Woo-hoo! I was getting sincerely worried after we didn’t get a Christmas or New Year’s video. Apparently I was not the only one, since he bothered to put in an acknowledgement that he was late with this. Anyway, 3 whole minutes, nice thoughts, clever things, worth the wait.
Yaaaaaaaaaaay! Twitter video of him giving a little speech about New Years. Mixture of clever use of the medium, interesting philosophical statements, and a very tiny nod towards the American election. Let me go through it point by point.
First, structure! It seems to be two videos stuck together. A mid distance video of him talking through his points, and a closer video of him commenting on what is happening. He says that he doesn’t have his team with him so he had to put it together himself, and I kind of believe that? He just had to write the speech, give it, then do some clever interspersed bits, and add on some basic effects of the kind it would be fun and easy to play with.
It’s also a little edgier than his videos usually are. His language is as careful and clever as ever, but it is the little touches that bring in the edge. For instance, it starts with him obviously waving away smoke, a clever acknowledgement that yes, he is a chain smoker, and he has to pretend he isn’t when the camera is on. It also has him fiddling with his hair, a little bit of revealing of his shallow vanity.
He starts by acknowledging he is late, and then moves on to a nicely phrased message of “nowhere to go but up” which is a good simple mantra for 2021. And he ends with “inshallah”.
Almost exactly 1/3rd into the video, and he pauses for a closer up shot insert with a meta comment about “should I put in some music since it is a longish video?”
Music pulls up and we are back to the farther shot, and he gives a slight commentary on 2020, hoping that it taught us that friends and family who are around us for real are what really matters, not the online world. And a hope for all of us that the next year brings us happiness, and cash, and fulfilled dreams.
Another 3rd of the video over, another close up shot, a comment about “let’s add some pop ups”.
Final 3rd, the light funny bit with some double talk. He starts by joking and saying “please don’t wish me a clever Happy New Year with so many weeks, days, minutes, seconds of happiness”. Which is a lead in to him saying we should all be this, that, the other, “democratic”, but not “mathematic”. Pretty sure he came up with the whole “don’t wish me a clever Happy New Year” concept just so he could have a rhyme for “democratic”. Maybe I’m American centric with that, but it’s the last word he tosses in and is so meaningful in 2021. Especially because he didn’t need that for the joke, he follows it with another joke, that you should drink and party too hard on New Years because you might lose your phone, and that really sucks. He doesn’t need the two jokes, except for the “democratic” gimme.
And then sign off, the important bit, “lots of love, and see you all on the big screen in 2021”.
Okay, let’s say I am SRK and I am outlining this speech. I want to start with a prayer, basically, ending with “inshallah”. Then I move on to good wishes for fans so they know I am thinking of them. Then a funny bit which, ideally, will include a backhanded political reference only very clever people will catch. And finally, a promise to see us on the big screen in 2021 which keeps people excited for my potential next movie, and is a boost for the film industry in general.
My guess is, once he had that outline, he shot about 10 minutes straight through of talking to the camera. Then looked at it and pulled out three equal parts, the prayer, the good wishes, and the jokes. Then he figured out what order he wanted to put them in. Then he saw that they don’t feel quite divided enough, so he added music to one bit and cheesy effects to another. Then he ran it together and saw that he looked choppy, so filmed three more quick things for intros to cover the cuts, a funny bit where he fixes his hair and waves away smoke right at the start, a bit where he says “let’s add music”, and a bit where he says “let’s add effects”. And the final result was, the best bits of his planned speech, separated by different effects, and knit together by funny inserts.
I love him to bits and I love this video, but I also appreciate it more once I analyze it and see how much work went into the creation! I hope it is the same for you, and I didn’t just ruin the magic.
dontcallitbollywood 
It’s so cute, I love this!!
But Margaret, you missed out on something very important!! He seems to be wearing a matching pajama set!! Or at least a shirt that very much resembles a pajama shirt! That just makes it all the better and it’s clear he’s doing a curated-but-not-really-haha thing. Kind of like a vlogger!
Which reminds me, I had a question! I don’t know if you heard of the vlog-books trend that came up 2013-2016, but it’s essentially taking characters from famous novels and making them into vloggers, adapted for the modern day (e.g. Pride and Prejudice became The Lizzie Bennet Diaries). So, if you were to choose, which desi books/movies would you turn into a vlog series?
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Oh, that makes sense! I could not figure out what he was wearing. I’m voting for “he had a limited wardrobe available possibly just because he was doing it in his hotel room before the rest of his family grew up and he tried on everything and the PJ top looked better than the t-shirts with holes in it or whatever were the other options.
I like this question!!! And I say, why overthink it? Modern day Ramayana!!!! 2 brothers do a total “bro” kind of show that is all about them being the best at everything physical. And two sisters do a super philosophical show about deep thoughts and stuff. But then they are offered a sponsorship deal if they figure out a way to work together. The two couples fall in love, but then the corporate sponsorship people are tricked into using the brothers boring half brother by their evil stepmother. They are forced out to do their own show, and the two sisters go with them. Where the show is found by another Super Powerful vlogger who wants the oldest sister to be in his shows. He tears them apart and tricks her to come to his show world, but she remains faithful the whole time to her true love and never fully participates. And also, invents parcheesi.
And so on and so forth. You see what I am going for here, right? It would be so awesome!
On Sat, Jan 2, 2021 at 12:42 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I like it when you analize…and – for me – it doesn’t affect the magic I felt before or feel afterwards 🙂
Maybe, he did the video with Aryan behind the camera (and assisting in the editing).
