Yes, even sexier than Hrithik flirting with Amisha Patel in Aap Mujhe Aache Lagne Lage. And I don’t usually find Garba’s sexy!
In my college, the biggest social event of the year was the Dilwale Garba hosted by the Indian Students’ Association. Needless to say, this was a school with a very very large desi population, in an area with a very large Gujurati population. Anyway, I never went (because I don’t like big social event things, where you have to dress up and interact with strangers, I like sitting with close friends in a dark movie theater) and neither did my two closest friends. Not because of the “big social event” thing, but because their families were from Hyderabad and Delhi original, and their reaction to the idea of a Garba was to kind of role their eyes and refer to it as a dance for children.
Now, maybe I just happened to know the most judgmental Hyderabadi and Delhi-ite in the world, but unfortunately their perspective has kind of flavored the way I look at Garbas ever since. It does seem very square dance like, right? You just move in a circle and hit each other’s sticks, it’s not exactly complicated or sexy or anything that would indicate “adult”.
Until I saw this! Oh, and for the people who are still getting into films, this whole song sequence is like “Gujurat Gujurat Gujurat”. Gujurat has a big thing with kite festivals, and the Garba dance with sticks is a big thing for them too. And I assume there is some meaning to the glass umbrella thing on Shahrukh’s motorcycle as well.
Kind of feels like they smooshed all the regional flavor into one song. “Zaalima” (which is still my favorite sounding song) was all miscellaneous Dubai sand dunes, and “Laila” was all dance bar. And dance bars are actually specific to Bombay in my understanding, so it is kind of regional, but the wrong region. And now we have the first song to be all GUJURAT GUJURAT GUJURAT.
One final note, I saw something (maybe on SRK’s twitter?) where it was claimed that this was Shahrukh’s first Garba dance. No! That is not correct! Everyone else may have forgotten it, but way way way at the end of “Mahi Ve”, there is a little touch of Garba, a nod toward’s the Gujurati side of the wedding celebration after the big Bhangra number for the Punjabi side.
dontcallitbollywood 
I’d blocked it because he collapses. I kept thinking (the first time I saw it) “How can a person with a heart condition dance like that?” Of course that was answered. In the current Raees song my favorite moment is the wink. I think that shows that her character can hold her own.
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I don’t know if it is because I finished Humsafar or what, but to me their interactions felt like her character starting shy and getting encouraged to be forward because that’s what he likes. Maybe I am reading way too much into it, but I think for sure we can say that Shahrukh’s character enjoys it when Mahira is forward, right?
On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 11:24 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I love this song- the music, the dancing, the visuals, Mahira and Shahrukh’s chemistry together. I have completely, and unabashedly, fallen for Mahira Khan. My goodness, that wink is something else. For me, it’s the sexiest moment in a song since Aishwarya’s little eyebrow raise in Bulleya!
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I think I still like Zaalima better just for how it sounds (I’ve been listening to it on a loop). But the visuals for this one are really wonderful! And not just the character interaction part of it, the over head shots and the colors and all of it is just gorgeous.
On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 12:36 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I definitely agree with Zaalima being the stronger song. The visuals for this one are truly stunning. Everything about it is fun, joyous and beautiful. It will be incredible to see on the big screen!
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I am getting so excited just for the visuals for this movie! Knowing the director’s past work was a little more artsy, and knowing that the plot was supposed to be “gritty”, I was expecting to be more excited for the narrative and the characters and the acting than just the pure beauty of it. But now that I have seen some of the songs and the trailer, I’m getting pumped for the visuals way more than I expected to be!
On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 1:33 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Thank you. Are you sure this is the “sexiest” Garba ever? Coz “Lahu mu lag gaya” was much much more sexy!!! Also, why is it that you always seem to fangirl around SRK, and can never say anything negative about him or anything he does? He was a good actor in the past but now I guess he just overly hams. In fact, Salman and Aamir have so much more box office pull than he does, and are getting better with their acting chops too. 🙂
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I forgot about “Lahu Mu Lag Gaya”! But now that you have reminded me, I still like this song better. Sanjay Leela Bhansali always seems too polished to me, like he is one step removed from the real emotions, just admiring how they look. Also, Ranveer Singh is too boyish for my taste. But that’s just me, feel free to disagree!
