June 6, 2010
This entire review is nothing but a giant spoiler, because the ending especially is So Many Kinds of Wrong that I cannot do anything but tell you all about it. My sister pointed out that if Rush Limbaugh and his ilk were to make a film this might very well be it, a sentiment I fully agree with. It spouts the same judgmental and self-righteous crap that those people do and is just as egregiously dumb, although clearly many people don’t find it as obviously stupid as I do. It’s a typical Manoj Kumar venture: everything modern (or progressive) is evil and can only be redeemed through the influence of traditional (and repressive) values and mores. It sums up exactly why I hate his “Mr. Bharat” persona.
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Posted in Hindi movies |
67 Comments »
January 4, 2009
Raj Khosla is one of my favorite directors. But man, this movie is a waste of time. It’s chock full of red herrings that never lead anywhere (and are never explained), along with clues which are so manifestly obvious that you feel clubbed over the head with them. Plus, it’s boring, with an ending so convenient and contrived that there’s no payoff for sitting through it at all. I don’t know if my dislike of Manoj Kumar contributed to my dislike of this film, but I do know that his presence didn’t help it any. The only bright spot really was Helen, and she was bumped off pretty early on. Sadhana looked gorgeous, but she appeared to be as bored as I was.
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Posted in Hindi movies |
55 Comments »
May 11, 2008
Anita might be a good film. The only thing is: the SUBTITLES! SUCKED!! They came on five-ten seconds after the dialogue or scene had ended; sometimes flashed so briefly that there was no way to read them; and very often there were large gaps where single words would just show up occasionally. Because the story was fairly complex (a murder/suicide/reincarnation/multiple personality/ghost story) I had a headache in no time.
And I became distracted by mostly irrelevant details (as you will see). Luckily there were plenty of irrelevant details to entertain, but still. As I said—I think properly understood, this might be a good film. I wish I knew for sure. The music is certainly delightful!
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Posted in Hindi movies |
47 Comments »
September 24, 2007
This film’s positives are the great songs by Shankar-Jaikishan, the choreography, the filmi noir set decoration, and the Helen-Pran chemistry. Gumnaam is familiar to western audiences because the film Ghost World used its first song (“Jaan Pehchaan Ho”) in a scene. This song kicks off the journey into a crazy world where bouffant hair meets men in dresses; giant Easter Island statues with glowing red eyes compete with Helen for your attention; and a killer on the loose stalks his terrified victims. The drawbacks include a patchy and nonsensical plot, and Nanda and Manoj Kumar as the lead pair (Shammi and Asha Parekh would have been so much better!), but this is nitpicking when compared to the pluses.
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Posted in Excellent Use of Helen, Hindi movies |
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MemsaabStory 