Join Mocca as she takes you through films from Bollywood and Hollywood, both old and new. And as dreams are spun into reels, so too does that one dream of Mocca live on....to be a Bollywood Star! At least in her dream.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Introducing WilFlirt, My Movie Buddy
It's been a long time since I last blogged...busy doing things, and well, I still watch movies, just haven't been blogging....yes yes...i'm such a lazy bum. :P
First of all, I'd like to introduce you to my movie buddy, WilFlirt. He's no flirt at all, but he'd like to believe that he's got the moves of a jungle cat on the prowl for girls.
TOGETHER, WilFlirt and I go all out to catch the latest movies to hit the theatres in Singapore, plus the classics that we get on cable and DVD.
The movie Kisna-The Warrior Poet, was filmed against the landscape of the tumultous 1940s, when India was struggling for independence from the Britain, and when all Europeans were regarded as the enemy against that struggle, thus triggering a long spat of violence.
However, in this violent times, there emerges a love story of the two most unlikely characters; the loyal and traditional Kisna, from a family of freedom fighters, and that of Katherine, the daughter of a prominent but mean British official.
Kisna and Katherine's friendship began in childhood, and both families took to this relationship well, except for Katherine's father who frowned upon his daughter befriending an Indian, and that too, the son of his servant. As such, Katherine was sent back to England at a young age, in a bid to nip the friendship. Ah, I have to mention that Luxmi, the grand-daughter of Kisna's music teacher, is crazy about him, even as a little girl, and is constantly annoyed at the friendship between Kisna and Katherine.
During this time, Kisna grows to be the enchanting gallant young man, joining in the cause for freedom, and at the same time maintaining his art of poetry and music. Whilst back in England, Katherine is the vivacious young beauty who has never forgotten her friend Kisna.
With the reign of the British coming to an end, Katherine's father calls her to India for a visit, and here is where their story begins again. The two childhood friends quickly rekindle their friendship, and in the meantime, Kisna's marriage has also been fixed with Luxmi, who was further agitated with Katherine's arrival. Their engagement was fixed after Luxmi expresses her annoyance to her grandfather.
Shortly after the engagement party, Katherine's family was attacked at home by indians rebelling against her father's rule. Her father was beheaded, and her mother went missing. Katherine ran for her life and hid in a temple, where she was found by Kisna, and given refuge in his stable. Kisna's mother then commands Kisna to escort Katherine on her journey to England.
It was on this journey that the two friends will fall in love with each other. It becomes a story of sacrifice, loyalty, culture, family and of course Love.
Kisna didn't marry Katherine in the end, saying that he needed to fulfill his promise to Luxmi. At the end of the movie, which is a narration of an aged Katherine, Luxmi meets her, and tells her that Kisna had fulfilled all his responsibilities as a loving husband and father...but he always loved Katherine, and she would hear him play Katherine and his love tune on his flute in the peaceful night. He never mentioned Katherine again, until his death bed, where he asked Luxmi to scatter his ashes at this one place - the place where Katherine and his soul first became one.
It was so touching. I felt really hurt for Luxmi though. I cannot imagine what it must feel like to live with a man you love so dearly, and realise at the end that you were just a responsibility, that he was in love with someone else, but to fulfill a promise he married you. I would be devastated.
As with most of Subhash Ghai's productions, the soundtrack was beautiful...afterall, it was done by AR Rahman, and had all the earthy and Indian tones to it.
I think Vivek looks especially good in this movie, perhaps cos he has more hair. Somehow, it looks as though he had a really good makeover.
Antonia's pretty good too, and I love Isha Sharvani who acted as Luxmi. You should see her performing all that aecrobatic moves...and yogic looking dances. Very different from the other shows.
Here's a trailer of the movie. You'll notice some of the film crew as well.
So I finally caught 'Ishq Hai Tumse', starring Dino Morea and Bipasha Basu. I'm not exactly a big fan of either of the actors when the movie came out, and had dismissed it as just another common storyline, with a soundtrack that didn't quite touch me or linger in my mind. But tonight, with my whole family out shopping, and me stuck at home feeling a little under the weather, I decided to catch whatever movie that was screening on Zee...and tonight's special being Ishq Hai Tumse. I was beginning to appreciate both Dino and Bipasha's acting now, so I thought I'd give this movie a chance, though I still didn't think Bipasha didn't quite fit the good muslim girl role.
