Happy Monday! I had a weird weekend with a lot of driving around and then a sudden burst of energy to finish my quilting project at the end. Still have to go to quilting tonight, kind of happy to be back at work and normal life.
This is the place to bring up things you want to talk about, ask me questions you are curious on, anything. And you can keep coming back to this post all week if you want, it’s the kind of catchall place.
Now, question for you! I had fun tweeting the Ek Ladki movie this weekend, if I do another one next month, what should it be?
Oh, and just to start your week off well, here is a photo of Albie Dog with one of the pieces of clothing he has collected. He doesn’t chew on or play with them, he just likes collecting them.
dontcallitbollywood 
Albie is so cute! I did watch Ek Ladki this weekend (just didn’t tweet since I barely tweet as it is). It was quite pleasant and I actually thought Sonam was almost OK in the role…she didn’t take me out of it completely. I did get a little angry at times that the film was focused on her and Rajkumar’s relationship too much, but I understand why it needed to be like that and how the inversion of the expected boy meets girl storyline was at the core of this film. Juhi is an actress that I just don’t get, I think. She was a little too silly and I had flashbacks of her role in Kismat Konnection. Anil Kapoor was, indeed, great and I would have loved to have a whole film about his mom thwarting his passion for cooking all his life. Even the actor playing Babloo wasn’t bad…his villainy seemed to come from an honest place of confusion and fear rather than true malice (he was still a complete jerk) but I still had hope for him by the end.
Also watched Victoria and Abdul finally. I think I would have loved it 15 years ago before I started watching Indian films. It’s patronizing and Ali Faizal was not really up to the task of acting opposite Judi Dench. He wasn’t terrible and I usually do like him (his career is interesting at least), but I would have liked to see someone like SRK or Nawazuddin in the role.
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so glad you watched ELKDTAL!!! Although not liking Juhi just will not stand, she is PERFECT. Have you watched Hum Hain Rahe Pyaar Ke? I actually think you might really enjoy it, and it has Juhi and Aamir at their youthful cute best.
Agree about the brother, turning him into a cartoon villain would have weakened the film overall, made us question how Anil could be that good of a father if his son is such a jerk. But instead he is a reasonable young man who just has this one reasonable blind spot, while still wanting the best for his sister (at least what he thinks of as the best). I was thinking about later and it is also really important that we learn he has known this since he was a teenager and kept it secret. In a way he also lost his childhood and youth, spent his whole time watching over his sister instead of flirting with girls or thinking about his own life. And “protected” her from the family, kept the secret from their father and grandmother and further isolated himself from them.
I would have loved to see Nawazuddin in that part! Partly because he is immediately rougher and more “Indian” looking than Ali Faizal. When I saw the trailers, Ali didn’t give me that strong feeling of “other”, he slipped right in to the white-white British-British setting.
On Mon, Apr 8, 2019 at 8:23 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think since Juhi is so linked to Aamir because of her debut film (which I didn’t like) and I’m not a SRK super fan and tried to watch that Boss(?) film once and couldn’t get through it, she’s just never worked for me. I will try 1942: A Love Story someday. I did like her in her special appearance role in Paheli. There’s something so cartoonish about her and it’s off-putting. I’ll keep trying:)
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1942 is an Anil movie, but note a Juhi film. I don’t much like Anil in that, but Manisha is beautiful.
Hum Hain Rahe Pyar Ke is a small silly remake of Houseboat with Aamir is an overwhelmed young guardian of his rambunctious nieces and nephew, Juhi is a peppy rich girl who runs away from home and gets hired as their nanny. It should be right up your alley.
On Mon, Apr 8, 2019 at 12:54 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Will you see Kalank? Do you have any compunction about paying to see a Sanjay movie, or do you think he’s paid his debt to society?
Have a good week! Please give Albie an extra pet for me.
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Definitely will see Kalank, no compunction at all. Sanjay paid his debt to society and then some. In the grand scheme of people whose films I feel I might need to boycott, Sanjay doesn’t even rate. Amitabh supposedly giving a speech encouraging the Sikh massacre of 1984, that’s something that might make me think twice (for instance). Sanjay holding illegal guns for 24 hours, who cares.
Anyway, Kalank looks so fun! Big and over the top and romantic, can’t miss it. I just have to figure out how to manage a midweek show, stupid Wednesday release.
On Mon, Apr 8, 2019 at 9:13 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Today also Athiran (Sai Pallavi, Fahad Faasil) trailer was out. I’m super excited and I have my fingers crossed it will be good, because last Sai Pallavi’s thriller/horror was a flop.
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Oh wow, I am really curious about Sai Pallavi and Fahadh as a pair! SP feels so instictive and natural to me, and Fahadh so practiced and mannered.
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Hey Margaret! Sorry I’ve been missing for a while but I’m back now. I’ve missed talking to you so how are you doing nowadays?
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Hey Margaret! Sorry I’ve been gone for a while but now I’m back. How have you been doing? I’ve missed talking to you 🙂
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Hi! I was just thinking about you! All this Kalank coverage has me missing our Varun expert. Welcome back! I have a new dog, and my car got rear ended and then fixed. Otherwise, not much new happening.
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Yup, you could say I’m back in time for Kalank! Is it just me or was that trailer very confusing?
Congrats on the new dog!
Also are you planning on seeing Majili? It’s a Telugu movie starring Naga Chaitanya and Samantha. I liked it but my friends seemed to hate it, so I’m kinda curious as to what you would think of it. I thought the story was okay but the performances were really good. It’s doing really well so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still playing in theaters for a while. Here’s one of the trailers:
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Oops, that was me. I don’t know why but I’m having to fill out my information every time I comment now…
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Oh right, that was the biggest thing you missed, WordPress did an update and now it is much harder to comment under your username.
