Confessions

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These are the never-ending confessions of a Swedish Bollywood addict Indian cinema enthusiast. It started quite innocently with Hindi films (“Bollywood”) a few years ago, and nowadays you’ll notice that this passion embraces South Indian films as well; mostly Tamil and Telugu. Amazing stories, unforgettable characters, melodrama, clever acting, loud expressions, breath-taking scenery and visuals, item/song numbers, soulful and rocking music, heart-wrenching dialogues, non-kissing, wind machines, flowing chiffons and Hinglish – I absolutely love the Indianness, the vibrant colours and the beauty of an engaging desi film experience. I’m passionate about the subtleties and unexpectedness of art-house cinema and independent films, and I love the totally commercial films too. To be honest, it sometimes gets a bit too mindless or violent for my taste, but I’d rather take a bad Bollywood film over a bad Hollywood one any day. There is some really good quality cinema, of course, that totally blows your mind. There are also lots of films that you can’t help loving to bits, even though you couldn’t possibly come up with a reason or make sense of why. Most of all I love the fact that Hindi films tend to operate on a different kind of logic – emotional logic. Or like Aamir Khan said when he was asked about why he chose to do Fanaa: »It’s not logical but I like it. There’s no logic to why I like it.« I love, laugh, get upset and cry my heart out in a way that nothing else would make me do. There’s something about these films that resonates very strongly with me…

For more info, news and discussions about all things Bollywood visit BollyWHAT and BollyWHAT Forum or have a look at some other resources I recommend.
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NERUKKU NER (1997)
Director: Vasanth. Cast: Surya, Vijay, Raghuvaran, Prakash Raj.

Tamil. Surya’s first film, not bad. Wonderful to see how much he has grown as an actor over the years. (2010-11-28)

DHOOL (2003)
Director: Dharani. Cast: Vikram, Jyothika.

Tamil. Great film, it definitely drew me in. Great performances from Vikram and Jyothika, and I was happy to notice there were substantial roles for two older ladies as well. Plenty of dishoom, the comedy track isn’t too annoying, and there’s some genuinely funny scenes between Vikram and Jo. I liked the story, overall it was quite well told. The songs are well worth a watch, I love how Vikram moves… (2010-11-27)

MAYAAVI (2005)
Director: D P Singapuli. Cast: Surya, Jyothika, Sathyan.

Tamil. What a wonderful film! Funny and silly, cute and thoroughly entertaining :) It made me smile, laugh and giggle plenty of times… has a high feel-good factor too. The story was interesting in its own way and kept me engaged, but what I love the most were probably the characters – both Balaiah (Surya) and Jyothika (Jyothika) were very full of life and definitely memorable. Great performances too. I really liked the picturizations of the songs as well; funny and creative. An extra bonus for me were the locations in Mahabalipuram; it’s always fun to recognize places you’ve been, stereotypes of people you’ve met etc. I’d say this is one of my favourite Surya films, now :) Yeah, what can I say – I really enjoyed this one! (2010-11-26)

UYIRILE KALANDHATHU (2000)
Director: K R Jaya. Starring: Surya, Raghuvaran, Jyothika, Sivakumar.

Tamil. A bit difficult to rate, this one… The first half was okay, but after intermission it got really boring and strange. And then came the really bad ending… bleh, it annoyed me and left me disappointed, feeling that the ending didn’t mesh with the rest of the film. The dialogues were weak too, they dragged down the general impression of the film for me. On the positive side, both Surya and Jyothika’s performances were good and as always I enjoyed watching them. (2010-11-25)

UNNAI NINAITHU (2002)
Director: Vikraman. Starring: Surya, Sneha and Laila.

Tamil. Interesting story, well made, great performances too. Was happy to see Bangkok’s Wat Po in one of the songs (a buddhist temple where I’ve been studying). Comedy track a bit irritating, but not too much. (2010-11-25)

POOVELLAM KETTUPAR (1999)
Director: Vasanth. Starring: Surya, Jyothika.

Tamil. Cute and pretty interesting once you get past the boring, slow start. The identity confusion gags were a bit too forced in places, and there’s too much of them. Surya is adorable! Plenty of really good supporting actors. The señorita song is such an earworm… (2010-11-25)

AAYUTHA EZHUTHU (2004)
Director: Mani Ratnam. Starring: Surya, Madhavan, Siddharth, Trisha Krishnan, Esha Deol, Meera Jasmine.

