Happy almost-June! And Happy Wednesday! I am so ready for this week to be over, moving all weekend really takes it out of you. Anyway, in the meantime, here is the place to talk about all the things we have been reading and watching and thinking this week. And, to get us started off, I have a question for you!
I finally saw Robot! I think it might be one of those movies that you miss out too much if you don’t watch it at the exact right moment. Watching it now, just a few years later, the special effects seem dated, the song sequences not so great, and even Rajni Sir’s performance is not as good as it could be. Remember, I am coming off of seeing him in Kabali, where he not only played his age, he played a layered real complicated version of himself. I mean, this performance is great, the best part of the movie for sure, but I kept thinking “why are you doing this when I know you could do so much better?”
This is just a random idea because I am in the middle of unpacking my Shahrukh DVD box and putting them in chronological order on my shelf. It’s kind of fascinating to look at his career as a case study of how an actor’s career progresses.
Well, I finally saw Oppam. Only 6 months late. Oh well, this is what happens when the theaters only give one screen to Malayalam films, and there are 4 (or 5?) major releases for Onam weekend. I saw Oozham, which was in a similar genre but not quite as good as this. Because Prithviraj is not quite as good as Mohanlal and Jeethu Joseph isn’t quite as good as Priyadarshan.
I am writing this in my new apartment on my new internet sitting on my old couch and facing my old TV, but with a new-to-me coffee table (rescued from the trash, where all the best furniture comes from). Also, a dishwasher! Anyway, I thought I would take a break from unpacking boxes to tell you how the move went, since I have been pestering you with posts about it.
Happy Memorial Day! I am celebrating by unpacking boxes while a watch a guy set up my internet (because I moved!). And, since I have already worked soooooooooooooo hard this week (12 hours of moving yesterday! And that’s without unpacking a single box, just getting them out and in again), I thought I would throw some of the Monday Morning Questions over to you (although you can still ask me any question you want, of course).
I looooooooove the Rocky movies. I came to them late, my father had me watch the first one with him when I was a kid, but then I really got into them in college. It was after my Indian period had started, but the Rocky series was one of the few American products that I could still enjoy. I don’t necessarily want them to be remade, because they are so perfect already, but it’s kind of a fun thought experiment anyway!
Last Saturday, there was a bit of a false alarm, I cut down on my posting because of my move, but I wasn’t actually moving, I was just spending the day knee deep in boxes. Today I am actually moving.
Sorry sorry, it was out a few days ago and I missed it. Blame Salman, not me! I follow him on twitter and everything, and this was not mentioned! At least, not mentioned enough, I was able to miss it. Salman! You’ve got to tweet this things like a dozen times to make sure they get noticed!
Considering that Anushka 2 (the daughter Prabhas 1 and Anushka 1 would have had if Prabhas 1 had lived) isn’t even part of the “real” canon, I have become remarkably attached to my concept of her. So I can’t resist giving her a little spin-off movie all her own. And this works as a sequel to either of my previous Fanfics, the first one or the second one. Also, I really really got into this one, so it is less a single movie and more a mini-series/novel. There will be multiple installments. It will help wean us all away as now that the Bahubali 2 scene by scenes are over.
I’ve done it! Whole thing! And it was SO MUCH FUN!!! Don’t worry, Bahubali orgy isn’t over yet, there will be a big over-arching themes post next week, and there is the start of what will be a multipart fanfic tomorrow. But this is IT for the scene by scene stuff. (part 25 here, you can crawl back through the archives from there)
Is this lazy? It’s not lazy. I’m about to finish all of Bahubali 2 scene by scene, why not celebrate with an entire Prabhas themed TGIF post.
Happy Friday! The Battle continues! I was thinking I would be done with my scene by scene posts by now, but I guess not. Maybe I can do another surge today, and then I can come back for the ending and final summary posts next week. We’ll see. (part 24 here, you can go back from there)
More big battle! My goodness, if this is the edited version, can you imagine how long it was to begin with? Although it’s also strangely soothing to have all this big battle with physical fireworks after the emotional drudgery of the past few scenes. (part 23 here, you can go back through the archives from there)
Happy day after Karan Johar’s Birthday! And 4 (5?) days after Aditya Chopra‘s. I thought, for their birthdays, it might be interesting to talk about their respective studios, both uniquely a reflection of one man’s genius.
Welcome to part 2 of the big final battle section! The part where stuff actually happens and I don’t just blather on and on about the set up for stuff happening! If you want to read the blather part, it is here. And you can go back in time from there to find the earlier posts.
45 is a nice solid age! And a Karan is at a nice solid point in his life, both a critical and business success, with his new babies. Entering his new year with things looking good! (this is an updated and reposted post from last year)
Happy Wednesday! In 4 more days I will be moved into my new apartment, yay! And out of my parents’ back bedroom, double yay!
This is a nice small idea film. But it is a real gem of an idea, and one I very much appreciate, especially since it is following the highest ideals of communism and treating the world as a community by highlighting an issue totally unrelated to Kerala.
I know we remember, because we have been obsessively crawling through this film moment by moment and scene by scene. But would anybody else? (part 21 here, you can crawl back through the archives from there)
I haven’t put up a podcast in a few weeks, because there hasn’t been anything to watch for a few weeks (except Bahubali over and over and over again). But I thought it would be a good time to put up a podcast MovieMavenGal and I recorded a while back, actually the beginning of our Angamaly Diaries conversation. Especially since MovieMavenGal just started putting up her video reviews!
Happy Tuesday! Time to finish off my posts on Crime and Film (first post here). And if I end up mysteriously disappearing, or randomly shot in a drive-by, you will know why! But it probably won’t happen. Although my new apartment is in the neighborhood of the American headquarters for D-Company….Oh well, it will probably be fine.
I finished the sad parts, yay! And then celebrated by taking 2 days off. And writing yet another fanfic (by the way, almost nobody reads the fanfics, but the few who do, really really enjoy them. And I really really enjoy writing them!) Anyway, now I am back. Time for the thrilling conclusion! Or at least, the first part of it. (part 20 here, you can crawl back through the archives from there)
Well, I managed to finish all the sad bits on Friday, so only happy-happy is left! Well, happy-happy and fighty-fighty. Fight fight fight. But, what if we didn’t need the fight? Or what if the fight had come sooner? How might things have been different? I already did one alternative happy version of the film, but there has been a complaint that it is still not happy enough, because Anushka 1 and Prabhas 1 didn’t get to raise their son. So I fixed that!
dontcallitbollywood 