Bollywoodbloggers. Now we´re getting somewhere.

Don´t think that only because the last update concerning the First Pan-European/International Bollywoodbloggers Meeting in Vienna is from a week ago, there was no planning work going on behind the scenes.

So here is the first draft of the schedule for Saturday March 10th 2007.

First rule of the 1st PEIBBM. It´s all about having fun. So timetables are approximate values only!

Since some of you will arrive in Vienna on Saturday morning I will have an open house with lots of coffee for those poor red-eye-flight gals like Maini and whoever wants to join. Around noon the idea is to grab some lunch and since it´s so nice there we´ll head to the Naschmarkt.

At 14.00 we´ll get into serious business and meet to watch Bommarillo. The place we´ll be doing that has WLAN so expect some heavy live-blogging.

Next point on the agenda is 18.00 where we´ll meet (at an until now undisclosed) Indian restaurant and at 20.00 we´ll have some cool stuff coming up (again undisclosed as of now *wavesatmarco*)

So hang in there. It is only a few days until I will be able to come up with more details.

PS: Participants get in shape. There might be press coverage too....

Update 02/12/2007: Oh I almost forgot. I even went so far as to fill my spare iPod (yes I have more then one) with a background score for the 10th. If you have any suggestions on songs that I missed out, fire away. Here is what´s on the playlist so far.

Kabul Express - Stockholm Syndrome

I´ve been waiting for a long time to get my hands on this one. An off-mainstream movie about the post 9/11 Afganistan, shot entirely in Afganistan coming out of the Yash Raj camp. Sounds like a challenge.









One cameraman/journalist Indian TV team (Arshad and John) heads to Afghanistan in November 2001 to get a story on the situation there with the goal of interviewing at least one member of the overthrown and now hunted Taliban.










And get stuck in a roadmovie-like adventure when they, along with their Afghani driver Khyber (Hanif Hum Ghum) and a female American photojournalist (Linda Arsenio), are kidnapped by a Pakistani Taliban (Salman Shahid) who wants to escape home to Pakistan. In the course of 48 hours we accompany this very diverse group as they drive through the rough battered countryside and encounter various obstacles on their way to the Pakistan border, from shrewd donkeys to lynch mobs, from Army roadblocks to dangerous Mujahideen tribes. And due to varying opinions on Cricket and war originators life inside the "Kabul Express" is as well not short of critical situations.









It´s a Yash Raj film, produced by Aditya Chopra. So don´t expect a grim doku-drama. It is more shallow-ish. But hell, sirf movie hai, documentary bhi nahin. I like the route they took. Our five characters in the movie form for a short while their own small microcosmos which only grazes the outside world.









Deep political or sociological problems are sidelined. Quotes like "America wants to suck out our oil and pump in Coke and Papsi" are a bit to tabloid. And it might be that we´re all so used to and fed up with the ongoings there, that only few of the beautiful shot pictures make an impact.
So even if I´m not 100% sure as to what Kabir Khan wanted to transport in Kabul Express, for me it served a purpose. I liked it, I had a very good time watching it and I´m now going to read up on Afghan history and politics. And that´s not too bad an outcome, hai naa?










Ad Stockholm syndrome. My favorite character was indeed the Taliban. How can you not like a battle weary character with a soft spot for Hindi film songs who says stuff like "Madhuri Dixit do, Kashmir lo" (Give us Madhuri and take Kashmir).

Dor

Let´s do this the other way round this time and start with my conclusion:
I love Dor. Bas. Go and watch it. It will make you laugh, smile, feel good, feel sad, feel angry, fall in love with its some of its characters, hate others genuinly. Oh, I love Dor. Bas.

Finally a movie about women. Average, no better make that - real, young women. Modern but still living in sync with their traditions and strong enough to challenge them if the need arises.

Like a lot of young men in India, the husbands of Meera (Ayesha Takia) the young wife of a destitute rajput family and Zeenat (Gul Panag) a newly wed muslim woman from Himachal Pradesh leave India to work in Saudi Arabia for some months.










