Guru (2007)

The story of Gurukant Desai, a villager with an ambitious dream and the voraciousness to actualise it. To achieve his goal of being the richest man in India Gurukant is willing to take whatever steps he deems necessary.
Abhishek received a wealth of praise for his portrayal. I'm going to add to it. I've never seen him better. Aishwarya, prominent on the cover, spends much of her time in the background, supportive in both character and role.
At times it's reminiscent of Welles' Citizen Kane (1941), and like it is based on the life of a real person (in Guru that's Indian tycoon Dhirubhai Ambani).
It's maybe uncommon to wish that a Bollywood film had an even longer running time than they typically have, but in Guru's case I think that it needed one because the years fly by too fast, leaving little time for important changes to be depicted as anything more than visual.

3 bogus truths out of 5

Zameen (2003)

It can be difficult to judge an actor's performance accurately when it's in a language you don't speak. Zameem makes it easy: the majority of the performances are patently awful. The remainder of the film appears to have taken a sympathetic approach and is equally bad. Even the songs feel like they're there solely out of obligation with nothing meaningful to add.
I appreciate that events were based on a real life incident and needed to be treated with some care, but a patriotic punch in the face has the opposite effect of what was intended if it ends up being just as much of a negative, nationalist commentary on the makers of the work as on the terrorists.

1½ background explosions out of 5

Umrao Jaan (2006)

It's decidedly beautiful to look at but there's a vital spark of life missing from Umrao Jaan.  In some ways the absence serves to heighten the aura of melancholy that surrounds the courtesan as she narrates the story of how she lived her life and earned her name, but any positive assumptions in that direction are outweighed by lingering misgivings that whisper 'it's not as good as it could've been.' Nevertheless, I did love the symbolism behind her placement for the telling, the poetic structure, the finery and the double-edged aspect of the sheltered brothel lifestyle.

3 blessed breaths out of 5

Kuch Naa Kaho (2003)

For a while it’s standard fare for this kind of film: man, woman, wrong foot, interfering family, filler, rain, waterproof mascara, etc. but then it throws in an unexpected element. In the third act it returns to the formula by digging its emotional claws mercilessly into your heart. It's done well, so even predicting the eventual destination doesn't ruin the journey.
The chemistry between the two leads is good. They must've agreed, because they got married in real life four years later.

3 wishing coins out of 5

Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007)

The eldest daughter of a poor family with no sons goes to the City to earn money the only way she can. There's tears, romance and songs.
A secondary story that seems forced fills time after the intermission, but by the end the two threads come nicely together as one.
My major gripe with the drama was that we’re supposed to believe the well-dressed family at the heart of it is close to poverty. The reality of poverty in India is a lot less rosy than that. It made me less sympathetic to everything that followed. It was interesting seeing a woman fill the traditional male role, but it’s predictable and drags its heels for a long time.

2½ blue skies out of 5

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006)

It seems to be that the further away from India Bollywood movies are set, the less I enjoy them. KANK is set in New York. Two marriages, in which both couples married for love, not through arrangement, begin to break down. The plot follows a path that can be seen from a mile away, but it deals with some themes that I’d not seen handled that way before and it deals with them in a mature manner. A lot of the comedy was hit and miss, though, but that wasn't why I was there, so it was forgiveable. I was there because of the cast, all of whom got their moment to shine.

3 uninvited circumstances out of 5