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About me
I'm a French lover of Indian cinema, but I'm also interested in literature, science, art, and reflection in general. This blog will reflect these tastes more or less!
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- letstalkaboutbollywood (45)
- film reviews (57)
- practical info (1)
- Book reviews (13)
- miscellaneous (1)
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Provoked, a battle for battered women's freedom
(07/02/2010
publié dans : film reviews
)
Strange that it was Jagmohan Mundhra (of the fame of Sexual Malice and other cheap erotic thrillers) who was fortunate enough to have been able to shoot this story, the true story of a battered ... -
Paying guest (1957) and a celebration of Nutan's perfection
(14/01/2010
publié dans : letstalkaboutbollywood
)
Paying guest by Subodh Mukherji (1957) is not completely worth its two and a half hours of watching: it’s just another 2nd class romantic comedy with elements of drama and thriller. It ... -
The white tiger
(02/01/2010
publié dans : Book reviews
)
The white tiger is a rare genetic variation of the normally ochre-skinned feline that is both feared and respected as the king of animals in Asia. But it’s also a 2008 novel by Aravind Adiga which ... -
Shatranj ke Khilari, ode to a lost kingdom
(28/12/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
("Make way for Queen Victoria!") Shatranj ke Khilari (1977, The chess players) shows how close Satyajit Ray has come to Shakespearian inspiration. In this story of two gentlemen of Lucknow we have ... -
Saudagar (1973): marriage is a business, alas!
(23/12/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
I was first informed of Saudagar (« the trader » 1973), by Sudhendu Roy, through Carla and given my unruly interest for Nutan, and my unabated appreciation of Big B, I decided that I couldn’t wait ... -
Sagina: a freedom beyond politics
(07/12/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
Sagina (1974), a hindi remake of the bengali Sagina Mahato, shot by the same director (Tapan Sinha) four years before, is a reflexion on work exploitation, oppression and revolution. The story is ... -
Bazaar (1982), or how to buy women
(01/12/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
Sagar Sarhadi has only directed one movie, and otherwise is known for having worked as Yash Chopra’s screenplay writer. This movie, Bazaar, (1982) supposedly belongs to “New Indian Cinema”, and it ... -
Sujata, an untouchable Nutan
(21/11/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
In Sujata (The well-born, 1959), Bimal Roy has made the untouchable touching, adorable an object of disgust, and visible a pit of darkness. I’m not saying that he has made THE unique Dalit movie ... -
Anari (1959), naive hero in a naive movie
(11/11/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
Anari (1959), by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, in spite of its numerous defects, represents a compromise between the quality cinema strain started by Raj Kapoor, and its commercial exploitation. The movie ... -
Taare zameen par, Aamir's Khan view of childhood
(07/11/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
Taare zameen par (2007) was Aamir Khan’s début movie as director; and for a “beginner’s” movie, it’s a rather good one. Does this sound rather bland? Yes, I admit, from the point of view of ... -
The vendor of sweets
(18/10/2009
publié dans : Book reviews
)
R.K. Narayan’s short novel The vendor of sweets (1967) is the story of a wise man, called Jagan, who lives in the narayanian town of Malgudi and prospers by selling quality sweetmeats appreciated ... -
Kabhie Kabhie, clumsy classic
(14/10/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
Yash Chopra’s “Kabhie kabhie” (1976) was for me like a distant reference, a movie many people had seen and loved back in the exotic seventies, and so, I knew I would have to see it one day. And ... -
Brick Lane
(19/09/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
I happened to watch Brick Lane (2007, by Sarah Gavron) recently, a movie based on the acclaimed book by Monica Ali. It’s a well-made, well balanced film about emigration and multiculturalism, to ... -
Memories of rain
(24/08/2009
publié dans : Book reviews
)
Memories of rain, by Sunetra Gupta (1993) is a dark jewel of a book, a sombre and dense memorial stone made of darkness and yearning, frustration and anger. We are inside a sort of cenotaph: a ... -
Why should watching older films make more recent ones seem less interesting?
