Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to This Week?

Posted on by

Happy Wednesday! Today is the day Jabariya Jodi showtimes will be posted! I’m hoping for something early and close because I have lots and lots of people interested in going with me.

I’ll start!

Reading: Not much! It’s too hot to read. I’m in more of a “sit on the couch and drink liquids and stare at the TV” kind of phase.

Watching: Paap and Manjakiduru to prep for my Women Directors week. Also, a great Shirley Temple-David Nivin movie that I kind of want to use as a fanfic, only it is so complicated it might be too much for even Hindi film.

Thinking: So I have a nephew! So many unknowns. Will he have curly hair? Will he ever stop crying for more than five minutes? Will he like movies? Will my sister someday get her brain back or always be so sleep deprived that she is as emotional as a Hindi film heroine?

Listening: Khandaani Shafakhani isn’t a great movie, but boy is this song fun!

49 thoughts on “Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to This Week?”

  2. Congrats on the nephew!

    I think I’m still trying to convince my Bollywood movie buddy that we should go see Jabariya Jodi. I’m discovering that she really likes the true story films like Super 30 more than the masala and romantic films! So, fingers crossed since she’s my ride to the theater, too:) I am dying to see this film. I have a really good feeling about it. It looks tailor made for me. So we might see it this Sunday or maybe next week, but I’m thinking with Batla House and Mission Mangal, this one will only have a week in our theater, especially because they usually have three other regional films in addition to the Hindi selection. So I might need to read your whole spoiler review!

    I finished watching Satte Pe Satta and it really didn’t live up to the first golden twenty minutes. Though that weird Amitabh double role and “romance” at the end with the woman in the wheelchair was bonkers (and handled slightly differently and drawn out could have been kind of interesting)! However, it was still fun to imagine what Farrah Khan could do with this! I almost think she should set the film in the early 80s and make it fully campy. I worry that an updated contemporary version would just rely on extra misogynist “bro” tropes for the brothers and that would be grating. I really hope that they cast recognizable people in all of the roles. How fun would the beach song and then the dance party song be?! All of these fun pairings and you could try to give them distinctive personalities as individuals and as couples (which the original only does through color-coding their clothes!). I think the key supporting roles would be the youngest brother, the girl in the wheelchair, and the villain. I think you should do a post where you cast this film! Right now, I’m hoping for Hrithik in the lead. Heard rumors that maybe he and Deepika will do the Sita/Ram film instead (which may be better) and then Kareena! might do this one. I think I like that even better than Hrithik/Deepika. I would put Varun Dhawan as the youngest brother and then Sara Ali Khan as the girl in the wheelchair, and then have Sanjay as the villain.

    Reading: lots of comic books still. The new Ms. Marvel series is a must-read for Bollywood fans, a couple of fun filmi references so far and a story about Partition that’s incorporated into her family history and when she visits Pakistan she meets a really interesting young man there (so love triangle brewing with the boy back home in NJ (while Wakanda but that’s a long story), too).

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • I was already planning to see Jabariya Jodi, but now clearly I HAVE to in order to give you a review! I think I have opposite movie watching friends, everyone wants to see Jabariya Jodi, I suspect I will be going to Mission Mangal all by myself. Or else guilt my friend Dina into coming and run the risk of her throwing something at the screen when Akshay starts his patriotic speech. She just can’t with him.

      Agree that Satte Pe Satte could be better, but those old films do tend to run the risk of sagging under the weight of just too much plot. I wouldn’t be surprised of Farah decides to throw out almost all of the original, just keep the idea of multiple brothers and multiple brides. The whole crippled heiress/double role stuff is so random and over the top, and doesn’t even fit in thematically. Almost feels like they had the idea left over from another movie and shoved it on to this one in order to pad out the run time. I hope the Kareena rumors are true, because I think she is better at comedy than Dips, and I love her with Hrithik (if he is still in the cast).

      On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 9:21 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

      >

      Like

      Reply ↓

  3. Watching – Only Muklawa this week. It wasn’t that bad. Not good but perfect for: it’s too hot to think / I’m not feeling well, and only want something simple,cute and easy to follow.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • By this logic, Jabariya Jodi should do spectacular with an August release in the middle of a heat wave while Mission Mangal sinks because it requires too much thought. Fingers crossed!

