Reviews

I am not a big fan of Rajnikant in the first place, but Baba was a huge disappointment. In between an awful storyline, the action and songs were only mediocre. The storyline becomes very preachy. Instead of running for office like NTR or MGR, Rajni almost appeared to be running as Tamil Nadu's next big guru. My wife tells me that since this film came out, Rajni swore off doing any more movies!

We were lucky initially to have bought Babu (an oldie by Sivajiganeshan) online by accident when trying to buy this one....that was a great film, which made up for having bought this dud...except it makes Baba look even worse by comparison!

Bryan

Even though the theme is a relatively worn one for Indian cinema, Janumada Jodi was very well done. The songs are nice, and the locale very pretty. This film was very popular for months in Karnataka, and for good reason! A very nice movie for the evening, if you can find it.

I expected to see a movie about thrill ride. What I saw was an interminable advertisement for the new cinedome/imax "rides" that cost so much money at places like Las Vegas. There was only the barest minimum about actual roller coasters. Most people leaving the theatre expressed the same disappointment. Most of us who care already have an idea of what goes into rendering. The rest of the people just wanted to have some fun. All were disappointed...

OK, I admit it right away - I understood almost no dialogue in Avvai Shanmugi. I watched it in the theatre in India with some friends. However, Kamala Hassan is a great actor and the plot seemed evident enough (and my friends helped).

I had not seen the American Mrs. Doubtfire that this is based on, so I cannot make the obvious comparison and contrast. However, Kamala Hassan made this movie a treat to watch. The movie progressed a little slowly, but most every scene was funny. The plot is relatively evident, even a non-Tamil speaker will enjoy it.

If you get an opportunity to see this movie, I would give it a try. If you have already seen Mrs. Doubtfire, you might be interested to see how the Tamil movie industry dealt with this theme.

Two daughters by Satyajit Ray was my first introduction to Indian cinema. Satyajit Ray has produced a gem of a movie that differs from almost any other Indian films I have seen. Two daughters actually consists of two separate stories based on stories written by Rabindranath Tagore.

The Postman is the better of the two stories. Not giving away the plot, this movie had one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in cinema. The simple, but powerful way Ray pulls his quiet films together at their end makes these quiet films very memorable. Sampati drags out somewhat longer, but has a powerful climax of its own. After years, these two movies have stuck in my memory. I would recommend them to anyone.