Thank you Aamir! Both for releasing a song timed so I can watch it before leaving for work, and for telling me in advance what time you would be releasing it so I could plan around that! Of course, I still had to write the actual post, but I can do that anywhere. Oh, and thank you Dhawans for giving us such fun songs! Twice!
Secret Superstar first. Be warned, tears may occur!
What I really love about this song is how it isn’t the usual “mother” song. For one thing, it’s a girl singing about her mother, not a boy. For another, this isn’t the wise sacrificing kind of mother. I mean, it is. But it’s also a “pyaari” mother. Cute, loveable, sweet. A reminder that she is a person after all, with her own quirks and personalities.
Which, come to think of it, kind of feels related to the girl singing it instead of a boy? Because daughters tend to see more of these things than sons, the identities their mother may have had before she became a mother, all the little struggles and challenges that go into making her children feel safe and happy, that being a mother isn’t easy, it’s not that you become one and magically know everything and can do everything.
I didn’t like the tag at the end, which is the same they have used in the other videos, to indicate the “secret superstar” idea, our heroine enjoying having everyone talk about her without knowing it is her. It felt like turning this whole lovely song into just all about our heroine again, instead of her mother.
But then I realized that part of this is her mother also doesn’t know this song is out there, doesn’t know it is about her. She wasn’t singing this song as a gift to her mother, to send her a message. It was sincerely the thing she wanted to sing more than anything else, what was in her heart, whether her mother knew it or not.
And, from a song that may make you tear up, to a song that really really won’t! “Oonchi Hai Building”. Which, now that I have re-watched Judwaa, I am much more excited about!
In the original and in this, the idea is cheerful sexy times with full parental approval. Very strange concept! Well, sort of parental approval. The two brothers are mistaken for each other, so Jacqueline’s father encourages her to be alone in her bedroom and enjoy with (he thinks) good wealthy Salman. Meanwhile over in Taapsee’s house, her wild mother is throwing her at the actual good wealthy Salman, who would never have been able to flirt with her except the twin connection is making him do the same things that “bad” Salman is doing with Jacqueline. No idea why Taapsee is doing the same things as Jacqueline, maybe they are secretly twins too, or maybe the twin connection extends to the women they love.
And they are doing this with the most explicit/unexplicit lyrics possible! I really feel like “my elevator can’t go up to your building” has a meaning there. But then it switches to “so come with band and all like a groom for our wedding!” So, wait, she’s saying we can have sex after marriage? Or am I misunderstanding entirely? The point is, it’s yet another super catchy and also silly song and I love it and can’t wait for September 29th!
dontcallitbollywood 
Because Varun Dhawan totally destroyed the happy memories I had of this film and that era Salman, I’m going to tell you about my experience with Premam here!
LOVED IT!!! Oh GOD Nivin Pauly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and that beard!!!!!!!!!! and the black shirt and lungi!!!!!!!!!!!! So so loved it!! The chemistry he had with all three heroines was amazing. After the accident I feared it might go a little Sadma but thank God it didn’t!!! The song the teacher sings badly at the college fest is one of my favourite love songs of all time! That entire part reminded me of college. Although I went to an all-girls convent college, I totally felt it. The bond between the friends– precious and so real!!! Why don’t we see more of that in more mainstream films?? It was a great film. I might rewatch it some day surely! Oh and did I say I loved the beard already???? Yeah that’s my kryptonite!
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YES!!!! NIVIN FOR THE WIN!!!!!!
I am so glad you liked it!!!! And you see how great it is with masculinity and stuff? He isn’t “girly”, but he has his friends and his heartbreak and is allowed to show emotions. And I LOVE his friends! All just kind of hanging around and supporting him, especially in the last section when he is almost the last one of them to be single and they are all trying to get him married off finally. Oh, and the way it cuts right from the conversation with her about the bad fiance, to him and friends getting back to college days and preparing for the beat down, straight to the wedding? That is my favorite bit, that the filmmakers didn’t feel the need to explain it all, because we knew this guy well enough by now to know that of course he still has that college gunda inside, and of course his friends will show up and help out, and of course they will get engaged immediately because he is done with this messing around.
I also very much appreciate the three phases of life as shown through facial hair. Although I missed the beard at the end, I do see how a mustache more perfectly captures the personality of “boring older guy who runs a bakery”.
