Tag Archives: Shahrukh

The 4 Kinds of Fanvids

Posted on by
10

So, I am a huge huge sucker for a good fanvid, have been for years.  Going all the way back to when I was in college and I would take a break from studying to browse around and try to dig up a new SRKajol vid.

After over a decade of loving these things, I think I have figured out 3 categories of fanvids, specific to Indian fandom.

First, there is fanvid that expands on the themes of an existing artwork, for instance this fabulous one from Alina Yuvvraaj:

Or these, from lalilly:

Then there are the fanvids that expand on the particular awesomeness of a particular star.  Like this, my all time favorite from Zizi K:

Or this one from Alina Yuvvraaj again:

So, both of those kinds of videos, based on a particular movie or a particular star, you can find in any fandom.  Where I think it starts to get unique, is in the next two categories.

 

First, there are the videos based on a particular mood.  Since Indian film follows the Rasa theory, where the goal is to evoke a particular mood at a particular moment, rather than a cohesive mood through out one narrative, a wide variety of films might have particular scenes that flow seamlessly between the borders of their individual movies.

Like this, the moment when you are in love without realizing it yet and happy (from half a dozen different movies with the same moment).  By Zizi K again:

Or this, which evokes the specific mood of “young and drunk at a club”, by MRSEMRAAN:

Or this, which has the very specific-to-Indian-film emotion described right there in the title.  Women who are sad, and the men who love them from MRSEMRAAN again:

 

And then finally, there is my favorite category, the totally made up full narratives that go across multiple films and, occasionally, all the way into real life footage.  This is really unique to Indian film, because Indian film is uniquely cohesive film to film.  The same jodis play the same characters going through the same narrative beats over the over again.  And even into real life, in interviews and publicity tours, they interact the same way.  And who knows, maybe it is even related to the reincarnation in Hinduism!  According to some versions, even Ram and Sita were reborn multiple times and lived out their story over and over.

Anyway, one of my favorites, which seamlessly moves between real life and film.  Almost convinces me that Kajol really is eating her heart out, from MissCinemaObsessive:

and then I watch this from lalilly and feel better:

(see, they’re just friends after all!)

Or this one, where she actually does get him, even though he is himself and she is village-Kajol, from Zizi K:

Or this, where it’s not just SRKajol, but SRKajol vs Kajol/Salman and Kajol/Saif, from LUANSU (LUANSU was also the first fanvid maker I found, back in college):

It’s not just SRKajol, I literally screamed with delight when I found this one, hitting up the scandals old school!  And using all film footage to tell a real life story, very impressive! From TheMelicrazyy:

And this leads into the bonus subcategory, fake storylines pulling together multiple films, but with stars who never actually acted together!  Because actors and their characters are so consistent across films, and all films are so consistant with the kind of scenes they include, you can actually craft a narrative revolving around people who have never been onscreen together (my favorite of these is the Abhishek/Kajol/Rani “Teardrops on My Guitar” that was briefly posted like 6 years ago by Nouf89, and then pulled down.  My white whale!  If someone out there has it, please send me a copy!).  But these are nice too.  From rmskch:

(this is so impressive!  Remember they have only been onscreen together for less than ten seconds in her friendly appearance in KANK)

And I had never even considered these options, from 3bit89:

(none of these three has ever costarred with each other in anything!)

So, did I do this right?  Are there the same number of categories as promised in the post-title?  I think so:

  1. Fanvids expanding on one particular film
  2. Fanvids expanding on one particular star
  3. Fanvids combining multiple films with the same mood
  4. Fanvids combining multiple films with the same moods/stars into a narrative
    1. Fanvids combining multiple films with the same moods/stars into a narrative even if the stars never acted opposite each other

 

New Trailer! So Violent!

Posted on by
4

 

The love and violence and love-means-violence is all tied up together in this.  My first thought was “so untraditional!  What happened to SRKajol, the happpy-go-lucky NRI romance?”  But then I remembered that their first movie together was Baazigar, which had this:

 

Even DDLJ had this:

 

So really, Kajol shooting him through the heart is just a return to their roots!  Or else, she is finally getting revenge on him for heartlessly killing her sister (always bothered me that she wasn’t more angry at him for that) (in Baazigar, not in real life.  So far as I know, he has never done anything to Tanisha)

 

Bonus, it looks like they have almost the same meet-cute as SRK and Divya Bhatya in his very first movie, Deewana:

 

Nothing more romantic that almost running someone over!

