I feel like DCIB as a whole has Feelings on this topic. More Feelings than is, necessarily, logical and expected when talking about a film reviewer/writer. But that is why we come together, to share our Feelings-with-a-capital-F about topics that really make no sense to have feelings about.
Continue readingHappy Birthday Hema!!!! Such a happy day. A happy day for a happy person.
Continue readingThere are so many great song options for float themes, if you were to be in charge of making a Pride float using a Hindi film song. I’m gonna start us off with 3 songs and you can add on whatever else you can think of, or pick from these three.
Continue readingSholay! Brilliant movie, SAD! Could be a much worse film, but also HAPPY! Let me spread out before you an array of choices for last minute happiness after all.
Continue readingIs it possible that I have found a new question to post on Sholay? Probably not, this exact debate has no doubt been held before by others. But it’s new to us!
Continue readingThis movie has been written about and written about and written about. Usually with Indian film, it’s super easy to write about it because it is so under-studied anything I say will be original. Not the case here! This is like trying to write something new on Citizen Kane, there’s just nothing left. But I pulled up my old post, and added a bit on to it, and let’s see how I do.
Continue readingHema Malini is really Ramesh’s muse. He just makes her look so good, in so many ways. Great characters, great hair, great everything. But in which movie does she look the best?
Continue readingI always forget about this site, but I suppose that doesn’t really matter. I mean, they aren’t looking to get famous or reach people, they just want to archive the best possible digital versions of Indian films in order to preserve them. Anyway, I just put up a very angry and depressed post yesterday (well, angry and depressed for me, which is super cheerful and polite for most people), and then I remembered this site and felt better, so I want to make y’all feel better too!
Continue readingThis is exciting! And very difficult since I’ve only seen 3 out of the 8 films I want to cover. Oh well, I’ll give myself a nice slow schedule. And throw in the usual Sunday Reruns and new movies and stuff in between so you aren’t bored.
Continue readingYes, I am still doing temperature gifs. So sue me, they are fun and I’m just now coming out the otherside of my cold. Nice thing is, I made one of my co-workers sick so I got to see it from the outside and OH MY GOSH. She is like death warmed over, and she is 7 years younger than me. I sent her home after she had to curl up and sleep on the chair in my office for a bit. So, I wasn’t being a malingerer, this cold is legitimately deadly. And that is enough reason for me to keep doing silly posts.
Continue readingSeems like a good time to do one of my “this isn’t everything, or even the best things, this is just some stuff to think about” posts on queerness with Ek Ladki Ko Dekho coming out soon. Plus, I love our little discussion posts!
Continue readingMy big sister told me something last night which shocked me to the CORE and changed everything I always thought was true. I still haven’t recovered, so I think I need to do a post about it.
This is one of those cool coincidences. The two brilliant directors of Indian film, one from Bombay and one from the south, were born exactly 5 years apart to the day. There is something special about July 9th. And, just to put the cherry on top, one of the most brilliant actors in Hindi film history was also born on July 9th.
It’s Amitabh’s Birthday!!!!! The second most glorious day of the filmic year (after November 2nd, I do have my priorities). And, of course, for Amitabh, I will be doing a full 75 reasons to love him. (this is an updated and reposted post from last year)
Now, FINALLY, we reach the films people know! Which is a story in itself, the way films were ignored and forgotten during the early years, even TV only plays stuff from after 1970, let alone being able to find it streaming or on DVD or VHS. But, setting that aside for a moment, let’s look at these new “modern” films. (part 1 here and part 2 here)
Like I said in my first review, I got about 5 minutes into this movie and paused to get a pencil and paper. Because there is SO MUCH. Not like so much depth and soul (although there is that too, that’s what my other two reviews covered), but so much data. I know I probably missed at least half of it, but here is what I got from my 5 pages of notes. (Full Luck By Chance Index here)
It’s Javed Akhtar’s birthday today and I love him, both as a scriptwriter and a lyricist. I could easily come up with 71 reasons, but about half of them would just be quotes from Sholay and Deewar. So I am going to try to limit myself to 25, one for every film he wrote with Salim Khan, plus a bonus just for being him. And I’m going to include quotes from his Salim-Javed films, because although they were both credited, it’s generally believed that Javed wrote more of the dialogue.
(This is an updated and re-posted post from last year)
Happy Birthday again Hema Malini! I got all the way through Seeta Aur Geeta in my first post, which is barely into your career, but it did get me over a 3rd of the way through your life (so far).
Is it still Friendship Day in India? Am I getting in just under the wire or did I miss it? Oh well, either way I want to do a quick post on it with a few of my favorite songs about friendship.
There is more than you think! I’m not just talking about Dostana, or Kal Ho Na Ho, or Dunno Y…Jaane Q, or Bombay Talkies, or Margarita with a Straw, or even Fire. In the whole history of Indian film, there have always been those people off to the side, being themselves and being Queer.
I watched Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro! FINALLY! After years and years of people telling me I should. Of course, I didn’t have a copy with subtitles available to me until just a year ago, but that’s still 12 months when I could have watched Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, and I did not.
Here’s a cool thing I just stumbled across through an interview! There’s actually a close connection between the films Fan and Sholay.
I posted a summary of the first half yesterday, now it is time to bring it on home through to the end! And the second half is where things get CRAZY.
And also crazy interesting from a statement on society perspective. There is a long rant in the middle about social responsibility. So that’s something for you to look forward too!
(Read part 1 here)
A friend just sent me this super interesting link, which I encourage you all to follow! It lays out 10 things that make the Malayalam film industry special among Indian film industries.
Now, I know basically nothing about Malayalam films. I have seen Utsav Hotel and Bangelore Days, and that’s it (feel free to give me recommendations in the comments! I’m already planning to watch Ohm Shanti Oshana next, but after that I am open!). But I know a lot about Hindi film, and this list got me to thinking about why Hindi films don’t do these things, or in some cases, don’t do them any more.
