since the movie clocks in at around four hours and I payed exactly four dollars to get into it, I had precisely 1 hour per dollar. And i did indeed get my penny's worth. I was skeptical about the whole viewing experience, having been mainly pulled into the theater by a friend of mine, but i was not dissapointed. The film concerns a group of indian civilians trying to stand their own against a rotten old british tyrant. The colors and the cinematography are gorgeous, as is the fluid motions of the camera. The musical numbers are stunningly choreographed and their style stands up against any music video you could name. The length of the film also does not detract from its viewing enjoyment. There are no real bland points or unnecessary tangent plotlines. Although there was an intermission held at the showing I went to, it felt largely unneeded and was the only point when the action of this bollywood epic broke.
The film does have its weak points however. I am not entirely convinced that had the film plot removed itself from early 21th century india to 1950's hollywood, that this would have been another busby berkely forgotten yawknfest. The script is pretty much predicatable and clichéd. Any one who's seen a sports movie knows the basic outline of how the big game will go. Any one who's seen a love story knows where that will go. The female leads are also kind of one-dimensional and boring. It is a movie exclusively driven by the men, which seems unfair since the love triangle appears to be a big part of the plot. The villian of the film also seems intolerably awful. There is absolutely no sympathy for his actions, he seems to simply act out some nihilist Iago power-trip fantasy. The fact that the other elite Brits accept and laud him for that behavior without any insight into motivation seems a little trite. The film also gleefully throws around the term "Whitey" describing the british, which comes off a tad racist.
However, these are points that can be looked past to see what might be the "titanic" of the indian cinema (rather than the "crouching tiger"). It's fully entertaining, pretty, and upbeat. Bring the kids.
The film does have its weak points however. I am not entirely convinced that had the film plot removed itself from early 21th century india to 1950's hollywood, that this would have been another busby berkely forgotten yawknfest. The script is pretty much predicatable and clichéd. Any one who's seen a sports movie knows the basic outline of how the big game will go. Any one who's seen a love story knows where that will go. The female leads are also kind of one-dimensional and boring. It is a movie exclusively driven by the men, which seems unfair since the love triangle appears to be a big part of the plot. The villian of the film also seems intolerably awful. There is absolutely no sympathy for his actions, he seems to simply act out some nihilist Iago power-trip fantasy. The fact that the other elite Brits accept and laud him for that behavior without any insight into motivation seems a little trite. The film also gleefully throws around the term "Whitey" describing the british, which comes off a tad racist.
However, these are points that can be looked past to see what might be the "titanic" of the indian cinema (rather than the "crouching tiger"). It's fully entertaining, pretty, and upbeat. Bring the kids.