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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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From the Vault: Cutie Khamatova

This has just showed up online. A super squishable Chulpan Khamatova, plus two other pictures from her childhood that were all feature on a short interview (I’m not sure what it is), which you can view on Lenta.ru — There’s an alternative Vimeo link, but it’s taken from the source.

baby-chulpan-khamatova-001

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Posted on March 5, 2014 In Celebrity, English, Russian, Screencaps, Sharing, Snapshots , , , , ,
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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~

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Posted on February 27, 2014 In Celebrity, Clips, English, Films, Misc., Music, Sharing , , , , , , , ,
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[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

Nothing Serious About Tabu

Posted on February 14, 2014 In Celebrity, English, Films, Sharing , , , , ,
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Blink and You’ll Miss Her Tabu

A couple-worth of celluloid frames from Main Hoon Na.

tabu-main-hoon-na-srk-dance

Posted on February 10, 2014 In Celebrity, DVD/BR, English, Films, Fun, Screencaps, Sharing , , , , , ,
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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

Posted on February 8, 2014 In Celebrity, Clips, English, Fun, Sharing, Television, Torrents & Digital Streams , , , , , , , ,
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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

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Posted on February 8, 2014 In Celebrity, English, Russian, Screencaps, Sharing, Snapshots, Television , , , , ,
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The Harmony Can of Worms

I’m sorry, JK. Not gonna play beyond this, but you just stirred a can of worms full of fandom feelings that a lot of people didn’t want to deal with. I hope you didn’t just do it for PR.

For years (and years) I had moved on from fandom. I was fine, we were fine. We (probably) weren’t spending money or time on it. Now you come in to nudge that nasty fandom shipping war of name-calling and eye-rolling. What for? So you can make a quick buck on your next Harry Potter or non-HP endeavor?

Posted on February 3, 2014 In Books, Clips, English, Films, Rants, 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*

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In Celebrity, DVD/BR, English, Films, Misc., Music, Sharing, Torrents & Digital Streams , , , , , , , , , , ,
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