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* Ghajini -English subtitles - 1 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies.local.indian/t/0d29b6bde782ac1a?hl=en
* Slumdog millionaire - 1 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies.local.indian/t/4c2f14f07d26c2ea?hl=en
* Chandni chowk to China - English subtitles - 3 messages, 2 authors
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies.local.indian/t/457efc3ba05868f6?hl=en
* 'CHANDNI CHOWK...' GETS LUKEWARM RECEPTION FROM U.S. MEDIA - 1 messages, 1
author
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies.local.indian/t/600648d58949f1e9?hl=en
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TOPIC: Ghajini -English subtitles
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies.local.indian/t/0d29b6bde782ac1a?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Thurs, Jan 15 2009 6:40 pm
From: "Joydeep Chakrabarty"
Ghajini is a 3rd class worthless movie. 30-40 years back, this kind of
movies were made. There is nothing in this movie. The villain is the most
aweful. Thank God, I don't know his name. I can't think of any recent Hindi
movies, where the villain is shouting "Ab Main tujhe maroonga.... dekh
lunga..." like that. He can't even speak Hindi properly. It is sad that they
copied some theme/idea from a classic movie like Memento.
In Memento, the main focus of the movie was the illness, short-time memory
and how the protagonist finally reached the killer. In Ghajini, you will
never find what the main focus is.
Is it a family movie? No. Those gore and violent scenes like smashing one's
head with hammer should not be screened in front of kids. (I should say
Nobody).
Is it an adult matured movie? No. Full of stupid songs (Music is also not
that good), mindless dances, 3-year-old-matured love story. The list is
endless.
In short, don't waste your money.
"habshi" <habshi@anony.com> wrote in message
news:49669aaf.50585343@news.clara.net...
> Saw this movie again ,and like most Bollywood movies , enjoyed
> every minute of it . How charming is Asin! The six Amir Khans who
> serenade her in one song.
> The choreographed fights are superb
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TOPIC: Slumdog millionaire
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies.local.indian/t/4c2f14f07d26c2ea?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Fri, Jan 16 2009 6:43 am
From: "harmony"
the best reason for the hindus to not watch this movie:
aamir khan is pro-terror and anti-hindu.
he poilitically actively opposed river water channelized to tens of millions
of thirsty hindus. any hindu who watches aamir khan's movies is splain
stupid and deshdrohi.
<kerty9@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1f78c0b4-d04d-4212-8a8d-8ef84eaf8a7f@r15g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
> Slumdog Millionaire - a Trash and Burn take on Mumbai
>
> I had heard so much about this movie, so I made it a point to see it
> in a theater rather than wait for DVD. The theater was only 1/4th full
> on Saturday 10pm show for its first week run. It was one of only 3
> cinema halls showing it in entire Chicago region. I wondered why a
> movie so unanimously plugged by critics and fans had such a limited
> release in such a lucrative market like Chicago. Barring 4-5 white
> couples, the audience was exclusively Indians. There were no applause
> or standing ovations during or after the movie. Audience chuckled at
> couple of funny scenes but audience otherwise remained grim and
> stunned throughout the movie. Acting from Dev Patel and Anil Kapoor
> stood out. But overall, the movie did not impress at all.
>
> I found this movie to be extremely dark, depressing, over the top,
> manipulative, contrived, implausible, stereo-typical and typical fare
> western audiences have come to expect about India. There is hardly any
> redeeming value or ray of hope in the plot, characters or theme of the
> movie. There is nothing in the movie that we have not seen or heard
> before in countless poverty-propaganda paddled over decades. It has no
> novelty except for people getting bored with India's new-found image
> as a nation making the big moves on all fronts.
