Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to This Week?

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Happy Wednesday! Last working day of the week for most Americans! Woo-hoo! And then there are the other Americans who still have to work, and everyone else in the world who doesn’t have a holiday this week. But it’s great for me!!!

I’ll start!

Reading: Still Elizabeth George. She’s really angst-y, isn’t she?

Watching: Still Cheers, and also the best bits of Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, now that it is on Prime.

Thinking: I need to stop buying Christmas gifts, it’s like an addiction. It’s not even Thanksgiving, and I’ve already spent $300. This must END!!!! Or, I can do what I usually do and just enjoy the holiday season by being extremely generous and thinking about the happiness other people will feel.

Listening: I also cracked and started listening to Christmas music. And I know it is terrible taste and all of that, but by golly Mr. Priyanka Chopra and his brothers have put together an awfully catchy new Christmas single!

Now, question for you! Kind of a silly one but I am really interested in the answer (especially since my 4 year anniversary just passed and my personal deadline was 5 years), What was the first DCIB post you read? What brought you here?

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57 thoughts on “Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to This Week?”

  1. Great question. I can’t remember the first post I read here, but it was googling Shah Rukh Khan movie reviews that led me here. Just after I found DCIB, I met joyomama on Twitter, and she heartily recommended DCIB too!

    I’m on the road for Thanksgiving, but wanted to post the below in case of interest for anyone. I’ve watched a couple more movies that you’ve recommended and will come back later to post my thoughts about those, and to read what others are watching/reading/thinking.

    I wrote my take on the Film Companion actors’ roundtable and thought I’d post it here on the (very) off chance that anyone would like to catch the high points (in my opinion). I’m glad it’s in English! I’m not sure if that’s because it’s the language in common for the actors, or if it’s the most prominent language for anticipated viewers.

    Below are the high points for me, with time, general topic, and people speaking. Of course I found the whole thing interesting, including watching reactions among the actors to what the other actors are saying. I especially enjoyed watching the following interactions/reactions: Deepika and Ranveer as a married couple; Vijay D having stars in his eyes whenever Alia’s speaking; Vijay S and Parvathy being mutual admirers (I need them to work together really soon!); Ranveer and Ayushmann being mutual admirers; Ayushmann being interested in everyone while Ranveer is being needy af; and Manoj and Vijay interacting. I think Anupama manages the egos, slight language barriers, and momentary tensions pretty well.

    High points:
    4:30-9:30: “commercial” vs “arthouse” cinema; overcoming fear; Vijay S about playing a transwoman in SuperDeluxe, Ranveer and Vijay S about the amazing kid actor in SuperDeluxe.

    13:30-15:00: are women or men more versatile in the roles they take and why? Vijay D crushing on Alia. 😄

    18:25-22:25: moral responsibility of filmmakers?

    Best moment 1: Parvathy being a goddess talking about the difference between showing negative shades of human behavior on screen (part of good storytelling), and glorifying those (reinforcing oppression). Brave in part because Vijay D is at this roundtable because of a role he played of an (arguably) abusive boyfriend (in Arjun Reddy) whose actions are excused because he’s just. so. passionate. about his girlfriend. Confession: Like you, Margaret, I don’t have such a problem with the character. I saw Kabir Singh and I enjoyed it, but only because he’s a fictional dude. In real life I’d run like hell in the opposite direction.

    38:25-41.23: Ayushmann, Vijay D, and Deepika talking about how they use/relate to social media

    44.50-48:30: Manoj, Vijay S, and Vijay D talk about their “process” and generally the idea of “process” and learning to act

    51:18-54:20: Anu asks a condescending question about the South Indian actors’ “fears or concerns” about working in Hindi films—assuming that of course they all want to work in Hindi films.

    Best moment 2: Vijay S gives an interesting answer while also throwing some nice shade, “I don’t watch that many Hindi films.” Hee!

    56:30-57:55: Parvathy, who has acted in more languages than anyone else on the panel, about language, and about how she doesn’t get bothered on the streets in her home state because she has “resting b*tch face” and a reputation as a scary feminist. Funny reactions from Alia and Ranveer, Vijay S is all 😍. (Really, I want Parvathy and him to work together so badly!)

