Happy Angie’s birthday day! I always do a thing for her, but this year I am enjoying making a particular fuss, because it’s nice to celebrate stuff, isn’t it?
I’ll start!
Watching: Popka Superstar, you were right, the BBC Poirot is SO GAY. In the books I felt like Hastings was one of many friends of Poirot in his very full life. In the TV show, they are straight up two fussy middle-aged men who live together, and go to parties together, and on vacations together, and on boat trips with ONE BED. Honestly, it’s a lot happier than the book version. This Poirot has a nice little home life and love and family, he isn’t just a tired refugee lonely in a foreign land. Oh, also Little Things and Mentalhood, which you should ALL WATCH. Especially Mentalhood, so juicy and melodramatic and filled with interesting middle-aged woman who have juicy melodramatic lives.
Reading: Almost finished a Wodehouse, was going to read Christie but now I am enjoying the Poirot show so much, I kind of don’t want to spoil it by remembering the books where Hastings was straight. Oh, also this post that my Dad found, particularly good for those of you with kids: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/we-the-hard-working-newly-homeschooling-parents-of-america-have-rewritten-the-common-core-standards
Thinking: I committed to making and giving a face mask to anyone in my church who wants one. Which is nice and makes me feel productive and all that, and also the kind of sewing project I have been training for my whole life (quick, simple, mass production. Like Christmas gifts). But now I am worried about either no one wanting one of my masks and feeling dumb and unwanted, or alternatively everyone wanting one of my masks and I can’t possibly keep up with demand.
Listening: Happy Birthday Angie! I am listening to one of your favorite songs (and yes, this is the sexier Tamil original video)
Now, question for you! It’s Allu Arjun’s birthday, what is your favorite Allu Arjun movie?
I think I’m sticking with Aarya 2. It’s just so ridiculous and extreme, it’s a total delight.
Also, it’s Angie’s birthday, what is your favorite Madhavan movie?
Kannathil Muthamittal/A Peck on the Cheek for me! I found it unbelievably powerful and beautiful and poignant, Angie hated it. So, you know, watch at your own risk.
dontcallitbollywood 
I TOLD YOU! haaaa. I don’t much like the books actually, Agatha Christie and I don’t get on, but the Poirot TV series is AMAZING. Like, as much a comfort watch as Murder she wrote.
I finished Hotel Mumbai which was fine, but felt a bit exploitative to me. I didn’t like the way they went about humanising one of the attackers. Also, Neerja is a superior movie.
I also tried to finish Brother’s Day (started to watch it 100 years ago with my friend) but I had to leave off once the killer plot came in. The tone felt extremely gross to me, like the movie enjoyed that plotline a little too much and the weirdly long violent scenes were the whole reason that movie got made. Ugh. I just wanted to look at Prithviraj!
Angie’s birthday has inspired me to have a beefcake Easter so I’m trying to pick movies for that. Now I think it might be a beefcake and Poirot Easter though.
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Ooo, Beefcake easter sounds fun! Saala Khadoos is necessary for that. Also, maybe “Style”, another Angie favorite that I finally watched.
And yes, you were right about Poirot. He and Hastings are a live action Bert and Ernie, and they are delightful.
Do you like tormented Prithviraj? Because Prithviraj likes the tormented version of himself. Anyway, Ranam or Koode or City of God are actual good movies with great Prithvi performances.
On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 7:48 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I have Mumbai Police lined up for Prithviraj uniform beefcake, but I will always watch Prithviraj feeling himself.
Poirot fanvids are pretty great too!
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There are Poirot fanvids????? What dark and seedy world have I wandered in to?
YES WATCH MUMBAI POLICE! DROP EVERYTHING AND DO THAT!
On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 9:29 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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To me it’s a ship for fun, but that video gives me actual feelings.
Not shippy. but one of my faves!
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AAAA! You are right, so fun.
Also, now I have an idea for a discussion post for tomorrow. FUN!
On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 11:56 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The poster of Allu Arjun’s next movie which is directed by Sukumar (Aarya 1&2) was just released in honor of his birthday.
I think I like it. It looks pretty interesting!
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Ooo, I like it! I haven’t seen the beard before, and his hair isn’t ridiculously gelled.
On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 8:02 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah, I think he only had a beard before for the small part in Rudramahadevi. I like the look too! So much better than his hair in Ala Vaikuntapurramlo
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In fact, I saw a different poster – and the “feminine” name (pushpa = flower is given to girls) and his sitting posture in that poster gave me different thoughts 🙂
But, the poster is interesting. I also believe DSP gives best songs to AA than Thaman.
