On March 20th, 2004, I watched Good Bye, Lenin! Though my rekindling didn’t happen until last year, I feel it’s somewhat an important day. Plus, I had my Vancouver ticket, so why not? I didn’t prepare anything special, though I was thinking of re-watching the movie. Turns out I’m kinda movie-busy until the end of the month, so I doubt I can re-watch anything.
But I went image web-hunting :)
I was catching up with all my ‘to watch’ queue on YouTube which at some point had been inundated with Shiina Ringo thumbnails. After her split from Tokyo Jihen and the celebration of her debut 15 years ago, she’s releasing this gorgeous (and pricey) concert.
I was just marveling myself with the palest of pale queens and thought to myself that if I ever get to see her show live, I would probably cry. When Bjork was here for the first and only time, I remember tearing up a bit- the others I would tear up/cry for would be Shiina Ringo, Faye Wong… and BiBi, for sure.
It’s been ages since I last bought anything on HMV Japan.
I haven’t done a fake Criterion fanart in a long time — possibly in over 4 years [1] — but after seeing M.F. Husain’s films, I couldn’t resist. Besides Madhuri Dixit- DUDE! Tabu as Meenaxi. I can’t possibly resist.
I do believe that Tabu acted miles around the material that Madhuri Dixit got, and that M.F. Husain should’ve used a lot more of Madhuri’s dancing skills and charisma to get his muse concept across. Especially considering how she was his muse and all.
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.
A couple-worth of celluloid frames from Main Hoon Na.
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*
Fandom funny crossover~
I was watching (finally) Tokyo Kazoku — which I liked more than I thought I would — and just felt this incredible marriage pressure during the the scene in which Yu’s character is accepted by the father with that terribly heavy “There may be some hard times ahead, but if you’ll consent to be his wife, I’ll be able to die in peace.”
My mind immediately went to Arshad Warsi’s Circuit; “No tension, bhai.”
… is getting ridiculously messy [1].
But I gotta admit I’m loving it.
So… the Ram-Leela thing didn’t pan out (boo hoo!). Instead, we’re getting Dhoom 3 for the New Year, so I gave Dhoom a watch. Without noticing (much) my life had also been inundated by Bachchan Jr., not that I mind much… I had a better first impression of him (I think it was in Yuva), than I did with Aamir Khan, as well as Kareena Kapoor. Poor the both of them, I hated them from the get go. However, I found that I kinda liked them together. Talaash was a good one, but they really reeled me in with 3 Idiots to the point that I don’t think I hate them any longer. I’d better avoid Aamir from most things pre-2006, though.
Besides getting acquainted with Vidya Balan — I’m on my third Kahaani re-watch and still loving it — as well as getting cozy with Madhuri Dixit’s filmography, I’ve been getting to know Sanjay Dutt, whom I totally thought was Salman Khan’s dad (from the Deewangi Deewangi number on Om Shanti Om). I was really REALLY surprised by the range of his acting, since I thought that he was gonna be one-note like the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Schwarzenegger, or Bruce Willis. I even found him endearing as Munna Bhai. I’ve never had that happened to me with any of them.
As for the rest? I like Preity Zinta more outside in the real world (interviews and maybe Twitter), Hrithik Roshan isn’t all that bad (and he’s super hot), and I still find SRK more endearing than cool (or anything else). I re-watched Life of Pi, and I’m super psyched about embarking on Tabu’s filmography, and I just found out (like a couple of hours ago) that Naseerudin Shah played Gandhi on Hey Ram. Totally gasped at that one.
I’m so totally game for the third Munna Bhai installment, excited for Dedh Ishqiya… and I don’t think I mind Dhoom or Don. I also daydreamed SRK made a Don-esque movie set in Hong Kong alongside Jackie Chan. I’d be totally game for that. I’d hate to see Jackie losing to him, though, so they should both play bad guys… or SRK should play good cops with him, even if that may result too much like a Rush Hour movie. It’s gotta be a serious funny action movie with them.
I haven’t worked with mind maps since my school days were over. I remember I used to work with FreeMind, but it’s been so long since then that I wondered whether there were any good web-based mind-mapping applications around today. I found two slightly different ones that I tested working on a mind map of my Indian Movie-watching Journey [1].
First, there was MindMeister, which worked the most similar to FreeMind. The free version seems to be bare, it doesn’t allow you to save styles (for formatting) or setup your share options — smart~ — it just goes from ‘private’ to ‘public’ … or you have to invite people, which should work for most. But it works and it lets you save your work, export in different sizes and formats, so it’s all good.
Next week, it’s crazy, will be the first month my dad has been gone. Though the shock of losing him seemed to block my mourning for him, as the days have gone by, it’s been harder and harder. Specially this past Sunday. It was my fourth Sunday without seeing him… and I don’t get along with #4s. Today I woke up thinking that maybe I could hear his ringing my intercom the way he did so I knew it was him downstairs.
Music has been my blessing and my curse. It often distracts me from wandering into sad territory, but it also reminds me of him. “He would like this,” “I saw this with him,” my mind often thinks. Trying to make sense, over-thinking about it, it seems destiny has been sending me signals throughout the year. First through a Chinese Horoscope scare, and other little bits and pieces of mementos.
Father and daughter movies, songs being played at key moments and words left as token of peacefulness. The day before my father passed away, when he was in good spirits and I was visiting him, he said he had led a good life and that if he had to go, he could go tranquil. I didn’t know then that I wasn’t going to be able to give him a mix of his favorite group [1] to accompany in his hospital stay.
After my uneasiness started that day, I looked up at the sky and told my dad that if he had to let go, he could. Fifteen minutes later, I was informed of his cardiac arrest. It wasn’t more than 20min in the trauma room, when I knew that he’d decided to let go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjPB3NpYsUw
Luck will have it that I didn’t get to watch Talaash until after my father passed.
I feel the need to over-share so I don’t wallow in self-pity.