Tamil. Amazing! Didn’t expect it to be better than Yuva, but it might just be! (Except for maybe VO’s part… his take on Siddu’s character kept flashing before my inner eye while watching Siddu.) Really well made, pretty to look at, intriguing, great script, fantastic performances, great music, wonderful camerawork, beautiful locations and sets. Plenty of hilarious subtitles on my Ayngaran DVD as well… (2010-11-24)

GUZAARISH (2010)
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Starring: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Aditya Roy Kapoor.

Hindi. Outstanding performance by Hrithik! It’s moving and engaging and incredibly beautifully made, has great energy and it’s an absolute joy to look at. (2010-11-21)

MOUNAM PESIYADHE (2002)
Director: Ameer Sultan. Starring: Surya, Trisha.

Tamil. Terrible in parts, a bit closer to okay in others. A lot of disappointing camerawork, pathetic choreography, slow and weak dialogues; awkward and wooden supporting actors (although some of the girls were passable) etc. Boring, slow and strange story, dull characters. The glaring lack of a backstory made it flat and forgettable. Surya wasn’t bad at all, but he could only do so much with what he was given here… I like the title of the film, “silence spoke”, but it didn’t really fit. (2010-11-21)

AARU (2005)
Director: Hari. Starring: Surya, Trisha.

Tamil. Timepass. Lots of violence. The script wasn’t great, but as always I enjoyed watching Surya. (2010-11-20)

NANDHAA (2001)
Director: Bala. Starring: Surya, Laila, Rajkiran, Saravanan, Rajshree.

Tamil. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film with more tears that this… endless crying, weeping and sobbing. I hated the ending, it left everything off balance somehow… made me upset. (2010-11-18)

PERAZHAGAN (2004)
Director: Sasi Shanker. Cast: Surya, Jyothika.

Tamil. I actually enjoyed this film a lot, for reasons that are completely beyond my understanding. I’m not a fan of comedy based on people’s disabilities, but I have to admit this film was sort of endearing in a way… had a certain warmth to it. Love love love Surya, what a brilliant man! (2010-11-18)

KAAKHA KAAKHA: THE POLICE (2003)
Director: Gautham Menon. Cast: Surya, Jyothika

Tamil. Really enjoyed this one! Surya is amazing, it’s as simple as that.

AAKROSH (2010)
Director: Priyadarshan. Cast: Ajay Devgan, Akshaye Khanna and Bipasha Basu.

Hindi. Had a lot of potential, but not a lot of soul… Was fun with a bit of parkour, but the way it was done felt odd and didn’t mesh with the otherwise very real feel of the film. And what was that, riding on top of a car?! I really like Akshaye when he’s relaxed and focused like this (as opposed to the usual hamming).

ANJAANA ANJAANI (2010)
Director: Siddharth Anand. Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Ranbir Kapoor.

Hindi. Funny, engaging and well told story. Great performances, but I would have loved to see someone else in Ranbir’s rol (Shahid, preferably). Felt like rewatching it as soon as the end-credits started to roll.

BHEJA FRY (2007)
Director: Sagar Ballary. Cast: Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Rajat Kapoor.

Bored my socks off. Pulled the plug about halfways.

WE ARE FAMILY (2010)
Director: Sidharth Malhotra. Cast: Kajol, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal.

Hindi. Timepass. Good performances and all, but this just isn’t my kind of film…. didn’t draw me in or move me at all.

AASHAYEIN (2010)
Director: Nagesh Kukunoor. Cast: John Abraham, Sonal Sehgal and Anaitha Nair.

Hindi. I really wanted to like this film, but instead I found it disjointed, unevenly paced and quite meh… it didn’t feel believable, didn’t move me or make me curious; I couldn’t care less about getting to know the characters. John did great, though. Nice music.

LAFANGEY PARINDEY (2010)
Director: Pradeep Sarkar. Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Deepika Padukone.

Hindi. Enjoyed it a lot! Great energy, felt different somehow… Really nice look & feel, well told and it definitely drew me in :) Evoked lots of smiles, tears and even some goosebumps. Neil has such great energy on screen, very relatable and easy to “feel”. Deepika on the other hand… I don’t feel her at all.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAI (2010)
Director: Milan Luthria. Cast: Ajay Devgn, Kangana Ranaut, Emraan Hashmi, Prachi Desai.

Hindi. Brilliant! Very well told, really well made. The look and feel is absolutely wonderful! Would have loved to see Saif and Shahid in this film, instead of Ajay and Emraan… but on the whole I really enjoyed it.

SINGAM (2010)
Director: Hari. Cast: Surya, Anushka Shetty.

