Absolutely delightful and charming romantic comedy. Varun Dhawan is a charmer and a rascal as he fends of villains left and right with his fists and his street smarts.

I laughed out loud at some of the funny filmi references, both in song lines and scene set ups - "Palat!"

The female leads were no Kajol or Rani, but Varun may indeed be the successor to SRK. His dancing and comedic charm reminded me very much of Shahrukh's early films. Can't wait to see Varun and SRK together in Diwale.

I was hoping Raincoat would be transcendent, and I did like Aish and Ajay together, and both acted well. My criticism is really on the set up of the movie itself. It's based on the Gift of the Magi by O Henry, which I didn't know going in, but gleaned pretty quickly. The way it is filmed is very claustrophobic as much of it is when Ajay, a down on his luck unemployed man, visits Aish, his childhood sweetheart who married a rich man, in her apartment in Calcutta. It's like a stage play, really, just filmed. And I contrast with Lootera (also an O Henry story based film) that also had key intimate scenes when the romantic couple were locked together in a room, but Lootera also broke things up with dramatic chase sequences and what not.

Raincoat got painfully slow in the middle. There were some very good scenes === particularly Ajay crying alone in the bathroom of his friend's home in the beginning. I also really liked his relationship and conversations with his friend's wife Sheila, and how he asks her why she was weeping all the way to her wedding and back. She replies that he needs to learn some things from women, and turn on the shower when he's crying in the bathroom.

I guess we're supposed to admire Aish for letting herself look horrible and depressed and like a wet dishrag basically, but I don't know if her acting was really up for this kind of listless disillusioned character. I love her in many things, but this one is not my favorite.

The good:

Akshay is a fun action hero to watch. The fight scenes are terrific, and he really rocks that beard.

Flashback with Kareena was nice.

The bad:
The heroine was insipid and could have been cut from the movie with no problem.

Warped social message delivery system

I have been wanting to watch this movie for forever, and was so disappointed it did not have a theatrical release in the US. I couldn't even wait for my DVD to arrive from Amazon and I watched a mostly pretty good quality version of Dum Laga on einthusan with my Chromecast thingy on my TV. It got choppy at the end, but I got all the subtitles I think.

My feeling at the end of Dum Laga Ke Haisha, which was under two hours, is that I just wanted it to be longer. In one way, it's more like a traditional Hollywood Rom Com in that all is resolved in one dramatic gesture at the end, and they realize they do want to stay together, sweet kiss, the end. The acting was good, and I was quite impressed with Ayushmann Khurana and Bhumi Pednekar both. Ayushmann makes Prem likeable and sympathetic even though he is acting like an immature ASS for much of the picture. I'm still not sure he totally redeemed himself from the one-vile-horrible-thing-he-said-that-made-her-move-out, and that's why I wish it had been just a weeeeeee bit longer. Another song montage of him making it up to her even more, and more of their growing friendship. I don't know, the dramatic gesture and his big smile when she says she wants to stay with him did make me tear up. It's a very sweet film, and I adore all the music, which I listen to all the time.

One of the best things about Dum Laga Ke Haisha is its portrayal of the agency of young women.

Sandhya is the educated one, not Prem (which is the source of much of his insecurities and self esteem issues.) She goes into the arranged marriage with hope, and takes steps herself to consummate the marriage. I won't spoiler how, because it's a really cute and funny scene. She leaves her husband when he says something unforgivable, stands up to his family and her own, seeks a divorce on her own, and goes out for a teaching job, her dream. Late in the film, Prem is very encouraging of her and her chances of getting the job. "I'm sure you'll get it. I just know." And that's kind of the turning point for them even before the big race.

Glad the DVD is on its way!

Nearly perfect Bollywood Rom Com. I just love how the second half mirrors the first -- having the opposite character say nearly the same lines spoken to them in the first half. Watched many years ago, and really enjoyed watching it again -- especially since I now get the joke when Kareena's character says to the sullen morose Shahid, "Are you a Bachchan fan? An Angry Young Man?"

The music is quite good, too, especially my favorite Tum Se Hi.

Oh, man, I loved this one. Weird awful mullety Aamir hair in the first half and all.

I went in knowing next to nothing. All I had seen was the one song sequence at the temple where she is still blind and Aamir sticks his face in the way of her hand so she'll touch him. I'd seen that music video when I played a montage music playlist on Youtube. I hadn't seen a trailer or read about the plot. I just thought - Aamir and Kajol -- looks like an interesting romantic pairing.

So, I had NO idea about the whole terrorism thing. None. Didn't even read the Netflix DVD envelope before watching. Imagine me sitting on my couch with my mouth hanging open at the mid-film bomb blast and then Aamir striding through the airport with short hair. Waaaah?! I am probably the only person in the world that didn't know that was going to happen, but I liked being so surprised.

I had thoroughly enjoyed the romantic first half, as womanizer tour guide Aamir falls for the blind naive Kajol on her first school trip to Dehli. He realizes he loves her and can't let her go home, proposes and she calls her parents to come for the wedding. Then the train station blows up! At the bomb blast, first I thought her parents had been blown up. I thought the whole rush to get her an eye operation before the wedding and the parents even get into town was weird, but then it all fell into place -- well sort of. After the interval, seven years have passed, and ruthless terrorist Aamir (thankfully with a much more flattering non-mullet short military haircut) is on a dangerous mission to get the trigger piece for a nuclear bomb. He's injured and knocks on the door of a remote house in the mountains. Duh duh duh. You can guess who answers the door.

