Song Of The Week: Disco Deewane

Disco Deewane
Student Of The Year

Because it is New Years Eve, which is a time for celebration, I've decided that this week's song should be one that inspires dance and happiness. While it may not be everyone's cup of tea, this song makes me happy everytime I hear it on my iPod, and I'm hoping it does the same for you. With a bumping beat and the revival of one of the India's most beautiful voices (Nazia Hassan), this is a treat to be tasted at the very least. It's also special in my heart because in the full video version, I get to see my very favorite actress Kajol dancing and stealing the spotlight. Enjoy this and have a very happy New Year!

No One Killed Jessica

No One Killed Jessica

Stars: Rani Mukherjee, Vidya Balan

Directed by: Rajkumar Gupta

Released: January 7, 2011

No One Killed Jessica was a film that I was greatly anticipating. I had heard of Jessica Lal’s murder long before I sat down to watch the film and was touched – and of course saddened – by her story. The trailer was top notch and promised meaningful quotes, powerful scenes and tears. Well, that isn’t exactly what happened.

On a late night in 1999, bar maid and aspiring model and actress Jessica Lal refuses to give a rowdy man a drink after she and her fellow bar tender have quite serving alcohol for the night. She swears that she will not give it to him, not even for 1000 rupees. Angry, the man pulls out a gun and shoots her dead on the spot. Jessica’s older sister Sabrina (Balan) is heartbroken, but is assured that there will be justice for her bubbly baby sis. There were over 300 people at the party, many of them witnesses to the crime itself. It seems like it would be an easy, open and shut case right? Wrong.

The key witness, Jessica’s bar tender friend, saw what happened first hand but eventually proves not to be very helpful in the prosecutions’ case. Sabrina is outraged when she finds out that the killer is the son of a powerful man in India, and that her sister’s murderer is getting away from justice because of the power of bribing. She does her best to fight for her sister – she talks to witnesses, spreads the word, but none of them prove to be fruitful. She and her family begin to fall apart under the pressure of their grief and their mission for justice.

Meera (Mukherjee), is a news reporter full of attitude. Don’t cross her, don’t make her angry – or you’ll pay. When she first hears of the story, she doesn’t think twice. As everyone else assumed, she thought it would be an open and shut murder case, hardly worth her time. But when she catches wind of how the trial was a bust, she becomes more interested in this case. With her help, she is able to shine light on the error of the courts and give Sabrina the relief and peace she had wanted for so long.

Despite the amazing trailer that I mentioned earlier, the film really lacked luster. It wasn’t as fast passed and meaningful as I had imagined and I soon found myself sticking with it for the entire time for Jessica’s memory and Rani’s performance. Rani, despite being shown to be second banana to Vidya, was the heart and soul of this film. She was playing a character that was different from any other avatar I’ve seen of hers before, and she was perfect at it. I now want her to be a brash bitch in more movies. Perhaps because this mirrors my personality in some ways, or at least the person I wish I could be, but for me, she was the true hero of the story. Vidya was a grey mouse, through and through. I went to this movie wanting to see how she was as an actress because at this time I was not her fan. This movie proved to me that I hated her (thankfully that would change when I watched Parineeta). She had nothing to do and when she did, it was awkward and boring.

No One Killed Jessica was easy enough to get through, but I think I would have liked it better had I not had such high expectations for a ground shaking, mind changing film. If you decide to skip the film, please at least take a look at Dilli, the fantastic song that was really responsible for the heart racing excitement of the trailer and promotions.

Rating: 6/10

Films I Didn't Finish: Dil To Pagal Hai

Dil To Pagal Hai

Stars: Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Karisma Kapoor, Akshay Kumar

Directed by: Yash Chopra

Released: October 31, 1997

Dil To Pagal Hai is one of those films that I've been told to watch ever since I first started my journey in Bollywood. The person that urged me the most was my best friend and soul sister Ally (Bollywood-ish) who is Madhuri Dixit's biggest fan as well as the Madhuri/SRK jodi love slave. So when I sat down to watch this film I expected it to be fabulous. The visuals always seemed stunning and in fact - they were. However, I could not get past how dull it was. It moved too slow! I also was not at all enamored by Karisma who was awkward and strange in her role. Madhuri was past the point of having any chance of being bad by the time she made this film, but she looked far too mature for SRK and also, in my opinion, too mature to be playing the girl who skipped around trees and dreamed of teenage love. Which is my interpretation of it anyway. I may someday go back to this film and give it another try, but I wouldn't count on that happening anytime soon.

Time wasted: 52 minutes

Review: Lajja

Lajja
Stars: Manisha Koirala, Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor, Mahima Chaudhary, Madhuri Dixit, Rekha, Samir Soni, Ajay Devgan
Directed by: Rajkumar Santoshi
Released: September 19, 2001

Vaidehi (Koirala) runs away from a loveless marriage to Raghu (Shroff) and embarks on a journey that shows her more about life and womanhood than she ever anticipated. Raghu is not exactly the model husband, he's abusive and lecherous. When Vaidehi becomes pregnant, she decides that is enough is enough. As fate would have it, Raghu is involved in a terrible car accident which renders him unable to impregnate a woman. Upon realizing that the child Vaidehi made off with would be the only one he would ever have. This causes him to send his hired men after her to bring her back.

