Musings of the Obsessive Kind

Ah, Sallu! My Veer DVD is here! I can't wait! Have a ridiculously addictive song:



Swords! Vests! Beautiful Ladies! This seriously reminds me of old-school Bollywood (and not just because for once the heroine is not a bundle of sticks skinny).

Oh, and have this ridiculously gorgeous, sexy song from Urumi:



I think I may die when I watch this movie!

In case you haven't figured out my Bollywood/Tollywood/Kollywood/Mollywood obsession is back on.

I was trying to figure out why my order with bhavaniDVD wasn't being shipped (they are normally lightning-fast) when I figured out I didn't finish processing. Duh! Anyway, now it is in the system.

I got:

x Veer - Salman, ILY and your insanity! Especially ILY that you seem to have made a movie which caters to everything I want - I can taste the delicious delicious cheese already! (Is it this generation's Mard?). Whoever thought Salman would one day be my favorite Khan? But somehow, here we are.



x Madarasapattinam - filmi_girl made me obsessed with Madarasapattinam; period epic tragic love story with some amazing songs - Indian guy/English girl at time of Partition. Ends about as well as you'd expect (no spoiler as it starts at the end and goes flashbacking). My favorite song:



X Pattiyal - I know nothing about it except that it came as a twofer with Madarasapattinam and that it stars Arya. Have a song:



x Urumi - the one I am most excited for. Never seen a Malayam movie before but it looks AMAZING. Santosh Sivan has never made a bad movie before and his cinematography is always beyond gorgeous. Plus, the cast (especially my girlcrush Genelia) is mmmm-worthy. And it's a period epic! Trailer:



I am beginning to think it is a Sivan trademark to use those whip-swords. He had Asoka use it in Asoka and now here.

x Magadheera - my current version fell into a mouse trap (don't ask) and I cannot live without this movie.

I did a bunch of posts on it.

x Arya 2 - loved the first one, plus Allu Arjun does funny funny things to me. Have a ridiculously addictive song:



x Chirutha - my crush on Ram Charan Tej is showing :P I've seen this movie before and it's a madly uneven, madly entertaining flick about a guy falling for daughter of worst enemy with happy ending and lots of blood.



I can't believe I don't have SI movie icons other than the Magadheera one. Eeek.

I was trying to figure out why my order with bhavaniDVD wasn't being shipped (they are normally lightning-fast) when I figured out I didn't finish processing. Duh! Anyway, now it is in the system.

I got:

x Veer - Salman, ILY and your insanity! Especially ILY that you seem to have made a movie which caters to everything I want - I can taste the delicious delicious cheese already! (Is it this generation's Mard?). Whoever thought Salman would one day be my favorite Khan? But somehow, here we are.



x Madarasapattinam - filmi_girl made me obsessed with Madarasapattinam; period epic tragic love story with some amazing songs - Indian guy/English girl at time of Partition. Ends about as well as you'd expect (no spoiler as it starts at the end and goes flashbacking). My favorite song:



X Pattiyal - I know nothing about it except that it came as a twofer with Madarasapattinam and that it stars Arya. Have a song:



x Urumi - the one I am most excited for. Never seen a Malayam movie before but it looks AMAZING. Santosh Sivan has never made a bad movie before and his cinematography is always beyond gorgeous. Plus, the cast (especially my girlcrush Genelia) is mmmm-worthy. And it's a period epic! Trailer:



I am beginning to think it is a Sivan trademark to use those whip-swords. He had Asoka use it in Asoka and now here.

x Magadheera - my current version fell into a mouse trap (don't ask) and I cannot live without this movie.

I did a bunch of posts on it.

x Arya 2 - loved the first one, plus Allu Arjun does funny funny things to me. Have a ridiculously addictive song:



x Chirutha - my crush on Ram Charan Tej is showing :P I've seen this movie before and it's a madly uneven, madly entertaining flick about a guy falling for daughter of worst enemy with happy ending and lots of blood.



