Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to the Day Before Made in Heaven 2 Releases?

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Happy Wednesday! It’s my short day at work, and my “pick-up veggies” day, two good things! Which almost (but not quite) makes up for my seeing a pumpkin patch on my walk that was WAY better than my pumpkin patch and in the same size yard.

Reading: This is an odd American pop culture thing, but Wayne Brady (American comic, actor, improv artist, personality) came out as pansexual in a really good interview with People magazine. This is the kind of interview I would love for Karan Johar to do, 100% personal and just about him, the only political statement is acknowledging that giving this personal interview IS a political statement in itself. Really, I recommend you reading it, it is the most amazing un-preachy statement:

https://people.com/wayne-brady-comes-out-as-pansexual-exclusive-7569897

Watching: I am NOT watching Made in Heaven 2. Not forever, just for now, it feels way too emotionally exhausting to attack. I’ll wait until I am in the mood/home sick. But if y’all start watching it, I’ll put up a discussion space post.

Thinking: Today is “8/9” and I didn’t appreciate 13 years ago when it was “8-9-10” enough. Of course, that’s just in America, I guess in other places today is “9-8” and two days ago when it was “7-8” would have been the exciting one, and 14 years and 2 days would have been “7-8-9”. Deep thoughts.

Listening: Obviously, the Don theme:

Now, question for you! Don 3 related, of course. Give me your whackiest suggestions for new Don casting!

I’m sticking with Jim Sarbh! So evil, like in Raabta, but also fun to watch.

60 thoughts on “Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to the Day Before Made in Heaven 2 Releases?”

      • Hmmm… up to you. Let’s see what others have to say. I plan to watch it right away, but probably won’t binge watch it. Like you said, I think this show is a little too real and it takes time to digest it all. I’ll probably watch it over a week or two based on how intense it gets.

        So on one hand, I think a discussion post earlier rather than later works because then people can come to it every few days and share their thoughts on the episodes they watched. Mostly, I don’t want to forget what I was thinking after each episode.

        But on the other hand, I worry that an early discussion post will get lost in the mix and people might not see it or even remember to come back to it as the days go on. Or like I have done before, I will share my most recent thoughts on your Monday or Wednesday posts because they are more recent than the discussion post. Sorry… I am thinking way to hard about this and not giving you a specific answer.

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  2. Pingback: Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to the Day Before Made in Heaven 2 Releases? - News Hour 24/7

  3. Oh, oh, oh! Amitabh!

    That would have been wacky, right? He’s been living incognito all this time, but now he needs to come out of hiding.

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  4. Thanks for sharing the Wayne Brady piece. At my son’s middle school a lot or most of the girls say they identify as pansexual, while not actually doing anything because they’re young. Part of me admires their inclusiveness, part of me wonders how much of it is just that boys are icky and dumb and they like girls because they’re more mature and interesting. Or maybe I’m underestimating the youngs.

    So Don is a gangster, he’s super good at fighting and cruel but always looks cool about it. He’s highly intelligent and sexy. He came up from below and grabbed power. I want to cast someone who’s always cast as the villain, like Vijay Raaz, but give him a chance to play the lead. Is there a younger generation equivalent? Or, go south – Allu Arjun in Pushpa isn’t far off Don, just polish that character up a bit.

    Watching: I am starting Made in Heaven but like filmikudhi I won’t be quick about it so I’m fine with waiting a bit if you set up a discussion post.

    Also watching: I saw Barbie last weekend with my husband and kids. A lot of the layers were beyond the 10yo but the rest of us liked it very much and it’s given us a lot to talk about. I feel weirdly proud that this is the big US blockbuster of the summer. It’s so pretty, it has beautiful actors and cool, creative design and big dance numbers (!), but it’s also smart and subversive and funny, with a big feminist heart and a message about how you can’t be in a meaningful partnership if you don’t first know yourself (Ken). My husband was reading some reviews in Spain, where they just barely didn’t get a scary regressive government with a party that ran partly on dismantling women’s rights and protections. Not to go political but there are so many places in the world right now with a backlash against equity. I know Barbie is just a shiny pink movie but it made a billion dollars while talking about how to fight the patriarchy. It feels kind of amazing. (That said, looks like Oppenheimer is way more successful than Barbie in India, even if Barbie has more of the elements of a commercial film, comedy and even songs. Wonder how to understand that.)

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    • It’s mostly due to Christopher Nolan being one of the most famous foreign directors in India. He has a huge fanbase in India and is very very popular in India. Barbie had a very small fanbase in India so it’s a shock it did so well. Most Indian women who grew up with Barbie were younger millennials or Gen Z. It is still a more recent thing for India thus it didn’t have that transcendent generational aspect either.