    57:55-1:11: Each actor names actors, living or dead, they’d like to learn from. Manoj says Marlon Brando for a funny reason.

    Best moment 3: at 1:01:00, Manoj says he wants to learn from Vijay S, Vijay S’s reaction is the cutest. 🤗

    1:15:15: Manoj (I’m guessing as pre-arranged with Anupama) wraps up with a nice little speech (not insincere) about what a great time it is to be an actor in Indian movies.

    Thanks for reading! What moments did I miss that people thought were cool, or annoying, or meh?

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    • Thank you, this makes me want to go watch it. I saw three minutes but got annoyed by Ranveer and his glasses and shut it down. (I like Ranveer as an actor but dude, the preening gets to me in interviews. And sunglasses in interviews in general bug me – looking at you, SRK. We can’t see your eyes! That’s half the emotion right there.)

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    • Oh, that is cool (by the way, look for a birthday card in the mail. Probably will arrive late because of the holiday). And now I have to write a 3 Idiots review, blech!!!!

      It’s funny, I get my most views on the controversial 101s, or the spoiler reviews of new releases, but you came here for Raja Hindustani, and Genevieve came here for Zamaana Deewana, so it looks like reviewing those weird old movies is what gets me the nicest people.

      On Wed, Nov 27, 2019 at 9:57 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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      • Aw thank you! I got your Thanksgiving card but forgot to mention it, that means I will have gotten 3 cards in November, riches! I keep my War card in the car which is very silly but I don’t have a place for it in the house since I’m now self-employed.

        Oh, and I forgot to mention that my 12-year-old son danced to Jai Jai Shivshankar for his school’s talent show and won an Amazon gift card, he’s been listening to the War soundtrack and last night he demanded we watch Eega and he loved it. So I guess he’s one of us now? 😆

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        • I am so proud of your son! Save that for his college essay. And I am so glad he liked Eega, most every child loves it so I felt pretty secure there but not 100%.

          On Wed, Nov 27, 2019 at 10:05 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  4. The first post I read on your blog was the one about Ohm shanti Oshana. I saw the movie, loved it so so much and needed somebody to talk about it. I googled and found your blog. One and half year later I’m still here because you and your blog are awesome.

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    • Aww, thank you! And yet another “I was looking for a review of an obscure movie I saw and loved” person who found me.

      In other news, Genevieve wants to see the worst possible Pari movie to test if her love will survive. I suggested Namaste England based on your report, is that correct?

      On Wed, Nov 27, 2019 at 11:22 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  5. I did the most randomest thing and ended up watching Gangster and I ended up liking it quite a bit and now have a bit of a hankering for watching well received but mostly forgotten films from the 2000s with great songs but I’m also very confused about how Anurag Basu went from that to Jagga Jasoos/Barfi!. More money? Not having Kangana or Emraan in a thing? My sister theorized that Ranbir is the cause!
    And because I watched Gangster I of course have been listening to the soundtrack quite a bit which I have somehow absorbed over the years through cultural diffusion though I guess this applicable to movies that have Emraan Hashmi in them in general because Bhatt movies having good music regardless of film quality is a universal law.
    For your blog I remember my sister showing me your Jhoom Barabar Jhoom review (my sister had a Lara Dutta phase so we were like two of the five people who watched it) and we were both like somebody wrote an in-depth analysis review about it??? And it’s good analysis??? Then I admit that I didn’t stick around immediately after that but I came back eventually and your Hindi 101s are what made me stay. Read the Nargis post and was hooked with all of the juicy love triangle drama. The thing is that even though hindi film is an important part of my childhood it was very much restricted to Dharma and 2000s mainstream hindi films popular with the NRI crowd along with the occasional 70s movie. I knew nothing about the history of the industry because I never had the motivation to seek out more information. Also at that point in my life I had grown pretty apart from hindi film and was very out of touch with what was happening. But the more of your history posts I read, the more my interest grew and I fell in love with hindi film (really Indian film in general) and it’s now a passionate hobby of mine. I ended up learning and rediscovering so much within the past 2 years or so because of this blog so thank you!

