The story is nice (and predictable). Boy meets girl (or doesn’t), they fight and fall in love. So far so good. The interesting thing is how the film doesn’t stop at this point, but goes on and shows that people grow in a relationship, although some people take more time than other.

Another thing I found interesting was the two different kind of relationships that were shown: the more modern kind but still romantic one of Ambar and Nikhil, and the so much more romantic and maybe more traditional of Cathy and Ron. The relationship of Ambar and Nikhil seemed to be a mixture of modern – they live together but aren’t married -, and romantic – they move together, although they barely know each other. Ron’s and Cathy’s relationship is more romantic (they meet and marry immediately), and – I’m not sure about this! – somehow seemed more traditional in that they married before they moved together, and before they had sex. Ambar who isn’t married gets pregnant.
Up to now, it was Nikkhil who tamed Ambar.
That’s when the film becomes more predictable and the question of who tames whom is reversed. Suddenly it is Nikhil who gets some kind of Angst and doesn’t want all the responsibilities (yada yada yada). The dialogue where he tells Ambar to “kill it” is absurd. Yeah, if I want someone to get an abortion, I’ll say “kill the baby”. Definitely.
The rest if predictable, although I wouldn’t have predicted the slapstick in the delivery room. Erm… it was pretty uncool.

I liked:

• that the australian girl Cathy got married before she got pregnant, and that the indian girl (Ambar) actually didn’t want to marry
• Saif:
• Saif.
• Arshad.
• Preity!  So good to see another Preity-film after JBJ last weekend!
• the fights between both Cathy and Ron, and Ambar and Nikhil
• how the relationships were shown – not all romance, but a little hue of reality.

I didn’t like the slapstick scenes at the end. I think they’re the only thing that really put me of, and it didn’t fit the tone of the film. Oh, and Preity had the most ridiculous baby belly I’ve ever seen in a film.

It’s not the best of the best, but it’s definitely nice and one of the films that you can see when you don’t want to watch football like the rest of the country. I need to show it to my friend who says “this is a really modern bollywood film” whenever they kiss and talk about sex!

I didn’t know anything about the Mughals before I saw JA; there’s lots I should and want to catch up on, where to start? That’s why I cannot say anything as to if and how historically correct or adequate JA is. To me, it’s a tale about an emperor who actually wanted not to conquer, but to win the people’s hearts. On the other hand, it’s a tale about a woman who shapes her fate, and does not only acquiesce it. She marries Akbar for reasons of state, nevertheless she isn’t the victim of those reasons, but presents her demands and wishes. Possibly it’s a fairytale, but it doesn’t matter much to me. It’s beautifully told, and I agree with the main messages.

The story of Akbar’s quest to win Jodhaa’s heart mirrors his quest to be “a good regent” to the nations he has conquered: Her feelings when she hears of the planned marriage are reflected in the different kings’ reactions when Akbar’s envoy presents Akbar’s demand, that they should join his empire: some (most) cry out “Never!” – Jodhaa’s first reaction. One agrees immediately, without conditions – she agrees much later. One agrees, and presents his demands – that’s what Jodhaa does, too. The beautiful thing is that Akbar agrees to her conditions, and respects her. He’s a very enlightened emperor for his time, at least in my european eyes. We neither had his respect for other’s beliefs, nor for women’s right to self-determined sexuality back then.

There’s really lots and lots of eye candy: Hrithik is hot hot hot, he can wear those period clothes and look hot in them (btw, Shahrukh Khan can’t). I loved the scene when he’s doing some sword practice, bare chested. So much for drooling. Aishwarya looks beautiful, too, and everyone except Akbar’s nurse wears so much jewellery! Loved the Azeem-O-Shaan Shahenshah picturisation – the only song that I liked before I saw the movie. Big drums! Lots of folks in (probably) traditional costumes! All of them dancing together! Wonderful choreography! The other song I got to like in the movie, when I saw it in context, is Mann Mohana, that seems to be a prayer. The other songs are not too bad, but I don’t really like them.

JA shows beautiful people wearing wonderful clothes and jewellery, in beautiful surroundings. Besides that it has battles with battle elefants (that’s always a bonus, though I was a little shocked that they showed how the elefants stamped and trampled down soldiers. It’s what a battle elefant has to do, but it ain’t pretty). It has duels. Intrigues. Love. Betrayal. Beautiful cinematography. It has lengths – when Jodhaa and Akbar finally loved each other, I nearly was relieved that the movie would be over soon, and then came another intrigue. Damn. Nevertheless, I really love JA, though it really ain’t the best movie I’ve seen, because of the beauty and opulence it shows.

However, there was so much I had forgotten since the last time! For one thing, I had forgotten how much there is to drool over. Kajol is a lucky girl, to be married to Ajay Devgan!

Then there’s Kesu (Viveik Oberoi), droolworthy as well…

There are some really sweet situations between Kesu and Billu (Bipasha Basu): how he proposes to her again and again, and she refuses to believe that he really wants to get married. I love the scene between them on the fun fair, that has already been closed for the day. Their love story may not be of real importance for the plot, nevertheless Bhardwaj succeeds in making me interested in them. It gives another dimension to Kesu’s character, shows that there is more to him than the careless youth we see when he’s around Omkara and Langda.

