(I actually have a page dedicated to movie reviews but since I am not able to write reviews regularly, I thought of putting this one as a blog post)
Today I had a true South Indian treat - one was the lunch at a new authentic south indian restaurant Madhuban that was so authentic that it reminded me of my grandmother seriously (not in the Hindi sense of 'naani yaad aa gayi' - :p) - her coconut chutney, her tomato paste-type chutney and her dal chutney: yes there are too many chutneys and powders that we South Indians eat :)
The second one was the movie "Chennai Express"...well, I feel so nice that I am familiar with and am able to follow and relate to the most prominent regional languages & cultures of our country - South Indian (any of the 4 states), Gujarati, Bengali. Hindi is of course well known to me by virtue of the push that my family had on me to learn Hindi in my school. And hence, am able to enjoy the sarcasms depicted around these cultures in our Hindi cinemas & shows.
I read 2 types of reviews of this movie Chennai Express before going & watching it - one was the newspaper's critic review which sounded good & genuine & gave the movie 3.5 stars. The other one was a viewer review that gave the movie a 1 star. I didn't expect too much out of the movie because of the following:
- I could not relate to & imagine Deepika Padukone doing any justice with the Tamil accent
- I could not tolerate any movie of Rohit Shetty apart from his first Golmaal (that was a fantastic movie)
- I thought he would bore with long scenes on blowing up cars and other nonsensical things
The movie started on a very high note I must say, especially with the comedy and Shahrukh Khan's acting. The entry of Deepika Padukone was good and funny, the scene was not dragged too much and the fun elements that were put in the movie which usually Farah Khan uses in hers were good like relating dialogues & scenes to SRK's earlier movies in a funny way...were good, apt and unexpected. Deepika Padukone has become a very good actor I admit - I liked her a lot in 'Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani', they say she acted very well and had a good role even in 'Cocktail', I just disliked the fact that Saif Ali Khan was looking like an uncle of the two girls and hence can't resist the movie. Her Tamil accent was surprisingly good and more than the accent, her typical south indian-like hand & face movements while talking were very well practised. SRK's acting and especially the punches with the confusion with Tamil were too good. Half the movie was in Tamil, the clothing etc was entirely South Indian, it can very well be declared as a Tamil movie - the only thing is in Tamil land, they will miss the fun of contexts to the other Hindi movies. I loved the music by Vishal Shekhar, the two songs lungi dance and 1-2-3-4 song - the typical element of the non-stop random movements all through the song was genuinely South Indian. Such a film actually can be dedicated to Rajni Sir and so his virtual presence was justified completely :) The cinematography was good, choice of scenery was very, very good. The only thing I felt about lungi dance is that the two actors were a bit sophisticated for such a song & probably that sophistication could not do complete justice to the steps for such a song!
What I thought was missing in the movie was there was no single instance of the mention of the word 'aiyyaiyyo' or even simply 'aiyyo' :) The word had many instances in the movie to fit itself perfectly well - like for instance when the couple had fled as narrated by Deepika, the instant reaction of the villagers a South Indian would expect is this.
Anyone who does not have a touch or have not experienced a flavour of South Indian culture will not be able to appreciate the film. I guess the 1-star rating to this film is by one of those :) I feel very sorry for the fun they miss in life! The film definitely deserves at least a 3 from my side.
Today I had a true South Indian treat - one was the lunch at a new authentic south indian restaurant Madhuban that was so authentic that it reminded me of my grandmother seriously (not in the Hindi sense of 'naani yaad aa gayi' - :p) - her coconut chutney, her tomato paste-type chutney and her dal chutney: yes there are too many chutneys and powders that we South Indians eat :)
The second one was the movie "Chennai Express"...well, I feel so nice that I am familiar with and am able to follow and relate to the most prominent regional languages & cultures of our country - South Indian (any of the 4 states), Gujarati, Bengali. Hindi is of course well known to me by virtue of the push that my family had on me to learn Hindi in my school. And hence, am able to enjoy the sarcasms depicted around these cultures in our Hindi cinemas & shows.
I read 2 types of reviews of this movie Chennai Express before going & watching it - one was the newspaper's critic review which sounded good & genuine & gave the movie 3.5 stars. The other one was a viewer review that gave the movie a 1 star. I didn't expect too much out of the movie because of the following:
- I could not relate to & imagine Deepika Padukone doing any justice with the Tamil accent
- I could not tolerate any movie of Rohit Shetty apart from his first Golmaal (that was a fantastic movie)
- I thought he would bore with long scenes on blowing up cars and other nonsensical things
The movie started on a very high note I must say, especially with the comedy and Shahrukh Khan's acting. The entry of Deepika Padukone was good and funny, the scene was not dragged too much and the fun elements that were put in the movie which usually Farah Khan uses in hers were good like relating dialogues & scenes to SRK's earlier movies in a funny way...were good, apt and unexpected. Deepika Padukone has become a very good actor I admit - I liked her a lot in 'Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani', they say she acted very well and had a good role even in 'Cocktail', I just disliked the fact that Saif Ali Khan was looking like an uncle of the two girls and hence can't resist the movie. Her Tamil accent was surprisingly good and more than the accent, her typical south indian-like hand & face movements while talking were very well practised. SRK's acting and especially the punches with the confusion with Tamil were too good. Half the movie was in Tamil, the clothing etc was entirely South Indian, it can very well be declared as a Tamil movie - the only thing is in Tamil land, they will miss the fun of contexts to the other Hindi movies. I loved the music by Vishal Shekhar, the two songs lungi dance and 1-2-3-4 song - the typical element of the non-stop random movements all through the song was genuinely South Indian. Such a film actually can be dedicated to Rajni Sir and so his virtual presence was justified completely :) The cinematography was good, choice of scenery was very, very good. The only thing I felt about lungi dance is that the two actors were a bit sophisticated for such a song & probably that sophistication could not do complete justice to the steps for such a song!
What I thought was missing in the movie was there was no single instance of the mention of the word 'aiyyaiyyo' or even simply 'aiyyo' :) The word had many instances in the movie to fit itself perfectly well - like for instance when the couple had fled as narrated by Deepika, the instant reaction of the villagers a South Indian would expect is this.
Anyone who does not have a touch or have not experienced a flavour of South Indian culture will not be able to appreciate the film. I guess the 1-star rating to this film is by one of those :) I feel very sorry for the fun they miss in life! The film definitely deserves at least a 3 from my side.
