Hemal Modi's Diary

I usually avoid talking about movies as there are numerous websites that talk about them. I see a lot of movies and the peak was during my senior year in Mumbai (2002-2003) when on an average I saw four movies every week. However, today I saw 'Lamhe' and felt an urge to write about the Indian movies. Last week I saw 'Kisna' and during the last week of June, I saw 'Purab aur pachhim'. In the meantime, I realized that there is a generic difference between India and the rest of the world. There is so much of love, passion, emotions, and feelings without the undue provocative exposing contrasting what we have seen in few of the recent Hindi movies and most of the Hollywood movies.

Reviews from random websites.

Lamhe (1991)
The story is of Anil Kapoor playing Viren who returns to his hometown in Rajasthan to visit her nanny who he fondly calls Dai Jaa played by the talented Wahida Rehmaan. Viren falls for his next-door neighbor, Pallavi played by Sridevi. But the problem is though Viren comes from a liberal London, union of Viren and Pallavi looks unlikely because Pallavi is elder to him and an elder wife is not accepted in traditional rajasthan. Before Viren could confess his love for Pallavi, tragedy strikes and Pallavi’s father dies. Viren comes to know about Pallavi’s love. In a few days Pallavi gets married to an Air Force officer. Both Pallavi and her husband die in a car accident leaving a small daughter, in the care of Viren. Viren cannot get over Pallavi’s death and lives a life of pain and sadness when he comes face to face with Pallavi’s daughter, Pooja again played by Sridevi. Pooja is in awe and in love for Viren and vows to marry him in her childhood. Viren cannot forget Pallavi and at the same time cannot look beyond the face of Pooja who has the same face as Pallavi. The rest of the movie is how Viren comes in term of Pooja’s love and accepts pooja’s love as Pooja and not as Pallavi’s lookalike.

Kisna: The Warrior Poet (2005)
A young Indian, Kisna (Vivek Oberoi), defies his family and shields a British girl, Katherine (Antonia Bernath), who is also his childhood friend, from an enraged mob of nationalists. Catherine happens to be the young daughter of a ruthless British Deputy Commissioner (Michael Maloney). The Indians attack the Commissioner's house and Kisna takes it upon himself to save Catherine from their clutches. Supported by his mother, he decides to escort Catherine to the British High Commission in New Delhi, but he has to face opposition from his evil uncle (Amrish Puri), elder brother Shankar (Yashpal Sharma) and a scheming, lusty prince, Raghuraj (Rajat Kapoor).

Purab Aur Pachhim (1970)
Bharat (Manoj Kumar) an ideal young man who is in love with his own country is the only child of a freedom fighter who was betrayed by Harnam (Pran) before escaping to London. Bharat also goes to London for further scientific studies. During his foreign stay, he is stunned to meet Indians, including Harnam and his son Omkar (Prem Chopra) who are ashamed to call themselves Indians and who refer to their country with contempt and derogatory words. Bharat is also saddened to meet Indians who are compelled to live abroad for economic reasons but who are always haunted by the memories of their own land. To them, all Bharat presents the image of proud Indian, a young man who tells them: "You need India and India needs you. Be proud of India and let India be proud of you." Then in London Bharat also meets Priti (Saira Banu), an Indian born girl raised in the cradle of western civilization. They are in love and Priti is impressed with Bharat's idealism. She wants to marry him but she does not want to stay in India, Bharat insists that she should atleast once go there and see what India feels like.

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Looks I need to add a little more here.