Sunday, October 27, 2019
Friday, October 25, 2019
Bhooty Call - Pari
Two movies called "Pari" were released last year, one in India and one in Pakistan, and after the first five minutes of Pari (2018) I realized that I was watching the wrong movie. This wasn't the blockbuster horror film starring Anushka Sharma as a mysterious woman who may be a supernatural being, it was the other one.
Pari begins like a lot of ghost movies begin - a young family, in this case Shehram (Junaid Akhtar), his wife Mehwish (Azekah Daniel), and their young daughter Pari (Khushi Maheen), move into a new house deep in the woods. Shehram works, leaving Mehwish and Pari alone in the big creepy house all day, and spooky things begin to happen . . . eventually. the first half of the movie is much more concerned with Shehram and Mehwish having solemn conversations about the move and carefully avoiding the topic of their struggling marriage.
Things do finally start to get spooky, though. Dead birds litter the ground around a nearby tree. The rocking chair moves by itself. Somet unseen force snaps the foosball table in half. There's a ghostly blue boy that only Pari can see who sits in the top bunk of her bed and drinks her milk. And a homeless man (Saleem Mairaj) sits outside the property, stares at the family, and proclaims that Pari is the devil and needs to be thrown out of the house.
Spoiler: homeless guy is right. Pari terrifies an elderly professor (Qavi Khan) who visits the family in time for her (deeply depressing) birthday party, and the professor conveniently drops dead right after asking Mehwish who Pari's real father is. Mehwish does not answer, which means that while the supernatural spookiness is escalating, we also get a lot more solemn conversations in which husband and wife studiously avoid actually saying anything.
What I am saying is, this movie is slow and very, very serious. It's like the Pakistani remake of the Omen, directed by Ingmar Bergman. The actors do their best, but with all the padding they really don't have much to work with. I will say that the movie was shot in Ayubia national park, and the occasional glimpses we see of the forest are impressive. Most of the time, though, you can't see the forest for the plodding.
Pari begins like a lot of ghost movies begin - a young family, in this case Shehram (Junaid Akhtar), his wife Mehwish (Azekah Daniel), and their young daughter Pari (Khushi Maheen), move into a new house deep in the woods. Shehram works, leaving Mehwish and Pari alone in the big creepy house all day, and spooky things begin to happen . . . eventually. the first half of the movie is much more concerned with Shehram and Mehwish having solemn conversations about the move and carefully avoiding the topic of their struggling marriage.
Things do finally start to get spooky, though. Dead birds litter the ground around a nearby tree. The rocking chair moves by itself. Somet unseen force snaps the foosball table in half. There's a ghostly blue boy that only Pari can see who sits in the top bunk of her bed and drinks her milk. And a homeless man (Saleem Mairaj) sits outside the property, stares at the family, and proclaims that Pari is the devil and needs to be thrown out of the house.
Spoiler: homeless guy is right. Pari terrifies an elderly professor (Qavi Khan) who visits the family in time for her (deeply depressing) birthday party, and the professor conveniently drops dead right after asking Mehwish who Pari's real father is. Mehwish does not answer, which means that while the supernatural spookiness is escalating, we also get a lot more solemn conversations in which husband and wife studiously avoid actually saying anything.
What I am saying is, this movie is slow and very, very serious. It's like the Pakistani remake of the Omen, directed by Ingmar Bergman. The actors do their best, but with all the padding they really don't have much to work with. I will say that the movie was shot in Ayubia national park, and the occasional glimpses we see of the forest are impressive. Most of the time, though, you can't see the forest for the plodding.
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Bhooty Call - Arundhati
Arundhati (2009) features one of those large and happy extended families that were so common in the Indian movies of the Nineties. They're rich, but it hasn't spoiled them, and even the servants are considered part of the family. Everybody loves each other, everybody's happy, everybody's kind, and everybody's bound and determined to care for and protect Arundhati (Anushka Shetty), a literal princess and the only girl born into the family for generations. Unfortunately, all these noble virtues get many of them killed.
