India

Gandhi (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)

Sir Richard Attenborough's 1982 multiple-Oscar winner (including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Ben Kingsley) is an engrossing, reverential look at the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi, who introduced the doctrine of nonviolent resistance to the colonized people of India and who ultimately gained the nation its independence. Kingsley is magnificent as Gandhi as he changes over the course of the three-hour film from an insignificant lawyer to an international leader and symbol. Strong on history (the historic division between India and Pakistan, still a huge problem today, can be seen in its formative stages here) as well as character and ideas, this is a fine film. --Tom Keogh

Stills from Gandhi (click for larger image)

Beyond Gandhi on Amazon.com

Other Oscar Winners at Oscar Central

More Biographies on DVD

The Films of Ben Kingsley

A critical masterpiece, GANDHI is an intriguing story about activism, politics, religious tolerance and freedom. But at the center of it all is an extraor- dinary man who fought for a nonviolent, peaceful existence, and set an entire nation free. Winner of 8 Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Best Director (Lord Richard Attenborough) and Best Actor (Sir Ben Kingsley), GANDHI's highly acclaimed cast also includes Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, Sir John Gielgud, Roshan Seth and Martin Sheen.

The extras include more than 90 minutes of new material, including interviews with director Lord Richard Attenborough; actors Geraldine James, Saeed Jaffrey, and Edward Fox; Diana Hawkins (Director of Publicity), Terry Clegg (Executive in charge of production), Billy Williams (Cinematographer) and Stuart Craig (Production Designer). The DVD includes a Director's commentary with Attenborough, who also filmed a personal introduction to the film. The featurettes include In Search of Gandhi, Reflections on Ben, Madeleine Slade: An Englishwoman Abroad, The Funeral, Shooting an Epic In India, Looking Back, Designing Gandhi (3 mini featurettes) and From the Director's Chair (2 mini featurettes).

Monsoon Wedding

Monsoon Wedding is a return to form for Mira Nair, director of 1988's Salaam Bombay! Nair's gift for observation of the everyday and her love for her characters make for a delightful film, which spins a web of family relationships that knit and break during a wedding at a perfect pace. The excellent performances exceed the often stereotypical roles on offer (including the incomparable Nasiruddin Shah as the harassed father, Kulbhushan Kharbanda as the comic uncle, and Shefali Chaya as the orphaned cousin). Nair's sympathetic eye for the unnoticed and the harassed is at its best with the tender romance between the servant and Dube (Vijay Raaz), the marigold-munching, upwardly mobile wedding coordinator, who brings pathos and humor to the often unseen servant classes. The handheld camera gives a docudrama feel to this celebratory look at the upper-middle-class Hindu Punjabi joint family, while paying tribute to modern Indian public culture of music, television, and, of course, "Bollywood." --Rachel Dwyer

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love

If you're looking for a deep, intelligently romantic movie with complex characters and a richly rewarding plot, don't bother with Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. On the other hand, if you're feeling sexy and in the mood for a lush, seductive, and visually stunning film set in 16th-century India, this one will please you like the best foreplay you've ever experienced. Or it will relax you like a full treatment at a pampering spa--either way, you're gonna feel pretty fantastic. Okay, okay... maybe we're getting a little carried away, but there's no denying that director Mira Nair (best known for her acclaimed film Salaam Bombay!) has crafted a sumptuous film for the eyes if not the head. Its melodramatic plot is involving enough to elevate the movie high above soft-core adult fare, so you won't feel guilty after watching it.

Kama Sutra is the story of a young woman named Maya (the stunning Indira Varma) who has always been lower on the social scale than her well-born friend Tara (Sarita Choudhury), and has always lived in Tara's shadow, wearing her used clothes and being made to feel inferior. When Tara is betrothed to the handsome King Raj Singh (Naveen Andrews, from The English Patient), Tara sneaks into the king's tent on the eve of the wedding and seduces him. Later, after being trained to master the Kama Sutra's many "lessons of love," Maya will be the king's courtesan, and emotions will run high between the former best friends. But the plot is of secondary importance here (a fact that resulted in many mixed reviews), and so Kama Sutra works best as a colorful and irresistibly sexy story that is worth seeing just for the startling beauty of the film and its cast. --Jeff Shannon

