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The last thing you want to hear in bed: ‘Smallville’ |
The Partition trailer is now online, and it’s giving me déjàvu (thanks, Jay):
Partition: In the midst of one such massacre, Gian [Singh] finds Naseem, a 17-year-old Muslim girl, and takes her under his protection. They gradually find themselves drawn to each other but, as their remarkable story plays out, the obstacles to their happiness prove all but insurmountable… [Link]
Gadar: During [Partition], Tara Singh, a truck driver, rescues a young woman named Sakina, both fall in love with each other and get married. When things calm down, Sakina decides to travel across the border to Pakistan to visit her father… [who] tries to separate her and Tara… [Link]
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p>From the trailer at least, it looks like a straight rip, but like Gangsta M.D., it’s in the reverse direction from usual. Director Vic Sarin’s pitch: Gadar meets The English Patient, minus the anti-Pakistan jingoism. He’s even kept the scene where Sunny Deol goes apeshit in front of his home to defend the girl from a raging mob.
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p>Jimi Mistry plays a hot turbanwala, Neve Campbell stars as a Brit. Kristin Kreuk’s bare back is seamless, her desi accent not. She actually sounds a whole lot like Sheetal Sheth attempting the accent, which says something about assimilation.
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p>I have zero problem with a non-desi lead actress here. This looks like a tightly-focused young love story (the score reminds me of trifling period romances like A Knight’s Tale), not an epic history of Partition. There are plenty of light-eyed Muslim women, and it’s not like they cast Jessica Simpson as Indira Gandhi.
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p>No, my question is: Kristin Kreuk?! Undeniably cute, but so chirpy she makes Tweety Bird sound like Droopy Dog.
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Bolly/Holi homage |
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It’s a Mistry |
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Kreuk in a patka |
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Kristin jaise koi nahin? |
Pattie,
if nothing else, this part of the thread is a real eye, or should it be “nose” opener…i always thought nothing could get worse than a truck stop men’s room….arrrgh lets not go there either!
Pattie,
if nothing else, this part of the thread is a real eye, or should it be “nose” opener…i always thought nothing could get worse than a truck stop men’s room….arrrgh lets not go there either!
omg! hahahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! you know, there was a time when i felt the same! and it’s i think a toss up for both eyes and nose, which ever part falls of the face first!
Not to beat a dead horse. . I realize this is entirely off track now, pace Manish, but. . .
don’t you ever feel that adjectives/epithets like ditzy, airhead, perky (derogative perky), even bird-brained, silly, vapid and vacuous, are usually applied to women, and unfairly so? And bimbo and slutty both have connotations of lacking intelligence. It’s true that for men we have idiot, dumbass, retard, and the like. . and it’s also true that like bitch and slut these are all becoming unisex. . but I kind of feel like a stupid man can still be considered a real man, whereas women have so much more to prove before they can stop being considered to be girls.
Plus, I’m a little down on the whole concept of attributing character value to intelligence. To me the notable thing is not that Anna is bubbly and smart, but that Anna is bubbly and kind. Her bubbliness is not insincere, it’s real. It’s wonderful that she’s smart—I love that she’s smart, and it’s a most relevant quality in blogging, obviously–but it’s not what makes her a good and admirable person–nor what makes her a real woman.
Again, this is totally far afield. . . .it really has nothing to do with casting issues. .. something about the “since I met a woman, not a girl,” just set me thinking about what that really means. Why do we value grown-upness? Well, one thing–the more relevant thing here–is that we prize sexual maturity and are justifiably upset/repulsed by sexual immaturity being set up as an object of desire. But I’m trying to tease apart the sexual appreciation and the total appreciation of a person here.
Intelligence, bubbliness, even kindness–these are all qualities children can have. Quite effortlessly, in fact. Which makes me think that it’s the effort that makes it a matter of being adult. The best wedding toast I ever heard was, “The person you marry should be the partner who most helps you to become the best person you want to be.” It’s a little convoluted, but I think it touches on the mystery of woman vs. girl and man vs. boy in a way that I can respect. Growing up is about deliberately and constantly trying to be a good person. We don’t expect small children to do that at all. We expect teenagers to do it a lot more. We consider someone an adult when they have internalized and made a habit of the process. Because this is such a frightfully important set of expectations, I’m a little bothered when I see the label for it–woman vs. girl, man vs. boy, adult vs. childish–attributed to something else entirely—whether it’s physical curves, unchangable intelligence, or mood profile.
It seems what you all are really down on is insincerity, cheap smiles, and the state of being on positivity auto-pilot for the sake of seeming attractive. Chirpy just strikes me as ambigious enough a word for that phenomena as to be unhelpful and even counterproductive.
I recalling some years back having heard a speech therapist on television claiming that, according to cross-cultural research, the pitch of women’s speaking voices is correlated with the status that women are granted in their cultural environment (i.e., lower status = higher pitch). The theory is that women expect to be taken ‘less seriously’ in these societies, and therefore respond by not ‘giving weight’ to their own voices in a way that might seem to challenge male authority (and thereby avoiding conflict/sanctions with males). It seemed a rather logical explanation to me.
I’ve heard this too, and it makes sense to me in the aggregate and if the data you are working with is the difference between any given woman’s speaking pitch and her total range. Not taking into account someone’s natural range, however, strikes me as somewhat ludicrous, and is, really, what bothers me here.
Sorry. . .I have no idea why a throw away line made me think about all this. 🙂
Thanks Jai – I remembered that Sunny’s pugh and beard mysteriously disappeared during the “running through the forest” love songs and then came back – but don’t remember if he removed his pugh like the character in this movie.