I can't believe I don't have SI movie icons other than the Magadheera one. Eeek.

filmi_girl came over yesterday and brought with her Madrasapattinam, a Tamil movie about the forbidden love between a Tamil man and an English woman on the eve of Indian independence.

You guys. You guys. I am so in love. It has everything I want in a movie - a forbidden love story, amazing costumes, hunky and brave hero, plucky and smart heroine, hissable villains, gorgeous songs, cool story. I have a new crush in Arya, who plays Parithi, our hero. Amy Jackson, who plays Amy Wilkinson, is also wonderful - she is warm and natural and has insane chemistry with Arya (I kept wanting to chant for them to make out on the floor for half the movie). I am glad she's sticking around and making another Tamil movie.

This is my favorite song in the movie, a fantasy sequence between Amy and Parithi which, basically, summarizes the story in a nutshell.



No movie has yet dethroned Magadheera from its "Dangermousie's favorite South Indian movie" throne, but Madrasapattinam came close.

In other news of favorite forbidden love, watching the mv for new Iljimae was a big mistake. All I want now is to watch that drama. I can't concentrate on either Secret Garden (Joo Won won't hold a sword blade in his naked hand to protect his OTP?) or Mary (Mugyul is not likely to get stabbed in the back protecting his OTP. Unless the fathers go really crazy, that is). Ahhhh, I just want to watch Wallace Huo and Liu Shi Shi angst at each other. Since Iljimae is not out yet, I remembered I had some caps of the Wallace/Tiffany angsty forbidden love story from Chinese Paladin 3 where he's this perfect warrior monk on edge of enightment and she is an immortal earth guardian, and they are destined to be tragic lovers for three lifetimes, which has already happened twice.



She promised the monks to stay away from him in this lifetime and they sealed his past life memories (their lurve is so amazing it stays in memory after reincarnation, Mmmmmm) but of course she can't stay away and he can't stop loving her even though he has no idea who she is. MMMMM. I bet it will end in a pile of corpses. Anyway, I loved these sequences.

( Sequence behind cut )

filmi_girl came over yesterday and brought with her Madrasapattinam, a Tamil movie about the forbidden love between a Tamil man and an English woman on the eve of Indian independence.

You guys. You guys. I am so in love. It has everything I want in a movie - a forbidden love story, amazing costumes, hunky and brave hero, plucky and smart heroine, hissable villains, gorgeous songs, cool story. I have a new crush in Arya, who plays Parithi, our hero. Amy Jackson, who plays Amy Wilkinson, is also wonderful - she is warm and natural and has insane chemistry with Arya (I kept wanting to chant for them to make out on the floor for half the movie). I am glad she's sticking around and making another Tamil movie.

This is my favorite song in the movie, a fantasy sequence between Amy and Parithi which, basically, summarizes the story in a nutshell.



No movie has yet dethroned Magadheera from its "Dangermousie's favorite South Indian movie" throne, but Madrasapattinam came close.

In other news of favorite forbidden love, watching the mv for new Iljimae was a big mistake. All I want now is to watch that drama. I can't concentrate on either Secret Garden (Joo Won won't hold a sword blade in his naked hand to protect his OTP?) or Mary (Mugyul is not likely to get stabbed in the back protecting his OTP. Unless the fathers go really crazy, that is). Ahhhh, I just want to watch Wallace Huo and Liu Shi Shi angst at each other. Since Iljimae is not out yet, I remembered I had some caps of the Wallace/Tiffany angsty forbidden love story from Chinese Paladin 3 where he's this perfect warrior monk on edge of enightment and she is an immortal earth guardian, and they are destined to be tragic lovers for three lifetimes, which has already happened twice.



She promised the monks to stay away from him in this lifetime and they sealed his past life memories (their lurve is so amazing it stays in memory after reincarnation, Mmmmmm) but of course she can't stay away and he can't stop loving her even though he has no idea who she is. MMMMM. I bet it will end in a pile of corpses. Anyway, I loved these sequences.

