Tag: actress

  • 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.

  • 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~

    (more…)

  • Koffee with Juhi and Madhuri

    I gotta admit that I haven’t watched many of Juhi’s films yet. She’s certainly popped up quite a number of times in supporting roles here and there, but in terms of fandoms, Madhuri’s filmography has taken the lead. Having said that, I was taken by how candid and honest Juhi was with her answers.

    While Madhuri is strictly diplomatic with her answers, revealing enough but not too much; Juhi’s relationship with her rise to fame and her mistakes through the course of her career seemed… refreshing. I’ve barely seen her, but it feels like I got a small window to get to know her. That’s an interesting quality in movie stars nowadays.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bWZtqQ4eQ4

    But seriously- THE moment of the day is Ranveer Singh’s tribute to the both of them. How could anyone be sexy, sweet, cute, funny, dorky and such a good actor.

    — EDIT Nov 7, 2914 —

    For some reason, StarTV has made the clips private, but you can still watch the episodes on their website.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • Nothing Serious About Tabu

    [Talking about her traits compared to her The Namesake character]

    In six months, I will drive my husband mad. I will cry; I will not cook because I do not know how. I will crave for home food and he will have to take me to an Indian joint. I will cry more because I will have to walk to the taxi. I will feel hot; I will feel cold… and I will be miserable, even though I will enjoy meeting new people and eating at nice restaurants.

    Verve Online Vol. 15, Issue 7 – 2007

  • Rani and I are Kindred Spirits

    xD

    I ran into this episode of India’s Most Desirable featuring Rani, and watched it through the night. She explains the development of her personality, which resulted in her character in No One Killed Jessica. I find it a bit odd, but okay- I’ll take it.

    What I found most interesting was her relationship with her parents, and the thing she said about having one set of parents in your lifetime really struck a chord with me.

    Then she plays the games- the 2 Truths and 1 Lie game was a bit odd. She does elaborate on one hard to believe truth (a baby switch when she was born), but she totally skims through another one (almost married at 14?) ; I’m not sure if she was joking or not. LOL The fan questions segment was a bit weird, but Rani participates in all good fun.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QvavnYh2s8

  • Olympic Chulpan Khamatova

    My TV signal is not working :( though I doubt the local channel is broadcasting the whole event, being famous for cutting the lightning of the cauldron at the London Olympics to continue with their regular programming [1][2], so I had to wait over 12hrs for *cough* ahem- watch it. My Sochi search on Twitter revealed two spoilers~~~ the spoiled snowflake that didn’t turn into the fifth Olympic ring that’s already been spoofed online, and Chulpan Khamatova.

    I didn’t get to read when she’d be appearing — during a skit? during the show? waving? carrying the torch? — I just saw the comment of “Chulpan Khamatova!!!” multiple exclamation points and all. I was already giddy. And she didn’t disappoint.

    chulpan-khamatova-sochi-2014

    (more…)

  • Tabu Ranked

    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*

    (more…)

  • Vidya arranges books by thickness and other Koffee with Karan bits

    I found this episode of Koffee with Karan extra hilarious… or maybe this is symptomatic of my Indian movie-watching. In any case, if you have not yet met Vidya Balan- please, get acquainted as soon as possible.

    And I just gotten acquainted with Farhan Akhtar in Luck by Chance -literally- just a few hours ago.

    Having said that… Vidya Balan talks about her married life and how she arranges books by their thickness (and her husband by height). I was going to ask “Who DOES that?” but my mother came to mind, and she suggested arranging books by color. So there you go~ As for me? I arrange books by topic or function. In the case of educational books (programming, design, photography, etc) or dictionaries. Fiction (books, plays, collections etc) is divided by West/East content arranged by author… and then I have a comic and graphic novel section mostly arranged by author and genre.

    And Vidya is such a tease. She knows how to push Karan’s buttons.

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

    She also left us with this quote:

    Women like it,need it, want it as much as men do.

    I didn’t know you could actually watch The Dirty Picture subbed online. Thank you, Shemaroo.

    — EDIT Nov 7, 2914 —

    For some reason, StarTV has made the clips private, but you can still watch the episodes on their website.