Hindi Cinema Discussion

[Yuvi.]

Anybody saw Kill/Dil yet?

 

[Villain]

SRK only does mediocre films. He's a good actor, but all his movies are shit. He needs to learn from Ranbir (barring Besharam).

 

[scratch978]

Just saw 'PK'... 6/5 ... Simply MIND BLOWING !!!

Any body saw PK ?

 

[SaiSrini]

P.K (as in Peekay) - Excellent movie! A worthy follow up to 3 Idiots by the Raju Hirani - Aamir Khan combo. This time, the target is religion and its commercialization (strike a chord with Akshay-Paresh Rawal's "Oh My God"? Yes, this film goes down the same path but is a lot more wittier, aided by some astonishingly brilliant acting by Aamir Khan). Not as good as 3 Idiots this is, but when the same team does another film pretty similar to the first one, big comparisons are inevitable and also the "not as good as the first one" comments are also inevitable. But P.K. is surely worthy of the Rajkumar Hirani classics that you have been collecting since Munnabhai MBBS. Anushka can be called the best Raju Hirani heroine, as she pitches in a great performance and shares pretty sparkling chemistry with Aamir Khan. Songs are somewhat forced, but their visuals are pleasing enough for you to be hooked to them. The acting is pretty extraordinary, but the biggest one of all is Aamir Khan who plays the role of a lifetime. In his ever growing list of classics, PK should be the most satisfying one for him as an actor due to the amount of histronics involved for his role (rest of the films; he also played a part in them, but here he plays the major part).

Plus: Aamir Khan, Raju Hirani, Anushka, the gags/laughs and the typical Hirani emotions
Minus: Song transitions not great; film takes time to pick up speed

4.5/5

 

[shravi]

Finally saw Haider. Good movie. I thought it dragged on for a little too long.

Spoiler

I thought the reason he was taking so long to kill his uncle was to try and get a confession out of him, but in the end, he didn't even get that confession. He didn't even kill him (which to be fair, was a great decision by the scriptwriters)!

However, the acting was great. Alongside Manoj Bajpai, Kay Kay Menon is one of the most underrated actors in Bollywood. Shahid's best performance ever. I don't think he can top that. I didn't even think he was capable of acting that well, based on his past movies. Tabu was fantastic as well. All in all, the movie has a good plot, but the acting takes it to another level. A great adaptation of Hamlet.

 

[abhi_jacko]

Watched PK - really good movie. Definitely worth a viewing. Aamir-the-actor was very good after the Dhoom3 debacle. Anushka was good too, except for her closeup shots where she looked horrible with her lip surgery or whatever. The issue tackled by the movie was very relevant and I definitely connected to it.

Was very Raju Hirani-ish. The humor and the tone were very similar to Lage Raho and 3I, which is not a bad thing at all. But The freshness associated with Munnabhai and 3I was lacking. Also it has to be Hirani's weakest movie as a filmmaker. The narration was very disjointed at times - almost looked like someone had put together a clip show in between a coherent movie. The second half incident with Sanjay Dutt was totally not needed and looked forced. Also the love angle seemed like it was there just because it had to be there

The biggest plus was it ended very strongly. Not many directors can provide a satisfying and effective ending to a movie. This has always been Hirani's strong point and a strong ending here elevated it from a good to a very good movie experience

 

[SaiSrini]

Watched PK - really good movie. Definitely worth a viewing. Aamir-the-actor was very good after the Dhoom3 debacle. Anushka was good too, except for her closeup shots where she looked horrible with her lip surgery or whatever. The issue tackled by the movie was very relevant and I definitely connected to it.

Was very Raju Hirani-ish. The humor and the tone were very similar to Lage Raho and 3I, which is not a bad thing at all. But The freshness associated with Munnabhai and 3I was lacking. Also it has to be Hirani's weakest movie as a filmmaker. The narration was very disjointed at times - almost looked like someone had put together a clip show in between a coherent movie. The second half incident with Sanjay Dutt was totally not needed and looked forced. Also the love angle seemed like it was there just because it had to be there

The biggest plus was it ended very strongly. Not many directors can provide a satisfying and effective ending to a movie. This has always been Hirani's strong point and a strong ending here elevated it from a good to a very good movie experience

I agree with your last part - Raju Hirani films have effective endings which enable you to come out of the film with a very good feeling and that translates into multiple viewing which makes you enjoy the film more.

By the way abhi, did you find this below scene to be similar in treatment to the vacuum cleaner scene from 3 Idiots?

Spoiler

The climax face-off scene between Aamir Khan and Tapasvi with Anushka being told that Sarfaraz did not betray her and the way she was made to call up Sarfaraz and speak to him

 

[abhi_jacko]

By the way abhi, did you find this below scene to be similar in treatment to the vacuum cleaner scene from 3 Idiots?

To be honest, I dont remember the vacuum cleaner scene clearly enough to comment :P What similarity did you find in its treatment ? I will try to watch a clip of it and see if I understand what you meant

About repeat viewing. While I did feel like I wouldn't mind watching it again while I was leaving the theater. But today somehow, I don't find the movie as memorable as Munnabhai or 3I. How was your second viewing experience ?

