My husband and I went yesterday. Mark is an extremely harsh movie rating grader -- he reserves four stars for best of all time top ten of all time kinds of films. He gives Straight Outta Compton 2 1/2 stars, which is solid for him. He really enjoyed it. I'd rate it higher.

Mark thought it meandered a bit in the middle of the picture, but thought the casting was fantastic. We both couldn't get over Ice Cube's son's performance. All the performances were very good, but he was a standout.

We also agree that if you produce a film, you can make sure that you are portrayed as a saint. Except for the one scene where Ice Cube trashes the label exec's office, he and Dr. Dre come off as near saints while all the crazy violence happens around them. And forget the Bechdel test -- there are barely any women with actual LINES in this film. I'm not sure I've ever seen such a male-centric movie in my life. (Just how many topless women can you fit in a pool party scene? SOC aims to find out!) Mark pointed out that the only two completely rational people in the movie, though, are Dr. Dre's mother, and Eazy E's wife.

I liked that it wasn't the usual narrative progression of musician biopics that we always see. Mark wasn't into rap and hip hop at the time NWA came on the scene, he got into them later after Eminem. I know next to nothing about it, and was only peripherally aware of some of what they talk about in the film -- the Fuck the Police controversy and so on. I thought where the director excelled was in picking news clips that perfectly captured the zietgiest of white people at that time -- Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings befuddlement at why these black kids would write a song like that! The director really showed why, and it's so timely, too.

It's a flawed film, but a must see.

This is a must watch for any Prabhas fan, because he is wet for so much of the movie. :) The title Varsham means Rain.

The film opens with a girl being kidnapped from a movie set by some goons. We first Prabhas (Venkat) rescuing his uncle who has had a heart attack. He vows to find money for his by-pass, and tells his aunt not to worry. As he leaves the hospital, he is approached to find the kidnapped girl. He stops and says ...."I'll find her. Not because I love her, but for the money." Cue extensive flashback as he stares at her picture in his wallet.

Prabhas (Venkat) meets Sailaja on a train. When the train makes a stop, he is entranced by the sight of her praying to the god of Rain and then dancing with abandon. He doesn't notice that a local ganglord also is captivated by the sight of Sailaja. He doesn't get her name or anything before he is left behind and despairs of ever seeing her again.

He is shopping in the market of his town with his uncle and aunt and their son when it starts to rain again -- and he spots her again out in the rain shopping. He asks to take her to the local temple site where he promises a rainbow and says it must be seen in the rain. The rain abruptly stops and she coquettishly says she will see him when it next rains again. He prays for rain, she prays for rain, and there is a comic calling in to the local TV meteorologist.

When it next rains they meet up at that temple site, and THIS song sequence happens. Oh. My. Sweet. Lord.

https://youtu.be/gDL9xrZOKbY

Later in the romance there is this little scene that I just adored where they are sharing a melon slice Disney Lady in the Tramp style. So swoon worthy.

Our heroine's father is really a shit in this movie. He is a gambler and gets in debt to the evil ganglord. He tries everything he can to break up Venkat and Sailaja so that he can give his daughter to the ganglord, including framing Venkat. And they do break up, and are not really reconciled for quite some time even after the rescue happens and they are on the run. So it's big misunderstanding -- large egos of all, etc. AND huge Ramayana influence, and if you weren't getting it, the final scene happens AT the festival with the big Raavan effigy and a Ramlila playing out (with hijras!)

Not the same machete violence rating as Mirchi, but plenty of action scenes. One that I found particularly interesting -- the gundas try to pick up Venkat on the street but he's with his little nephew. Venkat says, let me just take the boy home then I'll go with you. The gundas pick up the child and start tossing him over Venkat's head as they circle round him, taunting him. It was an interesting scene, because this larger than life- can take on 20 guys with one hand hero is rendered almost helpless for several minutes. He can't use his normal violence, because the maybe 6 year old nephew is in their arms. Plus, there was so much endangerment of this child, and I kept thinking how dangling a child out of a moving car and such probably would not be filmed like this in Hollywood!!

This movie wasn't as easy to find good quality AND with subtitles. I used the Chrome subtitle add-on where I dragged the subtitle file onto an HD Youtube copy, then had to hook my laptop up to my TV as the subtitles don't show up via Chromecast when you do that. I will be buying this one. Prabhas plus water is always a good thing!

