Movie for the night

Had a sudden shower yesterday evening, which helped bring down the temperature. The pattering rain and clapping thunder outside was a perfect setting for the main attraction for the evening: Parinda.

Parinda (1989): First off, the bad things (for a change). The print seems to have come off a DVD or a VCD, and it's a BAD one. {zulm.net reviews the good DVD} Whoever was responsible for this deserves the worst capital punishment known to the world -- perhaps listening to a circular spool of Shabbir Kumar's ballads, peppered with shrill overtones from Kavita Subramaniam neé Krishnamurthy.

Related

Vidhu Vinod Chopra Q&A with zulm.net

Another boost of NTJNH. First, some background on the débutante director of this chick flick in disarray -- Arjun Sablok. Yet another product of the Yash Chopra 'maudlin mushy sentimentality wrapped in oversweet candy floss and visual dressing' school -- nay camp -- of filmmaking. Alert (yawn?!) viewers of Chopra's overflawed Vijay may spot Mr. Sablok in the chaos. Mr. Sablok is also responsible for the marshy squib that passed off as the first telefilm from Yash Chopra, Humko Ishq Ne Mara {review: planet bollywood}. Although harking back to You've Got Mail (which harked forward from The Shop Around the Corner and In the Good Old Summertime), NTJNH is based on the love story of his parents (of course, any faithful reproduction of the original seed is purely a bizarre coincidence). To pick up from where we left off yesterday, Ms. Deol amazes me: I cannot for the world understand her forté. Hrithik has already informed the audience of his talents and seems to sleepwalk through most of the film (: "I gave 'Aap Mujhe Ache Lagne Lage' 200 percent�you get what you deserve, maybe I should have put in 300 percent. So now I knew I have to put in that much more for my next - 'Na Tum Jano Na Hum"). Can almost say the same thing for Saif Ali Khan, although to be fair, the improvements evident in Dil Chahta Hai are also evident here, but I wish he would try some more challenging roles (likewise, Mr. Roshan). The veterans do their bit, but Alok Nath tops again with a subdued presence. Rati Virwani neé Agnihotri is clearly overjoyed to be back on screen (second coming seen in the Kajol-centred remake of The Parent Trap, Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi (K2M2) {review: planet bollywood}; stayed on in the Ghai fiasco Yaadein) and viewers must bear her hamming all over ... Likewise, Moushmi Chatterjee and Smita Jaykar. Everyone seems to be in a hamming race.

All is not lost. Somewhere down the line the director seems to have begun to appreciate the importance of 'actions speak louder than loud actors with dumb lines' in chick flicks: The ill-fated meeting at the temple with Hrithik hoping against hope that Esha is not the one as he tries to focus on what she is holding in her right hand (the little aeroplane model he gifted her) is hampered by some enthusiastic excessive montage; the little bits of high-speed slapstick as Smita Jaykar reminisces about Akshay (Saif) and Rahul (again!!! Hrithik), which seem to come too late; Rahul giving vent to his pent-up anger as some inevitable goons make passes at Esha by doing a 180-turn and heading back for some one-sided maara maari; Esha telling Akshay that she had never agreed to marry him. And just when I was beginning to enjoy the second half of the film they throw in this dismal Sonu Nigam song (oh how I wish Rafi were still alive instead of having to suffer his clones who refuse to move out of his shadow). That was it! I could take no more. Guess the rest of it will have to wait for another day.

Related:

Jam Magazine looks at NTJNH

Rediff talks to Rati about her comeback