Obviously, there is no actual election talk allowed. Because this is a safe non-stressful internet place. But it is a place were we can have fun respectful conversations about deeply held feelings related to movies! And with that in mind, I will be posting several important voting posts today. You can vote on all the issues, or only the ones you feel most informed about. Just put your picks in a comment and remember, most comments this month wins a poster!
Best Hindi Romance Film of Recent Years:
Jab We Met
Jab Harry Met Sejal
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
Raabta
Mirzya
Other
Best Middle-Aged Actress working in Hindi today:
Neena Gupta
Shabana Azmi
Deepti Naval
Other
Most Handsome Man in India (not sexiest, handsomest):
Sidharth Malhotra
Arjun Rampal
Prithviraj
John Abraham
Vijay Deveronkanda
Madhavan
Hrithik Roshan
Other
dontcallitbollywood 
What is the age range for middle aged ?
Does Tabu qualify ?
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Hmm. No, I think. Age-range would be, “actresses who are visibly so old that they cannot play even mature heroine parts”. Looks like Neena Gupta is 12 years older than Tabu and and the other two are even older, Oh, but Dimple Kapadia would qualify! Also Revathy.
On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 12:55 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Jab Harry Met Sejal, Deepti Naval, you know I think its still Shah Rukh but if I must pick from your group I’ll go with Siddarth. How about a best voting pic of the day?
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I love Deepti Naval! I am so glad someone else likes her. Are you just picking from Made in Heaven or something else?
“Best Voting Pic” might be a fun one. Only I have to admit that most of them aren’t as fun as the “handsomest” category. I wanted to pick representative photos there to help us truly decide.
On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 12:58 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Every time I see a current picture of Hrithik I think, YIKES! What happened? It’s not just age.
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Best recent romance
1. For me from those you have listed–JHMS
2. In general from those you have listed–Jab We Met
3. For me from those not listed–Chennai Express. On reason Dilwale was such a disappointment was because I found the sneakily effective romance amidst silly escapades so well done in CE.
Middle aged working actress–on the lower end of middle age is Sheeba Chaddha. I’m also 47 (almost 48!) and consider myself middle aged so I hope she wouldn’t mind. More squarely in middle age is Dimple Kapadia. Just loved her in Luck By Chance. I wish Kirron Kher would leave politics and act again. For multiple reasons.
Most handsome actor. For me right now, it’s Vicky Kaushal:
https://i1.wp.com/www.mansworldindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/vicky-featured.png?fit=1000%2C600&ssl=1
He can’t hold a candle to early 2000’s Shah Rukh. And current Shah Rukh always wins for sexiest/most attractive, of course.
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Yaaaay, some CE love!!!! I also really love it and think it is sneakily very effective as a romance. I had a moment of wanting to put it on the list, but decided not to because who else would feel the same way?
I reject Sheeba Chhadha! If Tabu is too young, so is Sheeba. But I will accept Dimple. I shouldn’t have said “middle-age” more just plain “old”. Or young old? Anyway, not Tabu or Sheeba or you, but also not Jaya or Hema. The in between group.
Dang that’s a good Vicky Kaushal photoshoot!
On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 3:09 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Maybe “over 55”? Part of the thing with Sheeba is the roles she plays. I mean, she’s played Shah Rukh’s mom twice in the last 3 years!
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Oh, that reminds me, Zarina Wahib! She would be another good “best middle-aged actress”. And Ratna Pathak. There’s just a wealth of options in that age range.
I love Sheebha, because she will play any role if it is interesting. Shahrukh’s Mom, an aging prostitute, anything.
On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 3:24 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Jab Harry Met Sejal! The scene for the song Radha where SRK finally starts singing along with Anushka Sharma and then look she gives him is one of my all-time favorite scenes!
Deepti Naval! I though she was great in Shakti: The Power and in Inkaar (which I thought was otherwise a so-so movie).
