Wednesday Watching: What Are You Reading and Thinking and Watching This Week?

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Happy Wednesday!  And Happy Return to Regular Life.  Which, yes, means there will be new film reviews going up on regular schedule starting this Friday.  Sorry for the interval, I had time to write during the holidays but not time to watch anything new.

I’ll start!

Reading

For reading, Moviemavengal/Pardesi sent me this interesting article from The Atlantic that goes into the issues with the Hindi box office this year.  Mostly it agrees with what we have all been saying (need more smaller films, need to appeal to the audience that is fleeing for the non-Hindi languages).  The article also makes a connection I was missing, the Hollywood films are generally dubbed into multiple languages, not just Hindi.  So Hollywood is releasing equally countrywide, while Hindi films are lagging behind by only releasing in Hindi or Hindi with subtitles.

The article also suggests that streaming is an increasing threat, and name checks Hotstar.  FINALLY!!!!  Everyone has been focusing on Amazon versus Netflix and ignoring the homegrown threat that has by far the biggest library.  However, I am still holding back on considering streaming a major threat to theatrical releases until India actually has some kind of firm universal internet option.  Right now movies in theaters (or on traveling shows) are still the only source of entertainment for a large percentage of people in India.  I don’t see that changing without a massive national push.  Or a huge leap forward in internet technology.

Oh, and I also read my annual Christmas romance.  Very nice, first book in Sally Mackenzie’s new series.  Not as good as Noble Intentions, but nothing ever will be.

And now I have to hurry and finish Twinkle’s book before Padman comes out.

 

Thinking

So many many thoughts!  First, when will I take down my Christmas decorations?  I kind of want my apartment back from all the evergreen invaders, but it is also quite the project, so perhaps I should wait until Saturday when I can do it all at once.

Second, dogs!  I need to get back to the shelter near me and see if they have any new stock.  Last I heard, they got 14 puppies.  So I was staying away because I can’t risk falling for a puppy.  But maybe all the puppies are gone and they have some nice calm older dogs for me to look at.

Third, new movies!  Finally the new release schedule is back to normal and I am thinking about dragging my friend Dina out to see them with me ever Friday.  It’s just such a nice ending to the week.

 

Watching

Over the past week, I showed my sister Bareilly Ki Barfi, and watched Spider-Man Homecoming with my Dad and my sister.  My sister and I also watched a ton of sitcoms and Murder She Wrote while finishing our final Christmas Craft projects.

 

So, what have you been reading and watching and thinking?

43 thoughts on “Wednesday Watching: What Are You Reading and Thinking and Watching This Week?”

  1. “Right now movies in theaters (or on traveling shows) are still the only source of entertainment for a large percentage of people in India”

    I’m wondering what led you to believe this^. This was true, yes, but like back in the 60s. Even then people had radios. Then tv. And TV is still the primary source of entertainment. Every village has had at least one TV for almost two decades now and now most people in villages have TV with a dish. Those that don’t have one still, watch TV at their neighbours’ homes. Theatres are still located in cities and costly for people too poor to own a TV.

    Watching: Fuller House, Modern Family, Manto, Baaghi

    Reading: social media news sites. Our country is going down the loo and the news has apparently been bought by corporations so there’s no real news there anymore.

    Thinking: dafaq is happening to this country?! And how long will our films take to acknowledge/reflect this.

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  2. What Asmita said about TV.

    The bigger threat to films in theaters is that most films release on TV within one to two months of their theatrical release, and sometimes it may take three months. Still not a colossal amount of time to wait. And then there is the fact that piracy is a huge threat. With pirated dvd’s available on the day of release, many people would rather buy them and watch comfortably at home. Then there is the other component to piracy, the online release of pirated prints, which are then streamed/downloaded onto people’s computers, tablets, and even phones.

    I’m surprised that you didn’t know Hollywood films were routinely dubbed into Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu (i.e., the three biggest markets). Basically the Hindi industry has to stop pretending it’s the only game in town, or the country, and give up its equally pretense of being “national”, while the other language industries are “regional.”

