Happy Wednesday! And Happy Gandhi Jayanti! And Happy Start of Month of SRK! An auspicious day in so many many ways.
I’ll start!
Reading: I read the first Dublin Murder Squad book and it’s SAD! So then I asked my Mom for recommendations of not-sad mysteries and she suggested Elizabeth George. So I might try that, but it’s a Mom recommendation which means I have to overcome my instinctive “you can’t tell me what to do!” reaction.
Watching: This weekend as it rained and rained, I watched Fleabag. It is exactly as promised, brilliantly performed and written and constructed, but not an easy heroine. Oh, and I also started the Inspector Lewis series which is okay, but extremely dated.
Thinking: In order to stay up until midnight again, should I have coffee or tea right now? Or maybe a coke since my head is hurting? Also, I was discussing this question with my co-worker yesterday and used the phrase “hair of the dog” and she had no idea what I was talking about. I thought that was a common English phrase. Do you all know it?
Listening: The War soundtrack is so pitifully short, I am retreating to Bang Bang which has the same sound but with a bunch more songs. Anyway, as I listen to it over and over again, the title song is really growing on me! I didn’t particularly notice it within the film, but listening to it I like it more and more.
Now, question for you! Vitally important question: What are some ideas for SRK countdowns for the next month?
For examples of previous countdowns, there was “worst costumes”, “best performances”, “best characters”, and of course, “13 Reasons He is a Vampire”. But after 3 years, I am stumped for ideas! Give me suggestions.
dontcallitbollywood 
“The hair of the dog is a small measure of drink, intended to cure a hangover. The fuller version of this phrase, that is, ‘the hair of the dog that bit me’, gives a clue to the source of the name of this supposed hangover cure. That derivation is from the medieval belief that, when someone was bitten by a rabid dog, a cure could be made by applying the same dog’s hair to the infected wound.”
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Yes, that’s what I told my co-worker! But she had still never heard of the phrase. Very weird. Anyway, I have a headache because I had too much coffee and couldn’t sleep last night and I have decided on a “hair of the dog” cure and am now having much more coffee.
On Wed, Oct 2, 2019 at 8:53 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I watched Fleabag too upon Emily’s recommendation and really enjoyed it. Quite the anti heroine. I am also watching Family Man on Prime which started off with the choicest expletives in Malaylam and had Neeraj Madhav and Priya Mani(both Malayalam actors). It is quite a good spy thriller. I was into 2 episodes when my mother called and informed that my father & her finished watching it.I was gobsmacked cos they had recently started on Prime for watching Malayalam,Tamil & Hindi movies(as dictated by mom) but I didn’t think a Hindi web series was their thing. Mom was asking for more such series and I have directed her to Made in Heaven. I am waiting for them to be scandalised but anything can happen. My father who so far could only recognise Malayalam actors is now a fan of Manoj Bajpai. The invasion of video on demand in my world is complete.
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Fleabag is a show that I am very glad I was able to binge watch. There were hints in the first few episodes that she was an unreliable narrator (especially as related to her own emotional state and motivations), but I wasn’t really sure until episode 4-5-6. And if she hadn’t been an unreliable narrator (that is, if she truly was a heartless fiend who hated everyone and felt nothing for anyone) I would have hated her. If I had been watching it one a week I might not have stuck it out long enough to find out for sure that she was a better person than she made herself out to be. And so ultimately hopeful!!!
I was thinking about recommending Family Man to my parents too! Mostly because A Gentleman is one of my father’s all time favorite movies since I recommended it. I still haven’t seen it myself, but it seems like it is A Gentleman-y? Oh, and I showed my parents Made in Heaven also, but only the one amazing Vijay Raaz-Jim Sarbh scene. You know, when he cuts Jim Sarbh down to size and reveals that he owns 10% of his company and is not happy with how it is being run?
On Wed, Oct 2, 2019 at 10:12 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Family Man is more grounded and realistic in tone than A Gentleman,less physically attractive but more engaging leads. But very well mounted & lot of Mumbai middle class life thrown in. My parents thought it was a movie when they started it but good hooked and finished it. I have also recommended Cake movie to mom.
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Aw, they thought it was a movie! That’s so CUTE! Old people are funny.
On Wed, Oct 2, 2019 at 11:10 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yay, glad you liked Fleabag! You’ve made me curious about Family Man, maybe that will be next. (The name keeps making me think of Family Guy, a show I find dumb and annoying and that has nothing to do with Family Man, but brains are weird that way.)
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I would highly recommend Family Man.It is very well executed in that serious themes of terrorism,current socio political situation in India is told in a very engaging way,without weighing down the audience. There’s enough humour and subplots to keep things light and flowing. I also attempted to watch Bard of Blood which has a similar theme but could barely finish one episode. It was all too serious and heavy. This is a much superior watch.
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I’ll check it out, thanks!
