I decided to see if I can write more frequent entries into this blog, posting a little more often and at less length.
I saw two very different movies this week.
One was the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie, The Master (2012). I have to say I was somewhat disappointed in this, although it's worth seeing for the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman. This story about a Scientology-like cult was marred by the casting of Joaquin Phoenix as a troubled man going in and out of the cult. There's been a odd aura about Phoenix since his dropping out of films and making that weird documentary about being a rapper; instead of seeing a troubled ex-soldier, I was seeing weird Joaquin Phoenix. And I'm not sure if this was an acting or writing deficit, but some of his comings and goings from the cult were not clear or understandable; the passage of time was also murky. Amy Adams, playing Hoffman's wife, was pregnant for a very long time early in the film (that is, way more time than it seemed phoenix's initial indoctrination took); later, she's no longer pregnant, but there's no sign or mention of a baby. The character of Hoffman's son (played by Jesse Plemons of the TV fave Saturday Night Lights) was sketchy: early in the film, he's dubious about what his father does, and later, he's clearly on the time, but has no story line other than that. Anderson usually does beautiful work with period settings, but they didn't jump out at me in this film (the way they did in, say, Boogie Nights). This wasn't the film I wanted to see.
On the other hand, I watched the Indian film God Tussi Great Ho (2007) the other night, expected little, and was surprisingly pleased. Yet another unauthorized Indian remake, this time of the Jim Carrey film Bruce Almighty, all of the silliness carries a very good comic performance by Salman Khan. And of course, there was only one person to stunt-cast as God: Amitabh Bachchan. The movie was corny and the special effects horrendous, but it was really, really entertaining. There was also one great song - I'll have to sniff it out on YouTube.
Amitabh shows how it's done, in the title song from Bol Bachchan. The young man with the mustache is Ajay Devyn and the cleanshaven young man is Junior Bachchan, Abhishek.
I have a bad trigger finger and a not-so-bad trigger finger, and it's back to Dr. Patel for me on Monday. If you weren't around for last year's trigger finger here's what it's all about. So it's either going to be a shot of cortisone. or what I had done last year:
"Percutaneous trigger finger release:
Trigger finger release can be performed in the office under local
anesthesia using a percutaneous technique. Numbing medicine is injected
in the hand near the base of the finger. A larger needle is then
placed through the numb area and is used to divide the pulley that is
causing the triggering. Advantages of this procedure include that it
can be done in the office and does not require an incision. The main
disadvantage is that the surgeon cannot see the pulley or nearby nerve
and there is a possible higher risk of injury to the nerves or an
incomplete release. While these complications are unlikely, patient
should take them into account when choosing to have a procedure."
It's gonna hurt like hell if he has to do this again, especially on two fingers. I remember being in howling pain the day after. The bad one is the right-hand pinkie, and PTFR is usually done one the middle three fingers. The not-yet-as-bad one is the left-hand ring finger, so it may be a wait-and-see, or a PTFR. And if I have the surgery, there's physical therapy after, for maybe six weeks.
So I may be very limited as far as using the computer, although of course I'll have to at work. Send good thoughts for a nice needle full of cortisone.
Recent reading: The Leftovers by Tom Perotta. Surburban folks try to get along after a Rapture-like event. Love the way he writes, and the post-Cheever look at surburbia. See also, his Little Children.
Somehow, I hopped into another post-apocalyptic novel right after, Stephen King's Cell. Just started it, and it's pretty much as un-put-down-able as most King books. I am an unabashed fan.
Too much to write about with hurting fingers: out in Yardley with Jannah last weekend, Saturday night party on her boat (six boats all tied up together), and then slept on the boat. The whole deal was kind of like camping but less grubby. Relaxing by the pool on Sunday, parade on Monday. I dearly love the Memorial Day parade in Yardley...I hate to use the word "quaint," which it isn't, quite, hut it very old-fashioned and I look forward to it every day - I've been going there for Memorial Day the past 4-5 years.
Very hard, busy season at work, what with classes ending, getting evaluations from teacher, updating transcripts, trying to get a second summer intern, overseeing registration, orienting new faculty, etc. If I must say so myself, I've been coming through like a champ, but I'm seriously exhausted. Part of me (no lie) is kind of hoping to spend Tuesday in bed, on painkillers.
I'm having a really good time on Twitter, especially when I get replies from (can't deny it) well-known people. This past week: Raghu Dixit and Adnan Sami. Both good dudes, and Raghu is supposed to come to the US in the fall. I also have a little joke-topping thing with @Disalmanic, who is a damn funny guy.
I've published quite a few magazine articles in my day, even contributed articles to two books, got an honorable mention in a New York Magazine competition, had a letter to the editor printed in Esquire...but I do believe this is the first time I've been in the New York Times. Pretty big deal in my world.
Also, I finished watching Mazdoor, and thought it was quite wonderful. Dilip Kumar was great, as was Raj Babbar. And I liked the labor-vs-owner theme - but like most Indian films, they heap on extra plots, so there was a whole love-triangle thing that was kind of stale. But it was a well-acted, earnest film. As a former union member, I wholeheartedly approve.
Haven't posted in over a week...brought to my attention by a faithful reader. (Nice to have a faithful reader!)
The big news here is that Barry started working last night. He's working for Ohel, as a caretaker in a residence for developmentally disabled people. It's an overnight shift, which will be an adjustment for both of us. He works 10 pm-8-am on Sundays, then 11-8 Mondays-Wednesdays. Most of the shift, he has very little to do (and makes a very low wage for those hours). Around 6:30 am, he's responsible to wake and dress etc one of the residents; they pay a higher rate for the "awake" hours.
The other thing that's truly wonderful about this is that Barry has always been uncomfortable around people with physical and mental disabilities, so this is a huge thing from him. Frankly, I was a little surprised that he applied for it at all. It's a big growing-up thing.
I'll hit my one-year anniversary here in two days. I do like my job. It's varied, and the people are lovely. I get a lot of positive feedback. Recently, I helped a group with two lectures they put on, which is part of my job (we have about half a dozen groups here that put on seminars, lectures, etc), but I guess they thought I went above and beyond. The leaders (faculty) gave me a $150 Visa gift card as a thank-you!
Then, of course, I had this gift card, and a zillion ways I wanted to spend it. I do think it's right to keep my bonuses and gifts for myself, except that we were in a dreadful financial squeeze. So I went to an Indian clothing store on 8th Street (it's at 51 West 8th, I forget the name, but it's a great shop), and bought a top, a skirt, and some pants for a total of $50. Then Barry and I went to Shop-Rite on Saturday and bought $60 worth of groceries. And I still have $40 left. Pretty fair, I think.
Money will of course be a little easier now that Barry is earning, but it won't be close to what it used to be. Still, I'll be glad not to have these months where we become flat broke at the beginning of each month. We really haven't been making it on my salary alone, and have ended up selling things (unwanted jewelry, stereo speakers, etc) to make ends meet. It's humbling and sometimes wrenching.
Having said this...we may get ourselves a fourth cat. Patricia, the cat rescue lady who tables across from Union Square, likes me and generally lets me hold the cats (a no-no for most people). Last week, I came up to the table and she handed me a half-grown orange tabby, who cuddled in, rubbed his face against mine, and purred. I brought Barry the next day and he held him, and also immediately bonded. We've only ever had female cats, but this male is extremely sweet. Patricia tend to balk when it comes to actually turning over a cat (we had an incident where we waited weeks for her to make up her mind about a calico kitten, and simply gave up because the waiting was killing us). I hope she'll give this cat up more easily, since it's way harder to find a home for a 6-8 month old cat than for a tiny kitten. Of course, we have already named him: Vijay. It's partly in honor of the character name Amitabh frequently uses.