On her way she meets three strong, revolutionary women; starting with Maithili (Chaudhary). Maithili is a bride-to-be from a lovely middle class family. Her troubles stem from her groom's rich and greedy father who demands a large wedding and an even larger dowry; one that Maithili's father cannot afford.

Then there is Janki, my very favorite out of all the women. She is a theatre actress who is unwed and newly pregnant. She is not the submissive mouse that women are so often expected to be, but an outspoken beauty that wants to take control of her life and do what means the most to her. She is in love with a fellow acto and wants nothing more than to be with him.

On her way to her next adventure, she comes across Bulwa (Devgan),a Robin Hood type. He brings her to Ramdulari (Rekha). Her trouble stems from her son's forbidden relationship with the daughter of the head of her village. This struggle and the end result makes for a terrifying scene; one that will leave you shaken and disturbed for a while after you've seen it.

Manisha delivers a fine performance but is completely overshadowed by Madhuri and Rekha. This is my second favorite Madhuri character and performance ever, coming in only after Chandramukhi. It was my first full film with Rekha and Anil as well and I was impressed with both of them. Some of my friends insist that Anil cannot do comedy, but I disagree. Ding dong! Ajay Devgan's character was more or less... well, pointless, but I enjoyed seeing him on screen nonetheless. I believe that Jackie Shroff is one of those actors that cannot be bad and therefore he most definitely didn't disappoint. As for the music, the only song I walked away singing was Badi Muskil, which I still listen to regularly, almost a year after seeing this film.

Now... The movie itself was fantastic in that it showed the true hardships of women in India. Lajja itself means shame and you can see the 'shame' that these Indian women bring upon their family. The thing about this, however, is that the idea of shame is so incredibly backwards. Shame, honor and pride are all so trivial in life and I left this film wishing that the families of these women would have better understood their reasons for what they did instead of going home and crying about how much shame their daughters brought upon them. As for the main character Vaidehi, I was disappointed on her. Woman has husband, leaves husband, leans on thief, leans on bride, leans on actress, leans on Superman, leans on wise village woman, leans on... well, watch the film to discover that one. You get the point, though. She never really learned to stand on her own.

Watch this film, please, and the next time you consider putting a woman down, remember that in the end, they are the strong ones and that they are the ones that have the courage to make a needed change.

Rating: 7/10

Here's a bonus that I couldn't resist:

Chalo Manisha, let me show you how to dance to these steps so you can change your opinion on me completely.

Song Of The Week: The Kathak Dance

Kathak Dance
Dil To Pagal Hai

This weeks SOTW doesn’t focus as much on the music (although it its essential), but more so on the dancing that goes with it and the woman who brings it to life. As most people know, Madhuri Dixit is a trained Kathak dancer and she excels at it. It is something she enjoys immensely, and I would not be surprised if she loved Kathak and dancing in general more than acting. There are few times in her career where we have been able to see her true talents in this classical form of Indian dancing, but we get lucky enough in this film to get quite the treat. Madhuri makes her ghungroos sing with her every move as SRK accompanies her on the drums. Kathak with drums, the way it’s meant to be. There are a few different ideas as to where Kathak originated. In the myths, Shiva created the dance and when he did, I’m sure he had a woman like Madhuri in his mind. She is never more feminine and graceful in her dancing than when she does the dancing form that she has been trained to do since she was at such a young, precious age. So enjoy this Song Of The Week. Enjoy something a little more out of the box from the other 90s Indian masala films and songs. Enjoy beauty, in the best form possible.

Song Of The Week: Dreamum Wakeupum

Dreamum Wakeupum
Aiyyaa

The first song released from the upcoming movie Aiyyaa is catchy to be sure. It's different than most item numbers and the dance moves are something quite unlike anything Bollywood has ever seen. Rani impresses in the song. She's always been a good dancer and it's nice to see her be put in movie where she gets the chance to dance - even if it's some odd musical number. The words are catchy, the beat catchier. Because this film is due out rather soon, I thought it would be good for the first SOTW!

Review: The Dirty Picture

The Dirty Picture

Stars: Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Tusshar

Directed by: Milan Luthria

Released: December 2, 2011

Entertainment, entertainment, entertainment. One of the main messages of this film is surely what it is. Some would say that this film was overhyped, that it was nothing groundbreaking and that Vidya Balan's performance was nothing special. Well, I would like to kindly disagree with them.

Reshma (Balan), a poor girl in India runs away from home the night before her wedding, forever damaging her relationship with her mother. She has big dreams to be in pictures and she falls into some luck. A dance director pulls her into a song with a whip and she uses it well. This is her big break into films and suddenly everyone wants to get a piece of Silk, as Reshma is now known. The actor Surya (Shah), which she has been in love with for years, gives her the time of day after some sexy convincing from Silk. Being in his movies only boosts her further into stardom. This, however, makes him a little upset since his thunder is being stolen away.

