I´ll be gone for the weekend. Class reunion on Friday. Visiting Grandma on Saturday. Hurrying back from Salzburg to work on Sunday. Why oh why did I agree to go on a class reunion. Whatever. I´ve tons of new movies stacked up that wait to be viewed and written about (I´m especially curious about "Jab Jab Phool Khile" with Shashi Kapoor - Yummi) But I´m affraid that will have to wait a few days.
Any good masala film worth its name must contain at least 15 points of the following list.
Lets check how tonights movie fared:
- four word film title check
- hero is patriot to the core check
- at least one main character observes terrible deed check
- first song during the first 10 minutes check
- most songs shot in switzerland check
- weird costumes in song check
- train ride/bus ride check and check
- hero saves damsel in distress check
- head of family is rich industralist check
- head of family is grumpy old man check
- at least one main character is an orphan check
- family with huge amount of aunties/uncles and of kids check
- song with kids check
- heart attack of elder family member check
- hero falls in love with family and family falls in love with hero check
- two guys/one girl or two girls/one guy check option b
- annoying comic relieve character (relative or servant) check
- bad wigs and/or fake moustaches check and check
- a secret has to be kept, leading to heartbreak check
- devine intervention check
- wet sari due to waterfall and/or rain check and check
- dancing around trees check (no kiddin´!!)
- scenes at temple and/or puja check and check
- missunderstanding that almost ruins everything check
- big sangeet and/or wedding scene check and check
- poison (best if conveniently written on bottle) check
- explosions and/or burning house/factory check
- men running while holding hands check
- evil guy getting his reward in the end check
and never ever to forget:
- blink-and-miss special appearance by famous actor check
Conclusion: Yup, its a Masala movie, alright.
P.S: And I love it.
Yay, the long haired hindi film hero is back. Mujhse bahut khush hoon. And product placement. I don´t know why I suddenly feel the need to change my brand of washingpowder. Or to put it in plain view on my kitchen cupboard.
But I´m being unfair. Its just that since Virrudh (remember the motoroil "commercial" by Sanjay?) it has not been done so blatant. And to be honest, I think it fits in this movie, I have this sort of "miss it when its not there" relation, like with the comic relieve parts. It should be part of any real massala movie.
But I´m zoning out. I just came back from watching Krrish. And I liked it. The second half better then the first one. For all of you who don´t know whats it about, here a quick summary:
The movie starts a few years after the ending of Koi..mil gaya. Krishna (Hritik Roshan) the son of Rohit and Nisha grows up with his grandmother (Rekha) after the death of his parents. She keeps him isolated from the world as she does not want to let people know that he inherited his fathers special powers. Some twenty years later a group of tourist comes to the village Krishna lives in and he meets Priya (Priyanka Chopra).
Two things happen. Krishna falls in love with Priya and Priya finds out about the superpowers of Krishna. She lures him to Singapore, but only after Krishna promises his grandmother to hide his powers from everyone he leaves his dadi.
There of course he is forced to save people at a public venue and to keep his promise he puts on a mask to hide behind. Tension mounts when Krrish (thats how he calls himself now) finds out about Dr. Siddarth Arya (Naseeruddin Shah) and his plan to take over world dominance, as Krrish has a not so small personal interest to stop Arya.
And how was it? Well, I started to get real worried during the first 30 minutes. It looked fake, the dubbing (this seems not be a sync sound movie) was sterile and the story dragged itself. Krishnas first stunts, the one with the horse for example, where underwhelming. You don´t care for Priyankas character. But after the first song it got better and starting with Krishnas arrival in Singapore it really became good. The last hour is even better. The stunts work (I don´t care that most moves are copied from matrix, hongkong cinema and the likes), the pace is good, the twists are interesting. Lets just say the Roshans deliver.
There is one major minus to the whole movie though. Its has one of the worst casting of supporting actors in ages. The kid actors are substandard. The camp guys annoy. Pryias friend is bad. Her boss is uaghh, no, make that bilkul UAGHH.
Lets go back to this posts subtitle. The movie is an average romance in the first half and (especially for hindi cinema) a cool modern action movie in the second. Hrithik is good. He has a scene in the end where you see that he really is a good actor. And his hairstyle makes me very happy. I would have loved to see a little more mean dance moves from him and maybe a little less biceps. But I love his hair. Did I mention that before?