And there were posts with an observation from picture that Bunny has 6 toes on his left foot.
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Ooo, this is a lot of interesting stuff!
On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 8:13 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m really excited about his better hair style! And the movie with the Araya 2 director too of course, but I’m more excited about the movie because he doesn’t have that dreadful hair that he did in Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo.
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I feel so important! 🙂 Thank you
I only saw 1 movie this week – kannada Love Mocktail and (I’m gonna spoil it because I wish somebody spoiled and saved me ) it has the wife dying from cancer in the end! The only thing I am not able to watch! I was so angry. First it’s 2 hours of guy searching for his better half, and the last 30 minutes it’s “I finally was happy, and she was perfect but had cancer, lost her hair and died. I’m so sad” And Prime says it’s a “romantic and fun” film. F6%k you Prime.
I needed few days to forget about this film, and now I’m happy again and ready for good movies.
I started fun book about Georgia (the country not the peach state) and also watched 2 episodes of Netflix’s The Healing Powers of Dude. It’s cute. I really liked it so far.
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Have you read Anything Can Happen? It’s this lovely memoir from the 1950s about a Georgian immigrant to America. Anyway, that’s my primary reference for Georgia-the-country, his descriptions of life there before he moved to America, and his descriptions of life in the Georgian immigrant community in America.
I was considering The Healing Powers of Dude! Maybe I’ll check it out next time I am in the mood for more of a kids show.
On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 8:32 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m probably gonna start watching Dostana (2008) at some point today because I haven’t seen it and my friend has been bugging me to watch it for months. Same with Main Hoon Na.
I also just started reading book 2 of the Ember in the Ashes series. It’s an amazing series, but not super light and fluffy if that’s what we’re going for. Still, really well written, fascinating plot, even if it is really dark.
Thinking: I had to film a lipdub video for my school to send to the students and I hope I didn’t embarrass myself.
And I guess for the listening part, I can finally talk about this music video that just dropped! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ6E1TkfzKA
It’s another remake that’s honestly not that great, but it’s got Sid being extra yummy, and Tara being gorgeous and cute as usual. People online think they’re in their Marjaavaan characters and honestly I wouldn’t be mad at this being a mini sequel.
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But, Masakali isn’t that old! What’s HAPPENING????
Also, yes you should definitely watch Dostana. Very light and fun and happy. And Main Hoon Na is a kick too.
My Dad was invited to make video messages for the kids he volunteer tutored through the public school and AGONIZED about it. Much of Sunday, his bedroom was a little recording studio.
On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 11:02 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I saw that ARR tweeted this earlier this morning and it makes so much sense now!
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I’m pretty mad they dared to remake Rahman! I’m sure there are others in the pipeline, I’ll do my small part by not watching any of them! Shame on everyone involved 😠
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Reading – Nothing fun. Reading interview transcripts and writing my dissertation.
Watching – Just finished Kims Convenience and Gentefied. I think Gentefied makes subtle statements on many things and I like it for that.
Thinking – Why can some actors who are not native Telugu speakers learn the language and others do not. I am thinking Kajal Agarwal (does not speak) vs Tammannah (speaks Telugu and also Tamil).
I really liked Allu Arjun’s role in Vedam directed by Kris. I remember his character’s name in the movie, Cable Raju, which does not happen usually.
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Okay, this posted anonymously, but is it….Shreyans? Or Niki? Or some other person I don’t know?
YAAAAAAY, Kim’s Convenience! That last episode was a bit of a gut punch, yes? And I am Very Worried about Gerald.
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Lol, it’s not me. But I did wonder about learning the languages and I don’t actually know the answer but I think it’s just about the person. Some people can pick up new languages easily and some struggle with it. I’ve also felt that some actresses see Telugu films as a stepping stone to Hindi (ex. Pooja Hegde) and so they don’t bother to try because they feel like they won’t be doing Telugu movies for long. Of course Pooja Hegde did come back and eventually she started dubbing for herself. For me when I see an actress dub for herself or say that she tried dubbing for herself, I feel like she plans to stay and is committing herself to the industry.
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Some one you don’t know!! Yeah, the last episode was here and there for me. The Gerald and Janet thread came out of nowhere and I am not sure if I like it.
