Recent Indian movies I’ve seen roundup:
Tiger Zinda Hai: A sequel that didn’t need to exist. The first movie (Ek Tha Tiger) was kind of brilliant in that it seemed like this super-patriotic and jingoistic movie about the Indian Secret Service, RAW, as it thwarted their evil Pakistani neighbours. And yet, it subverted expectations and ended up promoting peace between the two countries. The sequel is more of the same, kind of, except in this case Tiger, the RAW agent, goes into Syria to destroy ISIS, and is of course single handedly able to do so. It’s well made at times, but kind of hokey throughout.
Tumhari Sulu: A story about a housewife who is always brainstorming ideas with her husband and son, who wins a radio contest and kind of finesses her way into potentially getting a radio gig. Only it’s a radio gig for the middle of the night, which involves sounding sexy and talking to lonely men who call in to the radio station. This is an absolutely delightful movie. Vidya Balan is one of my favorite actresses in Bollywood anyway, and this movie is the perfect use of her charm and style. Highly recommended if you’re into slice of life movies that show ordinary Indians.
Secret Superstar: A young muslim girl who lives in a conservative household with an abusive dad geeks out over singing shows analogous to American Idol. She and her mom geek out over them together, actually, and she dreams of one day showcasing her own talents on such a show. She is a good singer, but she knows her dad would never allow such a thing. When her mom gets her a laptop as a gift, she dreams about making it big via Youtube, but if her dad ever found out, she would have hell to pay. So she comes up a solution: she sings a song covered head to toe in a burka so no one knows her identity and puts it on Youtube as “Secret Superstar”. This is an absolutely delightful movie. Aamir Khan is funny as an over-the-top Simon on the American Idol type show. The young actress who is the star is wonderful, as is the actress who plays the mom. It’s a really well done movie. The scene where she finally has her shot at stardom is so tense and so well done, I want to give this movie’s writer a hug. Brilliant, just brilliant.
Lucknow Central: A starving musician who is trying to find a way to success as a musician is accused of murder and railroaded into prison. And there, unexpectedly, he finds a way to express his music in front of a big crowd. There’s a big contest between prisons, and he forms a band of misfits who don’t know how to sing, on the excuse that they’re going to sing good enough to get in the contest and use that to break out of prison. It’s got all the expected beats. Nothing unexpected happens in this movie. But I still found it a compelling watch. Come for the prison break movie, stay for the feel-good realization of musical dreams fulfilled, yeah? :)
Bareilly Ki Barfi: The plot of this romantic comedy is kind of hard to describe. Our female lead falls in love with the author of this book and tries to track him down. But the author whose name is on the cover is not the real author. The real author is kind of a scumbag in some ways, but likeable in others. The guy who put his name on the cover is just a sweet innocent by-stander who has to act like he’s the real author for reasons that are convoluted and even the movie can’t quite convince us of them. But hey, just go with it, because it turns out to be quite fun. Overall the point this movie is making about female empowerment kind of gets lost, but the lead actress is quite delightful, and the movie is quite funny at times. Recommended.