Happy Monday!

If like me, you hardly ever turn on your TV, you might have missed this back in '06. Even if you didn't, you know you want to watch it again.

Please, remove all food and other foreign particles from your mouth and nostrils before pressing play. Thank you.

You decide.

I got a frantic email from a friend yesterday claiming she had seen Hrithik in a commercial on TV here in the US. (No, it's wasn't Bollywood-on-Demand.) Thanks to the wonders of the internet, she was able to procure the promo from YouTube which I've posted below for your viewing pleasure.

As for the decision part, Has my boyfriend been darkened in the reggae scene or is that just a really nasty shadow? Just taking a friendly poll. You know how much I like blackface!

At any rate, Hrithik looks as delicious as always. He's working the Latin flavor pretty well. Which is marvelous considering his next costar is Mexican telenova star Barbara Mori. It has been said that Sonam Kapoor turned down a chance to star opposite Boyfriend #1 because the role in the film was "too bold". (Sounds another lawsuit opportunity...)

There's very little info about the film online as of yet--the working title is "Kites", Papa Roshan is involved though not directing--but gathering from the tidbits on Barbara's wikipedia profile, it has been suggested that filming will begin in late July with locations include New Mexico, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

There is a reasonable chance that I'll be in Los Angeles in July and August. (more on that later) If I see Hrithik in LA, I will pass out...which wouldn't be a bad thing. If I don't pass out, I will inevitably become a bumbling mess of too many words and not enough sense sentences. He will inevitably extend his hand in greeting and I will stare too long. It all goes downhill from there...

One more reason why...

...I *heart* Huckabee.

I know he's not running for President anymore and real Republicans don't tolerate unpretentious rooting for the common man (or eating popcorn-popper fried squirrel for that matter), but he seems like a nice fellow and this little TV moment proves he actually has some sense as well.

Speaking yesterday on MSNBC's Morning Joe program, Huckabee said that statements made by Senator Barack Obama’s former pastor were unacceptable but understandable...Huckabee, who grew up in the segregated South, added that if he had experienced the kind of discrimination African Americans have in American history, he would probably have become bitter. [via]

Here's the video if you care to watch.

Chak De India (2007)

[I was so amped when I finished the film I forgot to write a haiku! The review is now properly introduced...]

Coach wants one team, ek!
Girls learn to "play well with others."
Soon, the fight is on.

I loved this flick! I’m loving the “We play for one country” theme. A team is a team. This is Shahrukh Khan in all his glory. I’m definitely feeling the goatee…and the obligatory rain scene. (Has Shahrukh ever been in a film where he didn’t get doused with water?)


On to other things, if I was Punjabi, I’d be salty about how snarly the Punjabi girl looked. Even so, I’m still mad about her unibrow. I mean, I guess they were going for absolute realism on that one but they coulda gave her some kinda touch up! Where were the stylists? Makeup?!


Sports films are notoriously predictable and this one is no exception. The first half has some nice character development and the second half is, well, sports. Except for that little private moment with Bindiya and coach in the restroom, but I digress. (Was that good acting or was the actress really making our man SRK nervous?)


Also, I guess it wouldn't be me writing the review if I didn't mention the fact that it was really cool that several of the girls were supposed to be from remote rural areas...jungles even(!) and that some of them actually looked different. My favorite line was the bit about being treated like a foreigner in your own country. Word. Maybe, someday in the near future, in a mainstream fillum, one of those foreign or "jungle" girls will actually get to have a backstory. Here's for hopin'.

On a unifying note, that moment at McDonald’s had to be the best fight scene I’ve watched in a good long while. Not because the action was so stellar but because it was vicariously satisfying. Who hasn’t wanted to beat the crap out of obnoxious catcalling boys at the mall? *two tight slaps* Girl power!

Watch the film.
Go.
Rent it immediately.

Kannathil Muthamittal (2002)

a peck on the cheek
no cure for child's deep longing
though she calls it home

I had been wanting to see Kannathil Muthamittal for quite some time. For some reason the dvd was never available on Netflix and not being able to pronounce the title, I gave up trying to find it at a local market.

Fast forward a year or so and this film is the reason I renewed my Netflix subscription. I was flipping through the pages of films available for instant viewing and saw "A Peck on the Cheek" buried in the foreign titles. It was NOT listed by it's actual title which probably explains why I couldn't find it.

First of all, Mani Ratnam is the best. His films offer a wonderful balance of beauty and substance. Secondly, there is just something very pleasant about Madhavan. I can't lay a finger on it but I enjoy watching him on screen.

Interestingly (or sadly) enough, before watching this film, I didn't know anything about civil unrest in Sri Lanka. I only knew the people there are very brown, many of them are very pretty and M.I.A's from there. My mention of it is not to imply that the film bothers to explain any of it, but in typical Ratnam style, it shows glimpses of people on all sides of the conflict. Still, the conflict merely plays background to the story of a little girl desperate to find out where she came from and why her birth mother left her behind.

I am such a sucker for adoption stories. This one was particularly challenging in that it made me think of the emotional process a child has to go through even when adopted by parents of the same ethnicity and language AND likewise, the emotional process the parents have to endure and the potential for being pushed away. Where the revelation of adoption might make one child cling to his or her adoptive parents all the more, another child feels the need to reconnect with their biological heritage and there's no way to predict or prepare for the outcome.

Enough rambling. If you haven't seen the film, watch it.
You'll thank me.

On a lighter note...

Today is my birthday.
In an email, my coworker sent me a myspace type sparkly and this video.

*Oh my* :D

Oh my god, all these black people...

...are supporting Barack Obama. It. is. so. annoying. Why can't more of them support Hillary? Why are they like, so flaky about the Democratic process? Like, who does Obama think he is, Bill Clinton--the voice of America's youth or something? God, did you see him dancing on Ellen? I mean, it was like, such a popularity seeking moment. Ewww.

For the record, this is what every "black people are voting for Obama because he's black" comment sounds like to my ears. Regardless of the vocabulary used, it sounds like whining and it sounds bitter. AND it's sooooo tired.

I can understand how people who vote in every election get a little miffed whenever the presidential elections come around and previously unengaged citizens arise from their couches and traipse out to the polls. How dare they! They should leave voting to the experts, to those who follow political commentary more closely than psychics follow Nostradamus! Oh, the perils of pseudo-Democracy! The perils of allowing the people ("blacks") to vote! Surely when the 15th Amendment was ratified, the legislature couldn't have imagined this day--the day when black folks might get to vote for a presidential candidate just because he's brown. Ha! What a disgrace.

Seriously though. Help is available.

1. Realize that if you are a white American and spend the rest of your life with American citizenship, you will likely never have the opportunity to vote for a presidential candidate "just because they're white" UNLESS Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination. Then you can vote for John McCain. Let me know how it feels.
2. Repeat after me: "Part of the democratic process is FREEDOM. Freedom means people can vote for whomever they want--for whatever reason they want." Say it until you believe it.

If the recitation doesn't work, I would suggest you stop watching so much political commentary; especially on 24-hour news channels like CNN. Listen to music and take a walk in the park. You'll vote for the candidate you've chosen and millions of other Americans will do the same. End of story.

[FYI, this tirade post was inspired by a few tired comments on my last post.]