As expected, it was a typical love story, fathers are good friends, the couple fell in love, and the big problem was cos he's hindu and the girl's muslim. Revealing how they feel about each other would break their fathers' years of friendship, and Dino could never tell Bipasha his true feelings. And of course, his secret was discovered, and the fathers were actually happy with the alliance, regardless of the religion. I guess that's ok in India.
Bipasha's acting was better than expected, for a movie that I damned in my selections. Especially since I thought it was so commercial, and definitely banking on Dino and Bips' relationship in real life. Bipasha is getting better and better with each movie... I especially liked her in Madhoshi(where she pairs up with her current squeeze, John Abraham), where she plays a schizo...woooo.....it was a little scary.
Jab Jab Phool Khile is yet another love story between 2 people who come from totally different backgrounds.
Raja (Shashi Kapoor) is a simple minded Kashmiri boatman who falls for the rich and seemingly very British Rita (Nanda) who rents his houseboat for a holiday away from the city.
It was love-at-first sight for Raja, but not quite for the poised Rita. In fact, Rita's attraction for Raja wasn't quite there until her second trip back to Kashmir with a potential suitor, Kishore. Handpicked by Rita's father, Kishore was rich and thought to be of the same class status as Rita's family.
However, through a series of situations during this trip, Rita finally falls for Raja,and takes him back with her to the city... and here begins a roller coaster ride for Raja... in his quest to be with his love...
Will their love survive the harsh demands of the high society? Or will Rita give up her everything to return to Kashmir with Raja?
You may notice quite a number of similarities in Raja Hindustani, with Amir Khan and Karishma Kapoor in the lead roles. Especially the part where Amir Khan (aka Raja) tries to act like a city guy.
Here's a movie that not many people know of, marking the debut of Juhi Chawla, and includes Sashi Kapoor's son,Karan Kapoor in the cast.
Produced in 1986, the movie was about didn't really make it big, but its songs were pretty popular.
What made this movie worthy of its inclusion here is cos it's one of the few movies that Karan Kapoor appears in. Karan's european looks did not go down well with Indian audience, probably because he was too European to be the desi hero.
This hunk has moved on to become a bonafide photographer. Visit his works at www.karankapoor.com
Here's a rare video clip of Karan Kapoor romancing Juhi Chawla... hardly recognisable here...
This is a Meena Kumari/Lata Mangeshkar classic. I haven't gotten a chance to watch the movie, but it seems to me that this song is more popular than the movie itself.
You may remember Rani Mukherjee singing this part to Hrithik Roshan in The Medley from the movie Mujhe Dosti Karoge.
Tom, Dick and Harry is about three physically challenged hunks. Tom (Dino Morea) is deaf, Dick (Anuj Sawhney) is blind, and Harry (Jimmy Shergill) is mute. Almost like the "See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil" monkeys.
The movie revolves around the comic antics of these 3 as they constantly try to delay their rent(preferring to pay the landlord with condoms that they distribute), flirt with girls, and blackmailing the landlord who was thought to be having an affair with the maid.
Climax of the story is when Celina Jaitley moves in next door, and the 3 monkeys try to attract her.
The villain of the movie is Suprano (Gulshan Grover), who organises the kidnap of indian girls to be imported overseas due to a sudden interest in Indian beauties. Here begins our comedy of errors as the trio gets entangled in Suprano's plans.
It's an ok movie, and can be quite entertaining.Honestly, I watched the movie cos I thought Jimmy Shergill looked really hot in the Himesh Reshamiya video clip. And, I just needed some mindless movie that didn't get me emotionally worked up. So this fits the bill.
Good try by Deepak Tijori, the director.
