Umrao Jaan

Cast: 

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan...Umrao Jaan

Abhishek Bachchan... Nawab Sultan Khan

Summary:

A young girl is kidnapped by her father's enemy and sold to a brothel in Lucknow, they rename her Umrao Jaan and start training her to become a very skilled dancer, singer, poet and courtesan. Her first performance is for a wedding and she locks eyes with Nawab Sultan Khan. He becomes her regular client and they fall in love. She promises to be faithful and so does he, but he promises her that the second she is unfaithful he will be too. Sultan's father hears of their love and disowns him, forcing the Sultan to be homeless and not able to afford visits to Umrao. He goes away to start making a living somewhere else and promises to come back. Umrao is forced to do her job as a courtesan, and thus is unfaithful. When she goes with one of her employers to the town Sultan is staying in, the other Nawab she was with turns out to be a fake and is arrested, he tells Sultan that he has been with Umrao, Sultan believes him and leaves Umrao forever. She is lost and desperate so she goes back to Lucknow to continue working, but the British come and the brothel is forced to relocate. They end up in Umrao's old village and she finds that she is disowned and a disgrace to her family and so she is left on her own once again to make a living and survive.

Review:

This was sooooooooooooo good. Aishwarya was brilliant and the dancing was just beautiful. I enjoyed all of the songs and I think the story was really well written. I was sad that Umrao's life never got to be what she wanted it to be, and I thought Abhishek's character was snobby, but he did a wonderful job of playing it. Aishwarya's clothes were so gorgeous and looked even better when she was dancing. I thought it was interesting that the story was not more focused on the love story between the Nawab and Umrao, but rather on her whole life. I mean it was really focused on their love and that was the bulk of the movie, but I didn't know the Nawab's character and so he seemed more distant. I think they were trying to focus in on Umrao's feelings and beliefs that got her through that traumatic love and I really liked that approach. I would definitely recommend this movie to any Bollywood fan, but I think it is a bit more sophisticated then your typical bollywood love story and it is not nearly as light hearted. I didn't mind that it was a period piece and I actually thought it really worked with this.

Songs:

I think the best song in this whole film was 'Salaam' this the song Umrao sung for her first performance where she met the Nawab.

M.I.A.

Regarding our FAVORITE person, Maya Arulpragasam, I have now found out what the meaning of Kala is. Of course this was her mother's name, but Kala also means "art" in Hindi! How romantic!

Bride and Prejudice

Cast:

Aishwarya Rai...Lalita Bakshi

Summary:

Okay Okay I know this is not true Bollywood, but its Ash, one has to just love anything she's in. 

It's the "Bollywood" version of Pride and Prejudice, even though its really British.

Review:

I enjoyed this movie to an extent. I was not very impressed with the the songs, but I thought Ash was really really good in it. I heard that Kareena Kapoor was asked to do the role, but she turned it down, in reality I think she would be a better actress for this part because she is much more stubborn and outgoing then Ash ever really comes across as. She always seems much more modest and traditional then Kareena, but never the less Ash was great and we all love her very much.

Songs:

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

Cast:

Rani Mukherjee...Maya

Shahrukh Khan...Dev

Preity Zinta...Riya

Abhishek Bachchan...Rishi

Summary:

Dev is a professional football player who is married to Riya, the head of a major fashion magazine. One day Dev goes to a wedding to pick up his mother and finds Maya, the bride, sitting and crying out in the garden. He asks her whats wrong and she tells him that she doesn't truly love her husband, he is just a friend. Dev tells her that he feels the same about his marriage, but its all the best for her to get married even if she dosnt love him. As Dev is walking away from the house he is hit by a car and his leg is seriously injured, he can never play football again. It flashes forward a couple of years and he meets Maya again and they become very good friends. They both have problems in their marriage and talk about it with eachother, but soon they fall in love with eachother and have an affair. This tears apart both of their marriages and they decide never to see eachother again. After 3 years they find out that they both got divorced and finally get back together.

