Happy 4th of July! I am celebrating by locking my doors and fervently ignoring the massive celebration going on at the end of my street. It’s just so hot! And crowded and loud and blech! Instead, I am going to have a little song festival of American-themed Indian movie songs. As always with these posts, if I missed one you like, just mention it in the comments!
Thanks to a commentator’s recommendations of important Salman movies, I just watched Garv: Pride and Honor. I am so glad I did! Because it is important not just as a Salman movie (I am thinking this was a big turning point as he went from romantic hero to action hero?), but as a perfect example of the modern Indian action movie. Which is why it is good to see before Sultan, since this is the standard that Sultan will be breaking away from.
We are now almost a week into all Salman coverage (because Sultan has got me all excited!), but I decided it was time to take a break and slip in a Malayalam review, just for a change. And I picked the least Salman-y film of them all, Ozhimuri, all about the Matrilineal system.
Sultan week continues! Today, let’s talk about Sultan and Ek Tha Tiger! The one other time Salman worked with Yash Raj Studios.
Big news! Kareena and Saif just confirmed their pregnancy! Yaaaaay! I guess? I mean, it seems like something they both want, so it is nice that it is happening. Although I will miss Kareena onscreen.
Salman isn’t actually a wrestler or anything in this, but there are soooooooo many fight scenes! And I kind of feel like I am getting a glimpse of what life was like in the Khan household when all the boys were young. I’m picturing lots and lots of wrestling and fake fighting between brothers.
Happy Doctor’s Day! Which I only know about from Amitabh’s twitter. Which is true of so many things, Amitabh really does tweet about everything.
Sultan week continues! Day 2, I’ve already talked about Salman as a widower, what relationship Sultan may have to Ali Abbas Zafar’s other films, and what connection it might have with previous Anushka performances. New topic: why a mustache?
Now, I should really be talking about Patiala House for this, I know, because it is another movie in which Anushka inspires an athlete (art imitates Life!). But I think Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola has more of the tone of realism and sort of sweet sadness revolving around loss and the past that I expect from Sultan. Plus, I kind of suspect Patiala House might be so good, it deserves it’s own post, not just a combined with Sultan post.
It was just announced yesterday that it would be attached to Sultan, and I guess they decided to let it out a few days early online. Whatever the reason is, I don’t care, I’m just glad I can watch it!
Well, that’s easy, they share a director. What I am curious about is what elements the director might bring between the two films. Especially if Sultan came about through the same process as Fan, that is, if it was always the end goal for Ali Abbas Zafar and his early films were just training.
Sultan is coming out in a week, woo! And all signs point to Anushka dying and Salman being a grieving widower looking for a reason to go on (NO SPOILERS or inside info, that’s just a guess based on the trailers). Which is why Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha is the first movie I want to talk about for our run-up week.
Before Fan came out, I talked about how a lot of the news seemed to just sort of stop in anticipation. Because people knew the media and fans would be so focused on the big release, they weren’t be spending much attention to unrelated news. Same thing happening here! A lot of news items tangentially related to Sultan, minimal items not related at all. And I’m not interested in those anyway (I’ll pay attention to IIFA once the performances start being posted on youtube), so I am ignoring everything not Sultan adjacent.
First, a warning: this is the last day of regular reviews before we enter Salman week! Brace yourselves! Anyway, I wanted to go out with a bang, so I finally sat down and watched Anjali, all set to sob and sob like I did for Kannathil Muthamittal, and it was a good movie, don’t get me wrong, but it just didn’t send me in the same way. Maybe because I’m not the intended audience?
I don’t always do birthday posts for behind the scene people, but I really like Vishal! I saw him live, but even before that, he had written some of my favorite songs.
UPDATE: Now that I know the Indian scale has 16 notes, I’m going to squeeze in 4 more reasons! It isn’t hard to find them
A commentator recommended this to me as a underappreciated Salman movie, and I am so grateful, because I LOVED it! It is the particularly Indian combination of subtle real emotional discussions and totally over the top visuals.
Happy Birthday Arjun! A day late! Sorry about that, I somehow missed it yesterday. But better late than never! And you deserve a birthday post, because you work so hard. According to reports, you were working yesterday as well. And, at age 31, you have already worked on 10 films, starting when you were only 18.
None of these things have anything to do with each other, but none of them are really worth their own post either, so I am going to combine them all to have a decent sized post.
There is more than you think! I’m not just talking about Dostana, or Kal Ho Na Ho, or Dunno Y…Jaane Q, or Bombay Talkies, or Margarita with a Straw, or even Fire. In the whole history of Indian film, there have always been those people off to the side, being themselves and being Queer.
All the headlines are very exciting sounding, Saif rushed to the hospital from a film set, Kareena by his side, Soha issues a statement thanking us for our prayers, etc. etc. And then you hear what the injury was, and it all kind of deflates.
This is kind of a repost, I put this up as one of my first fanvid posts ever. But the original post was kind of short, just the videos. So here it is, expanded and perfected, in honor of Pride.
I was just searching through my email for something else, and I ran across the many many many things I had to say after I watched Mirchi for the first time last year. Mirchi was my first “real” Telugu movie, not counting Bahubaali. And I loved it, and it also inspired many many thoughts in my head. So, since it is a lazy summer weekend, I am going to be lazy and just copy my emails, and split my thoughts into 2 posts over today and tomorrow.
Like 5 different people on my twitter feed re-tweeted the Mirzya trailer this morning, so I thought I better watch it, even though I didn’t know any of the stars. So glad I did!
Jatt and Juliet is the first Punjabi movie I started, and the first Punjabi movie I ended, but there was a 5 year gap in the middle there. I rented it right when it first came out, after hearing all the buzz about how it was setting records and breaking out of the regional market. And then somehow I just didn’t get into it, and I turned it off half way. But I re-started it last night, and made it all the way to the end, and turns out, I love it!
dontcallitbollywood 