Monthly Archives: March 2016

News Round-Up: Rishi Kapoor is a big ol’ grumpypants, Sonam Kapoor is making interesting career decisions, and Kangana and Hrithik Continue to Destroy Each Other

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Never make me direct Rishi Kapoor.  Oh my goodness!  He just gave an interview about Kapoor and Sons which does not make him sound very fun.  For someone with such a bright and happy onscreen persona, he really does not come across as light-hearted in interviews.  On the other hand, Sonam Kapoor, who comes across as sort of naive and simple onscreen has a really interesting business mind, which is makes me interested in her just announced next career move.

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A Peck on the Cheek/Kannathil Muthamittal: Maybe the Reason I Keep Watching Ratnam Movies is Because He is SO GOOD?

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I’m working through my list, and I just watched my second Ratnam movie of the week.  It’s not even on purpose!  I’m just looking at the films that are easily available/generally recommended.  This one in particular apparently went to a bunch of international film festivals?  The end result being, it is easily available from my library, and on a bunch of streaming websites.  I mean, it’s also a really really good movie, but the reason I picked it to watch next was based purely on convenience.

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Happy Aamir Day! (First post of many)

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HAPPY AAMIR DAY!!!  I will be putting up a “Why I love Aamir” post later today, and sometime tomorrow I will try to summarize all the many many Aamir Day news items.  But first, let us all take a moment to applaud how much better he looks at 51 than he did at 50.  And how much better he looks every single day of his life, than he does in the picture at the head of this post.

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Thalapathi: Yay! My Favorite Mahabharata Character Gets a Happy Ending! Also,My First Rajnikanth Film!

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Well, happy-ish.  He still doesn’t get Draupadi.  But at least he reunites with Kunti and Arjun!  Also, it’s a Mani Ratnam movie, so the directing is just all around excellent.  But more importantly, Rajnikanth!  It’s my first Rajnikanth movie (not counting Ra.ONE, because why would you?) and I have to say, he does impress!

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Thoovanathumbikal: I Learned So Much From This Movie!

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I watched Thoovanathumbikal!  Because it seemed to be the general consensus that it was the next best one on my list.  And it was really good, but also really made me think and concentrate to understand it.  Partly because I was struggling with a wacky subtitle situation.

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Bujjigadu: Yes, sometimes I just like watching a big fun Telugu movie

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So, I’ve been writing about and watching a lot of Malayalam films.  But those aren’t appropriate for every situation.  For instance, when I have a bunch of friends over who want to talk over/about a movie while we are watching it.  In that case, I basically limit it to movies I have already seen on my own with complete and total focus, and also movies that still work even if you are wandering in and out of the room and telling me about how your classes are going and asking if you can make popcorn.  So, last week we watched Magadheera (3rd time for me, 1st time with others in the room) and this week we watched Bijjugadu (4th time for me, 1st time with others in the room).

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News Round-Up: Salman Goes to Court (Again), Death in the Bhatt Family, and a new film in the Farah Khan family

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The time difference between India and America is so confusing.  Yesterday was Friday there, I think?  And there was no news.  And now it is Saturday and there is a lot?  I don’t know if that is because people are issuing statements/rumors on the weekend hoping they will be hidden, or if they put it out now hoping people will pay more attention since they have more leisure time.  In any case, my Friday news round-ups are always bigger than my Thursday ones.

(Also, I love the header image and have no explanation for it.  And I don’t know if I even want one)

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DDLJ Part 7: Driving, Walking, Finally Communicating

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In case you couldn’t tell from the previous 6 posts, I really love this movie.  But I don’t think I fully appreciated it (even after writing multiple papers referencing it, reading a couple books, and every article out there), until I started this minute by minute breakdown.  It really is just perfectly constructed.

(part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here, part 5 here, part 6 here, part 7 here, part 8 here, part 9 here, part 10 here, part 11 here, part 12 here, part 13 here, part 14 here, part 15 here, part 16 here)

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Urumi: I Finally Learned the Real Name so I Can Stop Calling it a “Fwippy Sword”!