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      • It will be interesting comparing the response to Barbie to the response to The Archies. I feel like The Archies will play better in India even than it would in America. there’s the combo of nostalgia for the books, and the new TV show buzz.

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        • Yes! I was thinking about the Archies. I wonder how similar or different it will be in tone. Similar proposition of a creative, intelligent female director taking on a legacy childhood brand.

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      • This makes sense, thank you!! I wasn’t so surprised by Barbie’s small numbers, more surprised by Oppenheimer’s big numbers.

        Talking to my husband made me realize how different our experience watching the movie was based on growing up with Barbie or not. It’s not even the nostalgia factor, I didn’t really like Barbies, just having the public debates in the background about Barbie as a model for girls and whether her influence was positive or negative, gives a hook into what the movie is playing with. He still fully enjoyed it but he probably wouldn’t have gone to see it if I didn’t take him.

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    • Emily – I was just at my chiropractor’s office a week ago and he said the exact same thing you did!

      So many girls at his kids’ elementary school and middle school identify as pan. Less so the guys. It made me wonder if it because there is more stigma around boys being pan than women? Is it because boys hit puberty maybe later than girls? Is it because (as you said) when girls are young, they form strong relationships with other girls and boys are just icky so it is easier to think/say you are pan? I do think it is interesting that many parents are seeing this.

      Kind of related, I grew up in rural New England, which has lots of all girls’ colleges. I have lots of girlfriends who went to an all girls’ college, and dated women while they were there. Most now happen to be married to men now. Did this come about because college finally gave them a safe environment to fully explore their sexuality? Something that was not possible in small towns?

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      • Among my friends, “Pan” almost seems to be the default. But then if I think about the studies of sexuality, it IS the default. Most people are capable of attraction to all genders, the exception is the ones who tend more towards one side or the other of the spectrum. So maybe we are heading towards a world where you have to “come out” as only capable of attraction to a particular gender, and wouldn’t that be nice?

        I am also interested in taking the current day awareness of “pan” sexuality and looking at history through that lens. For instance, Eleanor Roosevelt. She’s been seen as Lesbian because she fell in love with a woman. But need we make that assumption? Is it possible she just fell in love with a person?

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        • I think you are absolutely right. From what I am hearing from parents around me, pan is the norm, which is lovely! Mostly for girls still though, which is still interesting to me. It definitely makes me think of how deep rooted the “gender norms” are still rooted for men.

          I think looking at it from a historical perspective is interesting. I guess now that I think about it, I think I always thought of many historical figures whose sexuality was discussed as pan? I guess my view was always just that humans are capable to loving various people regardless of gender. But then I questioned myself and wondered if that was flawed because some people do just love one gender (gay, lesbian, opposite gender) and I do not want to take that away from them.

          I guess I am just am happy times are changing and some kids have a safe environment to just be who they are, recognizing that I live in a very progressive neighborhood, in purple state.

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          • Random other element of “pan” that I like is the whole “boys and girls can’t be friends!” thing is going away. You are attracted to the person, you can be friends without attraction, or friends with attraction, or friends who used to be together and now aren’t, all kinds of things. It’s not a strict “this gender=friendship only, this gender=romance only” kind of rule. We already have lots of same-sex love stories where there is a non-romantic best friend of the same gender as the love interest, I want that in not same-sex too! Why not have the Best Friend in a rom-com be a man who just happens to not have romantic chemistry with the heroine? Not a love triangle, not a gay best friend, just a guy who is her friend because they are people.

            But of course you know that, since all of Mr. Toddles friends are female even though “boys and girls can’t be friends”

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          • Ooh interesting point. I know the whole concept of “boys and girls can’t be friends” exists. Heck… many Hindi rom coms are based on that.

            But weirdly, it never applied to me or my husband growing up. I was a total tom boy growing up (maybe why I relate so much to Kajol in KKHH). And, while I have always had maybe 1 or 2 very close girlfriends during different phases of my life, most of my friends throughout my life, especially as an adult were all men. Still are. Never as a love interest. They still remain my closest friends.

            And it is the absolute same with my husband. All of his closest friends happened to be women. In fact he has only ever lived with women. Not girlfriends, but just women friends because boys were messy and gross. He is even adamantly against Mr. Toddles even entertaining an option to an all boys school.

            I guess that was always the norm for both of us, and it seems, at least for now, history is repeating itself.

            However, I guess we happen to grow up in a slightly unique environment? I am glad that the concept of boys and girls can’t be friends is going away in general.

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          • Don’t send Mr. Toddles to an all boy school! Why is that even on the table? That would be so terrible for him!

