Isn’t that funny! I was just emailing with a friend about this film, and now Amitabh tweets that today is the 45th anniversary! With apologies to my friend, I am going to go ahead and raid our email exchange for all the random things I thought about it, so I don’t have to re-think them all.
You know how everyone says “Awards are meaningless”? Well, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award is a special kind of meaningless that is also meaningful but only in a particular way. It is complicated. And Manoj Kumar won one, yay!
I wanted to watch Traffic last night, because it is supposed to be really good and groundbreaking, and the director just died, and I have been watching a ton of rom-coms and I need to rinse out my system with a thriller. But, no luck! Couldn’t find Traffic anywhere. However, Mili, by the same director, was readily available, so I watched that instead.
I already put up a detailed post about how Neerja in particular is doing (short answer: Spectacularly! Long answer: Spectacularly considering the complete lack of faith in it shown by distributors), but what about the non-Neerja films? How are they doing overseas?
The newest Fan Trailer was launched a little bit ago, I already put up a post analysing it second by second. But that’s only half the story, the other part is the massive, MASSIVE trailer launch.
Raghil in comments said that if I liked Ohm Shanti Oshaana, I should watch Thattathin Marayathu. So I did, and I did like it! Not as much as Ohm Shanti Oshaana, but it is definitely in the same family.
Oscar time again! And once again, I have seen basically none of the nominees. And I especially haven’t seen the foreign film nominees. And nor has anyone else. I don’t mean that they don’t play widely in America, for the most part the kind of films that get an Oscar nomination do pretty well in the art theaters around the country. But they don’t play around the world. Hollywood, Hong Kong, and India are objectively and demonstrability the most watched film industries in the world (with maybe Korea and Nigeria just barely beginning to give them a run for their money), and only one of them ever makes it to the Academy Awards. But I actually think there are some reasonable reasons for that. Not good, but reasonable.
(Mother India is, of course, the closest India has ever come to wining. Lost by a hair to Nights in Cabiria. Stupid Fellini)
I already put up two regular Neerja reviews, one with spoilers and one without. But now it is time for a full summary. I don’t know if I will really be able to do it justice in a description, but I will do my best!
Continue reading
The overseas figures are published in detail, yay!!!! And, as always, thank you BollywoodHungama. Oh, and the figures are so above average, I actually checked my math twice.
I already posted the spoiler-less review earlier. Although that is kind of pointless, we all know how it goes and how it ends. And we are supposed to know, the film promotions have been mostly constant repetitions of the real life story until it is burned into our brains when we walk in the theater. So I am putting spoilers in here, but they are more spoilers for the specific way this story is told, not for what the story is.
I was going to skip this one, but then people in the comments said it was not to be missed, so I gave it a shot! I’m glad I did. It isn’t my favorite-favorite, or one that exactly hit the sweet spot of what I like, but it was definitely interesting and different. And it got me thinking about the Mahabharata and how Indian film acting builds on a classical tradition, which is always a good time!
Bollywoodhungama has weekend global figures. Which support my guess that Sanam Re is going to win the weekend at home, but Fitoor will take overseas.
New set photos! Which reveal plot stuff! I am excited!
I was going to make the headline “Is this really feminist?”, but then I realized that isn’t really the question. Because yes! It is definitely feminist! Kareena’s character is an individual who has the ability to make choices about her own life, so yep! Definitely! The bigger question is really, is it actually breaking gender roles?
Indian film has a very complicated relationship with China, reflecting India’s complicated relationship China. To help understand it, in honor of this holiday, here is a nice story followed by 5 examples of not so great film moments. Fun!
You know those Indian movies where you read the synopsis or watch the trailer, or even see the movie, and come out of it going “Wait, but that was just [Movie from another Industry]! I’ve seen this already!”
Well, Airlift was definitely one of those, and the [Movie from another Industry] was Argo. But, so what?
Figures are out for Airlift opening day, and the (possibly) last week of Dilwale overseas. So far, no big surprises. But things could always look different after the weekend is over!
I am going off DVD! The last few sections I had it at hand, just in case I needed to review certain scenes as needed, but now I am at work and it would probably be a little obvious! So, going entirely off memory (unless I make a huge mistake, in which case I will just double-check it once I get home).
Onward!
(part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here, part 5 here, part 6 here, part 7 here, part 8 here and bullet point version here)
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Okay, left off at Interval! Going to plough through and get to the end of the film and the surprise mystery twist ending that I totally saw coming a mile away. And then the sincerely emotionally affecting moment that I did not see coming AT ALL! And then the little girl who waved at me on the way out and made me feel all better
Read on to find out everything about everything!
(Part 1 of summary here, regular review here, bullet point version here)
So, quick review: Catnip for Farhan fans (I know you are out there), Hollywood style/quality camerawork and directing, great songs, script needs a couple more twists to really send it over the top.
Longer review, see below. And I will probably also be posting a synopsis in the next few days, it’s only an hour forty, I can totally knock that out in just one part.
(bullet point version of synopsis, for full film, available here. Part 2 here. Part 3 here. Part 4 here. Final part here.)
Okay, the last section was AMAZING and had the first onscreen meeting of SRKajol, and basically was the high point of the entire movie. But the rest of it is okay too, and they do have a few more scenes coming up as well, plus a song (yes, the header image tells the truth, it is time for “Jaati Hoon Main”), so it is worth reading! And worth my writing it!
So, I have been watching New Girl on and off since it started, mostly off, and I had no interest in seeing the season premier. Until I found out there was a DANCE NUMBER!!!
What do you know, you catch more flies with honey! My loving and detailed and caring summaries of Dilwale got so many more views and (more importantly), were much more fun to write. My painful venom filled hate-watch of Bajirao, not so much! (part 1 here, part 2 here, and the bullet point version here)
dontcallitbollywood 