School holidays have just started and instead of spending my time the way I should - learning - I'm going to revisit a city that has grown very dear to my during my last (and first) stay. The fact that I had no clue as to all the various great British television shows etc. last time leaves a great number of unexplored activities for this time - plus we have enough monetas to finally visit the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour!
I might be able to put up one or two posts a week later... but rather don't expect anything. A new episode of the podcast will be online next week though, you'll be able to check it out on Nik's and Sofia's blogs and as always on iTunes and Podomatic.
In case anyone has some you-must-do-this-in-London or a great movie to watch that doesn't release in Germany for the next few months, please tell me. And remember...
Yes, I'm still here. I didn't fall down some stairs and wasn't hit by a car, and I'm also not in a marriage crisis, with the descending sun being a metaphor for my life. I just want to let you guys know that things are quite messy at the moment, we moved from town to the countryside so a lot of my time is filled with bus rides and unpacking. Furthermore, my last year of high school just started, so I'll be very busy with that for the next 8 months.
I will write something eventually and of course the podcast will be there, but just remember that I'm still out there when you don't hear or read anything. Because I also don't really have time to read other people's blogs. Hell, not even to watch movies.
Oh, and the picture isn't a metaphor for the life of this blog either.
Don't be fooled by the teenage boy on the poster/ cover - this is more than a series for middle school youngsters. Or Greek mythology scholars.
Rick Riordan: Percy Jackson & the Olympians (The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Last Olympian) The Lightning Thief (2010) by Chris Columbus Sea of Monsters (2013) by Thor Freudenthal
I always dread the moment I start reading a new series of books or start watching a new tv show. It's different to read single books or watch a single movie every other night. The thing about series - on screen and page - is their addictiveness. Human beings are fragile, we're emotional animals and easy to trap that way. We can get addicted to all sorts of things, mainly referred to as drugs, such as stimulating herbs and chemicals, sports, all the stuff that is put into micro-wave pizza. And yes, we can also get addicted to the arts of reading books and watching movies. With the breakthrough of internet platforms, especially tumblr, these addictions might have increased, but perhaps they've just become more visible. Staying up all night to finish reading The Hunger Games or watching season 2 of Game of Thrones has never been cooler. Geeks, ahem: we, are everywhere.
Here we go again, I'm on a journey through my favourite blogs that I haven't visited for a long time and I'm going to share some of their posts with you in this little installment.
NICK explains why he hates people that say they love talking shop, and the reason why he didn't hate a movie in which a characters say that.
SATI proves that the world of HBO is limitless, featuring a very exquisite screenshot of True Blood - and some other series that are probably quite awesome.
STEVEE, yes the Stevee, posted an update on her life and some cinematic thoughts. I miss her.
MOVIENUT14 wrote a lovely review on my favorite Chaplin movie, Limelight.
DWC shares his favourite films that feature sexuality as a central theme. Many favorites in that list.
RISSItalks about her favourite "chick-flick", The Devil Wears Prada, and why it's perfect.
SQUASHER88picks Badlands as his movie of the week and favorite Malick movie. A good choice.
JOANNA created a little cute list about one of the new releases I'm most curious to see, 42.
THE KID IN THE FRONT ROW wrote another interesting post on today's society and media, focusing on the fading importance of movies. It is, at the very least, provoking.
WILDE.DASH loved To the Wonder, one of those movies I'm dying to see at the moment.
DANNY BOWES says fuck you to contrarianism - possibly my favorite post for a long time.
See you tomorrow or later with more great posts!
Random fact: The new episode of Doctor Who is my favourite Clara episode so far. And as you can see from the picture above, How I Met Your Mother is awesome as always. Oh how I love tv shows.
This post is an apology to all the fantastic bloggers out there, who produce an amazing body of work every day, every minute, every second. I have way too many blogs in my feed to be able to catch up with every news and every outstanding post that pops up sometimes. You know this, because most of you are probably in the same situation. There's always life to happen.
Still, I have a very bad conscience for not visiting your blogs for such a long time, especially the ones that are in my LINKS list, because those I have been following for a very, very long time and I know that all of them are not just one-post wonders that linger in my feed. You have been commenting on my blog or at least reading it and I want to cherish your work in this post and the following ones, as I'm working my way through my LINKS page and read one post from almost each blog. Sadly, many blogs (especially Bollywood ones) have been abandoned since I last checked, but there are still many wonderful things to read out there.
Here's the first bunch of links I want all of you to read:
RUTHreviews Summer Wars, a Murakami-looking Anime movie that sounds really cool and looks even better. After Akira, I'm all in for this.
VERACIOUS is hosting a blogathon in May: The Red Salute Blogfest, which will be about the Indian Naxalite movement and the movies that have been made about it. I'll definitely join in - and you better do the same.
DAN shares his Top 10 Male Adventures in Self Discovery, which include many an unknown film to me, but also two great ones I know.
NOSTRA asks what makes your blog stand out, and got me bathing in self-indulgence. Kind of.
ANDREW writes a very personal review of Pulp Fiction, comparing it to the Sergio-Leone-blowjob (those were his - fitting - words) that is Django Unchained.
SCOTT explores the roots of movies like Harold and Kumar with a movie called Up in Smoke.
EMIL realizes that he knows more great male performances than female ones and wonders how that can be - as have I been doing ever since I started eating movies.
ALEX simply sat down and wrote the first 101 that came to his mind about why he loves the cinema of the 40s. Easy peasy.
DIANA apparently decided to cut down on blogging in February already, I hope she'll have time to write a post or two soon.
