Dil Kya Kare.. Mast..Earth..Hello Brother..Taal on Imax

 Absolutely the best bit was the Hijra dance , transvestites
or hermaphrodites or maybe just gay men who dress in female
clothes and dance at a newborn's arrival and wont go away
unless they have been paid lot of money . Usually they show
just a small item ( Paresh Rawal in Tamana ) but here the
dance lasts a full five minutes and is great .

 Story of two brothers in love with the same girl who loves
only one with them . I like the bit where the disappointed
one gets drunk and starts talking to a dog and asking him
'Have you ever fallen in love with a b..? !'

 Its probably that Roy woman again who is the art director ! .
The good guys live in houses with modern furniture while the
bad ones with black traditional Indian furniture . The women
look truly awful in Western clothes in the first half and
Australia could have been better shown . The picture had too
much of the blue color in it with the actors wearing clashing blue suits and yellow ties .

I was translating for a gora friend and he was laughing his head off , some of the
dialogs are quite funny . He even wept at the end , it was
the first Bollywood movie he had ever seen but he will get
used to it .. 

I finally got to see Baadshah today. Amidst all the many charms of this laugh-out-loud comedy (the clever pastiche of sixties spy thrillers, the spectularlarly-staged and choreographed songs, the cohesion of the actors' ensemble performance), I was struck by a sense of guilt. There was Twinkle Khanna, proving herself to be a key component of the film in my view, and not just there to add glamour (which she also did, in abundance!). Twinkle acts, and dances, with style, flair, and conviction, and I owe her an apology for underestimating her skills in my Magnificent Five review.

 I just hope that, in future, we see her in roles that escape the wide-eyed innocent, gullible girlfriend mould, first seen in her Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai performance. There must be more to Twinkle than that. I am sure there is. . Richard Turner .

This review contains minor plot spoilers; nothing that, in *MY* opinion, will detract from your enjoyment of the film, but if you are paranoid about spoiler, read no more.

 Mahima Choudhary & Ajay Devgan are a happy-happy-joy-joy couple, with their delightful 7 year old daughter -- actually, the child actress

 deserves special mention. While she is annoying in parts, overall the director does a good job in extracting a reasonable performance from her. (In most Hindi movies, you feel like banging your head against a wall, when you see how children are depicted.)

 The only cloud on their idyllic life is the mysterious "auntie" who keeps visiting their daughter and giving her expensive gifts, when they are not around. Has she got kidnapping in mind? Her name is "Nandita Rai" and neither Ajay nor Mahima have heard of her.

 Well, as is obvious to anyone who even bothered to see the credits, Kajol is "Nandita Rai", and being Kajol, her intentions are certainly well-intentioned and mean no harm to the child. And its when Ajay returns home and confronts her that the situation is set up..

 There is a major plot twist about an hour into the movie -- and even though its totally far-fetched from a believability standpoint, I'm willing to accept it. Because its a basic premise that you have to buy, else the movie won't make sense. However, there are several other plot holes and well-known cliche devices.

 The picture does keep you guessing about what's going to happen. Contrary to usual fine acting, its Ajay Devgan who lets this film down by providing a very ambivalent wishy-washy performance. (Thats how his character was written.) And even Kajol is quite lack-lustre. While she does impress me with her ability and willingness to go up against beautiful women and be seen as drab in comparison (first half of "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" and virtually all of this film"), she just didn't bring any passion and will into her role. And just when you think the film has resolved one way, the end leaves you guessing. And there was one decision made by Ajay at the end, which just is flat out impossible to accept -- as I said, too many plot holes.

 Mahima Choudhary is simply gorgeous -- not quite the staquesque beauty of an Aishwarya Rai -- but a knock-out figure (which she displays to full advantage), and she brings a lot of passion to her role, especially her scenes in the second half as the wronged wife. She certainly steals the acting highlights in this film, despite going up against two much more acclaimed actors. Chandrachud plays Ajay's friend who has coveted Mahima for a long time, and again he is nothing special -- wavering between being loyal and opportunistic.

 The songs are quite unspecial -- except for the title number, which is reasonable. My wife's opinion, and one which has a fair amount of truth, was that the film would have worked a lot better with Kajol as the wife, and Mahima Choudhary as the "other" woman.