On the eve of her engagement to Rahul (Arjan Bajwa), Arundhati returns to her ancestral home in Gadwal, only to find that her warm and wonderful loving family are keeping one of the servants chained up in the back yard. Apparently while delivering wedding invitations his car was forced off the road, forcing him to seek shelter in the family's ruined castle, and something happened to drive him mad. The plan is to bring him to Anwar (Sayaji Shinde), the local fakir, to drive out any evil spirits, but Arundhati is a modern skeptical girl, and is not impressed by Anwar's rather brutal exorcism technique, so they drag the poor fellow home again.
That night, Arundhati gets a call from rahul, asking her to meet him at the creepy ruined fort. She doesn't know she's in a horror movie yet, and so she accepts. And, well, she finds out that she's in a horror movie. In the ruined dance studio stands a makeshift mausoleum, with a creepy voice demanding that she let him out. Arundhati responds like an angry queen, loudly proclaiming that she will never let him out, and it looks like she's about to pick a fight right then and there when Anwar arrives, drags her away, and demonstrates that yes, ghosts absolutely do exist.
And it is obviously time for some backstory. Eighty years ago, Arundhati's great grandmother Arundhati (Divya Nagesh) was a child princess, already renowned for her martial skills, courage, and wisdom. her older sister (I cannot find the actor's name - not cool, IMDB!) is married to Pasupathi (Sonu Sood), who is the kind of decadent aristocrat that would make Lord Byron blush.
Pasupathi has absolutely no self control. He's such a monster that he rapes and murders Arundhati's blind dance teacher (Leena Sidhu) in the palace, but when Arundhati goes to her father and demansd that Pasupathi be exiled, she is refused. her father explains that as long as her sister alive and married to the blackguard, he's safe. The sister overhears and takes matters into her own hands, killing herself. At which point Arundhati orders that Pasupathi be beaten to death and then dragged out of town by his own horse.
Unfortunately, Pasupathi isn't quite dead. He's saved by a band of Aghori who teach him dark magic, and seven years later he returns for revenge. By this time, Arundhati has grown into Aushka Shetty, and she manages to defeat the unstoppable sorcerer using only a pair of scarves and the techniques she learned from her blind dance teacher, and also a pair of swords and a chandelier. Because of Pasupathis's magic, though, it's too dangerous to just kill him; instead, they build a mausoleum around him, entombing him alive without even a drop of Amontillado.
Meanwhile, the mad servant escapes and frees the ghost. And Pasupathi - well, he doesn't so much haunt the modern Arundhati as stalk her. Fortunately, the previous Arundhati has planned for this, sacrificing her life to create a weapon (made of her own spine!) that can kill the ghost once and for all. Unfortunately, the ghost knows about the weapon, and it's willing to kill everybody Arundhati loves in order to keep her from it.
In a lot of ways this movie is a throwback to the old Ramsay Brothers horror flicks; there's a lot of blood, and when Pasupathi's a round the camera gets a bit male gazey. It's the Arundhatis that keep things fresh. The Twenties version is an awesome, indomitable warrior queen with awesome fighting skills, while the modern version does not have awesome skills, but is still willing to walk through Hell in order to protect the people she loves. Once again Shetty puts in two distinct and memorable performances.
And I will confess, it's nice, every now and then, to see a ghost who can be defeated with a spinesword and a Glasgow kiss, rather than having to complete his unfulfilled desires. (Especially since the unfulfilled desires are so horrible.)
On the eve of her engagement to Rahul (Arjan Bajwa), Arundhati returns to her ancestral home in Gadwal, only to find that her warm and wonderful loving family are keeping one of the servants chained up in the back yard. Apparently while delivering wedding invitations his car was forced off the road, forcing him to seek shelter in the family's ruined castle, and something happened to drive him mad. The plan is to bring him to Anwar (Sayaji Shinde), the local fakir, to drive out any evil spirits, but Arundhati is a modern skeptical girl, and is not impressed by Anwar's rather brutal exorcism technique, so they drag the poor fellow home again.
That night, Arundhati gets a call from rahul, asking her to meet him at the creepy ruined fort. She doesn't know she's in a horror movie yet, and so she accepts. And, well, she finds out that she's in a horror movie. In the ruined dance studio stands a makeshift mausoleum, with a creepy voice demanding that she let him out. Arundhati responds like an angry queen, loudly proclaiming that she will never let him out, and it looks like she's about to pick a fight right then and there when Anwar arrives, drags her away, and demonstrates that yes, ghosts absolutely do exist.
