amedia | Entries tagged with bollywood

Con.txt 2018 Vid Show

I thoroughly enjoyed this vid show, not once but twice! I saw it on Friday evening and then, on Saturday, con members could check out a flash drive with all the vids and copy them to their own laptops so we could rewatch them again anytime! I was in vid heaven! I rewatched them with some friends on Saturday night and loved them all over again. There were fewer conventional slash vids than I’m used to seeing, more character-study vids, and lots of grrl power. Great, great stuff.

[ETA]The con has posted a link to watch them all online! http://con-txt.net/index.php/vid-show/[/ETA]

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Additional information about the vid show can be found at http://con-txt.net/index.php/vid-show/.

Fun and fluffy Bollywood movie! Starring Shahrukh Khan (no surprise there), Kajol, and Amrish Puri as the girl's very strict father. The latter looked familiar, so I looked him up - he was Kiran's very strict father-in-law in Mohabbatein - he was also the leader of the evil cult in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! During his big showdown with SRK near the end, I kept expecting him to reach into the latter's chest and pull out his beating heart, but he never did.

SRK looks very young and winsome in this movie, even with a mullet:

Great songs, including one - Mehndi Lage Ke Rakhna ("Henna") - that I had already bought because I liked it so much on Pandora; didn't realize it was from this movie! ( Click for link to video )

So we're watching Mohabbatein, which was recommended to us, and also stars a couple of our favorite actors--TODS is an admirer of Amitabh Bachchan, and we both like Sharukh Khan. ( weird trivia tidbit--no spoilers! )

( one decent, one execrable, no spoilers )

I don't think anyone will be surprised that I finally made my first Bollywood icon . . . I'm sure it won't be the last.

I found myself typing this morning in an email to a friend that my favorite part of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics was the nightmare sequence, which paid tribute simultaneously to British children's literature and the National Health Service, to the tune of the theme from the Exorcist. Then I stopped, reread it and felt compelled to add in parentheses, "I'm not kidding." ;-D

Taking advantage of being sick to catch up on movies we've watched recently. I keep thinking there should be at least one more, but these are the ones I can remember. ( Read more... )

I know I have some folks on my f-list who are into curling, and some who are into BSG, and at least one or two who are into both! So tell me - is it just me, or does the Canadian skip look a lot like Michelle Forbes (Ro Laren on TNG, Admiral Cain on BSG)?

While watching the curling and hockey, I've been seeing the new Subway ads a lot. I like the version that starts with Cleopatra, especially when the cat lifts its paw for the "five," but I *love* the one I saw first, the one that starts with the Indian dancers looking like something out of a Bollywood picturization. Even the old guy in his study seems to fit, because he and especially his study look very Victorian-London, which also makes me think of India. I was initially hoping they were introducing a new curry-flavored sandwich!

When Father Was Away on Business, Pusher, Weirdsville, Black, Pusher 2, Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind, Six Against the Rock, and Surfwise.( Read more... )

Free from Jaman as a Hallowe'en movie, Woh Kaun Tih? ("Who was she?") is an eerie ghost story/murder mystery from 1964 about a doctor haunted by a mysterious woman. It moved very slowly; TODS and I worked out the twist long before it was revealed. Beautiful settings and costumes and a very atmospheric filming style, although it was sometimes just way too dark for too long. They seemed to be playing with putting an Indian twist on conventional Hollywood ghost cliches--the beautiful woman who vanishes into the graveyard, the deserted house with the dying woman who isn't there when the doctor comes back with the police--but the most surreal moment, in my opinion, was when the action stopped so that the hospital staff could put on a musical show that looked an awful lot like American Bandstand: Tiki-Tiki-Tiki-Takori.

We watched Igor a week or so ago, actually; I'm just behind on posting. Loved it. Both TODS and I have a thing for Frankenstein and have seen a lot of variations - this one was playful and entertaining, with a delightfully gruesome sense of humor. Got it from Netflix.

Chameli was a Bollywood flick we got free from Jaman. Shorter than most (less than two hours) and very serious, although I think there were some scenes that would be very funny to a more knowledgeable audience. The plot is very simple; a businessman stranded in the rain is drawn into the dark world of a fascinating prostitute. Very interesting, lots of layers. ( more observations, some spoilery )

$amedia: Fractal burst of white, blue, and red with sparkles of light here and there (colorful fractal)$

Much, much fun. We got this movie because it was free from Jaman and we like Bollywood - careful to avoid spoilers, we didn't read up on it beforehand, and thus had no idea we were watching THE UR-BOLLYWOOD FILM, a hugely popular classic of the 1970's. It'd be like watching Gone With the Wind without any buildup, y'know?

Anyway, it was a tremendously fun movie. It had way more comedy than I expected (though it got more serious near the end), romance, adventure, musical numbers, you name it. But what really took me by surprise was the look-and-feel. Aside from the wonderful musical numbers - I highly recommend Holi Ke Din - it looks like ... a Western. No kidding. Bandits ride down on horseback from the rocky hills into the dusty scrublands and have showdowns with the heroes (hired to protect the town), including the obligatory angle through the wheel of an overturned wagon. That sort of thing.

When it was over, I looked it up on the IMDB and learned that the director was heavily influenced by Shichinin no Samurai/The Magnificent Seven (you could probably tell that from the brief description in the previous paragraph) and by Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns, to such an extent that the movie is often described as - I LOVE this! - a "curry Western."

Hum Kisise Kum Naheen ("We are no less than anybody") is the first true Bollywood movie that we've seen and it was tremendous fun! It was exhilarating, ridiculous, psychedelic, and delightful. It was very long - almost three hours - but kept up a high level of energy.

There were multiple musical numbers ranging from glitzy stage productions to outdoor romps. The plot was extemely convoluted; we predicted most of the twists, but the fun was watching the multiple strands tangle together and then unravel. Lots of mistaken identities, lost loves, missing jewels, gangsters, helicopters, and extraordinary coincidences. It reminded me of nothing so much as a Monkees TV episode. Loved it!

The music was an interesting mix of contemporary pop and traditional quwalli-style pieces, all performed exuberantly. Here's a sample: Hai Agar Dushman (which includes the movie title in the lyrics).

We rented it through the TiVo from Jaman - they've given us so many free movies we thought we'd like to pay for one, and we've long wanted to see a Bollywood flick!

$amedia: (lightning fractal)$

Also known as Fah Talai Jone. Our first Bollywood-style movie (although it's Thai rather than Indian)! We got it from Jaman. Gorgeous sets drenched in artifical color, surreal juxtapositions, stylized drama and emotions, and a soundtrack that went from drippy love ballads to cowboy Western music at the drop of a hat. An exhilarating ride, a very enjoyable movie.

We have another to watch - after all these free movies we thought we ought to buy one! - called Hum Kisise Kum Naheen. Looking forward to it!