tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post6548914411409886237..comments2023-11-10T08:26:51.182-06:00Comments on Beth Loves Bollywood: mini-reviews: I Hate Luv Storys and What's Your Raashee?Beth Loves Bollywoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05540154833326987567noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-55475443512345306542012-04-28T17:53:39.052-05:002012-04-28T17:53:39.052-05:00Ridiculous quest there. What occurred after? Take ...Ridiculous quest there. What occurred after? Take care!<br /> <a href="http://taipeigame.net/other/853-funbrain-game.html" rel="nofollow">mighty girl funbrain</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-13124304173879248392011-06-05T19:38:23.907-05:002011-06-05T19:38:23.907-05:00Hi Jayesh - I am SO sorry for the long response! Y...Hi Jayesh - I am SO sorry for the long response! Your comment got lost in the mess of my inbox! I am grateful for thoughtful comments, no matter what length!<br /><br />This is all very interesting! I too am very glad the original author got credit, and though I have not read the book it seems that Gowariker put a LOT of work into this film. I just wish someone had helped him edit! <br /><br />If you happen to read this comment, I'd be interested to know whether you think the original book would be an enjoyable read 30odd years later? I think the Chicago connection alone would fascinate me!Beth Loves Bollywoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05540154833326987567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-79586006898515504272011-01-24T02:59:48.547-06:002011-01-24T02:59:48.547-06:00Hi Beth,
This is Jayesh Adhyaru, a regular visito...Hi Beth, <br />This is Jayesh Adhyaru, a regular visitor of your blog, from Ahmedabad, India.<br /><br />Despite its long running time, I really liked this movie. Let me share few things. Yes, this movie is based on a Gujarati novel called 'Kimble Ravenswood' by eminent Gujarati writer Mr. Madhu Rye. He lives in New Jersey.<br /><br />He wrote this novel during 1976 and was published in a daily of Surat (Gujarat) named 'Gujarat Mitra'.<br /><br />When I interviewed Mr. Naushil Mehta, well known playwright and co-writer of WTR, he told me that Ashutosh Gowarikar wanted to make movie from this story for so long (from his college days).<br /><br />Original novel was based in Ahmedabad and was path breaking in its style-psyche-language etc, because now-a-days one can't even imagine that a guy from Chicago comes India to look for suitable bride and meets different girls. But believe me, this trend is still on in NRI (or NRG- Non Resident Gujaratis) filled Gujarat. Boy comes for 10-14 days, meets too many girls, gets engage or gets married and fly back to US, UK or Canada etc. <br /><br />But Mr. Madhu Rye himself is not very happy with the movie, because Gowarikar had changed many things in the movie. For e.g., he changed many characters of 12 girls, in the novel, there was a character of Yogesh's girl friend Peggy, Ashu deleted it. And added nonsense character of Pundit turned Spy called 'Bhautesh Uncle'.<br /><br />But still, Ashutosh made honest effort to do justice to novel and has given due credits to Madhu Rye (his name was displayed in all the promos, his credit appears in the beginning of the movie and if you've noticed, the book Yogesh (Harman) reads in the movie is shown written by Mr. Madhusudan Thakar which is Mr. Madhu Rye's original name. 'Madhu Rye' is his pen name.) This is nice gesture in hindi cinema, when we juxtapose it with the incidents of plagiarized hindi movies without any mention of source and 'Chetan Bhagat-3 Idiots' like controversies. <br /><br />Ashtosh also captured different shades of Gujaratis living in Mumbai and their attraction for NRI groom.<br /><br />However, Mr. Rye was also not happy with the televised version of Kimble Ravenswood. Ketan Mehta made a TV serial on it named 'Mr. Yogi', taking Late Mr. Mohan Gokhale in Yogesh Patel's role, which was aired in late 80s on Doordarshan. But I was told by the writer that Ketan Mehta really messed the story, but despite that, the serial became hit and people still remembers it.<br /><br />Also there has been several stage adaptations of this story.<br /><br />Hope you wont mind this looo..ng comment! :)<br /><br />Thanx!<br />Jayesh Adhyaru.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-84835662243422597702011-01-19T13:12:54.654-06:002011-01-19T13:12:54.654-06:00IHLS: Surprising myself, I actually liked the movi...IHLS: Surprising myself, I actually liked the movie! That might be because of 2 reasons:<br />1) I went with minimal expectations<br />2) I was indulgent about the stupidity on the part of the leads as they were much younger (unlike in 'Love Aaj Kal' where "matured" people take "mature" decision to break up but be in touch).<br />But all in all, why I liked it were because of the songs, the effervescent comedy/humor that nicely highlighted the shallowness, and the fact that the film did not take itself too seriously and try to be a treatise about love (for e.g. not having dialogues like 'Love is not this...but that').<br /><br />WYR: Finally watched it last week on TV. It is actually a good film to watch on TV with 10 breaks in between and a chance to do something on the side like surfing the net or cooking. My own grouse: Why were most of the 'Priyanka's so weird?Aparnahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17465535925292456208noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-39895361943130559272011-01-18T05:41:48.256-06:002011-01-18T05:41:48.256-06:00IHLS - I didn't understood why the hell they l...IHLS - I didn't understood why the hell they loved each other and only kept watching beacuse Sonam is so good to look at. Yet, she still has to learn how to act.