(01/08/2009
publié dans : letstalkaboutbollywood
)
This is a rewriting of a post dated April 4, 2007. The blog output is so low these days that I am resorting to rewrites! ( in fact, I’m busy with other things...) I don’t know if you’re like me, ... -
Roja: how can we love and live apart?
(26/06/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
Roja is an excellent little movie made by Mani Ratnam back in 1992, starring Arvind Swami and Madhoo (Raghunath); it was a real pleasure to watch another of Mani Ratnam’s works. His intelligence, ... -
Parshuramer Kuthar, motherhood and prostitution
(17/06/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
This stunning little movie (65 minutes) made in 1989 by Nabyendu Chatterjee, who died recently (2005) tells the story of Laxmi (pronounced Loki), a Bengali village woman whose husband fell from a ... -
Nuts about Nutan!
(08/06/2009
publié dans : letstalkaboutbollywood
)
Basant (1960) is a loony movie where what you see is more important than what you understand. There is a story, sort of, (tolerably interesting in the first half but totally zany in the second!) ... -
Nishaant, the brutality of male (and female) desire
(01/06/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
“Vishvam (Naseeruddin Shah) is one of four brothers who rule their feudal village in pre-independence India with an iron grip. They execute various criminal schemes to increase their own wealth at ... -
Is Bollywood universal?
(26/05/2009
publié dans : letstalkaboutbollywood
)
I recently heard a journalist ask the question « Is Bollywood nothing more than a cinema made for India, or is there something universal about it?” – and I thought this question deserved a little ... -
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Cannes bad taste
(20/05/2009
publié dans : letstalkaboutbollywood
)
For me the yearly Cannes festival is not much more than an industry's self-celebration which is probably best left unwatched, but these days, it’s difficult to miss Cannes photos and interviews ... -
Bandini, Bimal Roy's ode to purity
(18/05/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
I remember feeling annoyed when, a few years ago, somebody to whom I was voicing my pleasure at recently discovered Bollywood movies, bluntly told me: “oh yes, but Indian movies now… you want to ... -
Jalsaghar, the music-room of a monomaniac
(04/05/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
This 1958 film, Satyajit Ray’s fourth, might seem to us, 50 years away from it, a strange and slow vestige of a time when the cinema was sadly deprived of the wizardry we now love so much in it. ... -
Aakrosh, cry of the wounded
(09/04/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
Aakrosh (1980) by Govind Nihalani (whose first film it was, and who had won acclaim as Shyam Benegal’s photographer) is a sparsely told parable about the foundation of justice: should men follow ... -
Dilli ka thug: a gallery of masks
(28/03/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
Dilli ka thug (1958) might be tossed aside as a jumble of loosely connected narrative titbits that have been put together for two main purposes: Kishore Kumar’s clowning, and Nutan’s youthful ... -
The Kite Runner
(16/02/2009
publié dans : Book reviews
)
Khaled Hosseini is not an Indian writer, but an Afghan-American writer. But having read The kite runner (2003), I wanted to include my review of it here, because it’s a book about the region, and ... -
Mother India, the mother of Indian movies
(08/02/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
Mother India…That title resonates like everything a Bollywood-lover should pine for: aren’t we all somehow in love with Bharat mata? Aren’t we all her children up to some extent? As for me, I’d ... -
Sangam, Raj Kapoor's murky waters
(02/01/2009
publié dans : film reviews
)
I don’t know how many of Raj Kapoor’s movies are called “his best”. This one belongs to that collection, judging by most IMDb user comments (on the other hand, very few bloggers have written about ... -
Teesri kasam, melancholic delight!
(02/12/2008
publié dans : film reviews
)
The critical fame of Teesri Kasam, the 1966 film by Basu Bhattacharya, starring Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman, is absolutely justified; it’s a tale of love and sadness, of beauty and melancholy; ... -
Meenaxi, tale of 3 cities: Bollywoodian befuddlement!
