Gumnaam (1965)

(Please excuse the webaddress on the image)

Star Power: Helen, Pran, Mehmood

Overall Rating: 5.5 out of 7 chilies

Music: 6.5 out of 7 chilies

Choreography: 4 out of 7 chilies

Synopsis:

While at a nightclub, a group of strangers discover that they have won a drawing for free vacation. On the way to their destination, the plane develops engine trouble and they land on a seemingly deserted island for repairs. The group disembarks, along with one of the crew members, only for the plane to take off again, leaving them stranded. Eventually they find their way to a mansion in the forest, where they find they are expected. As they settle in and learn more about each other, they discover their pasts are linked and when people start turning up dead, old secrets might be fatal...

Comments:

A campy thriller from the 1960s, this film might not be for everyone, but if you're looking for something offbeat and fun, Gumnaam is for you. The film is based on Agatha Christie's mystery novel And Then There Were None, (albeit loosely) and the story can be a little hard to follow in places, as not everyone's motives seem to be fully explained and quite a lot of the exposition comes all at once at the end. Perhaps the most incongruous part of the whole thing is how nonchalant and unfazed everyone seems about the prospect of being trapped in a mansion with a murderer. The choreography is more than a little shaky, but the music really makes up for it with catchy numbers like "Jan Pehechan Ho" and the haunting "Gumnaam Hai Koi" (to the tune of Henry Mancini's "Charade").

Hum Saath Saath Hain:We Stand United (1999)

Star Power: Saif Ali Khan, Salman Khan, Karisma Kapoor, Tabu, Sonali Bendre

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 chilies

Music: 6 out of 7 chilies

Choreography: 5.5 out of 7 chilies

Synopsis:

Vivek (Mohnish Behl), Prem (Salman Khan), Vinod (Saif Ali Khan) and Sangeeta (Neelam Kothari) are siblings in a tight-knit family, each with their own romantic path to follow. Vivek has had trouble finding a bride due to a disability with makes him unable to use one of his hands, but when he meets Sadna (Tabu) at his parents' anniversary party, she soon makes it clear that it is his love which matters. Prem has known Preeti (Sonali Bendre) since childhood, but neither has had the heart to express their feelings to each other. Vinod and Sapna (Karisma Kapoor), the daughter of a family friend, joke and laugh with each other, but that too is fast developing into love. Each of these relationships progresses well, but when Sangeeta and her husband are thrown out of their home by her husband's brother, the family's mother, Mamta, is coerced by Sapna's father and some of her friends to alienate Vivek to prevent him from doing the same to his brothers. Can the family ever be reunited?

Comments:

I'll be honest, there isn't a lot of plot to this movie. Of the movie's entire 2 hour and 57 minute length, the actual main conflict in the film doesn't pop up until about 2 hours in. The first two hours are taken up entirely with the development of the relationships between the three brothers and their chosen girls, but there's not really any trials or even miss-steps along the way. Everyone's just happy, REALLY happy, and while there's nothing wrong with that, it doesn't make for the most exciting watching. The music and choreography were both pretty good, especially the big numbers like "Maiya Yashoda" and "Sunoji Dulhan Ki Baat", but as there are little self-contained storylines within both songs, it definitely helps to have a version that offers subtitles for the songs as well as the dialogue (my version did not, so I had to find subtitled clips of the songs on Youtube). Another confusing point is that about 15 of the characters are introduced together right at the beginning, so it can be difficult to keep everyone straight to begin with. Overall, then, it's a good movie to watch if you're looking for fluff, but not something I think I would seek out to watch again.

