Report on My Movie Party! I am a Master Hostess! Who Maybe Talks Too Much

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I did it! Not only did I do it, I did it and then I put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher when it was all over! Truly, I am a SuperWoman.

If you read my post this morning, you know that today I was hosting two couples who bought my “Indian Movie Night” at the church fundraiser, and I was nervous. It went great! I think. And more importantly, now it is over.

All over! Time for the happy end credits song

Got up this morning, picked up the apartment and vacuumed and dusted and cleaned the bathroom. Then went off to my two hour acupuncture appointment, got needles poked in me, went home and picked out the movie options for the evening and took a little nap, and then started the marathon last hour of prep.

It was exactly like this, except with cleaning instead of running

Have you read the 1927 Etiquette by Emily Post? If not, you really should! Super entertaining. She has little nicknames for all her example people (Mr. and Mrs. Oldmoney, Mr. and Mrs. Gilding, etc.) and tells stories that are clearly based on real ridiculous rich folks. One of her recurring characters is “Mrs. Threeinone”, who has to be hostess, maid, and cook. Tea carts figure heavily in her suggestions. Anyway, tonight I was definitely Mrs. Threeinone. It was exhausting!

This is a very “Mr. and Mrs. Gilding” kind of thing to do

An hour before the party time started, I zipped over to my favorite samosa place and bought 5 beef and a dozen veg (80 cents each, so why not?). Then I came back, put the oven on warm and put them in so they would stay fresh. Then I heated up two packets of cumin rice and mixed it with the plain Jasmine rice I had made a couple days ago. Then I heated up 4 different versions of frozen palak paneer and put it in different bowls. Put them all out on the table like buffet, plus plates and napkins and silverware, covered them so they wouldn’t get too cold, put Chaloki out in little bowls for snacks, and took the frozen ladoo out to finish defrosting. And just as I finished the last of this, the doorbell rang.

It was just like Ittefaq, but not, because I was expecting them

Made the guests mango lassi (so easy! Mango pulp and yogurt and a blender), and gave them movie options. I ended up pulling out Veer, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Singham, Bang Bang, and Vivah. So, one “so bad its good”, one sweet story, one big fairy tale like story, one cop action film, one silly action film, and Vivah. Which is kind of its own thing. The group ended up going for Prem Ratan Dhan Payo because they wanted the big family romance. So I decided to heck with it, I’ll do Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham like I have been doing for Indian film intros for the past 12 years.

This song has also been in my head for 12 years

They loved it, of course, K3G never disappoints. Only downside is, I have shown K3G soooooooooooooo much that I kind of go on autopilot and lose the ability to read the room as to when I am talking to much or not. Opening scene, explain about star entries. Next scene, make a joke about retiring to a temple. Next scene, make a joke about circling cameras always revealing eavesdroppers. Next scene, quickly explain the Diwali story and how it relates to this film. Also, get confirmation that it really is Indian Bill Murray playing Rani’s father. And so on and so forth. I may have leaned towards the “too much talking side” just because my mouth starts going without bothering my head when I am introducing this film.

Of course, my talkativeness is what will make someone fall in love with me someday. I just have to find Shahid Kapoor somewhere

But, more importantly, they liked the food! Even went back for seconds. Yaaaaay! Success! All the “take the samosas out of the oven, put the frozen Naan in, put yogurt out on the table, check the heat of the rice” last minute rush around was worth it. They even liked the ladoos!

Image result for tahoora chicago
Tahoora Samosas, SO GOOD! And cheap. That too.

And the best part, I gained a new theory for K3G! You know at the end when Amitabh is all “why didn’t you come home? When did I say I didn’t love you?” and it’s SUPER FRUSTRATING and you want to reach into the movie and force him to watch the scene where he said those exact things???? One of my guests suggested, maybe he has a touch of dementia! Makes as much sense as the “he’s just a big ol’ jerk who pretends he didn’t say or do the things he said or did when it is convenient” theory.

This scene. Maybe all his anger and mood swings are just part of cover up/symptoms of dementia?

And then they all left, after I lent my Amar Chitra Katha “Gods and Goddesses” book to the woman teaching the world’s religion class for tomorrow when she does Hinduism (in 45 minutes, that should be long enough, right? All the religions only get 45 minutes, there’s only like 12 classes in the whole year).

Image result for gods and goddesses amar chitra katha
It’s a massive book, but it really does tell you everything you need to know about India’s Gods and Goddesses. Except the sex stuff. It is for children, after all.

And then, and this is the really impressive part, I actually put the food away and did the dishes!!!! And learned the valuable lesson that the next time I do a meal like this, I should use all serving dishes that double as storage containers so I can just put lids on them. I only did that with one of the dishes, so I ended up making a mega-palak paneer all in one container. But whatever, food is put away, dishwasher is churning, I showered, and now I am all set with a clean apartment and left over snack food for the other 2 times I am hosting people this week (Valentine’s Day, and the day before Valentine’s when my one friend who can’t make it on V-Day is coming over).

Oh shoot, I have to find a bunch of heart shaped balloons somewhere or else it won’t be a real Valentine’s Day party

19 thoughts on “Report on My Movie Party! I am a Master Hostess! Who Maybe Talks Too Much”

    • And today I go to church and then have an hour long meeting after! And then maybe go to a friends house after that. Busy busy weekend.

      On Sun, Feb 10, 2019 at 2:20 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  5. Oh I love this dementia theory!
    So instead of being teary family melodrama, it’s deep tragedy about patriarchy which force people to follow orders of a man who doesn’t know what he’s doing 😉

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  6. This sounds so fun! And I really want palak paneer now

    Also I didn’t see your other posts in time but I would have suggested Kal Ho Na Ho, though it’s of course more depressing than k3g. I like k3g too but I find kal Ho Na Ho more rewatchable, better jokes, shorter, and I prefer the storyline and setting. Also that movie shows New York better than any other movie according to me. But I guess one thing it lacks is that it doesn’t show anything of India. And people who want to see Indian films might want to see Indian streets and life. And k3g does show that contrast between poorer communities in India and richer (although those Raichands are way richer and more “fancy” than 98 percent of Indians. I mean were those house scenes even shot in India? They had such a huge amount of land lol, India doesn’t have that much space, geographically. I always felt that part was shot in the UK)

    But K3G is still a favorite and a really good one to show! It has that dynamic storyline so it shows the importance of family and respect in India

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    • Kal Ho Na Ho is another of my favorites for early movies! But I usually do it second, so you can kind of appreciate the irreverent humor because you’ve seen what the original is. But if any of the people from last night end up coming back for another evening, I am definitely using it as my second film!

      On Sun, Feb 10, 2019 at 3:54 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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    • Yep! And family and love stories and all that. Which I am reminded when I look for a newer movie, is really a very specific 90s-2000s thing. It’s all action and realism now, or else small love stories. And before that it was all action and social realism. “family romance” is super limited in time as a genre.

      On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 2:16 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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      • Then I can’t think of a better film than K3G! A film with the biggest stars of Hindi Cinema with a dozen songs, foreign locations and melodramatic.
        And the introduction to Southern Cinema is mostly Magadheera always, right?

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  8. I have had successful newbie events with Om Shanti Om, K3G, Eega (aka Makhi), Sholay, and Swades. It all depends on the guests’ tastes, of course. I usually start with asking them to list their favorite Hollywood films, and what kinds of films they hate. I even picked Oh My God (OMG) for an atheist friend who was new to Indian film, but had been to India on business, and he loved it.

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    • If I ever do a movie night with kids, I am DEFINITELY starting with Makkhi/Eega. Seems like a guaranteed winner.

      On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 5:20 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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