NIK(HAT) who is one of the only bloggers that have no reason to miss me and my unspectacular comments at all, wrote another of her addictive Thoughts posts. Always fun to catch up on gossip and trailers.
BETH, one of the few Bolly bloggers left, is just as pissed off by the Anniversary Edition of Filmfare Magazine (a Bollywood magazine), "celebrating Indian film". Because there are NO. WOMEN. ON. IT.
THE MIGHTY MANGO admits that she loved Himmatwala, a crappy-looking Bollywood flick.
GAJA GAMINI reviews a movie that isn't great but not bad either. So that's not spectacular, but I wanted to have her here because she too is one of the few Bollywood bloggers and I adore her blog.
BONJOUR TRISTESSE makes me realize how much of a teenager I still am, because the only thing I could think about when reading his post on the Un Certain Regard category of the Cannes Festival was "OMGASDFGHJJKL-SOEXCITEDFORBLINGRING-LKJHGFDSSA!!!!"
After years of corruption and highly questionable results, it's time to talk about The Filmfare Awards.
Often referred to as "The Indian Oscars" the Filmfare Awards are in some ways the biggest awards of the Hindi Film industry (which excludes regional Indian cinema). Whether this started as a self-declaration or people think they're the "best" awards may be discussed, but they are definitely the most-discussed Hindi film awards. Comparing them to the Oscars is a big fault in my opinion though, because although The Academy sometimes nominates and honours doubtful movies, The Filmfare Awards are the opposite: they only sometimes nominate high quality movies. Mainly, they just pick the most successful movies of the previous year, which may be anywhere between strawberry (Rang De Basanti) and lime (Raja Hindustani) explosions .
Especially small and independent movies are rarely (read: never) nominated, and every year rumours about corruption turn up - for example actor Abhay Deol stated he got a call saying that if he'd dance at the ceremony, he'd finally win an award. Most "serious" (don't take the term too seriously) directors, producers and actors have thus distanced themselves from the Filmfare Awards for good reason. I mean, they're given by a movie magazine! (The Filmfare magazine, in case anybody wondered).
The request of the Best Film winning movie becoming the Oscar submission has happily not been conceded yet - although sadly, this year's Barfi! did both win the Filmfare Award and the Oscar submission. Highly undeservedly.
Mette is back from her first visit to her favourite city in the world and talks about what that's got to do with cinematic miracles.
Six days, two films
I wonder whether it was my one-week cinematic celibacy that caused me to see two extremely amazing films in the short time I spent in the amazing city of London - or if it was simply luck.
It is a mixture of being confused and being puzzled.
It was invented by a film character, a fantasy person that doesn’t exist, a person that was created through words, computers and a voice.
And when I think about this, I feel confuzzled. When I think about the fact that I’ve seen 40 films last month, I feel confuzzled. And when I try to understand and get hold of all the value in these films, in form of emotions, experiences, wisdom, I feel not confuzzled, but very confuzzled.
Have you ever been confuzzled because of movies? If you are a movie blogger, I bet you have. Ever since I started this blog in October 2010, my confuzzledness has been growing, as I have been watching more and more movies. I just topped 1,000 ratings on IMDB – a pretty confuzzling experience, I tell you. I feel glad, because I know I’ve seen many movies, and that my knowledge of this art is growing steadily. I have seen many wonderful films, incredible works of art, and I have gained insight in many things.
On the other hand, I have been entertained. This may sound positive at first, but there is a tiny part of myself that feels bad about this, bad about spending hours being entertained – and that alone, mostly.
Movie watching is an unsocial hobby. You can go to the cinema with your friends and family, but just how often do you actually do that? Personally, I go to the movies about every second week with my mum or friends, but that leaves two weeks in which I watch movies myself mostly. I sometimes sit at a party and think, „I wish I was at home watching a movie“, and then I have a bad conscience.
But I have been thinking this through. And it’s not like I spend less time with other people due to movie watching, is what I’ve found out. What would I do if I didn’t watch a film almost every night? I’d probably be reading. Because, let’s face it, you don’t really meet your friends at night (except weekends). So I think, I hope, that I won’t feel bad and unsocial anymore – though maybe I exaggerated a little, I don’t feel bad very often actually. It’s just sometimes, you know, in between.
What furthermore confuzzles me, is the fact that I spend a big part my time writing about movies and then sharing these writings with lots of people I don’t know online. And the fact that people respond, and that I’m happy about every comment. And the fact that I get a little addicted to checking if there are any comments, and checking my blog stats.
I don’t even know if you’re people or just computers. Maybe you’re stalkers.
But you could think the same thing about me, commenting on your blogs. I’ve read so often that people want to stop the stats-checking and comment-addictedness, so I don’t feel alone. I’m still confuzzled, but I am getting better at seeing this whole project as a way to express my love for the art of film.
You might think this is easy, but there have been times when I’ve been considering to close this blog, because I don’t see the point. I see that it makes me happy to read comments and discuss films with people, but I don’t see why I write stuff and spend hours on designing a ratings system or polishing the blog design or whatever. I should be thinking about what I want to do with my life, which career path I want to take, find out whether I'm better at acting or writing or calculating.
But as I said: I don’t want to stop. I know the point - there is a point - just sometimes I forget it. And then I see a great movie and I remember.
Here I am, watching classic after classic, from Hitchcock to Fellini, from the 1910s to the 2010s. Loving most of the films, I think I'm happy.
