20140730: Drama Review--Madras Cafe

Madras Cafe

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Indian live action feature length film, 2013, NR, 126 minutes, action, political thriller, bollywood, historical fiction.
2. IMDB: 7.9/10.0 from 9,759 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 350 million INR.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet...' and 76% liked it from 417 audience ratings.
4. Directed by: Shoojit Sircar
5. Starring: John Abraham as Vikram Singh, Nargis Fakhri as Jaya Sahni, Rashi Khanna as Ruby, Avijit Dutt as Swarup, Sanjay Burbuxani as Former Prime Minister, Ajay Rathnam as Anna Bhaskaran.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The setting is the turmoil of the 1990s in Sri Lanka.  Vikram Singh is the point man for Army Intelligence (RAW, or Research and Analysis Wing) in the matter.  He is drawn in when there are clear signs that an assassination attempt will be made on the former Indian PM, who seems likely to regain his seat of power.


2. The enemy is faceless, well-organised, and quite good at segmenting what any individual or small group needs to know.  Vikram and his entire organisation work very hard at this, and arrest several groups of perpetrators, only to find that there are many small, highly effective bands with the same goal.


3. At one point, when Vikram gets close to a piece of the truth, he is kidnapped and tortured.  He is rescued from this, and goes on the do more exceptional investigatory work.  By the end of the story, though, Vikram has paid many high prices.


4. Through the course of the investigations, Vikram interacts, guardedly, with war correspondent Jaya.  Their careful sharing of information was a well-written part of the plot.  Vikram's whole-hearted pursuit of the case had more than one bad effect on his relationship with his wife Ruby.


5. The movie opens to Vikram in later life, alone, alcoholic, limping, and plagued with guilt over failures.  Told in flashback style, the years spent pursuing the terrorists is gripping.  The long effort at stopping the plot of Anna and the LFT was bulk of the film.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Well-directed political thriller concerning the turmoil in 1990s Sri Lanka.
2. Four stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Usually great, with a few moments of hand-held nonsense.


2. Sound: 6/10 I liked the music over the closing credits.  Sound was not done in the traditional Bollywood fashion, but then this is a more serious work than the more common musicals.  Still, some instrumental music for accenting mood might have been nice.


3. Acting: 8/10 The acting by the principals is outstanding.


4. Screenplay: 10/10 The many threads are woven together rather well.  The depiction of violence was difficult to watch at times, but trenchant and central to the overall story.  Much more screen time goes to political intrigue and efforts at stopping a determined terrorist group from achieving its goals.

20131121: Bollywood Review--Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola

Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Indian live action feature length film, 2013, NR, 147 minutes, bollywood, comedy, drama.
2. IMDB: 5.9/10.0 from 3,603 audience ratings.  Spoken language is Hindi; subtitles in English.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 33% on the meter, 43% liked it from 471 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.1/5.0 from 7,658 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Vishal Bhardwaj.
6. Starring: Imran Khan as Matru, Anushka Sharma as Bijlee Mandola, Pankarj Kapur as Harry Mandola, Lekha Washingtonn as Kamini, Arya Babbar as Baadal, Shabana Azmi, as Chaudhari Devi.


2. Setup and Plot
1. This starts out in class warfare mode, extremely rich landowner, Harry Mandola, versus indigent farm workers.  Bijlee is Harry's daughter.  Baadal, the son of one of Harry's political ally Chaudhari Devi, presents her with a dance number complete with Zulu tribes people from South Africa.  Matru is one of Harry's trusted workers, but he's a lower class worker.  He's not so happy with Bijlee spending so much time with Baadal.


2. To add to the comedy elements, Harry has a history of excessive drinking, and he swears off toward the beginning of the film.  Then he gets the DTs (delirium tremens), and starts seeing shocking pink water buffalo and the like.  Harry's doctor's receptionist is a large woman who likes to wear pink.  There's an ongoing joke in which she is referred to as the pink buffalo.


3. Chaudhari Devi has been a government official for 20 years, and has helped Harry get his way in exchange for this and that.  At a party, Harry takes up drinking again.  He calls Baadal in idiot, and trusts Matru to keep him from falling.  Baadal seems to be Devi's emasculated son; she tells him how to think.  Nice.