>
> There is not a single positive or uplifting scene, not a single
> positive or redeemable character in the whole of the movie. And this
> movie is teeming with characters, at their seediest best and most
> violent to their core. Even hero and heroines are not spared. They are
> not your Bolywood or garden variety characters one could identify with
> or sympathize with. I know I would not bring them home. How can a
> Mumbai of such an immense scope and size have not a single person who
> has positive or redeeming character? And yet, how did our hero and
> heroine acquire so many middle-class values and middle-class ethics on
> which movie rests its plot and appeal to the audience? It is cheesy to
> use child protagonists to manipulate audience and exploit them to
> develop plots and characters that are highly implausible.
>
> Here are few samples of plots and characterizations that I found
> highly implausible.
>
> (Jamal and Salim are brothers growing up in the slums of mumbai. Laita
> is their slum buddy and Jamal's love interest)
>
> 1) Jamal, a chai boy, speaks fluent English with western accent. Most
> Indians would envy his english. How did he got that smart and literate
> to read and speak? They are shown attending a slum school for a brief
> scene when they were no more than 6-7yo, but to expect that they
> somehow became literate within such a short stay in school in grade 1
> or 2, stretches credulity.
>
> 2) How did Jamal acquired middle-class values and ethics - willingness
> to commit, sacrifice for love, fidelity, aversion to greed, aversion
> to crime, desire to be ordinary. There is nothing in the whole movie
> to suggest the plausibility of such values upon his character.
>
> 3) Jamal falls in love for his childhood crush, Latika, who is now a
> prostitute. Jamal has very casual attitude towards money and success.
> He does not care for them. He is willing to hang it up all for her.
> Nothing else matters in his life except Latika. That is a typical
> Bolywood middle-class yarn that seems superimposed on most improbable
> of characters here. What would make a prostitute, who would sell
> anything including her fidelity and body for money, fall for a loser
> who has no money or status or security in life? And why would a guy,
> who can fall for any other woman in Mumbai, would fall for a
> prostitute or value her commitment that he would risk giving up
> everything for her? How and where did they acquire these 'love-
> fidelity-relationship-commitment-sacrifice' values considering what
> movie tells us about their upbringing? When did their transformation
> as lovers took place? The movie does not make any attempt to make it
> look real or plausible. Director thinks Bolywood crowd would lap it up
> as they usually do, while western audiences wouldn't care about such
> things.
>
> 4) Latika was a mistress of a local don and Salim. She had a
> comfortable, disco and party good life, had access to power and money
> of don, and protection from Salim. Why would a prostitute give up
> everything for a slumdog? From where did she acquire her wannabe-lover
> girl-housewife values? Jamal and Latika grew-up together as children
> only for a short time, and there were far more powerful forces in
> their life to give both of them their own orientation and trajectory
> in life. Sentimental childhood crush of age 6 do not wash. It was not
> plausible for adult of them to fall in love with each other. How they
> got transformed into lovers is glossed over by the movie. For a love
> story, it is a major flaw.
>
> 5) Salim turns into a right-hand man of a local don while our hero
> toils as Chai boy. How could our hero avoid the lure of easy money and
> crime when his brother could not? Surely, there must be something
> redeeming in the environment around Jamal to transmit those middle-
> class ethics and Middle-class values into his depraved slum
> upbringing. But we do not get to see any of that in the movie. Not
> even a passing glimpse.
>
> 6)The movie shows the transformation of Salim into crime-dog. He
> becomes a right-hand man of a local don. You don't rise to such
> powerful position by having soft values like remorse, compassion,
> kindness, guilt, lack of loyality etc. Than what made Salim hang it
> all up at the end without any rhyme or reason? Why sudden suicidal
> remorse or guilt? The movie does not dwell on such transformation of
> Salim. It looks contrived and manipulative for the sake of plot.
>
> 7) How and when did Latika, a slum prostitute, learnt to drive a car?
> Even most of the middle-class Mumbaikars do not.
>
> This is not Mumbai that Mubaikars can even recognize.
