Happy Monday!!! It’s snowing! Blech. Well, good thing I didn’t plant wildflowers this weekend like I was thinking I might.
Here is where you ask me anything from “really? Snowing? Seriously?” to “who is Southern Sid?” Just keep swinging back here all week as you think of new questions!
Now, question for you!!! How do you know Southern Sid? What is your big memory of him?
I first saw him in Rang de Basanti and he stood out so strongly in that movie. That whole cast was almost unknown to me, thanks to bringing in off beat art actors and southern stars. Southern Sid had a very important role, being Bhagat himself, and he carried it off. I didn’t see him in a movie again for years and years, I think the next time might have been Midnight’s Children where he was a lovely breath of fresh air. And then, finally, I started getting in to southern cinema and got to see him in Boys followed by a whole bunch of other roles, so many I can’t remember them all.
In honor of Southern Sid, I should really put in a Rang De song, but it’s so SAD!!! So instead I will do a Boys song.
dontcallitbollywood 
I did not like Rang de Basanti. Maybe it was the high squeeky dubbed voice of the blond woman, but the film appeared shoddy to me. (It was also one of the first Indian films I saw) The idea that shooting your father because of military corruption, is a fight on par with the original freedom from England fighters was too big of a jump for me to make. Mostly I saw a bunch of kids and one middle age man die in vain because they wanted to be noble.
Question: have you seen Shehzada? Okay I know you haven’t but I HAVE and I want to talk about it.
Shehzada: Kartik playing AA with a plot changed so that there is absolutely NO GRAY in his character – he is all good at all times without any faults. And any person whose existence might possibly negate his goodness or complicate the good of the storyline has been written out of existence. Kriti is great, wish she was around more in the second half. A woman whose name I don’t know does an excellent Tabu impression. Murali Sharma cannot be immitated.
I am not a Kartik fan. I am not a hater, but often in the films I’ve seen with him I kinda wish they had cast someone else. But in this film he won me over (at first), he played the character with a Forest Gump kinda smile and I found myself warming to him. Except for the fight scenes. He couldn’t pull off the fight scenes. And the second half of the film was all fight scenes. A lot was cut from the AA version, a lot of little conversations between characters that gave depth, they were not in Shehzada. Maybe they were cut for time, maybe they were cut because Kartik didn’t have the full bodied charm or charisma to make them interesting. You can’t duplicate AA.
Something went wrong in the filming of this movie. The first song is set on a tropical island resort area for no reason. Beautiful sunset shots. BUT they must not have given the actors time to rehearse or something, because in the song both Kriti and Kartik were NOT good dancers. Especially Kartik, every single back up dancer was better. But even then, they kept shots in the movie where the back up dancers weren’t on beat and weren’t moving their legs together. Later songs were better, Kartik appeared to know how do dance, Kriti looked a bit less like a an attractive piece of wood.
So then I rewatched the AA version of the film, a film I didn’t love the first time I saw it, though it led me to Allu Arjun and I became a fan. And I liked it SO MUCH MORE, perhaps because it was in comparison to the Shehzada I just saw. My Mother in Law thought it was wierd though. I think she is done with the idea of the Indian super hero man. She bought it for Pathaan and RR but she has now seen it too much and it is no longer cute to her.
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I read an interesting article about Telugu industry recently. It opened my eyes to many things I ignored. Worth reading:
https://theswaddle.com/tollywoods-kingmakers/
My Sid memories: Years, years ago I saw Bommarillu and fell in love with Sid and with the movie. Bomarillu was my second favourite Indian movie for years and Siddharth was my first southern crush. My love for him only grow bigger when I realized he is not only handsome and cute but also a very intelligent and has a spine. I love this guy.
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Wow. That article was something. I knew none of that. And I’m not really sure what to make of it. I have read it, but I don’t yet understand it, there are significant cultural barriers. Thanks for the link!
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I had to read some parts twice to understand it. Caste issues are so complex. But I understand better fandoms’ wars now.
