Cheeni Kum DVD

Refreshing
I got this because my Mother loves Bollywood movies and it was a good gift for her. This one is certainly different from other Bollywood films in that it's about older people. Passion and romance aren't just for the young after all. Overlooking a few elements of ridiculousness it's a pretty good film. Well worth the money.

Add Handful of love....
Cheeni Kum is not your typical love story. This film is about Buddha, a 64-year-old grumpy chef, of an authentic Indian restaurant, in London, and Neena, 34-year-old woman visiting London, who falls in love. The first encounter is anything but good; Neena is the first person to ever send back a dish, Zafarani Pulao, a traditional Indian dish, at his restaurant saying it is too sweet. Buddha is very upset and approaches Neena. He is very rude in demanding her to tell him how to make the dish correctly, the close up of Neena's face shows that she isn't upset with him, but wants to laugh at him. The next day Neena brings her homemade Zafarani Pulao to Buddha at the restaurant, that is when he started to feel differently about her, because in the scene she leaves in slow motion and she looks back at him one more time before she goes around the corner. After that moment he feels as though he must apologize to her, but he cannot say sorry, so instead he gives her his umbrella. Neena goes...

Surprisingly Non-Melodramatic, Non-Musical Bollywood Romantic Comedy
I'll admit, I'm a sucker for *masala* conventions - overstuffed emotions, whiplash plot swings from comedy to romance to tragedy, and elaborate song and dance numbers at the drop of a hat...especially that last. CHEENI KUM doesn't have any elaborate song and dance numbers, the emotions are recognizably human-sized, and even the plot swings feel logically presented in the story rather than tossed in as desperate "POP!"s to get the audience excited. Having said that, this is one of my favorite recent Indian movies - right up there with EKLAYVA: THE ROYAL GUARD, AAJA NACHLE, RANG DE BASANTI, OM SHANTI OM, BHOOTHNATH and KRRISH.

If you watch any Indian movies, you already know Amitabh Bachchan is a wonderfully engaging ham bursting with star quality - CHEENI KUM shows just how great he can be playing a (mostly) human-sized character, a middle-aged but still single Indian man in London with a cranky mother still living with him. (Let's make allowances - he is the...

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