Happy Wednesday! I’m off to a bad start, I just realized I washed my hair and forgot to use conditioner. I hate that! Now I either have to have a tangled mess of hair, or re-shower which is just a waste of time. And redry and re everything. UGH!
I’ll start!
Reading: I’m reading Dealing With Dragons! Which is just as good as I remembered! One of the all time best opening lines, listen to this: “Linderwall was a large kingdom just east of the Mountains of Mourning where Philosophers were highly respected and the number 5 was fashionable”. And then it goes on to talk about the 7th Princess of the kingdom of Linderwall who was bored with being a princess, and so on and so forth.
Watching: My parents and I are watching Poirot and I have MANY thoughts. First, if Poirot and Hastings are a couple, why is Poirot constantly trying to help Hastings romance women? Second, how many trunks must Poirot take with him when he travels since he NEVER repeats on outfit while on vacation? Third, at what point did the set designers at the BBC start controlling the plots instead of the other way around? There is a definite vibe of “set mistress found a really cool period set of boating tools, thus we must write a plot on a boat”.
Thinking: I am aggressively trying NOT to plan for moving to our new house-under-contract-but-not-yet-closed. The soonest we could take occupancy is August 1, so why make myself stressed and miserable now, when I have loads of time to pack? It’s SO HARD though!!!! I want to pack and live in chaos and boxes for 4 months!
Listening: It’s RGV’s birthday! Creepy weird man, and yet also brilliant, so irritating that he is both those things. This song is a good example of both:
Now, question for you! Not gonna over think it, what is your favorite RGV movie? Or do you not know who he is? And if you don’t, do you want me to do a quick intro post on him?
I like Sarkar! So sue me.
dontcallitbollywood 
RGV is such a creep! Although I do feel he just says stuff out loud that other creeps think but keep carefully veiled under a respectable persona. At the same
time he works with the same people over and over again: Urmila, Fardeen, Manoj Bajpai, Bachchans. And they continue to work with him even on some of his weird stuff (e.g. Amitabh in Nishabd). That just confuses me. For example, he’s a weirdo and yet he isn’t banned from the industry like Subhash Ghai.
Anyways to answer your question, I love Rangeela! There is a reason that it is still considered a classic (or maybe a cult classic). Urmila’s performance, Rahman’s music, Saroj Khan’s choreography of Tanha Tanha, the story, the colors! It’s perfect! It’s also unlike all of his other gritty, gangster stuff.
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Watched Great Indian Kitchen again. It is now on AmazonPrime so need to buy subscription to another platform. Joji also on Prime is next. Dileesh Pothan and Fahad combo. Need to see if their combination results in a really good movie this time too.
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Can you believe it Pandit Ravi Shankar and RGV share the same birthday??!! Anyway Sarkar is not a bad movie. I liked his movie Satya. Then what was he thinking while creating movie Aag God knows 🙄
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Just came across this, made me sad and chuckle at the same time –
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I like RGV’s contribution to the cinema. He had good films for the first 10-12 years before he got tied to mafia making underworld (Company, D,etc) movies and later became self obsessed with social media.
– I like that he made the movie that transformed Telugu cinema – story telling, direction, taking, shots, framing, everything.
– I like that he introduced new generation and different kind of directors like Krishna Vamsi, Puri Jagannadh, Teja, Rasool, Sriram Raghavan, Nivas…
– I like that he introduced Rahman to Bollywood
– I like that he resurrected Amitabh’s career with Sarkar
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Favorite RGV Telugu movie is Siva and in Hindi it’s Rangeela, then Satya.
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What are your thoughts on this – Neena Gupta and Amitabh Bacchan will be in the next movie directed by Vikas Bahl. How should we as consumers react? I am so torn about this…
The accusations seemed legit to me (Phantom was dissolved over it)…should we expect the industry to boycott the accused…should we expect better from Neena Gupta? (I don’t expect anything from Amitabh) Or should we watch the movie for Neena, because she is just trying to get any good roles that she can for an actress of her age?
https://www.indiaglitz.com/neena-gupta-is-excited-to-be-paired-up-with-amitabh-bacchan-hindi-news-284062
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Oh MAN! This is like one of those fun ethical thought experiments you might have in a philosophy class, isn’t it?
