What a wonderful holiday this is! And what a very silly reason for a post. Oh well, I’m doing all kinds of deep posts on the NRI experience and stuff, it’s okay to be silly.
Continue readingYou ready for an incomplete history and incomplete list of films? I’m gonna take a stab at describing Indian/South Asian immigration patterns based on the class I took in college 10 years ago and various articles and stuff I’ve read since. It’s not really that expert. But at least it will get the discussion started! And to help with discussion, some filmi examples.
Continue readingI feel like there is a certain amount of Indian patriotic content that can exist in the world before the world is too full. At this point, the Hindi film industry all by itself is filling the world to overflowing. So there is no need for my blog to add on any more. Instead, OPPOSITE!!! Songs about “hey, this not-India country is totally awesome and I love it here.”
Continue readingAnother common NRI trope! I was thinking these films didn’t fit because the hero is still desi, and then I realized it only doesn’t fit if I consider the national identity as residing in the man. It doesn’t of course, a woman can just as easily be an NRI.
Continue readingYaaay, Badla is on Netflix!!!! And perfectly timed for NRI week, so I even have an excuse to combine and repost my two reviews from the theatrical release.
Continue readingI wish this movie was easier to find so more of you could enjoy it. It is such a delight start to finish, and so good-humored.
Continue readingWhy does no one love Bend It Like Beckham???? It’s the perfect movie! And yet, no comments on the post. Oh well, I will put up another Shahrukh discussion post because at least those are easy to get a conversation going and I love talking to you all.
Continue readingEveryone should watch this movie. It’s available for rent or purchase on basically every streaming service, and believe me you will want to purchase it.
Continue readingI just watched this movie for the 4th time, and it is still So. Good! And such a hard sell! I’ve seen it 4 times partly because people will only watch it if I sit next to them and force them to. Because the title alone really isn’t enough to sell it.
Continue readingHappy Wednesday! I have such a freaky horrible day at work today, many many phone conferences. Expect a lot of reruns, even on top of the ones already scheduled.
Continue readingThis isn’t a list of every single Indian film with a European section, just the three most interesting ones from the Hindi industry. And the connections I find between them.
Continue readingThis is such a fascinating wonderful movie, so many themes woven into it, and no easy answers. And tragically, it is impossible to find with subtitles. Looks like it might be available through WorldCat (the extreme University version of inter-library loan) and on the UK, India, and Australia amazon on DVD. And also, Movie Time Video, the wonderful New Jersey store that offers rent-by-mail. So if you live in one of those three countries, or have access to WorldCat, or a rental account with NJMT, you can watch it! Otherwise, you can struggle along with the Einthusan no-subtitles version. Thankfully a lot of the dialogue is English, so you might be able to make it work.
Continue readingThis doesn’t really match the theme week, but we had so much fun with this discussion yesterday, I feel like I have to give you the other side of it.
Continue readingSuch a bad/good movie! I forgot about it when I posted the schedule for the week, but that was kind of good. I don’t necessarily want to encourage people to watch this movie. But if you already watched it and liked it, here is a reminder of why you liked it. And I forgot, this review is also HILARIOUS. So if you like reading me lovingly taking down a bad movie, you should read this.
Continue readingIf Hindi film is going to torture me with ten million flagwaving movies, I am going to fight back by honestly talking about how some characters would just be better off overseas.
Continue readingI’m still fighting off a case of the Mondays, and nothing cheers me up like fanfic! And this is fun fanfic, the ones where I don’t have to come up with characters and stuff, I can just piggyback on characters we already know and love.
Continue readingHappy anti-Independence Day week! As in, movies about folks happily living not in India without all kinds of patriotic angst.
Continue readingThis is NRI week, the week when we celebrate stories of Indians happily living overseas. So, let’s look at Shahrukh’s NRI characters!
Continue readingBlech. My usual level of cheerfulness is somewhere around 12 out of 10 (especially early in the morning, I am that horrible person who leaps out of bed singing in happiness while everyone else wants to kill me), but today it has dropped to more like 8 out of 10. I just want to go home and crawl into bed.
Continue readingThose aitches are going to kill me in Chhichhore, I will never be able to spell it correctly. On the other hand, Dream Girl is a breeze! Purely for my spelling abilities, I wish all movies had English titles.
Continue readingHappy Monday! So excited to be out of my apartment. I finished off not one, not two, but THREE streaming serieses this weekend. Yeah, I’m productive.
Continue readingGrand finale of Women Directors week! The two most prolific and successful female directors in Hindi films.
Continue readingInteresting, this film gives us 3 separate female leads, and each in a different phase of female life. And the one who is in the most typical filmi phase, Anushka as the “maiden”, actually gets the least amount of screentime.
Continue readingPatricia Merry sent me a message reminding me of Suniel’s birthday, thank goodness, because otherwise we might not get to celebrate together. Oh Suniel! So photogenic in an odd way that doesn’t feel photogenic! Like, you don’t look at his photos and think “there is a perfect model handsome man”, you look at them and think “I enjoy looking at this face”. Or else you think, “I would marry that man just for his vacation villa and I’m not even normally a house person”.
Continue readingSecond to last one! And an important one. Another super successful director, and super good and all of that.
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