Both couples are young, very much in love and genuinly likeable. About 6 months after their departure a tragedy strikes. Shekar, the rajastani husband, is killed by Aamir, Zenaat´s husband. Supposedly in an accident but since there are no witnesses Amir is sentenced to death. Back in India both families are devastated. Meera living in a very traditional Rajastani society has to bear the terrible faith of being a widow there. Sentenced to a life of grief and now treated like an worthless prisoner. In Himachal Pradesh Aamir´s shocked family learns that there is only one option left to save him. According to Saudi law Aamir´s life will be spared if the victims widow signs a mercy petition stating that she has forgiven him. And Zenaat being a very strong-willed woman is taking that chance and leaves her home in search for Meera.










She travels to Rajastan and finds unexpected help Behroopiya (Shreyas Talpade), an endearing wannabe Actor and parttime conartist who decides to help her locating the family. But finding the widow and convincing her to sign are two very different pair of shoes.










What should be a dark and emotional draining story is in fact a statement for dignity, friendship and courage laced with wonderful scenes that are full of life and hope. The Kajra Re sequence in the dunes made me fall in love with this song all over again. The disarming, funny entrance scene of Shreyas Talpade made me giggle.










Apart from the wonderful story that is based on the Malayalam movie Perumazhakkalam, the acting trio of Ayesha Takia, Gul Panag and Shreyas Talpade created the magic of Dor for me. And the cinematography. And the music. And the scenery. Nagesh Kukunoor managed to make a movie that is an arthouse movie with a mainstream feel. Or a mainstream movie with an arthouse feel. Take your pick.










Its been a long time that a movie sucked in me from the get-go like Dor did. So let me repeat my statement from the beginning of this post. I love Dor. Bas. Watch it.

And now for something completely different - I´ve been tagged

Up to now I´ve been lucky. No tagging for me yet. And still it had to happen one day. Filmiholic wants me to tell Five Secrets you, my lovely readers, don´t know about me yet. Let´s see.

1. I got married in Las Vegas at the little Chapel of the Flowers in 2000. Thats the same place Dennis Rodman and Carmen Elektra tied the knot. Well MY marriage still works.

2. I´ve been paying my Gym membership for the last 4 years without ever going ONCE. I really should cancel it. But then again. I might go again. One day. Or not.

3. I´m a huge Rick Springfield fan. So huge that we scheduled all of our USA vacations so far around his concert dates. He´s soooo sexy and nice. Sigh.

4. I´ve been a candidate at the austrian version of KBC - Who wants to be a millionaire. But I didn´t make it into the hot seat. I lost out by ONE bloody hundredth of a second. Grrr. But then our host here is only a former skiing champ. How uncool.

5. I have huge feet for a woman. Euro size 42/ USA size 11. You want to see my usual happy-go-lucky self turn into a world-hating mean Mrs. Hyde in the shortest possible time? Drag me into a shoestore. Sirf 5 minutes aur meri mood bahut kharab hai. Why does the shoemaking industry believe that woman with my size only want shoes fit for ladies age 75 and up. I want Pradas and Manolo Blahniks. Bleh.

So, that was that. The real saucy secrets still hidden and some of your curiosity satisfied. Now who am I going to tag. How about Aparna, Maja, Sanni and by calling Kaddele and Maria move this tag to the germanspeaking Bloggosphere.

Keemat - hehe *giggle*

I´ve been dying to get my hands on this one. I´ve read so much about the 90ies Saif/akshay movies and reading this brilliant post killed me. Thanks to my dear fellow BW fanatic Ruksi I now am the proud owner of Keemat and Mein Khiladi Tu Ananri (which has to wait for some other time to be watched). But now for Keemat.











Not much to say about the story. Two brothers. Smalltime crooks. But good at heart. A terrible accident. A village in need. Some evil guys in fake beards and wigs. And our two crooks pushed into hero mode. Oh and there are some ladies for decoration somewhere too.











But what makes it special is the lead pair. Akshay Kumar and Sail Ali Khan. Sakshay. Now thats a Filmi Jodi. You´ve got to love´em. Even in a frightful terrible song like that:



Apart from Rajesh Roshans very weird concept of "borrowing" songs and other cineatic highlights at about 5:50 min and 6:15 min into this song, Keemat has a Sholay-ish story (very ok for me), Akshay with varying hair-length (funny), Saif with a mullet (me likes), some cool fights (nice),











some instant healing (clichee) and Saif in black leather (yummy).











