All Good Things Come In Threes

Mini-Review of Deepa Mehta's Element Trilogy:

FIRE - EARTH - WATER

This is just my third mini-reviews-post, while the amount of normal-review-posts is 12 at the moment. I could say I'm proud of this, and I am somehow a little bit proud, but let's not forget that there's a certain virtue in writing/ reading mini-reviews, too. As for writing, it's clearly that you 1) don't need to write that much, 2) can write about more than one of your recent views and 3) can combine films that resemble each other in some way or another. 

For this (falling due) post, I chose to present these three films by Deepa Mehta, as they are not only my most recent "Indian" views (I, personally, categorize them as Hindi-Films, and therefore also as Bollywood, but others might not; the language in "Fire" is English, for example), but also three films that will stay with me for quite a while, and that are majestic epics to me (just like the quote on the "Water"-poster says - by the way, just because I call them this, doesn't mean they're my favorite films, but you'll notice what I mean, when reading the reviews). Finally, it doesn't happen very often that I borrow Indian DVDs from my library; they don't have many, and I've seen all of them - so I get really excited, when I find new ones. Actually, they had all three films in a collector's box, so I got even more excited. My weekend was saved (it was last weekend, so this post is a little behind schedule). Okay, I wish you a nice weekend, and hope you enjoy reading.

Fire (1996) फायर

I forgot to mention, that these were my first Deepa Mehta films (except for "Bollywood/ Hollywood", but that one wasn't really mind-blowing) and "Fire" was also my introduction to Nandita Das. 

The eye-catching thing about Deepa's films (except for B/ H) is that sedate, but still rebellious atmosphere, which is also how I think she is in real life (I saw some of the bonus material on the DVDs). The actors are of big importance in this connection, and it doesn't surprise me that she likes working with the same crew, or some of them. It's needless to say that Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das are magnificent, but I'd like to mention Javed Jaffrey as one of the impressive Indian talents we sadly don't hear enough of. 

Though I couldn't identify with the main characters on all levels, - and this is not about being lesbian; I was almost able to identify perfectly with two well-known cowboys - "Fire" is a great film dealing with a dateless problem. Also, it's a perfect match for Deepa-Mehta beginners, for the language is primarily English. As the other two films, it has a length that eases the question of when to watch it.

Rating: 7.3

Earth (1998) अर्थ

Earth is, until now, my favorite Deepa-Mehta-film. Why? Again, it's a matter of the identification; I said I was almost able to identify with those cowboys - but I have felt perfect identification with heterosexual characters in other films, so that's one of the reasons, and as for "Water" - the film made me feel angry, irritable and helpless, and especially the last feeling isn't my favorite thing to feel, so even though it was a great film with a superb screenplay, story, cinematography etc., "Earth" was the one film that'll stay closest to my... soul or heart, or whatever. 

Maybe it's the good old triangle-drama, newly-invented almost each year, which made a new impact on me, maybe it's Nandita, Aamir and Rahul, maybe it's the universality of the context; not everyone is homosexual, not everyone is a widow/ widower - but in every human soul we find, in whatever dimension, weaknesses, desires and brutality. 

Rating: 7.8

Water (2005) वाटर

According to Wikipedia, "Water" is a Canadian film, which brings us back to what I wrote at the beginning: I don't blame anyone for seeing these films as Canadian productions, or whatever else, but for me they are not only Indian films, but because of language and setting: Bollywood. 

One might also notice, that while the characters in "Fire" speak English, and in "Earth" a misc of English and Hindi (not to be confused with Hinglish, though), "Water" was filmed in Hindi, completely. 

As I already mentioned in the foregoing review, "Water" didn't leave me with the most desirable feelings. More clearly: this Gulabi and Madhumati were so freaking annoying, while both Kalyani and Chuyia - and Narayan, for that matter - were so freaking naive, that I really got some exercise, baling my fists or doing other aggressive movements. The subtitles for deaf people were also annoying (though I do speak Hindi, I don't feel secure enough to watch a film entirely without subtitles - what if I miss a word and then don't get the meaning of the whole scene?), but there were no normal subtitles.

