Happy Monday! I have a DOG!!!! A real dog, that weighs more than 20 pounds and grunts in her sleep and wags her whole body when she gets excited. So much better than the temporary dog that didn’t do any of that. So yeah, the week is off to a good start for me! And tonight I have the internet people over for a THIRD TIME and try to convince them that I am not hallucinating massive slow downs.
As always, you can ask me anything from the personal (“what is your favorite dog movie?”) to the specific (“what is a good Indian dog movie?”) to the general discussion (“dogs: good or bad?”).
The only rule is, you have to let me answer first! If someone else asks a question and you have something to say about it, just wait a second for me to start the discussion. And then you can leap in, it just works better that way.
Now, question for you! Well, two questions for you, a silly one and a different kind of silly one:
First question:
Dog name: Bagel or Hazel? I was leaning Hazel, but the dog wags her tail a whole lot more for Bagel, which makes me think she wants Bagel. Thoughts?
(she has what I would describe as a full-body wag)
Second question:
A month or so back I put up a discussion post asking what was Aamir’s worst movie (hot debate between Parampara, Ishq, Mela, and Tum Mere Ho, with a minority vote for Dil). But not fair to single him out! So over the next few Mondays and Wednesdays, as I remember it and there isn’t anything else to talk about, I’ll hit up each star in turn.
What is Shahrukh’s worst movie? Not like “morally” or anything, but the movie that is just all around bad, nonsensical script, bad costumes, stupid songs, and so on?
I think I have to go with Guddu, the movie which revolves around giving Manisha Koirala his eyes until his mother prays really really hard and he survives and the mother dies and gives Manisha her eyes. Leading to the memorable ending in which a guest at the baby shower says that their new baby has Manisha’s eyes, to which Shahrukh replies “no, she has her grandmother’s eyes”.
Although, to be fair, Duplicate is also a strong contender for “worst ever”. And Josh was generally not great either.
dontcallitbollywood 
You already know what I feel about Bagel as the dog’s name, so Hazel it is. And if you want a Bollywood connection, there is the minor actress Hazel Keach (she was in Salman’s Bodyguard — was pretty good, too — and did an item song in some Telugu movie, along with others that I haven’t seen. Right now she’s pretty much retired from acting, I guess, and is married to the cricketer Yuvi Singh.)
As for Shahrukh’s worst film, I love Duplicate. If for nothing else, you have to like it for SRK’s amazing performance. As for his worst, I have to go with JTHJ — stupid story, stupid execution, and notable for being the one film where SRK couldn’t work up any chemistry with his leading lady, despite claiming earlier that he could have chemistry with a tree. So Katrina is not even as good as a tree? I thought actors being called “wooden” was the worst comment, so I don’t know what to make of this.
I already asked the question I was saving up for Monday in the Inspire Me post, so have nothing else for you right now. Except this one, maybe: Are you going to watch Ala Modalaindi for your Telugu film this week? 🙂
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Shoot, I forgot about Ala Modalaindi ! Probably Maari this week, because it’s on Netflix (so easy for me, and other people who might be curious after the review), and it’s been a while since I did Tamil. But maybe Ala Modalaindi next week.
JTHJ-strong choice! The music is good, and Anushka is good, so it’s not a total disaster. But the plot is stupid, the flashback costumes are stupid, and as you point out, the romance is a disaster.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 6:01 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Anushka may have acted well, but her character was stupid. 😦
Ra. 1 was pretty bad, too.
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Katrina is just so wooden in general. Although I’ve been convinced recently that comedy/dance may be her forte.
Maybe this is giving SRK too much credit, but maybe there were takes when he emoted and it was so imbalanced between Kat and him that the scenes didn’t work at all? Because his acting with everyone else in JTHJ is quite good.
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Interesting theory. I’ve certainly seen that in other movies, the scenes when it feels like they are in different movies because one actor is working so much harder than the other.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 7:15 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah, SRK was decent in the movie.. even though the storyline was soooo stupid! The scenes where he was the Army officer were quite enjoyable. All scenes with Katrina, on the other hand, were terrible.
