tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843Tue, 09 Jun 2026 06:40:18 +0000thoughts on movieshouse favorite: Shashi Kapoorhouse favorite: Khanna khandan (Vinod; Akshaye; Rahul)house favorite: Shahrukh Khanmasala zindabad | R(ecommended) M(asala) A(llowance)Bengalihouse favorite: Abhishek Bachchanhouse favorite: Rekhahouse favorite: Rani MukherjiBollywood resources (books articles websites etc)house favorite: Neetu Singhsuperwowavoid yaar - and other very bad endeavorshouse indulgence: Kareena Kapoorhouse favorite: Soumitra ChatterjeeFilmi Secret SantasKhanna-O-RamaCha Cha Cha Bahut Accha AwardRekha MonthShashi Week 2009house favorite: Ranbir Kapoorlunchtime pollSatyajit Ray filmsTeluguseven days of 70sPEIBBMSassy Gay Friendresearch questionsShashi Week 2010SridevipaloozaNeetu Singh-AlongDeol Dhamakahouse favorite: Alia Bhattknitting in fillumsKapoor KhazanaTamilcompletely fictitiousquid pro quoBob's Your UncleBollywood in fictionMini Khan Experienceindexpodcasthttp://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/noreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)Blogger998125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-7847222351898113850Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:52:00 +00002022-09-09T18:10:14.005-05:00house favorite: Ranbir Kapoorthoughts on moviesHELLO FRIENDS! It's been aaaaaaaages—not just since I wrote anything here* but also since I was so excited for a film in the cinema and it actually played in my town and it did not disappoint! Perhaps this is because Shamshera is very 70s masala in a lot of the right ways for me: lots of action staged in ways that felt fantastic but not absurdlots of helpful ani-pals emotionally http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2022/07/shamshera.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-4873795641069013027Wed, 17 Apr 2019 02:33:00 +00002019-05-02T16:23:27.066-05:00thoughts on movies How to mark the momentous occasion of the 1000th entry in my Indian cinema-watching career? A colleague suggested I watch something with "thousand" in the title. Googling yielded 2001: Do Hazaar Ek, a Raj Sippy film about a serial killer; Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Ma, a National Film Award-winning piece by Govind Nihalani about Naxalite struggles; and Inaam Dus Hazaar, a remake of North by http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2019/04/my-1000th-indian-film-inaam-dus-hazaar.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-7073609805343544413Mon, 24 Dec 2018 19:30:00 +00002018-12-27T16:27:22.736-06:00house favorite: Alia Bhatthouse favorite: Rani Mukherjihouse favorite: Shahrukh Khanthoughts on movies Thank you to Asim and Amrita for having me on the always excellent Khandaan Podcast to talk about Zero, the trailers of Manikarnika (this could be historical wackadoodle fun but probably won't be?) and The Legend of Maula Jatt (it's hard to think of an actor less evocative of Sultan Rahi than Fawad Khan?), and our year-end choices. The episode is up now! We discuss Zero in depth, http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2018/12/2018.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-1665498722907530583Wed, 05 Sep 2018 01:16:00 +00002018-12-24T14:53:00.631-06:00thoughts on movies First of all, has the artist of this poster actually seen Dev Anand's hair? Wither the mighty poof? Spoiler alert: I'm going to tell you the best parts of this film right away. The first appears about a quarter of the way through, when we see the home of Diwan (Gogia Pashan), who not only has a ventriloquist dummy, Chandu, sitting at his desk like he owns the place but also keeps http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2018/09/dilruba.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-1685062398405770455Wed, 04 Jul 2018 21:35:00 +00002018-09-04T20:17:10.611-05:00thoughts on movies WHAT A FRUSTRATING AND HYPOCRITICAL FILM. I have never seen a film with more disregard for the audience's intelligence. Race 3 doesn't expect or want us to believe it, but I think Raju Hirani, and maybe Sanjay Dutt himself, wants us to accept Sanju's version of history. How insulting. A 3-hour biopic that only barely shows its subject as responsible for anything he does—especially when hishttp://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2018/07/sanju.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-8471800544474423600Sat, 12 May 2018 15:11:00 +00002018-06-24T07:58:31.809-05:00house favorite: Khanna khandan (Vinod; Akshaye; Rahul)thoughts on movies Sometimes Netflix adds a film and you think "Okay sure, why not," especially when you have domestic travel with no in-flight entertainment coming up. And even more especially when it contains favorite Vinod Khanna, even in from a non-favorite era (1988). What was it like at the time to see his return to films? Did news of the Rajneeshee horrors in Oregon reach India at the time? (My http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2018/05/aakhri-adaalat.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-8091917029742398963Mon, 12 Mar 2018 22:04:00 +00002018-03-12T17:40:58.632-05:00Bengalithoughts on movies Every time I rewatch Pillow Talk with Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and Tony Randall (1959)—which is at least once a year, because despite its sexism I adore it—I bemoan the loss of there never having been a Hindi remake in the early or mid-60s. Many of the double entendres would be have to be toned way down, and there might need to be some excuse made for a young single woman living on http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2018/03/goonjan-1990s-bengali-remake-of-pillow.