And what happens? Two things: I have a look at the films I've seen this month and see only two lonely Indian films, which I've only seen because I reviewed them for the ISHQ magazine. But okay, that has happened before, and it didn't really matter that much, did it?
So I read a few blog entries, comment there and there, while listening to some random songs my iTunes DJ searched out for me... and then... a song. A song that feels like a drop of water in my dry throat. A song that smells fresh and well-known like grass after the rain. A song that's like, to quote one my favourite singers, „an Indian summer in the middle of winter, a hard candy with a surprise center“...
A song that sounds of... BOLLYWOOD!
And then slowly, I realize that I'm lost without Bollywood. I thought I could, but I can't live without it.
The biggest problem lies in the supply of my drug.
There's a quite famous Austrian reviewer of Asian films, especially Indian ones, who has already reviewed much more than 1000 Bollywood films on his website. In the questions section, he claims that he has each and every of these films at home on DVD.
Do you know those famous, arrogant fashion bloggers who show off the most expensive and beautiful clothes on their blogs? I feel even more jealous about that Austrian film reviewer than about them.
He's not the only one - there are many other bloggers who have the money to buy and rent as many films as they want to, and the main reason is that their adults with jobs. While I'm just a poor student with a little side job. Yes, I'm complaining and I'm wallowing in self-pity right now... But I have the right to do so!
English films, Italian, French, Spanish... they're all easy to get. I can rent them on iTunes, go to the theater to see them, or get them from any library in Denmark, because they send them to the one in my town. But Bollywood films are nasty... of course, you can rent some of them and watch a few on youtube - but mostly the only thing to do is either buy them online or well... watch them illegally. Which I've promised not to do anymore, and haven't for many months now.
I don't know why I'm writing this post. Maybe I want to show you that I'm still a (white) Desi girl, even though most of my posts are about non-Indian films. Maybe I need some attention.
Or perhaps I just do what I personally think blogging is all about - sharing thoughts. No matter how unstructured and chaotic they may be.
Keeping myself awake with a bottle of coke and some cake, I stayed up the second half of the German night to watch some "millionaires giving each other golden statues", as Billy Crystal put it (I think that's what he said). Interestingly, it gets easier each year.
With a huge lot of Oscar-comments coming up (or already published), there's little chance that anybody actually happens to be reading my modest little post - but if you are, I promise you won't get any negative vibes from me.
We already know what went wrong, which films didn't get nominated or didn't win what they deserved, still my overall impression of this years' awards remains very good.
Because of that, I have decided to put of a list of...
All the things I loved about the 84th Annual Academy Awards:
1. Watching clips from the few films that I have already been able to see, and being reminded of the wonderful cinematic experiences that last year presented to us.
And how cool was Best Original Script for Midnight in Paris?!
2. The old-school-ness: decoration, hosting, winners - even many of the dresses!
Billy Crystal was wonderful too, even though I don't know him very well.
3. The five seconds' glimpse I caught of squeak-Rahman-squeak. Why did there have to be ads right after that?
4. Jason Segel on the red carpet: extremely sympathetic and incredibly sweet.
(Sorry, had to make fun of that film title - confused it with a review-title when I first read it).
5. Getting excited for the wonderful 2011 films that I haven't seen yet - most famously The Artist, which I will be able to see in two weeks.
6. Jessica Chastain's look after they played her nomination video - so very charming.
7. Rango actually won - what a welcome surprise!
8. The "Man or Muppet"-clip made me want to watch the movie badly.
9. Its celebration of the thing we all love so dearly - makes me feel sentimental every time.
What did you love about this year's Oscars?
PS: I would appreciate it very much if you would take the time to give your feedback on this blog, to help improve it - just a tiny comment would be enough.
Watching two films after each other in the cinema was an unthinkable thing to do for me - until quite recently, when me and two friends decided that we had to see the two films that were running in the repertory the next week. So yesterday we went, and I tell you: it was fun.
This might be due to the films we saw, which were comedies (the first one especially), but really: it didn't feel odd in the slightest. It was more like a DVD-night in public, to a certain point.
As mostly in the repertory, the films were current indies, and as mostly I felt utterly happy to be able to see them. While there has been a lot of talking about Intouchables (which was also released in our multiplex, that's why), I'd probably never seen Hysteria if it weren't for our awesome little cinema.
Why has nobody made a film about the invention of the vibrator before? That is one of the best ideas for a comedy I have ever heard of. Certainly, there were some holes in the script and a few odd scenes, but in a nutshell it was pure fun - I haven't laughed that much for a long time. My risible muscles were truly sore.
Intouchables however, played on a totally different level. Firstly, it was much more emotional than the previous, more realistic and also profounder. Secondly: Omar Sy is a man you ought to keep an eye on. His performance had many layers and facial expressions and body language were impressively unique. The film on a whole was a very fitting mixture of realism and vision or inspiration, there were scenes where the audience laughed its hearts out, and others were it kept the tissues near. All of this, I realize, sounds like the description of a fairly original film, but there is something quite special about Intouchables. It is a film that might inspire you to do things you've never done, but also one that might make you feel very content about your life and being. It shows what wonderful people live "beneath" and "above" the middle class - us, if I'm allowed to say that - and... well, some other great philosophic stuff. You know what I'm trying to say - it just sounds so worn out when I'm putting it into words.
Conclusion:
Watching a double feature in cinema is great.
If you need a light and extremely funny comedy, watch Hysteria.
If you need a great current film, watch Intouchables.
If you have the possibility, watch both films in the same cinema, the same night.