And it is obviously time for some backstory. Eighty years ago, Arundhati's great grandmother Arundhati (Divya Nagesh) was a child princess, already renowned for her martial skills, courage, and wisdom. her older sister (I cannot find the actor's name - not cool, IMDB!) is married to Pasupathi (Sonu Sood), who is the kind of decadent aristocrat that would make Lord Byron blush.
Pasupathi has absolutely no self control. He's such a monster that he rapes and murders Arundhati's blind dance teacher (Leena Sidhu) in the palace, but when Arundhati goes to her father and demansd that Pasupathi be exiled, she is refused. her father explains that as long as her sister alive and married to the blackguard, he's safe. The sister overhears and takes matters into her own hands, killing herself. At which point Arundhati orders that Pasupathi be beaten to death and then dragged out of town by his own horse.
Unfortunately, Pasupathi isn't quite dead. He's saved by a band of Aghori who teach him dark magic, and seven years later he returns for revenge. By this time, Arundhati has grown into Aushka Shetty, and she manages to defeat the unstoppable sorcerer using only a pair of scarves and the techniques she learned from her blind dance teacher, and also a pair of swords and a chandelier. Because of Pasupathis's magic, though, it's too dangerous to just kill him; instead, they build a mausoleum around him, entombing him alive without even a drop of Amontillado.
Meanwhile, the mad servant escapes and frees the ghost. And Pasupathi - well, he doesn't so much haunt the modern Arundhati as stalk her. Fortunately, the previous Arundhati has planned for this, sacrificing her life to create a weapon (made of her own spine!) that can kill the ghost once and for all. Unfortunately, the ghost knows about the weapon, and it's willing to kill everybody Arundhati loves in order to keep her from it.
In a lot of ways this movie is a throwback to the old Ramsay Brothers horror flicks; there's a lot of blood, and when Pasupathi's a round the camera gets a bit male gazey. It's the Arundhatis that keep things fresh. The Twenties version is an awesome, indomitable warrior queen with awesome fighting skills, while the modern version does not have awesome skills, but is still willing to walk through Hell in order to protect the people she loves. Once again Shetty puts in two distinct and memorable performances.
And I will confess, it's nice, every now and then, to see a ghost who can be defeated with a spinesword and a Glasgow kiss, rather than having to complete his unfulfilled desires. (Especially since the unfulfilled desires are so horrible.)
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Bhooty Call - Bhaagamathie
Bhaagamathie (2018) seems like two movies in one. The first movie is a political thriller. In order to frame honest politician Eshwar Prasad (Jayaram), a cabal of crooked politicians arrange for his former assistant Chanchala (Anushka Shetty), now in jail for murdering her fiance Shakti (Unni Mukundan), to be transferred to a ruined castle where she can be interrogated by CBI officer Vaishnavi Natarajan (Asha Sarath) and local police officer Sampath (Murli Sharma), who also happens to be Shakti's brother and really shouldn't be involved in the case at all. When she's not being interrogated, Chanchala is free to roam the creepy castle totally alone; the police seem to be hoping to Yellow Wallpaper a confession out of her.
At night, though, the movie changes. The castle isn't entirely empty . . . Chanchala and a small group of comic-relief policemen are terrorized by an escalating series of supernatural events. Strange sounds, mysterious books, a crazy old man who somehow managed to wander through security long enough to make sinister predictions, and then Chanchala is attacked by an invisible assailant. Before too long, she's speaking in an unknown language and calling herself Bhaagmathie, Queen and rightful ruler of the palace, and swearing vengeance on her long-dead general Chandrasenan. This complicates the ongoing interrogation.
Between the Baahubali movies, Arundhati, and Rudhramadevi, Anushka Shetty has developed quite a talent for playing angry queens. But while the character of Bhaagamathie is spooky bombastic fun, and I will never get tired of Shetty promising to rain horrible vengeance on her enemies, her performance as Chanchala is far more interesting. At different times, she's brave, terrified, loyal desperate, and ultimately not what she seems. Almost nobody in the movie is quite what they seem. The movie itself isn't quite what it seems, either. Despite the presence of the angry ghost, it's as much film noir as it is horror, and the real monsters are very human.