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    • Well, unfortunately I can never watch Gangster because of my Shiney Ahuja mental block, but I’m glad to hear it holds up! And I definitely agree with your sister that Ranbir (combined with not having Mahesh Bhatt as a producer) is the cause.

      Thank you for sharing your history with DCIB! And once again, it is that random one off obscure review that brings someone in. I’m glad that I helped you fall in love with Hindi film, that’s what I want more than anything.

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      • Yeah I definitely understand your Shiney Ahuja mental block! He’s a garbage person and I’m not going to be defending him even if his performance did impress me here. He barely had any dialogue here and didn’t seem to be as smug as he seems to be in other things so maybe I was able to make that disconnect between the actor as a person and the character they were playing? I kind of have the same thing with Kangana where if her character reminds me of her offscreen personality in any way I just can’t watch it. As for the whole obscure film gives you followers theory maybe we stick around because you DO review an obscure movies that nobody else talks about? And you have a lot to say about it so it makes you stand out? There have been so many times where I spend ages scouring the internet for reviews/analysis on films I have a lot of thoughts on but are not widely discussed

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        • I think I have the same mental block with Kangana now too, now that you mention it. For me it is that the way she acts in public is so similar to her performances on film, down to hand gestures and so on, that I can’t divide the people any more. Which makes Gangster extra out.

          I have to admit, I really like the “obscure reviews give me followers” theory, because I love writing my obscure reviews and most of the time they get almost no views so it is hard to justify all that work. But if I know that one of those handful of viewers will fall in love and stick around, then it is worth it.

          On Wed, Nov 27, 2019 at 1:59 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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          • Your reviews are ‘labour of love’, so your love for the movies is justification already.
            I really wish that you’ll get more and more readers and comments and donation so that your work also pays in dollars…

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  6. The Baahubali posts brought me here. Your scene by scene analysis and the other Baahubali posts were the first of its kind of movie analysis that I had read that. And then I was surprised to know that you had watched Malayalam movies and reading about Thilakan,Sukumari etc whom noone outside Kerala knows was a nice surprise. And of course, many of your movie reviews have helped me see a deeper meaning into what would otherwise be a superficial viewing. I also enjoy the discussions we have here about actors,directors and everything to do with movies.

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    • I enjoy our discussions too! And I think you are the first person to say Bahubali. Which I find fascinating because, at the time, the brought me tons and tons and TONS of new readers. But you are the only one who stuck around. I wonder why?

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      • What I have seen with most Baahubali fans is that they are stuck on that movie(or Prabhas) forever. Nothing else matters. Also reading your posts is a bit like an acquired taste- needs patience to read,think and comment. And most Indian moviegoers(not sure if that was the main demographic for your Baahubali posts)will disagree with many of your opinions-especially on Bollywood .We have had our share of disagreements too but I guess I am okay with us not agreeing all the time.

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  7. I can’t remember my first post but I was recommended to come here by another reader for your ShahRukh content. A long-running ShahRukh site, which was my daily fix, was fading away, members taking to twitter instead, and someone suggested your blog as a substitute, one that deals with serious analysis as well as the fun stuff. It’s been wonderful. I’ve totally lapped up the ShahRukh side of it and also learnt a lot about film Indian in general.

    I don’t get to watch a lot of the movies you write about, but I still read about them, thinking some day, when I retire, I can indulge then. I was surprised at how many of the films from 2009 I had seen. Nowadays I just don’t seem to get to them.

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    • I was surprised by how many films of 2009 I had seen too! It was a great year, plus DVDs were plentiful and so on and so forth.

      On Wed, Nov 27, 2019 at 2:04 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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    • Yaaaay, so glad you found me! And glad someone read that review, it was another one that wasn’t super popular.

      On Wed, Nov 27, 2019 at 2:41 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  10. My first post I think was either your Padmaavat or DDLJ analysis. Haven’t looked back since then, they are great!

    Thank you Alisa for telling War is here!!

