Happy Wednesday!!!! Today is CSA day, AND the vegetables I planted in my very own yard have just started ripening. It’s too many vegetables. One human cannot handle them all.
I’ll start!
Reading: I’m actually almost done with Ponniyin Selvan! Less than half of book 4 left, and then just book 5 remaining. It continues to be AWESOME, and the female characters in particular are so varied and complex.
Thinking: It’s time, I am FINALLY going to tackle my guest room closet. When I moved in, I emptied all the random boxes leftover onto the closet shelves and tried not to think about them. But now I need to put ACTUAL things in that closet, so it’s time to think about them again. Blech. It’s gonna be a lot of stuff I already bought replacements for because I couldn’t figure out where I unpacked them.
Watching: I’ve been watching London Kills which is a lovely trashy BBC show. Lots of interpersonal drama between the detective team, and murders solved in 60 minutes every week. Perfect background while coloring my nice George Barbier coloring book.
Listening: I’ve been checking out other Anirudh songs in preparation for Jawan! This one is so fun, both the music and the visuals:
Now, question for you! It was Taapsee Pannu’s birthday yesterday, what is your favorite Taapsee role/movie?
Mine is Manmarziyaan! She’s amazing in that.
dontcallitbollywood 
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Read: I’m actually reading your book! Just found it in a little used bookstore in the Chicago area. How I landed here!
Watch: I’m diving into Indian cinema for the first time and have decided to start with movies from the 70s-early 90s with a few modern ones sprinkled in. Have watched a bunch so far. Just finished Lamhe with its indescribable Siridevi solo dance number. Wow! Now trying to decide between Maqsad or Karma to watch next.
Listen: Figured I’d go all in so I’m listening to the Bollywood is for Lovers podcast to get some ideas and knowledge.
Thinking: I’m trying to find a podcast that delves more into the history of Indian cinema chronologically more than say movie reviews. Something similar to the book Bollywood: The Films! The Songs! The Stars! by DK books which I’m also reading.
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Yaaaaaaaaaaay! I can’t believe it was at a used bookstore, I’m so proud. What used bookstore? I want to know if it is one I like. Or, even better, one I don’t know about yet 🙂
So excited that you are diving in to Indian cinema! I’m just gonna jump on your Sridevi mention and recommend Sadma, arguably her best performance and definitely her best performance in Hindi. Also, and I think this should still be streaming, you should check out her first adult role which was in a Tamil film Moondru Mudichu. It’s very early Polanski sort of stuff, very VERY cool black and white visuals.
Unfortunately, I don’t really know Indian film podcasts so I can’t help you there. But I am sure other DCIBers will have loads of recs!
And here is where I try to resist being weird and offering to lend books to a stranger on the internet 🙂 But really, if you are in the Chicago area, I have a lot of fairly hard to find really REALLY good basic Indian film books. If you don’t want to borrow from a stranger on the internet, try to find “Bombay Before Bollywood” by Rosie Thomas, anything by Tejaswini Ganti, and if you can track down a copy of Barnouw and Krishnamurthy, that is like my BIBLE for early film history. Personal prejudice, but I really do not like Rachel Dwyer (sorry if you love her). Oh, and Anupama Chopra was amazing until about 2005 and then became terrible. Again, the DCIBers will fill you in 🙂
Blowing my own horn for a bit, check out my Indian film 101 posts. I think I still have them indexed somewhere and they should answer almost every question you have. And if they don’t answer it, ask me and I’ll write a post up for you.
Or just ask me, I love answering questions from new viewers!
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Thank you for all the great info! I’ll check out those 2 movies although I’m not seeing Sadma on the usual streaming services but I’ll add it to my Letterboxd and keep my eyes open for it. I’ll definitely be checking out those 101 posts! The used bookstore was in Evanston! And, lastly the books you mentioned sound intriguing. Is there a way to connect with you directly to inquire further? Otherwise feel free to use the email I used to subscribe to your blog (I think you can see that?) if that helps.
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If you really want to get serious about watching Indian films, let me turn you on to the website einthusan.tv. It’s mostly legal (I think), and it has a lot of things that are not available anywhere else. Indian film isn’t very good about maintaining digital releases of older movies (especially with subtitles). But Einthusan fills in that gap by streaming copies off DVDs and no one seems to care.
