Author Archives: mredlich21

Unknown's avatar

About mredlich21

Author of book Don't Call It Bollywood, Indian film obsessive, recently graduated Masters student in film studies, person who bores everyone in her real life with her out there theories and thinking on any and all pop culture topics

Happy International Positive Thinking Day! Watch My Mental Gymnastics As I Take All The Worst Things of Hindi Film and Make Them Good!

Posted on by
24

This is a holiday MADE FOR ME.  I am all about the positive thinking.  To an almost unhealthy degree, I have no patience with myself when I am self-pitying. “Suck it up, Margaret!”, I think, “Find the bright side and stop whining!”, I order myself.  But look!  Now the International Day people (whoever they are) have given me a challenge, let’s see if I can rise to it, and find something that it would be almost impossible to be positive about and somehow manage it.

Continue reading →

Tuesday Telugu: Something Something, A Pleasant Farce with a Bad Heroine

Posted on by
25

Did anyone notice I missed last week?  This was supposed to go up on Thursday, and then it got overwhelmed by Section 377 celebrations so I bumped it to today.  And next week I am skipping again, sort of, because there will be the Kabali Rerun (watch it before Tuesday so you can join the discussion!).

Continue reading →

Hindi Film 101: A History of T-Series, the World’s Most Popular YouTube Channel

Posted on by
20

I just saw a little news article about Bhushan Kumar being facilitated for having the most popular channel on youtube.  Which I thought must mean “youtube in India”.  But, nope!  In the entire global youtube market, T-Series has the most viewers.  By several million. And it has the second most subscribers, on track to become the most subscribed within months.  How did we get here?  How did an Indian music and movie company become the most popular video streaming channel in the world?

Continue reading →

My Grandpa Reviews Jodha-Akbar, Ghajini, Tara Zameen Par, Talaash, Wake Up Sid, and Jab Tak Hain Jaan

Posted on by
33

Today is my Grandpa’s birthday, last year I did a whole survey of his life, so this year I want to do something a little different.  I control my Grandpa’s Netflix list, which means sometimes I sneak in Indian movies.  Grandpa loves movies and has very clear and firm opinions on them, which he types up and shares with the rest of the family.  He just sent his thoughts on Ghajini, which inspired me to track down a few other reviews to share with you all.

Continue reading →

Monday Malayalam Film School: Angamaly Diaries, the Best Made Indian Film Since Guru Dutt

Posted on by
19

Sorry, forgot when I “assigned” this film to be watched this week that my review is SO FREAKING LONG.  Oh well, great art excites me.  If you want to know why this film is just breathtaking, then you should read my no spoilers review.  Because the amazing part of the film isn’t in the story it is telling and what happens, it is in how the story is told.  But if you want to read a little more in depth discussion about the film and every aspect of it, not just the breathtaking parts, you can read on.

Continue reading →

Trailer Update: Everything Old is New Again! A New Bhatt Young Romance, A New Govinda Comedy, and a Remake of a Kishore Classic

Posted on by
12

Funny collection of trailers today, one of them is for a movie that isn’t even playing in theaters.  I guess they are just the September dregs, not big enough to wait for Diwali or another holiday, so might as well throw out the promotions and the films now.

Continue reading →

Monday Morning Questions: What Do You Want to Ask Me?

Posted on by
52

Happy Monday!  I had an exhausting weekend, my sister and brother-in-law were in town, we all drove up to the family place and helped Mom and Dad do hard manual labor to get it closed up for the fall.  Well, almost closed up.  There’s one more exhausting weekend coming. Anyway, distract me from being exhausted at work!  As me questions! Continue reading →

Sunday Film School Rerun: My Name is Khan, Shahrukh Khan’s Take on Autism, and Activism

Posted on by
31

This is a very good deep review that did not get many readers or comments the first time around. So this time I gave you a weeks warning, so you could rewatch the film and know when the review is coming. Let’s see how it does this time! I don’t care as much about the views, but I really want to read your comments. It’s an important film to me, and I want to know what other people think about it.