This is a movie where there are certain set pieces and scenes that just work SO WELL because it is the great Aamir Khan and Kajol doing them. OMG Aamir tearing up realizing she is calling the little boy Rehan because it's his SON! All the feels. That is exactly what I watch Bollywood for. All the feels! All of them! And their love song seduction in the rain in the first half-- wow. Just wow.

I literally cannot think of two better actors to play these roles. Just a movie transformed by such good acting.

Now.....the plot. Well, it seemed to me that they had these great ideas and overall themes, but then some things got rushed, like her eye operation, just to get to the point where she can miraculously see and not know him when he comes back. And also, there is no real reason for him to hate India and be a terrorist other than it would make his grandpa mad if he left the family terrorist business. I mean, in Dil Se, we totally get why she is a terrorist and what drives her. Here? Not so much. We could have had a short flashback where he sees his parents get killed by Indian soldiers or something. Aamir turns from happy-go-lucky womanizing tour guide to intense lethal terrorist in the blink of an eye as only he can pull off so well. (Ha! Pun intended but accidental)

And I didn't hate the ending, because really, how could it have ended happily. I mean the real ending -- when she is cradling him and he says, "See I told you I loved you more than you loved me". The epilogue ending with Kajol and her son happily praying at his grave? Kind of odd.

The music was mostly very good, too, but the main thing to recommend this movie is seeing the great chemistry between Kajol and Aamir Khan. Even though I don't speak Hindi or Urdu, I also loved the beautiful poetry couplets they use to flirt with each other in the beginning. I'm probably going to be buying this one on DVD, despite Aamir's awful hair in the first half!

I'm still a little shell-shocked from watching Hey Ram over the last two nights.

I did not know really anything about the film going in, and I come away with awe and respect for the grandiose vision of director, writer and lead actor Kamal Haasan. This is the first time I have seen him, and on top of the incredible achievement of making this film, he is an amazing actor as well.

The time period of this movie is Partition, from the riots of the summer of 1947 up to Ghandi's assassination in 1948. Haasan using the framing device of he as an elderly man dying of old age, and his grandson telling his story to the doctor treating him. As they are trying to transport him to a hospital, they are caught up in a riot, and have to hide underground. The sounds of gunfire transport the old man back to the events of the movie.

Ran is an archaeologist working with his Muslim friend played by SRK. After a fun drinking number in a club, he travels back to Calcutta to see his Bengali wife, played beautifully by Rani Mukerji. He is dismissive of her fears of violence in the streets, but has to save a young woman from a mob. When he returns home to their apartment, he is forced to listen as his wife is raped and murdered in the next room. This sends Ram into a frenzy of revenge.

The intellectual, scientist is gone, and he spends much of the movie in a frenzied fog of revenge and PTSD. Any sound of crying brings him right back to the horrible cries of his wife.

He gets caught up in a plot to kill Ghandi, and even though his family finds him a second wife, he is relentless in his goal. There are fantasy sequences where he dreams of himself as a muscular mythic hero, and of his wife turning into a gun. I'm sure I didn't catch all of the symbols and references.

He encounters his Muslim friend, SRK, again late in the movie, and they save each other in a desperate battle in the Muslim quarter of New Dehli. Shahrukh's acting style seems overblown next to the subtlety of Haasan, but partly his character is supposed to be the more jovial and melodramatic one.

The final scenes show how Ram turns away from his plan and becomes a devotee of Ghandi and witnesses his killing.

Hasaan has created an epic, about the effects of Partition, and about the damaged psyches of those caught up in the violence and its aftermath. A legacy that lingers.

Oh how I loved Bunty Aur Babli. Had to rewatch a few of the songs the next morning before I mailed it back to Netflix. So many good ones!

Abhi and Rani are so cute together. There is a moment in the song Chup Chup Ke when Rani pulls down ABhi's shirt collar so she can kiss his chest and then up. I loved that! So often the woman is passive and the man does all the kissing but in this song it really went back and forth, mirroring how equal their relationship was.

And Aish's item number with Abhi and Big B! Deliciously awkward now that she seduces her father in law!

I'm going to be buying this one on DVD.

Kaminey was like a Tarantino film or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels -- a million characters to keep track of, very confusing plot initially and even a sort of Mexican standoff gun battle at the end. I'm sure I wasn't getting all the wordplay that resulted from the lisp of one twin and the stutter of the other. Blown away by Shahid Kapoor's performance, though. He really made the two completely different people. I liked it, but I don't think I got all of it, not understanding the Hindi. I liked it, but this was one where not knowing Hindi was a real hindrance as I'm sure the subtitles didn't capture allnthe wordplay.

Simply the best. An amazing coming of age film about a young woman who goes on her honeymoon alone to Europe after her husband to be jilts her before right before the wedding. Kangana Ranaut was exceptional in the part of Rani (Queen), a naive girl from Dehli who finds herself and a new self confidence on her journey. Perfection.