Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to the Week Before Grandpa Turns 100?

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Happy Wednesday! I almost forgot this post, 3 day weekends are HARD. But then I remembered.

I’ll start!

Reading: Well, reading/listening. Still doing podcasts. Just started the one on Britney Spears and it makes me really really wish there was something equivalent for Indian celebrity. Well, besides the empathetic detailed DCIB posts 🙂 Anyway, once I finish it, maybe we should discuss here? Because it brings up lots of mental health/gender/celebrity stuff that DCIB just LOVES to talk about.

Watching: Last night I had my First Guest in my new place, Dina came over and we watched Anjaam. It is FABULOUS and you should all watch it if you haven’t already. Oh, and I’m also still going through New Tricks, the very happy soothing BBC show. It’s like Psych and Monk and that whole genre of pleasant lighthearted mystery shows.

Thinking: 100th birthday weekend coming up! So much to do! My cousin and her boyfriend are planning to stay with me, so I built a bed for them and got a guest room set up. This afternoon I go in for a COVID test to make sure I am clean. And then Friday/Saturday/Sunday, Large Family Events. HA! I made a pun! Large events, for a family entirely made up of folks 5’9″ and higher.

Listening: Anjaam! “Badi Mushkil” is the sweetest happiest song.

Question: Which Madhuri “Badi Mushkil” is better? The one above, or this one from Lajja?

44 thoughts on “Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to the Week Before Grandpa Turns 100?”

  1. As much as I adore SRK roaming on top of moving cars and Madhuri spitting into her front pocket the second Badi Mushkil is a masterpiece.

    Reading: The Empirium Trilogy by Claire Legrand. I read the advance copy of the first book years ago and then decided never to read the first in a trilogy before the others were written, but they are all out in paperback now so I’ve come back. Angels are evil, it’s cool. There is also lots of sex but little sexual tension, which makes the sex pretty bland. In fact the fighting bits are much more interesting than the sex.

    Watching: Goldfish, swimming, or rather not swimming around a tank. Our local fair was this past weekend and there was, as always, a booth with goldfish as a prize. When the fair packed up instead of taking the leftover goldfish with them, the carnies dumped the fish into the fountain next to the bathroom. The fountain was filled with trout as CA Fish & Wildlife run a fishing game for kids at the fair. After the fair Fish & Wildlife can’t legally dump the farm raised trout in streams because they have been “contaminated” by the fair fountain. So they ask kids in the know to show up early to help them net the trout. It is one of the many highlights of my children’s lives. And this year in addition to trout they got to net goldfish. Lots and lots of goldfish. So we brought some goldfish home, everyone brought goldfish home. Apparently ours are the only ones still alive, but they aren’t doing well! They are hiding under a rock, not swimming in the tank. So I watch them, so I can scoop any out as soon as they die. (Also the trout ate the goldfish, we found them in trout bellies when we were gutting the trout. But alas those ones didn’t make it into our tank.)

    Thinking: I’m doing a lousy job looking for work while my kids are in school.

    Listening: Spotify has a legends playlist and I’m mostly listening to that. Gotta love some BeeGees. Also listening to a fair amount of Arab music in the car as the #1 Arab language radio station in the United States is based a half hour down the road.

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  2. Watching: Nothing indian, only Moonstruck. How I loved this film. Why I didn’t know earlier it’s so nice?

    Thinking:
    -About Moonstruck’s hindi remake I’m making in my head. I’m sure I want Swara in Cher’s role and Pankaj Tripathi as a boring fiance. But who can play Pankaj’s younger brother who falls in love with Swara? I don’t have idea? Maybe Vikrant?
    -My son starts high school in few days and I’m not ready for that. I’m super anxious but I don’t want him to see it, because he is already nervous on his own.
    -Should I renew my Zee5 subscription? I know they suck but Prime and Netflix stopped adding indian stuff and I don’t know what to watch. Zee seems to have some nice looking rom-coms I could like. Or should I subscribe to a new , very little known marathi ott? But I don’t have idea what they have and if there are subs. Even their twitter is almost all in marathi. Seems they are not ready for foreign viewers.

    Listening:
    Jatt Jaguar on repeat

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      • Yeah, I despise them too, but at least they have some content! Netflix and Prime are tragedy nowadays. Netflix produces one anthology movie nobody asked for after another, and Prime hardly adds something. need new romantic stuff badly.

