Pyaasa

A central piece of old Bollywood, Pyaasa exemplifies the strengths AND weaknesses of its tradition: It's emotionally involving when it isn't stickily melodramatic. Like Hollywood movies, Pyaasa and co drive more for mainstream appeal than for artistic merit. It certainly does have an appealing glow about it, but it isn't completely inartistic either.

A tad drawn out but otherwise incredibly enjoyable. Even if it's a tad manipulative it's very effective and moving and it's really well shot as well.

# 321

Bounced off this so hard I got a concussion when I hit the opposite wall. The last 45 minutes are legitimately good with some excellent story beats, but before then it stays one-note for far too long adding in a billion superfluous songs and repeating itself over and over. Conceptually a strong tale of materialism over human connection, but pretty disappointing in execution.

361

I was not expecting this to be a musical. If you can buy into the main character's rejection of pity and then his disgust that the world is a cruel place, then it all fits together. Some spots are great; others are tolerable but drawn-out. I liked it more for the technical aspects than for the story, which clearly aims to manipulate every single emotion.

guru dutt was one cutie pie

Other than some nice imagery, there's not much to see here. The acting is okay, but on the whole the film is way too overdramatic. The first two acts drag on and on, weighed down by songs that are completely boring. The third act is quite a bit more engaging, but ultimately comes off as extremely egotistical, as Guru Dutt positions himself as some kind of Messiah.

Pas mal de choses réussi notamment au niveau de la réalisation particulièrement vivante. Ca reste cependant du mélodrame (chanté) un peu pénible avec des tendances au ridicule, mais que j'ai plutôt pris plaisir à suivre.

This film is a beloved classic of Hindi cinema, but I was pretty underwhelmed. Dutt comes of as a seriously naive schmuck, which really impacted my enjoyment of the film. It's extremely long and has many pockets of pure entertainment, but they are buried in huge tracts of turgid melodrama. Dutt is supposedly a poem, but all his poems are actually songs. Does this make sense?

417

A cynical Bollywood. Who would have thought there was such a thing? No dance numbers, but a deeply stirring prophetic voice.

Very good, though sometimes a bit on the nose and lacking in nuance with the melodrama. It kind of hits you over the head with its points again and again and again. Interesting coincidence in that I watched Sullivan's Travels the day before and both have a case of mistaken identity due to a train accident. There are some absolutely great scenes, and the stylization and over the top staging at the end is very good, but it's a bit too uneven and bloated to be truly great for me.

#420