I have this on DVD from Netflix now, and can’t wait to see it.
My new next-door neighbors both grew up in India, and we got into a discussion on movies tonight. When I mentioned to them that I had Krrish on DVD, the husband’s response was roughly equivalent to “Oh dear GOD”.
His wife is coming over tomorrow and we’re going to watch it together…need to make sure I have enough popcorn to throw at the screen.
(ETA: Seriously, thanks for all the great recommendations in this thread-- I’m looking forward to checking out some of the films mentioned here!)
Many years ago me and my husband watched an Indian love story (on VHS, that’s how long ago we watched it). It was a story of a young woman who was too headstrong for her culture by far. Many, many bad things happen to her. She becomes a courtesan, a prince falls for her. In the end her true love is executed by getting his head stepped on by an elephant.
Yeah, pretty vague. But it must have had some play in the US. That’s the only way me and hubby would have seen it.
imdb has failed me–there is minimal info there. I also thought I owned it, but can only find something entitled Taal in my collection (which I’ve never seen). Weird.
Oh, well–rent Devdas. It’s your typical drop dead gorgeous (but poor) girl in love with wealthy neighbor who has to marry someone else (reason eludes me) but who cannot forget G(bp)G, so he becomes a drunkard (I’ve forgotten if he marries another or not). Lots of romance, lots of music, lots of the former Miss World (Universe?)–cannot recall her name, either (I fairly useless). All ends happily, btw.
IMO, the Indian actor who plays the male lead does not know how to play a drunkard. And he looks just like a doc on staff at my hospital, so it was a bit eerie. YMMV, of course.
What??? Your definition of “happy” must be a lot different than mine. Perhaps you are thinking of a different movie ending. Because the end of Devdas is anything but happy.
crap, really? I remember the blighted love affair; I remember the “drunken” scenes–and you know, I can’t remember the ending offhand. Hmmmm. I also watched at the same time as Devdas a few “compilation” DVDs*-all singing, all dancing numbers from various films. I think I conflated them. A doctor at work lent them to me, it has to be at least 3 years ago now. I thought Devdas ended with the 2 lovers together, but perhaps
it ends with him dying from alcohol?
Sorry. Can’t remember. I wish I still had that movie (can’t imagine what happened to it) so I could watch it again, just for my own peace of mind!
*which were great fun to watch, especially w/o subtitles. I think I like the “beach blanket bingo” type ones best. I’m a sucker for a musical comedy, no matter what language or culture.
They’re subtitled, sometimes pretty badly. One of my favorites, Kandukonden Kandukonden, has the words show up about 10 seconds after they’re spoken. But the DVDs are mainly produced for Indian customers.
Yeah, Devdas ends with Devdas dying from alcohol/etc. outside the heroine’s gate, while she is imprisoned inside by her husband. I think once she’s married, everything is pretty well doomed.
I just watched Krrish yesterday. Much better than I expected, and great fun! I’m off to Singapore next week so it was a good time to see it…
I think one of the things that throws a lot of Americans (including me) about Bollywood movies is that they don’t fit into the standard genre classifications we are used to. Krrish, for example, starts out as a romantic comedy and eventually turns into a Bond+superhero flick (not to mention an add for Visit Beautiful Singapore, as has been said). I do think that more Hollywood films could be improved by the addition of random musical numbers.
Well, that’s depressing as hell. I probably turned to the compilation videos for light relief and melded the memories. The world in my head is… interesting.
One of the songs in one of the compilation/collection videos was so funny. It’s kind of a jazzy number, with top hats, champagne etc and there is one English phrase in it–wouldn’t you know my brain glommed onto THAT song simply because it recognized the phrase? (which has subsequently been lost to the mists of time). You know you look foolish when you try to sing gobbledegook* with a three word English phrase!
*no disrespect intended–I cannot even make out individual words in Hindi/Punjabi/fillintheblank–it’s ALL a blur to me…
