Musings of the Obsessive Kind

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas, a retelling of an Indian literary classic of deeply flawed lovers who can't live with or without each other, is a very polarizing movie: some people love it beyond measure (people like me) and some people view it as triumph of style over substance. And it is an extremely stylized movie: the closest to opera that I have seen Bollywood do. (I always wonder if that was the Bollywood movie which influenced Baz Luhrmann in Moulin Rouge). Bhansali has a very idiosyncratic style which people either love or hate.

Paro:



Dev:



Anyway, I adore the movie and I found this gorgeous MV made for it by someone:

I keep thinking about The Wind that Shakes the Barley.

( Really long and spoilery thoughts )

I have also been continuing with my Farscape S2 rewatch. Unfortunately, next episode on the list was Dream a Little Dream, the most fast-forwarded S2 ep ever.

Honest. Blah.

( Thoughts on the ep )

Also, I’ve restarted my Buffy rewatch. Next ep in line? S2’s premiere ep, When She Was Bad, which I really like.

I love dramas and all but just dramas is beginning to get wearying.

You know, I was thinking of Buffy earlier today in the context of Veronica Mars, which is has been compared to. And you know, even though I didn’t care for most of S6 and all of S7, the way Buffy ended was so much more ‘my thing’ than the way VM looks set to end. I mean, there was sort of a hope for shippers. Buffy and Angel got their ‘maybe’s (however weird the cookie speech was. Btw, I know it’s crazy to ship a couple four years after Angel got his own show, but I did). And Spike and Buffy fans got the ILY. So you could go whichever way your ship preferences wanted. Heck, in my alternaverse, Willow bumps into Oz again and ditches the annoying Kennedy after S7 :P

Oh, and here is the random quote of the day. Quote of the day is this exchange courtesy of one of my favorite Bollywood movie Devdas (and a kind Bollywhater who transcribed it). Dev (Shahrukh Khan) and Paro (Aishwarya Rai) are childhood lovers who meet again after long separation. They are dysfunctional together, dysfunctional apart. They cannot live with each other and cannot live without. This is a brilliant movie, IMO. Like opera on speed. What Moulin Rouge wanted to be but couldn’t.

Paro: "Say, you never missed the village?"
Dev: "Never, never, except...when I was fed up of the food at the hostel, I missed Ma's dishes. And back in London, when someone screamed at me, I was reminded of my father. No one else. On evening walks, I contemplated Dharamdas and his buggy, on sleepless night grandmother's gentle pat. Nothing else."
Paro: "Dev...and, um..."
Dev: "And?"
Paro: "I?"
Dev: "Never. Or was it once? No, you never came to mind, Paro."
Paro: "I never came to mind?"
Dev: "Matters that come to mind are matters that matter. But you don't matter, Paro."
Paro: "True, Dev, only you matter."
Dev: "Yeah"
Paro: "5 letters, 5 times a day. How many times did I read them each year? And how many times in ten years? 18,250 times. That's how much you matter. And ten years to the day, I have kept alive the flame I lit for you. How many hours has it been burning? If I were to count, 87,500 hours. So much you matter, every second I remembered you. How many seconds to a day?"
Dev: "I know, I'll tell you..."
Paro: "You're bad at arithmetic."
Dev: "Hey. Hey Paro. There were times when I missed you."
Paro: "When?"
Dev: "Whenever I breathed."*
Paro: "Ish." **
Dev: "For them, reminiscences, those who can be forgotten. Silly. So effortlessly you counted off those seconds, without as much as a thought to every passing second that carried me away? In the flame of the lamp that you lit, it was I who burned" ***

* I remember watching this movie on a train and a guy next to me, I swear, audibly went ‘I gotta remember this pick up line.’ LOL

** Exclamation used a lot in the movie ‘sort of ‘hush’ or ‘for shame’ I think.

*** ‘In the flame of the lamp that you lit, it was I who burned.’ One of my favorite ever bolly quotes.

I loved the chemistry between Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai in this movie. Aish is a competent actress but she often comes across as too cold. The only costars I've ever seen her have great chemistry with are SRK, Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan. (Her chemistry with real life husband Abhishek is OK but nothing to write home about). Of course, she'll never work with Salman after the exes-break-up-from hell thing they had and neither will she work with SRK because he sided with Salman or whatever. That's why I am looking so forward to Jodha Akbar with Hrithik later this year though I get the feeling it will be last movie she'll ever do with him. Their chemistry in D2 was too good and hey, the Bachchans had the kissing scene cut from Indian prints etc. I don't see them being happy with her working with him again, especially after all the articles how Hrithik stole Abhishek's thunder in D2.