At night, though, the movie changes. The castle isn't entirely empty . . . Chanchala and a small group of comic-relief policemen are terrorized by an escalating series of supernatural events. Strange sounds, mysterious books, a crazy old man who somehow managed to wander through security long enough to make sinister predictions, and then Chanchala is attacked by an invisible assailant. Before too long, she's speaking in an unknown language and calling herself Bhaagmathie, Queen and rightful ruler of the palace, and swearing vengeance on her long-dead general Chandrasenan. This complicates the ongoing interrogation.
Between the Baahubali movies, Arundhati, and Rudhramadevi, Anushka Shetty has developed quite a talent for playing angry queens. But while the character of Bhaagamathie is spooky bombastic fun, and I will never get tired of Shetty promising to rain horrible vengeance on her enemies, her performance as Chanchala is far more interesting. At different times, she's brave, terrified, loyal desperate, and ultimately not what she seems. Almost nobody in the movie is quite what they seem. The movie itself isn't quite what it seems, either. Despite the presence of the angry ghost, it's as much film noir as it is horror, and the real monsters are very human.
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Too much toon, and not enough loony.
Toonpur Ka Superhero tells the story of a Bollywood
actor who is suddenly pulled into a world of living cartoons. From the
premise, it sounds like it’s going to be Who Framed Rajiv Rabbit,
and it is, sort of, if you replace Bob Hoskins with Ajay Devgan and
swap out Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse for a bunch of characters that
nobody has ever heard of.
You might think that Bollywood superstar Aditya Kumar (Ajay Devgan) has it all, but look closer and . . . well, you’d probably still be right. He has fame, fortune, a loving and only slightly crazy wife named Priya (Kajol), and two beautiful children. The only cloud on the Kumar horizon is Aditya’s relationship with his son Kabir (Ameya Pandya); Kabir is so upset about his father missing the school’s track and field day again that he stomps off the track in the middle of his race, and later accuses his father of being a “fake hero” who lets his stuntmen do all the work.
Now, if this were an American movie, then the dad (probably played by Tim Allen) would have forgotten all about his son’s sporting event until the very last minute, leading to a desperate race across town only to arrive a second too late. Not here, though; Aditya does everything he can, short of throwing a diva tantrum and storming off the set, to see his son run, he just doesn’t quite make it. That’s one of the nice things about this movie; the adults consistently behave like adults.
Meanwhile, the cartoon inhabitants of Toonpur have a problem. Ever since the good king Tooneshwar was overthrown by his treacherous general Jagaaro, the good hearted Devtoons have been oppressed by the mischievous Toonasurs. The Devtoons need a hero, and one of their number, a young Bollywood fan named Bolly, suggests his favorite action hero, Aditya Kumar.
The Devtoons send a couple of their number into the real world to kidnap Aditya. They do, and once he realizes that he’s in Toonapur . . . well, you could probably write it yourself. There are a few crazy cartoon hijinks, and Aditya comes to care for his new cartoon friends, leading them to battle and finally facing Jagaaro in a video game which has all the excitement of watching your little sister play Tomb Raider.
The inhabitants of Toonapur are all original characters, created for this movie. The Devtoons are all based on Bollywood stereotypes – there’s the aforementioned starstruck Punjabi boy, the overbearing filmi ma, the lazy policeman, the meek South Indian accountant, the perpetually lovestruck damsel, and so on. The Toonasurs are a bit more varied – they’re mostly stock Bollywood thugs, but they do have a Sumo wrestler, a caveman, and a shameless Jessica Rabbit ripoff.
The problem with the Devtoons isn’t that they’re new characters, it’s that none of them are particularly interesting. It’s like watching a movie about the supporting cast of a Bugs Bunny short. They don’t act like cartoons, they act like . . . well, like a random assortment of Bollywood stereotypes. In the fight scenes, it’s Aditya who takes advantage of cartoon physics.
The sole exception, the one cartoon character who actually behaves like a cartoon character, is Rubdoot, cartoon god of death (the name’s a pretty good pun) and Aditya’s biggest fan. (Sorry, Bolly.) Rubdoot is genuinely loony, and his big scene is a high point, but he doesn’t get much screen time at all.
