Happy Monday! And happy 4 days until Jab Harry Met Sejal comes out! I have to help my parents host a bunch of people the next day, so I am half looking forward to the movie and half dreading having to stay up until 2am writing reviews, and then get up at 6 the next day. But, to distract myself, I have a VERY IMPORTANT question for you.
As always, you can ask me anything you want here. From the personal (“what was your first Shahrukh movie?”) to the specific and factual (“what was Shahrukh’s first movie?”) to the general discussion type (“what is the best first Shahrukh movie to show people?”).
The only rule is, you have to let me answer first! It’s just better that way. And then once I leap in and answer, you can join with anything you want to say.
And now, this week’s question for you! A VERY IMPORTANT one. As we can all see because we have eyes, Shahrukh is looking shockingly good in Jab Harry Met Sejal trailers. But is this the best he has ever looked?
What, for you, are Shahrukh’s top looks? I can tell you what they are for me. In no particular order, Mohabbatein,
(Sensitive, glasses, sweater, lost the baby fat finally, the bangs are under control, it’s all good!)
present day part of Jab Tak Hain Jaan,
(does this require explanation?)
and Dear Zindagi.
(Troubled, fatherly, linen)
With honorable mention for Josh.
(Angry, leather, earring, see above regarding baby fat, it’s worth a mention)
How about for you? You can pick as many as you want, or, if you happen to have a lot of time, you can even put all 75+ films in order from least to greatest hotness.
dontcallitbollywood 
When is SRK going to stop smoking? When I see him in a romantic clutch, all I can think about is how stinky he must smell.
(Same goes for Humphrey Bogart.)
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I’m guessing he is never going to stop, he seems to be following a “work myself to death and leave money for my children” health policy.
However, I feel much better about the romance scenes since reading an old interview with Rani where they asked her who was the sweetest smelling of all her male co-stars (it was related to a plot point in her next movie), and she said it was Shahrukh by far. Because he is such a gentlemen and so aware of the cigarette smell. So he always uses really great expensive cologne to cover it up so it won’t bother his costars.
On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 9:54 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I am fairly certain (and now for the life of me, I am unable to locate the youtube video link for it) that somewhere in the BTS of Jab Tak Hai Jaan, and also of Dilwale, it is mentioned that he chews gum constantly before having to do intimate scenes with his co-stars. It makes sense especially for JTHJ for the kiss (as lifeless as it was, at least he probably smelled a million bucks for a London underground station).
Shah Rukh is consistently called the best co-star to work with. Deepika and Anushka especially have a special bond with him, sure (first movie, debut, blah blah) but I have seen it over and over again that he is very considerate of his co-stars’ comfort level.
But dear God, please, I hope he quits smoking. His fans can’t be the only people concerned for his health. I do think it is the basis of several arguments at home already. I do remember reading Hiroo Johar being a constant presence insisting that he quit.
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Fun question! I think of Shah Rukh’s hotness in phases. For me his hottest years are between @2000 and 2007; and from @2012 to present (except in Dilwale, where they did weird stuff to his face in the “young” parts). I think this has to do as much with the roles he plays as it does his actual day to day looks. For example, I think 2010-2011 was the era of the red reading glasses in real life. Nice.
And, when I watch any of his pre-@2000 movies I think of a phrase that I read at hotshahrukh.tumblr.com (don’t judge): He was young & candy hot. But I prefer the present version to any. He seems more settled with himself and that makes for a nice vibe.
I just heard a question in a work meeting which I’d love to ask you and all the commenters: If you could erase your memory of one movie, to have the chance to watch it again for the first time, what would it be?
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I agree with the 2000-2007 and 2012 to present. Like all people, he seems to go through phases of being comfortable with himself, and then having to figure out a new look as he ages into a new phase. Really early baby Shahrukh, Fauji through DDLJ, I find super cute in a sort of “I am so young that I don’t have to do anything special” way. But then when he hit the early 30s, his body kind of filled out and he didn’t seem as comfortable with himself. Of course, that was also the baby years, so maybe it was just parenthood weight gain and exhaustion. But starting in 2000, he entered a new phase of “yeah, I’m a grown man now and I wear suits and take care of my health and pay attention to my haircut”. And then he hit that point of being slightly too old to play the confident young man and took a while to find his new bearded old man cool vibe.
And that question is wonderful! there are so many for me, because I remember every movie I have seen perfectly after one watch, which is such a curse! But I think it would be DDLJ. Especially if I could watch it knowing everything I know now so I could understand how it interacts with the history of Indian film and Shahrukh and Kajol’s previous films together and everything else that makes it special. Or else Singin in the Rain. I watched that the first time when I was 4 and I remember it being a big moment in my life, but I really wish I could relive it now that I can, like, read and stuff.
On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 10:41 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I guessed that you might say DDLJ, but I followed the rule of not answering til you answer! 😉
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You are so obedient! Thank you.
On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 11:42 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Ah the red glasses. The gorgeous RED glasses. The RED glasses made me wish for a reverse Main Hoon Na, with him as the hot college professor and a besotted heroine. If only.
If I could erase one movie of his, it will be – drumroll please – English Babu Desi Mem, because what the actual hell?
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But then we would lose “Lut Gaye”! Which I love, it’s up there with “Choli Ke Peeche” for a sexy number where the reaction shots from the male audience is what sells it.
On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 11:56 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Haha, I am with you on English Babu Desi Mem, even though he is super cute in it. What a jerk his character is! And no good songs to redeem it, either.
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I’m glad you put up the Josh picture, I’ve always loved that one. I’ve always loved the middle period look KKKG, Veer Zara etc. from 2000 to 2010. I like the look now (Raes, Dear Zindagi) but I fell in love with the 30-40 year old Shah Rukh.
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I have to confess, I don’t love K3G Shahrukh. I mean I love him, obviously, in a spiritual way. But I don’t love his body. Still too much softness in the face for me. Starting just after 2000, Mohabbatein and Kal Ho Na Ho and Main Hoon Na Shahrukh, that’s when I love him. Although I think I might love present day Shahrukh most of all? Something about the bearded competence is very appealing for me, a young woman trying to figure out her life and how to pay rent month to month. Dear Zindagi really “got” his present day appeal for the younger fans. I just want someone to tell me what to do with my life and that it will all be okay, in a way I can believe!
On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 10:42 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I have a theory about this (which is ridiculous and silly and stupid and so wrong but I like theorizing)! Because I am that obsessive stalkerish, and I seem to know timelines and dates and years of his life, My theory is that Shah Rukh’s baby-fat-amount is directly proportional to whether Gauri is pregnant in the preceding 12 months of his life.
Exhibit A: Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, especially in the college sequences. I mean, I love that blue-green bicycle t-shirt from Koi Mil Gaya as much as the next girl, but it didn’t do wonders for his figure, really.
He filmed Dil To Pagal Hai also during the ’96 days when Gauri was just beginning to be pregnant with Aryan. While skinny, he was still carrying baby fat/
Exhibit B: Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham with a toddler Suhana, and Gauri was still shedding the pregnancy weight. (There is a gorgeous photo from the set of K3G where he is leaning down to kiss a barely-walking Suhana. They are filming the Shah Rukh-Rani run scene in the beginning of the film.)
Mohabbatein Shah Rukh had such swollen cheeks! And Karan’s full, weighty sweaters weren’t helping either! And Gauri was pregnant with Suhana/gave birth around filming/film release.
The pregnancy rule still holds, because Abram doesn’t count. Gauri wasn’t technically pregnant with him.
Isn’t it sweet of him to share some of the baby fat/pregnancy fat with his wife?
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I co-sign this theory. Except I would expand it to be a general “pregnancy/new baby” rule. I know the adorable Suhana photo you mention, but there are some others from the early Aryan/Suhana era where they both look ROUGH. Which just makes me love him more, that clearly this was not a couple with a million nannies, or a husband who let his wife get up with the baby while he slept in. They were just as steamrolled by trying to handle kids and life and work as any other young couple. And then once the kids got older, the energy came back, gym time and spa time and make-up time became a thing again.
And AbRam, not only was there no pregnancy to take down the physical energy levels, they also kind of had their lives more together, work schedules weren’t so insane, their house was ready, they had two other kids to help carry the weight, and most of all they had done this twice before, it wasn’t so overwhelming.
On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 12:04 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh clearly, there was a lot of reluctance from both Shah Rukh and Gauri, especially in the newborn Aryan days, to hire nannies. I remember old interviews where the problem was he was TOO INVOLVED with everything; nappy changes, phone calls every ten minutes. It might have been a print interview I think, where Gauri tells Karan (of course. I want to find one interviewer who can make her talk and who is NOT Karan.) that Shah Rukh drove her mother crazy with how involved he was.
The Simi interview, for instance, (another example of both of them carrying a lot of baby fat), was literally filmed with baby Aryan in the van, with Gauri’s mother looking on. They both had extreme new parent separation anxiety, something Shah Rukh carries to this day. I really want to know what Imitiaz Ali thought of Shah Rukh tagging Abram along to every European pit stop they made while filming.
On a lighter note, my friends and I have a game off the Mohabbatein DVD. In the making section, we take a shot everytime we spot baby Aryan in the background being naughty, or playing with Karan, or pulling on Aditya’s hair.
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AbRam at least, by all accounts, is the sweetest easiest little boy, so probably easy to travel with. Hopefully if he was a grump and hated moving around, they would be good enough parents to just leave him at home!
On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 12:20 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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SRK looked better in:
1) Chak De India
2) Jab Tak Hai Jaan (hot hot Shah Rukh in the uniform -the only good thing in this movie)
3) Dear Zindagi (I was so focused on how hot he is in this, that I missed reading subtitles)
4) Swades
5) Don
I’m not a fan of early Shah Rukh, he looks better and better with age 🙂
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Always dorky engineer Shahrukh over evil criminal mastermind Shahrukh! Always! I have to admit a certain soft spot for Rab Ne Shahrukh, the “real” one, not the tight pants version.
You know, now that I think about it, Shahrukh-in-a-lanyard-id-badge has a certain something to it. Swades, and Chak De, and now Jab Harry Met Sejal.
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Dear Zindagi Shah Rukh was hot enough to be DISTRACTING. I mean, I have always found him attractive, but DZ was the first time I had to rewatch several scenes because I kept looking at him and forgetting about Kaira’s VERY REAL problems.
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Exactly my experience! Well, and also Jab Tak Hain Jaan. But luckily they parceled out the hotness there very carefully so we could still pay attention to the plot. I think there’s only like 40 minutes of beard.
On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 12:05 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think I like him most in Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Then I also really liked his hair in My Name is Khan.
Have you realized that every director that Shahrukh has worked with since Anubhav Sinha has not made another movie. I think Anubhav Sinha has made a couple of movies and Rohit Shetty ended up making another film with Shahrukh himself but other than these two the other directors haven’t made a single film. I just find it really interesting.
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That is interesting! About the directors. But then another way to put it is that directors usually have about a 3-4 year gap between films. Anubhav Sinha has made other films, so has Rohit Shetty. Yashji died 😦 So he couldn’t. And then everyone else (Farah, Maneesh Sharma, Gauri Shinde) is in the middle of pre-production for their next production right now because it hasn’t been 4 years yet. Really the only one who is remarkable is Farhan Akhtar, and I’ve got a whole other beef with Farhan with the producing and the acting and the rock band instead of just sitting down and directing like he is supposed to.
On Tue, Aug 1, 2017 at 9:16 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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But one thing that caught my eye was that there haven’t even been rumors about what people like Farah Khan or Maneesh Sharma are planning to do next. But yeah it does make sense considering the gap that directors usually have between movies.
The reason this thought came to me is because I was wondering what directors would do after they made a movie with a big star like one of the Khans. Even when I looked at Salman’s filmography the recent directors who worked with him have only worked with him again or they haven’t directed another movie. These people are his brothers, Kabir Khan, Ali Abbas Zafar, and Sajid Nadiadwala. I think the only person who made movies after was Anees Bazmee but he has his own brand of cinema.
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My explanation would be that directing a Khan film jumps you to a new level in the industry, which means your next project suddenly has a lot of expectations on it and takes a lot longer to prepare. Or maybe you don’t even try and switch to doing something else for a while. Maneesh Sharma right now has gone back to producing for Yash Raj, he produced Dum Laga Ke Haisha before/during Fan and now is producing Mere Pyari Bindu and Hitchki. Farah dropped back to producing post-Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om, along with choreographing.
Maybe it’s also because the Khans are getting pickier about their directors? Someone like Anubhav Sinha is always working, but someone like Rahul Dholakia takes years and years to come up with his creative vision for a film.
On Tue, Aug 1, 2017 at 11:32 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes, that’s what I was thinking. Directing a Khan film will cause a lot of expectations for your next film so they tend to be more careful. Plus that’s probably why the directors end up working with a Khan again like Rajkumar Hirani doing 3 Idiots and PK or Kabir Khan doing a Bajrangi and Tubelight.
Yeah, you may be right about the Khans getting pickier about their directors as well.
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To be fair, I did see a couple of mentions during JHMS promotions that Bhansali might be bringing a project to Shah Rukh early December. I hope that comes to fruition, because I want to see how directors who have worked with him before see him now, a decade later.
(Obviously, Karan and Adi and Yashji are excluded on grounds of unsurmountable personal bias.)
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Ooo, I don’t want him to get sucked into Bhansali again. That means maybe a year of filming, and the kind of huge movie that could kill a career if it flops. Unless he just does a small cameo type appearance, in that case I am down and very curious.
On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 12:08 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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SRK greatest look was not as a romantic but as a baddie. His look in Don when he figures out that vardhan is actually de Silva , it was awesome.
Just like rajanikanth looks in robot.
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Ah, the Shah Rukh Khan hotness saga; Unending angst, The Cause of.
The hottest Shah Rukh is always the NEXT ONE. The older he gets, like fine wine, the hotter he is. Hey, I don’t make the rules! It’s not to say that younger Shah Rukhs are not hot, they’re attractive in the “cute” and “awww” and “how pretty” variants.
The “Cute” Era
1) Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa Shah Rukh – the cutest Shah Rukh to ever cute.
2) DDLJ Shah Rukh – the beginnings of the heart breaker, the start of the magnetism. While he always had this ability way back in Darr, it was in DDLJ that he began to completely arrest your attention when he is on screen. You are NOT looking at other people when he is in the frame.
3) Dil to Pagal Hai – I love the man, but the mane, almost mullet was just. Not okay. (But he is the cutest in ‘Dolna’, especially when he is trying to hold in the laughter in the BTS with Yashji in place of Madhuri.)
The “Getting Hot” era
1) Mohabbatein – the beginnings of the hot era, in the sense that you could TELL he was going to be a major hottie, bulky sweaters notwithstanding.
2) Ditto for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, albeit the baby fat. Especially in most of the summer camp sequences, in his white/cream suits and brushed, shorter hair.
3) Am I the only one who found him intensely hot in Asoka, with the long hair? Really? Yes? Okay then.
4) K3G – Every time he wore a Sherwani, I lost a few brain cells. At least that’s what I am blaming poor primary school grades on.
5) Kal Ho Naa Ho – YES I AM COUNTING THIS in the “getting hot” stage instead of out and out “hot”. While KHNH was prime SRK hotness, it wasn’t the MOST hot he could be.
The “Seriously Hot” era:
1) Jab Tak Hai Jaan – older version. Listen, that scene in the church where he gives his long speech to Meera? Yeah. Angry Shah Rukh + Tight Suits + Bearded older look = hotness. (There is a formula. Yes.)
2) Don 2 – I am going to just say that I might be one of those few who even liked his long hair + linen suit combo in the opening fight sequences. And you’ve gotta admit it – very few people could have pulled off that god awful linen suit.
The “So HOT I am certain I am pregnant” era:
1) Kabir Khan in Chak De India. I dunno how, but he managed to be more of a heartthrob in a film where there was absolutely NO ROMANCE, or any of his usual trappings.
2) Dear Zindagi – he was edible here. EDIBLE. The audience WAS KAIRA by the end of the film.
3) Raees – thank the Lord that he wore Surma only ONCE in his long career. I think he did so, keeping in mind the health and well being of his fans. I couldn’t take it in ONE movie, kohl’ed eyes combined with his anger and barely restrained intensity.
4) Jab Harry Met Sejal – enough said. I will always take mean, mad, pissed off, broken, hurt, experienced, older SRK and variants thereof.
“We struggle valiantly everyday to hold together!” – an autobiography by the buttons of Harry’s shirt in JHMS.
YAY for more tight shirts! I am faily certain he did the Anupama Chopra interview in the white shirt, that’s a costume from the film.
Almost Made it/honorable mentions:
1) There is no SRK on-screen persona who is CUTER than Suri in RNBDJ. Fight me.
2) The moment when Rizwan Khan turns away in shyness when Mandira asks him to marry her: I swear the entire theatre “awwww’d”. The kindly gentleman next to me pretended that he didn’t ‘awww’ too.
Sidenote:
Sad, heartbroken, genuinely lost Shah Rukh. I feel terrible about objectifying him here, in this genuinely sad moment (this is after the passing of Tom Uncle, Karan’s dad’s funeral where he was steadfast beside Karan for the two days after the sad death.)
But the point I am trying to make is that when he is open and vulnerable, that is when he connects with people the most. I have pointed this out before, that it is very clear when you watch Aamir perform, that IT IS A performance. With Shah Rukh, you’re lost for the character, you feel what his character is feeling. The audience is drawn in more when it’s Shah Rukh being open and vulnerable on screen. Kabir Khan’s pain in Chak De will always scar me more than the raw intensity of Aamir’s Phogat in Dangal.
M, Thank you for linking me to this post. You are right. This.. erm, erm – content matter – is of extreme interest to me.
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This is brilliant! And makes me feel so much better in knowing that I am not the only one who has wasted (wasted?) her life thusly. Although I have to disagree with your late 90s selections, for me nothing 95-2000 is any good. Speaking purely of the physical, obviously on a spiritual level my feelings are always unchanged.
Cute era:
1) Yes indeed. Although I would also mention Chamatkar (holding a baby and fighting off a goat while trying to teach school)
2) Agreed! And it feels like something Aditya must have brought out in him, knowing he had this ability and challenging him to keep up that intensity for the entire film.
3) No, sorry, must disagree. No late 90s for me. The cuteness stops at Trimurti
“Getting Hot”-I think of it as the “metrosexual” kind of era. He is figuring out his look, his brand, how to stop coasting on just baby face appeal. This is also when Karan clearly took over his costuming and general grooming. The hair, the make-up (a lot fewer visible bags under the eyes here), and most of all, the fitted clothing (no man looks his best in baggy pants).
1) Oh yeah Mohabbettain! Like I said, that’s one of my top choices 2) Nope, holding firm on the “no late 90s SRK” rule for me. Hair is too floppy, so are the suits 3) Not just you (based on what I have seen on The Internet), but definitely not me. I liked him with the clean cut in Asoka, and the simple outfits. The Kareena section. The rest of it, ho hum 4) Sherwani SRK, yes. Not baggy suit SRK. I have made my feelings on that point clear 5) A fine line! But yes, I think I agree. This could be considered the peak of the era in which he was learning about style and fashion and all the rest of it. But he didn’t yet have that maturity that really put him over the top.
Seriously Hot
1) Jab Tak Hain Jaan. This really belongs in the next section for me, or would if the whole film was older bearded SRK. But forcing us to watch young man SRK just ruins it. Both because it wastes an hour of the film, and because it makes him seem less comfortable with his age, which is of course a key compenant of Hot Older SRK 2) Don 2, sure, seriously hot. But no Don 1? Although, that’s more the character (the baddest of bad boys) than the appearance.
SO HOT
1) Chak De. A man so under control he barely even cracks a smile when he gets his hearts desire. Control, that’s hot 2) DZ Oh yes! Mature, wise, funny, and yet just a little bit out of reach. 3) The kohl! The Muharram! The whole “yeah, I’m Muslim, what about it?” vibe! For me, it’s the Yatra sequence that just sends me. Angry, fearless, strong, and leading the charge. 4) JHMS. Why is mean bitter SRK so hot? Is it just because it is so different from his usual look? Or is there something more there? I don’t know!
Honorable Mention
1) RNBDJ, oh yes! Also, this is the SRK I would most like to marry. Sure, you can have a dirty affair with JTHJ Shahrukh, DDLJ Shahrukh will always keep you laughing, but RNBDJ Shahrukh will give you the happiest life. 2) Also, Tere Naina, when he looks back and the music swells.
Well, this was a refreshing and useful break in my work day! No back to reconciling bank statements.
On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 2:14 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Ha ha, you’re definitely not the only one. I have spent unhealthy amounts of time on his work, interviews, OTHER people’s interviews ABOUT him, and essentially watching every single piece of film he’s been associated with.
But M, come on! Late 90s Shah Rukh, while of the horrendous fashion choices and horrible hair, is still extremely cute dimpling Shah Rukh. Ah the dimples. They were out in full force, and he was less hesitant about dimpling (is it a verb now?) in the late 90s. These days, the sight of a dimpling Shah Rukh is so rare.
I agree that Trimurti SRK was very cute, but you should give Dil To Pagal Hai another chance! (Or use it as an excuse to rewatch it. Whichever works.)
The other thing I agree with you on – what in the world were Manish and Karan thinking about the big bulky suits? Did they really think that “older” means “businessman who can’t shop to save his life”? I really want to sit Karan down today and show him some old clips and just ask him fashion questions.
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It wasn’t just SRK! Every movie 95-2000 had the heroes in these huge jackets. My total conspiracy theory is that it is related to air conditioning in studios. Since studios weren’t air conditioned in those days (and it’s still not 100% today), you ran the risk of massive sweat stains, especially during dance numbers. If they were in traditional cloths, no problem, the bright colors and embroidery was less likely to show it. But a standard western suit shirt would look really bad (and does look really bad in the few big dance numbers I have seen where the heroes are just wearing that). So they compromised with the jackets. And they had to make them super loose and bulky so they could still dance in them.
But now, a/c in studios! You can wear nice white shirts and still look crisp and cool even in the middle of a dance. And you can toss off your jacket when you start dancing, letting it be super fitted so long as it is on you.
Just look at, say, No.1 Punjabi versus Chammak Challo. So MUCH BETTER!
On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 11:50 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I cannot choose one. You know I cannot. Welcome DDLJ17, we share many of the same tastes. Ashoka, yes! JTKJ, indeed. I prefer him after 40, because (1) before then he is in son/student territory and (2) at my age, I like my guys all grown up, if not a little sadder and wiser. Since we are all such good friends, it’s ok that I admit to watching the YouTube clip of the hotel love scene from KANK on an obsessive continuous loop at times, right? I also really, really enjoy his comic roles and scenes. Learning to dance in HNY? Sign me up. Omi and his fake action movie in OSO? Kills me.
Going to see JHMS for the 3rd time tomorrow. Hope I can drag my limp body home afterwards.
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Just jumping in to say, in the past 5 minutes, I just confirmed JHMS shows with friends for tonight, tomorrow, and Thursday. And then Akshay on Friday, we’ll see if he can live up to it.
On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 4:52 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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When they show Harry’s I.d. In the opening minutes, his birthdate is onit, I think. If you blink, you’ll miss it, but if we all try, we might be able to figure how his supposed age.
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Well, on one of my upcoming 2 more re-watches, I will look for that!
On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 7:58 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Hello! and thank you!
I am fairly new to M’s blog, but I am loving everything I have seen so far. I do have unpredictable work schedules, and I tend to pop up on her blog everytime she mentions Shah Rukh, or on her DDLJ posts.
Also, the KANK video clip? OH YEAH. I have been there too.
I find the almost-have-sex scene in JHMS also very similar, and beautiful, just for the raw passion infused through it. Older, meaner, wiser, and so much more attractive!
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Oh, just love your confession to a KANK addiction! I thought I was the only one. Besides being incredibly HOT I loved it when SRK kissed the tear on her face. Gets me every time.
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Another question for you: do you think the SRK-brand of high intense marketing (that Red Chillies pulls off so brilliantly) is working against them now, in the case of JHMS?
Because the film is so well known, and everyone knows what it is, who it is about, more news sites are talking about the fact that it didn’t do well, and more people come to know, and less people are actually going to the theatre to see it. Word of mouth has gotten so out of hand with JHMS, that some of the comments and reviews of the film are just – entirely unjustified. More people are writing JHMS articles just because they can, and because they can stay in the news with JHMS in the title.
I am wondering of an alternate reality where JHMS had just dropped out of the ether with minimal publicity, and I think it might have been better received for being a different kind of SRK role.
What do you think?
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I absolutely agree. This came up in the comments on one of my reviews, sort of. I realized that for me, and a lot of my commentators, this is our most immediate experience of Shahrukh since Raees. That is, if you are in the US and don’t have satellite TV, you only see Shahrukh through his new movies, DVDs you own, or interviews you voluntarily stream. Versus in India and other places, where he is everywhere. For us, this movie was great because he felt fresh and original and real. Instead of us kind of blanking out because it seemed like just the same thing he had done in a million ads and TV shows and things we see everywhere. Even the JHMS promos were voluntary for us, we could watch them as much or as little as we wanted. And so we went into JHMS feeling exactly as excited about it as we wanted to be, no more.
I think maybe audiences would have responded better if they had all experienced it like that, fresh in the theater with minimal promotions before hand. But from a business stand point, I suspect profits would have ultimately gone down in a variety of ways. For one thing, part of what those promotions do is drive up the satellite rights fees and all those other things that are dependent on how big the movie looks like it will be before release. So Red Chillies probably more than made back whatever they spent on marketing. Especially with an odd little film like this, where normally the satellite rights and so on wouldn’t be great. But if you sell it to the public and the investors as an SRK blockbuster, the prices rise.
And for another, if it had been dropped in a lowkey way, I think it would have gotten some good critical notices, and some good word of mouth and audience appreciation, but I doubt it would ever match the money it made in just opening weekend with the big release. Neerja is my gold standard for this kind of film, definitely some promotion, but not an over-whelming amount, and it built and built and built on word of mouth. But by the end of it’s run, I think it was still something a little shy of 100 crore. Where as JHMS will probably top that by the end of next weekend.
However, it is getting closer and closer. That is, the profits from a Shahrukh film that kind of lies in its marketing in order to get you in the door (Raees was not really the action gangster movie it was sold as), versus the slowly building word of mouth. This might be the last one, it would be great if the Aanand L Rai movie is released like a normal Aanand L Rai movie. Modest release, open minded critics, audiences who know they are getting something a little quirky and odd. That’s what happened with Dear Zindagi, modest release and modest expectations, and people were pleasantly surprised.
On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 11:53 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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