One of this is important and one of them isn’t, but I’m not sure which. Kitten or trailer?
Sanju trailer. Still a little thrown by the black comedy kind of tone to it, still hopeful that is just the trailer and the real movie will have more heart. Still not feeling the gravitas from Paresh Rawel, but Manisha is expectedly perfect. And still a little distressed because Richa Sharma is nowhere in sight.
Now, the important news! Aamir Khan and a kitten!!!! Okay, it’s also kind of news-news, Aamir has never really sold his personal life online before, and now he is suddenly posting these fairly sweet and intimate photos. Makes me like him a lot, they are great photos, but also makes me wonder why he has decided to share them?
https://twitter.com/aamir_khan/status/1001763774817239040
dontcallitbollywood 
I’m excited to watch this movie Rajkumar Hirani never fails to amaze me and always has a great message in his films, but I do understand your point of the black comedy tone and it does have PK and children type comedy feel to it (not sure how to explain it) but nonetheless it does look really interesting and something different from the norm, obviously much better than Race 3 which is a joke at this point.
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Definitely different from the norm. If it were based on a totally fictional story, I think I would be really excited for it at this point. But it makes me nervous about them respecting or not respecting real people in the way they portray them. Obviously Sanjay is fine with it, and presumably so is his family (Kumar Gaurav included), but I worry about some of the other real people who are going to be in here.
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Yes I agree I heard rumors Madhuri did not want to be part of it and whoever was suppose to play her got cut but I wonder about the consent of other actresses he had affairs with I just hope it also has realistic portrayals of his struggles not just comedy throughout but i do trust RKH and can’t judge till I watch the movie
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Who is Mansoor? Those photos are very sweet.
The Sanju trailer made me very uneasy, like it’s laughing off what he did as the adventures of a lovable scamp. Which is a helluva whitewashing.
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Aamir’s cousin and the director of QSQT. He and Aamir have always been close, recently they started producing together, but he has stayed pretty much behind the scenes, he’s not one of those celebrity directors. So this is a definitely a glimpse of Aamir’s private life which isn’t something he has done before.
Yeah, that’s what bothers me about the Sanju trailer too. If his life was just drugs and a few bad breakups, maybe, but there was a lot of really serious stuff that happened to him, and that he made happen to other people. Although, again, it could just be the tone of the trailer and the actual film will balance it all better.
On Wed, May 30, 2018 at 10:32 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Much is being said on Sanjay’s number of gfs rather than on Ranbir’s performance.If the intention was to shock and create a buzz, they’ve succeeded admirably.It’s so great to see Manisha back on screen.She’s so beautiful and fragile at the same time.Paresh seems underwhelming.I’m disappointed that Kumar Gaurav will not be in the movie.But he and his wife seem to be a very keen on their privacy and I guess they were happy to be left out of it.
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Vicky Kaushal was initially listed as Kumar Gaurav in the cast list, but now it has changed to just “Sanju’s best friend”. Not sure what that means, maybe they are combining several people into one, or maybe they just decided no one would know Kumar related to Sanju and it was easier to list him that way. Karishma Tanna is still listed as “Madhuri Dixit”, but she’s not a very big name and she didn’t appear in the trailer. Based on the trailer, I wouldn’t be surprised if they jumped around his life and covered some parts more than others, picking and choosing what is most expedient to focus in on, either because they didn’t have permission to cover certain people or because it didn’t fit the narrative they want for the film.
I almost hope that Vicky isn’t playing Kumar, because from this trailer, it looks like his character is being set up as a good time friend of Sanju who helped send him down a dark path, instead of a loyal friend who tried to save him. Of course, the trailer also got all kinds of other things “off”, like saying that Sanju took drugs because of a fight with his father and grief over his mother, instead of just taking them to take them and being a firm addict before his parents even noticed, and long before his mother died.
