That’s the “cool” website, right? That’s what moviemavengal told me, and she knows lots more about the internet than I do (she will also be a guest on a podcast at some point if we can figure out the whys and wherefores of it). Anyway, search for “dontcallitbollywood” and there I’ll be!
I just posted my second “car cast”, Dina and I having another big discussion of Badrinath Ki Dulhania. With a little bit of Humsafar at the end (she’s 5 episodes in).
https://soundcloud.com/dontcallitbollywood/badrinath-ki-dulhania
dontcallitbollywood 
Jhansi where Badri is from is in UP, whereas Vaidehi’s hometown Kota is in Rajasthan.
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That explains it! Thank you!
On Sat, Mar 18, 2017 at 11:47 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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You should check out this article that counters a lot of the criticisms against Badrinath Ki Dulhania.
http://www.thehindu.com/thread/arts-culture-society/understand-a-films-language-before-pointing-a-finger/article17475456.ece
These car-casts are quite fun by the way 🙂
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That is a great article! Wow! It was exactly what I was trying to say, but said better. You can’t just pick and choose your scenes when you are criticizing a film. Even more, you can’t just give the basic content of a scene. Something as simple as one inserted reaction shot or close-up can change the entire meaning of it. You have to look at everything.
You even have to look at the rest of the artist’s work. Like he says, this is a feminist series. And more than that, Alia Bhatt has always chosen strong female characters, Karan has always produced strong female characters, you need to have a little faith in them and trust that the message is deeper than what it appears on the surface.
And I’m glad you like the carcasts!
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Great article, thank you. I did walk out of the film realising I have little understanding of commercial success in India.That is probably true for American films as well. I just see many more “mainstream”Hindi films than I do mainstream Hollywood. All that being said, I had trouble understanding why this film was such a hit. I’m guessing because messages I consider obvious are new. But I still don’t get why even the critics didn’t love Dear Zindagi or Fan more than they did. All of which, by the way makes reading (and now listening to {YAY}) Don’t Call it Bollywood even more important and fun!!!
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So glad you like my reviews and, now, podcasts! I totally get the commercial success of Badrinath, it’s the first big happy family friendly rom-com that we’ve had in a while, and Alia and Varun are big enough names that they can help promote it.
I just don’t get why the critics are giving it such a hard time! It’s a fun rom-com with a bit of a social message, how hard is that to understand?
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Yes exactly! It’s such a clean movie for a rom-com in the sense that there aren’t any kissing scenes or sex scenes. Plus the story is pretty straightforward. In my family friends group, there is a group of 10-15 aunties that usually go to the big hindi movies. They all didn’t like the last two Hindi movies they saw (not including Dangal) which were Baar Baar Dekho and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. BBD was apparently too confusing and ADHM was too angsty. They didn’t even want to go see Befikre based on the trailer. So they ended up liking Badrinath Ki Dulhania partly because it’s not really too complicated.
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Thank goodness there aren’t any kissing or sex scenes! It feels like the Hindi industry has started substituting kissing and sex scenes for natural chemistry between couples. Befikre was real bad that way. It wasn’t until almost the end that I started to believe that Ranveer and Vaani even liked each other.
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The thing about Befikre is how they seemed to use all the kisses to promote the movie. Ranveer was saying that there were a lot of kisses in the movie because it’s a normal thing and they wanted to make it seem normal, but on the other hand they were highlighting the kissing in every single poster. It was like the film had no other substance to show off to the audience.
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Yes, absolutely. I do think the movie itself was a little more than that. But not much more. And stuff like “a film in which the hero and heroine are unapologetically selfish and isn’t that interesting?” isn’t very easy to convey in a 2 minute trailer!
Really, if the film didn’t have enough funny lines and pretty scenes to be able to build a trailer around something besides kissing, then it isn’t a very good film. You don’t necessarily have to have an overriding theme that can be easily digested in 2 minutes, but you do have to have something fun in the movie that can be shown besides just kissing!
And anyway, they did the exact same promotional tactic for Neal ‘n Nikki, and that flopped, so I don’t know why they tried it again.
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*The thing about Befikre that bothered me
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I agree with you about Ranveer and Vaani Kapoor not having any natural chemistry in Befikre. I was totally sold on the idea that Vaani should marry her fiance because he seemed perfect for her. In Humpty Sharma on the other hand even though Angad was perfect, the chemistry between Varun and Alia made the audience to root for them as a pair.
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Yes, exactly! the had to make the fiance in Befikre suddenly evil at the end, which is so lame, since otherwise we wouldn’t have a good reason for them not to be together.
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The critics are starting to infuriate me. How could Anupama LIKE Befikre more than Fan or Dear Zindagi??? Of course she endorses Kangana no matter what she does or says….
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I was just describing the complaints about BKD to a friend as critics putting on their “Western sensibilities” hats and forgetting to put on their “Indian sensibilities” hats. Obviously people are just people everywhere, but while Befikre would be exciting and ground breaking and fun as a Hollywood film, it’s not really anything new for India. whereas Fan and Dear Zindagi might be a little less groundbreaking in Hollywood, but this isn’t hollywood! Give them credit for what they did as Indian films, and as statements about Indian society!
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This is perfect! I listened to it in my car today while I running errands and I felt like I was sitting in the car with you and Dina!
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I’m glad it worked for you!
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One more comment on the podcast: the small bit on Humsafar (something I would love to discuss much more) the comment about Urdu. I found the same. I found Urdu much easier to understand and felt at the end of the 26 episodes I really had a better grasp of the language. Its partially the pronunciation, partially something else which I can’t define. The fact as you said they repeat everything endlessly might help but its more than that. I watched all of Zindagi Gulzar Hai and am in the middle of Sadque Tumare. The male lead is NO Faward but Mahira is as usual luminous. The story line is WILD and beyond anything we can really relate to. It makes the things you call regressive in Indian cinema look positively revolutionary! If anyone bravely watches it let me know.
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I started Sadque Tumare but got turned off my Mahira’s costuming and wig which I believe I described in another comment as “bad porn worthy”. I am sticking by that!
Have you watched much classic Salim-Javed films? That was the closest parallel I could see to the way I felt about the Urdu in Humsafar. Javed Sahib’s dialogue is just lovely, but also really really simple.
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