Have you been to a double feature in cinema? What are your experiences?
Inspired by the Limerick Reviews Stevee did on a few films she recently saw, I decided to try out some filmic poetry, too. As I caught up with some 2011 hits or non-hits last week, I thought it was fitting to select these and show my reflections in the Haiku poems, because we learned about Haiku poems in school...
Haiku: Haiku is a japanese poem, consisting of three lines (in japanese, there have to be 5-7-5 syllables). The poems are concrete and do not show exact feelings.
Anyway, here we go, before I change my mind:
Carnage
„After the show
it must
go on“
Shor in the City
„In the end
there is
no excuse“
Elle s'appelait Sarah
„At the sea
I do
not find them“
The Dirty Picture
„A silky lotus
floats on
its own“
Limitless
„The balcony,
where your feet
no longer stand“
Delhi Belly
„A car
crashes against
a dustbin“
I hope you liked the poetry; I'm afraid it's not as concrete as genuine Haikus are supposed to be, because I tend to be more of a dreamy poet.
And with this I'd like also to announce that my 100 Favourite Films have now been published.
If you're not occupied buying Christmas presents or freezing to death in this cold winter, you might want to have a look at it - I would really appreciate that. I'm so proud of it!
So, about leaving... Well, I'm leaving. Tomorrow I'll jump on a plane and wave goodbye to the cruel darkness of the North-European winter and fly away to the heat of Mexico. Which is also going to be a little weird, because I've never been anywhere else than in my home town for Christmas, but it's an adventure, right? And Mexico is so great - if you forget about the poverty and corruption, which obviously you shouldn't, but... well, you know what I'm trying to say. I love the people.
And I'm looking forward to see my grandparents again.
Funnily, Google today honoured the birthday of Mexican painter Diego Rivera.
So I hope you'll all have a merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. As for me, I'll be returning home on the 31st, so... that's going to be weird too.
Anyhow, I'm excited for all the films I'll be able to watch on the 12-hours flight... there are usually a lot of new films and even Indian films you can watch.
As you may know, I'm currently working at a Top 100 list of my favorite films. Many blogs have one, some others refuse to create one... I decided to give it a try.
But right now I feel like digging myself a nice and warm little hole and stay there until december 9th when we're going to Mexico - this is so hard! How can I rank one film higher than another one, if I love both of them? And how often am I going to change this list? - Probably every month, as my previous watching habits have been so bad that I'm not even sure I've seen 1% of the favorite-film-material (not to speak of the classic, must-watch etc. material) out there. It's been almost one year since I've started watching many films, and especially trying to focus on good films - not just anything I can get my hands on.
You're making this very tough for me, Mister...
Another problem is that there are films I know I love and have called my "favorite film" for some time, but now I don't remember how much I love them... Would I like them if I re-watched them today? And how much?
Wow, it's really been one year now... We've had both ups and downs, though mainly ups since the beginning of the year, and I know this sounds like a bad Oscars speech - but it's been an amazing journey.
At first this blog had a very complicated name, a German mirror blog and was about all kinds of films. Later on, it still had the complicated name, but no German mirror blog anymore - and it was about Bollywood films only. I had noticed that no one ever commented on my posts on cinema beyond Bollywood, so I thought that it was impossible to maintain followers while writing about no specific part of the extremely broad cinematic landscape. Luckily, I found out there was a thing called the "Large Association of Movie Bloggers", which I became a member of, causing me to broaden my horizon concerning film blogging.
Slowly this blog evolved and became better with the time. It's not perfect yet, not at all, and of course I'd like to have some more followers and commenters, but I'm happy about the things I've achieved until now, and even though it can be hard at times, I love this, I love all of you who are reading this, and I want to maintain this blog until I'm a quirky old granny trying to make my grandchildren love films just as much as I do. Maybe I'll have seen the famous 1001(+) movies by then. Who knows.
Well, for now on, I just hope next year's going to be just as great as this one - or maybe even better!
And just like those fortunate ones who have won the famous golden fella, I'd like to thank a bunch of people who have supported and inspired me - without them, who knows if I'd given up on blogging very soon.
Mansi from Eat Pray Love Movies, who was the first one to comment on this blog. Thank you so much for that, Mansi! Her blog is about both Bollywood and Hollywood films and she always writes short but spot on reviews and articles.
Leslya from Eternity of a Dream, who became the 31st member of Lime Reviews just yesterday. Well, that was a coincidence of course, but still - thank you! I've only become a member of her blog yesterday, too, so I can't say much about it yet. It looks very promising though.
Jack L. from Jack L. Film Reviews, who was the first follower and commenter here that knew nothing about Hindi film, and had never seen one. Jack has an extraordinary taste of films, and we don't always agree on films, but he has been one of the greatest supporters to me, and his blog is very informative and well-written. I hope he achieves his goal of becoming a director one day, I will definitely watch all of his films.
Bollywooddeewana from Bollywooddeewana, one of my first followers and supporters. His blog is mostly about Hindi oldies and classics, which is very inspiring for someone like me who wants to but doesn't watch many films from before 1990.
Stevee from Cinematic Paradox, a wonderful blogger my age who just celebrated her blogs second birthday yesterday. She's so fortunate to have a father owning a DVD rental store, so she can watch all the latest releases and work at a place full of the thing we all love... films! I wish I had a chance to do the same. Or even just have a part-time job... Her blog is one of my favorites, and I look up to the things she's already achieved (like winning a LAMMY).
