Tamasha

Written and directed by Imtiaz Ali. Starring Ranbir Kapoor (Zed) and Deepika Padukone (Tara).

Bottom line: Tamasha’s best quality is its music and there are a bunch of songs that are smoothly incorporated into the movie.

3/4

Tamasha opens to a play; a clown is talking to a robot walking on a treadmill. The clown touches the robot on its heart causing it to malfunction and step off the treadmill. The clown speaks to the audience saying the robot has a story to tell. We cut to a boy being scolded for not doing well in school. You might be able to guess where this is going: the boy is forced into a safe, responsible mold, going to school to become a scientist (or something) even though he wants to be an actor.

During the preceding intro credits sequence, the boy spends his last few rupees to hear a story from the park’s resident storyteller. The storyteller mixes up his story but justifies it by saying it is always the same story, just different characters. It’s pleasant to hear that because Tamasha’s story is just like all the others but its execution is what differentiates it. Anyway, fade to black. Open to Corsica, France, where we are introduced to the love story.

If you’ve read my other reviews for Bollywood movies, you might be familiar with my general lack of understanding when it comes to the genre. Tamasha, however, would be a solid movie for someone not familiar with this style of movie. Sometimes in Bollywood movies they break into songs at, to me, odd times, or they have these over-the- top plot points that I don’t quite understand. In the case of Tamasha, it felt closer to a Hollywood musical.

In the initial love song for example, Zed (Kapoor) and Tara (Padukone) are talking about their plan to have a weeklong fling (sans physical contact) and never meet again. Amidst the festival going on around them, they exchange clever lines and then break into song. The song conveniently lines up with what the festival musicians are playing. Speaking of songs, I loved the music from this movie; the songs are catchy and fun.

The movie opens to the stage play and then jumps back in time to see Zed as a child. It then jumps back and forth in time to show how various plot points play out. Unfortunately, the best example will give away spoilers, so I’ll wait until later to discuss it.

The performances of Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone were perfectly fine, except for a point that I will discuss in a bit. I must say that they both have this look, where their eyes tear up but they don’t cry. They do it well and they do it several times throughout the movie.

The only thing I didn’t like was how Zed was portrayed when he was breaking out of his mold. I don’t think there are any major spoilers in this next part. Have you ever seen Office Space? It was the movie about a guy who hates his cubicle job and then, through a botched professional hypnotherapist session, stops caring. He shows up late and has a new generally chill but disconnected demeanor. Zed, as you might’ve expected, experiences a similar existential crisis. Instead of shouting, “I quit!” or just quitting, he just becomes an insane jerk. Not just kooky but I’m-not-going-to-be in-a-relationship-with-you-because-you-might-murder-me insane.

Part of his morning routine is to hold the elevator door open for a little old lady. Once he starts to snap, he smiles at her as he lets the door closes. He shouts at his boss and makes a general scene. Is it too much to ask that protagonists in this situation address their concerns coolly? I mean, instead of flipping out, couldn’t he have just started writing a screenplay or taken up acting in his free time?

This doesn’t detract too much from the total movie, however. Overall, it is fun, colorful, and happy. At about two hours and twenty minutes, Tamasha is a long Bollywood film but it only drags in the last scene or two. I’d recommend this movie to someone who is even mildly interested in Bollywood. One strategy, I’ve come to use for selecting Bollywood movies, is to first listen to some of the music videos for the movie. If you like the songs then check out the movie, otherwise, pass on it.

If you are interested, here are some links to the videos on YouTube:

Heer Toh Badi Sad Hai

Matargashti

Wat Wat Wat

Safarnama

Whew, I’m sorry for the delay with the reviews, peeps. Writing is not too different from exercise, it’s just working out different muscles; it’s arduous at the time but really satisfying. In the comments below, let me know what you think of those songs!

Krrish 3

Written and directed by Rakesh Roshan. Written by Robin Bhatt, Honey Irani, Irfan Kamal, Akarsh Khurana, Rakesh Roshan, Sanjay Masoom, and David Benullo. Starring Priyanka Chopra (Priya Mehra), Hrithik Roshan (Krishna Mehra/Krrish/Rohit Mehra) and Amitabh Bachan (Narrator).

Bottom line: As one who has little experience with Bollywood action movie or the Krissh series, I wouldn’t recommend Krrish 3 because it’s too clichéd, too over-the-top, and too long.

2/4

Krrish 3 is the third in the saga of Krrish; the superhero of Mumbai. It’s everything I   expect from a Bollywood big budget action movie. I’ll get more into what I mean by that in a bit. The first few minutes of the film are dedicated to a review of the story so far. As if we needed a refresher, am-I-right? I’m willing to bet that you need so allow me to elucidate.

“This tale began with the birth of a mentally challenged boy, Rohit…” He grew but his mental age remained to that of a child. He was bullied. He prayed to Krishna and then, one night, a spaceship landed in his homeland. He made contact with the aliens who gave him super intelligence. He became a scientist, met a pretty lady and had a son (named Krishna). He went to Singapore to work with another super scientist and disappeared! Meanwhile, Krishna grew up with his grandmother (Rohit’s mother) in a secret location. He joined a circus, donned a mask and became a superhero. He learned that his father was held captive in Singapore. And now we can start the movie.

After writing all that, I’m exhausted of plot summary so let me speed up the general plot of this film. Kaal (Vivek Oberoi), a paraplegic with telepathic abilities (no, not Professor X), holds the world hostage by releasing a super-virus. He has the only known antidote. His ultimate goal is to get enough money to fuel his research to cure his paralysis. He splices his DNA with animal-DNA to create animal-human hybrids he calls “Manimals.” He has a frog hybrid, a shapeshifter lady, and a super strong guy. Will Krrish save the city and the world?

Bollywood continues to baffle me. A while ago, I tried watching Dhoom:3 and couldn’t get more than a half hour through the nearly three hour epic. Krrish 3, on the other hand, is a reasonable two and a half hours and it even has an intermission. Both films are the mixture of over-the-top action sequences, over-the-top dialog, and musical sequences. I didn’t understand if I should internalize the tap dancing sequence like I internalize Die Hard. Now I know I’m writing about Krrish 3 but I tend to use Dhoom:3 as my point of Bollywood reference. Krrish 3 presents the same sorts of questions.

There’s a fight scene between a villain and Krrish. They are indoors, mind you, and whenever the camera does a close up of Krrish, his hair is blowing in the wind. They are indoors! There is no wind! Even beyond little details like that, just the level of similarity between X-Men and this movie. I can’t be the only one to ask this, right? And yet, Krrish 3 broke all sorts of Bollywood records. I wonder what was lost in translation that captured the Bollywood imagination.

Would I recommend Krrish 3? I don’t know, man. It’s one of those things where it could be fun to watch because it’s silly. But, I feel kinda bad saying that because I don’t really understand it. I feel like I’m laughing at a culture and their cinema, you know? As far as comic book action movies go, I don’t recommend it. There have been a ton of comic book movies in recent years and this one isn’t quite worth its two and a half hour runtime.

But I can’t seem to let it go as simply a “no” review. It, and Bollywood as a whole, continues to confuse me and I think it’s because I am too uninformed as to the culture. I can see how The Twilight Samurai, which I watched not too long ago, could have been equally confusing if I was clueless about Japanese culture and cinema.

As it is the New Year, this seems to be a good time to make a resolution to learn a thing or two about India and it’s cinema. Surely then I will be able to appreciate or at least have a better idea as to what is going on in the major Bollywood films that will undoubtedly come in the future.

Have you had any experience with Bollywood? If you have, please leave a comment! And, feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for reading!