Our Mediocre Story- Teri Meri Kahaani

It pains me to say it, but I have to be honest. It's getting difficult to sustain my enthusiasm for Shahid Kapoor.

I know!

I'm not giving up hope, because he has some new projects in the works, and there are still a few of his older films I haven't seen yet. But the latest I watched, Teri Meri Kahaani (Our Story), was not terribly encouraging.

It's not that it is really all that awful, it just isn't anything special. The story is actually three love stories with Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra playing the couple in all three. At the beginning you think it's a reincarnation-themed story about love triumphing throughout all lifetimes, but by the end it feels more like those responsible for this film had three story ideas they couldn't decide between and ended up putting all three together in one movie, which necessarily means that none of the stories are fleshed out or well-developed.

Also, the chemistry between Shahid and Priyanka is lacking. This is, however, largely because Shahid's character is pretty much a jerk in two out of the three vignettes (in the remaining one he's arrogant, but seems  more of a decent guy who messes up than a rampant egomaniac). I hope this is the writing and not what Shahid brought to the table, and I think it is, because it actually exemplifies my most-hated Bollywood trope. That would be the womanizing, arrogant, sexist male character with no respect for women who suddenly falls in love with a 'good girl,' and, we are supposed to believe, instantly transforms into a faithful, loving man who should be entirely forgiven by both the audience and his love interest and deserves her love and trust and would never, you know, go back to behaving the way he's always behaved up to that point. Uh huh. Sure.

At least the recreation of 1960s Mumbai (or should I say Bombay?) and the recreation of Lahore in 1910 are fun to see and give us some interesting and beautiful costumes and settings to look at.

 The story set in 2012 lacks this, of course, and is very concerned with texting (and facebook). I would think that most everyone at this point knows that it's not very interesting to watch someone else text (we've all been in the company of someone glued to their phone, right?), even if they are Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra, but the filmmakers seem to think it is. I pretty much hated everything about the 2012 segment.

There was some nice music, although come to think of it, I even hated the music in the 2012 segment. Shahid danced, and it's always a pleasure to see some dancing from Shahid. Personally I think they could have had him dance even more. There can never be too much Shahid dancing.

If you're not feeling very choosy and you'd like to watch a romantic comedy and you like Shahid and/or Priyanka, then this is a decent timepass. Otherwise, don't bother.

Bemused by my lack of enthusiasm for Barfi

I was really quite certain I would like this movie.

I saw Ranbir Kapoor in Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year and thought he did an excellent job. I had faith in Priyanka Chopra's abilities after seeing Kaminey. Ileana D'Cruz was a complete unknown to me, but fans of South Indian films were very enthusiastic about her.

I heard that the movie was feel-good and sweet, funny, well-made, and possessing plenty of heart. This is the kind of thing I generally like.

It was a hit in India, and people in the know in those parts liked it so well that it was India's 2012 entry for the "Best Foreign Language Film" category at the Oscars.

I was all geared up for a fabulous time when I streamed it, but somehow, for me, it fell a little flat. And it's hard for me to pinpoint exactly why.

It wasn't the acting. All three of the leads were good, and so were the supporting actors. Ranbir's character was deaf and mostly mute, and Priyanka's character was severely autistic, so there was plenty of room for embarrassingly misguided performances. But this was not a problem.

It wasn't the direction or the cinematography. There are some beautiful pictures in this film, and I liked how much they played with light versus shadow.

It wasn't the physical comedy. It was well-done and  not nearly as extreme as some Bollywood flicks go, and very often done in homage to Chaplin and in that style. There was some internet chatter about "copying," and I'll admit it was a little weird to see a scene basically lifted from Singin' in the Rain that didn't really fit where it was placed, but it was a small scene and not something likely to make me hold a grudge.

We may be getting closer with the music. No song-and-dance numbers, and the underlying soundtrack had a repetitiveness that became a bit grating after awhile. But there were some nice songs, too.

And it's not that the story was bad either, although one problem was that it had too much going on. I think what it boiled down to was the central message of the movie resulting from how the story was framed. The message of the movie seems to be "you better get love right the first time, because you get no second chances for happiness!" Bull, I say. (And I say this as someone who married her first love!) And, for me, this message fairly ruined what should have been a perfectly lovely movie. But it was a movie that demanded to be taken seriously, so I can't help but be seriously nettled by that central message.

It's too bad, though. And it would have been nice for India to get that Oscar nomination...