No word yet on the jewelry I've had at The Village Scandal for over a month. I've been trying to call the owner for a few weeks now to arrange a time to come down, but she never returns calls. I'm not holding out a lot of hope.
I started making myself an anklet last night, because it's that time of year. (Amber and apatite, golden yellow and ocean blue.) I've also started thinking that maybe what I need to do is find a store where my jewelry goes with the clothing, and then try to place some pieces there. If I can find the right match, maybe I can do some regular selling.
Since I wrote last, I watched 3 Idiots, with Aamir Khan. If it were an American movie, the title would indicate something shitty, along the lines of Dumb and Dumber. But this was actually a wonderful and not-stupid movie. I'm not sure if I wrote about the Tamil film Nanban, but it was a remake of 3 Idiots. (I'd actually made a point of watching Nanban first, since I assumed the Hindi film was a remake; good Tamil and Telugu films are often remade in Hindi versions.) The film is about three pals in their college days, and a surprising reunion later in life. It's basically a buddy movie, though one of the guys does have a romance (who is, of course, Kareena Kapoor...it seems to be illegal to make an Indian film without her these days). Khan's character, "Rancho," is as compelling as Vijay's similar character, "Pari," in the Tamil version. It's a great story about friendship, and the actors are quite compelling. Quite a few peeing jokes, for some reason.
Two American films this weekend: I watched a camera-copy bootleg of Hunger Games, since I'd just finished the books (wonderful) and was anxious to see the movie. The movie was quite good, although so much gets edited out, and I found the male leads to be kind of so-so. Jennifer Lawrence was very good even if she was 22 playing 14 or 15 or 16, can't exactly remember.
The other was Shame, which was quite good. It's a strong portrayal of the bottoming-out of a sex addict, although frankly I found the plot with his sister a little distracting and not needed.
Oh dear...I did have a lot to catch up on here. And there's probably more that I'm not thinking of.
There's a new Ram Gopal Varma movie, Department, opening next month, and Amitabh is one of the leads. I've probably mentioned how much I like RGV's films - he's a big fan of American genre movies and steals from them quite liberally. He also uses Amitabh beautifully. I'll have to make a point of seeing it in the theater.
I'll end it here for now, and there will doubtless be postscripts dribbling in...
@northofconey if you want to see for yourself. I go smart-ass on some famous people sometimes and don't even care if they respond. I did get a retweet from Merrill Markoe, which made me happy for a whole day. I'm connected to almost a totally different set of people than on Facebook. Of course I mostly follow well-known people I don't know, I was found there by Tricia Vita, who writes the excellent Amusing the Zillion blog about Coney Island. Now I'm also linked to one or two other Coney Island groups. We post links to things about how fucked-up business interests are trying to ruin Coney Island and how much we hate Mayor Bloomberg. (a lot.) I'm loving Twitter, though I read a lot more than I write. I retweet and sometimes reply. Fun.
I am glad Amitabh is going home soon. I am glad Shiva is feeling cheerier (and that he likes seeing his name here). I am glad that Barry had a job interview today. I am glad I am going to Jannah's this weekend. I am glad Bob Steiner is being a bit flirty on Facebook; I was fairly crazy about him when we were teenagers at summer camp. I am glad I went to that Indian store on Second Avenue last week and bought silk pants and glass bangles; there were photos of Indian movie stars taped up inside the dressing room. I am glad to be learning how to get the glass bangles on and off without busting them, and I am glad for the pretty sound they make clinking together on my wrist. I am glad that my jewelry is in a store, for the first time in many years. I am glad it was a warm day. I am glad I had a big discussion about knishes on Facebook today with someone I never got to know well at college but always admired.
I am anxious for a friend who won't read this because she's too busy doing the thing I'm anxious about.
Knish (pronounce all the letters) is a savory pastry usually stuffed with seasoned mashed potatoes but sometimes with kasha (buckwheat). It's about the size of your fist. There are other kinds, but potato and kasha are the only ones that matter. A knish is old-school Jewish food, meaning that it's extremely heavy, about the density of lead, and one of the most delicious things you've ever eaten.
I've explained Yiddish words on this blog on and off for some years now. I don't know nearly as much as I'd like to; American Jews of my generation have parents who felt it was not "modern" to speak Yiddish, that it made them like their old-fashioned parents, so my parents didn't pass it on the way their parents did. Barry's parents were about ten years older than mine, so they spoke more Yiddish, Barry knows more than I do, and I've learned a bunch from him. It's way cool. It's extra-cool when you hear it from people you wouldn't expect. There's an old James Cagney movie, The Fighting 69th, where he suddenly says a line in Yiddish and it's a shock. Cagney was very Irish, but he also grew up playing in the New York City streets with other children of immigrants.
One day I want to see Salman Khan turn to the camera and say, "Meshugganeh ayeh, meshugganah lockshen." The literal translation, "Crazy eggs, [so] crazy noodles," basically, "the kids turn out like the parents." I would write a whole screenplay around having him say that. Salman Khan is in love with Kareena Kapoor, but she's a little odd. He goes to her house, and meets her father, who is totally wacky (Johnny Lever?). Then he says the line, then they sing and dance next to a tree, alternately dressed in tacky disco clothes and rich traditional garments. Subplot: Salman's widowed mother (maybe Kirron Kher) meets Kareena's wacky widowed father, and it turns out that she's also kind of wacky, but has always felt she had to act in a very serious manner. Kirron: I've finally met a man I can be myself with! Then they sing and dance in a colorful marketplace, during which they grab different things from the various vendors (a scarf, a piece of fruit, a pot) and do funny things with them. I could so write this movie.
Next up: I write a movie around Amitabh singing "Who Let the Dogs Out?"
Last but not least:
Raghu Dixit is a crossover artist in the best sense of the word. His western sensibilities are from acoustic singer-songwriters, not glossy pop stars. And he sings without some elements of the Indian vocal style that are peculiar to a western ear not acquainted with Indian music. I said to Barry, "It's Indian David Hidalgo!"
Actually, if you put Cesar Rojas' beard on David Hidalgo, he would kind of look like Raghu Dixit.
I decided to do a small, special line for the Village Scandal. The woman had said she was interested in a necklace like the one I was wearing, but in a choker length. I made one, I'll make two more. Then I came up with an earring where I put about a dozen beads on headpins, put them on a jumpring, then chain and an earring hook. Kind of a play on a 1960s cocktail earring. Since this store does a lot of vintage-look stuff, it should be perfect. Made four pair of the earrings, and I think I'll make one more, and maybe one for myself. I've done that style some, only without the chain.
Apart from making four pair of earrings this weekend, I watched The Dirty Picture and Senna and a few episodes of Downton Abbey.
Downtown Abbey: had to see what all the fuss was about. Dear Lord, it's Upstairs Downstairs again, and with Maggie Smith in it! You had me at "Ring for tea"!
The Dirty Picture was probably one of the better mainstream Hindi films of 2011. Vidya Balin was excellent, and I always like Naseeruddin Shah; I actually know him from western movies too. It's awards season over there, too, of course, so you get a pretty good idea of what was mainstream in the past year. (Also, I watched those Indian showbiz programs on Saturday morning, and that's all they're ever pushing.) So, there'll be a lot of prizes for films and people in films like Don 2, Ra.One, Bodyguard, Desi Boyz, and so on. Vidya Balin should win some prizes and there were a couple of first-rate songs in The Dirty Picture. But it's gonna be all Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan.
Where was I? Dirty Picture. Some of the plot was just really bizarre, and I find that in a lot of Indian movies. Sometimes I must be missing something...other times, it's probably just bizarre. In this movie, I couldn't quite figure out why the Abraham character (Emraan Hashmi) became the enemy of Silk. I got that he didn't like the idea of using sex to sell movies, but I didn't get why this made him feel he had to destroy her. It just seemed like an insane overreaction. And then there was this business about how he both liked and and hated her, and since I couldn't figure out why he hated her, it wasn't working for me at all. But the overall rise-and-fall plot was just fine.
