Sunday 4/21: Mubarakan
Upcoming Movie Reviews! In Case You Want To Watch the Film in Advance
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Hindi Film 101: Mahabharat and Ramayan Part 7, Abhimanyu and Gandhari, the Young and the Old
I’m back! I kept thinking I had already finished this, and I think that is just because I already wrote my Karna post, and like Duryodhana, I felt like once he died, why go on?
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Discussion Post: Build the Perfect Movie! What Ingredients Would You Include?
This question comes to you from my sister’s subconscious. She had a weird dream which involved a blog discussion of this question. She said it was a really good discussion (in her dream). Let’s see if we can make a (really really boring) dream come true!
Continue readingAlbie Dog was BAD
Well, that was scary! I lost Albie Dog for about 5 minutes. He didn’t even know he was lost, just thought he was going on a lovely adventure and then I popped up again and took him home.
Continue readingShahrukh Critic’s Choice Award, Full Speech With Transcript
Shahrukh’s main point was that critics should go the extra mile and have respect for their profession, don’t just sink into popularity contests and click competition. And my favorite Hindi film critic working today, Raja Sen, proved why he is my favorite by shooting the entire speech. Other people there caught a minute here and there and posted the excerpt. Raja Sen paid attention and treated Shahrukh’s message respectfully and got the whole thing.
Continue readingNews Round-Up: Kangana Fails to Understand Mental Illness, Kat Lands a Big Role, Varun and Sara in a Comedy
Kangana through Rangoli just said something so shocking I have to point it out and correct it. And on the other hand, two bits of casting that make me happy, Kat and Sara both get good parts.
Continue readingBharat Trailer! Salman May Have Actually Made a Good Movie
Wow. I actually got a little teary-eyed at a Salman Khan movie trailer. I’m stunned!
Continue readingMonday Morning Questions: What Do You Want to Ask Me the Day After Easter?
Happy Monday! I had a very productive and tiring weekend and I’m kind of looking forward to work as a nice break. And then tonight the break is over and I have to go to quilting. We’re making sheep with numbers (like “counting sheep”) for an accountant’s baby.
Continue readingSilly Sunday Bonus: Film Noir Remakes! (Red Chillies, check this out!)
I’ve hit a rich stream of B-grade film noirs on TV. The B-grades are sometimes better than the A-grade ones, you could get grittier and darker and weirder when no one was looking. Anyway, there are two that I think would work really well as dark weird gritty Indian remakes. (note for my sister: Don’t Read This! We are watching them together when I visit)
Continue readingSunday ReRun: Mubarakan! A Big Fun Stupid Movie With a Mostly Great Cast
Are you all mad at me for making you watch this dumb dumb movie? Or are you grateful that I challenged you to watch a super entertaining movie? Or did you all ignore this film and no one will read the review?
Continue readingSilly Sunday: Kalank Without Alia, and Other Script Fixes
If everyone in Hindi film just sent all their scripts to me for a final pass before filming began, everything would be so much better. I can fix it all! Just give me a chance before you spend crores and crores of budget on a movie with an ending that MAKES NO SENSE. Oh and Kalank spoilers, obviously, only read if you have seen the movie. And if you have seen the movie, please give me your opinion and suggestions for other better endings!
Continue readingAlbie Dog Started School!
Read on if you want dog pictures. Skip if you don’t. There’ll be plenty of “real” posts to keep you busy over the next few days.
Continue readingEzra Review ReRun! A Jewish Horror Movie For Passover!
If this is the only Jewish-Indian movie I have seen (not counting Nadira and Aditya Roy Kapoor movies), I think it is a pretty good one! The Jewish community is treated as a vital part of Indian history, and it ends with a bunch of Jewish tourists saving the world (I have no doubt the extras actually were Jewish tourists hired for the day). I asked my Jewish friend if she knew how to save the world, she didn’t, but then she never had a bat mitzvah, we figured that is when you probably learn it.
Continue readingSaturday Small Talk: I’m Having a Movie Night Again! Help Me Pick a Film
Happy Saturday! No new movie last night, instead I stayed up late finishing my Joseph review (such a pain to find that movie, but worth the hunt and all the internet issues). And today I have a surprisingly busy day.