As to why I fangirl around SRK, I guess it’s because I am an SRK fangirl! I try to make sure people know that and are aware of my prejudice. I do like the other Khans as well, but SRK has a special place in my heart, and so I always pay more attention and get more excited about news related to him.
On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 12:19 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Margaret, I guess it’s because I’m confused with the tone of this blog. Although I really really enjoy reading through your blog posts (I am hooked to the DDLJ summary, so please please give us the whole thing faaast 🙂 ), it feels like there is constructive criticism and precise (in a neutral tone) dissection of everything non-SRK, whereas with him in it, it’s more like “aaahhhhh- luv you shah rukh” kinda homage. Also, me being an Indian who’s grown up watching Bollywood and SRK, I possibly don’t have this shah rukh fixation. And neither do many other indians I know. We love him, but expect more in terms of acting and choosing movie scripts. Happy New Year, Dilwale, also Fan, etc. are duds and he’s in danger of being stripped of his super stardom! Or perhaps we’re not the ideal audience for this blog? 😦 Either way, I love your in depth analysis of everything non-SRK with, of course, the exception of DDLJ.
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You are such a perceptive reader! You hit the nail on the head, it is a difference in audience. Not that I don’t want the audience of people like you, but that I have multiple overlapping audiences. I can see which commentators comment on which categories of posts and what kind of views I am getting on certain things and so on and do a little minimal tracking. There is a faithful audience of Shahrukh fangirls, so I make sure to write for them. But there is also a large audience of people who appreciate my detailed film analysis. And then there are people who only read my Tamil reviews or Malayalam reviews or Telugu, and other people who just want to see the SPOILERS I put up, or box office reports and so on and so on. I like it when people read my writing, so I try to put up a variety of posts to keep all of these people happy.
For the “lighter” stories like this one, I don’t have as much to contribute. If there is anything at all to discuss or background to provide-for instance for the “Laila” trailer, I was able to provide a history of the song, so that post was less “fangirl”-I will. But if there is really nothing interesting to say, but I am getting comments asking what I thought about a new trailer or know that my readers would want to know about the new trailer, then I will just throw something up and let it slide more towards the fangirl audience.
I am sincerely a Shahrukh fan, but I could write posts in the same tone about other stars. I actually have done that in the past, and I just don’t get the same kind of view counts that I do when I let my SRK fangirl flag fly. For whatever reason, in the English language corners of the internet, Shahrukh sells like no one else does. So I let myself go a little when I write about him, and my readers go along with me. Just assume if it is a “light” Shahrukh post like this, it’s written by and for fangirls. But I’ll get serious again when I talk about the actual film. I’ll even get critical. Dilwale, for instance, even though I loved all the Shahrukh parts, I think I described it as something like “a decent 90 minute movie with a bad 60 minute movie shoved into it”. Fan I think was legitimately brilliant, but clearly not commercial. Happy New Year, thank goodness I wasn’t blogging when it came out so I didn’t have to deal with it! However, I do have high hopes for Raees, at least in terms of quality if not commercial viability.
On Sat, Jan 14, 2017 at 9:42 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Thank you for taking my comments on your stride. I really truly enjoy reading your blog, majorly because I have NEVER seen a Bollywood movie getting deconstructed and analyzed before. And I love it. Trust me, I’ve watched DDLJ nearly about 25 times (if not more) and yet your summary made me watch it again and I somehow felt like I finally truly got the essence of what the movie was, only after I read your blog. You are phenomenal in your analysis. I have a friend who’s studying editing at the FTII in India, I’ve recommended your blog and he’s hooked!!! On a side note, would you ever be willing to take a screenplay writing job for Bollywood? 🙂
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Thank you so much for the compliments! Especially recommending the blog to others, that is the best compliment you could give me.
I don’t know if I would like to write a screenplay. I certainly have plenty if ideas that I’ve come up with for fun, but I don’t know if I’d want to actually put them to the test and see if they would work in the “real world”.
On Sun, Jan 15, 2017 at 1:07 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I paused at that wink and just stared. She’s utterly mesmerizing in that scene. Her makeup, jewelry, the entire look of her. I’m sure many will replicate that getup for their own big day. Also, there’s such a crackling chemistry between these two; can’t wait to see their “jodi”!
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I love them together! It seems like something a little different from what we’ve seen between Shahrukh and a heroine before. He’s so meditative and serious, but also a little cocky, and she’s so sparkling, but also kind of oddly demure?
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