I just finished watching Mirchi (Chili - hot, quick to anger, spicy) with Prabhas -- and of course Sathyaraj (Kattappa!) as his long lost father.

I am kind of shell shocked. If you care about spoilers don't read on, but I have to pour out my thoughts about this movie.

In Chennai Express there was a theme of the threatened violence of South Indian villagers. It's all in this movie. All of it times infinity -- with machetes no less.

I had heard I guess that Mirchi was an action flick but didn't really know what I was getting in for. It's not like Dabangg or something with crime lords or gangsters -- it's really, at heart a family drama. A Romeo and Juliet type of thing with two warring families and their two neighboring villages.

The movie starts as a romance in Italy, and the girl, Manasa, tells Prabhas (Jai), I can't be with you because I'm from this horrible backward violent village and no one will accept you as an outsider and you could be killed. It's better for me to leave you now before we get more involved.

Then Jai goes back to India, and befriends this bully at a college. He worms his way into this guy's life, gets him a girlfriend, softens his edges and gets invited back home. It's all very Raj in DDLJ. Aaaaah. This is the girl's brother!! He makes everyone in the house happier. He hangs out in the kitchen helping. On and on. Tries to spread love and happiness everywhere. All good.

Then Jai hears that the evil violent uncle in the house is going on a raid of the neighboring village. Jai puts on a scarf around his head hiding his face, and defeats everyone, saving the rival village people. Huh?

The girl, Manasa, tells him she loves him, and the family is about to ask him to be their son-in-law. THEN Jai tells Manasa, you say you love me, but you don't know me. I'm actually the son of your family's enemy. Duh Duh DUH. All very Romeo and Juliet. Huge flashback about his background that takes half the film.

Turns out Jai was banished but was almost married to a girl, Vennela, from his home village. His whole goal is to change people and stop the feud -- from the inside of the enemy's house.

So there are horrific fights -- WITH MACHETES and blood flying everywhere. I mean, I said, "OH MY GOD!" out loud several times watching it. More blood spraying than Baahubali, it felt like. There was a huge fight at his wedding or engagement or whatever it was with blood everywhere, and his mother gets killed in the melee which is why his peace-loving father had banished him for reigniting the feud.

The end of the movie has his identity revealed. Huge fight where he doesn't fight back, but screams, "I'm just trying to show you LOVE!" "Can't you ever CHANGE!"

It's like the movie was trying to show the evil of these blood feuds -- while at the same time, showing how cool the fights are with slow-mo blood flying from machetes. It shows the horrific aftermath and the emotional toll. Jai's character arc is that he could kill everyone, but learns his father's way -- he doesn't want to live a violent life anymore.

In the end he ends the feud between the families, is accepted back with his father and gets his original fiance. But the poor girl whose house he's been living in, Manasa, the original romance shown to us, is just left there. She gives him a little nod to give him leave to go back to his true love, but I was like, WHA"" There were so many unexpected twists and turns for me in this movie!

I mean, the movie has this positive message, and yet he had to lie to this girl, and romance her, spend one whole song sequence leering at her curves and get her hopes up and he was still in love with the girl back home? It felt very weird. He's a good guy, a super hero level fighter, but yet..... the questions linger. As a viewer, you were so invested in him winning over the girl's family for the first half of the movie, Raj of DDLJ style, and then you get another half of the movie with a completely different adorable romance and .......o_O

But aside from my feeling weird that my investment in a romance was thwarted, Prabhas was very good in this. Adorable really with a much better wardrobe than his previous rom com films I'd seen. And bad ass. Except that the first fight happens while he is wearing a keytar. That was odd. It's difficult for anyone to look bad ass wearing a keytar.

I may have to buy this one on DVD. It was a great HD copy on Youtube with subtitles, but I need to watch this again, and think about it some more.

It has this fantastic scene where he proposes to his true love -- the girl Vennela in the flashback. There is a message, too, in the movie about girls having a choice, and once Prabhas gets a village leader to let a poor village girl go to college. So some positive points about women.......and yet, I'm still perplexed about him lying to that girl, Manasa. Did he target her from the beginning" Or did he think it was hopeless with his banishment and he WAS trying to start over" If anyone else has seen this film, what do you think?

South Indian films are so confusing!!!