Thursday, November 29, 2007

Introduction, name explanation etc.


Helen & Cuckoo dancing in Chalti ka naam gaadi.

I'd been considering getting a blog that focused on Indian cinema ramblings and reviews for quite a while, having browsed blogs as in the sidebar's link collection right over there. I loved reading these places and one of my navel-gazing desires was to have a place like them of my own. The reasons were many; first of all, I realized about 80% of my Livejournal friends did not care nor know much about Bollywood, Kollywood and similar. So my related ramblings and squee were lost on them. There were also things I couldn't post on my favourite Bollywood forum, BollyWHAT? and so I felt like one all-purpose Indian cinema blog was in order. After mulling over where to put it, what to call it, what to include in it, I finally kicked myself in the butt and got ".. so they dance!" up.

Why "so they dance"?
Because the name is always the hardest part. I didn't want to call it "this or that Bollywood" because I'm a huge fan of certain Tamil movies and film stars so limiting the blog's title with the label Bollywood felt wrong. The word "filmi" would've been fine, but it'd been used in so many places I wanted something more original.

Then I considered having a word or two of some Indian language in the title but soon realized that it felt pretentiously, given the fact I didn't speak or know much about any Indian language (if you exclude the filmi-learned Hindi and the random times I've browsed that Teach Yourself Hindi book). Also, what word to use? So I thought and thought and thought some more and finally decided to just give up on the whole Indian language idea.

In the end, it's been one day since I created "so they dance" and I already regret naming the blog this. It came from this Vandals song, "And Now We Dance", but I remember it wrong and"sowedance" was already taken and looked stupid in the urlbar so I thought, "Well, technically it's not me who's dancing so it should be, 'they dance'."

The reasons I hate this name - yes, already! - are...

a) that the most logical way to shorten it is STD. I mean, seriously STD! Me and my blog, STD. I mean, I suppose I could pretend that this is some kind of ingenious metaphor for how Indian cinema is sort of like a disease, but at least you get it while making love. But honestly? That's just tacky because even if you love the person you get an STD from, you sure as hell don't love the fact you get an STD. In practise I've come to just use the title, so they dance, or typed together, sotheydance.

b) that it seems to suggest this awful, awful generalization about Indian cinema that no matter what the situation in the movie, the characters' emotional state is, they will dance. You know? "They're happy ...so they dance!" - "Everything's going wrong ..so they dance!" - "It rains ..so they dance!"

This is first of all completely untrue and it's even sort of offending me because I'm one of those people who absolutely hate stupid generalizations like that about something I adore. So the fact my very own blog's title implies this sort of generalization, well, it pains me.

But you know what? As I'm updating this post in early 2010, I realize I've come to actually like the name. It flows nicely.

What now?
Now I start posting reviews and thoughts on movies I've already seen. The backlog is quite enormous.

On the other hand, one good thing about having this backlog is that I don't feel forced to write one entry on each movie. Instead I'll do something like this - group the movies I've seen as I see fit and discuss them, compare them and just generally review them like that. It's going to hopefully less time-consuming and most importantly, more fun for me.

I try to keep this blog sort of free form because while I admire people like Carla of Filmi Geek who can review each movie in a similar format, I don't think I'm one of those who can. Also I want to just be able to babble about the most random peculiar things I like about Indian cinema (there are many).

Why "Indian cinema" and not just "Bollywood"?
Even though I absolutely claim no expertise over the vast majority of India's regional cinema (after all, very few can!), I enjoy Tamil movies and an occasional Telugu movie so limiting this blog to only Hindi film reviews just feels dull.

Words I use and you should probably learn before you read aka Glossary
Some of these are my own creations, some are more general and can't be credited to me in any way.

buddypyaari - pyaari from the Hindi pyaar, meaning - of course! - love. Refers to the excellent portrayal of male friendship in Hindi movies (Southie films may also contain it), both old and new. Sometimes with homoromantic undertones, sometimes not. Some would call this a sad example of the film industry's male-centricness but I call it awesome and fully encourage any Indian film makers reading to make a movie portraying female buddypyaari. Girl power!

manpain - When the male hero of the film angsts oh-so-beautifully in a state of extreme emotional distress. Currently I'm of the opinion that Vinod Khanna rules this genre but I can accept other manpain masters, should I run into such.

kickass - Also known as dishoom-dishoom. I think film violence is entertaining at best and when it's not entertaining, well, usually I find it entertaining despite. The reason I like to call it kickass is because that's what it is.

Sakshay - Refers to the amazing on-screen combination of Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar. Sakshay is the most homohilarious (that word means exactly what you think it means) m/m couple in Hindi cinema history. Their movies are bad and dumb but undoubtedly awesome. Aside from the whole vague gay thing, Saif and Akki both have killer comedy timing and when you put the two together, all sorts of hillarity ensues, even with blindingly bad scripts. See the film "Main khiladi tu anari" for proof.

Words you will not see me use

timepass - This is a word I really try not to use at all, because I don't know what it means. No, I'm completely serious. People seem to use the word in completely contradictive ways, and pack the word with their own, varying definitions. Some will tell me, "It's a good timepass, watch it!" and others will say, "It's a timepass, nothing special." No, no, no! Give me a clear point of reference, "It's a movie worth watching if you like these stars" or "I wouldn't recommend it to anybody, to be honest" or "It was painfully boring" or "It had its moments" just ..something clear. I mean, any movie is timepass because when you watch it, time passes. There's just so much confusion about the usage.