Senna was a very talked-about documentary last year, about a Brazilian Formula One race car driver who was very successful and well-known in the mid-80s until his death (crash) in 1994. Not being much of one for car racing, I had no idea that they put cameras right on the cars, so there were big chunks of the movie where you are actually watching a race from Senna's seat, which is pretty amazing. But I was also acutely aware of the construction of the film, that what was shown was very carefully chosen to create only one opinion about the man and the events. No distractions, no uncertainties.
This is going to be a murderous week at work -- classes starting tomorrow, and I've somehow found myself with three interns. Learned just this past week that I would have to take a high school intern along with the two college interns I already have. I feel like I'm going to spend all my time finding things for them to do. And I'm going to have someone in there with me almost every working hour, which feels a little stifling. But I'll just take it as it comes.
Do I distract myself with never-can-happen imaginings? Well, yeah. Having a small life day-to-day doesn't mean I can't have a big life in my head and my heart. I don't suppose there's anything wrong with doing the daily things right, as much as possible, and dreaming big dreams.
Last night I watched The Descendants, the new Alexander Payne movie with George Clooney. Whenever I think about Clooney, I think about his good taste as a producer, his good work as a director, and how much he makes me think of Cary Grant. But for some reason, I tend to forget what a good actor he is. This was really not a glamorous role, and he was entirely believable. He's always more subtle than I expect. I don't know if the Oscar noms are in yet (don't think so) but I'll say he should be be up for best actor (perhaps also for best supporting for The Ides of March). Who would have thought the handsome doctor from ER would have turned out to have that kind of talent?
I'd had two recommendations for Dil Chahta Hai (one was actually for anything with Aamir Khan) so I watched that. For a friends/romance/comedy movie, it was quieter and less silly and less melodramatic than many. (No "boing!") sounds effects like in KANK. And Aamir Khan is quite good. I knew what he looked like but hadn't seen one of his movies before. Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna were also quite wonderful. All around, no one overacted, the musical scenes fit nicely. There was a scene in a movie theater with Saif Ali Khan and Sonali Kukarni where the two of them are in a scene from a 1960s movie; I don't know the movie, but I bet the character Ali Khan was supposed to be is Dev Anand. He had that Dev Anand look to him.
Met someone today (is that the right thing to say when it's online?) who is a great fan of James Stewart, via Alfred Hitchcock, not via Frank Capra. I am an unrepentant hater of Frank Capra. He's generally thought of as a great filmmaker, but I find him so sentimental and manipulative that he just makes me ill. And it's a shame that he hijacked James Stewart into a lot of that.
But I totally get James Stewart via Hitchcock. He's not an actor I think about all that much, though I kept flashing back on a young James Stewart, kind of Philadelphia-Story era, tripping over his own long legs, when I saw this:
No, really, not just an excuse for another Big B clip. It really did make me think of James Stewart.
It occurs to me that if you like James Stewart (this is for Pankaj if you're there), that you'd also like Jack Lemmon. He did great comedies (Some Like it Hot) and great dramas (Days of Wine and Roses) and great character parts when he was older (Glengarry Glen Ross). And by the way, everyone who likes Scorsese and Tarantino and those guys should check out Glengarry, which was written by David Mamet; his stuff fits in there very nicely. Plus the movie has guys like Ed Harris and Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin...and then Alec Baldwin shows up for about five minutes and steals the entire movie.
But back to Jack Lemmon: to me, the contemporary actor who is most like Jack Lemmon would have to be Tom Hanks. He went almost effortlessly from being a light comic actor to being a serious actor with real talent. (He won back-to-back best actor Oscars for Philadelphia and Forest Gump, although I may not have those in proper chronological order.)
He's also in Apollo 13 which is one of my flat-out all-time favorite movies. I can't even critique that movie because I'm so blindly in love with the space program stuff (which was done with painstaking accuracy) that I can't even take it apart. Great actors, especially Ed Harris. (Ed Harris is a link to my other favorite space program movie, The Right Stuff.)
Someone found me on Twitter today and asked "Bolly or Holly?" Both, thank you. I'm enjoying hanging out with other film fans (again, if one can say that about online connections). Otherwise it's fairly solitary. Barry has not caught the Indian movie thing the way I have.
I was kvetching a bit on Facebook today about having so many movies backed up that I couldn't decide what to watch. (Yiddish alert! Kvetch = complain.) As I said before, two opinions pushed me to Dil Chahta Hai. I'm thinking The Dirty Picture might be next. Don't know if I'm up for another one tonight, though, and I'll be spending some quality time with my jewelry table tomorrow.
Robin and I went out Wednesday night for Indian food (something we've been doing for many years, way before my Indian film/music mania). Good food, and there are a man playing a sarangi, which was quite wonderful.
But before dinner, she took me to see a little accessories store that had hats she liked, called The Village Scandal. It did indeed have a lot of nice hats and other accessories, kind of faux vintage. We ended up at the counter looking at jewelry and chatting with the owner. Robin mentioned that I had made the earrings she was wearing, and I showed off the necklace I was wearing, and the woman said, "I could sell something like that in choker length. Do you ever sell your jewelry?" So it looks like, without trying, I'll be doing some consignments there. I wasn't even trying. Very cool; made me feel great. So even though nothing of mine is there yet, please do visit The Village Scandal, at 19th East 7th Street (I believe it's between Second and Third Avenue), New York City. Or tell your friends in New York.
I actually made my first-ever consignment deal some years back on another night that Robin and I were in the east village to eat Indian food, at a store called Back from Guatemala, a south American craftsy store that also had nice jewelry. On a trial basis, they took a Y-necklace with oval ocean jasper...funny that I remember the exact necklace. I was going to do more business with them, but the manager got sick, and then the store closed. Robin seems to bring me luck as far as jewelry sales.
Robin has of course always been a huge supporter of my jewelry, but she's always worn very simple, petite pieces, so that most of what I make didn't suit her. At one point, I made maybe half-a-dozen pair of earrings for her with a simple, one-small-bead drop. But she's decided to get more adventurous, and I gave her a couple of necklaces for her birthday and she's wearing them a lot. One has amethyst up one side, citrine up the other, and a kyanite drop in the middle. The other has tiny fluorite beads with a big Thai silver orchid pendant. I actually have a reasonable photo of the former at home and will post it here.
The other thing I did on Wednesday was buy bangles. I swear I'm not an Indian wannabe, but I've been looking at women in Indian movies wearing piles of bangles, and it's a great look. I never used to be too crazy about bangles because I was afraid I'd squeeze into one and not be able to get it off...which didn't stop me from eyeballing jade bangles down in Chinatown. (I still wouldn't mind having one of those.) But between an accessories store near work, and a Tibetan store in the east village, I ended up buying about 30 bangles in silvertone, goldtone, and some blues and greens. They don't hurt my wrist when I use a mouse (which some bracelets do). They are super-wearable and comfortable, they look great, and they jingle when I move around. I LOVE them. Now, of course, I need red ones, and some other colors. (What I really need is more storage for my jewelry. The big jewelry box I've had for many years is stuffed, several other little boxes are stuffed...I probably need an entire shelving system to keep it all.
My past and near-past office intern, Sarah E., just said goodbye, and it's truly heartbreaking. She interned for me last summer, and called a couple of months ago to say she'd be in town in January, and did I need some help? She was here for a few weeks, and not only helped a lot, but was wonderful company. Very sweet, very smart, very sane. I'll miss her a bunch. She'll be back from Smith for spring break in March, and said she'd be in touch.
It's supposed to snow tonight, and I'm looking forward to a nice weekend indoors, making jewelry and watching a movie or two.