Courtney from Big Thoughts From a Small Mind. He was the first one to feature a post from here in a link-up-post (or whatever these posts are called). His posts are always interesting to read, and he also proves that a great blog doesn't need a great design (with all respect).
Dolce and Namak from Dolce and Namak Talk Indian Movies, a split-personality blogger who writes the funniest long reviews on indie and mainstream Indian cinema. She makes me want to watch some more regional Indian films... some time.
Bonjour Tristesse from Bonjour Tristesse, an extremely cool and huge blog that features films from all over the world (something I'd like to be able saying about Lime Reviews one day). It's amazing that she (or he... wait a minute - are you a male or a female...?) still finds the time to read my entries and comment on them - awesome!
Beth from Beth Loves Bollywood, one of the biggest Bollywood blogs around here (counting from the visitors). She doesn't blog that often anymore, but I always find it a pleasure to read her humorous reviews.
Filmi Girl from Filmi Girl!, my #1 source for Bollywood gossip. I also like that she's not ashamed of loving Tashan, while everyone else is trashing it (I mean, all the critics). Her blog is, just as Beths, very popular, and funny to read, too.
Cherokee from Feminising Film. Her blog was founded just recently, some months ago, and focuses on female presence in film. To be more precise: female power! She also often leaves nice comments here.
Ness from Shahrukh Is Love, who claims she's never ever written a review on a Shahrukh film. She's very skilled at trashing a film and wanting you to never ever watch it (I threw my Khatta Meetha DVD into the garbage after reading her review), but she's also a fan of the films she describes as "crackatastic" - and a huge fan of Bollywoods teddy-bear, Govinda.
Chris from Movies and Songs 365, a Dane just like me (yeah, almost... I'm almost a Dane...), whose blog is about... well, movies and songs. We've been e-mail pen-pals for some months now, and I must say that Chris is a very intelligent and sympathetic person. Hilsen!
Maria Sofia from FilmFlare, famous for her fantastic layout. She also comments a lot here, and writes some cool reviews and other stuff. And she inspired me to join Goodreads (don't think she knows this, hehe).
The 3 Bollywood Queens from Bollywood Queens - lovely people, lovely blog.
Filmi Geek from Filmi Geek, who writes the most informative, analyzing reviews on Hindi films.
Wilde.Dash from Love and Squalor, a blog with a lovely, psychedelic layout and wonderful posts on films I haven't seen because of the same reasons she didn't want to see them at first, but still did.
Louella from Masala w Bigosie - she's not very active anymore, as she says she suffers from a chronic writer's block, but I always like reading her reviews on Tamil and Telugu films. Makes me feel like I've watched more of them than the three I've actually seen.
The person behind The Bolly 'Hood, a small blog with small articles on Bollywood that are truly worth a read.
Larry from The Movie Snob, another huge blog with a simple design ;). He writes nice reviews on both cult-classics and newer cinema, and I love his weekly thoughts feature (I believe it's weekly...?).
The person behind Totally Filmi! - I love this blog, but I feel I'm repeating myself now. Check it out, however.
Last but not least Ryan from A Life in Equinox. Huge blog. And really, really good.
Phew, this is a loooong list, and yet I feel I haven't thanked everyone - so thank you, EVERYONE! Followers, commenters, anonymous readers - thank you!
Please don't feel hurt or something if I follow you, or you're on my surfboard and I haven't mentioned you - I follow a lot of blogs and it would be impossible to mention each one of them.
So what are my wishes and plans for the future? Well, I'd like the above curve to go upward again, of course, but I know that's not going to happen without me doing something. I'd like to write great, interesting, wonderful posts and inspire people and have fun and... make the world a better place. Yeah, that's impossible. But I'll give it a try.
I'm also planning on creating a top 100 movies list until december... and well, I don't know if I should keep the weekly post on new releases. I mean, it's not very original... but we'll see.
Now, just tell me what you think. Do you have any ideas, things you love or hate - spit it out.
(Of course, you can also just wish us a happy anniversary...).
maybe you've noticed there was some confusion about the title of this blog, but my quest has
come to an end, and this is the final decision.
There also a new page called "About" - I know there's been one before, but I didn't like it so I deleted it. Whatever, there's a new one, so if you wonder what the title means or well... if you have some questions or if you're just nosy, then I recommend reading it. Btw, that "Hello"-picture took me hours.
There are two other changes: the post slider at the top of the page and the You Might Also Like widget. Oh, and if anyone knows how I can hide the post slider on post pages then please tell me.
I think that's about it. I've made some very small changes, too, but that's not really important to you.
Okay, if you have any thoughts on this be free to tell me :).
You all know the IIFAs, the Filmfare Awards the Zee Cine Awards and all those other corrupt awarding ceremonies in Bollywood (yes, Bollywood is the right expression here).
But I doubt that many people have ever heard of the ISHQ Awards, have you? The ACEBAs (Annual Central European Bollywood Awards), however, are a little more famous, even having a real awarding ceremony with real people this year.
Explaining: The "ISHQ Awards"
The "ISHQ" is the most-read Bollywood magazine in Middle Europe, and if I'm allowed to give a little subjective comment: the best Bollywood magazine I know, especially in Germany. It is German, high quality and couldn't live without it.
The first ISHQ was published in november 2006, I believe, and instantly gained much success in the German fan community. By then, there were no other German Bollywood magazines. There are some others now, maybe one or two, but they can't compare to the ISHQ, in my opinion.