It’s a shame that the cartoon world is so bland, because the scenes set in the real world are actually pretty good. Aditya is written as a grown up who’s trying to do his best, rather than as an arrested adolescent who needs to recapture the wonder of something or other, and he displays a great chemistry with his film family. Ajay Devgan is one of nature’s great straight men, but he needs someone else to deliver the punchlines, and that doesn’t happen here.
You might think that Bollywood superstar Aditya Kumar (Ajay Devgan) has it all, but look closer and . . . well, you’d probably still be right. He has fame, fortune, a loving and only slightly crazy wife named Priya (Kajol), and two beautiful children. The only cloud on the Kumar horizon is Aditya’s relationship with his son Kabir (Ameya Pandya); Kabir is so upset about his father missing the school’s track and field day again that he stomps off the track in the middle of his race, and later accuses his father of being a “fake hero” who lets his stuntmen do all the work.
Now, if this were an American movie, then the dad (probably played by Tim Allen) would have forgotten all about his son’s sporting event until the very last minute, leading to a desperate race across town only to arrive a second too late. Not here, though; Aditya does everything he can, short of throwing a diva tantrum and storming off the set, to see his son run, he just doesn’t quite make it. That’s one of the nice things about this movie; the adults consistently behave like adults.
Meanwhile, the cartoon inhabitants of Toonpur have a problem. Ever since the good king Tooneshwar was overthrown by his treacherous general Jagaaro, the good hearted Devtoons have been oppressed by the mischievous Toonasurs. The Devtoons need a hero, and one of their number, a young Bollywood fan named Bolly, suggests his favorite action hero, Aditya Kumar.
The Devtoons send a couple of their number into the real world to kidnap Aditya. They do, and once he realizes that he’s in Toonapur . . . well, you could probably write it yourself. There are a few crazy cartoon hijinks, and Aditya comes to care for his new cartoon friends, leading them to battle and finally facing Jagaaro in a video game which has all the excitement of watching your little sister play Tomb Raider.
The inhabitants of Toonapur are all original characters, created for this movie. The Devtoons are all based on Bollywood stereotypes – there’s the aforementioned starstruck Punjabi boy, the overbearing filmi ma, the lazy policeman, the meek South Indian accountant, the perpetually lovestruck damsel, and so on. The Toonasurs are a bit more varied – they’re mostly stock Bollywood thugs, but they do have a Sumo wrestler, a caveman, and a shameless Jessica Rabbit ripoff.
The problem with the Devtoons isn’t that they’re new characters, it’s that none of them are particularly interesting. It’s like watching a movie about the supporting cast of a Bugs Bunny short. They don’t act like cartoons, they act like . . . well, like a random assortment of Bollywood stereotypes. In the fight scenes, it’s Aditya who takes advantage of cartoon physics.
The sole exception, the one cartoon character who actually behaves like a cartoon character, is Rubdoot, cartoon god of death (the name’s a pretty good pun) and Aditya’s biggest fan. (Sorry, Bolly.) Rubdoot is genuinely loony, and his big scene is a high point, but he doesn’t get much screen time at all.
It’s a shame that the cartoon world is so bland, because the scenes set in the real world are actually pretty good. Aditya is written as a grown up who’s trying to do his best, rather than as an arrested adolescent who needs to recapture the wonder of something or other, and he displays a great chemistry with his film family. Ajay Devgan is one of nature’s great straight men, but he needs someone else to deliver the punchlines, and that doesn’t happen here.
You can tell they're twins because they have the same mustache.
Twin movies are fairly common in Bollywood, and they tend to
follow the same basic formula. Identical twins are separated at birth.
One twin grows up poor and feisty, raised by humble working folk. The
other twin grows up wealthy and meek, terrorized by evil rich relatives
who are after their money, though the rich twin usually also has a
good-hearted but vulnerable relative that they need to protect. Just
when it seems all hope is lost, the twins accidentally trade places,
with the poor twin overcoming the villains, the rich twin developing a
spine, and everybody gaining a love interest. Kishen Kanhaiya (1990) follows this formula as well, but with some surprising tweaks.
