Friday, January 15, 2010

Bollywood, my old friend

The holidays are gone, and the crazy working schedule has died down a bit--for now. I have been missing my evenings with Bollywood--have not been to the theatre for a while, missed out on seeing Aamir's 3Idiots on the big screen, amazingly, it played at the local Bollywood theatre for nearly a month! Here in the states, it got released a few days prior to release in India, and was a big hit here too. I have met a few more wonderful people because of my bollywood obsession.
After a crazy busy day at the yarn store, listening to Holiday music(stuff I had brought in so as to not have to listen to "Gramma got run over by a reindeer" for the umpteenth time on the horrid radio station that plays holiday music(bad holiday music) from Thanksgiving to Christmas--I needed a Bollywood pick me up--and put on AR Rahman. That caught the ears of a lovely lady, Rajshree and her mom(who was visiting from Mumbai)--and struck up yet another great friendship. Have found more of my students love Bollywood as well--and I have tried to share my love and interests with them.
The news lately has been pretty horrible, the earthquake in Haiti has made a large impact on my students--many are from the islands, and a number of them have family in Port au Prince that they have not been able to get in touch with--all we can do is hope and pray--and find solace in the things that make us happy and calm.

I have needed to see an old favorite movie--I began to watch " The Last Legion"--not a Bollywood, but a film full of old friends. Ben Kingsley, Aishwaryia Rai Bachchan, Colin Furst--to name a few. It is a rather good movie, as much as I saw of it, it seems to be a bit of a pre-Merlin tale--it seems to be setting up the Merlin mythology and carrying it from the falling Rome to England--need to convince Alex to watch it with me, and finish it!

I found with the sad news, harried work schedule, that I needed a shot of Shahrukh! Since his big new movie "My Name is Khan" will not be out to Valentine's Day weekend--I dragged out 3 of my old favorites to rewatch!
I first re-watched Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK), and found that even though it was not one of Karan Johar's best productions, it still got to me and hit my heart. I then lent it to one of my major Bollywood addicts, and she did not like it--I think she did not like the more modern, western story of marriage gone wrong. I think it is the modern topic being dealt with that makes me like it. She also did not like SRK's character--he does play a rather bitter, angry man--very different from his typical roles.
More typical, I then watched "One 2 Ka 4". This tale of a man who dislikes kids, who wishes to be a tough cop who fights the drug lords--soon melts when he is trusted with the care of his dead partner's children. This more typical SRK fare cheered me up and made my evening.

Well, tonight I felt I needed SRK's newest incarnation--Surinder Sahni!! Watching "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi" for what must have been the 8th time, got me wanting even more to find a way to visit Amristar and the Golden Temple and all the other wonderful, horrific and phenomenal places I have seen in Bollywood movies. I feel, when I watch these movies, that this is a place where I belong--where I would be at peace with myself and the questions I have about many things would be answered.
I guess it would be time to head to bed, since I seem to be getting a bit maudeling and I did not get any knitting done while I watched RNBDJ!! Oh well, hopefully I can make up the missed knitting time tomorrow!

1 comment:

  1. I have been meaning to get KANK since its not on netflix. I admit, the story seems a bit more Western and sad but the cast and director make it impossible for me to overlook!;) If you ever plan a trip to India, I would definitely go with you! Its in my top 3 places to go next, besides Korea and Italy. Did you see Bride and Prejudice? That's the movie that opened my Bollywood door. I enjoyed The Last Legion too. I love Colin Firth!! Mistress of Spices was good too. Very visual and sensual.

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