Speaking of Deewana, it also has another reminder that angry unhinged SRK=sexy SRK:

 

 

Shahrukh on Modi

Posted on by
3

Well, barely on Modi.  It’s like a fragment of a quote from an interview where he talked about how he wasn’t going to talk about serious things any more unless it is on a platform specifically for serious things (is he considering a run for office?   Let’s start that rumor!  Or does he just mean another in depth essay or interview?).

Anyway, here is his quote:

“I think the developmental clause of his governance is fantastic. I am all for modernness and development. And it will be fantastic if he takes it up and makes it for the whole country,”

 

I think this isn’t quite “damning by faint praise”, but it is pretty close!  He likes the developmental clause, but not necessarily anything else.  And he is waiting to see if Modi is successful in instituting it for the whole country.

Is this disappointing? Or a relief?

Posted on by
2

So, I just saw this

I’m glad I wasn’t the only person whose reaction of the possibility of Alia and Shahrukh co-starring was “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

I am interested in the implication that Karan is losing his pull with the star community, first Shudhi falling about half a dozen times, and now this.  Of course, he’s also filming right now with Ranbir and Aish, so he couldn’t have lost all his connections.

This doesn’t seem “intolerant” at all!

Posted on by
7

So, “intolerance” is the new political hot potato among the filmi set.  It started with a bunch of intellectual artists giving back their government awards, the “awards wapsi” movement, in protest of the recent spat of religious violence and Modi’s not very emphatic reactions against it.  Some artists who had been involved in the film industry were included in this movement.  And on the other hand, Anupum Kehr (so lovable onscreen!  So hard to love off it!), decided to lead an anti-award wapsi movement, arguing that it was an insult to the Indian people to have these awards so cavalierly returned.

The big names were all successfully avoiding dealing with the micro-issue of Awards Wapsi, and the macro-issue of the Modi/BJP election and the changes it wrought, until Shahrukh decided to actually respond in his birthday interview.  In response to a question, he said “there is intolerance, there is extreme intolerance… there is, I think… there is growing intolerance” and “It is stupid… It is stupid to be intolerant and this is our biggest issue, not just an issue… Religious intolerance and not being secular in this country is the worst kind of crime that you can do as a patriot.”

This got the usual responses, a bunch of hot-tempered politicians suggesting he “go back to Pakistan”, some other politicians apologizing-but-not-really-apologizing for their colleagues’ behavior.  And the BJP lost the election in Bihar.  A lot more went into the BJP losing there, but there is no way that SRK didn’t know that people were going to the polls in Bihar as he was talking, and that what he said could move a few thousand votes off the BJP ticket.

SRK having opened the floodgates, the next step of course was for the other two Khans to weigh in, as the most popular and powerful Muslims in India.  Salman, hilariously, was cut off before he could give a full statement when Sonam Kapoor at their joint press conference literally leaned over and ripped the microphone out of his hands.  He did manage to say something nice about how his family is so interreligious (Hindu born but Muslim convert mother, Christian stepmother, Muslim father, and Hindu sisters- and brother-in-law), but I doubt he will say anything more controversial than that until after his many many court cases are settled.

Aamir held off for a week or so, but when he did finally speak, he went hard.  He opened by saying, “Kiran and I have lived all our lives in India. For the first time, she said, should we move out of India? That’s a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make to me. She fears for her child. She fears about what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers everyday.”

He then went on to discuss bigger issues in his typically passionate-yet-somehow-boring manner, but that opening! Man!  That is something!  Especially putting it in the mouth of his Hindu wife, pointing out that these issues affect not just the members of the Muslim community, but the many non-Muslims who care for them.

Anyway, many many people responded by saying this is not an intolerant country and if he thinks that, he should leave, because we can’t tolerate him (basically).  And a few days ago, the first court case was officially filed.

“Advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha lodged the FIR against Aamir and his wife at Town police station in Muzaffarpur district under sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc), 153B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) and 154 (Sedition) of IPC.”

I just, do these people not see what they are doing?  In anger at being called intolerant, they are burning pictures, blackening posters, making death threats, and now, filing court cases.  Now, does this sound more like tolerance, or like intolerance?

Raj-Nargis: the Janam Janam backstory

Posted on by
4

So, “Janam Janam” from Dilwale, song trailer released yesterday, is clearly referencing Raj-Nargis, not just in the images, but in the lyrics:

If you notice, when SRKajol meet again after years (which you can tell because SRK is hot-and-bearded instead of hot-and-youthful), their eyes meet, and it switches to fantasy-and then SRKajol switch to black and white tones, as does her car and their umbrella, while the rest of the background stays in color.  It is a clear signal to the viewer, if the singing in the rain under an umbrella didn’t make it clear enough, that this is an homage to the black-and-white love song “Pyar Hua Ikrar Hua” from Shree 420 with Nargis and Raj Kapoor:

 

So, why this reference?  Beyond just looking cool and making people go “Hey, it’s Shree 420!  I love that movie!”

