Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to This Week?

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Happy Wednesday! This week is going very fast for me, partly because we are shortstaffed at work (stupid summer vacations), and partly because I am working on the sewing project every free moment. Look, it’s Wednesday already!

I’ll start!

Reading: There is a gang of pigs roaming in a Chicago suburb, so far avoiding all police detection. This story delights me: https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/loose-pigs-still-managing-to-evade-capture-in-chicago-suburb/2913775/

Watching: My friend is supposed to come over tonight so I might FINALLY see Darlings. Or, we will last minute decide to watch something else. Anything is possible!

Thinking: I get to see Rahman live on Saturday! Tickets were bought and concert planned and all that months ago, and I totally forgot about it until yesterday. But now I am working on getting myself excited. It’s an outdoor park venue, so it should be really interesting and beautiful no matter what.

Listening: I gotta start listening to Rahman! Especially new Rahman because he always likes to bring out his new stuff in concerts. I think the most recent Rahman I’ve listened to is 99 songs:

Question for you: What is your favorite Rahman song/what song should I listen to before the concert to be ready?

36 thoughts on “Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to This Week?”

  1. Reading: I am slowly getting back to reading after being forced to read books that I didn’t like for a book club. So I have chosen ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ as my first book. Hopefully it’ll go well and I’ll actually finish it.

    Watching: I mentioned this in an other post but I watched ‘Sita Ramam’ with Dulquer Salman. I really liked it and I feel the people in this blog will also like it so if its playing in a cinema near you, you can try to watch it. I also watched Race 2 which was just the de-stressor I needed this week as it’s so DUMB.

    Listening: Not been listening to much except this song that’s been playing nonstop in my mind.

    Thinking: I have social anxiety and how to cope with it. I can’t currently afford therapy so I need to find some alternatives. I don’t know, I believe due to certain experiences in my life, I have started fearing people. Honestly I don’t know what to do.

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    • Oh, I’m so sorry you have social anxiety! The best/only advice I can give is to be kind to yourself and do what makes you feel safe. For me at least, I am much more likely to push myself too hard to do hard things and then boomerang back to an even worse place. And you can always hang out on DCIB, we love everyone and won’t be mean or scary.

      Also, ooooo! Picture of Dorian Gray! That’s an Oscar Wilde, right? And also I sometimes think, what Anil Kapoor is doing because he is insanely youthful.

      I would totally watch Sita Ramam before LDC! If I get an urge to movie watch, it will be my first choice.

      And your listening song is also a Rahman song!!!! So it works in two ways with this post.

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      • That is really so comforting to hear.

        I also believe that Anil Kapoor is the real life Dorian Gray as he looks younger than his kids, nephew/niece and literally everyone.

        I am honestly obsessed with the whole Kandukondain Kandukondain soundtrack. It’s just so good but this is my favorite due to how its played in the climax.

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        • Kanudkondain Kandukondain is the first Rahman CD I bought! By accident actually, I wanted Saathiya and somehow ended up with an Alai Payuthay/Kandukondain Kandukondain double pack.

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  2. Watching: Three nights, three rom-coms…the rom-com marathon continues. I rewatched Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania last night (and so far it stays on the top 25 list). I think I’ve probably seen this one twice before and while I’m still always lukewarm on Varun…this may be my favorite of his movies. Alia is bordering on bratty in this one and still finding her way as an actress but it works for her. But Ashutosh Rana as her dad really steals this movie for me, since his character is so clearly struggling to suppress the toxic masculinity that he expected to display. Love how the mom and grandma talk him down and even his brother-in-law. And Humpty’s friends and all of the other supporting characters while not extremely fleshed out are so fun. And RIP Sidharth Shukla…a very sweet performance from him. Such a charming film and should always be watched perhaps soon after watching DDLJ to completely enjoy the references. The music isn’t as good as I wanted it to be, but passable. The production overall has that nice Dharma polish though.

    Won’t even attempt to rewatch Badrinath Ki Dulhania for the list because that movie reeks of toxic masculinity. I liked Alia and Varun’s pairing again in Kalank (which I liked more than most people).

    Can’t wait to hear your take on Darlings, Margaret! Hope you right a review of it.

    Hope those pigs get caught!

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  3. You should definitely listen to Ponni Nadhi from Ponniyin Selvan -1! Very addictive, especially the chorus. Also, he has already performed it live, so Rahman will probably do it again.

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    • Ha I was thinking of suggesting this exact song, Neeti’s version included! From his recent albums, I love Maskhari from Dil Becharaa and Toofan Si Kudi from Atrangi Re – they just instantly lift my mood 🙂

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  5. I finally watched “Sharmaji Namkeen.” For some reason I had felt some anxiousness around starting it. . . end of an era or something, I don’t know. Makes very little sense as Rishi was never a favorite of mine! It’s a very sweet movie and I didn’t find the alternation between Rishi and Paresh Rawal difficult to take. I was fortunate that I spent Sunday cooking with a friend and had lots of leftovers to bring back to the house on Monday. Very hungry-making movie!

