I started watching this knowing nothing about it, I didn’t have a clue what to expect. I knew Shahrukh Khan was in it and I thought Kajol was in it too, my bad. I guessed that it had a serious tone from the way people spoke of it on forums but didn’t know the theme… Of course I was in for quite a surprise!
Pros
-The first pleasant surprise came when I saw Mani Ratnam was the director, that is always a sign of a good movie. Although I’m not a huge fan of Ram Gopal Verma’s work, I love his sarcastic blogging, the kind of attitude you can only have if you’re famous.
-The plot, not the kind that will lose you if you’re paying attention but it can if you leave your brain at the door.
-The acting, especially by Manisha Koirala, was top notch for most parts. I felt there was a little hamming coming from Shahrukh but overall he shone in the emotionally charged bits. Manisha is like a supernova, an amazing star while she was around but had to die out soon, I thought she was superb in this.
-When AR Rahman and Gulzar are combined the music has to be good, and it didn’t disappoint. I found myself singing along to Chaiyyan Chaiyyan, but one question, who was the girl dancing in it meant to be? Was it Manisha? I couldn’t tell.
Cons
-The major plothole I could find… why did the Indian soldiers do what they did? I don’t want to say anymore and give the game away but anyone who’s seen i knows what I mean. The thing is, none of those questions near the end would arouse if it hadn't happened. At the beginning the locals were complaining about how they had been ignored because of how powerless they are, but they never mentioned the shootings did they? So why did it happen? No country shoots its own innocent civilians unless some psycho like Hitler is in charge and that wasn’t the case in India.
- Manisha seems to constantly have too much make up on in the first half which was annoying the hell out of me.
-Preity lookd pretty bad compared to what she looks like now, her teeth looked liked she had been chewing paan for the last five days and in general, her chracter hit me more as annoying than bubbly
-I liked the songs but hated the cinematography in some of them, I can understand and appreciate they were trying to try out something new but it looked ok at first but more and more cheesy as time went on.
Overall: I’d say the pros outnumber the cons and so its definitely a good film
Rating: 4/5
A nicely scientific review lol..I haven't seen this movie even though the songs are some of ARR's best in my opinion. I have been meaning to watch it for some time now and you've just bumped it up in my que.
ReplyDeleteI notice that you're a Shahid Kapoor fan..are you on twitter, by the way?
@Sonia I am a Shahid fa , and tbh I stalk him on Twitter but I've refrained from getting an account so I can't be disappointed when he doesn't reply :(
ReplyDeleteAlso I just wouldn't be able to fit it in, I don't have the time to go to college, blog, be a part of olivecookie AND tweet...
Welcome to my corner of the blogosphere! I hope you decide to pop in whenever you feel like it!
Dil Se is definitely worth a watch in my opinion but it seems to be a love-hate thing, I love it but my mother hates it. Are you a Shahid fan?
Wow, when you mentioned scientific, I went and read it again and I can see where you are coming from, thanks for that, I learnt a bit about myself today!
hmm...Dil se..I haven't watched it either..But I'll wach it soon...coz I loved the reviews yaar..Awesome job again Baggie ;)..
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm a fan =)
ReplyDeleteI understand your time management concerns...twitter can be very addictive!
@ Huner, thanks for visiting, you should check it out really! Aww thanks for the compliment!
ReplyDelete@ Glad to meet you Sonia! Do you blog? I'd love to check it out if you do! I may joing twitter when I have too much time on my hands, but as for now, I doubt it :(
The girl on the train (you might have learned this already elsewhere) is Malaika Arora Khan, and she's not supposed to be Manisha. :-) She's a item girl and I think the whole idea behind it is how unrealistic Amar's idea about love is. I mean, he just met Manisha for about sixty seconds, she gave no indication of any sort of reciprocal attraction, and here he is singing a Sufi song in her honor on top of a train in a foolhardy fashion with another woman he doesn't even know. In other words, any woman will do because he's in love with something in his own mind/heart, not an actual person.
ReplyDeleteAs far as No country shoots its own innocent civilians unless some psycho like Hitler is in charge and that wasn’t the case in India ; it's happened in the U.S. although not to the scale depicted in Dil Se so I can certainly believe it would happen away from New Delhi. It's happened with minorities everywhere. It's a human thing, unfortunately, not anything against India. Look at the Japanese internment camps in the U.S. during World War II. :-( I'm not saying I know of a specific instance in India where something like that happened, just that I definitely believe it could happen.
Anyways, great review! I always appreciate people's reactions to this movie; they vary widely and are unfailingly interesting.
Interestung idea and an easy to accept one too because I was surprised at how quickly Amar accepted Manisha to be 'the one' at that station and that goes well with your theory (I hope you don't mind me calling it that). One question remains: How does Amar commit himself to Manisha? Or maybe that's a layer of the plot, making this thing inside him into a real person in the form of Manisha.
ReplyDeleteIt probably could happen but I'm sure they weren't being shot because they were an ethnic minority because the war was about an independent Kashmir so how would killing the locals help? Not meant in a acist way at all, but I could understand if it had taken place in Pakistan because of the ongoing, horrible war between India and Pakistan, of course it doesn't make it alright or forgivable.
Thank you, I'm off to check out your review now :)
I love reading reviews for Kaminey, JWM, Taare Zameen Par, Lagaan and others I can't remember off the top of my head...