kakusei

great story and acting, with a powerful message... it's especially great to see stories like this being told in modern India, in which mass media has played a large role in curbing corruption, and social networking is also helping...

HOWEVER!!!! do we really need to hear indians say the f-word as much as possible? it DOESN'T SOUND COOL, it sounds STUPID. i can't help dropping my face into my hands every time one of these characters says the f-word, for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON AT ALL.... indians are sooooo obsessed with looking cool that they make themselves look like complete idiots... i don't understand this stupid trend and it really takes away from the movie when everyone is trying to outdo each other with the English swearwords they can say. it's not cool at all, it makes them look silly and low class... but i have a feeling this trend will continue, and audiences will keep eating it up until typical indians become as foul-mouthed as typical Americans... this goes along with so many other bollywood trends, such as everyone being a smoker. in American films, you hardly ever see this anymore, yet it seems that more and more Indian films now have characters that smoke, again FOR NO REASON AT ALL.... another scene is one in which rani's character is seeing aggressively making out with a man, presumably after a night out, and this scene is NEVER referred to again. i just don't understand why so much effort goes into trying to look cool, especially when there's no purpose for it. i have no problem with swearing, smoking or making out, but when it's being put into a movie that it has nothing to do with, the audience is cheated. slaughtering animals is also a part of daily life, so why don't they put in a few scenes of that too? or of rani using the the toilet? or of vidya using tampons? because that's basically how trashy they look when they're CONSTANTLY repeating the f-word for no purpose other than to make young indians giggle and try to look cool....

there are very few Indian films that confront real situations, without cheating the audience, treating them like children or giving them what they want instead of what they need. 'arth' is one of those few films.

the story is a simple and timeless one, yet one that is rarely explored in Indian film. what makes it so great is that each side of is represented, with two female points of view, another rarity in Indian film. but the performances are what bring this great story to life. the acting is superb, especially by shabana azmi and smita patil - two women with excellent performances in the same film, which is yet another rarity.

the film is well directed, and mahesh bhatt highlights the emotional impact of the situation very well. not a single shot is wasted and the story unfolds at a perfect pace.

at no point is 'arth' clichéd or predictable, and it tells the story as it should be told. the ending was one that would have made so many other films excellent, yet the storytellers were afraid to tell it. this is the thing i admire most about this film, it never cheats the audience and treats the situation as realistically as possible. most importantly, each of the main characters is three-dimensional, and the film examines each of these characters and their states of mind very well, rather than having them react to events.

the writing, directing, and acting in this film are absolutely perfect and this film is easily one of the best Indian films ever made.

this movie is SURELY a parody or spoof. there's just no way anyone can take this silly film seriously. it is so full of cheesy dialogue, unbelievable jingoism and awful, over-the-top performances that there's no way you can watch it without laughing.

first, there is some good photography and cinematography in this film. the actions shots are done quite well. but that's where it ends. EVERYTHING ELSE about this movie is absolutely HORRIBLE.

this movie was most likely written by the Indian army, as there are just too many references to how much greater India is than Pakistan and how it must be protected at all costs. the rhetoric is soooo thick and performances so wooden that there's really no explanation other than that the Indian military knew they would need some public relations help, especially since they were to go on to detonate five nuclear bombs the year after this film was released.

the acting is absolutely horrible, with every character being completely one-dimensional caricatures. the embarrassingly bad character played by sunny deol is taken straight out of an American war b-movie. his unending screaming of silly nationalistic clichés was most likely written by politicians, and serves only as a source of comic relief. every other character is similarly based on cartoon characters....

every five minutes, the viewer is reminded about how great India and hindus are, how brave and intelligent they are, how strong and proud they are, how loving and noble they are... this idea, beaten into your head over and over, is followed by explosions and heroic indians beating down those evil pakistanis. this gets so tired and stupid that it's quite clear this movie has nothing else to say - it is completely self-righteous propaganda or ingenious parody.

the incredibly bad dialogue, surely written by army children, sees the entire world in black and white, and India is always right, no matter what. it even goes so far as to suggest that god wants India to win and Pakistan to lose, but never shows the pakistani army believing the exact same thing...? of course not, because everyone knows that Pakistan are the bad guys and India is doing god's work, right?? in the middle of all this carnage, no opportunity is missed for these tough guys to drop their guns and take part in silly choreographed dance routines, which are so out of place, that they serve as yet another piece of proof that this film is a spoof and should not be taken seriously.

this film exists primarily to support the ideas of conservative warmonger tough guys who like guns and violence and like killing people who don't pray to the same god they do. it fuels the minds of small-minded, nationalistic idiots who believe that India is the greatest country in the world - yet have never traveled outside of India.

however, it also serves to satirize these kinds of people, with such an extreme, arnold schwarzenegger-type plot, that it seems to completely undermine and subvert what i assume is the real message of the film. it's quite ironic that this is the case because the makers of this film most likely thought they were creating something amazing but ended up creating something so laughably bad that it can only be enjoyed as making fun of those who support war.