Kuch Naa Kaho

Starring: ABHISHEK BACHCHAN, AISHWARYA RAI

Synopsis: Raj (Abhishekh Bachchan) is a NRI living in New York who is against the idea of an arranged marriage. Raj visits India to attend a family wedding and is smitten by the beautiful Namrata (Aishwarya Rai), his Uncle's colleague who happily agrees to help Raj find a suitable Indian bride. However, fate has other ideas for the pair as they soon realize that 'their love' is a match made in heaven. 'Kuch Naa Kaho' is a heart-warming romance by debutante director Rohan Sippy. Join them in their quest for true love, happiness and finding that perfect soul mate.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Lagaan - Once Upon a Time in India

Would you believe the most enchanting musical of the year is an almost four-hour-long epic about a ragtag group of 19th-century Indian farmers who form a cricket team to take on an arrogant British captain? The old-fashioned Hollywood musical is alive and well in India's Bollywood industry, where the joyful explosion of music and dance and innocent romance abounds in sweeping epics. In this infectious tale of bloodless revolution, the underdog outcasts and oddballs of a fractured village pull together into a unified team to take on the oppressive colonial Brits at their own game. Think The Longest Yard meets The Seven Samurai by way of Rudyard Kipling, with cricket bats, choreographed dance numbers, romantic triangles, and a rousing call to solidarity. There are no surprises, but what spirit, what color, what good fun! --Sean Axmaker

Devdas (2 Disc Set)

Starring: SHAH RUKH KHAN, AISHWARYA RAI, MADHURI DIXIT

Synopsis: Devdas is the story of a love beyond all else, even life. The saga of a man called Devdas who loved, loved and just loved. Devdas shared a magnetic childhood with his lovely playmate Paro where supreme love was felt before it was understood. When youth beckoned, the loved intensified. But, alas, a fateful moment of weakness on the part of Devdas created a permanent wall of separation between him and his beloved Paro. On one side of the wall was a heartbroken Paro who became the wife of another. And on the other, was a completely shattered Devdas. Unable to bear the agony of a life without Paro, Devdas made alcohol his constant companion. But that could not make him forget the piercing pain. Even the unflinching devotion of a beautiful courtesan Chandramukhi, did not ease the heartache of losing Paro. It was only when his eyes closed to a permanent sleep, did the pain begin to fade. But even before losing the light of life, all Devdas urged was to see his Paro just once, thus giving his love the greatest dignity. It was at Paro's doorstep that the doors of heaven opened for Devdas. He left behind a testimony of true love that was pure, chaste, undemanding...and thus immortal. Indeed, love was his life... love makes him live on.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Straight From the Heart

Nandini (Aishwarya Rai) the daughter of singer Pandit Darbar (Vikram Gokhale) Loves his student Sameer (Salman Khan). However Vanraj (Ajay Devgan) sends his proposal to her father. Sameer and Nandini are caught romancing each other and as a payment for teaching Sameer music Darbar demands Sameer forget Nandita. After the marriage takes place Vanraj comes to know about Nandini s love for Sameer. He decides to unite the lovers even in the face of ridicule by society and takes Nandini to Italy to search for Sameer. They find Sameer... but Nandini is now torn between Vanraj whom she has come to respect and Sameer whom she loves.System Requirements:Starring: Aishwarya Rai Ajay Devgan Salman Khan Directed By: Sanjay Leela Bhansali Running Time 188 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS Rating: NR UPC: 825307910896 Manufacturer No: PH91089

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham...

The 2001 romantic Bollywood drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham ("Happiness and Tears") proved to be even more successful than Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, the highest-grossing Indian film of all time and one that was also directed by Karan Johar. Starring veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan and wife Jaya, this tells the story of an Indian family who live in palatial comfort but who are riven when the eldest, adopted son Rahul marries Anjali (Kajol) a feisty and attractive woman but whose "lower breeding" causes his father to disapprove of her. Breaking his mother's heart, Rahul moves to Britain with Anjali before younger brother Rohan tries to go after him and end 10 years of estrangement to reunite the family.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is packed with contemporary trappings and production values but is in every way a traditional and generic Hindi movie. Those new to Bollywood might be disconcerted by some of the fashion statements or the mixture of drawn-out, lachrymose melodrama and slightly overplayed comedy-romantic interplay between Rahul and Anjali. There are also some scenes around Leicester Square and Westminster that are almost insulting in their stereotyping of hot, swinging London. However, K3G--as it has become affectionately known--is a riot of joyful color, music and choreography (an embarrassing version of "It's Raining Men" is an exception). This is not a crossover movie, perhaps but a sumptuous treat for Bollywood fans. --David Stubbs

I Have Found It (Kandukondain Kandukondain)