Happy Wednesday! And Happy Saif Day! And happy day that it is sunny and lovely outside my window!
I’ll start!
Watching: Not a lot! I’ve been very productive this week, cleared out my scary closet, tidied the yard, all kinds of things that did not involve watching stuff. But on Sunday I’m gonna go over to Dina’s and she says I can pick what we watch! Red White and Royal Blue? Classic old school fun film? Something Deep and Modern (no, not really, I want to be happy)?
Thinking: Now that the Scary Closet is organized, I’ve got big ambitions! Organize the less scary closet! Alphabetize the bookshelves! Find out what is in that filing cabinet that I haven’t opened in years!
Reading: Most recently, reasons SRK might have become so sunglasses obsessed since Raees. There’s lots of stuff like photosensitivity and things, but unless his lasik surgery was super messed up (also possible) that shouldn’t have happened overnight. However, on the better side of things, photosensitivity can also be a side effect of anti-depressants (Yay, Shahrukh! Medicate yourself! Mental Health can be treated!), and also is recommended for ADHD/mania/insomnia stuff. Being in the bright sun all day can mess with your circadian rhythms and just wearing sunglasses can help calm you and keep you even. So if SRK is cutting out the self-treatment for ADHD/insomnia with cigarettes and coffee and replacing it with sunglasses, I am all for that.
Listening: It’s Saif’s birthday! Let us all remember “Ole Ole”
Now, question for you! Two weeks ago, I spontaneously decided to dye my hair with a cheap grocery store leave in conditioner. It turned out surprisingly well! Now, guess what color?
dontcallitbollywood 
Watching: I am watching Jeet and Agni Natchathiram side by side. While I don’t hate Jeet, I think I want something a little more filling and thoughtful right now. Plus I have to be honest Salman is the best and most developed actor among all of them in this movie. Sunny Deol is just him and Karishma Kapoor is a bit annoying with all the ‘hum’. Salman is the only one who really feels like an actor in the whole movie while everyone else is just there. Agni Natchathiram is so sexy! Like all the songs and the suggestive scenes between all the main romances. Like its so forward and something I have never seen in Indian mainstream cinema. So far I haven’t reached the main conflict but it is very interesting and I want to finish it soon.
Reading: I am reading Virginia Woolf’s ‘A room of my own’. It is an essay but I do like how the author has a more narrative approach to it and feel the criticism against the book doesn’t take into account her narrative style. Its quite an interesting essay collection cause it feels both non-fiction and fiction at the same time. I also finished Pachinko where I felt the last part was a bit underdeveloped and sloppy in its approach.
Thinking: I watched this movie called ‘About Time’ years ago and one of the characters is a time-traveller who uses time travelling to read more books. I keep thinking about it right now as I wish I had more time to read more books, watch more movies and listen to more music. There just sometimes seem to be no time to have your own life and interests that a proposition like time travelling seems so enviable. However to be honest, I don’t really want to time travel at all.
Listening: I am listening to Myskkin’s Psycho album. The movie is mediocre and insensitive however the music by Ilayaraja is amazing. I never understood before this movie how music can change a movie completely.
Also I think you dyed your hair green or red.
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Tabu! I love Tabu in Jeet! But I also remember that Salman is surprisingly better than everyone else.
I’ve never watched About Time, but I found the premise intriguing. Also, Bill Nighy. Is it worth watching or just okay?
I didn’t realize Ilaiyaraaja was still composing! So the Ratnam vs Ilaiyaraaja debate can continue with new data.
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It’s an okay romance drama which I feel I have grown out of. I mostly remembered that specific scene where he talks about the books.
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When my kids discuss what super power they would want I always say I want to be able to stop time, so I could get things done, like reading books, without mising any other part of life. Of course if I continued to age while I stopped time I would get old really fast.
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I think the best part in this movie is how you don’t age when you time travel as your time has stopped. It doesn’t make much sense but I would take it!
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Yay, Saif! The only Khan for me!
I think you should definitely alphabetize your bookshelves and I bet your hair color is a teal green like the backdrop of your site!
Watching: I watched the first ten minutes of Guddiyan Patole with Sonam Bajwa and immediately turned it off because of the terrible acting and dubbing of the white actors! I really like Sonam Bajwa’s look and enjoyed an interview she did somewhere recently, but I think so many of her Punjabi films may be hard to stomach due to low budget/production values. Any recommendations appreciated!
So still building up my YouTube subscription lists with Indian booktube content which is fun, but I really have a problem with watching too much YouTube and not enough actual shows and movies.
Reading: my first audiobook! Don’t think I’ll ever be able to listen to fiction but I thought I’d dip my toe in with memoirs read by the author. Starting with Gabriel Byrne’s Walking With Ghosts…good choice since he’s a wonderful narrator and actually turned this into a one-man show on Broadway.