Conclusion: Its as bad-ish as I hoped and way cooler then I could expect it to be. Dekho naa.

Bollywoodbloggers. A suggestion for the meeting.

Hiya there. We´ve been brainstorming quite a bit as to what to do with all you Bollywoodbloggers in Vienna. Today I have a suggestion I´d love to read/hear your opinion about.

One to me very important issue is that I want to/must watch a movie together with all of you. Problem hai, the possibility of a BW movies being screened in cinemas here at that date are slim to none. (Thanx Eros International.) I also think that it would be great if we could do a sort of simultaneous/live blogging while watching it. That is something that can easily be done if we´d watched a DVD in one of the classrooms in my school. Beamer hai, DVD player hai, sound hai aur Broadband Wlan bhi hai. I can even come up with a couple of Macbooks (for those who don´t want to/can bring theirs to Vienna).

Which leads us to the question of what movie to watch. Preferably one that nobody of us knows yet. That is a problem especially if you have Marco on the panel (no kiddin´see for yourself) So my suggestion today would be Bommarillo. Nobody attending has seen it yet. The DVD will come out Feb 28th, I already pre-ordered it and it will be sent via UPS. So we should get it right on time. I know it´s not precisely Bollywood, but it has Siddarth in it. Siddarth. And Genelia.

Any objections? Or other movies you can think of?

blogger problem solved

I just found out, that it is not possible to connect to/read/view this blogs single posts/archives at this moment (and from the posts on bloggers help group I´ve seen I´m not the only one with that problem) . No worries I´m on it. We can´t have you not being able to read such literate gems like my Suryavanshi review...
Update: it sometimes works but I have no idea why or when, just keep reloading if your are stuck on an errorpage. blogger has not commented yet, but I´m used to negligence by webproviders....

And another Update: We´re working just fine again :-) And the weekend is coming up and I have Keemat and Gajini lined up for viewing. So, Babasko khuch hua. Oh, and Dor !!!

Bollywood Blogger! Let´s meet. In Vienna.

There is no way I can fall asleep with the storm knocking with a speed of 75mph/120kmh on our windows (and we have lots of big windows) So why don´t I shoot forward and tell you what Michael, Beth and I have come up with.

There will be the first Pan-European/International-Bollywoodblogger-Meeting in Vienna on Saturday March 10th. And you´re all invited.

Kyun? Because we can. And because Beth will be visiting Vienna then. And since that is a very special occation and calls for a celebration anyway and since Michael invited himself too, we thought, hey, why not meet all of us?

We don´t have an agenda yet. But what we have is ek pura din, the whole saturday. And that means we will talk, eat, drink, watch (a) movie(s) and party. Plainly speaking a bunch of nice people with a vast interest in indian cinema (yes, it´s not BW-exclusive) will meet a bunch of nice people with a vast interest in indian cinema. Sounds fun, hai-naa?

So far I already have almost definite consents from some very cool people and I hope you will have time to show up too!

I´ll keep you posted with any news concerning accommodation and program and what else I might not think about right now (while the bloody wind throws around my -as I thought- heavily secured flowerpots). Oh and fire away with any questions you might have. Haan, email bhi, if you don´t want it public. babasko [at] gmail [.] com

UPDATE 1/31/2007: Yaaahooooo! Great feedback and already an impressive (if a bit heavy on the germanspeaking side) line-up. Beth. Michael. Marco. Maini. Oliver. Kaddele. Maria. Birgit. Maja and "my" complete Viennese BW gang.
ad Accommodation: If you´re short on funds. Don´t worry. As long as you make it to Vienna, we´ve got a couple of sofas for you (Not that there´s going to be much time for sleep).

...Yahaan - well, hello Jimmy!

I´m a bit cautious when it comes to commenting on movies with a political message and "...Yahaan" tells a beautiful love story embedded in the political background of the Kashmir conflict. Something I am in no way qualified to comment in depth about. And still, this one here is, I feel, one of the few mainstream Hindi movies that almost successfully omits one-sided propaganda from their storytelling.