      On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 10:38 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

      >

      Like

      Reply ↓

  4. Managed to watch a rare Vinod Khanna film over the weekend- and that too his home production. Farebi/The Cheat.He plays a heartless conman who is recruited to impersonate a rich widow’s long-lost son. The plot is familiar but the first half is entertaining. Especially with the different cons and the people who run them.No love is lost between them.But even they have to admit that Vinod is too callous. Vinod thinks he’s so clever and you can’t help but be entertained as he tries to fleece an uncle-nephew pair fresh from the country. Only to discover that the shoe is on the other foot.He’s blackmailed and packed off to the country.The movie however fails to convince that our hero truly undergoes a change of mind.

    His romance with Moushumi Chatterjee is equally unconvincing.But you have to admire his sangfroid.The first time he meets her in the city, he not only arranges for her to be robbed.But also give her the fare home -out of her own money.But the film deserves credit for the equal treatment of con-women.There’s this cabaret dancer who’s Vinod’s casual girl friend.She proposes and Vinod declines.But no hard feelings involved.The next time she meets a likely ‘victim’ she’s haggling with Vinod for a 25% finders’ fee.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • Isn’t it amazing how cheerfully amoral film characters were back in the 70s? Now we have all this angst and discussion when a hero isn’t perfect perfect all the time.

      On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 12:25 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

      >

      Like

      Reply ↓

  5. I watched Deewana last night after not seeing it for many years. Still over the top but you can see the seeds of brilliant SRK acting in it.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • You realize Rishi is only 3 years older in that than Ranbir is now (39 versus 36)? I can bend my mind around the idea that the movies I look at now and think of as “desperate Rishi trying to stay young” are Rishi younger than the Khans are now. But to realize he was more like the age of the “up and coming” actors now, that is really mindblowing!

      On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 3:49 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

      >

      Like

      Reply ↓

        • I wonder why? Is it that actors make fewer films now? So Ranbir at age 36 is closer career wise to where his father was at 25? Or is it simply more gym bodies and plastic surgery to keep them all young looking? I had the same feeling with Khalnayak, Jackie Shroff was only 36, younger than Shahid is now, and yet he felt so old and boring.

          On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 3:54 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

          >

          Like

          Reply ↓

      • Remember how we thought 30 year olds were really old when we were teens? I do think the guys stay in better shape and our expectations change as WE age. I will take 52 (almost 3) yo Shahrukh over 25 year old Shahrukh any day.

        Like

        Reply ↓

        • And there’s that kind of subconscious “oh, you must be old, because you are styled like my Dad” effect. When I was 20, I saw movies with 40 year old Shahrukh and with 40 year old Rishi. But Rishi felt older to me, you know? Because he had 80s hair and 80s clothes and that’s what Dad’s wear. Probably the same way today’s kids feel watching Kal Ho Na Ho, all these old guys walking around in Dad-wear.

          On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 10:40 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

          >

          Like

          Reply ↓

          • Also Rishi struggling up hills etc, the extra lbs don’t help him seem like a star. That’s not cool, but I think it’s true.

            Like

          • Good point! Today’s heroes have just as many physical aging issues, but they are savvier about making sure they are hidden.

            On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 10:48 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

            >

            Like

  6. So, I’m attempting to get back to Indian movies and make up for the time I lost during the semester. On Friday was Phillauri, which I really liked, but man it took a long time to get into and judging from the Einthusan comments I’m not alone in thinking this. The filmmakers overestimated by a considerable margin the patience of an audience for watching a young man be surly and humorously frightened when we’re all here for Diljit. I wondered if it could have benefited from starting with the older story (as in Magadheera) and then flashing forward? Once we get going I liked the movie and I thought it did a good job of gradually going from the humor of the first part to the tragic events of the last scene. (Something I think a lot of films fall down on, including Rang De Basanti).

    Then I tore off another episode of Made in Heaven. It seemed like the subtheme of the last episode was money and relationships, and for this one it seemed like, to quote Friends, non-working pee-pees and hoohoos. Or just pee-pees, since the men are the ones with the ED/infertility issues, but the women are getting blamed. And then Arjun got arrested and now I’m all stressed.

    Then I decided to take a deep dive into classic Bengali because I am finally getting to the Suchitra Sen biography that I bought almost a year ago. Fun fact: she is pretty much the only heroine in Indian film (who played young “heroine” parts) to make her film debut and have an entire career after marriage and motherhood. She married and had Moon Moon quite young, and her husband encouraged her to get into movies. To complement the reading, I finally watched Harano Sur, which is one of her top films with Uttam Kumar and I think established them as a jodi. Have you written here about Random Harvest? Because it’s Random Harvest: Suchitra is a doctor in a mental hospital, Uttam comes in with amnesia and no other symptoms, she takes him to her father’s house to make him well, he gets hit on the head again and recovers his old memory and forgets her, she follows him to Calcutta and tries to make him remember. It’s interesting that Bengali classic movies seem to be either very naturalistic (Barnali, Chowringhee, pretty much anything by Ray), or complete melodrama which strains credulity for the modern watcher. This of course is in the second category, but it is now my second favorite movie involving a medical professional behaving wildly unethically because they are in love (after Khamoshi) and my new favorite movie involving amnesia (before Do Anjaane).

