Dilwali Film Le Jayegi

“Dilbar” from Sirf Tum (1999) 

Today I held my hands in such a way while crafting that I have strained every muscle in my palms, forearms, and most especially elbows. This has led me to the point where I cannot write the paper I should be writing without thoughts of carpal tunnel, and I must resign myself to watching videos of Akshay Kumar songs.

Karoon teri tasveer se meethi baatein *pelvic thrusts*

“Genie Rap” from Aladin (2009)

I have to admit that I love to hear Amitabh Bachchan sing.

“People must feel they live in a nation and this wallowing individually perceived notion of freedom must go.” --Indian Supreme Court

No idea why they’ve felt the need to embellish the word “ishq” (love) on John Abraham’s chest, but I highly approve of their artistic commitment to Urdu.

I’m not usually into this type of thing but enjoyed this one.

Ugh the rhyme scheme in this song is so lazy though

Deewani/mastani/kahani

Happy #MonsoonMondays! Because my post calling “Sanam Mere Humraaz” “the sexiest monsoon song” got more than my average number of likes, I thought I’d highlight a couple more monsoon songs.

“Koi Ladki Hai” is a classic, from the most classic, though still not a truly great movie, of 90′s dance movies: Dil To Pagal Hai (1997). This song is absolutely the highlight of the film.

Some good rain vocabulary:

बारिश होती है (it rains)

सावन आता है (the monsoon comes)

Cleverly, the genders of the different rain words have been paired with ladki/ladka (girl/boy). This, I have to admit, helps me remember what gender to use with baarish. 

आगे है बरसात  पीछे है तूफान मौसम बेईमान कहाँ चले हम-तुम

And how cute! While searching for this video, I found the following adorable clips of children’s performances of the song:

Via Buzzfeed India’s facebook

Movie theaters (cineplexes only) in India’s largest cities, along with some in second-tier cities, are taking advantage of Oscar hype! 

These sort of films, which otherwise would not do too well in India, are released for a short duration before the Oscars ceremony, the only time when the Hollywood-watching audience comes out in decent enough numbers to watch them.

I was at SATYAM in New Delhi last night, and they were advertising a two-week run of nominated films (most for Academy Award for Best Picture). I did not know this was a thing! I really thought Academy Awards were only significant to an American audience, and even then, there’s a pipeline which gets movies to nomination and winner-status--a pipeline which is exclusive, biased, and not generally representative of popular or commercially successful movies. 

I’m kinda fascinated by this phenomenon and what it says about film-going habits of Indians. The article says that the films only get this kind of attention and seat-filling potential right before the February ceremony (though a couple of the movies have been re-released in theaters), indicating that the nomination is what really attracts the audience and piques their curiosity.

Even though most theatre owners agree that Oscar movies are for a niche audience, they say the response to these films is better this year than last year, and so they had to increase the number of shows this time.

“Niche”--true story.

I’m on two paths of thought about this whole thing, and I admit that I could be very wrong, at least based on my generalizations about the people who go to watch Oscar film festivals.

(a) The Oscar nomination gives a stamp of critical approval that tempts people to see movies that they might otherwise skip. Also, English releases in India rarely get publicity unless they’re big blockbusters (ugh my country’s export of action movies), and the hype around the ceremony (except why does the ceremony get hype in India when most Americans I know do not enjoy the viewing experience at all?) gets people to think about the movies of the last year, and want to see more.

This is an article about entertainment tax being waved on a number of recent movies, and now, Chalk N Duster. Cinema tickets in India come with an entertainment tax (like a form of service tax) built in to the ticket price. When the state waives the entertainment tax, the price of tickets decreases. It’s a way of incentivizing the movie to viewers, and by extension, to filmmakers to make movies with a positive social message, since more people may go see the movie in theaters.

According to the article, the Uttar Pradesh state government failed to collect their projected 41 crores entertainment tax during the last fiscal year. The films they had waived tax on were: PK, Aamir Khan’s unnecessarily long look at religious faiths, traditions, and tolerance; Manjhi, a biopic of a Dalit man chopping down a mountain to allow his village better access to the facilities of the surrounding villages and towns, like a hospital; Masaan, a story of two tragic romances--one of which involves a low-caste boy and a high-caste girl; and Hamari Adhuri Kahani.

I did not see Hamari Adhuri Kahani, in part because I read that it (paraphrasing here but I believe using similar vocabulary) restored valor to the “good wife” trope which has disappeared from the screen. Erm, I’ll pass. The movie’s about a married woman, whose husband disappeared five years ago and is accused of being a terrorist by the police. She falls in love with a new man, but won’t leave her husband. I am very surprised that this type of movie and message would warrant an entertainment tax exemption on the basis of its social message; maybe there’s another factor ($$$ & dosti) at play.

The Uttar Pradesh state government (I get the sense, not explicitly, from this article that these are new tourism-promotion measures by the Akhilesh Yadav government) also gives incentives to filmmakers for making movies using actors from UP, shooting on location in UP, or promoting tourism in UP. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, “Rangreli,” from Daawat-e Ishq (2014) should be made the official Lucknow tourism song.

Here’s a review of the movie Chalk N Duster, which, unfortunately for my purposes, doesn’t go so far into a discussion about what makes the movie such a socially compelling message that it’s worthy of state tax subsidy. The movie is about two female teachers who are dedicated to their profession but don’t get their just professional rewards. I’ll go see it (ugh I don’t think they ever waive entertainment tax in Delhi) and let you know.

Do you know of any movies where the entertainment tax has been waived (and where)? Let me know; I’m interested in what kind of messages get this kind of state subsidy.

This is a movie about hard-working school teachers who don’t get the recognition their dedication deserves; the movie attempts to rectify that--that’s the social message, that teachers deserve our public appreciation. It’s not what I would call, again, having not seen the movie yet, ground-breaking.

I recommend the article, and the exhibit, if you’re in New York through April 1, 2016. Lots of interesting tidbits. Sad to think about the lack of recognition the (Bombay) Jewish community has in India, or in the film industry (apparently they largely didn’t speak Hindi!)

“Raat Baki, Baat Baki” from Namak Halaal (1982)

Voiced by Asha Bhosle and Bappi Lahiri

Trailer for Neerja, coming out in February 2016