Tamil. Boring and messy… I didn’t find the plot exciting and the romantc feel was missing too. The songs were sort of weak as well. Surya, on the other hand… awww :) Love him!! And his clawmarks in thin air = awesome!

UDAAN (2010)
Director: Vikramaditya Motwane. Cast: Rajat Barmecha, Ronit Roy, Aayan Boradia, Ram Kapoor, Manjot Singh, Anand Tiwari, Suman Mastkar.

Hindi. Very real, very moving. What a brilliant, brilliant film…. I’m at a loss for words. (Was nice to see a bit of Jamshedpur too, couldn’t help thinking of Imtiaz.)

DABANGG (2010)
Director: Abhinav Kashyap. Cast: Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Mahie Gill, Om Puri, Dimple Kapadia, Arbaaz Khan, Anupam Kher.

Hindi. Fantastic music, brilliant songs with beedi potential that totally makes me want to dance..! Very fun to watch, a real treat. Loving the south Indian feeling. Salman is excellent, truly in his element :) Sonakshi did great too, will be interesting to see more of her. Highly entertaining; not even the excessiv violence bothered me since it was so neatly done.

PEEPLI [LIVE] (2010)
Directors: Anusha Rizvi, Mahmood Farooqui. Cast: Omkar Das Manikpuri, Raghuvir Yadav, Naseeruddin Shah, Farrukh Jaffar.

Hindi. I liked it, but I wouldn’t call it amazing. Would have expected more from an “Aamir Khan film”, I have to admit. Some great characters and scenes, but for me personally I think I would have preferred this as a short film instead.

AISHA (2010)
Director: Rajshree Ojha. Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Abhay Deol.

Hindi. Timepass, I guess. However, I loooved Abhay! As always :) Pretty film to look at, but didn’t feel it had any soul. I haven’t read or seen any other Emma adaptations, so have nothing to compare to… but it’s just beyond my imagination how such an unlikeable person as Aisha is supposed to carry a whole story based on love and friendship (?).

SANAM TERI KASAM (2000)
Director: Lawrence D’Souza. Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Atul Agnihotra, Pooja Bhatt, Sheeba, Sayeed Jaffery, Alok Nath.

Hindi.

AASHIK AAWARA (1993)
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Mamta Kulkarni, Kader Khan, Saeed Jaffery, Mohanish Behl, Pankaj Dheer, Sharmila Tagore.

Hindi. Not bad. Lots of songs, I liked the karwa chaut one with all the pretty outfits. Some hilarious dances and outfits too :) Watched it only for Saif, and I wasn’t disappointed. The ending was a bit dragged out and bloody…

PEHCHAAN (1993)
Director: Deepak S Shivdasani. Cast: Sunil Shetty, Saif Ali Khan, Shilpa Shirodkar, Madhoo.

Hindi. Watched without subs, still like it. Have mercy… hehe… Horrible steps and moves in Tu mere dil mein rehti hai :) Some nauseating violence, and some steamy scenes too.

NEHLLE PE DEHLLA (2007)
Director: Ajay Chandhok. Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Shakti Kapoor, Bipasha Basu.

Hindi. The first half wasn’t terrible, but after Balram died… there’s so much wrong about this film after that, I don’t even know where to start… gross morbid excuses for humor, a rotting corpse and nekrofiliac jokes that are nowhere near funny :( Yet another film I never would have watched if it weren’t for Saif. I’d say skip the film, watch only the songs (Saif’s very sexy in them).

YEH HAI MUMBAI MERI JAAN (1999)
Director: Mahesh Bhatt. Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Twinkle Khanna, Chunky Pandey.

Hindi. Saif is adooorable and hot..! Wouldn’t have watched it if it weren’t for him. No subtitles, but I really enjoyed it. Fun energy. His body language, the faces he pulls, his comedic timing and how he delivered his dialogues – just brilliant :)

PANKH (2010)
Director: Sudipto Chattopadhyay. Cast: Maradona Rebello, Bipasha Basu, Lillete Dubey. Mahesh Manjrekar, Ronit Roy, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Amit Purohit.

Hindi. What an odd film… but I have to say, as strange as it was, it drew me in and I enjoyed watching it. Loved Bipashas performance and fun outfits! Interesting camera-work too.

NAGINA (1986)
Director: Harmesh Malhotra. Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Sridevi.

Hindi. Hated the fat wife “jokes”, they really annoyed me. Besides that, I loved it! Great story, fantastic performances, well made and great energy, big heart….

RAAVAN (2010)
Director: Mani Ratnam. Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram, Govinda, Ravi Kishan, Prithviraj.

