And now, for something completely different.
They say you can't go home again. But I'm going to try. For most of my childhood and my early adult life I was homesick for North Platte. That's North Platte Nebraska, slightly west of the center of the state. Sitting on the High Plains 3000 feet above sea level on what was once the undulating floor of an ancient ocean, bisected by the Union Pacific mainline, it's home to about 25,000 people. It was once home to Buffalo Bill Cody. It was also my home from my first birthday until one day in late September, 1957, when our '49 Chevy pulled away from 310 South Willow and headed east on Highway 30. We were headed to a new home and a new life in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City. I think of it as moving from the Little House on the Prairie to Mad Men; the culture shock was awful. For the next few years, I would lie in my bed in my darkened bedroom and cry, praying fervently that when I woke up it would be a dream like in the Wizard of Oz and I would be back in North Platte with all my friends. It never happened. When I was 12, we moved again, to Connecticut. Another small town and once again, the new kid in school. Living there, but never really at home. I fantasized about going to Midland College in Fremont, Nebraska where I was born while my father had gone to school on the G.I. Bill. But instead, I went to Syracuse University, fell in love, and lived my life, year-by-year, moving from upstate New York, to Rhode Island, and finally Maryland. This has been my home for forty years, yet when people ask, I still say I am from Nebraska. Is been 59 years since I left North Platte. The eight-year-old has grown up and is growing older. I am wondering what would have it been like to stay in North Platte? Who would I be? What part of me really comes from there? So on Tuesday, I fly halfway across the country, rent a pick up a rental car in Denver, and drive home to North Platte. Not home forever, but home for 3 1/2 weeks. I have no idea what I'll find...or who. Stay tuned. In the last 12 months, I’ve watched every single film in which Shah Rukh Khan had a major role, and am ready for Dear Zindagi on Nov. 25. I think I deserve this: (My dad died of emphysema, so it makes me really sad to know he is such a heavy smoker. But as a former smoker myself, I also know that quitting is very hard.) H/T to my favorite blogger, Margaret Redlich for posting this fabulous photo. You can find her at https://dontcallitbollywood.com.
Oh Darling! Yeh Hai India! gets my enthusiastic vote for the most underrated Shah Rukh Khan film. It was released in SRK's most prolific year, on the same day as Guddu, and about two months before Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayange, his career-changing hit. It was a commercial failure, but a critical success. I rented it online, watched it twice and then bought it. Synopsis. This was an unusual film for its time. It uses familiar -- even clichéd -- Hindi movie conventions to spin a satirical fable about contemporary Indian political and social corruption. Most of the main characters have titles, not names: Miss India, the President, Prince, Hero (Shah Rukh Khan). It helps to be somewhat familiar with Hindi films, as there are constant references to songs, characters, and dialogs from other movies. It reminded me of Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Stanley Kubrick's brilliant Cold War satire, with the very Indian addition of romance. With watching for: An amazing performance by Amrish Puri as the villainous Don Quixote, who is plotting to kidnap the President, install a look-alike in his place, and auction off India to the highest bidder. My favorite Amrish Puri role ever, and it looks like he had a ball doing it. They even manage to poke fun at his acting, when he is asked at one point "Don't you ever blink?" No, he doesn't, and that's why his eyes are so scary! Anupam Kher is wonderful as the President and his many lookalikes, and Javed Jaffrey is both frightening and sympathetic as Prince, Don Quixote's heir. And "the fountain scene" in this musical number is as sexy as anything Shah Rukh Khan as done. First, a little news. I am ecstatic to have received King Uncle via interlibrary loan, which completes my "early, obscure, and hard-to-find" list. What a relief! Now, about Josh. not knowing more than a dozen words of Hindi, I thought this was the name of one of the characters. Silly me; it means "frenzy", and it means that this loose remake of West Side Story will have action as well as romance. As Shah Rukh Khan films go, it's in the middle of the pack: worth watching more than once, but not one I need to own. At thirty-five, SRK was poised to break away from the immature roles that first made him famous and take on more grown-up, challenging work. His biggest hit from 2000, Mohabbetein, was just such a role, winning him the Filmfare Critics' Award for Best Actor. Interestingly, the same actress appears with him in both films, to very different effect, in Mohabbatein, Aishwarya Rai plays his tragic love interest; in Josh, she is his twin sister. You can probably guess which casting is more credible. Synopsis. Max (SRK) and Prakash (Sharad Kapoor) are leaders of two rival gangs in Goa, one Christian and one Hindu. Prakash's brother Rahul, a chef from Mumbai, comes to visit and falls in love with Goa and then with Max's sister, Shirley (Rai). Their secret relationship is the romantic centerpiece of the film, with the gang conflict providing the action and drama. Max also has a love interest, Roseanne, but it seems almost an afterthought. The climax comes -- as in Romeo and Juliet, and West Side Story, from the violent outcome of the gang conflict. Because it is not completely based on either play, there are enough plot twists to keep the story fresh. Worth watching for. The musical numbers are very entertaining, and the score was a bigger hit than the movie. Aishwarya Rai is an excellent dancer, and I always enjoy her performances. Shah Rukh Khan does his own singing on Apun Bola, and it is very funny. The backstory is even funnier; according to him, he had so much trouble carrying a tune was recorded one or two words at the time and then spliced together. Want to watch? There is a version on YouTube with no subtitles. I got my copy through interlibrary loan.
