I'll be honest that I've been dreading OK Jaanu because I love OK Kanmani so very much. I went to an A. R. Rahman concert in Chicago and I heard the song Mental Manadhil for the first time, and I was completely blown away. Rahman played this video while he sang the song, and I just had to see this movie. Full review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2017/01/16/ok-jaanu-adiya-roy-kapur-is-adorable-in-this-decent-remake-of-ok-kanmani/

Kind of a mind bender with stories that interact like Russian nesting dolls. I watched because of the tag line of the character Emma drawing Gael Garcia Bernal as her dream man, a filmmaker. But he's a drawing for the entire film! An interesting idea of a film, and I like the focus on the women's stories, but not the greatest execution.

There have been a string of inspiring movies about empowering girls in sports recently in Indian cinema. Just this year there's been Sultan and the boxing movie Irudhi Suttru. Dangal is not groundbreaking because it's about the first women wrestler to win a gold at the Commonwealth games (and then the first Indian woman wrestler to make the Olympics.) What's groundbreaking is that Aamir Khan plays his age, and shows it. Full review: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/12/22/dangal-review-aamir-khan-in-his-first-biopic-as-the-father-of-the-wrestler-phogat-sisters/

I knew I was going to love La La Land, Damien Chazelle's new film musical, but I wasn"t really ready for how it made me feel watching it in the theater today. Damien Chazelle blew me away with Whiplash, an intense movie about a jazz drummer which opened Sundance a few years ago, and garnered J. K. Simmons a Supporting Actor Oscar. The success of Whiplash let him make the musical movie he"d always dreamed of. I went to see La La Land alone today because I. Could. Not. WAIT, but I will be dragging everyone I can to go see it on the big screen. I want to see it as many times as I possibly can. Critics have swooned, even Manohla Dargis wrote about how swept away she was watching it the second time. I love movie musicals. I live and breathe them. I fell hard for Fred Astaire, adore Gene Kelly and the list goes on. Those films of the past had magic. Yes, they were earnest and wore their heart on their sleeve, but can anything convey like a song that heavenly feeling of falling in love? Musicals have fallen out of fashion in cynical Hollywood as of late. They are rare or you have to watch a Disney animated film to see one. I have turned to Indian films to get my musical fix. Today, in the theater, Damien Chazelle gave me the most precious gift. He gave me a Hollywood musical, steeped in the traditions and with a love for Hollywood musicals of the past, and also fresh and adult and modern. The movie made me smile from the first frames as an LA traffic jam leads to people getting out of their cars to dance and sing. Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/12/17/la-la-land-this-movie-is-so-glorious-i-actually-cried-tears-of-joy-in-the-theater/

NOW I get it. When Aditya Roy Kapoor did his solo numbers at the Dream Team concert in Chicago, the girls in the crowd went crazy, especially when he covered one of the dancers with his jacket.



And it was because he was lip syncing the two big songs from Aashiqui 2 [Love], Sunn Raha Hai Na Tua and Tum Hi Ho.



I'vebeen suffering with what I think is a bad sinus infection for days and haven"t felt up to watching anything with subtitles as I couldn"t even concentrate. Margaret at Don"t Call It Bollywood mentioned that she's going to write a review of Aashiqui 2 soon, and I realized that I should really watch it before OK Jaanu comes out next weekend. I rented it last night from Amazon streaming, but I'm a little worried something may have been cut in their copy as the run time was only 2 hours 6 minutes.



I have not seen the classic 1954 Judy Garland A Star is Born, but I have the Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson version from the "70"s. Aashiqui 2's plot is completely A Star Is Born. Successful male takes talented woman under his wing, and then her career eclipses his as he declines into alcoholism.



Read the full review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2017/01/03/aashiqui-2-the-hindi-remake-of-a-star-is-born/

I unabashedly loved Dear Zindagi. It's a true measure of my love of my family that I didn"t see Dear Zindagi the day it came out in the US due to our Thanksgiving holiday travels. I have been looking forward to this movie for some time, hoping it would live up to my sky high expectations, and it did. I have yet to see director Gauri Shinde's feature film debut English Vinglish, which evidently deservedly garnered accolades. (I actually downloaded English Vinglish to watch on my trip but the subtitles were in Arabic. ARGH!) I'm not saying a male director can"t tell the story of a woman, but there's a different special perspective a woman writer/director brings to a film. Alia Bhatt's Kaira (Koko) is allowed to be a complex young cinematographer who is troubled, and frankly, sometimes unlikeable. She is no manic pixie dream girl for anyone. And that is just refreshing to see in itself. The film totally passes the Bechdel test! Kaira has a tight knit group of friends who she can be totally herself with, but a tense awkward relationship with her parents. Read the full review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/11/28/dear-zindagi-alia-bhatt-is-wonderful-in-this-portrait-of-a-complex-young-woman-at-a-life-crossroad/

