Let’s through out a nice general discussion type post! For those of you who aren’t interested in my scene by scene of JHMS or Monday Malayalam or Tuesday Tamil. We can all talk about Ajay Devgn’s midlife crisis and how increasingly charming Siddharth and Kriti are looking in comparison.
Oh Baadshaho! You break my heart! I had this vague hope that it would be Ileana D’Souza as the powerful Gayatri Devi stand in coordinating everything. But no, she’s just a damsel in distress who needs her lower class much older tough guy hero to rescue her. Oh dear.
In other thoughts, not enough Emraan. Esha Gupta needs to PUT HER HAIR UP!!! Who blow dries before a shoot out? And that CGI snake is really really fake looking.
So, that’s the disappointing trailer. Let’s move on to the more exciting ones! Bareilly ki Barfi! Continues to look super fun! My main complaint with the cute little rom-coms we have been getting (Dum Laage Ka Haisha, Running Shaadi, Happy Bhaag Jayegi) is that they don’t have really song sequences. Not a problem here! The music itself isn’t as wonderful as it could be, a little too reminiscent of other better soundtracks. But the visuals are awesome! Kriti throws herself into the performance and really sells it, the colors are gorgeous, there are tons of extras and back-up dancers, I love it!
Speaking of great dances and things I love, A Gentleman! Every trailer that comes out is making me look forward to it more and more. Clever black comedy action, Siddharth in a role he can actually pull off, Jacqueline showing off her comedy chops (seriously, the woman is the best part of the Housefull films. Well, after Akshay Kumar. And Abhishek when he is in them), and now songs! We already had a so-so Disco song, but this one looks really fun! Siddharth looks great and can actually handle the dance moves, the tune is super catchy, and the visuals and clean and interesting.
But, what’s the bigger story here? I’m seeing a lot of head shaking over the state of the industry post the one-two-three of Tubelight, Jagga Jasoos, and Jab Harry Met Sejal. But forget those films! And forget Baadshaho, which looks like another big star/big budget disappointment. Look at the little ones! Smaller budget, smaller promotions, probably smaller release. But so much fun! So exciting! So interesting! If this is the future of the industry, I’m not that worried.
dontcallitbollywood 
“But no, she’s just a damsel in distress who needs her lower class much older tough guy hero to rescue her. Oh dear.” Change lower to middle and tough to jaded and you have the basic premise of JHMS, too:)
I’m not an Emraan fan and I’ve become disillusioned with Ajay. And I also wish D’Cruz was getting better roles. She and Aditi Ray Hydari are both so talented and deserve better roles than they get in Hindi films. I’ll still watch it and who knows maybe it will surprise us…I’m still not immune to a little bit of Ajay’s Omkara/Singham schtick.
But you’re right that Kriti and Sid are definitely on the upswing! I can’t wait for both Bareilly Ki Barfi and the other one with Ayushmaan and Bhumi that looks just as fun! And I really like Jacqueline Fernandez…I think she’s the best thing about Dishoom! She’s such a great combination of sophisticated glamour and wacky cuteness. And her work in Brothers shows that she has untapped potential for serious roles. Sid is just steadily doing his thing and if Ittefaq is halfway decent this will be a banner year for him.
I’m perfectly fine with smaller, story-driven films being the norm, as long as they still have the songs, too. But I will still need a good masala film every now and then.
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Not really related to your comment, but you are making me think about it, and there are a lot of layers to the class issues in JHMS that are unexpected. Anushka is richer, but Shahrukh can speak perfect English and move easily through Western society. She’s from a Gujurati diamond family which, as I understand it, means very very wealthy but not necessarily high class/caste. Whereas he is a Punjabi Sikh, which is kind of in its own special category outside of social standards. Another thing for me to get into in my scene by scene! How carefully the power dynamics are balanced there.
Have you seen Once Upon a Time in Mumbaii? Maybe you have and didn’t like it, but I LOVE it, and it converted me to Emraan. He does just the most amazing performance there and I was hoping for something like that here, but doesn’t look like it.
Totally agree about Jacqueline! She really shines in the “one of the guys” kinds of roles, which are deceptively hard to pull off. And she was amazing in Brothers. I’m looking forward to her being more of a co-lead with Siddharth in A Gentleman instead of just the “love interest” who doesn’t get enough credit for what she does. And I’m really looking forward to A Gentleman! Everything that comes out from the first look poster on has made me more and more excited for it.
