November, 2000 Volume 6, Number 12
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By Meena Yeggina
Hindi
Koi Mere Dil Se Pooche
*ing: Aftab Shivdasani, Esha Deol, Sanjay Kapoor, Jaya Bachchan
Music: Rajesh Roshan
Writer-director: Vinay Shukla
A remake of South Indian film Pelli, Kmdsp introduces the legendary Hemamalini's not-so-legendary daughter Esha Deol. Except for that tid-bit of information there's nothing much to write about this flick. But please let me try, at least for one of my favorite actresses' sake--Hemamalini that is.
Aisha (Esha Deol), an aspiring fashion designing graduate and the daughter of single mother Manasa Devi (Jaya Bachchan), is very romantically pursued by Aman (Aftab Shivsadani) who is also the student of the same college. Though Aisha too shows signs of love toward him, she consistently resists the feeling. After a couple of dream songs the audience will realize that there is a dark mysterious (?) flashback behind her dislike (of course not because she just doesn't like him!). Aisha is actually Manasa Devi's daughter-in-law and not her
daughter. She's married to her wicked son Sanjay Kapoor who for unknown reasons is a sadist. He harasses his wife and on their first wedding night insists on video taping her in the nude. Later, at a picnic he allows his friend to rape her upon which Aisha stabs him, burns his tent and runs away to her mother-in-law for protection. Everyone assumes that Sanjay is dead. Manasa Devi migrates to a remote town and settles down with Aisha as her daughter. She begs Aisha to forget her past and marry Aman. After a little hesitancy Aisha agrees. An exquisitely joyful Aman treats her like the queen. The couple live in their love-lorn world for a couple of songs when enters the villain again.
The story is good but lacks the right punchy dialogs and strong convincing actors. Jaya Bachchan as Manasi Devi is the only saving grace to this obnoxious movie. She acts with dignity. Sanjay Kapoor as the bad guy did his best to be convincing. But the poor guy didn't have a chance with a bad director and poor dialogues to ruin his role.
But the worse is Esha Deol who looks like the bad version of Hema Malini. She neither has the ethereal beauty of her mother nor the easy acting abilities of her father Dharmender. Her stony face lacks emotions.
Music is below average and so is the choreography.

Rating: *
Indzine's rating:
Very Good **** Good ***
Okay ** Not worth watching *



By Meena Yeggina
Telugu
Nuvvu Naku Nachchavu
*ing: Venkatesh, Aarti, Prakash Raj, Chandra Mohan, Suhasini
Music: Koti
Direction: K. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy

NNN is a fun-filled movie wit excellent music and choreography. Venkatesh as fit-for-nothing yet father-loving romeo is very convincing. He acts with no inhibitions as an unassuming simpleton. In a culture where our South Indian movies with mega stars are full of hype and filled with dialogues like "You are (like) God, Yuga Purush" and so on Venkatesh in NNN has no inhibitions in acting as half-witted a dumbo. He takes the heat from even the comedians of the film.
Venkatesh, a college drop out and the son of a middle class farmer Chandramohan comes to town to stay with his father's rich but good friend Prakash Raj in search of a job. Venkatesh is not only a college dropout but also a simple soul who loves to fool around. Prakash Raj's beautiful daughter who is by now engaged to an American engineer falls in love with Venkatesh just for his simple nature. She reveals her love for Venkatesh and from then on Venkatesh tries hard to conceal his real feelings for her in view of saving their parents' friendship. That's it. That's the story. Not too much drama or filmi fury. But the humor, crispy dialogues and excellent screenplay capture the spirit of the viewers. Pleasant music and excellent choreography are two other major points scored.
Prakash Raj as the heroine's father is very enduring and effective. The child artist is also very good in both acting and dialogue delivery. She's very cute in the typical-Andhra-like-little-sister way.
Suhasini as Prakash Raj's sister was used meticulously by the director to convince the audience that love is blind--it does not look for any qualifications nor dignity in a partner. So when Prakash Raj asks--very truly as far as I am concerned--how a girl can choose somebody who is not even a graduate over a smart, rich, engineer, Suhasini convinces him insisting that love is beyond education, looks and even brains. I strongly oppose this view but doesn't mean that the movie is bad. I enjoyed watching and so will you. It has good humor and relaxes the viewers. Completely harmless to kids except the little bit info about love being blind.

Rating: ***
Indzine's rating:
Very Good **** Good ***
Okay ** Not worth watching *
...................... by Meena Yeggina
 
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