Waheeda Rehman, WGA, Toblerone and More
(created by our design wiz Spenta Wadia)
Dear Reader,
Do you know how Abrar Alvi, writer and long-time collaborator of Guru Dutt, described his first meeting with Waheeda Rehman? “It was an anti climax,” he told Sathya Saran for their book, Ten Years With Guru Dutt. “She was very plainly dressed, without even lipstick to relieve the monotony of her face…”. Can you imagine looking at Waheeda Rehman’s face and thinking “monotonous”? Excuse me while I pick up my eyeballs as they have rolled out of their sockets.
One of my favourite Waheeda Rehman stories is about her name. Before the announcement of her debut film CID (1956), Rehman was given a list of screen names from which she was to choose one for herself. Rehman had been dreaming of acting in Hindi films since she was 10 years old. She’d known hardship, having lost her father at age 13, which forced her to start working to help support her family. In short, she was in no position to put her foot down, but that’s exactly what the 18-year-old Rehman did. She refused to change her name.
This was a tremendous act of defiance, that too from a debutante with no ‘connections’. At the time, while most lovers of Hindi cinema knew many of their beloved screen idols were Muslims, adopting Hindu screen names was the industry convention. But not for Waheeda Rehman. It turned out the industry had underestimated its audiences. Rehman won hearts of crowds and critics with her very first film. It wasn’t just that she lit up the screen with a gesture as simple as a furrowed brow. Rehman delivered powerful and nuanced performances of women who were complex and intelligent in films like Pyaasa (1957), Kala Bazar (1960), Abhijan (1962), Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), Guide (1965), Teesri Kasam (1966), Delhi-6 (2009)… (the list goes on).
Last week, 85-year-old Rehman, who is still the epitome of grace, was announced as the 53rd recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. These days, it’s hard to take awards and prizes seriously (look no further than this year’s National Awards — in particular the Nargis Dutt Award — to see what I mean), but this particular honour is properly happy-making because Waheeda Rehman really is a national treasure.
Strike’s Off
The Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) called off its historic strike after 148 days, having finally reached an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that’s valued at $233 million a year (which is about half of what WGA had demanded, but significantly more than what AMPTP had offered before the strike).
The new deal reportedly has a lot of wins for the writers. In addition to wage increases, writers got the guarantee that artificial intelligence (AI) will not write or rewrite literary material and AI-generated material will not be considered source material. Streaming platforms have also agreed to a success-based bonus for writers if 20% of subscribers watch an original show or movie within 90 days of release. They have also agreed to disclose worldwide figures for how many hours subscribers have spent watching these originals.
Next, AMPTP will sit down with the Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG) and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). Industry watchers in America predict these negotiations will unfurl smoothly and by the end of November, everyone should be back at work. Just in time to peddle Christmas releases to all of us.
(That, by the way, is me, Deepanjana, your newsletter writer for this week. Yes, I have my own GIF. This isn’t the only one. Look up “downward spiral” wherever you get your GIFs. You’re welcome.)
News You Can’t Use
(But we’re sharing anyway because sharing is caring)
Jude Anthany Joseph’s disaster movie 2018: Everyone Is A Hero (2023) has been selected as India’s entry to the Oscars, for the best foreign film. Starring Tovino Thomas, the film is set during the Kerala floods, in which more than 400 lives were lost.
Shefali Shah, Jim Sarbh and Vir Das received nominations for the International Emmys, for Delhi Crime 2, Rocket Boys 2 and Landing respectively. Producer Ektaa Kapoor will receive the Directorate Award at the 51st International Emmy Awards, which will be held in November.
Irish actor Michael Gambon, best known for playing Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies, passed away last week as did cinematographer Soumendu Roy. Roy had shot a number of Satyajit Ray’s films, including Teen Kanya, Ghare Baire and Shatranj Ke Khiladi.
A new teaser for Animal is out, which is how we know Ranbir Kapoor and Bobby Deol could be twins, provided they grew out a beard that’s as shaggy as a small, wild animal. (If you’re missing Kapoor’s softboi era, you’re not alone. Take a look at this love letter to his towel dance from Saawariya). Speaking of teasers, Chiyaan Vikram’s Karna also dropped its first look this week and in a cute little video, Shah Rukh Khan and director Raju Hirani announced Dunki will release on December 22 this year. Also releasing on that day is Salaar, starring Prabhas.
GIF(t) of the Week
(Because a good GIF is the greatest gift we can give you)
If you’d like some context, it turns out that a woman lifting a bed has been a sure way to strike terror in the hearts of south Indian audiences. Read more here.
For my money, bed-lifting way less creepy than a woman giving birth to a watermelon, which then proceeds to sprout a tiny arm (followed by other body parts, eventually transforming into a regular human baby). That’s from the hit Hindi teleserial Harphoul Mohini, described as an “action romance neo noir family entertainer adventure horror supernatural thriller” on its Wikipedia page. Ridonkulous as a lot of the plot twists may be, there’s really interesting stuff going on in the subtext of these serials, which are much more than a meme of their parts. Read more here.
