Happy Wednesday! Halfway through my work-at-home week. I still don’t have my home office in my parents’ guest room fully set up, and it is making the week feel longer. Or maybe shorter? I will have to compare next week when it IS set up.
I’ll start!
Reading: Wodehouse! Now is the time to try him, light super funny comic novels of the 1930s in Britain. Easy reads, fun reads, escape to a different place.
Watching: For household harmony, my parents and I have agreed on a rotating schedule of viewing choices. Dad picked Moana, then Mom picked Always Be My Maybe, then I picked Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Wererabbit, then Dad picked the new Little Women but it was too expensive to stream so we watched Logan Lucky instead. And last night Mom had us watch a Mexican rom-com Todas Caen. It’s on Amazon, you should all see it, really pleasant!
Thinking: Local businesses! I’m bullying my parents into ordering delivery as much as possible, and I just got a link from Biblio.com reminding me to support my local bookstores (check the website out if you haven’t seen it before, small independent bookstores only and great prices and selection). Oh, also Filmikudhi’s new puppy continues to be The Cutest:
Listening: Obviously, the new Rahman soundtrack. I think, tentatively, this is currently my favorite song:
Now, question for you! Inspired by us watching Moana, What is Your Favorite New Disney Cartoon?
I am all about Tangled myself, so good! So underrated!
dontcallitbollywood 
My favourite is Frozen 2. I rewatched it few days ago and cried just like in cinema. Beautiful, and Elsa is so badass.
LikeLike
I managed to watch only one movie this week: Allu Arjun’s Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo. I saw it with my son and he liked it. Not my kind of movie at all (there was almost no plot) but I must admit it was light and funny and good for isolation days.
Thinking: I’m so undecided! There is this kannada movie Dia (on Prime and eintusian). When I first saw the poster I was all: Must Watch! But only few minutes later I saw people on twitter discussing it, and was told it’s not that good and violent, so immediatly I decided not to watch it . But later some other people said it’s better than 96. I don’t believe it’s true but I’m so curious now. Normally I would already watch it, but these days I don’t know if I can handle tragedy. Here’s the trailer:
LikeLike
It is a simple romantic movie. It is different kind of movie. No songs in it. It is not as good as 96. I am surprised people called it violent. It has a tragic ending though. The ending will shock you. Another good movie you can watch is Love Mocktail.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I heard good things about Love Mocktail, but the trailer disappointed me. Should I watch anyway?
LikeLike
The movie is good. But again this is tragedy and wont leave you shocked like Dia.
LikeLike
I finished Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo and it was insanely ridiculous with no plot, at least none that made sense, but Allu Arjun was awesome. This movie might only be worth it thought for the song sequences.
LikeLike
Oh man, maybe this should be my pick for Family Movie Night tonight! I was thinking maybe that, maybe Frozen 2. Thoughts?
LikeLike
Yes, Allu Arjun was fantastic so relaxed and cool, the only reason to watch this film.
Margaret, if your family needs something light (very light) and doesn’t mind super diluted plots (85% of the movie are songs and random funny scenes), watch it, otherwise Frozen 2. And don’t watch if you only want to see Tabu. She is so wasted in her role, and has maybe 3 scenes.
LikeLike
All right, might be doing Frozen 2! Reindeer, happy ending, songs, it’s all good.
LikeLike
Tangled definitely, but Frozen 2 comes second just by the visuals and the music.
LikeLike
Hi would you be willing to do hindi 101: Maddy? I’m a new fan of his work and so kinda interested to know about him. Thank you
LikeLike
What a fun idea! I don’t know if I know that much, especially with his context in the Tamil industry, but he is certainly a nice guy and I like writing about nice guys.
On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 10:54 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Awe! Just saw the puppy pics posted. What’s funny is that the DCIB is the only community that’s seen pics of him. He is not on any other social media.
Also, I loved Tangled too! So so good. I asked my husband the Disney question and he said he can’t chose between Moana and Frozen, but probably Moana. Mine is 100% Zootopia. As an adult, have watched that movie far too many times.
LikeLike
I’m worried that Zootopia is too deep and thought provoking!
Moana was my Dad’s pick, so maybe it’s a boy one? It is the one with absolutely no romance.
LikeLike
Watch Zootopia!! It’s so good and has such great music! Also just saw that this was posted as Anonymous but it is clearly FilmiKudhi.
LikeLike
What Wodehouse books are you reading? He was a great favorite of mine, but now I find that not all the books hold up for rereading. My best liked are still the Jeeves and Wooster series, but there are some stand alone books that are very similar in structure, though not featuring any known characters, which are still quite fun.
Not to spoil your mood, but there’s a lot of dark social analysis one can make from these “lighthearted” books. It’s why I had to stop reading the Blandings Castle books for a while.
LikeLike
I’ve been reading Wodehouse since I was a little kid, so the familiar books are all comfy for me know, I don’t even notice the quality. I’m reading a Blandings one now.
On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 7:15 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Inspired by your recent Prime movies list…I saw Mujhse Dosti Karoge again…wow….as you said its sooo stupid and wonderful at the same time!!! it made me realize how much I miss the overacting in Bollywood!!
Oooh also maybe we should do a list of movies where God had to resolve the romance….and then also the reverse – movies where God stonewalled the romance…
LikeLike
Yes! more people should watch MDK! It’s just the best movie.
Agree about movies where God solves it (almost typed “Dog”, I guess in the case of HAHK it’s both). Definite discussion post idea!
