Happy Wednesday! I am in my new office (my company finally got an office again after shutting down during the pandemic) feeling homesick for my living room. Which is 4 blocks away. So close and yet so far!
I’ll start!
Reading: Terry Pratchett still, and lots of astrology lists about the eclipse. This will shock you, but the People Magazine astrologer does not line up with the advice from the Nice News astrologer.
Watching: I saw Crew again last night! Even better the second time, for real. I was able to relax during the stressful bits, and focus and catch more of the Hindi. The dialogue is great, but the subs are terrible.
Listening: I just listened to a really harrowing episode of a podcast about cults that focused on a Sufi group, and a woman who survived child marriage. Got me all depressed about Desi culture again because all the things she (rightfully) described as traumatic and horrible are often presented in films as just “normal” or even laughable. Lazy husband she has to put up with, Dad picking her spouse, teenage pregnancies, going straight from innocent child to wife without an intervening personal growth period, etc.
Thinking: Spring planting! New theory for this year, I only plant ground cover in the ground. Like, wildflowers and clover and stuff. I put exciting food things in hanging planters! So, mini-peppers, mini-eggplants, strawberries, like that. Oh, and the pretty flower bushes I already planted a couple weeks ago. This weekend, I finish the clover and wildflowers and maybe buy my fun hanging things and then the yard is all set!
Now, question for you! What, if anything, did you do for the eclipse?
I ended up walking home from a short day at work during it, which was really fun. There were people out on the sidewalk and there was a real holiday feel to it. And then the block before my house, an older couple sitting in their front yard called me over and asked me if I wanted to borrow their eclipse glasses. So I was able to see a few seconds of it through the glasses.
dontcallitbollywood 
Iam thinking how expensive funerals are. My grandfather passed away on 19 March and apart from grieving we have spent money like water. Hindu rituals are so elaborate! Right from the main cremation, to collecting ashes and immersing that in ganga, having an elaborate ritual on 10 th and even more elaborate ritual on the 13th day ( this 13th day ritual also involves feeding 13 Brahmins and some other relatives/friends) after his death and uptil the 13th day feeding a cow twice a day. And till his first death anniversary we need to perform a ritual on the 19 of every month. Finally on one year of his passing we will do the final elaborate ritual.
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I’m sorry you have to deal with all this organization and expense on top of everything else. It’s also interesting, there was an expose written years ago (in the 1960s) called “The American Way of Death” about the predatory practices of the American funeral industry. That is, they find people in times of extreme grief and upsell them on the biggest and best of everything while they are too weak to say no. I thought of funeral expenses as a recent thing, since the rise of capitalism and consumerism. But you are talking about traditions from way way before modern society.
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The rituals are made by the Brahmins for Brahmins benefit
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Reading it through your description, that makes sense. The American “rituals” are invented by funeral directors for their benefit. You have to buy lots and lots of flowers, you have to rent the largest room, you have to pay for extremely expensive catering, etc. etc. It all goes to waste, the food and flowers get thrown away and the room is mostly empty. This sounds at least a little more practical?
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Kind of yes. One last point, in small towns it’s also a social obligation. If I are someone’s “death feast” then I will also to throw a death feast if someone in my family dies- doesn’t matter if I have to sell my land for it! It’s that important.
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Wow, it sounds kind of like weddings? The same sense of obligation to “pay back” other people who did the same for you?
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Also Hinduism has a very strong belief in after life. Before his body was burnt, we also have him some gram flour so that he could eat that in after life. On the tenth day we donated new clothes, a bed, a torch, mattresses, utensils and food items to Brahmins because they are supposed to reach my grandfather in after life 🙄. Also before the body was burnt, we stuffed some gold in his mouth because that his auspicious.
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Heeramandi Trailed Dropped!
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The trailer suprised me a lot. I didn’t expect that the Indipendence theme will be so important. And I had teary eyes when Aditi screamed: Inquilab Zindabad.
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Okay, now you are making me want to at least watch the trailer, if not the whole series (still don’t like Bhansali).
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Ramayan Leaked Stills!
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I watched Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, Shahid-Kriti robot movie and it was ok. It has this 2000′ Bollywood films charm: enjoyable music, good dancers, light humour, colorful costumes, and big families in enormous mansions. Unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy it at 100% because I had all those philosophical questions about humans vs robots in my mind and I also kept thinking how wrong it is to create those robots, who will steal people’s work 😉
I also saw Juni, kannada romantic movie about a girl with split personality disorder. It could be better, but it was first time writer/director and a new topic so I really appreciated the result. There is one scene especially that I found great: (spoilers) during entire movie the focus in on girl’s disorder and her being “difficult” to date. The boy (my beloved Pruthvi Ambaar) is super nice, and supportive, so it was a shock when she left him saying: Dude, I have a lot of problems but at least I’m sincere with myself and other people. She was so right! I felt like a new dimension opened, because rarely we see someone hold a mirror up to hero, especially such a nice boyfriend and son. But he was only pretending to be happy and she was the only person who saw his real feelings. I will remember this scene for a long time.