4. Baadal does, however, come up with the idea of destroying all the farmers' crops with a chemical that is a pesticide at low doses, and an herbicide at slightly higher doses.  The land grabbers intend to poison the land for years, which will enable them to acquire the farmers' land at much lower costs so that they can do construction instead of farming.


5. How does this play out?  Will Bijlee go with Matru, whom she has known for 20 years, or Baadal, whom she has known for 5, mostly at school?  How will the movement of the disenfranchised poor versus the rich and corrupt turn out?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: The corrupt and entitled versus the poor and disenfranchised in rural India.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Lovely.


2. Sound: 10/10 Very good.


3. Acting: 9/10  Imran Khan was very good.  Pankarj Kapur was excellent.  Anushka Sharma and Arya Babbar were rather good.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 Frequently funny, often touching.  A bit long, though.

20131106: Bollywood Review--Perfect Mismatch

Perfect Mismatch (It's a Mismatch)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Indian live action feature length film, 2009, PG, 92 minutes, comedy, drama, romance
2. IMDB: 6.0/10.0 from 56 audience ratings. Estimated budget: 2 million USD.  Spoken language is English.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 20% like it from 12 audience ratings.
4. HuluPlus: 'three couples and how they approach the modern day Indian marriage.'
5. Directed by: Ajmal Zaheer Ahmed.  Story by Anubhav Anand.
6. Starring: Anubhav Anand as Aman Sukhwinder Bhalla, Anupam Kher as Mr. Bhalla, Simran Bhar as Young Preeti Bhalla, Ranjita Chakravarty as Mrs. Bhalla, Nandana Sen as Neha D. Patel, Rashmi Rustagi as Meena D. Patel (Neha's mother), Boman Irani as Dinesh Patel (Neha's father).


2. Setup and Plot
1. NRI (non-resident Indian) in California, specifically in Riverside.  Aman the architect gets his job sold out from underneath him.  About the same time he meets Neha.  They get to know each other; Neha wants her parents to meet Aman, but they favor the son of their doctor.


2. Sigh.  Aman is Punjabi, while Neha is Gujarati; as Dinesh says, 'They eat meat, they drink, they are loud, and they are not classy like us.'  Mr. Bhalla does not like taking his shoes off, having no meat, no alcohol, no enthusiasm for loud jokes.  His gift of a bottle of booze is not well-received.


3. Aman prepares a presentation for an architectural design contest.  He makes the final 100, and gets a trip to New York to pitch his design in person.


4. After being a tad harsh toward his uncle, Aman accidentally discovers correspondence between his uncle and his father.  His father has suffered catastrophic losses against the large loan that his uncle had taken out for him.  His uncle is in a deep well of debt; that's why he works even on Sundays.


5. The offer from New York does not come through.  At least that is the lie that Aman tells at first.  Aman takes a position with his uncle's company.


6. Neha and Aram stage a song and dance number.  This starts out very well, but does not stay that way.  Aram and Neha break up after that, and a lot of derivative sadness starts.


7. For their own reasons, Mr. Bhalla and Dinesh agree to try to fix things up for Aman and Neha at the Diwali celebration.


8. Will that work out?  Will Aman straighten out the misstep with the design contest?


3. Conclusions
1. Story by the lead actor; this sounds like a vanity film, which are usually not worth seeing.
2. One line summary: Punjabi versus Gujarati customs on several levels.
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 9/10 A little too soft focus for me, but otherwise fine.


2. Sound: 7/10 Good.  Music and singing are often in the background instead of in the foreground with dance.  I missed the spoken word being in a language from the Indian subcontinent.


3. Acting: 6/10  Liked Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Nandana Sen.  I could have done without Anubhav Anand, the anchor about the neck that drags the movie underwater.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 Vanity project; plays like a protracted soliloquy.

