Teaser and title are finally out for the Aanand L Rai movie! I am not sure yet what I think. Maybe you tell me what you think and that will help.
The title is “Zero”, yet another English language title. Although a little more common of a word than, for instance, Secret Superstar or even A Gentleman. I assume it is a reference to the “zero hai to hero hai” (sp?) saying.
And I also assume that Shahrukh’s little person character is meant to be one of those little people who work as entertainers/impersonators. Which is an interesting twist, really bringing out his over the top entertainer persona at the same time taking out his charming handsomeness.
I am a little worried because Aanand L. Rai can sometimes go heavy on the “unheroic hero wins out” trope, like to the point that I don’t feel his hero necessarily deserved his happy ending. And this seems to be a somewhat unpleasant pushy kind of character. This is just our first look though, possibly there will be a flip in the next teaser where we see the seriousness and heartbreak underneath the pushy over the top entertainer.
I am also a little worried because what has happened before, in Kabhi Alveda Na Kehna for instance, is that directors don’t realize just how uncharming Shahrukh can make himself. If he is directed to be bitter or angry or selfish or any of those things, he will become it to the point of making his character unpleasant to watch.
And finally, I am worried because some of these shots look like a Little Person dancing, and some of them look like an image of Shahrukh shrunk down and put over film of another scene.
So, lots to worry about I guess!
Oh, and here’s the teaser:
dontcallitbollywood 
Hey! I’m not Indian but I’m a SRK fan and I really like your post! I’d love to hear more on what you think about English movie titles for Indian movies. Is it harder for the general Indian public to find an english title appealing or is it an annoying trend to you?
Totally agree with that “unheroic hero wins out” trope. It can be difficult to make that work. I’m also looking forward to the full trailer for more info.
I’d also like to know your opinion on digitally altering SRK’s body to have dwarfism. As a westerner I was shocked because something like that is considered very inappropriate/disrespectful over here. So far I have not seen any Indian people talk about it except in terms of the amazing production behind it. I find that really curious because there surely is talk about more diversity of body types and skin colors in mainstream Indian movies.
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Glad you liked the post! I’m not Indian either (not sure if you knew that or not, feel obligated to acknowledge it :)), but I have been studying the Hindi film industry for over a decade. It used to be that English titles and English dialogue in films was making a huge statement. It was very rare, and it was only there to indicate something about the character, or the type of film it might be. But now, it is becoming more and more the default. Which also says something about the kind of audience the film industry is going after, the urban upperclass in India and the global audience. Which gets into a whole thing about ticket prices and so on and why it might be advantageous for the producers to go after the top 2% of the audience instead of the lower 98%. This film is still kind of neutral, because “zero” is a word in common usage in India and has been for decades. But the title might be an indication that it is more of an offbeat film for the urban audience than a fun crowd pleaser.
I have been surprised all along by how casually this film has been treated, referring to Shahrukh’s character as a “dwarf” and so on. In some ways, this trailer reassures me. Because there is a tradition of Little People performers in this way, it makes Shahrukh’s character not just a dwarf, but someone with a particular set of abilities and skills that he uses in his profession. There is a reason for it, it isn’t just to make him look “funny”, or something.
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I’m scared too. 1st it looks like another brainless over the top masala (already have CE, HNY and Dilwale) it will bring people to cinema but it doesn’t bring long lasting experience) 2nd problem is his “dwarf” look, he’s way too skinny, that’s why he looks so weird. . 3rd is the fact that indians don’t do much of a movie research and then the movie ends up being wtf parody
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Yes! To all of those! Although, for the 1st, it is an Aanand L Rai movie and he isn’t usually Masala. But then on the other hand, the Raees director was artsy too and working with Shahrukh masala’d him.
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And one more thing i forgot to put down, which is already kinda wtf for me …. it is the hip slapping at the end. Still waiting for a day when Indians stop degrading women in their films. I think they have enough of sexual harassment and gang rape as it is… it’s not a cinema norm.
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Yes! That was part of my “oo, Aanand L Rai, I don’t always agree with your hero redemption storylines” reaction. If it is Shahrukh as the Little Person who has developed an outsize aggressive personality as a coping mechanism storyline, then they will have to do an awful lot of work to bring him back from this kind of unpleasant persona we are seeing here.