The film begins just as you might expect; tragic birth, dead mother, one twin spirited away to be raised by the midwife, while the other is left with his wealthy and now widowed father, Sunderdas (Shreeram Lagoo). While Sunderdas is a devoted parent, he’s overwhelmed, and decides to marry Kamini (Bindu), the sister of his employee Gendamal (Amrish Puri). Gendamal and Kamini are, of course, evil, and soon Gendamal arranges for Sunderdas to take a convenient fall, leaving him mute and paralyzed. Thanks to a complicated will, though, Gendamal needs to keep Sunderdas and baby Kishen alive until Kishen’s 24th birthday, then force the young man to sign over the property. And in order to make this possible, Gendamal and Kamini raise the boy through terror and abuse. By the time he grows into an adult (and is played by Anil Kapoor), Kishen is basically a servant, completely cowed by his uncle, stepmother, and her illegitimate son Mahesh (Dalip Tahil).
Kanhaiya (Anil Kapooor), on the other hand, was raised by the midwife (Subha Khote), and has grown up fearless, lazy, and a bit shady, but basically good hearted. Kanhaiya is obsessed with movies, and spends his days at the movie theater, dressed in fancy clothes borrowed from his best friend Lobo (Johnny Lever). After inadvertently picking a fight with a much larger man, his filmi fisticuffs catch the eye of fellow cinemaniac Anju (Madhuri Dixit), daughter of wealthy and cranky businessman Vidya Charan (Saeed Jaffrey), who happens to be a close friend of Gendamal.
And at this point, with the characters clearly established, that you’d expect the twins to switch places. But no, not yet. Both brothers have fully developed romantic subplots under their own identities, rather than meeting their love interests while switched. Kishen falls for milkmaid Radha (Shilpa Shirodkar), and surprisingly, Gendamal is all for the match, figuring that a wife would help keep Kishen docile, and an educated woman would be harder to control.
Kanhaiya, meanwhile, grows closer to Anju, who assumes that he’s also the child of a rich family. While pursuing this relationship. Kanhaiya casually and repeatedly humiliates Anju’s “uncle” Sridhar (Ranjeet), a business associate of her father’s. Sridhar has an unhealthy interest in Anju, and is nasty enough to expose Kanhaiya’s poverty, have the young man brutally beaten, kill his adopted mother, and then shoot him in the head.
Kishen, meanwhile, suddenly grows a spine and refuses to mark the papers transferring control of the family fortune, because Radha doesn’t want him to. Gendamal does not take this refusal well, and orders Mahesh to kill Kishen and dump his body in the sea. And then, with Kishen presumed dead and Kanhaiya’s life in ruines, Kanhaiya’s adoptive father explains the switch, and Kanhaiya deliberately assumes Kishen’s identity in order to root out the villains and perhaps discover what happened to his twin.
Kishen is not really dead, of course. Anju discovers him wandering the city street and thinks he’s Kanhaiya; he cannot contradict her, because he has amnesia. Anju tries to help him recover his memories by dressing up as Raj Kapoor, but surprisingly it doesn’t work.
Kishen Kanhaiya hits many of the same story beats as, say, Seeta Aur Geeta, but it steers clear of some of the twin movie cliches. (Kanhaiya lets all the nice people know who he is as soon as possible, for instance, so there’s no tearful rejection by the family he’s trying to save.) It’s an old story, but different enough to be interesting, and the cast is full of people I like, so I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.
The film begins just as you might expect; tragic birth, dead mother, one twin spirited away to be raised by the midwife, while the other is left with his wealthy and now widowed father, Sunderdas (Shreeram Lagoo). While Sunderdas is a devoted parent, he’s overwhelmed, and decides to marry Kamini (Bindu), the sister of his employee Gendamal (Amrish Puri). Gendamal and Kamini are, of course, evil, and soon Gendamal arranges for Sunderdas to take a convenient fall, leaving him mute and paralyzed. Thanks to a complicated will, though, Gendamal needs to keep Sunderdas and baby Kishen alive until Kishen’s 24th birthday, then force the young man to sign over the property. And in order to make this possible, Gendamal and Kamini raise the boy through terror and abuse. By the time he grows into an adult (and is played by Anil Kapoor), Kishen is basically a servant, completely cowed by his uncle, stepmother, and her illegitimate son Mahesh (Dalip Tahil).
