The 2006 Telugu Rom Com Bommarillu starts with a father helping a toddler walk on the beach and the voiceover says " "Shouldn"t a father let go his son's hand after 24 years" Siddharth looked SO young in this film! Oh, my goodness, he barely had a little peach fuzz little goatee. 2006 was the same year as Rang De Basanti. Prakash Raj is the father, and I'm enjoying so much seeing Prakash Raj in these father roles in Southern movies " rather than the villain heavy he plays so well in Hindi films. He's a loving " but very controlling father. He gives all the luxuries to his kids, but picks out everything, down to the clothes he buys for them. Siddhu (Siddharth) is smothered. Prakash arranges a marriage for Siddhu with a girl who only parrots what her father told him. Read the rest of my review: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/09/25/bommarillu-genelia-dsouza-is-delightful-in-this-sweet-telugu-romance/

Devasuram [The God Demon] was recommended as a classic must watch Malayalam film from 1993 -- one of the best of Mohanlal's career. It's also considered one of the finest of director I. V. Sasi. The film was written by Ranjith who based the character of Mangalassery Neelakantan (Mohanlal) on his friend Mullasserry Rajagopal. Rajagopal, bedridden for years, had a passion for music, and his wife was devoted to him. He evidently joked that "Ranjith had not managed to show even half of what he did in his life." Mohanlal is Neelan, running through his inheritance from his father, a bit of a rowdy and a womanizer, but known for his love for music and the arts. He has a devoted land manager/servant who is really a father figure to him, and a small group of rowdy friends. The rowdy friends try to be loyal to him, but end up getting him into touchy situations. This film really has it all. Mohanlal is this macho manly figure, not afraid to leap into a fight, but who has the soul of an artist. He has a feud with a rival family that is revenge after revenge back and forth. There's a fantastic hate-to-love romance with Revathi, a young woman who is ready to start a career in professional classical dance. (And we have established how much I LOVE the hate-to-love trope.) Revathi is off the charts amazing as Bhanumathi, daughter of a feckless drunkard father. She is so arrogant and proud, and she explodes at Mohanlal's rowdies, who have come to ask her to dance at a temple event Mohanlal is sponsoring and help her fall down drunk father home they find outside the house. She assumes they are the ones who got him drunk in the first place, and yells at them to leave her property. That sets up the whole course of events to follow. Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/09/16/devasuram-a-malayalam-classic-with-masterful-performances-by-mohanlal-and-revathi/

I learned something about myself in watching the melodrama The Light Between Oceans, and that is that my perspective watching Western movies has changed after watching so many Indian films. I only got a little misty at the very ending. It was meant to tug at my heartstrings, but it didn"t affect me very strongly. (Meanwhile, the friend with me who has an adopted son, cried through most of the second half.) The film is beautifully shot. It's gorgeous scenery, and I can"t find fault with the excellent acting of Michael Fassbender and Alicia Virkander. It just felt a little flat to me. Michael Fassbender plays Tom Sherbourne, a veteran of WWI who thinks spending months alone working on an island as the lighthouse keeper sounds wonderful. He's looking forward to peace and quiet. Just before he leaves for the island of Janus, he meets the vivacious Isabel. Isabel has lost both her brothers to the war, and there's a quick reference to the lack of available men. Tom and Isabel write to each other, and after knowing each other hardly at all, decide to get married. The only way she could even visit the Island of Janus is as the wife of the lighthouse keeper. I liked the romance portion at the beginning of the film. Tom is reserved and numb from the war, and Isabel brings joy and life back to Tom. Read the entire review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/09/11/the-light-between-oceans-beautiful-scenery-and-beautiful-acting-in-this-melodrama/

I am a total sucker for time travel romance stories. I absolutely love that story telling device, and I was really excited when I saw the trailer for Baar Baar Dekho because I don"t remember ever seeing it in an Indian film. aar Baar Dekho is the first feature film by director Nitya Mehra. She has worked as the Assistant Director for Ang Lee (Life of Pi) and Mira Nair (The Namesake). The film also has some high powered producers " Karan Johar and Farhan Akhtar. The beginning of the film is a beautiful montage sequence showing how Sidhartha Malhotra and Katrina Kaif's characters had been friends from childhood, and were like an old married couple by the time they became engaged. In fact Katrina uses that exact line in her proposal to Sidharth. We might as well get married then! Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/09/10/baar-baar-dekho-i-do-love-time-travel-romance-movies-but-this-one-isnt-the-best-example/