first, it must be stated that this film was a joint venture with Hollywood, and used many Chinese actors and kung fu story lines. the jokes, especially in the first half, are very subversive, ironic and sarcastic, which are forms of humour that are hardly ever used in Indian film. mainstream Indian film is never used to question authority, only to enforce it. many of the jokes in this film poke fun at bollywood clichés and silly Indian beliefs. this usually ends up confusing and annoying indians, who can usually understand that a joke has just occurred, but their inability to understand the joke is on them, and the fact that it wasn't someone slipping on a banana peel, totally confuses them.

the story uses more hong kong kung fu clichés than bollywood clichés, which is another thing that annoys indians, who are completely against trying to understand a genre of film that is not their own. most of the reviews you read here are written by people who have never seen a kung fu film and only seen Hollywood blockbusters. their entire frame of reference is mainstream Hindi films and mainstream American films... if you ask the average Indian what their favourite American film is, they'll most likely say something like 'snakes on a plane', so keep in mind whose opinion you're listening to....

the worst thing is when an Indian tells you a film like this one is 'unrealistic', considering that bollywood films are famous for people over 40 appearing as teenagers, hundreds of dancers suddenly appearing right after a boy tells a girl he wants to marry her, singing songs during which clothes and locations are somehow changed thirty times in the span of five minutes and live music suddenly appearing in an empty room to accompany the hero as his voice changes so that he can sing for seven minutes something that he could have said in half a second and, while playing the piano, sounds of dhol, sitar and harmonium somehow come from the piano.... yes, that sounds MUCH MORE realistic than anything in this film....??

the film is very successful, doing exactly what it intended to: subverting traditional bollywood clichés, adding new aspects of storytelling to mainstream Indian film and attempting to crossover the bollywood style with other styles, in this case, the kung fu film. this is a genre experiment that mainstream Indian movie fans will simply never understand.

it's pretty much guaranteed that you've never seen anything like this film and if you like kung fu films, bollywood films and subversive humour that doesn't rely on slipping on banana peels or some happy-go-lucky idiot dancing around and talking too fast (which is considered top level humour in India), watch this - you'll be surprised and delighted. if you're a bollywood fan and have never seen anything else, go crawling back to watching the latest Indian version of romeo & juliet, with some young girl and boy who want to get married, but their parents won't allow it - which is a tried-and-true, guaranteed hit in India. indians NEVER get sick of seeing this formula and will happily pay money to watch the exact same movie they've already seen THOUSANDS of times. most indians can only accept ideas that have been regurgitated a million times and they refuse to accept anything other than what they've been given for the last 70 years.... if this is you, don't bother with this film, it would be like trying to teach a fish how to walk....

like many bollywood films of the late 60s, this is a complete ripoff of western films, specifically james bond films. they imitate EVERYTHING, including the foreign locales, the gadgets and the spy who is capable of doing absolutely anything at any time.... of course mixed in are silly bollywood jokes, unnecessary characters and an insanely boring plot... there are a few well choreographed dance scenes, but nothing special... i can't understand how films like this were made and what point they were trying to make. all the films they were copying were playing in India at the time and most people knew of them. so what's the point in copying? if you've never seen a james bond film, perhaps this would be entertaining, but even then, why not just watch james bond and not dharmendra pretend he's james bond...? i have no idea why so many people recommend garbage like this....

overrated, yes, but this is still a good film... maybe even a great film... but one cannot escape the fact that a MUCH greater film could have been made. 'anand' is clearly based on legendary Japanese director akira kurosawa's classic 'ikiru', which is simply one of the greatest films ever made. it tells a real story, without singing, dancing and jokes, and confronts death directly, rather than dancing around the issue until the last 20 minutes.

'anand' simply misses the point. the first two-thirds of the film serve to introduce YET ANOTHER fast-talking, happy-go-lucky, smiling young man (a horribly clichéd and overused character, who must appear in just about every bollywood film) who is so annoying that you can't wait to see him die. this is the primary weakness of this film - you cannot stand the main character! at least in 'ikiru', we witness the transformation of a quiet, morose soul into a great man. but in this film, no such change occurs and no point is made. it's just about a guy who dies.

if you're going to make a movie about death, there should be at least a SOME discussion about it, not covering it up with songs and jokes. this is cheating the audience, who are watching to see a story about a certain theme and are instead tricked into yet another tearjerking bollywood melodrama. what was the point of trying to get bhaskar married? what was the point of anand joining a theatre group? these were wasted moments that could have been used to explore death, but of course, a mainstream Indian film will NEVER be so serious, so we're given what Indian audiences REALLY want: weddings, songs, cheap sentimentality and silly jokes.

