Happy Monday! And Happy July! I was going to say “July in America”, but it’s July everywhere, right? The weather and the holidays may vary, but the actual day on the calendar doesn’t. In other news, it is still super hot here and my brain is melting.
This is where you can ask anything, bring up any topic. Any time you are wondering something, just swing back to this Monday post and ask me!
Simple question for you today, what are you doing to celebrate the 4th of July?
If you want a harder deeper question, go back to yesterday’s post and answer “which Shahrukh sex song is sexiest?”
dontcallitbollywood 
What’s your take on Dangal girl Zaira Wasim’s decision to retire prematurely? Pity, that girl had plenty of talent.I get the impression that she’s been under pressure.And we hardly have any Muslim actresses these days.Gone are the days of Waheeda Rahman, Mumtaz and Saira Banu.
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From what I know of her past, it sounds like she was turned into a tool to be used by both sides, politicians pointing to her as a liberal “free” Muslim woman, and trolls angry at her for cutting her hair.
In general, I think it is less about her particular religion and more about her needing to take time for herself and retreat from the world. She has never seemed to me like someone who is particularly happy with fame, I was surprised that she signed The Sky is Pink after Secret Superstar. I don’t think she did many Secret Superstar promos, or was involved in the promotions. She doesn’t go to the parties and stuff or participate in the other parts of the film world. If she finds those things so unappealing, then being a movie star is a not a good job for her.
We don’t just have fewer Muslim actresses, we have fewer Muslim actors as well. The community is getting hidden away from Hindi film. How many Muslim actors or actresses launched in Hindi film in the past 10 years can you name? And there is a bigger question about why Muslim heritage actresses were always accepted more than Muslim heritage actors, Dilip Kumar changed his name but Waheeda Rahman did not. The threatening Muslim man was rejected, but the tragic vulnerable Muslim woman was accepted. Until the Khans that is, but who has come after them?
On Mon, Jul 1, 2019 at 9:48 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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That’s because Islam is becoming more regressive with time especially with the spread of Wahhabism. You see a lot more burkhas now than you saw 20 years ago. More and more Muslims are shying away from professions like acting and retreating to their own spaces.
The Khans themselves are always facing fatwas and criticized for not being Muslim enough. SRK’s instagram is a disaster when he puts up anything related to his children’s Hindu side. There will be thousands of hate comments from Muslims because every Muslim is expected to follow the same strict principles or they are not spared.
Zaira is clearly facing pressure from those elements and couldn’t withstand it especially since she is from the fanatical Kashmir area. Her own parents are separatists who encourage stone-pelting and such. Her father never wanted her to act anyway. What a shame.
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Dileep Kumar could have insisted if he was that attached to his original name.Waheeda was told to change her name for her first film.And she stood firm.That, and her insistence on the costume clause in her contract proves her formidable character.All that when she was a teenager.
I feel for Zaira.But I don’t agree with her argument that her career can’t coexist with her faith.It seemed an inadequate argument when Vinod Khanna left the industry citing the same reasons.
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I don’t think in general that a career can’t co-exist with faith. But I also think faith is a very personal thing. And Zaira is only 18. If she feels unable to be fully herself while acting, good for her for walking away!
On the other hand, Vinod Khanna was a grown man with children, him I have a harder time understanding. It’s one thing to walk away from a career, another to walk away from your family. Oh, and I think Vinod also left projects half done and generally seemed very impulsive about it? It sounds like Zaira really struggled with this decision and completed all her work in hand before leaving.
On Mon, Jul 1, 2019 at 12:50 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Not sure Dilip Kumar’s name change was about hiding his Muslim identity. After all, his brother, Nasir Khan, also an actor didn’t change his name. And there were others from that time who didn’t change their name, such as Rehman, Yakub, Mehmood, Feroz Khan, etc. I think it’s a little bit irresponsible to impute religious animus as the reason for actors adopting screen names!
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I would beg to disagree; off the top of my head Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sara Ali Khan, Huma Quereshi among the actresses and Nawazuddin and Irfan among the actors, are just few among the new crop who have found success. Bollywood is one place that has been well-known for not discriminating on the basis of religion, and continues to largely remain so.
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What are you doing for Fourth of July and do you have to go back to work on Friday? On a filmi note, I have been into artsy films recently and watched Udaan (thank you for asking us to watch it), which I thought was perfect in every way and also Cake. Have you seen Cake or do you plan to? I think it would be interesting to hear your input on the movie. It is so Pakistani, which I loved – as opposed to trying to be “bollywoody” – and a really interesting film to contrast against Indian slice of life films like Kapoor and Sons.
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I do have to go back to work on Friday, which I kind of like. So no pressure to do anything special for the 4th, it’s just one random day in the middle of the week when I don’t have to work. I’m thinking about cleaning my house and maybe going to a cafe somewhere and sitting and blogging. And if I get a last minute cook out invite (which has happened before), I’ll go do that.
So glad to hear you watched Udaan on my recommendation! I had been putting off watching it for years and then was surprised at how good it was once I did see it. Lived up to all the hype.
Haven’t seen Cake, but I’ve really liked the few Pakistani films I have seen. They feel very similar to Punjabi movies, which makes sense, but also slightly different.
On Mon, Jul 1, 2019 at 2:05 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Most Pakistani movies I have seen do have a Punjabi flare to them. I don’t think Cake does though. It felt more like I am watching a Pakistani serial than a movie. I really hope you watch it. You might not love it, but I think you will still find it very interesting.
