Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (Rocky and Rani's Love Story)

Rocky is a loud, showy Punjabi from a family who made their fortune making laddoos (sweets). Rani is a sophisticated, stylish television personality from a Bengali family. Brought together by a fluke because each loves their grandparents, they fall in love. Struggling to plan their future with such different backgrounds they do the only logical thing (from a Bollywood point of view) — live with each other's  families for three months to adjust to their cultures and backgrounds and to know if their marriage will survive. This leads to funny and interesting contrasts as each has something to learn and something to teach their "new" families.

Rocky Aur Rani is a three-hour long, dance loaded, romance loaded movie that leaves you smiling. It's been described as "delicious eye candy with a rebellious core" and nothing could be truer. Ranveer Singh as Rocky has never been more charming or energetic. Alia Bhatt makes the romance seem genuine. As well as the romance, the contrast between traditional and progressive values gives you something a little deeper than the fun and froth. 

Highly recommended.

NOTES FOR INDIAN MOVIE FANS:

Rocky Aur Rani also is a delightful blending of old and new. We couldn't appreciate it the way that it would strike Indian audiences but our limited knowledge still made us happy when we recognized callbacks to old Indian films. The music was composed by superstar Pritam as an homage to 1960s and 70s songs from Bollywood classics. Some of the actors were actually in those classics. We were especially delighted to see Dharmendra and Jaya Bachan (who we'd seen in the curry-western Sholay, as well as a few other films). 

Partway through, this suddenly struck me forcibly as a modern take on Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (K3G - my review). We watched it early in our Indian movie explorations and it didn't go down well for this American family. I'd forgotten most of the details but somehow that K3G vibe was there. Afterward, I remembered it was an early film for Rocky Aur Rani's director, Karan Johar. It's as if he was shaking off the cobwebs and bringing it into the present. I don't tend to love Johar's films, but this time — we thoroughly approved.

Gangubai Kathiawadi

Mafia Queen.

Duped and sold to a brothel, a young woman fearlessly reclaims her power, using underworld connections to preside over the world she was once a pawn in.

This isn't usually the sort of movie that would interest me but I'm a sucker for director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. This one doesn't disappoint. It is a fascinating look at a young woman sold into prostitution who rises  to run the whole brothel district containing 4,000 women. She does this by both her intelligence and force of personality and the novel idea of protecting the women from the worst depredations of their trade. The story is based on one of the chapters of the nonfiction book, The Mafia Queens of Mumbai.

I've always liked actress Alia Bhatt but have never seen her in a role like this where she exhibits what a wide range she has. Sometimes beautiful and feminine, sometimes swaggering mannishly, sometimes every inch the steely business woman/madam.

Bhansali's films are known for their beauty. Despite this being set in the brothel district of Mumbai, there are still recognizable touches of the director's trademark beauty to be found. The scenes where Gangu is allowing herself to be attracted to the young tailor and the dances showed that familiar style. I appreciated that we are shown the awful life of a prostitute without having to see the details.

Catholics may be interested in a section, based on historical fact, where a Catholic school near the brothel area begins a campaign to clean up the area without any plan for how the 4,000 inhabitants would be able to live. As Catholics we suddenly woke up to the idea that there should have been Christians working to help those in the less fortunate area all along. 

As is usually the case with Indian movies, this would have benefited from being about 45 minutes shorter. The last half hour in particular was much too long and preachy. Despite being in sympathy with the message — the people who sell girls into prostitution and the people who buy their services get off scot-free while the victims are the ones who suffer — I didn't need it told to me in three ways.

Nevertheless, it is a movie that we've been talking about ever since we saw it and is well worth your time. 

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

Raazi

 

A daughter. A wife. A spy.

The film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's 2008 novel Calling Sehmat, a true account of an Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agent who, upon her father's request, is married into a family of military officials in Pakistan to relay information to India, prior to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

Last week after referencing Raazi in the Sarvam Thaala Mayam review, I was stunned to see that I never mentioned it here. So let's make up for that now, shall we?

It's a riveting spy thriller with nuanced screenplay and performances. We were on the edge of our seats.

It also introduced us to a time in Indian history which helped explain a lot of the attitude toward Pakistan which we've seen in other movies, so that prompted us to go look up events surrounding this time period. So it was educational as well. It was also our introduction to Alia Bhatt who is very talented.

Simply excellent.

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

Kalank

"When someone else's loss seems like our victory, then there's no one in the world who's as lost as us."

Set in 1944 pre-partition Lahore. When a wife learns she is dying she asks a young woman to join the household to give her husband support after she's gone. The young woman not unreasonably insists on being married as a second wife so that she won't be cast off when the wife has died. (These being the days when you could have more than one wife.) This sets events into motion which will cause not just one but two love triangles to intersect. Intertwined with this is the story of general unrest over industrialization and possible partition.

Lush, well acted romantic piece set against the backdrop of pre-Partition unrest. In that sense, it made me think of Doctor Zhivago, which I've never seen but know the basics about.

Lavish sets, swirling fabric, and several large dance numbers with 500 performers made this a visual feast. The performances from everyone were wonderful, especially from Varun who I'd only seen as the younger brother in Dilwale (not my favorite movie specifically because of his subplot). Not to mention Madhuri Dixit's spectacular dance (she did have some other dancers swirling around her but it felt as if it were an amazing solo piece).

We were interested to see some of the conversations happening that argued different sides of the partition question. We've seen enough movies to show the results with Pakistan and India divided by barbed wire and steady hostility. But this early history was new to us and sent us to research the events of partition themselves.

The critics gave this so-so reviews overall. We didn't agree. Taken as love stories, taken as a look at people determined to control events (with results they never intended), taken as a movie-going experience - we liked it a lot. As did the six Indian teenage girls behind us at the theater who were sniffling and clapping as it ended.

Rating — for viewers with medium Indian film experience. (It's not rocket science, but without any cultural background at all you might feel kind of lost.)