You know how everyone says “Awards are meaningless”? Well, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award is a special kind of meaningless that is also meaningful but only in a particular way. It is complicated. And Manoj Kumar won one, yay!
Just announced/leaked/confirmed/however you want to put it: Kajol is doing a cameo in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil! And also, Fawad and Siddharth. But mostly, Kajol!
Which brings up the question, what the heck is Ae Dil Hai Mushkil?
Urmila Matondkar got married! I am so happy! She sort of dropped off the radar over the past few years, so I was hoping it was because she was tired of the film industry and had a flourishing personal life, not that she was super depressed and desperate for roles.
3 big news items, about which there are minimal details. But at least they all come with pictures!
The newest Fan Trailer was launched a little bit ago, I already put up a post analysing it second by second. But that’s only half the story, the other part is the massive, MASSIVE trailer launch.
2 Shahrukhs! What could be better! It’s like Duplicate, but less stupid!
Just a few quick headlines to start off the week! All of which will be getting more substantive follow-up once more data is available!
I am so glad I wasn’t born on February 29th! On the one hand, you are always only a quarter of your real age. But on the other hand, only a quarter as many birthday presents! Anyway, I got curious about famous Indian performers who were leap year babies, and sure enough, I found one!
Going into it’s second weekend, Neerja is poised to do even better than it did during it’s first. And not just because of good word of mouth.
Oscar time again! And once again, I have seen basically none of the nominees. And I especially haven’t seen the foreign film nominees. And nor has anyone else. I don’t mean that they don’t play widely in America, for the most part the kind of films that get an Oscar nomination do pretty well in the art theaters around the country. But they don’t play around the world. Hollywood, Hong Kong, and India are objectively and demonstrability the most watched film industries in the world (with maybe Korea and Nigeria just barely beginning to give them a run for their money), and only one of them ever makes it to the Academy Awards. But I actually think there are some reasonable reasons for that. Not good, but reasonable.
(Mother India is, of course, the closest India has ever come to wining. Lost by a hair to Nights in Cabiria. Stupid Fellini)
Big news that is dominating the Indian film media today, SANJU BABA IS FINALLY OUT OF JAIL!!! After almost 3 years in jail, plus 18 months served back in the 90s, Sanjay Dutt is finally free of court cases and punishment and anything else! There has been so much coverage, that I really can’t do it all justice. So instead, I’ll just pick a couple of cool things that were reported, and then give the 6 reasons that I, personally, am glad he is out.
I was trying to come up with a theme for this, like court cases or messy break-ups or something, but I couldn’t quite make it work. Court cases and also messy break-ups that could or could not involve court cases in future and have already involved court cases in the past? Nah, not worth it!
Well, “identified”. In case you don’t remember, at the end of the film, the cab driver Dopinder who was listening to the Shree 420 song at the beginning comes back at the end and is listening to another song that isn’t nearly as familiar (well, what is as familiar as “Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani”? When I was writing my thesis, I read an article that claims you just need to listen to it once to understand all of Indian film). I was hoping I would be able to indentify the other song just by listening, but no luck! So I cheated and just stayed all the way through the end credits until I saw the name of the other song.
Really, I care about one of these stories much more than the others, but so long as I was doing a news round up, I figured I might as well hit them all.
Times of India, with their excellent reporting, actually sent a stringer to Delhi University/Hansraj College to observe the Shahrukh appearance. And it was worth it, because there were some fun tidbits picked up from the crowd.
According to rediff, which only reports things when they move from “hot rumors” to “everyone knows about it,” Shahid’s brother and Amrita Singh’s daughter are making their debut opposite each other. Which adds up to some very disturbing connections.
It hasn’t been officially launched yet, which is probably why it only has about 40 thousand views on youtube. But later today Shahrukh will do a big presentation at Delhi University, and then hold a press conference.
New set photos! Which reveal plot stuff! I am excited!
I was going to make the headline “Is this really feminist?”, but then I realized that isn’t really the question. Because yes! It is definitely feminist! Kareena’s character is an individual who has the ability to make choices about her own life, so yep! Definitely! The bigger question is really, is it actually breaking gender roles?
Just a little bit ago, Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, and Hema Malini were almost BURNED ALIVE!!! Okay, that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. But it was exciting!
Dilwale came out almost 2 months ago, which means the DVD could be released any day now. I’m a little spoiled, since I live ten minutes from the biggest Indian immigrant neighborhood in my region, I can just swing by the DVD store everyday on my way home from work and ask about availability. But for you poor people who did not organize your entire lives around access to Indian DVDs, it might be a little trickier.
So, here are the rumors I have gathered so far from the internet.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Shantisal pointed out in the comments, it is currently available on Itunes! For both rent and sale! And also, apparently, Googleplay! I still want the DVD, of course, because I Neeeeeeed the special features. But this will make a nice stopgap!
EVEN MORE IMPORTANT UPDATE: njmtv.com has dvd pre-order available with a release date of Feb 28th! I love njmtv, partly because I used to rent from their storefront location when my sister lived in New Jersey.
So, there is something huge going on that no one is talking about. Not because it is shameful or embarressing, but because it is considered to private and requiring of respect. Naturally, it involves a family issue.
Bollywoodhungama, once again satisfying the industry nerd within me, has come through with some interesting figures related to the two big Valentine’s releases. As expected, Ghayal Once Again and Sanam Teri Kasam both flat-lined last weekend, which should mean there is nothing standing in the way of a massive all-India hit with Fitoor. Only, late-breaking news shows that there is another player in the game, and he is coming in hard.
Karan tweeted the Kapoor and Sons trailer just hours ago, I have already watched it 3 times, and I have many thoughts-guesses-suppositions.
FilmFare was finally broadcast! Which means it is finally available on certain not-necessarily-legal locations on the internet! At least until all the copyright holders find it and descend. But just in case you miss the magical illegal window, here are the big things I noticed:
dontcallitbollywood 