If it was just an Amitabh movie, I wouldn’t blame Amitabh but I would still boycott the movie. Because I understand that Amitabh has always taken the jobs that are offered to him and sort of separated the professional from the person, so I don’t exactly blame him. Plus, his not a producer, so he is only signing on to the script/project, not producing it. On the other hand, his career is so rock steady that my boycotting one film won’t hurt him even if it isn’t his fault.
But Neena Gupta is in a different career place, and as a public person she has promoted so much good and I want to help her career. Does my moral obligation to help Neena Gupta out weigh my moral obligation to punish Vikas Bahl?
And then, weirdly, I find myself blaming Neena more than Amitabh. Amitabh has been strictly personal versus professional and so on, most of his career is unrelated to his personal politics in ways both good and bad (he’s taken loads of outspoken liberal film scripts at the same time he was personally supporting conservatives just because he likes the scripts). But Neena has made her personal politics a big part of who she is as a public figure. So I hold her to a higher standard because of that.
Oh this is COMPLICATED!!!!! Also, do we know if Vikas is producing or just a hired gun?
On Wed, Apr 7, 2021 at 1:05 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Okay, this gets even more complicated. Balaji and Reliance are producing the movie. Why would Ekta do this?? She has spent her career pushing for female representation…of all the directors to back did she have to pick Bahl?? Neena has limited choice…Ekta does not…
So I want to punish Vikas. And I want to punish Amitabh, Ekta, and Reliance for backing Vikas.
But I want to support Neena in whatever role she can snag…
This moral dilemma will keep me up at night…
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I think this is going to be a “I can’t decide, I’m bootlegging it” solution. Well, for you. On my side I have the “what if I bootleg it so it gets no money, but then I review it thereby assisting in the promotion?” moral dilemma.
On Wed, Apr 7, 2021 at 2:37 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’ve started the Thirkell you recommended. So far, nothing at all has happened, which the author describes in a wonderfully British way. My favorite description yet is the girl so kind and nice that you don’t want to call her dull, if only there was a different adjective.
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Yes! She has the best turn of phrase. Anyway, wait for the introduction of the housemates Miss Hampton and Miss Bent.
On Wed, Apr 7, 2021 at 1:40 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I planned watching Pagglait and finish Bandish Bandits but I get distracted by random bengali movie I found on einthusan – Shesh Theke Shuru. It’s a love story mixed with some violent family faud. The love story is awesome because the leads have great chemistry (I knew none of them but apparently they have made some movies together and are big stars in bengali) and the hero is amazing in longing gazes game. Unfortunately the ending was stupid and ruined the movie for me. What a pity.
Today Unni Mukundan released the first song from his upcoming movie Meppadiyan. It’s the first movie from his production house UMF and he gained a lot of weight for the role. I’m so excited!
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Happy birthday! Hope you had a good one. I watched Khaali Peeli and it was great! Luca aka Johnny not so much (and why the title? He wasn’t called Luca??!!!) but Maddy looked good.
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Happy birthday Angie! Had not heard of Shesh Theke Shuru but it sounds right up my alley (except for the stupid ending, but I’ll mentally prepare for that). I’m excited to report that after five years of Bengali lessons I was able to understand the title (“Beginning from the End”)
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Thank you!
Yes, Beginning from the end/of the end – they often repeat this sentence in the movie. But now I’m worried I oversold this film. I enjoyed it a lot and it has Awwww factor but it’s not a serious movie.
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Thank you Popka! The title is absolutely stupid- or leave Luca or change it to Johnny. Now that I think about it, it’s not a good Popka film. Beautiful but a little slow.
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Yeah, now it’s just a super confusing title. No, it’s not my usual thing but I didn’t dislike it that much, it’s just really stupid. I might have disliked it more if it was better, actually.
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I just binge-watched the new Netflix series “The serpent”, depicting the criminal career of the infamous serial killer Charles Sobhraj. More than 10 years ago there was a strong rumour about Shah Rukh Khan, playing Sobhraj (which was denied later).
https://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/srk-to-play-charles-sobhraj/story-qCq7tqYgLo0MPuwB1khEvK.html
Did anyone watch the series? Do you think Shah Rukh could have been able to do justice to such a role? (I don’t …)
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I watched it, posted my thoughts a good while back. I don’t agree with having a big beloved star play him because it makes him sympathetic. I hate the serial killer superstar idea, and one of the good things about The Serpent is it didn’t play that game.
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He PLAYS WITH SMALL CHILDREN!!!!
On Wed, Apr 7, 2021 at 6:02 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I was just thinking of RGV the other day when I was thinking about Indian directors directing my life story and he was in the “no way” list, but when I think about it I don’t think I’ve seen anything but Sarkar, which I loved, and Department, which I gave up on after around 30 minutes, because the tricky camera angles were making me sick. Didn’t he also do something with someone like Neil Nitin Mukesh, and there’s an item dance that’s so skeevy it makes you nervous for the dancers. It has gangsters. That sounds like RGV, but I can’t think of the title and I didn’t recognize it in his filmography. Tl;dr: Sarkar is my favorite.
I’ve been watching Bombay Begums for the benefit of everyone who is kinda interested in Bombay Begums but is on the fence. It’s OK. It’s a good thing to watch for like 45 minutes in the evening while you eat dinner. I thought it was going to be kind of a Desperate Housewives thing, but it actually depicts women from all social classes: Rich woman who runs a bank, upper middle class woman is an executive at the bank, lower middle class young woman came from Indore to work at the bank, and working class woman works in a dance bar if she’s lucky. And then their lives intersect and stuff. It’s just that they’re sort of images of those social class acting out basic women’s problems (infertility, affairs, discovering you’re bisexual). When you compare it with Made in Heaven and the complex characters and organic way we got to know them–like how long it took to reveal Shivani’s home situation–they seem like place holders. Also, banking isn’t as interesting as weddings. I’m sticking with it, though, and I will report back if it gets more interesting.
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Thank you for watching Bombay Begums!!!!! Bisexuality sounds fun, but a bank does not sound fun.
I think “a movie with someone like Neal Nitin Mukesh and a skeevy item song” describes 50% of all RGV movies. The irritating thing being, the other 50% are genius.
On Thu, Apr 8, 2021 at 3:20 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Even the bisexuality part isn’t that interesting. She’s just like “Huh. Guess I’m bisexual.” I really have a problem with these dramas where the plot is driven by the character’s bad decisions, but they aren’t portrayed in enough depth that you understand/care why they’re making the decision. And then you just sit watching and thinking “Don’t do the the thing. DON’T DO THE THING!” and then they do the thing and you have to watch the consequences of the thing. Just me?
That said, I’ll probably keep watching.
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YES! I understand PERFECTLY!!! I just watched Daawat E Ishq again, which is NOT like that. I mean, I don’t want her to do the things she is doing, but I can understand why she is doing them. It’s not like she woke up one day and said “I shall create romantic confusion in my life”.
On Thu, Apr 8, 2021 at 7:08 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Reading: Not much, just a bunch of documents
Watching: Do Youtube videos count?
Listening: Created a Spotify playlist called Bad Bollywood Bitches (I know, I know, but it’s the only one that made sense at the time), with songs from K3G, SOTY, Aisha, and a couple of others.
Thinking: What is the most iconic decade in Indian film fashion? My vote is for the 70s with Amitabh’s amazing bowties and Vinod Khanna in that amazing outfit in Hera Pheri. The one with the blue hotpants and the red button down tied up in a knot – like a country gal almost.
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I also think 70s!!!! It was that perfect tipping point when India was influenced by the west but not merely trying to imitate it. Now it feels like we get jeans and t-shirts and stuff that is more or less like what we have in the west. Or we get saris and stuff with no western influence at all. I miss the wacky Indian color patterns in Western clothes!
On Thu, Apr 8, 2021 at 1:24 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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