lesbiassparrow

Holy Mother of God, the medical student in Ghajini is annoying. I have rarely wanted to shove a character under a bus quite so much. Also, despite how much I like the music of this film, I am finding the dance numbers a bit underwhelming. Even (astonishing!) Guzarish. Even shirtless Aamir fails to impress there. Can the girl not dance at all? Is that why this is all just shots of them standing or twirling?

A bunch of people on my flist seem to be having bad times lately; in an effort to cheer you up I bring you a link to Learn Hindi from Bollywood movies. Even if you are not interested in Bollywood or Hindi it is very funny. I am up to podcast 5 and already I have learned how to deal with rejection (especially if it involves being commanded to put my head on an editor's feet),* how to nurse resentments for years, curse my employees' blood, and how to know when my boss trusts me (it's when he tells everyone not to shoot the doorman: you'll be happy to do that).

I haven't learned much Hindi (well, Hindi that I could use) but it is vastly entertaining.

ETA: I am now learning how to deal with getting visas when you come from one of the many European countries that has wronged India and how to tell the girl you want to pick up that my blood is not made up of lemon soda, thus reassuring her that I am indeed human and filled with manly vigour.

* I also learned the valuable fact in this one that every writer is entitled to 5 seconds of self-respect in their lives.

You know what makes me happy? Sholay, the evergreen classic jewel of Bollywood, that's what. And while people have told me of this wonder for a long, long time, teasing me with mentions of dancing on glass to save one's true love and massive amounts of Hoyay THEY SOMEHOW FAILED TO MENTION THE ARMLESS MAN. How could you miss this bit! He is simply the greatest role that Indian cinema has ever written.


Sholay is the story of two simple, good-hearted thieves who like to travel on trains while handcuffed to each other. This increases their deep but manly love for each other while also impressing police officers.

( Cut for images and spoilers )

It's hard to describe this Bollywood film because it couldn't really decide what film it wanted to be; the genre changed about every five minutes. But that's not important. What is important is that because I couldn't quite believe it was as strangely and fascinatingly about the love of Bobby Deol's character for Arjun Rampal's as I remembered, I rewatched it. And lo! I bring you photographic evidence of their true love.

( massive picspam of the love behind the cut )

I just saw this, the latest Shahrukh Khan film, and it was AWESOME. There was a lot of shouting and running and field hockey and most importantly Shahrukh Khan doing all of these things often at the same time. I now want to go out and shout Chak De! to people. And if I wouldn't die of a heart attack I would take up playing street hockey once more.

( Cut for discussing the most awesome scene which is also obviously a spoiler )

ETA: And now I will destroy my cheery mood by watching the last two episodes of Silence. I keep having to pause this one because the angst is too much. It's almost superangst it is so powerful. The only way I keep myself going is by hoping that the evil dad gets run over by a truck or thrown out of a plane into the desert to suffer. IF THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IT WILL BE ONE MORE PROOF OF AN UNJUST UNIVERSE.

ETA 2: I thought it wasn't possible for me to hate Evil Dad anymore than I did. Turns out I was wrong. My hatred of him is so pure and burning it gets me through the angst in the other scenes because I am hopeful of a horrific fate for him. I just sit there devising new ones as the episodes go on.

ETA 3: Hey, Evil Dad? You know when you say that maybe god is punishing you? I'd take out the 'maybe' if I were you because I'm pretty sure any just deity would like to do so for your horrible treatment of your wife and son for over 20 years, breaking your son's heart, blackmailing his OTP into leaving him, firing half the workers in your factories, deserting your first wife and never taking care of your daughter by her, and sundry other offences including being a grade A wanker who is horrible to everyone around them.

ETA 4: Well, that was depressing. I think I've read happier Dostoevsky novels.

This was an odd film for me, because there were stories I really liked and stories that gave me the creeps.

( Salaam-E-Ishq: more love stories than you can shake a stick at )

Er, do you think it's odd when you are watching something and you think 'x person on LJ would love this?'

Oh flist who knows all:

1. Is there actually an official version of the Tdrama Mars with English subtitles? If there is I'd like to buy it, but I am not sure where to look. (I can't seem to find it on Yes Asia).

2. Outside of nehaflix and ebay where is a good place to get Bollywood? I want to get Oh Darling Yeh Hai India and it's not available on either. I fear some of the sites out there.

3. Where do you buy (translated) manga online? There are some shops here I can go to but I'd also like a good online source.

Thanks very much!

Well, it wasn't quite that bad, but it was no Don! And considering we had driven down to Artesia to see Don, which was suddenly not playing, that was not good.

Dhoom 2 is a thrilling tale of....well, actually, I am not sure, because it really abandoned any semblance of a plot very quickly on and instead decided to show shiny, pretty people dancing and doing stunts without a lot of clothes on whenever it might need to have any sort of narrative. (Hrithik Roshan must have a clause in his contract that he must dance around oiled and shirtless for at least 40 minutes in every one of his films. If I liked him more I would approve of this.) I think there was something about a master thief and the cop who chases him, but that's as far as I'd venture a guess. There were some mighty long scenes of wet basketball playing. And lots of leaping off things. And Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan engaging in mildly suggestive conversations, which seemed to suggest that they far more interested in each other than their love interests.

I just don't know what to say about this film, it's that bloody amazing. It's the sort of film you show people when they say Bollywood is all silliness and dancing and singing and nothing under the surface. Because this is the film that gives the lie to that.

This is a Bollywood version of Othello, so its subject matter is not what you would call cheery and the slow slide towards the end is just horrible to watch. The film has switched the locale to Utar Pradesh; Omkara (Othello) is a half-caste gangster working for a politician who has just been promoted leaving the inevitable power vacuum of his own successor. Like Othello he passes over the Iago character (Langda) to his own undoing. I don't think there's a perfomance that is offkey here, but Saif Ali Khan owns this film as the villainous Langda; I am not sure I'll ever see him in the same way again. The only problem with this film is that it is so depressing that I will not be able to watch it again - it's even more depressing than the play. It now joins Devdas in the category of 'films which blew me away but cannot ever be seen again for fear I will never recover from the depression.'

ETA: Yep, the more I think about it, the more depressing the film becomes. I don't know - I guess there is something about updating the setting of Shakespearean tragedies which makes them even more heart-wrenching?

ETA 2: But the DVD of this film reminded me that I really hate Eros' tendency to make it near impossible to get to watch the film without sitting through hours of ads for their products. Feck off! I paid good money for the DVD - I don't want to have to sit through silly ad after ad.

According to Nehaflix, Omkara, a Bollywood version of Othello, is already out on DVD. So, of course, I ordered it. But so I wouldn't feel absolutely suicidal after watching it I also bought Hum Tum at the same time (plus the soundtrack from KANK). It should be interesting seeing Saif Ali Khan go from being an evil plotter to being the lead in a romantic comedy.

KANK is playing today in Pasadena; I am wondering what are the chances of me staying awake long enough to make a second trip to see it, given that I woke up at 3 am for some strange reason and did not go back to sleep.

ETA: And HBO obviously wear pirate hats when they price their series; what the hell is the deal with the cost of Rome on DVD? I don't care what extras you are giving, that's an outrageous price for a series that short. They might as well be the BBC for the prices they slap on their stuff.