Naseeruddin underplays the evil guy a bit to much for my taste but he is good. And Priyanka and Rekha are ok.
My conclusion? Its not a milestone for Bollywood, but its a good entertainer. Go watch it!
PS: I almost forgot the best part. No Jadoo sightings! Yay!
We interrupt our regular program for a serious film today.
I like the way Mani Rathnam makes movies. Not that I have seen to many of them yet, to be precise its only 3 so far. Dil Se, Yuva and now finally Kannathil Muthamittal. The first part of my anytamil order came at last (still waiting for Ayitha Ezhuthu - the Tamil version of Yuva with Siddarth and Madhavan). I like his visual language, his high standard in movie techniques, the way he leads his actors and most of all, the way he tells his stories.
His approach always seems very real and even quiet (even the action scene fit into that), except for that one "fist in the gut" moment that he puts in all of his movies I saw/read about.
Kannathil Muthamittal starts as a simple lovestory placed in Sri Lanka.
A woman (Nandita Das) gets married to a man she does not know and falls deeply in love with her husband (J.D. Chakravarthi). We watch them as they fool around and plainly lead a happy live, until one day soldiers walk out of the forest and after that the husband leaves. As the political situation gets worse the woman is forced to flee, unbeknown to her husband she is now heavily pregnant, by boat to India. During the passage she finds out that her husband still lives and is wounded somewhere back home. She gives birth in a refugee camp and leaves the baby to return to Sri Lanka.
Fast forward nine years. Amudha (P.S. Keerthana) is a bold nosy happy girl who lives with her two younger brothers and her parents and grandfather in Chennai. On her ninth birthday her world falls apart when her parents decide to tell her that she is adopted.
Her father (Madhavan) a famous writer, tells her the story how she became part of their live. In a beautiful flashback we learn how he was inspired to write his first novel when he saw the little abandoned baby girl in the camp. How, loving the child already, he married the neighbour girl (Simran) and adopted the baby.
The revelation of her origin shakes not only Amudha but as she tries to come to terms with the situation the lives of her whole family change. Amudha asks more and more, increasingly unanswerable, questions about her birth mother until her parents decide to travel to Sri Lanka with Amudha to find her. Up to that point the movie, though addressing serious issues, is just a lovely lighter made drama. With the arrival of the family in Sri Lanka the mood changes completely. The "Ratnam shock moment" (which I won´t reveal here) throws the characters right into the reality of moving around in a civil war infested country.
As they come closer to meeting the mother Mani Ratnam shows us how harrowing this conflict is. While watching these scenes I found myself observing all that happened from Amudhas point of view and tried to imagine the impact on the life of this beautiful innocent girl.
I can not say that the movies story, especially the second half, had many big surprising twists but still I sat glued to the screen. And cried my eyes out. Partly because of anger about the reality that lies underneath the story, partly because of empathy with the characters.
And Ratnam and his great cast make it easy to fall in love with them. The little girl is amazing. Madhvan and Simram solid and real. Nandita Das´ inner conflict moves to tears. And the supporting cast wonderfully does what its supposed to do: to support the story and the main protagonists.
For me Mani Ratnam made his anti war statement very clear, clearer then in louder and more blatant movies. His subtle way combined with a constantly moving story keeps you on the edge.
Remember mustache guy ? Well, he´s at it again. He disposed of the curly wig and goes for a more sophisticated look nowadays.
Oh and isn´t he evil. Trying to kidnapp poor little rich boy. At any cost. Even ordering a very evil boo-boo right for the climax. But luck has it that Shashi Kapoor whom he sent to the boys boarding school for the job has trouble on his own in the name of Amitabh Bachchan. In the past both constantly ran into each other on their jobs resulting in neither getting it done and above all ending up in jail more then once. So there´s not much love on that front.
This time they both are after the boy and disguise themselves as teachers (and asses - no kidding. Sac. Dekho na!). And that´s the fun part. As they make each others lives a living hell. And we get to watch. Yay. Bahut masti.
But there´s also some distraction in the form of Hema Malini and Parveen Babi. Being clever as we girls usually are, they figure the guys out and decide to nudge them on the right track (Hema gets to kick some butt too, btw.)
