This is just a random idea because I am in the middle of unpacking my Shahrukh DVD box and putting them in chronological order on my shelf. It’s kind of fascinating to look at his career as a case study of how an actor’s career progresses.
It’s always odd when you see period actors in modern clothing, right? Like, Colin Firth (The One True Darcy) never looks quite right to me in jeans. But, on the other hand, the Bahubali cast in modern clothes does make me think “oh good, it’s just a movie! I don’t have to be so sad/scared/angry about it.” And I thought it might cheer us all up to share that experience this Friday. Feel free to put your favorite “happy happy!” photos of these actors in the comments, if I missed any.
Accesbollywood.net just updated her amazing “all Indian Netflix films” list to include three new films. So I am going to update mine. This may or may not become a routine, on the one hand it’s a lot of cutting and pasting and all, but on the other hand it is probably a very practical tool for readers. Most importantly, SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESSBOLLYWOOD!!! She does most of the work for this list, and you will find out about updates much faster, instead of whenever I get around to it.
Mothers and sons, that’s appealing, right? Depending on which side of it you are. If you are the daughter-in-law, it may incite crazed flashbacks of “JUST TELL HER WE AREN’T COMING FOR THANKSGIVING!!! STAND UP FOR ME FOR ONCE!!!” But if you are on the mothers’ side, or if you have no dog in this fight as yet (like me), it is very appealing.
I watched the TED talk! It was good. I made notes. But thinking about it later, the most important part was the very first thing he said, “Namaste”.
Welcome back to DDLJ watch! If this post gets decent views, I might try to do at least one of these posts a week, add it to the rotation on Wednesdays and/or Saturdays when I don’t have anything else. And if I ever finish DDLJ, I will move on to HAHK or Sholay or another one of the classics. But only if I get the views! So COMMENT!!! It lets me know you are reading, and gets more people to read them. The lack of comments/readers is why I kind of let this die last summer. (last post here, you can go back in time from there).
It’s DDLJ Detailed Analysis: The Return!!! I always swore I would come back to it, and now I have! Because of Bahubali 2, which got my close analysis juices flowing. And which is also sooooooooo boring for those people who haven’t seen Bahubali 2. But who hasn’t seen DDLJ? No one! So these posts should fill in the entertainment for those who can’t read Bahubali 2 posts. (my last DDLJ post, almost a year ago, is here. You can go backwards through the archives from there)
Moviemavengal tweeted an amazing thing to me a couple of days ago, which has inspired this entire post. Think of it as the large precious jewel in the middle of tiny twinkling diamonds.
Happy Cinco de Mayo! A Mexican holiday, which inspires me to find every vaguely Hispanic song in the history of Indian film. There are not many. But I was able to find a thematic 5 videos.
Obviously, today is Star Wars day. And also a day when I am super busy at work and can’t really focus. But I can do a “speculative” post without any problems! I get so caught up in my little imaginary worlds, that nothing can shake me. So, let’s do a mini Star Wars fest! (updated version of this post here)
I turn on twitter this morning, and boom! Romance everywhere! Bigger version of the Shahrukh poster (still no title), new Half-Girlfriend song, and people are still tweeting about the last Raabta song.
Did you know today is World Book Day? I didn’t! Amitabh had to tell me. Amitabh’s twitter tells me about every holiday, along with every birth, death, and wedding in the film industry. Anyway, now that Amitabh has alerted me, this changes my plans for the Sunday post! Clearly, it now has to be book themed.
I was going to make this my Sunday post, but I really feel like the Sunday options should be full and in depth sort of things. Whereas TGIF is more for the “read in 5 minutes, return to whenever you feel down kind of stuff”. And so, inspired by a conversation I had with Filmilibrarian in the comments a couple days ago, “What every movie star would do if you were trapped in an elevator with them for 6 hours”. (oh, and feel free to play along in the comments if you have an alternate idea, or for an actor I missed)
Happy Easter! I am going to cut up cardboard in the basement with my Sunday School class, and then maybe have brunch with Grandpa afterwards to celebrate. Oh, and eat the chocolate bunny that my parents gave me. And also, think about the most Easter-y of all Indian films, Amar Akbar Anthony!
Inspired by Shahrukh’s tweet early today with his new look for the Imtiaz Ali movie, turbans! Men and women in turbans! It is a wonderful thing.
Long time readers may have noticed that my news round-up posts have been less common lately. I am sooooooooo busy writing up Hindi Film 101 and answering Monday questions and all my other new-ish features that I haven’t had as much time for news. But today there were two big things that I just can’t ignore! Both of which I learned about through twitter (I do still follow @iamsrk and @karanjohar and all the other big newsmakers of the industry)
I don’t know why, but I am feeling very contrary today. I have this strange desire to take light things and turn them dark, and dark things and turn them happy. Thank goodness I can work it out through fanfiction instead of going to the park and throwing things at pigeons.
Someone asked on one of my Rani posts if I thought she would ever act again opposite one of her 90s costars in a rom-com. And I think she might, but only if it was a really really good script. And to help the scriptwriters along, here are some suggestions! (of course, she could always just do my K3G sequel idea with Abhishek, or my Taming of the Shrew idea with Aamir)
Thank goodness for Netflix! I can get this movie on DVD and watch it at double-speed and finally check it off my Shahrukh list. Without all the pain of actually paying for it, even as an individual rental.
Is that a controversial statement? Not the birthday part (can’t really deny that), but the best SRK-Rani part? I don’t think so, they’ve worked together a lot, but they haven’t actually been the main “jodi” in most of their films. It’s really just this one and Paheli and Kabhi Alveda Na Kehna. So, okay, you can fight with me over whether this is a better movie or Paheli or Kabhi Alveda Na Kehna.
Happy Friday! This was a fun one to put together. My first thought for International Women’s Day was a “look at these pretty women!” post, but I already did that. So, I’m going to go a little deeper. International Women’s Day is supposed to be about men respecting women. Doesn’t always work, of course, but that’s the idea. And so I want to put up some pictures of men being happily dominated by women
Welcome to Friday! A very silly post this week, to balance the romantic post last week. But I am also going to try for gender parity, so that should be an interesting challenge.
Thanks to the nice commentators here, I was alerted that Shahrukh had just done a podcast with AIB, and it was a hoot! I watched the whole thing, in two parts, and it was very enjoyable. But most of it was in the kind of “it’s the way he said it” way, so I can’t exactly recreate it. But there were 5 interesting things that came up that I want to discuss.
dontcallitbollywood 