( Sequence behind cut )

Meet Kanthaswamy, defender of the helpless, protector of the righteous, a mighty superhero. Also a man who dresses up in a chicken costume to fight crime, complete with crowing and clucking around his enemies, literally.

I have embarked on watching this 2009 Tamil hit starring Vikram as the titular Superchicken. I am about 15 minutes in and so far it's a total hoot. You can find it with subs here.

By day an official who fights crime, Kanthaswamy doesn't have many hobbies because by night he is...a vigilante who fights crime. In a chicken costume.

I know I keep harping on the chicken motif but I just can't get over it. It's brilliant. Kanthaswamy even romances his love interest in said chicken costume. Somewhere a furry weeps in frustrated envy.



Though I must say I much prefer Vikram out of his costume:



I started watching this for two reasons: (a) chicken superhero (b) I loved Vikram in Raavan. I have to say it's completely shocking how different he is here. I love it. I see a new crush.

So, tune in to find out whether Kanthaswamy will save the day, rescue the world, and win his never-ending battle against that dastardly Col. Sanders!

I have just got back from Mani Ratnam Raavan and I am still in shock.



It was amazing - brutal, bleak, gorgeous, passionate. Like a dark, fevered dream you have and are half-sad, half-grateful to wake from.

Raavan is a modern-day take on the story of Ramayana - it starts when, in a nameless lawless South province, a local thug leader named Bheera (Abhishek Bachchan) kidnaps Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), a wife of the local police inspector Dev (Vikram), setting forth a cycle of violence and revenge.

First off, this is probably the most visually arresting movie I have ever seen - the colors (black, grey and yellow for Bheera, red and ochre for Ragini, kahkee and green for Dev), the visual images, the contrasts. It really does not even need a story or performances, it is that amazingly shot.

But luckily for me, it has both. The three leads - Abhishek, Aishwarya, and Vikram, ably supported by secondary characters' actors, all hit it out of the park. Abhishek's Bheera is the center of the story - violent, unhinged, magnetic. Just as Ragini, I was repelled and drawn to him simultaneously. I don't think Abhishek is a good traditional Bolly star - he doesn't have the wattage Hrithik Roshan or SRK can provide with a single smile in the most barebones movie. But I think that he is a very good actor when given the chance - and that chance is there for him in Mani Ratnam movies (or Ram Gopal Varma ones). I could not tear my eyes from him in this role (and could not imagine more traditional Bolly stars in it at all). He takes a character which is rather extreme, in some ways more animal than man (though it becomes slowly apparent in the second half that he was not always like this and we see him in extremis) and makes him as one you ultimately root for.

If Bheera is the center of the story, Aishwarya's Ragini is its soul. She has always been beautiful, but here, wet, disheveled, bruised, with minimal make-up, she shines. More importantly, her character is fierce. I can totally understand why Bheera ends up falling in love with her - she is just as fierce and fearless as he is. More. And her chemistry with Abhishek is insane. I have always thought that Abhishek was one of the very few actors Aishwarya had chemistry with (just as well, as they are married :P) but I have never seen it quite like this before - the screen almost pulsated with it - I was never sure whether they were going to kill each other or have ridiculously hot dirty sex right there in the rain and mud.

I have never seen Vikram in anything before (I am not that familiar with Tamil movies), but I really want to watch more of him now (starting with Raavaana - the Tamil version of this, in which he plays Abhishek's role). He is magnetic and scary - so scary - just as Ragini, I started the movie rather loving his stern but righteous inspector/loving husband combo (ha!) and ended up disgusted and terrified.

( More of my review/thoughts. Here start spoilers )

I have just got back from Mani Ratnam Raavan and I am still in shock.



It was amazing - brutal, bleak, gorgeous, passionate. Like a dark, fevered dream you have and are half-sad, half-grateful to wake from.

