It lives up to all the hype of its greatness. It is Epic (with a capital "E") in that completely larger than life Spartacus or Gone With the Wind kind of way. A love story on a grand stage.

Dilip Kumar is simply amazing as Prince Salim. This is my first film seeing him and he is deservedly called one of the best Indian actors of all time. I can not tell you how glad I am that on the spur of the moment I added a four DVD set of his films, including his Devdas, to my Induna.com order of a few weeks ago.

Mudhabala as Anarkali is just fantastic. She is just luminous on the screen. Prithviraj Kapoor is perfection as autocratic Emperor Akbar!

I'm so glad I saw Jodhaa Akbar first and so I know something about these characters, and now I'm seeing the proud arrogant Akbar dealing with his recalcitrant son Salim. Knowing the background of the Hrithik/Aish film and the religious issues in that film, made the mix of religious traditions depicted in Mughal-e-Azam make more sense to me.

Even all the supporting players are something special. Sheila Dalaya as Suraiyya, Anarkali's coquettish sister was probably my favorite, but Kumar who plays the sculptor who sings the big Ae Mohabbat Zindagad number was great, too.

And the music!!! I could go on about that and the dance numbers, and the unbelievable palace sets for days. This was one of the most expensive films ever made in India, and it shows in every scene. There are some palace scenes with little mirror decorations everywhere that are both exquisite, and used to great effect in an almost Bugsby Berkley kind of way for some shots.

I want to see the colorized version now. I wanted to see the pure classic B&W original version, but the print on my DVD was a bit uneven and jumpy. I think they restored the print when they colorized it, too. This is the kind of movie where I wouldn't mind owning two copies!

Absolutely adorable romance. Parineeti is Meeta, a girl who frankly I think is supposed to be on the spectrum. Nikhil (Sidarth) sees her running away from a family wedding and seven years later encounters her again when his fiance Karishma asks him to find housing for her "guest". She doesn't tell him the guest is her runaway sister that she's trying to keep away from her family and parents.

Meeta is quirky and has a habit of staring unblinkingly when she's talking to someone. Parineeti pulls off making Meeta totally lovable, and she sees through to Nikhil's unhappiness with Karishma and with the demanding job he does, all to try to keep Karishma happy. But Karishma keeps breaking up with Nikhil at the drop of a hat, and has been doing so about once a month for seven years.

I found Sidarth utterly charming as Nikhil. He actually smiles, rather than brooding and pining as he does for the most part in SOTY and Ek Villain. He has a few nice dance numbers, too. The music is decent, even if I'm not going to run to download the whole soundtrack.

Really liked this film, and the jodi of Parineeti with Sidarth.

Really enjoyed this period romance. It felt like Devdas -- but with a happier ending.

Performances were all very good. This is Vidya Balan's debut film and I thought she was exceptional as Lolita. Saif Ali Khan was about the best I've ever seen him and Sanjay Dutt was a revelation to me. I think I have only seen him as the villain in Agneepath, so he was just delightful as the kind Ghirish.

The ending was particularly over the top with Saif's character literally breaking down a brick wall between the two family's houses and his family and friends cheering him on. That was really the only off note for me in this compelling family romantic drama.

Continuing my quest to watch every SRK movie. Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman has that great jodi of Shahrukh with Juhi, and they are adorable together. There are some very cute songs, but the movie was really slow in the middle section. Shahrukh plays Raju, eager engineering graduate from Darjeeling who comes to the big city of Bombay with big dreams of building huge buildings. The denizens of a working class colony take pity on him, and help him find a temporary job while he looks for his dream job. Juhi helps him land a job in the company where she is a receptionist and his rise within the company is meteoric once he catches the eye of the daughter of the owner. On top of the love triangle, and country kid being seduced by the rich life, there is a morality play about bribes and substandard construction practices.

This movie had its moments, and this song sequence https://youtu.be/Maw6aRzqWSw, Naa Naa Choona Naa is an absolute scorcher as Raju convinces Juhi's character to wear a scandalous strapless Western style gown and then proceeds to seduce her.

One of my favorite things about the movie was the street philosopher character of Jai, played by Nana Patekar. He's one of those Hey! It's that guy! I think I remember him from Rajneeti. Anyway, his character is very interesting, as he comments on the action, and has a dramatic part in getting Shahrukh to realize the error of his ways.

The movie sometimes felt disjointed, and didn't always hang together for me, but I'm still glad to have seen it. Just doesn't rise to the top tier of my Shahrukh favorites.

I really enjoyed this thriller. Siddarth was not much more than the strong silent type eye candy, but it worked for this role. Shraddah Kapoor was just delightful as the Indian equivalent of the manic pixie dream girl who decides she's going to save a villain's life. Riteish Deshmukh I have only seen in silly straight man roles (Housefull) and his role as a middle class schlub serial killer was really interesting.