Pattie – Agree with Jai on the Shaheed-e-Mohabbat recommendation – I was initially pissed off after wathching Gadar but enjoyed Shaheed-e-Mohabbat.
totally true
saheli,
you have brought up many good points. and basically, indeed, what you have said here – It seems what you all are really down on is insincerity, cheap smiles, and the state of being on positivity auto-pilot for the sake of seeming attractive. (or at least attarctive in a sexual founded nature) is the point.
thought i must also add note that yes, certain tags we give are indeed unfair in some tenses, yet in others remarkably polite as compared to their actions. and, also, some people do it to themselves , like this whole ‘i’m sista bitch queen diva’ or ‘mad motha* beep* nigga’. anybody who has respect for nayone, be it themselves and/or others would never refer to others as bitches and niggas, because no matter how one tries to cover it up with verbonics, the words mean what they always have, and just because you replace an ‘er’ with an ‘a’, does not make such less offensive, yet people do it, and think it’s great. which doesn’t excuse it.
Plus, I’m a little down on the whole concept of attributing character value to intelligence. also, not everyone has character value attributed to intellegence, but for some people, that’s all they’ve got. look at paris hilton. and it seems that some people want this to be, they want their character value to be attributed to their intellegence, which is very sad. these same people also prefer to be seen for how much they can show off physically.
Why do we value grown-upness? Well, one thing–the more relevant thing here–is that we prize sexual maturity and are justifiably upset/repulsed by sexual immaturity being set up as an object of desire. But I’m trying to tease apart the sexual appreciation and the total appreciation of a person here.
that’s again the issue. people tend to see sexual apreciation and not total appreciation. or they confuse the two.
I recalling some years back having heard a speech therapist on television claiming that, according to cross-cultural research, the pitch of women’s speaking voices is correlated with the status that women are granted in their cultural environment (i.e., lower status = higher pitch). The theory is that women expect to be taken ‘less seriously’ in these societies, and therefore respond by not ‘giving weight’ to their own voices in a way that might seem to challenge male authority (and thereby avoiding conflict/sanctions with males). It seemed a rather logical explanation to me.
the high pitch/class thing is another society contrived idea, and though there is some base to it, i know many people of all walks of life who have all sorts of pitches. but if you wnat to talk natural pitch, ove rthe past couple decades, there have been more and more nasily, high pithced people, men and women alike, who either sound stoned or like they’ve been sucking helium balloons. and it seems that these high pithces are not, in fact, natural ranges, but something that has been leanred and copied. take for instance when beavis and butthead were popular, how many guys immitated them, and still do. that was definately not a natural range going on there.
but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Thanks Jai – I remembered that Sunny’s pugh and beard mysteriously disappeared during the “running through the forest” love songs and then came back – but don’t remember if he removed his pugh like the character in this movie.
Pattie – Agree with Jai on the Shaheed-e-Mohabbat recommendation – I was initially pissed off after wathching Gadar but enjoyed Shaheed-e-Mohabbat.
lmao…..was there a good reason for his pugh and almsot dhari to a magic trick? that’s just too wierd. what were they thinking, no one would notice? i will indeed have to watch shaheed.
Growing up is about deliberately and constantly trying to be a good person. We don’t expect small children to do that at all. We expect teenagers to do it a lot more. We consider someone an adult when they have internalized and made a habit of the process. Because this is such a frightfully important set of expectations
hhmm..in my family, i was expected to constantly be a good person. it was highly emphasized. took me about two decades to realise there was good reason for it. though i gotta say, i think i was a better kid than i was teen for awhile. or at least preteen. i was a horrid preteen.
Yeah, I’m really just pondering, Pattie. I realize language is ambiguous. . .I just like to think about the more problematic moments of usage.
hhmm..in my family, i was expected to constantly be a good person.
I meant, like children too small to understand instructions. 🙂
Yeah, I’m really just pondering, Pattie. I realize language is ambiguous. . .I just like to think about the more problematic moments of usage.
ok. cool.
I meant, like children too small to understand instructions. 🙂
lol…well, then in that case, true, true. lol.
so KK is playing a desi girl (which i don’t have a problem with)….speaking of bad casting…how about paris hilton playing mother teresa?
Amusing! But it smacks of a PR stunt. It didn’t say our modern-day Madonna was interested, only that the director contacted her agent (sending an unsolicited email qualifies).
But it smacks of a PR stunt.
exactly. although i did love this line…. The director said he was impressed when he read a report sometime ago in which the hotel heiress said she had refused to pose nude in Playboy magazine and decided then to shortlist her.
he would be even more impressed if he got his hands on 1 night in Paris.
anyway, just found the story mildly amusing.
Well known Malayalam director T. Rajeevnath, scouting for a suitable actress to play the title role in his film on Nobel Peace laureate Mother Teresa, has sent feelers to American actress Paris Hilton. “My agents in California have contacted Paris Hilton,” Rajeevnath told IANS. The director said he was impressed when he read a report sometime ago in which the hotel heiress said she had refused to pose nude in Playboy magazine and decided then to shortlist her.
ooohhhhh man…ok, NOW i WILL go and pitch up. The only credit i can give her is for not posing naked. which is really surprising for her. i’d rather have KK play mother theresa. i have to wonder what people are smoking when they make up cast lists. i eman just because she hasn’t posed nude does NOT mean she should be mother teresa. also says alot about society. there are lots of people who havn’t posed for playboy, but have far more credit to be mother theresa. how about melissa joan hart, or something. ooohh mannn.