Happy Monday! Many people in America are off work today, but I am not. I am enjoying work though! We have a new employee starting, so we are all sharing photos of our pets with her.
Here is where you get to ask me anything you want! From “how are you celebrating MLK Day?” to “Martin Luther King Jr or Gandhi, who is better?” Just keep swinging back here all week as you think of new questions!!!
Now, question for you! It was Sid M’s birthday yesterday, in his honor, which of these instagrams do you like better?
What he calls his “hmmmm pose”
Or his super optimistic and supportive New Year’s Post!
dontcallitbollywood 
Well, Dhanush and Aishwaryaa are separating. I’m feeling so sad at the moment, but I hope for the best for them both in the future. This just guts me so much.
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So I was watching all these Dhanush movies, though not all the way through, because I’m a bit stressed and have have a hard time commiting to my mind to singular things when this happens, but anyway I was watching Dhanush movies, like the one with Taapsee that is so famous and she is such a baby, and his look of love hasn’t changed AT ALL. He looks at every actress in every movie the same way. Now I have a good marriage at the moment, but I still love seeing the chemistry on screen, and I was wondering if it is this desire to be looked at with love & longing like that.
So anyway I went up to spouse, who was mildly intoxicated and asked him to look at me with love, and he gave me every goofy face possible, but then when I paid attention, and he was just looking at me, it was with love. I don’t think I always pay attention. But every time I tried to look at him with love he said I looked like I was farting. Which is exactly what he said about three years ago when I tried to immitate SRK’s look of love. But I don’t know if I really look like I’m farting or he just thinks it is funny to say so, I suspect the latter.
And i wonder with Dhanush, how often he gave that look of love to his wife, or if it isn’t really a look of love at all. And if he did ever give it to his wife, how often did she pay attention? But then the next thought is who had an affair with whom? I hope there kids do well with it. Their mutual announcements are a good sign.
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This is a lovely comment, I feel like I just took a journey through Genevieve’s mind.
Dhanush and Aishwarya got married when they were 20 and 22. To my mind, that’s enough of a reason to get a divorce. Or rather, enough of an explanation. The person you are at 20 can be so different from the person you are at 40.
But it is an interesting thought. People who professionally express love, does that make it harder or easier for them to express love at home? Or does it have no effect? Or is it more a matter of just being exhausted, giving of yourself so much at work that it is hard to be giving at home? Could being married to an actor in some ways be the same as being married to a therapist, or a minister, or a doctor?
On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 10:05 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Wow! That’s beautifully put, Genevieve. My uncle is a stage actor and far as I can see he and my Aunt have a very good marriage. So, I guess it really depends on the people and circumstances.
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I like the second one…it gives good wishes for every journey one wants to adventure in… all the best for Dhanush and Aishwaryaa…
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This economist guy I follow on Twitter (who also tweets about his personal pop culture interests) asked for recs for favorite Indian movie videos, and it made me think many thoughts.
– All of the most fun and best produced song videos I could think of are a few years old. Like the newest one was Mere Naam Tu.
Is that just me because I haven’t been paying attention? Or is spectacular song production part of what’s missing lately and making movies feel smaller and less exciting? Where are our beautiful Mani Ratnam-type set pieces?
– The song video as a cultural artifact is so different from place to place, but we can find them all on YouTune so now we’re mixing these different things into one category. The American MTV idea of a music video is a mini movie created to showcase an artist’s vision of their song, usually featuring the performing artist who may have also created that song. The Indian music video may be that but is also likely to be part of a movie where the song fits in the context of the movie’s story and features the movie actors rather than the musical artist. Korean music videos feature the performance artists, like American videos, but with more focus on spectacle and less connection between the performer and the creator of the songs, like Indian music videos. (Forgive the generalizations, I know there are exceptions to all of these!)
(K-pop song with Korean heritage elements, amazing visual performance, but the song was written by two American songwriters with a Korean producer mixing musical styles from three continents.)
(As opposed to a US example of a mini movie built around a song and artist identity. Loved this and found it hilarious.)
These things seem like not the same thing, but people across different countries watch from their context and understanding.
– When you share songs with people who don’t know Indian music or movies do you just let them enjoy the videos with no context, or are you tempted to try to explain things? (You can tell I have the overthinking problem!)
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(and here’s the Twitter thread with the recs people gave him in case anyone is curious https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1482948068223827972)
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I share your overthinking problem!
First, I agree with your complaint that songs aren’t as good. At first I was ready to argue, because certainly there have been a lot of songs with big budgets and spectacle and stuff. But, they just aren’t GOOD! I can look at Gerua, and I can enjoy it, and appreciate it, but something is missing that was there in “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”. Not imaginative enough, or clever enough, or soulful enough, SOMETHING. I agree with you about Mere Naam Tu. It’s not the spectacle, it’s the child dancers, and the hotel hallway setting, and the wild spectacle contained in a small space. It just feels special instead of a song for the sake of a song.
Maybe that’s part of it? The Hindi industry is increasingly run by people who seem to hate their own industry, in a strange way. They complain about how it’s not as good as western films and blah blah blah. And so they add songs because they feel they have to, not because they love them. While in other places, where music and videos have less of a history, people would only do them if they really LOVED them. And in the non-Hindi industries, where the rot is less, the filmmakers accept and enjoy songs as part of the films they love and love making.
