Happy Wednesday! Half way through the week, woot-woot! I am so excited about next week, when I get a random day off in the middle of the week (4th of July).
Happy Tuesday! A fun movie to talk about this week, one that was recommended to me ages ago and I am just now getting around to thanks to Moviemavengal reminding me about it. (I know the two films aren’t really related, but if you want to see my review of Aarya 1, it is here)
Welcome back to my fanfic! I am having way more fun writing this than my “real” posts, the bread and butter ones that keep my viewership up. Oh well, I might as well treat myself, what does it hurt? (my loyal readers who want analysis! that’s who. Sorry! I will try to do better) (full index of Bahubali posts here)
Now, on Rahman’s birthday, I will call him “the Greatest Composer Since RD Burman” and it will be an equal compliment. The two of them are up there, all by themselves, on the list of popular film composers. For his birthday, I will give you 55 reasons to love him (mostly songs)
I fell behind this weekend, and now I have to write my Monday post seconds after finishing the movie. Which is really too bad, because this is a film that really needs you to sit with it for a while before you are ready to talk about it.
I don’t have a super lot to say about these trailers, but I am really hoping that you do! Because I need to learn more about these movies and decide if it is worth it to go see them in theaters. Because, you know, Tamil/Telugu movie tickets are big bucks!
Good news! I found a post I did for Eid last year, so I can join in the celebrations after all. Better late than never. As I said last year, I am 95% sure all these songs are appropriate. But if a miss-translated a lyric or something, and one of them is more secular than religious, let me know right away so I can pull it out of a post where it doesn’t belong.
Eid Mubarak! Forgot to say that yesterday, got so focused on Tubelight and on Pride. But, better late than never! Oh, and also, Happy Monday! Time for questions.
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Happy Pride! Not a lot out there for representation of Queerness in Indian film, but I will highlight what I can.
You understand that I mean “gay” as a genre, not an insult, right? Kind of horrible that I have to make that clarification. There used to be a movie store in the gay neighborhood of my city that had a series of shelves called “Neighborhood Favorites”. Which was their little pseudonym for movies with same sex romantic plot lines. So maybe I should say that instead, all the Khans, plus Amitabh, should be in “neighborhood favorite” movies.
There isn’t a terrible lot of it (although it will be added to by today’s post), but I thought, for Pride, I should give us all some options for our Queer fantasies.
Happy Pride! For once I am NOT in charge of the service at my church, which is around the corner from the parade (our kids have a lemonade stand out front, we rake in the money), so I do not have to go down to the loud crowded hot unpleasant parade area. Instead I get to celebrate by reposting the same fanvid post I put up last year. Thank you slashfic fanvid makers! You are just the best people, and on Pride Sunday, I salute you!
Continue readingKepzandme alerted me to it being SRK’s 25th anniversary in films today, 25 years since Deewana came out. I am sure everyone in the world is doing 25 songs, 25 scenes, 25 films, kind of posts. I’m not going to bother trying to add to that. Instead, I will do something only I can do, and put in my personal 25 best memories, in no particular order.
The title really says it all. If you are wondering whether you might want to see this movie, you don’t. It is not a good film. If you want me to talk more about how it is not good with spoilers, you can read the other review. If you want me to talk more about how it is not good without spoilers, you can read on.
Not a good movie. Really really not. Terrible script, and casting mistakes. And then a lot of money poured on top which just serves to make the flaws stand out even more. Like bright lighting on a really really ugly statue. Anyway, save your money and skip the film, just read this instead! Which I almost never say, but in this case, yes. It’s the best thing to do.
Oh Pride! The happiest weekend of the year in terms of fanfic/silly content. The saddest weekend of the year in terms of not having loud drunk people sit next to me on the train. At least this year I have no reason to leave the house (my church lemonade stand/marching group can get along without me!), so I can just huddle up indoors and work on my epic Pride themed fanfic. I’m going to try to hit all the letters, L and G and B and T and Q and maybe H. If Indian film isn’t going to serve that audience, it is up to me to fill in the gap! Anyway, a great TGIF post topic, I think we can all agree.
On the Monday Questions post, a couple of people asked me why I don’t write more about classic films. Well, it’s because no one reads those posts! Not a big mystery. People want to read spoilers for new movies in theaters, and news items that mention Shahrukh Khan. If this blog was called “what Shahrukh is doing every minute of every day and also this is the ending of that new movie you saw advertised”, I would be infinitely popular. But I would also be both bored (not that interesting to just list off plot points in a movie) and exhausted (Shahrukh does a lot of stuff!). So let’s see if I can manage to put in one more post topic that is just for me, and no one will read, but I will enjoy writing.
Welcome back to my fanfic! It’s rainy and horrible in Chicago right now, and I felt like curling up with a good fake story. So I am back to my fanfic, featuring Anushka 2 (daughter of Prabhas 1 and Anushka 1, sister of Prabhas 2) and Rana 2 (illegitimate nephew of Rana 1 by way of Nassar’s illegitimate daughter). You can find the first 3 parts, and all the Bahubali posts, indexed here.
I know this is something we have all been concerned about, R. Madhavan’s ever developing style of attractiveness. And, almost as important, the ever developing relationship between Hindi and non-Hindi films in India.
The last couple of sections were kind of downers. Everything was going wrong. Kajol was miserable, Amrish was angry, Farida was sad, and the world just felt out of synch. And now here is Shahrukh! Finally! To set the world spinning the right way again. (full index of all DDLJ posts is here)
Isn’t this fortuitous? I didn’t plan it at all, but I think I am going to get up to the Sino-Indian war in my regularly scheduled Nehru-Gandhi post today, which makes it also Tubelight themed! Yay! (part 1 of Nehru-Gandhi here)
Happy day before Tubelight! I think I have picked my optimal showtime. Later show, but closer theater, so I can still be home at a reasonable hour. Same theater where I saw Bahubali opening night, Sultan for the second time, and Fan opening night. You will notice from that list that this theater only plays the biggest releases. Which allows me to make some box office predictions! Oh, and I also needed to do a post because Salman just released a video of Epic Cuteness.
Welcome back to another Bahubali Theme Post! Now that I’ve gone through the big themes I could think of (Dharma, Male and Female, the Elements), time to really dig in and look character by character. And why not start where the films start, with Sivagami. (yes yes, I will use the character names for these posts, because it’s not about the finished film and the actor’s portrayal, so much as the characters conceived in the screenplay) (full index of all Bahubali posts, including this one, is here)
This is a bit of a stretch of a connection, but I’ve been wanting an excuse to write about Veer without really writing about Veer (really writing about it means re-watching the film, making mental notes, going through every moment of the plot in detail, etc. etc. Not just picking a few themes to discuss), and this is as good as any. It’s not just Sohail and Salman playing brothers, it’s also Sohail and Salman in a historical setting, so I guess that’s good enough, right? It’s kind of Tubelight related.
dontcallitbollywood 