I can’t believe it, Karan released this on twitter exactly 5 minutes after I went to bed. He must be watching me through his secret cameras and waiting until I go to sleep and only then releasing new stuff. Evil Karan! EVIL! Or at least, a little mean.
New Simmba song! Which is yet another 90s remix. Here’s the thing with 90s remixes, it seems like most of the time they are more ironic and hipster than sincere. A sincere 90s tribute would look like this:
The 90s songs had a specific look to them, colorful costumes, bright natural outside lighting, large chorus, and often a boy-girl challenge duet. On top of a catchy song with nonsense lyrics. They were about showing off, the two characters showing off to each other and the choreographer showing off how extreme his dance moves could be, and the director showing off how large his vision could be. They worked best on the big screen so all this Bigness could be enjoyed. And they worked best if everyone was very proud and excited about what they were doing, not one scrap of embarrassment or self-awareness, just confidence.
But now, that kind of confidence and Bigness isn’t “cool”. Everything has to be a meta commentary on emotions instead of the emotions themselves. BOOO! BOOO to that, is what I say!
What I find interesting about this remix is that Rohit Shetty actually is very good at that Big and Confident attitude. I expect and hope that the other songs from the film will be filled with backup dancers and crazy moves and ridiculous color combinations and all the rest of it. But this is the remix, so it can’t be like that.
My understanding is, the “cool kids” like to listen to 90s remixes at their dance clubs with DJs who mix them all together into some sort of noxious anti-melodic thing that works well if you are slightly drunk and jumping around a lot with your endorphins going. And so the 90s remix should reflect that experience, not the original mood of happy sunshine and silly, but the new mood of dark clubs and loud noise.
And so we have gone from this, which makes me smile and go “ahhhh”.
To this, which makes me go “AHHHH! My head!!!!” and start seeing spots in front of my eyes.
Alternatively, I was just up way too late last night at my quilters Christmas party (those old ladies can PARTY) and now I am grumpy.
Oh, and before I forget, there is also the cameos from the Golmaal gang, which is just WEIRD and brings in even more of the questions I had from the trailer about a) is Rohit Shetty building a combined Shetty-verse? and b) Does he have no faith at all in Ranveer’s ability to carry this movie?
dontcallitbollywood 
I don’t have very many hopes from this movie because Ranveer is looking really off-color here. Song was meh, I love the original so I’m biased. And I am so tired of hearing Mika and Neha Kakkar. Don;t they have other singers? I can’t even understand the words properly when they sing. The Kumar Sanu bit was so awesome, I loved it when Arshad Warsi came on, he is so effortless and his dancing just gives you joy, like Govinda. And Sarah was good too, she has a good screen presence. Between her and Ranveer, she did much better I think.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Agree with everything.
But my hope is it will look better once we see the Ranveer intro song. It was teased in the trailer, him riding in on a jeep surrounded by dancing women in saris. That feels more Rohit Shetty and Ranveer. This feels like yet another Dharma remix. I know why Karan does them, it gets him all kinds of publicity and replays and helps sell the movie. But they are so booooooooooring. I am sure Karan forced Rohit to add in this song and it doesn’t fit his vision of the movie at all, just because I can’t think of a similar song in any Shetty movie.
On Thu, Dec 6, 2018 at 11:00 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
I’m not mad at the remixes. From a choreography and visuals and costuming standpoint, the 80s & 90s songs are better and more pure and innocent in intent, and at least give the back up dancers something to do and to wear. They are more related to Hollywood musical numbers that way. I actually think also heavily influenced by Micheal Jackson videos, since those were the most immediate global phenomenon and reintroduction of dance as being important to music (and which are in turn related to hw musicals, esp West side story).
From a musical standpoint, however, I find the updates/remixes to be more interesting, employ more musicality, require the computer to have a broader knowledge of musical styles, etc. From a visual and choreo perceptive, they lean more towards MTV music videos but still being along hw and bw musical ethos. I wouldn’t want every song to be a remix, but if every major movie has one, I enjoy consuming the creative exercise of the producer in this way.
