Musings of the Obsessive Kind
She's a mite whimsical in the brainpan.
Musings of the Obsessive KindShe's a mite whimsical in the brainpan. |
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| Jan. 3rd, 2010 @ 08:10 pm Bollywood cheer | |||
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It's freezing and horrid and I am exhausted. So I cheered self up by watching some Bollywood and by working on my epic Bolly Intro post. Movie I was watching? Delightful and funny Dil Bole Hadippa about a feisty Punjabi girl Veera (Rani Mukherji) who cross-dresses as a boy in order to join the cricket team and falls for the captain. Have a MV: Also, apparently there is a Bolly adaptation of Emma slated to come out with Sonam Kapoor and Abhay Deol. EEE.  | |||
| Dec. 16th, 2009 @ 01:35 pm My dream comes true! | |||
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Trailer for My Name is Khan (you can skip SRK talking before and after if you want but I like ogling him so...) Upcoming MNIK, about an autistic Indian Muslim living in America. But it could have been about puppeteering and I would not care because of who is in it. At last. At last. At last. My hugest, biggest on-screen Baby Mousie is getting a sitter the night this comes out. And you know what? Fox bought it so it means this will be in mainstream theaters!!!!! (Thanks ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} wasabi_girl1 for the link) | |||
| Nov. 13th, 2009 @ 04:36 pm Kurbaan: How to love a terrorist, Bollywood style! | |||
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One of my most anticipated movies of the year is the Bollywood flick Kurbaan, starring real-life couple, and huge dangermousie favorites, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor.  From its promos, Kurbaan seems to belong to that small but uniquely Indian movie subgenre - terrorist love stories. (Other notable examples include Dil Se, Mission Kashmir, Fanaa, Dev and New York). You are basically not a Bollywood star if you haven't played in a terrorist movie. In those movies the terrorist, male or female, is never condoned but is portrayed as a damaged person who will, it being Bollywood, decide to probably die for love of guy, girl, parents, or just grand cinematic exit. There are of course plenty of straightforward "terrorists are here to kill our children but Sunny Deol will save us" type, but Kurbaan is unlikely to be the latter. In Kurbaan, from what I can tell, Kareena falls in love with the scruffily appealing Saif. However, unlike in real life, this Saif isn't a divorced-movie-star-slash-prince, but an Islamic Studies professor who takes her to dreary snowy North America after marriage. It is there Kareena discovers her husband is...*deep breath*...terrorist mastermind. NAAAAAAAAHIN! Has the girl never watched Fanaa? Never trust those charming guys played by Bollywood stars with last name of Khan. Kareena decides to stop her deadly darling once and for all. Perhaps she did watch Fanaa, after all. Anyway - what will happen? I don't know but anticipate finding out. Saif can do dark and even repulsive really well (Omkara) and Kareena is a wonderful actress in a good movie (Asoka, Dev), so yes please. ( He wants your nukes but will settle for your underwear ) | |||
| Oct. 18th, 2009 @ 10:31 pm Looking good, Mrs Khan! | |||
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Dangermousie's favorite actor, Shahrukh Khan, walking the ramp with his wife Gauri, at Karan Johar's fashion show (what with directing, writing, tv show, and now fashion, when does Karan Johar have time to do anything else? Soon he is going to take to painting or singing or something else additional and bizarre :P)  I got to say, I am more impressed with Gauri - she's close to 40 and oh boy, I've only pushed out one kid compared to her two, but I would KILL to look that good in a skirt this short and a shirt this tight. *sigh* She can keep Shahrukh, I want her trainer. Also, that hair. I want. | |||
| Oct. 5th, 2009 @ 11:22 pm South India delivers and Bollywood ain't being too shabby either. | |||
