Trailers! Of varying interest to me, and to you as well. But we can still watch them all and talk about them.
Saand Ki Aankh
This one is a mixed bag. The trailer revealed things I didn’t expect which make me glad, but also things I feared which make me sad.
On the good side, it looks like Bhumi and Taapsee will be training up young women along with their own achievements. That’s unexpected, and nice, that they aren’t doing this just for themselves, but paying it forward.
On the bad side, first there is the issue that Bhumi and Taapsee are playing old for the whole movie apparently. Which is just irritating because their old age make-up isn’t that great and I don’t want to watch it for 2 hours, plus I can see the effort of them playing “old”. But also bad because WHY DIDN’T THEY CAST ACTUAL OLDER ACTRESSES???? This wouldn’t happen if they were men. 102 Not Out was based on a play that required older leads and they cast ACTUAL OLDER ACTORS.
And second, there is the issue that the whole thing feels more like “look and learn about the problems of women” instead of “you are a woman, be inspired by who these characters overcame the same things you suffer from”. That could just be a trailer thing, but that’s still an issue, that they are trying to sell this movie to urban men instead of the rural woman it is about, or even just urban audiences who might already be aware of these problems instead of expecting (and therefore excusing) ignorance.
Ghost
This is a horror movie. I guess it is interesting that it is set in modern day London, another sign of how it is aimed at the modern urban youth. And there’s a sex scene, that’s another sign. Otherwise I am only including it because I like the director Vikram Bhatt and I think it is interesting that he went from Ghulam to this.
Made in China
Well, this is disappointing! Although I guess just disappointing in context. We had Khandaani Shefakhani, and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan already. All movies about sex problems, all movies that argue India should talk honestly about sex, and should reveal what an issue it is. Fine, okay. But now this is the third movie and I am disturbed to realize that, in all those movies, “sex problems” mean “erectile dysfunction”. In other words, male pleasure is the issue.
Shubh Mangal Saavdhan was the one I like the best in retrospect because it was clear that the issue was with Ayushmann and it wasn’t “sex problems” it was erectile dysfunction. But this movie directly says “what does India want? Sex!” and then translates that to helping men have erections. That’s not sex. That’s men having erections. There’s even a conversation between Rajkummar and his girlfriend (wife?) Mouni Roy where he asks if she had an orgasm and translates that to confirmation that his penis is large enough/strong enough. Not quite the same thing, and I don’t like that these films are implying it is the same thing.
If this was the first movie, fine, I would overlook it. But at this point, especially since I have such a high regard for Maddock films, I am very very disappointed that it doesn’t even seem to have occurred to them that they are only solving sexual satisfaction for one half of the couple, not the other. Although hey, it’s Maddock, they could surprise me and the movie actually is about our hero realizing the flaw in his reasoning, perhaps thanks to Mouni Roy pointing out that it may not be great for everyone that all these men have such strong sex drives now.
dontcallitbollywood 
I could change my mind but yeah Made In China doesn’t look particularly great
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Yeah, I wouldn’t think I would ever say “yet another erectile dysfunction movie? So trite!” but that is the place where I am now.
On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 11:42 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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My first reaction when I saw the trailer was “oh rajkummar is doing an ayushmann movie now”
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Yeah, Ayushmann has really cornered the “sexual dysfunction” genre, hasn’t he?
On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 12:54 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Sperm donation, erectile dysfunction, realizing that your parents have a sex life yep I’d say so 😂
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And his next film is about baldness, which feels like the same general category.
Oh, and don’t forget Dum Lage Ke Haisha! Not being sexually attracted to your partner.
On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 12:58 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Also blindness in Andhadhun!
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Because of all the masturbating in Vicky Donor, probably
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I agree that I would prefer to see older actresses playing older parts. And I don’t understand why the old age makeup is so bad. Particularly the hair. Can’t the actors wear a wig with actual gray hair? It looks like crazy hair day at my children’s school, everyone just sprayed some color onto their head. I had a hard time watching Veer-Zaara because of the fake old age issue. I respected Bharat for not over-doing the old age make up on the stars. Okay, they didn’t look super old, but that is preferable to looking fake old.
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Thank you, it’s not just me that thinks it’s bad! I think it is also making it hard for them to act, the wrinkle paint and stuff is maybe making it hard to move their faces? Certainly the padding seems to be making it harder for them to move their bodies.