Since the friend who's fallen in love with Amitabh is waiting for her copy of KANK, I decided to rewatch a little of it last night. It's actually kind of cheesy and silly. Interesting to see my own reaction compared to the first time I saw it (around three years ago) and the second time I saw it (about two and a half months ago). I'm starting to think I may have overestimated Abhishek...although I did like him in Delhi 6. I don't think I can bear to watch Dostana, which apparently involves a couple of guys pretending to be gay to get girls or something -- I mean, ew. I'd like to see him try his hand at remaking one of his father's films (he might have to tie up SRK and Hrithik to get the roles), and then we can see if he's got the goods.
Ram Gopal Varma has been posting some very sexist and negative tweets of late. My friend Shiva said something about RGV being or seeming drunk...and that must be it. He thinks like a drunk. On the other end of the spectrum, I've been following Anupam Kher, and he seems like a wonderful man. As soon as I can scrape up $30, I'm buying his new book.
SOPA/PIPA: Bad. Indian government not protecting Sir Salman Rushdie: Bad. Italian cruise ship captain ordering food after the crash: Bad. Johnny Otis and Etta James dying: Sad. Sorry to short-change you on news and politics, but it's not really my forte.
There are three versions of the American film A Star is Born: one from the 1930s, with Janet Gaynor and Frederic March; one from the 50s, with Judy Garland and James Mason; and one from the 70s with barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.
The plot concerns a successful male actor/singer who marries an up-and-coming female actor/singer, his career goes downhill while she gets very famous, and he turns to drink and dies or kills himself.
Then there's Abhimaan (1973). This follows the same storyline, except that the last act is more complex and somewhat far-fetched. After the male singer turns to drink, his wife returns to the country and it turns out she's pregnant. She loses the baby, loses her will to live, and he comes to get her and take her back to the city. He had given up singing when she became successful, but her doctor tells him, "The only thing that will help her is if you sing again." Really? So he sings, and she snaps out of it and sings with him, and they live happily ever after.
That being said -- the movie is quite enjoyable. This owes largely to the stars, Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Badhuri (who became Jaya Badhuri Bachchan later that year). They both looked marvelous, and the chemistry was obvious. The other real plus was the singing of Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar, which was absolutely sublime.
Another thing I want to mention, in terms of this movie and other older Indian movies, is that unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much film preservation going on. Since this was actually on a legitimately issued and purchased DVD, it's clear that the picture and sound quality has been permitted to age and degrade, which is a terrible shame. There's a big push in the US industry to preserve and restore old films; director Martin Scorsese is a well-known leader of this movement.
Of the three versions of A Star is Born, the first two are excellent. The earliest one is not a musical and the characters are movie actors. In the second, Judy Garland is an actor/singer, since you can't put Judy Garland in a movie and not have her sing. The third one was basically a vanity project of Barbra Streisand's, and she's about as vain as they come. Kris Kristofferson's role was edited down to a nub, and the movie was basically written off as an expensive disaster.
I read that Amitabh Bachchan disliked the movie Slumdog Millionaire because it suggested that all Indians live in poverty. Really? one movie about a few poor people and the environment of poverty in which they live? and doesn't this exist in India?
Most Indian films portray people who are at least middle-class, if not rich. If there are poor characters, they are stuck in the beginning of the film to show a character's humble beginnings, only for a short time; when the film flashes forward to the character's adulthood, he is then well-off, or at least working.
Most "masala" films, the colorful ones with the singing and dancing, don't involve poor people at all. They don't appear in the proportion in which they appear in real life. Before I started watching Indian film, I knew there were a lot of poor people in India, and that's not wrong.
I was actually somewhat shocked by the plot of Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham, where the wealthy father would like permit his son to marry a working-class girl from the town. (It seemed to me at one point that she was also Muslim, but not later on...this was confusing.) Even the middle-class people were considered inappropriate as friends or mates; the wealthy couple refused to attend the wedding of the daughter of their children's nanny (rather, the husband refused -- the wife wanted to go, but had to bow to her husband). This really left a bad taste in my mouth.
I adore Amitabh Bachchan, but let's face it: he's a very rich guy. It seems he came from a well-off family. He has rich-guy problems. He loves the color and spirit of Mumbai, says so all the time...but Mumbai is also full of poor people, and I haven't heard him mention them. Is this a blind spot? does he do extensive charitable work I haven't heard about? He did mention recently that his family continues to earn money from a big pharmaceutical company in which they are invested. Does he just plain have too much money, and has he lost touch with the people who don't?
Like KG3, or KANK, Slumdog Millionaire deals with only a part of the population. If it's a part Bachchan doesn't want to see or acknowledge, that's his problem, not the filmmaker's or the audience's.
I started watching Agneepath yesterday, although the subtitles got screwed up in the middle and I wasn't able to finish. (I've gotten a second copy which I hope to be able to finish.) There's a remake opening soon, and I thought I would watch the original Amitabh Bachchan version first.
Somehow, I was under the impression that this was one of those films based on Hindi myth, and I'm not sure why. It might have been the promo snippets I saw from the newer film that suggested it, or maybe the title. But it's far from that. It seems to be one of those Indian films that doesn't cop to being a remake or "inspired by," but is in fact...well, basically, it borrows really heavily from Scarface. Like Sarkar, Bachchan is made up to resemble Al Pacino in a big way, and wears a lot of white suits. He's a gangster, his mother doesn't approve, and it looks as if his pal has taken a shine to his sister, apart from the fact that the gangster, Vijay, starts off working for four established gangsters and then takes over their business.
The good surprise in this movie (so far) was Mithun Chakraborty as the pal, Krishnan. Like Manny in Scarface, Krishnan is a less sophisticated foil to the lead. This is where my knowledge of India fails me somewhat, but he seems to be identified as a "southerner," which I'm sensing is something like the way American southerners were once stereotyped: good-natured, non-urban, old-fashioned. But Chakraborty takes the role and runs with it. The movie is most not musical, but more than an hour into it, there's a scene where Krishnan shows up at a dance to check on Vijay's sister, and gets himself a nice little dance number. It's like being in another movie for a little while. In this scene, Krishnan comes into the "disco" party, where the young people make fun of him, until he shows them his "coconut disco." The character announces himself over and over as having a master's degree but working as a coconut "wallah" (vendor). I have no idea why they're disco dancing in 1990, unless the film is set earlier and I missed those cues.
The actor has had a very long career, and I'm interested in seeing more of his work.
And speaking of remakes...there was an exchange on Twitter yesterday between Ram Gopal Varma and Amitabh Bachchan in Hindi, which seemed to have something to do with remakes and flops and American film. One of my mutual followers there was nice enough to translate for me. It's kind of thrilling to be privy to that sort of thing. RGV was basically saying that Indian remakes of American movies are never as good as the originals, and that America makes the best original movies. Amitabh replied that one never hears about American flops, and besides, what about films like Sarkar and Sholay? (Sarkar is the Godfather-inspired film that RGV directed himself, and Sholay, Bachchan's big breakthrough film, was a remake of The Magnificant Seven, which itself was a remake of The Seven Samurai.)
RGV may have been taking a swipe at Players, Abhishek Bachchan's just-released movie, which is a remake of The Italian Job and opened to lukewarm reviews. That couldn't have pleased Big B too much; he's like a mother bear protecting a cub when it comes to Abhishek. On Friday, he retweeted every single positive thing about Players, giving me the brief impression that it was something of a hit.
I get two TV programs a week here that deal with Indian movies: "Showbiz India" and "Namaste America." They're basically combinations of movie-star gossip and promotions of big commercial films (although "Namaste America" usually has a segment of political news as well). As I've watched the shows over the weeks, the films promoted went this way: Desi Boys, The Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl, Don 2, Players. The new Agneepath (which Hrithik Roshan) seems to be next on the list. It was on one of these shows yesterday that I learned Players was not all that well-regarded. One of the shows interviews customers leaving the theater, and even though half are in Hindi, it's pretty easy to tell when someone doesn't like a movie. No one seemed to like the music.
