Happy Monday! Only one week to Christmas! And 4 days to Tiger Zinda Hai! So I am sure we will all have lots to talk about. Also REMINDER: THIS IS THE POST FOR RANDOM QUESTIONS ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL WEEK LONG!!!!! YOU CAN ALWAYS COME BACK AND PUT THEM HERE.
You can ask me anything from the personal (“what was your first Salman Khan film in theaters?”) to the specific and factual (“what was Salman’s first movie?”) to the general discussion (“what was Salman’s best movie?”)
The only rule is, you have to let me answer first. The discussion just goes better that way. But, once I have answered, please please feel free to jump in and add on anything you want!
dontcallitbollywood 
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Do you have any speculation in regard to what format, if any, will be the single standard for the future? Is streaming going to take over completely? Will there always be movie theaters? What should I do with me closet full of VHS tapes? What about DVDs?
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Based on what has happened with every technical advance in the past, there will always be movie theaters, just fewer and fewer of them. DVDs definitely seem to be on the way out, pure digital storage is the wave of the future. That is, downloading the films directly to your hard drive or thumbdrive. There’s less possibility of decay or damage to them that way. And they are easier to store, one paperback book sized external hard drive can hold a whole bookshelf full of movies.
On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 8:09 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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A favorite quote of mine is “offline is the new luxury”
With the whole net neutrality debate thing happening, streaming video might become too costly. For individuals. My bet is physical video libraries that store content in digital. VHS and DVDs are experiencing a nostalgia driven revival. Plus, I definitely don’t rule out the possibility of EMP attacks. Someone’s bound to figure out ruining digital data is a better way to terrorise people than actually killing them.
Theatres would exist for some time but with audiences becoming more diverse, they could follow the club format and go smaller and more exclusive. Like a small single screen with seating for 40 people and a small restaurant/lounge that you buy a subscription for and they play a bunch of new films every week including foreign films or classics/director’s cuts and re-released/remastered films and they send you a catalogue of all the films they’re playing that month in advance and you get to watch films not as mass entertainment but as a specific hobby.
The future, I think, isn’t more staying in, it’s more going out.
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Which is your favorite trope? One which has been done to death but you you can’t resist all the same.Mine would be amnesia,spoiled rich heroine,prince becoming a pauper,twins separated,antihero scheming his way to the top only to realize too late that it’s all worthless.
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Oh what a fun question!
In Indian film it would have to be the bad-boy-finally-falls-in-love-with-good-girl trope. It’s what made me fall in love with the films in DDLJ, after all. I’m a sucker for even not the best versions of it, like I Hate Luv Storys. So long as the bad boy is charming and more interesting than just “bad” and the good girl is more interesting than just the usual good girl. Socha Na Tha, Dil Chahta Hai and Aamir’s romance, Maine Pyar Kiya, Jab Harry Met Sejal is the ultimate.
In romance novels I am a bit of a sucker for we-have-to-pretend-we-are-married. Which is something that doesn’t come up that often in Hindi films for whatever reason. Yes Boss is the only example I can think of.
On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 9:22 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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We pretend we’re married is done to death on tv which is why it isn’t in films so much. My favorite is probably the jugad trope. Where people come with ingenious solutions to problems. 😁
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But Sejal’s not a good girl. She’s the type who’d leave her fiance and run off with a tour guide. 😉 Seriously, I love JHMS in part because it shows how silly that idea of types like “bad boys” and “good girls” are.
Tropes I’m a sucker for are: woman gets dumped at beginning of movie only to realize by the end of movie that she is so much more, there is so much more to life, than the dump-er. A la Queen or Monsters vs Aliens (really–check it out!). Also bad guy with one soft spot a la Don and Aisha or Roma. And oddball pairings/soulmates, whether as friends or romantic partners. Harold and Maude is one of my all time favorite films.
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Come to think of it, JHMS kind of fits in all those tropes! Sejal is dumped at the beginning and comes to realize that she is way more interesting than her fiance. And she and Harry are both a romantic couple and oddball soulmates.
For the classic Indian “dumped-but-better-for-it film, you should try to find Arth if you can.
On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 1:02 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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That’s true! Ooh, a Shabana Azmi recommendation. She’s so awesome in real life, but I haven’t seen any movies with her yet.
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Arrrgghhh. Grammar fail. How silly that idea…is. 🙂
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I can remember 3 Hindi movies off the top of my head dealing with the pretend marriage trope.There’s Priyadarshan’s Hungama where Rimi Sen pretends to be married to Aftab Shivdasani to share living quarters. Akshaye Khanna makes up the third leg of the love triangle and is the film’s saving grace.Then there’s Anil Kapoor’s Ghar Ho To Aisa where he pretends to be married to feminist/rich girl Meenakshi to teach his evil greedy mom a lesson.Then there’s also yet another movie with Anil Kapoor pretending to be married to the heroine so that they could fool their kindly elderly landlord couple.I vaguely remember a song where they get high (or drunk) accidentally.
