Well that was an interesting movie! Took me a really really long time to figure it out. And then in the middle of the night I suddenly sat up and went “Of course! It’s all about the 3 chains!”
Happy Monday! I had an exhausting weekend of watching 3 movies, plus doing the church service. And groceries, putting pictures on the wall, etc. etc. So being at work on Monday is kind of a nice break.
Yesterday I put up a post reminding people that if they want, they can pay for content here instead of just getting it for free. But that’s not actually what I want most. What I want most is more readers! Because I like it when people read my work. But I have no money or time for promoting myself so, if you think more people should be reading this blog, I need your help to make that happen. And like the paying for content post, I will be putting this up as a monthly reminder, just in case you forget or are a new reader.
Here are 5 simple things you can do to help more people find me:
And one bonus not simple idea:
A couple of people have mentioned casually that they have shared my work with professional film people they know. Film reviewers, film students, website editors, whatever. That’s great and I love that. When you share it, please also remind them that they can contact me if they would like to use anything I have written, or even something as little as an original thought I have had, in their own work.
And on the flip side, please please let me know if you see anyone who has cut and pasted anything I wrote, or even quoted an original thought I have had (something you read and think “this feels like deja vu, didn’t I read this analysis on dontcallitbollywood already?”), without citing where it came from. I love it when people quote me and cite me, and it makes me feel like the world is horrible when they don’t cite me and take my ideas for themselves. I’ve already been plagiarized a few times by people who thought it was no big deal to just copy an entire post and put it up as their own, or who took an argument I made and used it as their own without thinking about it. And that’s kind of the only thing I have of value to offer readers, a promise that every single thought, down to a tossed off comment about how Shahrukh’s hair looks, came from my own brain, not anywhere else. So if you see it being stolen, please let me know, sometimes there will be someone I can report it to and get it pulled down, or I can just ask nicely if they would please make it go away, or at least cite me as the source.
I already put up my SPOILER review, which was supposed to be the no spoilers review but then I veered in another way. So now I am finally doing the No Spoilers!
Well, I watched it! I hated it! And not just because I was planning to hate it. I really did hate it, even after giving it a fair chance and sitting straight through. Also, I was really really really really bored. I checked my phone 5 times, the first time after the first 20 minutes because I thought surely the first hour at least must have passed. Honestly, the best part of the whole experience were the trailers (A Gentleman, looking better and better!). And now I am sitting in the mall food court, eating lunch and writing this very fast so I can leave the whole horrible experience behind me.
New Podcast! Been a while, because Dina’s been sick. But now she is better! So we got to go to a movie last night, and talk about it all the way home, just like usual.
I’m going to start putting up a reminder post once a month. 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?)
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 $1 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.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=VSPHQJB8GVL5S
First, just getting it out of the way, I did NOT see Jagga Jasoos last night. Instead I went to see an actual good movie, Thondimuthlum Driksakshiyum (podcast going up soon, review up for Monday Malayalam). But I will be seeing it first possible show today! And taking my laptop so I can write the review for you guys from the food court at the mall and have it up ASAP.
Our final Bahubali character post, so sad! And almost our final Bahubali post altogether (There’s one final one coming in a few days. And of course the fanfic, I will be keeping that up, if only as a personal challenge to see if I can write a whole novel with a tiny cheering section of dedicated readers to help). You can see all the Bahubali posts listed in one place in the index here.
I know I know, normally this is where I talk about a classic film. But it’s been a busy week, and I didn’t manage to watch anything fancy, and I don’t have the energy to talk about anything fancy, and Gupt was a the library. And it is SO AMUSING!!!! In an “amusingly bad” kind of delightful way.
I put up a nice new combined post for my mother and my sister, and my sister got that Sunday post, but I felt bad that my poor sister didn’t get any posts just for her because she was foolishly born 34 years before a protest day. So a day late, I am going to re-post the post I made for her birthday last year.
Sorry to my non-American readers, this has nothing to do with you. But I am an American based blog, so it’s really important for me and the 50% of my readers who are American. There is a change to national internet policy being considered which would make my blog harder to reach. To give you a taste of what that might be like, No Posting Today.
If you already know about the Net Neutrality issues and the protections the FCC is considering rolling back, you can submit a letter to the FCC protesting this proposal. The link is HERE
The website that is organizing all of this is called http://www.battleforthenet.com, you can also go there and sign up for more information and to participate in additional protests.
If you need more information, here is what is happening:
The FCC is considering changing rules to allow for internet providers to charge websites for higher speed service. Essentially, letting them be paid twice, once by the consumer (us) who pays for internet access. And once by the websites we are trying to reach who would have to pay to be available to the consumer.
If this passes, it means that little websites like mine would no longer be available to American consumers at the same speed and ease as larger websites that are able to pay the ransom demands of the cable companies.
