#queen of Bollywood

[mami-sorry-mami]

Kajol appreciation post

These pics were admittedly stolen from various platforms and people...if its yours please let me know

[theinfinitedivides]

'alamzeb, mallika's youngest daughter. your next target.' — ep 3 - scarred for life | heeramandi, 2024, dir. sanjay leela bhansali.

[nidhi-writes]

The Tawaifs - QUEENS

— them being the Queens of Lahore | heeramandi, 2024, dir. sanjay leela bhansali.

[slippyteas]

𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘯, 𝘮𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴

[anushkashettyfanclub]

Apsara 😍✨️ Anushka Shetty in and as Arundhati 👑

[sweet-child-of-night]

female rage depicted by bollywood

anushka sharma, NH-10 // aishwarya rai, devdas // sadhana // tripti dimri, bulbul // rekha, silsila // deepika padukone, bajirao mastani // kajol, gupt //alia bhatt, darlings //vidya balan, kahani

[tooquirkytolose]

Hate hate hate that movie trope where a woman's husband has an affair so they get a divorce/separate and the woman decides to live her best life and be her best self and she DOES and then the stupid husband comes crawling back like actually I am attracted to the new vivacious you now and also that other woman dumped me and then she TAKES HIM BACK????

Violence, rage even

[maibearcore]

*cough**cough*Villianelle*cough*Han Jihyuk*cough*Mizu*cough*Kim Jiyong*cough*Amrit**even more coughing**

They're my precious 💁‍♀️💖🎀

[jack-ackles]

PRIYANKA CHOPRA

for jio mami festival talk show 🥵🥵🥵

[my-chiliarch]

Sooo, I started watching Porus (TV), an Indian series that aired in 2017/2018, available for free on YouTube. It's a story created from the Indian perspective, where Porus is the protagonist and Alexander the Great the main villain. Despite that, the series shows the Macedonian side as well, and it's not simply "one side is all good, the other all bad".

The show is 299 episodes (I know, I know!), and the version with English subtitles has the episodes put in videos 11 hours long. You can watch it here.

I only watched a few episodes at the moment I'm writing this post, and for now both Porus and Alexander's mothers are pregnant, so the main characters haven't appeared yet. It's… well, pretty entertaining to me, but also very much a soap opera most of the times LOL Basically, if you want something historically accurate, that's NOT the series I'd recommend. However, if you are curious about something from the Indian side where Alexander is the villain, or you're just easily entertained when it comes to ancient history, Alexander the Great and Porus, then I'd give it a chance! The few fight scenes I saw were ridiculous, but they used a lot of money for the setting.

Regarding possible Alexander/Hephaestion moments: I saw one clip out of context that was very shippy (not explicitly gay, but definitely homoerotic on purpose). That said, if Wikipedia is correct, apparently the second guy was not Hephaestion, but an original character like him that takes his place, because Hephaestion doesn't exist. I think the reason may be related to some spoilers I read… Without revealing too much, it looks like I'm not really going to like the developments there. BUT I also don't trust Wikipedia, so I'll have to see it by myself! Edit: never mind, I misunderstood that part. Hephaestion definitely exists as Hephaestion:

Another note: the few scenes I saw from the Macedonian side looked influenced by Oliver Stone's movie. That's not necessarily a bad thing to me, especially if we get homoerotic Alexander/totally-not-Hephaestion, but I admit that when I saw Philip and Olympias, I was hoping to see a different characterization for a change. I'm still at the start though, so we'll see!

[forever70s]

Zeenat Aman on the September 1970 cover of Femina magazine

[theinfinitedivides]

'are you planning on stirring up a storm in Shahi Mahal?' — ep 3 - scarred for life | heeramandi, 2024, dir. sanjay leela bhansali.

[pariaritzia]

Queerness in Indian Media

↳Film: MAJA MA (2022, Hindi) dir. ANAND TIWARI

Maja Ma follows Pallavi Patel (Madhuri Dixit), a closeted lesbian who gave up her beloved, Kanchan (Simone Singh), decades ago and has since become a devoted mother, housewife, and adored member of her community. While making preparations for her son's (Ritwik Bhowmik) wedding, however, Pallavi is outed to the entire town--and subsequently must deal with the consequences to herself, her former beloved, and her family.