>
> Response to Comments received:
> ========================
>
> "you think love, humanity, kindness, etc are "middle class values""
>
> These values do not grow on trees. Somebody in the society has to
> nourish, uphold and sustain them. Like religion can't be had on empty
> stomach, certain values are the province of well-fed class. Filthy
> rich class can afford them but they can also afford to live without
> them. Slumdog class badly needs them but most of them can not afford
> to have them due to daily grind for survival at sub-human levels. It
> does not mean no slumdogs can have them. Because in the city like
> Mumbai, all classes exist side by side and their world mingle on a
> daily basis - and people from any class or strata therefore can absorb
> values from their environment. However, this movie does not show
> values and classes mingling. The cosmopolitan environment, other than
> its physical landscapes, is missing from the script and characters. It
> paints a bleak one dimensional canvass of slumdog world in which no
> other classes, values or shades of characters intersect and yet
> protagonists acquire certain redeeming values as if by miracles. The
> movie failed to dwell on the source of their miracles, hope. It would
> have benefited all slumdogs, not just Jamal. All slumdogs are not
> likely to get invited on game shows to make it. Than why give them
> pipe dreams if you are not going to show them a way? Turn them into
> Salim, is that the final answer? This movie flunks the answer. That is
> why I called it a dark, bleak movie without any redeeming value.
>
> "Do you actually believe that people cannot feel love or be
> compassionate or kind? these are really not values that need to be
> taught, these are innate human qualities. yes, sure, some people have
> them beaten out of them or lose hope but really, most people want to
> be good."
>
> There is nothing innate or inevitable about values. We are not talking
> genetics or biology here. People are certainly not born with values.
> People absorb them from their environment. Environment makes them
> available to the people. Both positive and negative people and values
> exist in the environment. But it is redeeming values and positive
> characters found in the environment that create the source of hope,
> optimism, and triumph over the negatives and hopelessness. If you
> exclude them from the scripted worldview, than there is no
> plausibility of hope left for the hopeless except perhaps equally
> impossible odds of winning lotto or game shows - winning the
> affections of prostitutes certainly looks plausible - but in all
> likelihood, it seals the fate down to the path of Salim that is not
> going to be remorseful as fictional Salim is in the movie.
>
> I do understand the movie's POV - that we all are born with innate
> values but environment beats them out of people because of
> dehumanizing circumstances, and movie sets out to showcase exactly
> that - paint the environment as the villain thru its exclusionary,
> one-
> dimensional, bleak and violent take of the environment, people and
> their lack of values - and celebrates the triumph of spirit of Jamal
> and Latika. They won, we are told, because they already had it in
> them. Therefore, movie has no obligation to show anybody/anything else
> in a positive light or in a redeeming way. The movie paints a
> caricature of values, hope, luck, Mumbai slums and people in general.
> It is a different Mumbai, far opposite of mumbai of Salaam Bombay.
>
> Artsy folks and critics circles usually dig this kind of trash. The
> movie producer wisely chose to take it directly to them to have them
> put in a good spin and buzz for the movie. He knows that the quickest
> way to become celebrity and win awards in the west is to peddle
> poverty and trash of India, and if one insults Indians or Hindus along
> the way, why, even India's i-am-so-ashamed-of-India elites would break
> out into triumphalist song and dance number.
>
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TOPIC: Chandni chowk to China - English subtitles
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies.local.indian/t/457efc3ba05868f6?hl=en
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== 1 of 3 ==
Date: Fri, Jan 16 2009 2:46 pm
From: habshi@anony.com (habshi)
Excellent movie - one of the best entertainers ever. I wanted
to see it again as soon as it finished. Good attention to detail.
There is a scene with the pigmys of Africa (should have been bushmen)
who are the most ancient homo sapiens ie our earliest faimly members
and who use the click language. Maybe our learning should be in it
because the human brain has evolved with it,
A bit like Singh is Kinng. Deepika excels as her twin. The
Kung fu training is one of the best you will ever see, and of course
Bollywood uses the dream sequence song to keep the story flowing.
The cgi effects with the villain turning into a potato are world
class.
And when you see the filming of the great wall , wow, its
actually like being there. Dont miss it.