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    • I think bollywood press, like hindi news media, has managed to project itself and the industry as a national one. This is exactly why I was extremely disappointed that the DCIB awards this year didn’t feature even Bahubali. Which is all kinds of ironic considering what the name of the blog is!! 😁

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      • Yes, but, the awards are carefully named “HINDI” film awards! Which is an improvement over last year when they weren’t labeled as “Hindi” and yet were almost entirely Hindi film based.

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      • I will give you some more grief over this Margret:)This blog with a name like this, dedicates a great deal of print space to Bollywood-with posts around Bollywood trailers,Bollywood news,Khans’ birthday specials etc(all fun stuff I agree) while completely ignoring the major events in other languages.The biggest filmi news this year is not Karan,Kangana,Hritik or Taimur.It was down south when a Malayalam actress was kidnapped and molested in a moving vehicle & a Malayalam actor was accused of plotting it.The incident(with a plot worthy of a movie) brought out the inherent patriarchy & misogyny that is so rampant in the film industry & the Indian society.Another incident that rocked the Malayalam industry was when a young 20 something Malayalam actress Parvathy(you will remember her from Charlie & Banglore Days) commented upon the glorification of misogyny in an open forum of a film festival.She exemplified this with a highly misogynistic scene in a superstar’s film.The amount of online hatred and abuse she has faced since then from the fans of the superstar,including planned campaigns against her upcoming movie is nothing short of a study into the psyche of movie goers in India.It also opened the discussion on various other topics like creative freedom of movie-makers,role of censor board in India,the vicious nature of fandom,social accountability of idols and so many more. I am telling you,the south industry can give the Hindi film industry a run for their money,even offscreen,if only you paid a little more attention to it..;)

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          • I’m trying! But I just don’t know enough to talk intelligently about them. It took me 10 years to get to a point to being willing to publicly write about Hindi films, and I’m only 2 years into the regional industries. I don’t even know what news sites I should be reading, let alone have the proper background to understand the stories. I try to make up for it by doing a lot of southern industry film reviews.

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        • Thank you so much for commenting so I can clarify!

          First, I had no idea the name of my blog was so misleading, but I’ve had a few people call me out for it. It isn’t meant to be “ignore the Hindi film industry” it is meant to be “don’t use the word ‘Bollywood’ for the Hindi film industry”. I wrote a whole book on the history of the Hindi film industry with that title, which is what helped to give birth to the blog (I had more to say after I finished writing it). I never intended to write about, or even watch, films from non-Hindi industries. And then I put up a review of Ohm Shanthi Oshana, only the 3rd Malayalam film I had watched, and readers here started giving me so much information and recommendations and so on that I decided to just keep going. The same thing happened with Tamil and Telugu films.

          And second, I have insanely high standards for myself! I will write about Hindi film industry stuff because I have been watching movies and following the industry for almost 14 years, and I have a bookshelf of books about it, and have written a book on it. But Malayalam/Tamil/Telugu, basically everything southern, I have only been watching and loosely following news for two years. I don’t have anything intelligent or original to say about it yet. I can review the films, sure, because that’s just talking about what I am seeing onscreen, but I don’t want to do anything more than that.

          However, if I had to pick my favorite news story from the south industries, it would be Prithviraj standing up for the actress (are we really not supposed to say her name? I know it, and I am assuming everyone else does, and it just feels weird not to say it). Or Naga Chaitanya marrying Samantha. Or the time I almost rear ended Nivin Pauly in a parking lot. Probably that last one.

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    • Beyond the waiting for TV, there’s also the fact that it cuts off the theatrical run. If it is premiering on TV in two months, that means it can only run in theaters for 6 weeks.

      I knew Hollywood films were dubbed, but I hadn’t put it together until I read this article that that would mean they had a better chance at an All-India box office than Indian films which, for some reason, are almost never dubbed and released simultaneously.