Review:

What can I say about this movie? It is just wayyy to amazing. SRK, Rani, Preity, and Baby B were all at their finest! The acting was incredible and you just can't hold back the tears. The plot was so through and wonderfully that it made the viewer really get emotionally involved in these relationships and their issues. Rani and Preity are so beautiful, and I think this is the best movie Preity has been in throughout her acting carrier. I am so disappointed that her acting carrier is slowing down because she really showed her potential in this film. This is in the top 5 movies FOR SURE. I think if anyone ever wants to get into Bollywood, all they will have to do is watch this film and they will be converted forever. It is truly a masterpiece. 

Songs:

I guess my favorite songs are 'Where's the party tonight' and 'Mitwa'.

Lagaan: Once Upon a TIme in India

Cast:

Aamir Khan...Bhuvan

Gracy...Gauri

Summary: 

A village that is under the rule of British Colonists are being forced to pay double grain tax to them even though there is a drought. They want to fight this and the only way to win is to have a cricket match between the colonists and the villagers. 

Review:

This was a great film, it showed the beauty of India and the dancing was just great. They portrayed the Colonists and horrible stuck up power hungry men, and it really made you hate them. The only complaint I have was the relationship between the British girl and Bhuvan, I thought she was terribly annoying and spoiled. She was doing a good thing by helping out the villagers, but I still didn't like her. So I was very glad that in the end Bhuvan didn't fall for her and stuck with Gauri who was cute and could actually sing.

Songs:

The song between Gauri and Bhuvan expressing their love for eachother was soooo good until the stupid british girl started singing like really grossly and totally ruined the song.

Bollywood/Hollywood

Cast:

Rahul Khanna...Rahul

Lisa Ray...Sue

Summary:

The son of a wealthy family is engaged to a American girl who ups and dies in a freak accident. He cannot get over the death and his sister is soon to be married, but his mother will not allow the sister's wedding to go on unless he brings home an Indian girl. He cannot find one until he goes to a bar one day and sees a girl that looks Indian and asks if he can hire her to pretend to be Indian and his girlfriend until the wedding is over. She accepts and attends the wedding with him, the family is very pleased and the girl turns out to really be Indian and then they actually do fall in love.

Review:

I thought this was not even worthy of being called a Bollywood film. It was sooooo horrible, the songs were bad, and it was just a really lame plot. I don't think anyone should have to be put through watching this movie, and I hope no one else will. I am mad that I wasted my time with it and wished I could be watching something else. I think I might even go as far as saying this was the worst movie I have seen in a long time. I am not even going to mention the songs because they really were nothing and not worth discussing. 

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

Cast:

Shahrukh Khan...Rahul

Kajol...Anjali

Rani Mukherjee...Tina

Summary:

Rahul and Anjali are best friends in college who are inseperable. Anjali realizes she is in love with Rahul, but as soon as she is about to tell him so, a new girl comes, Tina. Tina is super beautiful and Rahul falls completely in love with her, and they soon get married. Anjali is deeply hurt, she leaves and breaks her connections with her two friends. Meanwhile Rahul and Tina have a child together and name her Anjali. Tina dies when Anjali is young and Rahul has never gotten over it. Tina wrote a letter for Anjali for each of her birthdays that she knew she would not be at. When Anjali reads her eighth and final letter from her mother, it tells the story of Rahul and Anjali and how they were really desitined to be together and tells little Anjali that it is her duty to get them back together. Anjali finds out that big Anjali works at a summer camp and so she leaves with her grandmother to it. Rahul is very upset that they left him and goes to the summer camp to bring them back home when he meets his old friend Anjali. The film follows their love as it develops over the summer, and they end up together.

Review:

SRK was fabulous in this one, him and Kajol really were great together throughout the whole film. I do wish there was more Rani in the film, but I think it was good that they focused on Rahul and Anjali's relationship more. The first half with the college was SOOOO good, I loved all the dancing, and Anjali's jealousy was really fun. The second half with the camp was good, but I thought it was too sentimental with all the children, and Kajol and SRK were a little too silly. But for a comedy this was really top notch, even though i am more a fan of the tear jerkers this definitely had its moments and was fun to watch.

Songs:

Defiantly Kuch Kuch Hota Hai