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First off, a trailer for upcoming Bollywood movie Kurbaan which might as well have been titled "So I married a terrorist." I am highly interested in it because (1) I have always found Bollywood complicated attitude to terrorism fascinating - he or she is always a condemned, wrong, doomed figure but there is also a certain nuance - many of them are protagonists of their stories and not just shadowy enemies, and even have romances (Dil Se, Fanaa, Mission Kashmir, Fida, New York, Fiza). It often makes for dark, good movies; (2) I love Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor - they are some of my most favorite Bollywood actors. My second foray into Telugu cinema (after Desamuduru), namely Pokiri, was a huge success - I loved it, even if I forwarded past a number of fights. Mahesh Babu, who plays the titular pokiri, a hired mafia killer who in the middle of a mob war falls in love with an innocent college student, is my newest crush. The heroine was adorable but I loved hero's tough-gal mob friend even more. I am definitely going to watch much much more Southie stuff - preferably Telugu as it seems to be more my thing than Tamil stuff. Southie movies remind me of older Bollywood movies - less gloss and production values but that is appealing in itself - the gloss has stamped out all the heart of many Bolly movies - they are slick, well-cut, and achingly empty. They have heroines who look like beatiful women as opposed to plastic dolls, normal locations for songs, a certain grounded feelings, and a lot of heart. South Indian movies for me... Recs? I think I want to check out Kannada movies too - Love Guru has an awesome soundtrack.  | |||
| Sep. 25th, 2009 @ 12:53 pm Clearly, Asia is where it's at if you like your men wounded while shirtless | |||
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A new teaser for IRIS is out (thank you to clairiere for the heads-up): October 14 cannot come soon enough. Also, Is that Lee Byung Hun getting tortured? Why do I not have a Lee Byung Hun icon btw? As as we are on the topic of dangerous shirtless men, here is eye-popping poster for the upcoming Bollywood flick Kurbaan, featuring the stars (and real-life couple) Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor. Click to enlarge.  Taken from wasabi_girl1. | |||
| Sep. 14th, 2009 @ 10:59 am Please Make This Happen! My God. | |||
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Aamir, SRK for Boyle’s next KUNAL M SHAH , MUMBAI MIRROR 14 September 2009, 08:54am IST After apparently signing Aamir Khan for his forthcoming film, Bombay Velvet, buzz is that Danny Boyle is now in the process of signing Shah Rukh Khan. It will be nothing short of a casting coup if Boyle manages to get the two superstars together. Incidentally, Boyle had earlier offered Anil Kapoor’s role in Slumdog Millionaire to Shah Rukh Khan but things hadn’t worked out then. Like his hugely successful Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle’s next is also based on the city of Mumbai. It is a thriller period film set in the 1940s to be directed by Anurag Kashyap. The film, based on real incidents, is expected to go on the floors next year. The film has three parts with a new actor playing the lead in the second part while Aamir will be the protagonist in the third part. If sources are to be believed, Boyle had been looking for a lead actor for the first part and decided to get Shah Rukh Khan on board. The filmmaker and actor are in advanced stages of discussion and if all goes well, SRK will soon sign on the dotted line. Boyle had discussed the film with director Anurag Kashyap during the release of Slumdog Millionaire. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ente | |||
| Aug. 15th, 2009 @ 08:50 am Let's detain the world's biggest star because his last name is Khan - that will make us popular! | |||
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Current Mood:
The Hell????? pissed offShah Rukh Khan, dangermousie's favorite actor, and more importantly the world's biggest movie star (because he is the biggest movie star in Bollywood and Bollywood tickets outsell Hollywood) was in the United States for filming and was detained by the immigration folks for questioning - for two hours!!! The Indian Embassy had to intervene to get him out. Ooooh goody - he is a Muslim man, he's got to be an eeeeeeeevil terrorist? The hell? Are they flipping INSANE????? Fine, they detained him because the name came up on some screen or other, but why the hell did they question him for hours and only released him after the Indian Embassy got involved? Shouldn't he have been let go immediately? He told them he was a movie star - couldn't they fucking google it to confirm it if they are clueless? Ironically, I bet he was in the US to film "My Name is Khan," about prejudice a Muslim man is subjected to in America (which apparently got picked up by Fox Searchlight for distribution in the US). How apt. Ooooh, doesn't he look scary and detainable:  | |||
| Jul. 31st, 2009 @ 11:33 am Bollywood! | |||
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Anyone else excited for Love Aaj Kaal? Coming out today! | |||
| Jul. 3rd, 2009 @ 09:55 pm Kambakht Ishq | |||
