This is thanks to two commentators, Filmilibrarian who reminded me about Victoria & Abdul, and Niki who sent me the Spyder teaser seconds after it dropped. Oh, and then Salman Khan who tweeted the new Tubelight song this morning.
I have never seen a Mahesh Babu film in theaters. But I have seen an A R Murugadoss film! I was one of those few people who saw and enjoyed Akira opening night. And this film might be my second Murugadoss film in theaters and first Mahesh Babu.
It looks interesting, right? I would be worried about it turning into a CGI spectacle with no heart, but it’s Murugadoss. He never forgets the heart.
Wrenching ourselves away from south India, let us fly aaaaaalllllllllllllll the way around the world to England for the latest light BBC historical drama with an Indian touch. Based on a true story of a clerk who was sent from India to England as part of Victoria’s 1887 celebrations, intrigued her, and eventually became her teacher and consultant on Indian issues. She also gave him the title to various lands in India. When she died, he was sent back to India and lived out the rest of his life quietly on the lands she had given him.
Based on the trailer, this has a couple of small changes. Makes him more of a servant than a clerk, or implies it. So that his sudden increase to a favored role is more of a leap. Also hits heavily on the wide-eyed pure soul kind of idea, which I don’t know if I like.
But generally, so far, it doesn’t seem as Orientalist as it could be to me. Only in a small under the surface way, that of the two title characters, it is the white one who gets the layers and sympathetic flaws and so on. It is the brown one who is a little more superficial.
I am also slightly disappointed by the casting. Judi Dench is such an experienced actress, knows just how to deliver a line. I would have loved to see an actor from India of similar caliber opposite her. Can you imagine Saif? Or Abhishek? Or even Shahid or Ranbir or Ranveer. Ali Faizal is fine, but he is more just kind of a prop for Judi’s performance, isn’t really challenging her.
And then there’s the new Tubelight song! A sweet one, about the relationship between Salman and Sohail. Yes yes, I am still worried about Sohail having such a large part, as are we all. But it really does work well to have two brothers play two brothers, when their relationship seems as though it will be pivotal to the plot. It is a little odd to see Sohail taking the helping-guiding-strong one role, when in real life Sohail is the first to acknowledge that Salman is the strongest one and the one who takes care of everyone else. But then, Salman is the better actor (by SO MUCH!), so it’s good that he has the more difficult role of the idealistic younger brother.
Although, I do wonder if Salman will really be the older brother? I could see that being a nice twist on the plot, Salman was born first, but because of his disability, his younger brother ends up taking on the protective role. And then Salman would always feel slightly guilty, because he is “supposed” to be the big brother.
And finally, a little news update on Shahrukh’s movie after next. Yes, he is playing a dwarf. Yes, the heroines are Katrina and Anushka Sharma. Now, we all can hope that this turns into Jab Tak Hain Jaan as it SHOULD have been. That is, Shahrukh picking Anushka (the real grounded person) over Katrina (the fantasy).
I saw a rumor somewhere that the plot will be Shahrukh (a dwarf) who is obsessed with movie star Katrina Kaif and travels to meet her or something. If that is the case, I will assume that he meets Anushka somewhere along the way and bonds with her and by the time he meets Katrina, he has discovered that he really loves Anushka.
Or else all these rumors are untrue and the plot is actually something completely different.
dontcallitbollywood 
Great points on Victoria and Abdul. Saif, Ranveer, or Fawad would all have been great options. Wouldn’t it have been wild if they’d cast SRK? Heck, I could even see Salman or Aamir doing it justice. The fact that they picked a less established actor is clearly because the role is in the end a much smaller one compared to the Oscar-bait role for Judi Dench. I hope that a major part of the script is about the pervasive Orientalism of the time. Stephen Frears does get subtlety so there’s some hope, but the marketing of the film is already a bit twee and precious.
Also will wonder what Gurinder Chadha or Mira Nair could have done with the script, too.
I predict the SRK film will be a disaster unfortunately. It’s got Fan the sequel written all over it. Possibly critically acclaimed because of the director if we’re lucky, but a relative bomb at the box office. And why are they calling it the dwarf movie? Not too PC, but maybe they haven’t adopted “little person” in India?
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I have hope that they are using “dwarf” because he is playing more the magical fairy tale version. Which is so off the wall that it just might work. But more likely, they just haven’t adopted “Little Person” in India. Or, at least, in Indian-English. There is likely preferred terminology in the local languages, but the English version hasn’t been updated.
It looks like the Imtiaz Ali film is the one that is going to be his crowd-pleaser hit, possibly. Rom-com with Anushka and Europe and a director whose done mainstream stuff. Although, you never know! Maybe the funky off beat one with Aanand L Rai will hit a chord and turn into a big hit and the Imtiaz Ali one will be forgotten.
Fawad would have been great! Oh, that might be my most preferred option!
On Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 8:40 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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You didn’t see Ghajini? Or Baby? (Akki film that I think was directed by Murugadoss)
Re the Victoria film, what are you thinking suggesting Abhishek Bacchan and even Ranbir to act opposite Judi Dench?! They couldn’t even stand next to her. Have you never seen Rahul Bose in anything? He would give as good as he got with Judi.
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Rahul Bose is good, but maybe I would prefer Saif.
And about SRK movie: I read upcoming movies very rarely and I didn’t know that there will be Katrina. Oh man I’m really disappointed right now.
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I have hope! For both this and Thugs. It’s always possible she will just have an item number type role. And I love her in item numbers.
On Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 8:55 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I hope too that she will have very little part, but than I remember that she is the star and all my hopes dissapear 😦 I just can’t stand this woman.
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I did see both of those! Didn’t realize Murugadoss directed them. I knew he did the original Ghajini, but didn’t know they kept him on for the remake.
Rahul Bose would have been great! But possibly a little too old? I knew he’s really about the same age as the others, but he has aged faster and looks older than them.
On Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 8:42 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Baby was directed by Neeraj Pandey. The Akshay Kumar film that Murugadoss directed was Holiday which was a remake of Thuppakki.
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I also liked Holiday!
On Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 2:15 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I haven’t seen Holiday fully because I really like Thuppakki and I felt like Akshay didn’t fit. But both versions are mostly the same. Actually the producer of Spyder decribed it as Thuppaki 2.0 when asked about how the movie will be like.
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Same with me. I really liked Thupakki, so didn’t really feel like seeing Akshay in the Hindi version.
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I don’t like Vijay much but I did like him in Thuppakki. Have you seen Kaththi, I think it was also a huge hit. I didn’t like it much compared to Thuppakki.
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Thanks, I meant Holiday, but couldn’t remember its Hindi name.
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I am so excited about Spyder! I’ve heard that the story is about an intelligence officer who fights bioterrorism. But I don’t know if this is actually true or not.
I really like Aanand L. Rai as a director but I’m afraid about the story being too similar to Fan like Filmilibrarian mentioned. But I feel like Aanand L. Rai will make it work, and this will probably be very different in tone when compared to Fan.
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I wonder if the robot spider is supposed to be his partner in some way? That would be cool. I was thinking it was an evil robot, but if he is an agent fighting bioterrorism, it could be a good robot working with him.
On Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 2:56 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah, I was thinking that the robot spider was his partner. If you watch closely, the bulb on the spider lights up when it touches Mahesh’s shoe.
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Did u check Super Singh too?
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Yes, it looks similar to The flying Jatt in a lot of ways, but better.
On Fri, Jun 2, 2017 at 5:13 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Good. Finally.
Also, is saab bahadur playing near u?
And there is a punjabi remake of Sairat will be realessing next month
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It is not playing near me.
On Fri, Jun 2, 2017 at 7:32 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I remember telling my friends thay Diljit would have been better choice for Flying Jatt. It looks better than Flying Jatt but thats not saying much.
I am torn between my loyalty to Punjabi movies and my loyalties to superheroes.
I dont think i will be able tp review this movie honestly.
I will be posting my review of wonder woman most likely by sunday. Please check it and give ur opinion
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