But even though the nice A. R. Rahman music was always announced as "happy music", "romantic music", "playful music" etc., and even though it didn't kill me softly (in the pos. way), it was a nice score - but only nice, just as the film was, well, nice. 

One of the best things was the cinematography... Varanasi was captured in an almost poetic way, like a poem, I'd say, without having been there. I don't want to bash the movie, though: many people will probably like, or even love, it - and I can't say why not; the actors are superb, the story is fresh and not boring... but as I've told you now, it just wasn't made for me. So this rating is entirely subjective and not about the objective greatness of the film - because in an objective way, it is great.

Rating: 6.4

Thank you for reading,

Mette M. K.

The weeks not over yet... right?

This week, there was no room for Bollywood in my life - how can that possibly happen? Well, I try to ask myself this question, and I instantly find some reasons - which I'll share with you in this post.
I assume the real question is: Are my reasons admissible, or am I betraying my beloved Hindi film industry? Let's get an overview:

Under which pretexts did you leave the Indian film industry out alone this week?
For my defense: I did watch a tiny fragment of Bollywood this week - on Monday, I watched the end of No One Killed Jessica, as I was to tired to watch the whole film on Sunday.
However on...

... Monday, I was too tired after having ballet class from 18:30 till 20:00 and I also didn't want to be too tired next day. The afternoon was spent doing homework and stuff like that.

This is not what you think, Shahid
... we're just friends!

.... Tuesday, I, well, I had to watch How I Met Your Mother with my sister. We're trying to watch all seasons from the beginning and we're only at the 16th episode of season 1. I mean, we have a long way to go. Don't you think this is approved?

... Wednesday, we got our new Wii, so we had to try everything out. And then, as every Wednesday, the latest episode of Desperate Housewives was broadcasted. You must understand, that I really didn't have any time at all that day.

... Thursday, I needed to finish my book A Place Called Freedom (Ken Follett) and then hurried to ballet class, got into shower, ate - and before I knew, it was 9 o'clock p. m. (I was planning on watching my newly bought copy of Shahrukh-ki Deewana that evening, though).

... Friday, hey! That's today. Funny, how fast a week can go, isn't it. Yeah, so, how do I say this...? Don't think that I rate Hollywood higher than you, Bollywood, but there are only 9 days left until Oscar Night (I mean it: Night - how I hate the time difference). What I'm trying to say is: I'll spend this friday evening/ night seeing the most popular and recommended Oscar nominees. Now don't deliver any overhasty judgements and let me defend myself first: I have seen nearly all Filmfare nominees and winners, so even though I haven't seen the actual award ceremony, I'm on the right path. Please give me your blessings, Bollywood, will you?

I might never know the answer, but I feel that what I did was the right thing and there's no reason for convicting me. The week's not over yet, and I might watch one or two Indian films tomorrow. Maybe. And even if not, next week lies ahead. Also, I've written quite a few mini-reviews on my recent views, so you can look forward to my next post. A little hint: Rockstar-Rani in NOKJ and my odd, unexpected sympathy for that film called... something with Khan... and some Farah'os...?

Thank you for reading,

Mette M. K.


PS: I hope you don't take my trains of thoughts too serious.
PPS: "Trains of thoughts" - what a nice, picturesque expression, don't you think?

Review: Tere Bin Laden ["Habibi, George Bush!"]

As an exception, there's no fun post or anything like that between this and the last review (expect for the Lime-Stars notification), and that's because I wanted to share my view on TBL with you so badly. And if you'd rather watch a non-indian film at the moment, my advice to you is: Don't watch "Nowhere Boy", especially not

before putting down your expectations. 