 

In real life, Shree 420 was made at the height of the Raj Kapoor and Nargis collaboration.  While their earlier film, Awara, was more popular overseas, Shree 420 was more beloved at home.  However, “Pyar Hua” foreshadows the ending of their personal and professional collaberation.  No matter what promises they had made to each other, eventually, there was no where else for them to go.

Raj Kapoor was a genius, basically invented Hindi cinema, brilliant actor, brilliant director, brilliant producer, everything.  But, terrible in his personal life!  Oh my gosh!  So bad!

Although, part of that could be because everything happened to him so young, he was oddly adult in some ways from the time he was very young, but never really adult in others to the end of his life.  His father, Prithviraj Kapoor, was one of the first big stars of Indian film (see him and his nice legs in the photo below)

skirt-6

Although Prithviraj got fame and money from his film work, his heart was always with the stage.  He founded Prithvi Theaters (still in operation today, run by his granddaughter) and poured his heart and soul into it.  This meant his wife and children either stayed home and never saw him, or traveled with him on massive barnstorming tours of India, or worked backstage at the home theater in Bombay.  By the time he was 21, Raj Kapoor had worked as a set designer, stage manager, director, and main actor.  He had also basically raised his two younger brothers, serving as the disciplinarian and authority in their lives in the absence of their father.  And then he rebelled against a life spent serving his father’s purposes by deciding to work in film, not the stage.

So, age 22, already a major film star, he decides he wants to produce and direct.  Oh, and he also got married 3 months earlier to the sister of his friend and frequent co-star, Prem Nath.  The families arranged the first meeting, but the two of them hit it off right away and rushed the marriage.

So, Raj is ready to make a film.  And he has a script and he can star, but he knows he won’t get funding unless he find some big name to star opposite him.  So he goes to see Nargis (one of the biggest female stars at the time, only 19, but acting since she was a child and acting as an adult female lead since she was 14).  He knocks on the door of the apartment she shares with her mother, and she comes to answer it herself, with flour on her face since she was in the middle of cooking.  He falls passionately in love at first sight, despite being newly married to a woman he claimed to have also fallen in love with at first sight, and who was also carrying his child by this point (Kapoor men-very fertile).

Nargis is not that interested in Raj Kapoor the man, find him young and a little chubby, but does like his script and agrees to do the role.  By the end of filming, she is as in love as he.  For the next ten years, they form a beautiful personal and professional partnership.  His wife stays home, and gives birth to 5 children, in this same time.  But Raj and Nargis go to all the industry events together, stay up until all hours discussing scripts and projects at RK studio (founded by the profits of their first film as co-stars, with a logo based on their iconic embrace from the same film), and make a series of all time film classics, along the way popularizing such Indian film staples as the rain song, the fantasy song, the father-son conflict, the childhood flashback, the underlying social message, and dozens of others.  After ten years though, Nargis realized this was all she could ever have.  Raj was never going to leave his wife, she would never have a place in respectable society, she could never have children, this was it, just being the work wife forever and ever.

This was foretold in Shree 420, made at the height of their love story.  IT is the deeper meaning of “Pyar Hua Ikrar Hua”.  “Pyar Hua” is a duet, and while Raj keeps repeating “Love is here, promises are made”, Nargis keeps repeating “Where do we go from here?  Where can we go from here?”

So, she left him.  Raj always tells the story as though it was something she had done to him, as though she broke some vow or promise.  But from her side of things, what else was there to do?  It had been ten years, she was nearing 30, her career and personal life were both stalled in the service of his dreams.

They never acted opposite each other again, or even interacted really.  Nargis had her greatest role, playing “Mother India” in the film of the same name, and then retired and married rising actor and politician Sunil Dutt.  She became a powerful political force in her own right, and had three children.  Raj Kapoor went on to have a series of affairs with other actresses and to make more brilliant movies, but something was always missing after he lost Nargis.  He never found an onscreen partner to match him as well as her, and his films never had quite the same depth and meaning as they did when she was helping him.

