Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to ONE WEEK BEFORE PATHAAN?

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Happy Wednesday! A week from today I take a day off work and go see Pathaan the very earliest show I can manage. And then see it again in the evening with friends who were too foolish to take the day off work.

I’ll start!

Reading: Laura again! I made a date to discuss it with a friend in a few weeks, so I have to reread it. Hopefully she likes it more than some of y’all did. And in other book news, I just bought some new coloring books, art deco themed, very fun.

Watching: I started Xena! It’s very soothing. Very feminist, very 90s, very escapist. Oh, and I’m showing Dostana to someone for the first time, they know it from “Desi Girl” and there is SO MUCH MORE that is good in it.

Thinking: It’s so grey and blech here, I’m sleepy all the time and just don’t want to do anything. But good news, I just scheduled another trip to California! So now I can look forward to seeing a friend, AND seeing sunshine.

Listening: Pathaan!!!! I wish there were more songs, ugh.

Now, question for you! In honor of Pathaan, a nice simple one. What is your favorite SRK movie?

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62 thoughts on “Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to ONE WEEK BEFORE PATHAAN?”

  1. Watching: I watched Athadu and OMG, where was this film my whole life. I’m a simple girl who likes escapist romances, this weird assassin with a heart of gold story is literally the most perfect thing for me. I loved how the director really made a deeper film than he should’ve.

    Reading: I read Piranesi and the book is so heartbreaking. It’s a book that is quite dividing as the first half is very descriptive and there seems to be no plot. However as we read it, we find out more and it becomes devastating. I’m also reading Farewell to Arms which I’m only on the initial stages of, so I can’t say anything yet.

    Thinking: It’s so freaking cold! Every morning I am freezing and until I come back home, I feel like I will never be warm in my life. Literally sometimes I’m outside and I think is it possible for it to be this cold.

    Listening: I am listening to one of my favourite item songs of all time. Rasiya from Mangal Pandey.

    My favourite SRK movie is probably Chak de India/Swades as Dil Se is just too sad. I mean that film was an experience, which while was beautiful was too hard to get through. The songs are gorgeous though especially Ae Ajnabi.

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  2. I watch Chup: Revenge of the Artist and I think you should also watch it Margaret. I know little about Bollywood classics and saw only one Guru Dutt’s film in my life, but still I enjoyed a lot all the mentions and little stuff they put here and there. (e.g In one of the scenes a guy gives paper flowers to his girl, and I was like : aaaww he gave her kaagaz ke phool)
    I would like to know what others think about this film because I’m not sure how I feel. Guru Dutt’s inspired scenes were great, but some others were ridiculous. Sunny Deol was perfectly cast as a policeman, the heroine was very good also, and then there was Dulquer, who I usually like, but here I couldn’t stop imagining his father doing this role (he would be perfect, and only thinking about it gives me chills while Dulquer gave me 0 chills).

    Monsoon Raaga (kannada) – the reason why I subscribed to Zee. I saw the poster some time ago and fell in love. I haven’t seen the trailer nor read about it. I knew only the poster and that Dhananjaya is the hero.
    Now I know it’s a remake of telugu movie C/o Kancharapalem. Man, it has every difficult love story you can think of: interfaith romance, intercaste romance, kids love, man in love with a prostitute and middle age romance (this one could be good, if only Suhasini Maniratnam weren’t cast. I want to open an official Suhasini Maniratnam hateclub. I just can’t stand here since she directed and acted in one of the films in Putham Pudhu Kaalai. Her segment was so bad, that 2 years later I still shiver everytime I see her on screen! Here she plays 42 years old woman. IMO she isn’t able to play a person her age let alone someone younger. How she is even called an actress? End of the rant.
    I definitely not recommend Monsoon Raaga because it’s super depressing, and even seeing Dhananjaya in the wet, black shirt, doesn’t make it worth watching.

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    • I’ve been avoiding Chup because I don’t know much about Guru Dutt and I’ve seen a lot of divisive review. Would you say it’s still worth a watch?

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      • It’s different that’s why I think it’s worth watching. Cinematography is beautiful in many scenes, DQ’s flower shop was stunning, the heroine was good. If you like those things – watch.

        But IMO Dulquer wasn’t very good (the reviews say he was good, IDK, maybe I didn’t appreciate him because I was focused on reading the subtitles). The climax was also strange and a little ridiculous and the victims of the killer are shown, with blood. If you’re sensible you can skip this film.

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  4. Xena is *so good* šŸ˜ Especially the way it joyfully mixes genres and mythologies and skips between them at will. I feel a rewatch coming on.