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          • It is not on the table. I am a strong proponent of public schools only. Husband went to public schools until highschool and then went to a private highschool because it gave him a chance to explore all his interests, which public school would not have given him. This came up because Husband wanted me to keep an open mind about private schools and was trying to explain that he didn’t mean all boys schools for Mr. Toddles.

            Where as, Husband’s sister went to an all girls middle school and highschool. As you know, but many don’t since I haven’t shared this publicly yet, we are having a girl (nicknamed B2 for now because we cannot figure out a name for the life of us) in a couple months. He explained that he would be open to an all girls school for B2. Where as, I am against any single gender school whether it is all girls or all boys.

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          • Amazing news, congratulations!! I’m a fan of giving the baby a name that will definitely not be the name while in utero, it disconcerts the family and makes it fun to talk about. My youngest was Facundo.

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          • Thank you!

            Ha! I love Facundo. We did something similar. We cycled through so many ridiculous names for our first, most of which sounded like James Bond villains just to mess with our family. ☺️

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          • And yes, I have friends who look like traditional married with children but who identify as queer or bi or pan because they’ve had serious relationships with other gender partners. It always seemed natural to me that humans could be attracted to humans.
            In my kid’s middle school it is almost all of the girls and almost none of the boys. Though I do think there’s space for boys who want to shake up traditional norms too. Just fewer of them so far in the friend group. (This friend group also still teases members who like girls so maybe it’s just an overall maturity thing.)

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          • Congrats on B2! I am so jealous of her gender. I have nieces and numerous girls I am close to, but I will go to my grave wishing I had a daughter. And on education public vs private I have a bit of unfortunate experience. Teacher Spouse notices a definite difference in his classes when they are mixed gender vs all girls. In all girls classes the girls speak up and really partcipate, but when boys enter the classroom they clam up. Not the case for all Boys classes, boys seem to behave the same. And after this last year I actually looked into sending the 14 year old to private boarding schools. We would miss him too much, he is staying in public school. Okay we couldn’t afford a private boarding school and there are no private schools around. Our true options are public school or home school. The 14 year old is extremely social, so home school is not ideal, but this last year was so bad, primarily because of classmates, that home school option is always in the back of my head. So I agree with your spouse, don’t completely discount private schools, you don’t know what the future holds.

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          • Thank you so much for your perspective. Husband feels the same way you and your husband do. He thinks girls have a chance to find themselves and speak up more at an all girls school. My SIL who went to an all girls private school had a slightly different perspective. She loved her education, but she was surrounded by only women from the age of 12 to 22 and then went to a Co-ed university for her post grad. According to her, it took her a long time to figure out how to be social in that setting and after that. As she put it, there are social skills most kids learn naturally at the appropriate age when they are at a co-ed school that she just never did. She eventually got a therapist and worked it out but it was definitely a huge adjustment for her to experience all kinds of new feelings and social situations for the first time in her early 20s that most people experience their whole lives.

            Having said all this, I am becoming more open to private schools if it ends up being the right fit for our kids. I still struggle because I grew up on public school education and we happen to live in a county with wonderful public schools, but I also don’t want to be so stringent that I don’t do what’s right for the kids and their needs.

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          • I have two pieces of information for you. First, I have a friend who was able to get a prep school live in full ride scholarship and so did her two siblings. There’s schools out there with scholarships no one bothers to try for, it’s possible. Second, my family hit a similar wall which is why I was homeschooled. If you have a good Community College nearby to handle the lab classes and language classes and stuff like that, the humanities can totally be handled at home. You just need to sign your kid up for a million activities to keep him active.

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  5. I watched Interstellar last night for the first time. My 11 year old declared I would like it and he was right. A great movie. It was so good I was 15 minutes late picking up the 14 year old from band camp because we were in a good scene. Stupid band camp, it is dramatically interferring with the family’s last week of summer. Because it is so hot it takes a break for 4 hours in the middle of the day, that means the rest of us can’t even go on a hike in the cool mountains that are FINALLY clear of snow because we have to come back down to the valley to pick up a trumpet player. Also the trumpet player hasn’t seen American Pie so he DOESN’T EVEN KNOW the crazy connotations of “band camp” that most Americans over 40 have! And now I can’t sleep. Apparently good movies (Interstellar, NOT American Pie) prevent me from sleeping. I’ll blame it on perimenopause.

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    • This is why parents are so excited for drivers’ licenses! 2 more years and you never have to pick up the 14 year old again. Even if he doesn’t have a car available, someone else in his cohort will.

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      • The idea of the 14 year old friends driving him is TERRIFYING! But thankfully my dictatorship of a state won’t let kids drive eachother until they are 18.