Band Baaja Baaraat (2010)

Star Power: Anushka Sharma, Ranveer Singh

Overall Rating: 6 out of 7 chilies

Music: 6 out of 7 chilies

Choreography: 5.5 out of 7 chilies

Synopsis:

Shruti Kakkar (Anushka Sharma) is a young college student who dreams of starting a wedding planning company before she marries. Bittoo Sharma, (Ranveer Singh) is a student at the same college as Shruti and the two first meet when Bittoo and several other friends sneak into a wedding that Shruti is helping her aunt coordinate. In spite of this rough start to their friendship, Bittoo finds a reason to meet her again and it is then that she explains her wedding planning idea to him. Bittoo scoffs at the idea at first, but when he is later confronted with the choice of returning to the family farm or finding a job in town, he decides to convince Shruti to let him become a partner in her business. She eventually agrees, on the understanding that their relationship will be strictly a business one, and they name their company Shaadi Mubarak. As their company grows, the two grow closer together, but can their business survive the trials and misunderstandings of love?....

Comments:

A good, fun modern movie with a lot of humor and good performances from both of the leads. I found Anushka Sharma's portrayal of Shruti a good deal more believable than that of her character in Rab ne Bana di Jodi (2008), and Ranveer Singh, (in his debut role) makes a great humorous counterpoint to her character. There aren't a lot of songs, but the music is fast-paced and quite catchy, especially the main theme, "Ainvayi Ainvayi", which is definitely worth a watch (see Must-See-Songs Part II).

Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978)

Star Power: Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Rekha

Overall Rating: 4 out of 7 Chilies

Music: 5.5 out of 7 Chilies

Choreography: 5 out of 7 Chilies

Synopsis:

A young orphaned boy finds work in the house of a wealthy man, Ramnath, and becomes friends with the man's daughter, Kaamna. Out on the streets of the city, the boy saves Ramnath's housekeeper's purse from thieves and in gratitude she adopts him on the spot, giving him the name Sikandar. Ramnath has always been suspicious of orphans, as one was responsible for the death of his wife, and when Sikandar sneaks into the girl's room one night to deliver a birthday present, he accuses the boy of stealing and throws him and his mother out. The shock is too much for Sikandar's new mother, who dies in the street, entrusting the well-being of her daughter to Sikandar's care. Many years later, Sikandar (Amitabh Bachchan), has become a wealthy businessman, while Ramnath's fortunes have taken a turn for the worse. This reversal of situations has not improved Kaamna's or her father's opinions of him, as they both still believe him to be a thief and mistakenly assume his new wealth is ill-gotten. Can Sikandar overcome her misconceptions and find a way to express his love?...

Comments:

A decent 70's movie which was pretty popular when it premiered, but not one of my favorites, I admit. The moral the movie seems to be pushing comes early on in the film, when Sikandar meets with a fakir soon after his mother's death and the fakir tells him he can become "master of his destiny" (Muqaddar ka Sikandar) if he can laugh in the face of sorrow and death. However, this maxim doesn't seem to be exactly carried out by characters in the events that follow and it's hard to tell whether that's intentional or not. There are a number of subplots that make keeping up with the action difficult at times. Also distracting are the multiple times when the story slips into Sikandar imagining himself doing something without there being any indication beforehand that the scene isn't really happening. This is novel the first time it happens, but it can get confusing when you try to keep track of what's actually happened. Rekha does a lovely, sympathetic job in the role of a dancing girl whose house Sikandar visits, but because she is a dancing girl, in typical Bollywood fashion her chances for happiness seem shaky from the start. The music is thoroughly enjoyable and the choreography is quite good, especially for a 70's movie, but there's nothing I would really consider a must-see. Overall, it seems a little like the screenwriters wrote themselves into a corner and couldn't come up with a way to end things without coming up with an awkward result.

3 Idiots (2009)

Star Power : Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, R. Madhavan

Overall Rating: 7 of 7 chilies

Music : 6.5 of 7 chilies

Choreography: 6.5 of 7 chilies

Synopsis: Businessman Chatur Ramalingam (Omi Vaidya) shows up one day at the homes of former college classmates from the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE), Farhan (R. Madhavan) and Raju (Sharman Joshi), to prove he has won his wager that he would be more successful than they were. Most important to him is to lord this fact over their friend and fellow classmate Rancho (Aamir Khan), who made the bet with him one day at college, but Rancho is nowhere to be found. On a roadtrip to find him, the friends flashback to their college days, remembering the trials and tribulations they experienced and the ways that Rancho changed their lives. As the journey progesses, many questions arise: Who is Rancho ? And what has he become?