Continue reading →

Silly Sunday: All About Eve Remake With Shahrukh Khan! Just Because I Want It

Posted on by
44

This is almost as indulgent as when I rewrote The Philadelphia Story.  Who in this day and age and on an Indian film blog knows the movie All About Eve?  To the point of remembering all the details of the characters and themes and stuff?  Oh well, it makes me happy, and keeps me tied to me roots (my roots being American movies before 1960 which were what I watched exclusively for the first 18 years of my life).  Anyway, Procrastinatrix suggested the idea, so I know she at least will be interested.

Continue reading →

Saturday Small Talk: What Do You Want to Chat About on Ashaji’s Birthday?

Posted on by
6

I am out at the summer place, again, which doesn’t mean I am totally unavailable but might mean there are stretches when I’m not around.  So there better not be any big stories popping up that I am missing!  I don’t want any trailer releases or engagements or so on while I can’t read every article and write long posts.

Continue reading →

TGIF: A Month of Food and Stars and Snark, Enjoy!!!!

Posted on by
9

This is a continuation of a post I put up on Wednesday.  Turns out, almost every day of the month in September has a food attached to it (food lobbyists/publicists have way too much time and money).  So then all I had to do was figure out which actor matches the food.  I was a wee bit mean on Wednesday, I am feeling less mean today, but we will see if the meanness rises up in me again.

Continue reading →

Friday Classics: Raajneeti, I Cared Too Much About Some Characters and Too Little About Others

Posted on by
53

An experiment!  We all watched the same movie, and now I have to review it.  Which is A LOT of pressure on me, since for once you have all seen the movie as recently as me and probably understood it better.  Oh well, you can think of this as a starting point for a discussion, not the end.

Continue reading →

Thursday Telugu Advanced Warning! Watch Something Something, That Will Be the Review Next Thursday

Posted on by
24

Attention Attention Attention!  I watched Something Something and was going to review it today, and then Section 377 knocked it right off the schedule.  So I decided to move it out a week and give you all advance warning, in case you wanted to watch it before I reviewed it.  It’s on Prime, the review will go up sometime on the 9/13.

Continue reading →

In Honor of Section 377 Dying, a Post of an Old Paper I Wrote About How Karan Johar Has Been Fighting For This For 20 Years

Posted on by
6

This is going to read differently from my normal posts.  It’s a paper I wrote years ago, that was published in a book and a journal.  So it is very academic sounding and stuff, the original even has footnotes (you can read it here).  It is also very clear and certain in its style, the way academic writing is supposed to be.  That doesn’t mean I think it is perfect and that you can’t disagree with it just as much as with any of the other stuff I write with all the “I think”s and “Possibly”s and “You could see this as”s.  Mostly I just thought it was an interesting thing to look back on today as 377 is once again dead.  Also, you get to see how I managed to sneak the phrase “molten beefcake” into an academic journal.

Continue reading →

Section 377 is No More! Again!!!

Posted on by
11

This isn’t really “my” victory, because I’m not Indian. I had nothing to do with changing the country and the way people feel, and I shouldn’t even be celebrating really, because there is still so much I should be doing in MY country and I shouldn’t be distracted by celebrating something in another country.  On the other hand, I do care about people in India, so I can celebrate for them and be happy for them.  And then go back to working for my own people.

Continue reading →

TGIW: Ready for a Silly Post? With Shahrukh, Food, and Photos?

Posted on by
16

I’m having an out of sorts day, mostly because I was up way too late last night (Hamilton).  So I feel like something cheerful and silly.  And I am dragging you all along with me!  Oh, and fair warning, when I get sleepy I get MEAN.  Or rather, I am always secretly this mean, my filter just doesn’t work as well when I get tired.  So be prepared for some not very nice comments about famous people.

Continue reading →