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Joe is a movie I have also heard very good things from though I’ve not yet watched it myself. My friend described it as a romance movie which gives all the feels. If you have any wishes to explore Kannada films more – I can give some recommendations.
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I have seen Joe, and your friend is right: it gives all the feels. Seems like just another collage romance but it has this fresh touch of entusiastic first time writer/director. I really liked it.
And of course please recommend more kannada movies . I watch them from time to time when I see that something can be my cup of tea. Now I’m waiting for KTM to appear somewhere is streaming because I’m Dia die-hard fan and I cann’t skip Dheekshith Shetty’s new movie.
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Oggarane is a lovely movie – a bit like Lunchbox but very different. Love Mocktail is also similar to Dia so you might enjoy it. I also that Gantumoote was good but quite sad. Personally my favourite Kannada movies are the older ones like Gandhada Guddi, Geetha, Bhaktha Prahlada (my childhood favourite), Rama Shama Bhama and Ranganaayaki. Pushpak Viman is a honorable mention but because it has Kamal Hassan almost goes to cross state territory.
If you are more interested in the art genre – then Girish Kasaravalli and Girish Karnad (I know what’s with Girish’s being so talented) film’s touch on many different genre’s. If you want something more fun than Vishnuvardhana and Raj Kumar’s films are very fun.
The industry is huge and has had numerous prestiges but doesn’t know how to market beyond the state (as with everything in Karnataka). It has not invested enough into putting its films onto OTT(Malayalam Cinema) or like Telegu + Tamil film industry put effort into selling the rights of the films for hindi dubbing.
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Gantumoote and Love Mocktail I have seen. There was this very very short time when Prime Video Italia was adding fresh kannada movies. That was when I saw Dia, Love Mocktail, Gantumoote, Rathnan Prapancha, 99, D/O Parvathamma and this very slow movie about resort owner Katheyondu Shuruvagide. Great time it was. Now they add nothing, not even Hindi films ;( I’m thinking about using VPN because it looks like European Prime abandoned Indian films for good.
Gantumoote was great. Not exactly my genre but well made and sensible film. Love Mocktail I saw right after Dia and I didn’t like it, mainly because I hate movies with “and then she died of cancer” twists.
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I watched Katheyondu Shuruvaagide in theatres and remember nothing except I wish Diganth was in more films. Even I disliked Love Mocktail for the twist but not compared to Dia’s ending – I will always hate that. I think French Prime has some Indian movies but otherwise its a hopeless case. Sarkaari Hiriya Praathaama Shaale is such a sweet film about children
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I have seen all Dia remakes and every single time, in the end I was like: hope he won’t die this time. But no, unfortunately every remake has the same ending.
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Just watched Amar Singh Chamkila on Netflix and loved it! Highly recommend it. Imtiaz Ali is back with a bang, and it was truly wonderful to watch. Here is my own review about it!
https://thelittlecorner.home.blog/2024/04/12/amar-singh-chamkila-2024-a-tale-of-a-controversial-artist-speaking-to-another/
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I watched it thanks to your recommendation! I loved the movie so much especially Diljit’s performance – such an effortless and charming performer. I found some of the editing quite unique, I still have to figure out the view on the film. Perhaps what I loved the most about the film was it gave all the feels but also showcased a man in all his imperfections.
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Farah has started a YouTube channel – only way we will get to see her “direction” these days seems like – it is a hilarious video!!!
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Hello back!
Yesterday I saw a perfect Angie movie and must share. Not a movie for everyone I guess but it was like tailor-made for me. It’s telugu film Happy Ending. It’s about a boy who gets cursed by a Godman because of a misunderstanding. Years later when he finally learnt to live with the curse he meets a girl and falls in love and must decide what to do to protect the girl from the curse. It was so romantic I couldn’t stop smiling and sighning and melting . And it has a nice music, nice sarees, good comedy and great chemistry. The haters will say it’s cheesy but for me it was absolutely perfect, and I even cried a little. This is the trailer, but I watched knowing only the poster and IMO it was better.
https://youtu.be/NW2KLLZgmow?feature=shared
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This sounds kind of like the plot of Prabhas’ gosh-awful romance movie where he had the magic palm reading skills. But presumably done a lot better?
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You mean Radhe Shyam? It was terrible. Happy Ending is like the exact opposite, because it’s a light movie made with little money but a lot of heart and good acting and chemistry. Radhe Shyam had all the money but not even one person could act or cared about the movie really.
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And the curse the protagonist has is unique and has tought him the art of self-control, which made him the greeniest of green flags and adorable human being.
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