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desicinephile · 2 years

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Amrapali (1966)

Genre: Historical

Director: Lekh Tandon

Cast: Vyjanthimala, Sunil Dutt

I've been wanting to watch this film for a really long time and I finally got the chance to do so on the pretext of doing a college assignment. I think it may low-key be my new favorite, hence I am starting my new blog by writing a review of this very film. Though I must add that I am absolutely obsessed with period films, especially those set in ancient India, so I was definately biased towards this one.

Synopsis

Magadh's King Ajaatshatru (Suniel Dutt), as indomitable as he is ambitious, disguises himself as a soldier belonging to his rival Kingdom- the small but illustrious Republic of Vaishali, in order to escape being identified and killed during war. A defeated and wounded Ajaatshatru stumbles upon Amrapali (Vyjanthimala)- a compassionate woman and a patriotic citizen of Vaishali who nurses him back to health. Soon, a romance starts to blossom amidst the two, but their relationship is bound to get jolted from it's false and deceitful foundation.

Plot/Writing & Execution

The story is based on actual historical figures. It has many of the cliché filmy elements we've seen in bollywood. I find this familiarity comforting. Afterall, there's a reason clichés are clichés.

Treating a mysterious soldier wounded in war and falling in love? Jaakakakakakja yes please.

That mysterious soldier being the king of your rival Kingdom? Pspspspssskkss gosh stop you're killing me.

The war sequence, I would say, is fairly good for the time. The overall cinematography is #aestheticcc .

The film was not successful upon it's release, and that's such a shame. It's epic.

Characters

Saying it out loud in case the title wasn't a big enough hint, Amprapali is the hero of the story. It's been a few months since I watched the film, and there isn't a lot I can recall about Ajaatshatru. Amrapali, on the other hand, steals the show in every frame. Vyjanthimala's graceful presence, her dancing skills and her beautiful dark eyes (and those brows!) are more than enough to keep one engrossed, in addition to how nicely the character of Amrapali has been written.

Costume

Bhanu Athiya, India's first Oscar winner designed the costumes for the film. While not always true to history (especially the men's costumes), the overall impact of the clothing is what would be desired for a period film. They are instrumental in transporting the viewers back in time.

Amprapali's wardrobe is sensual and majestic, with a couple of really gorgeous looks that stand out. Extensive use of ornaments that adorn her look very whimsical. Ajaatshatru's Kushan-inspired (?) wardrobe is highly inaccurate for 5/6th century BCE Magadha, but still works for his towering personality.

Music

The late Lata Mangeshkar sang all the songs in this film, so you know it's iconic. I thoroughly enjoyed the long dance routines. Vyjanthimala as Amrapali is a dream, and the music is enthralling. In particular, I love Tadap Yeh Din Raat Ki for it's subtle, sensual and demure visuals and my personal favourite pearl-adorned pink outfit from the movie, and Neel Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein for the iconic red outfit, mellow tune, and Vyjanthimala's graceful dance.

Watch it on

I watched it on some sketchy website using VPN but it's available on Netflix for the less adventurous (and less frugal) ones.

#Spotify #vyjanthimala #amrapali #sunil dutt #bollywood film #bollywood #bollywood song #bollywood movie #retro bollywood #bollywood actor #indian films #indian movies #retro movies #historical film #movie review #bollywood movie review

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amitgopal390 · 11 months

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आदिपुरुष फिल्म रिव्यू : नायक से बड़ा खलनायक

आदिपुरुष फिल्म रिव्यू : नायक से बड़ा खलनायक आदिपुरुष फिल्म सिनेमाघरों में लग चुकी है। थिएटर्स में पब्लिक के साथ एक सीट हनुमान जी के लिए भी छोड़ी गई है। अगर हनुमान जी गलती से भी ये फिल्म देखने चले आए, तो ओम राउत और मनोज मुंतशिर को बहुत कोसेंगे क्योंकि बहुत कठिन होता है, कठिन समय में भी सहज रहना। सरल बने रहना उससे भी दुष्कर है। राम कथा मनुष्य को सहज होना सिखाती है। ये यह भी सिखाती है कि तमाम धन…

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newscafe007 · 2 years

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Top news of the week from bollywood to hollywood news every news in one video

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bollywood-kaa-saffarnama · 2 years

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BLOODY PSYCHO ! MOVIE TRAILER ! ACTOR ANIL KUMAR RAUT ! STRAWBERRY TELE...

