I just watched the new FLDS documentary, and now I’m listening to a really good in depth podcast on the Short Creek polygamist community in America. Which has got me thinking about polygamy, and how it is present in all cultures to some degree, and yet in the modern world we resist acknowledging it.
Continue readingHappy Wednesday! It is finally SUNNY! I woke up so much more cheerful and energetic, woo-hoo!!! And then tomorrow it goes back to overcast and rainy, oh well.
Continue readingHappy Birthday Hema!!!! Such a happy day. A happy day for a happy person.
Continue readingThe world is a sea of possibilities! Nothing is certain, even the Friday WatchAlong day! Help me gain structure in my life and plan for the future.
Continue readingWell, this is a very impractical choice. It will only work if you all swear to watch on Einthusan and nowhere else. But you say you will, so fine! We’ll try it!
Continue readingI love Dil Aashna Hai! I watched it years ago on a funky library copy, and fell in love with it. And then I couldn’t track down a copy on DVD to buy until just recently. I should have stolen the library copy! No one else could possibly appreciate it as much as me, I deserved that DVD! But I didn’t, because I am honest, which means it wasn’t until it just popped up on a random ebay list from a seller in India that I was able to watch it again. It’s even more wonderful than I remembered!
Continue readingYou know how every Friday I would go see the new release with my friend Dina? Our new routine is to watch a movie together with Netflix Party every Friday. And we have a long list of weird old movies we have been dying to show each other. So, sorry Internet People! The new movie reviews that are going to be going up, are a lot of weird WEIRD old things. And this one is very weird, I encourage you to read the spoiler section even if you don’t want to watch the movie just to see how WEIRD it is.
Continue readingWell, this was a perfectly pleasant little love story! Nothing revolutionary, but sometimes you don’t need revolutionary. And Rajkumar Rao finally gets his big dance number!
Continue readingThis movie has been written about and written about and written about. Usually with Indian film, it’s super easy to write about it because it is so under-studied anything I say will be original. Not the case here! This is like trying to write something new on Citizen Kane, there’s just nothing left. But I pulled up my old post, and added a bit on to it, and let’s see how I do.
Continue readingThis may have been a mistake. I’ve seen this movie 3 times at least, and I did a quick fastforward last night, but I didn’t rewatch it straight through. Usually no one cares/remembers enough to correct me when I make mistakes in this situation, but it’s Seeta Aur Geeta, so I have a sinking feeling that my ignorance will be apparent to many many people. Oh well, forgive me! And correct me! And understand why I am speaking in general terms about the plot instead of saying “the first time so-and-so meets such-and-such, they say…”
Continue readingHema Malini is really Ramesh’s muse. He just makes her look so good, in so many ways. Great characters, great hair, great everything. But in which movie does she look the best?
Continue readingOh well, better late than never. I got caught up in FilmFare yesterday and missed this post. But I am making up for it now!
Continue readingWell, this is a saaaaaaaaaaaaaad movie! If you want the happy edit, stop after the telephone booth song, fast-forward until the Valentine’s Day song, watch Hema yell in a nightclub, then fast-forward again until Hema and Amitabh are reunited and play straight through from there.
Continue readingThis is an off-shoot of the discussion we’ve been having off and on about Ranbir-Alia and our conflicting emotions as celebrity watchers. They are hardly the first May-December romance in Hindi film, many of them even more famous and with an even greater age difference. So I thought it might be moderately worthwhile to quickly run through some other similar romances.
Continue readingThank you Maria! You asked in a comment who Abhay Deol was and where he had been and it made me realize that I haven’t done a Deol family Hindi Film 101 yet!
Continue readingHappy Friday! No new movie today (because of Bharat) which should give us loads of time to discuss this older movie.
Continue readingMy favorite Yashji and Amitji’s film! Not the best one, that I know, but my personal favorite.
Continue readingThis is such a good post, totally deserves to be updated and re-used. Especially so we can all prepare to compare these sword emotions with the Thugs sword emotions.
Oh boy, this is a fun one! I’ve been saving it for a special occasion. Indian women looking fabulous in saris.
I was going to do a “100 years of history in 10” list, and then I realized there AREN’T actually 10 jodis of equal level. So I am just going to introduce you to the really really big ones and without worrying about how many I include or putting them in order or anything.
Okay, you ready to fight me? The problem is, unlike actors, actresses never really get the chance to lead the industry, there isn’t a clear “Queen” the way there is a clear “King”. So this list is a bit of a judgement call, I realize that, and that means there is lots and lots of space for us all to argue.
Happy Birthday to the Garam star, and continual winner of my TGIF posts! Here are a dozen reasons I love you (this is an updated and reposted post from last year)
My favorite Yashji and Amitji’s film! Not the best one, that I know, but my personal favorite.
Prepare yourself for another Hindi Film 101 that takes me out of my comfort zone! Someone asked a question on Monday about dancers on film, and there was also suggested that I do some discussion of actresses from the south. So I am going to try to combine that and talk in very very general terms about classical dance traditions in India and how that relates to actresses, especially from the south.
I went from “women fighting” to “women with phallic symbols” to “women with swords” to “well, that’s not fair, I’ll throw in some men too!” And now here we are.
dontcallitbollywood 