I’ve been thinking about it as we go through Rani Week, and I think this is my favorite performance from her. It’s not showy, and it’s not her usual Type A heroine, it’s something different but charming. And I don’t think any other actress could make it work.
Continue readingThis is one of my all time favorite movies, thrilled to have an excuse to repost this review!
Continue readingWell, this is a bad trailer! Just, as a trailer. Which is a specific kind of art form that can be done poorly or well and have no relationship to the movie it is promoting. Except for indicating the skill and understanding of the producers of the film for the product they have.
Continue readingOkay, after the two warm up posts yesterday, now we have the one people will really really care about: can you rank Rani-SRK songs for sexiness?
Continue readingI really love this movie. It was one of the early films I saw, one of the first movies I watched where I was told “this is an actual good movie”. And it is! It is an actual good movie! Not just a fun romance with something deep down below, but deep straight through.
Continue readingFor a respectable actress, Rani has done a fair number of songs that show off her sexiness as a solo person. Not item songs exactly, more songs where we are watching her from the perspective of the hero and desiring her.
Continue readingOkay, “shocking”. It’s not like he shaved his head or something. But for a man who makes half inch alterations in his style once a year for the past 25 years, it’s shocking to me!
Continue readingThis was going to be a post of “Rani’s sexiest songs”, but she has been in WAY too many sexy songs. So instead I am limiting to Rani-Aamir only, and will probably do Rani-Shahrukh and Rani-Abhishek and Rani-Everyone Else so on later.
Continue readingI started out with 8 news stories, and then I actually read them, and they all turned out to be bland and blah. Even these aren’t super exciting, but if PR departments care enough to float stories and watch the response, the least we can do is respond.
Continue readingHappy Monday! Somehow this week has become my busiest stretch of the holiday season (thus the Rani Mukherjee schedule), family in town Tuesday through Saturday plus two events I really want to go to on Monday and Sunday, and then next Monday is the annual white elephant quilting party and gift exchange (the biggest event of my holiday season for the past 8 years), so this ends up being 8 straight days of stuff. Anyway, ask me questions and distract me!
Continue readingThis is a very very fun silly historic film. It’s over the top in the very best possible way, and super fun too!
Continue readingWell, no Panipat or Enai Noki Paayum Thota for me! I will see Panipat some other time before it leaves theaters, or else on streaming. And I will see Enai Noki Paayum Thota when Gautham Menon figures out his issues and is able to sell streaming rights (so, never). But it wasn’t my fault! Sort of.
Continue readingGrand finale of Historic Films week! The Historic films I have written which are so much better than the historic films people in Hindi cinema are actually making. I didn’t get around to watching Panipat, but really, just read this instead of looking for a review of that.
Continue readingBe very proud!!!! This is our first winner who is also a new reader as of this year. In less than 12 months, you have allowed DCIB to dominate your life to the degree that you are the Top Commentator this week.
Continue readingThis is an out of date post from a couple years ago, but only out of date in that the “most recent” film choices are no longer most recent. And, like, Anushka wasn’t married yet. Otherwise it is still a great post for giving you an idea of the pattern most actresses follow in their careers and how they play out.
Continue readingThis is an off-shoot of the discussion we’ve been having off and on about Ranbir-Alia and our conflicting emotions as celebrity watchers. They are hardly the first May-December romance in Hindi film, many of them even more famous and with an even greater age difference. So I thought it might be moderately worthwhile to quickly run through some other similar romances.
Continue readingWe skipped Helicopter Eela and saw this instead, and it was such a good decision! I recommend you do the same.
Continue readingSo much for you to talk about! I mostly care about which movie people want me to see, because the showtime is at 11am so I need to make a decision soon. But you can talk about the other stuff too!
Continue readingWhat a good movie! It takes the question “why would a man consider cheating?” and treats it seriously. I encourage you all to watch it if you possibly can, and then come here and discuss it. If you absolutely cannot see it in theaters, and still want to see how they managed to make this plot acceptable, you can read on.
Continue readingOkay, I am going to describe this in a way that will excite a very small subset of people: this is the movie that the director of Happy Bhaag Jayegi can make now that he finally has a decent budget. Okay, now all the Happy Bhaag Jayegi/Happy Phir Bhaag Jayegi superfans can rush out and buy tickets! For the rest of you, I guess I still have to sell it somehow. Really, believe me, you will like it!
Continue readingI wish Indian films and Indian celebrities focused more on shoes. They can be such delightful works of art, but unfortunately most of the time they seem like just after thoughts to outfits.
Continue readingBlah blah, history, classism, colonialisms inevitable poisoning of the existing social structure. Forget all that, let’s talk about what’s REALLY important: is Prithviraj hot in this or WHAT?
Continue readingWhat fun! Rani week! I’ll throw together a 101 on her, and post all my old reviews, and still have loads of time for Christmas shopping and parties and stuff. (by the way, these aren’t set in stone. If there is a movie you would like to add or remove, say it in the comments, I can shift things)
Continue readingOkay, sharpen your claws, build up the knives of resentment, stoke the fires of your class/gender anger, and let us focus all of that on the one perfect representation of every man who ever tried to tell you his pain was more important than yours, that his success is a tribute to talent and not privilege, that if we disagree with him it is just because we don’t have the depth to understand his thoughts. Take down Ranbir, and we can take down every patronizing boss, every bad boyfriend, every dumb colleague promoted over you, every person who looks at the world and only sees a mirror, not a window. Yes, our Ranbir Hate, in one great cleansing burst, will Save the World.
Continue readingI am going to do my best to attempt a starting point of class and film in India. Not caste, I’m not even touching caste, just class. And a little bit Kangana too, but again just an attempt at a start with her.
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