Ahishta Ahishta

Ahishta Ahishta
(translates as "slowly, slowly")
2006
3/5 stars

Megha (Soha Ali Khan), runs away from home to Delhi to marry her secret fiance Dheeraj (Shayan Munshi).  When Dheeraj doesn't show up at the marriage registrar's office, Ankush (Abhay Deol), who is making a living as a wedding witness, offers to help.  Since Megha feels she can never return home, Ankush assists her to find a place to live and work.  They become fast friends, with Ankush eventually falling in love with her.  She agrees to marry him, then Dheeraj returns to her life.

Deol gave a mostly natural performance, but Khan was wooden at times, and not fully convincing.  Music was average and less.  The plot was typical, but then had a most unexpected turn. This would have made the movie higher rated, but there had not been enough emotional build up previously to cause the viewer to be invested in the characters.  The movie was not a disappointment, as such, but could have been much better. 

November 2019 Viewing

Watched:
Lakshya 4/5 stars 
Quite good patriotic film; plan to review it later.

Rewatched:
Shanghai Triad (Chinese film) 4/5 stars
An old favorite that didn't stand up quite as well 20 years later.

Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (previous review here)  4/5 stars

Did Not Finish:
Karthik Calling Karthik
While Farhan Akhtar is a convincing actor, I had no connection with or compassion for Karthik after 30 minutes of viewing, so I gave up.

Bobby
Made it an hour into this classic Bollywood favorite, but wasn't connecting with the characters, so moved on to another film.  May try to watch it again another time.

October 2019 Viewing

October was a difficult month like September, so again I did a lot of rewatching movies.  I went for comfort over new experiences, with the Telugu movie Rowdy Fellow as my only first-time watch.  I enjoyed it, and will write a review at some point.

September 2019 Viewing

September was a month of rewatching favorites and of abandoning many others.  In the end, I only fully watched one new-to-me, Dil Chahta Hai, which I very much enjoyed and deserves an eventual review.  It was a solid five star film, and one which I'll probably revisit. 

August 2019 Viewing

I did a lot of rewatching in August, so I don't have many to review.  The two I do need to review are Saawariya (3 or 4 stars; still need to decide) and Balakrishnudu (only 3 stars for various reasons but I liked it enough to rewatch it immediately).  

Okkadine

Okkadine
2013
3/5 stars

Shailaja (Nithya Menon), daughter of famed philanthropist Shivaji Rao (Sai Kumar), returns home from abroad.  She takes a trip to a retreat, where she meets Surya (Nara Rohit) and his household.  She falls in love with the kind family, and eventually with Surya as well.  However, murder and revenge stand in the way of happiness.

(Cast also includes Nagendra Babu;  Rachana Maurya stars in an item number.)

Rohit and Menon

The plot is involved, and isn't always logical, but is still intriguing; there is a particularly good cliff-hanger at the intermission.  While the characters are sometimes excessively emotional, the acting is generally good all around, with the leads being particularly unaffected. It was refreshing to see these two appealing principals look attractive in a natural, unsophisticated fashion.  The musical numbers are average and below.  Due to the music and the, at times, irrational story, I can only give the film three stars; however, I certainly got five stars worth of enjoyment out of it.

Kalank

Kalank
( translates as "stigma" or "blemish")
2019
3/5 stars

In Lahore, in 1946: Satya (Sonakshi Sinha), knowing she is to die soon, persuades a reluctant Roop (Alia Bhatt) to become a second wife to her husband, Dev (Aditya Roy Kapur) so that he won't be alone at Satya's death.  Petulantly, Roop insists on taking singing lessons from Bahaar Begum (Madhuri Dixit), despite being initially forbidden to enter that part of the city by her father-in-law (Sanjay Dutt).  While there, Roop meets a womanizing blacksmith, Zafar (Varun Dhawan), and falls in love with him, a situation that leads to disastrous results.
(Kiara Advani, Achint Kaur, and Kunal Khemu also have prominent roles.)

The six main actors gave mostly natural performances, with good chemistry throughout.  Dixit was especially convincing, but Bhatt was stiff at times.  This movie is visually stunning: costumes, sets, choreography, cinematography, and even the actors themselves.  The songs are generally good, with exceptional incidental and atmospheric music.

The basic story, while mostly predictable, is strong but there are plot holes that weaken it, and unneeded scenes (the bull fight in particular) that seem to be there just to add minutes.  In addition, the action is interrupted from time to time by an unnecessary interview scene taking place with Roop ten years later.  This breaks the mood and why it was included is baffling.  Despite these negatives, it is worth watching for the visual spectacle alone.

Dutt, Dixit, Dhawan, Bhatt, Kapoor, Sinha