Archives For Misc.

Bitter at Times or Sweet as Honey for Yuva

A lot of people don’t seem to like Abhishek Bachchan. I don’t particularly find him attractive, but I do think he can act a lot more easily, than- let’s say Hrithik Roshan, who -I think- is SUPER hot. But maybe my opinion on the both of them is biased considering the first Abhishek film I saw was Yuva, and Hrithik got stuck with K3G. Also, I haven’t seen that many Hrithik movies, but at least he was good in Guuzarish.

Obviously, I have more fun with a Shahrukh Khan/Rani pairing, but if I didn’t have to count Bunty Aur Babli (Ok, and maybe KANK), I’d put the Abhishek/Rani pairing ahead of Aamir/Rani. Rani has loads of chemistry with Shahrukh and Abhishek… especially in Yuva. They’re loving each other one moment, and exploding into serious argument the next. And the resolution to their conflict is pure serious drama, I love it.

The track Kabhi Neem Neem is pure A.R Rahman crack. According to the online dictionary, ‘neem‘ refers to a tree whose bitter bark is used as tonic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEIKdvQ28IE

Have I told you my iTunes library is now filled with Bollywood soundtracks?

Posted on March 26, 2014 In Celebrity, Clips, DVD/BR, English, Films, Misc., Music, Sharing , , , , , , ,
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You Little Bollywood Monster You

The mindmeister movie journey has sprung several arms and legs, probably a few dozen fangs and a few couple of eyes. Since the beginning of the year [1], I’ve watched some 56 Indian films.

New additions? Farah Khan has her own hub, and Mira Nair has shown up there, as did M.F. Husain. Lootera sprung Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha, and Ranveer sprung Anushka Sharma and Parineeti Chopra. Luck by Chance sprung Farhan Akhtar and Madhur Bhandarkar finally got his hub. Major new film additions to Kamal Hassan, Sridevi (GOSH, Sadma/Moondram Pirai), and Shabana Azmi.

indian-film-journey-march-2014

Click on the image for the large version.

Posted on March 6, 2014 In English, Films, Graphics, Misc., Screencaps, Sharing , , , , , , , , , ,
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Promos for Gulaab Gang

Gulaab Gang is set to open next week (and I’m jealous of you), so they’re heavy on their online promotion. I don’t know how heavy the promotion in India (posters, billboards, tv ads, etc) actually is, but I supposed the production is hoping for a decent opening overseas in the limited regions (I suppose).

Besides the Koffee with Karan epi [1] — from which I ended up reading a bit more on Juhi — Madhuri Dixit has turned up in this YouTuber’s channel- known as Superwoman — in an episode titled What Bollywood Has Taught Me. It’s funny business if you know all the references, of course.

They’ve also been posting Behind the Scenes clips [1], as well as the mandatory Jukebox [1]. And of course, I just spoiled myself with the Juhi clip. It’s sorta been my way of watching Indian films, just go blind and be surprised. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t like Mr. India because I was all spoiled with the best bits featuring Sridevi.

Anyway, the clip made me wonder about the perception of anti-heroes and ‘bad guys’ on India films, and how that may have affected Juhi’s decision to play a negative role. I’ve also watched Kareena Kapoor’s Heroine which made me shrug at how sucky it is to be a heroine (anywhere in the world). In terms of acting, it feels like the filmmakers had a bit more confidence in Juhi’s abilities and charisma to play a bad guy. In the end, she seemed to have had fun.

I hope the film is good business.

Posted on March 1, 2014 In Celebrity, Clips, English, Films, Misc., Sharing , , , , ,
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Vidya and Tabu for Urumi

Normally… normally I wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to watch Vidya Balan and Tabu (together!) on a film, which is the case with Urumi (English complete title~ Urumi: The Warriors Who Wanted to Kill Vasco da Gama), but I just can’t shake the feeling that it’s gonna be more than two hours of cringe-worthy cartoon ‘demon-white’ colonialist with random musical numbers. I could maybe take it for two hours sans musical numbers and loads of pumping action fight sequences.

You can try it out even without subs.

Plus, it’s a Malayaman film, so I bet they’ve got their voices dubbed. As an alternative, I found their item songs. Though I’m unsure if Vidya has a more extensive role in the film, Tabu’s credit on IMDb lists it as a special appearance.

The original track song is called Aaranne Aaranne [clip], but the Telugu dub upload is much better for obvious quality reasons.

