Reviews

If the movie had finished 40 minutes earlier, I would give a rating of 9 for its stunning music & lyrics, original presentation and the brilliant performance of Anil Kapoor. Aishwarya also exhibited her decent (and evolving) acting talent as well as graceful dancing skills. Alas, all these attributes are ruthlessly ruined by the true-Indian-girl-goes-back-to-her-first-love stereotype. Should the storyline tilt audience's mood from one extreme of love to the other extreme of hate? What an arrogant, despicable cliche! The script writers are doomed for wasting great talents of veteran actors and the shinning beauty in the eyes of Aishwarya Rai.

Rating 2 of 10, 1 for the music and 1 for Anil Kapoor.

As most Bollywood movies, the plot in this one is not complicated and quite predictable. Nice & shy guy met pretty girl who fell in love with him, but he loved the other girl back home; after the 'girl friend' in his heart got married, guy went back to seek the love he missed... The problem is that hero changed his heart for another girl too 'naturally' after his unspoken love failed. True, someone's loss is someone's gain. Yet what a condescending "gain" for the poor girl who didn't get his love in the first place.

Most of the dancing scenes are imaginary and quite senseless.

Aishwarya Rai was good at playing such poignant role for sure, but she needs more colorful characters to enrich her performance experience.

Raja was the King of Kirana Bazar and the surrounding areas - His law was pay 'Hafta' and live peacefully. In case of defiance, Raja's muscled arms had enough strength to punish the culprit. On the other hand, there was Laxmi, a Tiffin Carrier girl, who not only defied Raja but condemned him publicly for squeezing the blood of poor and hard working people in the form of 'Hafta'. Raja couldn't do a bit against her - Because Raja was grateful to Laxmi's Dadu(grandpa), a cart-puller, who had sympathy for him before. It so happened - Dadu breathed his last while pulling the cart in scorching sun, and municipality squad demolished the 'Jhoopad Patti', where laxmi was living - making her homeless. In the night, when Laxmi was sleeping on Dadu's cart, Kallu, a local gunda, tried to molest her. Raja reached the spot in time, rescued Laxmi and forced her to live in his house.

Bastiwala branched Laxmi as Raja's keep. And Raja was ashamed of himself so much that he silently vowed to provide happiness to Laxmi by turning into a working man. The process of reciprocation of feeling started. Raja and Laxmi became the darlings of Bastiwalas. They proposed them to get married - And then came in Professor - for whom Laxmi was working as a maid servant once - with the proposal of marrying her. Raja faced the dilemma of giving Laxmi happiness...

Due to its age, the plot is simple, setting rather shoddy, and the makeup outdated, but both the leading actor and actress showed subtle depth with the development of characters. 3/10 for the script, 8/10 for the performance.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles transitioned to Indian countryside. Regrettably, the film lacks much of the subtle and pastoral flavor or any notable depth. The villain is such a disgusting-looking guy that audience cannot help cursing the director for his brutality. After the shock, now I understand the golden rule for most Indian films that the heroine should never be raped. One can hardly have any sympathy in Somen as he/she would have to Angel Clare, either. The bloody ending scene makes one wonder whether Indians are violent people who like to seek law by their own hands.

6/10: solely for Madhuri Dixit's shinning beauty and marvelous dancing.

I saw this movie in a EU film festival in Vancouver last year and was deeply moved. Quite unlike most other realistic Italian films, the film is a a "sober, unerringly controlled psychological drama about motherhood and mental frailty" (David Rooney, Variety). A Roman psychiatrist hires an illiterate country girl to serve as a wet nurse for his newborn child when his wife is unable to breast feed (or love) it. The maternal theme (and frequent nursing scenes) contribute welcome warmth to the director's customary rich visual style, while the plot points the wet-nurse has a jailed political activist husband and a small child of her own whom she must temporarily forsake in order to earn a living. It is an elegant film with slow rhythms, poetic psychoanalytical discourse and warm motif of maternity, loyalty, love and understanding. Beautiful and compassionate Italian masterpiece in the 1990's!

While Bergman is gradient as ever in this early movie of hers, the plot on the whole is disappointing. The murdering scene even seems ridiculous with the unsurprising coincidence and unbelievable clumsiness. What a waste for Bergman!