Movie – Rang De Basanti (2006)

Among the handful of films that appeared for the first time on IMDB’s 2013 year end Top 250 list was Rang De Basanti.  Along with Incendies (2010) and Departures (2008) this year brought to my attention three fantastic foreign films.  While Incendies is a heavy drama wrapped in a mystery and Departures is a comedy/drama, Rang De Basanti starts out as almost a pure comedy, but at a certain point it not only transitions into a drama, but a deadly serious drama.  The comedy is hit or miss, but the drama is very effective.

Movie – Chak De! India (2007)

Chak De! India (literally “Let’s Go India!”) is an unabashedly rah-rah movie about an underdog women’s national field hockey team.  Unlike Lagaan, which was called the “Rocky of cricket”, Cha De! India is much more in the vein of the 1986 film Hoosiers.  Both feature a coach in need of redemption, leading a team of underdogs into the championships.  A more recent comparison might be the 2004 film Miracle, about the American 1980 Olympic ice hockey team – more on the underdogs theme, not the coach’s redemption theme.  All of these films are primarily about sports, but spend a good amount of time on the people participating in the sport.  They are not just faceless characters, which lifts these films above the normal sports movies.

Movie – Black (2005)

Black is an Indian film that would not have come to my attention at all were it not for a man from India recommending it to me.  It also served as an introduction to the wealth of foreign films that Netflix carried, but that is another story.  This man had rented the DVD via Netflix, but before returning it he loaned it to me.  He knew I was always looking for good movies and he felt this one qualified.  He was right.  This is a great movie.

Movie – Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001)

Lagaan is the first Indian movie that I remember hearing about.  The reason I remember is that I had seen it for sale in a store, while just having read an article about how it was setting box office records for a Bollywood film in the U.S.  This made me curious, so the next time I was in the store I looked for it, but all the copies were gone.  At first I thought they must have sold out, but when nobody else was selling it either, I figured out what had happened.  Like other Bollywood films at that time, this had been released direct to DVD in the U.S.  When Lagaan became only the third film from India to ever be nominated for an Oscar (after 1955’s Mother India and 1988’s Salaam Bombay), the studio decided to release it theatrically.  When they did this, they apparently had the DVDs pulled from the shelves.  The problem with this is that movie rental places didn’t end up getting copies, so I didn’t have any way to see it.  (This was before the days of Netflix). 

Fast forward to about five years ago and I happened to spy a copy for sale.  By then I had forgotten about wanting to see it, but this reminded me.  I did a blind buy – something I rarely do.  Even then it was a few more months before I finally watched the movie.  I was glad that I had.  It is an entertaining, crowd pleasing film.  Time Magazine recently named it one of the 25 best sports films ever made, although it is a lot more than just a sports movie.

Movie – Monsoon Wedding (2001)

Monsoon Wedding is probably Indian director Mira Nair’s most popular film in North America.  She first hit my radar screen with the Oscar nominated 1988 film Salaam Bombay.  Although I still have not seen that movie, I did see her American follow-up, 1991’s Mississippi Masala with Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury.  That made me a fan of Nair’s, so I have tried to see her other films over the years.  While Nair has explored topics are far ranging as Cuban refugees (1995’s The Perez Family) and classic English literature (2004’s Vanity Fair), Monsoon Wedding is a tale of two Indian families that are trying to balance tradition with modernism, while blending their families into one.  The result is a charming combination of light comedy, romance, and drama.