Tag Archives: Non-Hindi

Tuesday Telugu: Santosham, A Love Story Between Two People Who Can’t Admit They Are In Love

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Happy Tuesday!  Another Nagarjuna movie this week.  I think I might have some strange attraction to old men?  People keep trying to sell me on Mahesh and Allu Arjun and even Naga Chaitanya, and yet I find myself drawn to old man Nagarjuna.  He’s just so much more cool and confident than those younger boys!  Although at least this movie is 15 years old, so back when he was only 42, which is almost kind of age appropriate for me!  If you squint a bit and assume a husband should be a lot older than a wife.

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Monday Malayalam: Amen, Art Above All

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I’ve watched this movie twice now.  Once really seriously, pausing and rewinding if I thought I missed something, and once more just skimming, letting it play while I brushed my teeth in the morning or wrote blog posts at night.  And I know I have still missed SO MUCH.  But I am going to do my best to try to understand it and present it to you.

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Tuesday Telugu: Aarya Asks Which is Worse, Stalking or Partner Abuse?

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This is one of those movies where I am watching it thinking “is the message I am seeing on purpose or an accident?  Or an purposeful accident?  Is it just where the characters ended up or was this the goal all along?  Or did the writer start thinking of it as a statement on film relationships and not realize it was a statement on real ones too?”  I think it is probably the last, because I started thinking about it in terms of film too, and then realized that it works just as well for real life.  And, in fact, hits exactly my issues with the way culture treats female safety.

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Monday Malayalam: Udayananu Tharam Asks Does the Film Create the Star or the Star Create the Film?

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What a fascinating movie!  Oh my goodness, SO INTERESTING!!!!!  Starting from the opening shot, which sent me down a whole mental wormhole of film history.  But mostly, I am SO GLAD I watched this film the same week I saw Angamaly Diaries!  Because this film makes the hypothetical argument that Angamaly Diaries proved in reality.

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Angamaly Diaries: Lijo Jose Pellissery Finds his Place Besides Orson Welles and Martin Scorsese

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That headline isn’t hyperbole.  There’s one sequence in this film, way at the end, which should be shown in film classes right along Welles and Scorsese from now on.  It’s an amazing technical achievement, but you don’t even notice that, because it is such an amazing artistic achievement at the same time. (Very very long and detailed SPOILER review here)

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Tuesday Tamil: Padayappa, Bahubaali’s Queen is EEEEEEVIL!!!! Also, Rajnikanth

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This was before Indra, right?  So the similarities aren’t a coincidence?  Or else they are both picking up on an older traditional I don’t know about. There are some Mahabharata touches to it, but the jealous overlooked woman and the vengeance in the second generation, that is oddly specific.

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Apoorva Ragam: Another Malayalam Pioneer of New Cinema

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You know the problem with pioneer films?  They are so groundbreaking and wonderful when they come out, but then after they have cut out the new path, the films that come after it are so much more luxurious and elaborate, it makes that poor struggling scratched and damaged first film look like nothing in comparison.

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Baahubali 2 Trailer!!!! Where’s Tamanaah??????

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Yaaaaaay!  The trailer is out!  And I missed it last night because I can’t understand time changes!  Karan announced when it would be released, but I thought it would be early this morning, not late last night.  Oh well.  It’s here now!

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Tuesday Telugu, Gangotri: Hey! This is Allu Arjun’s First Movie! And I Actually Like His Hair!

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This is one of my Netflix movies, and I have no memory of why I added it to my list.  I’m sure I had a good reason.  Possibly that it was an Allu Arjun movie with Prakash Raj, maybe one of you recommended it, or maybe I knew at one point that it was his first film.  If I ever knew, I’d forgotten by the time I watched it.  And now I can’t believe it!  He was so good!

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Thursday Tamil: Major Chandrakanth (Not the NTR One, the Other One)

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Well, this was depressing!  And shockingly coincidental.  I am beginning to suspect that the K. Balachander fictional universe only contains about 200 people, which would explain why so many characters end up having surprising connections to other characters previously introduced.

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Monday Malayalam: Fukri, I Still Have a Crush on Jayasurya

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I mentioned last Monday that I saw two Malayalam movies in the theater.  This was the other one!  The showtime gods were kind to me, I realized I could catch a matinee of Ezra, grab a lassi at the concession counter, and then move right into the show for Fukri.

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Two Unrelated Videos: Sarkar 3 and Prithviraj!

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Mohzin on my Wednesday Watching post recommended a new interview with Prithviraj, which I was able to watch after work today, and it was fascinating!  Probably in a bunch of ways I missed, but also in some I managed to actually catch despite knowing almost nothing about his industry.  And then separately from that, trailer for Sarkar 3 came out!  And it is kind of fascinating to look at the two of them in terms of how Hindi film stars present themselves versus Malayalam.

