amri? This movie made me squee of Amri GREATNESS. May have even topped her act in Main Hoon Na!

[plazmah.livejournal.com]

Wow, that good huh? I had no idea!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

This movie made me squee of Amri GREATNESS. May have even topped her act in Main Hoon Na!

Oh yes. I dunno if it topped her MHN act because it was so different. OTOH this movie was all Amri, all the time, unlike MHN which was a Shahrukh show. *is now undecided which movie had the better Amri*

[wasabi-girl1.livejournal.com]

Agreed! Those are the reasons I am still debating in my head. :D

[autumn-yaar.livejournal.com]

Amrita reminds me of Kajol sometimes in those pics.

I really liked this movie. Though I would say the Aunt is kind of a villian. I think I liked it because though I love angst, sometimes its nice to just sit down and watch a whole bunch of happy at once. xD There was a little bit of drama at the end, which I think made it even more upsetting because we just got through so much happy. I was touched at the end, I really liked the message.

It screams family movie actually. My friend told me it was a hit in India.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

She does look a bit Kajolish.

This was so sweet and adorable and the ending made me go AWWWWWW.

[wasabi-girl1.livejournal.com]

Holy picspam, Batman! ;)

I really liked this movie. It worked solely due to Shahid and Amrita, who were incredibly charming. It could have fallen flat, but their charisma and chemistry together worked wonders. :)

It was just SO DIFFERENT from Dhoom 2, which I had seen just before, lol.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heh. I tried to narrow down pics but couldn't :)

And yes, it's a movie that works solely because of it's very very sweetly acting stars.

D2 and this are in a different universe :P

[fivil.livejournal.com]

I sorta want to see this one but thanks to my current Bollywood anemia, I haven't (plus if I wanted to see it, I could either dl or buy and neither option excites me a lot atm). But Shahid's a cutie (not hot, but a cutie) and Amrita is adorable and yeah, I have a good feeling I'd enjoy the fluffy film because of their jodi.

I like Shahid especially after his and Kareena's Koffee with Karan ep... They seemed like such a lovely, functional couple, just terribly sweet. :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

They do seem functional which is nice. Shahid looks sooooo young for Kareeen though (not because of age difference but because he's really young looking) but oh well...

[carviangli.livejournal.com]

How old are kareena and shahid?!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Shahid is 26 and Kareena is 29.

[carviangli.livejournal.com]

Oh! I saw this movie JUST as it was becoming 2007! I was half way through it and then I stopped to watch the fireworks (on tv, ofcourse) and then I watched the rest.
Oh this is a great movie although it is very very 1990's and yes, oldfashioned. Yet it is beautiful and innocent and a lot unlike most hindi movies today. Very traditional and Amrito Rao and Shahid Kapoor are like a younger version of Kajol and SRK (to me ^_^)This is such a cute movie! I own two copies! My sister bought it and then I bought it (oops!!) Amrita looks gorgeous in this movie!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup, it is very very sweeeeet. I am so glad I bought it on impulse.

[shinystory.livejournal.com]

These are beautiful. Thanks for sharing. :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

You are welcome :)

[srkfanatic.livejournal.com]

Loved this movie. I want a guy like Shahid. :P

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I know, he was so sweet.