None of this are super super exciting, but they fill out the day, so why not talk about them? Also, I want to vent about the Fanney Khan song.
Everyone seems to have fallen pray to what I will call the “2.0 syndrome” with the new Aish song “Mohabbat”. Like 2.0 hiring an incompetent American CGI company just because they were American, and ending up ruining their movie, for Aish’s song in Fanney Khan, they hired Frank Gatson Jr., an American choreographer who did “Single Ladies” and stuff with Madonna and whatever.
He clearly did not get the possibilities available within Indian film. Or within Aish’s dancing abilities. Nor did he care to really break a sweat in coming up with something original. And yet, because he is “American”, I am seeing all these gaga articles about this extremely dull and bland number. Here it is:
So, Aish walks out, and shakes her hips? Does maybe 3 dance moves over and over again not very well? And the camera just sits there and films her and her back-up dancers? The only mildly interesting decision is to show the silhouette of the crowd in front, something which was done better by “Ek Do Teen” 30 years ago.
Indian film has sooooooooooooooo many concert song numbers, and they are all way way better than this. Choreographers use dozens of back dancers, crazy costumes, wild edits, wild camera angles, and actual star power (like, letting us see the faces). Instead of this high school talent show nonsense. Let’s look at “Ek Do Teen”, another dance number introducing our female superstar heroine. It has a simple hook step, but mixes in so much more dancing, a stage shaped like a guitar, dozens of back-up dancers, and at least 8 costume changes. Not to mention the camera going through the crowd, close up, and overhead. Oh, and the lead dancer and the chorus actually feeling like they rehearsed the steps and know how to do them instead of kind of shaking their hips out of synch.
How about the last time Aish played a music superstar? When they mixed together rehearsal, recording, and the final performance into a seamless epic that conveyed the whole feel of the life of a musician? Oh and, even if you just limited it to the performance, the costumes and choreographer were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than what we saw here!
You wanna see what he was really going for? With the footsteps opening and chorus coming in to support the lead? This! This is it, this is everything in that throw away video, but done 1,000 times better. The camera actually moves, the opening is actually powerful, the dance moves are difficult and original instead of just random hip tosses. Oh, and the song is better too! But Shiamak Davar is desi and works with a Bombay based dance team, so obviously you can’t hire him for your big dance number, it’s better to hire some American guy with a big name and no interest in your film or concept of what is possible within it.
For contrast, something I actually like! Let’s look at the “Tera Fitoor” song from Genius! The movie from Anil Sharma (Gadar, Veer) made to launch his son Utkarsh. We all know Utkarsh already, he was the painfully adorable little boy in Gadar. But now he is all grown up and still adorable!
I was all set to hate this movie as yet another star launch film. But this song is kind of good! Right? Utkarsh is sweet, the heroine has an interesting look to her, the song is great, and the visuals are interesting, fun little dance moves and cute touches and stuff. Looks like a nice little silly college romance film, perfect to launch a nice little young star.
And finally, the love song from Satyameva Jayate. Which brings up so many questions. Can even John Abraham pull off white pants? What happened to the puppy? What kind of modern children are amused by sort of lame shadow puppets? Is there anything more charming than John Abraham’s smile? Do I like Aisha Sharma’s face or not?
dontcallitbollywood 
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Isn’t it time for Aish to transition into different kind of roles? Or maybe this is all she’s got?
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Or maybe she is doing different roles but is playing them the same way as she plays everything else so it feels like the same roles?
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 8:29 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Just to add to new trailers, there’s Mulk starring Rishi Kapoor, Tapsee Pannu, Rajat Kapoor and Ashutosh Rana (who’s hair and acting both are so cringe worthily OTT)
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Good lord, it’s a bit over the top isn’t it? Hopefully the audience comes out remembering the message of “India belongs to all” and not “Rishi Kapoor is the only patriotic Muslim and has to lecture all the others”.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 8:51 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes, and the actors I’m interested here are who weren’t projected loudly – Rajat and Tapsee. Rajat doesn’t seem to have a lengthy role, but is consistently great. Tapsee is not the world’s greatest actress, but I do root for her going for meaty roles. I think Tapsee’s limited range works in the movie’s favour as to dial down the OTT. Agree with you on the message, I’m so not sure about this kind of movies in today’s political climate. They might have the right ideas, but so many things could go wrong in execution.