20131105: Bollywood Review--Mere Baap Pehle Aap

Mere Baap Pehle Aap: My Father's Wedding (2008)

1. Production Fundamentals; reception
1. 2008, NR, 157 minutes, Bollywood.
2. IMDB: 4.8/10.0 from 824 user ratings. Spoken word is in Hindi; English subtitles.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 57% liked it from 10 user ratings.
4. HuluPlus: 'Chirag and Gaurav are two kids brought up by their father Janardhan Rane.'
5. Directed by Priyadarshan; screenplay by Manisha Korda; story by Priyadarshan.
6. Starring: Paresh Rawal as Janaradhan Vishamber Rane, Akshaye Khanna as Gaurav J. Rane, Minoj Joshi as Chirag J. Rane, Genelia D'Souza as Sheekha N. Kapoor, Om Puri as Madhav Mathur.


2. Setup, Plot
1. 'Who says only young people can get married?'


2. Janaradhan wants to get married again.  His two sons try to keep him out of trouble, which he seems drawn to, especially when he is with his friend Madhav.  The son Chirag is married with two children.  The other son Gaurav does most of the caring for the elderly father.


3. Madhav has been divorced for sometime, while Janaradhan is a widower.  Madhav is more the prankster who gets them in trouble.  Gaurav is usually the one to bail them out and face the attendant embarrassment.


4. A young woman named Rose (well, Sheeka) keeps calling Gaurav, and acts like they used to know one another. Sheeka does not seem to know when to stop a practical joke; more to the point, the director does not. That and the father's hijinks move the film forward.  Somewhat.


5. Once the joke is stopped, events can move forward again.  This is sixty minutes into the film, and I don't feel more informed than I did at three minutes in.


6. After Janaradhan takes a spill and ends up in hospital with a broken leg, Gaurav and Sheeka take care of him.  This appears to be their courtship as well. That is, until Janaradhan asks her about romantic possibilities.  The problem is that she is more of an American now and he intends to stay in India.


7. At the pre-wedding party for Sheeka's friend, Janaradhan recognizes Sheeka's teacher as his old flame.  Madhav sets his hopes on her, but both Gaurav and Janaradhan think this is a rather bad idea.  The day of the wedding, Sheeka introduces her teacher to Janaradhan, and it is clear that they know one another.


8. Janaradhan cleans himself up, shaves, dyes his hair, and gets a haircut.  He looks quite different.  He goes to the college where his old flame works, but finds she's on leave.  Things go down hill from there.  He and Gaurav have a row about it later.


9. Janaradhan gets more comfortable with his younger look.  At a party it seems like a good opportunity to him and the old flame to get together.


10. Will Sheeka go back to America?  Will the old secrets be revealed?  Will Janaradhan get what he looking for?


3. Conclusions
1. The mixed acting and bloated script are mostly balanced by the cinematography and the musical numbers.
2. One line summary: Thirty minutes of comedy dissolved in a 157 minute film.
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Fine.


2. Sound: 7/10 Good, but hollow now and then, usually on conversation, not singing.


3. Acting: 5/10 Whereas Akshaye Khanna is a star, Paresh Rawal is a blackhole of lack.  The absence of Rawal would have improved the film greatly.  Om Puri was next to terrible to watch.  The performance of Genelia D'Souza was enjoyable.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Too drawn out, too long, too much filler.


5. Musical Numbers: 7/10 The first musical number accompanied the opening credits and was fine. The five numbers after that were quite nice.

20131105: Bollywood Review--Aisha

Aisha

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Indian live action feature length film, 2010, NR, 126 minutes,
2. IMDB: 4.7/10.0 from 2,098 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 140 million INR.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 35% liked it from 1,600 audience ratings.
4. HuluPlus: 'Caught in the Delhi upper class world with its own set of social rules, Aisha navigates her world with a great sense of style and even greater optimism.'
5. Directed by: Rajshree Ojha.
6. Starring: Sonam Kapoor as Aisha Kapoor, Abhay Deol as Arjun Burman, Amrita Puri as Shefali Thakur, Cyrus Sahukar as Randhir Gambhir, Arunoday Singh as Dhruv Singh,  Ira Dubey as Pinky Bose, Anand Tiwari as Saurabh Lamba, Lisa Haydon as Aarti Menon.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film opens at a wedding party for the upper crust, leaders of industry, old money, their families. The opulence is clear.  The narration proceeds from Aisha, a young woman perhaps not quite of marriageable age.  Aisha decides she's is going to be a matchmaker.  Her first project is to match the not-beauty-conscious Shefali with some suitable batchelor, say Randhir, who is well-established and thinks rather highly of himself.


