Update: Please visit GOAT's new Filmi Geek blog - www.filmigeek.net
Since I've started watching Indian films in earnest, I've seen a number of films, good and bad, that I've wanted to write about here on GOAT. I've done full reviews of a few (see the Geek of Movies category for those), but they are time-consuming and I fell quickly behind. But GOAT readers and others have asked me for recommendations, and even though I am a relative neophyte, I want to supply at least a quick-and-dirty guide to what I've seen. So during my vacation in between jobs, I wrote up very brief descriptions of every film I could think of. I'll post updates to the list occasionally, and I'll still try to do full reviews of the films that inspire them. For now, please enjoy Geek's complete Indian movie list.
GOAT's Indian movie list (in no particular order)
Fire – Two sisters-in-law (Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das) in empty, unsatisfying marriages find comfort when they fall in love with each other. This first film in Deepa Mehta’s trilogy is almost too close to my heart for me to discuss rationally – but I do have volumes to say about it and hope someday to review it more fully here. Although one criticism of the film is that it suggests that the lesbian relationship is merely a reaction to being neglected by their husbands, I think it can be read more subtly, as an exploration of the lack of choices and freedoms available to women in the traditional structure, and the lengths they have to go to in order to create such choices.
Mrityu Dand – Madhuri Dixit gets mad and gets even. Reviewed here.
Ankur – Shabana’s first National Film Award. Reviewed here.
Lagaan – 
If you only see one Bollywood film ever, make it this one. Superstar Aamir Khan threw his production muscle, as well as his smiling face and his chiseled abs, into the most expensive epic in Bollywood history. This film has it all – love, jealousy, betrayal, a moustache-twirling villain, brilliant song and dance, and a climactic cricket match. Aamir Khan is a master showman, and his co-star, Gracy Singh, is a gifted dancer with an adorable pout. Don’t be alarmed by the length (almost four hours) – Lagaan will suck you in from the very first number and not let you go until the last ball is thrown on the cricket pitch.
Mitr – Seems to be a fairly well-respected film, but I can’t quite tell why. A story about an ex-pat Tamil family living in a wealthy, exclusive California suburb. The wife and mother (the gorgeous South Indian actress/dancer Sobhana, not to be confused with Shabana) is isolated and lonely, and connects with a mysterious online friend. The script is trite, and the acting stiff and amateurish (except for Sobhana, who rises above the material). There are a few promising elements in the story but on the whole it just goes nowhere. Disappointing.
Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (Mother of 1084) – Reviewed here.
Pestonjee – 1989 film starring Naseeruddin Shah as Piroj, a miserable sad-sack of a man. When he dawdles in deciding whether to marry Jeroo, a girl selected for him by a matchmaker, his best friend (played by Anupam Kher, a prolific actor best known to Western audiences as Parminder Nagra’s father in Bend It Like Beckham, below) marries her instead, and for the rest of his life Piroj harbors an idealized fantasy of Jeroo and her marriage. It has its sweet and funny moments, and provides an interesting window into the life of well-to-do urban Parsees, but on the whole I found the film slow and the characters grating and annoying. Jeroo is played by Shabana Azmi, but it’s rather a waste of her.
Earth – the brilliant second film in Deepa Mehta’s trilogy, reviewed here.
Ghare Baire – Satyajit Ray explores the political situation in Victorian Bengal, at the time when Lord Curzon divided the country into predominantly Hindu and predominantly Moslem regions, presaging the ultimate partition of the subcontinent. A forward-thinking Maharajah (Victor Bannerjee, best known to Western audiences from A Passage to India), encourages his wife to come out of purdah to meet his school friend, who has become a militant leader of the Swadeshi nationalist movement. The relationships are strained when she falls for his message – and for him – only to learn too late that he is little more than an egotistical hypocrite. This interesting film is best understood as allegory - the sheltered wife is Mother India, tumbling into the modern era.