On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 12:44 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I saw an Anurag Kashyap interview where he was asked about this…he said he did approach several older actresses for the role but they all refused because they didn’t want to deal with the shooting training and hectic filming schedule so he had to then cast younger actresses…but yeah the make-up is terrible!
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I don’t know, that still seems like flawed reasoning to me. He could have kept asking, or he could have given up on the idea as not feasible when he couldn’t find an older actress. Or re-written the script. Or not required shooting training from his lead and used a body double, I would far rather that than dealing with terrible old age make-up for the whole film.
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That’s true…he probably asked Rekha/Dimple/Jaya and then gave up…I too would have preferred if he found competent older non-stars and just made it on a shoe-string budget…Neena Gupta, Deepti Naval, Ratna Pathak, Supriya Pathak, Tanvi Azmi…so many people could have done this…
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Supriya Pathak and Tanvi Azmi would have been amazing!!! And sure, maybe they wouldn’t have been up for actually learning how to shoot, but I think they are more than good enough actresses to fake it and they wouldn’t have to fake being the right age.
On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 8:15 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Ru planning to watch “The Family Man” on Amazon Prime? Have just completed it and i personally think it is best web series made out of India. Its one the those rare works which can be termed “pan-India”.
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No, I don’t watch Indian streaming series unless they are a very big deal (Sacred Games, Made in Heaven) and even then I don’t watch them if I’m just not interested (Sacred Games Season 2). Too much content in the world and not enough time!
On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 1:27 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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This is better and rated high than both, but i agree too much content. This one is simmilar to Jack Ryan series, so generated some buzz.
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When I first heard the title and that Manoj is in it I was a little tempted but later I saw photos of people with guns and I thought: oh it will be just another spies/gangs/underworld boring series. I’m happy high rated, but why Netflix and Prime don’t make series for people like me, who despise movies/series about violence and gangsters? I want a series about Sara Ali Khan’s character in Kedarnath: one sister in engaged to a guy. The guy is evil and force the family to give him the other sister. She is angry, Runs away, finds work in the city, meets nice guy, they marry. Happy ending and end of the series.
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I think you will find that serial in Pakistani TV. Or, on Indian TV. Somehow streaming doesn’t have it.
Never mind, not “somehow”. Internet access in India is heavily weighted towards young men rather than women or older men. Savvy streaming companies are going to hunt up that market while satellite companies are the ones going after the female market.
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Angie , there is a chance you might like it, this is about a guy balancing his family and work, its half comedy and half thriller
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Just from the title, I had problems with Made in China, and yeah it looks awful. Saand Ki Aankh looks decent, but I see your point about casting older actresses. Taapsee’s makeup doesn’t look awful, but Bhumi’s is horrible, even if they do both seem like they’re giving really good performances.
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I like how we are all just ignoring the existence of “Ghost” entirely. Definitely not a film that has a lot of overlap with the audience for DCIB!
On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 5:23 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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It’s market forces at play I think. At this point in time, Tapsee and Bhumi are perceived to have more box office clout than a Dimple- Amrita Singh combination would, for example. Whether this perception is justified or not, only time will tell.
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I guess young women playing old women will have more takers than old women playing old women. With some script changes,they could have easily made it about women of mid 40s with Madhuri Dixit & Juhi Chawla or someone of that generation. But don’t think even that would get the audience. A mini series on digital platform seems the ideal choice but then I don’t mind this too.As long as the likes of Akshay Kumar keeps hijacking the women themes ,the younger women may rob the older of their rightful roles. I kept thinking why both the remakes of Invisible Guest have a gender flip for the main character.Why couldn’t Badla be a faithful remake with a Juhi Chawla & Varun Dhawan?
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Heck, Madhuri and Juhi are ooooooooooold! They are both about 50, they could simply play their real ages.
On Tue, Sep 24, 2019 at 6:09 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Tapsee has posted a Twitter response to all the ‘age’ qns.
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But do you really think Varun would be able to do this role?
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Unrelated – check this Instagram post on how actors choose movies. Fun stuff
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Ha! Except, I am pretty sure for Akshay the patriotism=money, he always goes with what sells and that’s what is selling now.
On Tue, Sep 24, 2019 at 8:01 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Not totally unrelated as it refers to Made in China…it’s a skillfully edited “Made In China meets Main Hoon Na!”:
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