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  3. This was a re-watch week for me: Happy New Year with a bunch of friends who wanted masala, and JHMS all by myself because I had been listening to the soundtrack and needed to re-experience the visuals. I finished ready “A Trick of the Light” by Louise Penny and started “Composing a Life” by Mary Catherine Bateson and “Holding” by Graham Norton.

    I am thinking about how to manage my time and effort in the new reality of retirement. Time seems infinite, yet at the same time I am only too aware that it is not.

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  4. Reading: still Karan’s biography. I wonder if somebody has read it before publishing. Some chapters are so messy. Like this one about friendship. First he wrotes about how special his friendship with Manish Malhotra is, just to write few pages after that he only has 2 friends: SRK and Aditya Chopra . And than again, he admits that he is not so close with Adi anymore. But the worst is the part about time when Karan hadn’t talked with Shah Rukh. He denied one sentence with another: yes, we were far, but he still loved me, it was my fault too, but it wasn’t, we weren’t far, just not talking, he wasn’t mad with me, or maybe he was.

    And now something nice, films I watched: First Mirchi, Prabhas was wonderful almost all the time. But can we talk about his introduction? Man, I thouht that I’m watching Toddlers and Tiaras when he waved.
    Than I have seen Style, and it was great. Yes, it’s not serious movie, but once you know that it’s just all fun: Unni’s romantic gazes and the perfect way he wears jeans, Tovino who can kill with a book, nice cars, and funny scenes. What people want more? 😉
    And yesterday I finished Shubh Mangal Saavdhan – very good. I loved the scene when Ayushmann marries banana tree. And the scene of marriage was one of the best I have ever seen. Simple but very touching.

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      • I think it depends on if you like Karan and if you read gossip/ stories about him. I don’t read gossip, so I found many stories new and interesting (like the one about Kareena wanting a lot of money for doing Kal Ho Naa Ho or Karan’s father illness just to name two). But if you are up-to-date with rumours you can be disappointed because he doesn’t add nothing special here (at least till the moment I’m reading now)
        The language is not very sophisticated, so it’s very quick and easy to read. And it’s only 350 pages.

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        • I found it helpful for separating the wheat from the chaff gossip wise. Stuff like, are he and Adi cousins? Now I have a definitive answer. But I agree, nothing necessarily new.

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    • I think you win the prize for most movies accomplished this week! Plus Karan’s bio!

      I know what you mean about the messiness. Although that was also kind of what I found interesting. Like at the end, he starts just sort of going through every movie Dharma made. And you can tell which ones were important to him based on how long he spends discussing them, versus others that are brushed off with barely a comment.

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      • I started too How Old Are you? yesterday as a part of my New Year resolution: watch all “must watch” malayalam movies I have on my list.

        And Karan’s messy way of writing surprised me, because he dedicates so much time to display how good he was in writing/ debating / speaking english at school. And his work is writing stories and screenplays, so why this book is so messy?
        Oh and have you seen Karan’s twitter resolutions? One of them is “.will only praise films and trailers i genuinely like”.I don’t believe it to be honest.

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        • Doesn’t he say in the book that he dictates his scripts and always works with a co-writer? And then he is also directing them, so he can put in some additional clarity through his editing choices and camerawork and so on. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is what his raw narration is like, and then his co-writer types it up, he figures out a shooting plan and so on, and it falls more into place.

          I would be fascinated if Karan only praises films he likes! He seems to use his twitter praise as a bit of a business strategy. Part of the way he keeps good relations with other people in the industry is by putting out a tweet about loving their song, or poster, or trailer or whatever. If he cuts himself off from that, he’ll have to come up with a replacement for it. Or else maybe he thinks he is big enough that he doesn’t need to play the game? Nah, Karan is too smart for that.

