Tag Archives: Dilwale

Dilwale Spoilers: Whole plot revealed!!! Part 1

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So, I’ve been trying and trying to avoid spoilers, or warn people off spoilers, but turns out, you all want spoilers!  My spoiler-full posts are getting a lot more readers than my spoiler-free posts.  So I will bow to the wishes of the majority and proceed to spoil the WHOLE THING.  If you want to know, in analytical and descriptive detail, every single thing about Dilwale (up to the first song, at least, the rest to be posted as time allows), continue reading below! (part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here, part 5 here, part 6 here, and part 7 here)
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Dilwale Box Office: Ha! I was right!

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According to Times of India, overseas business is going great guns, and is picking up over the week, especially among family audiences, as the holiday nears.  So there is still hope!  Just like I said, the second weekend box office is going to be the big one.  This weekend, with schools closed worldwide, Dilwale‘s family friendly content may take the lead over Bajirao with it’s more adults-only content (not like it is super sexual or anything, just fewer bright colors and stupid jokes for 3 year olds).

And, they also say, I am right that Varun is appealing to young people.  Which I agree with, because I am a young person, and I find him appealing.

Dilwale and Darr: Both Start with D! And other simalarities

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So, Darr, the first time the world sat up and went “Hey!  That Shahrukh guy can ACT!  And is also cute.”  But what does it have to do with Dilwale?  Well, for one thing, it is one of Shahrukh’s few Christmas releases (the anniversary falling today).  Which is actually kind of important, Christmas (in Indian film practice) is a time for slightly darker films.

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Dilwale vs Everything Else in the World (do we still call it an “Homage” when it is shot for shot the same?)

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So, after my second Dilwale viewing, I really started to notice the, shall we call it “borrowing” from other media products?  I caught exact matches with How I Met Your Mother, Love Actually, and P.S. I Love You.  This is different from the other “borrowing” Indian films do, the subtle winks to the audience because they know you know they know where it came from originally.  Like in Johnny Gaddar, when our hero solves his alibi issue by watching an Amitabh movie and realizing he can use the same tactic.  No, this is when you use the best part of a little known western pop culture product, hoping that no one will catch you at it.

Sometimes this feels kind of naughty and gleeful, like when Salaam-E-Ishq lifts the best part of an old Doris Day and Rock Hudson movie, because how many people in the world will have seen both (just me, probably.  But you should really watch Send Me No Flowers!  Tony Randall is brilliant in it).

(Really, watch it!  It’s fun!)

But in this case, it is really really recent films, and fairly well-known (in the West) moments from them.  It’s not like the director hunted through his vast video library to find something really good, or like he fell in love with something he stumbled across on TV at 3am and decided to sneak it into the film.  This is feels more like a college student pulling an all nighter trying to finish a final paper and giving into temptation and just cutting and pasting from wikipedia.

I would actually be, like, angry and disappointed about this, but on the other hand, 5 months!  Rohit Shetty only had 5 months to make a whole movie!  So I’m more on the side of “if the Professor assigns an impossible workload, he should expect students to cheat a little!”

(by the way, this article has a few more I missed.  But I caught P.S. I Love You and they didn’t, so I can still hold my head up high.  Be warned, they go into some detail which might spoil something for you!)

Dilwale Box Office Update

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So, Business of Cinema has updates for midweek.  According to them, Dilwale is facing a steep fall, while Bajirao has a steady climb.  However, they point out that Bajirao still has a ways to go to overcome Dilwale‘s very strong start last weekend.  And, they assign blame for Dilwale‘s fall not so much to bad word of mouth, but to the resurgent protests in multiple cities.

I care about this deeply, of course, but not as much as I care about free speech and speaking truth to power and so on and so forth.  And apparently Shahrukh agrees with me, since he recently avoided an opportunity to apologize and thereby end the protests, instead saying “I have not said anything that I should apologize (for). I will fall in my own eyes if I do that.”

Dilwale Review 3 (4?5? I’ve lost count): No Spoilers! Open to All

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No spoilers!  Unless you count generalized comments about narrative structure as spoilers.  If you are that one person who goes to a movie thinking “oo, oo!  I wonder if it will have multiple storylines with subsets of character types, or all be one cohesive plot!”, then don’t read this.