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Saw the teaser one more time. The upper body of the “dwarf” person should be disproportional to his legs. Chest can stay almost the same but legs need to be cut off.
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SRK tweeted today: And the lovely away from the glares extremely Unsingle @AnushkaSharma sends her love to everyone as she awaits the Title of her @aanandlrai film. Thanks my scientist Anushka. #Kal5BajeSRK
Scientist? Maybe she makes him full sized through science? I heard somewhere that his is a double role. Not sure where I saw/read that.
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That would be interesting, kind of a fairy tale or fable kind of thing. Maybe he wishes to be tall, gets his wish, and eventually realizes that he should appreciate the people who loved him just as he was.
On Mon, Jan 1, 2018 at 1:08 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Ooh I hadn’t thought of that when I saw the tweet! Can’t wait for the full trailer. That reminds me of the American movie Nutty Professor where a fat person gets transformed through science into a skinny person. Might be a similar set-up?
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I was thinking, if Anushka is a scientist, that might be what happens. There is also talk about him having a crush on Katrina playing a movie star. So a possible plot could be that he asks Anushka the scientist to help him become tall so he can romance Kat, but then realizes he truly loved Anushka all along. Something like that.
On Tue, Jan 2, 2018 at 1:30 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Have me total “appu raja” meets “enthiran’ vibe when I read what you wrote above.
And agree with an earlier commenter – he is too skinny as a dwarf which makes it all look odd. The proportions are off.
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I’m scared ****less about this movie. For all the reasons above, plus the fact we know so little about it, and it’s taking over a year out of his career at a critical stage. The double role rumour is out there (is it a good thing or bad thing – who knows?), and the pc element – all we can do is hold our breaths and pray.
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I wonder if Shahrukh is scared too, and that’s why he is holding off on signing anything else for sure. Wants to see how this is received, and then figure out his next career move from there.
On Mon, Jan 1, 2018 at 2:24 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I can’t imagine he is going to wait until NEXT December to sign something. That is say too long from now. His best career move would be to have something else coming out close to Zero.
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Something like Dear Zindagi would be perfect. Small, quick filming schedule turn around, get the (possibly unpleasant) taste of Zero out of our mouths. Of course, I always want him to do more things like Dear Zindagi.
On Tue, Jan 2, 2018 at 1:27 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Perfectly put.
In addition, the already horrible press coverage of the trailer is making me even more nervous. Reactions from infantilizing little people (“SRK looks as cute as Abraham in the poster!”) to various “super-human” person with disabilities tropes (“SRK as a little guy with a big personality”; or “Nothing can stop him, even his short height!”). Ugh.
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Well, the TED talk TV show thing may be a very calculated way of keeping him in the public eye in his intellectual/philosophical role. I am also thinking that Zero continues the deconstruction of Raj by taking away his body. I am nervous, because I want his acting to be appreciated; but that is going to require taking risks. This looks risky.
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I think Shahrukh said that in a very early interview, didn’t he? That the idea was to make him a dwarf and see what is left of Shahrukh without his appearance. But I’m nervous about it as well, because it doesn’t look like serious thoughtful sensitive Shahrukh in a different body, it looks like a personality transplant as well.
On Mon, Jan 1, 2018 at 3:02 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Anand Rai interview about Zero:
http://ahmedabadmirror.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/even-if-you-cut-2-feet-off-khan-saab-will-stand-tall/articleshow/62328896.cms
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This quote does not encourage me: “You can touch infinity even when you are zero, like Khan saab’s (Shah Rukh Khan) character. December is a month when we celebrate life and what better time for a boy who celebrates that he is physically incomplete and in his incompleteness completes others as he travels from Meerut to New York. There is a beauty in incompleteness we are celebrating.”
Framing differently abled people as incomplete? It’s a very small step from there to “less than human”. Ugh.
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Well, from the optimistic side of things, Harry in JHMS was also described as “incomplete”. So maybe it will be an investigation of how we all have an “incompleteness” to us! Shahrukh’s Little Person character has learned to compensate by having an outsize personality, other people compensate in other ways.
