It took a while, but
Happy 1000th fan!
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Archives For vidya balan
It was Tabu’s birthday yesterday, so happy birthday!
The web was flooded with wishing-well graphics and trivia posts of some of the same-old same-old trivia bits. The best one was Jitesh Pillai [1][2] who shared some photos of the new issue of Filmfare Magazine– Tabu has a couple of pages in a shoot by Vivek Bhatia [Facebook], there doesn’t seem to be an interview, just a photoshoot of four shots with short texts.
— May 8th, 2016 edit —
I don’t know why I was under the impression that Vivek Bhatia was in charge of the photoshoot. Correction: these photos were by Abhay Singh.
She gets up with the morning’s prayer on her lips… and the night’s pleasure in her eyes.
Is that suggestive or is that suggestive?
And the cherry on top? The Filmfare issue also includes a short 10-trivia article on Vidya Balan with photos by Rohan Shrestha [used here][and here]. However, it doesn’t seem to be connected to this mysterious photoshoot that I loved so much. My favorite bit about that?
If there are no subtitles in an English film, then I don’t enjoy watching it. The actors speak so softly that I can’t understand the dialogue. I hate to miss even a single word.
There’s so many mumblers, nowadays. I do watch everything with subtitles— English, Spanish, French, Portuguese… in that order, and if there’s none available in those, I’ll try to wing it in Chinese.
I’ll champion anything Vidya does. This goes hand in hand with her Mother India cover!
Well~ that was a LONG process. Buth ere it is, after nearly four months of movie-watching and voting… the YAM Magazine team’s favorite movies of this decade so far~ Hope you find one you like, discover one… and that we included some of your favorites!
Oh, Happy Chinese New Year! Let’s start my (supposedly) bad-luck Goat Year with the now-mandatory Letterboxd list of my film collection~
I have a really weird history with films– born in the late 80s, you’d think I would’ve grown watching loads of 90s kids stuff, but I actually grew up with a lot of Silly Symphonies (which were released in the 30s) and loads of Disney 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s stuff, plus a lot of more grown up 80s movies. Poltergeist, The Thing, The Fly and The Stuff were particularly scary stuff (and I’m pretty sure I was scared of yogurt or white stuff at some point).
I don’t ever remember buying any original VHS tape, except for the rare birthday gift of a Disney’s Sing-Along Songs chapter or that X-Men tape I have. My first DVDs buys were Coyote Ugly, She’s All That and Loser — you can’t blame me. I was a 15-year-old girl. The collection grew bigger, and possibly exploded during my years abroad. I’m nearing my 500th movie.
I just posted my 350th review, Jigarthanda [also in Español], which happens to be my 30th (sorta) Indian film review. So~ commemorating! Here’s a list of my first 30 Indian film reviews. You can actually see how my journey [1][2][3][4][5] has shaped up from DDLJ, KKHH and K3G YRF, SRK (and Kajol, though I posted her reviews later on) and Karan Johar-centric to Bhansali, Rani, Vidya, Madhuri, alternative Hindi cinema to regional stuff.
Here we go (in order of posting date):
- Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge [tmb en Español]
- Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
- Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
- Chennai Express [tmb en Español]
- Black
- Khamoshi: The Musical
- Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
- Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
- Kahaani
- U Me Aur Hum
- Bombay Talkies [tmb en Español]
- Hey Ram
- Fanaa
But honestly~ these photo recaps are best [Part 1][Part 2] - Hasee Toh Phasee
- Gulaab Gang
- Moondram Pirai/Sadma
- Shaadi Ke Side Effects
- Aiyyaa
- Dedh Ishqiya [tmb en Español]
- Siddharth
- Goynar Baksho [tmb en Español]
- CityLights
- Kadal
- Bangalore Days [tmb en Español]
- The Hundred-Foot Journey [tmb en Español]
(I know, I know. Not strictly Indian but was produced by Reliance~) - Mardaani [tmb en Español]
- Lucia [tmb en Español]
- Happy New Year [tmb en Español]
- Haider [tmb en Español]
- Jigarthanda
And if you want to keep track of my reviewed Indian films, go here: English, Español.
I obviously didn’t know about this cover because it predates my Indian movie journey… but it’s just so damn good, you gotta put it out there, you know? Mother India is so the quintessential Indian movie that every single person (in Peru) that has ever spoken to me about what Indian films they’ve seen, they’ve all name-checked Mother India. Regardless of social status… university professors, business owners, bloggers, taxi drivers, waiters… they all name-check “Madre India.”
I don’t think there’s been any significant update since April [1], but since my internal hard disk got busted after a sudden power outage, I lost my last mindmap. Instead of recreating it, I revamped it with some clean-up names and added some others. The clean-up? I got rid off Aishwarya (at least, until I watch other films of her), Nana Patekar (haven’t seen him in a while), same with Arshad Warsi, Sanjay Dutt. Got rid off Kareena, Sonakshi Sinha, Abhishek Bachchan, Anushka Sharma, Ajay Devgn, Salman, and Preity.
Only filmmaker to go is M.F. Husain, because- well, no more films. Also, there’s more order, because I’m lumping all Karan Johar directed or backed projects on his hub.
It’s been a year yo! [1]
Objectively speaking, though I love Tabu with all my fandom heart, I gotta admit that Rani Mukerji is the best movie hub to start out. The only thing she’s missing, really, is films with these other directors like Vishal or Vikramadytia Motwane. I doubt Imtiaz Ali would ever cast her in anything- besides, most his movies… though decent, are quite overvalued. Especially RockStar. And she was >THIS< close to getting to The Namesake, that really…
Rani’s got Bhansali, Hassan, Balan, Konkona and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. That’s of course on top of Shahrukh Khan, Aamir (and the other two Khans), Mani Ratnam, Juhi, and family connections aside, Kajol. And look at the times she’s worked with Amitabh Bachchan… and even son. That’s basically the whole contemporary commercial Indian film spectrum.
Tabu, on the other hand, has Vishal Bhardwaj and Gulzar, sure. She would also get Hassan (though not at his best), and Konkona… as well as Mani Ratnam, Amitabh, and Juhi (in her leading lady days) — probably more crossovers like Govinda and Salman. She also has Mira Nair and Ang Lee in her bag (though not strictly Indian-verse), and a whole bunch of regional films… but they’re more Telugu than anything else. Then there’s Nagarjuna. She had that symbiotic film-relationship to Madhur Bhandakar, whose career isn’t very good at the moment, though I thought Heroine improved in the horrible story treatment he had in Fashion.
I haven’t dared to watch Juhi’s earlier filmography because there’s so much early Aamir, and I’m not a fan of him in those days or Indian commercial films in general. Confession: Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! and Hum Saath-Saath Hain are pretty bad. Both the same director, a director Tabu wants to make a new comedy with. Not a comedy with Rajkumar Hirani, or a Motwane-backed project like Queen or Hasse Toh Phasee. She wants the dude that gave you Salman.
I’m becoming one of those fans that question her film choices. xD Having said that, I am still looking for Idee Sangati (or however you romanize it). I know Telugu films aren’t my thing, and not even Manam is changing my position, but I need to watch that movie.
It’s been a few years since I did a “what I like about” post [1][2], and considering that it’s been one full year since I officially started watching Indian films, I thought it’d be great to look back to see What I Like About Bollywood– pardon me, Indian Films.
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