When I share songs, it depends on the song. I was just doing this actually, I showed a co-worker two songs from “Lucky: No Time For Love”. The first song, you need no context, it tells you everything you need to know:
And the other song, I explained that the heroine has hypothermia, they are hiding out backstage at a theater, so he is singing to keep her awake:
Those were in the same movie, and a movie made by a pair of former song directors who really understand songs and enjoy them, and I find it interesting that they used an out of context and in context song depending on what they needed at that moment in the film. I guess I would say that is the most important way Hindi film songs are made for films? It’s not about whether or not they fit in the narrative, but whether they are proper for fitting within that moment of the film? Whether it is introducing a character, building a relationship, or just giving the audience an adrenaline burst before an important moment. It’s not about the song in isolation, it’s the song as part of the whole sweep of the film experience.
Does that make sense? For me personally, I prefer not to watch song videos from movies I haven’t seen yet. Because even later when watching them in isolation, there is so much more enjoyment when I know where it fits in the film. Not plotwise, but like “ooo, this is right before the big finale fight scene! I can feel the tension building!”
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I don’t know if you really want to get me started on the decline of visualisations, but anyway. I think there are several things that have gone wrong: decline of technical dance ability, less money put towards songs meaning the staging isn’t as good, film trends being hostile to good song sequences.
Obviously there are great dancer/actors in India, but they are not getting hired. For some reason (speed of filming? no will?) they are not putting the same amount of money into staging and filming the songs. Fast editing which is fashionable in other areas is also applied to dance sequences (this happens in American movies too now) for fear of boring the audience, also to hide the lack of good dancing and the lack of actual sets and so on. But that ruins elaborate staging and choreography.
As to the motives, I am not sure, but I also I think the cultural climate is hostile to (especially non-diegetic) songs visualisations. I’d have to read an article on current movie trends since I don’t watch “good” modern American movies, and therefore don’t know what’s considered a “good movie” now, but if an Indian movie wants to be “good” instead of for the plebs, what they do is have no song sequences but instead songs playing in the background like an American movie soundtrack.
I guess right now the pandemic means it’s difficult to actually do, as well.
I don’t generally explain song sequences because I don’t think it’s necessary, except Govinda’s Superman song, which nobody ever believes is supposed to be a funny dream sequence, not a serious song.
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Monday morning (okay it is actually evening now) question: When are you going to see Pushpa?
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HA! That was almost going to be one of my suggestions of questions!!! I don’t know. This weekend I watched Passing for my church movie discussion group which killed my thinky movie energy. Oh! It should be our watchalong this week! Right? Then I can watch it painlessly.
What do you think?
On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 10:09 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Honestly, I think it deserves more attention than a watch-a-long for the first time you see it. But if it is Saturday morning I’ll watch!
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If it’s Saturday morning, I’ll be awake and alert! And you can explain things to me so I don’t miss anything. (it’s that “attention” that’s killing me, if I can’t watch it in the background while I’m working, it’s hard to find a time to watch it!)
On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 1:12 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Did you hear Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (dubbed in hindi) will release in cinemas this Republic Day? I hate this movie but I think it’s a great idea for cinemas and for Allu Arjun’s fans. But what will happen with Kartik Aaryan’s version they are filming now?
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Oh wow, I forgot about the remake! Which I thought was a bad idea anyway since the film rises and falls on Allu Arjun’s charm and there isn’t a “plot” really to remake.
On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 5:53 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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When asked what he thinks about this situation, Paresh Rawal who has a role in hindi remake said: “our Hindi version (Shehzada) compared to the South one is much more refined, if I can say that. The sets are fantastic, the house we shot in Delhi is beautiful, the overall production value of the film is very good”.
It’s funny because I rarely remember houses from movies, but I do remember the cool house in Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo and I don’t think they can beat it. And apart from that I have seen Rohit Dhawan’s last movie and I wouldn’t call it refined or visually nice so…
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Oh, they changed their mind:
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Yeah, that was smart. Maybe the people who bought the remake rights went “HEY! You can’t do that!”
On Fri, Jan 21, 2022 at 7:49 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I haven’t been keeping up at all but when is Shahrukh’s next movie supposed to come out? And are you excited about it or not that much?
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Shahrukh still hasn’t officially confirmed his next film at all, which is fascinating. Paparazzi has tracked him to filming locations overseas, with Deepika Padukone. Rumor has it that his next will be an action film with Yash Raj called “Pathan” co-starring Dips. With the pandemic delays and Aryan’s arrest delays and all of that, I am guessing they are holding off on any announcement of any kind until they have a firm release date.
On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 8:02 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Hmm, it is weird that he’s actually filming and there still hasn’t been an official announcement. I just saw that it’s a Sidharth Anand movie and I’m not sure how to feel about that. I’m assuming this will also be an action movie like War and Bang Bang?
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Yeah, everyone seems pretty sure it’s an action film. It is weird they haven’t announced, but then Brahmastra did announce and took FOREVER. So maybe they thought this was better.
On Thu, Jan 20, 2022 at 9:24 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well, I would say that Brahmastra is more of an outlier with all the delays it’s had. I honestly won’t believe that movie will come out until it’s actually out 🙂
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And it ties into a Salman Khan movie that has been delayed as Pathan was supposed to come out first?
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Yeah, I just read that Yash Raj is trying to create a spy franchise with this movie and the Tiger movies. I don’t know if that’ll be a successful approach in Indian cinema tbh.
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