YOU have to watch this. Very, very well produced. The young Indian star is brilliant. Appears that he sang and performed all the songs. WOW. What talent.
This came up as a ‘Netflix‘ recommendation. Looked intriguing & I am sucker for ‘Beatles‘ music. So, I watched. Glad I did.
I don’t generally like stupid, make-believe premises as plot lines. In this case, however, I will make an exception because it is SO MUCH fun. The soundtrack. Wow. I feel so lucky that I was able to grow up with ‘The Beatles’.
You should definitely watch. Appears that is available on both Netflix & ‘Prime‘.
Click image to access the YouTube video or use EMBED below.
YouTube put up this video as a RECOMMENDATION for me, this morning — given that I invariably watch ALL the ‘Revels‘ videos that they recommend. I am a sucker for Revels and YouTube panders to this affliction.
The SARI look was UNMISTAKABLE. Indian. I had never seen or heard of an Indian-themed Christmas Revels. But it is BRILLIANT. They should do another.
This was from 1997. That was the YEAR BEFORE I went to my first Revels — with ‘Revels North‘ in ‘Dartmouth‘. It would be another 17-years before I started going to Cambridge. So, this was before my time with Revels.
Great to see the GREAT ‘David Coffin‘ as a dashing young man. I got to meet him, in person, in December. This was great. Made my day. Check it out.
Today was my second time for lunch there, be it 4-years apart — BUT we did have COVID intervening. I like it — which obviously is why I went back.
Light fare. Not your full Indian/Nepali menu. Small kitchen. One person doing all the work. Kind of self-serve from the counter. Informal.
But, it is GOOD. Only 3 small tables and a few stools at the counter. No wine.
I was meeting a friend for lunch. It as at 1pm. So the place wasn’t that busy. Yes, people coming and going but we had a quiet table for an in-depth chat. I ordered some extra Samosas and Momo to bring home.
Given that I avoid carbs, this is menu is good for me — though Samosas (one of my many weaknesses) is, of course, NOT good for I. Smile.
I watched this on ‘Netflix‘, immediately after watching the really awful ‘Operation Mayfair‘ hoping that it would be an antidote. It was. It was like night & day. It wasn’t a great film, but it was very much in the classic Indian mould & it never failed to amuse. Good, clever satire. No pretension, if anything it continually made self-deprecating fun of what being Indian is all about. Identifiable Indian characters — some very good looking, but no ‘White Indians’.
It actually set out to highlight, mainly through satire, many of the issues & woes still plaguing India such as: political corruption, ‘mistreatment of women‘, the caste system, bureaucratic mismanagement & obesity. I quite enjoyed it.
It, by no means, is a classic even by Indian standards. But, it was NOT bad at all, at all. Quite a relief after ‘Operation Mayfair‘. So, if you have Netflix, & are so inclined, give it a spin. You most likely won’t regret doing so.
As the three reviews above show I am certainly NOT alone in thinking this was AWFUL. Truly awful. Painfully awful. As is also pointed out, the sad thing is, that it didn’t have to be so bad. The story definitely had potential. It was the CASTING, ACTING & SETTINGS.
Pretentious. Glamorized ‘WHITE Indian‘ make-believe, i.e., Indians wishing that they were white! Shame, shame, shame.
Don’t waste your time in starting to watch it. Garbage.
I watch a LOT of Indian movies on ‘Netflix‘ & tend to enjoy MOST of them. Yes, some aren’t very good. But, this one is in a class of its own when it comes to being BAD.
This movie got some getting used to. The FIRST Indian movie I have seen (& I have been watching Indian movies for 60 years) with NUDITY (full frontal, at that) — never mind the explicit sex. Wow! This is NOT porn — hard or soft. It is a bona fide movie, with a clear storyline & message, that just happens to have a lot of vivid sex, in every form — with no effort to be subtle or discrete.
The message shown above stating that the ‘battleground is the vagina‘ is the basis of the story.
Yes, I guess we all see/hear this in the form of the gang rapes of women in India.
This is profoundly disturbing. This can’t be pie-in-the-sky. This stuff MUST HAPPEN in today’s India. Probably has for centuries. Yikes.
India has always been highly stratified society. Today, with the new wealth, drugs, rampant tourism, social media & nationalistic fevers things seem to have got out of control.
This is disturbing.
Obviously ‘the authorities’ & folks know. I guess much of it is tolerated. SOME of the messages from this movie MUST be — should be — widely disseminated. I am not sure I can recommend it on blanket basis. IF you are a mature adult who wants to know about some of the social issues besetting India you might want to watch this. Remember it is graphic & disturbing. Some scenes that are … Let’s just say BEYOND BAD!
The post shown at top appeared on my ‘Facebook‘ timeline last week (no doubt because I belong to a number of train-related groups). It immediately caught my interest — especially the claim that it was the MOST powerful & that it was ‘homegrown’. I made a note to check on these when I had the time.
Yes, I did do some quick checking. Both claims are what I think of as “Indian truths” — they have to be taken with a large grain of salt since they are not exactly true.
Wikipedia, to its credit, has a list of the “World’s Largest Locomotives” — some of them, by their sheer nature, also happening to be the “Most Powerful“. The WAG-12 is listed as the LARGEST but in terms of horsepower (HP) there appears to be at least two Russian locos that supposedly produce 17,000(+) hp.
But, I enjoyed the few minutes I go to look up this stuff. I love trains — or to be really truthful I love train engines. Train carriages, whether passenger, freight or caboose, doesn’t move me. But, I love all engines.
