Manish, I live in the Pacific. We get a lot of taro here.

A LOT.

I'll mail you some.

Hitchens, Mos Def and Salman Rushdie?! "Mr. Definitely"?!

Huh?!

Om Puri = unsubtle? *clutches heart* Just last night I watched My Son the Fanatic for the millionth time. Get thee to that movie and never again dare to call my beloved Puriness anything other than brilliant and nuanced and perfect.

Agreed on everything else. Especially the Jama Masjid shot, which brought tears to my eyes. And Vijay Raaz, YES! He was so good. I'd like to see a dark police drama with him reprising that role, it was great.

But if Slumdog wins Best Pic, can you just imagine Anil's fabulous meltdown? It's worth it to see that alone.

Om Puri plays Om Puri well.

Music to mine ears.

Aaja Nachle was the bomb. I appreciate Ultrabrown's continued plugging of its excellence. We need to proclaim it loud and proud: I loved Aaja Nachle!

"A VOLCANO of talent! (write that down!)" is my favorite moment, especially the journalist's look when he holds up the tape recorder.

Can't wait for this. CAN'T WAIT.

manishhhhh, why ya gotta be hatin' on Yuvvraaj though?

*fulfills daily quota of promise to protect Anil Kapoor forever*

...like Rishi Kapoor at a butter chicken feast.

:)

imagine bionic, Caribbean versions of Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz

*ded*

?

FAAABulous review.

And I'm so jealous this isn't playing in my desh.

Way ahead of you, manish vij. Esau Mwamwaya is fab. "Hide and Seek" is my fave.

Hell yes plitz.

Benjamin Button IS a snooze.

Concise and clear-headed; thanks, manish vij. I was just trying to say these things to a desi friend of mine today - but I couldn't use my words as well. Now I'll just pass along this link.

Anil at the Oscars REPRESENT.

khoofia, how can you be so cruel? You deem sucky the song I love? O..Saya is DA BOMB IN A BUCKET. I love the rattling, booming, crashing percussion intro - it's like train tracks (cuz the slumkids live on the wrong side of the TRACKS, GET IT?!) and the beating of their adrenaline-pumping little hearts (cuz they're RUNNING). Mwa ha ha ha! Aaand I love the scary kid distorted voices and, when M.I.A. kicks in, the "mmmm mmm mmmm" haunting female harmony that - because I am so keen - I noticed they play when Anil Kapoor is in the bathroom and like, "Dude, I was totally tapori back in the day too." It's so wonderfully significant and straightforward. And I love fusion.

Speaking of Rahman's better pieces though, I can't stop listening to Thillana Thillana these days.

Speaking of fusion: instead of Rahman/M.I.A., what about throwing Tom Waits into that mix?! Would that be on FIRE, or WHAT?

Arghhh, agreed that Benjamin Button doesn't deserve much... well, any praise. Another case of a total Oscar-bait film.

I think Anil, like Lata, has decided to take himself out of such contests as it would just be unfair to the other contestants.

Anil better go mental at the Oscars.

*verklempt*

b.b. - Uh, how much more unambiguous than "But it’s also undeniably fun." can you get?

Thanks, manish. I'm generally in agreement - I was just relieved that there wasn't too much awful stereotyping, and I can take a banana peel or godly potato or two (OR TEN). Loved the spoofing - and was floored by the Curse of the Golden Flower and Lust, Caution nods in the title song... or was I seeing things?

...not even the 1959-born AK, who, I just learnt, is actually not from the famous Kapoor family (Prithviraj, Raj, Shashi, Shammi, etc).

Shashi related to Anil?!

*bluster of disbelief*

ONLY IN MY HEART.

brimful, I wait for the day when Anil makes his angry tapori comeback movie. They can call it Tashan 2: Last Impresun Ij Back. Or the Jhakaas Chronicles.

No way! After finally watching the clip, I must report I'm disappointed by such a lackluster response from Anil "I ACT IN ALL CAPS!" Kapoor. I expect more from my premiere source of OTT excitability. e.g. ripping his clothes apart... swinging his jacket in the air... That's what I pay money to see. I guess I didn't pay money for the GGs though.