#youtube #psycho movie #bollywood #bollywood movies #bollywood movie review #bollywood mafia #boldmovies #thriller movies #action movies #bold actress #boldscenes #hindimovies

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irisdigitals · 2 years

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(via Download Pikashow app for Live IPL 2022, Live Cricket, free movies, TV shows, Free TV news And much more)

#cricket #live cricket streaming #live cricket commentary #live cricket score #live cricket up #live cricket match #live tv #latest movie news #movies #download movies #download music #bollywood movie review #hollywood movies

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disdadandon · 10 months

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when i say that Rocky aur Rani is one of the best bollywood movies and one of the most bollywood-esque movie i’ve ever seen, i mean it.

Ranveer Singh is the finest actor in bollywood right now. He’s JUST. TOO. GOOD.

AliaB is Alia-ing as usual. Goddess.

don’t listen to strangers on the internet but if you ever do, listen to me and PLEASE GO WATCH ROCKY AUR RANI RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

#desi tag #bollywood #rocky aur rani ki prem kahani #ranveer singh #aliabhatt #alia bhatt #karan johar #tum kya mile #desi culture #desi people #k3g #kabhi khushi kabhie gham #arijit singh #bollywood bubble #movie review #new movies #in cinemas now #ranveer singh ROCKS

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d3adpoetslake · 6 months

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i am, simply, a imtiaz ali whore. this day 8 years ago he gave us one of the greatest movies of all time ---- tamasha. not everyone will relate to tamasha, but if you do take a hug, man. whether you relate to ved, tara or even the auto driver tamasha teaches us something new everytime we watch it. it's a shame the box office failed to recognize and cherish such a gem of a movie. imtiaz ali's vision put to life by ranbir's stellar performance and accompanied by ar rahman's soulful music, i mean is anymore explanation or reason to love this movie needed!?

picture : pinterest

#desiblr #movies #bollywood #tamasha #ranbir kapoor #imtiaz ali #desi aesthetic #indian cinema #alia bhatt #ar rahman #music #jab we met #desi things #desi tumblr #movie review #movie recommendation #reviews

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rrcraft-and-lore · 1 month

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Monkey Man and why I loved the heck out of it

At it's core, it's a Bollywood flick presented to the West with familiar nods to previous action films - I definitely picked up hints of Tony Jaa's influence on Asian action flicks throughout.

It's heavily focused on police corruption, something commented a lot about in India, and here, more importantly, Indian films. Just like America has its love affair with mobster flicks, Bollywood has a long history featuring films that showcase police corruption, sometimes tied into political extremism, fanatical or greedy religious leaders, and Monkey Man comments on all this as well and pays nods to that commonality. We've got televangelists and religious leaders in the states funnelling money, preaching prosperity gospel, and using it to influence politics and fund lavish lifestyles here.

Monkey Man shows this happening in India, and is filled with Indian culture and symbolism through out. The focus on Hanuman, the god and one worshiped by the strong, chaste, wrestlers, champions, and fighters. It's a common thing to have a household deity if you will. Some families might choose to focus worship on Ganesh, others Hanuman, some might do Mata Rani or Lakshmi. Here, it's the divine Vanara (monkey people race) - one of the Chiranjivi - immortals/forever-lived.

