Happy Monday!!! I had an exhausting weekend, and now I can relax and have a nice day at work.
This is where you can ask me anything, if a question occurs to you over the course of the week, just swing back here and drop it off. See a movie and want to know what a thought? Ask here! Find a new actor crush and what some hot gossip? This is the place! Anything at all.
And I have a simple question for you: Should I see Judgemental Hai Kya or Arjun Patiala this Friday?
dontcallitbollywood 
I can’t help you with your dillema because I would skip both movies. Arjun Patiala because I didn’t like the trailer and JHK because these days I get angry only hearning Kangana’s name. I wouldn’t be able to watch her for 2 hours.
Is there any southern movie worth watching this week?
My question: what’s going on with Rishi Kapoor? I know he is ill and in New York, but nothing else.
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Rishi has cancer. I don’t know if the family ever officially announced what was wrong, but it’s become clear as the months passed. He’s been getting treatment in New York for maybe 6 months, but I think I just saw a thing saying he was coming home now, so the treatment must be over.
On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 8:32 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Dear Comrade starring Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmikka Mandanna is coming out this weekend as well!
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I would watch Dear Comrade for sure!
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I think Dear Comrade (has Vijay Devarakonda) releases this week.
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I am loving the Pakistani movie trailers.They look colorful,larger than life,dreamy and everything one would associate with a far far away wonderland,but still rooted in the story in a way that Bollywood seems to have forgotten.Or in simple terms Lollywood is the new Bollywood.Handsome heroes and stunning heroines,intriguing performances,sigh!
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I was just about to post the trailer for Superstar. I am so happy someone else beat me to it. Looking forward to seeing this movie.
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Superstar looks fabulous! I hope it’s as juicy and wonderful a role as it looks for Mahira, and not some fallen woman morality tale.
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Have I told you my trick for recognizing the Pakistani trailers? When we go to the movie theater, we get them some times mixed in with Hindi. But we can tell they are Pakistani because if they start and you go “OMG, that is the handsomest man I have ever seen in my life”, then it is Pakistani.
On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 8:50 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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OMG this Superstar trailer – I love it. And you’re right it has everything I was searching for when I started watching Indian movies: love, emotions of every kind, beautiful clothes and dances and men. Now Bollywood is only like: “hey, watch how we spent millions on uneccesary stuff and no plot and emotions” or “look how those good actors play gangsters”.
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Don’t know what to think about Parey Hut Love. Wikipedia says based on 4 Weddings and a Funeral but it looks so high drama! Sheheryar Munawar from 7 Din Mohabbat In and Ho Mann Jahaan is starring and exec producing. Mahira and Fawad in cameos? Could be fun, could be throw-everything-in-there messy, could be both.
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My vote would be for Arjun Patiala because Kriti and Diljit!! Also, if you need a pick me up, check out Kriti and Madhuri’s dance on Dance Deewane. A clip is posted on Kriti’s instagram.
I can’t separate Kangana’s real life personality from her reel personality but if you can, then you should also check out JHK and let us know if it is worth watching, if only for Rajkumaar Rao.
Question for you: Did you see Taapsee’s interview with Mumbai Mirror? Here is a link in case you had not: https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/exclusive-taapsee-pannu-kangana-ranaut-cant-play-the-nepotism-card-with-me-ive-also-struggled-to-reach-where-i-am/articleshow/70320089.cms. I think she is fabulous and answers questions frankly and honestly without being toxic (i.e. Kangana).
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Ugh, that is a terribly written interview! The Mumbai Mirror occasionally gets these big deal important interviews with important quotes, and I always cringe when I read it because of how it is written. We’re just reading for the quotes, why not do a straight question-answer format? And if you are going to put in little descriptors, why are they so terrible? I don’t know where this interview took place, how Taapsee and the interviewer got together, any of that. All I get is that she says something a “smirk”. Blech! Such bad writing!
But I agree, Taapsee’s quotes are good. Someday I hope to read an interview of hers done by someone who can actually write and interview well. Come to think of it, this is why I first loved Anupama, her written interviews are delightful, it’s not just the questions she asked, it’s how she would set the scene and help us feel what it was like to be in the room with this person.
On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 9:13 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah, I hate when interviews are written this way too. But I enjoyed Taapsee’s quotes and can get over the annoying format.
Anupama interviewed her last year and Taapsee was excellent in that one too. Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkYuGiHbvvE. I think currently, she and Ayushmann are the hardest working actors. They are both churning out one movie after another and all with interesting content.
On a separate but related topic, did you see the Mission Mangal trailer? What do you think? Are you excited to watch it?
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Did not watch the Mission Mangal trailer, although I did see the teaser. Eh. I don’t really like the process genre with the massive casts. That’s a personal preference, nothing against this particular film. And a very specific preference, I like the process genre okay when it is a smaller story, just these big stories I kind of get lost in all the details.
On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 10:23 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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But it has Vidya Balan! To me, that is a good enough reason to watch! Oh and if you need more convincing, Kriti Kulhari! I think I remember you saying you really like her too!
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I do! I love this whole cast!
I will almost certainly watch the movie when it releases, but I saw the trailer was out this morning and just didn’t have that fire in my belly to rush and watch it.
On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 10:47 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I wrote A Thing about the Mission Mangal trailer. It’s a little disheartening how the women are introduced vs. Akshay.
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Thank you! Really interesting seeing it moment by moment. It is the trailer of course, so it could be a matter of reassuring the audience “don’t worry, these aren’t scary aggressive female parts, you can still enjoy the film” and then the film itself will be different. But it certainly fits with the usual Indian message of “don’t worry, our women can be modern and accomplish things and still be women”. Ties into the whole “even actresses don’t date” and “Miss India always wears a sari” BS.
On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 12:29 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I completely agree, Alisa. I also noticed something similar when the poster first came out, Akshay’s head was displayed very prominently and essentially took up 1/2 the poster and the 5 women were displayed in the other 1/2. Incredibly frustrating! I do hope the movie shows the women accurately for who they are, which is incredibly smart, creative, and accomplished and it isn’t just a movie about Akshay “motivating” his team of girls to accomplish his vision.
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Mission Mangal has some of my favorite actresses,yet I am so put off by it.The first poster,the teaser etc tells me it is yet another instance of Akshay Kumar mansplaining in a patriot’s avatar.His character in the movie is a fictional one while the women scientists are all real.They did not have a guy motivating them to do their job.The movie is directed by an assistant director of A R Murugadoss who specializes in making saviour hero movies in Tamil.
Secondly, yesterday was a big day for ISRO when they did the historic launch of the Chandrayan2 mission.Among the various tweets from the official ISRO Twitter handle,was one wishing Akshay Kumar success for movie Mission Mangal.Why would a prestigious institution like ISRO even care about an Akshay Kumar movie?Every national issue with a positive resolution,every achievement by an Indian in an international arena is a movie waiting to be made by Akshay Kumar and a propaganda tool for the right wing.
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I fully agree to what you wrote, MKP. Already reading about Akshay being involved as a leading protagonist in this project, my thoughts went in the direction of “propaganda tool”. Now the trailer really seems to support that idea with giving the main importance to a man who – throughout his career – would be the ‘main’ in everything.
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My question for the week: if a person really wanted to see Prithviraj in a uniform (police or army, doesn’t matter) and she had already seen Aurangzeb, what would be your advice for that person.
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Mumbai Police. Or Ivide. Picket 43 (although that one is kind of dark).
Unfortunately, all of these are hard to find. But maybe they are strangely easier in Japan than in America? You must have hope.
On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 9:53 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yay! Mumbai Police is on Einthusan! As is Ivide, but with no subtitles, so only people who are really dedicated to the whole Prithviraj in a uniform thing. Or Malayalam speakers, of course.
Ooh, thanks for the pick-me-up, Ticket.
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Both, JKH then Kriti/Diljit.
One thing I’ve noticed…post Queen, Kangana’s movies always have good trailers! Setting the tone, building excitement, without throwing in the whole plot. But sometimes the trailer is much better than the movie (Rangoon, Simran).