For the most part, Amitabh's fans drink the kool-aid when it comes to Abhishek. (For my non-American friends: "drink the kool-aid" means to blindly follow. It comes from an incident in the 1980s where an American cult leader's followers committed mass suicide by drinking a poisoned soft drink similar to "Kool-Aid.") One member of the EF was brave enough to report that she didn't much care for Players, but that was an exception.
A lot of the newer films don't excite me that much; they're geared to a younger set of viewers, with younger actors, and more Western dress, music, and themes. I can watch American romantic comedies and American Idol if that's what I want. I like Indian movies to be Indian...hate to see them spoiled by the worst of the west.
One other thing from yesterday's show-biz shows. They showed Bachchan at a promotion for a new book by Anupam Kher. Kher is kind of an interesting guy; there isn't that much info on IMDB or Wikipedia, but he seems to be something of a renaissance man, a writer, activist, and theater actor as well as a long-time character actor in Indian film (he's also done a little crossing over into Western films like Bend it Like Beckham and the Ang Lee film Lust, Caution). He's also married to the actress Kiron Kher, who played opposite an older Amitabh Bachchan in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and Veer-Zaara, but was something of a bombshell as a younger woman. She's still quite lovely.
I swear there was something on my mind besides Indian film, but I have no idea what it was.
In the good news department: Judy called me in yesterday, and floated an idea for next year's fundraising. She proposed a pre-holiday sale of my jewelry, where I would split the money with the institute in some percentage. She was thinking about a private sale within the PPSC community, and then opening it up to the entire analytic community. She also said that there were some photographers in the community who would probably be glad to photograph my work.
When I gave her some earrings as a holiday gift (and also sent home a pair for her wife Lee), she was very effusive about my work. Lucie tipped me off that Judy's birthday was on New Year's eve, so I picked out a very nice necklace for her, which she really adored. She asked me if I sell online, and I said I occasionally sold to friends, but that I wasn't properly set up to photograph my jewelry. (This is an old story...I've tried to photograph my work numerous ways, and even bought a digital camera, but the camera couldn't shoot close up enough. Plus it's difficult to light jewelry properly. I looked into it, and what's recommended is a "light cube," where the jewelry and camera actually go into a plastic cube with special lighting, and the piece is lit all the way around.)
I'm really excited about this. The analytic community is exactly where my jewelry is going to sell. I can't tell you how many faculty members I've seen wearing ethnic/handmade jewelry. It's a lot like Jannah and her friends-- same age range, more or less the same sort of style. Plus, analysts are often not poor, and it'll be a fundraiser, so I'll be able to charge healthy prices, and will do well even if I'm donating half.
I did say that I might need a little money ahead of time to buy supplies, particularly silver, and Judy said, "Oh, we'll give you a budget." So that's that. This can potentially lead to special orders, private customers, and even photos so I can sell online. That's a win-win. Judy is just the best.
My intern from last summer, Sarah, offered to come in and help out for the month, before she goes back to school, so a lot of projects are getting cleared out. I finally had the breathing room to clear up my poor cluttered desk, and I actually seem to be caught up. Plus it's great to have Sarah around; I like her a lot.
Here's the news that isn't great and somewhat perplexing: I mentioned that Rochelle (of the "EF") offered to take me to some of the Raj Kapoor movies on her membership at MOMA. I responded in the usual spot (the comments), thanked her, said I would love to, and gave my email address so she could get in touch. And she never did; the festival has already started, and she posted yesterday about seeing the first film. I mean, WTF? I'm not at all sure what this is about. Her offer seemed genuine and generous, but she's either way low on social skills, or maybe just trying to seem genuine and generous. I suppose it's not a secret at this point that I'm a little sensitive to being snubbed when I reach out to people...and this time, it was her reaching out, and then dropping the ball. I'm very tempted to comment in the blog or to get in touch on Twitter, but I'm far from sure I want to pursue this. And even if she made the offer publicly, it doesn't mean it's right for me to bring it up publicly. But I'm disappointed and a little hurt, and I guess I'm not sure I can bring it up "in front of" others and be nice about it. It just kind of sucks to be in this position.
One more comment about my blog stats. For some reason, a post I put up in October 2009, about summer camp and theater, has twice as many hits as any of my other posts. I have absolutely no idea why, since I wouldn't tag it as one of the most interesting things I've written, not by far. Another great mystery.
I have having some thoughts this morning about starting a new blog, or changing this one, into one devoted to taking fellow Americans into my exploration of Indian film. Here's the problem: I'd have to use "Bollywood" in the title, and it's not a word I like to use. It carries the implication that India is trying to copy the US, that Indian films are only a knockoff of US ones. But that's what Americans tend to call the Indian film industry, and that's how they would find this blog. (And yes, I do use "Bollywood" as a keyword in my posts for that reason.)
The only way I could make it work would be to call the blog "Bollywood for Americans" and as the subtitle, something like: "The first rule of Bollywood for Americans: don't ever use the word Bollywood!"
Having said that Indian film is not trying to copy American film...here's video from Sharaabi, a remake of the American film Arthur. The song is really lovely, as is the dancing of Jayapradha. I haven't finished watching the film, which was made in 1984, but apparently it's the one where Big B hurt his hand. It wasn't nearly as bad an injury as I'd once thought.
The second one for today is from Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, which is often referred to as K3G. I watched it in chunks over the past week or so...and I think I may have seen it before. When I first saw KANK a few years ago, I watched a few other Shah Rukh Khan movies, and I think this is one of the ones I watched. It started to seem familiar when Kareena Kapoor showed up as "Poo." But I don't remember anything else from that viewing -- not Abitabh, not Kajol, and not Hrithik. This song is Shah Rukh and Kajol, just a lovely melody.
Between last night and this morning, I watched Yaarana (1981), which I found to be a very sweet and entertaining movie, despite the confusing and sometimes bizarre plot. So many of the Indian movies I've seen focus on family, but this was different: all about friendship. There is something very old-fashioned about the movie. Early on, Amitabh plays the country-boy-in-the-big-city, which I like just as much as the angry-young-man. His relationship with his best friend's son is charming; he works really well with children. And he looks so very handsome in this film. I've also become very fond of the song "Sara Zamana."
I also finally finished watching Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham (2001), which was very much to my liking. Since Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna was the first Indian movie I ever saw, that became something of a baseline for me, as far as "masala" movies (that is, Indian movies that mix comedy, drama, romance, and a lot of music). KANK is packed full of wonderful stars, a lot of color, and some great music. K3G is very similar, with some of the same stars. And I cried a lot at the end.
For those of you who are reading this for the film-related content -- I wanted to mention that my number-one online reference is the Internet Movie Database. If you need the year of a movie, the name of a cast member, and particularly to see what other movies an actor or director has made, you can't do any better.
This has been a great long weekend -- unexpectedly long, since I didn't get the OK to take today off until Saturday night. (Email issues.) I've taken some long walks, watched some movies, and have been generally calm. My mind seems to be free of static and of bad thinking. Terrible how badly I can upset myself with the junk between my ears.
I made eight bracelets yesterday. In looking for some cheaper materials to conserve my supply of silver, I went back to memory wire bracelets. I made a set of three with soft fluorite nuggets (which is green and purple), a little amethyst and a few Thai silver beads, and then a set of five with small faceted round rock crystal and smokey quartz. I love wearing bracelets, since bracelets and rings are the jewelry I can see best on myself; I can see and enjoy what I'm wearing. I'm also a fiend for earrings. I wear fewer necklaces because sometimes they just seem too busy with printed tops and being so close to the earrings. But that's just me. I also love anklets and can't wait until they're back in season again. But it's December...I'll have to wait a bit.
