India Region-free DVD
Anamorphic Widescreen 2:35.1
DD 5.1 Hindi
Subtitles: English
MOVIE: 7.5
VIDEO QUALITY: 8
AUDIO QUALITY: 9
ENGLISH SUBTITLES: 8
EXTRAS: 5
Oh how nice it is to count on the negative reviews of Indian movie critics! This is one of the poorest-reviewed movies which actually turned out to be better than expected. Indian movie critics just don’t like anything different than their usual “masala Bollywood lovey-dovey schmaltz”. I have no understanding why they have no interest at all in bizarre, weird, or fantasy/sci-fi flicks. This is what DRONA is: excellent direction and editing, weird, bizarre, action-packed with great choreography, Bollywood’s hottest actress Priyanka Chopra is in the film kicking ass, and it’s got the charm of a 1980s fantasy flick a la Highlander, Conan, or Excalibur without forcing it into mediocrity(Scorpion King 2 or Uwe Boll films).
DRONA is currently one of the most expensive Bollywood films and you can tell – the special effects, as well as the production, in this film are top-notch. Not an original story – we’ve seen it all before -but this time the film is based around Indian mythology, and Drona is a superhero that doesn’t quite know his powers yet. He goes on a journey to discover he’s “the one” (Neo) and has to stop evil in the process.
The positives in the film:
– excellent creative directing and editing
– the musical score was not the usual Bollywood-type music
– exciting car chase
– exciting Sikh martial arts, choreographed by the dude who worked on Troy, The Dark Knight, Stardust, and the Golden Compass
– amazing and crazy set designs
– just two locations – Prague and a desert
– good acting
– a nice pace (critics have called it boring…I call it “not being filmed” like an MTV quick-cut Bollywood action film)
The Eros NTSC Region-free DVD has pretty decent video and audio quality. The anamorphic video is very good, considering Eros’ poor quality past, and the DD 5.1 Hindi is awesome. The English subtitles are pretty good as well – not too many mistakes. For extras, there is a bunch of “making of” film clips running around a half hour total, and some trailers.
I see this movie as the equivalent of Japan’s CASSHERN. I think that DRONA is the better film, but I see them as similar-type films, in which they were both overhyped, huge expensive epic flicks, but disappointing. I can understand why people would be disappointed, but I’m totally not disappointed by DRONA though. It’s a great fantasy B-movie. What do people expect from this genre? I thought that Stardust was disappointing too, but for some reasons critics loved that film. That’s the thing with fantasy films – you can’t fault them for not being Oscar material. If you like fantasy films of the 1980s, then I highly recommend DRONA.
Leave a comment
No comments yet.
couchpotatofarm 
Leave a Reply