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Oh! And Chithram!
On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 2:02 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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“We have to pretend we’re married”: Mr. and Mrs. Iyer is my favorite of these . Is “we have to pretend one of us is gay” a modern take on that?
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I love when people have makovers in movies, it’s always fun to watch. And good girl-bad boy stories especially if dance is involved.
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Is there anything analogous to gothic romance in Hindi films, like Jane Eyre with the spooky mansion and the crazy wife in the attic?
I’m pretty sure you have the rich boy falling in love with the feisty poor girl but being thwarted by social expectations. Actually, duh, that’s K3G.
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Yes! The old Haweli movies. There’s the whole thing about the lost splendour of the royal times and so on. Often there is a mysterious woman who appears and falls for the modern prince recently returned from studying abroad.
Bhool Bhulaiyaa, Nagini, Saheb Biwi Aur Ghulam, and of course the original classic, Mahal (literally “Mansion”)
On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 6:46 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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So what was your first Salman film in theaters? I still haven’t seen any of his movies in the theater.
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Jaan-E-Mann, I think. That was one of my first films in theater period, and I loved it. Since then, Ek Tha Tiger, Sultan, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.
On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 11:55 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh yeah, you’re the one who loves Jaan-e-Mann. I wanted to see Bajrangi but I never got the chance and since then there hasn’t been a Salman film I’ve wanted to see so badly.
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Mine will be Tiger Zinda Hai this Thursday and I can’t wait!
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I hope you have fun!
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Ok folks, i need help finding a film based on this description:
“theres a wicked movie I just watched not to long ago but cant remember the name of it
and i dont really recognize anyone from it as being big hindi stars
but it was about a man and woman who were married for a long time, but couldnt have kids. and the guy was a advertisement producer so always spent lots of time with hot ladies and parties, and his wife was educated but stopped going to school and doing anything when they got married because she was totally faithful to her dumb protective husband
and they had a servant, and he was crying for the wife all the time cause the husband was a douche….then finally after so many years the hubby divorced his wife for a young model and wife lived somewhere else, met a new guy and fell pregnant with her new lover……
the husband was killed and all through the movie i was thinking that it was the young woman or the older ex wife who killed the husband but it was the servant dude
and he was obsessed with the wife and had a shrine in his room of her with candles and flowers
his name was laxman”
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Any clues as to time period or language this is coming from?
On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 9:57 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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No idea. My idea is this is a south indian film my friend found on YouTube and of course she wouldn’t have been able to tell what language it was or who the stars were
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It sounds kind of like classic 70s Tamil, or 80s-90s Malayalam, just in how clever the plot is.
On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 8:05 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah.. I’ll see if she has a link stored somewhere because I highly doubt it can be found on this description. Unless someone has watched this ans remembers this.
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It’s very frustrating, because normally this is my little party game, I tell people that I can identify any Indian movie they have seen just by the description. But of course that’s with White People and there is a very limited number of Indian films that White People would ahve seen, so it’s easier.
On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 8:20 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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This description is from a white girl. Canadian army gal and mom of three!!
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No! I am fascinated! I want to go to Canada and meet this person!
On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 8:31 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Or you can find her on FB! She’s in my group! I’ve been urging her to come out here to the blog! I guess it’s the WordPress thing. It seems kinda serious. I’ll probably screenshot this comment and maybe that will convince her to join us!
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And can it be one of “early Emraan Hashmi” movies? It has it all: sex, murder, unfaithfulness..
I first thought about Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster but I think the plot is different, so it’s not this.
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I spent a certain amount of time to find this movie this night because the plot seemed familiar…alas… do you know more now. Asmita?
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Not at all interested to watch Tiger Zinda Hai, since I loved and was so affected by Take Off. I actually liked Ek Tha Tiger, so I would have probably watched Tiger Zinda Hai if it had another storyline.
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I hadn’t thought about that potential downside to using the same story. I’d say it was foolish of the filmmakers not to worry about it, but then of course Take Off didn’t really break through out of the traditional Malayalam audience, so I guess they don’t care.
On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 1:07 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Take Off was definitely “realistic” and TZH is definitely commercial (with a wider audience), but I was truly affected by Take Off. Rarely does a movie do that to me, and I don’t want it to be tarnished by Salman, who I anything don’t even like.
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*Anyway
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I know just what you mean! It’s the reason I avoid a lot of remakes, if I found the original too perfect to be touched. I’m kind of glad I never saw OK Jaanu, because I can enjoy OK Kanmani more. This isn’t a remake, not exactly, but it’s the same story, and it makes sense to me that you wouldn’t want to tarnish your original version by seeing it again.
On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 10:27 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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So I had to cancel my TZH tickets for tonight because we are all sick. 😭😭😭 Hope to reschedule soon.
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Nooooooooo! Well, I will try to put up a No Spoilers review for you tonight/early tomorrow, so you can find out about it without getting spoiled.
On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 11:51 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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