Onscreen and off, Nargis and Raj epitomized the New India couple of the post-independence era.  She loved him and was completely devoted to him, but she also had her own career and her own goals (in their films, she played a teacher, a lawyer, an actress, a business woman).  He loved her, and also wanted her to be his partner in all things, their romance was not just about passionate embraces, but also making him a better man, helping him succeed in his goals, helping him determine what those goals were.

And now we have Shahrukh and Kajol.  A different kind of couple but, it is becoming increasingly clear, the couple that works for the modern India.  They are equally devoted to each other, there is no longer any expectation that a woman loves a man more than a man could ever love a woman.  She not only has her own goals, she can take the lead in them and force him to follow.  In My Name is Khan, she was the main breadwinner for the household.  In Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, she was the main lead of the film.  And unlike Raj and Nargis-who eventually stagnated playing the same old couple falling in love-in each of their films, they have come together stronger than ever.  SRKajol went from flirtatious college students to adults with children over the course of 6 films.  And I have high hopes that now, in their 7th film, the pattern will continue.  “Janam Janam” indicates that, I think.  Rather than a song about “where do we go from here?”  It is about “where ever we go, you are always with me and we will go there together.”

 

New Making of Trailer

Posted on by
Reply

Okay, now they are just spoiling us, with a new trailer every day:

 

It is an interesting publicity strategy, especially in comparison with Bajirao Mastani which released a teaser months ago, but then nothing new for months after that.  Instead, Dilwale is releasing everything at the last minute very close together.

I guess it makes sense, because just the fact of a new SRKajol film is enough to get people pumped and excited, any trailers or songs is just frosting on the cake, something to entice you to buy tickets for the opening weekend.  But Bajirao had minimal name recognition going in and had to sort of train people to care about it at all, and therefore needed that spectacular teaser to get people talking for the past 5 months.

New Dilwale Trailer! Shree 420! All is good!

Posted on by
1

Yaaaaay!  New Dilwale trailer, with a song I actually like!

 

We have all the classic Shahrukh faces, “I am stunned by your beauty”, “I am delighted by falling in love”, “I am feeling cocky because I know you like me”, and of course “you forgot I was sexy” (my favorite).

Plus, visually (even beyond the wet white shirt), there is all sorts of cool stuff!  Did you catch the Shree 420 reference?  Not only are they together under an umbrella in the rain, they actually turn into black and white as their eyes meet, which is just so cool and beautiful!

Like, as they fall in love again, they enter the magical other world of classic Indian film love stories.  Plus, I love that this is the second time SRKajol has done “Pyar Hua Ikrar Hua”, which is a fairly strong acknowledgement that they are the new Raj Kapoor-Nargis.

The first time was in the homage to the history of Indian film song from Rab Ne Bana di Jodi, “Phir Milenge”.  I saw Rab Ne in theaters, and in that whole cameo filled song, Kajol was the only who got cheers.

 

Anyway, homages to classic films are very tricky to pull off, you either do them as complete jokes and no one cares, or seriously, and then you get a lot of push back because people find it insulting to the original.  Especially the children and grandchildren of the people who made the original, who may not be thrilled to see their legacy dragged through the mud (Ram Gopal Verma and your Sholay remake, I am looking at you!).  If you recall, the other big Shree 420 homage in recent years was in the “Zoobi Doobi” song from 3 Idiots

But everyone was fine with that, because they actually cast Kareena Kapoor, Raj Kapoor’s granddaughter, in the Nargis part.

But SRKajol have now done Shree 420 twice, and gotten no blowback for it!  So I think it is safe to say that they are the acknowledged spiritual heirs to the Raj and Nargis onscreen pairing.  Even more than Raj and Nargis’ actual heirs.  But hopefully with less offscreen drama.

Dilwale Watch!

Posted on by
9

So, I am of course obsessed with Dilwale.  The image above was my computer wallpaper for months, until I finally replaced it with this:

dfg

Anyway, after months of anticipation, we finally have 3 and a half trailers!  And I have many, many thoughts.

First, this one, the full length trailer:

 

So, along with this trailer release, there were  a bunch of tidbits from interviews, and the one I grabbed onto the most was a hint that it might possibly be a plot similar to Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (full movie available on indiancine.ma).

Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (If It Goes, Call It a Car!), if you haven’t seen it, is a total delight!  Ashok Kumar, Kishore Kumar, and Anoop Kumar, brothers in real life, play brothers onscreen.  And Madhubala plays a sexy funny happy rich girl. Bonus: it also makes you feel better about Madhubala’s real life romantic tragedies, her failed love affair and broken heart with Dilip Kumar, and then rebound marriage with Kishore. With Dilip, onscreen, she is always “oh, poor me, my tragic love that can never be!”  With Kishore, she is all “this is great!  I am sexy and confident and flirty!”  And if that is the effect the two men had on her in real life as well, then I am glad she went with the drama-less but fun and funny choice!