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The seem to be selling it as another Pink, and if it really is another Pink, then it should be fine message wise. The Pink trailer made me nervous as well because it seemed to be presenting both sides equally before picking one. But then the actual film was so clearly on the side of the young women and the other side was horrible and wrong straight through, not just in the big final speeches. Maybe it will be the same with this, the trailer ends with the big speech, but the message is there all along in the film.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 9:23 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Aish’s song is so bad! She just walks half the time. The audio is bland, there is nothing interesting in the choreography and that translates to complete lack of energy in the song. And why did they have to put the microphone in her hand for almost a minute? Her movements feel very restricted and awkward and whatever she’s doing with her free hand looks like a non dancer simply enacting song lyrics instead of coming up with an good move.
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Yes! Why a microphone? Like we will forget she is a singer if she isn’t holding it? Couldn’t they just put on a fake headset instead?
And Aish can actually dance! It’s not like they had to work around someone without the ability to do more. If they’d taken the time to come up with actual moves and teach them to her, she could have been amazing.
Maybe she just didn’t want to do the work? I can’t think of a post-baby song where she really danced. This role looks fairly simple, small film and she is just going to be on one set and one costume most of the time (as a kidnap victim). If she had really wanted to buckle down and do a come back like Madhuri with her YJHD cameo, she could have turned this song into something amazing to show what she could really do. But if she didn’t want to do the work, I can see the temptation to just sort of phone it in and get it over with. Of course, then it would be on the choreographer to turn even that lazy dancing into something amazing, and apparently he didn’t want to do the work either. Like, Dips in Raabta, that was a phenomenal song sequence, and all she had to do was show up, look amazing, and sort of weave from side to side. I would have loved to see Aish do something like that, and it wouldn’t have required any more work on her part than whatever this was.
Come to think of it, Raabta also bought the rights to a previous hit song to make that section really spectacular. Another thing Fanney Khan really should ahve done, if they weren’t willing to pay for a great original song. Just do a remix like everyone else! It will still be better than this.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 9:14 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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What I got from the video is that Aish has an injury that makes it difficult/impossible for her to really dance anymore. I’m not sure I’m right but she was so stiff in all her movements and we know that in the past she was able to move her arms and head fluidly so I don’t think it’s a choreography issue. She wasn’t executing the very basic moves well which to me points to a physical problem.
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Surely they could still have worked around that? Not Aish herself necessarily, but the way they put the song together. Amitabh, for instance, was never the greatest dancer and with his many many health problems, he really can’t move any more. But they worked around it brilliantly with the “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom” title song. And Aish is supposed to be a singer, so give her a mic stand and have her move an arm here or there while the chorus does the heavy lifting.
I know why I can picture that, they actually did it with Tinka Tinka and Priyanka years ago!!!!! She looks amazing and graceful and barely moves, and it was a hit video.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 9:39 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh absolutely, the video sucks but it did make me wonder what was up with her. I mean, she’s no Amitabh or Madhuri or Sridevi for that matter. She can’t act so what does she have if she’s not the hottie dancing?
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Karan used her perfectly in ADHM (can’t remember if you have seen that one or not) as the stunningly beautiful older woman. But I don’t know how many roles there are for a stunningly beautiful older woman who isn’t able to do comedy or motherliness or anything besides just “beautiful”.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 1:53 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I didn’t see Raabta video before. It’s not the greatest music video, but it works here and is so much better than Aish’s. The audio and female voice is good. The light, effects and general production design do give this aura around Deepika. She has limited movements, but they’re delicate on purpose and convincingly sell her diva-ness. The audience to star connection in Aish’s performance is missing. Uhh, I could go on and on.
