Did you feel simillarities between Devdas and Parineeta, seems Novel writer had only one way theme for bad, manipulative fathers, who are illogically take pride to verbaly dishonour their son's lover in the same style! and sons take it! Saif was immature and wimp, while Devdas was arrogant and sissy, too afraid!

Thanks Sanjay, that I could come up with some mutual voice here!

It is not that I did not enjoyed the film, for me 2nd half made up for a bit edgy first half.

I personaly think 1942 was still a better product than Parineeta! I agree, all songs of 1942 were squeezed into first half, except that situational song when Jackie arrives in 2nd half!
But film's story was also all set and go by then, just taking the 2nd half to proceeding of climax.

I dont remember how long was 1942, but I think total number of songs were more in number than Parineeta tyhat had only 5 songs and 6 out of 5 come in first half, and 3/4 come in first 10 minutes, and then that Rekha's song( I dont mind for keeping it) but going to Moulin Rouge and may be cutting that song to short., waving it out rather trying to show embaraced Sanju bearing mama Rekha in his lap, might have improved the proceedings and helped to establish the entire story in first half, and then using 2nd half to carry on to climax.

Some people, that is critics are calling it a musical and while others calling 2 fast second half and climax!

So, in nut shell, it is editor's fault !.. I am sure that film could have been edited to exclude that jam packed, a bit too heavy first 15 minutes and dispersing songs would have done better with the pace!

1942..VVC was directing him self and no doubt he seemed to be under market/commercial pressure while Parineeta you feel that market commercial pressure by showing some adding on proceedings of courtship and adding item number with big name!
1942 did not show this kinda pressurized situations!

My rating 8/10 reflects some of these issues!and a weak supporting cast!

Climax , being a bit high melodramatic, still seemed likeable to me!!

But film has a lot of positives worth watching and going for it!

Btw!! Binod Pardhan was mentioned in credits..I am not sure which scenes did he shoot?

I did not like Batman Begins my self!! and not even Mr and Mrs Smith!!

Parineeta is worth recomending because we are not seeing good commercial films from BW!

I am too afraid with this VVC company to going churning/3-6 months a crap too soon to rake mulla! Only!

These 3 Munna Bhaii in North, one in West and 2 in South is disgusting imho!

http://www.indiafm.com/boxoffice/overseas/15jun05.shtml

From an indiafm article:

The first biggie of June, PARINEETA, has been accorded a warm welcome in U.S.A. and U.K.

In U.K., the film has debuted in the 'Top 10' charts, while in the U.S., it makes its way in the 'Top 25' charts of this weekend.

PARINEETA is Sanju's second biggest opener in U.K. [after KAANTE]

For Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the collections of PARINEETA are bigger than his last two biggies, MUNNABHAI M.B.B.S. and MISSION KASHMIR, in U.K.

Weekend: June 10 - 12, 2005.

http://www.indiafm.com/boxoffice/overseas/15jun05.shtml

For anyone that has seen the movie ... is it suitable for kids? The BBFC have rated it 12A ... just wondering why. Was planning on seeing it on Saturday with my family - but not sure if it is okay for my young nephew to see it.

Thanks!

I personally think the film is fine for children. Other than a few brief sensual scenes, sensual as per Indian film standards, the film is perfect for family viewing.

Okay - thanks Sanjay. So I guess it is nothing as bad as the kids see on 'The OC'!

I'm booking this tickets right now!

Kids can go, but I doubt they will enjoy this age old storical drama of love triangle with confusions/misunderstandings and zaalim baap!

Older Kids around 13-14 might do OK!

But younger, it will be a bit heavy for them, imho.

During my viewings, there were only 3 kids, in 1/2 to 3/4 filled theatre! one was 14, other two, around 8-9 years!

Mostly older , mature audience that I saw!

All kids went to BNB!! for sasta fun!

Saw Parineeta today ... one word WOW!

I think that it was very well made ... I have had the old Meena Kumari version on DVD for a while now but I haven't watched ... going to give it a viewing so I can figure out how the new version differs.

Of course - I haven't read the original story so seeing the old version of the movie will have to suffice for now.

The film was extremely well made and IMHO it was very well paced. Personally I felt that the songs were placed very well and they helped the story to flow. The ending was abrupt - but I think that it was better than dragging it out too long. Can't wait to see it again - the last film that did this to me was Dil Chahta Hai ... since then no other commercial Indian movies have grabbed my attention! It's a classic. NO doubt.

Have read many bad reviews of this - so it is obviously not to everyone's liking ... but for me it was a treat. The photography was excellent and for once the quality of the print at the cinema was great!

On a side note - the cinema was also showing Silsillay - but there was note up at the box office that said the print was very bad quality so the replaced the showing of Silsillay with Waqt. Wonder what went wrong there ...

I had really been looking forward to seeing the film again, even as the end credits had not finished during my first viewing of the film and I finally found the time and saw Parineeta a second time today. The last movie I saw twice in the theater was Dil Chahta Hai, in fact Parineeta was the first film after Dil Chahta Hai that I even desired to see again.