Continue readingFriday Malayalam: Joseph, A Story of a Life and How it Ends
Despite einthusan’s best efforts to foil me, I did in fact manage to start and finish this movie. And it only took me 5 days of trying! To be fair to einthusan, it is also the fault of my consistently weak internet. It can handle the fancy well-designed streaming sites, but einthusan puts it under a bit of a strain.
Continue readingTGIF: Stars as Easter Eggs in the Tall Grass
I wanted to do stars dressed as bunny rabbits, but there are shockingly few images of that. So instead I will settle for stars dropped around the grass like little Easter eggs. Can you find them all????
Continue readingShahrukh Interview! The Medium is the Message
Continue to love SRK’s new PR team. I wonder if he hired Reshma Shetty, finally? Now that Salman has let her go (stupid stupid move, Salman), she must have more free time. The most important part of this interview is that it was in The Hollywood Reporter, Shahrukh is being treated seriously as a business person and studio owner because THR does not care about simple actors and is not written for fans.
Continue readingHindi Film 101/Discussion Post: Incest/Not Incest in South Asian Culture
No real reason for this post, except that I suddenly remembered I had purchased a year long access to JSTOR (very expensive, thank you donors here for funding it!) and could probably find a useful ethnographic paper on this topic. Which I am guessing will interest you all, because who doesn’t find incest interesting? Oh, and I also know there are all kinds of regional variations I am missing, I really hope you add on in the comments. This is more of a discussion post than a 101 post.
Continue readingSOTY2 First Song! Tiger Can Jump Quite High
Karan loves his remixes, doesn’t he? Well, he is a smart cookie, he pays attention to what works and what doesn’t, and the remixes seem to work.
Continue readingKalank Review (SPOILERS): First Love is True Love is Only Love
What an interesting love quadrangle! I really really like the central set-up concept for this film, and kind of wish it could have been moved out of pre-partition India and into a regular rom-com setting. And really, if you like romances, you should watch it. Don’t spoil yourself! Read my no spoiler review instead.
Continue readingKalank Review (No Spoilers): The Plot is Not What You Think It Is
Well, that was fun!!!! If it had released 20 years ago, it would be a solid hit and forgotten in a month, and then it would pop-up on TV occasionally and people would say “oh yeah, that movie!” I don’t know how it will do in today’s world at the box office, but at least critically I want to treat it as the nice unambitious pleasant fairy tale it aspires to be, not as the Great Noble Brilliant Movie that it wasn’t even trying to be. I suspect other reviewers might ding it for not being the Great Noble Brilliant Movie they thing it should be without realizing it never wanted to be that.
Continue readingTwitter Tidbits: SOTY2, Bharat, and a Jewish Horror Movie! For Passover!
Oh, I am TOTALLY reposting my Ezra review for Passover!!!!!!! I just decided, it is the perfect way to celebrate. Plus, now there is going to be a remake? So I guess it makes sense.
Continue readingWednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to This Week?
Happy Kalank Day! I get to leave work at 5, take Albie Dog to the dog park and let him run for half an hour, then go home and give him dinner and me dinner, then drive over and pick up my friend and KALANK. So exciting! This day cannot end fast enough.
Continue readingDo You Think I Am a Good Writer? Spread the Word!
And this is your monthly “tell people about this blog” reminder! I get to see referral data, so I can tell you that my referral’s are very very low. Most of my traffic comes from people randomly googling stuff like “Badla ending explained”. And that’s fine, but it also kind of makes me feel bad that none of my little reader-friends are going out in the world and telling other people about me. Like I am your weird friend who is okay to hang out with at her house, but at school you pretend you don’t know me.
Continue readingUpcoming Movie News: Bharat, India’s Most Wanted, Saand Ki Aankh, I Am Disappointed in 2 of Them
Little flurry of first looks and trailers today, and instead of getting me excited for the upcoming movies, they ended up dampening my enthusiasm. Except, surprisingly, for Bharat!
Continue readingAnother Silly Remake! Light in the Piazza, with Madhuri and Shahrukh as Delicately Flirting In-Laws
I like to do at least one long post a day, and with the Kalank release messing up my review schedule, and the Kalank news domination messing up anything interesting to talk about there, I’m retreating to fanfic for my long form writing. It’s that, or just a lot of Albie Dog photos. Or not writing anything, but then the words build up in my head and make me sick, so that’s no good. I need my 4,000 words a day purge!
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