More trailers! I tell you, Eid is exhausting. Plus there’ve been fireworks on my street the past couple of nights, which is also exhausting. But it’s all worth it, because THANK GOODNESS Zero is looking a little better.
Why make you wait? I’ll start with Zero. The special effects look considerably better, and more importantly, so does Shahrukh’s character. The last one had him looking kind of gross and aggressive. This one has him being sweet and excited.
And maybe a tiny bit of a plot? Something about how it is good luck for celebrities when this particular Little Person chooses to imitate them? Or follow them? Or something?
And now, Loveratri! I love the visuals and I love the song, it feels like an old-fashioned big fun romance. However, either Aayush Sharma has a crippling problem that makes him incapable of moving his face out of a open-mouthed half smile, in which case I am very sorry for him. Or he is a terrible actor who only has one expression to a disturbing degree. Really, I kept feeling like this was the CGI movie and Zero wasn’t, like Aayush only showed up for one day of shooting and they put his floating head with its single expression on top of some stand ins body.
Finally, Vishwaroopam 2! I finally saw 1 a couple of days ago, so now I can watch the trailer. It’s fine, great action scenes, not much plot. And half the plot there is, is just left over bits of the first movie. Hard to judge what the movie will be like from this. Oh, but Waheedaji is there!!!!!! That’s always super exciting. I guess she has unretired herself again. And I think this is the first time she has worked with Kamal Haasan. And maybe the first time she has worked in Tamil? Very exciting and interesting since Tamil is her native language.
dontcallitbollywood 
Waheeda’s mother tongue is Telugu, not Tamil.
I think you’ve characterized Ayush Sharma perfectly. He put me off so much I couldn’t get anything out of the teaser. The new girl looks promising, though.
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Thanks! I was going by her being from Madras/Chennai, but of course that is meaningless since families can travel.
Yeah, I had some small hope for Aayush, because he was photogenic, but now it appears that he looked good in still photos because he can’t actually move his face.
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 7:55 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I thought Waheeda was actually from Vizag or some smaller place in Andhra Pradesh? Her father might have worked at some point in Chennai, since that was the administrative center in those days for both states (actually before AP was formed).
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Maybe! I’m just going on her initial film/dance connections being made in Chennai.
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 8:01 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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In those days all of the southern film industries were based in Chennai — Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
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Even today many people in chennai are immigrants from andhra settled in tamilnadu
I know many friends in Chennai who speak telugu at home, tamil with colleagues ( and also may not be able to read/write Telugu)
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What the heck is Rohit Shetty’s connection to Vishwaroop 2? Is it like KJo’s connection to Bahubali? I didn’t realize he was such a big player in Hindi.
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I don’t think he is that big of a player, he’s only co-produced stuff, usually with the production company of the star of the movie. In this case, looks like Reliance is the one who actually put up the money for it. Maybe Rohit served as a matchmaker? Got Reliance and Kamal in the room together?
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 7:58 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think Reliance would jump at the chance to work with Kamal, no need for any matchmakers.
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Maybe he has a reputation as hard to work with? I know there are stories of perfectionism and this film was delayed over and over. Could be they signed up but asked for an on the ground supervisor in Rohit?
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 8:02 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m excited Viswaroopam II is here. I really liked the first one. Especially how well Kamal portrayed the warrior being a dance teacher while hiding!! ‘Narthana Shala’ has always been my favorite movie 🙂
Are you going to write about it in Tuesday Tamil sometime?
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Yep! It was going to be this week’s review, but then I was able to see Kaala in theaters so I did that instead.
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 8:38 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The Zero teaser was certainly better than the last one! I am totally on board for the cameo-fest that this film seems to be. So definitely an homage to the industry much like OSO. Still a bit weirded out by the CGI stuff and the concept but It could be really fun.
Loveratri would have been an exciting traditional rom-com but I’m not going to be able to get around the bias against that actor. She does look charming, so I might still watch for her and hope for better things in her future.
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Maybe Aayush will have a radical groundbreaking surgery before the film releases that gives him the ability to make facial expressions, and then he will be enjoyable.
How can his baby be so charming and expressive and he be so not?