The problem in the film is that the serial killer kills not just because he is sexually frustrated and has a domineering mother, but because women do something or say something annoying to him -- and because he loves his nagging wife and can't bring himself to kill her. Yeaaaahhh. It made it seem like it was the victims' fault that he chose them to kill. Also, the setup of the story and the way the director let it play out did not lead to much dramatic tension or suspense in the non romantic half of the film.

The romantic half, however, I just adored. Really swoon worthy.

I ate this melodrama up with a spoon.

Aarti (KarismaKapoor) is a rich girl who travels to the station town of Palankhet where she meets Raja Hindustani (Aamir Khan), an orphaned taxi driver. Raja is smitten with Aarti, but doesn't think he has a chance with a rich girl like Aarti. A rain storm in the mountains leads to passionate kisses (seriously maybe the longest kissing scene I've seen in Bollywood!) and then suddenly Aarti's father shows up to take her home.

Raja begs her to stay (in song, of course), and she defies her father by marrying Raja. This is when the melodrama goes into overdrive because Aarti's stepmother and uncle are plotting against her and Raja at every turn. Raja's intense pride and insecurity at being lower class than Aarti don't help matters either.

The final fight scene is absolutely EPIC with Aamir fighting off guys with guns and knives while holding a baby and then with the baby strapped to his back. I was yelling at the TV so much during it that my family came in to check on me!

I think I had only seen Karisma in Dil To Pagal Hai, and she was just fantastic in this.

Prabhu Deva is an excellent dancer, and so is Varun Dhawan. There is a LOT of excellent dancing in this film. But next to no plot to speak of. I mean a shocking lack of plot - I could not believe how flimsy the love triangle was, and how quickly it was resolved.

Last night I watched Ghajini on BluRay, and I am so glad I bought this! It's one of my neighbor's favorite movies and she's been urging me to watch it for a long time. She loves the romantic first half.

I saw Memento years ago, and I do love Guy Pearce and the wild indie feel of the original but having the full romantic story added in really takes the story up a notch.

This is a movie that has everything! A superb romantic comedy storyline. I cannot even tell you my delight at the moment when Aamir (Sanjay) is going to confront Kalpana for saying she's engaged to him, and she mistakes him for a male model and just prattles on and on while he is just gobsmacked smitten.

And then there is intense action, and a really different revenge plot with Sanjay's memory loss, AND Aamir gets to really show a lot of range, too. It's hard for me to imagine anyone else in the Bollywood world doing this role anywhere as well as Aamir. And the Ghajini villain is quite something, too. (I saw on IMDB he played Ghajini in the Tamil original, too.)

I don't think I'd seen Asin in anything before and I absolutely love her. She is a delight and so great and bubbly playing opposite Aamir.

Aamir manages to get some serious social messages in with Kalpana saving several young girls from organ harvesting and sex slavery.

And the A R Rahman music!! Hard to pick a favorite but Guzarish is one I've been replaying over and over this morning, and not just because of nearly shirtless Aamir throughout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKrCL4HOZ8k

I was really, really taken with the Raj Kapoor/ Nargis chemistry. They are amazing together. Raj Kapoor in Shree 420 goes from happy-go-lucky naive country rube to urbane card shark seemingly in the blink of an eye. And he directed the thing, too!! He used some very basic special effects in a couple of scenes that were just so effective. In one, Raj is drunk and Nargis is standing there in rigid disapproval and scorn -- then a ghost like twin of her separates and sings plaintively for him to come back to her. In another, Raj looks in a mirror as he's wearing his con man tux, and an image of his happy tramp appears asking if he's happy now.

And the MUSIC!!! The beginning riff of Mera Joota Hai Japani rang bells for me and I finally recognized it is the opening of SRK's Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte, but then they use the lyrics of Pyraar Hua Ikrar Hua, and of course the umbrellas.

Just a magical classic. I'm now a goner for Raj Kapoor and Nargis!

http://www.bollywoodlife.com/news-gossip/irrfan-khan-beats-salman-khan-shah-rukh-khan-aamir-khan-to-be-the-bollywoods-highest-grossing-actor/

The above article amuses me no end!

So we went as a family to see Jurassic World on 3D IMAX last night.

It was good for a sequel, and I loved Chris Pratt. Maybe a three star. It needed Jeff Goldblum's Dr. Malcolm in the worst way. Jake Johnson was sort of that character (and the bit where he is wearing an old Jurassic Park t-shirt he found on ebay is pretty funny.)

What I LOVED was Irrfan Khan's part, and I'm absolutely sure I was the only one in the theater super excited when he came on screen. He plays the very wealthy corporate owner of the park, and Bryce Dallas Howard runs the park, and is super nervous about Irrfan's visit. I thought he would be the villain, and he's not. He just has a childlike joy about the park, and he's learning to pilot a helicopter (very unsteadily to Bryce's terror).

He looks damn fine in his very tailored suit, too.