What well made movie! With a lot of well made thoughts at the heart of it. The biggest of which is, what makes a moral man? Or, to put it in Indian philosophical terms, a dharmic man? (No Spoiler review here, if you are planning to see it and don’t want to be spoiled)
Well, now Shahrukh is just super super mad at me. Could he tell I’ve been cheating on him with Nivin Pauly and Madhavan? Anyway, he not only posted this without subtitles, he posted it at the exact moment I was leaving for work, meaning I couldn’t watch it until just now. If he had posted it as little as 15 minutes earlier, I would have been all set! See, clearly jealous and hurt. I’m sorry Shahrukh! I will never stray again!
I did it! I went to see Vikram Vedha! On a weeknight when I had to go to work the next day. I have had very very little sleep this week. Oh well, I’ll sleep in January when the new releases stop. Oh, and that’s why this review is going up on Wednesday instead of Tuesday, because I got home around midnight and did not feel like staying up for another 2 hours writing a review. And this was a gooooooooooooood movie, it deserves a 2 hour review, not a twenty minute one (Munna Michael, dashed that thing off in no time). And also two reviews, I realized halfway through this one that there are a fair number of you who won’t be able to see the film and will want spoilers, and another half who are planning to see the film but want my take in advance. So this is NO SPOILERS, but SPOILERS will be going up later today.
I have a question for you! Suggested on Monday by Niki. And of course you can also just talk about what you have been reading/watching/thinking this week.
Why is there no news today? Why isn’t SRK releasing the newest Jab Harry Met Sejal song trailer? Why can’t I find anything for my quick afternoon post? All of these reasons and more are making me grumpy and depressed, so I am going to cheer myself up by looking at all the songs that make me smile. And also distract myself by playing my own personal version of Antakshari, connecting song by song through actor instead of word (don’t speak Hindi) or sound (can’t appreciate music). Feel free to suggest alternative happy songs that I could have gone with!
Does that headline work? I debated it for quite a bit. I think it does. Anyway, Munna Michael isn’t even really the big news this week, because we all kind of knew it would flop, that’s not exactly “news”. No, the news is over in the Punjabi world! And a little bit Tamil and Telugu.
Crazy at work today, so no time to write anything substantive. But why not a fanvid post? Because it’s been a while.
Last night I went the North American Film Awards, which are essentially the Malayalam IIFAs. So, the IIFAs without any backup dancers or rehearsals, but with a lot of really detailed eloquent speeches and as much applause for the directors as their was for the stars. And in a theater which is about the same size as a high school auditorium, and wasn’t even sold out. But that’s not important, what’s important is I got stuck trying to get out of the parking lot because I was blocked in by NIVIN PAULY!!!!
Happy Monday! This is the weekly time when you distract me and keep me awake while I try to suffer through Monday morning at work.
I don’t really know how I did it or if I can replicate it, but in some magical fashion I am now listed as an iTunes podcast. Phew! However, there is a monthly time limitation to how many minutes I can load, so the newest one is there, and one of the older ones, but the rest of the podcast library will be added slowly as I gain more minutes month by month.
(the new economy is so stupid, I have to pay every month in order to have the privilege of providing free content to iTunes. But I am going to resist paying even more in order to have the privilege of providing even more free content! Also, why a lowercase “i” and a capital “T”? The new world makes no sense!)
Anyway, itunes link!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dont-call-it-bollywood/id1262714482
This is such an indulgence of myself, even more than my Golden Girls post. But I have now finished my dozenth rewatch of the entire run, and I can’t resist. Partly because I want to add songs and stuff, but also because I really really want to tighten up that plot. And make Phoebe end up with the guy she is meant to end up with, not Paul Rudd.
Today he is 44, so I get to put up all my favorite songs and reasons I love him! 25 in all, for the age he was when he wrote his first hit song. (this is an updated and reposted post from last year)
Well, that was a movie that happened! So glad I saw it with someone else, by the time we were 5 minutes in, my friend Dina and I were already getting the giggles just by exchanging glances. But it was kind of neat how it made me think back and really appreciate other better versions. (no spoiler review here) (oh, and I just remembered, I did a post already on the history of dance on film in general, you should read that here)
Well, that was a super fun movie to watch! But not because it was a good movie. Oh my goodness was it bad! To the point where we got the giggles about it.
Well, that was an incredibly fun evening! Dina and I laughed and laughed all the way through the movie, and then laughed and laughed all the way home. And if you want to hear why, you can listen in!
This is barely worthy of a post, but I found it interesting, and thought I might as well pass it along. So if you are desperately eager for an interesting thought about media integration and stuff, here it is!
One thing that really struck me about the new JHMS trailer released today was how delightfully familiar SRK looked in that leather jacket. I could do a whole other post on the psychological meaning of leather jackets (Western, motorcycles, slightly forbidden, impractical (SO HOT IN INDIA), helps hide narrow shoulder and expanding waist issues), but we don’t need that, we just know that men in leather jackets=bad boy sexy.
Mad at me, but still willing to help, having sensed that my blog views were way way down over the past few days, he provided me with content. See, even when we are in a fight, he still cares.
I did watch a real classic for this week! Really really! I watched Andaz and everything! But I just didn’t feel like writing about it, maybe yesterday’s epic “how to make a film” post exhausted me, maybe something else. Anyway, that review of a “good” movie will be going up at a some point, probably next Friday. But in the meantime you will have to make do with this review of a not-so-good movie that my friends badgered me into watching with them on Tuesday night.
Sorry, all the “good” Bahubali topics are over, we are down to just the fanfic that is really more of an indulgence for myself than anything else. But you can always go back and read and comment on the good posts! They are all indexed here.
I put up a random epic post last Monday going over every step of the filmmaking process. But it seems like as a follow up I should really zero in on what happens during a “schedule”, when you actually start filming. Oh, and my Hindi Film 101 schedule is now totally blown, you may not get anything at all next week, because this exhausted me. But it was so interesting I just couldn’t resist!
Yes yes, I haven’t forgotten DDLJ! I skipped last week because of the Net Neutrality protest, but now I am back! (full index of DDLJ posts here)
Datablue pointed out in comments on yesterday’s trailer post that I ignored Arjun Rampal’s Daddy, once again. And I made a mental note that the next time I had an excuse for a trailer post, I would talk about it. And then I open up twitter, and poof! Trailer! So now I get to combine two very very different films in one post.
Happy Wednesday! Halfway through the week! I was up way way too late last night, but I am proud to say I have now almost finished my entire Friends rewatch. So you get to entertain me and keep me awake today on our Wednesday watching post!
Maybe it’s because I saw 3 movies in one weekend, but I came out of this one (the last one) feeling really grumpy about the ending. Like, really really grumpy. Which is oddly kind of a testament to how invested it managed to make me in the characters (unlike Jagga Jasoos where I didn’t care how it ended, so long as I was freed from the torture)