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Is this their first movie together since their marriage?
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Yup!
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You know, we always talk about the non-existent, wish it were made already, middle-aged love story, usually starring srk and vidya or Tabu or other fine actress of that generation. we kinda sorta got it with qarib qarib single, and of course with badhai ho.
Well last night I just watched an Indian urban middle aged love story movie story set in Mumbai and made for Netflix that subtly blew me away. It is called Once Again, and it stars Shefali Shah as a widow, Neeraj Kabi as a divorcee, (why am I not surprised that it isn’t the other way around? Lol), she’s a restauranteur, he’s a minor actor with some fame. They both have grown kids.
It is a very quiet subtle graceful yet sensual movie. Nice close camera angles lend a sense of intimacy. Good use of middle age concerns, grown kids concerns, public & career concerns, informing the course of their romance. Not the biggest fan of the ending, but I really like that they don’t treat middle aged people like senior citizens. Instead, they’ve lived a lot of life, yet they are still attractive and vibrant. You feel them fall in like, then in love, then in lust, then deeply in love. Shefali beautifully conveys the earthy undeniable sexiness of a middle aged woman in love. Like JHMS, it’s really just about our two main characters. The first hour is a little slow going because it drops you right into the middle of things with no expositions but the second hour really picks up and sucked me in. I recommend it to anyone who wants to vicariously fall in love in middle aged style 🙂
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I wondered about that movie! Netflix’s algorithms decided I would like it and covered me in advertising. which naturally just made me resistant and stubborn about not watching it. This is the same self-destructive instinct that makes me take knitting to the quilting group and quilting to the knitting group.
Anyway, I trust you much more than the Netflix algorithms, and don’t resent you at all, so I will follow your recommendation! Plus, I love love LOVE Shefali Shah and Neeraj Kabi. Have you seen Byomkesh Bakshy? Neeraj is mindblowingly good in that, to the point that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen him in anything before.
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Oh yeah, Netflix is doing that to me nowadays with the Madhuri Dixit produced “15 August” … Probably because I watch my fair share of Marathi cinema on there… I can’t log into netflix without getting the overly musical trailer blasted at me… Def makes me want to NOT watch it lol.
re Once Again, you might find it a bit on the “art-film” side, but I recommend it anyways, because like JHMS, it’s not heavily plot driven, they really just immerse you in the slow emotional build of the romance. If you watch it, i hope you post a review if it. 🙂
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If I watch it, I will definitely review it!
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Vidya is not middle aged!
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If you divvy up a lifetime in equal portions…
Youth =
0-30yo
Middle aged =
30-60YO
(I.e. One’s middle years)
Senior =
60-90YO
Vidya is solidly middle aged. No shade intended!
IIRC she was in her breakout film Parineeta when she was already 26, in 2004, making her 41 now. Which would make her Mid-Middle-Aged.
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One more… I haven’t watched this myself, but I’m seeing advertisements for a new web series on hotstar called Criminal Justice. It looks like it stars vikrant Massey AND pankaj tripathi, the two alterna-hot male actors in Bollywood right now. By alterna-hot, I mean, vikrant is for women who like sensitive beta men, and pankaj is for women who like soccer dads, he’s the hottest dad at your PTA meeting. It’s based on (or a remake of) HBO’s The Night Of…, which itself is based on the BBC series called Criminal Justice.
Since you have hotstar, have you caught this yet? I might have to subscribe for month 😉
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Hotstar is spamming me with emails about it, but I haven’t watched it and probably won’t. I like to keep my content segregated as much as possible, TV shows are frivolous and in English, movies require deep thought and are in other languages. Plus, “Criminal Justice” and “The Night Of…” were both shows I avoided because the criminal justice system makes me very very angry. I can handle Singham, because we all know that is ridiculous and silly, and also Midsommer Murders for the same reason, but the stuff that is more real than that just makes me dream of court reforms and enlightened punishments.
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Sorry if you have wrote about it somwhere, but what make a movie B or C grade film?
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Originally, in the Golden age of Hollywood, there were separate circuits for B and C level, versus A level films. A level films would get the big premiers in the best theaters, B and C would go to the smaller towns and smaller theaters. When the studios were really organized, the different levels would even have their own talent pools and sets and stuff. Kind of like a clothing line that has different levels depending on how much you want to spend, kind of the same clothes but the nicer ones have way better material and construction and go to the fancy boutiques and the less nice ones have the cheap materials and construction and go to discount stores. Now it has just become kind of a collequal way of identifying of a film as a major film, versus a minor one. An “A” movie would have a bigger budget, bigger promotion, bigger cast, bigger release. Kalank would be an “A” movie. A B movie would have a smaller cast, smaller budget, smaller release. Badla would be a B movie. Notebook would be a C movie.
It’s a useful terminology because it is specifically about the way a film is promoted and built, not it’s actual artistic quality. Notebook might turn out to be a better movie over all than Kalank, but Kalank is still an “A” movie while Notebook is a “C” movie. Casablanca was a “B” movie, but it’s now considered one of (if not “the”) best films of all time.
On Tue, Apr 9, 2019 at 11:23 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I always thought that it’s more quality thing more than the matter of money put into
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Will you be watching Lucifer starring Mohanlal, Tovino, Prithviraj, indrajith, Vivek Oberoi, Manju Warrier directed by prithviraj?. When I watched it first time it was an above avg Mass entertainer for me but when I saw it for the second time I loved it, so many hidden clues and conspiracies.
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Maybe! No big Hindi release I want to see this week. But finding the time to get all the way out to the theater is always tough.
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