 

[SaiSrini]

To be honest, I dont remember the vacuum cleaner scene clearly enough to comment :P What similarity did you find in its treatment ? I will try to watch a clip of it and see if I understand what you meant

About repeat viewing. While I did feel like I wouldn't mind watching it again while I was leaving the theater. But today somehow, I don't find the movie as memorable as Munnabhai or 3I. How was your second viewing experience ?

No problem. Watch the vacuum cleaner scene again to refresh and probably you can find the similarities. The treatment is almost the same. The way of giving instructions to Raju and Farhan in that vacuum cleaner scene is similar to the way

Spoiler

Boman asks Anushka to find a way to reach Sarfaraz. The heightened sense of excitement that Raju Hirani gives to the audience with that vacuum cleaner is also very similar to the one in PK

I actually liked the movie more the second time because I was able to understand a few dialogues a lot better. Since the dialect was mostly Bhojpuri (by Aamir), the first time quite a few dialogues went over my head (even though I watched it with subtitles, I hate seeing it too often when I can understand the language pretty well; so I avoid subtitles mostly). I really enjoyed Anushka's performance the 2nd time around. This was by far her most accomplished performance. She complimented Aamir Khan really well. Unlike Kareena who was OTT quite a few times in 3I, I felt Anushka perfectly portrayed her role.

Of course scenes for which I felt very emotional the first time I saw the film, I didn't feel exactly the same way the second time. But I must say, the 2nd and subsequent viewing of 3I rates better than the experience you have for PK. But thats because 3I is a more rollicking fun entertainer, whereas PK has fun in good parts but is a more drama oriented film.

 

[abhi_jacko]

@SaiSrini - How do you rate this movie when compared to the rest of Raju Hirani's movies ?

My favorite movie has to be Lage Raho. It is one of the most memorable movies for me with perfect balance of humor and emotion. Love the whole Gandhigiri bit. And Munna apologising to Circuit is my favorite scene of all Hirani movies

 

[abhi_jacko]

I actually liked the movie more the second time because I was able to understand a few dialogues a lot better. Since the dialect was mostly Bhojpuri (by Aamir), the first time quite a few dialogues went over my head (even though I watched it with subtitles, I hate seeing it too often when I can understand the language pretty well; so I avoid subtitles mostly). I really enjoyed Anushka's performance the 2nd time around. This was by far her most accomplished performance. She complimented Aamir Khan really well. Unlike Kareena who was OTT quite a few times in 3I, I felt Anushka perfectly portrayed her role.

Anushka did do quite well. I just hope she gets her lips fixed back to how they were. She looked like a monster in some scenes.

I was surprised with Sushant Singh. He always sounds so thick in his interviews about how he only goes after the scripts and not after big name directors. Remember him having an argument with Aayushman when Aayushman said that he would pick a great director with an average script over a mediocre director with a good script. And then he does this movie which had almost zero scope for him, and had a great director with a decent script.

 

[abhi_jacko]

The narration was very disjointed at times - almost looked like someone had put together a clip show in between a coherent movie.

Looks like I figured out the reason for the above. After OMG was released and became a hit, Hirani reshot and reworked a lot of scenes because they were too similar to OMG! Definitely falls in place with the issues I had, especially in the second half

P.K. needs editing post OMG release

 

[SaiSrini]

@SaiSrini - How do you rate this movie when compared to the rest of Raju Hirani's movies ?

My favorite movie has to be Lage Raho. It is one of the most memorable movies for me with perfect balance of humor and emotion. Love the whole Gandhigiri bit. And Munna apologising to Circuit is my favorite scene of all Hirani movies

I dont know. For me, Lage Raho is definitely amongst the top ranker, and PK seems to give it really tough competition. I might just give Lage Raho the top marks since it felt more fresher than PK (PK unfortunately had to come out after OMG came out; but not PK's fault as it was started well before OMG released). For me of all Hirani movies,

Lage Raho > PK > 3 Idiots > Munnabhai MBBS

This certainly doesnt mean Munnabhai is the weakest film. All 4 of these films are really fabulous films, and when you have to choose among them, inevitably one movie has to be the last.

Looks like I figured out the reason for the above. After OMG was released and became a hit, Hirani reshot and reworked a lot of scenes because they were too similar to OMG! Definitely falls in place with the issues I had, especially in the second half

P.K. needs editing post OMG release

This should also shut up those critic mongers who call PK a copy of OMG!

 

[shravi]

Entertainment: ... I don't know what else to say

The Shaukeens: kind of creepy, but it was pretty funny. not a great movie, and i didn't understand the point of akshay kumar except to add star value, but it ends well. good timepass movie.

 

[shravi]

Happy New Year: It was shit, but not as bad as I thought it would be. It wasn't worse than Ra-One or Chennai Express (which to be fair, is really, really hard). Terrible story, action, songs, and giant plot holes. However, it was funny in bits and Shahrukh and Abhishek just about saved this film from complete mediocrity.