Happy Birthday Rishi!!!! Did not realize you are the same age as my father. But mostly, Happy Birthday! An industry legend, who acted in your first classic film at age 18. And so I will give 18 reasons I love you.
I already put up my spoiler-free review, right when I got home late last night, but now that I’ve slept on it, I’m ready for my spoiler review! And I am very excited because there are all these plot details that I am DYING to talk about!
As I said in my review, I really really liked Akira. So I am delighted to hear that the box office is picking up a little! Almost as delighted about confirmation for the Amitabh and Aamir rumor. The Sonam news, on the other hand, not so great.
This movie was so interesting! It really is just a southern action movie with the hero turned into a heroine. But at the same time, there were all of these things that are so specific to the female experience, and I just have to wonder, did the director look at them and think “Hey! I should remake this with a female star!” Or, were they added in when the hero became a woman?
I thought Ajay couldn’t top suing Yash Chopra’s widow days after his death, but this is pretty bad! Not that he’s actually necessarily in the wrong, just like he wasn’t in the wrong last time, but it’s just turning into a whole thing again which isn’t going to help anybody’s film.
I watched Mouna Ragam! Which is my 3rd (or 4th or 5th?) Revathy movie. And my I-don’t-kn0w-how-many Ratnam movie. But according to this blog excerpt, this is arguably the first “real” Ratnam film.
New Trailer! For the movie that I am more excited about for the songs than for anything else! And, yay, it’s a song trailer! And also, a whole bunch of trailers for a movie I have been ignoring entirely.
Lots of fun little things today. Well, some fun, some stressful. But mostly fun! And also nostalgic.
I saw Billa! Finally! After having it loaned to me months and months ago, the DVD just sitting there, taunting me and making me feel guilty for not watching it.
My post earlier today about the new Lux ad Shahrukh is in got me thinking about all those wonderful star ads we don’t get in America. Well, unless you spring for the India package on cable (Someday!!!).
Not the biggest collection of news stories today, but still worth posting because of the bigger stories they are teasing out for the future.
Now, if you remember, I looooooooved Ohm Shanti Oshaana. Whole-hearted no reservations loved it. And the big main thing I loved is still there in Aiyyaa, that it is a love story from the female side instead of the male, the woman gets to fall in love at first sight and be the stalker and make all the big gestures and stuff. But, all the little things in Aiyyaa are just WEIRD! Weird weird weird! I can see why it wasn’t a hit.
I was watching this thing thinking “okay, saw that in Sadak, saw that, saw that.” And then I looked up the years, and Baaghi was first! Sadak gets the mentions as this really cool deep love story, but it’s just doing what Baaghi did already. Okay, so Sadak is doing it better (because Mahesh Bhatt > Deepak Shivdasani), but still, Baaghi did it first!
Okay, Raja Sen, on whom I have a HUGE brain crush (see also: Rajinder Dudrah), interviewed Karan for rediff, and you should go there and read the whole thing right NOW NOW NOW. And then come back here so we can talk about it.
This is all industry news, really, but I find it interesting. Especially considering that UTV/Disney just announced it was shutting down, every little studio move is now exciting.
I did a stupid stupid thing, and stayed up until midnight my time so I could see the Karan Johar Ae Dil Hai Mushkil teaser as soon as he posted it at 10am India time. But now that I have stayed up, I might as well write about it real quick before I finally go to sleep!
I just found the most amazing new artist on youtube, which inspired me to think I should put up a quick post of all my favorite east-west mash-up videos.
WILL SMITH!!! What the heck is he doing in India? More specifically, what the heck is he doing at a Rustom success party at Akshay Kumar’s house? I mean, it looks like a fun party. Not some huge fancy wedding/Karan Johar style thing, just a relaxed house party. But still! How do they even know each other?
I finally watched Aurangzeb! Which I have been nagged about from all sides. “All sides” meaning Arjun Kapoor and Prithviraj fans, and Jackie Shroff/Amrita Singh ‘shippers. And all of those people were correct, it’s a great movie for Arjun and Prithviraj, and Jackie-Amrita (Jackrita?). But some other things weren’t quite as strong as they could be. Anyway, I wanted to put up a post in honor of A Flying Jatt, for the Amrita-Shroff connection.
Happy National Sports Day! I am sure it will be an extra celebratory one, with the returning Olympic champions. If you are looking for a good set of songs to watch and think about sports, I am here for you!
My church did a service inspired by Krishna Janmashtani this morning. It was nice, a sort of general message of appreciating the innocence of the child, and how that can be spiritual, with lots of quotes from Swami Vivekananda. But I got so distracted hearing the slowed down instrumental version of all the hymns that I usually hear in movies!
At what point does Ranveer stop being charming and start being irritating? ANOTHER twitter video in honor of a Khan? Come on, Ranveer! Get a new schtick!
I put up my non-spoilers review already, now it’s time for the one where I zoom through the whole film for those who missed it in theaters and want to know what happened, and for those who saw it in theaters and want a detailed discussion of every part.
There is a really funky little human interest story, and a really important industry story. But most of all, a really NO WAY!!!!! story about Anupam Kher.
Shahid had his baby! Based on how open he and Mira have been about their married life so far, I expect photos and videos to start popping up shortly.
dontcallitbollywood 