Skip to main content

What I watched on Netflix

Mostly Sunny


This documentary is on Netflix. It is about Sunny Leone and her recent success in India. I liked it. Mainly because of how real and down to earth Sunny is. She knows she is a brand and has no issues promoting herself. The documentary also talks to her extended family and her brother. They don't dig very deep but you realise her life hasn't been easy. Her family had a difficult time dealing with her career as a porn star and they have cut her off. 
Sunny has positioned herself as the happily married woman who is monogamous in India and it is working for her. We, Indians, want our porn stars also to be sati savitris. 
What the documentary missed was the hard work behind the glamour. I would have loved to see her workout/grooming sessions or the preparation for item songs or behind the scenes on a regular day. 
All in all, a good documentary and worth a watch.

What the Health


I started watching this documentary on Netflix. This is about how meat, chicken and eggs are unhealthy. I expected it to be well researched and talk about healthy foods but it came across as propaganda. It talks about how ALL non vegetarian foods are unhealthy because of how they are produced. I could make the same arguments about vegetarian foods. Fruits and vegetables have pesticides which are harmful. 
I turned this off within 30 minutes. Avoid it.


Beyond Bollywood

This documentary follows the journey of 4 people from the Bollywood industry - a make up artist, an Australian backpacker who does bit roles, a dancer aspiring to be an actress and a union leader. 
You get to see the gritty reality behind the glamour. 
Interesting watch. Worth a dekko. 

Anarkali of Aarah

I watched half of this movie in a theatre and the rest of it on Netflix. I had walked out of the theatre but word of mouth on Twitter made me turn it on. Starring Swara Bhaskara, this movie is about a dancer in a small town of Bihar. She gets harassed on stage while performing by a VIP. The cops take away all the phones and delete all clips so there is no proof. When Anarkali refuses to give in to the demands on the VIP, her life is made hell in every way and there is nobody to defend her. She wins in the end.
While I think this is a bold movie and Swara is awesome, the villain is Sanjay Mishra and you know he will not be able to harm her seriously. The conflict does not feel real. Like, she is in a room with him and he does not rape her. Instead, he gives her a rose and wants her to submit to him. At no point did I feel like Anarkali was in serious danger. 
A good movie to watch on Netflix but avoid in the theatre. 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lolita

Lolita, written by Vladimir Nabokov, is an epic. It was published in 1955 and is ahead of it's times, even today. But the way it has been written is brilliant. Very few books can match up. This will probably the best book I read this year. The book is about a 12 year old Dolores who is called Lolita by Humbert. Humbert is a pedophile. Sure, he has a backstory to justify it. He falls in love with Lolita at first sight and marries her mother. When the mother dies (it wasn't murder), Humbert kidnaps Lolita and rapes her. His version is that she seduces him. But according to my definition of sex, it was rape and not consensual. They travel from one place to another for 2 years till Lolita manages to free herself from him.  The entire book is an insight into the mind of a rapist. How does a rapist get his victim to give in to his demands and never tell anyone. How does he control another human being?  Nabokov hardly talks about Lolita. We only hear about her from ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Glow

I am really sorry for how slow things are on this blog (and the other one too). I am trying to make the time. Hell, am even praying for an additional 2 hours in my day to accommodate all my hobbies and interests. I don't remember where I got the recommendation for Glow (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) but I started watching it few weeks back. It is about a show about a group of actresses in the 80s who featured in a women's wrestling show. It is over the top, campy but so much fun. There is a lot of drama with the lead protagonists not getting along over one's affair with another's husband, a messed up director, racism, a broke producer etc. The good news is that it has only 1 season as of yet so you can finish it in a week. A perfectly entertaining feel good show that requires no brain cells.
Post a Comment
Read more

Bookerworm

The Vegetarian by Han King The cover of the book mentioned that this is an erotica and so I picked it up. The beginning was very intriguing with a woman, Yeong-hye who stops eating meat one day. In Korea, this is considered weird. Her husband, who didn't love her anyway, walked out of the marriage. Her brother-in-law becomes obsessed with her and they have sex. The sister catches them in the act and the woman tries to commit suicide. She is put in an institution.  I am still trying to figure out what the book was all about. It wasn't erotica for sure. Was it about mental illness? But it doesn't talk about that either.  The end felt like the writer was bored or lost his thought mid way.  An Era of Darkness by Shashi Tharoor It took me a few weeks, a break of 2 months, and another few weeks to finish reading the book. Shashi Tharoor had given a speech about how the British rule is responsible for many of India's problems and they should pay a token penalty a...
Post a Comment
Read more