— पांच हजार सात सौ अट्ठानवे —
Laney leaves for a weeklong trip to Oregon with her daughter, Jessica, tomorrow—most of it in Central Oregon. This means that, after the movie she and I went to see last night, I won't see her again until the Monday after
next weekend, April 21. After that weekend, I'll have gone to the Tulip Festival; stayed overnight with Mimi and Steve in La Conner; gone to my cousin Tammy's wedding with Erin; and gone to Olympia for Easter. That'll all be with Shobhit. He'll be happy to get some extea Social Review points in.
I'm still seeing some movies in Laney's absence. I'm seeing
The Amateur with Alexia after work today, and taking myself to see
Drop on Monday. I may or may not take myself to another movie on Thursday. As for the rest of this weekend, I may or may not take myself to a movie at SIFF Cinema tomorrow. And then I'm set to see Alexia again on Sunday, for our next Batman Double Feature—these being in my opinion the worst two ever made (of the ones I've seen, anyway; I've never seen any of the DCU movies with Ben Affleck): 1995's
Batman Forever and, long regarded as one of the worst movies ever made, 1997's
Batman & Robin. Alexia has told me she used to really love the old 1960s TV show, so I think she might actually enjoy these ones in particular.
Anyway! The movie I saw last night with Laney:
A Nice Indian Boy, which I really loved, in spite of its minor flaws. You can read my review at that link for the details of why I loved it so much, although I'll spoil this part: the movie features a same-sex wedding between a white guy and an Indian guy, with specific Hindu rituals that were also featured in Shobhit's and my wedding in 2013. The movie just really spoke to me.
It had been the closing day film at the Tasveer South Asian Film Festival last fall. Shobhit and I both hoped to make it one of the films we could go see, but I had other plans that day, and I think the showtime was too soon after Shobhit's work shift that day. Neither of us got to see it then. I only discovered earlier this week that it was opening wide this weekend, and was very excited.
The trailer to the movie made it look fun and sweet but not necessarily a standout. It turned out to be quite special, significantly exceeding my expectations. I giggled a lot, and I also cried a lot. I was deeply moved by it.
— पांच हजार सात सौ अट्ठानवे —
— पांच हजार सात सौ अट्ठानवे —
Something else I mention in my review is that
A Nice Indian Boy features the 1995 Bollywood movie
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge ("DDLJ" for short), and the soundtrack for which I have had on my iPod, or later my iPhone, since probably 2006. The signature song is played several times in
A Nice Indian Boy, and I am very familiar with it, even though it's sung in Hindi and I don't know the translations. That particular song has been on two different playlists I have of favorite Hindi songs. I'm listening to the playlist of songs from the nineties and 2000s right now, as I write this. Beyond the fabulous 2007 movie
Jab We Met, which is by far my favorite Bollywood soundtrack, I haven't really been paying attention to Bollywood releases at all.
I started the playlist last night in the bedroom, when I was writing the review. I wrote a fair amount about why the movie touched me personally in that review—something I have kind of leaned more into in recent years. In the early years, I was more preoccupied with being "professional" and "objective" with my reviews, pointedly avoiding personal details. I've now been writing movie reviews as a hobby for 20 years, and it has long since stopped having any hope of becoming something I can make money at. I do it because it fulfills me, and now I can write my reviews however I want to. It seems more relevant anyway, to be specific about how and why a movie touches me in a particular way.
Once I was done with the review, I went back out to the living room, and Shobhit and I watched the season finale of
The Pitt, and then the first two episodes of season four of
Hacks, which was as great as ever. This did have me up a biy later than usual, though, which Shobhit actually clocked when I started preparing to wash the dishes from dinner. "Do you have an appointment tomorrow?" he asked, wondering why I was not going to bed. I said, "I'd much rather go to bed." So he said, "Go to bed. I sacrifice!" He loves to say that last bit, in a mock tone of weariness.
— पांच हजार सात सौ अट्ठानवे —
[posted 12:29pm]
