Filmi Ladies

We discuss the characters of Sharaabi (1984) and Udta Punjab (2016) - who are drinking and drugging themselves to death, all day every day, with no intention of stopping anytime soon. We also discuss Indian cinema's most infamous drunk - one Mr Devdas in all his filmi appearances. Tell us - which movies and movie characters do you associate with gluttony? Is Kareena Kapoor the second best Kapo...

Oh the irony: it took us a lot of brainpower to come up with two films that have much to do with sloth! Perhaps because lazy people are harder to make cinematically interesting? Hmmm. We went with two films from what sure seems like the peak era of slacker dudes in Hindi cinema: Wake Up Sid (2009) and Delhi Belly (2011). Stray thoughts include: • what makes the non-action of sloth so sinful? • do...

Desire that makes you act in very bad ways: it's happened to everyone. Specifically, it's happened to the characters in Maqbool (2004) and Silsila (1981). Tell us - • How do you feel about Silsila and its scandalous casting? Would an Amitabh-Smita-Parveen cast have worked as well? • Do you buy Shashi as an Air Force officer? • Is Tabu the best femme fatale we've seen on screen? • Is th...

This episode is all about people wanting to destroy one another - which makes for great cinema! We each brought two films to discuss: • Chokher Bali (one of Pitu's favorites), • Aaina (because Amrita Singh ❤️) • Student of the Year (which has aged better than Beth thought it would), and • Qala (so mesmerizing a descent). Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ib9C1...

Two masala gems came to mind when we thought about greed: Bluffmaster! (2005) and Judaai (1997). On the surface these stories are about wanting money, but both of them have more to say about material gain entices people to act out of line with what society demands. Both films are also full of great performances, but, unsurprisingly, we spend most of our time gushing over Sridevi and Urmila. Subscr...

We discuss what it means to be prideful and why that's bad through the characters in our chosen movies Kalyug (1981) and Raincoat (2004). Both films are film adaptations of literary source material. Kalyug is based on the mighty epic Mahabharata and Raincoat is based on O Henry's short story The Gift Of The Magi. While Kalyug has giant egos, warring families and machinations, Raincoat expl...

Some of our very favorite people had films in 2023, after several years of no releases. So we watched them—and maybe wished we hadn't? Pitu discusses Gadar 2 and Beth discusses Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway, plus we each dig into a few of the films by Sunny Deol and Rani Mukerji that we like much better. Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ib9C1X5ObvN18u9WR0TK9 or Ap...

Pitu saw and loved Dunki; it's not playing near Beth, so she doesn't pipe up much until we get to a bigger discussion of Hirani's films. We also dip quickly into other things we've been watching and what's coming up on this podcast in 2024. Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ib9C1X5ObvN18u9WR0TK9 or Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/p...

For all your holiday festivities, we investigate cakes in Hindi cinema, with the occasional amuse-bouches of other treats and feasts. Our special guest is Aditi Sen, collector of cake scenes and actual food historian, in addition to appreciator of the weird and wonderful in Indian movies. Follow Aditi's cake projects on tumblr https://tooreluctantacademic.tumblr.com and instagram https://www.i...

TL;DR (or should that be L): we are meh at best about this week's huge release and its various star spawn cast. We're more excited about some of the other things we've been watching, featuring Vicky Kakushal, Tabu, and Bhumi Pednekar. Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ib9C1X5ObvN18u9WR0TK9 or Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/filmi-l...

For such a short career on screen, the glamorous, charismatic Parveen Babi is indelible. In this episode, we focus on two films, Deewaar and Rang Birangi, and because her career was so shaped by her off-screen life, we discuss her experience of schizophrenia, sticking as closely possible to the facts of her experience of schizophrenia and how the film industry, quite frankly, failed her. Read Kari...

Commemorating 20 years of Shahrukh's turn as a tragic angel/Mary Poppins character in Kal Ho Na Ho! Borrowing a fair bit from two Hrishikesh Mukherjee films - Anand and Bawarchi - with a big heaping of Kjo masala, this is quite a melodrama set to a banger soundtrack by Shankar Ehsaan Loy. Tell us - would you befriend Naina or Rohit? Or are you interested in Sweetu and Jazz? How do we feel abou...