Last year, the ISHQ editors decided to put up the ISHQ Awards, where readers and editors could vote for their favorite films, actors, actresses etc. of the year that passed. They decided to keep the project going this year. Sadly, I wasn't able to vote myself - I missed the deadline.
Well, that's no reason for not commenting the results...
Read more about the magazine: http://www.ishq.de/(only German)
The results were published in magazine #48, August 2011.
Explaining: The "Annual Central European Bollywood Awards"
The ACEBAs are the most important Bollywood Awards in Europe, founded by Marco, the host of the largest German (the language, not the country) Bollywood forum, http://bollywoodforum.ch/, and owner of the review site http://molodezhnaja.ch. The awards have existed since 2004, and have improved a lot over the years. The voting is held online, and there's just one vote for everyone. There's also no fixed amount of nominees - it depends on how many films, performances, songs etc. are good enough to be nominated, which also means that sometimes, a whole category drops out for one year.
This year, the awards are presented by not only molodezhnaja, but also BNA Germany and IFFI Goa.
The results are listed chronologically - most votes is 1), least votes is the last.
BEST FILM
(The ISHQ has a lot of nominees but only 10 "winners", from which only one is the true winner, off course, and furthermore they've divided this section into "Reader's choice" and "Editors' choice").
ISHQ Reader's choice:
1) My Name Is Khan
2) We Are Family
3) 3 Idiots
4) Kites
5) Guzaarish
6) I Hate Luv Storys
7) Band Baaja Baaraat
8) Anjaana Anjaani
9) Dabangg
10) Ishqiya/ Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai
only nominated:
Break Ke Baad - Action Replayy - Baava - Aisha - Do Dooni Char - Badmaash Company - The Japanese Wife - Jhootha Hi Sahi - Love, Sex aur Dhokha - Knock Out - Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey - Karthik Calling Karthik - Peepli Live - Phas Gaye Re Obama - Raavan/ Raavanan - Rakht Charitra 1 & 2 - Enthiran - Striker - Tere Bin Laden - Tees Maar Khan - Thanks Maa - Udaan - Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa - Well Done Abba
A very typical result, and just what I had expected from most of the German readers/ viewers. I had hoped for better, though. MNIK on the first place is acceptable, as I personally liked it a lot as well, but honestly, We Are Family on the SECOND place??? Kites, Guzaarish, Anjaana Anjaani - I can find a more suited winner for all of them in the nominee's row. A problem is that probably many readers just haven't seen many of the films that were nominated. Which is sad, I think. I do like that there's a good variety in the nominees: some southies, too, some blockbuster, some flops, some main stream, some parallel cinema. Sadly, no big variety in the results. Maybe the editors know better?
ISHQ Editors' choice (only 5 wins):
1) My Name Is Khan
2) 3 Idiots
3) Udaan
4) Raavan/ Raavanan
5) Ishqiya
Now this I like. A piece of everything. Not sure if I would've picked Ishqiya, but then again: it might not be the best film, but it's an incredibly important film, especially for the future of women in Bollywood. Good job, ISHQ editors!
ACEBAs:
1) My Name Is Khan
2) Dabangg
3) Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai
4) Raajneeti
5) Udaan
6) Peepli [Live]
7) Ishqiya
8) Raavan
9) Aakrosh
10) Rann
Again, the usual suspects: Shah Rukh and Karan Johar. That's what works here in Germany. 74,49 % - that's almost 10 times as much as Dabangg got. Good I mentioned it already: Dabangg? Dabangg? Admittedly a more suited winner than WTF, I mean WAF, but still... I am, however, fully contented with the rest of the results. My personal vote was for Udaan... Maybe not the best of last year, but still one of the best, and I wanted to vote for one of the more unknown films.
BEST DIRECTOR
ISHQ:
1) Karan Johar: My Name Is Khan
2) Rajkumar Hirani: 3 Idiots (editors' choice)
3) Vikramaditya Motwane: Udaan
4) Abhishek Chaubey: Ishqiya
5) Habib Faisal: Do Dooni Char
Good choices, I would stick with the 3 Idiots - Karan Johar didn't really impress me. I just liked the film.
ACEBAs:
1) Karan Johar: My Name Is Khan
2) Sanjay Leela Bhansali: Guzaarish
3) Vikramaditya Motwane: Udaan
4) Mani Ratnam: Raavan
5) Anusha Riza: Peepli [Live]
6) Ram Gopal Verma: Rann
... ... Is there anything left to say? "Karan Johar, so boring, bla bla", "SLB, who set a high personal standard with Devdas and also a little with Black, and who since then has failed to impress me with his later works, even though Guzaarish is a tiny step towards a better filmic tomorrow of his - he is nominated???"... You know what I have to say. I don't have to write it. I voted for Motwane, he's made one of the most impressing debuts I've seen. Mani Ratnam is my favorite director. I loved Peepli Live. ... Ah, just remembered that a copy of Rann must be laying around somewhere...
BEST SCREENPLAY [only ACEBAs]
1) Raajneeti
2) Peepli [Live]
3) Ishqiya
4) Karthik Calling Karthik
5) Udaan
6) Well Done Abba
I wonder why the ISHQ doesn't honor the technicians, even thought they tend to write the Bollywood awards don't honor them enough... But then again, it's a young award, it can still improve. Though I'd rather honor the technicians than some "love scene". But whatever. Raajneeti is a deserving winner, and all the others are deserving nominees.
BEST ACTRESS
(Yes, Ladies first - my choice).
