Monika’s Pensieve

{FILM DIARY}
Billu (2009, India)
Seen: Thursday, 31st December 2009
Runtime: 137′
Director: Priyadarshan
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Lara Dutta, Om Puri, Kareena Kapoor (cameo), Deepika Padukone (cameo), Priyanka Chopra (cameo)
Production House: Eros Entertainment, Red Chillies Entertainment
Plot: Billu is a barber living below the poverty line. When a film crew comes to shoot in his village, gossip starts that [...]

I started drafting this post ages ago (in January 2008 to be exact *grin*, this was still on my previous blog). I suddenly felt a desire to get back to it a couple of days ago upon reading an annoying “Pattinson can’t act and his fans have brains the size of peas” kind of article. [...]

{FILM DIARY}
Duplicate (India, 1998)
Seen: Saturday, 12th September 2009 (DVD, repeat viewing)
Runtime: 158′
Director: Mahesh Bhatt
Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, Sonali Bendre, Farida Jalal, Kajol (cameo)
Production House: Dharma Productions
Plot: Bablu is a very sweet guy who works as a cook and Manu is an evil and perverted gangster. The problem is that they both look the same…
Trailer

Impressions [...]

This blog post got me thinking way more than I would have ever thought possible - what was originally meant to be just a reply in the comments section there is now turning into a horrendously long blog post ;)
I don’t know if Andreja is reading this… but I’m sure she remembers when she brought [...]

I found it hilarious how tendentious the report is (but hey, Indian media just is like that, I’ve sort of gotten used to it now). SRK was really trying to play it down, while they were trying to get maximum scandal out of it. It was kind of funny ;) Still, the main facts seem [...]

This sort of thing has happened before (SRK has spoken about being frisked and checked at US airports before), but unless the Indian media is misrepresenting what happened, it’s just been taken to new levels…
Apparently, Shahrukh Khan was detained for 2h at Newark airport yesterday. He was only released after the Indian embassy interfered. The [...]

{FILM DIARY}
Yuvvraaj (India, 2008)
Seen: Monday, 4th May 2009 (cinema, special screening)
Runtime: around 2,5h
Director: Subhash Ghai
Cast: Salman Khan, Boman Irani, Anil Kapoor, Zayed Khan, Katrina Kaif, Mithun Chakraborty
Production House: Eros International, Mukta Arts
Plot: Deven wants to marry Anushka, but Anushka’s father hates him. When Deven’s father dies, he tries to get his hands on the family [...]

{FILM DIARY}
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (India, 2008)
Seen: Sunday, 29th March 2009 (cinema, special screening)
Runtime: 167′
Director: Aditya Chopra
Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Vinay Pathak, Anushka Sharma, Bipasha Basu (cameo), Lara Dutta (cameo), Kajol (cameo), Rani Mukherjee (cameo), Preity Zinta (cameo)
Production House: Yash Raj Films
Plot: Surinder, a shy boring middle class kind of guy is trying to make [...]

I’m not sure what I think of this, but it’s interesting…

So yeah - I think I’ll spend most of March sitting in dark cinema halls :]
I’m putting the schedule of the festival below - I’ve marked the films I cannot possibly miss with red. The festival takes place in all cinemas in the Multikino and SilverScreen chains.
Monday, 23rd March 2009
18:30 Water
Tuesday, 24th March 2009
18:30 Hello
Wednesday, [...]