PlantSap Reviews

Pardes (1997)

Awful portrayal of Americans and NRIs

[1/10 · 10 April 2013]

I am so glad there are many other posters who feel the same way as I do about this movie. Mr.Ghai portrays Americans and American born Indians in a very poor light while making Indians all saintly and virtuous. Don't people smoke in India? Or drink? Or lust women?

Patriotism is a nice thing. But it is cruel to falsely depict other cultures under the pretext of patriotism. Unfortunately, the only way many Indians know anything about Americans is through movies. Movies like this spoil it for Americans and NRIs, because people just jump into conclusion without ever having met an American. And opinions formed from movies like this is why I have to continually argue with friends who try to tell me what a horrible idea it was for me to marry a white American! In all honesty, I think he has way more "family values" than some Indians I had considered as potential candidates to marry. (I still hold my Indian citizenship and don't plan to renounce it and love visiting India and Indian culture - in case any of you are wondering if I fit into the India-hating category. No, I don't hate India at all!).

Star Trek (2009)

Very good whether or not you are a Star Trek fan

[9/10 · 6 August 2009]

Whether you are a fan of Star Trek, or if you haven't been following them before, this movie is worth watching.

It is interesting for everyone who are ardent fans, and have watched the previous movies and episodes. When I watched this movie, I only had a vague idea of the characters, and watched the earlier movies of the first generation since watching this movie. Have you ever been interested in knowing the life of a celebrity before they became what they are? This Star Trek movie introduces you to the life of the first generation crew, ending when the crew of the USS Enterprise comes together as we know it. Though it is a fictitious piece of work which has been conceived and written several years after the earlier movies, it somehow seems as if the movie is actually a biography of the characters. Most of the details from the earlier movies are well tied in, and there are certain jokes about the characters too; and if something doesn't make sense, don't worry... Star Trek crew changes the future every so often! ;). If you have not followed Star Trek, but like Science Fiction action movies, this is a very good one too. The special effects are beautiful, and this movie is devoid of any disturbing things or Gore that plagues several SciFi movies, yet is action and suspense packed. If you haven't made up your mind whether to watch it or not and looking here to make up your mind, I'd give you two-thumbs-up!

Ice Station Zebra (1968)

Does no justice to the novel

[2/10 · 6 August 2009]

The novel "Ice Station Zebra" by Alistair McLean is one of my all time favorites. I was looking forward to watch the movie. But it fails terribly. Two of the major points that I did not like are: 1) The movie shows that Dolphin (Tigerfish rather) is carrying force of "marines" in addition to the other characters which was totally unwanted, and finally wasn't very useful in the plot either. In fact, it gave kind of a comic effect to what was a very tense situation in the novel, and would probably have been here too. We actually were laughing aloud when the 4 people got off the submarine to search for the Drift Ice station, and were accompanied by a few dozen marines carrying guns in the Arctic! 2) They made the character of Dr.Carpenter (David Jones in the movie) to look like a dumb agent who only talked things that made no sense! The novel projects him as a person talking "senselessly" too, but at the end, everything ties up just perfectly. The evident sharpness of his character was totally missing in the movie; and the fact that it was the captain who ultimately figured things out made his character in the movie even unnecessary! I have watched several movies which I liked the book better, yet liked the movie (eg. Jurassic Park, Congo). Usually it is hard for movies to live up to the expectations of books, but this movie fails terribly! I could tolerate the first half of the movie, but the events after they finally reached the Drift station, showing the Russian aircraft and the marines... it just went too far! McLean's subtle but powerful plot of cold war (I am trying not to give away too much here) was taken to a ridiculous level! I am a big fan of war movies, but in my opinion, this does not qualify as one either. Maybe the whole movie just seemed more weird as I had read the novel. So, if you have read the novel and liked it, and want to watch the movie version of it, you may have to be prepared for disappointment. As someone pointed out, it is a more believable cold-war themed movie than Bond movies, which maybe true; but Bond movies are not meant to be believable, and the credit for this movie being more believable probably goes to Alistair McLean who writes quite believable espionage stories that a "hollywoodized" screenplay could not tamper it totally!