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I agree that Raabta isn’t the best, but it’s fine, and it was shot during Dips’ XXX and Padmavat filming. So I am assuming she showed up jetlagged and exhausted with only a couple of days to film it, and they came up with some great work arounds for that. The back up dancers and her dress really did all the work, and they threw in some light show effects and the camera zooming in and out and turned it into a really fun video, despite the lead performer not really doing anything.
They could have so easily done something like that for Aish, she really does give great “face”, if they’d kept the camera on her face and let that do the work, it would have been memorable and another classic Aish song.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 9:44 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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uh oh you are right about the Ash Song, why seriously & then i watched kahi aag lage and ek do teen, now fully disappointed. maybe they tried something new but they failed badly.
I’d never have watched that genius song if not for you,its nice, also i was surprised to see some advanced maths being done on the board lol. chemistry labs follow the stereotype, bright yellow solution lol, well it does happen so there, its only later i figured the movie is called genius for a reason.
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I’m hoping “Genius” takes a sort of silly path based around the title, I would love to see our hero get struck by lightening and become smart and win over the girl. Or befriend an eccentric professor who helps him cheat on tests so he can impress the girl. I don’t want to see a serious exploration of youthful prodigies, but I would very much enjoy a silly high school movie about faking being smart.
And I would really like what the song seems to hint at, that the girl is better at school and smarter than he is and he is trying to act smart to impress her! I am ready for a heroine who is cute and stylish and also good at math and ambitious.
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I agree the Aishwarya’s performance is lackluster and I think Alisa is on to something that it is a physical problem with her and not necessarily with the choreography where she used to be able to make everything look so graceful and cool. Even some of the wacky movies in Crazy Kiya Re in Dhoom 2 (like the one I call “Starting the Lawnmower”) she makes work really well.
I may be the only one that thinks that the song is fun and may be an earworm for me though.
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What did you think of Genius? I have hopes that it is the rom-com we have been wanting.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 10:51 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think it does look cute! Definitely a teen/college romance vibe…maybe they grow up in the second half? It wasn’t on my radar until today and I’m definitely more excited about it than Loveatri!!
All of my hopes are on the Ajay/Tabu one, now titled
De De Pyaar De, and Namastey England. If Arjun and Parineeti bring the same chemistry as they did to Ishaqzaade this could be the best one of the year!
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I’m really hoping they grow up in the second half! If it is a cute “he has a crush in high school, she rejects him, they are both immature, and then in college he is the cool one and she is the loser”, I will be super happy.
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Reblogged this on Business Startup-Bay Area.
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Eesh! Aish’s song looks so lazily done. Lazy choreography is worse than bad choreography. Also her outfit and heels seem to be getting in the way of her dancing. She’s clearly not used to dancing in such heels. They just wanted to re-do Single Ladies looks like, styled exactly like a Beyonce song, but at least Single ladies had longer takes.
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Longer takes and cleaner framing. Cleaner everything, you can’t even see the moves in this because the hair and costumes get in the way. It’s just so bad, and I was seeing all this articles calling it wonderful. So glad I’m not the only one to see the flaws!
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 4:08 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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And what is with her styling? Can’t she hire a decent stylist? Ash in the 2000s – a lot of her charm onscreen was due to her looks.
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She looked so great in ADHM, but that was clearly Karan. Maybe only directors who have the time and interest to do her clothes for her should be hiring her? If you hand her a look, she can usually make it work. But in this movie, it feels like there wasn’t even a look concept to give her, it was all just kind of bland.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 4:13 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Aish can’t dance. She used to be lean and good at sticking her hips out and her tallness and boniness back then made it look like she could dance (kahi Aag Lage, dhola re, kajrare, nimbuda) she’s good at mimicking classic dance moves but she could never dance. It was always extended posing. And that doesn’t work anymore.