Vidya’s number after the break~

Continue Reading…

Posted on February 27, 2014 In Celebrity, Clips, English, Films, Misc., Music, Sharing , , , , , , , ,
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From the Vault: Tabu, You Are my Darling

Oh, man. I ran into a random photo of Tabu when she did a small part in Hum Naujawan back in 1985. My first reaction was “she hasn’t changed at all.” Then, I was pretty amazed at how easy it was to find a clip of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCnLzWQgSe4

Posted on February 20, 2014 In Celebrity, Clips, English, Films, Misc., Sharing , , , , ,
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Tabu for Meenaxi

I could see why some people would think Meenaxi was a self-indulgent movie, but who am I to deny myself the self-indulgence of a lens focused solely on Tabu? Beautiful cinematography with a soundtrack by A.R Rahman to top it all off. I can’t. I could watch this film forever.

Oh, gosh. It hurts just to look at all this gorgeousity.

Posted on February 19, 2014 In Celebrity, Clips, DVD/BR, English, Films, Misc., Sharing , , , , , , , ,
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Tabu Ranked

January 23, 2014 — 1 Comment

Two weeks before the end of the year, I was already done watching all the Rani Mukerji movies I could get my hands on [1], and by Christmas I had already devoured about ten movies with Tabu [1], casting her in my Joan Crawford Indian re-adaptations. So I’m pretty much done watching Tabu’s main basic filmography. I might have two or three more that I want to watch (Prem, Border and Khudam Kasam) that I’ve been able to locate with subtitles, while Kala Pani I haven’t been able to find in a subbed version.

Her alongside Rani and Vidya Balan are my current top contemporary Indian actresses. I wish the first two were as eager to get lead vehicles (nowadays) instead of supporting… like Tabu in the last decade! Be it a lead or supporting role, though, Tabu remains interesting and slightly girl-empowering.Ghaath and Hu Tu Tu (and to a degree: Aamdani Atthani Kharcha Rupaiyaa) had Tabu in a tux or sporting a short hair with a tomboy-ish attitude, urging people to be revolutionaries (or terrorists, depending on your POV), and doing all those sneaky subtly sex scenes in things like Maqbool (to a degree -though not hidden- in The Namesake), Ghaath, and definitely Astitva.

I was amazed at how consistently good she was even in poor vehicles like Hawa or Silsiilay. She’s also a straight-forward no bullshit kind of person. Even if you give her the best role to fit her schedule, if she doesn’t like you, she won’t work with you. That means she’ll probably never agree for a Lars Von Trier movie, and that Ang Lee is the best.

Also, there are two new Tabu movies coming up~ Jai Ho with Salman seems like it can be crap because Stalin (the Telugu movie it’s a remake of) was so, and I’m completely unable to stand Salman Khan except for Maine Pyar Kiya. Then there’s Haider by Vishal Bhardwaj, so that’s -at least- some kind of relief. That has got to be somewhat interesting, even if it turns out not superb.

*Updated Apr’16*

Continue Reading…

In Celebrity, DVD/BR, English, Films, Misc., Music, Sharing, Torrents & Digital Streams , , , , , , , , , , ,
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It’s ALIVE! And Growing~

The Indian film journey mindmap [1][2] collection is a little monster, and it keeps on getting bigger. This time some of the additions included about 21 films with Tabu, a few with Aamir Khan, a couple more from Madhuri Dixit… and about half a dozen with Konkona Sen Sharma.

Oh, and Juhi Chawla now has her own hub.

The connections now seem unreadable.

* RED bubbles denotes films from Jenna’s Beginner’s Guide to Indian Film
** BLUE bubbles are film hubs where a lot of actors show up.
*** PURPLE bubble is RED + BLUE. Duh.

indian-film-journey-continues-jan1814

Posted on January 18, 2014 In English, Films, Graphics, Misc., Screencaps, Sharing , , , , , , , ,
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From the Vault: Rani Mukerji IIFA 2006 Black Performance

Oh, wow~ it never occurred to me to search for Black on YouTube, or else I would have seen this performance the main cast of the film put together. Is this like a thing the International Indian Film Academy Awards does? Letting each nominated film present itself with a special performance? Do they generally do like an item song and that’s it? Because I loved that they sort of did the whole film into this 10min. sequence. Spoiler and all.

I would love it at the Academy Awards, instead of a movie montage.

According to a comment on YouTube, the whole performance was choreographed by Shiamak Davar and performed by his dance company.

Posted on January 12, 2014 In Celebrity, Clips, English, Misc., Sharing , , , , , , ,
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Huzaah! Gulaab Gang~

In my Indian Movie Journey, I haven’t exactly found fist-pumping fighting sequences. In fact, more often than not I found Indian fight foley to be quite funny with thuds and thumps. When I saw some snaps of Madhuri Dixit being violent, I was afraid she was gonna look a bit silly. But… she’s proven me wrong. At least the cut of the first trailer makes it very Fist-Pump Girl Power.

I’ve already watched it about a dozen times.

I’m so pumped, I’m gonna send it to MUBI right away.

Also… big big rush with Juhi Chawla here.

subs here.

Posted on January 9, 2014 In Celebrity, English, Films, Misc., Sharing, Trailers , , , , , , ,
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