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 10:20 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Zero teaser: OMG how handsome Salman is in it? I’m team SRK always , and never found Salman attractive but here WOW.
Loveratri: I think just like you – the guy can’t act and it’s evident. What a pity.
Today Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se trailer was out too. Maybe you will like it – a lot of punjabi music, Bobby in a romantic role, and colorful wedding song:
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I find Salman oddly up and down attractive. Sometimes yes, and sometimes no, in a completely unpredictable fashion. He looked really terrible in Tubelight, and then I kind of liked his look in Ek Tha Tiger, and now I am finding myself really liking the Race 3 look. I’ll see how it does on the big screen tomorrow, if that changes my opinion.
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 12:09 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes, and tell me how Bobby was.
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You plan to see Race 3? Good luck. 🙂
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I’ll be going with Dina, we survived Munna Michael and Tubelight together, so I think we will be fine.
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 12:25 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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But you don’t like action movies, right? You didn’t like TZH which actually had a strong story motivating the action, and a strong pro-woman message to boot. So what will you get out of Race 3 which looks to be nothing but mindless action, and such “acting” as there is is by hopeless non-actors? I suppose, if you’re going with someone, you can have fun laughing at it, though it doesn’t even seem like it will be that kind of bad. Anyway, enjoy yourselves. See if you can turn it into a drinking game. 🙂
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I like some action movies. Probably not Race 3, but I looooooooooooove Bang Bang. The big stupid ones I like. But as you say, this movie doesn’t even look like the right kind of stupid, more implausible plot twists and fewer implausible gun fights.
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 12:49 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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That was my first thought watching the trailer too! I was really surprised because Salman usually doesn’t do anything for me but he looks really good here. This styling really works for him.
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There is a proverb in Italy: Altezza mezza bellezza, roughly translated: the height matters, and in this teaser it’s so true.
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I don’t have any bandwidth for much of anything, but I had to watch the Zero teaser of course. I saw it as soon as I woke up this morning, watched it on my phone, then had to go watch it on my TV to see it properly. I also feel much better about this one than the title announcement one. The effects look great, and yes, he seems happy and charming in this one, not annoying and harrass-y like in the last one.
Seems like they’ve used a lot of the sight line and perspective tricks that Peter Jackson and crew worked out for Lord of the Rings, and the effects look really good. I noticed his arms get longer and shorter depending on the view/what method they are using, but that happened quite a bit in LOTR depending on whether they were using perspective tricks with full size actors or their body doubles who were little people. It didn’t mess up the viewing experience for me, unlike the changes they made to key plot points. 🙂
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If I were writing LOTR, I would have dumped the Elf lady and had Viggo Mortenson ended up with awesome Miranda Otto. Also, just have Frodo and Sam be a couple already. Also, come up with more for Gandalf than just “and then I didn’t tell you stuff because Reasons, and then I suddenly got more powerful because the plot needed it”. Also, way fewer looooooooooooooong walking sequences and way more sword fights. And all of these are probably good reasons for me to have NOT written LOTR.
I didn’t know about perspective tricks, but that makes sense. This version felt a lot more like “Shahrukh, but more compact” instead of the sort of floaty head on someone else’s body feeling of the last one.
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 2:28 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The odd pacing throughout LOTR is in part because they took a bunch of stuff from the appendices and shoved it into the main story. I like the looooooonng walking sequences because I think part of Tolkein’s point is that a lot of time war is just horrible, cold, muddy, scary yet boring, drudgery and waiting–but that also creates these intense and unique bonds among soldiers.
In both the books and movies the Rohan lady (Miranda Otto) and Faramir finding each other after both their hearts have been broken (hers by Aragorn and his by his father) is one of my favorite parts. I also love Sam and Rosie together–he deserves some simplicity and happiness. Maybe Frodo will hook up with a hot elf in the Gray Havens.
Watching the “making of” Fellowship of the Ring is fun because it’s just a bunch of movie geeks and Tolkein geeks figuring out how to write and then make these movies, using old tricks and inventing new ones. Cool and nerdy at the same time!