On Tue, Jan 2, 2018 at 11:47 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes re: Harry, but not “physically incomplete”. I know this is all very little to go on, so I’m reserving judgment, but I’m worried for now.
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The execution of the idea will matter. Shahrukh has been trying to bring more abstracted into his characters, but he needs to tone down the hopping like an energiser bunny I saw in the teaser. Ah well!!
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I wasn’t as nervous as some of you on seeing this teaser. I think it will get laughs in the theaters, but I’m not sure if that will be a good thing or a bad thing. We need more information, and I suspect it will be some time before we get it.
I agree with joyomama that Shah Rukh is working overtime to deconstruct Raj, but in addition to liking the story Aanand is telling, one of the big reasons he wanted to do this film is the VFX, specifically how this project will grow Red Chillies VFX and put them more definitively on the global stage. At the press conference for the Filmfare awards Shah Rukh mentioned that the VFX for this film is the most advanced in the world. I think THAT is his real interest here, and a part of his legacy he cares about deeply. (The same was true of Fan–he loved and was challenged by the story, but he also was so proud and excited by the VFX and make-up challenges they met.)
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In that case, they really need to have something better than what we saw here. This VFX was not that exciting. Although, I remember the same feeling watching the first teaser for Fan, and then it was seamless within the film. So maybe it is still in post-production and there are more finishing touches to come.
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I don’t think the vfx looks shoddy. The issue is more that it looks like a shrunken version of SRK instead of a little person. He is too skinny and proportional looking. There are little people that are proportional of course but it’s more rare and not seen as often.
Then again, they do have a year to work on post-production so I’m sure they’ll be monitoring reactions to see what they need to change or work on.
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It would be tricky to make him not proportional I imagine. Not so much because the CGI would be tricky, but because I imagine it would be hard to translate his performance and body language with different proportions. Of course, they did a brilliant job with Fan, managing to capture all the perfection of his performance in a totally different body, so it could happen again.
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I’ve been nervous about the whole concept since it was announced and this first look neither assuaged my worry nor fueled it. I think the unpleasantness of the hip slapping is very deliberately disgusting. That has got to be part of the character. Listen, the world did not applaud his duel role in Fan, his bravura performance in Raes and his subtle one in JHMS. So, this is really really risky, but as I always say, if we know it, he knows it.
Oh and by the way, Hindi speakers out there, could you help us out with some translations? The tweets have more Hindi than ever.
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The character is meant to be unpleasant, I believe. All the words that flashed on the screen before he was shown made that pretty obvious. My hindi isn’t good enough to translate them but he is supposed to be a cheap, tacky, trashy, roadside romeo sort of character.
I’m sure SRK knows the risks he’s taking and I’m glad he is regardless of whatever is happening at the box office. Frankly, it’s not worth anything if what’s working these days is Golmaal Again and Again, Tiger Phir Aagaya, Dabang 7, Kick 5, Race 30, etc.
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I wondered about that business with all the words. Do you think they are there to describe the character, or are they things people say to him, as a little person? I can’t tell.
I guess all this uncertainty about what we are actually seeing in this teaser is the point–we’re all talking about it, trying to figure it out.
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If Shahrukh’s chasing box office leads to him making my Kuch Kuch Hota Hai 2 script, I would be fine with that! (plot here: https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2017/01/22/silly-sunday-post-sequels-that-only-exist-in-my-mind/)
Or, of course, Don 3!!!!!!
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I’m assuming that he has decided that if he can pay for the films other ways (endorsements, hostsing etc) he will make the films he wants/needs to make. He knows that the much venerated Chak De was only appreciated later. This is a huge risk; hope it works as a good film if not box office. And my fantasy/hope is that it shuts that Anupama up finally!!!
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I have to admit I was appalled by the trailer. It just seems to be in incredibly poor taste on a lot of levels, from SRK not only playing a dwarf but playing a dwarf for laughs and then the ass slap at the end. I do realize there are cultural differences at play so I’m trying not to clutch my pearls too hard but I doubt this will be on my watch list.
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I’m still reserving judgement because the behavior does fit a particular mold of a kind of Little Person performer that you might hire in India. So it is possible that this is his character performing, not his actual personality. Showing us the unpleasant “zero” from the title that will eventually reveal himself to be a true “hero”.