    Thinking: I have tickets to Pathaan at 8:30pm (because that screening opened on the 1st) but now that there are earlier shows open too I’ve been contemplating whether I should see it first thing in the morning and then again in the evening, or two evenings in a row. So I’m glad you’re in agreement with the necessity of seeing it multiple times as soon as possible šŸ˜

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    • Well, now you’ve got me thinking about whether I should buy tickets in advance or not!!! I think I’ll be okay if I do a matinee? It can’t possibly sell out at noon on a Wednesday, right?

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      • Bought mine asap to try to manifest it doing spectacularly šŸ˜‰
        And also because I have to travel to the horribly big city for it and hate to spend any more time there than necessary šŸ˜…

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  5. Reading/watching: there’s actual exciting news about new movies and shows coming out this year! (I mean plus the 3 (3!) SRK films!) It’s been so long since I’ve felt this rich in stuff to be excited about. Cases in point:
    Polite Society – how amazing does this trailer look?

    Farzi – Vijay Sethupathi talks about his new series in this interview about shooting Jawan. Co-star Shahid and releasing on Prime, Catch Me If You Can premise, sounds great. (Did everyone already know about this and I’m just slow?)

    https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/vijay-sethupathi-on-shah-rukh-khan-jawan-nervous-first-day-srk-came-make-me-comfortable-8382295/lite/

    Fave SRK movie: I’m tired and indecisive, so 3-way tie Chak De India!/Fan/JHMS.

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  6. Pingback: Wednesday Watching Put up: What Are You Studying and Watching and Considering and Listening to ONE WEEK BEFORE PATHAAN? - Indian Buzz Today

    • Well, even if there is no sun in the sky, I’ll still get the sunshine of visiting a really good friend!

      Also, I’m keeping hope alive, maybe in a month it will be sunny again.

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  9. I saw Tara vs Bilal over the weekend. It bangs down on the happy romance tropes like Sanam Teri Kasam does on the sad ones, but it’s a nice little movie with a cute LGBT subplot. (Another trope–awkward best friend is now awkward gay best friend). It’s a nice relaxing movie and you get to see Harsh R. dance.

    Also started watching Karthik Calling Karthik, an old favorite from my beginning days with Indian film. I am a sucker for movies where a downtrodden person becomes less downtrodden, and also movies with a makeover, even though this makeover seems to consist of changing the part in his hair. Also had not remembered a problematic part where Farhan woos Deepika by asking her out obsessively and she eventually thinks it’s cute and accepts and does not go to HR. Besides that it basically holds up.

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  10. Listening: Jhoome Jo Pathaan – Arabic Version. Will have to get used to this one since I have become quite attached to the Swag Se Swagat – Arabic Version. They also use a real-life Moroccan singer couple for this song, which is adorable. I wish there would be a Pashto version of this song floating somewhere, either officially or a song cover by some artist. It would be amazing to hear this Pathaan in Pashto.

    Thinking: I just got from a vacation, so relaxing. Tasted Dosa and Gulab Jamun for the first time and fell in love. Also, watched Varisu. Got exactly what I wanted, a fun family film with a lot of Jivay dancing, but there were A LOT of references to past films in the second half. Still, amazing to see an Indian film with a packed audience in the theatre once more, and there were a lot of shouts. Just amazing! Also bought tickets to Pathaan!! Got the best seat in the house. šŸ˜€

    Reading: A lot of books that were bought on vacation.

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  11. I finally watched RRR last night. Quite the spectacle with some touching moments and good music. I couldn’t stand what the British women were wearing, though, and that’s all I could think about while they were on screen. They claim it’s historically accurate but as someone whose professional interests(costume design) and personal interests(history, India) basically converge at Lady Mary Curzon’s Peacock Dress… it’s not. I think the word you used was ‘ahistorical’ and yeah. Especially during Naatu Naatu when most of the dresses are basically slightly altered modern wedding dresses. Designing historically accurate costumes for a movie like this would literally be my dream job and it just makes me kinda sad that they didn’t.

    Favorite SRK movie is always a hard question. I think it’s a tie between K3G and Fan. K3G because Rahul Raichand is the love of my life and also it’s just so easy to enjoy. Locations, sets, costumes, songs, cast, drama, emotions. I love all of it… except the Kareena-Hrithik love story lol. I skip their songs. You have SRK and Kajol right there. Why are you wasting time on a different couple? (I had the same problem with Dilwale) Fan is my favorite performance. I was impressed by Gaurav but I was even more impressed by Aryan. Very grounded and natural, and so close to him but still so different. And his expressions are amazing. For example, when he walks up to the back gate of Mannat and the guard just stares at him the way his face changes as he looks from the guard up to the house realizing that Gaurav got there first… it gives me chills just thinking about it. Fan was the movie that made me realize that he is actually a fantastic actor and not just a movie star.