Cast of Characters
aka people I might reference but I can't link to

Mog
- Friend who I regularly rewatch films with. She's seen around 25 films so far, and owns one Hindi film on DVD because she liked it so much (Rang De Basanti). Notoriously strange taste in men.
Babz
- Friend, Mog's sister. Also seen around 25 films, requests we watch more older films.
Steve
- Friend, seen probably around 40 films so far, all sorts. She shares my taste with most movies, though I think I am generally more forgiving of flaws than she is.
Stimpy
- Friend I got to know online and later personally. I used to borrow movies off her when we lived in the same city. She has a huge DVD collection with just about everything from bad Anil Kapoor films to the best Mammootty films. She got me into Vikram, Siddharth, Southie cinema in general.



I think that's it! Enjoy reading, comment and so on.

17 comments:

babasko said...

hi sanni :) so you finally part of the big happy blogspot BW family. yaahoooo!

btw. as the ultimate sakshay authority in the known universe. i demand a post on tarshan.

Filmi Geek said...

Sanni! Glad to see you embarking on this project. *adds to RSS reader* Have fun!

veracious said...

I've been found out!

I wasn't going to link this around before I got some posts up here but you guys found me way too quickly!

I feel most un-stealthy now. Regardless, thanks for the welcomes! :)

Filmi Geek said...

Total accident - about once every two weeks or so I check into technorati to see if I've been linked by anyone new. I happened to check within a day or two of when you went up.

I won't add a link to you on my blog until you are ready. :)

Smitha said...

Heee, but timepass is such a versatile word! ;)

Sarah said...

nice, I am totally adding this to my links toolbar with my other fave blogs, so you better update a bunch. ;)

I had to note, "buddypyaari" would sound pretty much exactly like badi pyaari when said out loud, as in "voh badi pyaari hai." just amusing. :)

Beth Loves Bollywood said...

Yay! She's here! You have been linked and RSSed.

Anonymous said...

So They Dance is a nice name.

If u r worried about the acronym STD then u can perhaps rename the title of your blog as "So they dance and sing"!

Good blog

Anonymous said...

Hi Sanni,

Hey,
I really ennjoyed reading your blog, & I'll be back! We have a very wide-apart perspective on Indian films, its seems, but who cares, it just goes on to show that there is MUCH to see and speak about, and that's just GREAT. Er, I was rather surprised at your self-description: is it in earnest? Wow.
I also loved that first post of yours, with its scruples and blast-it-alls!
cheers
yves

the world i live said...

hey girl . its increible. how could some one so far can love so much which is even too hard to understand. well. that must be some kind of deep love which i might not understand.

watch all the movies you wanna watch . hey have you heard of the new movie dostana(friendship) where two friends(john and abhisekh)are living together. abhi loves a girl(priyanka) but that girl loves john. when john finds out this he tells priyanka that he is a gay as he dont want his friend to be heart broken.in the mean time a real gay comes (boby deol) and he falls in love with john.

sounds funny.well its modern take on friendship.

hey another animation movie is alos comin(roadside rome)made by yashraj and walt disney .the lead characters are voiced by saif ali khan and kareena kapoor

and there is another musical (yuvraaj) starring salman khan, anil kapoor, katrina kaif,jayed khan.the music is given by a r rahman . hope you will see all these movies. and like them too.

hey have you heard of the movie heaven on earth by deep mehta. it stars preity zinta.and a canadian production. and there is a hollywood movie(slumdog millionaire which is a story of a young indian who got selected to agame show hosted by anil kapoor and while answerring the questiosn he encountered hiw past. its a movie by dnny boyle of 28 days later fame.

Jahan Bakshi said...

Hey nice coming across your blog... do visit mine too...!

Bollybeat Crew said...

hey SO THEY DANCE! We are really interested in being on your blogroll, and were wondering if you would put us on it. We will defiantly put you on ours because we love your blog and think its really fun. Its www.bollybeat.blogspot.com
Thanks!

bollywooddeewana said...

Just read your Intro, and i like it, i've just started mine as well, more reviews will be up shortly.

Come visit sometime
http://bollywooddeewana.blogspot.com/

filmigeek said...

Hi
I've just started my own Bollywood related blog- we make entertaining little spoofs of bollywood films. Please check it out, and add us to your blog roll!

bollywoodabridged.blogspot.com

Sarah said...

Hey!

Going through a list of links on another B-wood blog, I saw your blog title and loved it. :) Honestly, the dancing is why I started watching Indian films (although by no means the only reason why I can't stop watching them).

I don't blame you for being fangirly, my sister and I just started a Bollywood blog (http://pardesigirls.wordpress.com) and it's simply impossible for us not to be fangirly at times (or all the time).

Oh, and it's purely awesome that you're a Finnish fan of Indian films. The appeal of India is global, isn't it? (I was going to say "universal" but that sort of sounds like I think aliens watch Indian films, which seems unlikely :D )

Well, anyway, I just figured I'd introduce myself, because I feel weird reading someone's blog (and I do intend to check back for future posts) and not letting them know...So I do try to say "hi" so as not to be creepy and all. :)

mansi said...

i like i like ....

I hav only recently begun mine... can never enough of bollywood...

join in if you like
http://eatpraylovemovies.blogspot.com/

Mansi said...

Can never have* enough of Bollywood