Wednesday Watching: What Are You Watching and Reading and Thinking and Listening to 2 Days After Courtney’s Birthday???

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Happy Wednesday! And happy 2 days after Courtney’s birthday! Hopefully it was cool and pleasant, instead of hot and stressful.

I’ll start!

Watching: Another Brahmastra song! Big question, is this a “Alia is dead and he is dreaming of her” song or an “Alia is kidnapped and he has to rescue her” song or (my hope) a “I can vision Alia in my future but I don’t know any details about her yet” song?

Reading: A book on how to make a year round kitchen garden! I’m excited, partly because growing my own food is fun, but also because the winter is so slow and it seems like growing stuff is a good way to pass the time.

Thinking: Still just so nice to be home!!!! I’ve been working on my coloring book and just took a long long walk with Albie Dog and looked at my pumpkin plant that hopefully maybe will actually have pumpkins in a few more weeks.

Now, question for you! Along with the “Deva Deva” song discussion, of course. It’s “National Lazy Day”, what does that mean to you?

To me it means that I am going to eat deli ham with my fingers for lunch instead of bothering to make something better, and after work I am going to do a friend movie night from my couch instead of putting away laundry.

26 thoughts on “Wednesday Watching: What Are You Watching and Reading and Thinking and Listening to 2 Days After Courtney’s Birthday???”

  2. I think it’s none of the above, to me it looks like it’s happening in real time. Pretty sure Alia’s gonna be in all the sequels, so unless she only appears in flashbacks, she’s not dead.

    Bigger problem for me is that Arijit’s singing just doesn’t do it for me. I’ve wondered why I could never fully warm up to his voice considering he’s been the top singer for some time. Now I’ve realized that in romantic songs especially, he just sounds flat, no modulation, it all sounds same, and now it’s actively annoying me! Like Phir Na Aisi Raat from LSC is such a lovely ballad and I keep thinking of other singers who could’ve elevated it so much.

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  4. Looks like this is finally happening!

    I watched this cute romcom callled Wedding Season on Netflix with Pallavi Sharda and Suraj Sharma, liked it quite a bit! Pallavi is gorgeous, I wasn’t aware of her but she’s been in a few Hindi movies it seems! Here’s the trailer:

    Are you going to watch LSC? I haven’t seen Forrest Gump, how do you like it?

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    • I saw Wedding Season trailer and loved it. Many Netflix romantic movies are odd and cheap and you can see it in the trailers (e.g Namaste Wahala), but this one looks really good.

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      • Angie – you should totally watch it. The hero for some reason makes me think it’s a very Angie hero. I really like his character. But in terms of looks, he’s not my type at all (and I know we have opposite types in the looks department).

        It’s very cute and non offensive in anyway.

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    • Ahhh! I’m so glad you enjoyed Wedding Season!!! My friend is one of the producers of the movie! I had been meaning to put in a shameless plug for it (with Margaret’s permission, which she kindly gave me) by posting the trailer and asking anyone who is interested to watch it! But wanted to watch it first to make sure I really enjoyed it and I totally did!

      I don’t want to spoil it, but I especially liked both the main characters’ professional journey, if that makes any sense?

      Also, I’m just so happy that it’s a light, fun, happy rom com and not the gritty stuff people from Hindi Cinema usually make for Netflix!

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      • I plan to watch Wedding Season soon! Looks very cute and I was so excited about it. I’ll be sad if Indian -produced romantic comedies will be delegated to Netflix and streaming instead of theaters first, but I have certainly liked the straight to streaming Indian films like that one with Vicky Kaushal more than most of the American ones (Set It Up and Holidate being the only exceptions).

        I’m with Karan Johar in recent comments to Anupama I think when he said that the Hindi industry should do what it does best and that’s “romantic spectacle” and not get too caught up in the pan-Indian craze (which I am also an advocate for!). I think they can still do both.

        And Fawad Khan’s film finally coming out is so great. I hope it lives up to that old trailer. I tried watching a terrible early tv drama of his just to see something new from him and I regretted it immediately. Terrible production level and regressive gender roles.

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        • YES to everything!!!

          I really enjoyed Love By Square Foot also and yes, Set it Up and Holidate are two of my favorites. Set It Up is actually written by my sister in law’s close friend. So we got to do a wonderful watchalong for that one, which was fun. That was one of the first straight to Netflix movies that was supposed to be a throwback to old-school rom-com movies, which were unfortunately no longer making money in the theaters. Thankfully it was a massive hit and got Netflix to put money into the genre but unfortunately, the next set of rom com movies Netflix put money into were not so great.

          And yes, Hindi film should go back to doing happy romantic spectacles… PLEASE.

          Finally, I have gone down the rabbit hold of watching weird weird Fawad stuff and looking forward to Maula Jutt but even more so, I want to see the rom com with Fawad and Mahira that he has said is also completed but not released yet!!! Finally, the one old Fawad movie that I did enjoy was Armaan. It also has Aamina Sheikh from Cake, who is great. It’s a bit of a Cinderella story and the chemistry is amazing. If you haven’t seen it, and are craving some Fawad, check it out.

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          • Very cool about your Set It Up connection!

            My only complaint about the rom-com content on streaming now is that Disney Hotstar on Hulu in the States does not have English subtitles on a lot of their newer Hindi content. I’ve wanted to watch that Rajkumar and Kriti rom-com one but I can’t!

            I will seek out Armaan for sure! How did you watch it. I broke down and got Zee5 finally. Is it there? I’ve been planning to binge Churails for a while now and I missed Cake when it was on Netflix and now I can’t find it again! And yes, I’m more interested in the Fawad/Mahira romance one, too.

