Endhiran

[ctyleruf 0]

An Indian colleague suggested I check this film out entitled Endhiran. According to IMDB it cost roughly $41 million to produce and has grossed $85 million. I can't wait to watch this movie.

Check out the trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yysbbPStfWw.

Also, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305797/

[nkrown 0]

This movie is indeed amazing. I saw it in a giant theater. It also has multiple Bollywood-style dance numbers and is almost three hours long. (All this stuff happens in just the last third.) It stars Indian film actor Rajinikanth, who is 60 years old. Crazy stuff.

[Wien 401]

Ok, i know i've been posting a lot of rec's lately.... but how could I let this one slide?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yBnl_krN_U

[jarshall 25]

is this whole film worth watching? I heard it's about 3 hours long (25% of which is a musical)?

[rexcoltraine 1]

I've never seen this 2010 Bollywood film, but found clips on YouTube while looking at Superman 3 clips to go along with the podcast. It looks to be one of the most batshit crazy-ass movies since Riki-Oh (another worthy contender for a podcast)!

 

Just check out a few minutes; I think you'll agree:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yBnl_krN_U&feature=related

[Nasher 29]

You have to admire Bollywood.. for it's sheer insanity. The fact they produce so many more films per year than anyone else and how they oddly all seem similar to western eyes is even more baffling.

 

When Sky TV added an Indian channel to freeview a few years back it quickly be came one of my faves.. you could put it on night or day and see a film in progress. This spawned a game we played. Once the singing and dancing started you had to predict the next location as every song seems to have a structure of: men sing & dance /cut/ women sing and dance, and during each the location of the dance randomly hops to a new backdrop every 10-15seconds... so one seconds men are in a town square and the next they are on a cliff top then women are in a bathhouse and then on a bus.

[VinsanityV22 500]

I just HAD to suggest this crazy ass movie! It got "internet famous" a few years back when a bunch of scenes from the end of the movie leaked onto Youtube. You can see a trailer for it here:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCiAPROqip4&feature=fvst

 

The movie is apparently the highest grossing picture in Indian Cinema history. Now, its not Bollywood, it's Tamil - apparently it's like a Mets/Yankee thing over there, so they get peeved when you confuse the types of movies. It's not a musical per se, although there are musical numbers in it. Primarily though, it's an incredibly long (like 3 hours - I don't know if that's typical of Indian movies, it's the first one I've ever seen) movie that plays like a fever dream. Or a 4 year old trying to tell a story, much like Axe Cop. It just sort of moves from scene to scene with no regard for what came before it or after. Some of the highlights include (I am making none of this up):

 

-The English dub of the movie features broken english that frequently goes back to whatever dialect of Indian they're speaking anyway

-Horrifying CG and puppet work. The VFX guys here are not masters of motion capture. Not by a long shot

-A scene where the titular robot, Chitti, falls in love with a human woman. Of course, this happens during a 6 minute song and dance number...on top of an Aztec Temple, if I remember correctly (keep in mind, they never TRAVEL to South America or anything. They just felt like having this musical number take place there)

-Chitti chasing down a mosquito that sucks out some blood from the woman, then SPEAKING IT'S LANGUAGE and demanding it return the blood to her. While she sleeps.

-A whole lot of break-dancing on the part of the robot

-A scene where the robot saves a naked woman from a burning building, who then dies of shame anyway for being seen naked

-A rap number by the female lead, played by Aishwara Rai (Who's STUNNING, by the way. Absolutely gorgeous), done entirely in perfect english. One of the few scenes that pulls it off.

-And of course, the crazy fight scenes from the trailer/internet videos involving hundreds of CG doubles of Chitti forming together to create various giant objects. Including a snake, a "Gun Ball", and a large version of Chitti himself.

 

It's absolutely bananas. You're guaranteed to exclaim, "Seriously, how the fuck did this get made!?!" at least 12 times during the movie - remember, it's super long. You simply HAVE to see this someday, but you'll have to import it. I THINK Amazon has it though; I forgot where I got my copy.