Hanuman. Themes of rebirth, common in South Asian history and mythology are present from Kid being a ringer, beat up fighter getting whooped for money to being reborn and facing his trauma through a ritual/meditate process that I don't want to get too much into to not spoil the movie. Post that, he begins his own self alchemy to really become the true Monkey Man. Nods to Ramayama, and an unapologetically Indian story featuring dialogues throughout in Hindi - don't worry, there are subtitles.

And of course a love for action flicks before it, all the way back to Bruce Lee. A beautiful use tbh of an autorickshaw (and you might know them as tuk-tuks in Thailand) which are popular in India with an added kick...I swear, that thing had to be modified with a hayabusa motor. Which is an actual thing people do - modding those dinky rickshaws with motorcycle engines, and considering they weigh nothing at all, they can REALLY FLY once you do that.

Monkey Man brings to the big screen other elements of India people might not know about, such as the gender non conforming and trans community that has a long history in India, presenting them as action stars as they go up against a system of corrupt elites oppressing part of the city, marginalized communities, and minority voices as depicted in the film. I'm not sure if people are going to get all of that without having the context, but I love that it does it without holding anyone's hands.

It's a fun action flick to see in the age of superhero films, and I say that as an obvious superhero/sff nerd. Also loved that Dev included a little bit about Hanuman's own story in the film, and the loss of his powers - almost mirrored by Kid's own loss of self/skills, strength until he confronts his trauma and is reborn, and in fact, remade (not necessarily the same). Also, the use of music was brilliant, including one scene with a tabla (the paired hand drums of south asia) - and Indian music is central to Indian stories.

This is a culture with evidence going back to the Paleolithic with cave murals showing art of Indian dance nearly 30,000 years ago. Yeah, that far back. As well as Mesolithic period art depicting musical instruments such as gongs, lyres, and more.

Indian music is some of the earliest we can find that has high developed beat and rhythm structures such as 5, 7, 9 and now the extremely common and known 4/4 and 3/4 - which so much of Western music is built upon. The foundations and experimentation of/in Jazz. John Coltrane and John Cage were heavily inspired by Indian music and incorporated a lot from it into their works. And Monkey Man blends Eastern and Western music through the narrative as comfortably as it does an Indian story in a very familiar Western accessible structure.

Dev did a wonderful job. And thanks to Jordan Peele for bringing it to screens.

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scarletsabers-blog · 2 months

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Okay soooo i am thinking of starting a review page like for movies and books and i have kinda been thinking for a long time to start it but never really did it… i still dont know if i should or not

#salaar #movie review #need help #i dont fucking know #should i?#new blog #new page #movies #bollywood #books & libraries #book review

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lovelybabaji · 3 months

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This movie should be viewed as an essential, especially for us, the modern oh-so-open-minded clammy society.

The saddest part is, it's based on a real incident. Still, many of you (the readers) will ignore this, even if you watch it you will forget it. Because we have real problems to think of, hate pehlena priority hai, we don't talk or chant about the actual problems.

#india #mumbai #netflix #movie review #bollywood #bhakshak

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pearlgisa · 11 months

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qala and the style over substance argument

so, i watched qala (dir. by anvita dutt) immediately when it came out - a story that exposed the music industry and the position of women in it, especially focusing on the toxic nature of indian classical music? it was like they made the film for me (someone who's spent a good chunk of their life trained in hindustani classical music). however, i was sorely disappointed.

in essence, qala, along with other films that did commercially well that came out in bollywood last year, solidified my understanding that the audience of today's generation of movie-watchers genuinely puts style over substance and in fact, uses it as a way to defend their favourite movies from criticism. the recent resurgence of praise for om shanti om of all films, only strengthened this opinion.

my criticisms for qala are in plenty, yet i will choose to expand on the ones that strike out the most to me, all of which range from the lightest to the harshest criticism:

the choice of music

the acting

the direction + writing

the handling of the serious issues that are the main theme of the film

before you read ahead, please know that there are spoilers.

