Dishoom was exactly what it was advertised to be " a silly fun somewhat comedic action flick. Varun Dhawan and John Abraham are odd couple buddy cops directed by Varun's brother Rohit Dhawan. It wasn"t the greatest flick, but it was an enjoyable time pass. John Abraham's tough guy custom agent is introduced to us kicking a guy out of an elevator because the poor guy dared to ask him to not smoke. Funny enough. But the next scene was problematic, as Kathy of AccessBollywood.net points out. John discovers his girlfriend is cheating on him, and holds a gun to her head to get the lover to come out of hiding. Completely unnecessary. There are plenty of other scenes to establish how John Abraham's character doesn"t play by the rules, and this threatened violence against women is jarring and the one off moment of the movie. The star player of the Indian cricket team has been captured in an unnamed Mid-Eastern country. John is sent to solve the case and avoid an international incident. Varun is a rookie cop not trusted with more than picking up the captains kids and groceries. He's an interesting character, a Muslim NRI who jumps at the chance to serve India even though he was born abroad. (And in a running gag, he's searching for a bride from India.) Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/08/01/dishoom-varun-shines-in-this-enjoyable-buddy-cop-action-flick/

Over and over, I've had the 2015 Malayalam film Ennu Ninte Moideen (Yours Truly Moideen) recommended to me. It's an incredible love story starring PrithViraj and Parvarthy. And it is so incredible because it is a real life story of Moideen and Kanchanamala. In 2006, director R.S. Vimal interviewed the real Kanchanamala and people who knew Moideen in the half hour long documentary Jalam Kond Murivetaval (or) One Who Was Wounded By Water. Kanchanamal wanted Prithviraj to play Moideen because she thought looked very much like him. Ennu Ninte Moideen is the tragic love story of an interfaith couple who were kept separate by their families for years. Moideen and Kanchanamala's fathers were friends and each were land owners in Mukkam, Kerala. Moideen's father was a renowned Muslim leader, and Kanchanamala's family were Hindu. Kanchanamala and Moideen went to school together as children, but later Kanchanamala went away from her home to attend college. Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/08/06/ennu-ninte-moideen-just-as-special-a-malayalam-film-as-id-been-told-it-would-be/

I liked Wake Up Sid more than I thought I would. To be honest, the story is a bit too close to home, as my son has graduated college and is trying to find his way in the world. Ranbir Kapoor is Sid. He's a rich Bombay kid who flunks his college finals. Anupam Kher is his father (who else!) and tells him he has to go to work in the family plumbing fixture business. When he walks out, Sid and his father have a huge fight and he is kicked out of his family home, his credit cards canceled. Sid can"t think of anywhere to go than to the apartment of his new friend Aisha ((Konkona Sen Sharma). I think Aisha was supposed to be 27 and Ranbir much younger as he was supposed to be a college graduate (maybe 23?). Anyway, it's unusual to have the woman be older in any Bollywood relationship so brownie points for that. Aisha is new to Bombay and starting a new job and an independent life. Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/08/13/wake-up-sid-slacker-ranbir-coming-of-age/

The Malayalam film Neram was disappointing for me. Watching comedy in Indian movies can be very hard for a non-Desi like me. For the first movie I picked to watch from the big MyIndiaShopping order from Kerala I gifted myself for my birthday, I picked Nivin Pauly's Neram (Time). It's an action-drama-comedy from 2013, and Nazriya Nazim (from Bangalore Days) is his love interest in the film. Neram was disappointing and just not very good. The romance between Nivin and Nazriya is pre-existing, and frankly they had more of a best friends chemistry than romantic. Nivin borrows money from a loan shark because he's lost his job and has to pay for his sister's wedding. He can't find a job to pay the loan shark back and on the day payment is due, the packet of money a friend gives him to pay it off gets snatched out of his hand by a mugger. He has to pay back the loan shark by 5 p.m., thus the Time (Neram) of the title. So it has bursts of action, and is sort of a farce with all sorts of misunderstandings and close shaves and farcical elements of different robbers scamming each other. But it just didn't hold together. Read the rest here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/07/17/neram/

I was blown away by Vishal Bhardwaj's Haider, an incredible adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet starring Shahid Kapoor. Omkara is part of his Shakespeare trilogy (Maqbool, Omkara, Haider). Omkara works extremely well as a modern adaption of Othello in rural Uttar Pradesh India. This is a stellar cast, and some of the best performances I've ever seen of some of these actors. I have been sitting on this DVD for Netflix for some time. I knew it was going to be excellent from everything I'd read, but it is such a depressing story! For the rest, read my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/07/13/omkara-shakespeares-othello-works-extremely-well-in-this-modern-indian-adaptation-by-vishal-bhardwaj-with-a-stellar-cast/