Your ideas about dance clubs is slightly off. They play the songs but not the videos. Or even if they play videos, the videos might not be the ones that go with the songs. So they might play this song, but the video onscreen is playing Beyonce or Malaika. The video is like visual wallpaper, no one is watching it, but like the lighting, it helps set the vibe. So the video makes you feel like you are clubbing, or makes you want to go clubbing, and in this way is indirectly product placement for DJs and the clubbing experience, but the video won’t be an integral part of your clubbing experience, maybe visual background noise at best.
The remixes song (the audio) will absolutely be part of your clubbing experience. It will also be used at wedding receptions and other similar functions. And it will be used in choreography for dances, dance competitions, and fitness classes like Bombay Jam. I before that’s why the remixes really put a heavier emphasis on rhythm and back beat by then the originals, which were more melody-forward. The originals make you want to sing along, and the remixes make you want to dance along.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Composer, not computer.
Though I’m sure the remix involves computers.
LikeLike
Thank you! I kept rereading that sentence trying to figure it out.
I think what bothers me is the difference between remixes that I feel like are truly inspired and do all the things you describe, versus the ones that feel like they just smoothed out the melody and increased the beats and added on a song video that was less integral to the song.
I like the “Humma Humma” remix, and the Maine Tujhko Dekha remix in Golmaal Again and the “Dheere Dheere” remix. Both the visuals and the sound. But this one, and the “Tamma Tamma” and “Chalti Hai” remixes just feel like taking the original song and striping things away without adding anything new. Again, both in visuals and in music. If that makes sense?
On Thu, Dec 6, 2018 at 11:24 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Thing is I really like the remix and I usually dont (the video of humma humma). I might like the song remix but then the videos are such a huge letdown but this one, it just reminds of what I love about Hindi movies party songs. The dance steps, the energy, sometimes cameos you aren’t expecting and everything gels so well. Yh the remixes are getting annoying because its a sure way to get hits even if people are hate watching but when it’s done so well I’m all in. Also I dont think I’m down with this Shetty verse crossover he is doing,because its projecting his non confidence in Ranveer which I don’t like! P.s who knew Arshad is such a good dancer and hid it from me haha.
LikeLike
Arshad so surprised me with his dancing! I still just think of him as “Circuit”, or the Circuit-type, funny best friend of the hero who has a bunch of fun lines and never dances or romances. Blew my mind to see him taking the lead in a dance number.
On Thu, Dec 6, 2018 at 11:28 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Arshad Warsi was a choreographer before he turned actor, and in the original as well dances brilliantly! Once he came on during this son – he’s all I could look at.
LikeLike
I’m happy with it. Phew, It seems like Sara is a decent dancer and I like her tomboyish but sexy vibe here. I kept picturing Karisma Kapoor again…I don’t know what it is that reminds me of her. I think there’s definitely a space for a kind of geeky and “just one of the guys” kind of heroine and somehow that’s how I always envision Karisma and Kajol to a certain extent. I need to watch for Amrita Singh films to see if she’s actually just channeling her mom a bit? In Kedarnath we’ll see a more typical feisty rich girl capable of deep emotion and stubbornness, I think. A more classic and classically beautiful character. I’m starting to get worried about the very soft launch of Kedaranath and the lukewarm screening reactions. I’m betting she gets great reviews as does SSR, but the film is panned.
Not sure how chemistry with Ranveer is yet. They almost have a friends/siblings vibe here. The song is fine but forgettable…since I didn’t know the original I didn’t care about the remix.
LikeLike
First, thank you for commenting so much! I know that Christmas is taking over your brain, but appreciate you making time to stay active over here. Hopefully it is a fun thing and not a burden, but I will take it either way.
Ever since you said it, I am totally getting a Karisma vibe from Sara too! Especially because Kedarnath looks to be another Raja Hindustani-redux and Simmba looks like one of those Salman action movies from the 90s where Karisma was always his cute heroine. If it is that kind of a movie, I think I am okay with the friends-siblings vibe between hero and heroine, might even prefer it. That way the romance won’t overwhelm the action. Dilwale for instance, the massive chemistry between SRKajol kind of unbalanced the film.
Here’s what interested me most about Kedarnath, the official run time was just released and it is only an hour 55 minutes! That’s SO SHORT!!! Especially for the number of songs and the kind of romance-conflict-big natural disaster plot we have been promised. I could see it being a good thing, if the film moves along at a good clip instead of getting dragged down the way Fitoor did. But it could also be a sign that they ran out of money/time and couldn’t do everything they wanted.
