Archives For india

Tabu-vibing with Sai Pallavi and Saiyami Kher

May 19, 2025 — Leave a comment

Yo, guys! I just finished a watching of Raj Rachakonda’s 8 A.M. Metro, which stars Saiyami Kher and Gulshan Devaiah, and featured poems by Gulzar, as the film centers on the friendship of two lonesome souls who have a chance ephemeral encounter… and who happened to love reading books and poetry.

Seems like I have been in a movie positive mood lately, so it floored me.

For the last few months, though, I’ve been thinking about how Sai Pallavi and Saiyami Kher, since I saw the trailer for this film, both strongly reminded me of my Tabu-movie journey.

I had seen Sai Pallavi’s films since 2015’s Premam and 2017’s Fidaa, but she really just floored me with Shyam Singha Roy, which I wouldn’t have really loved without her part of the story. Then came Gargi, last year’s Amaran and then the promos for Thandel began. Besides the fact that she’s a wonderful dancer, Pallavi’s got one of the most wonderful expressive eyes.

In between, of course, Saiyami Kher made her Hindi debut with Mirzya in 2016, which I enjoyed a lot. It seems like I’m one of the very few people that actually kinda liked that movie. Since then that OST has been a constant on my music-playing habits. Then came Anurag Kashyap’s Choked and ran into her on Wild Dog. In between films, Kher had focused at lot of her output on long-form shows, so I was so thrilled to see her doing 8 A.M. Metro, and doing well with Agni and Ghoomer, which put her together in a project with Shabana Azmi, who is a sorta x-degree aunt of sorts. lol

In Celebrity, English, Films, Fun, Misc., Screencaps, Sharing, Stills , , ,
permalink

The Meenaxi Vinyl We Needed

November 2, 2024 — Leave a comment

I stumbled across a vinyl version of Meenaxi – A Tale of Three Cities, and I’m almost disappointed it’s just a generic pressing of one of A.R. Rahman’s most underrated soundtracks and, of course, one of Tabu’s most underrated gems.

For a while now, I’ve been lamenting the death of physical media in India. The movie collection is really really suffering from it.

The world is also suffering from lack of high definition promo materials and HD transfers for M.F. Hussain’s Meenaxi. The world deserves multiple color vinyl editions to play on the Yeh Rishta [MV]/Rang Hai [MV] color palette themes of the movie. Blue, yellow, orange, purple, besides the red one.

In Celebrity, English, Films, Graphics, Misc., Music, Products, Sharing , , , , , ,
permalink

When you’re on the train, and you Chaiyya Chaiyya~

September 29, 2024 — Leave a comment

I forgot to post this a while back, but this is a total feeling when you’re listening to music and the song comes up.

In Celebrity, Clips, English, Fun, Graphics, Misc., Music, Screencaps, Sharing, Television , , , , , , ,
permalink

The Shortest Trip from Peru to India

April 23, 2024 — Leave a comment

I took some time to plan an imaginary trip to India to truly realize we really live in opposite sides of the world. lol I’d figured these are the most possible routes.

[click to expand a bit]

Most comfortable route seems to be Lima via Sao Paulo to Johannesburg and Mumbai. Peruvians who want to travel for regular tourism and chill activities for less than six months can apply for an e-Tourist visa. Peruvians do not need visas to enter Brazil (shorter than 90s days) nor South Africa (visits shorter than 30 days).

Peruvians don’t need visa to transit through Amsterdam.

Peruvians do need one to enter the US, even for transit. Long gone are the days of free transit in the US. However, traveling through San Francisco seems the least practical, even though San Francisco is a great hub to enter into East Asia. My preferable spot for point of exit.

As a reverse practice— Indians DO need visas to enter South Africa and Brazil (only diplomatic passport holders are exempt.) But it looks like they might not need a visa to transit through Amsterdam.

Regular Indians do seem to need a visa to enter Peru, though citizens who hold valid US, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia or Schengen visas seem to be exempt. So if you already travel, it seems pretty straight forward.

In English, Graphics, Misc., Sharing, Spanish , , ,
permalink

Finding Riches: Tabu vs. Tabu

Not gonna lie and say I haven’t been obsessing over the trailer for Crew since it dropped, and looking at the clips for Ghagra [1] and kinda giddy at the cover remix of Choli Ke Peeche [1].

I even finally re-watched Idhi Sangathi (with synced subs!) because of it.

Tabu finding riches in highly unusual places!

My only grip with the film, currently, is that my suspense of disbelief is dropped when I see them carrying kilos of gold. Autistic.

Other than that, I’m a super fan of potty-mouthed Tabu (I hope the announcement that theatrical was edited only means we get the potty-mouthed version on Netflix), and I want someone to ask them how much of the funny bits were ad-lib and improv, because that scene where they tell Kriti to sell her assets and the reaction to it was hilarious.

