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I ran into this interview Tabu did for the promotion of Toh Baat Pakki! for Hungama — or as I’ve labeled ’15 minutes in heaven’ — where they speak about her roles and experience in films like Maachis, Astitva, Chandni Bar, Cheeni Kum, Maqbool, and The Namesake.

https://dai.ly/xc46xk

Here’s Part 2 of that interview.

Then my procrastination got ridiculous when I found this really old interview of her, and things got out of control from then on~

  • A really young Tabu talks about who forms her family unit and mentions how Mumbai is not home [1].
  • A fairly early interview talking about how Prem and Vijaypath are her babies [1].
  • A brief clip talking about Ghaath [1].
  • A short interview on her role in Astitva [1].
  • Tabu wins Best Actress at Zee Cine Awards for Astitva, and Shabana Azmi receives it in her behalf [1].
  • Tabu wins Best Actress at Zee Cine Awards for Chandni Bar [1].
  • Rekha gives Tabu the Critics Best Actress Filmfare Award for Hu Tu Tu [1].

I find interesting the last clip, because (I think) she thanks her dad, but in previous interviews (like in the first link) completely ignores his existence. Or maybe I’m mishearing, and she’s thanking Gulzar as if he were her dad. As a side note, I love that her mind just drifts off after the announcement coz she’s just too damn excited, and totally ignores the question.

Talk about experiences. Keeping an eye out for Korea’s Jambinai x)

Madhuri with Swag

April 12, 2014 — Leave a comment

I’m not a fan of the cowboy gauchito hat, but I was surprised that Madhuri Dixit’s Facebook page shared this photo of her showering all her swag. It’s the first time I’ve seen some sort of gender-bending from India. Like… I would die with all the femininity that is supposed to embody women there with their overly long hair, their strong accentuating make-up, the saris and anarkalis.

Rani… sorta did the gender-bending gig for Dil Bole Hadippa! [1], and she had swag but the role was played for laughs, while Tabu has worn suits for different reasons in a number of films (lawyering up in Ghaath, gender-switcheroo gag in Aamdani Atthani Kharcha Rupaiyaa), and wore short hair for a brief period during Hu Tu Tu, but I’ve never come to grips with that.

Maybe I’m just used to seeing them with long hair and saris. I also love how the color red suits Tabu. Sure~ it looks good on film and photoshoots, and it could be local – so of your own – and exotic at the same time, but I would find having to live with it exhausting.

gender-bending-madhuri

Oh, heck yes, I’m GOING~

THEY ALL COME TO ME. First, Bjork, then the BackStreet Boys, Miyavi and (bonus for) Big Bang. Now it’s JeA’s turn. Maybe you don’t know, JeA is my BEG bias.

After much deliberation with a friend, we decided to crash the Lunafly concert for JeA, just to get a glimpse of her.

I just ran into this interview Khamatova did for the Russian version of Interview magazine back in 2012, and ran it through Google Translate (of course!). It’s short, but she seems to be talking about the difference between Russian and German acting methods, why it doesn’t seem like she goes well with Russian cinema, blockbusters, and the general view of people who see a ‘russian’ on screen.

And the article is accompanied by this gorgeous shot of her face by Aleksey Sorokin (Алексей Сорокин).

chulpan-khamatova-russian-interview-mag-apr2012-aleksey-sorokin

Ang Lee, who’s shy and hardly says anything, told me, ‘you giggle like a school girl’. That was sweet.

iDiva.

Hahaha. It’s funny ‘coz it’s true!

Tabu on Ang Lee’s Thoughts on Her

I’m really really sad that the synopsis for Har Dil Jo Pyaar Karega sounds boring, and it’s got two girls vying over Salman’s affection, because you got the cutest smiles in early 2000s Bollywood and they didn’t make a girly friendship movie.

I NEED girly friendship movies that aren’t necessarily about boys, and Japan is disappointing me lately. I admit it, though, the video for Piya Piya O Piya is pretty cringe-worthy for the first three minutes of the clip, but if you make it, you’ll find the dorkiest and cutest Rani and Preity having silly pajama parties.

Last time I had this much girly fun was with Sunny [1], and that was nearly 3 years ago!

Ok, I admit I’ve been getting a bit crazed over Madhuri and Juhi over the past couple of days, and I was reading a double interview they both did for the promotion of Gulaab Gang, with the whole talk on female-centric films et all. I just thought: Joan Crawford.

We need a Joan Crawford revival, yo!

joan-crawford-john-webster-torch-song

Since Madhuri wouldn’t mind doing a musical, I propose a re-imagining of Torch Song for her. Coz, duh! Just switch the Broadway musical star to Bollywood, and you got yourself a Madhuri vehicle right there. You only need to avoid the blackface scene (lol!), develop better the relationship with Michael Wilding’s character, and add a demanding choreography a la boastful excess Bollywood style. I’ll need to re-watch it to figure out the whats and hows.

How about Autumn Leaves and Queen Bee as alternative?

Or a re-imagining of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? with Juhi as Baby Jane! LOL! I LOVE IT! Now that I’ve seen her doing the evil smirk politician, I wanna see her in a Bette Davis grotesque role. That’ll really stretch her acting. I dunno how the rat scene will fly in India, though.

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?

I can see it now, can you? A step closer to attaining Power Rangers communicators! Next step- teleportation! It feels like technology is advancing a million miles a minute. The watch thing, though, it does seem to be a nudge to Samsung’s latest, no?

Combine Samsung’s flexible screens with this functionality, and you’ve got something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrqZl2QIz0c

Here’s another video.