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ryanl065
Reviews
Cheeni Kum (2007)
Cheeni Kum wasn't what I expected
Cheeni Kum is an unusual tale between an old, bitter restaurant owner and a lonely, young tourist. The strange love story that emerges between them begins when the tourist, Nina (Tabu), stumbles into Buddhadev's (Bachchan) restaurant in London with a friend. When Nina sends her food back to the kitchen, Buddha is enraged by the disrespect that she shows his restaurant, because according to him, his restaurant has the best Indian food in London. He tells her that the accusations she made against the food that was prepared by one of his chefs was wrong. The next day, Nina shoves his words back down his throat when she comes back to his restaurant with the meal she ordered perfectly prepared. From there on, Buddha no longer looks at the glass as half empty; his outlook on life completely changed with the meeting of Nina. She brought out the fun side of him that had been missing for so long.
Their relationship faces many challenges along the way, one in particular is when they try and take the next step in their relationship. With them being so far apart in age (Buddha is 64 and Nina is 34), it is not the norm in their society to be together. Nina's father is one who doesn't respect their relationship because of the age difference and therefore doesn't respect their decision to be together forever.
Cheeni Kum has the potential to be a very well known Bollywood movie, but because of the long drawn out way in which it was performed, it is not one that I would recommend that anyone go see. Cheeni Kum didn't have the long songs that portrayed what was going to happen in the film and by not doing this went against what Bollywood Cinema is really all about. There were many things that happened in this movie that brought me to the conclusion that this was not a movie that I would watch again. One scene in particular that stuck out to me was when Nina and Buddha were attacked by the hoodlums on the street. They were suddenly surrounded by them, and then shortly after the townspeople all gathered around and scared the hoodlums away. I thought that this scene, while shot with an overhead view showing everything that was going on, was not one that was necessary for the making of this movie to be complete. Overall, I thought that this movie could have been better if it had been short and to the point without all the unnecessary scenes being put in just to take up time.
Main Hoon Na (2004)
Main Hoon Na did not live up to the hype
This story is about Major Ram Prasad Sharma (Shahrukh Khan), who is trying to keep his father's memory alive by finding his first wife and half brother, in order to honor his wishes. In order to find his brother known as Lucky (Zayed Khan) and keep Sanju (Amrita Rao) safe, he goes undercover as a student where they go to school and makes friends with them. Lucky and Sanju have no idea who Ram really is, but become his friend anyways. All while doing so, Ram faces complications because he is trying to stop Raghavan Datta (Sunil Shetty), a terrorist, who is trying to eliminate Project Milaap also known as Project Unity, which is trying to build a friendship between India and Pakistan (one that Ram's father was trying to complete). Main Hoon Na, directed by Farah Khan, is a Hindi action film that is years behind the technological advances of Hollywood. The film begins with a huge action scene that shows how far behind they are. From the unrealistic flying from one side of the room to the other while shooting a gun, to the blood pouring out of the bodies after they were shot looking as if it were colored water, this movie is not one that will catch the eye of any person who enjoys a good action film.
In all of the other Hindi films that I have seen, I enjoyed the music that was played throughout the movie. Unlike movies like Dostana and Cheeni Kum, Main Hoon Na goes beyond what people expect from a Hindi film. The music in Main Hoon Na is excessive and I did not enjoy what it had to offer. It was too long and drawn out, to actually make a good impact on the film. Usually the music in a Hindi film is what makes it different than movies in Hollywood, but with this, it definitely made the film worse.
The camera angles helped make it a better movie. From the low angle shots, to the close ups, Farah Khan did a good job directing the story and making it the best she could. When Ram comes home and sees Lucky and his mother sitting there in utter disgust because they had just learned who he really was, the camera closes in on their faces to show their emotion. During the "action" scenes that occurred, Khan made a panoramic view so that the viewers could see all of what was going on in the scene.
It was the story line that made this movie one that I would not suggest anyone watch. It was supposed to be an action film, but as a viewer, I didn't think of it as one. I thought that it had too many different plots that it lost sight of the real point of the movie. I did not enjoy viewing this film, and would not suggest this to anyone.