Over the past few weeks, gaaaaaaah! Life is crazy!!! So I haven’t really sat down and concentrated on something to review-review since Ms Marvel. But there are some random things I can talk about just to get a post up and get my brain working again.
Podcast that MUST Become a Romance Movie About Two Decent People Victimized By the Same Scam Artist!
I spent the whole drive to my sister’s and back again binging this podcast “Something Was Wrong”. It’s fascinating, it’s a series of first person stories of really crazy relationship abuse. Crazy like unbelievably complicated and confusing gaslighting and lies. And there was one season that feels like this couple of victims could actually end up in love in reality and they certainly are in love in my fanfic.
In the real story, this woman is 30 years old and about to get her MBA and ready to have kids and settle down. She meets a seemingly perfect guy, he’s British, he’s in residency after med school, he is also ready to have kids, and he’s charming and sweet and loving and nice to her family and everything good. The relationship moves quickly, he is about to go on a volunteer trip for 3 months and gives her an ultimatum that he will stay if she asks him to stay, he says “I love you” really early on, and then he proposes. Meanwhile, her family is increasingly unsure about him, even suggests he may not really be in residency because someone they know at the hospital doesn’t know him. But she is all in. And then bam, she gets pregnant. And after that, she is sort of locked in. She knows from shortly after the baby is born that this was a mistake. But also shortly after the baby is born, he starts talking about how maybe he should take the baby away, maybe the baby would be better without her. He apologizes after he says it every time, but it sticks with her. So she stays in this horrible relationship, knowing he is using her for her salary, knowing she is essentially a single parent, knowing she doesn’t love him at all, because it’s easier to just keep going than to risk a custody battle.
Meanwhile, there is a man who is married to his college sweetheart. They’ve been together for years and have two young children. The kids are finally both in school so his wife (who has been a stay at home Mom) can have a little freedom. He offers to watch the kids one night a week while she goes out with her girlfriends. And then she comes back one night and tells him she met a guy at a bar. This guy is amazing, he’s a millionaire, he’s British, he’s a doctor. She is all twirly and happy about it and her husband is like “uh, excuse me? We’re married?” but it’s as though she doesn’t even care. Her husband is ready to stick it out because they have two kids, so they go into marriage counseling and everything, but at the same time she is still seeing this other guy on the side. It’s back and forth and exhausting and finally he gives up and asks for a formal separation. It’s still exhausting, because the guy is beginning to be threatening to the husband and his wife, he’s afraid for his kids, his wife says she is going to leave and come back to him and then changes her mind, and on and on and on. And in the middle of this he starts doing some internet research and manages to track down the guys “ex-fiancee and mother of his child” and reaches out to her family who says “YES! We have been trying to get her to leave him for ages! Please come and talk to her.”
In the conversation between woman 1 and this guy and his wife they learn that not only was he cheating, he was never in med school, isn’t even British, is a scam artist who makes money by lying and cheating and threatening law suits, and also pulling women into his web and living off of them. It’s crazy and also a massive relief for the first woman, FINALLY she has enough to feel safe leaving him as she has wanted to for years.
On his side, it doesn’t work out as he hoped, he brings his wife to learn that her “boyfriend” has been living with/off of another woman this whole time, and his wife doesn’t seem to really react. On the other hand, this other woman is the first person to ask him “how are you doing with all of this?”. After one meeting, they are instant best friends. They talk every day, they are the only people who share this crazy story. They help each other with their respective court cases, they bond over fear for their kids, they are a mutual support system.
So, that’s the real story. Horrible conman traps woman by getting her pregnant, and then seduces other woman and traps her husband because he is tied to her through their kids. Husband and first woman become best friends, defenders, rescuers, mutual support system. But really, this has to be a romance, right? If I were to make it a movie, I would have:
First woman: Anushka Sharma
Husband: Ranveer Singh
Tricked Wife: Taapsee Pannu
Evil Conman: Vikrant Massay
And in a much clearer simpler conversation topic, check out Dips in her new motion poster!
dontcallitbollywood 
I would choose Vikrant for husband role and Ranveer for the conman. But maybe it would be too similar to Haseen Dilruba? Who cares, Vikrant is just too good in sad husband roles.
The conman says he is British, so how about casting a southern actor in this role? Don’t know why but my first thought was Arya. I don’t even like him much.
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Arya might be interesting because the conman has to be both charming and threatening. And definitely keep the “I’m British” lie. That flip from a perfect accent to no accent at all is too dramatic to lose.
The conman part is the juicier one, I kind of like the idea of Vikrant playing sweet and charming and then suddenly flipping to threatening and sociopathic.