On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 8:31 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Yes! Local businesses. I’ve put in two big orders to local bookstores, one here and one in my hometown, to send books and games to people I miss as isolation entertainment. Both had websites where I could see what they already had in stock when ordering. And having barely left the house in two weeks I’ve barely spent money and had a bit to spare on gifts. Another inspiring idea I saw was a group that was organizing orders for food deliveries from local restaurants to hospital staff, helping both at once.
Moana is high on my Disney list. Did you like it? Also harbor childhood nostalgia for Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Robin Hood.
LikeLike
I did like Moana! And it was so beautiful, the water animation in particular was lovely.
I listened to the Aladdin soundtrack every night before bed in first grade and briefly had the whole soundtrack memorized.
On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 11:24 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Wow, I think I need to check out Moana. I don’t really know why but I’ve never really had interest in it before. If we’re not counting Pixar, then I’d say that Frozen is my favorite with Tangled and Zootopia being tied for second. If we’re counting Pixar, then Inside Out and the Toy Story movies are way ahead of anything else for me.
Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while. I moved back home and things have been kinda hectic for me. I hope you’re doing well 🙂
Anyway, I have been watching movies but I haven’t really seen many new movies lately. Oh yeah, I finally saw Petta and I loved it! It was a lot of fun and my only problem with the movie was that I wished Simran had a bigger role.
I also saw Enai Noki Paayum Thota which which I thought was okay with a nice Dhanush performance and good songs. Even though the story seemed pretty much what you’d expect from GVM, I felt like the quality of the movie itself was really not what you’d come to expect from his movies. I guess that’s what happens when a movie is in production for so long. I also watched the Telugu dub version and realized after that the Tamil version is like 10 mins longer so I don’t know.
The one Telugu movie I saw that was sort of memorable was this small budget romance called Raja Vaaru Rani Gaaru. It had a very Malayalam feel to it since there wasn’t much of a plot and it was more about the characters and the relationships between characters. It’s not a great movie but I thought it was cute and fun attempt by a bunch of newcomers.
LikeLike
I’ve been hoping you were moving home and would be around DCIB more! I also moved “home”, I trundled 2 miles from my apartment to move into the back bedroom at my parents’ place and I am having a BLAST. We watch a movie every night, I don’t have to do laundry or dishes or cook for myself, it’s GREAT!
Anyway, you should totally watch Moana. It’s a really nice solid Disney movie, no romance at all, just a quest for our heroine to accomplish. Thanks for the ENPT report! I was debating whether I should watch it now that it has hit Prime or if it wasn’t worth it.
On Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 9:31 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
So far, I’m not excited about the loss of privacy because my parents are kind of the nosy types. But I am enjoying the home cooked food!
Yeah, maybe I’ll check it out soon. I don’t think ENPT is really worth it unless you love Dhanush. I liked the songs so I would say you should check out the sound track.
Also I forgot to mention that I started watching Thalapathi but I stopped in the middle because I wasn’t really into it and I haven’t gone back. It’s interesting so far (I got all the way to the temple scene where Rajini and his mom both get emotional hearing the train) but I just don’t have the motivation to continue. But it’s worth it to finish the movie right?
LikeLike
My parents are being really excellent about respecting the sacredness of my bedroom, so far. Although they also store a ton of stuff in the closets in “my” room, so they kind of HALF to be in and out a bunch. It’s mixed. we are figuring it out.
Thalapathi is really good, but kind of slow and thoughtful. So if you aren’t in love with it at the point you are at, it won’t really be changing. There’s no sudden shift to a fast paced plot or anything like that.
On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 9:32 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Can’t wait till tomorrow to talk about a movie I saw yesterday. I finally found Valee with subtitles. Not the tamil version unfortunately but kannada remake with Sudeep playing two brothers. The short synopsis says: A man struggles to deny his attraction to his twin brother’s new bride. I thought it means the other brother will be in love with his sister-in-law, but not, he was sexually obsessed with her and it was so creepy! I was watching kannada version but also looked at tamil original, and both versions are identical except Ajith >>>>>> Sudeep and Simran is like 1000 times better than kannada actress (btw she has the worst dubbed voice ever that sounds like of a little girl and it made this creepy movie even worse).
Basically it is a story of two sexually deprived people : Bad Sudeep is obsessed with his SIL and makes a lot of creepy things like peek while she is taking shower, or when she is trying to have sex with her husband. He does everything to disturb his brother so he won’t sleep with his wife. Poor wife can’t wait, talks all the time only about it and finally has a brillant idea to drug bad brother-in-law so he won’t disturb them , but she is so stupid she drugs the wrong guy – her own husband! Do you imagine? They are twins but bad brother is deaf and dumb so it’s not that hard. Later she almost has sex with the brother, and doesn’t feel it’s strange he doesn’t talk to her. C’mon! And this film had U certificate. How it’s possible?
LikeLike
Blech, that’s TERRIBLE! Was it at least an entertaining watch?
Also, if you are converted to Ajith, watch his Gautham Menon movie! Tamil or Telugu version, whichever you can find.
On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 10:30 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
>
LikeLike
Unfortunately it was not entertaining! But I should known better – early 2000 movies are the worst. First hour is absolutely useless and slow, later there is some action but not too much because comedy uncles must have their moments too. Good characters are saint and boring, and the songs odd.
Idea for a post (sorry if you already did it): our favourite eras in movies, the things we love , the things we hate in them.
LikeLike
Oh, that might be a fun post!
LikeLike