I already did action film and rom-com lists to match this. My goal is, once you have finished the list of DVDs recommended on websites, or by the librarian, or handed to you in the DVD store, what next? And there is a surprisingly long list of films with strong female central characters in Hindi film.
Oh boy, this is a fun one! I’ve been saving it for a special occasion. Indian women looking fabulous in saris.
Happy Monday! So much news to catch up on! For instance, Amitabh went to the hospital, which is always an exciting experience for the international news media. Poor Amitabh, can you imagine if every time you went in for a routine procedure, your picture was headlines everywhere in the world? So stressful!
I already posted my “no spoilers” review, and you might want to read that instead of this one, even if you are familiar with the “real” story, because the movie takes some interesting liberties with it.
I braved the snow, a huge traffic jam, and using my moviepass card for the first time (it worked! Like a little miracle) all so I could see this movie. And it wasn’t half bad! As a movie. As a “message” or as a version of the true story, it could have been improved, but as a movie it was a nice solid film.
In our discussion on this year’s FilmFare post, we ended up linking back to previous years for reference, which made me think of a TGIF theme! Why not put up photos from previous years and have people compete with themselves? (index of all TGIF posts here)
Also, all women in pink! Because I want to see if I can make joyomama’s head explode in the comments (for those who don’t know, regular commentator joyomama is a fashion historian who writes about gender color preference). Oh, and also because I’ve gotten a couple of people pushing back against the standard TGIF. So no objectification and no men and no SRK in this one!
Happy Friday! My goodness this has been a frustrating day. The second I get in to anything at work the phone rings and I have to stop. Whether it is blogging or sending an email or doing accounting stuff for work-work, I just don’t have long enough to be able to focus on it. I am writing this right now at about 2pm, we’ll see if I am able to finish and publish this thing before midnight. Anyway, Red! For AIDs and Christmas!!!
I woke up yesterday and went “hey! What’s that strange brightness out my window? Could it be SUNLIGHT??? For the first time in two weeks?” And then here’s the real miracle, the same thing happened today!!!!!! So I took it as a sign that I should shoot as many videos as possible while I have light. “As many as possible” meaning, one ten minute video in the morning before I leave for the day, only to return when it is already dark.
This came up on yesterday’s News Round-Up post when we were talking about Dips and Padmavati and where she might go next. The thing is, there is a standard route where she will go that is kind of an unspoken but accepted thing. So I thought I might as well speak it, just in case you are new to the films and are unaware of the expectations for an actress. Oh, and also give a comparison with Hollywood in case you are new to Hollywood and unaware of the standard route there.
Lots of little announcements today! A few that I have many thoughts about, and a few I don’t care about that much but are still worth repeating.
Well, I have to dip my toe back into the insanity of the Kangana/Hrithik situation, which has just boiled over again (now I am picturing a pot boiling over and my dipping my toe into it). And then, as a reward, I get to talk about SK Films restructuring, which is much more exciting.
Happy Birthday Sonam! So many birthdays in early June! But that’s no reason to ignore Sonam. She blew me away in Neerja, and then she blew me away again with her intelligent interviews on the status of female stars and female lead films in the industry. (this is an updated and reposted post from last year)
This is partly inspired by the Op Ed that was in the Washington Post a few days back. It was a so-so article, there were some things that I felt weren’t fully explored, but then on the other hand it was just a brief article for an audience with no background in the Indian film industry, so he couldn’t really explore everything. But I can! I want to zero in on one point from the article, how there are so few films with women working behind the scenes, and even fewer films with real female lead roles. This isn’t something that just came up in the past year, and it isn’t something that will be solved overnight.
So many Ks!!!! No wonder Karan thinks they are “lucky”. Or used to I guess, since ADHM didn’t have any. Unless you count Ranbir. And Fawad. Okay, I am losing the point! The point is, Karan plus 2 Kapoors and one Kapoor Khan.
I am making an exception and putting up two 101 posts in one day! Because I want to finish off the Kapoors all nice and tidy on a Thursday, so I can start fresh with somebody else next week. Speaking off, there will be a poll at the end of this entry for you to decide who you want to read about next. (also, after some nagging and requests, I have set up a menu area for Hindi Film 101, you can see them all here)
I gave you a few extra days, but I think everyone has now had more than enough time to respond to my voting post here, and it is time for me to tally and summarize the results! Which took me much longer than I expected, Math is hard! Although, there is one thing that became abundantly clear as soon as I started reading them over. Neerja really was the film of the year.
I am trying to keep each of these posts to around 2,000 words, just seems like anything more would be too over-whelming! Which means I had to break Ranbir off from his Dad. But, as a bonus, I am tossing in his youngest uncle (not much to say about Rajiv). And I will be back on Thursday to deal with the “other” Kapoors, Anil and Sonam and their clan. (part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here)
Many interesting things to discuss with this story! Mostly gossip stuff not industrial but, hey, in the Indian film industry, gossip IS industrial!
As I said in my review, I really really liked Akira. So I am delighted to hear that the box office is picking up a little! Almost as delighted about confirmation for the Amitabh and Aamir rumor. The Sonam news, on the other hand, not so great.
WILL SMITH!!! What the heck is he doing in India? More specifically, what the heck is he doing at a Rustom success party at Akshay Kumar’s house? I mean, it looks like a fun party. Not some huge fancy wedding/Karan Johar style thing, just a relaxed house party. But still! How do they even know each other?
Happy Birthday Sonam! So many birthdays in early June! But that’s no reason to ignore Sonam. She blew me away earlier this year in Neerja, but that’s just one of the many reasons I love her.
I was alerted to this news story by moviemavengal‘s twitter, feed and it made me so happy! And then to fluff up this post, I found some other random upcoming film news floating about the internet.
I watched Khoobsurat for the 4th time last night (I missed it in theaters, but have seen it 4 times on DVD after a friend told me I HAD to watch it). It’s just as good as it ever was, but it’s also a whole different experience watching it having just seen Neerja. In all sorts of ways.
I saw Prem Ratan Dhan Payo in theaters twice and bought it on DVD the day it came out, but I’ve only watched it 1 and a half times since it left theaters (the half is because my sister already watched the first half while I was at work, and then we watched the end together). But you know, I think I may like it even more on DVD than I did on the big screen.