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Karan Arjun is the acme of Indian masala films. Nothing that came before that or after that can ever aspire to ascend those summit again.
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so that is your worst film choice? Strong suggestion! It is insanely enjoyable, but not necessarily because it is high quality. Kajol’s costumes alone drop it off of the “good film” list.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 6:07 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I have to agree Karan Arjun was one big WTH for me, as was the next Rakesh Roshan film with SRK (whose name I’m totally blanking on now). You know the one — the one with Madhuri where SRK’s muteness is cured by having him swallow burning coals.
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Koyla! That mention of burning coals jogged my memory. 🙂
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Koyla! And his muteness is caused by burning coals, and then cured in unexplained fashion by gypsies. One thing I’ve learned from Hindi movies, if I ever get sick in India I should go to the gypsies first. They are so much better at curing people!
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 6:33 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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My vote would be for English Babu Desi Mem, although I haven’t been able to make it through Guddu, so what does that mean? I have to believe that English Babu has the worst overacting ever. Do we care about anybody, including winny kid and dadi? Ok, maybe the lawyer…
On another note, from your email, doesn’t your internet provider provide a speed test to take a snapshot of performance? Or is it going awry somehow?
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They keep saying it’s my equipment. But I have now replaced every single element of equipment which means if there is a slowdown it HAS to be their wiring of the building. At least, that’s the argument I am going to try to make them believe.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 6:40 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I just had a 6 month battle in this regard. Finally rented a modem router from them instead of self own. Problem solved. Did they set it up so that no 3rd party router would work? No way to tell. Grrr. Good luck.
No stance on EBDM?
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Ignore last question, obviously. A little too fast on the return.
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EBDM, I am torn about. Some of it is so cute, and I love the idea of Sonali’s character as the tough bar dancer with the heart of gold. But the plot is sooooooooooooooooo stupid. Like, so stupid I have a hard time following it.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 6:50 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I liked EBDM — Sonali did a fabulous job acting. It was more of an “old fashioned” type of story and performance. I agree SRK hammed, though.
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I have seen only half of ShaRukh’s filmography and haven’t watched Guddu nor Ra.One nor Duplicate, so I can’t say how bad those movies are. But I watched Yeh Lamhe Judaai Ke, and it was terrible, but can I vote for this if it wasn’t even completed? I think not.
So from what I have seen: I suffered a lot durning Mohabbatein, but I don’t think it was bad made movie. Chennai Express made me angry, but still ,it wasn’t on Aamir’s Parampara level, the same with Jab Tak Hai Jaan which I hate with all my heart. But there is one movie I wasn’t able to finish – Happy New Year, and so it’s my choice as the worst movie.
As for Doggie, I’m so happy for you both, hope you will be happy together. I like Hazel (and Sadie) more, but I think you are more towards Bagel .
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Now you are swinging me back towards Hazel! This is just so difficult!
Happy New Year is an excellent choice for a bad movie. And the quality is pretty consistent through out, so I won’t even give you a hard time for not finishing.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 7:43 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Now I see Kunal Nayyar saying:
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But its too hard! Dil to pagal hai
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018, 8:22 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Bagel sounds so cute and perfect for a dog.Hazel is too human.Takes me back to my Enid Blyton days when everybody wanted to name their dog Timmy on account of the wonderful ‘fifth’ member of the Famous Five.Worst Shahrukh Khan film? Badshah,Duplicate and Dil to Pagal hai were equally bad in their own way.But all of them had excellent directors.Maybe Abbas-Mastan should have made Badshah more twisty? Mahesh Bhatt was lazy about Duplicate.And Yash Chopra should have stopped directing long before inflicting Dil to pagal hai,Veer-zaara and JTHJ on us.Very well,I’ll go with Dil to pagal hai.There’s a fine line between drama and melodrama.