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-7882796828412998414Sun, 25 Feb 2018 16:46:00 +00002018-03-25T11:32:22.806-05:00 My inner 5-year-old is devastated, and I didn't even grow up with her. I don't really know enough to talk about Sridevi's gargantuan careers and stardoms—remarkable plurals—nor about the era in Hindi cinema in which she was the most famous, but some heartbreaks are not silent. I have so much of her filmography left to see, and I'm thrilled by that. When Sal mentioned she has a film as an alien http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2018/02/sridevi.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-5116528259804210832Sat, 04 Nov 2017 02:38:00 +00002018-12-25T08:55:19.060-06:00thoughts on movies 100 words or so on each of this year's Hindi releases I've seen but not written about elsewhere (Badrinath Ki Dulhania, Meri Pyaari Bindu, Jagga Jasoos, and Jab Harry Met Sejal have their own posts). Chalo! Haraamkhor What a way to start Nawazuddin Siddiqui's crazy year. I also want to see lots more of Shweta Tripathi, whom I didn't even recognize here despite watching http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2017/11/catching-up-on-2017.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-8613268820520177196Sun, 06 Aug 2017 00:43:00 +00002017-08-07T21:21:50.350-05:00house favorite: Shahrukh Khanthoughts on movies I'm so glad I'm not a paid reviewer who has to deal with this film in carefully-constructed argument-building paragraphs. I am of the opinion that When Harry Met Sally is Hollywood's greatest rom com, and it should not be invoked as an afterthought or by someone whose major interest is self-discovery angst. We do not actually see the moment Harry and Sejal met. "Met" does not mean "http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2017/08/a-list-of-some-thoughts-about-jab-harry.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-1090735932809205390Thu, 27 Jul 2017 02:55:00 +00002018-06-25T15:09:10.126-05:00Bengalihouse favorite: Soumitra Chatterjeethoughts on movies Last weekend I happened to watch two recent Bengali-milieu films that provide unconventional finishing points while repeatedly incorporating old film songs: Meri Pyaari Bindu (2017) and Praktan (2016). Both also touch on the "older but wiser" idea, which is utterly refreshing for a few reasons. Primarily, it's just true in life that we have the opportunity to learn from past http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2017/07/failed-love-with-hit-songs-meri-pyaari.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-1659936001554970107Sat, 15 Jul 2017 04:11:00 +00002017-07-14T23:11:33.764-05:00thoughts on movies I want to get something out of the way: once again a major Hindi film bungles its major female role. In fact, in this film, Shruti (Katrina Kaif) is the only female role to have more than a few sentences—it's a ridiculous Bechdel Test fail—and she is not written convincingly at all. It's a Boy's Own type of narrative, put in a (pointedly?) Goopy and Bagha-style world in which women don't http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2017/07/jagga-jasoos.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-4154931901240194472Sat, 29 Apr 2017 17:17:00 +00002017-04-29T23:36:28.509-05:00house favorite: Khanna khandan (Vinod; Akshaye; Rahul) [I wanted to make this really well researched and carefully thought out, but each time I try, I just fall down a hole of youtube links and sadness. So it's going to be emotional and personal instead. Vinod Khanna is my first experience with the death of a film star death whose work I really care about. When Feroz Khan died, I had yet to learn how great he is, and Rajesh Khanna still has no http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2017/04/vinod-khanna-masculinity-so-adaptable.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-3511958817184460761Sun, 12 Mar 2017 04:05:00 +00002017-03-13T20:03:27.845-05:00house favorite: Alia Bhattthoughts on movies Things the hero of Badrinath Ki Dulhania does that are beyond even Bollywood's typical sense of "stalking=love" (recording her image without her knowledge or consent and following her to school on the bus hardly registering in this heap of ick): He never, ever, ever understands that no means no. He wordlessly observes the heroine (/love interest) at her home and job after she has told him to http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2017/03/masculinity-so-fragile-patriarchy-so.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-1849854657599905149Sat, 29 Oct 2016 16:51:00 +00002017-07-14T20:45:07.153-05:00house favorite: Ranbir Kapoorhouse favorite: Shahrukh Khanthoughts on movies "It's one of those Karan Johan films where I leave feeling sorry for Karan Johar," said a friend on twitter (whose account is private, so I can't link you to it). If My Name Is Khan was an angst-gasm over cultural identity and Student of the Year over sexuality, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is one over un-mirrored love. I don't know if I'm supposed to be moved by Ayan's (Ranbir Kapoor,http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2016/10/ae-dil-hai-mushkil.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-5653051919347017911Thu, 27 Oct 2016 00:45:00 +00002017-07-24T20:08:13.844-05:00house favorite: Khanna khandan (Vinod; Akshaye; Rahul)house favorite: Shahrukh Khanhouse indulgence: Kareena Kapoorthoughts on movies Ki & Ka If you forget about the Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan part—which you immediately should, because it is bloated and self-congratulatory—this is not a bad little exploration of gender- and relationship-based expectations. The story is more often from his perspective or from within sympathies towards him, I think, but no women are particularly demonized (though the bit about Kia's jealousy http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2016/10/catching-up-on-2016-bollywood.