… or maybe I’m just projecting too much, but I thought 2013 had a lot of Father/Son-Daughter relationship movies. Even when it wasn’t literally a blood-relation, like in the more clear case between Idris Elba and Rinko Kikuchi (et Ashida Mana) in Pacific Rim, or the more blurred relationship between Jiao Xu with Mr. Go in Mr. Go.
I cried in a couple of these ones, but I won’t tell you which. LOL
From left to right, top to bottom: Koreeda’s Like Father, Like Son; Miracle in Cell No. 7; Metro Manila; Pacific Rim; Saving Mr. Banks; Silent Witness; About Time; Police Story 2013; Instructions Not Included; and Mr. Go.
This YouTube thing telling me I should maybe “watch” some videos that I had already watched had me clicking on the BackStreet Boys’ I Want It That Way,because… WHY NOT? — turning me into a 15-year-old all over again.
Actually, I was a lot younger. I was probably closer to 13, but you can’t really tell considering distribution wasn’t instant back then. My English skills weren’t consistent back then, and I remember we’d all share the lyrics to the song from an ex-classmate that was visiting when she’d left for the US. Printed out emails to share lyrics. xD
Up until these days, whenever I listen to songs of the 90s, it’s likely I have to stop what I’m doing and sing at the top of my lungs… even though I can’t reach the notes any longer. LOL I also can’t sing along while doing choreography either. xD I also don’t bother to learn lyrics of songs either. It’s not only because 80% of the music I listen to now it’s in a language I can’t converse in, there’s also the amount of music that needs to be heard.
When I was little, dad used to say, “when you can’t sleep, just look to the sky. Find the brightest star, and the magician will grant you a beautiful dream.” In the dream, I know the magician will bring my father back.
Father’s day is coming up soon, and all the promotion has made it a difficult start of the month. This is the latest song to make me cry.
So… I thought I was wrong [1], but now I’m not so sure.
One of my pet-peeves with Indian cinema (and Chinese… and Russian) is when some sort of dubbing is involved. The Russians, of course, are the worst offenders of that when they just slap some Russian over-dubbed without even caring if it’s a man talking over a female character. It’s not even like it’s properly dubbed, it’s just lazily slapped onto the original track without even lowering the audio.
Then the Chinese mess around with you because you got Hong Kong actors that don’t necessarily speak proper Mandarin working with Mainland actors who wouldn’t necessarily speak proper Cantonese (or at all). The result? You don’t exactly know which one is the original audio track. The way I go about it is to choose always Cantonese when film is set in Hong Kong, and go for Mandarin in most epics. Anything historical epic HK production pre-97 also gets the Cantonese favoritism. xD
India has suchhhhhh an array of languages that I’m not entirely familiar with that it would mean little to choose one language over the other, unless you’re bothered with lips syncing. Though Hindi now sounds familiar, I must admit. What bothers me is that I get accustomed to people’s voices. It seems people in India find certain voices more appealing than others, and could -in a whim- dubbed you over. One of the reasons I can’t stand Ghulam is because it bothers me that Rani’s dubbed voice doesn’t match my idea of Rani.
Tabu has done a bit of non-Hindi films, and though her acting can be epic- Telugu dubbing, man. I know and I like Tabu’s voice, and it freaks me out a little how different the dubbing voice can be. As a general dubbing rule, companies tend to go for voices that are similar to the original audio… or they go for someone with a similar flare. Not generally in Indian cinema.
All this talk is because I found a clip of Vidya Balan from Urumi, for which I complained that they probably dubbed their voices. However, in the clip, it sounds… almost like Vidya. For a very long moment I thought it was her, until I read the comments… now, I’m not sure. LOL
If it’s dubbed, it’s the best dubbed I’ve seen. It’s a Japanese super-dub!
If it’s Vidya’s voice, she apparently speaks perfect Malayalam for the movie.
… or what I think it’s an upcoming issue of Filmfare, anyway.
I just ran into this lovely photo from the Filmfare editor’s Twitter account [1][2], and if you zoom into the images, you sorta can read those first two pages. Otherwise, I did a search and found nothing yet. According to the main quote, the most note-worthy thing Tabu said was “Apart from a child, a man can give me diamonds,” which is not, considering that she says she wanted to learn ballet. Now THAT is interesting!
In general, prima ballerinas are thought to be small… though that is apparently changing now that people are taller. Imagine a danseur that is 5’11 or 6 feet tall with a prima ballerina that is only 5’2. If Tabu had problems with her height in an industry that could pull off camera tricks, I can’t imagine if she had follow through with ballet.
Other notable comments from the images were the ones she made about her moving from Hyderabad to Mumbai. It’s interesting because it goes so in contrast to her early interviews. And she hasn’t read Shakespeare. I hated reading unfiltered-yet-translated Shakespeare in school. LOL Anyway, having said all of that, Haider is really one of my anticipated films this year :)
Oh-oh, and she wants to do an action film where she does her stunts. While watching Jai Ho, I wanted her to go all Mama Bear before she had to call Salman- like, THAT would have made the movie actually a lot better. It wouldn’t have made sense with anything in her current backstory, but they could’ve made it work. Tabu just hitting bad guys.
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.
Interesting interview that I think I had read back when Jai Ho premiered, but now that I’m more knowledgeable makes much more sense and it’s much more interesting.
Since you’ve played such diverse and memorable roles I’m curious to know if you could invite any five characters to dinner, who would you choose?
Nimmi (Maqbool), Mumtaz (Chandni Bar), Aditi (Astitva), Panna (Hu Tu Tu), and Veeran (Maachis).
From left to right .– Veeran, Panna, Aditi, Mumtaz, Nimmi.
I would surely agree that those are her best characters, but I’m not sure I would like to sit in a room with Nimmi, Panna or Veeran (unless that’s pre-Maachis events). I would certainly feel uneasy with Nimmi. LOL And Nimmi would definitely not get along with Panna, so the whole dinner party would end up being blown up to pieces ;P that is if Nimmi doesn’t get someone to get her first~ ha!
With my current watches, I would keep Aditi and Mumtaz, and add~~~ Sowmya (Kandukondain, Kandukondain), Kavita (Ghaath) and- I can’t pick between Ashima (The Namesake), Nina (Cheeni Kum) or Meenaxi. xD Or maybe I’ll go thematic and pick Dr. Malini (Fanaa) or Neetu (Khuda Kasam), with whom we will talk about laws, the justice and defense system.
Aditi and Mumtaz will probably enjoy the company of Ashima, Meena (Aamdani Atthanni Kharcha Rupaiya) and… Janki (Chachi 420) or Gehna (Virasat).
Also, I went on a binge Amazon purchase and got myself a bunch of Tabu movies (and other movies) as the good fan that I am with my fandoms.
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.