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Countdown of male singers who bring out best sharukh… like is it udit narayan like in mohabbatien? Sonu nigam in kal ho na ho? Anhijeet in chalte chalte? Or ones in early 90’s? Who is best voice for sharukh?
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Thank you! Interesting twist, I’ve done Best Songs, but this would be different.
On Wed, Oct 2, 2019 at 10:35 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I am torn between sonu nigam and abhijeet, something in chalte chalte songs brings out a very likable sharukh, i will vote abhijeet!
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Ready for some cheesy fangirling? Because I watched Khandaani Shafakhana and I’m in love with Priyansh Jora! He has this beautiful-perfect-for-rom-coms face and if he won’t be cast in some rom-com soon, I will be angry. Really, how you can non cast a guy with eyes like his? And he is talented too.
I know, I don’t have very respectable taste in movies, but I enjoyed this film and I don’t understand why it has only 3,3 rating on IMDB. Yeah, it’s not perfect, but I liked Sonakshi, I loved Priyansh, the story wasn’t bad, there were some very nice scenes and shots. It’s this director’s first movie, and in my opinion she did good job. Hope she will make another movie.
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Poor Priyansh Jora! He doesn’t even have a wikipedia page (you should make him one!).
On Wed, Oct 2, 2019 at 11:14 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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If I made one it would be soon closed because too emotional and not profesional enough 😉
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oh wow, he’s got the proper chocolate boy looks. Good find.
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Watched Namastey London about halfway and stopped because I hated it so much. Speaking as a ‘third culture’ kid Katrina’s situation was relatable and I think I might actually hate Rishi’s character with burning passion of a thousand suns. First time that has happened.
So as a cleanser watched Monsoon Wedding and it is such a good movie! Typical Mira Nair touches or realism, loved the soundtrack and the love stories were adorable. Odd seeing Vijay Raaz as an everyman, since I’ve used to seeing him either as the bad guy or the shady guy in movies.
A suggestion for Shahrukh month. How about his best villain character? Don’t think we’ve had that yet?
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Ooo, Best Villain might be fun! Not a lot of movies for a countdown, but I could save it for a later post.
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Look! It’s like they wrote this just for you:
https://theamericanscholar.org/the-12-best-british-detective-shows-to-watch-this-halloween/
And for not sad mystery series, I’m going to again suggest Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce books. They’re light and charming.
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Ooo! I’ve already watched 2/3rds of those, but I am going to interpret that as “they know my taste!” Thank you! Looks like another bleak rainy weekend, so I will need to cozy up and watch something.
On Wed, Oct 2, 2019 at 4:46 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Did you know that Sholay is on Amazon Prime? With English subs?
Also, did you know that Amitabh and Dharmendra did Yeh Dosti in this film, and it’s the oh so ’70s version of the Bobby-Akshay one much later? But I still think the Bobby-Akshay one is way more “romantic” because the Sholay one is hipper-cooler-70s-er and because Bobby + Akshay = eyelashes for days… years even.
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I did not know it was on Prime, I did know that Yeh Dosti is super gay! In a manly way, of course.
On Wed, Oct 2, 2019 at 8:40 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I watched Raid this week and I did like it–incorruptable uniformed Ajay! Yay!– but damned if I could follow it. I think I was just sleepy, but I rewound a couple of times and finally decided I would just go with “Saurabh Shukla bad” as my interpretation. This is not at all the film’s fault. Also watched about 15 minutes of “Maroon” on Netflix, but it’s looking a bit darker than I want to go this week. I have intentions of watching a Durga Puja-themed Rituparno Ghosh movie, since it’s Durga Puja, but not sure I’ll have time as I’m traveling. Maybe yet another rerun of Kahaani is the way to go.
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You could watch Humare Adoori Kahaani. I think it is a terrible movie, Angie loves it deeply, you could be the tie breaker!
And I am so glad you liked Raid, that also means you can now appreciate this post on a deeper level: https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2019/02/08/tgif-who-looks-best-in-fancy-tax-collector-pants/
On Wed, Oct 2, 2019 at 9:32 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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How can a movie with Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Rajkummar Rao, a lot of long romantic gazes and a scene where a man marries a woman with petal instead of sindoor, be considered terrible?
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No sex scene. What’s the point?
On Thu, Oct 3, 2019 at 7:54 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Ha ha There is sex, right after petal marriage, but Vidya is very respectable woman so they couldn’t show much 😉 It’s not Hate Story or Jism so I think nobody watched it for sex scenes.
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I did!!!!! That is, I went because I wanted to see Emraan and Vidya finally act on their sexual tension after all the denial of Dirty Picture. And NOTHING. The Bhatts let me down.
