Happy Monday! I had a productive weekend and Albie Dog had a bad weekend. Yesterday he had to survive both a bath, and me vacuuming the apartment. Life’s hard for a dog.
As always, this is where you ask me stuff. Anything you want to know about film history, Indian history, my history, or just if I read a thing or saw a thing or thought about a thing before. Swing back any time this week if you think of something new you want to ask me!
Now, question for you! Today is my Dad’s birthday. In his honor, who is your favorite onscreen Dad in Indian film?
Hmm. A lot of bad dads, not so many good ones. I guess I have to go with Akshay in Jaanwar. Turned his whole life upside down, learned blacksmithing, risked his life as a stuntman, and still got his son ready for school every morning. Oh, and turned his back on the woman he loved. Not necessarily what I look for in a “real” Dad, but pretty awesome for a movie dad.
Okay okay, the easier question: who is the WORST Indian movie Dad?
Jackie Shroff in Dhoom 3. Not even close, he is clearly the Worst Ever.
dontcallitbollywood 
Anupam Kher in both DDLJ and KKHH, such a kind, loving father. He will go to such great lengths to make sure his child is happy.
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Excellent choices. But Anupam in KKHH versus Shahrukh in KKHH? who is better?
On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 8:34 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Anupam also played worst father in Tezaab by pimping out Madhuri (though he was a stepfather so maybe it doesn’t count?)
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I thought he was her father-father? Anyway, agree, terrible father there! And in Kaho Na Pyar Hai too, although he seemed good at first.
On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 10:27 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Akshay in Jaanwar definitely wins “Dad of the year” award. Followed by Renji Panicker in everything I saw him: OSO, Godha, Athiran…
Worst dad – There is one in almost every Indian movie. Special mention for Amitabh in Kabhi Kabhie – he looked like the best dad but in reality he was toxic af. The same with Alok Nath in Pardes – he changed from “I love my daughter” to “I’ll cut her in pieces with this sword” in like 1 sec. I would rather have a father like Amrish Puri in DDLJ, who was strict from the beginning to the end instead of being mentally unbalanced creep.
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I love Renji Penicker! I forgot about him. Agree, he is the best.
I kept reading “Kabhi Kabhi” as “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham”, but then I got it, and you are SO RIGHT! Spoiling his daughter and lavishing love on her while ignoring his wife is a horrible horrible thing to do. And for contrast, we have Raakhee and Shashi, who love their son but keep a perspective about it.
On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 8:34 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Amitabh’s character in that movie was just all around bad
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Nazriya’s dad on Ohm Shanthi Oshaana comes to mind as probably the most open minded dad I’ve seen that is not Anupam Kher. So relaxed, calm and just a nice person who doesn’t create drama and just loved her no matter who she loves.
Worst, well Rishi Kapoor in Namastey London and Amrish Puri in DDLJ until the end are the ones that come to mind first. Then there’s Kiran Kumar in Akaash Vani.
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Ugh Kiran Kumar in Akaash Vani! Especially because he thinks he is doing so great, naturally it is a normal thing to decide who your daughters will marry and get angry with them when they aren’t happy with your choice.
On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 12:54 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Especially when he says at the end that because of her husbands’ words they are humiliated twice over because of her and her sister. It’s like you just want to say to them that they were most likely the reason her sister did what she did in the first place.
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And the sister was way better off, she got to marry the man she loved without being raped every night for months beforehand.
On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 2:28 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Nushrat Bharucha really proved herself for me acting wise in the movie when it came to that. I’ve only seen her in Dream Girl and there her role was OK, but it was certainly more up in the mainstream and good for her career wise. Just so glad to see she had actual talent and wasn’t just going to be another pretty face.
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Glad somebody watched Dream Girl for Nushrat! I hope it leads to more and better mainstream roles for her.