In Yahaan we meet Captain Aman (Jimmy Sheirgill) newly based at RR force in Srinagar. During one of his assignments he meets Adaa, a local muslim girl. Who happens to live in a house next to the bunker he gets stationed at.










A cold night, the search for chai and an interfering grandmother lead to a private encounter and love starts to bloom but not without difficulties that are a notch up from the usual Bollywood fare. The lovers face opposition from almost everybody surrounding them. The army ("Don´t mingle with locals") the locals ("Don´t mingle with the occupying force") the militants (for sure danger for live and limbs from this side) and of course Adaa ki khandaan khuch bhi nahin with the situation.










Even though the love Aman and Adaa feel for each other is "the real thing". So there are wonderful tender moments and horrible violent encounters that keep interchanging.
The lovestory is in fact nothing out of the norm for a nice average Bollywood romance. You have the sincere lovers. The -at first- disappoving family. A jealous villain. And sacrifices and courageous acts.










What makes it special is that this story is played before a quite realisticly painted background of the situation the Kashmiris find themselves in today. Incredible beautiful sceenery. Incredible unjust violence. The judging of the political side, as I said, here is fairly neutral and if it tends to one side then it´s that of the average local Kashmiris. Who are forced to lead their lifes in the crossfire between local (and imported) militants and the Indian Army.
That realistic approach is aided through the great cinematography of Jakob Ihre, a Swedish cameraman. Who captures the scenes and people with a kind of raw-ish almost european feeling. And beautiful poetic pictures. The post-production work of Shekar is great. Hey, Sanjay Gupta, watch this movie. Color correction as a visual effect can be done without giving your viewers a headache.










What also makes this movie worth watching are the actors. One highlight is Adaa´s grandmother, who has some fantastic witty moments. Or Sree, Adaa´s little sister.
The militants are for once not the cliched guys with big mustaches and booming voices. Minissha Lamba playing Adaa is sweet.
But who really surprised me was Jimmy Shergill. Boy is he good here. He´s playing my so far favorite Indian Army character. Quiet. Dedicated. Human. [girly moment on] and hot damn, he does looks fine in a uniform, even the mustache looks sexy on him [/ girly moment off].










It´s a pity that I had the Yahaan DVD lying here unwatched for more then a year, for fear of a smallscale propaganda-ish production not worth to being watched. That, was clearly a mistake.

PS: Since I´m a Devanagari illiterate can somebody translate or at least transscript this to Latin letters for me?

Mann - now thats an Affair To Remember

Sick day movies part two. Remember "Sleepless in Seattle" where every female character at one point starts to ramble and even to blubber about "An Affair to remember"? I could so relate to that. It is a fact that this films story is the epidome of romantic screenwriting (forget the Warren Beatty-Annette Bening 1994 humbug btw). And of course perfect Bollywood remake material. Short question: Was there an Indian adaption of it before Mann in 1999? Or did Bollywood really wait 42 years to remake that story? Whatever. Sigh. Aamir in the Cary Grant role. Manisha Koirala doing the Deborah Kerr one. Where are the bloody tissues?











Mann is a bit hard to digest in the first 45 minutes or so. Karan (Aamir) is super annoying as the ladykiller. The Rani Item number belongs to the Bollywood Fugly ouevre. And there is a terrible hindi version of the terrible "l´italiano". The comedy track on the boat annoys so much it hurts (same director as Masti or Pyaare Mohan...´nuff said) But you have to keep at it. Do. Not. Give. Up. On. It.
Because from the point on when you finally get to scenes of the first shore leave you´re rewarded tenfold. Aamir is so great when he does the "my playboy image is just a facade" and the "no compromises. I´ll give up everything for love" and the "meri zindagi khatm because she didn´t show up"











And there is Anil as Manisha´s fiance. And Manisha suffers sooo heroic. Sigh. And the climax is better then in the original. Double Sigh. And there is even a childrens-choir singing (again the Hindi version of) "We Shall Overcome"...

