Now, if I am following this correctly, the thinking goes “men wear sweater vests in mountains-many children’s boarding schools are in mountains because it is supposed to be healthier-young men in sweater vests makes us think they are teenagers”. But the way in which these sweater vests come across can vary greatly image to image.
I know I know, normally this is where I talk about a classic film. But it’s been a busy week, and I didn’t manage to watch anything fancy, and I don’t have the energy to talk about anything fancy, and Gupt was a the library. And it is SO AMUSING!!!! In an “amusingly bad” kind of delightful way.
Back before I started this blog, instead of writing for you nice people, I wrote long long long epic length emails to friends about movies I had seen. And since I am completely exhausted this week, we are taking a trip back in time and this is a post based on one of those emails, plus my memories of the film.
Another song! They are coming fast and furious now, it’s getting closer and closer! Oh geez, I have to figure out new angles for my Shahrukh Week, don’t I? Veer-Zaara for Shahrukh as a Punjabi? A third post on how ridiculous it is that Shahrukh didn’t end up with Anushka in Jab Tak? I can talk about that forever!
I put up a nice new combined post for my mother and my sister, and my sister got that Sunday post, but I felt bad that my poor sister didn’t get any posts just for her because she was foolishly born 34 years before a protest day. So a day late, I am going to re-post the post I made for her birthday last year.
Sorry to my non-American readers, this has nothing to do with you. But I am an American based blog, so it’s really important for me and the 50% of my readers who are American. There is a change to national internet policy being considered which would make my blog harder to reach. To give you a taste of what that might be like, No Posting Today.
If you already know about the Net Neutrality issues and the protections the FCC is considering rolling back, you can submit a letter to the FCC protesting this proposal. The link is HERE
The website that is organizing all of this is called http://www.battleforthenet.com, you can also go there and sign up for more information and to participate in additional protests.
If you need more information, here is what is happening:
The FCC is considering changing rules to allow for internet providers to charge websites for higher speed service. Essentially, letting them be paid twice, once by the consumer (us) who pays for internet access. And once by the websites we are trying to reach who would have to pay to be available to the consumer.
If this passes, it means that little websites like mine would no longer be available to American consumers at the same speed and ease as larger websites that are able to pay the ransom demands of the cable companies.
Essentially, it means that the internet is for sale. If you have enough money, you can pay for your website to be more easily accessible than any other website on the same topic. To put it in terms of this blog, it means that the makers of Tubelight could pay so that the official website, with all the glowing reviews on it, loads fast and easily. And this blog, with an honest unbiased review from a public citizen, loads more slowly.
If you are an American, you can submit a letter to the FCC protesting this proposal. The link is HERE
The website that is organizing all of this is called http://www.battleforthenet.com, you can also go there and sign up for more information and to participate.
Finally, if you are not an American but still want to help, all I can think to suggest is that the man who is selling us all to the corporations is named Ajit V. Pai. His family is Konkoni from around Maharasthra. His parents are both doctors, named Radha Pai and V.S. Pai and they settled in upstate New York. Ajit went to Harvard and University of Chicago.
Now, knowing how things work, I am thinking there is a slight chance that someone reading this blog knows someone who knows someone who knows this man’s family. If you do, feel free to contact his family and tell them that they should tell him not to do this. I don’t know if that will make any difference, but getting yelled at by an Auntie might do something that all these petitions and protests are not.
I’ve been dropping comments for the past few days and I finally thought “oh to heck with it! I’ll just explain what’s going on.” Plus, it will be a fun post for you all to read while I drive back and forth and back and forth and have two birthday cakes.
It’s my mother’s birthday today! I debated a post of sappy mother type songs, but she wouldn’t actually enjoy that. So instead, I’m going to put up a post of all her favorite song videos!
I’m gonna try to be good and get back on the Box Office report wagon. Because it really doesn’t mean anything unless you do it every week so you have context. Even if there isn’t that much of a story this week.
I am continuing my “well, it’s the DVD on top” decision making process for films as I unpack. After two good Malayalam choices and one so-so Telugu, I have landed on a really quite bad Malayalam film. It looks like it was a big of a box office hit, but most critics agree with me that it is generally no good.