THREE (3) main things I learnt, & if & when I have time I sure plan to look into these more.
1/ That Russia & India made such big, powerful engines — way, way bigger than anything being built in the U.S. That is pretty amazing.
2/ That steam engines could deliver more power than diesel, diesel/electric or electric locs. Wow. Had no idea.
3/ That there is some difference as to the power — to the wheels — delivered by steam compared to the other methods. I really need to understand this better.
Just wanted to share this with you. Hope you find it interesting & maybe even useful.
It was a 7 episode SERIES (albeit each episode under 50 minutes) — & I get leery that I might lose interest before I get to the end. NO FEARS with this series. It truly exceeded expectations. By the time I got to episode 3 I was riveted.
It is based on a genuine tragedy, with the loss of 59 lives, that took place on June 13, 1997.
I had not heard of this fire or the case that AMAZINGLY dragged on for 24-years. Quite the story.
Given that series covers New Delhi society, Indian politics & the Indian judicial system for those 24 years it gives you quite a glimpse into unvarnished, contemporary Indian life. Though most of the folks shown in this series are middle class & lead a very affluent, highly westernized life at its CORE India is still India from 50-years ago or more.
There is an actual line in the show that says something along the lines of: “India will always remain a third-world country”. I am not qualified to comment on that. But, from what we see in this series India, despiste the outward trappings by the city-dwelling wealthy is still very much mired in the PAST.
Class distinction, RAMPANT CORRUPTION, bribery, graft, bureaucratic chaos still exists in bucket loads. I am familiar with much of this from my own upbringing in Ceylon as well as the amount of time I did spend in New Delhi in the late 1960s. My parents lived there from 1969 to about 1972. I was in boarding school in London. I would go home, to New Delhi, for my 3-month summer holiday & the 3-week break for Christmas. A lot of what I saw in this show, though 30 years after my time there, hadn’t changed much.
As with most Indian shows I was also stuck by how overweight or obese many of the people are. It is their carb-rich diet. In this show, somewhat atypically, you also saw a LOT of alcohol consumption.
I had expected to see more courtroom drama. There wasn’t that much. Just short & sweet snippets — but most of those were telling & clever.
I enjoyed it. But, I am sure it is not for all. Check out the trailer. If you like this kind of stuff this series will NOT disappoint. Netflix did good (again).
Definitely a QUIRKY comedy. You have to be into SUBTITLED Indian-movies & have a slightly offbeat (e.g., ‘British‘) sense of humor. I enjoyed it. Not a fall-about-laughing comedy. More nuanced.
Great study of 2022 Indian society & the ‘Bangkok’ boom-boom sex/tourist trade.
My MAIN TAKEAWAY from this movie: eat a LOT of raw onions!
The crazy thing is that I do eat a fair amount of onions which MIGHT explain why I am still the ENVY of a couple of my male cousins. I will have to tell them to start eating more raw onions.
My adoptive parents, as part of my adoptive father’s job at UNESCO, lived for many years at a time, in ‘New Delhi’, India & ‘Bangkok’, Thailand, between 1969 and 1979. Since I was in school & university till Sept. 1974, I would spend my summers with them — first in India & then in Thailand. But, that was a long time ago. Both countries have changed much — the last time I was in Bangkok, albeit just for half-a-day during a business trip to the Philippines was in 1995. So, the scenes from this entertaining movie were an eye opener.
Check the YouTube trailer (above). If it even vaguely piques your interest go for it. It is not a bad movie. I am sure many of you will get a kick from it. Enjoy.
Click to ENLARGE (if YOU dare). I am SORRY it is NOT a pretty sight, & luckily one that people never have to see.
Close to 30 years (if not more) I would dutifully visit a dentist at least twice a year to get my teeth cleaned & checked out. It was ALL cosmetic. During all that time I never had a filling or dental procedure — bar having to have a crown glued own when I broke a chip in a back tooth crunching on a hard candy. That was it.
Yes, I have teeth like a horse. And as one dentist, famously & telling said: “I will never make any money from your teeth“. They would take X-rays BUT find no cavities. So, other than the X-rays all I was having done was the teeth cleaning — which in my case involved a LOT of scraping (given the VAST quantities of red wine I consume). I hated having my teeth scraped.
So, about 3.5 years ago I decided I am NOT going to get my teeth cleaned.
I was going NATIVE. If I was back in Ceylon (now (bankrupt) Sri Lanka) I would not be getting my teeth cleaned. So, heck with it.
So, I went over 3 years without getting my teeth cleaned.
But, I will confess that I am somewhat obsessive about oral hygiene. I spend close to 20 minutes a day on my teeth & gums. So, my teeth do get looked after quite.
Well, on Tuesday I finally went back to my (dear (Indian sikh)) dentist BUT with the firm proviso: “no cleaning, just X-rays & a check-up“. And that is what happened. They took a FULL X-ray. No cavities. Nothing. Teeth are fine (as I expected). Yes, there is some plaque build-up, but that was to be expected. My gums were GOOD. I was delighted about that. He did the ‘gum pocket’ test & was impressed. So, was I. So, that is where we stand.
Yes, an hygienist could take out some of that build up around the gum line. But, that requires scraping. I hate scraping.
Per my dentist (who is very good), I am in good shape. Yes, I need to maintain my regimen — which I will, I will. So, we agreed that I will come & see him again in 3 years. SMILE. No cleanings. SMILE.