== 2 of 3 ==
Date: Fri, Jan 16 2009 2:53 pm
From: nick
On Jan 16, 5:46 pm, hab...@anony.com (habshi) wrote:
> Excellent movie - one of the best entertainers ever. I wanted
> to see it again as soon as it finished. Good attention to detail.
> There is a scene with the pigmys of Africa (should have been bushmen)
> who are the most ancient homo sapiens ie our earliest faimly members
> and who use the click language. Maybe our learning should be in it
> because the human brain has evolved with it,
> A bit like Singh is Kinng. Deepika excels as her twin. The
> Kung fu training is one of the best you will ever see, and of course
> Bollywood uses the dream sequence song to keep the story flowing.
> The cgi effects with the villain turning into a potato are world
> class.
> And when you see the filming of the great wall , wow, its
> actually like being there. Dont miss it.
EW begs to differ--
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20252601,00.html
== 3 of 3 ==
Date: Fri, Jan 16 2009 3:51 pm
From: habshi@anony.com (habshi)
More good reviews on
The westerners were clapping at the end of the movie
http://movies.sulekha.com/hindi/chandni-chowk-to-china/reviews/62991.htm
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TOPIC: 'CHANDNI CHOWK...' GETS LUKEWARM RECEPTION FROM U.S. MEDIA
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.movies.local.indian/t/600648d58949f1e9?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Jan 17 2009 12:08 am
From: usenet@mantra.com and/or www.mantra.com/jai (Dr. Jai Maharaj)
'Chandni Chowk...' gets lukewarm reception from U.S. media
IANS
The Hindu
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Washington (IANS): American mainstream media has given a
lukewarm reception to Chandni Chowk to China, the largest-
ever release of a Bollywood movie in North America, calling
it "a genetic experiment" and a "genre-mashup overkill".
"A veggie-slicing galoot from Delhi goes to China to
realise his destiny as a martial arts master -- and just
from the synopsis, I'm on board with Chandni Chowk to
China," says Time magazine reviewer Richard Corliss.
But "the results of this genetic experiment are mixed.
Chandni Chowk to China is probably a decent sampler for
Americans who've never seen a full-out Bollywood musical
since it goes heavy on the action scenes and light on the
big dance numbers", he says.
The film "has the feel of one of many Indian glosses on
American films, not of something fresh and foreign. For a
really thrilling amalgam of Bollywood and Hong Kong, I'm
still waiting", says Corliss.
The New York Times says: "Genre mixing is mother's milk to
Hindi films, so it's no surprise that 'Chandni Chowk to
China' can so seamlessly add Kung Fu to the usual blend of
comedy, dance and melodrama."
"Chandni Chowk to China", the first Bollywood movie to be
financed and distributed by Warner Brothers, "starts too
frantically but settles down to become an enjoyable, if
slight Saturday-matinee, picture," says reviewer Rachel
Saltz.
To Washington Times, Chandni Chowk to China seems, "in some
ways, like a dish at one of those Indian restaurants - its
spiciness has been toned down for the American market".
"Still, it's unlike anything Hollywood puts out. The
Bollywood film is unapologetically sentimental and silly,
and this melodrama is no exception," it says.
Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times says in Chandni Chowk
to China, "Kung fu pounds it out with Bollywood and round
after round of gags, chaos and music".
"Sold as a groundbreaking convergence of Asia's leading
cinematic influences -- kung fu flicks and Bollywood
extravaganzas -- it also sees fit to toss in rap video
fantasias, commercial parodies, James Bond tropes and
Looney Tunes touches for what can only be termed genre-
mashup overkill," Abele adds.
Boston Globe's Michael Hardy calls "Chandni Chowk to China"
"Bollywood's all-singing, all-dancing, all-Hindi bid to
conquer America".
"Backed by Warner Brothers, which is giving it the largest
North American release of any Indian film to date, Chandni
Chowk to China could, if successful, forecast a veritable
monsoon of Bollywood imports," he says.
"But only if American audiences can accept an action hero
who talks to potatoes," Hrady adds.
More at:
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/009200901171111.htm
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
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