This is only a small part of the movie, but it is a big part of my reaction to the movie, if that makes sense. I didn’t want to have it overwhelm the review and be unfair to the film as a whole, so I am isolating the discussion all by itself over here.
Continue readingWell, this was a dull movie. And historically inaccurate, mostly in your usual gender normative/casteism/classism way. But also a really WEIRD homophobic thing. Just like, SO ODD. So odd that I am going to give it it’s own post for us to discuss, so look forward to that! (homosexuality post up now, go here to learn more about and discuss that aspect)
Continue readingWell, this is a BORING movie! At least ridiculous Mahanati had some nice crazy melodrama in it, and ridiculous Padman had the fun invented Sonam Kapoor character, and ridiculous Rustom had uniforms. This is bad BAD history, bad BAD filmmaking, and also DULL. Blech. I’ll put it this way, only watch it if you enjoy Vidya so much you would be happy seeing her recite the phone book. Because this script is only slightly more exciting than that. Oh wait, I always like to be positive, so I should have something else to add…it’s better than Mission Mangal?
Continue readingGreat episode, so much happens, and I find it all fairly believable! You know, grading on a curve and all of that. (full index of Breathe reviews here)
Continue readingAnother good episode! Yeah, it was just those resetting post twist episodes that were weak, now we are back to interesting strong ones. (full index of Breathe reviews here)
Continue readingOkay, either this episode is better than the last few, or I’m just in a better mood watching it. Let’s say the first! Once again, I can find a strong central theme tying it all together, and the past storyline ties much more firmly into the present than in other episodes. (full index here)
Continue readingStill not selling me on the twist! Still ends up in less rather than more tension. But there are some interesting misunderstandings in this episode which make it work a little bit better than the last episode. And some careful foregrounding of new plot conflicts in hopes of getting the audience interested in them. (full index of reviews here)
Continue readingWell, on the one hand, I don’t like this ridiculous implausible twist. But on the other hand, it kind of sideways adds a tension to the danger in this particular episode. If the show manages to use it in that way moving forward, changing the layers of tension we see onscreen, I won’t mind it.
Continue readingIf I am reading this correctly, this season has 12 episodes instead of 8 in the first season. Sometimes longer seasons can lead to confusion and blind alleys in the narrative as the show tries to fill more time than expected. So far, I think this show is going the opposite direction. The first season sometimes felt rushed, and too many things at once. This season is much more relaxed and enjoying the journey. (full index of reviews here)
Continue readingWoot, season 2! Like Season 1, this is a good solid procedural limited series thriller. Not mind-blowingly good, no better than dozens of similar shows. But no worse either, and watching these familiar actors shift their performance style from the melodrama of Indian film work to the subtle close up style acting of TV thrillers is fun. (full index of reviews here)
Continue readingHuh. Interesting idea at the center of this, which somehow completely failed to pay off. Oh well, sometimes these movies can be more fun to talk about than to watch.
Continue readingTwo videos that we should look at both for content, and context. Since they are both “disrupting” the industry.
Continue readingA single Silly Sunday post is always pushing it a bit in terms of reader interest, a second one is really unlikely to find an audience. But still, Shreyans Goenka and I came up with a really great limited series idea for Amazon Prime, and I feel the need to share it.
Continue readingThis is me being lazy and sleepy again. I’ve been on a binge of limited streaming serieses over the past three weekends (yes, I could have spent that time watching movies, but then I would have had to pay attention instead of blogging while I watched). And they all are more or less acceptable for Indian remakes, and also more or less popular among the readers here (based on how many times they’ve come up in comments so far). So, this is a place to talk about them! Indian recasting, why they could/could not be remade in India, general thoughts, all fair game!
Continue readingI don’t usually let myself complain, but it’s pouring rain, my summer schedule is looking like the things I want to do won’t be possible because of other stuff that is happening that I am less excited about, and I have a big irritating expense that appeared suddenly out of nowhere. Also I just got an email asking me to sub in for Sunday school this week and I REALLY REALLY don’t want to. So I am going to complain about a thing that I think we all have strong feelings about-SUBTITLES!
Continue readingLast section! Bringing us through to the present day (finally) and the situation now as movie theaters close their doors and the internet struggles to replace them.
Second to last section! And all about the American market (boring!), but you have to understand this market first before you can understand how the methods are being exported to India and Indian content.
And we are at an end! No more charming-but-murderous Maddy, no more troubled-but-reliable Amit, no more police jeeps driving through the streets of Bombay. Well, unless you want to watch one of the many many movies that involve police jeeps driving through the streets of Bombay. I recommend Talaash! (part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here) Continue reading
I finally watched it! Partly for Maddy, partly for my beloved Amit Sadh (if you like him in this, WATCH RUNNING SHAADI!). They were both good. And I am putting it up as a “Tuesday Tamil”, even though it is in Hindi, because really we are all watching if for Maddy mostly, and he is a Tamil industry guy. (part 2 here)
The big headline news being reported everywhere is “Shahrukh movies come to Netflix“. But here’s the big thing to notice in the stories, they are coming to INDIAN Netflix. So unless you do that thing where you use a mirror site and trick your computer into thinking it lives in India, or unless you yourself live in India and have Netflix and a good internet source, this does you no good.
dontcallitbollywood 