Listening: RARKPK songs and other recent Hindi soundtracks like Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar and Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbet. Trying to get back into listening to music again. Also recently loved Rufus Wainwright’s Folkocracy. His song with John Legend on it made me cry at work.
Also watching that Fighter moving poster teaser! Give me Bollywood Top Gun and I will eat it up! All three look great and I trust Anand to do something relatively decent. For those that want another good air force related story in the Indian context I highly recommend Anuja Chauhan’s novel, Baaz.
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I have a girl crush on Sonam Bajwa, she’s gorgeous. My favorite movie of her is Ardab Mutiyaran. Also Mai Vyah Nahi Karona Tere Naal was cute, but the beginning is terrible and has bad white acting. Punjabi movies can be very nice but I don’t know if there is at least one without something problematic.
Honsla Rakh was bad bad, so I don’t recommend it.
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I knew you’d have recs, Angie! I will check out Ardab Mutiyaran!
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I watched Adipurush and I loved it! I started watching only to see the famously bad CGI, but I ended enjoying the movie a lot. Special effects are mostly bad (and Prabhas’s face is so so fake) but the movie is kinda fun and engaging. I liked it even more because I compared it to Shakuntalam. I have been trying to watch Shakuntalam for weeks but it’s so bad, and boring and slow. I thought Adipurush will be also like that but no, it’s interesting and the story flows. Sure, I’m not Hindu so I wasn’t expecting a perfect religious movie, maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much.
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I saw the first half hour of Adipurush and was having trouble understanding everything, probably because I’m not Hindu. The bad CGI was cartoonish and stylized, so it didn’t bother me. But I got to a point where it looked like it would be battle after battle after battle, and I wasn’t in the mood to watch battles, so I stopped watching.
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Cartoonish is the right word for those special effects. The movie looks like a cartoon/video game and IMO it’s kinda cool. I mean I can see they wanted it to look like that and they suceeded. That’s why I think people shouldn’t criticize the movie so much.
I know almost nothing about Ramayana, but I found the story quite easy to follow, maybe because I wasn’t thinking too much while watching. Also it didn’t have those boring parts like Shakuntalam when people were telling someone backstory with like 100 names and stuff hard to understand.
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Pink tips again? I feel like if you’re experimenting with the dye, you might want to be on the safe side with the color.
I’m on vacation, which for me ends up being almost a detox from what little media I otherwise consume. Kids go to bed even later, so I’m not getting much rereading done of my favorite cozy mystery.
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Which cozy mysteries do you like / recommend? It’s one of the genres I like consuming in audio books
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It’s really mostly the one series so far: the Lady Hardcastle mysteries by T. E. Kinsey. A lady and her maid at the beginning of the 20th century, ribbing each other like an old married couple, drinking tea and brandy, always describing how they got somewhere and solving murders for a hobby.
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Thank you!! I’ll look it up
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Blue or purple hair (maybe I’m projecting my desires lol)
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Pingback: Wednesday Watching: What Are You Watching and Thinking and Reading and Listening to on Saif Ali Khan’s Birthday? - News Hour 24/7
My time is consumed by thinking while working, listening to audiobooks while working or listening to classic music while working…reading is in my spare time…here mainly just reading, in the India forums also writing.
I like Saif very much…a dear friend to ShahRukh…more than anybody may realise…I like that there is so much of celeb’s life we don’t know and which is utterly ‘normal’, way out of media’s sight.
ShahRukh started to wear sunglasses rather early after the operation, especially because of all the glaring light (flashes and spotlights) his eyes have to face…he is a very obedient patient – mostly 😉 .
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I listened to this ep of Screen Drafts about Merchant-Ivory movies: https://screendrafts.libsyn.com/merchant-ivory-with-guy-branum-drea-clarke
Not a lot of attention for the Indian movies but there’s some good discussion of Shakespeare Wallah and Heat and Dust (my beloved<3). Also it's just got a lot of good Merchant-Ivory discussion.
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Cool! Them and Yash Chopra were the only film people Jenifer allowed Shashi to bring home.
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Purple? I tried to dye my hair purple this summer. I spent more money on permenent dye from the internet instead of the the temporary dies sold in town, but in the end the dye washed out.
Watching: In the late evenings if I feel like staying up while others go to sleep I’ve started watching Suits, it takes very little brain power but is entertaining. Today was the first day of school, and as no subs were needed I took a bike ride to avoid all other responsiblities, and biked a bit far; too far. I can now hardly walk. So I sat on my living room floor and watched Happiness for Beginners, and it did not make me happy. It sucked. I read a good review of it, but the reviewer must have liked boring movies where the people who are supposed to be falling in love have no chemistry. I started watching Kriti’s movie because I wanted to see her falling in love for reals, but I didn’t like the actual movie enough to keep watching.
