I would love to hear your thoughts on the Gangubai Kathiawadi film!
Anonymous asked:
Hi! May I request a post about the costumes in 'a suitable boy'? It's set in post british India and the clothes in it are just gorgeous! Especially all the sarees.
Firstly I apologise for the late replies. I blog infrequently these days and am also usually not on social media so I end up having a backlog.
To answer your question, when I do movie costume analyses, it is usually of old movies through which I can show the fashions of the time. Sometimes I do a period drama, e.g. Lootera or Byomkesh Bakshy!, when I feel part of the movie's appeal is in trying to recreate the milieu of the time it is set in.
Coming to Gangubai, there is no doubt that the costumes are arresting. The use of white is interesting, a nod to old films as well as a deliberate choice given the subject matter.
With many period films, the aim is to give the audience a feeling of the era the movie is set in but this is filtered through the modern aesthetic. From what I have seen of Gangubai this seems to be the case for this movie too. Of course there will be visuals that evoke the past clearly - example the poster of Alia in a blouse and petticoat which was common at the time among sex workers. However, by and large, it fits into the director's personal sense of aesthetics, which tends to be a bit dramatic.
There is an interview with the costume designer which most folk may be familiar with.
Coming to A Suitable Boy, I have had many queries regarding the TV series. As it happens, I am not really a fan of the novel. Coming to the TV series, I absolutely love Mira Nair's aesthetic. However, she is again a director who imprints her own aesthetic on period dramas (see for example Kama Sutra, Vanity Fair). I think this is the case with A Suitable Boy too. I am not at all critical of such an approach and it has its own appeal.
However, I usually don't review such films from a costume perspective. With the trailers and clips I have seen of ASB, I wasn't immediately drawn in from a fidelity to costumes perspective though the visuals are lovely.
One of the things I felt with my albeit brief viewing of ASB is that the body language felt a bit modern. Long time wearers of a saree or salwar move differently - if that makes any sense!
An interesting long interview with this movie's costume designer is linked.
TLDR I haven't reviewed these because I wasn't immediately drawn to the costumes from a analyses perspective, albeit I think they are well researched and fairly accurate from what I have seen. And I did enjoy the visuals a great deal.
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humko unse wafaa ki hai umeed,
jo nahi jaan te,
wafaa kya hai.
I expect love from them,
who do not know,
what love is.
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मेरी तो यहीं इच्छा थी कि शाम को सूरज ढले,
चाय धीमी आंच पर उबले
और टेबल की दूसरी तरफ मुस्कुराते तुम
कुछ कहो, कुछ सुनो
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Tabu in a suitable boy is just!!
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I just watched 'A Suitable Boy' series and I'm FURIOUS, how is it possible Lata didn't end up with Kabir????
Haresh is the safe option, I see that shit in real life everyday, I don't want to see it in fiction too!!
And Lata... oh man, she really tricks us, seems a fighter at the beginning and see how convenient she turns out to be.
Disappointing.
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