Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Watching and Reading and Thinking and Listening to Diwali Week????

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Happy Wednesday! This week is just crawling along for me, maybe because I am so excited for the weekend and seeing a big new movie? Or maybe because it is yucky outside and is dark by 4:30 now.

I’ll start!

Watching: I watched the new season of Unforgotten, it’s not nearly as good as the earlier seasons, but it has FREAKIN’ HAYLEY MILLS!!!! If you don’t know Unforgotten, it’s a BBC mystery series, and one of the leads is a very good actor who happens to be desi. So I spent the whole time wondering if he fanboyed out in his Hayley Mills scenes and asked her what it was like to work with Shashi. Oh, and I also started binging Taskmaster which is a very pleasant show to watch while it is rainy outside.

Reading: I blazed through the second book in the Pimpernel series and just started the 3rd, but it’s not grabbing me. Instead, I am thinking of starting The Thursday Murder Club which I just had highly recommended to me. And again, rainy, cold, dark, seems like a good time to read a mystery.

Thinking: I’m having one of those time when everything feels muddled in the head, you know? Like, I can’t seem to straighten out and think in a straight line. I may need to commit to another listicle type task on the blog, so I have a nice clear plan for, like, life.

Listening: It’s Diwali! So, obviously, “Pal Pal Hai Bhari”

Okay, question for y’all! What is your favorite Diwali song? (mine is already posted right above)

45 thoughts on “Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Watching and Reading and Thinking and Listening to Diwali Week????”

  1. Watching: I am watching Madhumati which is wonderful and filled with good looking people. I am still in the first hour and a half but I have to admit a fault. I am Indian and have loved the storytelling language of Indian cinema my whole life however this film has too many songs! Like there were just 3 songs of them singing in the mountain on how much they love each other. Did no one think maybe we should reduce one of them? There were 2 of them in the fair, like can we please cut the songs!

    Reading: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande which is extremely depressing but is interesting from a scientific perspective. It is also slightly disturbing but I do believe the points of doctors needing to understand that its more than the science is poignant.

    Listening: Sunidhi Chauhan has been going viral recently for her energetic performances so I wanted to check her work out. She’s released this wonderful song which I have been listening to nonstop and she wished to convey anxiety through the words.

    Thinking: My mind is such a mess recently and switches from productivity to complete lethargy. But I am also so excited about diwali so I am happy as well!

    I really like Selfie Le Le Re which I am not sure is a Diwali song. However I really loved the sincere goodness Salman emulated in that role. I always find it funny because it is different from his real life image. However I love the songs genuine innocence.

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    • Bajrangi Bhaijaan is such a great movie!!!! And yes, it’s a great song too. I guess it’s not NOT a Diwali song? It’s about Hanuman, he was there for Diwali.

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    • Aanand L Rai is releasing a new movie with Dhanush. I am so excited because I loved Atrangi Re (might be my own weird taste) so much. Plus Dhanush and Rai really work together.

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  2. Margaret, I found a perfect movie for you today! Malayalam film about dogs. Here the short synopsis:

    “”Golden retriever Tomy falls in love with his neighbor Amalu, a cocker spaniel. Their owners don’t approve and try to keep them inside. Tomy and Amalu decide to elope, and embark on an epic adventure.””

    And here’s the trailer:

    It’s on einthusan and Disney Hotstar I think.

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          • Oh yes.
            Very, VERY slowly I’m moving with Sapta Saagaradaache Ello. I want to finish this movie but it’s like watching a kitten trapped in a cage in a burning house. Exausting! And now Side B will realease and I saw the poster and Ruknimi is not on it and I’m even more scared to continue watching.

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  4. Watching: so many Hallmark Christmas movies…early on in the Hallamark Countdown I always have a goal to watch them to see if any are passably good…I do turn off most after 10 minutes and by Thanksgiving I don’t watch anymore or just go back to the true holiday classics for me like The Holiday, Little Women, Hi-Life (an awesome indie from the 90s), and, yes, Love Actually. So far this year, I can recommend (to those who usually like this sort of thing) Mystic Christmas, The Santa Summit, and Checkin’ It Twice. Also really liked a couple from the last couple of years that I’m just getting to now: Haul Out the Holly, Hannukah on Rye, and Lights Camera Christmas! Also rewatched Home for the Holidays with Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr., a classic Thanksgiving movie.

    Have I mentioned that I randomly watched 83 recently. Enjoyed it for what it was…no performance really stood out though Ranveer and Pankaj did their thing. Felt like watching a docudrama.

    Looks like my movie buddy and her daughter want to see The Marvels on Saturday, so I’ll be seeing that. I’ve fallen out of love with the MCU, but as a woman I still want to support the female heroes and I do love Ms. Marvel. We can then think about when we will see Tiger 3. I know she’ll want to see Animal, too in a few weeks, but I might need to convince her more that we should see Tiger 3 since she still needs to watch the first two. Since she likes SRK as Pathan, I’m hoping his cameo will be enough. I really don’t want to wait for streaming for this one. Definitely a big screen experience. We’ll probably see it the weekend after it opens.

    Reading: Reading R.K. Narayan’s short modern prose version of the Ramayana in honor of Diwali. I have never read it, though I obviously have seen references to it in many movies and versions of it like Sita Sings the Blues and Ratnam’s Tamil language Raavanan – one of my favorite Indian movies of all time. With the new movie news can’t help occasionally imagining Ranbir, Yash, and Sai in these roles. Unless they do something more more feminist and interesting with the Sita role, I think Sai will be very badly recast. Yash would be fine, but Ranbir is also miscast. I think Vicky would have been better of the current crop…even someone like Varun or Sid who all convey boy next door goodness well would be better. Ranbir is not good at that do-gooder, self-righteous thing that the character will need. There are tons of opportunities for some exciting casting for the other figures in the epic.