Ok, true. It is a chick flick. Most definitely. And still such a perfect companion for a sick day spent in bed. Just don´t forget to keep the tissues within reach. And not just one.

Lamhe - selfmedication Bollywood Style

Wanna know the perfect movie to watch when the long overdue flu has caught up with you and you spend your well deserved sick days at home in bed? Lamhe. Kyon? Kyon ki it´s long, it´s slow, it´s heartwarming, the music makes you happy and you can blame the red eyes and nose from heavy crying to the cold.










Virendra Pratab Singh has just turned 18 (Anil in 1991! - a bit hard to digest but who cares) when his Daijaa takes him for the first time to his ancestal mansion in Rajasthan. Being brought up in the West his level of facination for his legacy is pretty low. In fact he spends his time mostly indoors whining about the heat and the sand. Until. Until he spots a lovely local girl dancing in the rain and generally having a good time.









Good thing it turns out that the girl is Pallavi (Sridevi) the bubbly daughter of his late dads best friend a local Thakur. And since he´s young and his homones are in overdrive he falls head over heals for the khoobsurat ladki. Little does it matter to him that she is some years older then him (and will later become his sister-in-law in real life) Still, he does not confess his love her her but silently enjoys every minute he gets to spend with her. Then destiny starts to throw in the usual heavy obstacles in the stories way. Some evil relatives of the Thakur cause him to die of a heart attack not before he made Anil the caretaker of his daughter. Bingo. You´d think.









Turns out ladki already is in love with a spruce Airforce pilot and so Anil draws back and even though hearbroken makes it possible for them to get married. Story khatm? Not by far.
Destiny strike two. Only about nine months later the young couple dies in/after an accident. (Evidence to the fatality of Sridevis injuries? One lone blood infusion hanging beside her bed AND an oxygen bottle)









On her deathbed Shridevi puts her newborn daughter in the hands of Daijaa and Anil to be brought up under their wing.

INTERVAL.

Fast foreward 18 years. Anil is still unmarried and for these 18 years managed to avoid meeting his ward. But the sweet girl has had it with his attitude. On her 18th birthday (the 18th anniversary of her mothers death) she finally comes face to face with her caretaker whom she heard so much about. And falls head over heals in love with him. Ek baraa problem hai. She is the spitting image of her mother (not really difficult to portray since Pooja is played by Sridevi as well) And Anil has real difficulties to adjusting to that. He still blames her somehow for the death of the love of his life. Yup, it isn´t easy for him. Daijaa and Pooja relocate to England to Anil´s house and Pooja unaware of Anil´s love for her mother innocently starts to pursue her jaan.










Aided by Anils best friend Anupam Kher they try to break down the emotional Berlin Wall that Anil has built around his heart. And in that course also get rid of Anita the woman who also waits to be married by Anil.









Lamhe is not the most exciting of movies out there. Its slow and pretty far fetched in parts. And I guess the 19 years age difference between Anils character and Pooja is a bit much for many viewers. But what still makes it a must see is an unleashed Sridevi. And the songs. I can´t decide which one I love most. Especially the ones in the first half are great. All of them.
Btw. Lamhe is supposed to be Karan Johars favorite Yash Chopra film. And you can see in his own work that he´s heavily influenced by it. It´s one of my favorite tearjerkers too. So my suggestion? Watch it. You don´t even need a flu to enjoy it. But keep the tissues within reach. You´ll never know when that nasty cold will strikes.

Minnale and 12B - didn´t I watch these stories before?

That just shows my luck at picking DVD´s. Didn´t watch any films for more then two weeks and then I pick those from my huge still-need-to-be-watched pile that are, in the case of 12B a Tamil remake of a British movie I didn´t like too much, and in the case of Minnale the 1:1 Tamil Original to the first movie I reviewed on this blog: Rehnaa Hai Tere Dil Mein.

So I can make this short. For the story of Minnale go the RHTDM post and replace Saif Ali Khan with Abbas (whom I never liked that much) and Diya Mirza with Reema Sen.









My watching RHTDM is a gazillion of movies ago but I still think I liked the Hindi remake better then the Tamil Original.
Mostly because I could not sympathize a bit with Abbas, whereas liking Saif (and the way he played his character) made the heartbreak in the twist a bit more satisfying.