Here is the link to my 101s: https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2017/12/04/hindi-film-101-index/ I tried to make the titles as clear as possible, so you should be able to find articles on the topics that interest you. The Sanjay Dutt series is my personal favorite.
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Cool! Sounds great! I’ve been trying to find a version of Qurbani somewhere since the soundtrack is so great. Maybe it’s there.
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Oh, Qurbani is AMAZING!!!! And you get to see Amrish Puri (actor who was the villain in that Indiana Jones movie) young with an Afro, it’s crazy. And yes, it’s on einthusan.tv. And also all over youtube but without subtitles, darn it.
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There is the Khandaan: A Bollywood Podcast which I recommend, great stuff and so funny!! Great to listen to.
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Thanks for the tip Kirre! I’ll check it out!👍
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Back here after a while!!
Reading: Draco x Hermione fics from Harry Potter!! They are so well written! I hadn’t ever thought of them as a pairing but there exists a large fan base and more importantly fiction pairing the two. SO well written, it’s astonishing! There’s a fic called Disappearance of Draco Malfoy that rewrites the last HP book completely…. Gosh, it’s like reading canonical text, the language, world building etc.
Watching: I finally made time for a movie! Trial Period, a Hindi movie about a dad on rent for 30 days. It was so darned cute, and the leads has such wonderful chemistry. I highly recommend it (especially to Angie!!) — except I bet it’s going to be hard to find outside India. I used illegal means… 🙈
Thinking: About names because my friend is planning for her baby… in my family it is very normal to have two extremely reasonable names that sound nothing like each other, but one is official and another is for home. Often it’s a way for parents/grandparents to get two names they like in. My friend who’s from another part of the world has two disparate names too… But dislikes the practice and is trying to pick between two equally lovely options. And she has a point because I dislike it if people at work call me by a nickname or my home name… Or if my friends / family call me by the official name, I actually flinched this morning because someone I don’t get along with at work called me by nickname… My husband argues the whole rose by any name — how does it matter? Anyway as you can see, I’ve been thinking myself into circles, and now that I write it down I’m glad that I gave my son ONE name, not two (which my husband was leaning towards).
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PS: Cant wait for you to finish PS, I have THOUGHTS. 😀
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Oh, I heard about Trial Period, someone in internet said it’s great, and now you are recommending it. I think it can be on einthusan. Will watch it for sure. Thanks.
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It’s very sweet. I hope (think!) you will enjoy. 🙂
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You’re righ. It’s so sweet! Predictable, but very, very nice and with good acting. And the boy who plays the son is so cute I want to go to India and kidnap him. One of the most adorable kids ever.
Thank you for recommending this film ☺
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The name thing is so interesting. And then there are the kids who rename themselves. My Grandma grew up “Anna Rose” and then went to college and decided “Anne” sounded more sophisticated. So her siblings always called her one name, and her husband and all her adult friends called her the other name. I would not be surprised if your son tricks you and ends up with two names after all because he choose another one for himself.
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Man, Margaret. I never thought of that!!
But well at least it’ll be his choice … Although if he ends up picking the second name my husband wanted, that’ll be another conversation all together 😀
(P.S. funnily enough, two other babies in our extended family – his third cousins – now have that name!!)
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The semester is finally ending and I am procrastinating grading by writing this. And this past week I’ve been able to actually watch some stuff, so that’s also festive.
I watched Goodbye and it took me forever to finish. Everyone in the movie is kind of (purposefully) annoying but that does make the end very satisfying I must say. But I kept getting bored with it because they were all hitting the same note again and again. Also there are multiple flashbacks and it gets really confusing. It’s yet another movie about a funeral; I don’t know why they are so popular all of a sudden. For my money, the best movie about a bunch of people trying to adjust to cultural rituals in a funeral is Juzo Itami’s The Funeral, made sometime in the 1980s. Japanese people, like Indian people, are supposed to place a coffin facing a certain direction, and Goodbye and The Funeral include the same joke about trying to find where north is. Goodbye also starts with a party song, which is an odd choice. Anyway, worth watching for Amitabh. It’s wholly his movie.
I also saw Newton, which I haven’t seen before. So very good with Rajkummar and Pankaj playing off each other!
I saw that finally they are going to have a second season of Made in Heaven, and I thought I was kind of over it and maybe going to skip it this time and then I started watching it from the first episode and now I’m all in and can’t wait for it to start.