On Wed, May 30, 2018 at 11:58 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh, and I forgot to say, I sincerely do not understand why everyone is so buzzed about the girlfriend number. His first two marriages fell apart fast, everyone already knew this. So he was single most of the time until he was 50. Figuring he started dating at 18, that’s 32 years, averaging one “girlfriend” a month. So, assuming “girlfriend” just means a woman he had sex with, that’s one random hook up a month, fewer when he was in a relationship, more when he was recovering from a break up. It’s not healthy behavior, but isn’t that kind of the behavior we already knew/assumed for Sanju? Did no one do the math before and add it up?
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I don’t like the Sanju trailer. It’s a clear attempt at whitewashing. The highlight/shocker scenes are all the ones that expects us to sympathise with Sanjay(him naked for the admission into jail, poop seeping into his cell, strapped down to a bed, getting slapped by the cops). It’s all too much ‘look here’s a celebrity who has been humiliated & undergone suffering..’. ppl who got convicted with him or any convict will be like ‘yeah, so?’The scene with Ranbir, Diya & Anushka was so weird. Diya as Maanayata is the perfect homely wife in sindoor, mangalsutra and looking adoringly at her husband trying to round-off the count of women he slept with.Anushka looks like an alien with her blue eyes who can’t help laughing at the adorable man who wants to be so honest in his answer.That’s how Hirani must have laughed off at Sanjay’s stories.
Ranbir’s costumes, prosthetics & makeup for the different Sanjay looks are so good. Clearly a lot of care has been taken to make sure that the audience feel Sanjay upfront unlike Diya as Maanayata or Paresh Rawal as Sunil Dutt. As for Ranbir himself, it felt a bit like ‘role playing’ like he was really ‘acting’ out the role of Sanjay Dutt. I will wait for your review of the movie before watching it anywhere.
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Such faith in me! But in this case probably justified, because everything that felt odd to you about the trailer also feels odd to me, meaning we will probably react to the film in the same way too.
Another thing I don’t like is that they seem to be selling the 80s drug period as this psychedelic party, instead of addiction and disconnect and sleazy depressing experiences. I really hope they pull back on the idea of drugs as “fun”. I sound like such a narc, but really, he was on hard stuff that almost killed him, it wasn’t wacky clothes and nightclubs, it was sitting up in his room in a haze for days on end. It’s just not accurate to show it as this wacky fun time.
And with the Ranbir in the prosthetics, I am thinking of Keerthy in Mahanati playing Savatri. She didn’t super impress me, it felt mostly like “role playing” with her as well, but at least she did it without prosthetics! She was able to evoke Savatri through body language alone. Ranbir is using a familiar walk and posture and way of holding his eyes, combined with lots and lots of make-up to make this performance work. And sometimes I still just saw Ranbir.
On Wed, May 30, 2018 at 12:26 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well your review of Mahanati did bring out the flaws in the thinking behind a movie that everyone else was going nuts about. The makers of Sanju may say that they aren’t glorifying him or his mistakes. But I wonder how many of the audience can make that differentiation. Doing drugs, casual relationships, being irresponsible, getting involved with underworld etc is not ‘cool’ whether it’s Ranbir Kapoor doing it onscreen or Sanjay Dutt offscreen. Also no sign of his daughter?
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I really can’t wait to see Sanju. I wonder what sort of disclaimer they will make at the beginning of the movie. Like will it say, “loosely based on the life of SD” or something? I think y’all are reading way too much into the trailer, especially about the characterization of non-Sanju folks who just show up for split seconds. I do think that the music behind the trailer is poorly chosen until the last song at the end. Without the bouncy clubby beat behind it, the trailer seems to me like a pretty even mix of light and dark–both in the circumstances and in how Sanju is being portrayed.
Re: Aamir photos. Maybe he’s sharing because it was an especially nice day. I can’t help but notice that either the child or the stalk of grass has been badly photo-shopped into the right side of the frame in the photo of Aamir holding the cat. Weird.