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And I love the new look of the blog! You must have worked hard on all the links and all that for the menu. Cudos! It looks so pretty with the new pictures as well as old and the new background colour really pops 🙂
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Shoot! The menu shouldn’t have changed! WordPress just decided to do that all on their own, I just swapped it back.
But yes, the images are new. And the plain background. Enjoy endlessly refreshing until you have seen them all.
On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 12:56 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Good father – Raghuvaran in Anjali and Madhavan in Kannathil Muthamithal, if you consider fathers of kids. Also, heroine’s father Vijay Chander in Geethanjali. Father roles are well characterized in lot of Mani Ratnam’s movies.
– https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2018/09/27/anjali-the-one-mani-ratnam-movie-that-didnt-make-me-cry/
Bad father – My favorite is Prakash Raj from Bommarillu – so many of my generation and next generation connected with and a lot of spoofs were made. In the same movie, heroine Genelia’s father role (Kota Srinivas) was also bad. https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2016/12/30/bommarillu-what-if-parents-are-allowed-to-be-part-of-the-love-story/
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Oh, Prakash Raj in Bommarillu is a good “bad father” choice! Because on the surface, he is such a good one. But in fact he is being a terrible father to his children.
On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 12:04 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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In my opinion Madhavan in Kannathil Muthamithal was a terrible father. Yes, he loved his daughter a lot, and it was very moving that he adopted her, but who bring his kids to a war zone? Not only he traveled there risking his, his wife and daughter life. But when already in Sri Lanka he left the girl wander on the streets and she was almost killed in terrorists attack. Obviously he didn’t think: Man, maybe we should return home, no, instead she was left alone and went to the forest full of armed rebels! Like don’t you read the newspapers Maddy? There is war here, the bombings, people are killed everyday, it’s not safe to be here, at least keep your eyes on her, for God’s sake!
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I liked that he adopted her even before his wedding.
I liked that he did not change the way he treated her, although his parents, and to some extent his wife, became biased toward the later born biological kids.
When Amritha asked to see her biological mom, he tried to convince her as much as he could before deciding to fulfill her wish. Going into war zone was not the original intention – the family would stay in Colombo, the capital. He and his friend (Prakash Raj) would go to Jafna to find the mother.
She was not left alone and not in forest. The wife and kid were supposed to wait in the park for the lady, while he’s giving his poetry/lecture in the hall.
On top of all, I have an equally naughty girl kid of 5 years at home that reminds me of Amrita – so, I am biased 🙂
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1) How was the celebration of your father’s birthday?
2) When you see him again, give him a hug coming from Germany, please 🙂
3) My memory is so poor that I only can remember (in detail) the fathers in ShahRukh’s movies (although I’ve watched many, many other Indian movies)…my favourite is Anupam in DDLJ (so absolutely non judgemental, just loving his son)…my least favourite is Amitji in K3G (so full of himself)
4) Do you watch the TedTalkIndia? I can’t as I don’t get neither the TV channel nor Hotstar. If yes, I would be interested in how it is received.
5) Filmcompanion has done a list of ‘their’ “greatest” 25 movies of this decade…any interest for it? https://www.filmcompanion.in/fc-decades/pages/hindi.html
6) Where do you think are the most impactful changes in Hindi/Indian Cinema this decade brought?
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1. The celebration was nice! We went over to Grandpa’s and had dinner and cake and he really liked the present my sister and I got him.
2. Will do!
3. Amitji in K3G is just terrible, I agree
4. I watched the first episode of the first season and confirmed that I still hate Ted Talk, just the whole format. So I’ve been saving myself and ignoring this season.
5. I can probably guess what will be on the FC list, unless they surprise me and put in something like A Gentleman, I’m not interested. But thanks for the link in case other people are!
6. I skipped ahead a few years after pulling my 2010 list. The biggest change is that movies have gotten a lot worse. Looking at the 2010 list, there were so many good interesting unusual films. Moving forward, it turned into the same actors in the same kind of movies over and over again. With the rise of the multiplex, and then streaming, there is no space for the small success, either it has to be a big hit that justifies multiplex ticket prices, or it goes straight to streaming.
