I know it seems like I’ve done way too many Shashi posts, but he is the only news right now, the biggest news right now. Because in the Hindi film fraternity, a death like this has an impact beyond just grief, there is a process to it that dominates everything for a few days.
This is to help sort of orient you to Indian film history. A big accepted “classic” from each decade that will help you understand how the industry grew and changed. I don’t promise that you will be able to find and watch each of them (the website indiancine.ma is a fantastic resource you might want to try), but you should at least be familiar with the titles of these films and what they meant. And if you are familiar with the titles, feel free to tell me what you think in the comments, especially any Timeless Films that I may have missed including UPDATE: This is now the original version of the post, based on the comments I updated it considerably, but I kept this original version for reference and to save your brilliant comments.
Did a little youtube video for Shashi because I still had SO MUCH to say.
Happy Wednesday! Halfway through a very busy week at work for me (we decided to push out a big update while everything was theoretically slow over the holidays). very excited to be distracted by chatting with all of you!
This movie is so good that it tricked me into thinking it was a Balachander. But no, apparently this was the level of camerawork, characters, and acting that was just standard back then!!! Oh, and Kamal Haasan and Rajni Sir are super fun to watch opposite each other in their youth, that’s another plus. The plot is not quite perfect, but it’s still pretty darn good. No Moodru Mudichu, but that’s a very high level to set.
Still upset about Shashi. I just read Amitabh’s little tribute, he talked about how Shashi would always introduce himself by holding out his hand and saying with a warm smile “Shashi Kapoor”. It was a sign of his humility, he never assumed that people knew who he was. You can see that humility in this film, he has a wonderful role, but it is no bigger than anyone else’s, he easily shares screen space with Nawazuddin Shah, with Nafisa Ali, and of course with his own wife.
Short video this week, to match my very short box office post. Really, there is just not much to talk about if you don’t want to talk about Padmavati (which I don’t).
Kind of a dull week. Nothing terribly unexpected. But I might as well report on how Kapil Sharma and Vidya Balan are doing. SPOILERS: one is much better than the other.
See, this is what happens when no one is commenting, I get depressed and watch random not very good films. Although Kunchacko did his best to cheer me up. But that was countered by the heroine Kavya Madhavan, an actress I was really liking until I looked up who she was and learned she is (maybe) a terrible human being. But even so, I have to admit she did a wonderful job in this film. This very uneven film.
This is a loose collection of what I call “Hindi Film 101” pieces. Things that give you a basic grounding so that you are able to understand the films, and the film industry instead of feeling lost and confused. And which might also make you think a bit even if you are already familiar with the industry.
Continue readingI wrote a silly thing for Sunday using Christmas traditions for fanfic. And I put up a fanvid post, and I am doing a Christmas Card giveaway. All of that is kind of silly and superficial, it may seem as though I don’t take the holiday seriously. Or maybe I do, but I don’t find anything in it that can overlap with my Hindi film love. And that’s not the case, so I want to write some posts about why Christmas is so important to me, and how it wraps itself around every part of my life, including the films I watch.
I’m surprisingly not prepared for this one. Shammi, him I was prepared for. He was so sick and so old. It was sad, but it didn’t shock me. I don’t know why Shashi is shocking, he was old and sick as well. I guess because he is the last of his generation. The Kapoors are changing.
Happy Monday! And happy day 11 of my massive sudden slide in blog views! Stupid holiday season keeping people busy in the real world instead of the internet world. Oh well, I will see this as an opportunity to do some experimenting.
First of all, blessings on Hotstar for making this available, and blessings on Shahrukh for agreeing to do something now, during my all time lowest view periods when I really really need content. Now, on to the discussion! Of the first two episodes, with Alia and Deepika.
Mostly I wanted to do a video to play with my new toy, moviemavengal gave me a lapel mic as an early Christmas present. I think it works pretty well! The video is too sunny and my head isn’t exactly centered, but by golly the microphone is perfect!
It’s coming so fast! I have to craft faster and faster and faster or I will never be done on time! Oh, and also it’s time for another Christmas card giveaway.
Happy first Sunday of Advent! Naturally, I had to do a Christmas themed post (to match my Christmas themed TGIF post). I briefly considered doing unmarried mothers in honor of Mary, but then I decided to think small instead and use the random small items of Christmas as jumping off points for story ideas.
Very romantic in a particular way, with Salman putting together and surprising Katrina with wonderful things. Which makes me interested in their character dynamics a little bit. Especially because I just re-watched Ek Tha Tiger and it fits nicely with how their relationship was established in that.
This is a perfect little light movie to watch on a Saturday morning while folding laundry. Doesn’t really deserve a Friday Classics review, but I can’t help sharing my joy in watching it! Especially since it is on Netflix now, so the vast majority of you can watch it too.
This is a post I wrote way back when I first started blogging, so no one read it because I had no readers then. But it’s really good! So I am reposting it so you can all enjoy it, now that I have readers.
I’m continuing to crank through the small time actresses, the ones who only need a few movies to fully understand their careers. Because it’s a lot easier than trying to deal with the male stars and their longer careers, or the handful of super successful actresses (sorry Rani! I’ll get to you someday!) (last small time actress post here)
Happy Friday! My goodness this has been a frustrating day. The second I get in to anything at work the phone rings and I have to stop. Whether it is blogging or sending an email or doing accounting stuff for work-work, I just don’t have long enough to be able to focus on it. I am writing this right now at about 2pm, we’ll see if I am able to finish and publish this thing before midnight. Anyway, Red! For AIDs and Christmas!!!
We were just talking about this in the comments yesterday, how exciting it was to see Imraan when he was first launched. Which got me thinking about this movie in general, and how good it was, and how strange it is that no one involved in this promising first film really lived up to their promise. At least, not yet. There’s always hope!
Amitabh just reminded me through twitter that it is World AIDs Day today. And I also got an email from the very very good local AIDs clinic in Chicago (donate to them! They do good stuff), and I thought it might be interesting to look at the few times Indian film as acknowledged the AIDs epidemic in the country. It’s about the same amount as American pop culture has acknowledged it, but more musical! (this is an updated and reposted post from last year)
Part 37! I skipped last week because of the holiday, well, the 3 holidays (my blogaversary, Niki’s birthday, and Thanksgiving). But now I am back. And it’s a super cute bit. (full index of DDLJ coverage here)
dontcallitbollywood 