On Mon, Jan 1, 2018 at 4:55 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Anand Rai is not a fluke. From Ranjhana to the Tanu Weds Manu movies to the ones he’s produced like Newton and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (where he made even erectile dysfunction work in a ‘family’ film), the man knows what he’s doing. That’s not to say he can’t ever mess up but this isn’t a guy that deals in total trash the way Rohit Shetty or some others do.
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Right! Raanjhana!!!! That was the other one that makes me nervous about Aanand expecting us to forgive things from our heroes that we really shouldn’t forgive.
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Oh, and please please what does the voice over at the end mean???
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I don’t know how to make it sound poetic because my Hindi isn’t good enough for that, hah. But he says something to the effect of “whoever we get behind, we make their life.” So something like a zero may be nothing on it’s own but when added behind something else, it makes their life.
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Okay, so maybe he is a terrible person but he learns to be better by dedicating himself to helping someone else succeed.
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`
And, why was Anupam Kher a dwarf in Jaan-e-mann? I never figured it out — or maybe it was intended to be just there, without comment.
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At least SRK isn’t wearing shoes on his knees to be a shorter person…
I hope the whole thing isn’t a train wreck. And hoping, as Margaret has said, that this obnoxious character is the film character’s performance self, not his main character self.
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I’d love to see a real investigation of why society in India forces Little People to put on this ugly persona, some sort of discussion of how no one sees them unless they make themselves impossible to ignore. But I am trying not to hope for too much, I’d be fine with just love changing Shahrukh to be nicer.
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I was disgusted watching it myself. I know it’s only the teaser but it looks appallingly tasteless and the CGI isn’t even that good. With every interesting (and appropriate) career choice in Raees and Dear Zindagi, SRK is making another wildly stupid choice in JHMS and this one. I’m still not completely sold on the former (though I freely admit it had its moments).
Yeah, this one looks like a big fat zero to me and Fan redux for sure (possibly worse). I will eat my words if this is a box office hit.
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Dear Lord!!!! Did anyone get the nearly depressed hindi part of the tweet that announced this trailer????
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No! We have all been waiting for detailed Hindi translations! Please please help us!
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Lemme wake up and get to my workstation and I’ll do it properly. I just watched the trailer yesterday while half asleep and I wasn’t sure if what I watched was “real” till I rewatched it right now
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lekar aa rahe hain= present
pagal= crazy
aashiq=lover
shaayar=poet
makkar=cunning
kamzarf= neech/person of low morals
mental=mental
dildaar=generous
dhokebaaz= cheat
khota= litrally, a donkey/stupid person
kamina=rascal
badtameez= ill-mannered
behaya= ill-mannered
matlabi= selfish
chichora= vulgar
the rest of the words flew by too quick. but they were also just adjectives. both good and bad.
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Somebody found all the words:
“One of the most interesting aspects of the teaser is that in the beginning, a lot of adjectives in Hindi are displayed to describe the fun character of Shah Rukh Khan. Some of the terms go away in no time, leaving few fans a bit dejected. But a crazy fan did the unthinkable. He/she paused each and every frame so that he could read out all the 32 adjectives. He/she then took screenshots of it and made a collage out of it. Thanks to the collage, we now know that those 32 adjectives are Paagal, Aashiq, Dhokebaaz, Khotta, Shaayar, Kamina, Batameez, Makkaar, Kamzarf, Behayaa, Matlabi, Mental, Dildaar, Chichora, Phuddu (stupid), Tapori (lower class Mumbaiya dandy gangsta), Leechad (yucky and gross dude), Dilphek (philanderer), Delair(courageous), Ishqbaaz(flirt), Dagabaaz(cheater), Fakeer (pauper), Joker, Chaalak(cunning), Fakeer, Maqbool(accepted or grateful), Leechad, Ishqbaaz and Lafanga (a goon). What’s also interesting is the font and text style used – each adjective is written in a different, filmy style and it seems the makers purposely used the fonts of some popular film titles. For instance, Dhokebaaz is written in Indiana Jones font, Ishqbaaz is mentioned in the font used for Ishaqzaade while Delair is written in the famous Avengers font.”