(24/11/2008
publié dans : film reviews
)
« Meenaxi, tale of three cities » by M.F. Husain (2004), is exactly that, a Bollywoodian befuddlement. The film is a pathetic attempt at building “something else” than a traditional love-story, ... -
A suitable boy
(18/11/2008
publié dans : Book reviews
)
Well! I’m pleased to announce that I too have escalated the Everest… Er, I mean I finally read Vikram Seth’s 1472 page novel “A suitable boy”, and that it has been a fascinating experience: thanks ... -
Sahib bibi aur ghulam, an Initiation to Desire
(13/10/2008
publié dans : film reviews
)
While I was reading about Satyajit Ray’s Charulata (1964), and thinking of Pakeezah (1972), critics mentioned Abrar Alvi's (or Guru Dutt’s - he apparently was almost as much behind the camera) ... -
Yash Chopra, the power of Passion
(06/10/2008
publié dans : letstalkaboutbollywood
)
Yash Chopra… Say this name and immediately vast landscapes appear, green slopes where lovers mirror their gaze in the other’s eyes, enchanting music lifts up a crowd of spring birds, dark men ... -
Juhi Chawla: what's behind that smile?
(04/09/2008
publié dans : letstalkaboutbollywood
)
What attracts one to Juhi Chawla is her absolutely irresistible smile. Okay, she was “only” a Miss India (1984), but frankly, Yash Chopra’s idea to cast her as Shahruhk Khan’s idol in Darr is not ... -
The Stranger (Agantuk), Satyajit Ray's experiment on humanity
(28/08/2008
publié dans : film reviews
)
The Stranger (1991) is an atomic experiment. Satyajit Ray imagines what might happen when a normal urban family of three (the target) is bombarded with a high-energy free electron in the shape of ... -
Ankur: Shyam Benegal's + Shabana Azmi's manifesto
(22/08/2008
publié dans : film reviews
)
Here’s another beginner – after Aag – Shyam Benegal’s first long feature film shot in 1973, after he had finally got enough appraisal for his work shooting advertisements (apparently more than ... -
Aag (1948): Raj Kapoor's burning idealism
(12/08/2008
publié dans : film reviews
)
Aag: fire. In this Early Raj Kapoor Movie, fire is a symbol of love, naturally, but also creation and destruction. It is fit that this film stands at the beginning of Raj Kapoor’s career (his ... -
Tabu, the dark queen on the Bollywoodian chessboard
(31/07/2008
publié dans : letstalkaboutbollywood
)
I’d seen other films with her before, but I really discovered Tabu thanks to Cheeni kum. “Cheeni Kum” means “less sugar”. And that’s what Bollywood has to offer with Tabu: a less sugary actress! ... -
Pakeezah, Meena Kumari's romantic Swan Song
(22/07/2008
publié dans : film reviews
)
Of all the commentaries I have read about Kamal Amrohi’s 1972 movie Pakeezah, this one (Upperstall.com) corresponds most to what I thought of it : “Pakeezah is a stylized, larger than life ... -
Fire on the Mountain
(10/07/2008
publié dans : Book reviews
)
Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, 1977. Nanda Kaul, an old solitary lady lives in her house on the mountainside. Something depressing about her presence there, as if she was hiding away from some family ...
Latest posts
- Provoked, a battle for battered women's freedom
- Paying guest (1957) and a celebration of Nutan's perfection
- The white tiger
- Shatranj ke Khilari, ode to a lost kingdom
- Saudagar (1973): marriage is a business, alas!
- Sagina: a freedom beyond politics
- Bazaar (1982), or how to buy women
- Sujata, an untouchable Nutan
- Anari (1959), naive hero in a naive movie
- Taare zameen par, Aamir's Khan view of childhood
Bolly blogs I visit
- Beth loves Bollywood
- Carla's blog Filmigeek
- Greta's Memsaabstory
- A2line's Bollyblog
- Amodini's movie reviews
- Miss Bolly's blog
- Maja's Nothing 2 Declare
- Alan's Bellevue to Bollywood
- Daddy's girl's "In praise of all things Dharmendra related"
- Stephen 's Bollywood banter
- Babasko's Blog (Barbara)
- Shweta's Apni EA Company
- Post-punk CC
- Nida's Bitten by Bollywood
- Jhaji's Blogywood
- Madhulika's Dustedoff
- Sanni's So they dance
- Blissful Nirvana
- Maria's Filmiholic
- Philip Lutgendorf 's fil-ums