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After seeing the news article yesterday about this movie maybe being re-released with Hindi dubbing, I got curious and tracked down a sort-of legal online source so I could stream it.  And I am kind of stunned that it hasn’t been dubbed already, and that I’d never heard about it before.

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My Movie To-Do List: Let Me Know If I Missed Something! And Click the Links to See What I Have Already Covered!

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So, I’ve been watching Hindi movies for over a decade, but there are still a few I haven’t gotten around to, and others that I’ve seen but still haven’t written about.  And I’ve barely started on Malayalam films.  And I’ve only seen a few Tamil (Jeans, Ok Kanmani, Kandukondain Kandukondain, etc.) and Telugu (Bijjugaadi, Bahubaali, Mirchi, etc.) as well.

You have all been super nice about giving me suggestions and requests, and rather than hunting through old comments and old emails from friends whenever I need to find something to watch, I am going to put them all in one place.  And if you see something missing from my list, or a miss-spelling, or anything that should be removed/changed, or an additional note I should add to the film, just note it in a comment and I will update the list!

UPDATE: I’m working through the list, the ones I’ve already written about now have links to the related post.

UPDATE 2: If it is a Hindi film from 2016 or later, just assume that I saw it opening night and wrote a regular review and summary of it, and search the full archives of the site to find those.  Too many of those to list here!

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DDLJ Part 6: Shahrukh has Finally Had Enough! (Spoilers ensue, no duh)

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Back before my Malayalam obsession kicked off, I was working through a full and detailed summary of every single SRKajol film.  After 5 parts, I had just made it about an hour into DDLJ (I really have a lot to say about this movie).  And then this week, I wasn’t able to watch a Malayalam film last night (church quilting group instead), and I wasn’t able to see Jai Gangaajal, so I can’t write a bunch of posts about that either.  So time to check in with DDLJ again!

(part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here, part 5 here, part 6 here, part 7 here, part 8 here, part 9 here, part 10 here, part 11 here, part 12 here, part 13 here, part 14 here, part 15 here, part 16 here)

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Classmates: Okay, I Can See Why It Is a Landmark!

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I watched Classmates!  After getting obsessed with it once I found out I couldn’t have it (this is also why I ended up ordering Traffic on DVD.  It’s a sickness!).  Well, that and after hearing about it in all sorts of places as being a landmark in the evolution of the Malayalam film industry.

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I Watched SOOOOOO Many American Movies This Weekend!

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The Oscar nominees and potential Oscar nominees are finally available through cheap streaming and rental services!  So I caught up on all the high quality American films that I missed when they were in theaters.  Now, I know a regular amount about the American industry (I did get a Masters in film at an American university, I kind of couldn’t avoid it), but it’s not my main field.  Plus, all of these movies were really really good, so if I was just looking at them in terms of how good they were, I wouldn’t have much to say besides “really really good”.  So I’m going to go ahead and just rank them in terms of how “Indian” they were.

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45 Years of Anand: My Many Random Reasons to Love this Movie

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Isn’t that funny!  I was just emailing with a friend about this film, and now Amitabh tweets that today is the 45th anniversary!  With apologies to my friend, I am going to go ahead and raid our email exchange for all the random things I thought about it, so I don’t have to re-think them all.

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Jai Gangaajal Non-Review, No Spoilers Because I didn’t See It, but lots of Box Office Data!

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Ending my several week streak of seeing the new movie every Friday, I DID NOT see Jai Gangaajal last night.  But it’s still worth talking about, because of the reasons I didn’t/was not able to see it.  And why maybe those reasons are affecting the box office in general.

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Drishyam: The Script Was the Best Part!

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I watched Drishyam!  Finally breaking free of my rom-com streak!  But I got Classmates delivered on DVD (finally!), so I’m going to watch that next and be back to rom-coms.  Although, I think I saw somewhere that Classmates has a mystery at the heart of it along with the romance?

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Urmila got Married! To Celebrate, Here are My Favorite Urmila Songs! And Also a Wedding Photo

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Urmila Matondkar got married!  I am so happy!  She sort of dropped off the radar over the past few years, so I was hoping it was because she was tired of the film industry and had a flourishing personal life, not that she was super depressed and desperate for roles.

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