Happy Wednesday! Strange week for me, I am super busy but it all starts at the end of the week instead of the beginning. So, today and tomorrow and Friday and Saturday are all king to be a bit of a slog.
I’ll start!
Reading: I am alternating between Terry Pratchett and Lois Bujold. Both very good writers, very different writers. Really interesting to compare and contrast, and also just nice to take a break by going between them.
Watching: I showed Dina 1: Nenokaddine on Saturday, which she loved, and which was even better than I remembered. The pre-interval bathroom scene is just brilliant, as is the no holds barred way it throws itself into the standard logic of Telugu films and plays with it. But the romance is still stupid, they should have just made Kriti be his long term girlfriend instead of trying to add on a “meet cute” to the already wobbly structure.
Thinking: I think I figured out how I can see Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, but it will be very complicated and probably expensive. If I don’t end up enjoying this movie enough to make up for it, I am writing Ratnam an angry letter! And my other big thought, I have a trainer coming to look at Dog Hazel tonight and I am very nervous that Dog Hazel and I won’t live up to her standards. But if I don’t like her, I guess I just don’t hire her. And if I do like her, Dog Hazel and I do three one on one sessions and then DH becomes fully trained and responsible and I am all done.
Now, question for you! A follow up on Monday’s question: What are your POPULAR opinions about Indian film? The opinions that you have gotten a consistent response of “yes yes, I so agree!”
Here’s one I’ve gotten a lot of confirmation on, Anil Kapoor has aged like a fine wine. Far more attractive now, especially when playing his age, than he was as a youth. And also a far better and more subtle actor playing mature roles. I don’t think there is anyone who will disagree with that.
Rani Mukherjee is the best actress of her generation. Maybe it’s just people I know that think this, but I feel on pretty firm ground here.
Nivin Pauly, Shahrukh Khan, Kunal Kapoor, but NOT Aamir Khan all look better in beards. I accidentally wrote “bears” at first, which could also be true, but I have no evidence for it.
Anupam Kher, Irrfan Khan, Rajkummar Rao, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Nana Patekar, and Pankaj Tripathi make any movie better. Interesting that Rajkummar is the one that has come closest to being a lead actor.
I am sick of biopics and/or historical epics. Anyone else? Or is it just me, after the past 2 years of being flooded with them?
dontcallitbollywood 
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I would add “sports movies” to your sick-of list.
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I suppose that is contained within “biopic”
On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 9:02 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m commenting here again about Nana Patekar harassing Tanushree Dutta. So this took place in 2008, when she was supposed to do an item number, but refused when the choreographer Ganesh Acharya added lewd steps with Nana on the latter’s insistence. She was replaced by Rakhi Sawant. I genuinely believe her, because she did speak about it back then, but nobody bothered.
My point that actresses without a film background face a lot of harassment keeps getting proved. Can you imagine this happening to Kareena or Sonakshi or Sonam? And even now none of these actresses will come out and give statements.
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Yep, post going up about this soon, writing it at this moment. So I won’t respond here so I can finish it there.
On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 10:01 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Reading: nothing, but I think I should start Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley.
Watching: Goodachari, and yes, it’s very well made, I really enjoyed it, even if it’s not my usuall kind of film. And the protagonist – he will go places.
Then I tried to watch Ayalum Njanum Thammil, but Einthusan turned it off in the middle. I wasn’t very disappointed and just read how it ends on your blog. Today I was trying to watch Gurgaon (because Pankaj Tripathi liked my tweet and I love him even more!) but again stupid Einthusan had problems and I couldn’t finish. This time I was mad, because I want to see what will be next. There is a guy , Vivek Oberoi’s cousin in this film, who is very very good. Why I haven’t heard about him earlier: talented, has family in movies , of maybe this is his problem. But he deserves more, for sure. I still have chills when I think about one of the his scenes in the movie.
