Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Makeup(2002)

I've had an unhealthy fascination with Laila Patel--now Sanaa/Saana Khan--since I first spotted her in Woh. I couldn't stop staring at her slightly cockeyed, heavily pancaked visage. I wondered what happened to her since Woh was DOA at the box office. One day, I was browsing the web and came across an article that mentioned her role in the Kannada film, Makeup, opposite Jaggesh. The VCD was listed on anytamil, but at the time, I had neither a computer or a DVD player that recognized VCDs, so I couldn't order it. Two years later, I now have all three.

Makeup is the desi version of Big Momma's House. I thought it was decent. Not great, but not a total waste of $9.93 either. I was already familar with the plot, and I knew better than to have high expectations, so I wasn't disappointed. As I blogged elsewhere, "The leading man, Jaggesh, isn’t exactly a heartthrob, but I managed to tolerate him. And I found Laila Patel appealing, man-in-drag appearance and all. I even thought she looked pretty in a few shots."

Makeup seems to be Laila's--now Saana's-- first and last foray down south. I don't know if she received additional offers from south producers, but if she didn't, I'm not suprised. She doesn't have the looks to be a mainstream heroine. She's more C-grade skin flick material.

Aside: Speaking of which, her upcoming Hindi film, Wafaa, is with the badly aged Rajesh Khanna. I watched the trailer and I must confess, the bedroom scene made my stomach turn. Not just because of the obvious age difference, but also because Rajesh looked like he didn't know what the hell he was doing.

As for Laila/Saana, I thought she looked nice in traditional clothes. At some angles, she resembled fellow Pak actress Meera(Nazar, Kasak). But while I was able to somewhat handle her May-December pairing in Makeup, I know I won't be able to sit through however many scenes there are of her canoodling with Rajesh, so Wafaa is a no-go.

Back to Makeup: I forgot to mention, the songs are nice. "Dimple Dimple" is my favorite, followed by "Jaka Jaka Janaka".

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