What an interesting masala of movies (that tracks, right? I was going to use “melange”, but that’s just French for “mix”, so why not “masala” instead?)! My Netflix envelope claimed it was a remake of some American movie called Assassins. But that’s just one of many many films that went into creating this one.
Carrie Fisher died, as I am sure we all know. Which is sad, but doesn’t have much of a connection to Indian film, so it falls a bit outside of my area of expertise. I can tell you that I will always love her for her amazing guest appearance on 30 Rock. And I can also tell you that she was so embedded in film history that multiple films she is connected with have somehow traveled across to India.
I have had so much fun in the past few weeks talking with Ryan C in the comments. He is new(ish) to Indian film and is asking me all sorts of wonderful questions, and giving me delightfully enthusiastic responses, and it made me think about how maybe I should do more posts sort of aimed at that level. Ideally, you can get that from My Book (really, read it! It’s super short and fast and once you are done, you will know everything you need to understand the movies), but now I am thinking maybe I should try something like that on the blog as well?
Poor Aamir. I don’t know if it is even possible for him to surprise us at the box office at this point. Once you reach the limit of how many tickets are even available to sell, and they all sell-out, well then there is no where else to go! (figures are, as always, from Rentrack courtesy of BollywoodHungama)
I did it! I downloaded the Salman App so I could see what it was like! And it’s interesting. I kind of wish the other stars would do something similar, just to make life easy.
1 through 40 are important too, but these are my top eleven. (UPDATE: These are mostly the same as in 2015, with a few tweaks. And of course a new one added!)
So, earlier today, I posted the first 20 reasons I love Salman Khan (not as much as I love Shahrukh, but still quite a bit). Here are another 20. (UPDATE: This is the post I put up in 2015, but it’s still true today! I’ve just cleaned it up a little)
I am a Shahrukh person, not an Aamir or a Salman person. But I can still appreciate not-Shahrukh stars for the wonderful people they are, even if that person is not my particular person. And Salman is wonderful. (This is what I said last year for his 50th birthday, and it is still true today on his 51st!)
I’m not the biggest Salman expert, but I will do my best if you have questions! And by the way, there is a huge 3 part series of 51 facts and videos and photos going up over the next 24 hours. So many questions may be answered, or come up, from that! (Home for the new Monday Morning Questions category is here, you can see them all in one place)
I already put up a post that I wrote earlier about past presents. But now Christmas morning is over, and I officially have all my gifts for this year, and there are a couple of phenomenal ones! Which I get to brag about to you, because they are blog-adjacent! (plus, the Christmas salt and pepper shakers that I used for the header image because they are festive!)
What, just because it’s Jesus’ Birthday too, you thought I would skip Salman today? No! If I didn’t skip Anil yesterday, I’m not skipping Salman now!
Well, if we are on our usual schedule, my family is now in hour 4 of Christmas morning present opening. We take presents VERY SERIOUSLY in our family. Each person opens one at a time while we all watch, and each person gets about 25. So it takes quite a while. To clarify, not all 25 are good presents. They can range from a blu-ray player (my “big gift” about 7 years ago) to a joke pencil (one of my 4 gifts for my brother-in-law this year, DON’T TELL HIM!!!!). But no matter the value/quality of the gift, they are always wrapped, with a note including a clue that must be read out loud and debated and appreciated before the gift is unwrapped. So the time adds up.
Merry Christmas!!!!! As we all know, that means it’s time for a sexy bondage dance, followed by Santa to counting down to midnight, and then we all kiss while fireworks go off.
There was a request for me to set up an area for all the Monday Morning Questions posts, which made me think I should also set up an area for all the TGIF posts. Which meant the menu became too long to easily fit, and it all kind of snowballed (how seasonal!), and now there is a new site design! I am tentatively enthusiastic about it, but if I change my mind, you may see a whole series of new designs show up as I try stuff out.
The celebration continues! I’ve done hair (very important) and film performances, now it’s time for film partnerships! One of the things I love about Salman is how he is willing to step back and let his co-stars shine if it is better for the narrative. And so he has helped to create one half of some all time great “jodi”s.
Wait, did you think in all the preparation for Salman I would have forgotten him? Never! Oh, and also Christmas. But even Jesus’ birthday can’t distract me from celebrating Anil! 57 today, and I am doing 25 reasons I love him, for the age he was when he got married.
One of my favorite things about Salman is how often he takes his shirt off! And not just for film roles, but in life! He just doesn’t like wearing a shirt.
What an interesting movie! I mean, of course it’s an interesting movie, it’s a Priyadarshan comedy. There’s more human tragedy and quiet despair in a Priyadarshan comedy than in a whole Sanjay Leela Bhansali epic.
Why do they keep releasing songs and trailers at 11am India time? I need my sleep! Last night I decided that it was more important to be awake today for family events round 2 than to stay up until Karan tweeted the new OK Jaanu song.
Again, these are the best performances of those I have seen. Just like the last post was the best hair from the looks I knew. I haven’t actually seen every Salman film. But I have seen a lot of them! And of the ones I have seen, these are my top 5 performances.
It had to start late, because I didn’t want him to share with Aamir. But now the decks are cleared, Dangal is out, so I can focus on the birthday boy! I’ll be repurposing my 50 reasons to love him post from last year, updating and polishing and of course adding a reason 51. But I also wanted to post a couple of bonus “best of” posts. I haven’t seen everything he’s done, so this is just “best of” what I have seen, not all time. Feel free to mention anything I might have missed in the comments!
I put up my NO SPOILERS review last night after I got home, and then I slept for 5 hours, and now I am at work and all ready to write my SPOILERS review. And then right after work is family dinner tonight, and then I come home and do laundry and wrap 37 presents and empty my sink of dirty dishes and maybe think about finishing decorating my trees. Christmas week releases are not the easiest. So forgive me if this review sounds a little punchy.
I saw Dangal! I am getting no sleep tonight! Oh well, I’m sure I will be able to sleep sometime. Monday? Anyway, I wanted to get a quick NO SPOILERS review up while it was fresh in my mind.
I sent this link around to all my friends, of course, and about a minute later I got a message from one of them saying “Shahrukh doesn’t even show up for the first 29 seconds, what’s the point?” Followed by a complaint about the presence of a shirt. So you can see that we have a fairly limited area of interest for song sequences. But, setting that aside and viewing this objectively, I think this is a pretty good one!
dontcallitbollywood 