I love Imtiaz Ali romances, because he does something really interesting with changing what we think of as “romance”. I sometimes hate Imtiaz Ali romances because it feels like he gets caught up in what he finds interesting and loses track of the basic definition of romance. You know, that it usually involves two people, not just one.
Happy Jab Harry Met Sejal Week! I always get a scattering of complaints when I do theme weeks like this. Which might be my fault, because I don’t make it clear why I am doing this and what it really is (not just fangirling over a new big release). And I know I have a lot of new readers now, so I am going to quickly explain why there is this thusness before moving on in the post.
Well, now Shahrukh is just super super mad at me. Could he tell I’ve been cheating on him with Nivin Pauly and Madhavan? Anyway, he not only posted this without subtitles, he posted it at the exact moment I was leaving for work, meaning I couldn’t watch it until just now. If he had posted it as little as 15 minutes earlier, I would have been all set! See, clearly jealous and hurt. I’m sorry Shahrukh! I will never stray again!
Mad at me, but still willing to help, having sensed that my blog views were way way down over the past few days, he provided me with content. See, even when we are in a fight, he still cares.
Yes yes, I haven’t forgotten DDLJ! I skipped last week because of the Net Neutrality protest, but now I am back! (full index of DDLJ posts here)
No real reason for this post beyond it being late on Friday (TGIF just wasn’t brainless enough), and me just stumbling across one image that was too good not to share. And heck, any excuse to discuss the unique appeal of SRK!
Another song! They are coming fast and furious now, it’s getting closer and closer! Oh geez, I have to figure out new angles for my Shahrukh Week, don’t I? Veer-Zaara for Shahrukh as a Punjabi? A third post on how ridiculous it is that Shahrukh didn’t end up with Anushka in Jab Tak? I can talk about that forever!
Shahrukh is not being very considerate to me! I have this bonkers week (my family is staying about an hour and a half outside of the city, so I am commuting back and forth and they are keeping me up all night with family stuff and then I have to drive drive drive to work the next day), and I get up this morning thinking maybe I will have a little time to, like, brush my hair, but no! Shahrukh has just posted a 5 minute video that I have to watch instead. Oh, and also Siddharth has a trailer, but it’s not as long and I don’t have to watch as closely. And neither of them used subtitles, because they hate me because I am disgusting and live in a car and never wash my hair.
Happy Friday! It was pouring rain this morning, and now it is blazing sunshine. Which is making me think, “Sunglasses!” It’s not the most original photo series idea, but it is always good. Because sunglasses obscure your eyes, which make you look more otherworldly and better than us mortals. Also, easier to see you as just manmeat, and not a person!
Well, this was interesting! For the first time ever, I got to experience the twitter madness of waiting for a song trailer to come out. Because usually the time zones/my interest level doesn’t allow for it. And I have to say, twitter is a cesspool of stupidity and misinformation! Who knew? Anyway, I am glad I usually stay off of it. Although this was kind of fun to experience once.
Yaaaay, another cute trailer! Which basically gives away the entire plot! But it’s a good plot, so I’m fine with that. Really, most of the time I think if you don’t want to see a movie once you know the plot, then it’s a baaaaaaad movie. We should enjoy films for more than just the plot, there are the characters and the dialogue and everything else. And this film is definitely going to be about the characters. (oh, and it was posted with subtitles right from the start, so I think this is a clear sign that Shahrukh is reading my blog and loves me)
I was hoping I could do this on Yash’s birthday or half birthday or something, like I did for Karan, but there’s no special occasion I could find, and I had this post idea poking around in my head, so heck, I’m just going for it.
Welcome back to DDLJ! I’m going to try my best to put up a post every Wednesday, we’ll see how I do. I already had to stop my box office posts when I got regular with Hindi Film 101, this may mean the end of birthday and/or trailer news posts. I’ll check viewership and see what the concensus is as to which are more important and based on that I may need to take another DDLJ break at some point. (All DDLJ posts indexed here)
Kepzandme alerted me to it being SRK’s 25th anniversary in films today, 25 years since Deewana came out. I am sure everyone in the world is doing 25 songs, 25 scenes, 25 films, kind of posts. I’m not going to bother trying to add to that. Instead, I will do something only I can do, and put in my personal 25 best memories, in no particular order.
The last couple of sections were kind of downers. Everything was going wrong. Kajol was miserable, Amrish was angry, Farida was sad, and the world just felt out of synch. And now here is Shahrukh! Finally! To set the world spinning the right way again. (full index of all DDLJ posts is here)
No subtitles though. Which, following my theory from yesterday, means that Shahrukh used to love me and was telling me through subtitling his videos. But now no longer loves me and is breaking up with me through NOT subtitling his videos. WHY SHAHRUKH???? WHY???? I’ll change for you! I’ll do whatever you ask! Just take me back!
Well, apparently the promotion train is moving at an express pace, and I will need to put up one of these posts every day for the next month and a half (last one here). I guess I am okay with that. Anyway, New Teaser! More importantly, Subtitles!!! Most importantly, Shahrukh loves me and wants me to be happy and is showing it through subtitles on his trailers! I should take this as a sign of his undying devotion to me and go be a Gaurav outside Mannat, right?
Really quick post, just so we can all discuss. And so those of you who need this information ASAP can get it. New JHMS teaser! I am still cautiously optimistic. Although slightly less so than I was after the last two teasers.
I was putting this off and putting this off, hoping subtitles would be added so I could do a comprehensive discussion, not just a sort of discussion. But, no luck! So I will put up this kind of placeholder post, and all you lucky people who know Hindi can discuss it in depth, and the rest of us will just leap in once someone at Red Chillies gets around to hitting the magical “English Subs” button on their youtube account.
What a good movie! I hadn’t watched it in ages, and this time around I noticed all kinds of themes hidden under the surface that I hadn’t appreciated last time. “Pardes” versus “Des” is just the tip of the iceberg.
Well, this is fun! It’s partly a list of every Shahrukh Khan film, but more than that, it is a case study for how a career progressed in the 90s in Bombay. Lots of work, not a lot of hits. And then the 2000s came in, and it was less work and less hits (notice I was able to cover twice as many years in this post as in the last one)
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.
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).
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.
dontcallitbollywood 