    Thinking: about all of the things I need to do this holiday season like buy a new artificial Christmas tree because I threw my old one out last year…buy train tickets for Christmas vacation…not to mention Christmas shopping, of course! This holiday season I think is going to fly by…Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

    ~filmilibrarian

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    • I am already feeling overwhelmed and I haven’t even done anything holidays yet! Part of the whole scatterbrain effect. I’ve got a plan for presents but I need to put it in action, need to schedule a time to go get a tree, get the decorations from the basement, etc. etc. etc.!

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  5. I started like 10 different movies in the last 2 weeks but I managed to finish only one, but the special one – Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali. It was beautiful. Funny thing is that few days later I started All that heaven allows, and I noticed that both movies are from 1955. The same year, but such a different films.

    Thinking and listening: I discovered the existence of marathi movie called “Me Vasantrao”. I’m so obsessed. Finally a good biopic of classical singer, with ton of beautiful music but of course it’s almost impossible to find because the rights belong to stupid Jio cinema , and Jio Ciema is not avaiable outside India. Why such streaming sites exist? While waiting for the movie to appear somewhere else I listen to the soundtrack

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      • I’m in the middle. I stopped right after the scene when Rock proposes and Jane at first runs but later comes back. Bad things will surely happen later and I wasn’t in mood for drama.
        I’m loving it so much, especially the colours and the close ups. I enjoy every frame. I didn’t know how much I missed a beautiful photography in films. Everything looks so boring and basic now. And can we talk about Jane’s red dress in the beginning of the film? I can’t stop thinking about it.

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  6. Watching – rewatching Elementary, also watching Koffee with Karan season 8, Bosch Legacy season 2

    Reading or actually listening to the audio book- Shadows of Men. Sam Wyndham series by Abir Mukherjee

    Reading – was reading your blog extensively all of last week, Fan scene by scene and Badrinath ki Dulhaniya

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    • Also listening to the Immortals of Meluha in Hindi on audiobooks.

      Thinking – can I ever find another role within my company if I’m working remotely due to medical condition. They seem to all disregard me even though technically they are not supposed to discriminate.

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    • I somehow managed to pause Bosch Legacy and not watch past the first 2 episodes that resolve the cliffhanger, so I could binge the whole thing once the whole season is out. I know it will be soooooooooo good, and I will be sooooooooooo stressed waiting for the conclusion.

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      • The first two episodes are standalone and then it starts on a different case altogether! I’m now waiting for the last two. I forgot that it will have ten episodes and they weren’t all out and I ended up in that state of stress you’re describing 😓

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  7. Pal pal hai bhari is a Dussehra song… But I guess it can be extended to Diwali with all the Ram ji returning home lines…
    I can’t think of any Diwali songs. There was a good Spotify playlist I used on Diwali in 2019 but that person seems to have changed it and can’t find it anymore. Maybe I’ll play this one – https://youtu.be/chVEQzBT9e4?si=r3GX8y1dWw2a5OJL

    I dislike the later part of it but the first half 2/3rds I really like

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    • YES! It is the ultimate Diwali song. I haven’t seent he movie all the way through, but from what I know of it, it is basically a feel good holiday movie like on Hallmark. Hero has a change of heart and life’s journey that ends with him going to his niece’s Diwali concert and hearing this song.

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      • I saw the movie early on, so I remember even less than you describe. But I do remember that song and thought of it immediately when I read your question.

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  13. I am playing catch-up at work, post-Bangladesh and I haven’t really watched anything. I saw about 5 minutes of something with Salman and Karisma on a TV in Bangladesh. Maybe Biwi Number 1? If so, that would make it the third time I’ve seen Biwi Number 1 in passing in Bangladesh. It must be playing somewhere at all times. Khufiya is on the schedule for tomorrow if I can stay awake long enough. Also Taskmaster is SO FUN! Why do they have all the good programs in the UK?

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  14. Watching: Our kids were away for the weekend – visiting my sister with my wife’s brother – so my wife and I finally got around to watching the Barbie movie. Definitely my kind of esthetic, with all the colors (well, all the pink), the exaggerated emotions and the way they express them through song.

    Thinking: I have an interview in a few hours about maybe changing into IT. It’s very low stakes at the moment and mostly curiosity. I’m just worried that if it doesn’t work out, I won’t have that immediate option to escape anymore – the only thing that has made work bearable lately.

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  15. Mostly I’ve been watching Jawan over and over again. The family has been watching the new Magnum PI show, the new Magnum is as hot as Tom Selleck ever was! But it get’s a bit boring episode after episode after episode. At least it gets boring to anyone over the age 20. In an attempt to end the Magnum cycle we started The Mandalorian again, also one of my son’s friends is nicknamed Grogu (willingly!) so I thought we should give it another go. But honestly, it is all boring compared to Jawan.

    I read another Jennifer Crusie, it was good, but not her best. I’m still working through the first Scarlet Pimpernel.

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    • I’m so glad you love Jawan so much!!!! I thought it was a really good movie, but I always feel better when OTHER people also think it is a really good movie.

      Which Jennifer Crusie?

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