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I think the first thing that strikes you when you see this movie is the level of emotion on display. The earlier movies had a certain cool reserve that masked whatever emotion the main characters were feeling. This one dared to be sentimental. Not that I think this is a bad thing, mind you. However,…
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Deewar is, in my opinion, the movie that features the best Amitabh Bachchan performance of all time. It is not that he did not do a better job in any movie before or since – a number of movies come to mind where his performance has been fantastic. But the sort of raw intensity he…
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There’s an utterly captivating poem that gets recited in Ardh Satya. I think the poem has the same title as the movie, and is by this guy named Deepak Chitre. I watched the movie once a long time ago and loved it, but it was that poem that became my shortcut to reliving the experience.…
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Everybody talks about the scene at the Opera House in Dil Chahta Hai. Sure, it’s a good scene, well timed and acted, but I found it less than perfect. More on that later. First, my pick for the best scene in DCH: Shortly before the scene at the Opera House, there’s one in a Sydney…
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Black is a dramatic movie in every frame. The way it is composed, shot, acted and scored – it is as if the entire movie is climactic. I was quite impressed by it when I first saw it, but regrettably, the movie hasn’t aged that well in my mind. I still think it’s a beautiful…
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Now here’s a rom-com that works. Kunal Kohli’s loose adaptation of When Harry Met Sally (arguably the best romantic comedy of all time) makes a few mistakes, but does a better job than most other Hindi movies in this genre. Saif Ali Khan, who spent years in the wilderness before breaking into the A-list with…
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Prakash Raj’s Duet Films has been making some fairly interesting films. There was Azhagiya Theeye, which I regard as one of the best romantic comedies ever made in Tamil. Then there was Kanda Naal Mudhal which was nearly as good. And now Mozhi, a movie about a man’s love for a woman who is deaf…
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Today seems to have been Monstrous Dictator Day for me. I watched a couple of movies – Den Untergang (aka Downfall) and The Last King of Scotland. The former tells the story of the last days of Adolf Hitler, seen through the eyes of his secretary. The latter tells the story of the reign of…
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Nishabd is, as the title indicates, a movie constructed almost entirely out of silences. As anyone who has seen the trailers or caught a bit of the endless coverage of Jiah Khan on television will know, it is about the relationship between a married 60 year old man Vijay (AB) and an 18 year old…
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Duet is not the best film K. Balachander has made. A remake of Cyrano de Bergerac, with assorted additional nonsense and a dash of Alibaba thrown in for good measure, the movie never really manages to get itself out of the way and reach the heights it could. It is, however, one of the most…
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