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filmi_girl and I saw Kambakht Ishq, a Bollywood comedy starring Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor - it was stupid and free-form but also ridiculously hilarious. I don't remember the last time I laughed so much! I was also amused that the two leads had bits from the leads' real-life personas (or at least the way they are perceived by the public) - Akshay's doing his stunts and notorious womanizing and Kareena's outspokenness (her character is nicknamed Bebo, just the way she is in real life). Also, her character's attitude towards men, comes from a family situation very similar to Kareena's - mother and older sister in unsuccessful marriages. | |||
| Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 03:33 pm I think I have just become interested in South Indian cinema... | |||
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Current Mood:
 chipper Indeed. I adore Bollywood movies, as most of you know. However, I have ventured into South Indian movies (Tamil, Telugu, Malayam, Kannada etc) very rarely. In fact, I think I have only seen 4: Bombay (which was dubbed into Hindi and starred Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala); Kandukondain Kandukondain (starring now Bollywood mainstays Aishwaria Rai and Tabu); Dumm Dumm Dumm, and Nuvvostante Nenoddantana. Honestly speaking, I had no interest in watching more, even though I liked Bombay, DDD, and NN and didn't mind KK. Bollywood kept me fully occupied when I craved an Indian movie fix but also - let's be honest here, I am shallow. I want my movies to have hot men. And with the exception of rather appealing Madhavan in DDD, the Southie actors in the other three movies, not to mention random pictures I have seen of them around were anything but hot by my standards - beefy if one is being kind (and rotund if not), with a bushy mustache and a week's-worth of stubble on their chin, and not ever able to see forty again were all not my bag. But clearly, while I am sure there are plenty of Southie male stars who look like retired gym teachers, I have been looking in the wrong places and there are apparently hot guys in other Indian movie industries beside Bollywood! ( Enter for proof ) So, any recommendations for Southie movies starring Allu Arjun, Madhavan, Vikram, Prabhas, Dhanush or other hot guys? I don't care which genre they are in, but they have to have English subs and be relatively easy to find. In other news, somebody found and posted this spoilery pic from the set of My Name is Khan, starring Shahrukh Khan and Kajol. ( Here it is ) (All pics taken from BollyWHAT) | |||
| Jun. 27th, 2009 @ 10:02 am Kambakkht Ishq (Unlucky Love) - Hooray for Bollywood | |||
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Doesn't this look ridiculously fun? cheerful Trailer for KI which I think is opening next week: Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor in a movie that looks ridiculously, gloriously fun! He is a Hollywood stuntman, she is a surgeon who moonlights as a model. Cameos from people like Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards and Brandon Routh. Hilariousness ensues. I. Cannot. Wait. It's been too long since an-all out masala movie!  | |||
| Jun. 27th, 2009 @ 12:51 am Bollywood is being stupid... | |||
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Current Mood:
Ahaaaaa. Apparently New York, the movie largely famous for having John Abraham be naked has opened. This is a very very spoilery summary of the plot. aggravatedOh Bollywood - plz never try to do a 'serious' movie on Americans and terrorism. This is about the stupidest plot I've ever read. Also, note: I'd be a lot more willing to buy people being prejudiced against Indians as suspicious foreigners after 9/11 if your cast didn't look so blindingly white that an average American would never even realize they weren't Caucasian - come on, John Abraham? He looks whiter than I do! Maybe if they cast a Southie actor, or at least Shahrukh Khan, I'd buy it... Not to mention, I'd also be a lot more willing to buy "poor wrongly mistreated Indians" thing if it showed John/Neil/whoever being accosted with racial slurs and maybe an occasional beat-down in a parking lot if they ended up somewhere really backward and remote-rural in October 2001. Not being dragged off the streets of melting-pot New York for hideous torture while looking yuppie-white. Heh. IRRITATED NOW. Seriously, I am looking foward to stuntman/female star Bolly movie with Akshay and Kareena and the Rani/Shahid adorable 'crossdressing girl wants to play sports' flick but this? Seriously, Bollywood, don't bother to bother. Tp make self feel less irritated:  Rani as a girl who crossdresses to play sports! Shahid being adorable and dancery! EEE! | |||
| Jun. 15th, 2009 @ 12:14 pm A Dangermousie Bolly Favorite turns into a Rapist. What next! | |||