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This is from a bollywood hungama article
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I’m sorry to all the SRK fans here but I couldn’t help comparing this to Kamal Hasan in Appu Raja. SRK looks like he had his head VFXed on top of a tween boy.
Just went through the comments. The hindi bits in the trailer are
SRK and Anand Rai present and then a whole lot of adjectives -lover, idiot, mental, etc.
The tweet is the one that depressed me more though. I’m hoping it’s a part of the dialogue and not something he’s saying himself.
The tweet basically says “people have tickets to my life, so I must give them a show worth the price (of admission)”
Now that I think about it, Shivam Pradhan (who played the servant boy in Phillauri) was also kinda lean and nimble and looked more like a teen than his real age.
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The tweet makes me more hopeful that maybe what we see in the trailer is his character in character. Performing as an out there entertainer, but being a different person at heart.
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This is so going to get compared to Appu Raja. By at least everyone above the age of 30. If sized down SRK is the same SRK as regular sized SRK then it really isn’t an achievement and really nothing different and really not gonna fix why people have been going less and less to his films. I just don’t want this film to confirm my fears that SRK is in the middle of a full blown mid life crisis and has become actually annoying.
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I wouldn’t say midlife crisis, but he definitely lives in his la la land, completaly void of script sense and realism in a cinema. That’s why after 2010 I’m watching more bengali or off beats films, tried south indian cinama but crazy slo-mo action was beyond me.
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Paheli was amazing but he disowned it. For south, if crazy slo-mo fries your brain, try the Malayalam industry – I so totally love everything by Nivin Pauly and Dulquer Salman. Prithviraj is sorta massy but too hot to be missed!! I hope you’ve seen Margaret’s starter kits for it!!
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Paheli is better than OSO, RNBDJ, Don and acually everything he did after 2010 (maybe except for MNIK and DZ). I remember JHMS he was supposedly be 1 month younger than my sister. He looked great but hell no to the age. His characters should not be define by the age or he will be ridiculed a lot.
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I actually loved OSO. I think it was a wonderful self-parody for Bollywood and so OTT dramatic that it was almost a stage play. A college stage play at that too. And those kinda appeal to the college kid in me. 😁 but agree about him having lost the plot in the past decade. DZ was nice. Mellow. He did an Amir Khan kinda role there. He should do more of those rather than trying to do more 90s SRK roles
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He still hasn’t officially signed anything for after “Zero”. So maybe he is trolling the internet looking for ideas for his next career direction, will stumble across oru comments,a nd follow our suggestions.
On Tue, Jan 2, 2018 at 10:52 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well he should. There’s a ton of elaborate fanfic here on this blog alone coming from hardcore fans and hardcore non-fans
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there’s also a bit of terrifying objectification and stalkeriness. So maybe he should stay away. Or at least make sure his kids don’t read it.
On Tue, Jan 2, 2018 at 11:01 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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If his kids are googling “sexy SRK Fanfic” their problems are already way bigger than any reading this blog can give them!!
Ps, SRK, don’t stay away. Don’t listen to Margaret. She’s just shy. The rest of us ain’t 😁
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I am filled with worry about this trailer — especially the ass smacking part. Ugh. I’m trying to have faith in SRK and Aanand, but yikes.
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Here’s the list of words in the beginning of the teaser, as posted by @odshek:
PAGAL
Aashiq
Shaayar
MAKKAAR
Kamzarf
MENTAL
Dildaar
Dhokhebaaz
KHOTA
KAMEENA
BATAMEEZ
BEHAYA
MATLABI
CHICHORA
Phuddu
TAPORI
DELAIR
FAKEER
MAQBOOL
LEECHAD
DILPHEK
AABAND
SANKI
BARBAAD
BADBAKHT
To the Hindi speakers out there: can you make sense of what this list means, and what it is trying to tell us?
