Happy Saturday! I’m at my parents with the dog and my laundry. I still love doing laundry at there place, such a thrill.
Things you all can talk about!
Saaho! I’m not having any luck finding someone to see it with me on opening night. How is this possible?!?!?!?
Female Films week plows on straight through to Saaho, I’ve already got a pretty full schedule but is there something else you think I should add? Is it finally time for me to watch Chandni Bar or have we had enough of sex workers?
And a fun one! Next Monday is Labor Day, the traditional end of summer. What are your favorite summer movies, summer activities, things you did this summer?
dontcallitbollywood 
Really there are no takers for sexy Prabhas? And I’m here searching any information about italian screening. Still nothing 😦
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I just spent $45 on opening night tickets for me and my friend. So I am very much interested! And now I have to figure out what to wear.
On Sat, Aug 24, 2019 at 4:10 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Chandni Bar!!! Tabu is phenomenal in it
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I don’t know, now I am excited about Anarkali of Aarah.
On Sat, Aug 24, 2019 at 6:55 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Summer was not much of a break this year, we had houseguests most of the time and spent weeks being tourists in our own city, around the edges of work. All of the exhaustion, none of the excitement. So here was a favorite moment that also sums up the summer: we took one group of guests to the beach for the day. I was supposed to be off, but ended up having to spend the day inside on a five hour conference call. Pretty much missed our only beach day. BUT when the call was over I got to run outside and jump into the ocean and float around for a long time and it was glorious. Now I wish I could do that after all my conference calls.
I finally watched Dil Chahta Hai. It was nice but I have to say…I like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara better. After reading your Zoya-Reema post I understand better why you’re mad at it, but overall I think the set-up is better, the songs are much better, and I like the characters more for more of the story. Dil Chahta Hai, I don’t know, I strongly disliked Aamir until the last half hour, and Saif was fine but the whole falling in love with every girl he ever talked to was silly. Akshaye is the main thing I liked, he is wonderful, the way he lets that smile transform him, such a tender, lovely performance. And Dimple was wonderful, their story was in another dimension from the rest. But so sad! There are so many different registers, the college goofiness and Aamir’s oblivious self importance, stuck next to operatic tragedy of Akshaye and Dimple, with poor innocent Saif trailing after his parade of love targets. ZNMD just feels more tightly scripted and better conceived. I even found the friendship plot between Hrithik and Farhan more believable and better built out than the one between Akshaye and Aamir. The characters are more sympathetic and there’s more relationship development, even if the film as a whole never reached quite the same emotional depth.
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Your summer sounds so difficult! Because of the Imminent Nephew my parents and I canceled all major events, hosting challenges, etc. etc. We spent the summer very lowkey. But with a low level of tension at all times waiting for the Nephew Arrival call.
For Dil Chahta Hai, this is reminding me of a story I read years ago. Someone was teaching a class on architecture and showing the Mies Van Der Rohe buildings in Chicago (tall clean lines glass walls skyscrapers). And one of the students said “so? What’s so special about that? All buildings look like that.” That’s the thing with DCH, if you missed the moment when it released then you can’t really know what is special about it. It changed things so drastically that it’s hard to see what the industry was like before and after. But, on the other hand, you are probably right that ZNMD is a better film overall than DCH. Your points make sense, the contrast of Dimple and Akshay’s story with Saif’s is kind of extreme. And even Aamir has such a slow build from kind of a snarky shallow romance to something deeper.
On Sat, Aug 24, 2019 at 10:32 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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That’s fair, no idea what the context for DCH was, just judging on the merits as I see them. I was looking forward to it because I like all of the actors, but like I said, Akshaye-Dimple was the only revelation to me, the other storylines I found a little less than satisfying.
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And just to blow your mind, here’s a clip of Akshaye’s Dad and Dimple being romantic:
On Sun, Aug 25, 2019 at 1:15 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Whoa, that’s crazy. He does the same thing with his eyebrows. Dimple must have been having flashbacks.
This conversation has made me think about all the great buddy movies about male friendship, and wonder if there are great female friendship films too? I’m not thinking of any besides the obvious Veere di Wedding but I might be blanking.
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I wish there were more female friendship movies! It’s just not a thing in the same way. There are some I am sure, but I’m blanking a little bit too. Lajja a little bit? But it’s not the same, it’s just women meeting and bonding for a few moments not growing up together.
On Sun, Aug 25, 2019 at 9:58 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Rescued 2 kittens that lost their mom and looking for Bollywood inspired names. Boy and girl who are close as twins, very affectionate, super playful and fearless. Names no more than 3 syllables, which rules out “Bhahubilli” (billi is cat in Hindi). Thinking of Baazigar, Baaz for short for the boy. The girl needs a feisty name for sure– Mohini is a trickster figure so might work. Any suggestions?
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Karan Arjun!!!!!
Or, Max and Shirley from Josh, they were twins. Or Seeta Aur Geeta if you wanted to go classic. Ram or Shyam, even more classic.
Also, you can feel free to ignore the suggestions, but I am totally stealing this question for tomorrow’s Monday post, look for it there. And if you want, you can also email me photos for illustration 🙂
On Sat, Aug 24, 2019 at 11:13 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Looking forward to this! I like puppies but kittens are my soft spot. I named my two cats Lulu and Malena after two protagonists of Almudena Grandes novels. I’m 100% for giving cats carefully chosen names that no one else will understand. And I’m 150% for cute kitten pics.
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I have 4 xats: Beowulf an orange Oriental born in England; Trinity, a 3-legged rescue black and white from Hong Kong, Kaali, a tortie girl rescued in Hyderabad, and Sugar a white persian boy whose owner gad to give up due to severe allergies. She called him “Jugnu” which is Hindi for “firefly” but I can’t pronounce it comfortable, and those j, n,g, u sounds are unpleasant sounds in English
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“Jugnu” just makes me think of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSQSh0Qgm1Y
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Max is cute, but Shirley is the name of someone I loathe and don’t want to think about. I like Karan Arjun for 2 boys, but not for the girl (and I live in India so the kistake would be noticed!). Names don’t have to be a matched pair
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If the boy is very hairy what about Anil? And the girl can be Juhi. Both Anil and Juhi actors seem to be full of energy. What do you think?
I always tel my son, who loves cats and names every cat he meets, that we should name one of them Giri (like Nivin in OSO) bt he never wants 😦
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