That headline isn’t hyperbole. There’s one sequence in this film, way at the end, which should be shown in film classes right along Welles and Scorsese from now on. It’s an amazing technical achievement, but you don’t even notice that, because it is such an amazing artistic achievement at the same time. (Very very long and detailed SPOILER review here)
This was before Indra, right? So the similarities aren’t a coincidence? Or else they are both picking up on an older traditional I don’t know about. There are some Mahabharata touches to it, but the jealous overlooked woman and the vengeance in the second generation, that is oddly specific.
Happy World Poetry Day! India of course has an amazing poetic tradition in every language. And for the past 70 years, a lot of the best poets have ended up working in film lyrics. And also some of the very worst poets. I’m going to do a quick post giving you a run down of worst to best. Even if you can’t understand the language, you should be able to tell just from the sound of it that some of these are very very good. And some are not.
By popular demand, and my own inclination, I am going to do a post on Osho! Otherwise known as “that weird religion that made Vinod Khanna run off to Oregon in the middle of his career.” Just to skip to the end for a second, it’s calmed down in the decades since and is now a kind of normal sort of meditation center. But it was very very odd for a while in the middle!
You know the problem with pioneer films? They are so groundbreaking and wonderful when they come out, but then after they have cut out the new path, the films that come after it are so much more luxurious and elaborate, it makes that poor struggling scratched and damaged first film look like nothing in comparison.
Shashi a couple days ago, Rani today (in India, another 10 hours in America)! Are they related? I’m sure they are, probably through some obscure marriage somewhere. If nothing else they are related through Ranbir and Ayan’s friendship, which is as close as a marriage. Anyway, Happy Birthday Rani! I couldn’t manage a full 79 reasons to love Shashi, but I can come up with a whole 39 reasons to love you!
Happy Monday! Time for questions! About anything at all. Including “Hey, how’s your day going? Mine’s terrible, I hate Mondays!”
You know the concept of “narrowcasting”? Where you target your content to a tiny tiny audience? Welcome to a very narrow cast version of Sunday posts! Just for those of you who are both Indian film megafans, and Golden Girls fans! (also, unrelated, don’t forget to vote for the next tweetalong/watchalong movie on Friday’s post!)
Is that a controversial statement? Not the birthday part (can’t really deny that), but the best SRK-Rani part? I don’t think so, they’ve worked together a lot, but they haven’t actually been the main “jodi” in most of their films. It’s really just this one and Paheli and Kabhi Alveda Na Kehna. So, okay, you can fight with me over whether this is a better movie or Paheli or Kabhi Alveda Na Kehna.
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!
79 years old today! Which in my family is super young (Grandpa’s turning 96 this year), but for the Kapoors is pretty old! A reward for clean living, and general niceness. Shashi is clearly the “best” Kapoor. And so he gets a full dozen reasons I love him.
I’ll be putting up my regular TGIF post later today, Aamir themed of course. But I have to say (and feel free to disagree), Aamir is just not that sexy. Intellectual, sure. Caring, a good father, charming, confident, all those things that are usually sexy. But in what is, for me, just a tiny little non-sexual package. If you have this same issue, I thought I would share with you a little gift from twitter this morning.
(This is a re-posted post from last year, because I am lazy. And also there really isn’t anything to add to Irish-Indian connections in the past year) There really aren’t as many connections between Ireland and India as you would expect. They both start with “I”? They are both former British colonies? Their flags are confusingly similar? The both have disputed territories to the north? But what few connections I could remember, I have pulled up and highlighted, on this, the ridiculous made-up unofficial international Ireland celebration day.
We last did this a few months back, and I had sooooooo much fun watching Hum Saath Saath Hain with you guys! It was the most painless way to watch a Rajshri without going into insulin shock. Heck, it was even enjoyable! So I want to do it again. We just need to figure what movie to watch and when. I am strangely leaning towards Easter/Night before. But that might not be viable for everybody.
(This is an updated and re-written and edited reposted post from last year, because I am lazy and the weather is awful again) If you are in the same general climate zone as me, you just got hit by a surprisingly large and late snowstorm. Not unheard of late (somewhere we have pictures of me and my sister in snowsuits making a snowman in April), but still kind of late. In a sort of “I thought winter was wrapping up and now it feels like it is just getting started!” way. So I thought it would be a good time to re-post a list of summery songs I put together last year around this time. If you aren’t in the same temperate zone as me, feel free to bookmark this post for the next time you are stuck in the kind of grey days that feel like they will never end.
Yaaaaaay! The trailer is out! And I missed it last night because I can’t understand time changes! Karan announced when it would be released, but I thought it would be early this morning, not late last night. Oh well. It’s here now!
Force 2 popped up on Netflix a little bit ago and I thought “why not?” Well, there is a reason why not! This is not a good movie! It took one good thing from the first movie (John Abraham’s character), and then grafted on a bunch of things that weren’t good at all. And therefore, as punishment for the filmmakers (Bad filmmakers! Bad!), they don’t get a real review! They just get a little mini one. But full of SPOILERS! So if you liked Force and are kind of curious about Force 2 but not enough to watch it, you should just read this.
So weird that Alia is 24 today! When I was 24, I had just lost my 3rd post-college job and started working minimum wage in a movie theater. Which is kind of like being a major movie star I guess? At least we were both making money of the film industry. Except I had more popcorn smell that never gets out of your hair, and she has more glamorous premieres.
Do you like the title? I’m pretty proud of it. Anyhoo, what it means is that Badrinath was very very very good in overseas figures. Very VERY good.
Happy Wednesday! Halfway through the week! Time to talk about how we’ve been spending this week.
This is one of my Netflix movies, and I have no memory of why I added it to my list. I’m sure I had a good reason. Possibly that it was an Allu Arjun movie with Prakash Raj, maybe one of you recommended it, or maybe I knew at one point that it was his first film. If I ever knew, I’d forgotten by the time I watched it. And now I can’t believe it! He was so good!
I already re-posted my first 20 reasons from last year, here are another 20. And then my final post will have 12, to get us all the way to 52, the age he is today.
dontcallitbollywood 