Blog of Parag

Salaam - Namaste

Our first movie of the year was Salaam - Namaste. I was at home sick with flu-like symptoms. So, while working on taxes, we decided to watch the movie. The subject matter was quite interesting and the main story was presented quite alright. It was a good change from usual movies with no parental involvment for both leading characters. Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta acted pretty well without any overacting.

I was almost ready to forgive all the stupidity with the Bihari Crocodile Dundee, the Malayalee Radio station-owner and the Bangladeshi restaurant-owner, but the filmmakers just pushed me over the edge with "Ben and Jerry's Dark Belgian Chocolate ice cream". Why don't they do a little bit of research? Don't they know that there is no such ice cream made by Ben&Jerry. I didn't just depend on my vast knowledge of this ice cream brand, but I went to their website and also searched the internet extensively just to make sure.

If they were going to mention it in the movie 20 times, at least they should have made sure that it exists. There are many fine flavors such as "Chunky Monkey", "Coffee Heath Bar Crunch" or "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough", just to name a few, that could have done the trick. But, nooooo. The morons had to piss me off. Now, a fine movie by Bollywood standards, will always be remembered as the movie that got a "Ben and Jerry's" flavor wrong. Idiots!!! Also, Preity Zinta's attempt at reproducing Meg Ryan's restaurant eating scene from "When Harry met Sally" fell flat on its face. Preity needs to study that movie a little more. Or, maybe I was just too upset with the ice cream flavor fiasco at that time to notice Preity's fine performance.

Parineeta

- I was pleasantly surprised by 'Parineeta', at least the first 75% of it.

- First of all, it was only 2 hours long. Many more Hindi movie-makers should start making short films if they want people to watch them.

- It was very well picturised. The director created an authentic looking India of !960's.

- Casting was perfect. The newcomer, Vidya Balan and Saif Ali Khan did an excellent job. (I think Saif Ali Khan is much much better than Amir I-am-so-good-kiss-my-feet Khan, Salman I'll-kill-you-or-atleast-beat-you-up Khan and Shahrukh someone-please-stop-me-from-shaking Khan.) Even Sanjay Dutt, who can only act as a road-side goonda, did OK. Achyut Potdar did his usual 'bumbling fool of an old man' and other supporting actors acted well, too.

- The story was much much better than "Devdas" (even Madhuri couldn't keep me interested in that crap of a movie) and the screenplay was excellent. Everything was going well. I almost checked to make sure that I was really watching a Hindi movie and it took a turn for the worse. From the scene when Sanjay Dutt came to meet Saif Ali Khan before his wedding to deliver the papers for the neighbour's house, the movie just went down the drain -- very fast. It was almost as if the director realised that it was turning out to be a good movie and then remembered that he was making a hindi movie and had to ruin it. The ending was just atrocious. All that dramatics of breaking-down-the-wall was totally unnecessary.

- The songs were pleasing and almost appropriate. Rekha's cameo was very good. That woman still knows how to carry herself.

- I'd highly recommend this film if you haven't seen it yet. Just be ready for the disappointment at the end.