in indian classical music, there are two distinct forms: hindustani (or, north indian) and carnatic (or south indian) music. each have their differences and similarities and even someone who hasn't trained can tell them apart upon listening. within hindustani music - which is the genre of music that qala learns from her mother - you have many different styles of singing, ranging from shastriya sangeet (classical form of singing) to laghu sangeet (semi-classical and sometimes, light music). of course, this categorization also has its roots in religion and caste. shastriya sangeet has forms of singing like dhrupad (the oldest form and a strictly devotional medium), khyal (the most common one, telling tales or speaking of human emotions), bhajan (also a devotional medium), etc.

laghu sangeet has forms of classical music like the thumri, a form of singing popularized and invented by courtesans. the lyrics were sensual, romantic and more explicit. of course, owing to these, they were looked down upon. even the british had a huge role in diminishing the status of indian women performers. the "other woman" concept was specifically one that they propagated and the rise of the "perfect housewife" phenomena began since the seventeenth century. the extreme effect of that? the courtesans lost out on their patrons and were forced into prostitution.

hence, that was the primary history behind qala's mother, urmila, shaming her into never being a performer, i.e, in a more derogatory term, a "singing girl". a courtesan, essentially. which is accurate, considering the film is set in the 1940s. if a girl was too "out there in the world", i.e, her achievements being publicised in newspapers or her getting recognition for her academics, her future marital prospects were ruined. and the "shame" that befell the family if she was learning music or dance was worse. a significant number of the prominent female musicians that emerged from this era of pre-independence to post-independence were unmarried. or they had many patrons and salacious rumours regarding their love life were in plenty. the film pakeezah (1972) explores such themes quite well. and the many renditions and retellings of devdas also serve as a good example of the stature of performing women.

however, it's the music itself where it goes wrong for me. the choice of songs as well as qala's singing (of course, all of qala's songs are sung by the amazing sireesha bhagavatula), is in a style all too similar to laghu singing. the years of egregious training, no matter how much her mother dismissed her, would've developed a voice which would've sounded a lot more like what a lot of classical singers would sound like, unless they were singing a lighter form of singing. and it isn't a matter of pitch or using falsetto. qala's mom is referred to as a master of qawallis, which is a sufi form of devotional singing (and comes well under hindustani music too). even the lyrics of qala's songs, while full of very obvious foreshadowing, do not match the overall orthodox classical upbringing that the film portrays.

while bhagavatula has an amazing voice well versed in classical music (especially since she sings bhajans so often), considering the time that qala was set in, you would've expected a sound similar to something along the lines of noor jehan or even roshan ara begum. instead, it sounds a lot like a mix of semi-classical instrumental with a more pop-based voice. which is easier for our generation to digest and consume, however, it comes at the cost of a sound which is very typical of the 50s-70s era of bollywood.

one that qala does right are the costumes. they do their job well. not the sets as much, which i will get into later. at some points, they are well in line with the rest of the era of the film, other times it just sticks out like a sore thumb. here's where the "symbolism" comes in.

one of the most jarring examples is the song qala sings at the first performance, a very light classical song just by the sound of the vocals. even the song jagan sings is very contemporary at its core. despite the characters having an allegedly strict, traditional schooling of music (jagan's voice is devoid of the typical heavy accent or dialects that those who are from underprivileged backgrounds tends to have), the songs at hand present a very modern take on qawallis, despite bollywood being a flourishing ground for many iconic qawallis. therefore, the compositions sometimes falter at some points specifically because of the vocal choices. choosing to do away with alaaps, especially in qala's part, less aakar and more bariki, are all signficant details that feel jarring to someone who's lived in the world of classical music as long as qala. otherwise, there are some signature sounds retained from the era that the film is set in.

and while still on the topic of singing, a very important issue that i find least addressed is the acting of it. despite there being little vocal variations in the compositions, the actors don't show that they are singing. and in the film specifically revolving around music, that's an extremely important detail that i find amiss. hardly opening the mouth, the movement of the lips, the posture as well as the hand gestures (yes, a very important detail!), are all obvious flaws. a recent film that does that does those details well is the disciple (2020). the first scene of urmila teaching qala singing displays urmila wearing an elaborate piece of nose jewellery that covers half of her mouth, and that's when they're doing rehyaas (practice), not a performance. it's huge details like these that don't sell the film to me.

