No particular reason to do this, I just find it interesting to look back at the past 25 years of film through the career of one man. And, I guess, it is also good prep work for the Thugs promotion campaign that is about to start, reminding us all that the road to “perfect untouchable Aamir” was a bumpy one. (part 1 here and part 2 here)
I think I mixed up the titles a little bit at one point, and of course my pronunciation is always shakey, and so is my camera. But none of that matters, because Dog Hazel wandered into the frame around 6:30. So that’s worth watching for!
Don’t think of this as “a list of Aamir Khan’s films”, think of it as a case study of a successful journey to stardom, and a way of studying the changes in the films and film industry in the past 25 years. (part 1 here)
Happy Wednesday! Doggie and I are very happy to be almost to the weekend. It’s been a tiring week.
I did this for Shahrukh already, and I found it fascinating! To look at the broad sweep of a 25+ career and see where were the low periods and the high periods and the genre experiments and everything, and also where the industry was going in each era, the changes in the production houses and directors and co-stars, and all kinds of juicy things. Aamir seems like he should be similarly fascinating. Plus, thanks to his perfectionist style, far fewer films! I should be able to knock this out in two parts. Three at the most
Well, this is an exciting exciting week! Finally a big massive blockbuster release! And it’s not from the Hindi industry. (as always, figures from bollywoodhungama)
An interesting movie! A heroine who I wouldn’t expect to be a heroine for many reasons, and she is supported not just by the narrative, but by actual literal angels within the film.
Happy News Round-Up Day! There is, as is often the case, very little actual news. But I can still entertain myself by thinking about what is behind the particular kind of fake or empty news stories we are being fed.
Happy Monday! I am finally done with my strange summer responsibilities! Last big hosting event is finished, and so on and so forth. Continue reading
Happy Sunday! This post is much later than usual because I have had a very busy day. Pleasant, but busy.
This is an interesting movie. Because it is both a sports movie and a true story, which means we know everything about it already. But at the same time, we don’t, because we don’t know what particular angle the filmmaker is going to choose to look at to show us this story. So, I leave it up to you. You already know the details of the plot, the trailer spelled it out. If you want the tone and message of the film to surprise you, don’t read this review, read this one. If you don’t care, do read this review.
Thanks to those of you who donated this month, I was able to rent a car and drive to the movie theater and see Gold, yaaaay! And now I get to review it.
Want to catch up on Priyanka’s greatest performances? Turn to Netflix! Which has just added 7 Khoon Mauf, and What’s Your Rashee?, and Fashion. They already had Mary Kom, now they just need to add Barfi! and they will have the whole run of Priyanka’s critically acclaimed roles. (Accessbollywood.net does the real work of keeping this list updated, you should definitely absolutely subscribe to them for your day to day updates instead of my once a month.)
Happy Saturday! I woke up way too early and am trying to go back to sleep. But you folks can chat while I sleep (hopefully).
Gulzar, Indian film’s old man of poetry. Who used to be Indian film’s young man of poetry. But time moves on, and now he is the lyricist and dialogue writer with the longest innings in the industry.
Well, it’s the Friday after Independence Day. I should do something patriotic, right? And all I can think of is the Indian colors. Oh well, good enough. My brain is fried after writing my two recent brilliant Hindi Film 101 pieces (read them! They are very good, even if they don’t have sexy photos and star gossip)
This is fun for me! Getting to articulate and remember all that really cool stuff I got to read and learn and talk about in grad school. And now the really fun bit, the original work of applying those theories to Indian film where no one else has really done it before. If academic press was interested, I could get this thing published and get a book deal or something. But they aren’t, so I get to provide it to you lovely people on the internet who are.
This is one of those Big Big essays. And I am very sleep deprived and stressed right now which, strangely, puts me in the perfect frame of mind for this particular discussion. My brain craves theoretical instead of practical concerns.
Will you be those people and make Dog Hazel and myself happy?
All you have to do is:
And then Dog Hazel will be happy
We get so much joy out of Kerala films, we really should give more back to those whose culture and society has helped create them.
This is just a quick Life Update to hold you until I am back home with my life moderately under control and can actual write new interesting content. But hey, at least I did my traditional Independence Day blast of posts yesterday!
Well….I didn’t end up stalled in a cornfield? Or the middle of the highway? Things could be worse! Right?
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If you want Dog Hazel to be treat-less and miserable forever, you can ignore this post.
(this was going to be a light silly donation request post, but I now officially need to buy a new car, and I also still need to pay for the repairs that were not enough to save the old car. And rent a car for the next few weekends to be able to see new movies. So any donation would be appreciated even more than it usually is!!!!)
I wrote this review back before Tubelight came out, but it is worth talking about and remember today as well. Dr. Kotnis, a real person who sacrificed his life for a foreign country because it was the right thing to do. That, to me, is a real patriot. One who loves the people of his homeland, but loves the people of other countries as well just because they are people.
I refuse to watch this movie one more time (ha!) because it makes me way way too sad. So be aware, this will all be based on memories from like 4 years ago, the last time I felt masochistic enough to watch it. (I’ve written on this film before, and promised then that it wouldn’t be the last post. You can read it here)
dontcallitbollywood 