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Tuesday Tamil (on Wednesday): Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada is Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa With a Twist

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(Sorry, 6 church meetings in 3 days kind of killed my writing time, so this is going up a day late) Should I have watched the Telugu version instead?  I went with this one because I know the director’s home language is Tamil, and of course it’s Rahman’s home language too and the songs were half the reason to watch it.  But on the other hand, Nagarjuna’s son is very very cute.

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Global Box Office: Rangoon is an Also Ran, and I Meet a Kannada Movie Star!

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Well, Rangoon is definitely the top pick for the weekend.  But it was a terrible terrible weekend, so that is not saying much.  The only big hit per screen was the one with inflated ticket prices (more on that later).

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Monday Malayalam: Ezra Puts a Twist on Manichitrathazhu

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I went to see a Malayalam movie in the theaters again!  Actually, I saw two, and was completely unproductive otherwise all Saturday.  It was a great weekend.  And next Monday, you get to see a review of the other movie!

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Tuesday Telugu: Desamuduru, I Am Still Conflicted About Allu Arjun’s Hair

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Another Allu Arjun film!  Am I remembering right that his hair changes frequently? Unlike most male stars, where the hair and the whole look is kind of part of their brand?  If so, I think he should keep changing, because this look is not the best.

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Monday Malayalam: Guppy, A Sadder Film Than You Would Expect

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In several parts of this film, I was reminded of Annmariya.  Same single parent family, same kid with too many worries, same unusual relationship between an older tougher man and the kid.  But while Annmariya took place in a world of magic and destiny where nothing ever went really wrong, this film took place in the “real” world, and was much sadder.

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Zindagi Gulzar Hai: 26 Episodes to Tell Us that Daughters Are Just As Good As Sons

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This show was SO GOOD!  But I think I might like Humsafar better?  Just personal taste, Humsafar was kind of cleaner and simpler.  This one had all these layers and perspectives and complications and different philosophies and feminist statements and all of that and it just MADE MY HEAD HURT!

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Tuesday Tamil: Parijatham, Paris When it Sizzles With a Desi Touch!

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Am I correct that this is not the best movie?  I am never sure with my Tamil/Telugu/Malayalam films, if I am missing something really subtle that makes it into a brilliant classic.  I only picked this one because it had Prithviraj and was available through Netflix.  While a good movie and one I enjoyed watching, it didn’t quite have that “BRILLIANT!” feeling.  Although the songs were great.  And the plot is delightfully complex

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Jomonte Suvisheshangal Review: My 4th Malayalam Film in Theaters! And 3rd Dulquer Film in Theaters! (SPOILERS)

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I missed Monday Malayalam, because I was completely impractical and not time effective, and I went to see Dulquer’s new movie in theaters at the 8 o’clock show on a work night.  Because it’s Dulquer!  And it’s cold and grey and depressing, and Kerala is so pretty. And I was hoping to write the review when I got home, but it was midnight and my brain finger typing thoughts not coming.

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Tamil Tuesday: Aval Oru Thodharkadai Shows Why a Woman Turns Cold

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Second week that I am managing a Tamil Tuesday!  And an actual good film this time, another R. Balachander.  If I were still watching movies in a wild and unplanned manner, I would be zipping through all his films on youtube and probably getting super confused as to what happened in which.  But with my new alliterative schedule theory, I have to hold off.  Or else zip through and then schedule all my posts out for the next several Tuesdays.  We’ll see what I end up doing.

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Monday Malayalam: Oru Muthassi Gadha, Wait The Heroine is YOUNGER THAN MY MOTHER?????

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Second week for this, going okay so far!  Having a schedule to stick to is really driving me to watch movies.  That was the initial purpose of the To-Do List, but then it just got so big I couldn’t deal with it.  But needing to have a new Malayalam film watched and reviewed every Monday is good for me.  Oh, and this movie in particular I have been wanting to watch since last Onam (at my local theater, we got Oozham instead).

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Tuesday Tamil: Thai Veedu, Another Rajnikanth Masala Picture! But With Real Emotion that Shows Up in the Last Half Hour

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Again, I am going to try to have some kind of posting schedule so my readers can know what to look for when, and I can keep on a regular varied diet of films.  And so for Tuesday, a Tamil film (or Telugu, they are both alliterative)!  As I continue to go through the oldest Rajnikanth films available from Netflix!  This one apparently was an all time hit, and I can see way, because it is fun!  Just big silly fun!  Until right at the end when real emotion suddenly rears its head.

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