The movie we would like you to consider is called Hum Aapke Hai Koun. This movie is a true musical with 14 songs. This was the biggest bollywood hit of the nineties. It is littered with light hearted comedic moments and a fine love story.

It is available on Netflix.

Sholay (1975)
Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978)
Sharaabhi (1984)

Ok. I went to the store last night and there are no dvd's, only video's. I'll rent one and watch in the medialab. But here's what I noticed in the store's "Indian Film" section. Deepa Mehta and Satyajit Ray. Lots of movies by them, and then the movie Bandit Queen. That's about it. :-( Can you guys give me some background to the directors, or point me in the direction of whose work of the two you find more engaging, why? I think Ray, you mentioned was Bangladeshi, so where's Mehta from? Does it make much of a difference as far as their cultural and film reference points? Sorry, to ask so much, but this is one area I know next to nothing about.

The movie we would like you to consider is called Hum Aapke Hai Koun. This movie is a true musical with 14 songs. This was the biggest bollywood hit of the nineties. It is littered with light hearted comedic moments and a fine love story.

It is available on Netflix.

Nice review, dolce.

I have a confession to make. The last Bollywood movie I watched was in 1988 called Tezaab, which BTW was very good.

Do the groom's shoes really get stolen? List the other ones. I tried to keep an eye out for them, but couldn't tell which performances were strictly marriage related or which were for the movie.

This is quite possibly my favoritest tradition during the mehndi (Heena) which takes place usually a day or 2 before the wedding. We (Pakistanis) have it too. We've had it in many weddings but we might skip it in mine because Rahima's family doesn't know about it and its the girl's side that does this. There are many traditions like this where the girls side tries to get money out of the groom. Another one we have is all the girls holding on to the guy's wedding ring finger and not letting go. Really, they are just fun games. even if the groom's family manages to find the shoe or break free from the girls' grasp, they still pay up.

funny tradition ... after the marriage is done and the bride and groom are leaving the reception area to go do the nasty, the groom's family (usually the kids) will block the way to the exit (or hotel room) till you pay them up, essentially turning this momentous occasion into a "pay for sex" occasion. hehe ..


Hum Aapke Hai Koun

Well, I had mixed feelings going into this, so i tried to seperate technical and personal responses.

Technically, I found it alright. It had alot more dialogue than I expected, and enough playful banter including an ongoing "inside joke" about caughing, and cricket. Oh yes, there was cricket. I've decided there are two things in all Bollywood movies. Marriage, and cricket. Am I right?

This film is dialogue intensive. Most films do not actually center around cricket per say. may be a reference here and there but nothing more. Keep in mind though that this was a wedding based movie and such, implies that an entire family gets together along with family friends (which could number in the high double digits or low triple digits). Cricket would be an obvious passtime. Most indian movies do not revolve around marriage itself but everything around a marriage .. like falling in love or complications arising due to marriage. Hum Aapke hain kaun was probably the one pure film that sold itself on the basis that it was inundated with wedding rituals and what not.

I liked Rita, the one that wasn't all that sharp a cricket player and a terrible chef, but had enough heart, was friendly, and was kind of a tomboy.

I do not remember Rita or any of the character names. I will assume Prem is Salman Khan (the main dude) and Nisha is Madhuri Dixit. I know them better by their real names.

bABA, Prem reminds me of you. Comepletely unafraid to make a complete fool of himself. :-) And his back-n-forth was well handled.

hA! Prem sounds like Salman Khan, once rated as the 7th most desired man in the world .. yup .. world. some magazine poll or some shit .. my sister and cousins love him.

Madhuri was considered a goddess. many still do. i never liked her but in the late 80s and early 90s, she took the mantle of the most desired actress in bollywood, something previously held by Sri Devi i think.

I wondered why he and Nisha just didn't come out and say they liked eachother for so long? It wasn't West Side Story where they had fueding families or something (jb, bAB that dance was a reference to west Side Story wasn't it?). They take so long getting around to announcing it once its firmly established they like eachother.