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • Yaaaay for being productive in a movie watching way! I hadn’t thought about that issue with Phillauri, but then I saw it in theaters which is always a little bit different. The Diljit past sequence was what stood out for sure, but I don’t remember the opening parts being such a drag.

      Now you obviously have to hurry on to the next episode just to make sure Arjun is okay!

      I can think of a few heroines who married during their career and kept working (Sharmila, for instance) and I know I have read of others who were married first, but the only one I can remember from that era who married first and her husband encouraged her is Shobhna Samarth. Although in that case she always wanted to be an actress, so her family found her a husband that would support her dreams.

      And yaaaaay, Random Harvest! What I like about the version you describe is that they make the heroine a doctor, adding yet another layer of illogic and immorality to the story. AT least in the original she is just a normal person who happens to fall in love with an amnesiac, not a doctor who should really know better.

      On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 10:45 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

      >

      Like

      Reply ↓

  8. Really enjoying the coverage of the Melbourne film festival today (#IFFM2019) on social media. So nice to have some new Shah Rukh content, along with Tabu, Vijay Sethupathi, Zoya, and other cool peeps.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • Yes! And why do they all go to Melbourne? There are Indian film festivals everywhere, but somehow the Melbourne one gets the big names. That’s a serious question, I’m really interested in this. Is it because there is more industrial connections with Australia? Or are the organizers just more professional about how they put it together and more serious about making it a business event and not just watching movies? It seems to be more like IIFA or FICCI Frames in terms of having serious panels and long discussions, not just star appearances on the red carpet. And they are getting names that wouldn’t be coming for a straight up appearance fee, and don’t have movies to promote, they must really want to be there.

      Maybe there is just a great holiday hotel nearby and they comp everyone and their families for a fun weekend in Australia?

      On Thu, Aug 8, 2019 at 8:18 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

      >

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

      • I saw clips from the press conference and the lady who organizes the festival said she had chased SRK for 10 years to get him to come to the festival and he had finally come. So I guess they are willing go put in the effort?

        I’m guessing a part of the reason people seem to be taking this festival seriously is that it’s well organized, the government itself is heavily involved (an MP and the Governor were present) and the Australian media also gives it respect.

        One thing that struck me is how genuinely respectful and considerate the mainstream media seemed to be. I heard one radio interview (I’ll put up a link when I get it) and SRK only gave a 10 minute interview but the host (who is well known) was very well prepared and had done his research. He knew SRK’s history, background, played clips from movies like My Name is Khan (which would be in English) and over a 2 hour period tried his very best to get the audience who may not know him to understand how important SRK really is. He spent a good amount of time asking people to try to watch Indian films if they don’t because they’re as beautiful as HW or Australian films. And not just him, there are lots of journalists posting on twitter about interviewing SRK or the festival itself and the same warmth seems to be there from all. As an American, I would be shocked if that kind of reception would ever be given here to any outsider. Most of the time, there would always be a sense of condescension or the same old jokes about singing and dancing and so on.

        So perhaps they go to this festival simply because the people and culture there seems to be very warm and welcoming.

        Like

        Reply ↓

        • I’m going to look at this as “they get the celebrities because they don’t just want celebrities”. That is, the other festivals that go at it from the side of “wouldn’t it be cool to hang out with famous people” just aren’t that interesting for famous people. But if you start from the side of seriously wanting people to learn about Indian film and do the work to make a festival that does that, the famous folks will follow. At least the ones who are seriously interested in the industry, not just in being famous.

          And I am working on a post now that is just a discussion space for these kinds of comments and links to content and stuff related to Melbourne, head over there once you find the radio show or any other cool links!

          Like

          Reply ↓

  9. The clips I’ve seen from Jabriya Jodi look good. I 1st saw Siddharth in Kapoor & Sons and loved him, so I’ve been disappointed by the lack of charisma in his later films. His performances have not been bad, just not that engaging. Anyway, I am hoping that the spark in him I saw in trailor has finally caught fire!

    I’ve booked a ticket for the Sunday late afternoon show in Bhubaneswar, Odisha state (on the Bay of Bengal). I am hoping for a typical crazy-fun Indian audience and a good show. No subtitles but for this sort of masala film you can enjoy the show without them.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • A Gentleman! Sid is my favorite in that, and I’m hoping for a role kind of like that, the typical hero but with kind of a wink and a sarcastic touch to it.