This has been a long summer of disappointing super hero movies and so on. Finally, in August, we get a movie for adults. A nearly perfect movie, in fact. Hell or High Water has a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and near universal acclaim from the top critics. And with good reason. From the very first moments, you're sucked right in. Chris Pine (Toby) and Ben Foster (Tanner) are brothers. They rob a small bank in a beaten down little Texas town in the morning right as the bank is being opened. But strangely, they only want the loose money in the drawer, and have no interest in bundled money or opening the main safe. The brothers drive back to a farm and bury the car in a pit dug by a backhoe. While the robbery seems amateurish, this is obviously carefully planned. Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/09/07/hell-or-high-water-finally-a-movie-for-adults/

Laaga Chunari Mein Daag [My Veil is Stained] is an old fashioned type of melodrama, and I ate it up with a spoon. I hadn"t had a good cry watching a movie in quite awhile, and there's nothing I love more than Ranishek. There's something about their jodi that I just adore. I don"t know if it's how tiny she is, and how tall he is, and how he looms over her protectively. He's just swoony paired with Rani, and especially so in this film. This film also passes the Bechdel test spectacularly. Rani plays the older of two sisters who grow up in Benares on the banks of the Ganges. They live in a big ramshackle old house with a father who is too ill to work (Anupam Kher) and a mother who's struggling to keep the family afloat financially (Jaya Bachchan). Konkona Sen Sharma is Chutki and is still in school, whil Rani Mukerji as Badki realizes she needs to find work to take the pressure off her mother. Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/09/07/laaga-chunari-mein-daag-theres-nothing-like-a-good-cry/

Janatha Garage (I think it translates to People's Garage) is writer/director Koratala Siva's third feature film, and his first collaboration with Jr. NTR. I loved Siva's previous blockbuster films, Srimanthadu with Mahesh Babu and one of my favorite Prabhas films, the fantastic Mirchi. Malayalam superstar Mohanlal returns to Telugu films after a cameo appearance 2 decades ago. Janatha Garage was filmed in both Malayalam and Telugu, and released in both languages. I find it really interesting the cross promotion, because the film also includes Malayalam star Nithya Menen as the second heroine, in her first collaboration with NTR. Samantha Prabhu is the first love interest, a star in Telugu and Tamil Cinema. Expectations were extremely high with this director, and with this star studded cast. I think having Mohanlal and Jr NTR in a movie together is brilliant. They were fantastic together, and frankly look like they"re family. Read my full review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/09/01/janatha-garage-mohanlal-and-jr-ntr-are-a-perfect-match-in-this-action-family-drama/

I absolutely adored the romance in the classic 1994 Malayalam film Thenmavin Kombath (At the Top of Sweet Mango Tree). It was my very first Mohanlal film, and came highly recommended by Margaret at Don"t Call It Bollywood. I was confused at the beginning of the movie exactly what Mohanlal's relationship was to the man he was traveling back from market with, and the woman he both referred to as sister and mother. I finally figured out that Mohanlal was the key servant retainer of this farm owned by Sreekrishnan Thampuran and his sister, and had lived at the farm since he was 4 years old, away from his own family. The relationship lines were blurred, as Mohnalal viewed the sister like his own sister, and as the woman who raised him. Sreekishnan is like a brother to him. The unclear lines of the relationships and the confusion is very pertinent to the plot and the misunderstandings that follow. Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/09/01/thenmavin-kombath-my-first-mohanlal-malayalam-film/comment-page-1/#comment-219

When I saw the trailer for Happy Bhag Jayegi [Happy Will Run], I was so excited. It looked funny, and most importantly had Jimmy Shergill as the heavy, and Abhay Deol looking bemused. The reviews have not been stellar, but I'm here to tell you it's a fun little over two hour romantic farce. And who doesn't want to spend two hours with Abhay and Jimmy? Read the rest here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/08/26/happy-bhag-jayegi-just-a-nice-enjoyable-comedy-movie/

Ayalum Njanum Thammil (Between Him and Me) is a 2012 Malayalam film starring Prithviraj as a young doctor and the relationship he has with his mentor and teacher. It has a tragic romance in it, but the main focus of the film is Prithviraj as Ravi and his first job out of medical school in a rural hospital. I'm on a bit of a Prithviraj kick at the moment. I am absolutely amazed that this actor is only 33. He's made over 80 films! He's just so great in any film that he is in. He has a worthy actor to play against in Ayalam Njanum Thammil as director and award winning actor Pratep Pothen plays his mentor, Dr. Samuel. I really loved Pratep Pothen in this role. Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/08/27/ayalum-njanum-thammil-prithviraj-in-the-story-of-a-young-doctor-and-his-mentor/