Filmi Geek

In Memoriam

Shammi Kapoor, 1931-2011

By now you all know the sad news that Shammi Kapoor passed away last weekend.

As (still) a relative newcomer to Hindi movies and an American, I don't have a lot to add to the many eloquent tributes that have been written and published over the last week.  I will only say this:  the essence of Shammi Kapoor's star persona was joy, love, and vivacity.  His movies brimmed over with energy.  And so, my own remembrance of Shammi Kapoor is a celebration, not a mourning. 

I've been celebrating by listening to and watching some of my favorite Shammi Kapoor songs, including "Meri jaan balle balle" from Kashmir ki kali, "Main gaoon tum so jaao" from Brahmachari, and "Aaja aaja, main hoon pyar tera" from Teesri Manzil. 

I'm celebrating with his movies as well.  I began re-watching An Evening in Paris last night (I wanted to rewatch Teesri Manzil but it turns out that even my rather absurd DVD collection doesn't include it).  I have plans to watch Prince in the near future and maybe catch up on some other of Shammi's movies as well.

I haven't seen much of Shammi Kapoor so far, but here are my reviews of a few of his starring roles:

• Brahmachari (1968)
• An Evening in Paris (1967)
• Junglee (1961)
• Kashmir ki kali (1964)
• Teesri manzil (1966)

Godspeed, Shammi ji, and thank you for all the smiles. 

Metapost - Filmi Geek on Masala Zindabad podcast

A while I had the pleasure of recording a long chat with my friends Beth and Amrita for their superb Masala Zindabad podcast.  The first part of the episode is out now, and you can find out all about it here - scroll down to the bottom of that post for download and subscription links. Our subject was "Straddlers" - those remarkable actors who have seemed to make their careers with one foot in parallel cinema and the other planted squarely in the mainstream. 

By the way, you might have noticed that my activity on this blog seems to come and go in six-month cycles - that is because my job has a six-month cycle, and I tend to have more leisure time in the first half of that cycle than in the second half.  I love watching and writing about Hindi films, though, so I will keep working on being consistent.  Thanks for sticking with me through the bursts and the lulls - please let me know what you think, and please tell your friends!

Update:  Part 2 of the podcast is posted!  Once again please scroll down to the bottom of that post for the download and subscription links.

Metapost: In memory of Ravi Baswani

In memory of Ravi Baswani, who passed away earlier this week, I'd like to highlight reviews I wrote a few years ago of two films he starred in:

• Jaane bhi do yaaro
• Chashme buddoor 

Both are wonderful films.  Though my comments on them don't say much in particular about Ravi Baswani, his performances in both films are natural, appealing, and endearingly comical. 

According to IMDB, I have also seen Ravi Baswani in a small role in Bunty aur Babli.  I did not know who he was when I saw that film, so it didn't register.  I will look for him the next time I watch it. 

It's safe to say ...

With five new reviews in the last month, I think it's safe to say that I'm back in the swing of things. 

I can't really offer any excuse for my hiatus; there are just too many enthusiasms competing for my attention, and Hindi films got neglected for the better part of a year. 

I missed them, though, and it's been a priority of mine to figure out a better balance among all the stuff I'd like to spend my time doing.  And so lately I've been watching again, and writing again.  I intend to keep at it. 

Those of you who are still with me, thanks very much for sticking out the long break.  I know I have lost some readers with my inactivity, and I'd love to win them back, because one of my favorite things about running this site is engaging in dialogue with other lovers of Hindi movies.  And so I'd like to ask your help.  Please consider telling your friends and the readers of your own blogs that Filmi Geek is back and writing again.  

In the meantime, stay tuned, because I have a few more reviews in the pipeline.  Up next is Vijay Anand's romantic thriller Blackmail, which I'll try to get written up this weekend.  After that - who knows!  But thanks for sticking around to find out. 

Filmi Geek metapost - Geek of a new trade

I am so sorry for the extended posting hiatus here and at my other two blogs, Geek of all Trades and Sounds Like Power.  The past half-year or so has been trying for me, with lots of soul-searching and thinking and introspection.  I had to let something go, to have the energy for all that, and it was the blogs that suffered.  For you, Filmi Geek readers, that meant I wasn't watching as many Hindi movies, and I wasn't writing about the ones that I did watch. 

The good news is that I have decided to say goodbye to my career as a patent attorney, and in a little over a month I will be starting a new career and a new job as a technical writer. 

I don't know exactly what the future holds, but I miss Hindi films and I miss blogging and I will definitely be back.  So please stay tuned for postings soon, as I turn the page on my professional life and, with any luck, get back some of the energy I used to spend here thinking and writing and communicating with all you folks out there. 

Thanks for reading, and I'm looking forward to getting back in touch with all of you. 

Filmi Geek metapost

Hi folks,

There is some kind of technical problem with the Dor post that is not permitting comments to go through even though comments are supposed to be open on that post.  I have submitted a support ticket to TypePad and will hopefully get it resolved quickly. In the meantime if you feel the urge to comment on Dor you should be able to do so in this post; I think I can move the comments to the Dor post later. UPDATE:  The problem appears to be resolved and I have moved the comments from here to the Dor post.  Please let me know if you still have trouble.

I've not been a conscientious blogger for the past month or so but now that the Dor review is up and I have a few more in the pipeline I hope to be back up to speed soon.  I miss watching Hindi movies and reviewing them, and I miss hearing from you about them as well.  Thanks for reading Filmi Geek!

