Monday Morning Questions! Eid Edition

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Eid Mubarak!  Forgot to say that yesterday, got so focused on Tubelight and on Pride.  But, better late than never!  Oh, and also, Happy Monday!  Time for questions.

As always, you can ask me anything you want.  From the personal questions (“What is your favorite Eid release film?”) to the specific questions from those new to the films (“Why is Eid such a big release date?”) to the general discussion topics (“Why are there so few big Eid scenes in movies compared to other holidays?”)

The only rule is, you have to let me answer first!  Wait until I answer and start the discussion, and then feel free to leap in with anything you want to add.

Oh, and as sometimes happens, I have a question for you!  Tubelight, as you know, was a shockingly bad movie.  I didn’t have sky high hopes, but I didn’t imagine anything like this.  What was the last time/first time/most memorable time that you saw a movie opening night and were surprised by just how bad it was?

77 thoughts on “Monday Morning Questions! Eid Edition”

  1. in Hindi the movie Roy and in English the movie Suicide Squad..and the ones that i do feel are bad i end up watching them because of my friends..which was your worst movie ??

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    • Uch, Roy. I am so glad the reviews saved me from seeing that.

      I think maybe Bombay Velvet was my most surprisingly bad movie? I didn’t have sky high expectations (I never do really, I’m too German to get excited about anything to that degree. And when I am that excited, I’m too German to admit I was wrong), but I did think it would be at least watchable, what with the director and the cast and all. And then BLEH. Besharam was possibly the worst movie I saw in theaters, but that was a random decision because it happened to be playing, so I had no real expectations one way or the other and no way to be disappointed.

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      • oh you went to see Besharam..i feel sorry for you..nobody should ever go through such torture..my god the worst movie ever..that just proves that actors don’t read scripts..i saw a scene when it premiered on TV..the one where rishi kapoor is on the toilet..simply switched the TV off..i mean from the trailer i knew it was bad..but so bad..ugh…as for Bombay velvet..i waited for the reviews..they were not good..but i’m damn sure it might have sounded good when the movie was been narrated..

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        • Having seen both films in theaters (Ranbir, I will never forgive you), I think that Besharam might have actually “narrated” better than Bombay Velvet. The basic components, a love story/comedy in which Ranbir is a bumbling car thief, and his parents play two cops chasing him, and meanwhile he falls in love with a woman whose car he just stole, that sounds kind of fun! Not like a “Great Movie”, but like the kind of fun entertainer you might want to make with your parents. And then the script just layered on the misogyny and the toilet humor and oh my gosh! But I could believe all of that being added on top of a solid base.

          Bombay Velvet, however, no base! Nothing there! I couldn’t even begin to tell you the plot. I don’t think there ever was a plot. Just a series of “cool ideas” randomly strung together. And I am terribly worried that Jagga Jasoos is suffering from the same problem.

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          • hmm ..you know i thought the Jagga Jasoos had a good trailer but there is something that giving me a feeling that it wont be that great..but then again i can be wrong..so who knows..as for Besharam agreed it sounds good when narrated but at least when you get the script..as a highly paid actor i think he can take the liberty of telling the director that the lines and scenes are complete crap..which they were..you know celebrity tantrums when put in good use can do wonders…

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          • I strongly thing that is one of the biggest things holding Ranbir back! That he refuses to throw tantrums. All the big stars, plus even the up and comers like Ranveer and Varun have stories about forcing a script change, or picking their own costumes, or something. But Ranbir, he is a total director’s actor. He shows up and does exactly what he is told, perfectly. Which sounds all noble and good and stuff, but then we get Besharam.

            On Tue, Jun 27, 2017 at 3:40 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  2. I can’t remember any film that I found bad, because usually I use the reviews to keep me from anything that was really bad.

    But I want to suggest you watch Duvvada Jagannatham. I saw it yesterday and it was quite enjoyable for what it was — i.e., a standard Telugu masala movie. But now I’m suddenly wondering if most of the humor would translate, as it comes from play on words and the accent. (I randomly checked out the subtitles here and there to see how some dialogs were translated, and they were straight forward, without trying to capture what made them funny). Still, Allu Arjun has an interesting character, one part the usual avenging hero, and one part something else. It can’t be any worse than Tubelight. 🙂

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    • I was half thinking of seeing DJ (I’m abbreviating to avoid misspelling). For the same reason you said, can’t be as bad as Tubelight.

      Early box office signs point to DJ winning the weekend and beating Tubelight. Although that’s the usual question of “Is it that DJ is so good, or that Tubelight is so bad?”

      On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 8:43 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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        • Well, I do like him an awful lot post Bahubali! I’ll have to see how my next weekend/week goes. Well, and how low the ticket prices drop after today.

          On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 9:28 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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      • I enjoyed DJ as well but it definitely wasn’t Allu Arjun’s best. It was fun and probably worth it since it seems like you won’t be seeing Tubelight again. By the way, the tickets were only $15 down here.

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  3. Oh, on bad movies, maybe Superman? I had no interest in seeing it, but some of my Twitter friends kept bugging me to go and see it, and I finally went. I found it appallingly bad, and the actors terrible. Later I chastised my Twitter friends for pushing me to go, and they were like, “Oh, we never said it was a good movie.” So I blame myself for going against my instincts and giving in to pressure from others. 😦

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    • Thank goodness, I avoided Superman. I even liked the very first teaser trailer, but by the time the full length trailer came out, there were already murmurs of discontent.

      On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 8:46 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  5. My worst first day movie experience will be Anjaan starring Suriya (Tamil), Cassinova starring Mohanlal (Malayalam), Lone Ranger (English), Jab Tak Hai Jaan ( Hindi)

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    • I forgot about Jab Tak Hain Jaan! That is definitely up there for me as well. So many good parts (the songs, the visuals), but the characters and script was just not there. In a really disappointing way, because it could have been so good.

      On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 10:05 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  6. Jab Tak Hai Jaan.
    Also, I know you like Kabali (and this is a case of difference in cultural ethos and expectations), but for someone who grew up with Rajnikanth movies, a First Day First Show is a very different cinematic experience from what Kabali turned out to be. So it was a disappointment.

    What I mean is, Kabali was promoted as a quintessential Rajni film, with all the thrills and shrills of his stardom poised toward commercial cinema. We were prepared for something like Padyappa or Baasha or Sivaji the Boss. Instead we got a spectacular piece of film showcasing the actor instead of the star. We could have appreciated it if we’d been prepared for it a little bit, but on that day in the theatre, it was a disappointment.

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      • Right?
        Looking back at it, and having rewatched it a few times, I can appreciate the film for a good piece of work.
        But I just wish we’d been prepared for it so that it didn’t feel like a child being promised a treat and then denied it in the movie theatre.

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    • I think I benefited by NOT going first day/first show. I had a friend who did, and went with friends from South India, and it was a similar experience to what you are describing. The audience was just sort of vaguely disappointed.

      But I went on week two or three, when most of the audience had either seen it already or knew what it would be. And they just sort of turned it into a Rajni film. Whistles and cheers and so on even in the middle of really deep dark scenes. Kind of an odd experience, me sitting there learning all about horrible social issues in Malaysia for the first time, and everyone else whistling at one-liners, but at least we were all happy.

      On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 10:33 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  7. Margaret, I think you said we can write random questions to you on your Monday posts (tell me if I am wrong please.) So here goes:
    What is your take on the Censor board in India? Compared to your studies of other such bodies?

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    • Yep, random questions are for Monday! This is the place.

      The censor board in India is fascinating. There are essentially 3 kinds of censorship in film industries, hard government censorship (India, Iran), soft government censorship (France, Germany), and completely independent industry run censorship (America and basically nowhere else).

      In America, civic bodies were beginning to censor films (really just straight up ban ones they didn’t approve of from being shown in their town) back in the teens and 20s, and there were murmurs of the federal government getting involved. The film producers got scared, and decided they would rather censor themselves. So they hired Will Hays, former Postmaster General (the postmaster general at the time was in charge of censorship of the mails, because it was illegal to send “pornographic material” through the US mails), to run the censorship office which became known as simply the “Hays Office” and the censorship rules were the “Hays Code”. This system lasted until the late 50s/early 60s, at which point a whole variety of shifts happened in American society (more European art films were playing, TV was sucking away some of the audience, studios were losing their stranglehold), and in response to those shifts, the MPAA got together and changed their system, now it is a committee of people who rate films based on language, sex, violence, drugs, etc. Any film can get released without cuts, it just gets released with a higher rating. So producers are now censoring themselves voluntarily, trying to get that PG13 rating.

      In the “soft” censorship countries, the government helps fund film. And they will give more money or less money depending on your topic. And also more or less airtime on the government run TV stations, and so on. There’s no central censorship board necessarily, but there is still a way of indicating which message is government approved and which isn’t.

      And then you have India which is mostly “hard” censorship, a government run censorship body with the ability to demand cuts, or just plain refuse to let a film play. But it also has the American style censorship a little bit, in that the censor board is usually made up of film industry members who have some kind of incentive for keeping the industry alive and healthy. And the “soft” censorship I am sure you are aware of, the tax cuts depending on the topic of a film. Plus the government funding for certain films, Doordarshan air time, even forcing theaters to play them (although this was more prevalent in the 80s and earlier).

      What is unique to India, so far as I know, is that censorship by terror kind of thing. Whether it’s a group threatening a violent boycott, or another group doing a transparent last minute blackmail-by-lawsuit, this is the kind of thing I just don’t hear happening in other countries. I think because India is unique in the combination of how popular and powerful film is (thus making it a target), and yet how unprotected it is by law (lawsuits and protests over films are virtually unknown in America. If they do happen, they are settled quickly and quietly with the support of the legal system and the police)

      On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 10:50 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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        • Huh. Well, then I guess I have to see DJ instead of I want a movie this weekend!

          On Tue, Jun 27, 2017 at 11:46 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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          • Since Tiyan is not there I will be Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum starring Fahadh Faasil and by the same tame of Maheshinte Prathikaram this weekend .

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          • Well, my local movie theater just sent out their weekly “coming soon” message, and nothing is listed on it. So I may not be getting anything.

            Question, has Richie come out yet? Some places I am seeing on The Internet say yes, some say “no”. I don’t think I missed it at my local theater, but maybe I did, or maybe it just didn’t play here.

            On Tue, Jun 27, 2017 at 2:49 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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          • Ritchie havent released yet. I think it releases in august or september. Malayalam eid movies releases in US after July 7th I think. The 3 eid malayalam movies released till now have all been avg or below avg. All where waiting for tiyaan and Dhrisaakshyam Thondimuthalum. Now that tiyaan has been postponed, everyone will be watching Dhrisaakshyam Thondimuthalum wich releases this friday. Dhrisaakshyam Thondimuthalum might be realising in US on July 14nth then.

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          • It’s too bad, especially with Tubelight failing so badly, that there aren’t any other Malayalam films coming out. Allu Arjun is lucking out, I am sure DJ would have done well no matter what, but it was a risk releasing it so close to Tubelight. And now he is reaping the benefit of that.

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          • DJ havent released in Kerala yet. The dubbed version realeses on July 7th. Allu Arjun has a big fan base in Kerala and his movies are the only telugu films other than Baahubali which becomes a major hit in Kerala.

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          • that’s interesting! Based on the few films of his I have seen, they do seem slightly more interesting, or at least less bloody, then the other Telugu films.

            On Wed, Jun 28, 2017 at 8:34 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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    • That is really interesting! It reminds me of an ethnographic article I read in a journal years ago, interviewing dressman for film. They had the same system, but in old factories and without a computer, just their memories. Trunks and trunks of clothes, not just for reuse, but for use in the same movie after a 6 month gap in the shooting schedule. Everything is tucked away, and then brought out again based on memory. Or, if necessary, remade. It’s all just cheap stuff from the marketplace, you can go to the same tailor and tell him to crank out the same thing.

      This is the same system, it sounds like, but with designer labels and computers and temperature control. I do love that even super sentimental Karan doesn’t just keep the clothes for nothing, he constantly reuses even iconic items. Well, except for Shahrukh’s 🙂

      On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 12:57 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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      • I was surprised that the clothes were reused too! Though I guess he lets actors keep clothes if they ask for it. I remember Varun saying that he kept one of Badri’s jackets from Badrinath Ki Dulhania.

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        • Although this does explain something from the director’s commentary on Om Shanti Om. Farah said she didn’t know how to costume everybody, all the stars and the back up dancers, for “Deewangee”. But it worked out because she just called Karan and he had all those dresses in storage.

          I always pictured Karan just having dresses in storage, like, as a private individual. Because it seems like something he would do (just like I could easily start a DVD rental store at any point). But it makes a heck of a lot more sense that as the head of Dharma productions he has been obsessive about saving and reusing costumes.

          On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 3:43 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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          • The thing that struck me as curious was – if they had shirts specially made for Shah Rukh for a film like Dear Zindagi (where I am assuming their budget restrictions were much greater than films like say, KANK), what lengths does Karan go to for KANK or K3G? K3G especially, since there he had to dress six stars, not just Shah Rukh.
            (I also love that Karan puts everything in storage, but in reality that’s just “put everything that Shah Rukh doesn’t want to hoard, in storage”. I wonder if Karan gives Shah Rukh first choice – he can squirrel away the clothes/props he loves, and then Karan directs his team to take care of the rest. Shah Rukh has jeans from KKHH, the black Sherwani from K3G, at least Rizwan’s backpack and prayer cap from MNIK, and other such things.)

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          • Well, to be fair, it is super cheap to get things specially made in India. Plus, half the big name designers are Karan’s personal friends, so he probably doesn’t have to pay them.

            What I got distracted by was that Dear Zindagi wasn’t “really” a Dharma film. That is, Dharma was one of two production houses working on it, and Gauri Shinde wasn’t a Karan mentee, the script wasn’t picked by his team, and so on and so on. But apparently, either Dharma just snags all the costumes for every film even if they only have a minority stake in it. Or everyone knows Karan knows costumes and he gets to run that area of every film he is on, even if he doesn’t run everything else.

            Or, more likely, Karan just always dresses Shahrukh and keeps the close afterward for reference. I think in an interview Gauri Shinde even talked about how she picked out Alia’s outfits and so on, which makes me think she did all the other costumes, but Karan took charge of Shahrukh’s look.

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          • I might have scrolled through two dozen posts trying to find the one in which we talked about how Dharma handles its costumes. I found the post again to share this – Karan talking about how they filmed “Tumhi Dekho Na” from KANK and how hard it was to find similar colored costumes for the song.

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          • Those colors were perfect. Have you heard of the studies that show gay men have better color sense? I’ll back up, it’s well established that women can see a greater range of colors then men. Recent studies show that gay men (along with a few other tiny physical things) have a color sense that is better than the average man (although still not as good as women).

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  9. I saw an old interview with Varun and Sreeram Raghavan about Badlapur. Varun says that he was so depressed(so much that he had to see a doctor) while shooting that his family was so worried about his demeanor- even after coming home after shooting.Varun attributes it partly to the script and partly because they shot in real locations as opposed to a set.

    And Alia said in another interview that she had to drag herself to work while shooting during Udta Punjab.Why do you suppose these young actors are so affected by their characters that they can’t shake it off? Both of literally grew up on the sets.You don’t see older actors like Aamir or Shahrukh talk about that.Why do you suppose it’s so?

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    • I think Aamir and Shahrukh don’t talk about it because they have learned not to talk about it. But in very very rare interviews, they have said the same kind of things. It seems to just be a risk, as an actor, that you can get so caught up in your characters that it is hard to leave them behind when you go home.

      I also wonder if it might be because Aamir and Shahrukh are producers now and have a different set of anxieties? In his interview with Karan before Dangal came out, Aamir talked about how he stops sleeping for 3 weeks before every film comes out and has these waves of anxiety that he can’t get over. And Karan reacted like this wasn’t a surprise, like “yeah, everyone in the industry knows about Aamir’s panic attacks before a film released.” Aamir talked about how he will call up close friends, or just go upstairs to where Jackie Shroff leaves in the same building, at 3am to have them calm him down. Shahruhkh has said similar things, about depression so great he can’t leave the house after a film fails. It seems like, now that they are actor/producers, they are living not just through their characters but through the films as a whole.

      Oh, and have you heard the story about Dilip Kumar? According to legend, he went to a psychiatrist for depression after Devdas/Mughal-E-Azam/Andaz. And the psychiatrist prescribed Ram Aur Shyam.

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      • Oh, I love the Dilip Kumar story.It makes perfect sense to balance Devdas with Ram aur Shyam.I have seen that Coffee episode with Aamir.I wonder whether Shahrukh felt a little bit “stalkerish” after Darr.

        .I found it curious that David Dhawan was Sriram Raghavan’s senior at the Film Institute.David never gave any impression that he is one of the film school types.And Sriram was afraid that David would persuade Varun not to do Badlapur.And David did try.He had a conversation with Huma and she told him that Badlapur was “dark”.Now imagine a movie which even Huma finds “dark”. The makers certainly took a risk considering that they had only seen Varun in Student of the Year.

        As for disappointing movies- sequels usually disappoint me.Case in point Don 2 and Once upon a time in Mumbai dobaara.I had put such faith in Farhan and Milan.Dolly ki doli was a movie which I consider a universal disappointment.None of my friends liked it.Rajkumar Rao’s character was the only salvagable aspect.I loved his accent.Which brings another question.Do you notice accents in Hindi films?Not the obvious ones that Salman puts on.Like Varun’s in Badrinath ki dulhania or Rajkumar Rao’s in pretty much every movie?

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        • I was disappointed by Don 2 and OUATIM 2 too! Now it is all rushing back to me. Don 2 at least was still a somewhat okay movie, great car chases and some good character moments. The songs weren’t nearly as good, and it wasn’t nearly as well-constructed and just plain fun as Don. But it wasn’t a total disaster. OUATIM 2 was a total disaster.

          On Tue, Jun 27, 2017 at 8:08 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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        • Oh, I missed the question in here! About the accents. I don’t really. If it’s very extreme, the Bihari accent that is coming around more and more for instance, that I will notice. In a kind of “that Hindi sounds weird!” way (I only know what I am hearing more and more is Bihari from context). Oh, and of course the drawly upperclass Hindi you hear from Salman and Saif sometimes, usually with a lot of Hinglish thrown in.

          What I will notice is when the Hindi dialogue suddenly is flowing along like a stream. Which I think is when the characters are supposed to be Punjabi/Delhites. It just sounds easier to my ears, almost like song lyrics, no gaps between words and a kind of natural rhythm to it. Or, as I think of it, “the way Shahrukh sounds in interviews when he gets excited and forgets himself.”

          On Tue, Jun 27, 2017 at 8:08 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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      • I don’t know if this falls under the purview of mental illness/depression, but during the filming of Fan, Shah Rukh was deeply affected by having to play Aryan, the star. He felt it hit too close to home, and it felt like he was nudifying himself in front of the camera (instead of the usual escapism he gets). He talked about how eager he was to finish the scenes and go sit in his car, something that I felt was a very different mindset for the kind of actor he is.
        The point I am trying to make is that while Aamir and Shah Rukh might not be as affected by the roles they play as the young ones, but the roles do certainly take a toll.

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        • There’s also the way that training can provide a protection. Alia, for instance, is an absolutely brilliant natural actress. But it’s all kind of her onscreen, there are no artifices being used or little stage tricks.

          This is just my guess, but I relate it back to when, for instance, I am trying to carry groceries up the stairs. Instead of focusing on how heavy and horrible they are, I use mind tricks like counting the stairs or planning out what I will make for dinner. I bet Shahrukh from his stage training, and Aamir and Salman and the other older actors just from natural coping, have all learned how to do the acting equivalent of that. Play the scene at a slight remove, so they are thinking equally about the underlying emotion and about things like “is my face in the right angle to the camera? am I doing the hand gesture the way I practiced in front of the mirror? Did I emphasis that line correctly?”

          But there must be scenes were it is harder than others to keep that remove. I hadn’t heard that Shahrukh story before, but just watching Fan, I was thinking “how could he play this? Coming home to find his wife in tears and his home destroyed? This must be his nightmare in real life!” And the same with Salman in that one Sultan mirror scene, he talked about how hard it was for him to play, confronting his own aging body. There’s no artifice there to escape into.

          On Tue, Jun 27, 2017 at 11:51 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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          • I agree! I think Shah Rukh has mentioned some of the things he does to play it a little detached, and how that’s the challenge for the actor.

            And if you want the full version of him describing the Fan experience and playing Aryan, he mentioned it both to Rajeev Masand and to Anupama Chopra. (Which is again an indication of the fact that he really only opens up with people who know him well and whom he likes. The best interviews of him are with people like Rajeev, Anupama, or Karan)

            With Rajeev at 2:07

            With Anupama at 11:37

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  10. My opening day nightmares are; Irumugan,Bhairava(both Tamil) and 3 dots,Sound thoma(both malayalam). I went to watch Sound Thoma with the entire family and that makes it more distressing.

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  11. I just realized that I didn’t answer the question to which my answer has to be Brahmotsavam from last year. I knew that the reviews were really bad but I still went because of Mahesh. Plus I thought I would like the movie because I loved Mahesh’s previous collaboration with the director, Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu. I ended up hating Brahmotsavam because it was such a poorly made movie; definitely one of the worst in Mahesh’s career. You can ask Moviemavengal if you want a second opinion on how bad it is. Usually when it comes to Mahesh movies even if I don’t like the entire movie, there are some scenes or songs that I love and I end up rewatching. There is nothing of that sort in Brahmotsavam that I would like to rewatch :/

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    • Thank goodness, I got the best of Brahmotsavan thanks to moviemavengal. She sent me the soundtrack (which is still in regular rotation as one of my favorites), but warned me off seeing the movie.

      On Tue, Jun 27, 2017 at 11:17 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  12. I have a Monday morning question that I’m afraid I’ll forget for Mionday. So please shelve it until then: here it is. A friend and colleague of mine teaches a literature and film class to high school seniors. She takes the original text, often a short story or novella and has the students read it and then watch the film and analyze both. I thought it would be fun for her to do a Hindi film with an Indian author’s story. Something like Devdas is too long. Do you have any other suggestions??

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    • Oh, I’m not waiting until Monday! People will get comment alerts on this anyway.

      Hmm, let’s see. Literary adaptation is kind of unusual in Indian film. But there are some options.

      1. White Nights (Dostoyevsky)-Saawariya

      2. The Idiot (Dostoyevsky)-Idiot (early Shahrukh TV movie)

      3. Shakuntala (classic play by Kalidasa)-Ram Teri Ganga Maili/Hero: Love Story of a Spy/ten million other things

      4. The Last Leaf (O’Henry)-Lootera

      5. Where There’s a Will (Shardindu Bandhopadhay)- Byomkesh Bakshy! (my first choice)

      I am sure there are other options I am forgetting, especially movies based on classic Indian literature, but I am sure other commentators can add on.

      On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 1:33 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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        • Where there’s a will is sort of hard to find. There are a fair number of Byomkesh English translations. But they aren’t at every library, and I don’t think they are on kindle yet. But if you have access to a university library, or don’t mind spending $10 (with shipping) on amazon for a paperback, not hard.

          On Mon, Jul 3, 2017 at 8:57 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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          • I’ll look now. Thank you. Also, I have a whole other take on what the plot is of JHMS. When it releases I’ll tell you which of us got it. I’ve told Carol so you can verify with her I’ve not changed it later!

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          • Is your guess more of a Down With Love thing? Because I love that in Down With Love for the whole meta role reversal of the Doris Day-Rock Hudson movies. But I hate it in every other version since it just feels like a lie to the viewer!

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          • Should I tell you: Fictional Spoiler alert. Do not read this if you don’t like plot speculation. Here it is. She is looking for the ring and ends up letting go a bit more than she ever has and has more adventures than she ever has. She starts to think she has feelings for him and he starts to change…as in thinking maybe I do want a nice girl. They don’t find the ring in Europe. they go to Punjab (her fiancee is from there, she might have lost the ring there….who knows) which puts him in touch with his roots. He thinks he may be falling for her, but when he sees her with the fiancee who is great and forgives all,(a cameo by someone we are happy she is with? Varun? Siddharth? He(Harry) realizes Khabi Ha Khabi Na style that she is better off with the original man. The twist that Shah Rukh has hinted at is that he DOESNT end up with her. But as the credits roll, again KHKN style we seem him meet someone…maybe a brief Juhi cameo again….and we know he will find true and good love.

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          • Hmm. I could see that. It would be very Imtiaz to show him becoming a better man through love, even if it is incomplete. But on the other hand, Shahrukh is selling this so hard as a return to his happy romance roots. I can’t see him risking the riot that would ensue if he tried that ending (I know I would certainly be in a bottle throwing mood if he doesn’t get the girl!)

            I am hoping for more of a “they both change” kind of thing. Anushka ends up breaking up with the fiance not just because she is in love with Shahrukh, but because she has realized she never really felt like herself with fiance. So even if Shahrukh tries to walk away, she wouldn’t let him. Very Socha Na tha.

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          • Ah, I hear you. But he did say two things: he keeps saying “an incomplete romance” and a twist ending….We will all know Aug 4!! Cause of course we will be first day, first show.

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          • Blech, “an incomplete romance”! If they kill her off, I will be FURIOUS!!!! Actually, any kind of “incomplete” is going to make me furious. Death, picking someone else, deciding to just be friends, meeting again years later with the implication that they will get together eventually, NO!!!! I want a wedding and babies at the end! I will accept nothing less.

            On Tue, Jul 4, 2017 at 1:02 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

            >

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          • I actually want the following (in the spirit of your script rewrites) I want him to be “Cheap, cheap” because of some sadness. She reminds him of a simpler innocent self. He helps her get out of her shell and be less worried and more brave. They go to Punjab (many possible scenerios) She does NOT find the ring but is now brave enough to face her fiancee without it. He loves her; she loves him. He is played by some great cameo so we don’t mind that Shah doesn’t get her. Shah is NOT heart broken but now emotionally available and as I said before we see him meet the woman (another great cameo so we are still happy) we know he will marry and have babies and be happy. If you insist we could have those flash forward pics during the credits of his happy family and her happy family like they did in 4 weddings and a funeral. Will that work for you?

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          • I suppose. But I will still be awfully mad at not getting to see the “real” romance! Especially since he and Anushka seem to have such great chemistry together.

            Just saying, I am putting Imtiaz Ali on notice right now, he better make me happy.

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          • Not that I have found. although often the subtitles are added to the same youtube video later. So some day we may awake to find them there, waiting for us.

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    • You are probably right. I just assumed all TGIF posts are clearly NSFW, but this one is on a bit of a higher level.

      On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 2:28 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

      >

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