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    • If you can guess what I’m watching you get 0 points because it’s obvious. However, also watching the final season of New Tricks, I don’t mind what’s her face but there is a real decline in quality.

      Debating getting some Christopher Lee movie posters because clearly what I need in my life is more posters for pulp movies from the 60s and 70s nobody has heard of. I got my Aan poster framed though, it’s gorgeous.

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      • So jealous of your framed poster!!!! This last move, I decided all my posters are going to be carefully stored until I have the money to properly frame them. No more slapdash half measures. But that also means now I have no posters on the wall, boo!

        I am on season 4 of New Tricks, it is a DELIGHT and still on the way up (better than the previous season which was better than the previous season and so on). And now I am worried that I only have 6 seasons left before the cast change, BOOO!!!! Oh, and Original Blonde Lady has grown on me SO MUCH. At first I found her kind of bland, but now I think she is a hoot.

        On Wed, Sep 8, 2021 at 3:06 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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        • Honestly it’s so hard to get good frames it’s a pretty cheap one, but it’s better than nothing.

          I really prefer Sandra Pullman, she has more emotional depth, though I haven’t seen enough of the series to know if that’s character development or acting style.

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    • I love Moonstruck so much! I rediscovered it a few years ago and had the same reaction you did. How about Vicky for the love interest? I like Vikrant but not sure he has the wild boy edge.

      My older son started middle school today and I was ready and I’m excited for him but I also feel like time is slipping through my fingers.

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      • Vicky isn’t bad, but you know who would be better – Vineet Kumar Singh. Thanks to Mukabaaz we know he looks good in sleevless t-shirts and that he has this imperfect sexiness in him .

        How is your son going? I’m worried for mine because he is introvert and don’t have friends. I hope he will find nice people now.

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  3. I am on vacation and apparently have a very short attention span. I watched half of Shershaah, half of Ray, two episodes of Feels Like Ishq, and one episode of A Suitable Boy.

    Shershaah I did find jingoistic, but I knew what I was getting into. I will probably finish it. Happy for Sid that he’s getting praise for his role! I knew it would happen eventually.

    Ray is not as bad as everyone says, I think. The stories are definitely potboilers, and with the benefit of fifty (or so) years they are a bit predictable, but I can’t be mad at Kay Kay Menon and Manoj Bajpayee.

    A Suitable Boy is interesting just to see the picturization of the novel that I spent so long reading. Tabu is really excellent. Not sure I’ll stick with it.

    Feels like Ishq is perfect if you have precisely 30 minutes to watch a nice happy story. I’ve been using it to cheer myself up between tasks.

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    • I have an even shorter attention span, since I have seen none of these things, not even one episode!!!! Also, was it Angie above who said that Netflix keeps churning out short film collections no one asked for? That is exactly how I feel. What happened to REAL MOVIES????

      On Thu, Sep 9, 2021 at 5:44 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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    • I really like the short film compilations. It allows me to see actors and directors I might not otherwise be familiar with. Two of the Lust Stories are so memorable I think of them, and smile, or ponder, all the time. I haven’t seen all the Feels Like Ishq stories yet. But when you see Interview let me know because I want to talk to someone about it!

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      • Yes, the good part of those short stories are the actors and directors e.g the next anthology Netflix is preparing is Ankahi Kahaniya. The directors are great: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Abhishek Chaubey and Saket Chaudhary. And the stars are: Kunal Kapoor, Rinku Rajguru who played Archie in Sairat and Zoya Hussain who I loved in Mukabaaz. I like all those people and I’m very happy they work, but personally I don’t have energy for another dark short story.

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      • We’ll definitely see Shang Chi but probably not for another week. Too many things for us too this weekend – and just as well to let one more week pass in terms of crowds.

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        • I took my 4th grader & 7th grader on a school night where they ended up not getting to bed till 10PM to avoid crowds… I made them wear masks through the whole movie and didn’t let them get popcorn. They were annoyed, but well, I was taking them to a movie.

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          • i’m gonna look up Monday matinees right now! I think the 100th festivities will be over early that day,a nd I took the whole day off work.

            On Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 11:04 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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      • Congrats on Grandpa making it to 100. I tell my kids it is good to be short because then your body doesn’t have to work so hard and you live longer. But your “large” family isn’t helping my theory.

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  5. Some real movies are coming:
    Bhoot Police releases tomorrow, if I’m not wrong
    This gem, I discovered today will be avalable from October 1st:

    And why we aren’t talking about Antim new poster and song? Varun does cameo in the song.

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      • Ugh. I might if I can find it, but the Hotstar stuff is so weird right now. That may be my reprieve.

        On Thu, Sep 9, 2021 at 2:14 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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      • Being honest I’m not excited at all for Bhoot Police, but I’ll try to watch it for Arjun.
        But what do you think about Shiddat? I feel it will have some good dances.

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        • Shiddat looks very fun, actually, do you know the stars?

          Honestly, I can’t muster much enthousiasm about anyone’s dancing, there is nobody truly good right now, barring Katrina and sometimes Tiger (his landings are messy and I think his muscles have impaired his agility). Then they do extremely annoying edits and slow motion etc. to mask the bad dancing. Every trick shot or edit is like they’re sticking a flag in it that reads THIS WAS TOO BAD TO JUST SHOW IN A STEADY MEDIUM SHOT. But who knows! Maybe I will get one steady medium shot this year!

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          • Oh, go watch Barso Ke Baad again and think of the glory days of one shot one take Madhuri!

            On Thu, Sep 9, 2021 at 3:18 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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          • Do you remember the girl who played Didi in Ray with Harsh Kapoor? She plays the heroine in Shiddat. And they hero is Vicky Kaushal’s younger brother Sunny. He was in Bhangra Pa Le. I only managed to watch 20 minutes of that movie, but if I remember well Sunny is a good dancer.

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  6. Watching: I am on a weird kick of watching a whole bunch of female secret agent/spy/assasin movies: So far I have watched Notorious, Hanna (movie and series), Zero Dark Thiry, Eva, Salt, Spy, Red Sparrow. Anna and Atomic Blonde are next on my list. This will all culminate in me finally watching The Black Widow when it becomes available for free on Disney.

    Reading: The last book I read was The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die based on Emily’s recommendation and it did not dissapoint. I have been so busy with work that I am a bit scared to start another book.

    To answer your question, definitely Badi Mushkil from Lajja. I just adore Madhuri in that song! Plus it is so catchy!

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    • Oh oh! Watch Taapsee’s spy movie Naam Shabana too! For comparison! And tell me how the Hanna TV show is. I thought the movie was so brilliant it hurts to watch (as do almost all Joe Wright films), but it was because it was about parenting and love and growing up, and I don’t think that is what the TV show is about so much?

      If you are busy, now is the perfect time to read Ms Marvel! So very VERY good. You can skip the boring intro books and just jump to Vol. 3 “Crushed”. And it’s a comic book, so it is an easy light read, little thought required, easy to pick up and put down.

      But Badi Mushkil Hai has Shahrukh! It’s like no one even cares any more.

      On Thu, Sep 9, 2021 at 4:55 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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    • Yay! So glad you liked it.

      I do love a good female assassin/spy movie. I will take this chance to recommend my two favorite Michelle Yeoh movies (also two of my favorite action movies of all time), Wing Chun and Supercop. And have you ever seen the original La Femme Nikita? Feel like that’s the true ur text of this version of Black Widow.

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      • Thanks for the recommendations! I’ll watch them both. Yes, I have seen the original La Femme Nikita a long time ago and remember it being excellent. I might need to rewatch it so I can compare it to Black Widow.

        Also, I wrote a longer note on one of Margaret’s post on The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die but I can’t remember which one. Thank you again for that recommendation! The book was excellent. Somlatha’s character was my favorite. I loved how she worked within the system to get everything she wanted and more. I now wish it were turned into a movie with Rekha as the Aunt, Rani or Juhi as Somlatha and Sanya Malhotra or Tripti Dimri as Bosho .

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    • 1. I will absolutely repost! I just thought no one cared 🙂 I’ll put it up tomorrow.

      2. Well, that’s weirdly disgusting! Feels in the same family as a reality competition show for life saving medical treatment, you know?

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      • Yay, thank you!

        And agreed, so gross on so many levels. Also just…what on Earth is PC doing there? What does she know about activism or philanthropy?

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        • I was thinking “how would this be NOT gross?” and then I thought, “well, maybe if they challenges weren’t directly related to the charities, so we could enjoy it as a fun game”. And then I thought, “wait, that’s just celebrity game shows already, they always play for a donation to their favorite charities”. So why not just DO THAT SOME MORE!!!!

          On Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 8:51 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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