Love, Actually

I purchased four DVDs this week – Love Actually, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Bridget Jones – The Edge of Reason & The Holiday.

When a couple of movie enthusiasts in office came to know which movies I bought, they balked. They asked me why I didn’t buy movies that are more realistic….serious, moving, heartrending movies.

I agree the movies I bought are by no means cerebral movies or classics, but my idea of buying movies is simple – I want to buy movies I would watch time & again. Such as ‘Love Actually’, ‘Bridget Jones’ & 'The Holiday'.

We have so many bad days in life. Days when we feel generally low or depressed (they certainly outnumber the days I come back home from work feeling on top of the world!) On such days, don’t we all wish to unwind with a light-hearted, funny movie? I know I do! So why would I want to buy movies that will depress me even further?

Love Actually is a brilliant movie, for those who haven’t watched it yet. It’s a perfect Christmas movie (haven’t come across a more heart-warming Christmas movie) but can also be watched any time of the year for feel-good factor. It’s nine stories in one, the characters related to each other by extension. The stories take place in London and culminate on Christmas eve.

There is a young couple who has just gotten married. The groom’s best friend video-records the marriage ceremony. The girl (Keira Knightly) later asks him for the tape, which he says is lost. One day she lands up at his house, insisting on looking for the tape herself, and finds it lying right in front of her! As she’s watching the tape, she realizes that the guy has been in love with her all along!

There is a man (Liam Neeson) who has just lost his wife & is left to take care of his pre-teen step-son with whom he has practically no bonding. However, in the process of helping his son win over the girl he (the son) is in love with, they come closer.

There is another girl (Laura Linney) with a brother who is in an asylum and a not-so-hidden crush on one of her exotic-looking colleagues. Finally, she & the colleague come together but just when they are having an intimate moment, there is a call from the brother who has had some kind of an attack. She eventually ends up breaking up with the guy because she always chooses to be with her brother, who because of his illness has a tendency to get violent.

There is an author (Colin Firth, people!!) whose wife has left him for his younger & more attractive brother (how could she! lol :). He moves to France to get some quiet time alone & continue writing his book, where he ends up falling in love with his Portugese housekeeper who speaks not a word of English or French! He does not speak Portugese either. They go their separate ways only to get reunited months later when he has learnt enough Portugese to ask her father to let his daughter marry him, in Portugese.

There is a much-married-with-kids man (Alan Rickman – Snape from Harry Potter movies!!) who is smitten by his Secretary, who keeps hitting on him. He buys her a diamond ring for Christmas, which the wife happens to see but thinks it’s a Christmas gift for her. When instead he gives her a CD on Christmas Eve, she realizes what is going on!

There is a couple who end up falling in love while shooting an erotic movie.

There is a guy who is desperate to get laid but is not able to in London. So he decides to travel to America because he thinks American women will dig him for being British.

Then there is the Prime Minister of Britain (the delicious Hugh Grant) who, the moment he steps into 10, Downing, is smitten with Natalie, his catering manager who had already screwed up at the first minute, and is marked by other staff for being rather ‘chunky’. The two share a back-stage kiss during the climax when the curtains are yanked, and there they are…exposed to the world!!

And finally there is an old rocker (Bill Nighy) who is climbing back up the charts after battling a heroin addiction, is on the radio & TV either trashing his new CD, insulting his manager or a new hearthrob boy band, or calling Britney Spears the worst sex he's ever had, and who promises to go naked on national television if his latest CD (which he has been trashing) does well! And it does! And he does go naked!!

The characters in Love Actually are falling in love, falling out of love. Some are with right people, some with wrong. It’s a snapshot of reality – love begins and love ends, and there’s not much we can do about it except accept it. Though the movie ends on a very happy, uplifting note.

My favorite scene in the movie is part of the track with the couple who’s just gotten married. It’s Christmas eve, they’re at home. Suddenly the bell rings. The girl gets the door. It’s the guy’s best friend, and he tells her through placards that maybe by Christmas next year, he'll be dating some hot woman, but for him she's perfect & he'll love her till the very end.

I'm planning to watch the movie this weekend. But why am I in such a mushy-gushy mood? How do I know??!! And who cares!!

I feel it in my fingers
I feel it in my toes
Love is all around me
And so the feeling grows
It's written on the wind
It's everywhere I go
So if you really love me
Come on & let it show
You know I love you, I always will
My minds made up by the way that I feel
There's no beginning, there'll be no end
Cause on my love you can depend....

Amar Akbar Anthony Revisited

One of my favorite AB movies is ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’. It’s as masala as a Bollywood movie of the 70s could get!

It’s the story of an ex-convict who must flee his mob boss, leaving his family to fend for themselves. His wife goes blind and he abandons his three sons at a park. They are found and raised separately, the eldest by a Hindu policeman, the youngest by a Muslim tailor, and the middle son by a Catholic priest. The Hindu-raised son (Vinod Khanna) grows up to become a policeman; the Muslim-raised son (Rishi Kapoor) becomes a tailor-cum-singer; and the Catholic-raised son (AB) becomes a happy-go-lucky local goon. Years later, they meet again at a hospital where they are all donating blood to the same woman. Following this reunion, they find their respective lady loves and their lives become entangled in a series of hilarious coincidences & furious action sequences interspersed with songs. In the end, the blinded mother recovers her sight, the evil mob boss is punished, and the family is re-united.

Can you get more masala than this?

My favorite scene in the movie is the fight scene between AB & Vinod Khanna inside a hut. Everyone thinks AB, being the goon that he is, would be beating Vinod Khanna to a pulp, but the latter comes out with AB hung over his shoulder.

All the actors have done a marvelous job in the movie. I loved AB’s portrayal of a Catholic hooligan & Rishi Kapoor for his charm & affability.

I like all the songs in the movie but my favorites are ‘Humko Tumse Ho Gaya Hai Pyar Kya Karen’, which is a happy love song that puts a smile on my face every time I hear it, ‘My name is Anthony Gonsalves’, a peppy fun song, and the title song where the three brother are trying to rescue their lady loves from the clutches of the evil Robert.....Kickass!!

I have seen the movie countless times – the latest being this past weekend – and love it every time I watch it. Hats off to AB & Manmohan Desai, who is as instrumental in the making of Amitabh Bachchan as Yash Raj are to the making of Shahrukh Khan.