          On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 11:15 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  5. I went with my family to see The Last Jedi, finally, over the weekend. Loved it SO MUCH! I tried really hard to avoid any news about it before and after release, and it paid off in the viewing experience. Looking at social media after seeing it, I’ve been bemused by the fanboy whinging about the plot and (new and existing) characters. I was glad to see TLJ follow the tone and themes of The Force Awakens and not Rogue One. Rogue One was too much like a real war movie–and that’s not what I go to see Star Wars movies for! 🙂

    My Hindi film watching has really gone down the tubes. My husband and I are listening to audiobooks of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series together, and while it’s been very enjoyable (especially because I NEVER thought he’d like anything by King), it is eating into my movie watching time on weekends.

    Reading: almost nothing but social media and articles linked to by people I follow. Gotta get back into the habit of reading fiction daily–it’s good for the soul!

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  6. Reading: A Jonathan Franzen essay for work which has been a bit of a slog. Still not 100% after being sick in bed all through the holidays. .

    Thinking: About a two day business trip I’m taking tomorrow and while it’s in a very pretty area it’s always hard on my family when I go away.

    Watching: I started Om Shanti Om and Wanted, had to pause both because I’m having a hard time focusing. I did really appreciate Salman beating up 10 guys then launching immediately into a dance number with Anil Kapoor, Govinda and Prabhudeva 😆

    Overall, meh week so far. Meh.

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    • I am kind of over my second flu of the year. First one was just killer death flu thing, this was like hardly anything, just made me want to sleep for like twenty hours and have a mildly scratchy throat, but I could go to work and stuff. But it’s a bad sign if I’ve already gotten sick twice before January! Seems like it might be a flu-y year. Oh well, lots of time to stay in bed and watch movies!

      On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 12:13 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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      • Try pomegranate juice! It makes miracles for me. Earlier I was sick almost every month, but since I drink fresh pomegranate juice, I’m ill only maybe once in a season.

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        • I’ll have to try that! I was sick basically constantly all winter for years, so long as I was around people (living in the dorms and then retail jobs). But since I got my current tech support job, I hardly ever get sick, until this year. Of course, we also just hired two new staff members so I am no longer alone in the office all day. Hmmm. Well, they are nice, it’s worth it to have company even if they make me sick.

          On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 2:11 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  8. Watched: Udaharanam Sujatha, remake of Nil Battey Sannata. I’d seen the original but still loved the remake. I loved the changes they made to the movie to Malayalam.
    I’ve also been seeing the Bollywood roundtables with Anupama/Rajeev and felt that the producers still don’t get it. KJo said we need big event films Really? If anything this year showed was, content works. (I think YRF was saved because of Salman’s star power, so may be he was referencing that) And Balaji had a great year with Lipstick, not so much with Half Girlfriend – so I’d have thought that they would push more for that. Also, did anyone read the book before making it??? Then they complain the movies don’t do well!. Except for Ronnie and sometimes Ritesh Sidhwani, don’t think they had much learning.

    Also had a question for you – do you know how the southern BO did comparatively? I follow only Malayalam, and thought it did well ?!? but not sure.

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    • I mostly track the international numbers, not local. Internationally, southern box office was falling off like crazy! Except for Mersal and a few others, nothing reached the level it was at even last year. It’s hard to tell with Malayalam, for instance, because it is just beginning to get into the international market so there is nothing to compare it with. But Tamil and Telugu was just not as strong as it was in 2016.

      Mohzin, one of our regular commentators, runs a movie theater in Kerala and he was mentioning around Eid, so halfway through the year, that there hadn’t been many big hits for them.

      My random guess would be that the southern box office is suffering less from audience lack of interest than the Hindi box office, but equally from the threat of streaming, satellite TV, and the encroachment of Hollywood. Which is still enough to drive it down.

      On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 1:46 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  9. Still visiting my sister in the US, and practically everyone I know here is sick, so I’m just hanging out inside. I decided to knock one off my bucket list and take advantage of US Netflix, so I’m about halfway through Mughal e Azam. Spectacular sets and music. I also feel like I finally understand what made Dilip Kumar such a big star. He doesn’t look like a movie star, but he’s totally believable as a dashing prince.