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They are different adjectives, though all are saying the same thing; that SRK’s character is hilarious, may be ill-mannered (in a good way). It seems he is anything but a sad, gloomy character. Another possibility is that the people call SRK with these names in the movie. We don’t know much yet. I also don’t wanna take the ass slapping seriously now (though i understand its seriousness). May be its just to show the cheapness or ill-mannered behavior of his character in the movie. It looks like a happy, silly kinda movie, so I don’t wanna be judgmental now and judge it based on just a 1 sec clip of ass slapping (like what other commentators did). Take it easy please 🙂
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I am simply amazed at the way ShahRukh (and Aanand) make people ponder & talk about the movie ONE YEAR AHEAD 🙂
All the comments I am reading here (including your take, Margaret) tell me that the decision to start the ‘talking about’ now resulted in just what people are doing: talking about…guessing…watching…and maybe going totally wrong or just right.
I only have positive feelings as I think it takes guts to do what ShahRukh is doing…and honestly, it doesn’t matter the (physical) size of the person he presents to define the impact he has 😉
Now to some points you mention here:
1. vfx is a main interest to do this movie and my experiences with the appreciation Ra.One and Fan got on this level make me confident 🙂
2. ShahRukh playing an underdog…a zero…that is important just for the position you give it or it takes itself…from the very beginning of this project I embraced the idea of playing a character with an impediment with (physical) size.
3. ShahRukh’s character placed in the world of showbusiness (may it be in dreams or in reality) is VERY apt to the position short adult people had always a chance to gain recognition and money … as for the words at the beginning, I think, they define both: the way people of common size lable(d) short-sized people and the way the small one behave(d) to get recognition (and therefore I am also confident about the design of the character)
4. Anushka could play someone who makes disappear the size – be it in film-reality or in mental-reality…we will see
5. about touching the woman’s derriere…well, it is what short people (adults and children) have on their eye level … it gives another meaning of touching that woman’s body part…although, we will see what it means for ShahRukh’s character…
6. I loved the idea of “2zero18”, the Hindi twittering, the “waiting” for the title…so many winks to the expectations people uttered…
7. reference to Shashi…his movie JabJabPhoolKhile released in ShahRukh’s birth-year (age zero years)…an iconic song we already could enjoy several times here…well…and adding ShahRukh to something may very well (and does) change the eyeballs this something gets 🙂
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Oh, you point out something that is another reason to be worried! This is way way early to release a first look. I understand the anxiety to give people something while they finish the endless CGI. But it also seems to be the Red Chillies system, and it is a system that doesn’t work. To put out a teaser almost a year in advance (Raees, Fan), let us all get excited, and then by the time the movie actually comes out, our excitement has died down and we have analyzed it to death and already feel tired of it.
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Mmmmhhhh…my excitement about Raees and Fan did not die down, I did not analyze it to death (as I didn’t have watched the movie) and I never felt tired of it…I seem to be weird…am I?
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For me, it went down for Raees and up for Fan. Mostly because the first Raees teaser was SO GOOD and none of the trailers or songs or even (for me) the final film measured up to it. While the first Fan teaser was not great (the Gaurav look wasn’t perfected), and it got better from there.
On Tue, Jan 2, 2018 at 9:54 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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For me, Raees was a very special thing as I got to know about Ritesh Sidhwanis’s misbehaviour towards Aditya Chopra which caused the shifting of Raees away from Eid…so it was clear that – with the changing politics there would also be a changing in the movie…there would not only be a ‘toning down’ in political/social critic but also a counter-acting against the new rules (against Pakistan actors/actresses) through the addition of romance. It was just the contrary of ‘going down’, imo.
None of us has an idea about the movie that Zero will be…I prefer patience to judgement 😉
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I knew I’d get great, thoughtful commentary here. Awesome!
I have a question about this movie and Hindi movies more broadly: do you think there’s a chance that they have a few little people actually consulting on this movie–as none of the writers, the director, or main actors have lived experience as a little person–either in show business or out of it?
And the larger question, outside of of consulting historians to try to tamp down sectarian objections to films, is there any tradition of having subject-matter consultants either during development, production, or post-production in Hindi films? What about other regional industries?
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This just came up in the Dilip Saab autobiography! He was rigorous about always researching a part. He was very unhappy with the director of Mughal-E-Azam partly because he gave no guidance or background on Prince Salim. So Dilip read a bunch of books on his own and looked at portraits and figured out how he would stand and speak and so on based on what the learned about the historical character.
But then there were other directors who worked with him on this, helping him to learn regional accents or learn about the issues that would drive his characters. So it seems like it has never been unheard of, but it’s also not necessarily the norm.