Kanhaiya (Anil Kapooor), on the other hand, was raised by the midwife (Subha Khote), and has grown up fearless, lazy, and a bit shady, but basically good hearted. Kanhaiya is obsessed with movies, and spends his days at the movie theater, dressed in fancy clothes borrowed from his best friend Lobo (Johnny Lever). After inadvertently picking a fight with a much larger man, his filmi fisticuffs catch the eye of fellow cinemaniac Anju (Madhuri Dixit), daughter of wealthy and cranky businessman Vidya Charan (Saeed Jaffrey), who happens to be a close friend of Gendamal.
And at this point, with the characters clearly established, that you’d expect the twins to switch places. But no, not yet. Both brothers have fully developed romantic subplots under their own identities, rather than meeting their love interests while switched. Kishen falls for milkmaid Radha (Shilpa Shirodkar), and surprisingly, Gendamal is all for the match, figuring that a wife would help keep Kishen docile, and an educated woman would be harder to control.
Kanhaiya, meanwhile, grows closer to Anju, who assumes that he’s also the child of a rich family. While pursuing this relationship. Kanhaiya casually and repeatedly humiliates Anju’s “uncle” Sridhar (Ranjeet), a business associate of her father’s. Sridhar has an unhealthy interest in Anju, and is nasty enough to expose Kanhaiya’s poverty, have the young man brutally beaten, kill his adopted mother, and then shoot him in the head.
Kishen, meanwhile, suddenly grows a spine and refuses to mark the papers transferring control of the family fortune, because Radha doesn’t want him to. Gendamal does not take this refusal well, and orders Mahesh to kill Kishen and dump his body in the sea. And then, with Kishen presumed dead and Kanhaiya’s life in ruines, Kanhaiya’s adoptive father explains the switch, and Kanhaiya deliberately assumes Kishen’s identity in order to root out the villains and perhaps discover what happened to his twin.
Kishen is not really dead, of course. Anju discovers him wandering the city street and thinks he’s Kanhaiya; he cannot contradict her, because he has amnesia. Anju tries to help him recover his memories by dressing up as Raj Kapoor, but surprisingly it doesn’t work.
Kishen Kanhaiya hits many of the same story beats as, say, Seeta Aur Geeta, but it steers clear of some of the twin movie cliches. (Kanhaiya lets all the nice people know who he is as soon as possible, for instance, so there’s no tearful rejection by the family he’s trying to save.) It’s an old story, but different enough to be interesting, and the cast is full of people I like, so I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.
Here’s to you, Mrs. . . does she even have a last name?
I love Bollywood DVD clearance sales. I can get stacks of
movies for as little as 49 cents apiece, and because they’re often
movies starring nobody I’ve ever heard of, and I have no information on
the film other than an often inaccurate cover blurb, watching them is
always an adventure. Sometimes I discover an amazing jewel in the
rough, and sometimes I discover Kya Aisa Hota Hai Pyar (2004).
Karan (Hussein Sheikh) and Aditya (Sumeet Chawla) are college students and the best of friends. Karan is athletic, popular, dating the lovely Poorvi (Parita Vora), and secretly craves the approval of his distant workaholic father (Rajvansh Malhotra). Aditya is not particularly interested in girls, but that doesn’t stop him from toying with the emotions of Gia (Namita Shrivastav), Poorvi’s friend and roommate.
After a particularly dismal evening out with Gia (which she paid for, because Aditya is a selfish jerk) Aditya’s motorbike gets a flat tire, and older woman Aanchal (Samrita Singh) stops to offer him a ride. (Samrita Singh can’t be much older than me, but the lighting and makeup people are doing her no favors in this movie.)
Aditya may not be all that interested in girls, but Aanchal makes it very clear that she is interested in him. He’s a lttle intrigued, and agrees to meet her later, but when he arrives at her house she’s performing a sleazy dance number with some random guy who never appears again. Suddenly, Aditya is very intrigued, and soon he’s coming over to canoodle every day after school.
It’s an odd dynamic; Aanchal tries to communicate her philosophy of living for the present, and Aditya pretty much behaves like a lovestruck puppy. He’s in love for the very first time, and unfortunately, the person he chooses to share the happy news with is Gia, whom he knows is in love with him.
