I really really really wanted to go and watch Ajith in Aegan this weekend, but since there was some Internet/electricity/server trouble at the office I just couldn't log into the thecinema.in or the inox website yesterday. So I tried this morning and ALL tickets (and we´re talking about 10.000 at Satyam cinemas alone) for this weekend are already gone and only very few tickets for the late shows which I can´t attend on Monday and Tuesday are left.
Bleh.
I´m sitting at the airport in Brussels waiting for my flight back to Chennai after veeery busy 5 days in Berlin (hence no update) but now looks like a good time to do a quick follow up on my last blog post.
Ever since I wrote my piece there have been press releases (from both sides), SRK sort of apologised to his German audience through a special video message and the German fans are ripping each other apart on account of who the truer fans are. Those who are pissed at SRK/his management for their share of the messing up but still love him as an actor/posterboy or those who already forgave and forgot everything, deeming SRK and "his people" the victims of the whole drama.
I am still standing by any word I wrote. Just in case you´re wondering. And I of course will go on watching any Indian film I can in cinemas or buy the (original) DVD´s of the ones I can´t and that look promising to me.
Hi there,
A very late merry Christmas to all of you. I´m still alive, barely, it´s just that this years Christmas vacation turns out to be almost all work and no play. I´ve been acting the perfect bhabhi for the last 8 days - I don´t think I ever cooked that much food in my life and usually drop asleep face down every night.
But today we drove to Zurich, met Marco, Sarkar and Nanndini. I love meeting the people behind the blogs and forumnicks. And afterwards I spent waaay to much money on Tamil DVDs. Love it. Got me some nice Surya, Simran, Jyothika and Bharath and tons - and with tons I mean 9 (nine!) Rajinikanth ones. Among others a movie with this scene
and Billa, the Rajini version of the (old) Don. Ohh. Can´t wait.
I will be back in Vienna on the 31st and having still one week with almost no office duty, all pending reviews will be coming up then.
...Christmas is the quiet tranquil time of the year? Well if you meet that person, give him a tight slap from me. I´ll be off for business to Munich tomorrow morning and after that will go right to first my parents home in Salzburg and after that to Switzerland on the 25th to visit my in-laws. What keeps me going is the prospect of intense Tamil-DVD shopping in Zurich on the 28th (coffee anyone?) and that I should have web-access at all places I visit :-D
So sorry, for my unusual posting silence. Apart from watching Jaan-E-Mann, which deserves a looong insightful hyper review, twice, I had absolutely no time to see any new films. But I have high hopes that if not during my family vacations I´ll have plenty of time and space to watch and write after we return home.
Let me leave you for now with a screenshot very much describing my present state of mind.
P.S. I´ll don´t wish you merry Christmas just now. I now I will be back posting before that.
EDIT: What did I just say about quiet tranquil Christmas time? - 2 Minutes after I published this post the alarm in the office went off. And the stupid bugger who set it off did not call to tell it was a false alarm....Arrghhh.
Yeh kya hai? Universe seems to gang up against my writing the Love Love Love review....
Today the 2-disc Don DVD came and with it the "Free Don Comic Book Inside!" and so I of course had to watch the Extras.
Verdict: the "Making of" is terrible. Extremely bad sound, totally lame framestory, bad encoding. Feels like a very cheap first year filmstudents project.
So not up to par with the rest of the DVDs. The deleted scenes are interesting if not too many. Especially one nice encounter between Vijay/Don and Malik. Then there are some Bloopers, the theatrical trailer and a very weird claptrack.
Not much but miles apart from the Jaan-E-Mann DVD that has no extras except for the Trailer. Sirish, I seriously think about pulling my (very few and thin) ropes to find out why there is not even one tiny making-of/behind the scenes on the DVD. If one movie´s "How they did it" interested me, then it was this.
As to the technical quality of the Don feature DVD. Top-notch. Just as RDB or Lakshya, a superb digital transfer. Why oh why did LRM not come out on UTV?
I spent quite a restless weekend and am way too lazy to write much. So I´ll just tell you that I finally saw (and liked) the new Don and as contrast program got me some Shashi Kapoor *Wheeeee* in Aa Gale Lag Jaa. I also finally made myself sit through Kabhi Haa Kabhi Naa and since there was time to do so, re-watched Yuva.
I still can´t decide if I prefer Aayutha Ezhuthu or Yuva. Does AE have the same fantastic "just one cup of pure harmless platonic coffee" dialogue line? I don´t remember.
