Understand that this is only a small subset of ads. Since I am tragically cut off from Indian satellite television, I only know of ones that youtube randomly suggests for me, not the whole array of every ad out there. But of the ones I have found, here are the sexiest!
Happy Tuesday! I was planning to do a Hindi Film 101 One-Off today on Sanjay Dutt’s court case or something, related back to the Nargis series I just finished. But “nepotism” has become the catchphrase of the day, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at the history of families working together in Hindi film, where it started and why. Oh, and I don’t usually plug my book in these posts, but this one is really very similar in tone and contains some content that I go into in more detail there, so if you like it, buy the book!
I’ve watched this movie twice now. Once really seriously, pausing and rewinding if I thought I missed something, and once more just skimming, letting it play while I brushed my teeth in the morning or wrote blog posts at night. And I know I have still missed SO MUCH. But I am going to do my best to try to understand it and present it to you.
Happy Monday! Time for questions! Hopefully I am less crazy busy at work than I have been the past few weeks and can actually respond promptly. Oh, and don’t worry about the headline if you don’t care about Tamil film. That’s just a way to tell this post apart from all the other Monday Morning posts.
Woo-hoo! Prabhudeva’s birthday! 44 reasons to love him, and an excuse to post A LOT of Prabhudeva songs! And maybe a few facts scattered in. But not many. (I know you may not have time to watch all the videos I put in this posts, but some of these are truly not to be missed, so the ones in bold you MUST WATCH!!!)
I don’t know why, but I am feeling very contrary today. I have this strange desire to take light things and turn them dark, and dark things and turn them happy. Thank goodness I can work it out through fanfiction instead of going to the park and throwing things at pigeons.
My parent’s 40th wedding anniversary is today and my sister and I are doing NOTHING. Well, not nothing. There is a some small stuff in the works. But it’s not exactly the big rent-a-ballroom-create-a-dance-routine-write-a-poem kind of celebration that other, better children do. To try to make up for that, I am going to at least do a theme blog post.
If you are a regular reader, you should already know about this. But just in case you missed one of the earlier posts, or just started following me today, An Announcement! We are planning a twitter watchalong in exactly one week from now, 7pm Chicago time Saturday the 8th, of Maine Pyar Kiya. You can join in or following along using the hashtag #MPK.
I put up the podcast after I got home last night, but I didn’t want to put out an announcement until my SPOILER post was up. Because, as always, the podcast won’t really make sense unless you know the plot of the film already.
I already put up my NO SPOILERS review, and my podcast, now it’s time for the SPOILER review. I recommend reading this before listening to the podcast, since the podcast assumes that you already know what happens in the movie.
I saw Naam Shabana last night and I was sooooooooooo sleepy that I couldn’t bring myself to write a review before I went to sleep. Although I did post a podcast. Anyway, now I am awake! And ready to write.
I went from “women fighting” to “women with phallic symbols” to “women with swords” to “well, that’s not fair, I’ll throw in some men too!” And now here we are.
I’ve been watching City of God basically on a loop for the past 3 days, just sort of in the background while I do other things. And the one moment I have to stop and watch every time is the “Kaalangal” song. At first because it is sooooooo sexy, but on repeat viewing because it is just so pretty. In a way that felt really unique, until I started to remember the other song sequences I had seen like it before. There is something about that really sweet moment when two people figure out for the first time that they love each other.
I think this might be the film where I first heard the “An Indian woman loves only once” truism. Which has now been unpacked and questioned and turned upside down and all sorts of interesting things done to in other films. Heck, interesting things were already done to it by the time this film came out! But not in this movie. Nope, in this movie, your lifetime singular devotion goes along with your virginity and whatever man gets one, gets the other.
Probably not a coincidence, right? Not like “ugh, another big controversy I am caught in! Hey look, I have a longform writing platform to discuss it. What a coinky-dink!” Probably more like “should I take this column offer from NDTV? I probably should, because it will be useful the next time I am inevitably caught in a controversy.”
If I say it’s been crazy busy at work lately, will that excuse me missing Akshaye’s birthday? Or is that a weak excuse? I was tempted to just ignore it entirely, but then I found the time and I thought “better late than never”. So, here are 12 reasons I love him, plus one extra to make up for being late! And they are mostly performances, because he is a very private person.
Happy Wednesday! Halfway through the work week, yay!!!! And it’s the day we all get to start a fresh discussion about what we have been watching lately.
This is one of those movies where I am watching it thinking “is the message I am seeing on purpose or an accident? Or an purposeful accident? Is it just where the characters ended up or was this the goal all along? Or did the writer start thinking of it as a statement on film relationships and not realize it was a statement on real ones too?” I think it is probably the last, because I started thinking about it in terms of film too, and then realized that it works just as well for real life. And, in fact, hits exactly my issues with the way culture treats female safety.
Here’s an interesting little announcement! Fathom Events in America is planning a “Bollywood” series. Which early reports say will feature Devdas and Veer-Zaara and maybe others. So, this means the Indian film audience is officially being split into “high” and “low”. America’s version of multiplex and single-screen.
I was going to just leave it at Greatest Love Triangle of all time, but then I remembered Rekha and Jaya and Amitabh, so I am modifying it to be Greatest Love Triangle of All Time Between Two Men and One Women. (Nargis part 1 here)
What a fascinating movie! Oh my goodness, SO INTERESTING!!!!! Starting from the opening shot, which sent me down a whole mental wormhole of film history. But mostly, I am SO GLAD I watched this film the same week I saw Angamaly Diaries! Because this film makes the hypothetical argument that Angamaly Diaries proved in reality.
I always get confused, is that saying a prediction? Like, “if March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb”. Or is it just a statement of fact, “March always comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb”? Anyway, it’s kind of true this year! Icky weather at the start of the month complete with snowstorm. And now kind of calm and warming up.
Someone asked on one of my Rani posts if I thought she would ever act again opposite one of her 90s costars in a rom-com. And I think she might, but only if it was a really really good script. And to help the scriptwriters along, here are some suggestions! (of course, she could always just do my K3G sequel idea with Abhishek, or my Taming of the Shrew idea with Aamir)
Thank goodness for Netflix! I can get this movie on DVD and watch it at double-speed and finally check it off my Shahrukh list. Without all the pain of actually paying for it, even as an individual rental.
dontcallitbollywood 