When you have made the romance Hindi movie that is held up as the gold standard, and is STILL playing in a theater 21 years after it's release, that's a lot of pressure. Aditya Chopra is an excellent producer, but has gone years between directorial projects. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is the film that started me on my love of Indian Cinema, and I watched Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi second " and I was a goner. It's hard not to have super high expectations of an Aditya Chopra film. All three previous films that Chopra has personally directed had superstar Shahrukh Khan as the lead, an actor that he was instrumental in making a superstar with DDLJ. It was so monumental an announcement that Aditya was casting a new (for him) actor, that Ranveer Singh made a video announcing it and described how he cried walking out of Aditya's office when he heard the news. The first teaser trailer of Befikre is in fact the opening credits of the film, showing couples of all shapes, sizes, colors and orientation kissing all over Paris. Is this Aditya's shot across the bow to the censor board? I certainly know I'venever seen another Hindi film with so much kissing in it, much less gay kisses. For the full review, go here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/12/09/befikre-aditya-chopra-gives-us-a-scrumptious-light-paris-pastry-of-a-romantic-film/

I had heard a growing chorus about the greatness of Barry Jenkins" Moonlight from the festival circuit, and it is now gracing the number one spot on many critics" Top 10 films of the year. It's a three-way Oscar race at this point, with Manchester By The Sea, and La La Land. Before I saw the film, I did not understand the movie poster for Moonlight, but it is actually perfection. The film is split in three parts showing 10 year old "Little", a young teen and then a young adult Chiron. The poster shows all three actors split in thirds, and how they together make the whole person that is Chiron. The film Moonlight is based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue which was written by Chicago Steppenwolf playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney. Little/Charon is a young taciturn 10 year old in the first segment. Chased by bullies who taunt him for being a "faggot". He hides out in a crackhouse, and is improbably rescued by the local drug dealer gang leader, Juan (Mahershala Ali in a tour de force). Mahershala Ali I was mainly familiar with from his excellent work as the lobbyist Remy in House of Cards, but he's one of those faces who has been in several TV series and movies like Hunger Games Mockingjay. I'venever seen him like this. He was quite simply amazing. He will be nominated for just about every supporting actor nomination available this awards cycle. Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/12/17/moonlight-like-watching-beautiful-poetry-come-to-life/

I love Ajay Devgn. Unabashedly love him. In Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, I am totally Team Ajay. One of my Desi friends expressed amazement that I like Ajay and was looking forward to Shivaay, "What? He's so ugly!" She's still my friend even though I now wonder both about her eyesight and her mental acuity. He has superb screen presence and can actually act, but he just has an unmistakable swagger as an action star. The Shivaay trailer just blew me away. We'venever seen this level of stunt work and action cinematography in Indian cinema. I had heard mixed things about Shivaay once it came out, but there was no way I was going to miss this film on the big screen. Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/11/04/shivaay-awesome-action-in-this-attempted-mashup-of-taken-and-bajrangi-bhaijaan/

I realized that Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is actually the first film directed by Karan Johar that I have seen on the big screen. Sure, I've seen Johar/Dharma productions, like Kapoor and Sons, on the big screen in the two plus years that I've been watching Indian cinema, but this is the first totally Karan Johar film. I went to the first day, first show, at my local theater and they were NOT prepared for the Diwali crowds. The theater was pretty full, and there was a long line at the ticket window. Interestingly, I was not the only non-Desi there. There were two women who were fans of Aish from Bride & Prejudice, but didn't even know what the title of the film meant or who SRK is. (!!!) This will be as spoiler free a review as I can make it. We know the film is about unrequited love. If you think about it, many of Karan Johar's films are about unrequited love, be it from a lover or a parent. Read the full review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/10/28/ae-dil-hai-mushkil-karan-made-me-cry-modern-relationships-can-be-complicated-spoiler-free/