Also -- right under the wire for 2011 -- Barry's gotten himself a bit of work. Our lovely downstairs neighbor, Johnny, who died some weeks back, was on disability; since the landlord doesn't live on premises and this building is too small to have a super, Johnny was kind of Carmine's assistant. He did things like put out the garbage, washed the floors in the hallways, let the meter-readers into the basement and let Carmine know if there was any problem in the building (blown light bulbs, etc.). I had suggested to Barry that while he isn't working, he could ask Carmine if he could take over these tasks. I didn't know if Carmine was paying Johnny anything (although I guessed that he was), but I figured it would at least be a goodwill gesture. So Barry is now the new Johnny, and will get $100 a month from Carmine, off the books. Even though it isn't a significant amount of money, Barry will feel good that he's doing something and bringing something in. I'm very glad about it.
Oddly, I haven't heard from the "EF" woman who offered to take me to the MOMA movies on her membership, although I posted my email address some days ago. Don't think I can afford any $12 tickets if I don't hear from her -- $5 is hard enough, this time of the month.
I've also decided to pinch pennies even more and join the gym -- there is a Lucille Roberts in the building where I work, and it doesn't get more convenient. It's under $30 a month, which even I can afford. I dropped my Filesonic membership, which I mostly used for downloading ebooks (I have more now than I'll be able to read for years and years), which puts another $9/month back in my pocket, and will probably also drop Pogo (the casual-games site I subscribe to, also around $10 a month). I'll make it work.
It looks like this week will end well, after I started it off feeling somewhat resentful that I had to work on Monday. Monday was the legal holiday for Christmas, and no one was working; this place was dead. It's true I had been a bit behind the week before. I'd taken off two sick days over two weeks, which is very unusual, but I had a bit of sciatica on one of the days, and the second was simply a small collapse due to stress. This week was very quiet at work and I am entirely caught up, so I'm going to see if I can take Monday. On Tuesday, my last summer's intern, Sarah, is coming back; she very graciously offered to work here during January, before her new school term starts, so she'll be in Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. My interns tend to get jobs like filing and copying and scanning and updating lists in the computer. My projects tend to be a little more complex, plus I do a lot of what I call "fielding batted balls" -- that is, responding to phone calls and (mostly) emailed questions and requests.One needs to know a lot about this place to do the "fielding," and I try to get to every bit of it very promptly. When I get in every morning, I generally have anywhere from 15-60 emails waiting for me (low number during summer break, high one early in the semester).
There's a personal advantage for me to sitting in front of a computer most of the day. I'm able to take a few minutes and do something like this, or some bit of research, checking home email, looking at Twitter, and seeing Amitabh's blog posts almost as soon as they are up.
And speaking of Amitabh's blog -- there's an NYC resident among the EF, her name is Rochelle, and she recently posted about a Raj Kapoor film festival coming up at MOMA. She has kindly offered to go with me, as I get a $5 ticket price (as opposed to $12) as the guest of a member. It'll be nice to meet her, too -- don't know how many of us there are in NYC.
In general, I seem to be on the radar of at least some of the EF, and some have mentioned me and had nice things to say.
Robin is having a new year's eve eve party tonight, which is pretty much all I have planned for the weekend. I haven't seen her new apartment yet (though I think she's been there a year) -- so much for both of us living in Brooklyn! It is a bit of a pain to get from my house to hers, since we're on opposite sides of Brooklyn (I'm in Gravesend and she's in Crown Heights, bordering Prospect Heights). I have to take one train toward the city and then another one back. It's probably been two years since I saw any of her friends, so I'm sure I won't remember anyone. (After visiting Jannah around twice a year for around nine years, I finally know her friends fairly well -- at least I can remember all their names and how she knows them!)
My analyst seems to think that I am not out-of-line obsessed with all-things-Bollywood...or I think that's what she thinks. I have to kind of figure that out from the questions she asks, which is very typical of psychoanalysis. They ask questions to help you to talk about the issues, and the questions are very well-aimed to get you to the desired topic.
However: it is very difficult to get an actual answer from an analyst. Extreme example: when I walked in on Tuesday, before we had started the session, I asked, "How were your holidays?" Her response: "How do you think my holidays were?" (If you are in analysis, I hope you are laughing your ass off at that one.)
I think it's great that some people are starting to come to this blog because of their interest in Hindi film. I hope the other topics don't seem too weird to you. Hang around, and there will surely be more Bollywood content.
Which reminds me: I sent that Jugtar Singh clip to a few people who aren't necessarily Indian film fans, and they adored Jugtar. Gretchen said she would watch him interviewing anyone.
I'm a newbie at Twitter, and didn't really know how to check my "mentions," so I didn't know until today that @astroshiva very nicely recommended my blog, saying that I knew quite a bit about Bollywood and such. (And again, thank you so much!)
And speaking of Twitter. I got a tweet response from Amitabh this morning, so I am (as Mike Myers used to say, as "Dieter") as happy as a little girl.
I hope this is a good version of the video, since as I've mentioned, I can't access my YouTube favorites from Blogger. I've talked about this video before: how I saw it, realized that it was some sort of greatest hits medley, and researched around for a while for the information to help me understand exactly what it was. I've learned another couple of pieces, so I think I may have the whole thing researched and deconstructed.
These are indeed four songs from Amitabh Bachchan's hit movies of the 70s and 80s, remixed and sewn together with the "Go Meera Go" hip-hop portion. The number is sung by Amitabh himself and son Abhishek (Abhi did the rapping).
The first song is "Kaike Paan Banaraswala" from Don (1978). Don was remade in 2004 or 2006 (too lazy to look it up) with Shah Rukh Khan; SRK's sequel Don 2 just opened this past weekend. I'm not sure how that's going to work, since (at least in the original), Don is killed around halfway through the movie; the police replace him with a lookalike (who I'm pretty sure was called "Vijay") to infiltrate Don's underworld gang. I saw the SKR Don some time back; is it possible that Don didn't die in that one? or was Don somehow not really dead? these mysteries may be cleared up once I see Don 2.
The second song is "Pag Ghungroo Bandh Meera Nachi Thi" from Namak Halaal (1982?). I believe this song may predate the movie and may be a traditional song; the idea in the movie is that a naive country boy goes to the city and gets up and sings at a nightclub, and I think this is supposed to be perceived as an old-fashioned song (although it's all discoed up).
The third song is "Rang Barse" from Silsilla (also around 1982). Amitabh and his poet-father wrote it.
Fourth song: "Saara Zamana" from Yaarana (maybe 1981). This was still a missing piece the last time I wrote about Go Meera Go. In Yaarana, Amitabh wears a suit studded with lights, an idea he got from the Robert Redford movie "The Electric Horseman."
All of these songs were originally sung by the great Kishore Kumar, except for "Rang Barse," which Amitabh sang himself.
The last (maybe) missing piece: almost all of the dance moves are quoted from earlier films. I've watched Go Meera Go a bunch of times, and as I watch more and more of Amitabh's films, I keep seeing bits of the Go Meera Go dance turning up. I found this to be extremely cool. I was led to this realization, a bit, from a little "making-of" clip on YouTube. Unfortunately, every time a bit of information I needed was about to be explained, whoever was speaking went from English to Hindi. But the choreographer said something to the effect of, "There are no new dances. This is pure Amitabh Bachchan dance." I didn't follow this at first, maybe because I hadn't yet realized that Amitabh pretty much has his own dance style. But the choreographer (Remo) was explaining just what I said above.