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Dilwale and Dushman: Spoilers Go Boom!! Do Not Read if you have not seen!

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So, yesterday I talked about how Shahrukh’s film Trimurti from the 90s echos the themes in Dilwale (plagiarism?  An homage? Laziness?  Who’s to say?!?!) (it’s laziness).  But Trimurti isn’t the only film that explores concepts which are touched on by Dilwale.  Going back into the 90s, we find Dushman, another film in which Kajol fights for her sister, triumphs through violence, and then turns to love.

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Dilwale Box Office report-Rohit Shetty’s opinion

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So, I saw a link through Times of India to an interview with Rohit Shetty about Dilwale box office.  If you don’t want to bother following the link, here are the big take aways:

  1. Dilwale box office is dropping off through the week with Bajirao crawling ahead (nooooooo!  The horror!  I must buy more tickets!)
  2. Shetty thinks the slow start for Dilwale is more because of the last minute ban in Rajasthan and Madra Pradesh, which apparently caused about 40 % of theaters in those states to pass on the film, than any competition from Bajirao opening the same day.
  3. He was working on post-production and editing up to the release date, and the whole film start to finish was put together in 5 months.

So, what do we learn from this?

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Dilwale vs Trimurti: Spoilers for both! Beware!!!

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So, the plot of Dilwale can either be seen as a triumphant homage to multiple past films of Shahrukh and Kajol’s careers.  Or, it can be seen as part of an industry that is constantly recycling plots and abhors originality.  I would argue it is a combination of the two, certainly the essential plot is a result of laziness, but it is still worth while to compare the way it interacts with past performances and films in order to discover how things have changed and how the stay the same.

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Dilwale Box Office Report

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So, the first weekend figures are out, and rediff.com has an analysis.  Well, a lot of sites have an analysis, but I trust rediff the most.

The short answer is, Dilwale wins!  But the long answer is more complex, and involves Salman Khan.  Things that involve Salman are always complex.

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Dilwale news-missing song

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So, if you happen to have obsessively listened to the Dilwale soundtrack on Saavn.com, you probably noticed that when you went to see it in the theaters, one of the songs was missing.  And if you happened to have obsessively followed the filming news, you may have noticed that they filmed in Iceland (check!) and Bulgaria (check!) and Goa (check!), but also Hyderabad (no check!).  So, where is the missing song and the missing Hyderabad sequence?

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Updated SRKajol fanvids (Dilwale Spoilers!!!)

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So, now that there is new SRKajol footage out there, in the world, the natural result is new SRKajol fanvids.

If you have already seen Dilwale, and are prevented by stupid things like work and family and holidays from seeing it again, these might serve to take the edge off a little.  I like this one as a summary of the whole first half love story.  No idea what the song is saying, but it sounds pretty!

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Dilwale Review 1: No spoilers!

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So, I saw Dilwale last night, and I will have many many thoughts, slowly unspinning from my head, over the next few days.  Rather than try to limit them all to one perfect post, I’m going to just go ahead and post as things slowly rise to the top of my consciousness.

The first thing that strikes me is that this movie is meant to be watched in a theater filled with rowdy and licentious SRK fans.  Not the ones who appreciate him for his acting abilities and keen business savvy, the other ones.  For instance, one of my friends was wearing this subtle, respectful, and tasteful piece of jewelry.

(purchased on etsy from the shop FreshAndRussianStyle)

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Dilwale News from the Front 3

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And the protests have started!  Sort of lackadaisical ones, and in Delhi,so I guess Raj Thackeray’s efforts against SRK in Bombay didn’t take off?  Is it like a family tradition now, for Thackeray’s to try to prevent the release of SRKajol films?

I do want to point out that the Dilwale protesters seem to be having a much better time than the Bajirao protesters.  See, even protesting it, Dilwale is the better choice!

Dilwale: News from the Front 2

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According to twitter, house full through out India, UAE, and not Egypt because they have to wait until the 30th (poor Egypt).  Also, Madhuri wished him luck and Karan congratulated him.  This picture SRK posted to twitter himself kind of sums it up:

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So what I’m saying is, poor Bajirao.