And now you have to watch Ohm Shanti Oshaana. Which is not on hotstar, but is on basically every other service. Nivin plays a bearded farmer former communist agitator.
On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 10:36 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh it is on hotstar!!! Oh god now I have to watch this tomorrow!! And I love former communists with beards!!!! I love that mix of passionate-about-political-ideology-that-live-beat-out-of-him and beards which are the epitome of guy-not-entirely-giving-a-fuck-about-log kya kahenge!
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Oh man, he is SO HOT in this one. And it’s a total “female gaze” movie, she falls in love with him at first sight and stalks him and everything. And of course people tell her things like “he’s a former communist, he dropped out of school to farm” like it’s going to turn her off, and it just turns her on more.
On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 10:52 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m feeling this film already!
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I liked Oonchi Hai Building more than Tan Tana Tan in the trailer but when comparing the full songs now, I think my favorite is Tan Tana Tan. Once again, I think it’s smart of them to release video songs that are only 2 minutes compared to the entire song which is more like 3 to 4 minutes long.
More exciting Varun news is that the leading lady for October, the film with Shoojit Sircar, is a model named Banita Sandhu. She worked in an ad that Shoojit directed in the past and now she’s debuting in October.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/who-s-varun-dhawan-s-new-october-girl-how-was-she-discovered-find-all-the-details/story-Hza8gBhozXrgXXuzken9TK.html
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That’s really interesting! Makes me think it might be an extra challenging shoot, if they want someone with no other commitments. And I am glad it is someone Shoojit actually worked with before, not just a random model with some buzz.
On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 10:51 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think you may be right. Varun’s also supposed to start working on Sui Dhaaga from January so I also think he’ll be working on both movies for a while. Honestly, I am so much more excited for October and Sui Dhaaga than I am for Judwaa 2.
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Sui Dhaaga is with Anushka, right? So he has graduated to working opposite “grown-up” actresses. I’ll be super curious to see how they work together.
On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 11:05 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yup! That’s his YRF movie with Anushka. I’m excited to see them together because they have similar energy off screen. They did a joint interview together to promote Badlapur and NH10 and it was really fun 🙂
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My only concern is that their energy is too similar, I’d want some natural conflict built in for an interesting romance.
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Did you mean to say “rich, wealthy Varun” instead of Salman? Or has Salman taken over your mind to this extent after watching Judwaa?
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Also, in keeping with your policy of watching the original before the remake (though that timeline is messed up now), you need to watch the Telugu Hello Brother, especially since it stars your new favorites Nagarjuna and Ramya Krishna. Then you can finally work your way up to the real original Jackie Chan version, Twin Dragons.
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Just for fun, here is the equivalent Telugu song from Hello Brother:
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of course oonchi hai building is all sorts of innuendo…aaajaa aaja raaja ? Funnily enough I realized what that could mean (And thus innuendoized the entire song!!) after hearing and seeing the same words used in Chitrangada Singh’s “Aao Raaja”. Its unmissable and overtly sexual setting in that one.
And I was like…hey I have heard those words somewhere…could it? I mean…what!! NO!! and then hells to the yeah! 😀
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the one thing that throws me is, if I am understanding this correctly, his elevator cannot reach her floor? So, he is singing about his own erectile disfunction? Or am i missing something.
On Sat, Sep 9, 2017 at 12:12 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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He says the building is um long, your lift is closed down, how do I umm come even if my heart wants it. 🙈
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Oh, okay, so he could rise up her building, if only she would open her lift. That makes total sense and is very romantic in the way it respects a woman’s right to consent. Some men would just force the lift doors open.
On Sat, Sep 9, 2017 at 12:17 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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That’s what you took away from it?! 🙈😂 You’re so academic.
But yes raha respects her a lot
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@Margaret @Karthik : Should i start singing the M & K sitting in a tree song??? Haha… Anyone else wanna join me in singing this please??? LOL
For a guy who says he has trouble with women, you sure can flirt Karthik!!
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Really interesting where a take about a song can go… would like to read your stories, Karthik and Asmita…Karthik, you know, the government of East Berlin made build a wall against the ‘invasion’ from the free West Berlin after having tried – in vain – to isolate whole Berlin from the West…there is nothing you can do against thoughts…one day, each wall you build against the outside will crumble…or you simply perish inside your mind-made prison…your choice 🙂
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Claudia my story is very filmy and features a lot of twists. And now i’m kinda committed to only telling it when Karthik tells us his! 😉
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