Karan invites a small group of friends, including both the lovesick Aditya and the heartbroken Gia, to his family estate for a few days because there’s no way that could be awkward. The kids are not alone, though. Karan’s father is there for a brief visit, and leaves the gang in the care of Karan’s beloved Auntie Aanchal. Yes, that Aanchal.
I’m trying to come up with some nice things to say about Kya Aisa Hota Hai Pyar, and it’s not easy. Samrita Singh managed to give a poorly written and cliched character some small degree of depth before what little character development Aanchal had was undone by the final scene, in which she picks up and hits on yet another young college kid. Bhaskar, the comic relief with the incredibly stupid beard made me really appreciate the acting talent and subtle comedic timing of Johnny Lever. And I’m sure the whole thing was well intentioned; it reminds me of an afterschool special about the horrible dangers of dating older women, complete with a narrator who pops up onscreen occasionally to spout gibberish about love.
Well intentioned or not, though, the final product is kind of skeezy. Aanchal is oversexed and sort of predatory, and even nice girl Gia has a scene where she writhes on the bed and displays her cleavage to the camera for no apparent reason. Comic relief guy spends his time making unwanted sexual comments to a woman who is clearly not interested, and everyone else thinks this is hilarious. And in this movie, women appear to be interchangeable; after a brief conversation with comic relief guy, Aditya goes from pining for Aanchal to pining for Gia, without even pausing for breath.
In short, this movie is not very good. Save your 49 cents.
Karan (Hussein Sheikh) and Aditya (Sumeet Chawla) are college students and the best of friends. Karan is athletic, popular, dating the lovely Poorvi (Parita Vora), and secretly craves the approval of his distant workaholic father (Rajvansh Malhotra). Aditya is not particularly interested in girls, but that doesn’t stop him from toying with the emotions of Gia (Namita Shrivastav), Poorvi’s friend and roommate.
After a particularly dismal evening out with Gia (which she paid for, because Aditya is a selfish jerk) Aditya’s motorbike gets a flat tire, and older woman Aanchal (Samrita Singh) stops to offer him a ride. (Samrita Singh can’t be much older than me, but the lighting and makeup people are doing her no favors in this movie.)
Aditya may not be all that interested in girls, but Aanchal makes it very clear that she is interested in him. He’s a lttle intrigued, and agrees to meet her later, but when he arrives at her house she’s performing a sleazy dance number with some random guy who never appears again. Suddenly, Aditya is very intrigued, and soon he’s coming over to canoodle every day after school.
It’s an odd dynamic; Aanchal tries to communicate her philosophy of living for the present, and Aditya pretty much behaves like a lovestruck puppy. He’s in love for the very first time, and unfortunately, the person he chooses to share the happy news with is Gia, whom he knows is in love with him.
Karan invites a small group of friends, including both the lovesick Aditya and the heartbroken Gia, to his family estate for a few days because there’s no way that could be awkward. The kids are not alone, though. Karan’s father is there for a brief visit, and leaves the gang in the care of Karan’s beloved Auntie Aanchal. Yes, that Aanchal.
I’m trying to come up with some nice things to say about Kya Aisa Hota Hai Pyar, and it’s not easy. Samrita Singh managed to give a poorly written and cliched character some small degree of depth before what little character development Aanchal had was undone by the final scene, in which she picks up and hits on yet another young college kid. Bhaskar, the comic relief with the incredibly stupid beard made me really appreciate the acting talent and subtle comedic timing of Johnny Lever. And I’m sure the whole thing was well intentioned; it reminds me of an afterschool special about the horrible dangers of dating older women, complete with a narrator who pops up onscreen occasionally to spout gibberish about love.
Well intentioned or not, though, the final product is kind of skeezy. Aanchal is oversexed and sort of predatory, and even nice girl Gia has a scene where she writhes on the bed and displays her cleavage to the camera for no apparent reason. Comic relief guy spends his time making unwanted sexual comments to a woman who is clearly not interested, and everyone else thinks this is hilarious. And in this movie, women appear to be interchangeable; after a brief conversation with comic relief guy, Aditya goes from pining for Aanchal to pining for Gia, without even pausing for breath.
In short, this movie is not very good. Save your 49 cents.
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