FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Borserie
it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.
StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
silvan-desouza
After DCH,LEELA yet again explored the love of 2 people from different age groups, surprisingly both films had Dimple Kapadia who has a love track with a younger guy. The film narrates a story of immigrants, who settle in US They show 2 Indian families, One being Deepti Naval who stays with her son after divorcing her husband Gulshan Grover who loves someone else. Dimple and Vinod Khanna have an open marriage, Dimple goes to US as a teacher and slowly a young boy falls for her. The film is treated with maturity, shunning melodrama and is well handledDirection is good Music is decent, Jagjit Singh's voice gives the songs an extra touch.Vinod Khanna has a smaller role and he is excellent, Dimple Kapadia is superb in her role, Amol Mhatre as Chris/Krishna is superb, Gulshan grover is good, Deepti Naval is good too rest are okay
Pro Jury
*** This comment contains spoilers. *** LEELA (2002) is a modern day (India) Indian-in-America movie. LEELA attempts to have a realistic plot played out in a realistic manner. The film seeks to have common real-life dialog. The film tries to have the highest level of competent visual direction. LEELA tries to be great in every way. Sadly, this good intentioned movie pretty much fails across the board.As a modern drama, LEELA is not horrible, but it is also no where near great either. LEELA rates above a student film, but below a Hollywood level production. LEELA is missing dry, sober, real-life dialog at moments when it needs it most. Maybe the script is fine at these moments, but the delivery is just not realistic. No raw emotion.The condom-walk-into-the-room segment was the weakest scene among many. There were no great slice of life scenes, in my opinion.
Jugu Abraham
I do not know anything about Somnath Sen, the director of the film. If this is indeed his first film, I congratulate him for pulling together a good cast and some fine production quality that lifts up the film.However, the script is nothing more than a reworking of "40 carats" and/or "Summer of '42". If the film is aimed at the Indian or South Asian community in Asia, the film will draw some attention. This is because the line up of the commercially accepted Indian movie actors--Dimple Kapadia, Deepti Naval and Vinod Khanna--will pull the crowds out of curiosity to see them act in an English movie. Compared to an average Indian film, the camerawork, editing, and music of this US film are all used with considerable finesse. Sen's work stands out for these factors not the screenplay, the performances or the story. Ms Kapadia and Ms Naval prop up the film as they are both beautiful and evidently quite talented. I wish they could act in films of some top-notch European director!
CAMKG
There have been quite a few films in the last couple of years that have tried to breakup certain stereotypes ad cliches: 1) The opinion South Asian immigrants have about whites. 2) The opinion South Asian immigrants have about their peers who are born and brought up in the west. 3) The opinion born-in-the-west desis have about South Asian immigrants.Films like American Desi, Bend It Like Beckham, Bollywood/Hollywood have all succeeded to different degrees in breaking these stereotypes and striking a new balance in terms of awareness and acceptance. Leela is another film with similar aspirations and succeeds almost completely in what it sets out to achieve.Leela is a dramatic film that not only attempts to further demolish these stereotypes but it also gives its characters unique identities, identitites that go through a process of change and understanding as the film unfolds.There are a lot of things that impress you about Leela. Starting with the screenplay. It has been written very tightly as in never to slacken the pace of the film or loosen the grip it has on its characters. The dialogue is very intelligent and each character is developed very uniquely. The plot is essentially about a student-teacher affair and how it affects the two, but their subplots and their relationships with other people in their lives give the characters a lot of depth and empathy.Leela has been blessed with a good soundtrack from Jagjit Singh and Gulzar and also the production values and technical credits have done extremely well. The ensemble cast of Leela which includes Dimple Kapadia, Amol Mhatre, Deepti Naval, Vinod Khanna and Gulshan Grover among others do a terrific job with performances.Somnath Sen is a newcomer I believe (at least I am not aware of any previous work by him). But as a writer and director he does an extremely mature and comprehensive job of dealing with the merging sensibilities of two worlds. At the end of the day, Leela is good storytelling and a film about interesting people. People like you and me. 9/10.