Agree with everyone saying they tried to do a Single Ladies and FAILED. And why do they wanna do that anyway? That’s like 10 years old!
Aisha Sharma. I actually just googled her. Stopped reading after Bihar politician’s daughter. Man, they sure pulled serious strings to get her a launch with Jon though! She’s offbeat but that video is everything you see always in a film with a launched actor. Jon spray painting could have so easily been him pretending to play the guitar. Which is cringy. This wasn’t any less so.
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I’m assuming she is going to get a touching death scene as well, which is just the final touch to make her debut perfect. And if she can dance at all, a big dance number. And if she can’t, they will avoid it even if there is a moment that really seems like there should be a dance number.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 5:24 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I found her look and voice both very off. The look I attributed to current makeup trend. The voice, now that was interesting. Also, Jon’s an amazing actor. You get an awkward newbie who’s also unlike the factory made women you usually get and you still act like you’re with the most talented and experienced co-star ever!
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Maybe that’s why their romance in Salaam-E-Ishq was one of the few times Vidya seemed comfortable in a mainstream heroine role! John just makes you feel good about yourself. Oh John! I’m really feeling him lately, maybe tomorrow’s Friday classic should be Dostana.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 7:57 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Love the way he looks up and smiles!!!!!!! i think beau’s stars might be looking up today thanks to this conversation LOL
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are you caught up in TGIFs? John was prominant in both the July 4th special “Freedom from clothes” and the “chocolate hero” post.
On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 1:07 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Sadly I didn’t. But I’m sure you didn’t dig up any pictures I haven’t already ogled at. A lot.
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Well, you can join in the debate of what constitutes a chocolate hero and exactly how terrible was it that I did not include Maddy in my first post:
And my 4th of July naked post has gotten quite epic:
On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 9:20 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Also update: Jon video made Beau’s day 😂
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Omg yes please do Dostana im waiting forever for a Dostana part 2 !
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Too late! I went with Elaan instead. A lessor known but still great John film.
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+1 to that – she’s not that good of a dancer! I always cringe when I watch Umrao Jaan dances, too many mudras/steps and absolutely no fluidity!
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Her ramp walks are just as painful
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I was talking with a friend, and we realized that the person we would love to see in this role is Sush. She has such a great attitude, she could pull off “confident powerful famous pop star” in her sleep.
On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 12:51 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Like Chunari Chunari updated for 2018?!!!
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She has such attitude! And that’s all this role needs, giving a lot of star attitude without apology.
On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 9:18 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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While being perfectly sweet and classy too
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I really wish Sush was just as much hyped as aish is in bollywood I find her more beautiful, and elegant theres a reason why she won miss universe and not aish
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I always thought Sush was less successful than Aish because she just isn’t willing to play the game. She won’t lie about her personal life, or take bland boring roles, or tone down her personality to fit in. Which is why I love her, but makes her harder to hype than Aish, who is very good at turning into whatever the interviewer wants her to be (so many interviews in America about how she never dated, never kissed onscreen, never dieted, etc. etc. Sush would never have been able to lie like that)
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exactly thats why i love her plus shes a great role model adopted two girls with out being married
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Yes! And still not being married, being a happy and successful single mother all the way through to middle-age.