the acting is quite underwhelming and here is where disagreements with my opinions might enter. i find trupti dimri's rendition of qala extremely, for lack of politer words, exasperating. she tends to show the same expressions for all of her problems, i.e., there is no great difference between her feeling anger or feeling despair or feeling depressed or feeling cheated or just plain exhaustion. qala's character is a complex one and difficult to act, which is a concession i will give, however, the hype around her is a little unnerving when the audience is given such an unremarkable delivery of dialogues and emotion. it comes off as school-play acting at times. swastika mukherjee, who plays urmila, is quite two-note with her acting, which sometimes suits her character and sometimes just feels very low-effort. babil khan has his moments, yet there is such less versatility. you'd think the babil of qala's hallucinations and the one who existed in real life would have some distinct characteristics (which they do), but they never come off as that. it feels so half-hearted at times.

the whole point of symbolism is that it's subtle at heart and not on the face. qala has on-the-face symbolism, which is an irony in itself. the black swan scene, the frosty room in the beginning, the ghostly jagan, etc. almost made me bump my nose into a wall. it comes off as pretentious at best, as if the viewer is stupid. it is also very off-putting in some scenes. for example, the black swan scene - there is very little buildup and it feels very predictable in the sense that "it all goes downhill from here". however, there is one scene which i like, which is the gargoyle one (a very traumatic scene, for those who recall, it is the one right before ghodey pe sawaar gets recorded for the final time). i think that is the most effective filmmaking in the entire film. the best thing about symbolism is always the subtlety. it makes the viewer keep coming back to pick up on something they might have missed in the first watch, it helps them pick up the pieces along the way instead of being able to tell the twists thirty minutes before they are revealed.

and one of the most egregious crimes of the entire film is the direction. here is where we get a little more technical (but just briefly, do not worry). the way it cuts from one scene to the next is like watching a poorly edited reel put out by the team of an out-of-touch marketing firm. the editing could have been better at many places. the writing falls flat specifically when it comes to the characters. i'm pretty sure on paper, the script must've been a delight to read. the story has so much potential - considering that it's based on two books, where there might've been even more depth given to the characters - it isn't new in any way but it offers a different, feminist perspective of the indian music industry. yet, the characters are paper thin on screen - in their ambitions, psychology and sociology. hence, urmila suddenly turning a new leaf in the last ten minutes of the film is something that feels wrong, because all along, she has been portrayed as a heartless mother. qala's actions make sense because her character has nearly always been rooted in self pity and rage. jagan is nothing without music. there is very little dimension to them apart from me summarizing their characters in one sentence with less than thirty words each.

that is why, the film feels even more half-hearted when it speaks of the issues that it centers around. all of these elements add up and make for a tiring watch. i gave qala a second chance, to be fair and omitted some of my pettier criticisms, yet the more serious ones remain. to a certain extent, it does aestheticize depression, which i have a huge issue with. however, baby steps as always with bollywood. it's no dear zindagi considering it is set in a different period with a different ending. however, the writing of the characters could've been so much better. a little more exploration of urmila's intentions would've given her so much depth. a few more interactions between qala and jagan might've given qala the chance to befriend him and not just see him a rival, thus intensifying the decision she took. the characters do not feel human, they are strictly white or black and qala being the anti-hero feels very off since it requires better writing and a stronger plot. and of course, much better acting.

however, qala re-opened up discussion of a nearly-always forgotten discourse - that of the position of women in music. and for achieving that bare minimum, i give it full credit. however, when there have been films with much better writing, characterization and cinematography in bollywood itself, with a similar theme, qala needs to be seen for what it contains than what it displays. just because it glitters, doesn't mean it's gold.

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