Another song! They are coming fast and furious now, it’s getting closer and closer! Oh geez, I have to figure out new angles for my Shahrukh Week, don’t I? Veer-Zaara for Shahrukh as a Punjabi? A third post on how ridiculous it is that Shahrukh didn’t end up with Anushka in Jab Tak? I can talk about that forever!
New song! Lowkey release this time, just posted a couple photos from the shoot on twitter followed by the song itself. I guess because the film promotions are running themselves now. He had to give it a little jump start with the two fan events for the other songs, but now it is chugging along on all cylinders all on it’s own. And, to continue the car metaphor, I suspect we will kick into a higher gear sometime next week or the week after, with a full length trailer, lots of public appearances and interviews, and so on and so on.
Anyway, I really really like the song! Both the sound and more so the visuals. Although, again IT’S NOT A REAL SONG SEQUENCE!!!!! Where’s my big dance number? It’s Bhangra too, which almost demands a big dance number. But nooooooooooooo, more little “setting/clothes change, 5 second dance move, setting/clothes change, 5 second dance move, setting/clothes change, 5 second dance move…….”
But, setting that aside, I like everything else, especially the implication that we will get a straight up happy ending. This could be a jump forward to their life together, like “Yaara Rab” at the end of Socha Na Tha. In that case, I would guess that part of Shahrukh’s backstory is an unacknowledged within himself longing to return home. And Anushka gives him the ability to do that, and now he is happier as a Punjabi farmer than he ever was elsewhere.
Or it is a tacked on kind of happy fantasy ending, like the end of Befikre. In which case it must be a happy ending to feel in synch with this super happy song. Showing how Anushka and Shahrukh are now aligned in every way, and she has taken over his Punjabi inner life.
What I definitely can’t see is that this is a straight up Shahrukh fantasy. He realizes he is in love with Anushka, has this song all on his own, and then gets his heartbroken or she doesn’t feel the same way or whatever. It just doesn’t work with the tone of the song, they are way too happy together.
So, does this mean we are guaranteed a happy ending? I hope so!
dontcallitbollywood 
I got Nagada Nagada vibes from this one, too!
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Ooo, good point! I love Nagada Nagada. Especially because IT HAD AN ACTUAL DANCE NUMBER! (I don’t know when I got so bitter about that)
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Yep, I’m getting bitter about the montage copouts, too. I can’t think of the last real dance number in this year’s films. It might have actually been in last year’s Befikre (the finale and the tango dance thingy, too).
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Befikre had so many dances! It felt like Adi was very An American in Paris inspired. I only wish they had been in a better film.
Sultan had some great real dance numbers, only suffering because Salman was leading themw ith his locked up back.
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But after a string of uninspiring serious films (except for Angamaly Diaries) this year, I would kill for a Befikre clone right now. Meri Pyaari Bindu is the closest we got this year. I know Badrinath fits the category but I’m still trying to block it out.
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I think this is why we are all surprisingly excited about A Gentleman. It doesn’t look like a great movie, but it looks like a fun movie!
Also, I am beginning to get more pumpted for Judwaa 2 than I thought I would be.
On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 11:28 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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And I’m starting to think that this whole film is Ali revisiting Jab We Met because he’s in need of a career boost. Though Tamasha wasn’t that much of a flop and Highway wasn’t too long ago and was a major critical hit.
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I don’t know, Tamasha was pretty bad. With that cast and Rahman music and being sold as a fun rom-com, it should have been a big hit. Failing like that, kind of makes it look like he can’t get big box office even when he tries.
But I also wouldn’t be surprised if Shahrukh is driving it a little in a light direction. He needs a big fun hit too, probably even more than Imtiaz.
Meanwhile, Anushka is doing GREAT! They should all feel lucky that she deigned to share a little of her star power with this poor over the hill behind the times older guys.
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I think you’re right that SRK as a producer is driving this just as much as Ali needing a big win. I think SRK is now entering into the phase of his career where he should be doing more roles like Raees and Dear Zindagi but will inevitably chase his youth by playing these roles in order to also play to his base. The script better deal with or at least acknowledge that he’s so old, otherwise it will make me angry that another actor like Shahid Kapoor or Ranbir wasn’t cast.
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Happy New Year is the one where I was really frustrated with SRK’s casting. The script describes him as a young guy on the way up with a fancy overseas degree. But then we are looking at this old craggy guy. The whole film would have been more powerful if we saw a young yuppie type who was forced to do underground fighting and scrounge for a living, and finally turned his business degree smarts to pulling off a heist.
My theory with Shahrukh is that he wants to make Raees and Dear Zindagi, but knows he can only experiment like that if he has some solid hits behind him to provide the funding/star power. I also wonder how much of this is just to feed into Red Chillies. Once he gets enough money into the company, I think he may be counting on that to keep him and his children supported and comfortable while he starts taking one character role a year and cuts down on weddings and public performances. Look at poor Amitabh, still working like crazy at age 70 something, because he can’t afford to pick and choose.
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Very good points. I think he’s putting money in the bank with this one. As much as he loves the big star vehicles, he must be secretly looking forward to playing the character (and even the father) roles. I can see him totally getting a kick out of playing the father to the next generation of stars on screen and maybe even acting opposite his own kids (because we know that’s inevitable, don’t we?). He’s vain, but I feel like he jokingly acknowledges in ways that the other three, including Saif, don’t, that playing these kind of roles at his age is a little silly.
The whole Amitabh working so much to support the family’s bank account is interesting to me…so they were never that wealthy even in his peak and then didn’t he lose his wealth somehow during the dark period of his career? Plus Jaya doesn’t work that much. Also explains why Abhishek still lives at home (outside of the obvious cultural reasons), because he contributes to the family enterprise with his all too obvious “I did this role for the money” roles. I saw the still from 102 and Out film with Rishi Kapoor and I’m kind of looking forward to it! I also think that Amitabh still acts because he’s addicted to the adulation and the gravitas he gets.
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Hrithik is the one who is feeling most disconnected from his age to me right now. Both Mohenjo Daro and Kaabil (from what I have heard) had him playing a character much much too young. And he could easily play a decade younger, successful 30-something is well within his range. But he keeps going back to “innocent young man” roles that just don’t work any more.
With Amitabh, his biggest hits were all back before it was such a big money business. And then my understanding is they lost absolutely everything when ABC (Amitabh Bachchan Corporation) failed, and he had to take a ton of ads and other work to pay back everybody they owed money too. Jaya is a semi-serious politician, which costs money and keeps her from acting as much as she could. And Abhishek, as we know, works hard but never quite hit that “Million dollars for one wedding appearance” plateau.
But mostly I think it is status. If he could maintain the lifestyle he is used to (both in terms of actual comforts and what those comforts represent with being able to maintain a friendship with the Ambani types), and maintain the respect and industry power he is used to, without working, I think he would. But if he wants to keep it up, he and Abhishek have to work A LOT.
I can see Shahrukh wanting that too, the status and his kids being able to casually be friends with the top families in India. And if he can keep Red Chillies afloat long enough that it will sail on it’s own, he can get that as a producer instead of as a star. It’s what happened in Jeetendra.
On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 11:37 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think if you want big dance numbers, your best bet would be Munna Michael at the moment. I read an article this morning where Sidharth mentioned that the song Bandook Meri Laila from the trailer of A Gentleman isn’t going to be shot, it’s just going be used in the background. He implied that they’re going to do the same with another song as well because they want to keep the run time crisp. I think after Munna Michael and Mubarakan the only movie coming up with dance numbers will be Judwaa 2.
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My friend Dina is going to force us to watch Munna Michael because she has a weird crush on Tiger, so good to know at least I will have the dances to look forward to! (I do not have a crush on Tiger. Too many muscles, too smooth face, not enough acting)
On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 12:06 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I don’t care about Tiger but he seems like a nice guy and can dance really well.
What do you think about the fact that 3 of his 4 movies have all been directed by Sabbir Khan? I find it interesting that he keeps teaming up with the same director.
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Could be a kind of “no on else wants them” situation. In the most uncharitable view of it. Kambakkht Ishq was such a massive high profile flop, it is possible that Sabbir Khan can’t get anyone besides Tiger to agree to risk his movies.
And from the flip side, Tiger is a good dancer and has regular features, but I don’t know if many directors would want to work with his limited skill set. At least, not until he has proved himself.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if both Tiger and Sabbir started branching out a bit after this, now that they both have a track record that they can sell to someone else.
On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 12:12 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah, maybe you could look at it that way. I was thinking that Tiger’s motivation to keep working with Sabbir Khan is that he’s really comfortable with him and he’s afraid of working with someone who he’s not comfortable with. Plus his first failure was when he worked with Remo D’Souza.
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That would be the nice way to put it 🙂 That Tiger trusts him, not that Tiger knows no one else really knows what to do with him.
On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 12:23 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh god, you’re right! Munna Michael is the best bet at good dancing (with Mubarakan and Judwaa 2, too…though the former will be more Punjabi party songs and the latter will probably have better dancing…as much as I’m so-so on Varun…I don’t think Illeana and Atithya can make up for Arjun’s so-so dancing but I’ll keep an open mind).
But Tiger and more of the weird obsession with Michael Jackson…I just can’t deal with it! Either he’s trying to outright copy Hrithik or Michael Jackson. And Vidyut Jamwal does the martial arts bit better, too. As a child of the 80s in the US, I love classic Michael Jackson, too, and owned a few records, but I just do not get the whole obsession with him, especially because of his very suspect personal life. Yes, he was a very distinctive dancer and he had huge worldwide appeal, but he hadn’t done anything good since the early 90s. So when Prabhu Deva or Prabhas or Tiger (or even Hrithik in Bang Bang) do this kind of homage, it just looks so cheesy and kind of the opposite of cool.
All that being said, this may be the first Tiger film I actually watch all the way through solely because of Siddiqui. However, he’s a star kid I’m actively rooting against because of his lack of acting talent. I would argue that Sid displayed more potential in his first movies and continues to grow, but Tiger seems to be so ego-driven and superficial that he has no hope to grow. His recent comments about the “padding” of a film in respect to the casting of women in his films and their roles was, I think, unintentionally honest. Plus, he’s got some other subtext issues going on and that makes me angry at the industry and society, not him.
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With the Michael Jackson thing, I can understand it when Prabhu Deva does it, and a little when Hrithik does it. Because for Prabhu, it’s been there his whole career, we can see that it is a completely sincere “This man is my Guru, I continue to revere and honor him even after death” kind of thing. And I think Hrithik has that a bit too. This is a true personal relationship for them, even if they never met the man, just artist to artist. And that never having met him probably makes it a bit easier to distance the art from the artists.
But with Tiger and some of the other younger ones, it really really feels like they are just ripping him off, or trying to build themselves up by relating to other better artists (meaning all three, Michael Jackson and Prabhu Deva and Hrithik) instead of having their own style. And their own emotions! Find your own Guru to honor, don’t steal one from someone else!
And yes to Tiger being a star kid to root against! Varun, Alia, even Ranbir and Arjun, I’m rooting for them, because they seem to have taken their blessings with humiliaty and then dug in and forced themselves to work hard to earn them. But Tiger, I don’t know, it seems like he just kind of accepts that he gets to be a star without really thinking it through.
On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 2:13 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I agree, I should acknowledge, especially with Prabu Deva, that Michael Jackson was a guru for him and that he himself is a true dancing innovator. I think that with Hrithik it is more of a vapid hero-worship like Tiger’s because I don’t think Hrithik is really that deep:) But you’re totally right that Tiger trying to steal their Michael Jackson thunder with such a calculated film is so obvious. It is his lack of humility that does bother me the most. He was raised by a very weird man so I’ll also try to keep that in mind, too:) That KWK interview was off the wall (to carry the MJ theme through!).
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There’s a KWK interview????? How did I not see this!!! This is the exact situation that I love to see Karan in as an interviewer. Because he’s enough of an “insider” to sort of pick at the interesting points without fear, but enough of an outsider that he can kind of be our audience standin going “this guy is weird!”
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Yeah, this last season Tiger and Jackie were on together. And Tiger did not impress me. Jackie was weird and hilarious though.
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This buzzfeed listical is a quick recap of the weirdness…https://www.buzzfeed.com/srishtidixit/hilarious-moments-from-tiger-and-jackie-shroffs-koffee-wi?utm_term=.wsn7Jd4lR#.takB3jd7o
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Thank you! Saved me so much time.
On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 2:50 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I have a rabid fan question. I mean this question sincerely. Both of you seem to be discussing Shah Rukh (and others) as over the hill and sort of clinging to a former fame and as making mistakes based on the desire to hold on to something that is lost. I’m not sure if I agree but I most certainly want to see more Dear Zindagi’s and Raees’ rather than anything else. However, f in fact he is ‘over the hill’ why do there still seem to be young fans who stand outside his house, come to the mall to see him and add thousands of twitter followers a month? Is that just nostalgia? That they turn out for everyone and I just see mostly Shah Rukh stuff? What am I missing? Does he have a blind spot and he is making mistakes? JHMS has already made its costs back in endorsements and various distribution rights etc. so, the health of RCE is fine. He is banking money for the costly and most probably not popular ‘Dwarf’ film.
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The bigger question is if Hindi cinema is set up to allow for the kind of star Shahrukh is any more. I think what Shahrukh has to offer that the younger actors do not is a certain kind of experience, gravitas, power, that is just hard to build up today. We were just talking about Tiger Shroff, he is 3 years into his career, has only made 4 movies and worked with two directors. Shahrukh at 3 years in had made I think a dozen films, worked with that many directors as well, along with older stars, a variety of actresses, a variety of song directors, a variety of producers, and so on and so on. By the time he hit it big with DDLJ, he had the kind of effortless ability at Stardom (not acting, but Stardom), which none of these little boys will have for decades.
The problem is, the roles available that are Star Level tend to be younger. So Shahrukh and the other Khans are the only stars around, the only people who can feed their public in this particular way. But in order to keep providing product, they have to keep taking starring roles that don’t really make sense with their ages. Which is also kind of logical, if you are trying for an all India/all ages hit, then Young Man is where it is at. Older men like to remember when they were that age, kids like to dream of being all cool and grown up like that, older women like to fantasize about a young lover or son, and young women obviously adore it. Dear Zindagi was a great movie playing his own age, and the market share was tiny compared to Happy New Year, playing much younger. It’s not “ageism” or anything, it’s truly practical.
To go back to Amitabh, he took a break around this point. He left, and only after he left were the 3 Khans allowed to rise. I’m not saying that Shahrukh should take a break, because there is a decent chance that if he ever officially stepped back into character roles, there just wouldn’t be any more stars. All 3 Khans have kind of acknowledged that in interviews, that they will always be working, because when they stop, the industry might cease to function. Which sounds terribly egotistical, but is also kind of true. Who can fill that gap?
So, as fans of Shahrukh-the-actor, I think we all want him to take more interesting out there roles. And I think Shahrukh-the-actor wants that for himself. But Shahrukh-the-star knows most of his fans want the other kind of role, and knows that the industry NEEDS him in that kind of role. And Shahrukh-the-businessman/father/paranoid survivor of poverty doesn’t want to risk giving up those roles until he knows that Red Chillies can provide him a stable massive income even if he stops being a star.
So, I imagine the long time plan is to keep making these “Star” movies and slowly move more into just being head of Red Chillies, and a respected character actor. Which the fans will hate, but the man is OLD! Let him just take a break!
On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 3:23 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I hear you. He has said one for them one for me in terms of the kinds of films….
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