At least Shahrukh didn’t wait until just after I went to sleep, he released this while I was well into REM. So I don’t feel TOO badly about missing it the exact moment it came out.
New song! The one that was teased a few days ago, with Katrina. More importantly, more information surrounding the song. As implied in the teaser, Shahrukh is in the middle of pre-wedding prep getting turmeric smeared on him when his friend comes to tell him that his favorite actress is performing at the local mall. We get a little more this time, the friend calling her his “sister-in-law” and stuff, implying that Shahrukh has had a serious fan crush on her for a long time. Shahrukh douses himself in water to wash off the turmeric and rushes off, symbollicly washing off Anushka and their marriage in order to go to Katrina.
But! I still have hope this plot won’t be “Shahrukh walks out on Anushka when he is offered something better”. There is still the line from the first trailer about only going after “India’s fantasy” when he lost his own fantasy. So, could be that he sees Kat, she kisses him, he returns home to Anushka (remember the full length trailer shows Kat driving away), something terrible goes wrong with his wedding, and he seeks out Kat again and reminds her of the moment they shared.
As for this particular song, at first I thought it might be her mall performance, but no, it is clearly a montage of all her super star film songs. I love the wacky curly hair look, the red dress look is a little more “seen it”. At first glance, the editing is a bit much for me and the song doesn’t stick in my head. But I still like it, it makes her seem strong and powerful with all the hip moves and striding around. Implies what her character will be like, maybe a little crazy and emotional but still strong and powerful instead of a weak little damsel in distress like Urmila in Mast.
dontcallitbollywood 
And what if the wedding Shahrukh is being prepared is not with Anushka? When he hears about Babita (btw I hate how they called her) he says: Irony of love, before I die she has come to meet me. And he dosn’t look at all happy in the first seconds of this video. It doesn’t seem like he is marring the love of his life. I think Anushka dumped him, and his parents arranged a marriage with some other girl, probably ugly or something.
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I was wondering about that too! My first thought was that he was speaking literally, he lost Anushka and was preparing to die, but then the people around him wouldn’t still all be so happy. Your guess makes more sense.
On Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 7:59 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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For what it’s worth, the word they use is “dafan” which doesn’t really mean “die.” I don’t know why they do this with subtitles. A better translation is “bury.” So he’s saying “before I prepare to be buried, Babita herself has come to greet me.” It’s a slight difference.
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Indeed bury has much more sense. Your translations are always better and add much more to the videos. Thanks
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I like Katrina, but I had a surprisingly negative reaction to this one. I felt that it was all “been there, done that” for her. The song and the moves were also sleazier than normal, I think. She can’t keep doing these songs and ever hope to be taken seriously. She’s good at comedy and at action and I just want her to be challenged in those areas instead of just being objectified over and over again (in this song, by SRK’s character, etc). I may have woken up on the wrong side of the bed, but I’m also going off the icky feeling I had watching Aanand L. Rai in that producers roundtable. There’s something off in the way that he portrays women in the films he directs. The element of stalking and obsession in all of his films is creepy! He and his films just set off alarm bells. Producing, of course, his films are less problematic.
Plus, I’m not liking the SRK overacting I’m seeing here…it’s my least favorite SRK mode. I can deal with the arms outstretched lover boy stuff even at this age, but the ship has sailed on innocent sincerity and naivete.
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Amen on the last part!
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That was my reaction too. I usually really like Kat’s dance numbers but this came across as sleazy, which is a word I rarely associate with her. 100% agree on Kat doing more action, she’s great at it.
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I’m hoping it is supposed to feel sleazy. If her character is this troubled star, then maybe we are supposed to see more of the sleazy side of her performances, what might be troubling for her instead of empowering.
On Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 9:09 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yep, think the same…it’s deliberately made this way. I also hope that portraying “sleaziness” is an issue with Katrina’s character (and in the movie).
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Twinsies! I also woke up on the wrong side of the bed!!! But it came out less in response to this song and more in response to my apartment being a mess, having no time to do laundry, and still not knowing what to do with Dog Hazel.
I agree that this didn’t feel terribly original. But my hope (being the optimist I am) is that it is not supposed to feel original. That it’s supposed to feel like a montage of the kind of songs Kat has done in real life, combining more clearly her fictional persona with the real. And similarly, I also hope that it is supposed to feel shoddy, that we will discover behind all the empty glitz and sex is a sad troubled person. And my dream would be that it lines up with Shahrukh’s character, his boyish naivete and so on is something he has to outgrow, it leads him to these empty fantasies instead of reality.
But then, I’ve been saying all along that Aanand L Rai makes me nervous. So it’s possible the film will lean into all of this instead, say that Shahrukh’s feelings are reasonable and every man just likes sexy fantasies, that Kat’s empty sex kind of dancing here is supposed to be the best possible dancing.
