Happy Monday! So excited to be out of my apartment. I finished off not one, not two, but THREE streaming serieses this weekend. Yeah, I’m productive.
Before you ask, Longmire, Glow, and Dead to Me. I also did a big grocery shop, hung out with my grandfather, went to a movie with my friend, and did a big laundry thing. And walked the dog and stuff. But mostly it was sitting in front of the TV and watchin’ stuff that I didn’t have to then review and analyze. Oh, and also writing my Zoya and Reema and Meghna posts and the Jabariya Jodi reviews.
Now, ask me anything else! What movie I am watching this Friday, what I think about Mardaani 2 being announced, what my favorite American set Indian film is, anything at all! And you can come back to this post all week when you have any additional questions.
And question for you, now that I finished off my whole theme week: Who is your favorite woman director in India?
dontcallitbollywood 
Which is your favorite movie set in or about space? Or do you not even like the genre at all? All too often the romance is sidelined in favor of the technology or the big bad aliens.John Carter which had an epic romance at the centre was a huge disappointment.Vorkosigan Saga has several great romances but might never be made because the central character is a dwarf and might not be popular with the masses.
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What a fun question! I read most of the Vorkisagon saga just a few months ago, and love them. But I don’t think of them so much as “space” books as more just sort of general “adventure” books. For movies, I loved the first reboot Star Trek movie, but not as much the other ones. I also went through a phase of watching all the American stuff on the 1960s space missions. The Right Stuff is ridiculous, From the Earth to the Moon is extremely good and it’s too bad it is so hard to find now, and Apollo 13 is just a really well-made movie, the way it builds the story and makes it exciting (even when we know how it ends), and cuts between mission control and the rocket and the people back home.
But I also find space stuff extremely stressful. Which I think a lot of people do, there’s just something unnatural and disturbing about the whole idea of space. I’m dreading Mission Mangal a little bit because of that.
On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 9:30 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’ll admit that Chris Pine was a major contributing factor towards watching the first Star Trek movie.A space station or a shuttle is a little cramped and the claustrophobic atmosphere could contribute to the tension.But at least in Mission Mangal Akshay and the girls could leave for home at the end of the day.
The Vorkosigan Saga is hard to pin down to a particular genre. I hope you’ve made your way up to Miles’ disastrous dinner party to win his sweetheart’s favor in ‘A Civil Campaign’? Bujold seems to believe in the theory that there’s somebody out there for everybody.Dour Emperor Gregor, Miles’ clone brother Mark who has a split personality disorder,hyperactive dwarfish Miles,lazy cousin Ivan, even Miles parents who had given up on romance before meeting each other, crippled Lieutenant Koudelka….the list goes on.
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I have made it all the way to I think the most recent two books published (which aren’t that great, she is running out of steam I think). I read a few of the intros and stuff from the author, and she talks about purposefully experimenting with genres book by book. The world she has created is so vast, she has the option of doing a tense thriller, or a classic romance/social comedy, or a spy story, depending on what she wants to do book by book.
On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 10:18 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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what do you like more , “realistic” depictions vs sci-fi depictions of space? I absolutely adore startrek(next generation to be precise) and i think world needs more of futuristic utopian space stories rather than, relatively realistic movies such as “gravity” and socio fantasies such as starwars (which is the same family-feud/revenge on a grand scale rather than a utopian society).
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I think I like the optimistic historical films calling back to the golden era of space, and also the total fantasy fiction stuff like Star Trek. What I don’t like are the ones that merge fact and fiction, like Gravity. Too scary dealing with something that could be true but isn’t versus stuff that was true and I know how it ends, or stuff that is obviously completely fake.
On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 10:28 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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What type of movie do you want to be made or wish were more of? For example for me I miss the Hera Pheri days and such family comedies which does not necessarily need a message like badhai ho, but cant be all slapstick. I also miss the golden era of Srk which for me was early the 2000s with movies like MHN, KHNH etc..
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Great question!
I miss the big silly movies, unembarrassedly silly. Even Rohit Shetty seems to feel like he needs to include a message now. I also miss the romances, the few we get barely get a release and have no budget. I want a light silly romance with decent songs and a decent promotion campaign.
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Movies on streaming alert: Badla is finally on Netflix. (So is Three Idiots!) And Bharat is on Prime. (Which now also has Jab We Met, gone from Netflix. Amazon and their danged exclusives. Let the people watch where they want.)
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Ooo, I may have to watching the cave in sequence from Bharat again!
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I just read Kangana’s sister tweet how in 100 years of Indian cinema there are only 5 movies about national heroes and hundreds about gangsters. I agree there are so many movies about underworld (way too many in my opinion), but I just can’t believe there are only 5 about heroes. what other, besides the 5 mentioned on Pinkvilla do you know?
https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/discussion/independence-day-2019-5-movies-pay-tribute-heroes-who-fought-our-freedom-467675
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Seeing as it’s the Ranaut sisters, I am guessing they have a very limited idea of what makes a “national hero”. And also what makes an “Indian movie”. Anyway, they are clearly wrong, the JP Dutta filmography alone gives us 3 films. Add on the 3-movies-in-one-year on Bhagat Singh, and you are already at 6 without breaking a sweat.
But probably they are looking for simple biopics of Independence fighter characters. Which is BORING! It’s a boring topic for a movie! Especially when Indian history is so vast beyond that one tiny little era. I can think of so many movies like, say, Lago Raho Munna Bhai that aren’t typical biopics but do educate and make us care about Indian historical figures. Or slightly fictionalized versions of the past that give us a sense for what people were feeling and doing, like Urumi. Or all those southern movies about the less famous freedom fighters who still matter, like Kayamkulam Kochunni. But then you have to acknowledge that both southern films and southern freedom fighters mattered.
I suppose they also don’t realize that straight up biopics of people recently dead are sometimes considered disrespectful and just wrong. Do we need a movie about Nehru that either erases his relationship with Lady Mountbatten or deals with it in a way that is distasteful? Or is it better to let the man’s life speak for itself?
On Wed, Aug 14, 2019 at 6:15 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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