Since we´re already talking about the dialogues in Yuva. Anurag Kashyap, who wrote them, is shooting his new movie "No Smoking" with John Abraham and he, together with a bunch of other cool people, is blogging about that at Oz´s PassionForCinema site. Go there, its bilkul first class.
Coming back to my not reviewing any movies since last week...I plan on doing a liveblogging post about Don, when I re-watch it coming week. And of course reviews of the other two films. I might add that during the screening of those the one or other Bollywoodfugly material showed up..
I love this commercial and as of today there is only Sarfarosh missing and then I have watched all its characters movies.
My grandma loves him, my Ma starts to giggle when we talk about him, my 20 year old former assistent could not do any work without SRK smiling from her computer screen and half of my non-regular Bollywood watching friends or co-worker start drooling at the mention of his name.
And me? Being a die-hard Sanjay Dutt Fan and the fact that I try to branch out a lot watching all kinds of Indian Movies, its sometimes months that I don´t get to see any Shahrukh Khan.
So it happens that I sort of forget what makes me like him so much. And then WHAAMM! One of his films is being played on TV or stuff like KANK arrives and I have to kick myself out of the SRK induced trance-like state that I fall into immediately. He just does that everytime. No matter how good or bad, over-the-top or low-key he acts. The guy just oozes charisma. Beth named it right: Resistance is futile.
So, birthday boy. Happy, happy birthday. Keep on mesmerizing me. Many happy returns. I am by far not done with loving to watching you on the big screen.
...and you´re tagged. But I like it, as this is a great tag. One that I first read at Filmiholics´and instantly was intrigued by:
Which movie characters should have had blogs and in what ways would their blogs have changed the movie plots?
One group of blogs that popped up in my mind was that all those poor filmi-lovers whose parents were dead-set against their relationships could have used their blogs to connect and share tips.
Like Rahul and Anjali of K3G or Raj and Simran of DDLJ or Suhani and Aditja of Saathiya and Inderjit and Pallavi of Doli Saja Ke Rakhna or Siri and Santosh of NVNV.
So we could read stuff like tips on how to get on with life after you´ve been kicked out of the house, or how to avoid getting beaten up by overprotective relatives or maybe they could have used it to stay in contact with the family members who, apart from grumpy ol´dad, had no problem with the lovebirds decision.
Lets take K3G. Mom Raichand might have used the blog to secretly stay in contact with Rahul and Anjali and one day "accidently" might have forgotten to close the browser window in Dads homeoffice so Daddy Yash Raichand might have read how very well fitting for the family Anjali actually was and get over his attitude a bit faster then taking 10 years to do so. And we might have had the chance to not witness the whole Feather Poo and Pleather Rohan story...
Or Santosh in NVNV might have gotten some farming tips by readers to insure his victory and maybe have had some contact with Prem and Suman of Maine Pyaar Kya on what to do and not do. And be warned about the evil competitors and thus avoided the prison sentence...
Saathiya or Chalte Chalte are other examples. Having their own blog might have acted as some sort of marriage counseling for those couples because one of their readers might have commented on how stupid it is not to communicate (but then again we might not have seen the cool SRK cameo in Saathiya)
Well, you get the my point...
Btw. I´m back and I don´t ever want to leave again. *whine* As much fun as it was in Berlin and Munich (Yup, Sunday before we left Berlin we were ordered to a meeting in Munich on Tuesday) I really missed my Bollywood. So lets hope that this dryspell is over for good.
Michael started a new blog project with the help of Beth and they got me invited to play along with them too. So very cool. Dekho Naa.
Todays Sunday Kurier (austrian mid-quality newspaper) brought an article today about Bollywood style dancing in Vienna. The journalist came to our dance-class (yes, I do Bollywood dance once a week, because its fun, not because I´m any good. Usually I take private lessons with 2 friends, but our teacher, Neha, is home in Mumbai for the summer, so we joined a class at community education centre) And hey, I got quoted. He even got the facts almost right. So here are some excerpts from the article (in German, its too hot for translating today)
Hello, Bolly
Im Bollywood Tanzkurs leben Filmfans ihre Indien-Begeisterung mit vollem Körpereinsatz aus.