Posted on March 26, 2024 In Celebrity, English, Films, Fun, Misc., Music, Screencaps, Sharing, Trailers , , , , ,
permalink Leave a comment

The Film Library Is Shaping Up~

Buying physical media has been a chore lately, you gotta keep an eye out so you make sure you don’t miss your delivery because, for some reason, people cannot just leave your package any longer.

Plus, distributors are doing physical media less and less. The whole of the Indian Cinema industry has decided to phase out physical media in favor of going all in on OTT and VOD. Even enormous hits like RRR are left with no physical release, even in the West. Even Disney is letting Sony handle its physical media, which seems like the end of an era. Then there’s the whole thing about editing and disappearing media from libraries.

So these are some of the most recent -and not so recent- films that have been added to the physical library. I wish I had more disposable income because there are a bunch of titles (and upgrades) that had been added to the wishlist.

These on top of some Bluray upgrades like Sion Sono’s Love Exposure, Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying, brand new Criterion’s for Los Otros and Laberinto del Fauno. Some random BR UK release for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Also, this post makes it so that this year is the most I’ve blogged since 2020. I’m coming for you 2019. Four posts in Feb’24 is the most continuous blogging since Aug’18.

Posted on February 21, 2024 In Chinese, DVD/BR, English, Films, French, Japanese, Misc., Rants, Screencaps, Sharing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
permalink Leave a comment

The Clown Who’s Not Watching TV

February 13, 2024 — Leave a comment

That’s me. People will ask me if I’m watching which and what show, and I would usually say that I really don’t have time to watch much television. However, the past week I’ve been catching up with my “to watch” list and inundated.

I watched one single episode of Prime India’s Jubilee, which I’m looking forward to finishing. And I just binged through Apple’s Pachinko. I’m usually hit or miss with Kogonada (After Yang was excellent), but my only complaint about Pachinko is that I really wish American series would do their just one off series and not make me wait for two or three seasons.

I’ve also just started Nicole Kidman’s Nine Perfect Strangers (after going through Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things with Kathryn Hahn). Going though Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird, and have been catching Demon Slayer episodes, as well as rewatching shows like Cowboy Bebop and Orange Days (went through Tiger & Dragon, as well as Quartet a while back). Picking up old school Trigun, and planning to finally go through Emily Blunt’s The English and FINALLY trying to get through McQueen’s Small Axe.

Not even counting that I really wanted to watch that Prime The Underground Railroad series.

In English, Japanese, Korean, Misc., Posters/Artwork, Sharing, Television , , , , , , , , , , , ,
permalink

Na Hosh Chale (Arijit Signh Version) Lyrics

So I did this.

Na hosh chale
Na junoon chale
Dil par kiska qanoon chale

Tu jaan meri
Meri jaan hai tu
Chal jaise ragon mein khoon chale

Tu kya hai
Kya ehsas hai tu
Ehsas ka koi wajood nahi

Main kaise tujhe chhu leta hu
Jab samne tu maujuud nahi

Ae jaan meri
Meri jaan hai tu
Chal jaise ragon mein khoon chale

Palko ki chhaon dhundta hu
Main teri nazar ki dhoop tale
Uss pyaase ka kya hoga bataa
Jo sabnam ke paataal pai palin

Ae jaan meri
Meri jaan hai tu
Chal jaise ragon mein khoon chale

Full version of the audio is available here.

Vishal’s version (labeled as “Film Version”) is slightly different after the first chorus, so might share in separate post.

Translations to English would be appreciated.

Continue Reading…
Posted on October 26, 2023 In English, Films, Lyrics, Misc., Music, Music Videos, Sharing , , , , , , ,
permalink Leave a comment

Happy 1000th Top Flicks Fans

It took a while, but

Happy 1000th fan!

If you aren’t following the list yet, you might discover a gem or two!

Posted on June 27, 2021 In Chinese, English, Films, French, Fun, Japanese, Korean, Misc., Russian, Screencaps, Sharing, Spanish, Swedish , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
permalink Leave a comment

My 2020 Letterboxd Year in Review + More!

January 16, 2021 — 4 Comments

My only Letterboxd anticipated message came in the other day, but I took a little bit longer to post because the better side of my OCD got to me.

But here it is!

I went on a Stephen Chow binge, and got to watch a bunch of Hrishikesh Mukherjee films for MUBI. Not to be the Debbie Downer of the terrible 2020, but I hope 2021 picks up. This is the first time in my movie-watching history that I only have one single 4-star rating in my Year Films Ranked list. Two titles if you consider Marona’s Fantastic Tale.

This 2021, I have decided to shut off social media and restart blogging once again. It doesn’t matter if it’s into a blackhole of information. I’ve started with this Spanish translation of a review for Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do, since the film is in rotation at the Indian entertainment channel ZeeMundo. We also have a proper Spanish title for Haider (!).

In Chinese, English, Films, Misc., Screencaps, Sharing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
permalink