I’m the crazy lady of Best Of lists~ so here’s another one.
But if you’re lazy, I’ve set up (almost) complete playlists on Xiami and YouTube.
Archives For Misc.
Last time it took me 2 years to get my 2012-2013 list out. LOL This year, I’m early. I’m pretty happy with my picks at the moment, so I hope nothing mind-blowing pops up in these last remaining weeks of 2014. In the meantime~ you know where to go.
Oh, who am I kidding. What I love about the end of the year is all the Best Of lists, rankings and voting. Expect my annual Top50 Songs of 2014, My fave movies of the year, and My fave local 2014 releases. I might even have enough material for a 2014 Music Highlights.
We started voting early on the YAM Magazine lounge because we are all lobbying for our favorite films, and prepping our personal End of the Year lists. I’m the most serious of all because lists can only matter when you grab the biggest possible sample. Not watching Indian movies meant that I wasn’t watching roughly 30-35% of the worldwide output.
So this is my first year online voting for Indian movies! I actually kinda like how MANY categories there are for actors to get a nod. LOL They don’t always make sense (Superstar of Tomorrow, hahahahaha and the Male Thriller/Action is quite rubbish), but I’m generally happy when I get to vote for Tabu, Madhuri and Rani without much conflict. So~ YEAH!
You can vote here.
For the International HIV/AIDS day, Ranveer Singh (ever the sexy) got together with MTV India and Durex to try to demystify sex in the country, where the topic is usually completely hush-hush or chup-chup. He’s straight-forward, candid, sexy, funny… and gets to awkward moments when he conjures the images of everyone’s parents creating us. Though, he does have a point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SFTkE-Zzuo
It’s been a while already – over six months, to be exact – my quiverations for Ranveer are still pretty consistent. Like, he seems completely changed, focus and serious funny in the latest Anupama Chopra interview he had where he even makes her laugh. Polka dotted suit and all. His last test will be sitting on a couch with Arjun Kapoor and NOT BE THIS EVER AGAIN.
I do enjoy where his personality brand is going.
I stumbled across this performance that Madhuri Dixit did for the Stree Shakti Award, thinking it’s been the most refreshing performance I’ve seen her do lately — with the added bonus of the Gulaab Gang title song as the cherry on top — when I realize that the whole event is to honor women with exceptional achievements. Ohhhhh, so that’s why the performance was a bit out of the box. I love it.
About a week or two ago, my friend and I got to watch Beta… and though it did change our (enjoyment) perspective of Dhak Dhak Karne Laga (Ouch!), it had my friend saying the following quote for the ages… “I love it when Madhuri holds a sword,” xD
I think I will eventually have to watch Koyla then.
I started watching Comedy Nights with Kapil a couple of months ago, despite the language barrier and the lack of subtitles. I gotta admit that the funniest thing has to be Kiku Sharda’s Palak despite (or maybe because of) the language barrier. It doesn’t matter what’s going on, he generally makes me laugh. Okay, Palak and Ghutthi.
I cackle when I see Madhuri teaching Palak dancing. Laughed so much when doing the acting demonstration for Tabu, KK and Shahid, and even made me NOT hate Kareena Kapoor (oh, look! She actually HAS a sense of humor!). Plus! They’re improving my hindi xD Win-win!
The only thing that pisses me off is that Colors isn’t uploading the episodes on YouTube as quickly anymore, the episodes on their website are region-restricted (FML), and some of the episodes have been having the music edited out, which ruins the mood/joke completely.
I’m terrible with timing, aren’t I?
I’m always dissatisfied with my end of the year lists, but I supposed a WHOLE year of catching up is good enough for me to have a proper idea of what I like, right? I managed to squeeze in 227 movies, the rest is history. I hope you like it, that you don’t hate on me for not including some of your faves, that you celebrate that we loved some of others, and that you love me for introducing you to one title you missed.
After the Razia Sultan movie starring Hema Malini back in 1983, the story needs a modern international-money-backed re-vamp… and Tabu should play her, am I right or am I RIGHT?
Tabu is practically aching to do heavy action on a film (she just wants an action film really… I would put her as Wonder Woman if I could), and though ideally you’d pick an Indian director (Ashutosh Gowariker and Santosh Sivan come close to grand-scale production without the Sanjay Leela Bhansali masala), I’d like to see a full-on international production maybe at the hands of John Woo (enormous scale and grand battles a la Red Cliff are of his fancy nowadays) or have Tabu back with Ang Lee, or go the Korean route with Kim Han-min (War of the Arrows), Kang Je-Gyu (Tae Guk Gi) or Kim Sung-su (The Warrior).
I know Tabu chooses projects at times with set comfort in mind, and I don’t know how the others are on set (you don’t want one that’s as extreme as Von Trier… or such an asshole as David O. Russell LOL), so Lee would be a safe bet. Or… we could go the American-Indian, British-Indian or Indo-Canadian way. Asif Kapadia is looking like a good choice.
Historical political action drama sounds good, avoiding to outright do a dancing sequence unless it’s a court sequence and it’s not Tabu doing it. LOL
Ever since she said she wants to do an action film, I’ve been trying to think of a project for her to do… even though she wouldn’t be my first choice of an action star. But if she wants to put in the work for it, who are we to deny her wishes, right?
I remember I was watching Filhaal… and thinking to myself that I obviously didn’t have any amazing great female friendships -despite my support for female friendships on film- because I didn’t know anyone that I would mother a baby for nor be comfortable enough to ask to mother one for me. When Sushmita Sen’s character tells Tabu’s that she’ll mother her baby, I was saying “oh, girl~ you’re just asking for trouble.” xD However, through all the complications in their relationship and interaction, I kept saying “I gotta admit, that’s pretty gay.” LOL
Though Wikipedia or IMDb don’t list it as a connection, according to this (sometimes grasping-at-straws) list of 100 Queer Films of India [Part 1][Part 2][Part 3][Part 4] calls it a -sorta- adaptation of Chutney Popcorn, except Filhaal… takes (or tries to take) the gayness out of it. It’s like Pre-Code films all over again, but I gotta admit- kinda fun. Plus, Tabu looks really REALLY good on the Le Chalen Doliyon [clip] number, which also features pretty flashy cinematography even if it doesn’t reach Meenaxi levels.
And despite not warming to Sushmita Sen over Main Hoon Na or Biwi No. 1 (come on, you can’t expect me to fall for that, right?), I did enjoy her chemistry with Tabu here enough to watch her episode on Comedy Nights with Kapil and actually get to like her.
Looking at these captures, you’d think Tabu just fathered this child, LOL and they’re all playing Hebe Tien’s Love! [MV]:
I love you
You love her
She loves her
She loves him[1]
Who made it and who didn’t? I was surprised myself. LOL Don’t forget to comment and share ;)