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  6. I watched Trial Period, and as Saira said it was very sweet. Absolutely predictable but in a good , safe way. And there is a cute boy and perfect husband Manav Kaul. Recommended!

    It was the only indian movie I managed to finish this week. I tried Shakuntalam but it’s so bad, so so bad. Like really I just can’t. The fights look like elementary school plays. Terrible. I also started Ishq-E-Nadaan, because it looked super romantic and Mohit Raina plays sad widower who doesn’t want to love anymore. He is so sexy! Unfortunately the movie is slow and there are two other stories there I don’t know if I will have patience to finish it.
    Encuraged by two polish bollywood lovers I also started Bawaal, but I quit after 30 minutes because Varun’s character is POS and I hate him.

    I finally finished brazilian telenovela Avenida Brasil I have been watching for months. The series was very good overall but the ending was so disappointing. Like really, there are so many characters in this series, all interesting and different and in the end they are all forgotten, which made me angry because I was watching it for them.

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    • Ugh, I hate it when characters get shortchanged! On the other hand, that’s part of why I find it exhausting to think of going back to Made in Heaven. So many people! And I care about all of them!

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    • Just commented below about Ishq-E-Nadaan. I should have known it was on your radar, too! It was super slow but I thought it had some good twists and a satisfying but bittersweet for at least one character ending. I definitely want to see more of Mohit Raina. I couldn’t figure out what it was about him, but he definitely exudes a low key sexiness. I wonder if he and Konkona have a small romance plot in Mumbai Diaires. There’s a second season coming so I hope so and despite the serious premise of the first season, I bet this has an ER/Grey’s Anatomy quality to it? I haven’t read any reviews.

      LOL about Bawaal. I want that film to never have existed!

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      • So I tried an episode of Mumbai Diaries 26/11 and then watched the final scenes of the 1st season. I thought it had potential but it was a little too clunky and uneven in the acting tone, so I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. I think I’ll pass on this one. Konkona and Mohit are not paired up in it.

        I also tried the first episode of Guilty Minds after hearing it praised as one of the better Indian streaming shows so far. It had one of the stars of Ishq-E-Nadaan in it as the female lead. And the leads’ chemistry with each other was promising and the case of a week format was good, except the last scene of the 1st season was so silly AND offensive that I was out at that point.

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  7. Watching: I’m super excited about the teaser for Yaariyan 2! It looks like a great mashup of Made In Heaven and Bangalore Days (as this is about a group of cousins)! All with the look and angst (and quirkiness) of Sanam Teri Kasam by the same directors. Can’t wait to see what one of these actors breaks through. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWUgBdzgGyQ&list=WL&index=49

    Has anyone seen the first one and do I need to watch it? I think this is a spiritual sequel.

    Also really liked the trailer for DQ’s King of Kotha…looks pretty solid and though I haven’t had a strong urge to watch Pushpa and KGF in the same genre, this one looks well made and he’s great.

    In my quest to ride the high of RARKPK and it’s rom-com gloriousness, I made the mistake of rewatching Tu Jhooti Main Makkaar last night. I still liked it fine, but less in the rewatch. I didn’t have as much of a problem with the ending this time. I thought the ending itself was charming in how it was filmed and cut and I almost wanted to see that movie more than the 2 hours preceding it. In the rewatch I was more aware of Shraddha’s forced acting, Ranbir’s checked out/autopilot moments, and the clunkiness of the directing at times (all suffered in comparison to RARKPK).

    Also watching tons of RARKPK interviews and also Heart of Stone interviews, Made In Heaven reviews, etc. today.

    Reading: a very readable novel set in Northern Ireland, Big Girl, Small Town, by Michelle Galen, good for fans of Derry Girls. Also reading a very light historical romance by Eva Leigh that features an older woman, younger man which is fun.

    Hoping to watch a lot this weekend: Made in Heaven 2, Heart of Stone, Red, White & Royal Blue adaptation on Amazon, and maybe a couple of new and old Indian rom-coms if I can find some good ones to try

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    • Wait a second! That’s just Bangalore Days, I think? With the mud racing along with the weddings and cousins? No wheelchair sighting, so maybe they changed that bit a little, but I’m getting a strong sense of more than “inspired by” and closer to “stolen from”

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      • Actually, I think you’re right! Looks like it is a remake! Not sure it was necessary, but I’m still interested to see what they do with it.