Not that our heroes are too keen on being reformed. But there is this one incident that takes the story too far and the boys end up working hand in hand (cheap pun intended)
It gets lengthy at times before the story moves to the boarding school, and you have to wait almost an hour for the first song, but little treats such as the terrible coal pit in wigwalas dungeon or Hema singlehandedly stopping a kidnapping attempt make up for that tenfold. And there is of course the legendary chemistry between Shashi and Amitabh. So watching it is every Bollywoodfans pleasant duty.
P.S: Do Aur Do Paanch might be a familiar name with those of you who saw Bluffmaster! as the titletrack was remixed and used for the taxi/mustang chasing scene and its one of the DVDs that lie on Dittus TV.
P.P.S: I almost forgot, there are some very cool explosions too.
Boom.
Yay! it arrived. Boo! the Extras don´t play on a Mac.
I am not pleased.
And an extra Boo goes to buggy Apple Bootcamp Software that while making Windows run on the Intelmacs, has issues with Sound. So I can see but not hear the trailer. I know, I know you can get it anywhere on net but thats not the point here.
Now that I´m real old I finally got a cool bollywoodish birthday.
Yesterday was another of the Viennese Bollywood Clubbings and the girls decided that we need to do a warm-up gig in my apartment, consiting of listening to the KANK and Fanaa soundtracks, slobbering over Nuvvostanante and the likes and being served frozen strawberry daiquiries by my husband.
So we were in a lets call it slightly enhanced state of mind when we went to watch the screening of Bunti Aur Babli. Its fun to watch a movie on the big screen when you can lip sync the whole thing.
After the movie the first cool surprise: Boomer, mera acchaa dost, cut short his vacation and drove all the way back just for me (haan haan, he said he only came home early because of trouble with his boat bla, bla, bla, magar I know the truth).
Then at midnight came the kicker. I´ve got my "Karishma happy birthday" moment when the DJ stopped the music and the crowd started to sing "Happy Birthday". Very off-key. Very cool. Very embarrassing.
And to top that we did the bole chudiyan dancing thingy again. This time rather late at 1.30 a.m. in an increased enhanced state of mind. Bahut masti ti. Somehow the left/right coordination seems to suffer first after midnight. Btw. it was the first time husband saw us in action. He really should consider a career change into acting or top level diplomacy.
So and now in true Nuvvostanante tradition I shall move my butt and start preparing my own birthday dinner for tonights guests.
I sincerely hope that my DVD is missing a few scenes otherwise this is one very confusing film. And this tagline from the trailer becomes an outright lie.
Bahut rich industrialist (Anupam Kher) ruins the lifes of his family the usual way. Tries to pay of sons pregnant girlfriend. Kicks daughter (Hema Malini) out of the house for marrying an unsuitable guy. Son dies. Daughter comes back. With grandson (Rishi Kapoor). Other grandson (Anil Kapoor) is adopted by grandfathers business partner. But nobody knows he is grandson. Granddad and partner fight over projekt. Grandsons who became best friends turn into enemies and back. Enter some shady figures who on and of try to kill/ruin Anil. Sometimes on behalf of granddad, sometimes for reasons unknown to me. Then there are also some other people who I have no idea how they fit into the story.
Whats bad in this movie?
Anils hair. Most of the females costumes.
Whats cool in this movie?
Anil and Rishi both get to kiss their girls. On the mouth! Anil even almost gets to make out with his girlfriend in his car - No way? Way!
The whole thing has a Telenovela feel to it. Some dialogs are staged so trashy, you just wait for the actors to suddenly start to talk in portugues or spanish.
This is so ridiculous. I will be thirtyfive come Sunday. I´m married for seven years. Damn it, I used to work as a sound engineer for rock bands. And now I´m reduced to a giggling squeaking highschool cheerleader.
Its not my fault. Its just that I watched Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana today. Sigh. I am so like seriously thinking about putting a Siddarth poster up in our bedroom. Sigh.
Mark this one as the sweetest movie I ever saw. Oh, basically its just the same old story. Rich boy falls in love with poor girl. Families object. Boy becomes farmer to retune girls brother. Other parties plan evil deeds. Boy (literally) dives headfirst into manure. Still, gods are complaisant. Nevertheless more evil deeds by evil parties. Boy and girl dance with colorful cows in dreamsequence. See? Basically the usual. But. Sigh.
Ok true, it is definitely a chick flick. But guys, do not dispair, there is eyecandy in form of the Trisha Krishnan. And there is an ok fight. And lots of great laugh out loud comedy.
Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana was my inauguration into Telugu films. A good omen. Like a coconut with a flower inside. Sigh.
I just updated my filmlist and saw the huge amount of movies I already watched and have not reviewed yet. The plan is still on to write one for each of them but since the list is ever growing that might take a while. A long while. Looong while.
So feel free to post any requests for reviews from movies of said list. And you not only will get my incredibly clever and witty (yeah right) take on them, you will also help me decide which ones I should write about.
I´ve a confession to make. No. I´m proud to annonce: I love old western movies. I grew up watching High Noon, Rio Bravo, Paint Your Wagon and of course The Magnificent Seven with my dad. Later I fell in love with the Akira Kurosawa original. So imagine my curiosity when I first got my fingers on "China Gate"
Its the "geriatric magnificent ten in Sholay county" with Urmila Matondkar in an item number. Plus it has both Puri Brothers, Danny Danzongpa, Jackie Shroff and Naseeruddin Shah.
In this version of the story ten dishonorably discharged army guys fight a slightly mad (actually bhilkul pagal) gangster who terrorizes a small village. And our heroes combat evil while fighting their own wonderful little spleens. Its so much fun to watch those guys fighting for breath or complaining about aching backs and wrong diet. It feels like the actors had a blast shooting this movie and loved being able to kick a** once more. The bad guys are really bad. The good ones are great.
Its fun. Its dramatic. Its sweet. Its enthalling. It has lots of action. Its got a wonderful cast. It is simply a real cool western. And its the first time I liked Urmila.
Edit:
I forgot to mention that this was one movie where I had to shout at the screen in discontent because this one character was so not supposed to die. It was just not fair. He deserved to live a long and happy life and everything. Not fair. No. Bas.
This is my first true indian arthouse film (I don´t count Chameli and Mr&Mrs Iyer as one of them) And the way it is made reminds me very much of modern austrian movies.
The story is intriguing. A married woman learns that she is pregnant, with her husband not being the father of the child. She envisions different ways her husband might react to help her decide whether she should tell him or not. There are shocking, funny, disturbing, reassuring versions. The great thing about the script is, that although the stories are so different there are still similarities in the character of the husband in every part. It is very believable that these are all facets of one persons charakter and thus plausible reactions to his wifes confession. All those different versions of the same guy are breathtakingly played by Boman Irani.
So far I have seen him in nine movies. All of them "big" movies where he had more or less small roles. Here the movie is all his. Its all about the husbands reaction and Boman can show every nuance of his craft. Love. Hate. Violence. Tenderness. Irony. Coldness. Sarcasm. Humor. Dispair. The screen is all his.
The movie is only 95min and its in English. I got it from Nehaflix.
Chal dekho na! Abhi!
Btw: Boman singing - very cool! Watch out Billy Joel!
After watching Lagaan last week I finally ordered "The Spirit of Lagaan" a book about the making of the movie by Satyajit Bhatkal. And read it today.
Bhatkal is the guy who also directed the documentary "Chale Chalo: The Lunacy of Filmmaking" an extended making-of/behind the scenes of Lagaan.
The Book itself is more like a - at times fast paced, at times frittering - production diary giving insight to a (at that time) very novel way of filmmaking for hindi mainstream cinema.
The two major alterations: Lagaan was shot in sync-sound (something that was not done for quite some time apart from small arthouse productions) and the shooting took place during one single schedule (again opposite to industry practice).
Now with five years since the movies release and the knowledge of technical changes in Hindi cinema and how the professional and private lives of the people involved turned out to be, it is an interesting snapshot of indian film history.
Kamla Bhatt of the Kamla Bhatt Show has mentioned me in her blog. So cool. Thanx. Its her podcast of the interview with Beth that made me find Beth. And thats how I met Totally Basmatic, Maja and all you other cool guys and gals. She also actually made me finally start blogging.
On the other hand she made me a guy, and crushed my blossoming confidence that my English writing skills are gradually improving since I started, by saying that I blog in German.
But as they say any P.R. is good P.R.
EDIT: Kamla of course already corrected her post. Now good P.R. is good P.R.
Police are not the public´s enemy (I´m with you there), if they shoot in riots it is to end the riots and terrorism (still there), when they shoot to control the situation they do not see whom the bullet has hit (what?!), whether a hindu is being hit or a muslim, a sikh or a christian. Whether an innocent (!?!) is being hit or a criminal. The police has to shoot (ahem, no!?)....
