Kari's Korner

Kismat Konnection

Another film starring Shahid Kapoor. This one has him co-starring with Vidya Balan, a very talented actress. However, in this particular movie, while the story was good, the on-screen chemisty between the actors was so very awkward and fairly unbelievable that they'd ever fall in love, although both acted very well. Maybe this is one I should re-watch (it's been nearly a year since I've seen it), but I just really remember thinking that if the chemistry had been even just a little better I would have liked it better.

The basic story: Raj Malhotra (Kapoor) was touted as the "Next Big Thing" in college, but 5 years later, the reality is something else. He struggles to make ends meet and seems to have the worst luck with everything - his car, his alarm clock, the ATM and his career as an architect. Until he meets Priya (Balan). Priya is his good luck charm and everything starts going his way. Of course there has to be a conflict and it turns out that Priya runs a Community Center that is going to be demolished to make way for a new mall - that Raj just landed to contract to design.

This is probably the best song out of the whole move - but then again, I'm partial to the songs with good Punjabi beats. :) I don't like the "rapping" that they've inserted into nearly every song in this movie - without it, I would recommend the music a lot more.

 

I Hate Luv Storys

Namaste, my friends!

I Hate Luv Storys revolves around Jay, a jaded director's assistant in the "Bollywood" industry. He doesn't believe in any of the romance that is so prevalent in your typical "Bollywood" movie. Simran believes in love at first sight, true love, and all of trappings of a good romantic love story. Needless to say, this movie is about how these two very different people meet and create their own love story. It stars Imran Khan as Jay and Sonam Kapoor as Simran, both of whom belong to entrenched Indian acting families.

My initial impression of this movie wasn't very positive. I thought it was very hokey, too much like a Hollywood romantic comedy and I didn't particularly like the music. It actually took me two or three attempts to finish watching it the first time. However, I was bored one weekend a few weeks after this initial attempt and put it on and was completely hooked on the story. I'm not really sure what changed - possibly I'd become more obsessed and had become more forgiving in my opinions. I'd also seen both the actors in more serious roles so was able to take them more seriously in I Hate Luv Storys. There is one actress in this movie, Bruna Abdalah, who is just horrible and I cringe nearly every time she's on screen. Luckily, it's not that often. She's still new to the industry, it appears, so hopefully she'll get better with time.

I, now, really like the title song:

 

Kaminey

Ahhh. My absolute favorite movie. Even more of a favorite than Serenity, which if any of you know me, is saying quite a bit. I've probably watched this movie, in its entirety, a good ten or so times and have seen bits and pieces of it more times than I can count.

 

So that's the trailer. The story revolves around twin brothers, Charlie and Guddu, who haven't spoken to each other since the death of their father. Charlie is a small-time gangster with dreams of becoming a bookie. Guddu walks the straight and narrow, working for an AIDS awareness group. Their lives collide when Charlie steals a massive amount of cocaine from a pair of crooked cops and Guddu is mistakenly apprehended by the cops.

I love this movie because it's not your typical "Bollywood" fare. Shahid Kapoor really shows his talent here and does a great job of making you believe that Charlie and Guddu are actually separate people. It's not obvious at all that they are played by the same person - even when physically fighting each other. The love interest for Guddu (Charlie doesn't have one) is played phenomenally by Priyanka Chopra. This was the first movie I saw her in and remains my favorite of her films. Another great performance is by Chandan Roy Sanyal, who plays Charlie's best friend, Mikhail. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him. The remainder of the cast is well played, but there are too many characters to go into them all.

The movie is very gritty and shot very dark - which might be my only complaint. There are parts of the movie where I want to see a character's expressions but can't because the lighting is so dark. In fact, my favorite song in the movie is played at a nightclub but the lighting is so poor that I don't really enjoy watching the video.

So - I hope that if you watch any of the movies that I review, you will watch Kaminey. It's well worth the time!

 

Chance pe Dance

कैसे हो, मेरा दोस्ती!

Well - I do wish that Typepad had a Devanagari script font, but ah well. On to the movie!

Chance pe Dance was the first movie that I wasn't in love with after watching it, yet it remains one of my most repeatedly watched movies and now it is one of my favorites - I always watch it when I'm in a bad mood or depressed because it's just a silly, fluffy, no brainer-type of movie.

The story revolves around Sameer Behl (Shahid Kapoor), a struggling actor from Delhi who moved to Mumbai to break into the "filmy" industry. At the start of the film, we see him going on audition after audition and it isn't until a director (Mohnish Bahl) sees him dancing in a club that he gets his break. But, suddenly, his break evaporates and he's left struggling to survive. He gets a job as a dance instructor at a school. His new girlfriend, Tina (Genelia D'Souza), convinces him to take a part in the Star of India competition - think American Idol but for multi-talented people - as a way to get his big break.

So that's the synopsis. While I do really love this movie, it has two very weak points - the music and the chemistry between Shahid Kapoor and Genelia D'Souza. The music, for the most part is just nothing spectacular. The movie revolves around dancing, mostly, so a lot of the music is dance/club music to give Shahid a chance to show off his skills - and the boy does have skills! It's unfortunate that the chemistry between the two stars doesn't work for me. I like both actors - Genelia was fantastic in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (which I'll report on later) and I absolutely love and adore Shahid. But - sometimes the chemistry is just not there. Luckily, while it's a negative for the movie, it's not something that keeps me from watching it over and over and over.

Here is a video of one of the cute songs - not my favorite song, which is "Rishta Hai Mera", but this is my favorite of the musical numbers in the movie.