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Yeah, I kind of hope the Gerald and Janet thread is just dropped next season. And welcome, person I don’t know!
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For my birthday I just saw Heartbeats, and it’s as bad as it sounds. I watched it because the plot looked similar to Dirty Dancing 2 – Havana Nights, and I loved this film when I was 18 (still have a soft spot for it and Diego Luna) . So Heartbeats is like DD2 but in Mumbai. I had my expectations very low, just wanted something nice durning dinner, but still I was disappointed! First and most important: the music was bad and boring. And dances were unimaginative. How it’s possible in a dance movie? The only good part – the hero looks like taller, and less skinny Vikrant Massey. Btw how tall Vikrant is? I feel like rewatching Half Girlfriend to compare his height with Arjun now.
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I saw U-Turn with Samantha and I loved it! I finally got a chance to watch it last weekend and I was surprised why I hadn’t seen it earlier. I also rewatched Kapoor & Sons for the first time since it came out. It was really good but I still feel like there was something missing. And now I miss Fawad!
I would say my favorite Allu Arjun movies are Julayi, Aarya, and Race Gurram. My favorite Madhavan movie out of the few I’ve seen is probably Alaipayuthey with Kannathil Muthamittal coming in second.
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I just want to toss in a Madhavan movie that many here may not be aware of. It’s called Nala Damayanti, and is a lighthearted romance. I saw it once on a plane and enjoyed it thoroughly. This is the Tamil version. It was later remade in Hindi as (I think) Ramji Londonwala. However a good part of the delight of the film for me was in how the title in Tamil resonated with the story. It refers to a story from the Mahabharata (you can look it up). That connection was completely lost in the Hindi title, and I think the film also flopped.
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I am currently watching Race Gurram in my attempt to see if any newer Allu Arjun movies will have co-star chemistry on the same levels as Arya 2 and Happy. Maybe I’ll get sick of watching the man, but he reminds me of my brother, so probably not. At this moment, Arya 2 is my favorite of his movies that I’ve seen.
I am supposed to be reading a teen lit book about a rich Mexican kid who comes to the U.S. to cook. I don’t want to finish reading it. I don’t care about it, but I have a zoom bookclub meeting tomorrow night that includes teenagers who have supposedly read it, so I better get on it. Speaking of zoom – I have two great zoom education stories that I have to share with people, who don’t live where I live.
1. My spouse was bike riding with a son and ran into a neighbor and her kids and they chatted while six feet apart while the boys, six feet apart, threw rocks into a canal. The neighbor had a son in kindergarten and the teacher had tried to do a zoom call with all 27 students. The call happened, half of the kids weren’t wearing clothes, some were screaming, and the neighbor, looking at it said “It looks like a horror movie.”, at which point the teacher informed her that her mike was on and everyone could hear her.
2. A group of teachers held a zoom class for an alternative ed school, and one of the students thought the rest couldn’t see when he bent his head down to smoke out of a bong, but his video feed didn’t match theirs, and they could see it. The teachers didn’t kick him out though, perhaps because they were desperate to get students to participate, and perhaps because what were their options – they couldn’t send him to the principals office, or to his room.
Thinking: Everyone is going to want one of your face masks, especially if you make it so you can put those special filters inside, sure no one will be able to get the filters for three weeks, but three weeks isn’t forever. I’m a little annoyed with myself for watching movies in a language other than Hindi, because I was starting to recognize Hindi words and could sometimes even tell when the subtitles were B.S., but now that I am, I should have no language restrictions. I’ve never seen a Madhaven movie, what should I see?
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HA! I like those stories!
So far, I’ve made 29 masks, given away 14. So that’s pretty good! And my Mom wants some to give to the neighbors in their building.
The thing with Allu Arjun is that he is just such a cheerful presence onscreen! I don’t know if I would ever get sick of him either. But I would get sick of all the stuff around him. there is only so much family-family Telugu message I can take.
On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 10:13 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Watching so many of his movies back to back, I get confused about what characters the actors are playing as most of the movies have the same actors in them! I am actually sick of some of his co-actors.
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Yes! The “comic” actors can just disappear so far as I am concerned, and the movies would be better off for it.
On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 11:10 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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As a teacher, both of those education stories physically pain me. I’m so sorry for those teachers.
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Personally, I am in awe of kindergarten teachers in the best of times, getting 5 year olds to stop being random and focus at least a little bit seems impossible to me. With all the distractions available around the home, I can’t imagine how you can get them to focus at all.