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I looked up Mansoor Khan, and now I want his life! He and his family live in a farmhouse in a hill station with a population of 45,000 in Tamil Nadu, and he wrote a book about unsustainable cities and stuff. He checked out of the whole Hindi film world years ago and just lives in his gorgeous house and beautiful farm far away from everything else. I assume that’s where the party was. If I were Aamir, I would have bought the estate next door immediately and settled down.
And you think we are reading too much into it? This blog community, that regularly reads 2,000 word essays on obscure films and then spends another 2,000 words in heated discussion of them? No! Never! We are clearly casual superficial folks who would never ever overthink media content. (sarcasm. partly because I just submitted an article to another website and was told it was way way too long and detailed and no one would ever want to read it. They haven’t met you folks!)
On Wed, May 30, 2018 at 12:47 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Haha, fair point about our penchant for over-thinking. It is a very enjoyable part of this blog! Sorry to hear that about the other website though. Fools!
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I think Sonam is Tina Munim+Richa? They’re probably not going to go too deep into Richa’s part because that is absolutely the worst way to treat your wife, and this feels like image cleansing. They will probably treat Sanjay as a man-child and victim of unfortunate circumstances. Ranbir’s terrible with voice overs- its monotonous.
After reading your summaries, I’m very disappointed with the trailer, especially because they was opportunity to do so much! Don’t think I’l catch it unless it gets amazing reviews.
And what’s with Anushka’s wig??
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Yeah, I don’t understand Anushka’s look. It seems as though she is an invented character, probably a reporter/journalist/something who is talking to Sanjay and the whole thing is intended to be him telling her stories. But if she is completely invented, why not just have her look like herself? What’s with the wig and all that?
It’s funny, I don’t even have that hard of a time with Sanjay. He’s a great friend, a great father, and even seems to be a good husband. He went to jail without complaint in the end and never played for pity. He seems to have successful remade himself and started a lite post-addiction which is remarkable for anyone. If I were making a film on him, I would focus on those parts, on how broken he was and how remarkable it was that he managed to survive and move on. Not the bits during the broken parts, that’s what bothers me, that it seems to be picking the parts of his life I actually find least interesting and least remarkable.
On Wed, May 30, 2018 at 8:37 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m just wondering why the glaring point of conflict of interest doesn’t seem to arise anywhere when people talk about the film? Especially with Indian biopics(specifically the ones about cricket icons) in general, there is often direct involvement of the subject with the source material! I don’t understand how it’s going to be balanced.. I’m not counting bias, because I’m sure you agree it’s impossible not to be biased. And this trailer very much gives the impression that it is an ode to a dear friend.
Also, does Hirani hate Anushka Sharma’s hair? It looks hideous! In this and in PK 😛
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I think you have solved the Anushka Sharma hair mystery! It’s the only reasonable answer.
On Thu, May 31, 2018 at 9:42 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Maybe 😀
I just couldn’t focus on Aamir lecturing me about religion because I just kept staring at that nest on her head. “Maybe that’s an alien too? what is its host planet? How many organisms live inside it? hmm..Is that the final twist of the movie?”
Also…I don’t get the big deal about the girlfriends either..why mention it? What is the intent? That it’s impressive? “Saw that kids? Bollywood is a place of debauchery”? “You too could be this lucky if you became famous”?
Surely the sexual escapades of an actress would be brushed under the carpet?
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Back to conflict of interest, I respect how Anupama Chopra never reviews home production movies as a policy.
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This story makes me weep for humanity.
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They are so cute together! (I decided not to read any comments or text, just look at pictures)
On Thu, May 31, 2018 at 12:21 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Wise decision!
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Aamir…obviously tries an image change…fake? genuine? Actually I don’t bother 😉
Sanju…what I read in the trailer is like ‘My name is Sanjay Dutt and I’m not a terrorist’…Yes to alcoholic, womanizer, druggy but no to terrorist.
I saw nothing ‘funny’ in the trailer rather a ‘I did not take things serious until serious things got at me’ (and this serious was the alleged involvement into the terroristic acts).
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