In olden days, it wasn’t just 3 hours that was the norm, it was often 3 hours PLUS MORE for movies. Let’s talk about some super old movies and which ones feel the shortest to you when you watch them!
Continue readingIsn’t that nice? I love it when that happens. The things I have been talking about all along now get highlighted in an official publication. Just you wait, someday some fancy magazine is going to say “Everyone agrees, soft cooked eggs should be boiled for 2 minutes and not 3” and I can wave it in my mother’s face. HA!
Continue readingI am a bit late to this, Bhanu Athiaya died a couple days ago. But it took me some time to figure out how I wanted to write about her. As a craftswoman, behind the scenes, it didn’t feel right to talk about her personal life. But I decided I could focus on her designs instead and that would be appropriate.
Continue readingI’m not the only one who secretly loves English language song breaks, right? As an English speaker, I can actually sing them! Which is great. But on the other hand, feeling the need for an English language song break usually indicates that the song itself is not that great.
Continue readingMy views took a sudden dive and I couldn’t figure out why. And then I got an alert from HotStar about an Indo-Pak cricket game, and I am thinking these things are probably related.
Don’t think of this as “a list of Aamir Khan’s films”, think of it as a case study of a successful journey to stardom, and a way of studying the changes in the films and film industry in the past 25 years. (part 1 here)
I am not, in fact, Indian. So anything song that goes “Rah Rah Rah, Indian Over All” is not really going to work for me. But a song that goes “Rah Rah Rah, Let’s Love Our Home Because it Is Our Home And Try To Make It Better”, that works for me because it works for everyone in the world, you know? And these are my favorite of that time.
Mrs. Perfect mentioned that she is struggling with the agony of college decisions. And it is also the end of exam season in India (I still don’t understand this concept, but I will accept that it exists). Time for inspiring “Go and succeed and work hard and have a new challenge!!!!” post!
Here’s a random review! Finally getting around to Lagaan. Which is definitely NOT Aamir’s most important film, that would be Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak or 3 Idiots or something like that. But it is the movie I feel like writing about right now, so why not?
It’s Aamir Khan’s birthday today (yay!), and I want to mark the occasion not by giving him a gift, but by finally thanking him for the gifts he has given me.
A couple of people responded to me on twitter arguing that Parampara was not, in fact, Aamir’s worst film and giving other options. And they were all valid! The man has been in A LOT of bad movies! And also, a lot of good movies. Anyway, what do you think? Best and worst?
There isn’t much to analyze this week, Padmavat is doing crazy good everywhere, you can just sort of accept that. And also, secondly, Bhagamathie is also doing good. But, WHY? I am going to take a massive logical leap and you can decide if it makes sense or not.
Well, Aamir Khan clearly signed a new deal with Netflix. The odd random collection of films he has produced are now available. Yes, including Delhi Belly and (less importantly) Lagaan. (Accessbollywood.net does the real work of keeping this list updated, you should definitely absolutely subscribe to them for your day to day updates.)
This is a very very silly post. But it’s the end of the week, I am almost done with my exhausting SRK celebrations, it’s time to be silly!
It’s my mother’s birthday today! I debated a post of sappy mother type songs, but she wouldn’t actually enjoy that. So instead, I’m going to put up a post of all her favorite song videos!
Happy May Day! You know how India has all these holidays that are very regional specific and how neat that is? Well, May Day is an international holiday now, but it started right in my hometown, so I thought I should celebrate it. And I don’t have the day off work, so I can’t join the many many many protests. But I can do a theme post!
Okay, I finally gave in and actually clicked on one of those articles about the Tata Company implosion. And then I had to go back to my old friend wikipedia to confirm what I thought I remembered, that this is all a bit of a family feud. And yep! Everyone is related! MESSY!
Rang De Basanti! So brilliant! So complicated! So different! I could write a post just on why Madhavan was cast. But I am going to start with this post, and not worry about putting in all my thoughts, and then leave the door open to write more later if I feel like it.
Happy May Day/Labor Day! For an industry that is also dismissed as being frivolous and full of fantasy, Indian film really has a lot of songs about work!
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)
I checked my twitter feed this morning to find out that, for once, Aamir Khan had actually posted a tweet. He isn’t a regular twitter poster, his last big message was to release a public statement about his issues (or lack there of) with the Bombay police force. So any time there is a message from him, it is a big deal.
And it was a big deal! Rajesh Vivek is dead! You probably don’t know the name, but if you look at the picture above, you will go “oh right, that guy!” You probably know him best as Guran, the village wiseman/mystic in Lagaan (which is why Aamir posted the tweet, as head of the Lagaan family, it was his responsibility). Yesterday, Alan Rickman died, and the world discovered his massive filmography, his range, the respect he had from his friends and co-workers. Today, Rajesh Vivek is dead, and I think we should take at least a little time to acknowledge how, in his own small way, he also contributed to the world of film.
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