Danny Denzongpa Movies
- 2007
In the stark landscape of Ladakh, 12,000 feet up in the Himalayas, a little girl, her father, and her younger brother find their small village at the top of the world suddenly overtaken by an army on the hunt for an elusive enemy. Lasya (Gauri) is a young girl who is prone to daydreaming, and lives in the isolated village of Ladakh with her father Karma (Danny Denzongpa) and her mercurial brother Chomo (Angchuk). While the summer months frequently bring tourists to Ladakh, the winter months bring little more than harsh living conditions and isolation. It's a village located in India's still-contested Jammu and Kashmir state, and as a result, the military takes security in Ladakh very seriously. One day, seemingly out of nowhere, Lasya's quiet routine is loudly interrupted by the military as they storm into the village in search of the enemy. When they find a frozen body instead, the mission takes an unanticipated turn. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Denzongpa, Gauri, (more)
Cinematographer turned director Santosh Sivan follows up on his acclaimed 1999 opus Malli with this sweeping historical epic. Asoka, the emperor of the Mauryan dynasty between 274 and 232 B.C., was famed for having unified much of modern-day India and for raising Buddhism from obscurity to the ranks of a world religion. Early in his life, as Emperor of the region of Magadha, he waged a brutal campaign against the neighboring fiefdom of Challenge, leaving the land bloody and ravaged. The war paid a toll on the young king; having realized the full horror that he wrought, Asoka renounced violence and turned to the spiritual sanctuary of Buddhism. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, (more)
Typically impressive natural vistas from director Jean-Jacques Annaud (some secretly filmed on location in Tibet) highlight this adaptation of the memoir by Heinrich Harrer. Brad Pitt stars as the arrogant Heinrich, a famed Austrian mountain climber who leaves behind his wife and infant son to head a Himalayan expedition in 1939, only to fall into the hands of Allied forces as a prisoner of war. He and a fellow escapee, Peter Aufschnaiter (David Thewlis), make their way to the Forbidden City in Tibet, where Peter finds a wife and Heinrich befriends the Western culture-obsessed teenage Dalai Lama (Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk), the spiritual leader of his Buddhist nation. As Heinrich waits out the war, his friendship with the Dalai Lama begins to transform him from haughty to humble, but a crisis with China looms. A controversy over the revelation of the real-life Harrer's Nazi Party affiliation brewed during the film's production, forcing Annaud to briefly deal with the subject in the film. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brad Pitt, David Thewlis, (more)
A woman is torn between two men -- one who loves her, and one who wants to see her dead -- in this drama from India best remembered for launching the career of Bollywood star Bobby Deol. Twinkle Khanna co-stars, and Raj Babbar and Danny Denzongpa round out the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