Raavan is a modern-day take on the story of Ramayana - it starts when, in a nameless lawless South province, a local thug leader named Bheera (Abhishek Bachchan) kidnaps Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), a wife of the local police inspector Dev (Vikram), setting forth a cycle of violence and revenge.

First off, this is probably the most visually arresting movie I have ever seen - the colors (black, grey and yellow for Bheera, red and ochre for Ragini, kahkee and green for Dev), the visual images, the contrasts. It really does not even need a story or performances, it is that amazingly shot.

But luckily for me, it has both. The three leads - Abhishek, Aishwarya, and Vikram, ably supported by secondary characters' actors, all hit it out of the park. Abhishek's Bheera is the center of the story - violent, unhinged, magnetic. Just as Ragini, I was repelled and drawn to him simultaneously. I don't think Abhishek is a good traditional Bolly star - he doesn't have the wattage Hrithik Roshan or SRK can provide with a single smile in the most barebones movie. But I think that he is a very good actor when given the chance - and that chance is there for him in Mani Ratnam movies (or Ram Gopal Varma ones). I could not tear my eyes from him in this role (and could not imagine more traditional Bolly stars in it at all). He takes a character which is rather extreme, in some ways more animal than man (though it becomes slowly apparent in the second half that he was not always like this and we see him in extremis) and makes him as one you ultimately root for.

If Bheera is the center of the story, Aishwarya's Ragini is its soul. She has always been beautiful, but here, wet, disheveled, bruised, with minimal make-up, she shines. More importantly, her character is fierce. I can totally understand why Bheera ends up falling in love with her - she is just as fierce and fearless as he is. More. And her chemistry with Abhishek is insane. I have always thought that Abhishek was one of the very few actors Aishwarya had chemistry with (just as well, as they are married :P) but I have never seen it quite like this before - the screen almost pulsated with it - I was never sure whether they were going to kill each other or have ridiculously hot dirty sex right there in the rain and mud.

I have never seen Vikram in anything before (I am not that familiar with Tamil movies), but I really want to watch more of him now (starting with Raavaana - the Tamil version of this, in which he plays Abhishek's role). He is magnetic and scary - so scary - just as Ragini, I started the movie rather loving his stern but righteous inspector/loving husband combo (ha!) and ended up disgusted and terrified.

( More of my review/thoughts. Here start spoilers )

Mani Ratnam's Raavan:



I defy you not to be mesmerized by the visuals of this modern, loose take on Ramayana.

(Hopefully, one of these days I'll get to see the Tamil version as well (it is unsubbed as of yet)).

Why am I obsessed about seeing Raavan?

1. I never like Abhishek Bachchan as much as I do in Mani Ratnam movies - for example, his performance in Yuva is one of the best Bollywood performances I've ever seen - somehow Ratnam manages to bring this vulnerable, destructive darkness in him that I've never seen any other director accomplish.
2. Mani Ratnam is my favorite Indian director. Period.
3. Have you seen the visuals? They are out of this world, which is not surprising as his cinematographer is the amazing Santosh Sivan.
4. Aishwarya Rai - just like her husband Abhishek, she is an uneven actress, but just as he, she shines in Ratnam movies - she is never as luminous and warm as she is with Ratnam (except when she is in Bhansali's movies - but then she is his muse). Her performance in Guru was wonderful.
5. I like Abhishek and Aishwarya's chemistry together - Guru was wonderful, of coursw, but so were other pairings of theirs I have seen.
6. The story draws me in - turning the traditional heroic ethos of Ramayana on its head - where the Rama character is dark, possibly even darker than the Raavan character, who is humanized.

I am laughing so hard it's causing spasms.

This is from a SI movie Dhool and the subtitles aren't a spoof - no, it's literally grandma singing how awesome her grandkid is as he kicks a bunch of thugs' faces in.



OMGOMG brb dying.

In honor of my huge Tamil/Telugu movies shipment coming in today :) This movie, needless to say, is not among them.