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Oh, Taapsee! I’d have to say Haseen Dilruba is maybe my favorite, but she is so good in Badla and also Looop Lapeta is a huge amount of fun. I have to say she’s been in so many movies that were just fun to watch.
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I’m excited about Made in Heaven season 2!
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I was SO ready for MIH season 2, but now it’s years and years later and I don’t know if I want to revisit that emotional place. It’s just so much!
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I get it! Though on the other hand it feels closer too. And on a shallower level, I liked watching Sobhita and I want to see what happens with her character.
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I do like Taapsee, she’s great and seems down to earth. Of the films I’ve seen, my favorite performance might be Thappad, but she was fantastic in Manmarziyan and that character was more complicated, and Haseen Dilruba was fun and twisty.
I actually watched a couple of movies lately 🙂. I had Tara vs. Bilal on my list because someone recommended it here. That was a nice one, kept it simple but the characters were unique and had good chemistry and I appreciated the counterculture streak. Then I watched Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar because I’d read a good review but that one, not so much. The thing is, Ranbir can be magnetic even when playing a spoiled man child, with his big eyes and his physicality, it went well with the broad humor. And I want to like Shraddha. Dimple and the rest of the supporting cast were great. The setup was interesting. But…the main conflict between the two leads was not that believable, and the ending was so dumb. Sorry if anyone liked this much better than I did! I really hated the ending.
Oh, and one last random observation from late night file review with movies on in the background: I’d forgotten how many good songs are in Om Shanti Om, and also the lip syncing is off a lot. But mostly Deepika, wow. She worked hard in this movie.
And Aankhon Mein Teri , so pretty.
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Yeah, we all hated that ending. Just GET YOUR OWN PLACE!!!! It’s not the end of the world to have your OWN SPACE and see the rest of the family when you have time.
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Yes! And it makes such a joke of their dramatic break-up. All of that and then she just moves in? Oh, OK. So Shraddha was just wrong and hysterical and clearly being independent or having privacy aren’t things she actually cared about.
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I returned from my holiday with a great hunger for Indian movies. And I was lucky because I found not one, but two movies from my absolute favourite genre: “school lovers meet after years” ready in streaming. And not only the genre was right, also the casts of both movies were made with my fav people.
The first one is tamil Theera Kadhaal (Endless Love) with my beloved Sshivada, Jai, who I had a little crush on some time ago, and Aishwarya Rajesh. It was good. Not as good as I hoped but ok. I feel it could be so much better with some changes eg. The role of the ex-lover was too complex for Aishwarya IMO. Sshivada would be better in this role because she is so good. I love this woman, she is one of those actors who elevate every movie.
The other movie I saw was malayalam Ntikkakkakkoru Premondarnn (My Brother Was Once In Love). It’s Bhavana’s come back movie and it also has Sharaf U Dheen, who looks great here. It was cute, but a little slow.
But what I love in malayalam cinema is that it gaves chances to everybody. I mean, Sharaf started from little roles here and there: a mechanic, a friend etc, and now he plays the protagonists and the villains. It’s not like in Hindi or Telugu films where if you’re hero ka dost you die hero ka dost, or at most you can play a gangster in some OTT series.
And then I randomly watched Maharashtra Shaheer on Prime, and OMG I don’t recommend this one. It’s a biopic of Shahir Sable, marathi folk artist. The movie was directed by Sable’s grandson Kedar Shinde, and I thought it will add something to the movie, a human touch , but no. Everything is so stiff. The artist never even walks like a normal man, he always looks like taken from a photo. The face is always serious or inspired etc. Also one can’t take a person who lived for 80-90 years and in a very eventful period , between very important people and make one movie about his entire life . Maddy made the same error with Rocketry. Take one or two events and make movie about those. I don’t need to see every detail. The music was great, because it’s Ajay-Atul, but really all the rest is Maharastra propaganda.
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You are so right! Malayalam industries let you grow, the other industries tend to type cast you from the start and there’s no chance to prove yourself and grow into a Big Name.
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Watching: I am watching Omkara and I am struggling to finish the last hour cause I know the whole story. I have to say that Ajay Devgan is probably casted most perfectly in this role as he has this intimidating aura but is also very playful. It gives a lot of humanity to the character but still makes you understand why he’s viewed the way he is. Also hate Kareena’s father. I also watched Sagara Sangamam which I loved but also hated for the Kamal Hassan classic trope of him choosing other people’s choices for them.
