Dina Pathak Movies

2002  
PG13  
Add Bollywood/Hollywood to QueueAdd Bollywood/Hollywood to top of Queue
After making a string of social commentaries, Canadian director Deepa Mehta satirizes India's beloved genre in the lighthearted romantic musical Bollywood/Hollywood. Indo-Canadian millionaire Rahul (Rahul Khanna) goes against the wishes of his mother and grandmother to date the Caucasian pop star Kimberly (Jessica Paré); however, she gets killed in an accident and he is left devastated. His mother (Moushumi Chatterjee) seizes the opportunity and announces that he must get engaged to an Indian girl before his sister is allowed to wed. This is complicated by the fact that his sister is already engaged and pregnant. Under pressure, Rahul enlists the help of Sue (supermodel Lisa Ray), a professional escort who agrees to play the part of his Indian fiancée. He thinks she is really Hispanic, and she claims to have no love for traditional Indian men. Throughout his sister's wedding preparations, Sue begins to befriend his entire family, including the tough old grandmother (Dina Pathak). After some random bursts into songs and dances, Sue reveals her true identity and they fall in love. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Rahul KhannaLisa Ray, (more)
2002  
 
Sanjay Gadhvi's romantic comedy Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai is about an attempt to undo an upcoming wedding. Uday Chopra plays Sanjay Malhotra, a young, successful man with lots of luck with the ladies. He discovers that his childhood friend Anjali (Sanjana) is going to marry. He leaves his model girlfriend Ria (Bipasha Basu) and attempts to wreck the ceremony. When her family welcomes the fiancée with open arms, and takes an immediate liking to him, the situation becomes more complex. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Uday ChopraJimmy Shergill, (more)
1984  
 
The English translation of the this Indian film's title is A Summons for Mohan Josh. Bhishan Sahni plays Mohan, a Bombay slum dweller at odds with his absentee landlord. When it becomes clear that the landlord refuses to improve living conditions because he wants to drive the tenants out and tear down the apartment house, Mohan tries to organize his neighbors into a rent strike. Out of fear, they refuse to do so, compelling him to continue his battle alone by hiring an attorney. The ensuing lawsuit takes so long getting before a judge that Mohan's savings are wiped out. Moved by his persistance, Mohan's neighbors finally rally around him--only to discover that the Indian legal system is set up in so archaic a fashion that some cases never get heard in court. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Bhisham SahniDina Pathak, (more)
1984  
PG  
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A Passage to India, director David Lean's final film (for which he also received editing credit), breaks no new ground cinematically, but remains an exquisitely assembled harkback to such earlier Lean epics as Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter. Based on the novel by E. M. Forster, the film is set in colonial India in 1924. Adela Quested (Judy Davis), a sheltered, well-educated British woman, arrives in the town of Chandrapore, where she hopes to experience "the real India". Here she meets and befriends Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee), who, despite longstanding racial and social taboos, moves with relative ease and freedom amongst highborn British circles. Feeling comfortable with Adela, Aziz invites her to accompany him on a visit to the Marabar caves. Adela has previously exhibited bizarre, almost mystical behavior during other ventures into the Indian wilderness: this time, she emerges from the caves showing signs of injury and ill usage. To Aziz' horror, he is accused by Adela of raping her. Typically, the British ruling class rallies to Adela's defense, virtually convicting Aziz before the trial ever begins. Though he is eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence (in fact, director Lean never shows us what really happened), Aziz is ruined in the eyes of both the British and his own people-as is Adela. Woven into these proceedings is a subplot involving Adela's elderly travelling companion Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft), who through a series of plot twists too complex to describe here becomes a heroine of the Indian Independence movement. A Passage to India was nominated for several Academy Awards, scoring wins in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Ashcroft) and Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre). A theatrical version of A Passage to India, written by Santha Rama Rau, was previously adapted for television by the BBC in the mid-1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Judy DavisVictor Banerjee, (more)
1980  
 
This charming fable in the genre of New Indian Cinema brings up the issue of the Indian caste system and its entrenched beliefs from several different perspectives. Once upon a time, the story begins, there was a prince who was taken out of the palace at birth by his evil aunt and thought to have died. Instead, he is adopted and raised by a low-caste couple. His lot in life is one with theirs and when he grows up, he champions his family to stop the suffering they have endured because of their particular caste status -- an action of a true prince. There are two versions of the ending of the Folk Tale with the audience welcome to choose their favorite. Enhanced by interesting costumes and incisive dialogue, the fable combines comedy and social commentary as it moves through its classic tale. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Naseeruddin ShahSmita Patil, (more)

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