I’m having a tricky time not finding the ones that I think are handsome sexy as well, haha. Either way it’s a tie for me between Sidharth Malhotra and Arjun Rampal
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I kind of guessed JHMS would be the winner. I am torn between it and Jab We Met myself. They are both very very good movies, but JWM is just a hair more of a romance versus a character drama.
So glad Deepti is getting love! She isn’t as talked about as Shabana, but I think she is great.
Now that I think about it, Sid and Arjun kind of have the same career. Originally started as just handsome eye candy, but slowly built up an acting ability as time went on, only to have it go unnoticed because they are soooooo handsome.
On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 3:16 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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JHMS, of course. For older actress, I really like Ratna Pathak. For handsomest, I have to go with Arjun Rampal. The fact that he is crazy about dogs just adds to his allure! Although I do like Prithviraj, (I much prefer his teddy bear-like, older brother, Indrajith.)
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I didn’t mention Kunal Kapoor because that would just be unfair to all the other contestants.
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Oh, how did I forget Kunal!!!!!
On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 8:30 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Of course JHMS. I suspect you may vote for it again on the next post.
So glad Ratna gets a write in vote.
And I am glad to hear Arjun get a vote, I think he is pretty darn handsome myself. Weird that Hrithik hasn’t had any votes yet. Poor man!
On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 8:27 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Best romance: Going to shake things up with YJHD. I’m a sucker for sober girl/manic pixie dream boy rather than the opposite.
Middle aged actress: there are so many! I’m going to make my life easier and choose Deepti Naval–I loooove her. But Dimple, Aparna Sen, Ratna Pathak Shah and Supriya Pathak all occurred to me.
Handsomest: Arjun. In a few years Siddharth can hope to be as handsome as Arjun is now.
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Oh thank goodness Arjun is getting some love. I have to admit, I showed the photos at work and the response was basically “Sid is hot, ewww who are all the old guys?”
I really thought YJHD would have more votes than it does, glad to see it get some love. And look at Deepti getting all the choices!
On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 10:37 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Siddharth is cute like a puppy. He isn’t handsome (yet). That’s not what handsome means.
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Arjun Rampal is gorgeous!
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And he is the kind of gorgeous that is just going to get better with age. Great bones.
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Yes. His cheek bones alone are just perfect.
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Of all the romances that come to my mind, JHMS is the only one that treats romance like a theatre play…it’s even more dense than JWM. So, it’s JHMS.
Neena Gupta is 59 and she is very much present (I like her), but if I had to choose from this age range, I would choose Neetu (Rishi’s wife, 60 years old)…I miss her.
Kunal Kapoor and Arjun…okay, Kunal. ShahRukh can be v e r y handsome, too, but that isn’t his USP 😉
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I was thinking about adding Neetu!!! But she doesn’t act nearly enough.
On Tue, Apr 30, 2019 at 2:11 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Romance: Jab Harry et Sejal and special mention for Mirzya, Sanam Teri Kasam and Lootera
Middle Age Actress: Shabana Azmi
Handsomest actor: older: John, younger: Vijay Devarakonda
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Finally, John gets some love!!!!!
On Tue, Apr 30, 2019 at 3:28 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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MIRZYA! Nothing like it has been made to date. Maybe that past/present Telugu film with Kajal and was it Ram Charan? where it opens where them jumping over a cliff.
I’m not too familiar with the mature actresses you picked, but I like Shefali Shah, a new discovery for me. She might be too young. Then Kirron Kher. She breaks me up.
Handsomest men? Madhavan has the face but for me, not the whole package. (You cheated on the pic, Margaret. He doesn’t look like that anymore.) Prithviraj has the body, but his face isn’t classically handsome; too mobile and yes, too sexy. The male models, John and Arjun, are too ah…male model-y. And Hrithik, who won all kinds of polls for years and years? WTF happened to his face? He seems to have all of a sudden paled into normalcy. I guess I’d have to go with Vijay Deverakonda. He’s got the face and form, and the talent when he chooses to use it which he hasn’t lately. But doesn’t he make Telugu films?