Have you caught Typewriter on Netflix yet? It just dropped this weekend. I saw episode 1, so far so good. Sujoy Ghosh (Kahaani, Badla) is possibly capitalizing on Stranger Things phenomenon (season 3 dropped recently) with a children-lead paranormal thriller series of his own. And like Dhrishyam, this is set in “local” Goa, not touristy Goa (specifically set among the Catholic community whereas Dhrishyam is the rare film set among Goa’s Hindu community). No resorts or nightclubs, even the beaches are of the fisherman variety, very “townie” feel ala Stranger Things and also like most paranormal thrillers. Finally, you can choose between Hindi and English audio, so you can skip the subtitles.
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What about Vijay Devaronkonda’s new movie? Above or below JHK and AP?
I didn’t realize Typewriter was in Goa!!!! That makes me really want to watch it. I don’t like the jump scare part of horror, but I do like it when it really digs into the atmospheric parts, horror as an element of a particular situation. Don’t know about the English track though, have you tried it? Does it feel like dubbing or is it the actors speaking in English with accents? In a Goa setting, I imagine it wouldn’t even be that unusual for these characters to primarily speak English?
On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 9:48 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I listened to both, and it sounds like the actors dubbed both Hindi and English, both the adults and the kids did.
What’s funny is that when a character speaks in Konkani, they leave it in Konkani and throw up subtitles that say, “[In Konkani]…”, followed by either the English or Hindi subs, depending on the audio, regardless of if you have subs set on. Pretty cool!
My observation is that Catholic Goans who live in Goa speak either Konkani or, nowadays, Konklish, to each other. But Catholic Goans who live in Mumbai speak either English or Mumbai Hinglish to each other. Hindu Goans otoh tend to speak Konkani to each other wherever they are.
In this series, there is a Catholic Goan family that had just moved from Mumbai. The parents speak Hindi to each other but English to their kids, even in the Hindi audio.
I haven’t seen Vijay D in anything but Arjun Reddy so far. I actually just rewatched it last weekend, maybe in anticipation of watching Kabir Singh today (discount Tuesday). I have to say the movie is far better upon rewatch, especially the love story. Preity/Shalini’s subtle acting style becomes more pronounced, and Vijay’s sweetness/tenderness becomes more evident.
If I want to watch more Vijay D movies, how would you rank them in order of which I should watch next?
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For Vijay D, I am not the one to ask! I’ve only seen AR and Mahanati. But I know others here have watched many more and can help.
Interesting with the “[In Konkani]”, I know I’ve seen that in other stuff on Netflix, but I don’t think in Indian films. And sometimes it is really really necessary! Tamil movies especially (related to my recent post), there’s all this meaning in when they speak Hindi versus Tamil, and it just goes right over my head if the subtitles don’t make the difference. Or even worse, if they dub the whole thing into Hindi and the distinction turns into nonsense.
On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 4:37 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Been away from the site a bit. Just starting off my dissertation research work and that is taking up all my time. I vote for JHK because no one else will objectively review the movie and instead focus on Kangana as the off-screen individual.
I finished reading Ukridge – I liked it but as you said it is not as good as Wodehouse’s other books.
If and when Sahoo releases which language will you watch it in?
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Good reason to vote for JHK!
Although I will probably end up deciding the same way I will decide which language to watch Saaho in, based on showtimes.
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Dharma bought the rights to Dear Comrade so I think it’s a good reason to watch it.
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Good enough! And most important, it will probably release on Thursday so it won’t conflict with the other films.
On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 12:39 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Did you see this? https://www.ndtv.com/entertainment/alia-bhatt-orders-sabyasachi-lehenga-for-april-2020-wedding-to-ranbir-kapoor-report-2073861; https://www.missmalini.com/2019/07/23/rumour-has-it-alia-bhatt-has-been-shopping-for-her-wedding-with-ranbir-kapoor/. Malini Agarwal is pretty connected to the film fraternity so this might actually be plausible! This would make me so saaaad!!!!
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Me too!!!! But then, I remember hearing similar really really gonna happen stories about Kat a few years back, and that turned into nothing. Have faith in Ranbir’s ability to destroy all relationships in a spectacular way!
On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 3:02 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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So does this mean my suspicion that Alia is pregnant is true?
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Oh right! I forgot about her “stomach thing”. If she is, I wonder if they will fudge the dates or just be open about it? She’s a Bhatt, the family has weathered so many scandals already this would be nothing. But not so much for the Kapoors.
On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 8:41 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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