This crap is supposed to stop the villain who lost his wife and child in a riot from killing the good policewalas daughter. Its the climax speech of the worst movie I ever saw. And I dont mean worst as in trashy, I mean worst as in the biggest pile of garbage ever to be played on my DVD player. Not even Sanjays guest apperance with his sexy long hair can lift this rubbish an inch from the dump. Bilkul bakvas hai. To quote totally basmatic: Avoid yaar!!
Jackie Shroff stole my shirt. In 1991 I got this ultrahip thai shirt. I thought I lost it in Greece. Nope. Jackie stole it. He even got the impertinence to wear it in Rangeela. Oh the nerve.
For the record I did not plan to see that many Jackie Shroff movies in a row. But I like him. Or liked him until the shirt incident. Whatever. Lets concentrate on the film here.
Storyline: Munna (Aamir "Fusselbabe" Khan), blackmarket ticket seller, loves aspiring dancer/actress (Urmila "I-cant-see-what-all-you- guys-dig-about-her-dancing" Matondkar) and needs 142 min to tell her. Its a close call since action hero actor (Jackie "shirtstealingwala" Shroff) also wants her.
Aamir is great, his character is a close relative of Munnabhais sidekick Circuit. Urmila is bubbly and Jackie is cool, very cool. It is really a pity that his is only a supporting role.
I have to second the reviews from Marco or Ezri that the movie does not really click. Thats probably because the whole thing depends on the stereotypical male inability to communicate emotions. So thanks guys. Without that we never had gotten the chance see Aamir in all those superugly shirts.
Can I flunk a student for making me watch "Kyon Ki"? Some weeks ago one of my indian students saw Salmans "Tere Naam" DVD lying on my table. Last week he brought Kyon Ki and told me it was at least as good as Tere Naam. Well its NOT!! In fact I could only endure it in 4 sittings.
Not that it was Salmans fault. Its never his fault btw. Yes he is overdoing the silly childish jumping around at times but thats nothing compared to the real weak parts of the film. Like the way Priyadarshan so totally has never ever ever read any books on psychiatry or once visited a modern psychiatric clinic. Not that I am an expert on that field but I dare to assert that electroshocks are usually not used to punish patients. As well as I somehow don´t think the head of clinic is supposed to verbally and physically abuse mentally ill patients.
Apart from getting angry at the total lack of reality/common sense and a total waste of Om Puri and Jackie Shroff there are still some plus points. Ooty and Blue Mountain Railway as filmlocation. Kareena with unobtrusive makeup and beautiful saris. A blink and miss appearance of Sunil Shetty. Yum. But I do not care for Rimi Sen (especially not in a sailor suit related dress)
If you still want to know what the story is about. Take "One Flew Over The Cockoo´s Nest" add lovestory and proven innocence of main character and you roughly get the idea.
So, what do you think?
I need some form of revenge on that student. Maybe I´ll just go and sit in on his camera exam. All quiet and looking somber. That´ll scare the hell out of him. Or I´ll just hit him on the head with the DVD cover. He liked the film so he won´t mind if I hit him.
Nehaflix 5$ DVD sale. No good. Additional -10% voucher. Even worse.
I´m loosing track of my orders. It took me 10 minutes to find out which of my orders are still outstanding. As of today I´m waiting for:
Hey Ram
Kaagaz Ke Phool
Let's Talk
Pyaasa
Do Raaste
Rakht
Judaai
Meri Aan
Reshma Aur Shera
Masoom
China Gate
Vijay
Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate
Nuvvosthanante Nenoddantana
plus the Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna OST
and I don´t even feel guilty yaar.
My mind was yearning for a bit more ambitious entertainment today, so I thought I´ll try 3 Deewarein which was waiting to be watched for quite some time already.
As you might have read in one of my earlier posts, I really liked Iqbal and so I was curious to see some earlier work of Nagesh Kukunoor. Its again a smaller movie almost like a screen adaption of a theatre play.
Unhappily married filmmaker (Juhi Chawla) does a documentary on three deathrow inmates at very (especially for india) humane prison.
One (Jackie Shroff) killed his wife and can´t wait for his verdict to be executed. Second (Naseeruddin Shah) by accident killed pregnant cashier at bank robbery and more then once tried to escape his fate. Third (Nagesh Kukunoor) insists on his being not guilty of sort of accidently killing his wife. Of course there are some sidestories, twists and turns. But thats about it then.
