The other day I caught a rerun of Moulin Rouge! on tv, and this is the first time I’ve lived it — I not only sing out loud, but recite as well as cry during the whole show… so, yeah~ I LIVE IT — since I started watching Indian films. The only thing that would make that movie better is to have had Urmila in there for the Chamma Chamma [clip] sample.
You can’t really get any more Indian -near masala levels- than this, and of course my mind had to have a Battle of the Courtesans between Satine, The Sparkling Diamond and Chandramukhi. It’s a visual battle between Baz Lurhman and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, a flawless duel between Nicole Kidman and Madhuri Dixit, and a fight for the dramatic between Moulin Rouge! and Devdas.
On one side, you got the courtesan manipulated to stay that falls in love with the mistaken penniless writer, until she finds out the evil duke will kill her loved one- oh, and she’s dying of tuberculosis. On the other, the courtesan lives in a mysteriously super posh and luxurious whorehouse, and is the most sought after until she falls in love with the rich lawyer who’s suffering of a broken heart and likes to get drunk to forget his sorrows… that is, of course, until he dies of liver failure after a long period of continuous intoxication.
Jesus, Chandramukhi. Forget, Devdas, and elope with Christian.
This is the first time in my movie-counting life that I’ve seen over 50 movies by the middle of the year. As a general number, I picked 48 a year, to make sure I -at least- watched one film a week for my end of the year list.
There’s a LOT of bad and meh movies so far, but there’s also a decent Top10. Not unbelievable, but decent. It’s a working one that would do for a Dec.31 or Jan.01 publishing date. LOL
I’ve been binging on Madhuri Dixit clips once again because it’s her birthday! I’ve been watching her clips from Devdas multiple times just tonight- I think this is the first time I decided to search for the clips in the best resolution possible. This is the first time I catch the EROSNOW 1080 clips, so I just noticed how cleaned up the image is- like, this is the first time I’m seeing the Devdas print without the orange tint. LOL
So… if EROS has the cleaned up print in high resolution~~~ why the heck aren’t they’re releasing it on Bluray already? I’ve only seen the film once, but it looks odd without the weird coloring… like they cleaned it up and color corrected it wrong. xD Anyway, I’ve settled for a lot of Hindi DVDs already — the YRF DVDs are particularly decent — but I won’t settle for less from Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Being able to just stream the movie is not enough either!
Because look at her! She owns it, and you sorta wish SRK wasn’t overacting so much in it because he’s ruining my mood in here. And I’ve learned to love SRK, but come on!
I ran into this deleted clip of the Rapid Fire Madhuri and Juhi did for Karan. I wonder how it’s decided what questions or answers make it onto the show. Madhuri kept being her usual diplomatic self, especially that answer about who’s the best dancer- it does make me wonder~ I do know that she could totally pull off most dance numbers in most movies most of the times…
Post-Madhuri, I haven’t seen any actress being able to pull off what Madhuri was able to give to the screen… though Aishwarya came close for a while back there. However, there are… on rare occasions… when a choreography is so full of energy from a particular actress that it seems only that actress can pull that number alone. I’m not HUGE on Deepika, but post-Cocktail she improved quite dramatically and she sorta impressed me with Nagada Sang Dhol [clip] – a part of me wants to see whether Madhuri could pull that number right now. It’s the stamina involved.
And though I’m pretty sure the track has been sped up, Discowale Disco [clip] and Dil Bole Hadippa [clip] could also prove a bit of a challenge. But… could Madhuri pull off the funny swag that Rani put into Bhangra Bistar [1]? Ha! I’d LOVE to see that~
Anyway, going back to the clip~ I do think Juhi’s questions were a lot more difficult and expose her a bit more, especially the one asking her about who she considers a current sexy actor, what would happen if a younger co-star would hit on her, and the impact that marriage (and kids) can have in people’s (specifically women) careers. People have also been milking the “rivalry” that should have, so there’s been a lot of focus on Juhi’s character. It shows… err- the shades of her as a person. She’s not the super human that exudes confidence and always has an opinion on anything- she seems like a human being that has had insecurities throughout her life in an industry that heightens everything, and she’s had to lived under that microscope.
