11-07-2013, 09:39 AM
Every once in a while, I get that Bollywood craving. I try to deny it. It's always a 2+ hour investment in colorful absurd fluff, but now that so much fresh Bollywood is available on Netflix and Hulu+, it's hard to resist. Of course, it's hard to sort through what to watch, but Chennai was a big 2013 blockbuster starring Shahrukh Khan and Deepika Padukone (Chandni Chowk goes to China). Somehow, I found myself watching this at 2AM.
It's colorful. It takes over half an hour to get to the first dance number, but it's rewarding enough. Shahrukh remains a cinematic god, the King of Bollywood, King Khan as he's known. At 48, he still looks dashing, flashing those dimples like a magician with the queen of hearts. He's funny, self-deprecating, macho, smoldering...and man, the dude can dance. Deepika is little more than half his age and yet their age difference is hardly noticeable save for some comic jabs made by the film itself. The film captures India's beauty in panoramic widescreen with crazy swooping cinematography, all scrubbed clean for international distribution. It's almost like moleitau humor, Stephen Chow's brand of absurdity, which works well in the beginning. It's half Hindu, half Tamil (so technically, it's half Tollywood) and there are a ton of puns on the language differences, like Shahrukh thinking someone is calling him Angelina Jolie. There some decent action surprisingly. The finale fight is bloody slo mo, and while most of the strikes are way wide to produce the flying barrel rolls sending villains (and Shahrukh) crashing into market stalls, it's much improved over past Bollywood fights. There's a car chase where Shahrukh flips a villain's car by swinging a ratchet at the tire as they drive by. The central dance number is amidst an eye-poppingly colorful festival and is barely relevant, as is a dangling random scene where Shahrukh gets directions from a clicking dwarf, but it's great Bollywood. There's swordfights - a tiny Kalari demo in that festival dance, and lots of ratchet and scythe swinging. It actually could have used more dance scenes. The exiting credits number is a tribute to Rajinikanth, a nod to Tollywood's great action star of the last generation. The film made more sense to me because of this, as I wasn't hip to the nod, which is mostly what this film is, I think. Not Bollywood's greatest film by any means, but current.
Not a DOOM flick by any means. I just post it here because I feel I gotta tell someone. Here, just watch the videos. It'll save you being awake at 2AM.
[youtube]2kWLyInyjOE[/youtube]
[youtube]QggsVF0DvDU[/youtube]
[youtube]j9ikBsNza7Y[/youtube]
It's colorful. It takes over half an hour to get to the first dance number, but it's rewarding enough. Shahrukh remains a cinematic god, the King of Bollywood, King Khan as he's known. At 48, he still looks dashing, flashing those dimples like a magician with the queen of hearts. He's funny, self-deprecating, macho, smoldering...and man, the dude can dance. Deepika is little more than half his age and yet their age difference is hardly noticeable save for some comic jabs made by the film itself. The film captures India's beauty in panoramic widescreen with crazy swooping cinematography, all scrubbed clean for international distribution. It's almost like moleitau humor, Stephen Chow's brand of absurdity, which works well in the beginning. It's half Hindu, half Tamil (so technically, it's half Tollywood) and there are a ton of puns on the language differences, like Shahrukh thinking someone is calling him Angelina Jolie. There some decent action surprisingly. The finale fight is bloody slo mo, and while most of the strikes are way wide to produce the flying barrel rolls sending villains (and Shahrukh) crashing into market stalls, it's much improved over past Bollywood fights. There's a car chase where Shahrukh flips a villain's car by swinging a ratchet at the tire as they drive by. The central dance number is amidst an eye-poppingly colorful festival and is barely relevant, as is a dangling random scene where Shahrukh gets directions from a clicking dwarf, but it's great Bollywood. There's swordfights - a tiny Kalari demo in that festival dance, and lots of ratchet and scythe swinging. It actually could have used more dance scenes. The exiting credits number is a tribute to Rajinikanth, a nod to Tollywood's great action star of the last generation. The film made more sense to me because of this, as I wasn't hip to the nod, which is mostly what this film is, I think. Not Bollywood's greatest film by any means, but current.
Not a DOOM flick by any means. I just post it here because I feel I gotta tell someone. Here, just watch the videos. It'll save you being awake at 2AM.
[youtube]2kWLyInyjOE[/youtube]
[youtube]QggsVF0DvDU[/youtube]
[youtube]j9ikBsNza7Y[/youtube]
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
![[Image: srk.jpg?w=720&h=795&l=50&t=40]](http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1400441/srk.jpg?w=720&h=795&l=50&t=40)