12B is a Tamil version of Sliding Doors with a little different twist. Here we have the guy (Shaam) missing/not missing the bus #12B one fine day and we watch what happens to his love life simultanously in both unfolding storylines.










In one life he gets the girl he was running after (Jyothika) and gets his share of trouble and in the other he doesn´t, and gets another share of problems as he takes ages to find what he has in another girl (Simran) he meets.
Michael at bollywoodblog.de (warning: german text) didn´t like the climax/epilogue. Me neither. One thing in favor of 12B though: there is a special appearance of Suni(e)l Shetty. And he gets soaking wet bhi. Not as good as having John Hannah in Sliding doors, but hey, who am I to complain.

Bhagam Bhag - just what the doctor precribed

What was that?!
Thank god I checked my brain at the entrance (a security measure I took up for watching all Priyadarshan movies nowadays). Priyadarshan and I share a love/hate relation. I love Virasat. What I thought of Kyon Ki you can read here. And I can, lets say, tolerate Hulchul and Garam Masala.
Last sunday marked the end of my waaaaay to long filmi dry spell. Yes. I know. Sorry. I wrote that I already would be back by last week. But that was before three of my staff opted out of the remodeling of our Film/Animation/Webdesign Student Lab and so I spent the last of my holiday vacation weeks removing drywall, building workstations and rewiring our network. And had another reason to fall flat on my bed each night without watching any movies. Not one film between Dec.18th and Jan.7th!

So by Sunday I was willing to take any chance to get back to meri nice shiny filmi ke duniya. And if it meant watching Bahgam Bhag. Good thing I did. What didn´t we laugh.

Indian theatre company led by Paresh Rawal gets an engagement in London.













Choti problem hai. The testosterone overdosed heroes (Akshay "I´m in dire need of a shave" Kumar and Govinda) of said company scared away the heroine. Not a big problem it seems though. London, as we all know, hosts a fairly big desi community and somewhere there eki nai khoobsurat ladki should easily be found. You´d think.













First obstacle. The heroes, who of course fight each other for everything from girls to roles, get in each others way constantly. Second, the word heroine resembles the word heroin. Enter Sharat Saxena and Manoj Joshi. And London Policewala Jackie "Woohoo" Shroff.













Third, in their pursuit of their still nonexistent heroine they find the wrath of Shakti Kapoor and Razzak Khan and their very strange gang of thugs. One positive aspect though, while angering these guys Akshay also encounters a very beautiful, if fairly suicidal, Lara Dutta.













Who of course is A) perfect heroine material and B) not who she pretends to be. Btw. somewhere on the line we also have Arbaaz Khan coming in as the husband of Lara and then we can finally start with the story. And our guys can start to bhag.
The storyline starting with the intermission actually could work as a nice episode of "Murder, She Wrote". Only a slightly bit more chaotic. And hysterical. And loud. And ultra. And weird. And so very much away from a realistic story. Whatever.













Everybody and their grandmother turned up in this film. Whenever you thought, ok, now we have 3 storylines and 7 main characters another one (of either) turned up. Bahut masti.
My biggest regret is that Govinda had so little to do. And dance. I hope he´ll get more significant screentime in Salaam-E-Ishq. Bhagam Bhag is clearly an Akshay Kumar solo vehicle.













Which in itself is not a very bad thing, especially since he´s good here. But as one can see in the absolutely hilarious climax there are so many deserving characters and storylines in this film, there just was no prominent screentime left for anybody else but him.

So you´re looking for a well thought out and stringent executed storyline? Don´t. Watch. However if you you´re game for a totally crazy comedy with over-the-top overacting and stupid jokes, check your brain at the entrance and enjoy the ride.
Even lame jokes work if they come in rapid fire succession. Especially if they are shouted at you by a hysterical Akshay Kumar. Kasam se.













PS: See, that movie has so many people in it I forgot one I really liked. Rajpal Yadav. Very cool taxiwala. Whose life would be so much easier if he was a few inches taller.













PPS: All pictures courtesy of the films official website.