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I became aware of Southern Sid because of Leila, and because of this I really want a second season of Leila, which at this point I doubt will happen. I really need to watch something else with him in it.
OK, that’s my Monday question, then: what Sid thing should I watch?
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Oooooo! I’m gonna give you two totally different Sid recs. Bommarillu is a super super cute family rom-com when he was young and fresh-faced. Kammara Sambhavam is a really black dark comedy Mayalam film in which he is a pivotal cameo. Oh! And the one I really like! It’s a remake of a low budget brilliant original, but I like the remake better, Enakkul Oruvan. I think that would be the most Miss Braganza of them all.
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I finally broke my Rani mug today. It was only a matter of time – I’d been seeing signs of cracks for a while. After all, I’ve been using it extensively ever since 2005, when my first group of filmi friends gave it to me as a farewell present upon leaving my university town. That was before I realized that I liked MDK for Rani even more than for Hrithik. The scene in the church is hardly recognizable: Dishwashers will do that, but I’ve also caressed the faces quite a bit. The mug has been with me through so many moves and changes in my life, it’s making me quite nostalgic to feel like all that is coming to an end now. Maybe I should have put it behind glass in some sort of shrine instead? But then I guess it would have never become that much a part of my life, that meaningful. Funnily, the picture is still there, only the back with the handle is broken. Maybe I could still put the remains in a shrine now?
Guess that’s my question for you. Though mainly I needed to vent.
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I am so sorry! I have a 24th birthday mug that I got (on my 24th birthday) in the Czech town of Cesky Krumlov, and I know that when it breaks I will be sad. BUT with your Rani mug, if you can find the image, you could recreate it? There are multiple sites online that let you customize mugs, even Amazon will let you add photos to mugs. My prized SRK pillow, made of sequins which allows me to rub his face on, then rub his face off etc, was created for me by my sister from an online site. She found the image online and then put it into their form to create me a pillow.
Obviously recreating a mug won’t be the same, BUT it could give you something new to drink from. And you could kintsugi your broken mug!
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Well, the scratches and everything are obviously important, so I might actually take a picture of the broken mug and put that on a new one. See how many iterations it takes until there’s nothing visible of the picture.
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I lost Snuggle Bear when I was 6 in Union Station, and just a year ago I was able to buy a new Snuggle Bear on ebay! (by searching “1985 children’s bear toy”) It’s nice to have him back, but I will say it’s not quite the same as the original. So maybe both? Keep the original on display, but also make yourself a new one?
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Oh no! Snuggle Bear! Sounds like it was pretty traumatic.
I think I’m growing quite attached to the idea of taking a picture of the scratches and putting it on a new mug – maybe with a different Rani picture on the other side. There’s this lovely Paheli poster.
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That does sound nice. Recreating instead of just getting fresha nd new. Unlike Snuggle Bear who is all bright and fluffy instead of faded and threadbare the way the Real Snuggle Bear was.
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Oh, this is sad! Forget shrine, get it framed. People can do really cool stuff now with mounting and framing objects. And in a House of Children, I feel like a nice sturdy frame around it is the way to go.
I have a similar mug a friend gave me and I use it to hold my toothbrush and never wash it. Just to be safe.
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Today Salman’s new movie Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan comes out. Are you planning to watch it Margaret?
I read it will release in over 5700 screens worldwide, so I checked if it will arrive here but no. Ammy Virk’s new punjabi movie, that doesn’t even looks good IMO, will be screened in some Italian cities (in multiplexes), but nobody mentions Salman’s film. Strange. Looks like Indian diaspora in Italy doesn’t like Bhai.
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h shoot, I didn’t even know it was happening! But thanks to you, I just looked it up and it looks pretty “eh”. Also, it’s not playing at a ton of theaters near me so I can safely say it would be too inconvenient to go watch. Unless I decide I want to anyway, in which case I’ll just drive half an hour.
On the other hand, Polite Society releases next Friday and I am SUPER excited about that!!!
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