Happy Monday! I had a lovely weekend, and now it is work time again, very depressing. Although I do enjoy my job. But weekends are nice.
Here is where you can ask me anything at all from what movies I am watching lately, to what actors I am sick of, to anything else. And you can just keep swinging back to this post all week as you think of new questions.
Now, question for you! Aditya Chopra week, gotta be an Aditya Chopra question: What’s your favorite comfort food watch again and again Aditya Chopra movie? (obviously the only two possible answers are DDLJ and Rab Ne)
DDLJ for me. I spent my entire sophomore year of college watching it again and again.
(bonus alert: Popka posted her really good review of Shubh Mangal Zyaada Saavdhan. For those of us struggling with why it felt vaguely unsatisfying, this is an excellent analysis: https://thickthighsandbadguys.wordpress.com/2020/05/18/shubh-mangal-zyada-saavdhan-india-2020/ )
dontcallitbollywood 
I’m still making my way through Aaja Nachle, and then I’m going to have to take a chance and watch Malang. Netflix recommended it to me in an email! For once they were on the money.
I posted my review of Shubh etc. I worry that I was too hard on it, but honestly I really hate the way they dealt with the disabled character, so whatever.
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Oh, and for me, it’s Jhoom Barabar Jhoom! I really love that movie. Also, what actors ARE you sick of? Ranbir and Akshay don’t count.
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THANK YOU! Jhoom Barabar Jhoom is touching and amazing and fun and awesome and the people who didn’t like it were FOOLS and YRF should just make movies like that again and again. It used to be my go-to “first movie” option at movie nights. Just the right amount of knowing kitsch and real heart, fun songs, and only two hours long.
I am sick of Akshay, Radhike Apte, Ayushmann Khurrana, Nawazuddin Shah, Dulquer and many others. Basically I’m an “absence makes the heart go fonder” kind of girl. If I am watching every new movie, closely enough to review it, I really start to notice their little ticks and tricks of performances until I start to get irritated. If any of those listed took a breath and stopped making movies for a year and a half, I would be delighted to see them again. Exceptions to this rule, Amitabh Bachan who I never get sick of. And Ranbir Kapoor who only makes one movie every two years, and I am still sick of him.
On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 7:52 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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JBJ is a good first movie choice, but it’s sad a newbie won’t understand the references because they are great.
I agree with your choices (I actually do not like Nawazuddin Shah at all. I don’t even think he’s a good actor. Come at me, critics). Although I still like Ayushmann, despite his deplorable role choices.
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Bold take on Nawaz, Popka! Care to elaborate? I have seen little of his work so I can’t make an accurate judgement because the kind of movies he’s in mostly don’t interest me! Whatever I’ve seen in Kahaani, Lunchbox and Raees, he’s good.
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No no, not Siddiqui! I love him. I was just thinking how hot he was in Aaja Nachle. And now he’s divorcing, so I think he should come on holiday to Europe asap.
Naseeruddin Shah. I thought that was who Margaret was talking about, but I repeated the name without thinking about it. Anyway, I don’t like him.
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Nope, I meant Nawazuddin! I love Naseerji, Nawazuddin I am tired of.
On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 3:30 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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lol, then I do not agree!
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That’s even more surprising 😀
Wait, if I’m remembering correctly do you also not like Amitabh? You’re a rebel!
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I think that’s someone else. I mean, I think Amitabh is a terrible person but I love him as an actor. I know there is at least one person here who doesn’t like him at all.
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Are Radhika, Nawaz, Dulquer churning out that much work? What are they in? I thought they’re sporadic!
More generally, can this be true for any actor for you? Meaning you might be sick of Shahrukh if he suddenly dropped 3 movies?
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Awww, you and I are very similar movie reviewers. I never want to hurt the poor movies feelings. Or risk turning people off a movie they might enjoy.
Read your review, loved it, will link above, in my review, and probably on the Wednesday post too.
On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 7:50 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Thanks a lot! Most of the time I don’t mind going all in against a movie, but this probably did a lot for LGBT rights and the people involved probably got a lot of threats and stuff. I don’t want to seem like I don’t respect that. But honestly, they just didn’t think about it enough, when the material is right there.
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Is there any site like einthusan but with Pakistani movies?
And does someone know if Mahira Khan’s Superstar was released in streaming or dvd somewhere? It’s been 9 months since the movie released and I’m tired of waiting.
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I think einthusan used to have Pakistani movies. I distinctly remember “Urdu” on their homepage for a bit. But they don’t now. And unfortunately I don’t really know of an alternative option. Einthusan is like this little miracle, a semi-legal source that has no viruses and minimal programming bugs, and which is easy to use.
Looks like Superstar is available in full on youtube, but no subs. Bad news all around, if it’s on youtube and no one has pulled it, most likely no legitimate source owns the rights.
On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 7:57 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The movie on YouTube is NOT the Superstar with Mahira Khan. I am not sure what the movie is, but it does not have Mahira and looks nothing like the trailer. It’s especially bizzare because all of the videos on YouTube fot Superstar are playing this weird alternate movie.
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Also, that movie was uploaded 9 months ago, right when Superstar released so it can’t be the original movie from a legitimate source.
It’s strange such a big movie disappeared. Was it a flop?
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Looking at just the numbers, it doesn’t look like a flop. It was made with a budget of approximately 7 crore and made a little over 30 crore.
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I’ve been waiting for Superstar too. It was in my local theater the weekend it released and I didn’t go and then it disappeared forever. Yet another Pakistani movie that feels like it fell off the edge of the world.
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A few weeks ago you asked what movie you probably have seen but still haven’t reviewed and we would like to read about. Ek Villain. Please write about Ek Villain. I just finished it and have few things to say.
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Ooo, Ek Villain! I can TOTALLY review that movie. Especially because it doesn’t require terribly deep thought.
On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 2:34 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m so happy 🙂 Will be waiting.
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I have some random questions/ observations. I’m guessing you’ve seen the Inner/Outer docus on SRK. I was watching the Outer one, at one point he talks about having fans across generations. He talks about a 7-8 year old child fainting at one of his London premieres and how he met her again 3 years back (so 2001) with a husband and child. The times don’t make sense! There has to be atleast 10 years between the two meetings for the woman to marry and give birth! Also, before DDLJ, his movies didn’t premiere in London, right? I think he messed up ages and times. Why am I overthinking this?
The reason I was watching it was because I came across an Indonesian woman on youtube watching it. Apparently she’s a big fan, she describes how big KKHH was in Indonesia, it brought in Bollywood and SRK there, etc. She joins the growing list of people I’ve come across on YT – French, German, Turkish, Afghan, Somali – who’ve discovered Hindi cinema growing up through SRK movies, some have learnt the language and now have channels reacting to Indian content. You always hear things like Hindi movies are watched in many countries, but I’m always amazed to actually see the evidence and it’s nice to hear personal stories!
I realized that SRK has played sibling and romantic interest of an actress in the same year twice! With Aishwarya and Kareena (brother-in-law but it counts!). It’s anyway rare for top actors/actresses to play siblings, but to do it in the same year and repeat it, such a unique feat!
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You are correct! The times do not make sense. I vote it was a 12 year old child instead. 12-13, and then 6-7 years later, she could be married with a kid. It’s certainly true in general, people literally grow up with Shahrukh, just that particular example wasn’t right.
I love Inner/Outer, it’s my favorite documentary/interview with him. The camera was so discrete, just hanging back, and I think he opened up a lot because of that. No one was forcing him to answer a lot of questions or put pressure on him to be something special, it was just his regular life with a camera attached.
On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 8:00 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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It’s funny how he indicates the child, he spreads his hands horizontally, like you would for a baby!
I loved them, I’ve never seen a documentary of him. He was more open then I guess, less guarded than he would be now. So many years have passed, Aryan, Suhana were babies, we got to see the making of Main Hoon Na! The world tour part with other actors, it felt like a group of buddies, no airs, no entourage. Now Arjun and Priyanka are out of SRK’s circle. It’s a time capsule.
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I know about Priyanka but why Arjun is not friends with SRK anymore?
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It’s not clear. The rumor is that Shahrukh got frustrated with Arjun after Ra.One failed, blamed him somehow for the failure. That doesn’t feel quite right to me, but that year was when Shahrukh and Gauri were going through fertility treatments and stuff, and he was lashing out in general, plus it was when Arjun started having rumors about his marriage being in bad shape and he and his wife used to be couple friends with Shahrukh and Gauri. So just a lot of stuff happening and somehow they weren’t friends any more. They aren’t like “can’t be in the same room together” ex-friends, but there was a while there when they always used to hang out at parties and things, and now not so much.
On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 5:42 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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You should watch the Netflix Letterman interview for contrast. It’s kind of the same thing but (I think) done not nearly as well. It doesn’t feel as intimate somehow. But you get to see inside his house again, and watch him playing with AbRam and stuff.
On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 5:37 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I have watched it and agree! It was like a Shahrukh 101 for beginners. The Mannat portions were the best. Also, different times, he was at his peak then, more candid.
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