BTW, speaking of handsome AND sexy men, Shahrukh used to have everyone beat. I say used to but not because of his age. I watched one of those Breakfast to Dinner things on You Tube the other day, and he came out of Manat’s elevator to greet the hostess with his smooth, pouty face. All the craggy, expressive interest had been erased and what was left was a goofy, poofy, foofy (?) look. What happened to my beloved SRK? I read that he hasn’t had surgery. So what is that? And why?
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Another Mirzya lover! YAAAAY! I agree, nothing has been made like it. It’s so beautiful and surreal and magical. Magadheera (the Ram Charan-Kajal movie) has the same plot of another Hindi film I love, Raabta. Raabta is slightly like Mirzya, with the past-present flashbacks, but really not that much since it doesn’t have the magical songs and dreamlike moments and all that.
Kirron Kher is a great choice! She’s been playing mother roles since she was truly middle-aged, and seems to enjoy it more than the vapid heroine parts she could be taking. Here’s a cool bonus about her, she was a struggling working single Mom in real life. She studied to be an actress, but then her parents married her off to a Bombay businessman. It was not a good marriage, she left him and started trying for bit roles to support herself and her son. She met Anupam at an audition and once he got his big break, he convinced her to officially divorce her husband and marry him. He adopted her son, they never had any other children, and now everyone just treats them as this happy perfect family of three. But in reality, she survived leaving a bad marriage and taking care of her son on her own, and then took a leap and married another struggling actor when they barely had enough to get by. Their son is a really good comic actor too, but looks nothing like his father in any way, so I kind of went “oh, that explains it!” when I learned this story.
Vijay is still down in Telugu land, but then Prithviraj and Maddy are mostly southern as well. It has been pointed out that I ignored Kunal Kapoor, but then I don’t even know if I would call him “handsome”? He is more “beautiful” to me.
Back when we were analyzing the Raees trailers, someone here suggested “fillers”. I don’t fully understand it, but I guess it is temporary injections to poof up and smooth out your face? But it goes away after a while. He definitely had them in Raees, but I don’t think he did in JHMS. And I don’t think he usually has them in public appearances either. Maybe the clip you saw was from when he had them in for a film?
On Tue, Apr 30, 2019 at 8:30 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Thanks for the Kirron story. The info about SRK is also welcome. I adore the magnetically aging face he was born with. The planes and angles (and dimples) were always compelling, but the years have added to his life’s screenplay. It’s all there: the struggle, hard work, success, compassion and passion. A lot of his counterparts diminish as they grow old, most with dignity, Amitabh Sir with ponderous (and sometimes tiresome) gravitas. But Shahrukh only gets better.
I don’t know how you’re always so up on things. You have a job, DCIB, family and friends you spend time with, Albie, your church; in short, a life. I do much less than you but find it hard to keep pace with my obsession: films, news sites, articles and books, painful Hindi lessons, etc., much less keep it all straight. I spend early mornings catching up on email, paying bills, washing last night’s dishes, and the like. All day I write, rewrite, re-rewrite until my eyes start to cross. Then it’s errands, a visit to hubby’s nursing home, followed by total collapse on the couch with Indian cinema and its peripherals. I check the gossip sites, YouTube, watch up to two movies (cursing the TV when I can’t find the one you recommended) maybe make a stab at the next Hindi lesson before I slap the laptop shut in frustration. (Why can’t they simplify the damn language?) Forget deadlines. Most of the time, I’m scrambling; behind in everything. But you’re always on point; line after line of riveting, enjoyable copy that elicits thoughtful, equally enjoyable responses. At the risk of embarrassing you, I’m glad you’re there and truly admire your discipline and dedication.
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Awwww, thank you! You are so nice. And please, ask me anything you want, I’ve spent almost 15 years gathering this information, I want to turn do something useful with it.
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