2. Aisha and Pinky start the make-over of Shefali.  Arjun lets Aisha know he thinks she has gone to far.  While setting up Randhir and Shefali, Aisha encounters Dhruv, her aunt's new husband's only son.  Arjun seems a bit jealous the next morning.  Aisha and Shefali go to the animal rescue centre (ARC) where Shefali meets Saurabh, whom she seems to know and like already.  This seems out of step with Aisha's plans.


3. The whitewater camping party was a bit of a change from all the ostentatious display of wealth in the initial wedding scene, or the polo match, or the trips to the upscale clothing stores.  The single instrument, single voice musical interlude was quite nice. The music without dance was well done.  Shefali falls into the river at one point; Arjun jumps in to rescue her.


4. Aisha's interest in Dhruv and in Arjun deepens during this trip.  The presence of Arjun's friend Aarti from New York helps this along.  Randhir reveals his interest in Aisha, who is quick to discourage it, since this upsets her plans.  Shefali wonders why Randhir did not help her out of the river.  Randhir confides to Pinky that no one likes him.  He bemoans the probability of remaining a bachelor for life; Pinky says, 'join the club.'  Great stuff.  On the way back, previous events match Pinky and Randhir driving back with just each other.  Aisha goes with Dhruv after the bad scene with Randhir.


5. Back at home, Aisha decides to quit matchmaking, and tell Shefali about Randhir.  What more could possibly go wrong?  Arjun and Aisha reconnect, for a while.  Shefali reconnects with Saurabh.  The writing is on the wall, but Aisha tries to re-direct things, again.


6. Ah, another party.  Dance numbers.  Territorial stuff.  Arjun slugs Dhruv, then leaves with Aarti.  At a formal family party, Arjun brings Aarti.  Will Aisha recognize her own interest in Arjun?


7. Randhir and Pinky become engaged; Aisha is surprised that no one consulted her.  Shefali wants to get rid of everything that reminds her of Randhir.  Aisha thinks of setting up Shefali and Dhruv.  Shefali is more interested in Arjun, since he actually stepped up to save her in the river.  Shefali finally revolts against Aisha's controlling actions.  Aisha and Arjun have another falling out.


8. Dhruv and Aarti get engaged.  Aisha tells her father she's in love with Arjun.  Her father tells her he will set things up, and that she should go tell Arjun, who's at the party for Aarti and Dhruv.  What could possibly go wrong?  Quite a bit.


3. Conclusions
1. Includes elements of Clueless (1995, USA) and Emma (1996, UK, USA) with an updated Bollywood take.
2. One line summary: Would be matchmaker gets decidedly unintended results.
3. Three stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Focus is too soft for my taste, but most of the camera work looks very good.


2. Sound: 9/10 Fine.


3. Acting: 6/10 Overly dominated by the indifferent Sonam Kapoor; fortunately, many of the good supporting actors cushion this effect.


4. Screenplay: 7/10 It's a piece about a strongly irritating personality, but it's fairly well done.


5. Musical Numbers: 6/10 There is not nearly as much dancing as usual.  Included a few moments of rap, which I could have done without.

20131104: Bollywood Review--Tere Mere Phere

Tere Mere Phere (The Open Door)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Indian live action feature length film, 2011, NR, 120 minutes, comedy, drama, romance.  Spoken word is Hindi, Punjabi, English; subtitles in English.
2. IMDB: 5.2/10.0 from 165 user ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and no data through audience ratings.
4. HuluPlus: 'Tere Mere Phere is a comic look at the battle of the sexes...'
5. Directed by: Deepa Sahi.
6. Starring: Vinay Pathak as Jai Dhumal/Gollu, Riya Sen as Muskaan/Gillie, Jagrat Deshai as Rahul Bhasin, Sasha Goradia as Pooja Pahuja/Pooja R. Bhasin.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Bollywood style slapstick: we watch as plans and intentions are doomed by circumstances beyond one's control.


2. Plane is in flight.  Passengers start a row to the point where the captain returns plane to the last takeoff airport.  Of course, some people have urgent business.  We can see the disappointments coming.  Back at the airport, people are still unruly; some of those who started it decide to leave before the cops arrive.


3. The couple who started the row was Pooja and Rahul, who are married, but deeply soured on love and on marriage.  When they attempt to get away in a recreational vehicle, Jai shames them into taking him where he needs to go.  Of course, his large pistol helped enforce the shame.


4. At a rest stop, Jai encourages the warring couple to tell him how they met and the like.  Just before they first spoke, Rahul's father proclaimed, they are both too silly, who will take care of them?  Judging from this film, the man was correct.  Getting them together was a disaster from the beginning.  They did fall in lust, though, and Rahul proposed during a train ride.  It looked like he did it to get Pooja to be quiet for a moment.  The cynical younger brother of Rahul tries to talk him out of the marriage, even at two hours before the ceremony.  The flashback to the honeymoon trip was extensive; the unhappiness started even then, and the stupidity continued: destroying their cell phones, picking up hitchhikers and so on.


5. Eventually Jai starts telling Rahul and Pooja about Muskaan, his beloved, who is going to be engaged to someone else.  That's where Jai's imagined deadline comes from; he wants to stop the engagement.  They miss the deadline of course; Jai really needed the airplane from the first segment.  They change course to try to prevent Muskaan from getting married, since she's already engaged.


6. Jai asks about why they were on the plane flight in the first place.  This triggers the flashback to the disastrous end of the honeymoon.


7. Will Jai reach Muskaan in time?  Will Rahul and Pooja stay together?  Will Jai shoot both of them?


3. Conclusions
1. I have not seen adults have a mud fight in a film in a long time.  I think the last one was a Western starring John Wayne.
2. One line summary: Bickering newlyweds encounter man determined to win back his girlfriend.
3. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 9/10 Slightly jumpy, but mostly fine.  The on location filming in the mountains was beautiful.  Nice plus on the credits, which were the most entertaining I've seen for quite a while.


2. Sound: 8/10 Ever so slightly tinny for conversation; rich for the musical numbers.


3. Acting: 7/10 Enjoyable once I started to embrace the silliness.


4. Screenplay: 7/10 Loved the musical numbers, but the film dragged on too long.  80 minutes might have been nice.  Too much time was spent on absurd fights.


5. Musical Numbers: 9/10 The numbers during the honeymoon trip were gorgeous.  I wish there had been more.

20131104: Bollywood Review--Aitraaz

Aitraaz

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Indian live action feature length film, 2004, NR, 159 minutes, drama, thriller.  Spoken word is Hindi; subtitles in English.
2. IMDB: 6.4/10.0 from 2,374 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No Reviews Yet,' and 69% liked it from 1,859 audience ratings.
4. Huluplus: 'Raj Malhotra was leading a happy life with wife Priya when his ex-flame Sonia enters their life.'
5. Directed by: Abbas and Mastan Alibhai Burmawalla.
6. Starring: Akshay Kumar as Raj Malhotra, Kareena Kapoor as Priya Saxena, Priyanka Chopra as Mrs. Sonia Roy, Amrish Puri as Ranjit Roy, Annu Kapoor as Barrister Ram Chotlani.
7. Said to be a remake of Disclosure (USA, 1994). Sonia's re-entry is not a happy thing.


2. Setup and Plot
1. We start out with a mistaken address and identity.  Raj in #30 is looking for a housekeeper; Ram in #13 is looking for a legal secretary.  Priya is looking for a secretary position at a legal office.  She goes to #30 by mistake.  "I don't consider any job too small" has unexpected consequences.  Her opposite number (the housekeeper) lands the job as legal secretary.  How long can these misunderstandings last?


2. Not very long; both Ram and Raj figure it out.  Ram comes over to get some borrowed law books; his comments let Priya figure it out quickly. 


3. Love at first sight is the diagnosis; they marry and are doing well.  Priya is soon expecting.  Raj gets a promotion and buys a bungalow.  At the announcement of his promotion, Raj gets a bad surprise.  The Big Boss' wife is Sonia, his one-time girlfriend, who is also the new managing director of his company.  She announces Raj's promotion; not to CEO but to seat on the Board of Directors. The party that evening sets the stage for disasters to come.


4. The flashback description of the early days of Raj and Sonia's relationship (before they broke up) was nothing short of beautifully done, lovely and evocative.  Then she leaves him to pursue Ranjit Roy.  The transition is difficult.  Raj thought they had something; clearly Sonia did not.  Her career and ambition are everything to her.


5. Why she is angry at Raj after she marries the big boss Ranjit Roy is hard to see.  She arranges a private meeting, comes on to him; he resists, but not hard enough. Worse yet, he rejects her before anything happens.  Then she brings charges of sexual impropriety against him with her husband.  The next day Ranjit Roy demands he resign; that's just the beginning.  Raj does not resign; he goes to the office and works.  Harsher methods are brought to bear against him, including legal charges.


6. The ferocity of Sonia's attack is met by the strength of Priya's defensive energies and the loyalty of his defense team and friends.  Of course, there also turns out to be business reasons driving this mess, plus dirty tricks.


7. Who comes out the better in this horrible waste of resources, time, money, and reputation?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Bollywood version of Disclosure (USA, 1994) with singing and dancing.
2. Five stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent camera work and 2.35 aspect ratio.


2. Sound: 10/10 Delightful music and singing.  No problems with conversational voice.


3. Acting: 8/10 Good.


4. Screenplay: 9/10 Well done adaptation.


5. Musical Numbers: 10/10 Beautiful, energetic, enjoyable.  The first number is about being in a quagmire, and sailing one's heart in a quagmire.  Yikes!  Sets the tone for the rest of the contentious script.  The second, third, and fourth numbers continue the high quality.

20131103: Bollywood Review--Shadow

Shadow

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Indian live action feature length film, 129 minutes, 2009, action, crime, drama.
2. IMDB: 4.9/10.0 from 77 user ratings.  Spoken language is Telegu; English subtitles.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet,' 0% liked it from 9 audience ratings.
4. HuluPlus:  Will Inspector Sanjana catch criminal mastermind Arjun Sherawat?
5. Directed by: Rohit Nayyar.  Screenplay by Nasser Khan.  Producer: Nasser Khan.
6. Starring: Nasser Khan as Raju/Arjun, Sulnari Kulkarni as Inspector Sanjana Singh Rajpoot, Sachin Khedekar as Home Minister Shiv Shankar, Milind Soman as Rahul Kapoor, Hrishita Bhatt as Sheetal Pradhan.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The Mumbai police take a lot of flak from the press for not catching Arjun Sherawat.


2. Inspector Sanjana is on the case.  About 60 minutes in, it seems that's she's solved it.


3. Has she? No.  So we go for a second round of detect and chase.


4. She catches up with some of his henchmen, but loses a fight and is captured.  The explanation of her release was absent.  Hmph.


5. Her father (also her superior in the Mumbai Police) assigns a senior officer for her to work with.  They shoot and arrest Arjun, who gets sent to the hospital.  While there, he implicates some high-ranking officials, including Shiv Shankar.


6. Will the police sort this out?


3. Conclusions
1. As vanity films (Nasser Khan) go, this one is on the bad side.
2. One line summary: Inspector versus criminal mastermind in Mumbai.
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Nice looking throughout.


2. Sound: 8/10 OK.


3. Acting: 2/10 Between poor and non-existent. 


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Moves along from beginning to end, but might have been better as a 30 minute short instead of a 129 minute feature.


5. Musical Numbers: 6/10 So-so, but they were present.

20131101: Bollywood Review--Aap Ki Khatir

Aap Ki Khatir (only for your sake)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Indian live action feature length film 2006, romance, drama; spoken language is Hindi + some English; subtitles in English.
2. IMDB: 3.9/10.0 from 508 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 60% liked it from 3,082 audience ratings.
4. HuluPlus: 'A woman hires an escort to make her ex-boyfriend jealous.'  Yes, it's a remake of The Wedding Date (USA, 2005).
5. Directed by: Dharmesh Darshan.  Screenplay by Sunil Munshi.
6. Starring: Sunil Shetty as Kunal P. Shah, Amisha Patel as Shirani A. Khanna, Dino Morea as Danny Grover, Akshaye Khanna as Aman Mehra, Priyanka Chopra as Anu A. Khanna, Anupam Khar as Arjun Khanna, Lilleth Dubey as Betty A. Khanna, Bhumika Singh as Nikki.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Anu is going from India to step-sister Shirani's wedding in London. In order to regain the appreciation of her ex-boyfriend Danny, she hires Aman to act as her date, just for the wedding.  Arjun (Anu's step-father) gives Aman quite a grilling about how they met, when they met, how they got to know each other.  I wonder how deeply the cover story was worked out.  Of course, many secrets will be revealed if this is anything like The Wedding Date.