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That’s what I figured! Not Aryan necessarily, but one of the kids was holding the camera and giving opinions on things.
On Sat, Jan 2, 2021 at 1:36 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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How fun would it be as a young person with film interests to have a movie star dad who had to make the occasional video for social media and needed your help? Like what a fun subject to play with, plus you get to do a little messing around with this persona you’ve all had to live with your whole life.
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Yes! Related note, have you seen Schitt’s Creek! It’s wonderful and it’s the moment when Daniel Levy stopped being “Eugene Levy’s son who plays with comedy ideas” and became “Daniel Levy, talented artist respected in the industry”.
On Sat, Jan 2, 2021 at 3:42 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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My first thought was that he was wearing pyjamas too. Makes it more intimate- he’s just gotten up, is slipping around the house and we’re invited. It’s that thing he does in interviews where he makes us think of his body, with a reference to showering, or getting dressed, or working out, etc. Nice! 🙂
Other thought is that he has done something to his teeth. In his last video I felt they looked whiter than usual, and possibly more even on the bottom, This time, at this distance, could only see the whiteness. It’s not a bad thing, as long as it looks natural. Perhaps I’m hallucinating from ShahRukh-deprivation, but it’s conceivable that he put the long absence from the camera to good use.
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I fixated on the same two things. His teeth have definitely been fixed. And I was debating between satin bomber jacket or pajamas?
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There has been teeth thoughts for a while now on DCIB, but I don’t know if whitening has been brought up before! So long as he doesn’t mess with his little vampire canine teeth.
On Sat, Jan 2, 2021 at 3:36 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Slopping not slipping.
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I kind of liked it better the first way 🙂 Picturing him sneaking around the house before everyone else was awake.
On Sat, Jan 2, 2021 at 3:38 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Phew! Was also feeling worried but didn’t want to say anything, 2020 trained me to keep worries to myself. Glad it was a full little sequence and not the usual 30 second formality type greeting, enough to get more than a quick tease.
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Yes! It felt like he wanted to give us a sort of mini-interview kind of moment, more than just a social media check-in. Something real and human and stuff.
On Sat, Jan 2, 2021 at 3:48 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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“… obviously waving away smoke …” – No. He pretends shooing mosquitos. They even included some buzzing noise in the audio track at that moment.
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My first thought was why is he dressed like Hugh Hefner?? But then I realized that’s a bomber jacket by a brand called Mastermind Japan that he’s worn before. It just ended up looking like a robe because he’s not wearing a shirt underneath.
Btw, this is his office at Mannat so he’s home. He must have made the video himself because his kids are not in the country. Aryan is in Dubai and Suhana is in London.
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The jacket – https://modesens.com/product/mastermind-japan-mastermind-world-navy-hooded-bomber-jacket-11721438/
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I like to get these infos 🙂
Btw, I thought of both: smoke a n d mosquitos…
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Thank you, Anonymous, for the link to the jacket. I knew it couldn’t be pajamas because pajamas don’t generally have zippers on the sleeves! I also agree that he’s trying to get rid of the smoke and then the mosquito effect comes in.
For some reason, this video didn’t hit with me. I felt it was “off” somehow and the humor didn’t win me over. Shah Rukh is capable of being so funny and witty and I wasn’t feeling it here. It felt like he was trying too hard.
Also interesting that Twitter seemed to only pick up on the last line about the big screen in 2021. That was the takeaway, I know, that he intentionally put in there for our (the fans’) benefit, perhaps because people won’t stop asking for an official announcement of his next.
Or maybe that’s just me feeling a little gloomy on an overcast, drizzly day here in NY….
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I can see the “trying”. To me, that was because he was trying to do a longer more substantial video than usual. It wasn’t just sitting back and doing something fun, he had points to hit and a job to do. I liked it, but it definitely wasn’t the relaxed happy rewatchable video he has done in the past.
I like to think that SRK put in the last line for the headlines and general twitter talk and stuff, but the rest of it was for his fans. He knows we will watch all of it, not just the highlights.
On Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 2:38 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The time and way ShahRukh tweeted the video was like a double celebration for me. The 2nd of January 2010 late in the evening/early in the night, I got the notice from a friend that ShahRukh just had joined twitter…the 2nd of January 2021 he tweets an extended video which combines many facets of his personality we could enjoy during the 11 years of his twitter journey.
I like double digits and in this case especially 11 because the digit sum is 2…
see, in my time zone, the digits are the repetition in the date first for his entry into twitter (01-02-2010 or 02-01-2010) and then for the 11-year greetings (01-02-2021 or 02-01-2021)
then – more important – 11 years is a celebration of the 1st step ShahRukh did to join to another person on twitter and then to another and then to another (always creating a connection of two)… and vice versa it was another person joining (following) him and then – later on – joining to another fan/person because of the interest into the same person…So, this 1st step joined to another 1st step thus creating chains…of love/same interest and then communities of love/same interest, basically a connection of love/same interest into the person who did the 1st step at all.
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Sorry, can’t follow your thoughts … way too far-fetchet.
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Did he join on the 2nd of January, or is that when you found out? Because I am wondering if he purposefully did this greeting video for that anniversary instead of New Years Day.
On Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 3:19 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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He DID join twitter on a 2nd of Jan. But this kind of numerological bushwah is not everyone’s cup of tea …
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It depends on the time zone…I remember that in India it was on the 3rd of January just after 2 am, but in Germany, it was still the 2nd.
I think, it wasn’t for celebrating the 11 years from his side but just his new year message…but does it really matter?
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