Happy Thursday! I get through today, I get through tomorrow, and then I fly to the sunny/rainy land of California where I get to stay with my friend in her house that has a functioning kitchen. Oh the WONDER.
I’ll start!
Watching: The plan is for my friend to come over tonight and we binge The Romantics. But don’t get too excited! If plans fall through or whatever, then we will NOT be binging the romantics and instead I will go to bed early. But hopefully it goes as planned and then I can put up a nice discussion post for us all.
Reading: SRK’s tweet string! He’s finally back to maintaining his own twitter, and it’s just as lovely as ever. Except for that one tweet where he said The Fountainhead is his favorite book. Maybe it was a joke?
Thinking: Kitchen. Now it looks like the whole floor will be replaced. Which is good in that, hey, new floor! But bad in that GAH and also MONEY. Anyway, just assume there is a background of stress and unhappiness to my life until I put up a post saying “Admire these photos of my new kitchen!”
Listening: Calm calm, no stress, gonna leave town and forget about things, and so I shall listen to this calming happy music:
Now, question for you! Vitally Important!!! The friend I am visiting is an long time Indian film fan, but she isn’t that up on newer releases (like, in the past 5-10 years). She also prefers more talky smarty stuff to action (big hits have been Andhadhun, A Gentleman, Veere di Wedding). What should we watch???
(this question is vitally important because for the past 7 years she has been nagging me to watch Dil To Pagal Hai and I don’t WANT to watch Dil To Pagal Hai, so I have to offer up a better alternative)
dontcallitbollywood 
I would recommend Monica O My Darling on Netflix. Really much a film that makes you have to think, but it is also entertaining – the soundtrack is especially stellar.
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Ooo, good one!
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Watching: I watched The Romantics last week, and ever since then I’ve been on a specifically SRK-YRF 90s and 00s film spree. Yknow, Veer-Zaara, RNBDJ, bits of Mohabbatein (mainly the SRK-Amitabh/Aish parts, and Jimmy Shergill. I had SUCH a mammoth crush on both him and sweater!Shahrukh when this film first came out). In between I’m still doing my rewatches of JHMS and I even managed to narrate the story to the hubby (he knows I’m REALLY into a film when I keep yapping about it haha).
Reading: The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet, which is a spin off to the Lizzie Bennett Diaries. I remember loving the YouTube series that started it all, and always wanted to know what happened to Lydia because Bernie Su did such a great job of doing a contemporary take on her story. The book was great!
I’m currently running a character appreciation week for one of my fandoms, so I’m reading quite a bit of fanfic too.
Listening: A Podcast called Naan Curry. Each episode they focus on a singular desi food item or ingredient and discuss everything about it. I love food podcasts and this is an esp fun one.
Have fun at your friend’s place!! Hope your kitchen woes get resolved soon!
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OMG I loved the Lydia Bennet book. Wayyy more than the Lizzie Bennet book!
Are you watching Ashley Clements’ look back on LBD?
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Is that a happy song?
The 8 year old and I watched Eega (for the first time) this past weekend, and LOVED it!!! Just so awesome, I know you have said it was good, but I was suspicious. I wish Samantha’s character could have had a bit more of a personality, but otherwise it was almost perfect. I have also re-watched JHMS three times since the watch a long on Sunday. And Spouse and I have been watching Documentary Now.
Reading – I read Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits which was a great and beautifully small book about Moroccans trying to leave Morocco. Now I’m reading The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson and it feels less like a story and more like a lecture. But I have to finish it because it has been given to my family three times. I’m on page 99 so I only have 464 pages to go!
Music, I’ve been listening to Jhoome Jo Paathan quite a bit. As well as the sound track to Little Shop of Horrors. Downtown is really a great song!
New talky movies – Darlings is pretty good. Lighter and happier is Plan A Plan B. And while it ISN’T new Dil Dhadakne Do isn’t quite 10 years old yet.
Sorry about the new floor. My grandparents had a shore house on the Middle River in Maryland. It wasn’t taken care of for 30 years, but we all still visited and used it. There was a hole in the kitchen floor and we just taped a piece of plywood over it. That piece of plywood lasted for at least 10 years. That kitchen had the most awesome metal cabinets. I wish I had those cabinets.