 The movie is not a total waste. Mahima Choudhary, is of course, very easy on the eyes, and actually has potential as a fine actress (I hereby reverse the opinion I formed of her after "Daag"), and.. There is one dance sequence, where Ajay first dances with Kajol on the dance floor (and while I *love* Kajol's acting ability, some one please tell that girl that she can't really dance), and then again dances with Mahima in their bedroom --- that scene is one of the most sensual and erotic I have seen in recent Hindi cinema.. Bharat Rao

 Movies revolving around Partition, one of the bloodiest and eventful events in recent Indian history, have been too few. It has been given short shrift by the Bollywood movie makers , who generally can't see beyond the standard Love and action themes. In that context, DeepaMehta's "Earth/1947" makes intresting viewing. The strength of the movie lies in it's Straight, no-holds barred presentation. Much of the credit should go to BapsiSidhwa on whose book (cracked India) the script is based on.

 DeepaMehta does a fairly decent job , though all the media attention on her is more due to the theme of her movies, rather than her directing prowness. To her credit, Earth doesn't lose momentum or divert into needless trivia. Short , Taut and gripping for most of it's length, it makes good viewing, both as a cinema and also as a topical Newspaper item brought to life.

 There are many touching scenes - Two of them are standouts: Aamir's desperate proposal to Nandita to save him from sinking to animal depths. That was a heart rending scene. And then the final betrayal scene . The movie is worth watching for just these two scenes itself. The best part is, none of them sound phoney or creation of cinematic licenses. For instance Aamir's character could be that off anybody who has suffered personal loss or tragedy in communal conflagrations.

Aamir's IceCream wallah is a genial, flirtatious, happygolucky character , until his sisters are butchered in the partition madness; that drives him crazy, he gravely tries to keep his balance, his descent into madness is gradual and conscious and when the final denouement comes , it is chilling. Aamir, as usual is at his competent best. This is an hatrick of standout performances from him this year.

 RahulKhanna's Mallishwallah is a strong and sober character . The one who extends help and shelter in proxy to old friends who are in danger, the one who manages to win his lady love. It's a fine contrast to the Icewallah. RahulK's is an impressive debut. NanditaDas sizzles as the ayah. Dark, Dusky and Delectable, she gives the best performance of the movie. She plays the Hindu nanny to naughtyLenny, the parsee girl, who is the narrator of the events. For the voueyers, there is a prolonged sexual scene between Nandita and Rahul. A western review described it as "gratutious even by western standards" ;-)

 Also, the dialogues are peppered with coarse(street) language. There are a couple of scenes which give the allusion of extreme violence. ARRehman's music is haunting. It would surprise the listeners to see a differet facet of ARR.

 A movie worth watching, if you prefer serious, meaningful cinema.. cheers raj

 Stupid movie. Salman acting like a Buffon. Arbaaz is wooden and looks good when he doesn't act,his expressions in comedy scenes are Horrible.

 Rani ,she is the FATTEST actress i have ever witnessed on Silver Screen,U can't see her sans Make-up. Sohail,tried to redo PKTDK,God knows how many movies he lifted the scenes from.Very Crude comedy,he has along way to go. Don't waste money on it..pkumar

 What I found truly astonishing is the amount of hard creative work that goes into each movie . For eg just get the DVD of 'Bade Mian chote mian' a truly excellent print and just go through the songs . Forget the lyrics, choreoraphy , music all great , just look at the costumes worn by the artistes and dancers .

 I swear there must be a 1000 different costumes just for this movie each more eye catching than the other ! Imagine the cost ! The popularity of these movies is not just accidental . In Hollywood they probably pay too much to the stars and forget the props while in Bollywood they pay the stars peanuts and make them work in ten movies at a time but spend all the money on costumes and sets and that is as it should be..

 Btw I didnt realize that Austin Powers plays Dr Evil and Fatso as well , another movie that must be seen twice..Mo

Over 1500 happy film-goers attended the opening of TAAL at Cinesphere in
Toronto this week-end.  This was an estimated attendance from only 3 shows.
Many were turned down since the shows were sold out.  Within 30 minutes of
opening the box-office all the 600-650 odd seats got sold out on sat and
sunday.  Due to negative publicity and bad rumors, there was only 50%
attendance on Friday first show .  Many of the movie goers were new clientele who did
not want to go to the regular theatres.  50% were repeat goers.  So, if you
are in the neighbourhood of Toronto, drive down for next week-end showing on
Fri,Sat and Sun at 8 p.m.  The sound level was an estimated 33,000 watts
powerhouse digital sound!!