Unrelated to any of this, director, writer and composer Vishal Bhardwaj spoke to us about adapting stories for the screen. No one does it better than him in Hindi cinema.
This Week At the Movies
Missed the film reviews? Fear not, we've got them all lined up, just for your reading pleasure.
On streaming platforms, these were the new releases:
Charlie Chopra and the Mystery of Solang Valley
The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar
Kumari Shrimathi, starring Nithya Menen, also dropped on Prime Video this week. The review for this will be out soon on our website.
Central Bureau of Speculation
Is Tobert the Real Killer in Only Murders in the Building?
In the penultimate episode of Only Murders in the Building, our beloved trio Olimabel, are all but certain that Donna, the glamorous producer of ‘Death Rattle Dazzle’, had both the motive and means to off the lead star on opening night. (Let’s just hope producers don’t take cues from Donna. Life’s hard enough for theatre practitioners.)
Now, we can all agree that Donna as the killer matches the plot as neatly as her designer outfits, but here’s my attempt at crystal-ball-gazing. I think Donna’s yet another red herring. The real guilty party? Tobert (or as Charles-Haden Savage calls him, Toblerone).
Let me break it down. Tobert, played by the delicious Jesse Williams, got the boot right before showtime, stormed off in a huff, and then heard about Ben's very public death. His next move? Back to the building to grab his precious footage. What's better than a behind-the-scenes documentary about a wacky Broadway show? A true-crime documentary about the murder of a celebrity, of course! How’s that for motive? I’m saying Tobert decided to ditch the after-party while Ben, in a moment of hiss-teria, headed back to his apartment after calling Loretta a "snake." Tobert and Ben got tangled up in a heated showdown, and Tobert accidentally made Ben exit stage left — permanently.
So yes, for my money, Tobert’s the real killer. He was killing me with those beautiful eyes anyway. ~ Kaira H
Unpopular Opinion
Priyanka Chopra Jonas in Love Again > Kareena Kapoor Khan in Jaane Jaan
Before you come at me, I’m not saying Love Again is necessarily a better film than Jaane Jaan (though one *could* argue it is exactly that since Love Again sets out to be a romance and achieves that goal. Jaane Jaan wants to be a thriller, but manages only to be boring. So…).
What I found interesting was the contrast between the two roles that these two actors chose for themselves. Both are in their early 40s and are looking to redefine how women of this age bracket are portrayed on screen. (This is a good thing, but it’s also a challenge because the good precedents are few.)
(Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Mira, Kareena Kapoor Khan as Maya D’Souza)
Making her small-screen debut, Kapoor Khan chose to play a single mother, appearing with only minimal makeup so as to look almost normal (we all wish we could look that good with just some kajal and lip gloss). I suspect this is to highlight she’s an Actor (capital A very deliberately used) and not just a star. Yet Jaane Jaan isn’t about the character Kapoor Khan plays. It’s about her neighbour, played by Jaideep Ahlawat.
What should have come across as a strong, single mother quickly transforms into a damsel matron in distress, and Ahlawat’s Teacher gets to be the knight in shining armour. In one scene, Teacher picks up a man and she gasps, gazing at him in adoring awe, apparently blown away by this display masculine strength. (That sound you hear is me trying to muffle my groans. Or laughter. Or both. Is graughter a word? It should be.) Halfway into the film, Maya D’Souza becomes incidental to the plot, her daughter pretty much disappears, and Maya returns only to give the men a chance to show off their smarts. What a waste of Kareena Kapoor Khan.
In contrast, Chopra Jonas is lipsticked, glowing, and constantly in the spotlight in Love Again. The film comes on the heels of the disastrous Citadel, a confused mess of an action drama that had Chopra playing a spy, and (sensibly) is faithful to the romance genre. Love Again probably doesn’t look as prestigious as Jaane Jaan on paper — crime has an aura of intelligence that romance can rarely lay claim to — but as a vehicle, flimsy as Love Again may be, it serves Chopra Jonas much better. She plays Mira, a grieving woman who suddenly finds herself attracted to a stranger (Sam Heughan, best known for playing Jamie and raising the bar for nude scenes in Outlander). She gets to do some comedy with her real-life husband Nick Jonas; shines in the back-and-forth with scene-stealer Sofia Barclay, who plays Mira’s younger sister; and has an emotional scene or two that remind us how Chopra Jonas’s eyes can convey more emotion than most dialogue writers can pack into a monologue. The spotlight never leaves Chopra Jonas’s Mira and next to her, Heughan is just arm candy. Her arm candy. Plus, Mira’s an older woman who looks gorgeous, doesn’t feel the need to deglamourise herself to be taken seriously, and doesn’t need saving. What’s not to love?
Unfortunately, Chopra Jonas will probably not get as much love for playing Mira as Kapoor Khan does for attempting Maya, all because of the prevailing (irrational) conviction that romances are less worthy of respect.
That’s all from me for this week. We’ll be back, same time, same place with next week’s newsletter and don’t forget to tell your friends to subscribe — this isn’t Fight Club and rules about secrecy don’t apply, so feel free to tell everyone you know.