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My real dream would be to have a dual layer LOTR. To me it is so meaningful and important that Tolkien started writing it in part to recover from PTSD from WWI and process everything that had happened. If we could have a framing device of Tolkien writing in the hospital, and little glimpses of Tolkien in the trenches, showing the reality breaking through before being made harmless by his fantasy, it would add so much depth. Plus, everything makes more sense if you think of the old kings as the old European nobles driving the war, Samwise as the sergeant and Frodo as the officer, Gollum as some POW whose mind has been turned by trauma, and so on and so on. And of course the hobbits as the peaceful happy British peasantry class suddenly thrown into a battle that was not of their making.
Come to think of it, that’s kind of what Omprakash Mehra attempted with Mirzya. It was beautiful and powerful, but very odd.
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 2:44 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh man, I really love that idea! Wonder if his estate would ever allow it. It would be cool to touch on how his class prejudices and racism made it into the story also, and how he felt about LOTR’s immense popularity. I think it was already becoming a phenomenon before he died, right? Woof, it would be a long movie though.
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If they can make The Hobbit 9 hours long, they can give us our deep historical flashback version of LOTR!!!
What would be really amazing is if they could show the characters’ growing depth over time reflecting Tolkien’s greater understanding. Like, he starts out thinking of the non-officer class as silly and shallow and weak and Hobbit-y, but then as time goes on comes to see that they are the bravest and best of England. Tolkien playing Baramir, essentially.
And I want it as a miniseries and I want Benedict Cumberbatch to play Tolkien. I want EVERYTHING.
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 3:05 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Haha, I’m spelling Tolkien wrong. I’m a loser!
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Two questions I wanted to ask you about the trailers, not about the movies they are touting for:
1. When I saw the Zero teaser, my immediate reaction was, is SRK trying to kill off his screen persona? First with Fan and now this. It’s like the deliberate deconstruction of the public persona known as “SRK.” Is this because he wants to create a new persona, or have no persona that he needs to fit into, or because he’s just so sick and tired of the old “SRK” that he just wants destroy it/him? Did you have any similar kind of reaction?
2. I was never more than mildly interested in Race 3, and the first trailer completely killed even that low level interest. Have you ever had the experience where you were really looking forward to a movie, all hyped up for it, and then, when the first trailer came, it all came crashing down? For me that was the case with Mohenjadaro. I was extremely excited about it, because I thought Ashutosh would really research the subject and come up with an interesting (even if somewhat plodding) film. And then the trailer came and I was like, “OK, I can scratch that off my list.” I’ve never had such a disappointment with a much anticipated film. Has that ever happened to you? And if so, for which films?
These sound like your Monday questions, don’t they? But since they’re both about trailers, I thought they fit in better here.
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1. Shahrukh’s been talking about killing his persona at least since Rab Ne (I did a paper on it back in grad school and tracked down a bunch of old interesting interviews). But I think he gets scared off about it, starts to kill it and then sees the money drifting away and goes back to the old familiar. I am sure that’s what happened with JHMS, he did Fan and Raees which were both risks, and then retreated to a rom-com. Which ended up being very different from the usual rom-com but at least it was promoted as though it was the usual. With Zero, I know I saw an interview early on in the development process where he talked about wanting to be a Dwarf so he could really see what was left if there was no Shahrukh Khan. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is just waiting for Red Chillies to get far enough up on its own two feet so that he can fully retire and just do the films he wants instead of the popular ones.
2. JHMS, strangely enough, was that for me. I was excited about Imtiaz and Anushka and Shahrukh, and the early filming clips looked kind of good, but then the title was just so terrible, and I really didn’t like the first few teasers and song trailers. I went into it thinking it would be just dreadful, and of course came out loving the film. And now I am going to give a chance to all kinds of terrible movies just because JHMS proved that I shouldn’t judge a film by its trailer.
On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 2:31 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I went through some twitter accounts because of the Zero-teaser and Aanand’s brother’s tweet (Ravi Rai) made me do some research and now, I am even more curious about the movie and the Zero-sign as well as the Rocket Center make sense:
“Aryabhatt created it. Here’s trying to consolidate ‘ZERO’ further on 21st December 2018. Watch out because ‘THE SIZE MATTERS’. @iamsrk @aanandlrai @cypplOfficial great going. Premature leak but impactful.”
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