ISHQ:
1) Kajol: My Name Is Khan (also editors' choice)
2) Vidya Balan: Ishqiya
3) Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan: Raavan/ Raavanan
4) Anushka Sharma: Band Baaja Baaraat
5) Deepika Padukone: Break Ke Baad
While I think that Kajol delivered a good performance in MNIK, I don't think anyone (including her) can compare to Vidya Balan in Ishqiya. Kajol's role wasn't as layered and deep as Vidya's, so in my opinion, she didn't even have the chance to be better than Vidya.
By the way: Deepika? Really? I didn't watch BKB, and I have good reasons.
ACEBAs:
1) Kajol: My Name Is Khan
2) Anushka Sharma: Band Baaja Baaraat
3) Vidya Balan: Ishqiya
4) Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan: Guzaarish
5) Kangna Ranaut: Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai
6) Minissha Lamba: Well Done Abba
Remarkably, Kajol won with only 62,05 % (!). But Vidya is and will always be the best actress of 2010. Dot. Nice that Anushka came second, though... But Aishwarya for Guzaarish? She was much better in Raavan... don't you think? Well Done Abba is one of the few 2010-ers I'm yet too watch, by the way.
BEST ACTOR
ISHQ:
1) Shah Rukh Khan: My Name Is Khan (also editors' choice)
2) Hrithik Roshan: Guzaarish
3) Aamir Khan: 3 Idiots
4) Boman Irani: Well Done Abba
5) Rishi Kapoor: Do Dooni Char
Suck... I didn't expect this to be a genuine MNIK show... But what else should I have expected? And the year didn't really well over by overwhelming male performances... Maybe I would've picked SRK as well, I mean he was good.
ACEBAs:
1) Shah Rukh Khan: My Name Is Khan
2) Salman Khan: Dabangg
3) Hrithik Roshan: Guzaarish
4) Ajay Devgn: Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai
5) Boman Irani: Well Done Abba
6) Paresh Rawal: Road to Sangam
The winner is Shah Rukh? Really? Oh my Gosh, that came so unexpected! That's all I have to say.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR [only ACEBAs]
1) Arjun Rampal: Raajneeti
2) Arshad Warsi: Ishqiya
3) Nana Patekar: Raajneeti
4) Ronit Roy: Udaan
5) Paresh Rawal: Aakrosh
6) Randeep Hoda: Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai
Woooohooo! This feels like a personal win - the nominee I voted for won! Ah... magical. In contrary to the main actors, it was easy to find good supporting performances in the cinematic archives of 2010. And in my opinion, Arjun Rampal's was the best one.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS [only ACEBAs]
1) Kareena Kapoor: We Are Family
2) Sonakshi Sinha: Dabangg
3) Bipasha Basu: Aakrosh
4) Amrita Puri: Aisha
5) Dimple Kapadia: Dabangg
6) Ira Dubey: Aisha
If there's one good thing about WAF, it's Kareena. She didn't save the film for me, but she was my personal highlight, a flash of cinemagity in the dullness of a kitschy-bitchy "children's drama/comedy/wtf". That's why she deserves this award.
BEST SOUNDTRACK
ISHQ:
1) Vishal-Shekhar: Anjaana Anjaani(btw: An Education-poster, anyone?)
Thanks for reminding me: Why wasn't BBB nominated in the ISHQ awards? Meh. There was music in OUATIM? No Raavan in the ACEBAs? Well, I kinda can't get no satisfaction regarding the music awards of both the award-thingies.
BEST SONG [only ACEBAs]
1) Pee Loon: Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai
2) Munni Badnaam Hui: Dabangg
3) Pe Pe Pepein: Chance Pe Dance
4) Tere Liye: Prince
5) Wallah Re Wallah: Tees Maar Khan
6) Chal Halke Halke: A Flat
Sorry for the latter comment, now I remember at least one song from OUATIM. Beautiful song. But the true winner is "Beera" from Raavan, can't believe it wasn't nominated. Don't remember any of the others except for "Munni". Good choreography, not the best musical work.
BEST SINGER - MALE [only ACEBAs]
1) Mohit Chauhan - Pee Loon - Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai
2) Rahat Fateh Ali Khan - Dil To Bachcha Hai - Ishqiya
3) Rahat Fateh Ali Khan - Aas Paas Khuda - Anjaana Anjaani
I'm listening to "Pee Loon" at this moment, and I must say it's much better than I had remembered. Definitely worth a best singer award for Mohit Chauhan.
BEST SINGER - FEMALE [only ACEBAs]
1) Sunidhi Chauhan - Udi Udi - Guzaarish
2) Bela Shende - Sun Le Dua Yeh Aasmaan - We Are Family
3) Mamta Sharma - Munni Badnaam Hui - Dabangg
4) Alyssa Mendonsa - Uff Teri Ada - Karthik Calling Karthik
5) Rekha Bhardwaj - Badi Dheere Jali – Ishqiya
6) Reena Bhardwaj - Khili Re - Raavan
Sunidhi Chauhan would've been my second choice, but Reena Bhardwaj convinced me the most. How sad that she's last in the row...
BEST CHOREOGRAPHY
ISHQ:
1) "Dum Dum": Band Baaja Baaraat
2) "Zoobi Doobi": 3 Idiots (editors' choice)
3) "Sheila Ki Jawani": Tees Maar Khan
4) "Munni Badnaam": Dabangg
5) "Chhan Ke Mohalla: Action Replayy
One of the results that I almost completely agree with. The ISHQ Awards 2011 included 3 Idiots, because the DVD was released so late. Considering that, my personal favorite would be "Zoobi Doobi", but from last years' releases, "Dum Dum" is probably the best. I do, however, prefer "Munni" over "Sheila".
