HAPPY DUSSEHRA!!!!! And happy day that I have to magically become 4 more people at work! Through an odd combination if immovable conflicts, all my co-workers are gone today and so I must become all and everyone simultaneously. Oh dear. At least I can schedule a Dussehra post before the day really starts! (this is an updated and reposted post from last year)
Reflects on Life was talking about this movie in the Wednesday Watching post and suggested it for a Friday Classic. Which made me realize I hadn’t actually written about it yet. I think it’s one of those Big movies that I was avoiding, ones that are really good, and I also really like and I want to be careful to explain why I like them in a way that makes you like them too, not just appreciate their quality.
I am not, in fact, Indian. So anything song that goes “Rah Rah Rah, Indian Over All” is not really going to work for me. But a song that goes “Rah Rah Rah, Let’s Love Our Home Because it Is Our Home And Try To Make It Better”, that works for me because it works for everyone in the world, you know? And these are my favorite of that time.
I finally finished my Sanjay Dutt series, it was exhausting, I don’t have the strength to think about anything intelligent after that. So instead I am going to think about something totally unintelligent, and you all can join me.
I just want to brag a little. It’s so beautiful! And my fingers and back are so sore. But it’s so beautiful!
Children’s Day in India is November 14th, because that’s Nehru’s birthday, and Nehru loved children. Isn’t that sweet? And, just like World Animal Day and all the other sub-holidays, I am marking the occasion with a theme video post. (this is an updated and reposted post from last year)
Yesterday I did “top characters“. This is a post that pairs with it, top performances. But is different, characters were wonderful people imagined by the script writer who Shahrukh was lucky to play. These are characters that Shahrukh elevated through his performance. (part of this post is the same as last year, but most of it is new)
I am finding this fascinating, looking at the slow progression of the Shahrukh Khan romance over the years. Not every romance, but almost all, the ones I find interesting to talk about. (part 1 here, part 2 here)
Really is not fair that Dussehra landed the day after Judwaa 2!!! So I am going to be lazy and only put up a few songs. But, to make up for it, temporary new blog header image! Pretty cool, right? (this is an updated and reposted post from last year)
When we were little little girls, our grandmother brainwashed all 5 of us to believe to the depths of our souls “engineers make the best husbands” (guess what my grandfather, father, and brother-in-law all do?). And so I can’t ignore this holiday!
While I celebrate by cleaning my apartment, enjoy this songs that celebrate labor! And, hopefully, will help inspire me to labor myself.
I wanted to do a songs post, because this week is wearing me out and I don’t have the energy for a “real” post. And also because it was Mardi Gras yesterday and I have a great Mardi Gras song. But I couldn’t think of any other Mardi Gras songs, so instead of doing that theme, I came up with another.
This year help is needed more than ever, there is a decent chance many of my relatives will be getting “donation in your name” gifts. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be fun! Here are some of the groups that I particularly like, with a filmi explanation for why you should care. (I feel bad not including any Indian organizations, but I am nervous about endorsing the wrong ones since I don’t know enough about their work on the ground level. All the ones listed below I know well and can confidently endorse)
Children’s Day in India is November 14th, because that’s Nehru’s birthday, and Nehru loved children. Isn’t that sweet? And, just like World Animal Day and all the other sub-holidays, I am marking the occasion with a theme video post.
I did top 11 movies a couple days ago, I’m going to go slightly different today, and do top nine performances. Even if the movie as a whole doesn’t hold together, or even if it is so brilliant all around you never noticed what Shahrukh was doing, here are his greatest performances as an actor.
Okay, favorite songs, favorite fanvids, favorite photos, saddest facts, happiest facts, time for a big one! Top 11 movies (was going to be 10, but I couldn’t decide what to drop, so I moved it up a day)!
I already put up the posts for the more important (to this site) holiday for the day, Amitabh’s birthday!!! But now it’s time for the less important post, celebrating the victory of good over evil, blah blah blah.
How could I not celebrate! So very many Indian engineer characters! And all of them, so adorable!
Notice how I put the really exciting picture at the top so we would remember why this really matters?
So, currently, the highest Shahrukh movie on the all time gross list for India is number 5. NUMBER 5!!! The shame of it! Ahead of him is PK, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Bahubali, and Dhoom 3. The whole list is here on wikipedia.
Now, you know what all these films have in common? They are all from the past 5 years. And the film at the top is usually from within the past 2 years. In America, we are used to that, the top grossers are always fairly recent, but in India that wasn’t always the case. Mother India set a box office record in 1957 that stayed in place for 3 years until Mughal-E-Azam surpassed it in 1960. Mughal-E-Azam held the record until Sholay beat it in 1975. Sholay held the record until Hum Aapke Hain Koun came along in 1994. Hum Aapke Hain Koun was toppled quickly by DDLJ in 1995. Then DDLJ lost it’s crown to Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1998. That record held until 2001 when it was beaten by both Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham and Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. Gadar held the record until 3 Idiots in 2009, at which point everyone breathed a sigh of release because they could start pretending Gadar never happened (very very problematic messages in that film). And then 3 Idiots held the record for a long time, by a big big margin, until it was finally beaten by Chennai Express in 2013. All Shahrukh fans cheered and celebrated and laughed in the faces of their Aamir-fan friends, or at least that’s what I did. Truly, it was a magical time!
(Shahrukh, take a bow! You earned it!)
And then about 2 months later, Dhoom 3 came out and Aamir was on top again. It stayed up there for a year, until PK came out, and then Aamir had the two top spots. PK is still up there, but Bajrangi Bhaijaan did really well this summer and came close to beating it. And Bahubali, of course, is a huge deal since it is the only non-Hindi film up there (although it was distributed by a Bombay based production house, Dharma, which is very important in terms of overseas awareness and national reach in India).
So, on the micro-level, this just means we all need to buy as many tickets for Dilwale as humanly possible in order to return Shahrukh to his rightful ranking. I don’t care if you are actually seeing Star Wars, you buy your ticket for Dilwale!!!
But on a macro-level, in terms of global trends, economics, and the future of the industry, what does all of this mean and where does it come from?