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    • My 96 year old grandfather also just watched Mughal-E-Azam! His response:

      “The best part was the extra super luxurious castle with elaborate rooms and halls. Similar to a previous movie, it was a big disagreement between a father and son about the son’s intended.”

      So, look forward to the luxurious castle and the big disagreement.

      On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 2:09 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  10. So I watched some more Om Shanti Om and I was so proud I understood the Mother India and Maine Pyar Kiya jokes! But it made me realize there must be so much I’m missing. Maybe I should wait a few more months before tackling the rest of the movie so I’ll understand it better.

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    • Have you seen Luck By Chance yet? It has so many references that I ended up taking notes and putting together an annotated version. Now you are making me think maybe I should do that for OSO too. There are soooooooooooooooooo many references, you’re right. Although the essential story is still fun too, even if you don’t get any of the references.

      On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 9:35 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  11. I’ve been watching THE STUPID DIABETES MEDICINE AD THAT TAKES OVER THIS BLOG EVERY TIME I CLICK A LINK !!!!

    Alright, I got that off my chest. If there’s anything I can do to stop the take-over ads, please let me know. I hope you are at least getting revenue every time it plays.

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    • I think I am getting revenue. So that’s nice, although I would give back the extra $5 if it would make it stop.

      You can go back to this post as many times as you want to report it. There is a link straight to the wordpress form, you don’t have to go through me or anything.

      Video Ad Problem Update

      On Thu, Jan 4, 2018 at 11:24 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  12. Watched the first five episodes of
    Bose Dead/Alive
    On ALTBalaji
    (which I access via Roku, but there’s a mobile app and a website too)
    Starring Rajkumar Rao and Patralekha, both from the City Lights movie.

    Well made and acted, but it’s funny to see the massy tv serial touches that Balaji adds to it, like an overly emphatic background score that signals which emotion you are meant to feel at each moment. If the production were more spare, it would be perfect. Interesting non chronological sequence to the episodes too.

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    • Thank you for the alert! I wasn’t aware of any of this until you mentioned it and just took a quick spin through wikipedia and elsewhere for background. Really interesting start for their channel! The kind of in depth story that you could only fully investigate in a miniseries, starring off beat but recognizable actors. And sets ALTBalaji apart right away from Hotstar and Netflix and Amazon, by providing high quality INDIAN entertainment made exclusively for this platform. Netflix is getting there, they’ve already got some sort-of Indian options, The Indian Detective is being advertised all over my Netflix right now, but they are still in production for their Indian content/Indian produced/Indian stars offerings, while Balaji already has something.

      I keep waiting for Y Films to announce their own streaming channel. They’ve got more online content than any other major studio, I think, with all their youtube series. And they haven’t struck a deal with anyone else to host that content, which makes me think they are planning on building something of their own. It would fit with the studio style, Adi likes control top to bottom, his own distribution wing, his own DVD production wing, I am sure he would prefer his own internet streaming channel too over just selling out or striking a deal with someone else.

      On Thu, Jan 4, 2018 at 2:57 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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      • And since Bose’s life journey includes Germany Russia and Formosa (Taiwan), the series has an international cast. Top notch cinematography, set design, and costumes.

        For those who don’t know, the first 5 episodes of Bose are free, and to watch more you have to subscribe to ALTBalaji to watch the remaining episodes.

        As to your comments about Y films, I’m really impressed with Ekta Kaooor for being the industry leader in designing a new way of producing distributing and viewing Indian content. She’s my shero!

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        • This might also solve an Ekta-puzzle for me. She invented modern Indian television, then seemed to be moving into inventing a new kind of film studio with their high quality low budget unusual kind of films, Dirty Picture and Shor in the City and Love Sex Aur Dhokla and Ragini MMS. But then Balaji films turned suddenly stupid and I had to wonder, where was Ekta???? And now I know, she was off planning for domination of streaming channels instead of movie theaters.

          On Thu, Jan 4, 2018 at 10:22 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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