On Thu, Oct 3, 2019 at 12:18 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Sorry, Angie, I respect your opinions but I’m with Margaret on this one. I looooaaaaathed it and that’s not just the irrational hatred of Emran Hashmi talking. The Durga Puja scene made me want to weep for Vidya’s better movie. I watched it on a plane and finished it, but seriously thought about turning it off and just reading my safety pamphlet again. Sorry! But I’m happy someone loves that poor movie!
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Watching Made in Heaven finally, and Four Weddings and a Funeral, and danged if Made in Heaven isn’t all around better writing and acting. I avoided it because rich people shows and wedding planners aren’t my bag, but now I’m 5 episodes in and hooked. Will go dig into your posts soon. I’m fascinated right now by the lying. There are characters who lie and characters who tell the truth, both can be sympathetic but the show definitely feels like it’s presenting a moral judgment. Four Weddings and a Funeral grew on me but it’s pretty hamfisted at times, especially those moments of voiceover narration of the characters’ feelings. Watching that one with my husband and MIH after he goes to bed. He would definitely like MIH better, but subtitles at the end of the day put him to sleep :).
Also saw Baby Driver over the weekend. That could be a good remake. The characters and plot would translate well.
Countdown ideas: more rain songs? train scenes? boat scenes? best gifs? hair flip moments? nine months of what he’s been doing since his last movie came out? snarky comebacks? running scenes? scenes with animals? production projects? reasons he still hasn’t finished his book? movie locations? actresses who have played his mother? performances as himself? roles he should play once he goes gray? things he puts in movies because his fans expect/want/need them?
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Yaaay, excited for you to read the Made in Heaven posts! Especially to help me figure out if one particular character is intended to be sympathetic or not. I don’t like him but I’m not sure if I am supposed to not like him.
Thank you for the countdown ideas! I will be returning here as my brain runs dry.
On Thu, Oct 3, 2019 at 12:14 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Countdown ideas: best booty, best comebacks to dumb media questions (there are a lot posted online but many are not translated), SRK with animals…
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Ooo, animals! there are 3 good photos of him with dogs that I keep swinging back to.
On Thu, Oct 3, 2019 at 12:43 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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What do you think about this song? It doesn’t have the typical dharma gloss I was expecting but maybe that’s a good thing if the movie is just going to be released on Netflix?
Also the song from the Marjaavan trailer is out and I’m still really curious as to why he shoots her.
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I am just super distracted, because I think the Drive song is in Isreal? I can’t remember seeing a song filmed in Isreal before. But I agree, it does feel very un-Dharma. And not necessarily in a good way, it looks low budget and uninteresting to me, like it is trying to imitate an amateur youtube video but not being any better than a youtube video.
On the other hand, the Marjavaan song is great! I am super curious, it looks like she is signaling him to kill her? It must be a “no choice but death” moment, right? And now he is in jail and miserable?
On Thu, Oct 3, 2019 at 9:54 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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After seeing Makhna and the tweets promoting it I’m sure there is something wrong with Drive. In the beginning I was confused if the video shows us the characters or the actors behind the scenes. And I hate so much promotional picture used on twitter.
The colours are so bad. I feel they are releasing this film but have so little faith in it they didn’t want to spend few rupees to make the photo more prefessional and attractive.
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Yeah, that is ridiculous! Maybe that is why the song is so bad too, they didn’t do any post-production spending?
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Yes! I was confused at first too whether it was showing the actors behind the scenes or the characters.
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Yeah, it doesn’t look that interesting.
I’m pretty sure she’s signaling him to kill her and I think she may have pulled the trigger herself. That’s what it looks like if you pause the song at the right time at 2:18. Let me see if I can get a screenshot of it.
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Ever since I saw Ranangan I keep thinking about one of the parts of the story and how I want a romantic film with similar plot.
So Ranangan is about wealthy men who wants to enter politics (btw it’s what Prime synopsis says and I was thinking: why should I watch a movie like this?, but the film is so much more than this, really it’s only one little part of the plot). So there is this guy, and for some reason he visits his guru or hindu priest (I didn’t understand well) to ask him a favour. The priest is sad and worried and confesses that his niece is pregnant with some guy who seduced her and disapeared as soon as he heard about the pregnancy. The girl doesn’t want to abort, and they have a problem. The politician suggests that the girl can marry his son so the baby will have a father and the girl won’t be dishonoured. They marry soon, and the girl is very grateful and happy (Then a lot of over the top things happen, but it’s not important). Wouldn’t it be a splendid romantic film? A girl is seduced, and gets pregnant. The parents marry her to some guy who owned them a favour. She starts liking her husband, but is affraid he married her for pity, or because he was forced. He always liked her but thinks she still loved the father of the baby. A lot of “should I tell her?” ,should I make the first step?” , some longing gazes, father of the baby reappears, but she kick his ass, happy ending.
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Oh oh! This is my Christmas fanfic! Just replace the hero and heroine with “Mary” and “Joseph”.
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