I know for My Name is Khan, both Karan and Shahrukh worked with Asperger’s associations (they thank some in the opening credits) and really tried to be accurate in what they showed. So for this particular star, it is something he has been serious about in the past. And Little People are common performers in films, if Shahrukh wanted to he could just spend some time talking with his co-actors in past films about what their lives have been like and why they chose to become performers and so on.
The formal position of “consultant” is pretty unheard of. But the actual act of consulting with people to build a role, or at least doing research on your own, is fairly common for some actors and directors and screenwriters.
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Phew! Thank you all for your comments and points of view. So happy to see I am not the only one who went “wtf was that” on seeing this teaser. I, too, was appalled on first look.
I am going to have to be convinced that that ass slapping was necessary for the advancement of the story. It just came across to me as tasteless. It is just not how I understand or see SRK, even playing a short character. And, he does look short vs dwarfism affected.
I agree that the VFX may be the focal reason for this movie to present RCE as one of the best in the world.
I am not sure doing publicity a year out from the movie debut is smart. I think that is what has happened with his last few films, too much, too soon. Expectations are increased then disappointment sets in when actually seeing the film.
I am hoping Zero becomes a hit for him and not just a place marker in the list of his movies.
And finally, I am selfish in that at my age, I wish he would wrap up films a bit faster than the time it is taking for this one.
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We have been so spoiled the past few years! 5 releases in 24 months. Of course none of them were the perfect combination of critical acclaim and audience popularity. So hopefully this will be worth the wait.
On Tue, Jan 2, 2018 at 11:20 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think it best to reserve judgement on the ass-slapping until it is put into context. It could be an example of the character’s bad behaviour which will later change. It could be a dream sequence or a flashback of something which is not what it seems. With so little information it could be anything at all.
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Another aspect of this release: All of the Hindi. Is this a deliberate move because he really is writing Urdu poetry and wants to practice? Or its political move? Or it fits the film? Or….
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I’m going with either a political mood, or it fits the film. Aanand is big on Hindi heartland type films, maybe he is going after that same could of audience. And Shahrukh might have finally been worn down enough to make a nod toward the political extremists. Or at least remind them that he can speak and write Hindi as well as they can, because he is Indian after all.
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I think his character is a poet or likes poetry (or both).
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that would be interesting! Perhaps someone with an aggressive unpleasant public persona in order to hide his artistic soul that has previously been insulted. Maybe he wants to be tall so he can be respected as an artist instead of being forced into the role of the aggressive clown.
On Tue, Jan 2, 2018 at 2:03 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I felt the same thing, my only problem, that I felt they were shrinking SRK body only, and this is not good for a film that depends on this,I also felt it is a masala movie and This is good, I have no problem with it.
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I saw the trailer as edgy and spoofy. It could point to a parody, a satire, a dark comedy, a mockumentary, a performance within the context of the movie (like the character who hires him insist that he perform this way), or the “before” part of SRK’s character’s arc. Varun Dhawan smacks rears is in Judwaa 2 also, right? So among Indians it isn’t as taboo as it would be here in the west. Plus as in Judwaa it could be a play to the front benchers.
Looks like SRK might be attempting to reinvent himself as a Lead Character Actor. Not too many male marquee stars in any industry make this transition successfully unless they bubble up from the indie space (like the Indian parallel actors) or just started off this way (like the crop of actors that took over Hollywood cinema in the 1970s). Ladies like Vidya, Rani, and Kangana are making this transition, but lessrr stakes are riding on their success.
If SRK is going through a midlife or existential crisis and letting us watch, then I am here for it. Part of following an artist is viewing his/her evolution itself as a work of art. I don’t mind incoherent messy choices so long as they are produced and acted well. Maybe that’s what ppl like about Ranbir. We will have to wait till the end of his journey to connect all the dots.
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Lead Character Actor is what Amitabh ended up landing on, after a similarly arduous and public journey. And it was a great career move for him! He gets to play fascinating varied characters in multiple films every year, is still respected as an artist and a star, but no longer has the crushing box office pressure of a true top male Star.
On Thu, Jan 4, 2018 at 3:40 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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