<br /><br />WYR? - I don't remember a lot about this movie, but I remember that there was a point when I thought I couldn't take no more. I only saw it all because I wanted to know the 12 girls!Carol Juvenilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15549704202763990421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-33767322390673844602011-01-16T19:13:34.170-06:002011-01-16T19:13:34.170-06:00Beth, totally agree about the long boring length o...Beth, totally agree about the long boring length of what is your rashee. I don't think Ashutosh needed to insert a song for every role of priyanka. If he really needed songs, he could have limited himself to one recurring one or two or three. I can't help wondering that Hrishikesh Mukherjee would have done a wonderful job with this plot line and story by keeping it short but at the same time keep the viewer engaged. I quite liked Harman in this movie - haven't seen him in any other though.<br /><br />I didn't like IHLS. Had to make up for that experience by watching good 70s movie!Filmbuffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-35913575196870025742011-01-16T10:25:23.176-06:002011-01-16T10:25:23.176-06:00I want to see "What's your Myers-Briggs&q...I want to see "What's your Myers-Briggs"!!!!!! Ha ha ha ha ha hhhhaaaaa! Unctuous corporate types in solemn self-examination!!!! that would be brilliant.memsaabhttp://memsaabstory.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-14292183303478721652011-01-15T15:32:53.174-06:002011-01-15T15:32:53.174-06:00Lime(tte) - Ditto. If the film were actually about...Lime(tte) - Ditto. If the film were actually about an SMS-based romance, for example, it'd be fine because it would be relevant - I may not like it, just as I dislike that kind of thing in twitter and text, but it would make sense. Here I didn't pick up any reason for the weird spellings.<br /><br />Anonymous - But people alter (including abbreviating) book plots, characters, etc ALL THE TIME in film adaptations! An example that comes to mind quickly in Hindi cinema is the Dilip Kumar/Madhubala adaptation of <i>Jane Eyre</i> called <i>Sandgil</i> in which the back story of the major pair is quite changed. <br /><br />But I do think in this particular case cutting the songs would have been a much easier way to keep the character structure in the novel but still shorten the film. Alternately, they could write a different script with a similar basic idea (meeting X # of women, one from each type of a certain system of classifying people) and indicate that they were inspired by this particular novel. I think it's clear that run time (or "leave 'em wanting more") is not a concern for Gowariker, though :)<br /><br />I am glad to know there are young female executives, and I agree that anyone can be flustered. What I'm saying is that this particular character seemed to me too lightweight too often for the job she had, not that she sometimes made mistakes. <br /><br />Seeing some different behind-the-scenes aspects of filmmaking was probably the best part of IHLS for me.Beth Loves Bollywoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05540154833326987567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-49782789904005269252011-01-15T15:17:23.446-06:002011-01-15T15:17:23.446-06:00"Trimming the concept" of What's you..."Trimming the concept" of What's your Raashee is all well and good, except that it was based on a novel. <br /><br />And as someone who works in the film industry (not Bollywood) I can tell you there are young, female executives, and anyone can get flustered given the right circumstances. I didn't like IHLS for various reasons but they actually got the film industry stuff SPOT ON.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-5207371948692131792011-01-15T10:27:22.522-06:002011-01-15T10:27:22.522-06:00I also h8 that chat-language... Okay, I don't ...I also h8 that chat-language... Okay, I don't even like misspellings on twitter, but I accept them - but in film titles???? Please!Mettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08094234448852441633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-47217206219338084752011-01-14T22:30:48.531-06:002011-01-14T22:30:48.531-06:00Liz - OOOH! And as someone who has been bumped fro...Liz - OOOH! And as someone who has been bumped from Gemini to Taurus, I am quite intrigued by the prospect! But not enough to ask them to remake the film or anything. Though maybe if they did it with 13 Abhay Deols....<br /><br />Banno - Did you!!! Oh good! I am glad to know I am not completely on crack about this one :)Beth Loves Bollywoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05540154833326987567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-37176770787332825662011-01-14T22:26:06.744-06:002011-01-14T22:26:06.744-06:00Oh no, dustdevil liz, that would only make the fil...Oh no, dustdevil liz, that would only make the film longer. :) <br /><br />Beth, I did quite like 'What's your Rashee' too.Bannohttp://batulm.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15977843.post-30050859218567593242011-01-14T21:33:38.546-06:002011-01-14T21:33:38.546-06:00With all of the hoopla in the news the last few da...With all of the hoopla in the news the last few days about "your Zodiac sign may be off" makes me think that it would be amusing to do a re-edit of "What's Your Rashee", and shift the personalities of each girl into the job/home situation of the next one.dustdevil lizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03564737263775943203noreply@blogger.com