Star Cast Dino Morea...... Tom Jimmy Shergill...... Harry Celina Jaitley...... Celina Anuj Sawhney...... Dick aka Deepak Gulshan Grover...... Suprano Shakti Kapoor...... Inspector P K Waghmare Sanjay Mishra Aditya Lakhia Javed Khan...... Suprano's sidekick Avtar Gill...... Avtar Singh Rakesh Bedi...... Happy Singh Kunika...... Mrs. Happy Singh Kim Sharma...... Bijli Shehzad Khan...... Suprano's sidekick
I've been waiting for Click! to open in the cinemas... It's not a blockbuster movie, but as with all Adam Sandler movies, it has a feel good factor, and definitely some form of moral behind it.
Adam Sandler's an architect who has problems working out his priorities... career and family. Now surely many of us can identify with that. David Hasselhoff is Adam Sandler's boss who drives him nuts with ridiculous deadlines, while he wanders off with his latest muse.
He also has a really annoying neighbour who is sort of competing with him on who has the latest techy stuff. And of course, one daily factor that irritated him was the fact that he could never figure out which remote is for which equipment/appliance. It is during one of his frustrating attempts to find the right remote control that he decides to get a universal remote control.
And that's when the story starts...
While searching from the remote control department, Adam comes across a Beyond section, and finds Christopher Walken working inside. Assuming that Christopher Walken was a staff there, Adam makes his query, and is introduced to the film villain, the Remote Control. Chris insists that Adam takes the product, which is not available in the market, and that's when the chaos begins.
This Universal Remote Control (URC) allows Adam Sandler to control his life like he would a TV. Click fast forward, and his life moves ahead. Rewind, and he gets to repeat the moment. Basically, he can do anything he wants to. And while he fast forwards his life, his body will go into auto pilot during that period he'd like to skip. The URC has a special function, and that is to detect the owner's favourite settings.
So, all this while when Adam decides to fast forward at the mention of a next promotion, falls ill, etc, the URC picks it up, and auto programs his life. As a result, he speeds through life, misses his children growing up, loses his wife to a swim coach, and didn't even get to see his father before he died.
The movie takes you on an emotional dive, and just when you think the movie ends there with his death scene, Adam wakes up at the store where he bought the remote control, and you realise that it was all just a dream.
Problem I had with the movie was that it had take me so low emotionally, that even when I realised it was a dream, I still felt a little upset.
But, thank goodness, all Happy Madison productions end happy. Thankfully.
Shah Rukh Khan - revered by every Bollywood fan of this generation, and the name non-Bollywood fans take as a symbol of the booming Indian Film industry.
With my first entry of a Bollywood film, and in the exciting wake of SRK's latest film, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, let's take a re-look at one of my favourite SRK films - Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in Hindi means "Something happens"...and that forms the theme of the story.
The movie starts off introducing Anjali, Rahul's(SRK)daughter who celebrates her eighth birthday, and rushing off to read the birthday letter that her mum Tina (Rani Mukherjee)had written to her. Here it is revealed that Tina had died of birth complications, shortly after Anjali was born, and had written a letter to be opened by her daughter at every birthday.
This year was to be the last, and Tina has tasked Anjali to look for her father, Rahul's best friend, Anjali(Kajol),whom she was named after. It is explained in this letter that Anjali has to find the older Anjali, in the hope that a flame will be rekindled between Rahul and her.
Flashback....
Rahul and Anjali always hung out with each other in college. Rahul's playfulness and spontaneity, coupled with Anjali's tomboy antics made them buddies. Perhaps if they weren't such buddies, they would have fallen in love. Love never came to mind, until Tina came into the picture. Beautiful and sexy in short skirts, and exuding feminity, Rahul was love struck...
Anjali who had no idea that Rahul was in love with Tina, had also started having feelings for him, and wondering if he could ever feel the same way for her...them being such close friends. So, encouraged by the school caretaker, she sets off to meet Rahul, who was also excited to tell her something...
Then comes the dramatics...they run towards each other as it starts to pour, each unable to contain their excitement, and just before she says that she's in love with him, he tells her that he's in love with Tina. You can literally hear her heart break. Yet, she still had to forget her shock and sadness, and be happy for him.
So that was the end of Anjali's love story before it could even begin... until young Anjali sets about her plan to match her father and Anjali together again. And that's what the rest of the movie is about...
Well, I don't have the trailer for this movie. But this song holds a special meaning for me... and it captures that moment of heartbreak.