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Oh I forgot about Badshah!!!!! That’s one my friends always nagged me to show them, because the title song is so great. And then we would get ten minutes into the actual movie and they would beg me to turn it off.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 10:16 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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It’s a tie between Ra One, Happy New Year and Jab Tak Hai Jaan for me. I couldn’t even finish HNY and JTHJ. I saw Ra one when it released in the theatre, and will never forgive the eating noodles with curd. JTHJ had the most ridiculous plotline ever. Why was Katrina bartering with God? Lol. And I actually found Deepika and Abhishek kinda funny in a goofy way but couldn’t stand the rest of them. And if I think about the worst SRK role, it would have to be Dev Saran from KANK. I couldn’t imagine anyone falling in love with him. Even before he had the accident he was very egoistic and bitter about Preity’s success. Shahrukh hammed his way throughout the entire movie.
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JTHJ is ridiculous because they removed the vital logical component from the source material (The End of the Affair). In the original, it is an actual affair, she is a married woman and a devout Catholic. So yes, it makes complete sense from her faith perspective that she is committing a terrible sin against God (since her marriage was a sacrament), and God would punish both her and the man she is sinning with unless she ends the sin (the affair). It would have worked just as well in JTHJ if Kat had been a devout Hindu and already married. She could have been overcome by her feelings for Shahrukh, he could have been less religious or else followed more of a “if it is love it isn’t a sin” theory, and then when he had the accident just as she was planning to run off with him, of course it would make her think it was a judgement on her for her faithlessness. Heck, you could slide that right into KANK and make a whole lot more sense of that ending.
But Yashji made her engaged, to a white man even, so the whole idea of the affair being a “sin” was completely lost.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 11:04 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh I had no idea it was based on another film. But the way you put it actually makes sense. Although in India falling for another man after getting engaged to another would also be considered a “sin” probably a couple of years back. But in 2012? Not so much. It was the same year where we saw a Veronica from Cocktail, so Hindi/Bollywood audiences were way more westernised than probably thought by Yash Chopra. Btw, I really like you addressing all the elderly people as “Yashji”, “Naseerji”. How thoughtful!
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Just googled the end of the affair and saw that it was a 1999 movie based on a novel from the 1950s. Makes complete sense now. Why would Yash Chopra make it 2012? It’s not a concept which even Indians would enjoy in the 21st century.
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Not only was it a 1950s novel, it was set partially in London during WWII. So death was constantly present, they were having the affair in a warzone, his near death experience was an everyday event. And you could believe that, although God might be too busy to kill someone just for an affair, if death is always around anyway, God might tip the scales a little just to punish you. Unlike in this movie where you really feel like there should have been a medical study or something of his rapid recovery from being hit by a car! And also, Katrina was the most egotistical woman in the world, thinking that God set up all these strange events just to test her.
And now that I am thinking about it, I have a whole alternate version of the story set in India during WWII, if Kat and Shahrukh were both part of the freedom fighting movement and Kat was engaged to another noble freedom fighter, and Shahrukh was arrested and sentenced to death for his crimes, and THAT is when Kat made her vow. And then we could jump ten years in the future and have Shahrukh be a fighter in the new Indian army and Anushka being a younger woman who doesn’t remember the freedom struggle from years earlier and is all modern and New India and a reporter following Shahrukh around. And then I don’t know if it would turn out that Kat married the other man and is a widow, or that the other man died before their marriage but Kat didn’t reach out to Shahrukh because she lost track of him, or what. But certainly there are a lot more logical options than what Yashji went for in 2012. Heck, just having Shahrukh meet Kat again and discover she has found happiness in her marriage so he can move on with Anushka would be better.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 11:29 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Ooh I love your version with the freedom fighting angle. Though maybe we could make Kat a religious English woman who falls in love with Shahrukh? Like Lagaan. Because I can’t imagine her as a freedom fighter.
And it was a Yashraj Production, so you can’t have Kat be happy in her marriage. Although there was Bachna Ae Haseeno, the Minisha Lamba track where she learnt to fall in love with her husband, but ONLY when Ranbir,the man who broke her heart makes her realize that.
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And Lamhe! Sridevi 1 was happy with her marriage, until she died. Although maybe “death” also counts as an unhappy marriage.
And now I really want to write this story as the Silly Sunday post. Except I think, even in an alternate version, I would still have Shahrukh end up with Alternate World Anushka.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 12:36 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Anushka and Shahrukh ending up together is way better than him and Kat.