The other comment I must make about Meera is that for the most part, I don't care for the way Big B is dressed, lit, or photographed. It isn't all that flattering. I know that he actually likes that style of clothing, the white pants-and-colorful shirt-and-scarf thing, but it's not to my liking. He looks a lot better, IMHO, in a white kurta or a dark suit -- or, as at the very end of Meera, tight jeans. But for the most part, this video failed to make him look tall and slim; he may not be as slim now as he once was, but see the Jhoom video, from just four years earlier, to see how he can be photographed to look tall and slim. Additionally, it's unfortunate that he's so rarely photographed anymore without dark or clear glasses. He has such great eyes. (Again, see Jhoom.)
I cannot believe I am at work today. It is simply dead as a doornail. I don't even know if there are any therapists in the treatment rooms. The subway was dead quiet and the streets were dead quiet and even my coffee cart guy (who is Muslim) wasn't out this morning. I keep thinking maybe I'm here by mistake, that I was really meant not to come in today and misunderstood Lucie. I had asked to use comp time to take the 23 and 26th, and the 30th and 2nd, and she questioned whether I felt behind in my work. I had been out sick twice over two weeks, not very usual and very much stress-related, and had felt a little behind at one point. Now the coming week seems yawningly empty, though there will probably be therapists around for the rest of the week. Judy should be back in tomorrow, and Lucie will likely be working from home (she only comes in here Mondays and Fridays).
I'm pleased to report that I managed to pull myself out of that dreadful self-consciousness about the perceived snub/competitiveness of that woman in the online community; the community involves Bollywood, and my "problem" with this woman was tainting the whole thing for me. A piece of this was also that I had recently seen part of a film dealing with caste and "reservations" (basically the Indian version of affirmative action for persons from lower castes, who had been disadvantaged as far as education and employment). I had then read a piece in the New York Times about the caste issue, and had asked something about it in this online community. I had included my email address, in case someone felt they wanted to reply private, but I had absolutely no response, privately or online. I started to think that perhaps it had been a rude or offensive, a topic One Didn't Discuss, and somehow this got tied in with the difficult woman. Maybe I expected that as a fellow American, she might have been kind enough to respond to this very American question (even if only to tell me that it was bad taste to bring it up). So I ended up posting an apology for having asked the question, in case it had offended anyone. I had no response to that either, which was kind of a relief.
I should explain that this community is basically a cast of around 300 characters who read an comment on the blog of a particular Bollywood personality (connect those dots, if you would). The blogger clearly reads some of the comments and occasionally replies, but the commenters seem to also communicate with each other and even build bonds and friendships. I guess I was expecting to feel more welcomed, but maybe I'm just too new. I suppose this was also some of the issue with this woman: we had discovered some things in common and it seemed as if she reached out to me, and then when I responded, she was silent. This is probably a snub, or her feeling somehow threatened; one of the things that I found annoying was that she seemed to be trumpeting a very close personal relationship with the blogger. I somehow read this, in addition to her maybe-snub, as a message that she was the "American girl/best friend," and that there was no room for me. She did a lot of sharing (the rather uninteresting) details of her life as if he would hang on her every word, both on the blog and on Twitter. (I did notice that he does follow her on Twitter, but this may owe to her being an old-guard fan, who knows? Not my business.)
However, no one else posts things like that. Some people have been lucky enough to meet him, and there have been some posts saying things like, "It was nice to meet you, thank you for spending a little time with me," and some very gushy I-love-you posts; but no one else is acting like she is having an actual love affair with him. I realize that she is probably bugging the shit out of a lot of people, not just me. Additionally, if indeed they were having such a close relationship, it wouldn't be playing out so publicly; they would simply email privately.
I had a situation in the past where I belonged to a fan community which was not a blog, but simply a fan group/listserv, and it happened that I was a close personal friend of the person of whom we were fans. But apart from passing along some news (prior to the time when he became computer-literate enough to participate himself), I didn't go on and on about how we spoke on the phone every day or what I got him for his birthday or a joke he told me or a trip we went on together. He was a musician, so mostly I reported on things connected to that. I made no secret of the fact that we were personal friends, and it was understood that I had special access; I did mention when I had attended a rehearsal, or a private party he played, or when he played a new song for me in his living room. But it was never, "I'm the only one he invited!" or "No one else has heard that song yet except his wife!" or "I sat in the front row at the gig and he smiled at me the whole time!" I mean, yuk. My posts were more along the lines of, "Victor played a song for me that will be on his next album, a bouncy Cajun thing with anti-Bush lyrics, very funny. The producer has been stalling, but the album should be released in June."
Anyway, I just decided that this woman was a big asshole and everyone knows it, if they bother to think about her at all. And since I had no response at all from anyone about my caste questions, I stopped letting any of it get in the way of my participation as a commenter or my enjoyment of all things Bollywood.
I did want to say something more about Twitter. I had joined some time back, but found the word limit very frustrating, and couldn't figure out how to get followed anyway. I followed a handful of people, mostly comedians, who did know what to go with 140 characters. But I probably hadn't logged on for a year until recently, again following my Bollywood curiosity. So I'm following about 4-6 people/media outlets connected to Bollywood, and have added on more comedians and writers. I'm still only followed by about 10 people, but have started participating in some hashtagged jokes, where I have to say I'm holding my own decently well. There were two particularly good ones over the weekend; one was tagged something like "Scorsese Xmas," which was basically lines from Goodfellas with Christmas things stuck in (e.g., "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be an elf. For me, being an elf was better than being president."). The other was something like "If the movie was Jewish," which was film titles with Jewish things incorporated/substituted (e.g., "The Jewish American Princess Bride"). I contributed about the to the latter; I am most proud of "A Gefilte Fish Called Wanda," which got retweeted!
Which brings us to a third topic: movies. My Bollywood fervor does not seem unusual to me because I am a lifelong film buff; I didn't simply become mesmerized by the pretty colors or by Amitabh Bachchan. I come from a family of people crazy about film and theater (and in my brother's case, opera too). I have a reasonably encyclopedic knowledge of American film, which includes actors and directors, and to some extent, screenwriters, cinematographers, producers, studios, composers, and so on. It occurred to me over the weekend that maybe this was not a universal interest; it was during the Jewish-film thread on Twitter. I was about to post "Our Daily Matzoh," and stopped to wonder if the other posters would be familiar with King Vidor's 1934 "Our Daily Bread." (I didn't post it; still not sure.)
So the Bollywood thing is just another hunk of film stuff, although it is my first deep interest in the cinema of one particular foreign country. As a teenager, I watched my share of classic "foreign films" from a host of different countries: Japan (Kurosawa, Mifune), France (Jean Renoir and the New Wave), Spain (Bunuel), and of course all kinds of movies from England. I'll never know about Indian film what I know about American film; there's an awful lot to take in. Plus in Indian film, in addition to knowing actors and directors, there are also composers and singers and choreographers.
In American films, I know actors and directors best; see Andrew Sarris on "director-as-auteur": he posits that the director is the person who is most responsible for creating each film. It's a very American point of view, and for me, one I subscribe to as far as American film. Different story for me with Indian film. Except for someone like Satyajit Ray (who is more in the category of art-film director than Bollywood director), I haven't seen anything too distinctive in Indian directing -- with the notable exception of Ram Gopal Varma. I have a feeling I like Varma a lot because he's clearly very much influenced by American film, and a lot of his movies are in American-type genres like gangster films (he directed the wonderful Godfather-inspired Sarkar and Sarkar Raj).
I'm getting familiar with a fair number of Indian actors, of course, and already know the names of 20 or 30 lead actors and a handful of character actors. I'm less familiar with the singers, although you can't go wrong with Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar, who are of an older generation. I can't name a single songwriter except for two contemporary ones, Vishal and Shenar, and can't name any composers. Of course, I struggle with Hindi names and Hindi song titles and Hindi movie titles, because they are all entirely foreign. I've studied French and Spanish, and can make some sense of Italian, Portuguese, and even German; but in Hindi, I can't figure anything out and have to memorize words and names exactly, and watch all kinds of videos, interviews and clips to learn how to pronounce any of it properly. (I swear it took me two weeks to learn how to say "Amitabh Bachchan" correctly, after having spent a few days memorizing the spelling.)