TERE BIN LADEN (2010) तेरे बिन लादेन

Title-Translation: "Without you, Bin Laden"/ "Your Bin Laden"

Director: Abhishek Sharma
Author: Abhishek Sharma
Producers: Aarti Shetty, Pooja Shetty Deora
Starring: Ali Zafar, Pradhuman Singh, Piyush Mishra

Plot: A TV reporter from Pakistan has been in love with "Amreeka" (America) since he was a child, but after a terrible misunderstanding, he can't go to the USA anymore, if he doesn't get a lot of money very quickly. Luckily, he and his friend meet a man that looks almost exactly like Osama Bin Laden. They decide to make a fake Osama-video and then sell it to the press.When the video becomes public, the fear of terrorism from the middle-east increases even further.

Written the 8th of February 2011
In culture and media, it's easy to get to the point when a topic is simply outdrawn like an old chewing gum and you just think, that this is it. No more about this topic for me, I've had enough of it. An example for it is World War II: As interesting and diversified the cultural references to it are, and no matter how many fantastic films and books it has been giving inspiration to, I simply don't want to hear about it any longer. Maybe it's the worst in Germany, but we just get overloaded with that kind of literature and films. However, 9/11 and the whole Middle-East vs. America situation is a much more up-to-date difficulty, but there has also been made tons of rubbish about this topic, so how strike the right note in order to make it juicy and sapid?

That's money, honey

"Tere Bin Laden" demonstrates one of the possibilities that can get it right. Spoofing everything that is in any way connected to the
topic - aside from the USA of course, TBL catches a sarcastic eye on terrorism itself (yes, that is possible), the "popularity" of emigration (especially to the US), flight attendants, and much more from CSI and saving-the-country films to Pakistani television and wannabes.
I was reminded of "The President Is Coming" at several moments, and I'm sure the makers have been inspired by it - which is meant as a compliment. Relying on qualitative cultural material is always a good idea, though we first need to ask the question "What's qualitative cultural material". If every second sentence is a cite from one of the director's or production companies films, that's not what I call qualitative.

Good for TBL, this could possibly never have happened to the film, as it draws advantage from a mint fresh director and a Pakistani singer debuting. Ali Zafar is as great an actor as he's a singer. Charming, convincing… and… not looking bad. He should definitely stay in the acting business - but also singing. As for Abhishek Sharma, that guy seems to be one of the new talents the Hindi Film Industry should focus on. He's got some big chances, I think.

Don't be greedy!

TBL doesn't place much emphasis on music, though Ali is allowed to rock the show at the end (always with a humorous wink), but in contrary to that, editing and cinematography are some of the fundamental strengths of the film. Supporting actors are of "mixed quality" - most of them overacting - they had to, of course - but they were not bad. Sugandha Garg was the one that I noticed most, I'm curious to see more of her.

2010 had more gems, than I thought and I'll continue looking for them. "Tere Bin Laden" is one of them, short and good, as we say in Germany and Denmark. This is the kind of humour I want to see concerning a topic like that - and not just in late night satire shows, but on the Big Screen. Hollywood/ America: take a leaf of this book.

Rating: 7.7

Thank you for reading,

Mette M. K. 

The Lime-Stars

As you may have noticed, every review now also contains a star-rating, aside of the normal 10-points rating. This was a decision I made, because I find it easier to rate the movies that way; even though two films i. e. have a 8/10 rating, they may not have the same star-rating - so this gives me the possibility of rating the movies in a more "detailed" way. I hope you understand what I mean.

The stars are called Lime-Stars and it took me quite a while to create them, so I'm really proud of them. I know they don't look very spectacular, but that was also my intention. Just something classic, with a little edge.

Review: Jhootha Hi Sahi [The truth about JHS]

Getting back to the old fashioned "review:"... I can't really decide how to title my reviews, as you might have noticed. However, after watching the horrible "Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic" (2008) on TV yesterday (and it's so typical they send this kind of stuff - we have to maintain the "Bollywood image", right?: kitschy, unrealistic, naive + bad special effects), I needed something better. We have two Bollywood magazines in Germany, whereas one is just G-R-E-A-T and the other one is quite new and needs some improvement. However, the improvement-one published a review on "Jhoota Hi Sahi" and it was not very positive, so reading it, I thought: "No, you're getting this wrong - this is a good movie!". But then a voice in my head said: "Well, you haven't seen it, so how will you know?". I can't explain, but don't you sometimes have that feeling of knowledge, like you really know that a film is good? You don't hope so (as for Dhobi Ghat, I do), you just know. However, every thesis needs to be proved for becoming a theory. Read the results of this experiment, exclusively, right here at Lime Reviews.