Funny how we're talking about Anil's tashan. I was just writing up the review to Tashan and cited his fishnet wifebeater + neckerchief ensemble as the granddaddy of ishtyle. Screen cap forthcoming...

Me - you are DA BOMB. (And thanks for the info, too, I usually use keepvid.com) Anyone get Anil flipping out?

Aamir Khan is the most annoyed man in India right now.

Mwahahaha...

ARGH. It's KILLING me that I'm missing this. I'm depending on the comments here and on SM to keep updated. Need pics! Need vids!

Fair enough, manish, I'll reserve judgment til I see the movie.

This looks glorious! Everyone's talking about how good this film is. I expect I'll miss a lot of the Delhiisms, but, hey, scrambling for social status is universal.

(Funny thing about the nicknames/forgotten real names: I have a Desi friend who regaled me with a story of her cousin, back in India, nicknamed "Fried Chicken" whose real name is now lost to time.)

P.S.: Even if I did not see TT, I would have laughed at that usage. We need to lighten up.

No way, dude, on this one I agree with the politically correcters. Laughing at "retard"/jokes about "retards" is just harsh.

Oh yeah, apropos of His Stacheliness: Anil Kapoor just auctioned himself on eBay India and went for a pittance!

Which is a little surprising. First, because the movie is fun and sensory but not sublime. And second, because the notion that Anil Kapoor, last seen going full retard in Yuvvraaj, could be in an Oscar-winning movie is surreal. He’s been in far better movies — I loved Viraasat and was weaned on Kapoor movies too. But unlike Aamir Khan, he’s never pretended to be more than a ham-fisted Bollywood entertainer.

Completely agreed on those two points - Slumdog's pretty but a bit hollow, and how is Anil Kapoor, His Stacheliness, suddenly going arthouse?! It was actually the sheer surprise of that that made me/the PPCC fall into Anil Kapoorfied oblivion. And yes, Viraasat is a wonderful film. (And so is Mr. India... and Nayak... and Ram Lakhan... and Black & White... and all in radically different ways! The man is a genius. I've been totally converted.)

HOWEVER: going full retard? "Retard"? Really? Didn't we all agree a long time ago that it's just not cool to use that word anymore?

Not earworms - I like to call them ear ANTHEMS.

Recent favorites: "My name is... LAKHAN!" and "1, 2 ka 4!".

Recent awfulness: "Hello!"

Recent Mahabharat referencing: "This is the limit!" and "What's happened has happened."

And recent parody: "Yanna rascalla! MIND IT!"

Dude, I love them so much. How can you call Shammi's YAHOOing and AYAYAAAA SUKU SUKUing "silly"? It's DA BOMB!

Definitely agreed that this was the only bright spot, even though I tend to agree with the reviewer who said it was like an outtake of OSO. The moment when SRK flings his head back for a Shammi-style "YAHOO!!" was the only happy moment for me in the entire film. LE SIGH OF EPIC DISAPPOINTMENT.

Maybe SRK can play Shammi in a Shammi biopic? Heard Anil Kapoor's making a Raj one... LOVIN' the idea.

Argh, I've been desperate to get my hands on a copy of Bharat ek Khoj with English subs though. What's a crappy bolnevali to do?! Love Om Puri and Roshan Seth, though... the latter being so good at "primly" anything-ing.

Thanks also for the Nehru bio rec - looks fascinating!

Raj Kapoor and Nargis acting as a cross-cultural, cross-linguistic bridge? Brings a tear to my eye.

Gotta agree with you, Manish, and, once again, I'm happy someone said what I've been thinking. Especially after the NY Times' review of the abysmal Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi...

YES! Thank you for saying this. I was so appalled by this movie that I couldn't even bring myself to criticize it. Even Hugh Jackman's mile-wide chest couldn't make me like it. Too many noble savages and facile Orientalism.

Agreed with Beth, if we're going to have cheesy, insensitive emotional manips, I want it to have a bit of song and dance too! Back to Bombay I go.