however, the performances are quite good and the storyline, although a wasted opportunity, is still far away from the formula of most mainstream Hindi films. if you enjoyed the themes of this film, but want a deeper exploration, drop what you're doing right now and watch akira kurosawa's 'ikiru'.... no weddings, no jokes, no happy-go-lucky annoying guys running around, and only one unforgettable song....

shammi kapoor is perhaps the worst actor in Indian history. he's a guy you just can't take seriously. his silly eye rolls and one-liners are cringe-worthy, ensuring that the viewer NEVER takes this guy seriously. he seems like the kind of guy you'd want to punch in the face two minutes after meeting him, he's THAT annoying....

i must protest this film being called a 'thriller', since there are really no thrills on offer, rather a tired, straight-forward whodunit, masquerading as something hitchcockian, but failing miserably. by the time the mystery is revealed, you already knew the solution two hours earlier and have stuck around for reasons other than wanting to know how it ends....

like many other Indian films of this era, the point was to fill it up with as many random songs and one-liners as possible to disguise its lack of plot. silly bollywood clichés abound throughout the entire thing and there's really no story here at all, other than the typical 'girl likes boy but plays hard to get' plot that is used in just about every bollywood film ever made.

'teesri manzil' is an exercise in style over substance, which is the reason why it was such a big hit and so influential. it's all dressing, no substance. flashy, colourful clothes, sets and music are used, announcing India's entry into the mod scene. this movie is a showcase for that and nothing more. it simultaneously tries to be a comedy, drama, thriller, musical and romance and as a result, ends up failing at all of these... sadly, as is so common in the story of Indian film, it was popular, so its style became endlessly imitated, recycled, regurgitated and consumed again by hopelessly trend-following indians, so at least vijay anand can take credit for something with this failure....

this film has a very interesting premise, but falls into too many Indian film traps to follow through on the interesting start.

the film has several excellent lines, and the central message - that time can change anything, is a point well-made. much of the dialogue refers to this point, something which is almost never done in Indian film. the songs also discuss the meaning and impact of time, which is something quite refreshing...

but the rest of the story is all just filler, as it shows quite early on that the entire plot was constructed simply to have situations in which time can be discussed and the family could eventually be reunited...

the last chunk of the film is a lengthy court scene (the courtroom is the lazy writer's best friend), in which everything is put right and everyone gets what they deserve. the tearjerking, emotionally manipulative ending, in which every family member just happens to be in the same city, watching the same trial that they all just happened to be involved in is PURE bollywood cheese, but gave most of the audience what they wanted. basically, this film could have been ten minutes long and it most likely would have had the same audience reaction...

this film offers almost nothing for the viewer. it's one long bollywood joke, attempting to be every movie and settling on nothing. i just can't understand what people like about this, it makes no sense - at one point showing one of the heroes willing to give up his girlfriend to his best friend in order to prove his friendship. it's annoying that indians accept this kind of blatant cheating of the audience, as though we are supposed to believe that someone will just give their girlfriend to someone else, or that she is his possession to give away in the first place....

however, three or four of the songs are quite excellent, and they basically show that this film was just an attempt to put out some good songs. it seems like once that was realized, they just pulled bollywood clichés out of a hat and linked each of these scenes with a song... sadly, that's how most of these masala films are made, yet so many fools praise this kind of audience-hating....

the first half of this film is quite strange, with over an hour of soldiers training and inexplicably screaming out "COMMANDO!!!" while training...? i'm not sure what the point of that was, have you ever had a dentist scream out "DENTIST!!!" right before looking into your mouth...? anyway, just as the movie seems like an extended commercial for the Indian military, a shocking twist occurs, allowing for a great deal of social criticism.

the second half is excellent, dealing with many social issues, such as corruption, crime, treatment of women and drug use. many interesting issues are discussed, without any kind of lecturing or judgement being passed, which is quite refreshing for mainstream Indian cinema, which usually uses every opportunity to crush independent thought and encourage blind devotion to tradition... topping it off is an incredibly violent action sequence in which nana beats down a bunch of baddies....

however, the most shocking part is the last sequence, which consists of hundreds of naked young boys running around (no joke)...? this scene seems to go on forever and really has no explanation or purpose. i still can't understand what the point of this sequence was and why it was included, what do naked little boys have to do with anything and why would anyone want to end a movie like this...??

godmother examines the problems of corruption, partisanship and violence in politics, through the eyes of a non-traditional antagonist. the personal struggles rambhi deals with in the second half and the conclusions she comes to are ones that would be great to see come from the corrupt politicians of the world, however, we will most likely never see such a day.... as this film demonstrates, the masses are easily led and will just hop on the bandwagon of whoever screams loudest....

in conclusion, the purpose of this film is not be truthful or accurate, after all, who decides what a true story is and whose point of view is the truth? films are made to tell stories, they are an escape, which is why they have writers, actors and directors. newspapers try to report the truth, films try to entertain. those who cannot understand this should not be watching films in the first place....