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.
I put up the No Spoilers review for this back on Saturday, but I wasn’t in a huge hurry to get the spoiler review out. It’s a slow build kind of film, I am guessing interest will be higher on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday than it was on Saturday. Plus, I had to spend 4 hours at church on Sunday and then make two cakes and a pie, so there wasn’t much time for writing.
Happy Thanksgiving week! I get to only work 3 days this week, yaaaaaaaay! And I have Big Plans for the weekend. I’ll tell you mine, then you tell me yours!
I put up a post about the 3 phases of an actress’ career in Hindi film (Starting Out, Established, Married), and then I also put up a post about starter films to get to know actors. And I was puzzling over how to do a post about actresses, since they really don’t have the same kind of massive career backlog as actors, and I thought “Aha! I can combine the two posts!” So that’s what I did, here are some of the top actresses divided into their 3 career eras (or 2, depending). I could have kept going on and on, but I ran out of energy, so I stopped at 7. I’m sure I will be back with more.
The video version of my blog post from yesterday, not much new added to it. Well, you get to see my smiling face, but otherwise not much new.
This is just because I have been watching Cheers and now I can’t get the idea of a remake out of my head. So I had to dig up a few more TV show options as well, just to round out the post. Feel free to give me suggestions in the comments for more I could use if I missed your favorite! Especially since my TV taste trends towards the classic.
Third week of the Christmas Giveaway! And I am beginning to feel the holiday spirit. Not the DCIB giveaway holiday spirit, but the spirit of the actual holiday. I might need to switch from Saavn and film music at work to Pandora and Christmas stuff. Or Saavn and Christmas stuff? But I am pretty sure they don’t have any.
What a nice movie! Good people working together to figure out how to make their lives better. Well, how to make Vidya Balan’s life better, because she is the one who counts.
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.
NOT my best friend!!!! She is pushing for that commitment, but I am holding film against it, because that is the kiss of death. Once you say “best friend”, the relationship ends immediately (in my experience). Like when celebrity couples get tattoos of each other (Saif and Kareena excepted). But I will say “closest friend”. And, weirdly, she has the exact same birthday as my father. Which creates a little testing of loyalties every year as I try to schedule them around each other. Also Mickey Mouse, but I never really do anything to celebrate him, so it doesn’t really effect my plans.
It’s my father’s birthday! 65, which I guess means I should do something very very big. Oh well, he’s getting a nice little thing from me and my sister and there is a family dinner planned, that should be good enough. And this post!
Get ready for me to be lazy! I just dug up a paper I wrote for grad school on this film/Shahrukh’s star persona and wildly slashed out bits and rearranged and then threw it up. But whatever, I haven’t done a Rab Ne post yet really, and it was time. The post I really wanted to write was on Lucky: No Time for Love, but I’m not going to let myself, because that should wait for Salman’s Birthday Celebration time.
First, most importantly, I am supposed to link to her Instagram account. Why, I do not know, but it’s her birthday tomorrow and that’s what she wanted, so fine, that’s what I will do. Link
Okay, I am going to try to catch up on every interesting news story over the past few days in one big post! Some of these will be pretty short updates. Also, be warned, I haven’t had breakfast and the Padmavati news is irritating me, so I am in a pretty bad mood about all of these stories with no time to be diplomatic about how I address them.
Do you know what gains me 5 times as many new readers as anything else? People recommending me on other sites! Not in the actual content of the post, but in the comments. Somehow if you are reading an article or watching a video or even just in a forum, and someone in the comments says “hey, check out this awesome post”, you are much more likely to click through to the post than if it is anywhere else. Even celebrity tweets, not as powerful as normal people recommendations! And it’s not exactly something I can do for myself, because then everyone knows it is the author of the post and just ignores it.
So, here’s your monthly request to please help by telling other people if you like something I wrote.
Here are 5 simple things you can do to help more people find me:
After everyone talking about it on Children’s Day, I just had to watch it! And it is awfully cute. And, most impressive, it made me actually like Brahmanandam instead of wanting to fast forward as soon as he appears.
Less stuff added than last month I think, but more good stuff added. (Accessbollywood.net does the real work of keeping this list updated, you should definitely absolutely subscribe to them for your day to day updates.)
I should be able to scrape up a dozen, right? I didn’t bother last year, but then last year I hadn’t seen Daawat-E-Ishq yet.
I have a new thing! Even if you feel like you just read this post last month (you did, it’s mostly identical), there is one new thing right at the start.
In addition to donating, there is something you can do that costs you nothing. Please “whitelist” my site. That is, turn off your adblocker when you are here. I know ads are irritating and all that, but it’s part of what helps me pay for movie tickets and my domain name and all that. Well, not really pay for it, but it helps me not lose quite as much money. So if you have adblocker going all the time and don’t even think about it (as I do myself), this is a reminder to turn it off on my website because you like me so much.
And then the rest of this post is like usual! this is your monthly reminder that there are donation options if you feel an urge to pay me for providing content! Because maybe you are a new reader, or maybe you suddenly got a raise at work and are wondering what to spend it on, or maybe you just forgot that there are ways to send me money if you want to show me appreciation for what I do. So this is a reminder!
(I provide free content all day every day, so one tiny post a month reminding you that I am a real person whose work has value seems fair, right? Please don’t hate me!)
There is a little button on the menu at the top, if you enjoy my writing and want me to keep going, you can always click there to give me a donation. If you don’t have the money, or don’t feel my content is worth paying for, that’s okay too.
Additionally, you can always buy my book, click HERE to purchase. I get about 50 cents per book sale (exciting! Means about $5 a month), but more importantly, every purchase drives me up on the Amazon/other website rankings, which means more people see me instead of other lesser books on the same topic. Oh, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, then you get to read my book! It’s very good.
For a straight donation because you love me and my website, here are two options:
Donate through Patreon, which will allow you to set up a monthly subscription donation. And which can allow you to pick a reward, if you wish.
Or through Paypal, which allows for a one time donation of any amount you choose. Any time you particularly like a post, or appreciate something I am doing, just go over here and give me a dollar. And feel free to add a note saying why you are donating, maybe I will write more posts like that.
Donate
To help support my work, donate to the site, $1 or $2 or $20 or $200, however much you want.
$1.00
Welcome back to DDLJ! Our lovers are still separated, but we do get some really cute Shahrukh faces in this bit. And I am sticking with my theory that these paired sequences represent the male and female reaction to “love triumphant”. Kajol was shy and eager to share her happiness with another woman and be a bit dreamy, but also a bit afraid to trust it. Shahrukh is so proud of himself he is about to burst his buttons. (full index of DDLJ coverage here)
New Idea! For new viewers, handy little lists of films to try to start out. Or even for experienced viewers looking to expand a bit outside of their usual tastes.
Another starter kit post!!! And I will have to somehow figure out how to squeeze it into the menu bar at the top. Exciting! Also exciting, you are all going to have so much fun disagreeing with my choices in the comments!
Happy Wednesday! I’m home! Which means I have to go to work and do dishes and stuff, but it’s still nice to be back. Even if I am a day behind on my posting schedule (Monday Malayalam on Tuesday again)
Oh man is this a cute cute cute cute cute movie! So happy and sweet and innocent and 90s. And clear plastic backpack-y. And it might now be my favorite Shalini rom-com, even nudging out Alaipayuthay.
Here I am at the airport, with half an hour before the flight, just enough time to dash off another quick update post on how my trip is going. While you all sadly wait for another “real” post that has actual content.
dontcallitbollywood 