ETA:  There are worse technical problems than that; apparently all the work I did getting Dor ready for publication last night has been lost, and the review that is published has reverted to a half-finished version of the post.  I have pulled it and am mightily annoyed that I've lost my work.  I'll try to reconstruct it as soon as I can. ETAA:  Fixed!  I knew there was a good reason I subscribed to my own RSS feed.  :p

Filmi Geek metapost

I have had to close the comments on the review of Fire.

The person who drove the flame war may not believe me, but my problem with his/her posts is not the underlying substance of the views they express; rather it's how s/he chose to express them, with name-calling, vitriol, and disrespect. That person fancies India to be a largely monolithic country where the vast, vast majority not only agrees with him/her, but would support forcibly expelling everyone who doesn't - starting with Shabana Azmi.

I know I am an outsider and that it's presumptuous of me to take up the banner of someone who takes controversial positions that I only begin to understand. I am not prepared to provide a forum for political debate with any of my blogs, but I have to recognize that Shabana Azmi is a political person and one cannot talk about her without talking about politics. That is why I do not censor political discussions, why I don't delete comments and why I allowed the debate on the Fire post to go on as long as it did.

Having said that, I have to demand a certain level of civility and respect for differing viewpoints. The person who ignited the comment war did not evince that (though the regular commenter who engaged him/her largely did, and for that I am thankful), and so I had to shut the discussion down.

The point of this post is not so much to call attention to that debate (though it will certainly have that effect), but to urge all of you to feel free to express whatever opinions you have, as long as you do so in a way that is respectful of everyone involved. I don't want either Filmi Geek or SLP to be a wasteland of vapid praise or boring sycophantism - I encourage substantive disagreement - but I can't let them be breeding grounds for angry invective.

Can we get back to talking about movies now?

There are reviews of two great movies coming soon - I am working on review of Shyam Benegal's Mandi and Nagesh Kukunoor's Dor will follow not far behind.  In the meantime please have a look at some wonderful new(-ish) blogs that I'll be adding to my blogroll at the right:  So they dance! by my friend Sanni, who loves old films as well as new and has a wonderful style;  Picturesque, featuring Sunny's detailed and thoughtful reviews; and Bitten by Bollywood, by Nida, who is new to Hindi films and offers the fresh perspective of the thinking neophyte. 

Filmi Geek metapost

Oops!

Those of you who read Filmi Geek via RSS might have noticed the accidental, premature publication of my post on Aaja nachle, which I saw a couple of nights ago. 

I'll get the real thing up in the next day or two.  I also owe you a long overdue writeup of a 1970s film that I saw over a month ago now. 

My rate of film-watching has slowed down a bit due to a variety of factors, but I haven't forgotten Hindi films or Filmi Geek, and I'm sure that as the year draws to a close and I take some lazy vacation days during Christmas week I'll make up for this temporary slowdown. 

Until then, thanks for reading!  See you soon. 

Metapost: Filmi Geek ko janam din mubarak!

I apologize for two metaposts in a row - you don't deserve that.  But real life has been busy lately and I haven't had a chance to watch any movies.  Still, I had to subject you to another metapost because I'm delighted to celebrate Filmi Geek's first birthday and I didn't want to do it alone!

I founded Filmi Geek a year ago to keep what was then my only blog, Geek of All Trades, from becoming too unbalanced with posts about Hindi films.  At that time I had been watching Indian movies for about 16 months and had seen a little over 50 of them.  I had on GOAT a short blurb about each film I'd seen, plus a handful of longer reviews.  I created Filmi Geek and started migrating the reviews over and expanding the shorter ones.  Filmi Geek opened its doors on October 6, 2006, with fewer than twenty movies, and over the following couple of months I got all caught up on the films I'd already seen and begun posting more reviews as fast as I could watch movies. 

I didn't know what Filmi Geek would be; I didn't know if I would enjoy doing that much writing about movies, and I didn't know if anyone would care what I had to say.  What's happened in the past year has been more fun and rewarding and interesting than I could ever have imagined.  I've made new friends all over the world.  I  got a little side job writing about movies.  I lost my head and launched Sounds Like Power, And I've learned a tremendous amount about Indian movies. 

Today, one year after its launch, Filmi Geek includes reviews of 129 movies (and one play).  It averages more than 550 page views a day, by nearly 300 visitors a day, from all over the world.  In fact, in just a few days, Filmi Geek will receive its 100,000th page view.  Ek lakh page views - not bad for a year's work.  Filmi Geek's success  has been beyond my wildest dreams.  I have to bow down and thank you for this, the people who come and read Filmi Geek.  And, special heartfelt thanks to those of you who leave comments.  Your thoughts, insights, recommendations, and commendations are deeply appreciated.  Interacting with all of you is far and away the best thing about writing Filmi Geek.

So stay tuned for another year of Filmi Geek.  I've still only just scratched the surface of Hindi movies; there's so much more to see.  Thanks so much for coming along for the ride with me. 

Filmi Geek metapost

I had a computer meltdown this evening - this was a brand new computer so I wasn't expecting it - and I've lost a bunch of stuff that I might not be able to recover. 

If you've ever sent me email, for any reason, and you'd like me to have your email address, can you please drop me a note?  You can send it to filmigeek at comcast dot net.