Aagadu (He Will Not Halt) is a 2014 action comedy starring Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu as a super cop, the Indian superhero genre. On Friday night I was glued to news of the military coup in Turkey, but I just couldn"t take all the bad news with that chaos on top of the massacre in Nice. It was too much, and I needed something crazy to get my mind off it all. Telugu films are great for that, and this one was particularly crazy. Aagadu is not the greatest movie in the world, and it's certainly not the best Mahesh Babu film, but it made me laugh. Evidently it was not his most successful film, but it was an enjoyable watch. The director, Srinu Vaitla, had previously made the hit film Dookudu with Mahesh Babu (which I really liked.) And, I"ll admit it, I just like Mahesh Babu in a cop uniform. Aagadu mixes the comedy with some more serious drama of an orphan boy adopted by a policeman, who takes the blame for a fatal accident for his adopted older brother. He's sent to reform school, but his only goal is to become a cop like his estranged adopted father. Telugu action films I expect to be over the top in their violent action scenes, but the director and Mahesh seemed to delight in taking it even more over the top, for the amusement value. Mahesh even references many of his past films, and there's a running gag of him conning the crooks that they"re just like his long lost brother, who"_..insert plot of Dookudu, Okkadu, etc. I was glad I"d seen a number of Mahesh Babu films so I was in on the joke, but the subtitles also pointed out which movie he was referencing. I recently watched the Malayalam film Neram, and the language play comedy in the film went right over my head. This film veered towards slapstick comedy, but it made me laugh out loud. Read the full review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/07/18/aagadu-the-silly-telugu-movie-i-needed-with-all-the-bad-news-lately/

Many people recommended Jatt & Juliet on my quora post. After I saw Diljit Dosanjh in Udta Punjab, Jatt & Juliet moved to the top of the list. I was completely taken with Diljit in Udta Punjab, and he was one of the best things about that film. In Udta Punjab, he played a very quiet policeman who was shy in romance, but who could step up with the action when needed. Diljit's role of Fateh Singh in Jatt & Juliet is a bit different. It's a romantic comedy and he has a zany manic energy that reminded me very much of Varun Dhawan in Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania. Margaret of Don"t Call It Bollywood compared Jatt & Juliet to DDLJ. It does have the hate to love similar trope in the first half of the film. But Diljit has this silly energy about him that reminded me more of Varun in Humpty " also because Pooja (Neeru Bajwa) is the rich girl that seems out of reach to Fateh. Fateh's goal is to marry a Canadian white girl and become a resident in Canada. He meets Pooja at the airport and the sit together on the flight where he annoys her no end with his antics and incessant patter. Pooja is flying to Vancouver to attend fashion school. Pooja is robbed when she's about to put down a deposit on an apartment. She hesitates to ask her parents for help because she doesn"t want them to tell her to come home. She and Fateh end up living in the same rental house. And then they end up working at competing next door restaurants. Pooja thinks Fateh is ridiculous with his talking to his biceps every morning, and he loves to tease and torment her, nicknaming her "pest". For the rest of my review: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/06/30/jatt-juliet-diljit-dosanjh-is-adorable-in-this-punjabi-rom-com/

purchased the Telugu film Yamadonga [God of death thief or Thief Yama] on DVD months ago because it was highly recommended by a friend. I kept picking it up, and putting it back down. Frankly, the cover image doesn"t do anything for me. But I forgot that I bought it because it is by director S. S. Rajamouli (of Baahubali fame!) Yamadonga came out in 2007 (between Chatrapathi (2005) and Magadheera (2009)). Yamadonga was my first Jr. NTR film, but his third collaboration with Rajamouli. hatrapathi has that amazing CGI shark fight with Prabhas, and Magadheera anticipates Baahubali with its lengthy past life fantasy flashback. And then of course, Rajamouli made the hero reincarnate as a FLY in Eega. His imagination has no bounds, and continues to amaze me with every film. I was blown away by Baahubali, which I saw four times in the theater alone, and cannot wait for part 2 next year. Yamadonga is a delightful flight of fantasy as a thief insults Yama (the God of Death) and is sent to hell before his time. Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/07/08/yamadonga-s-s-rajamoulis-fantasy-film-is-so-much-fun-my-first-film-with-jr-ntr/

If it's Eid, it must be time for the big Salman Khan movie! There has been so much hype around Sultan, for months and months, and one can"t help but worry that the movie won"t meet the raised expectations. But thankfully, it does! Margaret of Don"t Call It Bollywood and I saw the movie together at the Indian MovieMax theater about 45 minutes from me. It was quite the experience to see it opening night with a big crowd all dressed to the nines for Eid festivities they were going to after the film. For me, Dabanng and Bajrangi Bhaijaan are two of my favorite Salman Khan movies, and some of his best work. Sultan is good. It's very good, but for me, it's not quite at the same level as those two movies. Salman's acting has moments of greatness in Sultan, and Anushka Sharma is simply amazing. For the rest of my review, go here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/07/08/sultan-it-lives-up-to-the-hype/

Srimanthudu [Wealthy Man] is one of the better Telugu Mahesh Babu movies I have seen. I downloaded it from Google Play and watched it on a flight (and finished up at the hotel.) It's about a wealthy young man who goes to his ancestral village and saves the town from the evil goons running the place, as well as donating his millions to rebuild the village. It reminded me very much of Mirchi, one of my favorite Prabhas movies, and there's a reason why. When I looked up Srimanthudu, I discovered that Mirchi and Srimanthudu have the same writer/director: Koratala Siva. Mirchi, amazingly, was Siva's debut directorial feature film. Srimanthudu was also a major hit, and with good reason. Read the rest here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/07/06/srimanthudu-wealthy-man-mahesh-babu-takes-a-village-and-adopts-the-whole-town/