    My parents really wanted me to visit home for my birthday and finally sprung for plane tickets. I should be back on the ranch starting next Tuesday. I’ll have to share this pig story with them; one of our most mortifying incidents when I was growing up was a defiant yearling goat getting loose between the stock trailer and the slaughterhouse door. He was “at large” in Scott City, KS for the better part of a week. Left us liable for thousands in damages, the bugger! My mother was so embarrassed that she started using a meat locker in a completely different town.

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        • That’s this Sunday! Are you available for a watchalong? Is Margaret? What are we watching? And Happy Early Birthday! I hope you are doing something fun to celebrate!

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          • I am NOT available for a watchalong! In honor of Shelomit’s birthday, I am going to an AR Rahman concert Saturday night and I expect to be dead tired all day on Sunday. I would feel bad, but I feel like if I asked Shelomit “would you rather I go see fabulous live music performed in a gorgeous outdoor setting, or watch a movie?”, she would tell me to go see the fabulous live music performance.

            On Fri, Aug 19, 2022 at 10:27 AM dontcallitbollywood < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:

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      • Fawad and Mahira have completed a romcom that should be coming out at some point also! I am going to watching anything with Fawad but I am more excited about the rom com than Maula Jutt, specifically because I don’t know how dark this will get.

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        • Yes, I have a high fighting with swords and axes tolerance, but it helps if there’s a bit of humor or love to lighten the mood too.

          Rom com sounds fun! I’m still bummed Mahira’s Superstar never showed up anywhere I could watch. Wish Pakistani films had better distribution. Even Ho Mann Jahaan and Cake disappeared, I like both but can’t recommend them anymore.

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  7. I can’t wait to see the Legend of Maula Jatt, too! What a great trailer.

    Rewatched Hasee Toh Phasee last night as part of my rom-com marathon. I do still love it and it’s solidly in my top 5 still. Sid is underrated of course in this and Parineeti is a bit overrated in this performance, mostly because of the cheesy choice she makes with how she conveys being overmedicated, but in most of the softer moments she is wonderful and quirky and tough in a good way. Also like how sometimes she conveys the numbness of her mental state so well in the climax scene for instance. The angry uncle is too OTT. The blouse tie scene is still one of the sexiest scenes I’ve ever seen on screen. The music is also one of my favorite rom-com sdtks of all time.

    Somewhat related…did you all know that Parineeti opted out of Animal with RK in order to do Imtiaz Ali’s Chamkila with Diljit, about a Punjabi singer and his wife and their tragic killing? I hadn’t heard this and I was looking at her filmography and feeling nervous about her career trajectory, but now I’m more optimistic. I think I totally see her reasoning here and this could be a career-defining performance if Ali doesn’t screw it up. She also has that interesting supporting (I assume) role in the upcoming Amitabh, Bomani, Anupam film (which could be good). But then another Akshay film…boo.

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    • I did not know about Parineeti’s next movies! I just looked up Chamkila and the real story sounds amazing. And controversial, I wonder if Imtiaz is going to give an explanation for the deaths or leave it sudden and mysterious?

      On Thu, Aug 18, 2022 at 8:18 AM dontcallitbollywood < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:

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      • I’ve been doing a lot of wikipedia deep dives lately and tracking releases I’ve missed in the last few years and upcoming ones. Despite the stupid identity crisis Hindi films are having and the completely stupid boycott stuff, lot’s of interesting upcoming releases. I’ll always be so invested in Parineeti and Arjun’s careers. (His upcoming Kuttey sounds promising, too).

        Yeah, I read through the Chamkila story too last night and it does sound like the makings of a fascinating film. I hope he leaves it mysterious! It’s going to draw a lot of ire no matter what though because of the controversial nature of his music, too. I’m definitely going to go find some of the songs in advance. Wonder if Diljit and maybe even Parineeti will do their own singing or if they will use the originals? The tone of this biopic kind of reminds me of the Marc Anthony/JLo Hector Lavoe biopic, El Cantante, told from the point of view of his wife. Also tragic ending for him.

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        • I am debating listening to the original songs, because on the one hand Punjabi folk does nothing for me, but on the other hand I love Yoyo and YoYo loves this guy, so maybe?

          I think diljit almost always does his own singing, I would be surprised if he doesn’t for this. Surely it is part of why they caste him, right?

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          • Yeah, I think they have to have Diljit sing his own and possibly Parineeti, too, since his wife was his co-singer.

            I just listened to a few of his songs on YouTube and since I don’t know much about Punjabi folk music at all, I don’t know how they are, but they song like what I expected them to sound like, if that makes sense. Especially was interested in hearing him and his wife together and there are some on YouTube, though I haven’t found any video of them yet.

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