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I am so glad you watched Eega, finally! And with the 8 year old who should be just about perfect for it!
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I got the WHOLE family to watch Eega together last night. First Indian film spouse has seen in it’s entirety!
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It’s the Best Movie!!!
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Some movies I enjoyed in the last 5-10 years that might fit the bill:
Jab Harry Met Sejal
Dil Dhadakne Do
Khoobsoorat
Luv Aaj Kal (both)
Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani
Dil Bole Hadippa
Double XL
Govinda Naam Mera
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Oh two more: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Nah and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan
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I did a rewatch of Dil Dhadakne Do this week and even though I still think it’s really good, it was a tough movie to watch. A lot of the conflict and tension felt so real that I had to keep pausing and a take a break. It was not as lighthearted movie as I remembered it to be tbh.
So I have a weird question, is there any movie or book where you’ve consumed derivatives of and you know the story and now you don’t want to see the original? Like for example, I think I’ve seen multiple “remakes” of When Harry Met Sally as well as reading many fanfics adaptations of the story. I feel like I know the story structure pretty well and so I’ve never seen WHMS. A similar thing has happened with You’ve Got Mail with all of the fanfic versions of it I’ve read.
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If I may chip in, I love You’ve Got Mail and have known it’s inspired by Shop Around the Corner for a long time, yet never felt the need to see it. But I eventually watched Shop Around the Corner about a year ago and it’s great! So now I have two versions of a similar story to watch, which is the best thing about remakes/adaptations if done well. On the other hand, I also watched It Happened One Night about a year back and it’s fine, but for me it doesn’t match up to Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin, which I love since childhood. So I’ve had both kinds of experiences watching originals and their adaptations.
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Lol! I didn’t even realize that You’ve Got Mail itself is inspired by an older movie 🙂
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Yes Boss is based on a Michael J Fox film For Love or Money. I saw For Love or Money after multiple viewings of Yes Boss, and Yes Boss is by far the better film. But they are actually so different, I would see For Love or Money again mostly as an exercise in pointing out all the things Yes Boss does better. I also saw Yes Boss remakes in other languages. No one compares to Juhi & SRK, but I will say it did clue me into how not all the suporting actors in the Yes Boss were the best.
I liked Parugu so much I watched all the different language remakes, though I admit some of them I did not watch all the way through. Interestly, whereas other language remakes of Yes Boss played with somes scenes and switched some things up, only the Hindi version of Parugu changed anything, the three other languages Parugu was refilmed in pretty much stuck to the original in all ways except financial backing, meaning they had less $ and it showed.
I guess if I really like a story I like to spend time with it. I do enjoy seeing where stories come from, their originals. Even if it is only to declare that the story I saw surpassed the original.
My 11 year old loves fan fiction. For the last month he has been reading Lion King fan fiction. While I myself enjoy some of Margaret’s fan fiction, I will admit it isn’t really my thing. But I love how much my child loves fanfiction. I sit with the stories in a different way. So often when books are translated onto the screen I become dissapointed. There is something more personal about reading a story first. I can imagine that reading a When Harry Met Sally story before seeing the film might make me hesitant to watch the movie for fear it won’t live up to my mental expectations. When I read the stories become more personal in my head, more mine. When I watch they are someone elses stories that I get let in on. The two mediums don’t cross over well in my brain.
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Can I say that your 11 year old being deeply into Lion King Fan Fiction just adds to his awesomeness in my mind?
The original movie, the remake, the stage show, or is it that new series I am hearing about?
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We saw the original cartoon, and then a couple of days later the life-like more recent redo. Before we watched the orignial cartoon his class had watched the life-like redo. So the kid saw the movie three times within two weeks. And ever since he has been reading stories with the characters in them online. I didn’t even know there was a new series!
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Ooooo! Get Disney Plus! There’s a lot of Lion King stuff. 11 year old is such a moving target, if he’s actually into something, I feel we should lean into it.