On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 9:19 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I have seen OUATIM and I think I saw parts of the second one. I didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it either. I tried to give Emraan a chance in The Dirty Picture, too. He’s fine, but I just don’t seem to gravitate toward the films he does. And I just think he looks completely bland and there’s no real charisma. He’s like a decent tv actor or something, not a movie star. This one is a reunion for Ajay and Emraan for Luthria so it still could be good, I guess!
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I love OUTIM, but I get what you mean about Emraan. I would never pick him out as a potential “next big thing” kind of star, but he can shine in the right kind of role. Only, this doesn’t look like the right kind of role.
On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 1:21 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Bareilly ki Barfi seems the best of the lot.It’s time we had another romantic comedy from the Hindi heartland.The foreign locations pall after a time.And I love the track Sweety tera drama.Unfortunately Kriti looks too sophisticated to play a small town girl.Here’s hoping her performance makes us forget that fact.Jacqueline is fine and dandy as arm candy.And this film doesn’t ask for more.And her voice sounds different here.Did she get someone new to dub for her?I hope she steps up for Judwaa 2.And we all want more Emran.
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I am so excited for Judwaa 2! That’s the film that I think might be right at the sweet spot of “modest ambitions” and “major box office”. Not major like blockbuster record breaking, but a nice solid hit. Plus (I assume) slightly higher production values and everything than these other nice smaller films.
On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 9:36 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I love how Bereilly Ki Barfi has a lot of songs as well! Plus it’s not like you know that a song is for the end credits, both the songs seem like they could be in the actual movie.
I’m liking A Gentleman a lot more than I was expecting to! Though I didn’t like Disco Disco much, I liked the rest of the songs so far. Looks like the music is by Sachin-Jigar who had some pretty good music in the past.
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I’m just so happy to have songs again! I wonder what changed? There was such a strong trend towards songless films, montages, end credits songs, stuff like that. And now we have this whole glorious burst of song-filled films. Must be one of those delay things, something happened a year ago or six months ago or whenever it was that this films all went into production that made people go “Songs! We should have songs again!”
On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 10:18 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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You’re probably right. Another thing I’m glad is that both of these movies have completely original songs instead of the old remixes. I didn’t have much of a problem with remade songs but it was tiring to always see complaints on social media about how the original song was ruined and how their’s no creativity in the Industry anymore.
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I have seen only 2 or 3 Ajay movies, so I’m not an expert but he doesn’t seem to be the type who does woman-centered movies (except Lajja, it was very woman-centered, but odd)
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The second teaser of Spyder just dropped minutes ago on the occasion of Mahesh’s birthday tomorrow. Check it out 🙂
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Well the romance looks cute! If a bit out of place.
On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 9:21 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I thought it was out of place as well! They were better off introducing the romance in the main trailer. If they really wanted to show Rakul, they could’ve just shown a couple of shots of her talking to Mahesh or something.
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Yes! That would have been much better, this is really the action/mystery trailer, they should have kept it pure and not thrown in more plot.
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And Simran, it has a trailer too. Obviously without subtitles, but even without understanding I like it a lot. Seems something new.
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Kangana gets credited as one of the script writers for Simran.There was huge blowup with the other script writer.Anyway it looks very different.Quirky describes it best.I don’t think we’ve had a heroine who ticks all the boxes- divorcee, gambling addict and shop lifter.
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Pingback: Jab Harry Met Sejal Scene By Scene Part 2: A Shameful Attraction | dontcallitbollywood
what do you think of Mere Rashqe-qamar !
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Here’s my post when it originally came out: https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2017/07/18/new-yash-raj-trailer-way-more-interesting-than-the-stupid-star-launch-thing/
Pretty song, the visuals are ridiculous.
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Wow, the Bhoomi trailer actually looks really, really strong. Good roles for Aditi Roy Hydari and Sanjay Dutt. Kind of the Indian version of Taken (with more heart and a better role for the daughter). Actually excited about it and I don’t really like Sanjay Dutt at all.
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Shoot, I’m at work now and I can’t watch it for another 8-9 hours!
But glad to hear it looks good, and really really glad that Aditi is playing a daughter and not a love interest.
On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 9:09 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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