      On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 4:19 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

      >

      Like

      Reply ↓

  10. I finally watched Aladdin and I thought it was pretty good. Not a great movie but it was nice and fun enough. I was never in love with the animated version growing up so I didn’t really have any expectations going in.

    Another movie I finally watched was Stree and I really liked it! I knew that there’s going to be a sequel so I was expecting the open-ended ending but still what was going on with Shraddha’s character.

    I also rewatched Dishoom which was pretty fun! I’m still holding out hope for a sequel though it seems kinda unlikely now.

    Once again it’s time for me to complain about how there’s not many dancing songs in Hindi movies anymore during the movie. All of them are in the end credits or just used for marketing. Or there’s some sort of a wedding or a party that gives them a reason to have a song where they dance. Where are the songs like Locha e Ulfat?!? Ugh, I was just annoyed after watching Dishoom which had three choreographed songs but only one wasn’t during the credits.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • I was just thinking about that song issue too! Why was that? Oh right, Khandaani Shafakhani. Same thing, two credit songs and then nothing really in the middle of the movie. And they shot a love song! We saw it in the trailers. It seems like more and more producers are doing last minute edits to get the run time down (why?) and the thing they are most likely to cut is songs. Remember Dilwale when Premika got cut at the absolute last minute and even left a bit of a whole in the middle of the movie?

      Seeing Jabariya Jodi tonight, very much hoping that we will actually get to see all the songs we saw in the trailers.

      On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 10:57 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

      >

      Like

      Reply ↓

      • Another thing is that the songs that they do end up keeping are the montage songs. Those are nice but it’s so boring if those are the only types of songs in your movie.

        I was so mad that Premika got cut and it was so obvious that there was a song coming and then they just moved on to the next scene. Also, Varun shot for that song with a fever and he was so proud of it.

        I hope so too but I wouldn’t be surprised if a song or two is cut from Jabarariya Jodi just to shorten the runtime or something.

        Like

        Reply ↓

  11. By the way, today is Mahesh’s birthday so they released a short teaser with the release date of his next movie. It’s supposed to be an action comedy similar to Dookudu!

    Also, Varun and Sara have started shooting for Coolie No. 1 🙂

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • So happy about the Varun-Sara casting for Coolie No. 1!!!! I love Taapsee, but she was not a good choice for Judwaa 2. Sara seems like she has the spark and comic timing to make it work. And she and Varun feel well-matched, similar ages and onscreen energy.

      Like

      Reply ↓

      • By the way, have you seen the original Coolie No.1 with Govinda and Karisma? The plot sounds pretty simple and fun but I didn’t really like any of the original songs I saw on youtube. Plus the movie doesn’t seem as iconic as Judwaa where people were upset at the remake.

        Like

        Reply ↓

        • I haven’t, but I think my sister might have seen it at some point? Or another friend? Anyway, I was told basically the same as you, fun enough movie but not spectacular or something you have to rush out and watch.

          On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 12:18 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

          >

          Like

          Reply ↓

  12. Adding to this days later, but that is summer laziness in full swing and nothing of note has really happened except going from one summer home to another and Europe has been an oven on full temperature for weeks, but thankfully it has cooled down now.

    Oh, and I’m going to see the Pakistani film Parey Hut Love tomorrow (releases two days early here than in other places (the official date in every poster and Wikipedia is 12.8.). No, I have no idea why either. Maybe the holiday?) and I’ve been listening to the music and watching the videos of the movie and it looks good (all pretty!) and it has Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan (LOVE!LOVE!LOVE!) in cameo roles so even if it might not be the best Pakistani movie to watch (it might just be the first one released in Finland for the first time ever, no idea) I will just be happy seeing the song sequences and Fawad and Mahira in a film on the big screen!

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • I am so excited about the new Pakistani films coming out, like way more excited than I am about most of the Hindi films. I hope the distribution keeps growing so I can keep watching them. At least on Netflix if not sooner. Oh, and that reminds me! I have to tell my parents to watch Cake!

      What holiday is there in Finland? Or did you mean Pakistani Independence Day?

      On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 11:54 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

      >

      Like

      Reply ↓

        • Oh, that might explain the fireworks in my neighborhood last night! Spooked poor Albie Dog no end.

          On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 12:01 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

          >

          Like

          Reply ↓

          • Yea, fireworks are great visually, but the sounds are just a little frightening because they are just SO LOUD! Poor Albie Dog most likely thinks them as more loud than they are to human ears.

            Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.