Hindi. Fantastic film, but after watching the Tamil version with Vikram as Beera, it’s just… I don’t know what to say. You can’t even begin to imagine how much I would’ve loved to see Saif instead of Abhi in this film!! But yes, it’s still a fantastic story really really well told, fabulous music and stunning camera-work, great locations and fantastic energy that easily draws you in.

CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA (2009)
Director: Nikhil Advani. Cast: Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Ranvir Shorey, Mithun Chakraborty.

Hindi. Deepika surprised me, in a good way. I can’t imagine any other actor apart from Akki pulling this film off… yet another reminder that he’s such a magician; conjuring up great chemistry with absolutely everyone! Interesting locations, fantastic make-up and some memorable outfits too.

HERA PHERI (2000)
Director: Priyadarshan. Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Tabu, Om Puri.

Hindi. What-the-heeey… some parts are incredibly silly, others really funny. I really liked the group dynamic.

WELL DONE ABBA (2009)
Director: Shyam Benegal. Cast: Boman Irani, Minissha Lamba, Sammir Dattani, Ila Arun, Ravi Kishan, Sonali Kulkarni, Satish Sharma, Lalit Tiwari, Anaitha Nair.

Hindi. Funny and entertaining, well made, great performances. Script and dialogues brilliant; unusual and interesting story. Enjoyed a lot!

KHATTA MEETHA (2010)
Director: Priyadarshan. Cast: Akshay Kumar, Trisha Krishnan, Johnny Lever.

Hindi. Great energy in the songs, but way too much shouting going on…

TERE BIN LADEN (2010)
Director: Abhishek Sharma. Cast: Ali Zafar, Rahul Singh, Pradhuman Singh, Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Piyush Mishra.

Hindi. It’s funny and stands out in a nice way, feels like a one-of-a-kind.

LAMHAA(2010)
Director: Rahul Dholakia. Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Kunal Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Anupam Kher.

Hindi. Didn’t draw me in, didn’t really get through to me somehow…

RAAVANAN (2010)
Director: Mani Ratnam. Cast: Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Prithviraj, Ravi Kishan.

Tamil. Amazing! What a beautiful, engaging & bittersweet film! It’s got everything: it’s beautifully made, has interesting and multi-layered characters, wonderful cinematography, a great story, stunning locations, fantastic performances, it’s gorgeous to look at, well-written dialogues, heaps of feeling, brilliant music… and that extra undefinable something-something that gives you no other choice but to absolutely adore it. I loved everything about it :)

DEEWANE HUYE PAAGAL (2005)
Director: Vikram Bhatt. Cast: Akshay Kumar, Shahid Kapoor, Sunil Shetty, Vivek Oberoi, Rimi Sen, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Johnny Lever.

Hindi. Cute and fun beginning. VO is doing a good job as the narrator, fit in really well with the energy of the film. However, the film loses momentum quite quickly… already before intermission. Attempts at comedy based on people’s disabilities in this way just isn’t funny at all. Sasha is faaantastic! Wish Akki chose other roles…

ROAD (2002)
Director: Rajat Mukherjee. Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Manoj Bajpai, Antara Mali.

Hindi. Loved it! Plenty of suspense, creepiness… and VO is ridiculously hot :) VO & Bajpai both very great, expressive & compelling. Songs and picturizations not up to par. Great story. However, found the girl a bit bland; script sort of made her come off as mere eyecandy, rather than letting her embrace the importance her character actually had. I didn’t feel her at all, couldn’t read her… and her lines were quite odd more than a few times. The dialogues were quite weak overall, actually.

HOME DELIVERY: AAPKO… GHAR TAK (2005)
Director: Sujoy Ghosh. Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Ayesha Takia, Boman Irani.

Hindi. Cute and fun, different and interesting! I really really enjoyed it :) Loved how they used the special effects too. It has a great, great feelgood energy that makes your heart grow a size and puts a huge smile across your face… I’ll definitely watch this film again!

SANAM BEWAFA (1991)
Director: Saawan Kumar Tak. Cast: Salman Khan, Chandni.

Salman was soo handsome and seriously attractive! Totally unexpected, but ya now I really know what Nicki/Apunbindaas means… she really made me see what she sees, I believe :) And he was so expressive in a very likeable way; he actually IS cute not just playing/acting cute… which is something I’ve seen way too much of in his later movies. It felt as if I saw more expressions of him here than I’ve seen in all the other of his films I’ve seen before (well… Tere Naam might be an exception!), new interesting ones too :) He looked gorgeous in black with a turban… yum :P As for the rest of the film, I’m not very fond of überdramatic speaches made by evil patriarchs etc, but as a whole I really enjoyed it! I will definitely watch this film again :)

JAB PYAAR KISISE HOTA HAI (1998)
Director: Deepak Sareen. Cast: Salman Khan, Twinkle Khanna, Johnny Lever.