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I like this version also! Can we make Kat not Kat? Maybe someone more age appropriate who can act in a dramatic film like Tabu?
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I have two worst Shahrukh movies. One is Chahat, this is before Shahrukh became Shahrukh, before DDLJ. And, more recently, Happy New Year. And, these are the only two movies which I couldn’t sit through as well. No, actually there are three, add Dilwale to the list. I have on several occasions tried to watch Happy New Year and Dilwale (because they’re there on Netflix), but they are unbearable. Chahat used to be played on TV (read Doordarshan) a lot when I was a kid. And, it was unbearable even then. Can’t imagine even trying to watch it now. 😛
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Chaahat might be worth revisiting just because Ramya Krishnan (Sivagami from Bahubali) plays the evil woman who wants to hire Shahrukh as her gigolo.
Happy New Year, you can probably skip entirely. Dilwale, try just fast-forwarding any scene without Kajol.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 1:28 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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OK, will give Chaahat and Dilwale a try sometime.
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I have seen ALL his movies, and most of the ones folks have named have some saving graces — music, SRK’s performance, entertainment value — but Yeh Lamhe Judaai Ke has none of those. It should have remained unfinished.
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The stars not even being willing to come back to dub the dialogue says a lot.
On Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 1:50 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Why is this even considered an SRK movie? He and the heroine (was it Raveena?) acted briefly in a film which ground to a halt due to lack of money. After several years the producer scraped up a few more rupees and wanted them to come back and finish it at their old, much lower fees. They refused. The producer then hired a few absolute newbies with no acting experience or track record, came up with a cockeyed story line, and spliced in some of the old footage with SRK and the heroine. In the final released version, they are there for about 30 minutes of a 2.5 hour film. Both publicly dissociated themselves from the film and disavowed. And yet it seems the producer’s trick worked, because I see so many new SRK fans dutifully grab this film thinking they have found an unknown gem!
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I won’t choose any old film because I doubt SRK was in the position then to be too choosy. From the later years, the 3 worst are Ra.one, JTHJ and Dilwale. Ra.one was so bad that I honestly don’t even remember the movie. I fell asleep towards the end so I don’t think I even finished watching it. I have no idea what happened with that movie or what they were thinking when they came up with that mess.
With JTHJ, I don’t even want to get into the story problems because there were way too many but apart from that, who thought of pairing up with Katrina with SRK? It has to be the worst actress SRK has ever worked with and the worst chemistry he’s ever had with anyone. He would have had better chemistry with a mannequin. Making matters worse, amongst the younger actress, SRK’s best chemistry is with Anushka bar none. You can’t put her in a movie with him and have her lose out. It just doesn’t make any logical sense.
I don’t mind masala movies and I’m not too snooty about that. I’m not ashamed to say I actually enjoyed Happy New Year. It didn’t match up to Om Shanti Om or Main Hoon Na but it still had really fun moments, great songs, goofy sequences that are actually funny and can be watched repeatedly and the best part, everyone is in on the joke. They know they’re doing cheesy things, they know the story is stupid, the characters are actually winking with us and that makes it all so much more tolerable. Dilwale was the opposite – played out so straight and seriously, as if the stupid story is supposed to move you, as if anyone actually cares what happens between Kajol and SRK, intolerable hamming, and been there done that big romantic songs. I’ll take Maanwa Laage with Deepika and SRK’s chemistry literally setting things on fire around them any day over that embarrassing Gerua. Dilwale actually ruined the SRK/Kajol pair for me. Both of them looked horrible in the “young” portions with too much make-up and maybe vfx to remove wrinkles, Kajol looking really frumpy but trying to wear hip clothes with that awful dyed hair, copied sequence from How I Met Your Mother, and good lord, Kajol looking absolutely ridiculous toting a gun. SRK looked super-handsome in the second half finally being allowed to be his age with the beard but that was the only good thing about the whole movie. Maybe someone like Sushmita would have done a better job and looked more believable opposite him. But never mind, this movie should not have existed at all.