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    • Indian films are pretty universally TERRIBLE at period costumes for women. My theory is, during the colonial era, the men fairly routinely wore European dress but it was rare for women. So the European costumes are HORRIBLE.

      Actually, correction, they are terrible at European period costumes for women. They are usually pretty good at Indian period clothes, there’s a lot of subtle differences in clothing styles from now to the past and the old-timey Indian clothing looks cool. It’s just European that’s horrible,

      FYI, one of my other regular readers/commentators (although she hasn’t commented much lately) is a professor of clothing history. Isn’t htat COOL?

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  12. Watching: Just watched ‘Silsilay’ last night as part of a general Tabu kick. It was as unspecial as I remembered from the time I watched the first half hour and gave up, but Tabu was obviously great and SRK’s narration was cute.

    Reading: ‘A Bollywood Romance’ by Sonali Dev (it was a Christmas gift). It’s OK, a bit 90s-Harlequin-meets-90s-movies. The author’s obsession with pointing out how tiny the heroine is rubs me the wrong way, as does the hero’s attitude towards women other than her, who is special and Not Like Other Girls.

    Favourite SRK movie: I’m going to be the odd one out here, ignore what the critics are into and say Duplicate. It’s ridiculous, I love both his wildly OTT characters and Juhi Chawla is hilarious in it. I’m aware it’s not objectively the best by a long stretch, but it’s a real comfort watch for me.

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  13. Watching: After many months and me really just making excuses, I finally watched RRR over the weekend. Oh my god. I loved it. I loved it so much. I am kicking myself so hard for not watching it sooner. Y’all should have yelled at me, I only had one person yelling at me and I finally did it and it was glorious. My dad didn’t like it as much, thought it was too out there, but it was his first South Indian film and I don’t think he got that that was the point. Don’t listen to him. I will gush about this movie forever. And Ram and Bheem are in love. Obviously. Even my dad thinks so.

    Reading: I started a book called The Marriage Clock by Zara Raheem, about a 26 year old Muslim woman who makes a deal with her parents that she can date whoever she wants and find her dream Bollywood romance, but if she doesn’t find a guy by her parents’ anniversary (about 3 months from the beginning of the book), they’ll arrange a marriage for her. It’s cute and light, and the first date she’s been on was cute and funny. Reads VERY young for what’s supposed to be an adult novel. More like middle grade, let alone YA. Still, light and fun and cute.

    Listening: Revisited some songs that I always knew were great but went back to a lot this week.

    Midnight Rain by Taylor Swift

    Too Good by Troye Sivan

    And I gotta say my favorite SRK movie is Chennai Express, just cuz it was my first. And also KKHH.

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  14. My favorite SRK movie will always be DDLJ!

    So I finally finished the last movie in Mahesh’s filmography that I was putting off until now and it turns out that I really enjoyed the movie. Naani (2004) was kind of a weird mix of an adult comedy and kids movie which was inspired by Tom Hanks’s Big. I wouldn’t really say that it’s a good movie and it’s really cringey at times but I had fun watching it and AR Rahman’s soundtrack is so good.

    My question to you is whether you’ve seen all of Shahrukh’s movies yet? Are there any movies that you haven’t been able to get a hold of or something you just can’t get yourself to see etc.

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    • there is ONE MOVIE I haven’t been able to get, “Shahrukh Bole Khoobsurat Hai Tu”. He has a single scene, and I have seen that one scene on youtube, but I can’t find a full copy of the film. Otherwise, yes, I have seen (and own) every single SRK film.

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      • Wow, that’s impressive! Especially since you’re counting the movies where he just has a cameo. I hope you’re able to find the full movie soon šŸ™‚

        Also are you planning to do a rewatch of the Tiger movies and War before you see Pathaan? Since they’re supposed to be a part of the same universe or something.

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  15. I forgot to say that I have seen tons of Christmas movies during the Holidays. They were so many I even made a Christmas Bingo with all the cliches. It was fun. I don’t remember the titles of the films. Only the best and the worst remained in my head.
    The best – Holidate. I loved it. A classic rom-com, with cute girl, handsome guy and great chemistry. It’s good for every season because it shows almost all important holidays. Must watch!

    The worst: A very Corgi Christmas. I have seen many Hallmark style Christmas movies and this is the worst of the worst. The actors are terrible, there is no chemistry or nothing and there is only one corgi, who spends almost all the movie closed in a room! Such a bad movie.

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