Understanding Hindi words is even more difficult, since song and movie titles are rarely translated into English. I only seem to learn any meanings from a combination of hearing certain words repeatedly and reading subtitles; not knowing Hindi syntax or sentence structure, it's often hard to detect the meaning of a single word from hearing a sentence and reading its translation. I can say with some authority that "dil" means "heart," since it turns up as much in Hindi songs as "corazon" does in Spanish ones. There are also some cute doubled words in Hindi, like "kuch kuch," which (I'm fairly sure) means "something." I've also figured out which words mean "father," "mother," "brother" and so on, plus certain pronouns. I might know 20 or so words.
The idioms are beyond me, and sometimes one has to watch or listen very carefully to understand what's going on. For instance, I watched Maya Memsahib over the weekend, and there was one playful scene between a man and a woman where the translated dialogue made no sense at all; but from listening, I realized that each person was saying something that rhymed with what had been said before, so they were kind of improvising silly verse. Between trying to really understand the social and cultural context, struggling with the language, and simply the length of time required to consume so many very long movies, it's a pretty exhausting pursuit.
Maya Memsahib, by the way, was of some interest to me because I had read that it was a little sexier than most Indian movies, plus it was based on Madame Bovary. I enjoyed it, although I found the ending kind of weird and confusing. I do find I can understand the Indian point of view a little better when I see films that are based on/inspired by/remakes of American films, or a familiar piece of literature like Madame Bovary. The familiar material helps me see what is different and unfamiliar. (I recently bought a DVD on eBay that I can't wait to see: Ram Gopal Varma's take on the deliciously trashy American film Poison Ivy, with Amitabh in the role originally played by Tom Skerrit.)
I also started watching Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham (which I think means something like "In Joy and in Grief"), which is the same kind of masala (mix) film as Kabhi Alveda Naa Kehna. It's full of family drama and comedy and romance and dancing, with a host of very familiar faces: our old friend Amitabh; his wife, Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan; Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukarjee, Kajol, and Hrithik Roshan. It's from 2001, and everyone looks fantastic, although it's not the best hair I've seen on AB.
I'm fairly certain that he's worn a hairpiece since the mid or late 80s -- that is, that it's a hairpiece and not a weave or transplant -- and it's sometimes very close to natural and sometimes very close to awful. He also had his jawline tightened up at some point, subtle but very good work. I mostly hate fake hair and hate the idea that men have to display a full head of hair to be considered attractive, but I cut AB some slack here. For one thing, he was known from the old days for having an absolutely splendid head of hair; and even at nearly 70, he's still more of a leading man (albeit an older one) than he is a character actor.
On the topic of hair...Shah Rukh Khan is also known for having a simply gorgeous head of hair, and I found this really funny video on YouTube, nearly three minutes of clips showing nothing but Shah Rukh touching his own hair. It's silly and yet kind of fascinating, because he really is stunning in it. Let's see if I can dig it up...
It's a little weird getting YouTube videos onto Blogger, since for some reason, there isn't a mechanism to simply go to "My Favorites" on YouTube and select something for posting there. The Blogger link to post videos requires you to search YouTube, so you have to look up or remember the exact title of the video. However, a sear for "Shah Rukh hair" found this one right away. Enjoy.
Indian film question: what is the significance of dancing with a red scarf? I've seen it in a couple of movies.
Indian film question number two: Why is no one making (basically non-musical) films as good as Sarkar and Sarkar Raj?
Indian film question number three: Back to the "Sarkar" films: what does the chant "Govinda, Govinda, Govinda" mean?
To what extent is "Bollywood" considered an insulting term by the Indian film industry? I know that certain industry people don't care for it at all, which is why I tend to say "Indian film."
I may have mentioned how much I enjoyed the surreal number "My Name is Anthony Gonsalves" performed by Amitabh Bachchan in the film Amar Akbar Anthony, but the number was a tribute to a real Anthony Gonsalves.
Well, "bad" is my ongoing concern with privacy and money. I did decide to keep a second blog where I can rant and rave anonymously about those things that are both bothering me and attracting me too much. And I have a second, private email address, and have been making use of "private browsing" at home, as not to leave an electronic paper trail. Never thought I'd have to be so cautious about privacy as regards my spouse, but apparently he likes to look in on what I do and to take things the wrong way. Really, really not good, as far as marriage goes. I'm sure a lot of people have a lot of different points of view on this, but I think everyone needs some privacy even married couples. For the record, I don't think I'm doing anything wrong that I require privacy, at least not at the moment. But perhaps some thoughts and ideas should be kept private.
The money situation got a little worse because Barry fucked up on paying Verizon (which provides our phone, internet, and TV). I let him pay the bills, which are three per month (Verizon, gas, and electric), and generally total around $300. I knew he had not been paying Verizon in full (which I don't like -- I had been encouraging him to pay a little more than the minimum to eventually get the bill paid down to zero). He assured me that he was paying the minimum to keep our service -- except he wasn't. So I got home on Wednesday and the phone, internet, and TV were all turned off, and we had to cough up around $400 to get them back. This is about the worst unexpected financial hit we've taken since I had to replace the dead computer, and it happened right at payday. So I have to look forward to an entire month of not having enough. Had to cancel New Year's with Jannah ($60 in train fare), any hopes of seeing a doctor ($30 co-pay), and may have to quit therapy, at least for now. I tried to cancel dinner with Robin tonight but she said she'd pick up the tab.
The good news is this: with all of the running around on Twitter etc, @astroshiva recommended this blog as a good source of Bollywood info, which is very flattering to me. I consider myself a rank beginner.
So I ought to say something about the first half of Yaarana, which I watched last night. (It's so hard to watch any more than half of a three-hour movie on a weeknight!) I had been anxious to see this for a bit -- Netflix had it, but the subtitles were off by about three lines (that is, the title would come on three lines later than the bit it was translating), so I had to stop. I ended up having to buy a DVD. And it was well worth it. For one thing, Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi do the singing. Also, I liked the themes of solid friendship and wicked family, and the fact that Amitabh plays both a country bumpkin and a talented singer. (He really is wonderful at playing a bumpkin. I'd like to see him do more comedy, though he has done some awfully funny TV commercials in recent years.) I like Amjad Khan as the friend-for-life. And although I wasn't sure that the tag from my old friend, Go Meera Go, was from an actual song, it seems it is: Sara Zamana from Yaarana. There you go. So now I know all four songs from the medley, and where each one comes from. Kaike Paan Banaraswala" from Don, "Pag Gungru" from Halak Namaal, "Rang Barse" from Silsilla, and "Sara Zamana" from Yaarana. So maybe I do know a thing or two about Bollywood -- at least about Amitabh and about Hrithik Roshan's weird thumbs.
I really need a subtitled copy of Sholay. Have not been able to find one online, and it's not a good month to buy one on eBay...which I might do anyway.
I am honestly not finding a whole lot of friendliness so far in the BW fan community, and that's a shame. Maybe I'm still too new. Someone reached out on Twitter to see if I was the same person from the blog, and I responded, then didn't hear from her again. You'd think the other nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn would like to do the secret handshake, but no. Maybe she's not so nice. Maybe she doesn't like not being the only one of her kind. Can't say -- it's in her head, not mine. But I never do like feeling snubbed.
I think this will be a weekend to make jewelry -- not just for holiday gifts, but for some piece of mind. I do need to be creating again.
When I start to follow, say, a certain actor, it's not just about appreciating someone his art, it's about growing my own. It's about being inspired. So, let's check out that inspiration this weekend, shall we?
Posts