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I see what you mean about Happy New Year. It’s a crazily uneven film, but the fun bits are really fun. And it never tries to be anything more than fun, which is nice. I would have liked to see it get a couple more rewrites to tighten up the plot a bit and just make it feel like it is moving forward in a straight line instead of meandering all over the place. And maybe cut the two really over the top sequences, the telepathy in the elevator and the fight scene. While Dilwale would need way more structural changes that just a little tightening up.
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I enjoy Happy New Year for the spectacle and tongue-in-cheekness of if, but I firmly hold to my head cannon that Deepika and Sonu Sood end up together. Charlie is a character made for revenge, not for love. Sonu’s character actually seems to like women–a non-negotiable prerequisite for being a leading man in my opinion.
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Dog: As I’ve mentioned, I like people names better, so Hazel it is.
SRK: Depends on what you mean by “worst.” Koyla is pretty wacky, with the children doing a song and dance about drugs and the aforementioned gypsy and mullets all around. I wouldn’t nominate it for an Oscar, but it can be enjoyable if you’re in the right mood. JTHJ I just don’t like. I hate what they did to Anushka. Why does a bomb disposal expert have so much trouble crossing the street? Amnesia as a plot point? What year are we in? But I do like the music.
My question: I can’t remember if this has been discussed or not. I was having a talk with some friends about bucket list books, which we defined as ones we want to read before we die but are so formidable that we can’t pull the trigger and start reading. Do you have a bucket list movie? Mine would probably be Mother India and the Apu series.
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By “the Apu series” do you mean the Satyajit Ray trilogy — Pather Panchali, Aparajito, and Apur Sansar? If so, I just want to say that they are not at all “formidable”, but very enjoyable and will draw you in with their sheer artistry.
I saw Mother India ages ago (when I was a teenager, I think), and I didn’t find that “formidable”, either. On the other hand, I do (or did) have both Moby Dick and Ulysses on my “to read someday” list, and I don’t think either of these movies fall into that same level of “formidableness.” 🙂
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I guess by “formidable” I mean “does not immediately spring to mind when I’m looking for something to watch on a Friday.” I think I will enjoy them when I watch them. One that I want to have watched, but dread actually watching, is Gangs of Wasseypur.
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Oh that’s a great question! I have SO MANY of those! I just checked off one, Mili. And of course I had my epic Devdas weekend that finally finished off that. I still have to see Naya Daur with Dilip and also Ganga Jumana. I am ashamed to say I haven’t seen any of the Merchant Ivory-Shashi pictures. I haven’t seen Satya, RGV’s great film. I haven’t seen Gangs of Wassaypur which I think someone else mentioned in another comment. I haven’t seen Boot Polish, Raj Kapoor’s children’s movie.
At least in Hindi I know enough to know what I am missing, in the other languages I don’t even have that! I haven’t seen EVERYTHING.
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Have you seen Raj Kapoor’s Jagte Raho? I guess that’s on my bucket list, but I’ve not been able to track it down yet.
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No, and I own it. Last time I was in India, 4 years ago, there was this burst of final DVD sales (at least, that’s what it felt like, films being packaged together in a desperate attempt to get people to buy something instead of streaming) and I picked up all of these massive boxed sets for like no money. So I own the “Raj Kapoor set”, every single movie Raj directed and/or produced. I also picked up a Guru Dutt boxed set and a “100 Years of Film” set that included stuff like the original Pukar and Dr. Kotnis. Of course, then the problem was finding the suitcase space to bring them all home 🙂
On Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 8:26 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I prefer Hazel to Bagel 🙂
Worst (or least favourite) SRK movie? I haven’t seen all of the earlier ones yet but when I tried to watch Trimurti ages ago I only managed about 1/3rd of it so for the time being it gets my vote.
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I’m trying to come up with a pun for having seen only one third of Trimurti, and failing. But yes, not the greatest movie. Although the ending fight scene is EPIC, might be worth coming back to it and just fastforwarding to there.
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“I’ve only seen Murti, not Trimurti.”
(Well, you wanted a pun.)
