Bollywood Review: Ram-Leela

Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Supriya Pathak, Richa Chaddha, Gulshan Devaiah, Abhimanyu Singh, Sharad Kelkar, Sveta Salve, Raza Murad

Directed by: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

The basic premise of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, two lovers from enemy families, has been used numerous times in Bollywood, whether filmmakers acknowledge the play or not. Even in the past couple of years we’ve had Issaq and Ishaqzaade, both essentially versions of Romeo & Juliet set in modern India, which is what Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s latest is as well, but while those two went for more gritty realist approach, SLB sticks to what he does best: grand, colourful, full-on musicals.

Music Review: Ram-Leela

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s next, a modern day romance set in Gujarat based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, Ram-Leela, is releasing next month, and the soundtrack for the film was released this week. For a second time, Bhansali has composed the songs for his own film (or third, if you consider the one song he did  for Saawariya), and the lyrics are by Siddharth-Garima. The album has 10 songs, thankfully no remixes, and no versions of songs either, though that’s not something Bhansali usually has in his films anyway.

Bollywood Review: Chennai Express

Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Nikitin Dheer, Sathyaraj, Priyamani

Directed by: Rohit Shetty

Despite all the hype around it, whenever I saw a promo or heard of song from Chennai Express, I couldn’t get excited for it. I probably went into the film having half made up my mind, but a part of me was hoping to be surprised. But no, there’s nothing in Rohit Shetty’s latest which could properly excite or thrill me. 

Bollywood Review: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

Starring: Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Kalki Koechlin, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Farooq Sheikh

Directed by: Ayan Mukherji

Sometimes there’s nothing quite like a regular Bollywood romantic comedy musical, and no one really does them better than Karan Johar. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is Ayan Mukherji’s second film, after Wake Up Sid, and it’s a little more ‘typical’ Bollywood, but that’s in no way a criticism. YJHD is a few original ideas, put together with a number of tried and tested ones, making a sweet, entertaining film, matching the usual high standards of Dharma Productions.

Bollywood Song Promos – Kabira / Tum Tak

Over the past few days a couple of song promos for upcoming Bollywood releases have been released, ‘Kabira’, from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, and the first song from Raanjhanaa, ‘Tum Tak’, which has been composed by A. R. Rahman.

So, ‘Kabira’ first. The other version of this song is my favourite of the album (check out my music review for YJHD), and I like version a lot as well. I’m not so sold on the promo though, it seems like the song is going come over a montage of sad-beardy Ranbir Kapoor, and those kind of song picturizations are my least favourite thing about contemporary Bollywood songs. I prefer the proper rona-dhona (lots of crying) sad songs from a while back. But anyway. Check out the promo below..

Next up, we have a song from Raanjhanaa, which is the next A. R. Rahman album, which is always reason for a bit of excitement and high expectations. The song is quite nice, and will probably grow on me with time, and the video is just more of the sweetness from the trailer.

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, is directed by Ayan Mukherji, comes out May 31st.

Raanjhanaa, a film by Anand L. Rai, will release June 21st.

Music Review: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

With the film coming out in just over a month, the soundtrack to Ayan Mukherji’s Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani was released today. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor, who was in Ayan’s first film Wake Up Sid, Deepika Padukone, Kalki Koechlin and Aditya Roy Kapur, and the music has been composed by Pritam.

I’m no big fan of Pritam, we all know he’s not above “taking inspiration” from somewhere, but he’s been impressing me lately, especially with last year’s Barfi! soundtrack, so who knows, maybe my opinion of him will improve with time. Check the bottom of the post for track listing, and the YouTube jukebox.