You have to give this film a bit of time. It's as dopey as any regular Bollywood film in the beginning. A scene early on has the lead actor (Aamir Khan once again; heck, he's the best in Bollywood, why watch any other?) jumping around onstage singing and playing guitar...and it's very obviously not plugged in but is supposed to be. Everybody's wearing dorky 80s clothes, and you think the film is going to be as silly as the rest of them. It's not. It's a re-make of Kramer vs. Kramer (believe it or not), and actually gets better as the film progresses. In fact, I thought the courtroom scene was better in this film than in the original, although it has been a long time since I've seen the original. They picked the cutest, sweetest little kid to play the son. Not at all cloying, but very natural, my favorite kind of child actor. Khan does his usual magic as the father who learns how special his relationship to his son is, and Manisha Koirala surprised me with her range as the mother. The only thing I ended up not liking about the film was its insistence on having one of the leads become a big Bollywood star. This is the third Bollywood film in a row that makes this a major theme. It seems they're having a bit of trouble thinking outside the box.
year: 1995
length: 160 min.
rating: 3.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112313/combined
Monday, August 11, 2003
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1 comment:
Ha! I rented this one without any idea what "Bollywood" is! Was I in for a surprise. Not yet done with it, but certainly wanted to turn it off before long. You're right -- it does get better. Look forward to finishing it tonight!
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