Anyway, the 3 brother characters own a garage, the two younger brothers fall for Madhubala and her best friend, but their big brother hates women and romance and doesn’t want them to get married.  So they investigate and find out that years earlier, big brother’s heart was broken, which is when he turned anti-romance.  So they track down the woman who broke his heart, it was all a misunderstanding, she still loves him too, and it ends with happiness all round for all 3 couples.  And also, there is some plot about crooks after Madhubala’s inheritance or something, but it’s not important.

So, Dilwale, based on the first trailer and the Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi comments, is possibly taking the brothers-running-a-garage, older-brother-against-romance-because-of-past-romance, and younger-brother-tracks-down-lost-love plots and running with them.  I am pumped!  Young-hair Shahrukh falls in love with Kajol and is also some kind of action hero!  She betrays him in some way, and then years later hot-bearded-Shahrukh meets her again!  A romance track in two time periods!  Plus, he is a bossy and protective older brother, which is just super sexy!  And Varun is there too, being nice and funny.  It’s all good!

Then, trailer 2, which I have to admit, was a HUGE disappointment to me:

 

It just, somehow, doesn’t feel like they are connecting, or something?  The director, I think, said in an interview that it is all meant to be a metaphor for how the characters are separated from each other, and I am sure that is all very nice, but I want to see the SRKajol chemistry!  Plus, I don’t like Shahrukh’s voice for this.  At least, I don’t like him as Shahrukh’s voice.  The same singer apparently sang “Tum Hi Ho” from Aashiqui 2, which I love, but his voice is somehow too rough for what I think of as Shahrukh’s sound.  And everyone seems very stiff and uncomfortable the whole time.  Although Iceland looks gorgeous!

Thankfully, skipping ahead, trailer 3.5 explains some of this:

First, HOW CUTE ARE THEY!?!?!  I loved that opening intro bit, I love when he puts a coat around her between shots, I love them practicing the dance moves together, I love it all!  Why couldn’t there be more of that cute interaction in the actual song?

Second, no wonder they were so stiff!  They were literally freezing!  Did you catch that they talked about how they couldn’t even lipsynch at one point because their lips were freezing together?  Yes, the image of the big floaty sari against barren land is beautiful, but I would have been fine with sweaters and coats if it would have led to looser movements and better lipsynching.

I am ashamed to say it, but with all the problems with “Gerua”, I think I actually like trailer 3 with the young people better than the SRKajol Epic Love Song.

 

It just seems fun!  And young and silly and catchy.  Plus, I think they are doing a nice update of some traditional song ideas in a modern setting.  Kind of like “Halla Re” from Neal ‘n Nikki (which was a really odd movie, but “Halla Re” is still good!).  In that one, the lyrics literally say “I’m not a traditional girl, I don’t have a bindiya or anklets or any of the usual Indian feminine trappings, but I am still waiting for a boy to love and a boy to love me.”  Anyway, this feels kind of the same.

They are wearing modern clothes, it’s a sort of hip-hop beat, they use autotune, but they are expressing very traditional feelings.  It’s all metaphors about the heart, she even calls him her “Typical desi lover.”  Compare this with, for instance,  Varun’s song from Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania “Lucky Tu, Lucky Me.”  I mean, even the title of the song (which is also the chorus), is about having sex!  That’s not even subtle!  The title of the movie itself isn’t all that subtle either.  So it’s kind of refreshing to have a modern and catchy tune combined with some good old-fashioned Indian values.

Which brings us to Kirti’s pants.  Sure, you may call them insane psuedo-Beider jeans.  But I say they are actually a brilliant symbol of the new India!  Salwar pants made of denim, a perfect example of the global being made local.  Plus, they look super comfortable.  If perhaps a little warm for Goa (that’s where this was filmed, right?  It looks Goa-esque)

Truth Prevails!

Posted on by
6

I do love People, but I have highly disagreed with many of their more recent Sexiest Men choices.  Channing Tatum, sure, but Bradley Cooper?  This year’s choice, David Beckham, I heartily approve of.  Someone who is legitimately famous, talented, charming, and a good person.  And also very attractive in an interesting way.

Of course, I had given up on the true sexiest man alive ever being recognized, and then I saw this poll.

There is justice in the world! (although where is Shahid?)