Dev and Paro fan video:



( Some awesome Devdas videos )

I keep thinking about The Wind that Shakes the Barley.

( Really long and spoilery thoughts )

I have also been continuing with my Farscape S2 rewatch. Unfortunately, next episode on the list was Dream a Little Dream, the most fast-forwarded S2 ep ever.

Honest. Blah.

( Thoughts on the ep )

Also, I’ve restarted my Buffy rewatch. Next ep in line? S2’s premiere ep, When She Was Bad, which I really like.

I love dramas and all but just dramas is beginning to get wearying.

You know, I was thinking of Buffy earlier today in the context of Veronica Mars, which is has been compared to. And you know, even though I didn’t care for most of S6 and all of S7, the way Buffy ended was so much more ‘my thing’ than the way VM looks set to end. I mean, there was sort of a hope for shippers. Buffy and Angel got their ‘maybe’s (however weird the cookie speech was. Btw, I know it’s crazy to ship a couple four years after Angel got his own show, but I did). And Spike and Buffy fans got the ILY. So you could go whichever way your ship preferences wanted. Heck, in my alternaverse, Willow bumps into Oz again and ditches the annoying Kennedy after S7 :P

Oh, and here is the random quote of the day. Quote of the day is this exchange courtesy of one of my favorite Bollywood movie Devdas (and a kind Bollywhater who transcribed it). Dev (Shahrukh Khan) and Paro (Aishwarya Rai) are childhood lovers who meet again after long separation. They are dysfunctional together, dysfunctional apart. They cannot live with each other and cannot live without. This is a brilliant movie, IMO. Like opera on speed. What Moulin Rouge wanted to be but couldn’t.

Paro: "Say, you never missed the village?"
Dev: "Never, never, except...when I was fed up of the food at the hostel, I missed Ma's dishes. And back in London, when someone screamed at me, I was reminded of my father. No one else. On evening walks, I contemplated Dharamdas and his buggy, on sleepless night grandmother's gentle pat. Nothing else."
Paro: "Dev...and, um..."
Dev: "And?"
Paro: "I?"
Dev: "Never. Or was it once? No, you never came to mind, Paro."
Paro: "I never came to mind?"
Dev: "Matters that come to mind are matters that matter. But you don't matter, Paro."
Paro: "True, Dev, only you matter."
Dev: "Yeah"
Paro: "5 letters, 5 times a day. How many times did I read them each year? And how many times in ten years? 18,250 times. That's how much you matter. And ten years to the day, I have kept alive the flame I lit for you. How many hours has it been burning? If I were to count, 87,500 hours. So much you matter, every second I remembered you. How many seconds to a day?"
Dev: "I know, I'll tell you..."
Paro: "You're bad at arithmetic."
Dev: "Hey. Hey Paro. There were times when I missed you."
Paro: "When?"
Dev: "Whenever I breathed."*
Paro: "Ish." **
Dev: "For them, reminiscences, those who can be forgotten. Silly. So effortlessly you counted off those seconds, without as much as a thought to every passing second that carried me away? In the flame of the lamp that you lit, it was I who burned" ***

* I remember watching this movie on a train and a guy next to me, I swear, audibly went ‘I gotta remember this pick up line.’ LOL

** Exclamation used a lot in the movie ‘sort of ‘hush’ or ‘for shame’ I think.

*** ‘In the flame of the lamp that you lit, it was I who burned.’ One of my favorite ever bolly quotes.

I loved the chemistry between Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai in this movie. Aish is a competent actress but she often comes across as too cold. The only costars I've ever seen her have great chemistry with are SRK, Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan. (Her chemistry with real life husband Abhishek is OK but nothing to write home about). Of course, she'll never work with Salman after the exes-break-up-from hell thing they had and neither will she work with SRK because he sided with Salman or whatever. That's why I am looking so forward to Jodha Akbar with Hrithik later this year though I get the feeling it will be last movie she'll ever do with him. Their chemistry in D2 was too good and hey, the Bachchans had the kissing scene cut from Indian prints etc. I don't see them being happy with her working with him again, especially after all the articles how Hrithik stole Abhishek's thunder in D2.

Dev and Paro fan video:



( Some awesome Devdas videos )