20131118: Bollywood Review--Chennai Express

Chennai Express

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Indian live action feature length film, 2013, NR, 140 minutes, action, comedy.
2. IMDB: 6.1/10.0 from 15,987 audience ratings.  Spoken language is Hindi and Tamil and a little English; subtitles in English.  Aspect 2.35.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 57% on the meter; 53% liked it from 1,985 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.6/5.0 from 31,406 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Rohit Shetty.
6. Starring: Deepika Padukone as Meenamma Lochini Azhagusundaram, Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul, Satyaraj as Durgeshwara Azhagusundaram, Nikitin Dheer as Tangaballi.


2. Setup and Plot
1. At 40 years of age, Rahul is looking to strike out on his own after his grandfather dies on his 100th birthday.


2. He promises his grandmother that he will take half his grandfather's ashes to the holy water of Rameshwaram for dispersal.  He concocts a scheme with his friends to disperse the ashes, then to rendezvous in Goa for a vacation.


3. This starts out fairly well, but he nearly leaves the ashes on the Chennai express.  He recovers them, but in the process unwittingly helps Meenamma get on the train, but also her four would be kidnappers.  He and Meenamma try a few ploys to contact his friends and foil the kidnappers.  All this goes awry.  As it turns out, the kidnappers were representatives of her father Durgeshwara.  Meenamma tells Durgeshwara that Rahul is her love interest.  He attempts to escape the situation.  Then Meenamma's other suitor shows up, and he intends some sort of duel to the death.  This has to be sorted out.  Misadventures, car chases, lost at sea, misunderstandings, you name it.  The matter of the two suitors still has to be sorted out, after all the filler.


4. Repeat to use up the 140 minutes


5. Does this get better?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Occasionally funny; great scenery.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Nicely shot and edited; great-looking scenery, costumes, sets.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.  Could have used a few more musical numbers to shore up the lack of plot.  I liked the numbers that were there.


3. Acting: 5/10 I liked the performance of Deepika Padukone, who seems to be on her way up.  Shah Rukh Khan clearly has talent, but he seems a bit old for this, and he seems to be covering old ground.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 About 40 minutes of ideas done in 140.