[...]Viele Teilnehmerinnen - Männer sind in der Minderzahl - können die Tänze schon fast perfekt. Sie gehören zum harten Kern der Bollywood-Fangemeinde, die sich in einem Internet-Forum austauschen, Partys organisieren und ihre Indien-Begeisterung in allen Lebensbereichen - vom Essen bis zur Wohnzimmereinrichtung - auslebt. "Ich bin eben ein Filmfreak und interessiere mich für Hintergründe", sagt Barbara [that would be me], die nicht weniger als 170 Bollywood-DVD´s zuhause hat. Sie ist schon aus dem Alter hinaus, in dem Mädchen Stars "total wawa" finden und Schauspieler wie Shahrukh Khan anhimmeln wie andere Leute Brad Pitt - sie ist eher ein wandelndes Lexikon der kulturellen Eigenheiten des Bollywoodkinos[...]
[...]"Es ist eine wunderschöne Bewegung, sexy und elegant. Und die Musik ist mitreißend" schwärmt Barbara [...]
Bollywood. Das Wort ist eine Mischung aus "Bombay" und "Hollywood" und bezeichnet die in Mumbai ansässige Filmindustrie. Diese produziert etwa 250-300 Spielfilme pro Jahr (die oft genannte Zahl von 900-1000 Filmen bezieht sich auf die gesamte indische Produktion) Trotz einer großen Bandbreite von Filmen gibt es "typische" Bollywood-Movies mit Tanz- und Musikeinlagen, romantischer Handlung und oft über 3 Stunden Länge.
After watching Lagaan last week I finally ordered "The Spirit of Lagaan" a book about the making of the movie by Satyajit Bhatkal. And read it today.
Bhatkal is the guy who also directed the documentary "Chale Chalo: The Lunacy of Filmmaking" an extended making-of/behind the scenes of Lagaan.
The Book itself is more like a - at times fast paced, at times frittering - production diary giving insight to a (at that time) very novel way of filmmaking for hindi mainstream cinema.
The two major alterations: Lagaan was shot in sync-sound (something that was not done for quite some time apart from small arthouse productions) and the shooting took place during one single schedule (again opposite to industry practice).
Now with five years since the movies release and the knowledge of technical changes in Hindi cinema and how the professional and private lives of the people involved turned out to be, it is an interesting snapshot of indian film history.
Nehaflix 5$ DVD sale. No good. Additional -10% voucher. Even worse.
I´m loosing track of my orders. It took me 10 minutes to find out which of my orders are still outstanding. As of today I´m waiting for:
Hey Ram
Kaagaz Ke Phool
Let's Talk
Pyaasa
Do Raaste
Rakht
Judaai
Meri Aan
Reshma Aur Shera
Masoom
China Gate
Vijay
Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate
Nuvvosthanante Nenoddantana
plus the Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna OST
and I don´t even feel guilty yaar.
Do not be afraid. I will not start to collect news on this blog. naachgaana and michael do that much better then I can, but this one is to cool too let pass.
It seems that a song of Himesh Reshammiya is attracting ghosts in a small village in Gujarat. Villagers are getting possesed by ghosts when his song Jhalak Dikhlaja is being played. At least that is what they claim to have found out. So now they are trying to get a court ordered ban on the song. Love it.
http://www.indiafm.com/news/2006/06/01/7205/index.html
nowrunning.com has a commentary on the aamir/fanaa/gujarat thing that I can pretty much assent. From what little I, as an outsider, know of that situation at least.
Gujarat's worrisome slide into intolerance of dissent
Mayank Chhaya [Thursday, June 01, 2006]
Actor Aamir Khan is discovering what many celebrities before him have done to their chagrin - the price of expressing a dissenting opinion in India's fractious and imperfect democracy.
readmore
Indian media tell us that the Fanaah release is facing some troubles. First you have the Gujarati Multiplexes banning the movie because of Aamir Khans support for the Narmada dam opposing groups and second it might be in trouble because Yashraj is demanding a higher share of the ticketsales in Multiplexes all over India which might cause them to not play the movie as well.
Somehow all of Aamirs movie openings in the last year had PR "nightmares" before opening. The trouble MP ran into was that it was feared that the figure of Mangal Pandey was shown "historically" incorrect (which was weird because there is not much known about Pandey apart from his military records anyway) then RDB ran into controversy because of animal rights activists complaining to the censor board and there were the - false- media reports about problems with the indian army. Now we have the BJP threatening to "tear down" any theatre in Gujarat that shows a movie with Aamir in it.
It all looks a bit fishy to me. My knowledge of indian cinema is still only limited to Hindi cinema so I don´t follow news about the south indian movie industry. But my guess would be that there are similar PR stunts.