ACEBAs:
1) "Dum Dum": Band Baaja Baaraat
2) "Sheila Ki Jawani": Tees Maar Khan
3) "Pe Pe Pepein": Chance Pe Dance
4) "Munni Badnaam Hui": Dabangg
5) "Fire": Kites
6) "Nakhre": Action Replayy
Don't have much more to say than to the ISHQ result... Nice that they included a song from Kites - Hrithik is my favorite dancer ever. He is simply perfect. Some may say too perfect, but I like being perfect (Black Swan, if you know what I mean... and I take ballet classes myself, by the way).
BEST NEWCOMER - MALE [only ACEBAs]
1) Ranveer Singh: Band Baaja Baaraat
2) Omkar Das Manikpuri: Peepli [Live]
3) Ali Zafar: Tere Bin Laden
4) Aditya Roy Kapur: Guzaarish
5) Rajat Barmecha: Udaan
6) Pradhuman Singh: Tere Bin Laden
Aditya Roy Kapur, "that I'm not laughing!" (German expression, I felt nothing else was appropriate). I voted for Omkar Das, it was before I had seen BBB. I'd probably vote for Ranveer now.
BEST NEWCOMER - FEMALE [only ACEBAs]
1) Sonakshi Sinha: Dabangg
2) Zarine Khan: Veer
3) Shraddha Kapoor: Teen Patti
4) Arya Banerjee: LSD
5) Nushrat Bharucha: LSD
I voted for Sonakshi, of course. But I'd like to see the two LSD-ladies on the second and third place.
Unbelievable that both We Are Family and Guzaarish made it into the Top 5 of the Best Films. Tees Maar Khan was much better - and I know I'm pretty alone with that opinion. Yes, I liked the film, and I'm not going to apologize for that (I also didn't expect much, so how could it be the film I was most disappointed by?). Haven't seen neither Veer nor Dulha Mil Gaya (again, good reasons), so We Are Family would definitely win this section if I were to decide. And Tees Maar Khan would be 5) - even Guzaarish was worse.
BEST COSTUMES [only ACEBAs]
1) Band Baaja Baaraat
2) Golmaal 3
3) Guzaarish
4) Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai
5) Kites
6) Tees Maar Khan
Agrrrrrreeed! (I want those clothes!).
JODI NO. 1 [only ISHQ]
1) Shah Rukh Khan & Kajol: My Name Is Khan (also editors' choice)
2) Shahid Kapoor & Genelia D'Souza: Chance Pe Dance
3) Anushka Sharma & Ranveer Singh: Band Baaja Baaraat
Shah Rukh + Kajol is nothing new, we've seen it a hundred times - but then again, don't we still love. Don't they still enchant us with their mind-blowing chemistry on screen? Come on... yes, they do. And that's why they won over the fresh newcomers of BBB and the interesting pairing of Ishqiya.
BEST EDITING [only ACEBAs]
1) Band Baaja Baaraat
2) Kites
3) Ishqiya
4) Aakrosh
5) Prince
6) Rann
Yeah, go on... (good choice, yap).
BEST GERMAN RELEASE [only ISHQ]
1) My Name Is Khan: Extended Director's Cut (DVD)
2) Koyla - Glut der Rache
3) Tanz um dein Glück - Chance Pe Dance
4) Kites - Auf der Flucht
5) My Name Is Khan: shortened cinema version
6) Sag Ja zur Liebe - Dulha Mil Gaya
7) Gestern, heute und für immer - Love Aaj Kal (editors' choice)
8) Live aus Peepli - Irgendwo in Indien (Peepli Live)
I don't buy many German releases, as they are mostly a lot more expensive than the Indian ones, but I do own the "Director's Cut" of MNIK. It's only called "Director's Cut", because the cinema version was shortened - which I didn't like, but whatever. The German DVD is good, I mean, I didn't watch the special features yet, but...
BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS/ STUNTS/ ACTION [only ACEBAs]
1) Dabangg
2) Toonpur Ka Superhero
3) Prince
4) Veer
The only one who was qualified enough to win this.
BEST "LOVE SCENE" [a special ISHQ Award]
1) My Name Is Khan ("Marry me!") (also editors' choice)
2) Kites (Kiss scene)
3) Anjaana Anjaani ("That's not funny anymore, Kiara.")
4) Aisha (Balcony scene)
5) Band Baaja Baaraat ("Let me rest...")
Come on, guys... this is getting really boring and foreseeable. I'm not blaming the magazine - they had good nominations - but the general viewer is almost as unspectacular as the general public... Man. I can agree on Kajol and Shah Rukh being the Jodi No. 1, we already discussed that, but it's not equal with having the best "love scene", because it's not equal with having the best screenplay-writer to write it.
THE 5 MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS [a special ISHQ Award]
The editors didn't vote for this one.
1) Don 2 (Shah Rukh, Priyanka)
2) Ra.One (Shah Rukh, Kareena)
3) Untitled (Aamir, Rani, Kareena)
4) Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (Hrithik, Farhan, Abhay)
5) Mausam (Shahid, Sonam)
As the two Shah Rukh films are the ones most likely to have a theatrical release in Germany, I understand why they are the most anticipated ones. Also because of Shah Rukh himself, of course. And because Don 2 was partly filmed in Berlin (yes, I wanted to go there, but long story). I chose Untitled, though - the pairing is too interesting.
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Phew, that was some hard work, putting this together. I hope you enjoy.
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