2. Anu and cousin Nikki quiz Shirani about Kunal, her finance.  There are introductions all around.  Danny, the wolf in the fold, arrives late, but is an important piece in the web of inter-relationships.  Arjun bristles immediately at Danny's presence, and wants to throw him out.  This would have been more peaceful, but less truthful. Since Danny is Kunal's old friend, Betty insists that he stay and be welcomed.  There are 3 days until the wedding.


3. Fun with cricket; Anu blackmails Aman in to letting Danny have a good time, but Aman won't have it.  Odd stuff, but helps Danny and Aman get to respect each other.  That evening at a dance party, Aman sings and dances with Nikki and other women at the party.  Danny gets a bit jealous, and Shirani gets closer to telling Anu about Shirani and Danny.  Anu becomes more impressed with Aman.  Anu gets drunk, and things proceed between her and Aman, but not too far.  The next morning, Aman details new charges for services rendered, though no intimate activities.


4. On the second full day, things start out frosty between Aman and Anu, but warm up later.  Kunal's family shows up.  They are culturally more than a little bit different than Shirani's family.  Comedy ensues.  Arjun and Aman play chess, though it might as well have been fencing.  The women play cards and discuss all the relationships.  Plus there is an outdoor cookout.  Anu's friend Maya calls; Arjun picks up, and hears just enough from Maya to guess that something is fishy between Anu and Aman.  Arjun probes; Aman feints (well, lies).  Things keep getting more complicated, but people are getting cornered into telling the truth.  Danny tries to get back with Shirani; she will have none of it.  Aman walks in unintentionally, but grasps everything immediately.  Shirani and Aman talk, while Danny tries to sweet talk Anu.  Arjun and Aman finish up the day at a campfire, drinking and talking.


5. On the third day, the full wedding party has a large meal together outside in the cold. This was followed by a musical number.  Danny and Anu attempt to finish their talk afterwards.  Ah,dark truths.  Anu admits her relationship with Aman was fake, while Danny admits he had a relationship with Shirani, after Anu left the UK for India.  He came to the wedding for Shirani, and that's not working out.  Neither of them is happy. Anu is even less happy when she finds that Nikki and even Aman knew about this before she did.  Anu takes it out on Aman, since she cannot take it out on anyone else.  Oi.  She demands that he leave, and he sets about to do this.  In the evening, he's leaving with his suitcase.  Kunal begs him to stay, and gives him the key to his cottage.  Anu urges Shirani to tell Kunal the truth; Shirani and Betty counter with 'later is better.'


6. The morning of the wedding, there is a lot of jovial camaraderie.  Aman shows up, not dressed up, still prepared to leave.  He appeals to Anu to reconsider her 'get lost' imperative.  He says good-bye to Betty, who still rather likes him.  Arjun tips the balance; Anu goes to the cottage to stop Aman.  She find the money she paid Aman instead of Aman.  Shirani decides to tell Kunal, who is furious at Danny.  Aman talks Kunal off the ledge.  Kunal talks Aman into returning.


7. Perhaps this will work out?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Indian woman hires man to be her boyfriend at her sister's wedding in the UK.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Good, except perhaps for the blatant lip-syncing.  Still, I liked the quality of the singing/dancing numbers.


2. Sound: 9/10 Also good.


3. Acting: 6/10 What a mixed bag.  I thought Amisha Patel (Shirani), Akshaye Khanna (Aman), Anupam Khar (Arjun), and Lilleth Dubey (Betty) were quite good.  On the other hand, Sunil Shetty (Kunal), Dino Morea (Danny), and Priyanka Chopra (Anu) were uneven.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 The writing reminded me a lot of The Wedding Date, but with significant differences, of course.  Still, the story moved along well, and the exposition of motivation was fine.  The mental fencing between Aman and Arjun was quite nice.