Let me as an total western outsider ramble for a bit. Indian Politics run on a high emotional scale. Undereducated people will always listen to polemic paroles. And films, the film industry and its stars are easy targets for P.R. hungry politicians. So the explanation for the Gujarat trouble is easy. But are the threats the only reason? I don´t think so. My guess its just about money and PR.
What really would interest me (and so far my knowledge of indian media processes and relationships is still to sketchy) Does the press - which obviously is the key element in pushing this kind of PR - hype it deliberately? Are they compensated? Is it institutionalised or are there just some few journalists or publishers gaining from bagging stuff like that? And most important is the indian public really led by news of this kind or are the media again overplaying these events, so that news is producing the news?
So is Fanaah really in trouble?
EDIT 25/5/06: surprise, surprise...Fanaa will be playing at the multiplexes (except for Gujarat I guess)
oh, and here´s a link to the Aamir-Kajol in conversation about Fanaa show...PR bla bla mainly. The only interesting bit for me was to hear that Aamir is taking a 6 months sabbatical now.
Just saw the first official PR pics of "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna" and the short CNN-IBN interview with Preity in Cannes. Ohh, I so cannot wait for the release of this movie. Get the Taglines from the posters: A Film About Relationships, A Film About Love, Love That Broke all Relationships...
During the interview one can catch a glimpse of the trailer with Abhi shouting at Rani... hmmm sounds like a lot of teary heartbreak for me. Nice.
Just what I am waiting for. Highgloss, lots of Kleenex, heartbreak, Abhi and Dad, SRK with kind of longish hair. My kind of movie. And I dont care if its a ripoff of Closer or whatever. I dont expect Karan Johar movies to show a solution for world peace or giving bold socio-economic statements. Or defining new artistic hights. I just want beautiful people with heartwrenching problems so I can have a good cry even on the fifth pass and I´m sure he will deliver.
Edit: had to remove the link, since indiaFM has pulled the pics from its site..
Since Subhash Ghai seems to have started another PR round for the Whistling Woods Institute for Film, Television & Media Arts, I need to put in my two cents. Why? Call it professional curiosity. For those who don´t know I´m the technical manager of a private college for media technology. We teach sound engineering, the whole range of web and offline design and anything concerning the technical aspects of filmmaking (camera, lights, animation, postpro etc).
So there is quite some crossover in the courses offered.
And here start the two cents. The Iqbal DVD by Murkta Arts has a commercial for Whistling Woods on it. And it sucks. Big time! If I were a competitor and released that thing you could sue me for slander.
It starts with the usual Censors Board Certificate and while it is shown the sound crackles and hisses like an 45" from the 20ies. Well could be an artistic statement. To show how movies used to sound. Nope. The crackling continues right to the end. To top that you see Subhash and a big part of the A-List of Bombays Directors and Producers give statements why it is so cool that Bombay finally gets the best Film Institute there can be. But its hard to understand as most of them sound as if the were talking from under a thick blanket. My favourite parts are the bits with Karan Johar. You can´t see his freaking face! The lighting makes him look like those camouflaged guys in the Jerry Springer show that don´t want to be recognised. There is a big black shadow right over his whole face!!
How can they do that? If you go to their website and look at the tuiton fees and how they try to present themselves. I just don´t get it. I remember last year we made a 30 second Cinemaspot and I almost killed my staff to get it as professional as possible even with our very tight budget.
Indian film productions made a big leap in technical aspects since around 1998. If that commercial was from 1990 I would not have thought anything but 2005?
It has been at least four weeks since I last watched a SRK movie. Why? I haven´t got a clue. Whenever I watch SRK Movies I love him. But then I go and fall for other guys. One tends to forget how really cool this guy is. You watch Sanjay or Salman or Anil or the Bachchans and they are fantastic and somehow your Shahrukh memories fade and you start to think stuff like "oh well he´s not that special anyway". And them Wham! you catch a glimpse of him in the Saathiya Promotrailer that is playing on RTL2 at the moment and go "Wait a minute, how could I forget you?"
So guess who´s making his comeback on my TV tonight?
I need to put a disclaimer right at the beginning of this post: Chuleray this is in no way any hint at you !!
But, I´ve got it back. Wohoo. Finally. Baby B is back. After loooong weeks my "Bluffmaster!" DVD came back to me yesterday. Finally. I´m repeating myself. But I really missed that movie. And just so that everybody knows, this one is going straight to the "do-not-lend-out" shelf.
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