But then, she is supposed to be troubled, that’s been said all along. And Shahrukh’s song for Anushka was so dignified and confident in the best way, so there’s that too.
I just don’t know!!!!
On Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 8:51 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well, isn’t that an achievement in itself, to make us just not knowing??? 🙂
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All the songs so far have been forgettable.
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I liked “Mere Hain Tu”, but the other two songs have been bland for me both in sound and appearance.
On Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 12:06 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Kedarnath songs are so good among the current lot. I’m only listening to those right now.
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The dancing is intercut with her lying in some abandoned bathtub. It feels very melancholy. I hope it’s meant to be a troubled, reflective part of her character not just a random film-clip moment.
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I’m hoping the over all gritty sense to this song has meaning. There’s no real filmi glamour to the images, no sparkles and smiles and joy.
On Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 1:48 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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On a second viewing it doesn’t seem to simply portray sleaziness; it is at moments sleazy; and it makes difficult to accept all the affirmed feminist postures of producers actors and directors in film industry. Not only in India mind you but around the world.
Could it be possible to all that beautiful powerful and famous actresses to put limits to their compliance with the industry demands?
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So far I’ve enjoyed all the songs. Mere Nam Tu is the melody with the strongest hook for sure. I have a theory about their marketing strategy in releasing these songs, and in this order. Basically they are saying to potential ticket buyers, “This movie is different in concept, and Shah Rukh’s character will look different, but be assured it is a comfortably massy film. It has a sweet and dramatic love song, a buddy song with star cameo, and an item song. If you spend your money to come see the show, you will be entertained.” What do you think?
I think Kat looks awesome in this and I don’t mind the sleaze. I could have done with a bit less crotch thrusting directly at the camera, but then that isn’t aimed at me as a generally hetero woman, is it?
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I think you are absolutely right. It’s the opposite of what the did with JHMS (which failed). Going into it, I was worried there wouldn’t be any real song sequences because all we’d gotten was these weird little glimpses. And then it was all songs-all the time. But with this movie, they are saying “look, songs! Just like usual”.
Another advantage is that the songs kind of downplay SRK a little. They aren’t building their campaign around the assumption that everyone will see it just because it is a Shahrukh movie. They are selling the whole film, the spectacle and the entire cast and everything, not just the one actor. I haven’t seen as many “Shahrukh overacting/taking over/whatever” critiques as usual. Of course, I tend to stay off the places where those conversations would be happening, so I could just be missing them.
On Thu, Dec 13, 2018 at 12:25 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Let’s hope it works better than the JHMS marketing did…
Glad Shah Rukh’s promotional interviews are finally coming out!
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No, you are right. Surprisingly there is not much criticism for this movie. I’m sure the trolls are gathering up to spread negativity upon its release but the mainstream is not doing it this time.
It may also be because promotions are very low-key this time for a SRK movie. They are just not doing much. SRK only started promoting this week. Anushka is off on vacation with her husband. Kat is promoting a little. But this is very very little compared to how much SRK can hype a movie when he wants to. I remember SRK once saying in an interview that he tends to promote a lot when he’s worried about a movie and really needs it to get those opening weekend numbers. Maybe they are just more confident this time so they are relaxed.
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Agree in general with your analysis but disagree with what you very accurately call crotch thrusting. I can’t avoid the sense of merchandise exibition aimed at arousing part of the audience but then I may be too radical, or probably to old…
What has Joyomama to say about this?
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I hear you. I’m old and radical too! 🙂 Crotch thrusting, or objectification in general, is not my favorite thing, but I can tolerate more of it in an “item song” type set up than a regular scene. Like, in JHMS, did we really need to see women’s butts to get that we were in a strip joint?
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Dear Proc, as for JHMS strip joint you have a point; but I think Imtiaz Ali kept a distance from the scene as if in a documentary; what you see are some girls on their peculiar attire attending to their job, while in the crotch thing the feminine bodies are splashed on the screen with that sleaziness aspect which disturbes me.
Maybe as a Newcomer in hindi film I didn’t assimilate yet the concept of the “item dance” as something apart, with a different set of rules and unlimited creative freedom.
Now, I don’t intend to scare you but I was there when the feminist movement started with Simone de Beauvoir Betty Friedam and Gloria Steinem. Brief, I am a really old feminist!
Thanks for hearing me 😊
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Thanks for engaging in conversation! To give you an idea of my age, Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon both spoke at my University, and we protested Hugh Hefner’s daughter being invited to speak. 🙂
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and just to close the discussion, my Dad went to high school with Hugh Hefner’s daughter, so that’s my age 🙂 Nothing to do with being a feminist, just weird.
On Thu, Dec 13, 2018 at 5:12 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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So now run to the new Margaret post about feminism in Hindi film! I’ll be mostly silent because I only know Queen, but I’ll gladly follow you all. 😀
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