On Tue, Aug 2, 2022 at 4:21 PM dontcallitbollywood < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:
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wow – what a story!! Can the conman actually be someone pretending to be British?!? Either a white guy or an Indian actor who can do a British accent but also speaks Hindi? I would love to see Anushka and Taapsee in a movie together, though preferably one in which they would interact more. Those are two powerhouse actors.
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We could have them interact a lot! That’s part of the weirdness of this real life story, the two women confront each other and the Anushka person’s response is “Thank God, I have a way to leave him, I’m out” while Taapsee’s response is “I don’t believe it, you are tricking him, he doesn’t really love you just me” and she will not be swayed from it. Having Anushka play blunt and practical and sane versus Taapsee being wild and living in a fantasy world and denying everything she is being told could be some GREAT scenes. Especially as they keep interacting and Anushka keeps trying to convince her and Taapsee occasionally seems to believe her before changing again.
Definitely a dude pretending to be British! A conman who learned that a British accent could automatically open doors and make folks believe he is rich and powerful works even better in India than it would in America.
On Tue, Aug 2, 2022 at 5:19 PM dontcallitbollywood < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:
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Great casting and it sounds like a fun podcast to check out!
Just checking in after some time away from commenting and watching Indian content for a bit. Hope you are having fun with the nephew. Aunting is fun, but tiring for sure!
I won’t run down all the content I’ve been consuming since I last checked in, but I did go on a 16 Indian movie binge in the last couple of weeks. All of a sudden I needed to watch all the Vijay Deverakonda, Nani, Sai Pallavi rom coms I could find. And just generally trying to catch up on the last couple of years of movies I missed as I’m still not watching as much I used to…so here are some relatively succinct thoughts on some of my latest watches.
Good Luck Jerry (watching right now) – totally sucks
Kill Dil – weird rewatch – still pretty bad, but god I miss Ali Zafar and his ridiculously hot voice
Dear Comrade – Vijay and Rashmika are definitely a new fav jodi – the falling in love sequence of this one is perfection
Ante…Sundaraniki! – too long, but the writing and Nani’s acting are both top notch
Shyam Singha Roy – Sai Pallavi is always luminous, but Nani really surprised me with some great dramatic acting in the final scenes too which made me cry like a baby
Dasvi – I liked this more than most I think…this is the kind of role Abhishek can really shine in and one of his best (and sexiest) roles in a while
Virata Parvam – bleak but interesting
Jayeshbhai Jordaar – not that bad, don’t understand why it flopped
JugJugg Jeyo – I feel about Varun the way you do about Ranbir and overall this movie was completely forgettable
Geetha Govindam – Vijay and Rashmika 4Ever!
RRR – it was OK (just kidding…it lived up to the hype)
Gangubhai – Alia really is good in it, but the story was too dark for me to love it and the music was not memorable at all
Ms. Marvel – I’ve been reading the Ms Marvel comics since they came out and I thought the show did them justice and Fawad’s movies better come out soon! I tried to watch a lesser known older tv drama of his and it was really awful…he deserves some true star vehicles
Koffee With Karan Season 7 – Karan has really lost any bit of class he ever had in the paths his questions take, so far Samantha and Vijay were the only ones that didn’t play his game as much and came out of it all with more dignity…there’s no real substance on it at all, I’m hoping Kareena and Amir will class up the place this week
Looking foward to the big fall of films, especially Darlings, Brahmastra, Liger, and Vikram Vedha. I’m really intrigued by Merry Christmas with Katrina and Vijay S. Hope it’s not too dark, more like Agent Vinod than Badlapur!
Have you seen any good rom-coms lately that I would like? What do you think about the future of Hindi films now that pan-Indian cinema really is becoming a thing? I do agree with Karan Johar from a recent interview with Anupama where he said that the industry really needs to embrace what it does best (and I think he’s talking about the lavish romantic spectacles and not trying to imitate the South with second-rate Bahubali films like Shamshera).
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OMG, you watched so much! I am glad someone besides me finally watched and enjoyed Dear Comrade. Yes, it is a crazy crazy movie, but the love story is so charming.
If you can find it, you should watch Love Story! It’s another Sai Pallavi movie by the same person who did Fidaa. That’s the only cute rom-com I can remember recently.
And YES Ms Marvel!!!! Such a sweet good show that didn’t run away from the warm family feel of the books.
On Tue, Aug 2, 2022 at 8:21 PM dontcallitbollywood < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:
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Yes, Ante…Sundaraniki! is so long. I lost the count for how many days I was watching it. The trailer promised a cute and simple love story of Brahmin boy and Christian girl, but the movie was so long, tangled and full of flashbacks I lost my patience.
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