Nishant – Shyam Benegal’s second film with Shabana Azmi, the follow-up to the stellar Ankur (above), explores the corrupt world of landowners and local bureaucracy in India on the cusp of independence. When the village’s new schoolmaster’s wife (Shabana) is abducted for the enjoyment of the zamindar’s brothers, the schoolmaster tries to recover her through official channels, but meets everything from indifference to abject fear. The local pandit – through most of the film another pawn of the zamindar – finally incites the schoolmaster and the rest of the town to revolt. Shabana gives a more rangy and volatile performance than in Ankur, but ultimately Ankur is the tauter and better film.
Ek Din Achanak – I mentioned this film here but did not review it. The title means “Suddenly One Day,” and refers to the sudden disappearance of a professor, who leaves his family for a walk on a rainy day and never returns. The film explores the effect of his disappearance on his family, led by his daughter Neeta (Shabana Azmi), as they try to get on with their lives. A slow-paced but interesting psychological study, the film’s conclusion may be unsatisfying to Western audiences accustomed to having all lose ends tied up neatly, but each member of the family does come to learn something about herself or himself. Unfortunately, in the print I watched, the subtitles were atrocious.
Godmother – Shabana Azmi kicks ass and takes names, earning the most recent of her five National Film awards in the process. The title is meant to be an allusion to “the Godfather.” Shabana’s character Rambhi responds to corruption in local government – and the murder of her husband – by getting involved and winning a position for herself. But as she rises to considerable regional power, she becomes as ruthless and corrupt as those she had deplored. In one remarkable and creepy scene that powerfully conveys how far Rambhi has stepped outside traditional roles, Rambhi gets drunk while a troupe of women sing and dance for her pleasure. Ultimately, Rambhi relents and attempts to address her own hypocrisy, but she must pay a great price.
Bawarchi – I watched this classic on loan from my Hindi teacher, who described it as “idealistic” after I said I thought it was “sweet.” A grumpy, dysfunctional family has its outlook changed by the arrival of a mysterious servant who works magic in the kitchen, sings beautiful songs and poetry, and teaches dance. But he may just be too good to be true … the music in this film is delightful, and the young Jaya Badhuri (who later excelled in Hazaar Chaurasii kii Maa, above) absolutely lovely.
Dil Chahta Hai – a tasty piece of Bollywood candy, featuring Aamir Khan’s superior showmanship in a sweet buddy film about three guys making the transition from irascible youth to adulthood. The songs are decent; only the nightclub number toward the beginning of the film is really memorable.
Bend It Like Beckham – An English rather than an Indian film, but I'll put it on the list anyhow. This film revisits the oft-told tale of a first-generation Westerner caught in a neither-here-nor-there limbo between her immigrant parents and the dominant culture around here. But the film’s take on the theme is sweetly told, and I liked it much more than I expected to. It is driven by stellar acting performances, including one from the prolific Anupam Kher, who is also in several other films on this list), and one from its star, Parminder Nagra, who makes the most adorable use of her expressive face. I will say that the chemistry between the two lead girls (Nagra and Kiera Knightly) was so strong that I think the story might have turned out rather, er, differently - and evidently I am not alone in that.
Ham Aapke Hain Kaun – More Bollywood candy. The mischievous Nisha (Madhuri Dixit) and energetic Prem (Salman Khan) are promising young students who meet when their older sister and older brother, respectively, become betrothed. Nisha spends an extended visit with her sister’s new family, and she and Prem declare their love to one another, planning to marry as soon as Prem’s business is established. When tragedy strikes, however, Nisha and Prem agree to sacrifice their love for the good of the family – but Lord Krishna has other plans for them! Stuffed to the gills with excellent song and dance – including the raucous “Didi Tera Devar Divana (Sister, your brother-in-law is nuts)” – the film is a little too long, but nevertheless wholesome and fun, full of exaggerated characters, each more loveable than the last.
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