Searching for Shahid, Part 3

So, we have come down to the last of the Shahid Kapoor films that I have seen: Badmaash Company and Kaminey. The two films share some characteristics, too. They both deal, in some way, with crime, and in both there is less of the innocence that I find so charming in so many Bollywood films (both films have premarital relationships and onscreen makeout scenes), but Kaminey is a far superior film to Badmaash Company.

In Badmaash Company, Shahid and a group of his friends decide to form a company, initially set to profit by working around import regulations in India, but then they move to New York to profit from defrauding Americans (why not, right?).

They are successful, make a lot of money,

are predictably torn apart by that money and all the trappings of success, and Shahid learns a lesson and becomes a better person. The end.

OK, I'll tell you some more. This is not a terrible film, there's just nothing special about it. The story is predictable... except for the racism, I have to admit I wasn't expecting that. There is racism when the group negotiates with Thai businessmen and there is racism as they decide to move to New York and Shahid, narrating, explains how fun will take advantage of "Whitey." Unfortunately, I don't speak Hindi (I wish I spoke Hindi!) so I don't know how good of a translation of the original dialogue that is, but the fact is they move to New York and commit fraud, ruining some random New York businessman's reputation for no reason, but hey, no worries, he's white.

The music is forgettable and only comes in the background and in "time-is-passing" montages- there is no dancing to speak of. THE MOVIE STARS SHAHID KAPOOR AND THERE ARE NO DANCE NUMBERS. I... I just... I don't understand.

The script is weak and indulges in some preachiness. (Wait, maybe this is a terrible film... but it is pretty entertaining!) The entire cast does a good job with what they have here, but the story is not strong, and in fact is downright implausible in several parts, and the entire film comes across as slightly cartoonish at times.

Shahid's character is pretty much a jerk for a good portion of the film, but he still gets the sweetest scene, when he reconciles with the love interest, played by Anushka Sharma (I love her in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi!)

He is so good at being vulnerable and open in relating with his romantic counterparts.

The difference between the quality of Badmaash Company and Kaminey is stark. There is a Grand Canyon-scale difference between the two of them. Kaminey is so intense I wasn't sure whether I liked it at first. I have that experience sometimes with movies that really involve me in the tension. I know it sounds strange, but if a few days later I'm thinking about the film still, remembering certain images that impressed me, and starting to feel that I want to see it again, then I know I actually liked it. That's what I experienced with Kaminey.

Kaminey is a gritty and dark film (thematically dark and literally dark- there's a lot of shooting at night and in dimly lit places and shadowy spaces). Shahid plays twin brothers, Charlie and Guddu (Charlie narrates sometimes), so we get two times the Shahid, which is nothing to complain about. And he does an excellent job differentiating between the two characters, one of whom is an honest, hard-working sort, and the other a bit of a thug. His performance here is impressive.

Priyanka Chopra plays Guddu's love interest, Sweety, and her performance was brilliant. I've seen a little bit of her before, but she never impressed me until this film. She is not entirely likeable here, which is part of makes her character intriguing. I didn't always like where the writer(s) went with her character, but it was always believably complex and interesting.

This would be Sweety taking up arms to defend the man she loves. Heck yeah!

The plot involves gangsters, corrupt politicians, dirty cops, and drugs, and how the two estranged brothers both become entangled with all these. It is quite violent at times, but not graphically so. There is great music, and even some dancing, which is very skillfully interwoven with the narrative, not seeming incongruent or tacked-on at all.

The only thing I found a little disappointing was the ending. There was a point where I felt the movie could have ended, and it would have been a powerful, statement-making ending. But it didn't end there, we got kind of a "happy ending" epilogue instead. So that was somewhat unfortunate, but this is still a skillfully made, well-executed film.

This is not a movie for someone who only likes Bollywood for effervescent romances (and I do love those!). But I think I will watch it again, and see if I can get the husband to watch with me. Vishal Bhardwaj directed, and I now very much want to check out more of his work.

So now the search for Shahid has ended. He remains my favorite actor, and will always have a special place in my heart for being the hero of the film that introduced me to Bollywood. Jab We Met is still my favorite Bollywood film. I look forward to seeing Shahid's newer films, Mausam and Teri Meri Kahaani, which came out after my headlong plunge into Shahid's filmography, but Netflix doesn't have TMK, and gives its availability date as "unknown." Sigh. The reviews for these films have been mixed, too. Sigh again. Anyone know of any other Shahid Kapoor films that I missed?