Anyway, we are supporting our local teacher! Check out the post I just put up!
On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 2:52 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh my gosh. 27! My first grader’s teacher is also for some reason attempting only whole class Zoom calls, though only 18 kids. They’re painful to listen to, my shoulders tense up to where they start climbing up to my ears. The first one was hilarious, in an exasperating way, 40 minutes of the teacher trying to get her Zoom to work while the Brady Bunch view was each kid bopping around in their little frame, making faces at the camera, chatting away to some confused parents in the background. It’s not gotten much better from there.
I was talking with a co-worker today, not only is it much harder to teach the littles remotely, but primary teachers as a group tend not to be more hands on and crafty, less tech savvy. Not easy! Sigh.
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Gonna brag for a second: my 98 year old grandfather has more or less mastered Zoom! Everyone in his retirement home is under house arrest, all common areas are closed, so the old guys have their weekly breakfast groups and coffee groups and dinner groups and stuff over Zoom.
He should be teaching your son’s first grade class! Plus, he has severe hearing loss, so he can just take his hearing aids out and shout at them and not be bothered by their noise.
On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 11:12 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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98! Go, Gramps!
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Happy birthday, Angie! My general lameness around southern movies means I’ve never seen an Allu Arjun movie, and my favorite Madhavan movie is Rang de Basanti, although I am the person who doesn’t like Rang de Basanti, because that’s the only one I’ve seen. I’ve had Tanu Weds Manu in my Netflix cue forever, but, you know, Kangana issues.
I did finish Qarib Qarib Singlle and it is such a nice romance with people who are a little older. I thought Parvathy was breaking the fourth wall, which I find a bit played out, but it turns out she was talking to her husband so that’s OK. Kind of puts the audience in the husband’s position, watching over her and hoping she can be happy. Small quibble: Irrfan has already done “wacky guy the heroine meets online,” in Life in a Metro, and I wish the character had been a bit different. Also, I was completely distracted by Parvathy’s glorious hair, which gets more glorious as she falls in love.
Also watching a bit of Little Things but haven’t had time to comment except that one time because of all the Zoom tutorials I’m doing. I forgot how much I liked it, except I really wish they’d tone down the product placement. I get it though, you have to finance your series. It’s almost as obtrusive as the Bengali movie Anuranan, when the (very heavy and dramatic) action stops for a solid minute so that Rahul Bose can explain to Rituparna Sengupta how easy and economical it is to send money to India via Western Union. Or the makeover scene in Om Shanti Om where a palette is held to the camera for long enough that you can write down what it is for the next time you’re in the drugstore. (Product placement is a particular pet peeve. But, yeah, it’s a reality of the movie business.)
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Oh oh! You need to watch Saala Khadoos! Solid high quality movie and Maddy is super super hot. I really think you would like it.
I love your concept of us in the position of Parvathy’s husband, rooting for her to get out of her own way and be happy.
I am now in season 2 of Little Things and the product placement is gone (thank goodness) thanks to that sweet sweet Netflix money. Join me in the Future!
On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 10:46 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Thank you!
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Watched the Violet Evergarden anime movie on Netflix. The series and it’s special (which are to be watched before this movie) are absolutely beautifully animated and it has made me cry so many times. A comforting watch and not a long series at all.
Planning to watch some of the new Indian movies on Prime as well, they have been adding dozens by the day and it is the best (in Europe)!
Listening to Italian dubs on Disney songs and Indian film songs while writing.
Preity put this on her Instagram and it is so hilarious and fun I had to share!
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My husband watched Violet Evergarden lately and he keeps saying me I should watch it also because it’s the kind of story I would love (he also cried a lot while watching)
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It is a story that needs tissues, but it is so good and heartwarming at the same time. The brilliant animation adds to it too. You should definitely watch it! The series first, then the special and then the movie!
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I love that Preity thing! And I would watch your Anime, except I am already deeply into Little Things and Mentalhood. No one else may be watching those serieses with me, but I am addicted and can’t stop.
On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 10:01 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well, put it on the list of “to watch” since it is on Netflix it won’t disappear anytime soon (hopefully)
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I just discovered todays is also Swara Bhaskar birthday. And yesterday was not only mine and Allu Arjun’s but also and Amit Trivedi’s and Saqib Saleem’s.
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Oh how nice! Amit Trivedi is great, and Swara Bhaskar is (needless to say), The Best.
On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 4:10 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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