As you know from my no spoilers review, which already went up, I LOVED Raabta. It was not at all what I was expecting. I wasn’t even going to see it, but then my sister was in town, and watching a bad romance film in theaters is kind of the perfect sororal activity. And it turned out to be a good romance, instead of a bad one! Which is even more perfect for a sororal activity.
Well, I finally saw Oppam. Only 6 months late. Oh well, this is what happens when the theaters only give one screen to Malayalam films, and there are 4 (or 5?) major releases for Onam weekend. I saw Oozham, which was in a similar genre but not quite as good as this. Because Prithviraj is not quite as good as Mohanlal and Jeethu Joseph isn’t quite as good as Priyadarshan.
I’ve done it! Whole thing! And it was SO MUCH FUN!!! Don’t worry, Bahubali orgy isn’t over yet, there will be a big over-arching themes post next week, and there is the start of what will be a multipart fanfic tomorrow. But this is IT for the scene by scene stuff. (part 25 here, you can crawl back through the archives from there)
Welcome to part 2 of the big final battle section! The part where stuff actually happens and I don’t just blather on and on about the set up for stuff happening! If you want to read the blather part, it is here. And you can go back in time from there to find the earlier posts.
I finished the sad parts, yay! And then celebrated by taking 2 days off. And writing yet another fanfic (by the way, almost nobody reads the fanfics, but the few who do, really really enjoy them. And I really really enjoy writing them!) Anyway, now I am back. Time for the thrilling conclusion! Or at least, the first part of it. (part 20 here, you can crawl back through the archives from there)
I skipped my usual weekly trip to the movie theater (because packing), so I didn’t see either Half-Girlfriend or English Medium. And I missed Meri Pyari Bindu last week. But thank goodness, I don’t have to try to rush around and make up for that, because moviemavengal did the work for me.
Happy Monday! I’m all-Bahubali, all the time, only I know I’ve got my nice faithful Malayalam readers too, and I don’t want you to feel left out. So I managed to take a break to watch a not-very-good, but very popular, Malayalam film.
I said in my last section that this is the part that is very very hard for me to watch, because it is two real. It’s really the 20 minutes after “Daandalaya” that just kill me, but even this section is not good. Which is a tribute to how well the film is made, that it can evoke such real emotions in me. (part 11 here, you can go backwards from there)
This is the section of the movie it is kind of hard for me to write about because it is TOO SAD. And also, too real. Which is a sign of what a good film this is, it’s set in a fantastical setting with swords and elephants and so on, but it manages to get right at human emotions I recognize. (part 10 here, you can go backwards from there.)
Well, I got all bogged down in the last section between the rights and the wrongs of it all. I’ll see if I can un-bog myself and do a bit more a straightforward account of what happened in this section. (last section here, you can go back in time from there and read the rest)
Welcome back! A lot to dig into in this section, and then we get into the bit that depresses me terribly. But this is the bit that makes is talk about whether the character developments are contrived or inevitable. SPOILER: I land on the inevitable side of things. (last section is here, you can crawl backwards from there)
Okay, I’m gonna try to get through this part, even though it is really frustrating. Because the good people aren’t understanding each other! But at least this opening part has some interesting discussion and character bits. (last part here, you can go back from there)
Welcome back! Here we are, part 7. Where thing start to get sad and scary. The last time I saw it, I was surrounded by sobbing children for basically the whole middle hour. Lot’s of “Daddy, no! Why are they doing that? I don’t like this.” Let’s see if I can get through it without getting sad myself! (last part here, you can go back from there)
Welcome to the end of our first all Bahubali week! But not our last, I am only about an hour into the film, so these posts will be continuing for a while. But I hope to manage to watch something else over the weekend, so I can give us a little bit of variety! Even the most delicious meal can pale, if it is all you eat. (detailed summary part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here, and fanfic scenes I want to add here)
Happy Thursday! I was going to do two posts yesterday, but instead I did one summary post and one speculative post. And I think the speculative post is a little better written! Check it out. And to try to get this back on track, I am starting to slow down to 2,000 words for every 5 minutes. And at that pace I will never be finished! (part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here)
Happy Wednesday! By the way, this is your Tuesday Telugu post (one day late) as well. It was going to be Enthiran/Robot which suddenly popped up on Netflix streaming. But Bahubali 2 is taking up all my time, so you are going to have to wait another week before I write that up. (part 1 here, part 2 here)
What an interesting movie! It’s about stuttering, but not really. It’s about growing up, but not really that either. And it’s also a little bit about Mukesh being a really nice guy. It’s all of these things combined, it’s just sort of about life.
Welcome back to Bahubali 2 complete detailed summary part 2! I’ve only seen it once in theaters, so forgive any slight errors in the order of scenes or stuff like that. Well, forgive and correct. If you mention something in the comments, I will either correct and update the post to show it, or else add a note to the beginning of part 3. (part 1 here)
Welcome to my tedious and time consuming scene by scene coverage of Bahubali 2! I already put up my No Spoilers review, if you want something to read while you wait to buy tickets. And my SPOILERS review, if you want something quick to read to think about what you just saw. This is something else, the intensive graduate-level-film-class scene by scene breakdown and discussion which will last for a couple weeks and only get a few very dedicated readers. But I haven’t done one of these since Raees, and Bahubali seemed like an appropriate time to dust off the old analytical skills.
Not the kind of “this is exactly what happened” spoilers, just slight comments about things. But if you have already seen the movie, maybe you will appreciate that! Oh, and if you want “this is what happens” spoilers, you can check out this review.
I won’t promise that this will be my last review. I already posted my no spoilers review. And it’s possible that over the next few weeks, as I re-watch it, I end up posting one of those scene by scene things that takes me forever to write. But right now, I want to get up a SPOILER post, if nothing else so we all have a safe place to talk about the movie without worrying about ruining it for other people.
I already put up my no spoilers review. The SPOILERS review doesn’t really have much to add to that, because there’s not much to the plot of the film. But I can complain in a little more detail about how the plot fails. And save you the trouble of watching it yourself, since you can just learn about it here.
I already put up my NO SPOILERS review, and my podcast, now it’s time for the SPOILER review. I recommend reading this before listening to the podcast, since the podcast assumes that you already know what happens in the movie.
This is one of those movies where I am watching it thinking “is the message I am seeing on purpose or an accident? Or an purposeful accident? Is it just where the characters ended up or was this the goal all along? Or did the writer start thinking of it as a statement on film relationships and not realize it was a statement on real ones too?” I think it is probably the last, because I started thinking about it in terms of film too, and then realized that it works just as well for real life. And, in fact, hits exactly my issues with the way culture treats female safety.