    Currently listening to this – Notre Dame de Paris musical song, the Spanish version of this song is one of the best and I can’t stop looping it over and over again. It’s so beautiful. Sadly no original footage of the recording (unlike the original French and the Italian versions).

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    • I’m so happy for you! It might be my viewing to accompany my pie making tonight. Although I also still have to watch What’s Your Raashee? sometime this week (blech).

      On Wed, Nov 27, 2019 at 2:58 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  12. I would look for spoiler filled reviews of recent Bollywood movies that I had no plans to see, and your blog was always the first one to come up in the Google searches. I stayed to bond with other white people who also are into it, cuz I always feel like I’m being judged in real life for it. But I feel like I’m also young in compared to the other readers.

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  13. So interesting to read what brought people here! Also–yay, Vijay Sethupathi made it into the header photos! This interview with Baradwaj Rangan finally has subtitles, and he tells a cute story about an older lady coming up to him, hands shaking, and saying to the person she was with, “Here’s my Ram!” 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5jeT88EYcQ

    So, I watched Premam, because you recommended it, and I wanted to see more of both Nivin and Madonna. It didn’t work for me. I just found nothing likeable about Nivin and his buddies. Quite the reverse in fact. Was part of the point of the movie that falling in love makes everyone more loveable even if they have no particular qualities to recommend them? The only appealing things to me were that Nivin didn’t make an ass out of himself when he realized that Mary loves someone else, and that the boys all stayed friends for a long time. Keeping long friendships usually means one is a decent person.

    This is my first Sai Pallavi movie, I think, and I liked her. Madonna was fine, but I can’t see why this role made her such a big deal. There wasn’t much there there. It was also very pretty, with lovely touches like the little bird in the cafe. But pretty isn’t really enough.

    So, thankfully I don’t think I’m in danger of developing a crush on Nivin. I found him workmanlike but not amazing in Premam and Ivide, but I know he’s done lots of other stuff. In the FC actors adda Parvathy was saying that Moothon, a new movie with Nivin that I haven’t heard of, is amazing. But it looks MUCH too dark and heartrending for me at the moment.

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    • Moothon has been in production for ages, the (female) director made a super well regarded first film and then started working on this thing that just took forever to release, and still isn’t available in America.

      Yeah, I had a so-so reaction to Premam on my first watch as well. I came back to it after watching a lot more Malayalam films and reading some analysis of it that pointed out things like how his group of friends expanded and contracted over the years and I liked it a lot more. Sai Pallavi is the real take away, she’s just so effortlessly charming onscreen, isn’t she?

      On Wed, Nov 27, 2019 at 3:52 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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        • I had the same reaction to Premam, I was actively angry at Nivin and his friends for harassing that girl in the first part and then for how they started a brawl in the second part. It was especially glaring to me because I saw and loved Kumbalangi Nights soon after failing to finish Premam. Similar theme in terms of stupid young men learning to grow up but Kumbalangi Nights felt much more respectful of women and like a real journey of maturation.

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          • Ha,I am a Malayali who did not like Premam in the first watch except for the SaiPallavi parts.It was like seeing a movie about my male college classmates & I guess that’s the appeal the men have for this movie. Also there are several pop culture references which maybe lost on somone not growing up in south India in 90s. Premam came out in 2015 and KN in 2019.Malayalam movies have gone through a renaissance of sorts in these 4 years. Most of the newer filmmakers are making a conscious effort to be politically correct at least where representation of women are concerned. And the writer of KN-Syam Pushkaran- is known for his respectful treatment of women. Maybe you can check out his other movies Mayaanadhi(Mystic River) & 22 Female Kottayam(came in 2012, available in Amazon Prime) to see some well written stories where the women take center stage. Think Margret has reviewed both here in DCIB.

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    • The movie that made me a Sai fan was the first half of Fidaa. She’s irresistible. (Second half not so much, not as fun after the setting shifts.)

