I finished Karachi You’re Killing Me! Partly while waiting for my car to be fixed (if you listened to the Phillauri podcast, you know that my side mirror was falling off), and partly while sitting in the now-fixed car for five minutes because I got to the knitting group early and had to kill time. Well, sitting there for 15 minutes. I got sucked in and ended up being ten minutes late to knitting.
Happy Wednesday! Time to discuss what we have seen so far this week. And what we have read and what we have thought about what we have read and seen.
What a fun movie! Just a fun light movie. And kind of more clever than I would expect from a Telugu movie. I may need to track down the other film by this director. Oh, and also Nani was very fun. I thought I just liked him in Eega because Eega is the greatest film of all time, but now I think he is kind of great even in non-Greatest Film of All Time films.
It’s Spring now, and I am enjoying the warm days, and also enjoying life in general. And a big reason for that is because of how much fun I have writing this blog, and feeling like I am being heard and read! And so I want to say a little “thank you” to all my readers, whether you are new or old, comment regularly or not at all, only read the posts you like and skip the rest, anything! It all counts and it all deserves a “Thank You!” (I posted about this a few days ago, and I am just going to keep putting up reminder posts until I feel sure you all saw it! So far I have only gotten responses from 5 of you.)
Needed a nice way to wind down Monday night, so I browsed around for some nice new fanvids to share. And now I am posting them for you, so you have a nice way to get through Tuesday!
Happy Tuesday! I did a quick two-parter on Nepotism (really more the history of Hindi film as a family business) last week, now I want to do another quick one inspired by Kaatru Veliyidai on why it is so especially exciting when a new Ratnam-Rahman movie comes out, and why that director-composer relationship is so special. (also, usually in this posts I try to use images instead of songs, but because of the topic, this will be an all songs post. I encourage you to actually watch all the videos too)
My second Pellissery Monday! And 3rd Pellissery week over all (counting the Tuesday I saw Angamaly Diaries). And this movie is rawer, but still better than Amen. But not as good as Angamaly, which combined the powerful spirit of this film with the technical brilliance of Amen.
Yay, more rom-coms! 2016 was the year of serious patriotic historical dramas, but 2017 is looking decidedly more romantic. Romantic and dramatic, none of that lightweight stuff like Befikre. Which means I am watching these trailers going “wait, is something terrible going to happen or is this just a humorous misunderstanding?”
So excited! This Friday I get to go to a massive stadium concert with Arjit Singh! Would be better if it was some handsome actor, but he is pretty much the handsomest of the playback singers, and has an amazing voice, so it’s still pretty good! Anyway, to make the time past faster while I wait for Friday, ask me questions and distract me!
It’s Jaya Bachchan’s birthday! She is 69 years old today, and semi-retired, as are most 69 year olds. But I think she still has some great movies in her, and I would love to see her come back in a leading role.
Chennai Update! I have put in some of your suggestions, plus added a few books. If something you suggested isn’t included, it’s not because I hate you, it’s because I explored and I can find a copy without needing to go all the way to Chennai for it. And I want to save luggage space for the really really hard stuff!
Happy Birthday Jaya!!!! I’m not doing a full 69 reasons I love you, because I am lazy, but I can’t just leave it at a dozen. So let’s say 15, for the age you were at your first big film role.
Hope to see you there! Look for the hashtag #MPK.
As always, best to listen to the podcast after having seen the movie, or else having read my SPOILERS review. We don’t exactly give a plot summary, and we jump around a bit. In this case, we also jump over to a lot of other Mani Ratnam films, since Dina hasn’t seen many, and I have seen slightly more, so I was giving her some general Ratnam background.
Good morning! I posted my no-spoilers review late last night after I got home, but now I have had a good night’s sleep and is time for my SPOILERS review. Which gives the full plot and really really digs into all the meanings of it. And there is a lot to dig into in this film!
Well, that was a Ratnam movie all right! In that, while watching it, I thought “this is kind of okay, sort of interesting, very pretty”. And then I’ve spent two hours thinking about it and I haven’t even gotten close to unpacking all the themes and metaphors and so on and it just gets deeper and deeper the further I go.
The countdown begins! 24 hours from now, we will all simultaneously press play on Netflix-Amazon-Hulu-DVD Player-Youtube-Einthusan-Spuul and start watching Maine Pyar Kiya!
Inspired by Shahrukh’s tweet early today with his new look for the Imtiaz Ali movie, turbans! Men and women in turbans! It is a wonderful thing.
Long time readers may have noticed that my news round-up posts have been less common lately. I am sooooooooo busy writing up Hindi Film 101 and answering Monday questions and all my other new-ish features that I haven’t had as much time for news. But today there were two big things that I just can’t ignore! Both of which I learned about through twitter (I do still follow @iamsrk and @karanjohar and all the other big newsmakers of the industry)
After doing my Prabhudeva Birthday post, I was suddenly in the mood to watch my favorite Prabhudeva movie. So I decided to indulge in a bit of a guilty pleasure. And not “guilty” like it’s usually used, like something you know is bad for you, but like something that is bad for the world and I know I really shouldn’t be encouraging, but it just makes me feel so good!
Happy Thursday! On Tuesday, I started a discussion of Hindi film history and industrial development, inspired by all the discussion of “nepotism” popping up lately. I don’t usually plug my book in these posts, but if you find these posts in particular interesting, I go into much more detail in my book, so you should check it out. (part 1 here)
Happy Spring! Sort of. I don’t know about where you are, but where I am we are still alternating sunny warmth with rainy yuchiness that feels more February than April. On the other hand, I know some of you are in the southern hemisphere and are about to enter Fall (my favorite season!). But I decided to declare it Spring in the official Don’t Call It Bollywood-land. And in honor of spring, a celebration of you, My Readers!
Wonderful news! My sister is going to Chennai! And I’m not! Which is perfect, because going to India makes me violently deathly ill to the point of not being able to get up off the floor, and my sister is willing to take a shopping list with her. And you get to help me write it!
Happy Wednesday! Time to talk about what we’ve been thinking about. And watching without thinking, and reading without thinking.
Happy Tuesday! Another Nagarjuna movie this week. I think I might have some strange attraction to old men? People keep trying to sell me on Mahesh and Allu Arjun and even Naga Chaitanya, and yet I find myself drawn to old man Nagarjuna. He’s just so much more cool and confident than those younger boys! Although at least this movie is 15 years old, so back when he was only 42, which is almost kind of age appropriate for me! If you squint a bit and assume a husband should be a lot older than a wife.
dontcallitbollywood 