On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 12:29 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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There are so many examples of both good and bad fathers that it’s a bit overwhelming, and I honestly like the complex fathers, or fathers who are good and make huge mistakes, like in Koode or Sanam Teri Kasaam. My first thought was Prithviraj Kapoor in Mughal e Azam, but he’s kind of good since he doesn’t actually wall up Madhubala? I guess that’s kind of a low bar.
I found on Rediff a list of the 200 best films of the decade, but it includes ones from all different languages, including some I’ve never heard of. I’m bookmarking it as a guide for branching out into other languages as well as finding more modern Bengali students.
https://www.rediff.com/movies/special/the-best-200-indian-films-of-the-decade/20191113.htm
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Edit: “some I’ve never heard” of means languages, not movies. I’ve never heard of about half of these movies.
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Thank you! That Rediff list is really interesting, bringing in the smaller films and the other languages.
On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 3:45 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Thanks for sharing, very interesting list. I’m only surprised the author chose October as the best 2018 film. I didn’t expect that.
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Thanks for sharing. It’s depressing to see only 2 Telugu movies in the list, but seeing other movies in the list, I could get the taste of the author (definitely not the mass masala movies of Telugu).
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SRK supposedly signing a movie with Hirani, among other people: https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/exclusives/exclusive-shah-rukh-khan-begin-rajkumar-hiranis-next-april-2020-486807
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Nope, don’t believe any of it. It could be true, I just don’t believe it based on this report. Still at the “could be a thing, could turn into not a thing” land where I personally just don’t have the energy to get excited about it.
If he does do a movie with Atlee, I’ll totally repost my Atlee reviews and see if I can get more eyeballs on them, that would be nice. Not so much with Hirani, everyone interested in SRK has presumably already seen his stuff. Ditto AAZ.
On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 12:37 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I have 2 questions:
1. Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy – how it performed ? I was sure it was a hit, but read somwhere today it was a flop and now I’m confused.
2. Shane Nigam – what is happening with him? I read he has been banned by Malayalam producers association. What is this drama?
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1. Massive box office in America for Sye Raa, but maybe it flopped in India? Or maybe they were expecting something even bigger? Oh well, if it means it hits streaming faster, it’s all to the good.
2. To The Internet!!!! Aha, I see. Well, Angie, you are going to have to decide between two of your crushes. The issue is that Shane spread on social media voice mails from a producer threatening to kill him over changing his hair and ruining the continuity of a movie. The producer filed a complaint explaining that Shane has been consistently unreliable thus delaying his film multiple times. The actors guild brokered peace, but it has fallen apart again with the producers guild blacklisting Shane after the producer complained about him, once again, failing to show up for a schedule. Now, here’s the challenge! The producer is Joju George, star of Joseph. Will you pick him, or Shane? Personally, I think I’m going with Joju. Shane was the one who made this whole thing public by recording a phone call and playing the victim on social media. Joju hasn’t had a delayed film before, and the film delays are unquestionable. So it looks like Shane is getting a bit full of himself and screwing over a starter producer who was counting on him.
On Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 2:18 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m not Shane’s fan because I still haven’t seen Kumabalangi nights and maybe I won’t become one because I don’t like when people wash their dirty linen in public. But what an exceptional good year it was for him and what a pity it will end with this sour note.
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I just saw Kumbalangi Nights and loved it. I know Margaret didn’t but it really knocked me out. I’ve been thinking about it all week. But not because of Shane, particularly, just the entire cast and themes of the film and the relationships between the four brothers.
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I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t thrill me the way it thrilled some other people.
Agree about Shane not necessarily being the stand out. I found all 4 brothers to be just excellent.
On Sat, Nov 23, 2019 at 11:58 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m assuming the exceptional year and the sour note are related. He got cocky after that great year, and decided he was too good for the producer he was working with.
On Sat, Nov 23, 2019 at 11:04 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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