Dilwale-News from the Front 1

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So, just heard from my friend who was able to track down a suburban theater that is (possibly illegally) showing Dilwale a day early.  She reports that the lobby was mobbed, but mostly with Star Wars people.  And that the tickets were $20!!!

I don’t know if this is an effort to make crime pay, or if it is official policy from the filmmakers.  If it is official policy, brilliant!  I saw an article back when Jab Tak came out saying that any Khan release means an automatic increase of at least 30% on ticket prices.  And I know that Southern films always have a rolling pricing system, $20 to $50 the first weekend and then slowly lowering as time goes on.  Anyway, all those inflated prices lead to inflated box office figures which may lead to Shahrukh FINALLY knocking Aamir and Salman down a peg, which will lead to me, finally, being able to laugh in the faces of Aamir and Salman fans.  And I will pretend not to know, in my heart, that it is just because of higher prices not more tickets sold.

AbRam! So much SRK coverage today!

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I mean, there’s always a lot of SRK coverage.  Supposedly, Neha Dhupia said in an interview “Only sex and SRK sell”, a quote which instantly became an aphorism.  And with the way her career is going, she is probably going to be more famous for that quote than anything else.  And thereby prove her point, because it’s the closest she’s ever come to being associated with SRK.

Anyway, on any random day if you turn to Times of India, they will have some kind of SRK slide-show or news story or something, because they know we will click on it.  This habit reached it’s nadir/zenith when this article was briefly their top online headline.  It works, of course, I not only clicked on that article but discussed it in depth with multiple people, and checked the site obsessively for any follow-up information they might have.

But with a movie coming out, there is this cycle (sycle?) where Shahrukh is giving greater access than usual, which means more to report, and because there is more reporting, people are thinking about him more and more, and are more likely to click on even old stories if they are posted on a homepage.

Which lead to this, an epic 37 page slide-show combining every single slide-show ToI has ever done on AbRam into one, leading off with the recent quotes about him courtesy of the Dilwale publicity express.

NOT Dilwale Spoilers, just Love Lessons from SRK

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So, this article was posted on rediff yesterday, and I avoided it for fear of spoilers, but turns out it was just a bunch of charming quotes from people.

Highlights:

Varun, in the trailer, you are seen doing the Shah Rukh Khan pose. Did you practice?

Varun: Actually, a lot of work went into that pose because we checked a lot of videos. Kriti checked and even Rohit sir checked. He (Shah Rukh Khan) has a lot of fans and you don’t want to get it wrong because they may come and beat me up at home.

So we really practiced it. I still haven’t perfected it obviously. But now I’ve got it, and I’m going to perfect the pose — hopefully.

SRK: I have not perfected it yet. I’m also trying.

 

Shah Rukh, because of you, Raj Malhotra is an impossible character to replicate. It’s actually difficult for us to propose to a girl because of your characters. Do you think love from 20 years ago is different from what we see now?

SRK: First thing, I’m sorry you’re not getting through to people because of my Raj. But don’t worry, you’ll get there.

 

And finally,

SRK: …… I want to thank so many of you — in New York, Canada, London, and everywhere — for making sure that Bollywood is being spread all over the world.  If it wasn’t for people like you, who are talking about it, holding onto it — good, bad, in a criticizing way or in an appreciative way — I don’t think Bollywood or Indian films would have reached where they’ve reached in the last 10 years. So thank you very much.

 

Aw, thank you Shahrukh!  And you are welcome!

Boring Industrial Inside Baseball stuff

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Notice how I put the really exciting picture at the top so we would remember why this really matters?

So, currently, the highest Shahrukh movie on the all time gross list for India is number 5.  NUMBER 5!!!  The shame of it!  Ahead of him is PK, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Bahubali, and Dhoom 3.  The whole list is here on wikipedia.