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-5542909954208825591Sun, 14 Aug 2016 04:56:00 +00002020-06-13T18:57:50.934-05:00thoughts on movies The last problem Mohenjo Daro should have is being dull. So much is brought up in this movie—political intrigue in two generations, corruption, tragic childhoods, religious practice topped off by a Chosen One, the barter system, the indigo harvest, the domestication of animals, the arrival of horses in South Asia, crocodile hunting, international trade gatherings, http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2016/08/mohenjo-daro.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-2946440309939169229Tue, 19 Jul 2016 03:22:00 +00002016-12-02T11:31:20.608-06:00thoughts on movies While Brahman Naman is, on paper, very much a film Not For Me, there are several satisfying developments in it. The foremost is that finally a film gives man-children pretty much what they deserve rather than what they want or even need. The main protagonist, Naman (Titli's excellent Shashank Arora), is missing the point with sweeping strokes as badly at the end of the film as he was at the http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2016/07/brahman-naman.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-1081225854946974344Sat, 16 Apr 2016 22:53:00 +00002016-12-02T11:44:39.660-06:00house favorite: Shahrukh Khanthoughts on movies [A vague, two-sentence spoiler is marked in situ.] In Fan, Shahrukh Khan and Hindi cinema make an unsettling modern complement to Satyajit Ray's Nayak, that great investigation of stardom and the self in a more restrained age. Fan is very much today's dystopian world of celebrity, the ubiquitous, instant media never singled out but constantly, even sinisterly, complicit in every http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2016/04/cause-i-can-play-part-so-well-fan.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-6441037817109621394Mon, 28 Mar 2016 01:20:00 +00002020-09-29T16:32:45.917-05:00Bengalihouse favorite: Soumitra Chatterjeethoughts on movies [Vaguely spoiler-y. Also, if suicide is a trigger topic for you, I can imagine this film may come off as blasé, simplistic, or even offensive.] I've spent a lot of time trying to understand the path of popular, mainstream Bengali movies from the Suchitra-Uttam films of the 50s to today's remakes of Telugu masala, and I wonder if Hemlock Society and its ilk—less loud and macho than thehttp://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2016/03/hemlock-society.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-2206287077927423463Mon, 21 Mar 2016 01:45:00 +00002017-03-11T22:07:50.951-06:00house favorite: Alia Bhattthoughts on movies Kapoor and Sons had a far bigger and more complicated emotional impact on me than I had anticipated while I was watching it. A day later, it's the performances that linger—all of them compelling and convincing—more than the characters. The script successfully convinces me that these are compassionate, intelligent people who have been reminded that loving each other in any meaningful way http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2016/03/kapoor-and-sons.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-3859857016444456013Tue, 15 Mar 2016 00:54:00 +00002016-07-19T10:26:12.644-05:00thoughts on movies I'm on a mission to watch all of Manmohan Desai's movies before the end of this academic semester, and unless one of the remainders* turns out to be an absolute dud, Kismat is taking the prize for the worst of the 21 films he directed. It's not even the worst Hindi film of 1968 that I've seen**, but even with a ramshackle, mostly uninteresting script, it is full of missed http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2016/03/kismat.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-9050650375005399485Tue, 23 Feb 2016 02:08:00 +00002020-07-01T08:54:46.708-05:00Bengalithoughts on movies Note the ship keeling in front of a cloudy sky in the painting behind them. This is not a subtle film. Mostly because of Konkona Sen Sharma, but also out of my deep love of films with historical people being scandalous and making bad decisions among interesting and/or sumptuous settings, I've been very eagerly awaiting the opportunity to see Kadambari, a 2015 film about the relationship http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2016/02/kadambari.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-6620507412589791825Sat, 28 Nov 2015 02:00:00 +00002017-07-14T20:45:07.275-05:00house favorite: Ranbir Kapoorthoughts on movies [Vaguely spoiler-y.] Imtiaz Ali does not create straightforward love stories, and at least from Jab We Met forward he seems just as interested in self-knowledge, identity, and personhood as in romance. Tamasha embraces this immediately from the opening framing of the story as a staged production, with the lead actors introduced in costumes that almost obscure them and dialogue that only very http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2015/11/between-heart-and-world-tamasha.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-2252658256761769523Wed, 14 Oct 2015 03:05:00 +00002016-07-19T10:26:47.076-05:00BengaliSatyajit Ray filmsthoughts on movies Watching the the restored Apu Trilogy is simultaneously heart-wrenching and soul-restoring. Like many of Ray's works, they are devoid of villainy and sensationalism and instead give full scope to the textures of everyday life and the human experience, which are times are small and fine and at others expansive. There is nothing to avenge and no one to hate or even be disappointed in. There is http://www.bethlovesbollywood.com/2015/10/i-saw-restored-apu-trilogy-in-cinema.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beth Loves Bollywood)2