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  14. Listening: I’ve been bored with the usual rotation (feeling restless and grumpy in general these days) and kept flipping around, but today I went back to Coke Studio and it hit the spot. The season 12 songs are pretty great, especially like this one:

    I don’t remember the first post I read here. I definitely remember watching a bunch of movies and needing more information and not knowing how to look. I found you by googling around, prob something with Bollywood. Dipped in and out for many months, reading 101 posts and news and box office. I think what converted me to commenting was the JHMS scene by scene, even though I saw it way after everyone else, once it came out on streaming, I had many thoughts and feelings and needed a place to put them. Oh, and in the earlier days I remember appreciating your Netflix roundups, when there were slimmer pickings, it helped me find good movies to watch. I appreciated that you were enthusiastic about popular films in multiple languages, not just artsy award-bait films. Like I remember many exclamation points around Jab We Met and then I watched it and it made me happy (that would be the start date of my Shahid crush, so thank you for that).

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  15. I don’t remember the first post that I read–I came in and then read everything here right away. I think I started reading when we were anticipating JHMS, so 2016? I can’t remember if I googled something or was directed through the BollyWHAT? boards.

    I have really had me a week, and watched nothing but an episode of Made in Heaven and one of Little Things, and one episode of Leila, and about 30 minutes of Wake Up Sid (which I’ve watched many times before), and then I planned to watch Dev D and discovered it is embargoed in Japan and became enraged. I might try to watch when I go home. Leila is truly Hindu Handmaid’s Tale and I’m not sure I’ll stick with it.

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  16. I was searching for Baahubali 2 reviews and came across Melanie’s Pardesi channel on YouTube and she was recommending your blog, I also saw your review together for Barely ki barfi and decided to check out your blog, I’m so glad I did and now I’m hooked!

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  17. I just saw Jersey and I really don’t know why it was a hit. It is so boring and doesn’t have any sense. 2 and half hour wasted. I’m mad because I have so little time to watch movies, and I chose this film.

    SPOILERS:
    It’s like more than 1 hour of cricket scenes and all the rest is sad Nani (the only good thing in this film) being loser. So he was a very good cricketer, but because of corruption he never had a place in the national team so he quit. Years later he is jobless and depressed, and his wife must work to make the ends meet. Deep inside they love each other but hardly talk anymore because she is always angry and he depressed. He is offered job as assistant coach but instead he decides he wants to play again. Nobody believes he will do it, but he does. There is even a scene when he tells his wife that he is not angry with her (here I was so mad, like why he should be angry with her? He should be grateful she hasn’t thrown him from house). Of course he saves the very important match, and everybody is happy.
    20 years later we get to know he died few days after that important match because twist: he had heart arrhythmia, and he knew it and that was the reason he quit cricket years ago, not corruption (of course he kept it secret from his wife) And I’m asking: why the hell he decided to play again at the age of 36? He had a son he loved so much, but he decided to risk his life and leave his family alone and without money. Why he didn’t get that nice work as assistant coach? It’s all so stupid! And we should admire him or his sacrifice. I’m so angry I saw this film.

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    • And now we get a Hindi version with Shahid! Who you also don’t like.

      On the one hand, I am sorry you had a bad movie experience, but I am also very glad that it wasn’t a movie I recommended to you. And also that I missed it in theaters because it probably would have made me angry too.

      On Thu, Nov 28, 2019 at 11:22 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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    • But it is the most ‘brilliant’ Telugu movie of the year ,which now has the honour of getting remade into Hindi. Why can’t u see the emotions in a man being irresponsible,whiny & then dying stupidly for some imaginative glory? Sufferings of a man evoke so much emotions in the audience.

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      • The more I think about it, the more I’m angry. It’s not a good movie, but the ending makes it even worse and absolutely stupid. I enjoy bad movies, but can’t stand stupid films. And Jersey is not only illogical and stupid but also very regressive when it comes to women. “Yeah, we (men) are pain in the ass, but you are a woman, please stay and believe in us because we need it”.
        Definitely one of the worst movies I have seen this year.

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  18. I read a Quora answer from MovieMavengel, I guess on Bahubali, sometime in 2017 – and from her site, I hopped to DCIB and Cinemachaat. I read your series of posts on Bahubali 2 and later Nagarjuna’s movies – and became a regular reader – although I skip SRK posts sometimes feeling overdosed :-).

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