Basmati Blues (2018)

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

When a young scientist learns she has unwittingly aided a destructive plan against the Indian farmers she was supposedly sent to help, she teams up with a local farmer to save the day.

Smart humor, relevant, and conscious storytelling about the impact of science on an entire culture. Clever use of dance and music which seamlessly embodies each character and drives the point of the story home. Brie Larson beautifully portrays her character of Linda and intelligently drives the point of the story forward. I also enjoyed the playfulness of Donald Sutherland and Tyne Daly throughout as well as how comfortably and artfully they delivered their characters whether dancing or singing. The photography was wonderful and the scenes of village life and people reminded me of my time in India. Well done. A story.that all my friends and family can enjoy regardless of age.

I saw this movie this morning knowing nearly nothing about it. However fairly quickly, as soon as the setting moved to India, it dawned on me that I was watching sort of a western take on a Bollywood movie with music, and romance, dancing, good guys, bad guys, a love triangle, a bit of suspense and a bit of mayhem. The standard elements, identified by some other reviewers here as rom-com are the expected elements in a classic Bollywood film. And, let me be perfectly clear, the bad guys here are clearly the westerners. In fact, part of the suspense comes from wondering how the well-meaning western heroine, a scientist who has naively allowed herself to be manipulated by American agribusiness into doing something very harmful, can possibly redeem herself. Finally she will have to realize that the small farmers who surround her, and who have taken her into their hearts, are living and working under a system very different that what we usually see in the United States. These farmers do not hop into a giant pick-up truck, drive into town, take out a loan and buy their seed from a farm supply store. In my opinion, this is not a great film but it was a lot of fun. I liked it a lot more than La La Land which I also saw very early in its run with no pre-conceived notions of what I would be seeing. However, as I write this, Basmati Blues has a 3.7 rating here while La La Land has an 8.1. I don't get that.... Tonight I did a search on this movie and discovered that an early trailer had ignited controversy.... because of a white horse? and because of the present day phenomenon where angry trolls seem intent on attacking and destroying a movie they could not have actually seen. Please, just don't listen to them!

Clearly nothing extraordinary in the scenario, but nice and funny to watch.