JHOOTHA HI SAHI (2010) झूठा ही सही

Title-Translation: Part of a song from 1970's Hindi classic "Johnny Mera Naam". Means something like "True or false/ Even if it's false"

Director: Abbas Tyrewala
Authors: Pakhi Tyrewala & Abbas Tyrewala
Starring: John Abraham, Pakhi Tyrewala, Raghu Ram, Madhavan

Plot: Siddhart (Sid) owns a book shop in London, together with two of his friends. He stammers in front of beautiful women and his relationship to girlfriend Kurtika is going south. Then, one night, he gets called up by unknown people, all wanting to commit suicide, calling him "dost" (friend). A suicide helpline has by mistake published Sid's tlf. number as theirs, and they ask him to help out a little, if anyone calls. Sid agrees, and gets called up by Mishka, a beautiful girl that he will meet in real life too - after having told her about his great, exciting life...




Written the 5th of February 2011

"Jhoota Hi Sahi" is one of those films that have been getting highly mixed responses. A large part 

Johnny-boy and Pakhi

of the bad opinions alludes to Pakhi Tyrewala, who portrays one of the two main persons - and who also wrote the screenplay. I consider this as a big accomplishment and think she made a really good job. Mishka, one of the two main characters, seems natural, if you look away from the fact that she was trying to kill herself and then gets happy so fast. This is though rather a fault of the screenplay, as the part when Mishka gets happy with time has not been given enough time. But never mind, everything else goes perfectly, and a few nice, unexpected twists are included in the screenplay (I don't want to spoil anything by telling them now). 
You could find your self asking: Why did they choose an end that everyone would expect? Well, if it was an art film or anything else that fits into the definition of "we-don't-want-anything-regular", this question would be qualified. But you can watch "LSD", if you want an indie-end.


I also must mention the supporting actors, who took a lot of the seriousness away by being serious (Nick? Well, he was serious about marrying Aliya). A small disappointment was that Anaitha Nair had such a tiny role, but Alishka Varde made a good female entertainer, too (did you know that my Danish guest family lives near a town called Varde?). As most newer films, "Jhoota Hi Sahi" tries to be open-minded concerning sexuality, and though there never actually are many sparks between John and Pakhi (also a small disappointment-factor), the film manages better than one of its concurrents, "Anjaana Anjaani", at least not insulting gay people. The two gay guys cater for some amusement, but never in an abusive way. Adjacent to Pakhi, John Abraham portrays the second main character, and he has never been more cute and lovable, ever. Not later than in the scene when he admits that he remembers Mishka "thodaa-saa…?" (a little…?), you really want to have a little Sid-bear that you can hug (maybe I should name on of my teddies "Sid" - it could be this Sid, the Ranbir-Sid and the real Sid, I mean the Telugu one).

And my Pakhi once more

The soundtrack of this film has been on my iPod for quite a long time now, because it's not possible that I miss a new soundtrack of my sabse-favorite composer & singer, Rahman. Some people call it boring, I call it a "1000-times-better-than-Blue-Soundtrack" that gently tiptoes into your heart. A little bit like the film, they are a good match, indeed. The credit for this also goes to Abbas Tyrewala, for he assembled all these people and made something cozy of it. Cozy is actually the perfect word for describing the film: It isn't the Blockbuster-type and it's not weird enough to be described as one of the ongoing experiments that are attacked to the silver (or laptop/ computer/ tv) screens at the moment. I already said that I like change and experiments, and that a good film always needs to include something fresh and new. So off course, this film has got something. But what is "Jhoota Hi Sahi" in the end?


The truth is: "Jhoota Hi Sahi" is, what many want to be, but only few are - a perfect rom-com (which is already imperfect by definition). 

Rating: 7.0

Thank you for reading,

Mette M. K.