So, what do I think of the film, now that I have watched it a second time. Well, my opinion still remains the same, that it is one of the best films to come out of Bollywood in a very long time. I thoroughly enjoyed the film even the second time around, although I must admit not as much as the first time. But then that is to be expected since this time around I already knew all the twists and turns and therefore the impact just couldn't be the same again. I guess you can judge how much I really like this film by the fact that that although I might not go to the theater a third time, I still can't wait to watch it again on DVD.

My advice to those who may still not have watched the film, do yourself a favor and go see Parineeta. It may really be a long time before Bollywood makes another film as good.

I am definately watching this when it gets released on dvd.

I don't think I've ever felt more "blah!" for a film throughout until I saw Parineeta earlier today. I've seen films recently (notably Lucky: No Time For Love) which just irritate the hell out of me and force me to pick up my remote control and shut the damn movie off. Parineeta for me, was completely repulsive, it left me indifferent about almost anything at the end. It's very much your typical over-the-top melodrama made up in nice, fancy dressings. The only character/performance that even matters in the film is of Shekhar's, which Saif plays with crowning perfection. But that's it! It's like watching one really good performance in one really bad(!!) movie. I honestly don't even feel that this film is even worth an indepth analysis, from me atleast.

PS: The climax is one of the worst I've seen, ever!

DVD_C looks like u had a tuff day...Dont worry, the film has become a hit overseas !

Let me concur ..., saw it today and pretty much thought it sucked. Honestly it has nothing to do with the high expectations set by other zulmies - the movie is/was/will be bad for me. With shallow character development, pretty bad background score, melo-o-rama , bad screenplay , improper song placement , cliché ridden emotional outbursts and to sum it all up a very bad climax . If this is what good cinema is then lord-save-us , we are finished

In my books it is * out of ***** - sorry guy that’s me

I guess if everyone in the world liked the same very thing, the world would be quite a boring place. But even then guys, 1 out of 5? Hmmm. I wonder what you would rate the other 99% of Bollywood films? Then again maybe it is the other 99% of Bollywood films that ought to get 4-5 out of 5.

I won't say any more, just that I suppose 'each to his own'. I hope that others are not discouraged by these comments and end up missing a really good Hindi movie. As for me, I'll take solace in the fact that even some of the all time best films, films that are now considered classics by one and all, have had more than their share of detractors.

Sanjay Bhai, off all people I would stand in line to cheer a "masterpiece" Indian film. Alas this one is NOT a masterpiece. I don’t want this film in the same list as the any other classics. We ( as pseudo-intellectuals) should not accept "mediocre" films as “great” films - it is our duty not to do so , we must make the artist bend and shape the medium not 'hack' it together.

After some thought, here is what I found some glaring problems with it

*** Spoilers *** (added per request)

- Screenplay ( dialogs) did not suit the setup. One example is when Lolita ( is that even a bengali name ??) says to Saif that his father is there and Saif turns back to find no one and he comments "Stop it lolita, its not even funny" - now i might not have lived in the 60's but i am pretty sure no one talked like that. This dialog is what i call "American Snazziness" , it is the byproduct of the sit-com culture. There are other occasions in the film where the MIGHT of Bengali culture was mis-represented / mistreated.

- Song placement : To me this is a very sour point of the film. Indian Films are often referred to as "Cinema of Interruptions" and this proves it on atleast 2 different occasions. The obvious one being the Rekha Song , Why focus on the song and not on the loneliness of the two main protagonist - the actual Moulin rouge song does nothing but take our minds away from Saif and Loita . The second song out-of-place was the train song, pretty much right after his father calls Lolita a Whore you see Saif singing happily - how can you feel happy for Saif and sad for Lolita in a matter of seconds. These are supposed to be real people with real emotions, not some circus clowns !

- The next part that bothered me was the entire setup - why 60's Calcutta and not contemporary society ( the novel was written before 1960) and if you do choose 60’s Calcutta you wonder how it play a part in this film – To me it is non-existent, which is a shame. The reason this is very important is because Calcutta in 60's saw lot of socio-political changes ( this is the same time when the likes of Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak. Mrinal Sen were representing Calcutta on film ) - having not touched on that really shows the directors lack of understanding of the period. It is not enough to show people dress-up 60’s way , but also show the environment in which they dress-up.

- Character development - the amount of stress put on the "importance" of lolita in the lives of various people is ridiculous that after a point it gets silly- they just keep saying "without you this cannot be done and that cannot be done" , why don’t they just keep it to a minimum and not go over the top. The other irritating part is the number of times they say "he is smart - right ?" - ridiculously childish . Add to that the supporting characters were shallow at best ( friend, mothers, sisters) .

- Climax , don’t even get me started on this

I am really furious that they made a bad film and are getting away with it – The director even had the nerve to list this among the ‘best Indian films ever made’ ! .