We choose two films in which dancing is a plot element: Disco Dancer and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. That's about all they have in common, other than being fairly lightweight concoctions that we enjoy very much. Episode breakdown: 30 minutes on Disco Dancer, another 10 or so on JBJ, then another 25+ on other films (Indian and otherwise) that are about dancing in some way, our favorite film dancers, e...

We enjoyed doing our women at work episode so much, we followed it up with a men at work episode! In each of the movies we discuss, the protagonist's job or career is central to their self identity or to larger personal or societal issues. Sometimes that's good, other times it's bad, but it's never boring and it always leads to a lot of Filmi drama. Should you let your job define y...

We are celebrating Baazigar's 30th Anniversary with this episode! 30 years of Machiavellian Srk, vendetta, Abbas Mastaan's clever direction, big hair, colored contact lenses, weepy Rakhee, race cars and catchy music! Does Baazigar rank in your favorite SRK roles? Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ib9C1X5ObvN18u9WR0TK9 or Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.app...

This Halloween, we bring you the very famous and much beloved Manichitrathazhu, along with its Hindi remake Bhool Bhulaiyaa. Even though they're technically not stories of the supernatural, the ghost vibes are real! Tell us - Which of the many remakes have you seen? Which is the best version? How do you feel about comedy uncles? Do you prefer the supernatural or the medical explanation? What o...

Only barely squeaking under the wire of relevance, here we are with our thoughts on the genuinely iconic Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. For both of us, it has held up remarkably well. Pitu is more smitten than ever with the performances and music, and Beth is full of new appreciation for the writing. For all its bubblegum and Archie aesthetics, KKHH has a lot of very grown-up things to say. As usual, detours...

Some may argue that Dimple Kapadia doesn't quite count as a superstar of Hindi cinema, but she's so interesting that we couldn't resist! Her appeal is a little harder to pin down than with the other women in our superstars series so far, and maybe that's her greatest strength. She's certainly the least filmi of the people we've focused on, despite having an incredibly filmi...

He's one of the most versatile actors we've seen and is always re-inventing himself. We remember him from his moppetty 90s Ole Ole days to his metrosexual avatar to his villianous turns and his edgy, indie films. Everyone loves Dil Chahta Hai, Kal ho na ho, Parineeta and Omkara but in this episode we discuss his lesser known works - Chef, Agent Vinod and Jawaani Jaaneman. Are these movies...

Along with Helen and Bindu, Aruna Irani completes the Vamp trifecta. An excellent dancer and very talented actor, Aruna has an impressive filmography of almost 500 movies. We love her when she's good, but we REALLY love her when she's wicked. Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ib9C1X5ObvN18u9WR0TK9 or Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fil...

* contains spoilers * We love mysteries and we love Bebo, but do we love Jaane Jaan? Listen to find out! We also get into a few other thrillers and mysteries we've seen lately. Thank you to twitter friend tamarindric3 for the idea to talk about hill station mysteries - let's start a list in the comments! Here's Sunil Dutt bouncing around in his swim trunks in Hamraaz: https://youtu.be/...

She is sexy, statuesque, sophisticated - one of the biggest superstars of the 70s, and her name is on everyone's lips at the moment. We talk about our beloved Zeenie Baby aka Zeenat Aman! Tell us your favorite Zeenat Aman movies! Subscribe to Filmi Ladies on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ib9C1X5ObvN18u9WR0TK9 or Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/filmi-ladies/id16424...

Pitu ran straight home from the cinema to record this episode on the weekend's big release! This episode is chock full of SPOILERS, so if you haven't seen the film and want to go in not knowing anything more than you've already accidentally learned from social media, save this one for later. Overall we had a lot of fun with Jawan and are thrilled for SRK that it's a success and, mo...

This week we look at three films depicting women who have interesting jobs...but more importantly, these films are stories of women whose jobs lead to very interesting things! This may be the biggest range of films in any one episode of this podcast so far, covering almost 60 years and including 3 different language industries: • Mahanagar (Satyajit Ray, 1963, Bengali) • Umbartha (Jabbar Patel, 19...

How time flies! Filmi Ladies has just turned 1 year old and we recorded a special Anniversary episode. We wanted to do something different so we asked for questions from our subscribers and also compiled a list of questions to ask each other! Much laughter ensued as we had a fun conversation. Due to the length of our baat-cheet, we had to split the episode into two parts. This is part one. We hope...