Chaahat (Desire) was Shah Rukh Khan's second major release in 1996, and his first film with director Manesh Bhatt,who also directed him in Duplicate. There are some similarities between the two films, notably the contrast between SRK's goofy, simple character (Roop in Chaahat, Bablu in Duplicate) and his angry, violent avatar (Roop again in Chaahat, Manu in Duplicate). For reasons I can't quite fathom myself, I liked him better in Chaahat than in Duplicate. Maybe it's Manu's tongue thing. Ew. Synopsis. Musicians Roop (SRK) and his widowed father (Anupam Kher) share a close, loving relationship. They travel to Bombay so that the father can be treated for a throat ailment, and Roop tries to earn money for the hospital bills by playing for a rich woman's birthday party. The birthday girl, Reshma (the stunning and sexy Ramya Krishnan) falls hard for Roop, but he is oblivious to her attentions and instead loses his heart to Pooja (Pooja Bhatt). In an interesting reversal of the plot of Darr, Roop is pursued by an increasingly unhinged Reshman, and the film climaxes in a series of increasingly violent and gory fight scenes. I am not going to spoil it further. Yes, love wins and evil is defeated. (But you knew that!) Don't Shah Rukh and Anupam look like they are having a blast doing this song? It's the father-son bond from DDLJ, only better! Worth watching for: The performances of Naseeruddin Shah as Reshma's villainous brother Ajay and Anupam Kher, who are at the top of their form. The scenes with them and Shah Rukh Khan are top notch, but the opening father-son dance scene and the Khan-Kher fight scene are my favorites. In fact, the fight scenes in Chaahat have finally won me over to Hindi film fighting. Yes, I know I outed myself as a "delicate flower" in my post about Dil Se. But I watched Chaahat twice in two days for the fight scenes. Also: Ramya Krishnan as the obsessed lover!!! It is fabulous to watch her try -- repeatedly to seduce Roop -- and to see him move from oblivious to wary to complete rejection of her advances. This fan video mix of most of the pertinent scenes captures it pretty well (the ones in blue light with the piano are her fantasies, not his). One last reason to watch Chaahat: it's gorgeous. Consider this beautifully filmed number, which sets up the dramatic climax: Want to watch? This is one of several of his early films that Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chilies Entertainment now owns. The good news is that they have made it available on Youtube, iTunes, and Google Play for rental or purchase at very reasonable prices. Enjoy!
This is a bit of a departure for me, but since this blog is literally "everything else", what the heck! My favorite blogger mredlich21 nominated me for this chain letter-style blogging activity, and I am always looking for new ways to procrastinate. Here are the rules:
Many thanks to mredlich21 for thinking of me and for not giving me film-related questions to answer! 1. Why did you start blogging?I have kept a journal since high school (over fifty years), so daily writing is pretty much a habit. My first blog was on LiveJournal, and was essentially just a more public continuation of my paper journals. Then I added a series of blogs related to my professional work. The now-inactive ones that lasted the longest are Nice White Lady (2007-2013), which was about conscious consumption, and 23 Sherwood Drive, an experiment in memoir in which I transcribed my diary from 1965-66 and added comments from my perch forty years later. Right now I have two blogs, Gender Mystique, which focuses on my research on clothing and gender, and this one, which is -- um -- everything else. 2. What keeps you going online and writing?I believe that writers need to write every day. Sometimes I write in my paper journal, sometimes in my private online journal. But the value in blogging is in writing for an audience -- no matter how small. So I post something somewhere every day. Sometimes it's Facebook, sometimes Twitter, sometimes Instagram, sometimes a flash fiction app called TaleHunt, sometimes in Gender Mystique, and sometimes here.I write to share my thoughts and also to save them for later for myself. 3. What is the best comment you have ever gotten on your blog?That's a tough one! I have too many to pick a favorite. My son-in-law asked some great questions on 23 Sherwood Drive that forced me to think more deeply. I have also learned quite a bit from readers on Gender Mystique, especially folks from other countries who have shared their stories in the comments. I like questions the best! 4. What is the favorite blog post you have ever written?It has to be this one. Stupid me, I thought that writing a book and blogging about it would mean that I would stop getting asked the same question over and over (and over and over) by reporters. I finally got so tired of answering it that I wrote this post, and now when I get asked I just send them the link. 5. What is the favorite blog post you have ever read?Another tough question! I go back to mredlich21's analysis of Diwale Dulhania Le Jayenge so often that it is clearly a recent favorite. 6. Why do you like writing about what your blog is about? My focused blogs reflect my scholarly interests in fashion, gender, and sustainability. They help me stay on track with my research (publish or perish is real, people!) and also let me get my work to a public audience faster than any traditional mode of publishing. 7. Has your blog changed focus since you started? Lordy, yes. (See question 1.) Gender Mystique has helped me write two books and I am now working on a third, and the focus has shifted to reflect my current project. First, it was baby and toddler clothing, then unisex and androgynous fashion, now it's fashion and age. Having the Everything Else blog has been very liberating. Lately it has been very Shah Rukh Khan heavy, but that will change once I finish watching all if his movies. I am even reblogging old posts from my other blogs here. Focus? what's that? 8. Are you embarrassed sometimes when you go back and read your earlier posts? Sure. That's the wages of publication. There are old journal articles I could torch if I could. But so far nothing has been so awful that I have actually deleted it. (Updates, yes.) 9. What makes you happiest about blogging? When a reader comments or emails me. I write to communicate, so making that connection is the best! 10. What makes you grumpiest about blogging? Proofreading. I swear that typos are living, reproducing organisms. 11. If you could change one thing about the people on the internet, what would it be? I would make them read that post about pink and blue so they would stop asking the same damn question all the time. That was a good hour's work! Now I am going to be a bad girl and not nominate additional bloggers because (1) I don't actually read that many blogs these days and (2) I just don't do the "tag you're it" thing. (Sorry.) But feel free to respond on your own, and post a link to your post in the comments!
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