Essentially, it means that the internet is for sale. If you have enough money, you can pay for your website to be more easily accessible than any other website on the same topic. To put it in terms of this blog, it means that the makers of Tubelight could pay so that the official website, with all the glowing reviews on it, loads fast and easily. And this blog, with an honest unbiased review from a public citizen, loads more slowly.
If you are an American, you can submit a letter to the FCC protesting this proposal. The link is HERE
The website that is organizing all of this is called http://www.battleforthenet.com, you can also go there and sign up for more information and to participate.
Finally, if you are not an American but still want to help, all I can think to suggest is that the man who is selling us all to the corporations is named Ajit V. Pai. His family is Konkoni from around Maharasthra. His parents are both doctors, named Radha Pai and V.S. Pai and they settled in upstate New York. Ajit went to Harvard and University of Chicago.
Now, knowing how things work, I am thinking there is a slight chance that someone reading this blog knows someone who knows someone who knows this man’s family. If you do, feel free to contact his family and tell them that they should tell him not to do this. I don’t know if that will make any difference, but getting yelled at by an Auntie might do something that all these petitions and protests are not.
It’s my mother’s birthday today! I debated a post of sappy mother type songs, but she wouldn’t actually enjoy that. So instead, I’m going to put up a post of all her favorite song videos!
I’m gonna try to be good and get back on the Box Office report wagon. Because it really doesn’t mean anything unless you do it every week so you have context. Even if there isn’t that much of a story this week.
So, I just FINALLY finished the Rise of Sivagami novel. And I really really didn’t like it. Which isn’t to say you won’t, or that you shouldn’t. It just wasn’t for me. I’ll give you a really brief run down in generalities for why it didn’t work for me, and if you think it won’t work for you either for the same reasons, then you can read the rest of the post and learn all the plot details and stuff without needing to read the book. But if you think you might like it, you should totally read it for yourself! And if you already read it and really liked it, fair warning, this is a very mean review (full index of Bahubali posts here)
Accessbollywood.net does the real work of keeping this list updated, if you want a day by day update, subscribe to them. My update is woefully late and out of date. But it does give my opinion and recommendation on every single one, which might be handy.
I did it! I saw Mom! Even though it meant screeching out of work the second it hit 5pm and fighting rush hour traffic to make the 5:30 show. Because I had to rush home tonight so I would have time to work on my mother’s birthday present. Which is thematic, I guess! Anyway, it’s a good movie, but don’t be fooled by the artsy film stock and stuff, this is a straight up potboiler action film as over the top and satisfying as anything from Sunny Deol.
Thanks to it suddenly popping up on Netflix (my Netflix list post is now woefully out of date, look for an update soon), I decided to rewatch Mughal-E-Azam. And it’s SO SO SO SO much better than I realized when I watched it before.
Thank you Salman for giving me such a pun-friendly title! This headline isn’t as good as last week’s, but it is still pretty good. Not good: the Tubelight collections. (for general background on box office, check out my massive post with box office background here)
I’m back! We’ll see how this goes. I’ve cut Hindi Film 101 down to once a week to give me a little breathing space, and I get to pick if it is Tuesday or Thursday. That should help. (DDLJ full index here)
In case have haven’t figured it out, I am working up to the final characters. Bhalla is 3rd to last, then Devasena, then Amarendra. I debated making Bhalla second, because he really is the co-lead of the films in many ways. But on the other hand, his character is slightly less important overall than Devasena. But only slightly. Feel free to make that your first discussion point in the comments, if Bhalla deserved the the second place instead of Devasena. (full index of Bahubal posts here)
Happy 4th of July! I am celebrating by not doing anything and just enjoying having a random day off in the middle of the week. And I am going to have a little song festival of American-themed Indian movie songs. As always with these posts, if I missed one you like, just mention it in the comments! (this is an updated and reposted post from last year)
This is a semi-random non-Indian post. Partly it’s because Niki has been talking about the show in her comments lately, partly it’s because I just started a rewatch while unpacking yesterday (I know it so well, I don’t have to pay close attention or even see the screen to enjoy it, so perfect for moving around boxes). Anyway, I always want to write about anything I am seeing, so why not let myself? And just to make it vaguely relevant, I’ll also talk about the things that are and are not Indian in the show and why it would and would not (mostly would not) work in a true Indian remake.
Well, this was interesting! For the first time ever, I got to experience the twitter madness of waiting for a song trailer to come out. Because usually the time zones/my interest level doesn’t allow for it. And I have to say, twitter is a cesspool of stupidity and misinformation! Who knew? Anyway, I am glad I usually stay off of it. Although this was kind of fun to experience once.
Yaaaay, another cute trailer! Which basically gives away the entire plot! But it’s a good plot, so I’m fine with that. Really, most of the time I think if you don’t want to see a movie once you know the plot, then it’s a baaaaaaad movie. We should enjoy films for more than just the plot, there are the characters and the dialogue and everything else. And this film is definitely going to be about the characters. (oh, and it was posted with subtitles right from the start, so I think this is a clear sign that Shahrukh is reading my blog and loves me)
dontcallitbollywood 