Liked the title song and some of the other ones really got stuck… ‘oh jaana mat jaana yeh dil tera diwana…’ :) I really liked that neither the kid or Johnny Lever were obnoxious, hehe… I had a few good laughs and I remember that I thought to myself a few times that I could somehow see Sohail Khan in Salman… I could totally see where Sohail’s “acting thing” (which I really don’t appreciate at all, I don’t find it funny) comes from. I thought Twinkle looked sooo much like Katrina Kaif in a couple of the scenes (for example when she sees him for the first time after finding out that he’s the wrong Suraj)! Salman didn’t disappoint, I think this film had me on a slow but insistent defrost all throughout! ;) His character was interesting, he was actually quite believable in both halves of the film. And I loved the dog! :)

SAAJAN (1991)
Director: Lawrence D’Souza. Cast: Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit.

Enjoyed it. The story was obviously quite deja vu and predictable, but it also had some great moments where Salman really surprised me with his abandon (there was a crazy dance) and how unusually expressive he was (finding the letters in his brother’s wardrobe, for example). I have to admit that I would have loved to see Aamir instead of Sanjay, I read somewhere he was offered the role… Sanjay looked really “lifeless” (can’t find a better word) quite a lot of the time… not his greatest performance. I’m not really a Madhuri fan, but I liked her a lot here; she was likeable in a way I haven’t seen her before. Her costumes were a mad mix too, haha… some pretty, some horrible :)

BAAGHI (1990)
Director: Deepak S. Shivdasani. Cast: Salman Khan, Nagma.

Hindi. Wow, I can’t believe it’s the same Salman! I’m amazed by how completely different he comes across, and I’m surprised that he’s so attractive – in a way I’ve never seen him before :) I love that he is so not-lazy in his acting, it feels as if he actually cares about his character… which is something I don’t always get nowadays. Some glimpses of beautifully honest acting, he seems so much more… relaxed, present and hungry in a positive way, if you know what I mean? I really liked Nagma as Paro/Kajal too. The story didn’t really draw me in, but it wasn’t bad at all.

I HATE LUV STORYS (2010)
Director: Punit Malhotra. Cast: Imran Khan, Sonam Kapoor.

Hindi. Funny and entertaining, great music. I’d be happy to watch this again. I keep liking Imran more and more, I really enjoy watching him. Sonam on the other hand isn’t a favourite of mine, but I have to say that this role sort of suited her.

LITTLE KRISHNA (2009)
Director: Vincent Edwards, Balasubramanian Rajasekaran. Voices by: Cara Pareira, Rajeshrie Sharma, Honey Nathwani, Soniya Nair, Meghna Erande.

English. Animated. Cute and interesting, amazingly well made. What a fantastic film, I really really enjoyed it :)

DEEWANA MUJH SA NAHIN (1990)
Director: Nageshwara Rao Y, M Parvez. Cast: Aamir Khan, Madhuri Dixit.

Hindi. Didn’t like. Hated the ending; stalking being celebrated as something wonderful really annoys me.

WHAT’S YOUR RAASHEE? (2009)
Director: Ashutosh Gowariker. Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Harman Baweja.

Hindi. Fun, cute :) Visually pleasing, and the music was okay. Enjoyed watching Harman dance. Priyanka absolutely brilliant, fantastic performance!

HAPPY (2006)
Director: A Karunakaran. Cast: Allu Arjun, Genelia D’Souza, Manoj Bajpai.

Telugu. Fun! Looove watching Allu Arjun dance ♥ :)

PAATHSHAALA (2010)
Director: Milind Ukey. Cast: Nana Patekar, Shahid Kapoor, Ayesha Takia.

Hindi. Obviously a film made in order to get a message across, and I’m not part of the target group. The only reason I watched it was Shahid, and I’m happy I did. He looks absolutely gorgeous and his sincerity moves me. Patekar did a good job too.

MILENGE MILENGE (2010)
Director: Satish Kaushik. Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor.

Hindi. I love the chemistry between Shahid and Kareena – you just can’t deny it’s there – and I simply can’t get enough of it! This film isn’t as dated as you could have suspected, and I enjoyed it.

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