On Thu, Dec 6, 2018 at 12:08 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
I’ll be invested in any of your coverage of Simmba and Kedaranath. I assume you’re going to see Kedarnath this weekend?! There’s always the chance I’ll get a chance to go see Simmba over Christmas break, but I’d really like to see Kedarnath instead, but weeks are too busy now.
I think I can be OK with that kind of chemistry with Ranveer and Sara, especially because I think she has a pretty sweet, sexy, and swoonier chemistry with SSR. So we get to see her do both in these two films. SRKajol really did dominate Dilwale. There was no room for the silly Varun/Kriti romance at all or any interest in the plot. It was all give me SRK and Kajol on screen NOW!
I thought the same with the Kedarnath run time. Wonder if the censors got to it, too. I did not like Fitoor (though there were moments of cinematic beauty in it), so I’m hoping for a tighter and more empathetic story.
LikeLike
I’m definitely planning on Kedarnath this weekend, Either Friday night or Saturday matinee. So I can warn you if it is a Raabta-like surprise awesomeness, or if it is a Fitoor-like surprise terribleness.
I’m happy about the Kedarnath runtime selfishly, because it means it will be easier for me to watch it. But I really hope it doesn’t mean it was censored down to nothing or they couldn’t film all the stuff they wanted.
I’ll especially like the sibling Ranveer-Sara chemistry if they end up being partners in the action scenes. Like in the Golmaal films, where the actresses are just part of the fun gang instead of being set aside as only “love interests”.
LikeLike
Again we’re noting that Rohit Shetty is actually kind of a good director to women in the grand scheme of things! Huh.
LikeLike
Yes! This is all just making me want to go on a binge of rewatching Rohit Shetty movies. And if I wanted to make a big splashy headline, I might even say that Deepika’s role in Chennai Express was stronger than anything she had to do in a Bhansali movie.
Along the same lines, David Dhawan also made really strong females with strong female roles. One of the reasons I found Judwaa 2 disappointing was how that was missing from it.
On Thu, Dec 6, 2018 at 7:09 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Is it just me or does Ranveer not work at all in the Simmba promos so far? The theatrical trailer didn’t make any sense. It was like they set up the whole thing just to introduce the real star, Ajay. In the dance song also, Ranveer makes no impact. Sara seems to have good presence and attracts attention more than he does. This is odd considering all the PR we hear constantly about his energy. Where’s his energy here?
This looks like the usual irrelevant sort of movie he makes when he’s not working with Bhansali.
LikeLike
It’s not just you.
One thought that occurs to me is that they are saving Ranveer up. The film campaign is starting with Ajay, then Sara, and then Ranveer will be the grand finale. We still haven’t seen the song from the trailer that was clearly his big hero intro song.
LikeLike
I feel it too, I can’t put my finger on it, it’s like Ranveer is paying homage to this sort of character, rather than simply inhabiting the character. By contrast , Ajay simply lives and breathes in this space, and since Sara is an unknown, it’s easy to feel that she simply inhabits the space too. Ranveer by contrast looks like he’s just dropping by for a visit
LikeLike
Ajay makes it look so easy, I forget how hard it is to convey that kind of charisma onscreen.
LikeLike
Temper was the turning point in Tarak’s carrier. One of the best movie. I can’t imagine Ranveer in Tarak’s place. That body language, voice modulations, expressions… They should not have touched it.. Simply Ranveer is no match to TARAK.
By the way have you heard KGF movie song? South movie releasing in Hindi also.
LikeLike
I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about KGF, which is the first time I remember hearing so much about a Kannada film.
On Thu, Dec 6, 2018 at 11:26 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Making is good and Prashanth Neel’s other movies are all good.
It’s coming against ZERO 😉
This is the first Kannada movie which is releasing in different languages. I think after this Sudeep’s Pailwan is coming in 7 different language. May be after effect of BAHUBALI.
If you get time please review it’s Trailer (May be I am the only one here requesting for it). No news paper review matches yours. So..
LikeLike
Thank you! what a nice comment. No promises, but I will try.
On Fri, Dec 7, 2018 at 4:36 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike