Love Actually! I am strongly in the “love” camp. While, “love but also fastforward some of the storylines” camp.
I had a friend years ago who described Indian movies as “they certainly like a lot of story in their story”. Which also describes Love Actually! SO MUCH STORY! And so much magic and angels and love at first sight, and even important song sequences. There is a clear overlap in my Love Actually love and my Hindi Film Love, and I am guessing I am not the only one here.
Love Actually was technically remade already as Salaam-E-Ishq, but not really. They kept the Alan Rickman-Emma Thompson plot recast with Anil Kapoor-Juhi Chawla (GENIUS), but pretty much every other storyline was just a little bit tweaked. So there is still plenty of room for us to investigate a remake idea. Also, don’t watch Salaam-E-Ishq. The Govinda storyline is lovely and great, but the rest of it is sort of messy.
Anyway, Love Actually! Things to talk about!
Which is your favorite musical moment? Hugh Grant dancing to “Jump”? The little girl singing “All I Want for Christmas is You”? Or Liam Neeson and the little boy doing a duet of “Joanna”? Or something else?
Which is your favorite storyline? I am partial to Liam Neeson connecting to his stepson, myself.
Which storyline would you remove? The Emma Thompson one is of course the most painful to watch, but is so well done that I can’t look away. I think I have to go with the stupid “guy goes to America for sex” story. Or the incredibly depressing and frustrating Laura Linney one.
Which romance do you think is sweetest? I very much enjoy Hugh Grant’s shocked love at first sight experience, but I think overall the adult film actors and their very sweet innocent romance surrounded by sex scenes is the very best.
dontcallitbollywood 
i loved it when it came out, and now I hate it. I hate everything about it, except the Bill Nighy storyline. I kind of still ship that.
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Bill Nighy storyline with Govinda and…..who? As his friend? Or is it Salman as Nighy and Govinda as the friend?
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Govinda and Chunky? You’re probably right Salman should be Nighy and Govinda the manager because Govinda is so good at quietly pining, but I don’t like Partner and it’s the same idea, so I’d switch it and just put more of the emotions on the Nighy character.
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I watched it for the first (and last) time only like 2 years ago and I hated it. I don’t get why it was a hit. I hardly remember the stories, but I do remember the disappointment I felt after seeing this film.
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Awww, im so sorry! It’s such a big ridiculous romance movie.
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Is it streaming? I watched it a while ago but don’t remember anything about it. Mmmm…maybe that means I shouldn’t bother. My Christmas Eve watching is already set anyway. Just saw AK vs AK. Such a hoot! I don’t think it quite did what they wanted it to, but it was still fun. And of course, there was Harsh. Now Im starting the Dharmendra Coolie No. 1, no subs, but you already outlined the story so im cool.
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I totally forgot AK vs AK was coming out, and now I want to see it too! Maybe tomorrow morning pre-Coolie watch.
On Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 6:43 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I quite like Love Actually! Hugh Grant dancing has to be the highlight musical moment, I also like Bill Nighy’s song. I would also remove ‘guy goes to America for sex’ story. I can’t pick a favorite story, they all convey different emotions.
Ok, recast time! ARK-Alia-Varun for Chiwetel-Keira-Andrew. We can’t do better than Anil-Juhi for Alan-Emma. The obvious way to transplant the Colin-Spanish lady(?) storyline would be to have a Hindi speaking hero landing up in a South Indian state where the maid/housekeeper doesn’t know Hindi. But somehow I’m picturing Maddy for Colin Firth, so we can have maybe a Malayali actress opposite him? For the Laura-hot guy story, let’s have Sonam with any of the hot guys (Fawad/Dulquer) she’s starred with!
The adult film actors can be adult voice-actors with Bhumi-Ayushmann playing them, I think they have been in similar roles separately. Hrithik can be Liam, mainly because he looks adorable with his kids (maybe one of them can be the kid). Katrina as the supermodel character he meets at the end. For Hugh-Martine, I want Shahrukh-Vidya, though they’re older and I don’t know what the equivalent of British Prime Minister would be here! Oh and Bill Nighy, what about Aamir in his Secret Superstar avatar? I haven’t seen it, but I picture him as sleazy with a heart of gold!
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Love your choices. I’m a big big fan of love actually, actually. I like the Colin and Hugh stories best. I cannot choose anything but the signs at the door as best moment. That’s a lie, it’s tied with ‘just in cases’ in the restaurant.
I like Shah in the Hugh role but want a younger actress for Martine…
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What do you think about Dips for Martine? She’s got the same great light up the room smile. And they have very good “she’s sweet, he’s awkward” chemistry.
On Fri, Dec 25, 2020 at 5:07 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I like that! And the age difference is normal big instead of ‘ew’ big. Although part of me wants to see him w someone else since they’re like officially a jodi now after so many films. I’ll give it some thought.
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Yaaaaay! I knew there would be someone else who cared about this!
Yes to Sid-Alia-Varun for the love triangle, that’s perfect. And of course keep Anil and Juhi. Love Maddy for Colin Firth, but what if we move his cottage to the Northeast? Oh wait, we don’t even have to do that! I forgot, his cottage is in France and he can kind of stumble along in French, but the housekeeper is a Porteguese immigrant. So he should fall in love with a migrant worker. He can be Maddy living in Bombay who rents a cottage in a Tamil speaking hill station, and the only housekeeper he can get is a Northeastern immigrant. So Maddy speaks Hindi and a little Tamil, but not the Northeastern language of his housekeeper. We can make it a little bit of a learning experience too, she speaks an obscure language and he has to track down a teacher in Bombay and comes to realize just how isolated she is without someone else to speak with her. And the housekeeper can be Sayani Gupta because I love her (she was Shahrukh’s assistant in Fan).
The Laura-hot guy story drives me crazy! Because the ending is so unfair. He likes her, she likes him, but they aren’t even going to try just because she has to be caregiver or her brother? I say, keep the story, but change the ending. Have the hot guy take a sudden leave of absence from work the morning after their “almost” encounter. Have her make peace with only having love from her brother and no one else. And then after she visits her ill brother, have her come outside and find Hot Guy waiting for her. He went away to visit his family and tried to forget her, but on Christmas everyone was with people they loved, and he suddenly realized he loved her and just wants to be with her, whatever it takes. And yeah, Sonam and random Hot Dude works fine. Vidyut Jamwal?
Yes! Love the voice actor idea! Bhumi and Ayushman can do the steamiest love scenes together, then take tea breaks and make small talk about their families and things.
Definitely Hrithik as Liam, he is so great with kids, and one of his boys would be perfect. And Kat at the end.
Shahrukh as President maybe? The Indian President I mean. So a lot of pomp and circumstance, but we don’t have to worry as much about the politics of it all. And his love interest can’t be Vidya because she has to be notably younger than him. Enough that it makes him doubt himself and avoid the relationship. Dips maybe?
On Fri, Dec 25, 2020 at 2:16 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Did you mean to write Sid coz I wrote ARK, I guess both work! Maddy’s storyline is perfect, and I like Sayani too. I took it for granted that Laura-hot guy will have a happy ending in this version, because it’s totally ridiculous how that ended!
Ok I never saw it as an age issue in the Hugh-Martine romance, because they looked like a late 30s-early 30s couple, were they not? It was more a class and status difference between them, along with the fact that she was seen as ‘chubby’ and not conventionally attractive (with Deepika those two issues go right out the window!).
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Oh, ARK works too!!!
I think there is supposed to be a bit of an age gap. In that the hero is a confirmed bachelor past the age of falling in love and marrying, and the heroine just ended her first serious relationship and had to move back with her parents. So the hero is surprised to be falling in love, and the heroine is still young enough to leap in with both feet. Say, mid-40s versus late 20s. I don’t think Vidya can play “young and impressionable and getting over her first love story any more”. But Shahrukh is the perfect age for “top of his career, settled into bachelorhood”. And any of the 30 somethings would be right for the heroine, I think.
On Fri, Dec 25, 2020 at 12:08 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The first time I saw this movie, I hated it. Then 2 years later a male friend who loved it wanted to show it to me, so I sat through it for his sake, but really loved it that time. I may have seen it once or twice since.
But I “love” the pathos of the Emma Thompson Alan Rickman storyline. I especially love the scene where Emma goes into the bedroom and breaks down in quiet tears, to the tune of the older Jonie Mitchell’s remake of her own ’70s hit Both Sides Now. Just so moving! I’ve never been cheated on (to my knowledge, at least), but I could feel her pain & agony 100%. I could just feel the world weariness of it all.
I look up this scene on YouTube from time to time, maybe a couple times a year, it’s just so relatable. Maybe I like it so much because it’s a middle aged person crying over the breakdown of her romance/ marriage, something they’ve put decades into, something they don’t want to leave and start over from; instead of someone in their 20s/30s crying over a romance that was 2 months to 2 years long, which is what most tv & movies tend toward?
Indian remake
Parvathy = Emma Thompson
Aamir Khan = Alan Rickman
Or for closer age mates
Julie Chawla or Tabu = Emma
Or for IRL married couple, use Karol & Ajay.
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Yes! That scene is so amazing. And a perfect combination of music and story. The loose remake Salaam-E-Ishq did Anil and Juhi for the Alan Rickman-Emma Thompson roles, which was pretty good.
I’m not totally in love with the Alan Rickman side of the story, just that I don’t think she is exactly what would tempt him. Maybe something more like a young arty exciting person with more in common with him at work, versus the wife’s thinking about kids and home and stuff. Not just sex which seems like how it is sold in the original.
On Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 1:05 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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