BW: हिन्दी (Hindi)

I've decided to teach myself Hindi, at least until I can take Hindi 101 Fall of my senior year. I've been reading up on it a little online and it already makes more sense, like I guessed that "hai" which they say at the end of a lot of sentences, was something akin to a present or past tense verb like sein in German, or -ed in English, and I was right! "Hai" is "is". I'm so cool! And I always got confused about ladki (girl) being pronounced lar(w/ a roll)ki, but turns out there's a "d" in Hindi that's most like an "r" w/ a little "d" at the end.

I was watching a conversation w/ SRK and Anushka Sharma (my age, grrrr) on the Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi extras and she kept switching from Hindi to English while he spoke in Hindi. At one point he chided her and told her to speak in Hindi. She tried so hard, but slipped back into English and he'd remind her again, and eventually he was correcting her Hindi and helping her w/ her sentence structures. She'd get a lot of Hindi out and slip in English words, and he'd tell her the Hindi words. It was funny. Eventually she got so flustered she stayed in English and he spoke in Hindi. By the end they were both speaking English. Pretty handy for me. They mentioned DDLJ a lot, but I still can't for the life of me pronounce the full title. It's not easy like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Something (Kuch) is (Hai) Happening (Hota)) or Main (I'm) Hoon Na (Here Now).

Anydoctorwho (which club I should pay more attention to since I'm now the president), that's all. A lot of Bollywood babble my family doesn't appreciate. Oh! Also, Urdu is Pakistani Hindi, so Ali could toats help me out. I'll put a "BW" in front of entries I guess that are more that 70% Bollywood so you don't have to bother if you don't care, you uncultered swine.

Some stuff about my actual, not Bollywood life

I got my new Bollywood DVDs today in the mail! Jodhaa Akbar and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Jodhaa Akbar's Hrithik Roshan's newest and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is SRK's newest. JA won all the 2009 Filmfare awards. I promised Martha to watch RNBDJ w/ her, but she's in CA until Monday night. I promised my Bollywood Posse to watch JA w/ them, and it's looking like w/ the wedding coming up the fam probs won't let me induldge in Bollywood this week, unless they really are as cool as I think they are and want to come along to Bollywood night!!
The BP (Bollywood Posse) watched Main Hoon Na this week. Oh SRK, how do you do everything? I'm EXTREMELY tempted to intern or something in Mumbai and just be a gopher on a Bollywood set. It'd be intense b/c of the language and height barriers, but everyone mostly speaks English anyway, and I guess my neck does bend down :) I could totally rock Bollywood. I've done so many random things for jobs that I'm sure I would be just fine.
I spent the whole day (10.30-2; 3.30-8) sewing the three skirts I'm making for the wedding. I just had to sew the facing on Caitlin's today, the center back seam, the zipper and I've pinned the hem. I sewed the back seam on mine, set the zipper and put it on a form for the weekend to set the bias. I had to do everything w/ Ashley's. I cut the pattern awhile ago and had to alter it for her, but it was wrong to begin w/. For some reason I made each half the total circumfrence. I eventually figured out that it was way too big. I have Ash's all done except for the hand work. I'm a little shot.
Whit comes in tomorrow night! We're going to have a sleepover at whichever of Dave's friends Whit's staying w/ before she goes down to Payson.
I'm doing really well in my sewing class. I just dropped $40 on a pattern and wool (mostly the wool b/c the Vogues were $4!) for my lined jacket. Of course I'm making a vintage pattern w/ plaid trim! Work's good. I'm a little sad b/c since I work on the collection I'm in the classroom and don't get to talk w/ Martha. And now we're done on campus and will be working off site. Poop. This week at least the collection bosses are at a costume convention or something.
I checked w/ the Elms' office. I'm just moving across the way for Fall so I'll be in the same ward and will basically still be living w/ the awesome babes I live w/ now, only Genevieve will be w/ me too!
I'm listening to an awesome techno remix of The Black Pearl Cake's told me about. It's pretty Bollywood :P

Shelby out.

BW: Veer-Zaara

Shout out to Anjali, who now reads my blog for the Bollywood entries, so there!!

Ok, Veer-Zaara, so good! Veer Pratap Singh, played by Shahrukh Khan, is an Indian Airforce squadron leader and rescue pilot. Zaara Hayaat Khan (Preity Zinta) is a very privilaged Pakistani girl that goes to India to scatter her Bebe's (nanny?) ashes b/c Bebe was Indian and left in '47 to take care of Zaara's family. Of course her bus has an accident and Veer has to save her and they fall in love. The story is being told by Veer to his lawyer (Rani Mukherjee) 22 years later as he rots away in a Pakistani prison. Why he's in prison and all that is what you have to watch it to find out. Needless to say you kind of figure out that Veer and Zaara are seperated at some point.

I REALLY liked this one for the Pakistani/Indian relationship and the contrasts, but similarities between the two cultures that are composed of essentially the same people. Of course Shah Rukh Kahn is a Muslim Indian who always plays Hindu Indians which made the Muslim scenes v. cool to think about. Preity Zinta plays a Muslim Pakistani, but is I'd guess in reality a Hindu Indian. As far as I know Indians played all the roles. There is an AMAZING monologue by Veer at the end about how his country and Pakistan are so similar and how Pakistanis and Indians look the same. This is what I told my high school pals all the time!! But the politics were great! Another treat was Amitabh Bachchan playing Veer's bauji.

I really liked trying to pick out the differences between the Pakistanis and the Indians. For one the Pakistani women had very dark, severe eye make-up and I think they were even darker. Of course Preity and Rani are Bollywood heroines because they're fair, but I do think they had them be a little darker in this one, esp in Pakistan. There weren't really saris in Pakistan, but the costuming was similar. The wedding had similar jewelry and costumes, but was not so extravagant. Mad props to Karan Johar, who's usually a screenwriter and director, for costuming SRK (Manish Malhotra did the other costumes, he does a lot of films I watch). I was a little worred when he was in a horrible powder blue suit at the beginning, but SRK was actually really appropriately casual and studly throughout, and he had this wicked outfit w/ jeans and a denim jacket that actually worked! Mad props Karan, mad props.

I wasn't a fan of Lata Mangeshkar doing Zaara's playback. I'm not a fan of the voice, I think she sounds like she always has a frog, but I also only ever think of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham when I hear her voice. I just think she's better for older women. I was a fan of SRK's singers, I think Udit Narayan works best for him (and Abhijeet too, but he doesn't sing in V-Z).

Anyway, I was very pleased to find out that of course SRK was nominated for the Filmfare for best actor in 2004. He didn't win for Veer-Zaara, which I was peeved about b/c I'm totally biased and think he should win if he's nominated, but all was put at right when I discovered that at least V-Z won best film. And what do you know!! SRK was also nominated for Main Hoon Na and Swades: We, the People (for which he won). Good thing I unwittingly check out those two this week as well! I can't even think of a Western actor that produces three movies a year, let alone gets nominated for three!

So yeah, I probably forgot to mention some stuff, but v. good movie. I liked the past/present acting, it had a Hindu holiday w/ mad dancing, and no Western-ish songs, I liked that. I really like Yash/Raj films. Main Hoon Na at Bollywood night, love Farah Khan!

Shelby out.