Happy Monday! After writing a very mean post about the Bahubali novel on Sunday, I thought I should write us a nice post about Devasena for contrast. (full index of Bahubali posts here)
Shahrukh is not being very considerate to me! I have this bonkers week (my family is staying about an hour and a half outside of the city, so I am commuting back and forth and they are keeping me up all night with family stuff and then I have to drive drive drive to work the next day), and I get up this morning thinking maybe I will have a little time to, like, brush my hair, but no! Shahrukh has just posted a 5 minute video that I have to watch instead. Oh, and also Siddharth has a trailer, but it’s not as long and I don’t have to watch as closely. And neither of them used subtitles, because they hate me because I am disgusting and live in a car and never wash my hair.
Also, my mother’s birthday week! As I said, it’s a whole thing, they are one day after the other, so I am running back and forth between work and celebrations all week. But I still want to answer your questions!
Happy Sunday! I am greeting you from Friday, when I am writing this post, because Sunday I will be out of town celebrating my sister’s birthday. Also my mother’s, it’s a whole thing, you’ll be hearing more about it. Anyway, since it’s my sister’s birthday this week, I thought I would offer up some script ideas for good sister based films, since Hindi film is woefully lacking in them! (and since the sister relationship is the most important in my life, as I have said)
So, I just FINALLY finished the Rise of Sivagami novel. And I really really didn’t like it. Which isn’t to say you won’t, or that you shouldn’t. It just wasn’t for me. I’ll give you a really brief run down in generalities for why it didn’t work for me, and if you think it won’t work for you either for the same reasons, then you can read the rest of the post and learn all the plot details and stuff without needing to read the book. But if you think you might like it, you should totally read it for yourself! And if you already read it and really liked it, fair warning, this is a very mean review (full index of Bahubali posts here)
Accessbollywood.net does the real work of keeping this list updated, if you want a day by day update, subscribe to them. My update is woefully late and out of date. But it does give my opinion and recommendation on every single one, which might be handy.
I debated putting up this spoiler review so soon, because the filmmakers clearly want the plot to remain a surprise. But, see, I don’t think they have to worry about it that much. The performances and the camerawork and the music and everything else are so good, that you just have to see how it plays out, even if you know what’s going to happen. But if you want to see this movie as it was intended, DON’T READ ON. Read my non-spoiler review instead. However, if you suspect that it may be a bit tough for you to watch but still want to know what happens, you are correct, it will be tough to watch, and I am here for you to tell you what happens.
I did it! I saw Mom! Even though it meant screeching out of work the second it hit 5pm and fighting rush hour traffic to make the 5:30 show. Because I had to rush home tonight so I would have time to work on my mother’s birthday present. Which is thematic, I guess! Anyway, it’s a good movie, but don’t be fooled by the artsy film stock and stuff, this is a straight up potboiler action film as over the top and satisfying as anything from Sunny Deol.
Happy Friday! It was pouring rain this morning, and now it is blazing sunshine. Which is making me think, “Sunglasses!” It’s not the most original photo series idea, but it is always good. Because sunglasses obscure your eyes, which make you look more otherworldly and better than us mortals. Also, easier to see you as just manmeat, and not a person!
Thanks to it suddenly popping up on Netflix (my Netflix list post is now woefully out of date, look for an update soon), I decided to rewatch Mughal-E-Azam. And it’s SO SO SO SO much better than I realized when I watched it before.
I hate that myth. From two sides. First, people always think it means that characters don’t kiss. Characters totally kiss! And have sex and do all the normal things. It’s the actors who don’t. So we see the characters leaning in, but then rain obscures our view or whatever. The audience knows what happened, even without seeing it. Just like a “sex scene” in a movie doesn’t mean we explicitly see the actors having sex. We just see a bunch of sheets and know what happened. Oh, and also, actors totally kiss too. Anyway, this made up holiday gives me an excuse to post lots and lots of kissing videos, woo!
Oh boy, getting close to modern times! And the stuff that doesn’t have, like, any “perspective of history” on it at all. Which is also why it is really important to know about it to watch film, because it is the stuff that is kind of being worked through actively still through film plots. (part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here)
Thank you Salman for giving me such a pun-friendly title! This headline isn’t as good as last week’s, but it is still pretty good. Not good: the Tubelight collections. (for general background on box office, check out my massive post with box office background here)
I’m back! We’ll see how this goes. I’ve cut Hindi Film 101 down to once a week to give me a little breathing space, and I get to pick if it is Tuesday or Thursday. That should help. (DDLJ full index here)
dontcallitbollywood 