It’s beautiful and painful to see how Langda slowly drips his venom into Omkara. He uses everything he can get, like a skilful chess player. He makes use of coincidences, that he has not planned. He schemes. He reinforces Omkara’s doubts and exaggerates some harmless facts. He lies and twists the truth, and step by step does a puzzle, that shows how Dolly and Kesu have an affair behind Omkara’s back. Langda is really an expert in this game: Finally Omkara asks him if Dolly and Kesu have an affair. Langda does his best to avoide to answer, however when Omkara forces him, he says: “No they don’t – is this the truth that you want to hear? Which truth do you want to hear?”, followed by a blatant lie. He’s always at the right place at the right time, e.g., when he prevents that Dolly tells Indu about the waistband, something that would have solved some problems. By the way, Langda really is an evil and malicious man.

I had forgotten how insecure Dolly was, and how precarious her situation must have been. She says so herself – she has left her family for Omkara. Now she lives with him, waits for her wedding day, and experiences how Omkara’s feelings for her seem to change, how his love mutates into jealousy and possibly hatred. I think I didn’t see her insecurity the first time I saw the movie. Back then, I only saw the naive middle-class girl, who was in love with a goon. I did not see how different her life with her family must have been from her life with Omkara, nor did I see how naive she was. She failed to understand how Omkara’s love for her changed. I still do not know if she really understood what Omkara was aiming at before he killed her, that he was serious when he said that he’d kill her? On the other hand, earlier in the film she said that she had left everything behind, her father, her family, for Omkara. Maybe she felt that she did not have anything left to live for, if he did not love her any more.

Some other points: I still love the soundtrack, and how the two item numbers are embedded in the into the storyline, and needed to drive it forward. I like the background score, as well. I love Shreya Ghoshal’s voice in O Saathi Re. She’s also sung Main Agar Kahoon and Dhoom Taana (OSO), Barso Re (Guru)  – one of my favourites. However, my favourite song in Omkara is Naina, sung by Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Oh, he’s done Jah soona soona laage in OSO! :squee: wikipedia is a wonderful thing…

But, this is about another film. I discovered today that my 2nd fav AB2 movie, Bluffmaster, covers a song from the 1950 Bazi with Dev Anand and Geeta Bali, “Tadbeer Se Bigdi Hui”. See the video here:

hmm. Main Khiladi Tu Anari definitely is trash. The main plot is a (rather standard) revenge plot. It could have evolved well, into a funny, suspenseful movie, however some subplots bar its way. The subplots just start, without any connection or introduction, are followed for some time, then suddenly left behind and forgotten, so that one forgets the characters as well. Then the movie jumps back to them, however at that point of time they somehow had lost my interest.
The music is so lala. Shilpa Shetty has a nice song, and every picturisation is funny, if you share my sense of humour, i.e., you like trashy and fugly picturisations.

On another point: I totally understand Sakshay-fans, their chemistry is great.

1. My inner teenager loves to see Suniel Shetty:. I’m sorry to say that he lets me down rather often, either with his looks, acting skills, or both.
2. I have several favourite movies. So, here’s a list of my favourites, and why they’re favs:
   • Omkara: tragic, funny, good actors, wonderful soundtrack, the picturisations
   • Main Hoon Na, Bunty aur Babli, or Bluffmaster for intelligent entertainment
   • Asoka: it’s tragic, it has Kareena and a good SRK, period picture
   • Dor: “You are my Soniya” and the other K3G-song! And, Dor is a quiet movie with great actors, moving story
   • Swades: soundtrack, and SRK shows that he can act
3. The same goes for songs and dance scenes:
   • Barso Re (Guru) – an independent woman sings and dances about her self-chosen future
   • Devdas, because of the costumes, and Madhuri
   • Main Vari (Mangal Pandey), because of costumes, lyrics, and Rani
   • Tum Se Mil Ke (Main Hoon Na) – Shahrukh, and the picturisation!
4. favourite actress: Kareena Kapoor (acting skills). favourite actor, right now: Saif Ali Khan (acting skills and drool factor)
5. I love the mix of emotions in the movies, sometimes even that they’ll make me cry
6. first Bollywood movie: Kal Ha Naa Ho, I think. I was annoyed with it, and felt it was unlogical! A man with a deadly heart condition shouldn’t be able to run through New York, especially not when it’s raining! There were some other issues, as well, like tricking someone into a marrying someone she didn’t love, only liked. However, I seem to have overcome some of the problems, at least I’m not looking for logic in a bollywood movie any more
   last seen Bollywood movie: Baadshah. Not as bad as Bazigar, however, it’s rather bad
7. I need a german visa card beside my swedish, so that I’ll benefit from the strong euro when I buy Bollywood dvds online
8. desperate to see Om Shanti Om in the german cinemas!