An Australian British American drama biography directed by Garth Davis, starring David Wenham, Nicole Kidman, Deepti Naval and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
A boy from a rural village in India follows his older brother, who is looking for work. The older brother walks off and the younger wanders onto a train, which departs from the station. After a few days, the boy is deposited in Calcutta. From there, he is picked up by an orphanage and adopted by an Australian family, who also adopt a mentally ill boy from Calcutta. 20 years later, the main character is attending college and decides to find the small village which he came from.
I think this may be the best "based on a true story" film I've seen. I enjoyed the adventure element most, as this little boy travels such a long distance. There were some plot gaps, but not necessarily holes. Text like "20 years later" appearing on the screen did not leave loose ends or contradictions. The audio begins in a language from India and moves into English when the boy enters Australia. I could hear all of the dialogue and the subtitles that I found matched the video file. The camerawork was generally good, showing clearly what was happening. It often did this in creative ways, with pull-outs, tracking shots and deep focal lengths. There was a little bit too much hand held camera for my taste, but it did not detract from the film. My main point in writing this is to mark a good film. The viewer will see how lost the little boy is, how he grows up to be a good person and the ending which I won't spoil. I rate this good and would recommend it for fans of the adventure, drama and biography genres.
An Indian comedy drama directed by Kabir Khan, starring Salman Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Kareena Kapoor Khan.
A mute girl from Pakistan is accidentally left in India while traveling by train. An honest and well-meaning man finds her, but is not allowed to have her stay in his family's house because of national and religious differences. The man then takes the girl back to Pakistan and tries to find her home.
Way sappy and way overproduced. The 2.5 hour duration was alright I guess and the pacing was moderate, but slightly dynamic. The simplistic plot could have been told in much less time. The main characters (honest Bajrangi, mute Shahida and reporter Chand) were identifiable and memorable. I think the acting was way over the top and too overly expressive. The dialogue was actually funny in some parts, despite the language barrier. The costumes were nothing special, but the filming locations were vast. From small city rooms to majestic mountains, they filmed everywhere. I can't say that I liked the camera-work, but it was handled expertly. They knew what they were doing, I just didn't like it. As with all Bollywood, there were cheesy songs with dancing. Like a happy version of Michael Jackson's Thriller with middle eastern folks instead of zombies. The audio was all mixed correctly though. I could hear dialogue and music at the correct levels. The whole style was sap on tap like India does Precious Moments and Hallmark channel. This has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, made shitloads of money and won a crap ton of awards. It's marketable. I rate this o.k. because I hate mainstream trash, especially when it's as sappy as this. I do have to give the filmmakers credit for knowing what they wanted and making it happen. Nothing was by accident in this movie.