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You got me to look up Gurgoan and Akshay Oboroi. Looks like he’s got massive stage training training credits, everything from Stella Adler to Prithvi Theaters. And he might be on his way up, he’s in Junglee and Chote Nawab next year and is supposed to have a cameo in EK Ladki Ko Dekho To Aisa Laga.
On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 11:06 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Chote Nawab sounds interesting, I will be waiting for this one. Junglee, I don’t know. It has Vidyut, so it’s good, but it has elephants too and I don’t know how I feel about it.
Ha and I have a popular opinion to add: Vidyut should be in more movies, especially romantic movies, some of them should be “poor libranian falls in love with super handsome prince charming” genre.
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Have any of us seen Vidyut in anything? Or are we basing this (I agree, very popular) judgement purely on his shirtless photos?
On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 4:02 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I have seen some scenes from Commando, and 2 music videos with him, it’s enough to know he would be great in more movies 😉
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I agree to all of the above except the Rani one. There were a lot of fine actresses in that generation. Manisha, Tabu, Kajol are some that come to my mind immediately.
In fact today’s times is much harder. Maybe one person can win the crown.
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Rani Mukherjee is a classic example of how important attitude is to a career. I feel she was the best of her time as long as she was working with different directors and showed interest to learn. But once she got real comfortable, went on to work only with Yrf (and worked in some terrible movies) and she hasn’t showed those signs of brilliance since then.
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The last movie I remember being really blown away with from Rani was Aiyyai, and you are right, that wasn’t YRF produced.
On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 12:09 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I saw a tweet from Red Chillies Entertainment that they are hiring a Flame specialist: https://www.autodesk.com/products/flame/overview
I asked my husband about it and he says that Flame is not a cutting edge technology and that many studios have moved on to other programs for VFX. I thought it was interesting that Red Chillies is still locked into an older technology.
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That is interesting! I know Indian film generally has a technological lag, but I thought it was because of pure import issues. harder to get the newest cameras in India for the right price. I can’t imagine there is an issue with software? Or maybe there is, maybe the newer version is far too expensive? Or not compatible with older equipment? Or something.
On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 1:56 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Hasn’t Irrfan proved himself as a leading man, yet? I think he has shown that he can carry a film quite well as the lead. But I agree that he and most of the folks you mention make a movie better.
I have a list of female character actors who also always make movies better: Kirron Kher, Sheeba Chaddha, Reema Lagoo, Farida Jalal, and Himani Shivpuri. I feel like there are others but I’m too tired to remember where I saw them and google names–which I had to do with all but Kirron and Reema.
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Shefali Shah! The mover in Dil Dhadakne Do, she would be another actress that makes everything better.
On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 2:04 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh yes, to all those names + Pankaj.
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Irrfan was the lead in Blackmail, Lunchbox, Qarib Qarib Single, The Warrior, The Namesake, Billu, Jazbaa, Hindi Medium. I find him to be a subtle and unique actor who can be quite funny.
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Agreed! He was also wonderful in Paan Singh Tomar. (I have yet to see Lunchbox, I’m afraid it will make me too sad–what do you think?)
And, while neither Jurassic Park 32 or whatever, nor Inferno were good movies, Irrfan made them exponentially better than they would have been!
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How did this picture happen? Also, poor Aamir looks like the dorky kid who was allowed to sneak into a party with the cool kids and doesn’t know what to do with himself.
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Oh my gosh he looks so dorky!!!! Poor Aamir.
I’m gonna guess that they were all in Italy for the Ambani wedding and ended up having a late night hang at a hotel room.
On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 6:51 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Post Bangladesh cold/malaise and getting ready for classes to start means I haven’t had time for much of anything. I am super behind on my movie watching homework. I made so many attempts on Saturday (your Friday) to access Sarkar and watch it for more than 15 consecutive minutes, but there were connectivity issues, or something. I’ve seen Sarkar and love it, and last week’s discussion was the perfect time to watch again, but the stars did not align. Will try again this weekend and maybe I can chime in late. I’m going to try to watch Piku again tonight, but even if something happens and I can’t watch it I’ve seen it a few times and can probably contribute something.
