Musings of the Obsessive Kind

spunspider recommended me this year's Ishaqzaade by telling me that if I love dysfunction, I will love this movie.



She was right.

Ishaqzaade follows Parma and Zoya - members of rival, bloodthirsty political families in UP and all the bad things that happen when they get tangled up.

First off (and that can be either good or bad, depending on your tastes) - this movie doesn't feel Bollywood. It makes me think of South Indian cinema (is it a remake of a Tamil movie or similar?). It is gritty (even the rich live in houses with dust), hella violent, and dark. Actually, it is a lot darker than most any 'romantic' Bollywood movie I can think of. Both Zoya and Parma are violent, damaged people. In some ways, it's a throwback to the 1980s, but not a bad one. Despite the fact that Parma does some truly reprehensible things, I can't help it - while I wanted to strangle him in the first half, the second half of the movie made me ship Parma and Zoya like mad (what can I say, I am a sucker for the '(sort of) good woman redeems bad man' narrative and this one was both hot and adorable) and hope against hope that they could find some way out of the madhouse of their town. My heart is very much with Zoya, especially, who discovers all the horrors that can ensue when one impulsive action places her beyond the pale in her family.



The shipper in me would have loved this movie if for no other reason than the 'falling for each other properly' sequences set in the brothel...



Have the title track: