Happy Friday! It was pouring rain this morning, and now it is blazing sunshine. Which is making me think, “Sunglasses!” It’s not the most original photo series idea, but it is always good. Because sunglasses obscure your eyes, which make you look more otherworldly and better than us mortals. Also, easier to see you as just manmeat, and not a person!
Thanks to it suddenly popping up on Netflix (my Netflix list post is now woefully out of date, look for an update soon), I decided to rewatch Mughal-E-Azam. And it’s SO SO SO SO much better than I realized when I watched it before.
I hate that myth. From two sides. First, people always think it means that characters don’t kiss. Characters totally kiss! And have sex and do all the normal things. It’s the actors who don’t. So we see the characters leaning in, but then rain obscures our view or whatever. The audience knows what happened, even without seeing it. Just like a “sex scene” in a movie doesn’t mean we explicitly see the actors having sex. We just see a bunch of sheets and know what happened. Oh, and also, actors totally kiss too. Anyway, this made up holiday gives me an excuse to post lots and lots of kissing videos, woo!
Oh boy, getting close to modern times! And the stuff that doesn’t have, like, any “perspective of history” on it at all. Which is also why it is really important to know about it to watch film, because it is the stuff that is kind of being worked through actively still through film plots. (part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here)
Thank you Salman for giving me such a pun-friendly title! This headline isn’t as good as last week’s, but it is still pretty good. Not good: the Tubelight collections. (for general background on box office, check out my massive post with box office background here)
I’m back! We’ll see how this goes. I’ve cut Hindi Film 101 down to once a week to give me a little breathing space, and I get to pick if it is Tuesday or Thursday. That should help. (DDLJ full index here)
I wasn’t going to bother with a post about this, but we have already talked SO MUCH in the comments about how much we hate it, I thought I might as well give us one central place to discuss the new stupid Yash Raj promotional strategy.
Happy Wednesday! Time to talk about what all we have been reading and watching and thinking this week. Oh, and I have a fun question for us to discuss too!
Well, I have now seen all the less controversial/hardcore versions of Swept Away. This one, the original We’re Not Dressing with Bing Crosby, Overboard of course, and The Admirable Crichton. Which was a JM Barrie play, so I haven’t “seen” it, but I have read it. Next step, the Korean TV series! (not really, I think I am done with this story for another 5 years) Anyway, isn’t it fascinating how consistent it is across cultures?
In case have haven’t figured it out, I am working up to the final characters. Bhalla is 3rd to last, then Devasena, then Amarendra. I debated making Bhalla second, because he really is the co-lead of the films in many ways. But on the other hand, his character is slightly less important overall than Devasena. But only slightly. Feel free to make that your first discussion point in the comments, if Bhalla deserved the the second place instead of Devasena. (full index of Bahubal posts here)
Happy 4th of July! I am celebrating by not doing anything and just enjoying having a random day off in the middle of the week. And I am going to have a little song festival of American-themed Indian movie songs. As always with these posts, if I missed one you like, just mention it in the comments! (this is an updated and reposted post from last year)
I just cycled through a whole bunch of variations on that title, “unexpected”, “juxtapositions”, “breaking boundaries”, but really it’s just shock. That kind of “I can’t believe they went there!” shock. Which is why it is really too bad that I saw this film after having already seen a whole bunch of other movies that went to the same kind of shocking place. Since all the others were just imitating this one, it should have had the privilege of shocking me first.
This is a semi-random non-Indian post. Partly it’s because Niki has been talking about the show in her comments lately, partly it’s because I just started a rewatch while unpacking yesterday (I know it so well, I don’t have to pay close attention or even see the screen to enjoy it, so perfect for moving around boxes). Anyway, I always want to write about anything I am seeing, so why not let myself? And just to make it vaguely relevant, I’ll also talk about the things that are and are not Indian in the show and why it would and would not (mostly would not) work in a true Indian remake.
Well, this was interesting! For the first time ever, I got to experience the twitter madness of waiting for a song trailer to come out. Because usually the time zones/my interest level doesn’t allow for it. And I have to say, twitter is a cesspool of stupidity and misinformation! Who knew? Anyway, I am glad I usually stay off of it. Although this was kind of fun to experience once.
Happy Monday! I only have to work one day, and then I get tomorrow off, yay!!! And then I work 3 more days and it’s the weekend, yaaaaaaay! But, in the meantime, I still have to get through this day. So distract me with questions!
Yaaaay, another cute trailer! Which basically gives away the entire plot! But it’s a good plot, so I’m fine with that. Really, most of the time I think if you don’t want to see a movie once you know the plot, then it’s a baaaaaaad movie. We should enjoy films for more than just the plot, there are the characters and the dialogue and everything else. And this film is definitely going to be about the characters. (oh, and it was posted with subtitles right from the start, so I think this is a clear sign that Shahrukh is reading my blog and loves me)
I just wanted to share my joy. And also explain why posting has been down today. It’s because I have been obsessively putting my apartment together. It’s still not perfect, but it’s getting there! Most importantly, as the headline says, MY POSTERS ARE UP!!!!
I was hoping I could do this on Yash’s birthday or half birthday or something, like I did for Karan, but there’s no special occasion I could find, and I had this post idea poking around in my head, so heck, I’m just going for it.
I was looking for movie-to-have-on-in-the-background-while-unpacking, and Netflix reminded me that it has Dus now (for full list of all Indian movies on Netflix, check out accessbollywood.net here; for my opinion and recommendations of Indian movies on Netflix look at my post here). And I am so glad I was reminded! It really is the perfect movie. In a very particular category of movie.
Continuing our character posts, next up, Kattappa! Introduced 4th in the films, after Sivagami, Shivudu, and Avantika. And again, this is not meant to be the end all-be all on this character. Just sort of an interesting leaping off point to consider him. (full index of Bahubali posts, including other character posts, is here)
Happy Doctor’s Day! Which I only know about from Amitabh’s twitter. Which is true of so many things, Amitabh really does tweet about everything. (this is an updated and reposted post from last year, and once again, I STILL only know about it from Amitabh’s twitter!)
dontcallitbollywood 