Now, you know what all these films have in common?  They are all from the past 5 years.  And the film at the top is usually from within the past 2 years.  In America, we are used to that, the top grossers are always fairly recent, but in India that wasn’t always the case.  Mother India set a box office record in 1957 that stayed in place for 3 years until Mughal-E-Azam surpassed it in 1960.  Mughal-E-Azam held the record until Sholay beat it in 1975.  Sholay  held the record until Hum Aapke Hain Koun came along in 1994.  Hum Aapke Hain Koun was toppled quickly by DDLJ in 1995.  Then DDLJ lost it’s crown to Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1998.  That record held until 2001 when it was beaten by both Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham and Gadar: Ek Prem Katha.  Gadar held the record until 3 Idiots in 2009, at which point everyone breathed a sigh of release because they could start pretending Gadar never happened (very very problematic messages in that film).  And then 3 Idiots held the record for a long time, by a big big margin, until it was finally beaten by Chennai Express in 2013.  All Shahrukh fans cheered and celebrated and laughed in the faces of their Aamir-fan friends, or at least that’s what I did.  Truly, it was a magical time!

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(Shahrukh, take a bow!  You earned it!)

And then about 2 months later, Dhoom 3 came out and Aamir was on top again.  It stayed up there for a year, until PK came out, and then Aamir had the two top spots.  PK is still up there, but Bajrangi Bhaijaan did really well this summer and came close to beating it.  And Bahubali, of course, is a huge deal since it is the only non-Hindi film up there (although it was distributed by a Bombay based production house, Dharma, which is very important in terms of overseas awareness and national reach in India).

So, on the micro-level, this just means we all need to buy as many tickets for Dilwale as humanly possible in order to return Shahrukh to his rightful ranking.  I don’t care if you are actually seeing Star Wars, you buy your ticket for Dilwale!!!

But on a macro-level, in terms of global trends, economics, and the future of the industry, what does all of this mean and where does it come from?

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Yet Another Trailer!

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Okay, back in October sometime, Shahrukh told Times of India: “Jis film mein main aur Kajol hai, ek romantic gaana toh banta hi hai, jis film mein Varun Dhawan ho, ek dancing number toh banta hi hai, Jisme do bhai ho, ek bhaiyo ka gaana bhi banta hi hai, jisme ek khoobsurat heroine ho uska ek aur gaana bhi banta hi hai, aur jab poori family ho toh ek sad gaana bhi banta hi hai. Aur yeh sab ho jaaye toh ek item number bhi banta hi banta hai.”

Very loosely translated, I think he is saying there will be a romantic number for him and Kajol, a dancing number for Varun, a song about brothers, a song about what a pretty heroine there is, a sad number, and an item number.

So, I don’t actually know if I could line them up one by one at this point (is the romantic number “Janam Janam” or “Gerua”?  Or is “Gerua” the beautiful one?  Or “Janam Janam” the sad one?), but that means 6 songs, right?  And so far we have seen only 4?  Counting the new one out today?

The only one I am sure we haven’t seen yet is the item number.  I haven’t even heard rumors as to who might be the item person!  Although if that is why Ajay was visiting Kajol in Bulgaria, to be the item boy in her film, I will die of happiness!

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Oh!  No!  Even better!  That’s why her mom was visiting in Iceland!  Tanuja, returning to her roots!

New Trailer! So Violent!

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The love and violence and love-means-violence is all tied up together in this.  My first thought was “so untraditional!  What happened to SRKajol, the happpy-go-lucky NRI romance?”  But then I remembered that their first movie together was Baazigar, which had this:

 

Even DDLJ had this:

 

So really, Kajol shooting him through the heart is just a return to their roots!  Or else, she is finally getting revenge on him for heartlessly killing her sister (always bothered me that she wasn’t more angry at him for that) (in Baazigar, not in real life.  So far as I know, he has never done anything to Tanisha)

 

Bonus, it looks like they have almost the same meet-cute as SRK and Divya Bhatya in his very first movie, Deewana:

 

Nothing more romantic that almost running someone over!

Speaking of Deewana, it also has another reminder that angry unhinged SRK=sexy SRK:

 

 

New Making of Trailer

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Okay, now they are just spoiling us, with a new trailer every day:

 

It is an interesting publicity strategy, especially in comparison with Bajirao Mastani which released a teaser months ago, but then nothing new for months after that.  Instead, Dilwale is releasing everything at the last minute very close together.

I guess it makes sense, because just the fact of a new SRKajol film is enough to get people pumped and excited, any trailers or songs is just frosting on the cake, something to entice you to buy tickets for the opening weekend.  But Bajirao had minimal name recognition going in and had to sort of train people to care about it at all, and therefore needed that spectacular teaser to get people talking for the past 5 months.