The story is beautifully narrated. Nagesh manages to put in some not too foreseeable twists. He also works with a great cast. 3 Deewarein was Juhi Chawlas comeback from maternity leave and she´s beautiful. I liked Jackie Shroff very much, as well as Gulshan Grover. But the showstopper is again Naseeruddin Shah. I still so need to see more of him. All characters are very well drawn so its easy for the actors to concentrate on acting only and they do just that, beautifully. So thumbs up from me.
If you have not watched the movie yet stop reading here. I need to adress a major twist that bothers me which would be a major major spoiler. So come back here only after you saw it and only then read on.
I read in many reviews that people accept that Ishaan was infact responsible for all three deaths. Thats why Ezri so fittingly said: this movie defines the term "having a bad day". Well, I do not think that he really did it. I belive that he only made a pact with Chandrika to confess the deads as amends to her loss. Why? Two or three times during conversations with Chandrika Ishaan insists on not being remorseful as he sees no use in it. Saying that remorse does not change anything. Whats done is done. His confession might be a way of remorse that actually mends something. Any thoughts?
German cable station "Kabel1" is playing Lagaan tonight. The special thing is they air the German dubbed version where the Hindi parts are dubbed in German and the English parts are subtitled. Thats a version which is not available on DVD yet. And I don´t have high hopes it ever will, which is a pity as I´m sure my grandma would love it, but subtitled movies are too tough for her.
It was actually quite some time ago that I watched Lagaan. I dont know why I never re-watched it. Maybe because I did not like the Elisabeth charakter too much. I think she´s the only weak point of the story. But I love the rest of the movie. The music is great, except when Rahman tilts to much into Andrew Lloyd Weber Kitsch. The choreography is so infecting. Camera, story, Cricket (!!!!!) and the great cast.
Ok, commercial break is over. I´ve got to go back. It sucked me in. I love when that happens.
Oh my, where to start? How about:
Once upon a time in a country far far away (from here at least) lived a spoilt good for nothing princess (Saif Alis Ex-wife btw.) Had sort of a Gladiator fetish. Made very hairy guy/thing kill her husband-to-be. Friend of now dead husband-to-be rides in to take revenge on princess, kills hairy thing and fake-leopard-skin-skirt-wearing other guys.
Good for nothing princess is impressed and falls in love with friend of h.t.b. They get married. After wedding night friend of h.t.b leaves princess. Kyoki revenge work khatm.
Princess is not amused and commits suicide. Princess´ mother is fed up with antics of now dead daughter and curses her.
Fast forward, lets say, 2000 years. Vicky and Sonia are newly wed and visit someone at an archaeological camp. Will it surprise anyone if I tell you that the camp is the ruin of the princess palace and Vicky looks like friend of h.t.b. minus blond wig and fake beard?
To bring this already far to long story to an end. Ghost princess now of course wants Vicky and tries some very bad special effects on various charakters she´s pissed at. But in the end painting of mother kills (can you kill a ghost?) daughter.
And everybody else is happily dancing into sunrise. Yup sorry its really not sunset this time. Ghosts only work nightshift.
regarding the other wigs:
Suryavanshi is actually almost a good movie, wigs apart. The story works. You have decent acting from Shakti Kapoor and Kader Khan (in serious roles!), Sushma Seth, Amrita Singh, Sheeba and Salman. With a long blond wig. And a full beard. Blond.
Do not be afraid. I will not start to collect news on this blog. naachgaana and michael do that much better then I can, but this one is to cool too let pass.
It seems that a song of Himesh Reshammiya is attracting ghosts in a small village in Gujarat. Villagers are getting possesed by ghosts when his song Jhalak Dikhlaja is being played. At least that is what they claim to have found out. So now they are trying to get a court ordered ban on the song. Love it.
http://www.indiafm.com/news/2006/06/01/7205/index.html
nowrunning.com has a commentary on the aamir/fanaa/gujarat thing that I can pretty much assent. From what little I, as an outsider, know of that situation at least.
Gujarat's worrisome slide into intolerance of dissent
Mayank Chhaya [Thursday, June 01, 2006]
Actor Aamir Khan is discovering what many celebrities before him have done to their chagrin - the price of expressing a dissenting opinion in India's fractious and imperfect democracy.
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