Listening: I am listening to the Rocky aur Rani album and I am loving it. I am one of the people who feel that Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’s music was overrated so I don’t understand all the talk of Karan Johar’s music deteriorating. Though I do wish that he would go back to working with Shankar Ehsaan Loy or Vishal Shekhar as I miss that type of music.
Reading: I am reading Pachinko which is utterly depressing but I have to read it for my course. I also feel the plot with its senseless tragedies would’ve been a perfect south indian film and all the talk about integrity and honour is just such an Indian film thing overall.
Thinking: Why is summer ending? It feels as if you wait all year and then it goes away faster than you know it. I do not miss the dark winter but alas we have to accept what it is.
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Ugh, Kamal Haasan is so frustrating with his confidence that he knows what’s best for everyone.
I love Shankar Ehsaan Loy, but I think they are pretty picky about when they decide to do a soundtrack. Versus Pritam who of course does EVERYTHING.
I thought I’d heard of the novel, but then I looked it up and realized I’ve just heard of the game from which the novel gets it title. I am so glad I am no longer in school and no longer have to read things that depress me!
Summer isn’t ending! We’ve got until September at least before it’s over-over!
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I read Pachinko on vacation earlier this summer. (Save my heavy reading for vacation lately bc it’s the only time I have emotional bandwidth.) I’d been dreading devastation but I ended up enjoying it. Many bad things happen but the overall arc is towards hope. And it’s an old fashioned narrative, lots of plot, not a lot of interior life if the characters, I think that helped it feel like watching a movie instead of experiencing the same events from the inside. Hoping to watch the Apple TV version, it has an impressive cast, whenever we get around to subscribing again.
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That makes sense that you viewed it as a movie. For me somehow the last arc was quite cheap with the overly dramatic connections between two teenagers who are frankly just having fun. I think the last part slightly ruined it for me and it also had little sense in Solomon’s choice in the end. I think that was what I struggled with the most as I never really got a feel with Solomon’s character. Also I loved the irony of Mosasu being more like Hansu in his approach to life(albeit a little less cruel) and Noa being more like Isak (without Isak’s constant wish to be more ambitious).
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Watching the Rocky Rani press conference – https://youtu.be/mZ2sKUjN01E
It’s got a piece about SRK teaching Alia how to do a lip sync song
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Checking in after a bit, love to read everyone’s updates here…thinking maybe I should try Trial Period when it is on einthusan.
Before I go over to the RARKPK posts, I’ll just mention here that I did finally watch Mission Majnu, the first Indian film I’d watched in a while, and was underwhelmed which I knew I would be by the mediocre reviews, but I love a spy film. This one just had way too much exposition and telling instead of showing. Sid was good as were the two actors playing his colleagues, but the story didn’t have enough of the spycraft and suspense I need in a good spy film. Rashmika was wasted and I think she was dubbed which was annoying. Her acting wasn’t perfect either, though it is a hard task to play a blind character I’m sure and anyone would be compared to Rani in Black and found wanting.
Still beyond D-Day and Raazi, I haven’t found any other Indian spy films that are on my favorites list (if I recall). Baby and then the spinoff were decent, but too jingoistic. I’m considering the YRF spy universe films in their own category since they are more action films than spy films. I was hoping Mission Majnu would be better. I also tried Code Name Tiranga and couldn’t make it through 20 minutes, but as always I’m always rooting for Parineeti and Sid (ideally in films together in the future, but that will probably never happen as Parineeti seems to be leaving the industry? Sid still has a decent future though.
Off to talk RARKPK!
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Oh, and I saw Barbie, too, last week and liked it a lot. Ladybird and Little Women are wonderful films and I’m so into Greta Gerwig as a female auteur for the Generation X and Millenial demo. I don’t want any more Mattel films, especially a Lena Dunham Polly Pocket film…it will cheapen the success of this one. Though I did love Dunham’s interpretation of Catherine Called Birdy and I know Girls was an important show, she now seems like a Greta Gerwig wannabe and this won’t help (though I guess she’s pretty good in her own right and I shouldn’t be hating on a female director!).
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Gee Filmilibrarian! Way to be a Bad Feminist! (not really, you know this is a judgement free zone)
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I know:) This is where I bring my problematic takes for sure!
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