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Oh, one more question. Sorry to bombard you with so many questions today. Are you planning on watching Artcile 15? I really want to watch it, but I am afraid there might be some scenes that are too disturbing and if I watch it in theaters then I won’t be able to fast forward through them.
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I’m in the same boat with Article 15! I put up a question last Monday or Wednesday asking who would care if I skipped it, and no one seemed to care, so I skipped it. If I see a movie this week, it might be Malaal. Or Article 15 if Malaal isn’t playing. My movie watching friend is out of town, so I am less interested than usual in a movie in the theater.
On Mon, Jul 1, 2019 at 4:28 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Bollywood seems like the last bastion for a lot of things.You don’t need any particular qualification or apprenticeship to be an actor (unlike any other high paying job).Your religious identity doesn’t matter.Marrying someone from another religion is commonplace..We have talented Muslim actors like Huma and Sara and the rest.Very welcome.But none among the top 5 or 10 ‘stars’.Zaira certainly picked the worst possible time for her announcement.The furor about a Kashmiri politician’s tweet about the new orange jersey for the Indian cricket team,a Muslim MP cum actress’s decision to wear sindoor…everything is sensationalized this week.
As for Vinod Khanna,I’m talking about his decision to leave his successful career midway.Death of a close family member seems to have triggered his decision.I wonder whether there any such reason behind Zaira’s decision? Raaj Grover mentioned in his book “Legends of Bollywood” that Vinod had made an effort to finish his film even after leaving for U.S.I also read somewhere else that he compensated the producer of his comeback film Insaaf, for the days he took off while rethinking his decision.So who knows about the other films?Ironically, in one of the last films Vinod did before leaving for U.S -Gulzar’s Meera- his character plays Meera’s husband, who is helpless and powerless and ultimately devastated by his wife’s love for God.
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Thanks for the Vinod background, I didn’t know he had tried to finish his films. The version I had always heard was a press conference out of nowhere and then he was just gone.
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Not connected to anything in particular, a question I’ve had for a while: why is adoption such a frequent plot point? Or is that just my misperception? I feel like there are a lot of movies where a character’s origin is mysterious because they were adopted, or it adds to the stakes of the parent/child relationship drama or the sibling dynamic. Or maybe it’s just SRK films? If so, why him?
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What an interesting question! Thank you!
I am sure other people will have other ideas, but two me there are two ideas combined. The first is that there is a horror and stigma attached to someone without a family that isn’t quite the same as it is in other places. To not have any family behind you is horrifying, and to not know your caste or village is a little bit shameful. I’m sure you have seen this in movies, someone is accused of being an orphan, or shamefaced admits they are an orphan. It’s a good plot point, if you make your hero an orphan he automatically has something to fight against. And if you make your heroine an orphan, she is automatically fragile and endangered.
And then on the other hand there is the Krishna story, the orphan baby found and adopted and beloved. So sometimes being an orphan is a good thing, the orphan can end up being a jewel unnoticed. And there is also the flipside of the orphan stigma. Being without a family is so horrible that you might cling together extra hard to people you choose as family. An orphan might adopt a younger girl as their sister, or an older couple as their parents. That’s the part I really like, that their is a cultural awareness of the importance of having family around you to the point that everyone just accepts these adopted relationships and treats them as real without needing legal formalities or anything.
If you haven’t yet, watch A Peck on the Cheek. It deals with adoption in the familiar Western way, a baby adopted by a couple with all the legal bits and bobs, but also gets at the complicated emotions of adoption in the best way I have seen yet.
As for SRK, I don’t think there is a particular adoption connection with him. He did a fair number of “orphan” kind of roles like any other hero. Amitabh is the one that really had a ridiculous number of adoption story lines in his early films, he was always the struggling street youth with adopted parents or siblings or whatever. Muqadder Ki Sikander is the one that really took it to extremes.
On Mon, Jul 1, 2019 at 7:18 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Moses — another “adoption” story.
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Will you watch Article 15 soon?
Article 15 is fantastic!! I highly highly recommend because it is fascinating, unsettling and great. Nothing too disturbing in my opinion, but definitely is very eerie and a difficult watch. This is an ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL WATCHING. As someone who is keenly aware of casteism and aware of the ridiculous contortions of it back in India on a personal level, i found it to be mandatory watching for anyone who is from India and also not from India. A deeply emotional movie, with a much more realistic tone, very entertaining and the time flies by quickly as well. Ayushmann Khurrana is fantastic, Isha Talwar is a solid rock and I left the theater sad and hopeful.
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You’ve convinced me! I can handle leaving the theater sad if I am hopeful too. I’ve got Thursday off, maybe I’ll catch a matinee then.
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I think Anubhav Sinha captures that really well. In my opinion, its in the same vein as Mulk which was also a tough watch for me. The imagery in this movie is very very evocative, and I must tell you it’s not an easy watch. But at the very end in one particular scene, people clapped! There were some also really humorous scenes in the mid of some morbid scenes. Anubhav Sinha doesn’t pretend that the problem is resolved, but shows that good people always exist who will fight for good!
I think Ayushmann is really going from strength to strength and proving that he is an actor of real substance- and he sells his upper class privilege in this movie really well (as opposed to the usual average-guy-next-door image we have of him)!
FYI, I watched at 10.45pm in the evening by myself in a theater, and I can’t stand horror movies. If I can watch it, so can you!
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I am not as brave as you, I am thinking about going to a nice midday show so I can leave out into the bright sunshine.
On Mon, Jul 1, 2019 at 8:29 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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