Happy Birthday Shilpa! You aren’t the most talented or trained of actresses, but you are definitely one of the most loveable! In honor of your birthday, 12 reasons that I love you, one for every two years since Baazigar. (this is an updated and reposted post from last year)
Happy Birthday Dimple! I cannot BELIEVE you are 60! You are still the most elegant, the classiest, the coolest lady in Hindi film. Here are 15 reasons I love you, one for every year you were alive when Bobby came out and made you a superstar. (this is a reposted and updated post from last year)
Okay, after all of the boring place setting stuff to get us into the second half, we finally have a really meaty scene! And it’s also the scene that illustrates the alternative theory of the film. The surface obvious theory, the one that all the critics talk about and so on, is the resolution of the NRI identity/tragedy of the immigrant theory. But the second theory, the one I have been following along, is the questioning of gender roles and patriarchal authority. (last section here, and page indexing all the DDLJ posts here)
Amrita has been a bit forgotten lately (at least since she got married), but she was part of some great films. And some great songs. So why not celebrate that as she turns 36?
Happy Wednesday! As a little midweek break, let’s all take a breather and talk about what we have been reading and thinking and watching this week so far.
You may say Farah or Zoya has more power, and maybe if you just look at the films they produced, okay. But if you look at all the stars and stories and production changes Ekta has done through film AND television, there is no contest. So, for her birthday, here are 18 reasons I love you, one for every hundred episodes produced of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (1833 in total). (this is an updated and reposted-post from last year)
I saw Maya Bazaar! FINALLY! I knew about it for ages, and then I found a copy for sale on DVD which was rare enough that I wanted to snap it up. And then the DVD sat on the shelf by the TV for months and months and months until finally I gave in and watched it.
Well, this was a bit of an interesting downer! A movie about sex that was not at all sexy. Appropriately so, sex work is not sexy for the sex workers, it is just a job that they do from necessity. And it’s not necessarily sexy for their clients either, it is also something from desperation and misery. So, woo! An accurate depiction of life for a sex worker! Which means, depressing and grinding and tiring and dangerous and yet dull at the same time.
Happy June! I am in my new apartment, everything is better! Okay, my books and DVDs are still in boxes, but my clothes and dishes are put away. And I am ready for questions! So long as they don’t rely on me being able to reference something in a book or DVD.
Time to talk about gender! I love how Bahubali 1 and 2 deal with gender. I do not like how Bahubali 1, in isolation, deals with it. But that’s just because it was only half the story. The two films have to be viewed together for the concepts of the male and female and how they are handling them to become fully clear. (my last theme post is here, and my full Bahubali list of posts is here)
Happy Sunday! Datablue mentioned re-watching Ocean’s 11 on the Wednesday Watching post, and of course that got me started thinking about how/why it should be remade in Hindi film. And then I started thinking about all the other multi-starrer options from American film that really should be remade.
I have written sooooooooo much on Bahubali, it’s kind of over-whelming. So to make it easier, here is one page that lists out every post written.
I wrote two fanfic posts on Bahubali, and in both of them I ended up giving Anushka and Prabhas a daughter, Anushka 2. Who has all the confidence of her mother with the fierce sense of duty and justice of her father. And then I kind of fell in love with her character, and ended up starting a fanfic for her and Rana 2 (the illegitimate nephew I decided to give Rana). You can read part 1 here.
This is just the most mystifying trailer! Usually I like to have several trailers or news items to talk about at once, but I can’t wait on this one, because I need to crowdsource understanding it. WHAT IS HAPPENING????
Another podcast! No big new movie this week, so instead I invited Dina over to my place for a movie night. Which gave me the opportunity to finally force her to watch a Malayalam film. Ohm Shanthi Oshaana, which also meant that she immediately fell in love with Nivin Pauly.
Happy Friday! I am having friends over tonight for the inaugural New Apartment Movie Night. I’m excited! The place is still a disaster, but they are good friends, so it should be fine. And to entertain them, I came up with a game! which I am now sharing with you.
What are those birds that eat bugs off of the elephants? Or is that an urban legend? What I mean is, I feel kind of like those birds, existing off of someone else, because Accessbollywood.net does the real work of keeping this list updated, and then I just swoop in and put in recommendations and descriptions.
Ramadan! ‘Tis the season for film promotions! Because there’s nothing actually coming out (except Raabta), so all we can do is get excited for the things that will be releasing later.
Welcome back to DDLJ watch! My new system is to pull all the screenshots, put them in order, and then write the post around it. It’s working so far, but then I haven’t gotten to any huge discussion points since I started the new system. (part 18 here, you can go back from there)
Well, this is fun! It’s partly a list of every Shahrukh Khan film, but more than that, it is a case study for how a career progressed in the 90s in Bombay. Lots of work, not a lot of hits. And then the 2000s came in, and it was less work and less hits (notice I was able to cover twice as many years in this post as in the last one)
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.
dontcallitbollywood 