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I was going to buy from the internet, but then I got impatient and the grocery store had a sale shelf right there. Thank you for confirming my decision!
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I went to watch Ghoomer today and as usual arrived a little bit late. Don’t think I missed anything significant. I didn’t find it boring but I felt like I didn’t feel any of the emotions deeply… And some of the dialogs just didn’t land for me. Shabana Azmi was a delight. So so different to Rocky aur rani, i wouldn’t even be able to tell it’s the same person acting. Phenomenal
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Just looked up the movie, how was Saiyami Kher??? I love her from Mirzya.
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I didn’t know her. I think she was pretty good. Some spots her emotions didn’t land for me but that might be more to do with the content. Anupama Chopra thought she did well
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Watching (again): I went on a KJo binge on Sunday and rewatched K3G and Student of the Year straight through. I was introducing my friend to K3G (she liked KKHH and other rom-coms I’ve shown here in the past). We only watched the first half (which she enjoyed) but decided to do the second half separately since it was a “school night.” Like many here, I’ll never tire of watching K3G. Student of the Year was a fun maybe 3rd? time watch. Amazing how far Alia has come and how much she grew as a performer in those first couple of films even. Her dancing was really really not good in SOTY and her acting was not too natural at first (it suited the character in some ways which was a much smaller part than I remembered). I thought both Sid and Varun had really strong debuts, Varun was definitely more natural and charismatic, but Sid was really so good at portraying the more layered character in this, his ambition, his stress and grief related to his family situation, and his angsty loverboy plot. I’ve always thought he was an underrated actor and I hope he doesn’t completely get lost in action roles.
Thinking…a lot about the current state of dance in Hindi cinema with this generation of stars…a great topic for a discussion post maybe, Margaret? You probably already have a few in the archives but always would like to hear your take on the newest stars and their dancing abilities. I worry that this is becoming such a lost art in Hindi cinema.
Sid and Alia were pretty bad in SOTY of course and Alia has improved so much, especially since she did so much training for Kalank and it shows in RARKPK. Sid, of course, hasn’t improved much but is passable in a lot of the bhangra numbers like in Hassee Toh Phassee. He has the same long-limbed problem that Amitabh and Abhishek had…always made him look more awkward.
So I was just thinking about who are the best dancers of the newest crop of stars. Ayushmann is pretty great and the songs from Action Hero and Dream Girl are demonstrating his shall we say adaptability! Sushant was, of course, really good and it makes me extra sad when I see that one Kedarnath song, Sweetheart. Sara Ali Khan is really good and I would argue better than Janhvi who relies too much on her sex appeal. I’ll say it again but Sara Ali Khan in her brief moments in Heart Throb stole that song for me! Ananya is not good but also reminds me of Deepika in her earlier stuff…she could get better as well. Kriti and Taapsee are both good but kind of forgettable. Arjun sadly is not good. Bhumi doesn’t really get to do enough all out dance numbers or am I forgetting some big ones? Tiger is probably the obvious best of the guys from this generation but I rarely pay attention to his songs. I’m not counting Hrithik and Shahid as the newest generation obviously. Vicky Kaushal is a sleeper in the dancing department. I always like to see him in a dance number. Ranveer and Ranbir are interesting to compare since they talked about it on Koffee With Karan. Ranveer has all of that energy and now an impressive outing in RARKPK, but Ranbir is much more fluid and precise in his movements.
I would say my personal top 3 male dancers (of all generations) would be Hrithik, Shahid, and Ranbir. And for female dancers probably Rani, Aishwariya, and Madhuri. And maybe even Sara Ali Khan actually just because I’ve become such a fangirl of hers.
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P.S. Kiara is also a bit forgettable as of yet for me. And everyone says Shraddha is so good, but her dancing like her acting never totally works for me.
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Sanya! Sanya Sanya! I am super excited to see her in Jawaan. She’s been doing those viral videos showing off her dance skills, but she’s still barely been used as a dancer in mainstream. Oh, also Kriti! She is really fun to watch and I want to see her do more.
For the 2000s boys, I have come around to being All Ranveer. I also really like Sid M. And I think he has carved out a good place for himself. He doesn’t need to be a Star, we don’t need a bunch of Ranveers running around taking all the energy, but Sid is a nice solid hardworking recognized actor. I’m impressed that he does his job and gets along with life and doesn’t seem to be pushing pushing pushing for a big piece of the pie. He kind of reminds me of Raajkumar.
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Oh, I forgot Sanya and, yes, I’ve seen her viral videos, too. She’s great. Actually if I recall, Rajkumar has some dance moves too. I agree that Sid and he have similar energies.
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