Isn’t that funny! I was just emailing with a friend about this film, and now Amitabh tweets that today is the 45th anniversary! With apologies to my friend, I am going to go ahead and raid our email exchange for all the random things I thought about it, so I don’t have to re-think them all.
Ending my several week streak of seeing the new movie every Friday, I DID NOT see Jai Gangaajal last night. But it’s still worth talking about, because of the reasons I didn’t/was not able to see it. And why maybe those reasons are affecting the box office in general.
I watched Drishyam! Finally breaking free of my rom-com streak! But I got Classmates delivered on DVD (finally!), so I’m going to watch that next and be back to rom-coms. Although, I think I saw somewhere that Classmates has a mystery at the heart of it along with the romance?
I wanted to watch Traffic last night, because it is supposed to be really good and groundbreaking, and the director just died, and I have been watching a ton of rom-coms and I need to rinse out my system with a thriller. But, no luck! Couldn’t find Traffic anywhere. However, Mili, by the same director, was readily available, so I watched that instead.
Finally! Something HAPPY! Which is an odd thing to say about a film on the War on Terror including a sociopathic CIA agent, a homicidal and delusional Obama, and several varities of terrorists. But oh my gosh, it was FUNNY! Super super funny! Not as good as Tere Bin Laden, but nothing’s going to be that good. But it was in the same taboo-breaking nothing sacred territory.
Raghil in comments said that if I liked Ohm Shanti Oshaana, I should watch Thattathin Marayathu. So I did, and I did like it! Not as much as Ohm Shanti Oshaana, but it is definitely in the same family.
I’m done! With the dozen films I randomly checked out from the library just because they had Malayalam in the description. I regret nothing! Some of them were good, some were bad, but I ended up with a fairly broad idea of Malayalam film and culture, instead of the narrow perspective I would have gotten by just watching the very newest, very highest quality, films. And for the grande finale, I got to watch a film that was actually pretty close to what I would have chosen on purpose!
I finally finished with the pile of random library movies! Thank goodness! So I can start watching the ones people have been recommending to me in the comments! These last two, though, were really important and I am so glad I watched them!
I already posted the spoiler-less review earlier. Although that is kind of pointless, we all know how it goes and how it ends. And we are supposed to know, the film promotions have been mostly constant repetitions of the real life story until it is burned into our brains when we walk in the theater. So I am putting spoilers in here, but they are more spoilers for the specific way this story is told, not for what the story is.
I saw Neerja! And it was just as high quality and emotional and so on as I was expecting. That sounds not so complimentary, but the fact that it was able to meet my expectations is really something, because they were sky high. Oh! I made a pun! I would laugh, but I am still too emotional.
The acting, the peaceful message, the uncontrollable sobbing, all of that I was expecting. But what I was not expecting was how feminist and female focused it was. They really did a remarkable job of showing the value of the female perspective and involvement in the world, and how toxic an all male environment can be. Fascinating!
My randomly organized stack of all the Malayalam movies owned by my library has finally turned up something from the past 10 years! And it even stars a guy I have seen before, Fahadh Faasil from Bangelore Days (and apparently in real life he is married to Nazriya Nazim? Who I love forever because of Ohm Shanti Oshaana). It was good, and definitely similar to the other modern movies I had seen, but just not quite as spectacularly good as they were. And that’s actually what I wanted, to experience something not spectacularly good.
So, last night I took the next Malayalam DVD off my library stack, and there were no subtitles! Even though the box promised them! So, yay! That was easy, and I’m down to only 4 left.
And then I took the next-next DVD off the stack, and it was an artsy looking 80s movie called Aalkkoottathil Thaniye. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but the point of requesting every single Malayalam film from the library and then watching them in a random order is to make me watch a wide variety of films, even if I don’t think I will like them. So I watched it, and turns out, it was great! I finally “get” Mohan Lal!
I was going to skip this one, but then people in the comments said it was not to be missed, so I gave it a shot! I’m glad I did. It isn’t my favorite-favorite, or one that exactly hit the sweet spot of what I like, but it was definitely interesting and different. And it got me thinking about the Mahabharata and how Indian film acting builds on a classical tradition, which is always a good time!