            Speaking of Pakistani stars, maybe you can tell me if Mowra Hocane has done anything worth seeing? Yet another actress whose Bollywood career was cut too short. Sanam Teri Kasam remains one of my favorite romantic films of all time!

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          • UGH! I agree. Hulu not having subtitles is so annoying. Unfortunately, this is why everyone turns to Einthusan. Hum Do Humare Do is on it with subtitles btw, if you choose to go that route.

            Armaan is on Prime Video for $0.99.

            Cake if on YouTube under B4U movies who is the official distributor, but unfortunately, it doesn’t have subtitles.

            I have not seen anything else by Mawra Hocane. If you end up watching something of hers you like, please let me know!

            This is making me realize that I haven’t seen a good Pakistani serial for a while now. We might have to ask Margaret to find us one that sounds interesting. The last one she picked, Heer, was quite enjoyable (besides one really weird plot point). The grandmothers in Heer are amazing and I can watch their interaction over and over again!

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          • I remember I had watched Armaan on your recommendation, so thank you for that! I wasn’t aware of the Fawad-Mahira movie, did he talk about it himself? With the Fawad-Sanam series also in the works, we’re finally about to get new Fawad content!

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          • I’m so glad you enjoyed Armaan. And yes, Fawad talked about his movie with Mahira in his interview with Anupama Chopra. From what I remember the only thing he
            mentioned was that it was a rom com and it was completed but not released yet.

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  5. I watched Rocketry and even with all my love for Maddy I must say it’s not a good movie. Madhavan wrote the script, the dialogues, he directed and produced the movie and of course played the main role. It’s too much for one person, and in my opinion he loved this project so much he wasn’t objective.
    Nambi Narayan’s life is fascinating, full of adventures and too rich to fit in one movie. It should be a series, or a movie focused on one thing (the espionage case). But Maddy, being too involved wasn’t able to cut some parts and put everything inside. And so we have Maddy pretending to be 20 y/o student talking phisics with other scientists (using jargon nobobody understands), Maddy in Princeton, Maddy in India, In France, again in France, In USRR (in full James Bond style) and only then in the last 30 minutes – espionage charges, the only interesting and moving part. But because it’s almost end, everything is rushed and superficial. Good someone made a movie abut Nambi sir but he deserved a better film.

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  6. I watched Darlings the other night and I really liked it. It’s not a perfect film, but the intention behind it was good, the acting performances all very very good. The first hour or so is a little slow and it could have used more of the darker comedic moments throughout. Shefali Shah was the best part for me. I know that Vijay Varma will be typecast forever (just saw MCA for the first time recently, too, and he is a good villain) and he is perhaps better suited to supporting roles and character work anyway. Still would love to see him in a sexy thriller or even a quirky rom-com while he’s still youngish.

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      • I really need to do more classics watching. I am totally not up on Sridevi’s old movies except for Mr India and Chandni. And maybe English Vinglish and Mom are the only other of her films I’ve seen. Sorry that watchalongs aren’t my thing else I would join you all. (At least my return to commenting again might stick this time!).

        Random and speaking of classics, I really want a good DVD copy of Seeta aur Geeta, one of my favorite classics of all time. That Hema scene on the fan in the police station is one of my favorite scenes in cinema of all time. None of the new releases are getting DVD distribution and now with all of the talk about things disappearing on streaming services, it makes me value my DVD collection even more (even though I know DVD’s also pose a preservation issue). My DVD collection is just so comforting!

        Darlings is a good one-time watch and continues Alia’s stream of quality films.

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        • Oooh! If you enjoyed Seeta Aur Geeta (which obviously is just so good) check out Sridevi’s Chaalbaaz. I also recommend Mr. Bechara and Chaand Ka Tukdaa, and obviously the Nagin (snake) movies. If you truly want a classic, watch Sadma. However, fair warning, it will break your heart and make your cry cry cry. My parents made me watch it as a kid and I am still a bit traumatized from it.

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  7. Forgot to comment on the Deva Deva song. I couldn’t tell what was going on in the song at all either! The song was fine, but I’m more into and interested in the bombastic score and choral stuff overall. I think after RRR’s amazing score and music, Brahmastra will be inevitably compared to it and I hope it at least hits some good notes.

    I was more focused on the CG visuals and Ranbir’s “training” movements. Kind of weird at times.

    I do have high hopes for Shiva No. 1 which is what I will now call it! But I think the CG effects will be alternating cool and silly/too simplistic and it will harm the overall effect. Also the clip of dialogue between Alia and Ranbir in the trailer was cringe in both the content and delivery. Hopefully in context it will be better.

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  8. OK, one more comment for the Reading portion of the discussion. I read Baaz by Anuja Chauhan recently (I have read all of her books except for the newest which I just haven’t ordered a copy of yet online). I loved Baaz and her writing is so cinematic and this one especially was like a Bollywood romance drama, bromance, and a war/spy thriller with a huge dollop of Top Gun in it. I want to see this on screen so badly, but now that Zoya Factor didn’t do great and Battle for Bittoria is in development limbo, I don’t know if one of her books will see the screen again. I love her writing so much! It feels like reading a really good movie and the dialogue is snappy and clever always. And I know just enough Hindi and cultural references that I can fully enjoy her books as well, since she drops in bits of Hindi quite often.

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  9. I feel like my birthday was so long ago at this point that I kind of forgot what I did, haha. It was hot but I don’t think stressful, aside from general “I hope I made my birthday special” because I just went swimming and went out to dinner with my family. But thank you! Don’t really have much to report for all of the categories, and I can probably skip to the next Wednesday post anyway. 🙂

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