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Question for you, Margaret: What do you think of the news that Vikram Vedha is to be remade in Hindi with SRK playing the Vedha role and Madhavan reprising his role from the original? Also Neeraj Pandey to direct and produce. SRK apparently demanded some “significant changes” in the script before coming on board.
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If it’s true, I am disappointed. When I first heard the rumors, my hope was that SRK would take the Vikram part and play a cop opposite someone like Nawazuddin Siddiqui. I’m excited to see him opposite Maddy, but I was hoping he would try to do what Maddy did in the original, take a step back and let the other actor have the more showy role.
Also, I’m a little nervous about Neeraj Panday, he is always so methodical in how he directs, there is little room for imagination or experimentation. I would have liked someone like Zoya Akhtar to give it a try.
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They originally did approach him to play Vikram, but he didn’t want it. Then apparently Neeraj Pandey acquired the remake rights, and approached SRK again, whereupon he demanded the other role and also that Neeraj be the director and some unspecified script changes.
There has been an official confirmation that Neeraj Pandey’s company, along with a couple of others, is producing the remake. But it also says no casting announcements have been made public yet. So maybe the SRK part is not true.
Well, the one good thing is that I have started to watch the original, though I pretty much have to force myself to do it. Too many shootouts for me in the first 20 minutes.
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The best part of the original is the construction, I think, the flashbacks and present day intermingling. Which would have made me optimistic about Neeraj because he did a good job with that in Baby. But then he was so TERRIBLE with how he constructed Aiyaary, I am afraid it is a Mirchi-Srimanthadu situation and he lost some part of his team or some kind of edge and can’t do that any more.
On Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 8:22 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Don’t give up on Vikram-Vedha Moimeme, I didn’t like the shooting and police-stuff either in the beginning, because it’s absolutely not my genre, but later the movie becomes much better, and it’s worth watching.
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Yay you liked my suggestion for Hazel! But I liked Bagel too – really cute name!
SrK’s worst performance – I think a tie between Duplicate which had no plot or direction. KJo has talked about how Mahesh Bhatt was mostly absent from the sets so looks like SRK directed it (he should probably never direct). The other contender is Jab Tak Hai Jaan. I’m so glad there’re other people who agree this is a terrible movie. Its terrible because they had such good resources at their disposal – AR Rahman, Gulzar, Anil Mehta. And its not SRK’s fault; he really tied – you can see in some scenes where SRK is trying so hard but there is no reaction from Katrina’s side. Will blame AdiC for this movie though. He is a smart man, cant believe he was so stupid to go cast Katrina who is a proven non-performer. Also, AdiC needs a good writer to help with his screenplays. He does a good job with dialogs but his screenplays are often meandering.
Also, I feel Katrina’s backstory in this movie is strangely identical to Ranbir’s from ADHM – KJO does a better job with the writing of that though and Ranbir is a much much better actor.
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And Adi keeps casting Kat! the only way I can explain it is that she is apparently very nice on set, works hard and pleasant and all of that. I could see that being a reason to cast her in the Tiger movies, maybe even Thugs (we don’t know what her character is like there, maybe it is mostly action), but I don’t understand why she is in JTHJ.
On Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 12:50 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Ya these big production houses resist taking a new person on, they just keep recirculating the actors they’ve worked with.
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It’s fine if you don’t like Duplicate, but how can you say it has no plot? If anything, it has a surfeit of plot. 🙂
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You’re right, it has too much plot, but the execution was so terrible that it might as well not had any 😀
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Congratulations on the dog! My vote is for Bagel and it looks like she really likes the name too (that or she’s super smart and realizes its a food item and wants a treat)!
I don’t think I’ve seen enough of SRK’s films to pick a worst-that and I’ve avoided the really bad ones because I’ve read your reviews and had a pretty good idea which ones I’d like or dislike. If I had to pick, I’d say Chennai Express or Ra.One.
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Now you are making me reconsider everything! I had just landed on Hazel. But I think I will stick with it, because it will definitely be easier to explain to people.
It’s funny, because I really like both Ra.One and Chennai Express. But I can also see how someone could dislike them. Strange to have that doubling, being able to see both sides of a film.
On Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 9:43 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think being able to see both sides is great. It means you know your own biases when it comes to films and you have good understanding of what draws people into liking/disliking certain films. It’s why you’re so good at this and why I like reading your reviews. Even if its a film I’m not particularly interested in watching, I’m interested in your take on it.
To be fair, I can see why people liked Chennai Express; it just didn’t work for me. Ra.One was disappointing, I have a soft spot for ‘so bad its good’ films but this didn’t really hit that level either.
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I love Bagel, Most of Shahrukh Khan’s movies before 1995 I did not see, and despite some bad films, but there is always something good that makes me see it again except”dilwale”, I have not seen it after watching it in the cinema ever.
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I’ll tell you the same thing I tell everyone, Dilwale isn’t bad if you only watch the SRKajol parts. It’s not great, but it isn’t bad.
On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 7:56 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I forgot to ask on Monday – how is your old dog going? Has she found a new family?
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Her photo went down from the website in less than 24 hours, so either the adopter who was already scheduled to see her the day after I brought her back took her home, or someone else came in and fell in love with her. She was a very charming dog. Unlike this dog, who is a very shy and cautious dog.
On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 10:10 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Can you do one for Srk best movies 🙂
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Maybe, I’m working through everyone’s worst movies first, then I can switch to best.
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Thanks for pointing back to this post in today’s Wednesday watching. I missed the dog update! It may be too late but I love Bagel. I’m also in the camp of not naming pets people names. Plus Bagel is just fun to say. Bagel bagel bagel bagel bagel! No explanation needed for whatever you name her–people and their pets have their own internal logic. Sort of like marriages, haha.
Worst Shah Rukh movie. I’m going with English Babu Desi Mem, Mohabbatein (shame on him for not at least trying to look like he was playing the violin–I mean, it was 2000 for crying out loud–and all three of the subsidiary love stories were AWFUL), and Dilwale–which despite a few good scenes is overall an insult to the viewers’ intelligence and a waste of a great cast. If they’d even tried to write a cohesive screenplay with sensible dialog it would have helped a lot. And Pritam plagiarized melodies even worse than usual. Though I admit to liking Daayre and Tukur Tukur.
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Tukur Tukur always makes me smile.
I have now officially purchased a dog tag labeled “Hazel”, so it’s too late! Unless I get a different dog tag. But that would be MADNESS!
All good choices for bad movies. I can find something to enjoy about all of them, but they are definitely not good.
On Wed, Apr 25, 2018 at 8:00 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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My grandpa would tell a funny story about the name Hazel. Keep in mind that my grandpa was one of the world’s kindest men, and a great storyteller. A la Alan Alda. Anway–he was stationed in Southern England ahead of D-Day in World War II. He and his young Army cohorts being obnoxious Americans, would call random English women “Hazel” (for example waitresses, store clerks, or a cute lady walking down the street). Until one day, he and a couple of guys called out, “Good morning, Hazel!” to a woman walking past, and she rounded on them and said fiercely (imagine this old guy from Ohio doing an Eliza Dolittle type accent), “Don’t call me ‘azel. Call me boi me roight nayme!” He said after that he didn’t cat call English women anymore. (Who knows if this last bit is true.)
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Now I am picturing my poor dog going to England and getting so confused by random catcalls, running back and forth between randy young men thinking they want her.
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Oh no. Think of Hazel being plucky and teaching some young men a much needed lesson in basic respect!
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I don’t think she is that kind of dog. She is more the “afraid of squirrels” kind of dog. But she could teach some young men basic humanity through being so incredibly fat and pitiful that they can’t help but spoil her.
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She can be transformed through your love. I’m thinking of you as Phryne Fisher and Hazel as Dotty from Miss Fisher’s Murders. Dotty is still Dotty, but can stick up for herself and what she wants. 🙂
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Yes, that’s the goal! She can stay sweet and soft and cuddly, but hopefully will get past the psychological trauma of half a life spent in shelters. Poor baby!
On Wed, Apr 25, 2018 at 12:03 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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“Dotty” would be a good name . . . .
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