Look what the postman brought me

My new package from England with a few bollywood dvd's :)
me = happy

After the lightning...everything is OK

Sometimes I think after watching a movie about how I discovered that movie
and try to trace back that path. So here comes the path that I took to find Minnale.





More than a year back I discovered my first Tamil movie after someone telling me to look into South Indian movies because they where an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino. I watched the Tamil movie Villu with actor Vijay. The movie was so over the top that I found it enjoyable and started to look for other films from the same actor.












A few months back I watched the movie Sachein, which I didn't like but the lead actress played by Genelia D'Souza danced in one sequence to a song. I liked he music and had heard it before on a World Music cd from Putumayo. I had that on my p.c. and the song was called 'Zara Zara'. But in the movie they used the words Vaseegara, so what next……YouTube is your friend. Searching for Vaseegara / Zara Zara and found the Tamil song, which was Vaseegara from the movie Minnale.
The next thing I did was looking for some info on wikipedia and checked the rating on imdb, they gave the movie a 7.4 so I started searching on a Tamil forum, found the dvd and watched is.

Bollywood (Hindi, Tamil and Telugu) movies are for me separated into two categories:
One category are movies that I also dare to watch with non-bollywood lovers
and the other, second category are movies that I don't dare to watch with people not known with the bollywood genre.

The last movie I saw belongs to the latter. The movie is Minnale, a South Indian Tamil spoken movie. Don't get me wrong I loved the movie a lot, it's a good picture. But there are a few things thats made it a cat2 movie:

1. The unnecessary comedy parts
2. Over the top fights ( I like them, but found them not necessary in a romantic movie)
3. Too much talking, especially in the first part.

I can now give you a review of the movie, but everybody can read that on imdb and wikipeda.
Minnale means Lightning, and when that happens in the movie (after 26 minutes), than it becomes interesting. The movie is a romantic comedy, with the first part more towards comedy, while later it becomes more dramatic/romantic (more my style).
Okay, I'll tell you in short: Boy meets girl, girl is going to marry another man which she have not seen yet. Boy poses as the man she is going to marry and makes her fall in love. Later the man shows up she was supposed to marry….etc…Love triangle story indeed.

  The film is directed by Gautam Menon. I saw a few movies of this director (I watched the movies with highest rating) and I liked them all. You can say that he is one of my favorite South Indian directors, the top is Mani Ratnam.




About the cast: The hero lead is played by Madhavan, he plays very good as the different characters, little criminal (pokkiri), romantic hero. Sometimes it's a bit to different, but hey it's a movie :) Also I like his energetic dancing style, which is more fast and energetic than in Hindi bollywood movies.

Then the heroine Rina is played by beautiful actress Reema Sen (not Raima Sen or her sister Riya Sen, or Rimi Sen). I've never seen her in other movies and Minnale was her second movie. I have to say I liked her mostly in more traditional clothes in a sari. Maybe I watch too much Indian movies indeed ;)

One of the most important part for me is the music (and also the dancing and picturisation of the songs). I have to say: I'm a happy man. The music is beautiful, the lyrics are touching, the picturisation is superb. Especially the song Vaseegara, fantastic love romantic song with good lyrics.
The music is from composer Harris Jayaraj, he is really good with the songs as well as the background music. I have seen other films done by this composer (Kaakha Kaakha, Ullam Ketmuae, Vettaiyaddo Vilaiyaddi, Unnale Unnale and Vaaranam Aayiram) and a few of them are also directed by Gautam Menon. This man Harris, he has good taste for enticing meodies.
It's difficult for me too say with words what I like about the music, but with me, it's mostly about the melodies.

In short: A very good romantic comedy movie. I enjoyed every part of it.
I recommend to go watch this movie with a girl…( I didn't, but hey if I could I would) ;)

ChaalBaaz, wah! Amazing

ChaalBaaz (1989).
Yeah, I've had an unique Bollywood experience again.

The way that I discovered this diamond was in a way like I always do.
Namely, by looking on wikipedia at actors pages and looking for a movie list.
Then downloading the movies that they've won a Filmfare award with.This is really the way, and makes sure that I've a good movie experience.
This time I looked on wikipedia for the actress Sridevi, not an actress in recent bollywood movies, but she has a huge reputation (highest paid actress) in the 80s and 90s.
I was not unknown with her reputation. 

Other movies I watched with her in it were: Chandni, Lamhe, Sadma and Mr. India. And I have to say, the way she plays/acts/dances…they don't make 'm that talented anymore.
It's a different generation, today there are a lot of really beautiful actresses, the look fantastic, but acting….that's a different story. Sridevi is a total package, she can dance, is really expressive with her face, can portray a lot of different emotions, just perfect, oh, and she was not size zero, but just a normal postured Indian girl :)

In ChaalBaaz, Sridevi plays a doublerole (like in Lamhe), but this time she plays two totally opposite of each other characters (sisters). The movie is inspired by 'Seeta aur Geeta'. Sridevi plays both the twin sisters Anju and Manju. They got separated when they were born by there mentally unstable nanny. An evil uncle gets their parents killed in a car accident. Anju stays in a big house with her evil uncle Tribhuvan and his wife.
The uncle is played brilliantly by Anupam Kher. The uncle abused Anju with a whip, by giving her injections.
molest her by throwing her of the stairs (yeah, the beginning of the movie is tough and sad and I don't think Sridevi used a stuntdouble).

The result of this evil behavior is that Anju is a very quiet, timid, frightened girl.
Her passion is classical Indian dance Bharatnatyam, but she is not permitted to dance of course. Yep, melodramatic bollywood as the best. The other sister, Manju, lives on the street, is very assertive, is stage dancer, drinks alcohol often, likes to fight and keeps close contact with her nabour, a drinking taxi driver called Jaggu. Jaggu is played by the South-Indian demigod/legend Rajnikanth (Robot / Endhiran anyone?). I've seen another movie of this actor (called Sivaji: The Boss) But that was too over the top for me. But in ChaalBaaz I liked his humble sincere acting.
After Manju meets a man in a bar (Suraj, played by Sunny Deol) and Anju runs away from home after being almost raped, the next part of the movie if about the confusion and mix-ups of the lead characters with their supporting characters. The taxidriver has a shy Anju that doesn't drink and in the big home the evil uncle and his partner is being put on place by the dominant Manju.

This movie is a comedy, but because the abuses also a drama, and there are also some fightscenes in.
The thing I found really good is that there are a lot of genres in this movie, but everything is just the right amount, like a good recipe. Sridevi plays the two different leads very very good, the introvert Anju and the extravert Manju. Furthermore Sridevi shows that she can dance, as well as Bharatnatyam and modern style.
The songs and music is also real strong. Personally I like the melody of the romantic song "Tera Beemar Mera Dil". Anyway, I really enjoy movies like these, that contains a rollercoaster of emotions and a happy end.
The movie is from 1989, this is visible in the sound and picture quality, but has it's charm.
A must see for everyone that likes not only new movies, but also classics like this one.
Oh yeah, and of course everyone that likes Sridevi has to see this movie.

Anju

Manju