Comments: What a romp! The film is mostly a light-hearted affair, with a little bit of social commetary (the problem of student suicides). Aamir Khan, in his role as "Rancho", casts back to the days of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, creating a likeable, amiable character. Kareena Kapoor, as the love interest, is believeable and both R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi do a nice job of the typical college friend types. Boman Irani excells in his role as the baddie -- the autocratic dad-educator, causing mayhem for our heroes.

The music is excellent -- both All Iz Well and Zoobi Doobi will stick in your brain for hours! The choreography is done very well, especially Zoobi Doobi. The cinematography is surprisingly good ( I'm a stickler for good segues and this movie has no problems with this!). All in all, 3 Idiots is a enjoyable picture and I can see why it received numerous awards and acclaim.

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)

Star Power: Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Anupam Kher

Overall Rating: 6.5 out of 7 chilies

Music: 7 out of 7 chilies

Choreography: 7 out of 7 chilies

Synopsis:

Simran (Kajol) is a college-age girl living in London who dreams of a man she has never seen, even though she has been engaged to a man she has never met (the son of her father's best friend who lives in India) since her childhood. Taking her last chance to see the world before her marriage, she convinces her father to let her go on a Eurail tour of Europe with her friends. During the trip she meets up with Raj Malhotra (Shahrukh Khan), another London-raised Indian with a carefree attitude. The two don't exactly hit it off, but as the trip progresses and the two are briefly stranded together, they gradually grow closer to each other and she realizes he could be the man of her dreams...

Comments:

A really fun romance film and a great example of the pairing of Kajol and Shahrukh. This movie is perhaps one of Bollywood's most beloved classics, and is still showing in one theater in Mumbai! The story is based around the subject of people of Indian descent living abroad, (also known as non-resident Indians, or NRIs) and the idea of keeping one's home alive in one's heart. It's a sweet story that makes the most of some commonly used elements (a character named Raj Malhotra, song sequences in Switzerland, the disapproving father figure, etc.), and is overall a great, enjoyable film. The songs are fun and truly catchy, with hits like "Mehndi Lagha Ke Rakhna" and "Mere Khwabon Main" leaving you wanting to listen again and again. Another classic is "Tujhe Dekha To", which is often referenced in other films.

Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003)

Star Power: Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan, Jaya Bachchan

Overall Rating: 7 out of 7 chilies

Music: 7 out of 7 chilies

Choreography: 7 out of 7 chilies

Synopsis:

Naina Kapur (Preity Zinta) is a young MBA student living in New York. Life in her family is at times difficult, as they struggle to deal with her father's recent suicide, her mother Jennifer's (Jaya Bachchan) struggling business and her grandmother's disconnect from both her daughter-in-law and Naina's adopted sister Gia. Enter Aman Mathur, (Shahrukh Khan) the angel the whole family has been praying for. As his carefree attitude and honest approach start to turn things around for all of them, Naina begins to fall for him, just as her classmate and longtime friend, Rohit (Saif Ali Khan) realizes his own love for her...

Comments:

A sweet, beautiful modern film and, I think, one of Shahrukh's most moving performances. This film was one of the first I ever saw from Bollywood, and it has stuck with me ever since, running the gamut from light comedy into poignant sadness with honest, loveable characters that you can root for again and again. The music is not all great, but the title song and the dance number, "Mahi Ve" are catchy and standouts by any standard. It's hard to comment too much on the plot without giving too much away, but suffice it to say, if you aren't crying at the end of this film, you haven't been watching the movie.