In theory, it should bother me… but I find her oddly endearing. Juhi makes me feel like I want to give her a hug, and ALWAYS hope for the best for her. The other day when I found out she voted “for the first time,” my reaction was… “Juhi, you’re in your forties, I can’t believe this is the first time you vote.” LOL Though voting is mandatory down here [two 2-round presidential votes, one for city mayor and one to kick out the major LOL], I do have a really strong sense of politics. I’m the snotty late-twenty-something talking to the thirty-somethings and forties about South and North American politics (I’m a little fuzzy in Central American dealings), East Asian, English, and West European politics.
And I do have too many older friends.
I wonder what it’s like to be Juhi Chawla’s friend. Sipping a cup of coffee or tea and chat.
What made it to the list and where it placed? Some of my biggest biases placed lower than expected, and some that I don’t want to be my bias placed high on there~
I broke MindMeister a while back. Around early March actually, so I went back to FreeMind. It doesn’t look as slick, and you gotta install it… but the interface works in the most straightforward of ways. And their PNG export works really good.
Since March, there’s been a bunch of changes in the list, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra got his own hub after a watch of Delhi 6 — which is the change that broke MindMeister. Mani Ratman also got his own hub, and a watch of Fire sprung a Deepa Meetha hub.
I’ve watched a bunch of Sridevi movies, but not a big fan of the movies themselves except for Sadma / Moondram Pirai. Also added random single titles, catching up with films as varied as Udaan (which sprung a Vikramaditya Motwane hub), Stalin, Highway, and Student of the Year (Alia Bhatt is YUCK in there), and single film additions for Aamir Khan, Shahrukh, Juhi, Madhuri, Rekha, Shabana Azmi, Seema Biswas and Tabu.
According to IMDb, it’s nearly 200 movies already.
I also bought a bunch of Indian movies. The first batch arrived yesterday with Rani Mukherji (2 titles), Vidya Balan (1), Tabu (2), Mani Ratman (1) and Sanjay Leela Bhansali (1) titles. I still wish and hope for SLB Bluray releases for everything pres-Saawariya.
I’m not a fan of the cowboy gauchito hat, but I was surprised that Madhuri Dixit’s Facebook page shared this photo of her showering all her swag. It’s the first time I’ve seen some sort of gender-bending from India. Like… I would die with all the femininity that is supposed to embody women there with their overly long hair, their strong accentuating make-up, the saris and anarkalis.
Rani… sorta did the gender-bending gig for Dil Bole Hadippa! [1], and she had swag but the role was played for laughs, while Tabu has worn suits for different reasons in a number of films (lawyering up in Ghaath, gender-switcheroo gag in Aamdani Atthani Kharcha Rupaiyaa), and wore short hair for a brief period during Hu Tu Tu, but I’ve never come to grips with that.
Maybe I’m just used to seeing them with long hair and saris. I also love how the color red suits Tabu. Sure~ it looks good on film and photoshoots, and it could be local – so of your own – and exotic at the same time, but I would find having to live with it exhausting.
Ok, I admit I’ve been getting a bit crazed over Madhuri and Juhi over the past couple of days, and I was reading a double interview they both did for the promotion of Gulaab Gang, with the whole talk on female-centric films et all. I just thought: Joan Crawford.
We need a Joan Crawford revival, yo!
Since Madhuri wouldn’t mind doing a musical, I propose a re-imagining of Torch Song for her. Coz, duh! Just switch the Broadway musical star to Bollywood, and you got yourself a Madhuri vehicle right there. You only need to avoid the blackface scene (lol!), develop better the relationship with Michael Wilding’s character, and add a demanding choreography a la boastful excess Bollywood style. I’ll need to re-watch it to figure out the whats and hows.
How about Autumn Leaves and Queen Bee as alternative?
Or a re-imagining of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? with Juhi as Baby Jane! LOL! I LOVE IT! Now that I’ve seen her doing the evil smirk politician, I wanna see her in a Bette Davis grotesque role. That’ll really stretch her acting. I dunno how the rat scene will fly in India, though.