I dont remember the west side story stuff. and i haven't seen this in a long time. nisha was the sister of the bride to be right? and prem was the brother of the groom to be? If thats the case, it makes sense. The idea of 2 brothers getting married to 2 sisters is sort of odd, espicially if the latter one is more of a love marriage without any family involvement. Its funny cause my mom's brother and 1 sister are married to another brother and sister (both hetero hehe) but still, they frowned upon my cousin going out with the brother of the girl getting married to another cousin of mine. did that sound complicated?? if it did, then you can understand why an entire family would have issues and thus they decided not to say anything before. families and proper family ties are important. in our culture, there is a name for every type of relationship you have with someone. my mom's sister is called khala. my dad's sister is called phuppo. my cousin's phuppo is now also her khala. i can see why it could be disapproved. but yes, i think that was one of the smaller taboos the film was trying to point out.

It was ok until Pooja died. WTF????? On the stairs? That came out of nowhere. Is that common? Up until that point it was a fairly light comedy, almost like Shakespeare comedies where one realizes everyone is going to end up married, and its all about the banter on the way. Mind you, sans much of any other commentary.

Pooja's death came as a shock to all of us. Because it was just downright weird. it just freaking happened. I always hated the film for that very reason. So no, someone just falling down for no reason to change the entire story is not common. I think the director wanted her to die accidently to continue with the second part of the story but it was terrible execution.

Around that death the movie goes into overkill. Dealing with the servant being a "borther" the marriage of a younger daughter to the same husband to replace her sister, and just lots of discussions I guess I wouldn't expect in a movie that had rollerskates, jeans, and hoop earings. I didn't mind the kind of insertion of their servant as being close to the family and being treated with respect, even though there was really no foundation for it and its just randomly brought up. I also didn't mind that there was some discussion of education, good women having BA's etc. Nisha even says she's studying computers, which seems odd since not once is she pictured near one, going to class, or really anything else, and can take off months at a time. Meanwhile all the guys were running businesses, and referring back to universtiy and their teachings. Nisha and Pooja's mother went to university too. Even though there's really no trappings of it now, I'm glad they at least had those couple references to it.

Hehe .. yes ... pretty standard. the girl is learning computers is such a cliche, its not even funny. and you'll never see one showing any sign of backing that claim up. I dont know about this servant thing ... but in many families, many that are joint families, you often hear of that one servant who basically grew up with everyone. this person is usually part of the family and sometimes treated with more respect than one who is own blood. we still have one of them who we stay in contact with in pakistan even though my mom's entire family is now in north america. its usually a given. but really, i dont remember this part of the film at all.

The marriage replacement really didn't sit well with me. Both as a vehicle to propel the storyline and just, uh, personally/ethically. It seemed like the director needed to find a reason for Prem and Nisha's love to be denied and so had to force it, since they didn't actually have anything holding them back except for their own reserve. I thought that was alright, and could have just remained with two people feeling they were young, having other things going on in their lives, or just taking a long time to realize they love eachother. But this just seemed like "Quick...how do we thwart their love?" Plus just replacing a wife with her younger sister? I dunno. Is that a common practice?

I dont think it was forced at all .. i think the director's purpose from the beginning WAS to have this story. To be honest, i've never ever seen this happen but i would never be surprised if it did. prem and nisha did have something holding them back and that was their sibling's previous marriage. its tough to understand but i'd never want to marry into the family that my brother has married into. i dont think my family would be too keen on it either. its just something i've seen discouraged. back to the whole "complicating relations" and such.

I also don't think it took them a long time to realize they were in love. it took them a long time to realize that the love they have cannot be sacrificed. the 2 characters could have turned their back on their feelings and moved on and that was what they were probably hoping to do. but they couldn't.

The thing is, I really see this as cute and campy (until it got serious for the last half hour). I haven't really been inundated by this studio system, so to me its like "ohhh song and bance, nice make-up." I did think the shoes sealing scene was particularly well done, and my favorite part of the movie. But I also noticed even Rita was on her way to getting hitched by the end, and that there's this real performance of independance in female figures that is pretty shallow. A couple peppy lines and a finger wave on the way to their new matrimonial position.

haha

What was up with all the candy and chocolate??? Made me peckish. Also made me think the director was trying to coach the cross over into sexual maturity from little girl with lollipop to big woman with...

dont remember. its an auspicious occasion and thus must be celebrated with something sweet?
Are little choclate bars in alot of movies? Product placement? Or is it something this Barjatya concocted?