But sore annoyed was he without it;
I got a new Indian movie from Netflix. When I look it out of the sleeve and saw the running length, my heart dropped — 225 minutes. For those not up to the math, that’s 3 hours and 45 minutes. Nearly 4 hours of hammy acting, crappy songs, bizarre language… ugh.
Boyo, was I wrong. This movie is really pretty good. It’s shot professionally, with real camera moves, proper lighting, etc. It even has some very beautiful shots of the sere deserts of the pre-monsoon Indian countryside. It’s set in the late 19th century, and is about a cruel British overlord who is taxing them to death. I’m only an hour into the movie at this point, so of course none of the plot has actually been presented yet — we’re still in the first act, introducing main characters and stuff like that. It should get pretty juicy around 2:30 though.
Joking aside, I’m really enjoying the film. Sure, it has an unremittingly evil and bombastic antagonist, the heroes are pure and good, the plot is incredibly simple, and I basically know what’s going to happen up until the end. But the songs are fun, the action is entertaining, and since it’s a DVD I can pause it liberally and space the 4 hours out a little bit.
The moral of the story: Bad Indian movies are really, really bad. But the good ones, like Lagaan are really pretty good.