In the meantime, we run into Abraham (Hashmi) every once in a while who has a real chip on his shoulder and hates Silk. I feel like we never really got to understand why he hated her, though, and that bothered me. He hated her because she was vulgar? So what? That's no reason to hate someone. There seemed to be more there that was never really addressed or explained. As with many actresses, Silk hit her prime... and started to fall. She could no longer get roles as easily as she could before and this lead her to financial and emotional problems which led to her ultimate and final downfall.

There are things about this film that make me mad - but they're supposed to, I believe. For starters, The Dirty Picture does good at pointing out a serious flaw in people, which can easily be explained in this quote from Silk, "You make films about sex, you sell them, you watch them, you show them, you even present them with awards, but you're scared to aknowledge them." That's something I've noticed in my time of being a fan of Bollywood. It's alright for men to watch a woman dance around half naked but she is forever scarred and scorned for life. Then, those same men want to act as though they have done nothing wrong, like they are as pure and chaste as the day they were born. 

From the reviews I've read, it makes me laugh because so many people talk about how vulgar this film was. Did they not see the previews? The trailers? The title? It's The Dirty Picture, what do you expect? Of course this might be my American showing here, but nothing in this film shocked me that much. However I do understand that as far as Bollywood and Indian standards go, this was vulgar and dirty. Still, don't be surprised  by it and act like you had no idea what this film was going to be about.

Vidya deserved every single accolade and praise that she got from this film. Her acting was nothing short of spectacular. She became Silk. Watching her in Parineeta, No One Killed Jessica and now The Dirty Picture proves just how dedicated and versatile she is. She is one of the hardest working actresses today and I hope she continues to produce these fantastic films. And extra points to her for the curvy body she was sporting in the film. Her hips, thighs and larger stomach were all adorable to me and it was nice to see that she wasn't afraid to go there as well. Emraan was wood throughout his performance but that might be because he didn't really have much of one. Shah was fantastic and made me cringe, but for all the right reasons. Tusshar was cute, I thought. It was my first film with him and liked him well enough. The music is of course great. Ooh La La will forever be one of my favorite songs and there's no changing that.

The only reason I took a point off from it being perfect was because the second half dragged so much. Other than that, it was perfect to me, honestly. I enjoyed it so much and it lived up to its hype, me thinks. I will watch it again someday, for sure. 

Rating: 9/10

Review: Aaja Nachle

Aaja Nachle
Stars: Madhuri Dixit, Konkona Sen Sharma, Jugal Hansraj, Akshaye Khanna, Kunal Kapoor
Directed by: Anil Mehta
Released: November 30, 2007

Namaste aur salaam. Meet Dia (Dixit)! She is a beautiful young choreographer that lives in New York with her young daughter Radha. She is rather successful in New York and enjoying her time but must leave on short notice when she receives news that her old guru from India is on his death bed and fading fast. So fast, in fact, that she doesn't even reach the country until after he has passed away. Being back in her old town bring back many memories, some are down right painful for Dia because they remind her of the relationship that she had and lost with Radha's father. He was an American and in deciding to run off and marry him, she disgraces herself and her family, which is something that is hard to get away from. Her guru's reason for calling her back was to convince her to save the theatre (Ajanta) that they practiced and performed in, a task that he convinces her to do through a video he recorded before his death.

Now with a mission, Dia does the first thing she can think of and talks to the man who wants to destroy Ajanta, Raja Uday Singh (Khanna). Singh is reluctant to agree to her because of the good business he is sure he will get from building a business in the theatre's place, but Dia convinces him to give her a chance. Dia most come up with an amazing performance in two months time, using only local dancers and present it at Ajanta. If the audience loves it, the theatre is saved, if not, the wrecking balls come out. Dia accepts of course!

And of course, nothing can be done without bumps along the way. In this case, the hardest part is finding the right people to play in Laila-Majnu, an old Indian classic, Romeo and Juliet before Romeo and Juliet. Eventually, however, she does stumble upon the right people and is able to get rehearsals going. This is where we meet Imran (Kapoor) and Anokhi (Sen Sharma). Imran is a rugged, tough guy and Anokhi is a tomboy like Anjali in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (with one hell of a runny nose problem). At first she is shot down but later convinces Dia that she can do the job. Once in, she finds herself falling in love with Imran. After a makeover, he finds himself doing the same. This ultimately helps the play of Laila-Majnu become more real.

This was a decent time pass, but nothing extraordinary in my opinion. Ishq hua, O Re Piya, the ever popular Aaja Nachle and the play itself were all winning numbers that I listen to on a regular basis (ESPECIALLY the play. It makes me feel feelings). The acting was, again, decent. I came for Madhuri and stayed for Konkona and Kunal. Their chemistry was fantastic and I wouldn't mind seeing them together again soon! This film was to be Madhuri's major come back and she ended up not being as successful with her comeback from motherhood as Kajol was with Fanaa, but I wish her the best of luck with this next one she has coming up with Dedh Ishqiya and Gulab Gang.

Rating: 6/10