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Clearly,  cynicaldangermousie is having a bad time with actors she likes. First Joo Ji Hoon, now this! Yup, Bollywood star Shiney Ahuja, leading man of such movies as "Gangster," "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi," "Woh Lamhe," and "Life...in a Metro" has been accused of rape of his 19-year-old maid. That in itself is bad enough, but if that was all, there could have been a possibility he didn't do it, or sex was consensual etc etc. HOWEVER. 1. Medical tests confirmed sexual assault and 2. Shiney himself has confessed. Did I mention that the lovely man in question is married with a small baby and took advantage of his family being out? UGH. UGH. There is not enough UGH in the world. Unlike with Joo Ji Hoon (who just did some drugs, presumably harming nobody but himself, thus I really really am upset about the jail centence), I really really hope Shiney goes to jail for a good long while. I still think he is a good actor and my enjoyment of his role in e.g. Gangster is not marred by the fact that he is a disgusting human being in real life, but my separation of actor and man merely means that while I don't plan to throw away my DVDs or anything (or can even swoon over his character in Metro), I hope the man himself rots in prison for a very very long time. LOOOOONG TIME. ( Articles in full ) | |||
| May. 21st, 2009 @ 11:44 am Happy Days... | |||
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Current Mood:
It feels like Friday today, somehow! curiousAishwarya Rai is such a very gorgeous woman, it's a little bit ridiculous. I love this photo of her at Cannes, with all the photogs - it's such a Marilyn Monroe moment.  ( A couple more photos of her from Cannes, plus two of Shu Qi, also scarily beautiful ) Mr. Mousie and I started watching Gun x Sword an anime you can stream on Netflix. As it's stream, you have to watch dubbed. I don't mind most of the voices, but the voice for Wendy is so irritating I hate the character just because of it - seriously, that dubber is awful. But one does not look a gift (streaming) horse in the mouth I suppose. I wanted to check out GxS for a while mainly because the set-up reminded me a bit of Trigun, my favorite anime of all time: it's another dusty Space-Western, with its a protagonist a roaming gunslinger with a haunted past and excellent skills. That is, obviously, a fairly general description and Trigun and GxS aren't that similar in actuality. After the first ep, I like this anime. Not as much as Trigun, but to be fair, I didn't even love Trigun after the first ep as much as I ended up loving it. GxS follows Van, a mysterious man bizarrely dressed in a tuxedo who, in the opening episode, almost unwillingly saves a small town from a marauding gang (there are guns, swords, and giant mecha robots. YES.) Van acquires a hanger-on/admirer in the form of Wendy, a rather young girl who decides to tag along with him from then on despite his utter lack of interest and the anime follows his quest to track down and avenge himself on his nemesis, the Claw Man. As I said, I liked it. I have also checked out the beginning of Brilliant Legacy and I like it - it's LOLtastic. | |||
| May. 19th, 2009 @ 01:11 pm Movie glee | |||
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OMG YES. I have been eagerly, pathetically anticipating Mani Ratnam's next movie, a modern twist on the Ramayana (where Sita and Ravana might actually like each other *gasp*) with Abhishek and Aishwarya Bachchan for many many reasons: Mani being my favorite Indian director, liking Abhivariya (heee) together in movies, the story, Mani always getting the best performances out of his actors (Abhishek's best performance is in Yuva, IMO, and second best in Guru) but now I think I will utterly die of glee: his cinematographer walked out and he replaced him with Santosh Sivan. Yup. That Santosh Sivan, of Asoka and Dil Se. amused*brb, screaming now* I simply CANNOT wait for this movie. I should make a list of my most-anticipated Bolly flicks. In other news, found these three clips from the Bright Star movie about Keats and Fanny Brawne. MMMMM. I defy you not to swoon. | |||
| May. 17th, 2009 @ 10:48 pm Ahahahahaha - Oh, Hrithik! | |||
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Current Mood:
amusedBwahahaha. A scene from the upcoming Kites with Hrithik and Barbara Mori. It's like a cheesy romance novel come to life. I am going to LOVE it!!! (Also, is it just me or does his sixpack have a sixpack?) I repeat - bwaaaaaaaa. ETA: Found a trailer. It's even better! Seriously Hrithik, never change pls! | |||
| May. 15th, 2009 @ 02:46 pm Flying high for Kites | |||
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Current Mood:
A-hem. chipper No married father of two should look this hot. Is anyone else really excited for the upcoming Hrithik Roshan/Barbara Mori flick Kites? I have always wanted to see Hrithik in an intense love story (nope, he's never done one). Plus, he plays a dance instructor so how could you lose?  Also, I have extra curiousity because of all those Hrithik/Barbara tabloid rumors. Not like I'd be able to tell anything from their on-screen chemistry, but whatever... Also, Sanjay Leela Bhansali is still going full steam with his plan for Hrithik/Aishwarya Rai movie. It has a title and filming date and everything. And is supposed to be an intense romance. Mmmm. YES. | |||
| Apr. 17th, 2009 @ 12:49 am Bollywood glee! | |||
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Current Mood:
chipper Finished Aaja Nachle, a movie about a woman returning to her small town after many years abroad, and trying to save a performance venue and put on a production. It wasn't that great (though it wasn't bad either) but two things about it were wonderful: (1) seeing Madhuri Dixit again; and (2)Konkona Sen Sharma and Kunal Kapoor playing two people cast as Laila and Majnun in Madhuri's take on the famous story. They have such lovely chemistry - they should make more movies together (they have saved an atrocious "noble hooker yay" movie for me before) plus seeing the play performed was a huge highlight. So, I bring you caps from my favorite scene - the production put on by Madhuri which is the famous legend of Laila and Majnun, the star-crossed lovers (played by KKS and KK). It was very very lovely. ( Awwwwww: Twu Luv leads to Hideous Death. Now with 200% more stoning ) Also, I don't know how, but I somehow totally missed that Mani Ratnam's next movie, starring Abhishek and Aiswarya is a modern take on the Ramayana! Only in his version, Sita and Ravana have a thing???? In fact it's supposed to be a romantic movie! (I think Aish is playing Sita and Abhi Ravana). OMG. Isn't it sorta like having Jesus get it on with Mary Magdalene - i.e. pretty controversial? Mmmmm. This is going to be SO GOOOOOD (I have yet to see a Mani movie that I didn't utterly love) but I think some theaters are going to get trashed (I read they cut out a lovemaking scene because they didn't want to be controversial which made me LOL as I think Sita/Ravana is plenty controversial on its own). Unless the info is wrong and Abhi is playing Ram, in which case theaters are safe but I will enjoy the movie just as well. ETA: Nope, checked it, and Abhi is Ravana. And apparently his character's sister kills herself as result of being offended by Aish's husband so he kidnaps her as revenge but they fall in love? Ravana/Sita. *boggle boggle boggle* Though presumably he doesn't have nine heads in this version. I am so excited because I think Abhi's performance in Yuva was his very best, and that was in a Mani Ratnam movie and he also played a violent abusive thug in dyfunctional love with a woman - I hated his character and couldn't take my eyes off him. So if this is half as good, I'll be in heaven. Also, Govinda is Hanuman. I do not have enough glee in the whole world for this. (Vikram, a Tamil star I am not familiar with is Ram, but is playing Ravana in the Tamil-language version they are shooting simultaneously? That is super awesome). | |||
| Apr. 15th, 2009 @ 11:45 pm Ghajini = I am in love | |||
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I posted some time ago that I wasn't veru impressed with the beginning of Ghajini, the biggest Bolly flick of last year. chipperWell - I have to eat my words. I am about an hour in and am madly madly in love. I can even pinpoint the exact moment the movie went from "I like the way it's shot but so what" to "OMG!!!" - it's when Aamir saw Asin help those children get into a museum and smiled. It's like a lightbulb turned on and I was madly in love (though I liked it as soon as it went into flashback). I am adoring it so far - Aamir and Asin have great chemistry together and I find both her character (spunky and fun - no wonder Aamir is smitten) and the whole situation of her not knowing who he is and essentially hiring him to play himself utterly adorable. He is so amused and smitten by her - you can see it in every moment they have together. In fact, I am rather dreading what I know will happen. OK, what is Ghajini? It's loosely inspired by Memento - about a man (Aamir Khan) who lost his abilities to form long-term memories but is driven by the need to avenge the death of the woman he loved (Asin). We start in the present and then go into a very long flashback (I think at least half the movie) of what got him to this state. Mmmmm. So good. Here is a spoilery MV: | |||