I shouldn’t say “odd”, because I don’t have enough data to really make that judgement. Apparently, the star (picture above) is actually a big name actor who has been in a bunch of stuff. Which isn’t surprising, because he was really really good. But he is also a little person and at times that is handled in a way that felt super progressive, and at other times, not so much.
Back 10 years ago when I first started watching Hindi movies, there was all this stuff that went completely over my head. If I enjoyed a film, it was just in the most superficial way, because the hero was cute or the love story was sweet. And then I learned more and more, and all of a sudden all these plot things started making sense, and I got that the reason this character says this thing here is because it is related to some huge political movement or religious metaphor or something.
And now I am trying to get into the regional films, and I feel like I am back to square one and I am missing all sorts of things! It is very frustrating, but I know the only way to get through it is just to keep going.
So, I did something wee bit foolish. After learning a little more about Malayalam films, and watching Ohm Shanti Oshaana, I went into my library system and requested every DVD they have with the word “Malayalam” somewhere in the description. Which is 12 DVDs, and they all arrived at once, and now I have to watch 36 hours of Malayalam films in 7 days. Which may turn out to not be humanly possible and I will end up returning some unwatched. And they are definitely not all getting full reviews!
Over the weekend, I was able to finish 2, start and reject 1, and reject 2 others just based on the box (yes, I judged a DVD by its cover). So only 7 left!
I saw Fitoor! Opening night! With 20 other people! It was not a good film. It was also not a very good political statement. And it kind of felt like the main goal was more the political statement than the film. But it turned out to be a pretty simplistic political statement and a pretty bland film.
I saw Fitoor! Opening night! There were, maybe, 20 other people in the theater! Not good. I’ll be curious to see how the box office shakes out. I’ll also be curious to read the reviews. Because I was expecting some subtle political statement, and oh my gosh! It’s just an anthropomorphized debate on the Kashmir Question!
I have now seen 3 Malayalam films! Tied with my 3 Telegu, but beating my 2 Tamil. But if re-watching counts, Malayalam is going to double pretty soon. Because I loooooooved this movie, and I will be watching it over and over and over again.
I finally saw Saala Khadoos! A week after it came out! And it was definitely worth the wait. A lot to chew on, and, more importantly, a great role for Madhavan and a totally loveable new heroine!
I am having such an American weekend! Star Wars yesterday, and finally catching up on Fargo today! But, since I am still a student of Indian film, just like Star Wars yesterday, Fargo made me start thinking about what it has in common with Indian narratives, and how those narratives might actually be universal.
In this case, the Mahabharata. Or more accurately, the Mahabharata versus the Ramayana.
I finally saw Star Wars! I wanted to see Saala Khadoos, but I couldn’t make the showtimes work, so I saw Star Wars instead. It was very Indian. Or maybe Indian films are very Star Warsian? Or maybe both kinds of films come from a deeper shared origin?
You know those Indian movies where you read the synopsis or watch the trailer, or even see the movie, and come out of it going “Wait, but that was just [Movie from another Industry]! I’ve seen this already!”
Well, Airlift was definitely one of those, and the [Movie from another Industry] was Argo. But, so what?
So, I just saw Airlift! In a sold out theater in which I and my friend were the only non-desis (pardesis?). The Indian flag got spontaneous applause. It was very patriotic.
The movie itself, weirdly, not that patriotic. And like no other Indian movie I have ever seen.
Read on to learn more!
(For spoilers go here)
Inspired by Dilwale, I am going through all previous SRKajol films in exhaustive detail! Karan-Arjun turns out to not be that Kajol-y, but it makes up for it by being super Salman-y. And super Amrish Puri-y. And super 90s-y.
(also, SPOILER, in this section Amrish Puri wears a Lavender Jacket! Just like Salman in the header image!)
(bullet point version of synopsis, for full film, available here. Part 2 here. Part 3 here. Part 4 here. Final part here.)
dontcallitbollywood 