been on an early 2000s bollywood kick the past few weeks - just nostalgia i guess. did a couple SRK movies and one Hrithik Roshan
kaho naa… pyaar hai (2000) – ***
no one has ever danced as good as hrithik roshan in bollywood, his rhythm and sense of choreo timing is standard deviations above everyone else in the industry and in this movie. there are even some scenes that look to be filmed at higher speed and then slowed down to provide a dramatic effect, and even at the higher speed you can see he is hitting every beat PRECISELY on point. it’s unbelievable. just rewatch the song “Ek Pal Ka Jeena” on youtube, it’s insane. amazing y2k fashion looks as well
seriously check this shit out
KNPH is just a generally sweet confectionary fun sort of movie, it’s not a groundbreaking plot or narrative, but as a launch vehicle for hrithik’s career it was very effective. he’s got that movie star energy every time he appears, he literally looks like prince charming was a real human being and his characters have a sweet sort of harmlessness about them that is lacking in so many other bollywood stars of this era. everyone in this story is basically on his side apart from the few gangsters who are trying to kill him for various silly plot reasons. some of the songs are really good. i watched the north american cut which apparently deletes several scenes for length but whatever, i didn’t miss them
it was really good when rohit is running away from the gangsters trying to kill him and bonks directly into a concrete pillar knocking himself out. feels something like i would do
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before that i watched a few shah rukh khan movies, also with K names for some reason
kabhi khushi kabhie gham – ****
the best “worst” movie ever. much more bearable than other srk movies, his usual male manipulator shtick is greatly reduced which gives time for excellent and endearing character turns among kajol, hrithik roshan, and kareena kapoor (whose it girl antics are really great). so sappy it wraps back around to being deeply heartfelt and genuine. also does the classic bollywood thing of talking around caste (sure, you’re disowning your son because his girlfriend talks too loud and dances in the street or whatever, uh huh) but really has a lot in common with Shakespearian modes of drama so it’s fine, we can make our own reads of the movie.
In short, K3G is about a rich family torn apart by its patriarch’s intolerance; playboy elder son who happens to be adopted (Shah Rukh Khan) falls for a girl from the streets (Kajol), which leads to him being disowned by the wealthy industrialist father Yash (Amitabh Bachchan) for going against the father’s wishes to arrange his marriage to a woman of good breeding. Son therefore elopes to London with his new wife and her family, where they can be free of this stifling ‘tradition’. They do not tell the family where they are going. His mother (Jaya Bachchan) and grandmothers are heartbroken, as is his traditionalist wife, who wants the in-laws’ blessings. Timeskip and we see the grown-up younger brother (Hrithik Roshan) who overhears a conversation between the women and learns of the reason behind elder brother’s exile, and resolves to travel abroad, find him and reunite the family. Peak Shakespearean (melo)drama.
this one i thought was the most relatable of the Karan Johar movies that are held up as ‘early 2000s classics’ (Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham, Kal Ho Naa Ho). Many people read K3G as KJo trying to construct a fantasy whereby his father (famous producer Yash Johar, note the first name being identical) will someday accept him despite KJo’s being gay. the only place the fantasy really shows its artifice is in the idea that your father will ever apologize for what he’s done to you.
the beginning screen that claims “it’s about loving your parents” --Karan Johar (yes this is a movie that doesn’t believe in subtext and tells you its moral before the opening scene) – is a massive red herring imo; it’s about loving your parents AND YET insisting that there are things they do not get to do to you. Which is historically progressive for the type of movie this is!
also it’s nice that this is the era of Bollywood where you always get at least a Muslim side character or subplot. Not so nowadays I fear.
kal ho naa ho – *
ignore my k3g review, karan johar should be banned from writing movies. not content to have SRK do his usual male manipulator antics, he’s turned saif ali khan into male manipulator by proxy . really just a movie to endure rather than watch. fucking interminable. for a diaspora community in queens they sure spend a lot of time on the jersey city waterfront. these “modern classic” bollywood movies just get lapped by tamil cinema i’m sorry.
-5 stars for srk melodrama
+1 star for NYC diaspora representation
he really is on his peak male manipulator shit here. basically the story in KHNH is that they’re in NYC with the frigid girl archetype MBA student (Preity Zinta) and her happy-go-luckless financier best friend (Saif Ali Khan). Shah Rukh Khan swans in from India to gaslight everybody into loving him, including our heroine. He is SO! ANNOYING! Literally a man who has never heard of boundaries and still thinks you should neg women constantly to get them to love you. the path to a woman’s heart apparently is to constantly insist she should be smiling more.
But gasp! Secretly SRK is dying, and plans to use his Robin Williams charms to set up the girl with her childhood friend so he can feel like his life contributed something worthwhile. But gasp #2! Preity Zinta ends up never falling for childhood friend, and while she does eventually marry him, sobs during the whole wedding that SRK is dying, because she still loves SRK. Also SRK falls in love with her too, but rip he’s dead now. That’s it that’s the story.
Also there’s a lot of intra-Indian racism against the Gujaratis and Punjabis, and external racism against the Chinese, played for laughs. Its scenes are also cut together in a really piecemeal and ramshackle manner. Really bad imo, feels like it’s 18 hours long. says something deeply negative about society that this was so popular.
saif ali khan was a sweetie in this tho. And it shows a gay couple on screen in this song which was sort of groundbreaking.