My considered opinion on Sarkar, based on watching once many years ago and watching for about 17 minutes on Saturday: damn, Amitabh looks really good in this movie. Also, as I recall, it was a bit of a waste of Supriya Pathak, but I may be misremembering.
Agree with most of your opinions, except Rani. She is great, but I’d have to go with Konkona. KSS can pretty much do anything.
How could any reasonable dog trainer look at DH’s wiwwo face and not love her? Maybe training will make her more confident.
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Hope you get a chance to watch Sarkar, it’s just as good as I remembered. And I’ll look forward to your Piku comments either way!
See, I would put Konkona in a slightly younger generation than Rani. The early 2000s instead of the late 90s. Late 90s was kind of a bad time for actresses, they either had talent but no staying power or staying power but no talent. Rani had both.
The dog trainer did like her, because she is so cute, and suggested fish oil to make her hair thicker so she is even prettier.
On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 10:24 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah, I was kind of wondering what we were calling a generation. I was going by actual age, but in movie-years Rani is definitely older.
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Watching this this week. This song is AMAZINGLY catchy and Ayushmann and Sanya really suit each other.
Popular opinion: Ayushmann does middle class, Farooq Sheikh type roles really really well, and I love his bankability is his boy next doorness.
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Definitely a popular opinion! He does those roles really really well, without ever feeling like he is playing the same thing over and over again. His hero in Bareilly is different from Shaabh Mangal Saavdhan is different from Dum Laage KJe Haasha and so on.
On Thu, Sep 27, 2018 at 12:41 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well, that makes Kangana look really good! And makes everyone else look bad (Zee tackily offering an honor she nobley turns down, Krish taking an honor he doesn’t deserve, everyone else being petty for talking bad about her). So I am going to assume her team leaked it. No idea whether it is true or not.
On Thu, Sep 27, 2018 at 4:26 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh, and I saw this few days ago, and being honest I was very surprised because words of this actor don’t match “a sinking boat with everybody escaping” image I had in my head for Manikarnika
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Btw I realize now he is the white actor who commented on your Kammara Sambhavam review.
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But he seemed so nice! Huh. Could be planted damage control? Could be true but things changed since Sonu left?
On Fri, Sep 28, 2018 at 5:48 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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My opinion that matches with popular opinion is that DCH is the most significant and important movie in terms of the evolution of bolly film in the 21st century.
Here is an opinion that I have found to corroborated IRL many times. The movie Queen can be viewed as a female self-actualization self-empowerment film, but it can also be viewed as a cautionary tale of what can happen to a woman who truly exposes herself to the West, I.e. Not just visiting tourist sites or living in an Indian enclave abroad but actually making friends (or more) with people add ideas of the West. She’ll reject a suitable fiance with good prospects, even one that is capable of seeing the error of his ways and coming back to her. And finally, in her misguided notion of finding herself and being herself, she will inadvertently end up unmarried and alone. So many Desi immigrant men have told me that this is their interpretation of Queen.
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Pffffft as if a woman being alone is the worst fate as compared with being married to one of those Desi immigrant men. Maybe she can go back to Paris and shack up with Lisa Haydon and have more adventures. That would be a much better outcome as far as I’m concerned.
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Or just stay in India and never get married! She has that job with her uncle that Rajkummar made her turn down, and her family will be supportive of her living with them as long as she wants. She can take over her father’s sweet shop and expand it into Europe if she wants.
On Fri, Sep 28, 2018 at 9:39 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Never getting married = exactly why it’s a cautionary tale. Esp when she had a fiance in hand.
(Again, this is not the way I see it, but it is the way that many do).
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The reaction to RaOne is the funniest part but it’s all pretty good:
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Ra.One is pretty good, but I think I like Chamatkar at the end best.
On Fri, Sep 28, 2018 at 6:08 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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