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Yeah, I agree on there being a difference between reading something first and seeing it translated on screen. I think it’s very tough to get a good on-screen adaptation of a written story without losing some sort of detailing. But my main love for fanfic comes from the idea of seeing something exciting on screen and reading something that expands on the concept and characters.
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I think I get what you are saying. In Indian film, there are a lot of remakes that I like better than the originals! Baazigar, watched a million times, feel no need to ever see A Kiss Before Dying. One of the strangest/most interesting experiences I’ve had is reading books by Jennifer Crusie. She is a really really good and talks in interviews about how she uses mood boards and vision boards to inspire her books. There are so many times I will be watching something and go “oh wow! This is part of what inspired Crusie in that novel I read years ago!” She just takes little bits and bobs from places and sort of patches them together into something new.
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I think Indian Remakes that are Better than the Original would make a great discussion post! I’ve been kicking it around in my head a bit.
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That would be an interesting discussion topic!
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I struggle to find an Indian movie to watch lately. I finished only one in the last 2 weeks – tamil rom-com Kaalangalil Aval Vasantham which means “Among seasons, she is spring”, isn’t the title awesome? I knew I must give this movie a chance when I read the title.
Unfortunately the movie is a big mess and the hero can’t act at all. His face is so unexpressive he gives Ayush Sharma run for his money. He also has this perfect beard and hair, that look fake, and in many scenes I was imaginating Ken doll instead of him. Like really the guy is so wooden , a Ken doll would play this role better.
The heroine on the contrary was good, and very cute. As I said, the movie was a mess, but deep inside the script was so good, and I loved it. It’s about a guy who loves movies, and dreams of having a perfect, filmi romance. A family friend, beautiful and professional girl form USA meets him and falls in love with his goofiness. She proposes after 30 minutes. Everybody, including boy’s parents advise her against it (because they know the boy in kinda dumb), but she doesn’t change her mind and they marry. In the beginning everything is perfect, but later she reads his diary and discovers that all the romantic gestures he made, are from tamil movies and that he tried them with every girl he liked. She cofronts him and says he should listen to his heart and love her for who she is , and not treat her like some movie heroine (e.g he never calls her by her name and uses a nickname he used for all his crushes). He is dumb and doesn’t understand and day after day they grow apart. Of course in the end, he begins to understand what she meant, and realizes he loves her. In the end there is a scene so romantic that even goons cry (literally!).
I never wanted a movie to be remade so badly. There is so much good stuff in between the lines, and some dialogues are really good. With better actor and some improvments it can be such a good film!
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Aw, what a sweet idea for a movie!!! Now I want a remake too.
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One of my favourite scenes in this movie was when the father of the boy, seeing his daughter-in-law dejected, tells her: you should leave this useless fellow, why are you suffering like this? If it was an arranged marriage you would left months ago. Is this really love, or it’s just that you don’t want to admit you were wrong about him? I was shocked and so was the heroine.
It was so good, and it show that whoever wrote this film is not stupid and thought about it. We really need a better version. but I think it was a flop so who will buy it? 😦
Thinking: About Nysa Devgn. Do you think she will join movies? I started reading some gossip recently, and first I saw the videos of her leaving a club totally drunk. Two days later, she was on some beneficient event looking more sanskari than Sooraj Barjatya’s heroine. People were saying she was very out-of-place and didn’t know what is happening. And today I saw some articles praising her and telling how Ajay’s fans loved her at that event. Ajay’s PR wasn’t subtle in his job, that’s one for sure. I now wonder , if they want to launch her, or Ajay is not the type who wants a working daughter.
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Oh! They had that scene in Doosra Aadmi too! Rishi’s parents tell Neetu she should just leave him, he sucks. It was great.
I have no issues with Nysa acting, forget Ajay, on her mother’s side she would be 5th generation actress. But I hope they figure out how to let her act and still be herself. If she enjoys partying, let her be out there saying “I like to party, I’m young, I want to have fun, and so long as I’m not hurting anyone who cares?” That’s always been the USP of the Samarth-Mukherjee women, just being themselves.
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Happy vacation!!!
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