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Oh, also Sara Ali apparently just signed a film opposite her dad in a father daughter script. I guess we now know why Saif was so hard on Kangana about the nepotism thing. Lol
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Saif must be the most connected man in India, counting his father and mother’s side. And Sara adds on Amrita’s Gandhi/Shahrukh connections on top of that. If she doesn’t make it, it will be proof that nepotism DOESN’T work.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 5:26 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I don’t think she’s that pretty and there’s no proof yet that she can act. Of course she can always do an Alia. Nobody saw her being this good either
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I found her very striking looking in candid shots, until just recently. I think for the debut they had her lose weight and maybe also get a nose job, and she ended up looking like everyone else to me. Before, I loved her look, it was like her mother but with just a touch of her grandmother, very natural and striking.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 7:53 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I find both Sara and Jhanvi very plain looking. And that’s after makeup and hair and fancy clothes. Saif and Amrita are properly pretty people. In their youth you’d not miss them across the street. Same with Sri. Even young Boney was very hunky. Arjun got that from him. That ruggedness. Both the girls look plain and lacking personal appeal and confidence that comes with it on the same level as Shraddha. Without the polish and glamour, you wouldn’t be able to spot them in a crowd. Contrast that to someone like Sai Pallavi, Tapsee or even Kangana. Kangana looked stunning as the tomboy in TWM2. Believe it or not but we do have high standards of beauty apart from pale skin in India. Shapely, large eyes, long healthy black hair, curves, glowing skin (of whatever color) and full lips are mostly it and you’ve got to have that spark. In modern times, the spark could even be a signature broodiness. But it’s got to be an appeal that makes you stand out amongst 1.3 billion of us. LOL Suhana has that broodiness even though her eyes aren’t on the same level of attractiveness as Vidya or Konkana or Sri. It’s weird but it’s our classical standard.
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See, this version of Sara was the one who I found really striking.
And she has a lot of what you are talking about. Even her skin seemed to glow (probably because she was young and healthy). But now it all feels processed and unremarkable.
On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 1:06 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Saddest part: she hasn’t exactly aged since this picture but it feels like she has. I hope Amrita takes charge of her career. Saif really hasn’t done much with his own and in comparison the no-name Amrita has had a spectacular career.
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I’m just buzzing thru posts. But +1 on the current crop of heroines who seem made to order from catalogues. You oughta see Bhanupriya from the olden days. She was the quintessential Indian beauty-dusky, statuesque,eyes like a deer(in south Indian language they are called maanmizhi),long black hair & full lips. Btw she’s part of a movie that you love..;)
https://goo.gl/images/3oNkuo
Ash’s dance sucks. She used to be a graceful dancer. I’m just going to watch the below song to forget the atrocity that is now seen.
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She was in a bunch of Hindi films too I guess. And in the north, a doe eyed woman is called a mriganayani. Speaking of doe eyes, well he strictly didn’t have doe eyes but I felt a strong Shyam eyes vibe from Kumar Sangakkara and Muthhiya Muralitharan 😂
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It’s so striking to me with Jhanvi and Sara. Because their mother’s looked nothing alike, and we watched them grow up and the two girls looked nothing alike, but now that they are about to be launched, suddenly they have the same skin, the same body, the same face, they look completely identical.
On Sat, Jul 14, 2018 at 1:29 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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It just occurred to me that Anil played Aish’s love interest in Kahin Aag Lage but he was able to put aside his ego and let the younger man romance her in Fanney Khan. He must be very secure, very generous or both.
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Arguably he let the younger man romance her in Taal too. So he must be very very secure! Willing to play the old boring left behind romance when he was only 45. Okay, so he was actually playing his age, but that is still remarkable in Hindi film! For the hero to step aside and acknowledge his age when he is only in his 40s.
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 5:46 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Really getting tired of all these songs always having white background dancers now thats boring
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Yes! And there’s no reason for it, they weren’t filming overseas or anything.
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And they always pick the worst dancers! Like in Tu Meri, there’s a bit of the video where Hrithik is dancing with white women who can barely shuffle forward in heels. There are white women in the world who can dance so why pick these horribly awkward women? Is it to make the star look better in comparison?
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But they do the same thing with actors! It really feels like they just pick women because they are white and don’t care about talent.
Unless it is a white woman who moved to India because she is a good dancer and can’t get work elsewhere. Like Lauren Gottlieb, who I love. She was on one of those American dance talent shows, and then moved to India for work and now has been in a couple dance movies and on dance TV shows and stuff. Of course, she’s not positioned as a “white woman” in her appearances, she is introduced as just a really good dancer.
On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 9:50 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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