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        • Yes, it’s a remake of Bangalore Days, and I think it’s an official remake not a stolen, inspired one.
          Filmilibrarian I’m so happy you are also excited for Yaariyan 2. I’m super excited since they announced it months ago, but nobody cares about this film. I only saw people deriding it because Divya Khosla is a terrible actress. And it’s true, she is not good, but who cares if it’s Radhika & Vinay and Meezan and Pearl V. Puri. I just can’t wait!

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    • RARKPK was sold out again this weekend at my local theater. I may be condemned to watching it on streaming since we’re about to go away on vacation. Boo! I wanted the rom-com gloriousness.

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  8. OK, well, yet again we’re not getting something on Prime when everyone else gets it–no word on Made in Heaven 2 in Japan. Maybe the subtitles are still being translated? Anyway, I have enough to watch for the time being, but I want to discuss it with everyone.

    BUT, going to see Pathaan in a little over two weeks! I’ve finally been able to find which theaters it’s going to be at and luckily there’s one that’s only about a two hour train ride away from me. I’m going to take a little holiday and see Pathaan and have a nice meal in a big city.

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    • I went in Dubai. It was really wonderful and the whole cast sings live. Also when I went, there was a translation of the urdu to english on a screen. Overall a really nice experience and the actors did a great job as well.

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  11. Just watched Red White and Royal Blue and Heart of Stone back to back.

    Heart of Stone was just not good. The look of it was muddy and fuzzy (intentionally made to look like the Bourne films) and the writing really was just plain bad. All three main characters lacked charisma which is really strange because all three can have major movie star energy. Alia wasn’t really given a chance to shine. I read a review that said she was “too courtly and innocent looking” which actually is a good reason why she didn’t work completely in the role.

    Dhanush’s role and work in The Gray Man were stronger than Alia’s sadly.

    Red White and Royal Blue was fun and I gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars. I really liked the book (which I think is now kind of a romance classic). I thought the chemistry between the two was hit or miss in scenes, but it was an overall very good adaptation, with a couple of too sincere bordering on cheesy scenes at the end. I thought it was more swoony than Bros, but not as clever and interesting. And Fire Island was probably the best of the three if you were to compare the three big queer rom-coms of the last few years, as it combined great chemistry between the leads with some witty and biting humor.

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    • Thank you so much for your review of both movies! I’m looking forward to watching them this weekend. I’ll keep my expectations low for Heart of Stone.

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    • Thank you so much for reporting to all of us! I will ignore Heart of Stone, and i will continue to have Red White and Royal Blue on the list as a “screaming girls hang out” movie and nothing else.

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  14. So I watched a nice little film that released on JioCinema recently but didn’t get much buzz: Ishq-e-Nadaan. A solid film with a leisurely pace and appealing acting and I recommend it for a Sunday morning kind of watch. I watched it on Einthusan…I really need to start watchng more on there.

    It has an ensemble cast with Lara Dutta and Neena Gupta and has three seemingly unconnected stories of love and friendship. I won’t say more because I didn’t see the twists coming and was pleasantly surprised. I was also charmed by Mohit Raina. I don’t think I’ve seen him in much, but he was nicely grounded in his acting and very handsome (he was a model at one point before acting in ). Looks like he is in the Mumbai Diaries series that I’ve been meaning to watch because Konkona is in it.

    Speaking of, I also watched Konkona’s interview with Anupama that was just posted. She looked amazing and I always find her interesting to listen to as she was one of my first Bollywood girl-crushes. She sometimes comes across as pretentious, but I think she may be just be kind of cerebral and kind of shy and awkward.

    I’ve also been addicted to watching all of the old videos on Books on Toast, an Indian YouTube channel dedicated to books. The two hosts are fun but can be a bit much at times and they have great guests including writers and actors, too (my fave author Anuja Chauhan, Dia Mirza, Anupama Chopra and her daughter, Kanan Gill, Namit Das, etc.). They went on a long break at the end of the pandemic but at least may be starting to do monthly live videos now. They do great videos on the JCB Prize in Literature and the Jaipur Literature Festival (both of which I am really into learning about and my dream visit to India would include attending JLF).

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    • You and me really have similar taste in movies. I started Ishq-e-Nadaan 2 weeks ago when it poped up on Einthusan. Unfortunately I found it slow, and there was not enough Mohit Raina for me .I started watching thinking he was the protagonist and it’s 100% his film, so I was surprised by the presence of all those people and their stories.

      Mohit Raina had a good role in Shiddat. Have you seen it?

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  15. Oh I love your idea of casting Jim Sarbh! He has this devilish charm, suave sexiness and effortless coolness that someone like Don should have. But I guess he wasn’t internationally known/mainstream enough for the producers to cast him plus he kind of has an unconvential look to him. He’s surely not ugly but I did see a lot of people online calling him ”weird/odd” looking.

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