Madhuri Dixit discusses her role in this movie, how movies like this are more possible now because of OTT streaming, and the "unexpected reactions" to the story here.

Madhuri Dixit discusses this movie coming from "a place of love", wanting the LGBTQ community to "feel seen", and "accepting people for who they are" here.

The actress Madhuri Dixit has been in multiple gay and gay-coded media, both as a supportive character and as the gay character herself. She has also been supportive in real life of the LGBTQ community.

[anushkashettyfanclub]

Menacing look of Lady Superstar Anushka Shetty in GHAATI 🔥

[aurum-rays]

Meeta is the only reason why I go back to watching Hasee Toh Phasee, even though it has some problematic elements. Meeta and the music of the film, to be precise, but more particularly Zehnaseeb and Ishq Bulava, but that's another post.

Meeta, played by Parineeti Chopra, is shown as an intelligent girl right from childhood, along with Nikhil, played by Siddharth Malhotra. When the film opens with both our protagonists’ childhood counterparts, it's very interesting to see a young Meeta closing the door while a young Nikhil tries to open a closed door. While he does this to watch his favorite film, Agneepath, 14 years later Nikhil breaks out of his room by unscrewing the room’s windows to attend a wedding where he meets Meeta hanging by a barbed wire fence, trying to run away.

After their brief conversation, we understand that both of them have similar ideas and are alike, which we already established from the opening scene. As they say their goodbyes, Meeta asks Nikhil, whom she just met, to come to Goa with her. He doesn't, unfortunately. (He later in the film realizes how big of a mistake it was.) But this post is not about the “swooning” chemistry Nikhil and Meeta had. This post is only about Meeta as a character and how much we need more of her in the movies.

First, let me put aside a few things by saying that I absolutely despised the bade pappa who loves slapping Meeta, and the rest of her family who are at any given time passing sexist comments on the sisters. They always want their girls to wear “dhang k kapde.” Meeta’s dad is the only one who has encouraged her smarts since childhood, and I am glad that he finally takes her side during the climax. I also hated that Meeta takes all the pills at the airport (which she later pukes), which made her look like she has forgotten her goal, her lab, her colleagues, working on the project, everything basically everything she went through, all the family trauma, and the reason she came home for. It just felt extremely out of character for her. Yes, she's in love with a guy who is going to get married to her sister. I get it! But that one scene just felt… I mean… She did her PhD on her own, started her lab, her thesis and her project all without any support from family and her forgetting all of that instantly just felt out of place. But then again, “the things love makes you do,” I guess.

Now that all that's out of the way, here's why I loved watching Meeta.

Meeta is a scientist. She casually starts explaining physics concepts during conversations (the hiccup scene). She comes from a science background and all her bits and her dialogues are just straight-up facts. She's extremely intelligent and a little bit quirky and does weird stuff sometimes, although most of it is due to her medicines. But I don't blame her for it. If I had a family who constantly called me crazy, disowned me, abused me, and behaved like I didn't exist, I would be popping some pills too. The scene with her singing “Ek garam chai ki pyali ho” or even the confusion that ensues with the twin relatives at the bazaar is a laugh riot.

Meeta deserved better treatment from everyone in her family. But just Meeta as a character deserved better.

I cannot remember any other female character in Indian cinema that was showcased as a highly intellectual, nerdy protagonist. Even though Hasee Toh Phasee isn't a Meeta-centric movie (it should've been) and doesn't talk sensitively about Meeta’s conditions (most of her behavior from the meds is shown comedically), this was the only film where I was rooting for the female lead and wanted to put up Meeta’s poster in my room. I mean, where in movies do we have a female scientist protagonist, and that too in a rom-com?

Even after being raised in an extremely orthodox family, she dares to dream, and with her dad’s support, she fulfills her dreams and makes a crazy invention. She knows what she wants, and she goes to extremes to fulfill her goals. The only unfortunate part of her life is her unsupportive, misogynist family who will spend money on lavish weddings but won't fund their daughter's educational needs. This is why Meeta runs away with the money.

As a physics nerd, I would've loved to see more about Meeta’s life in China, her friends, her colleagues, and her work, Or just her growing years as a science enthusiast that made her a scientist. Because Meeta, for me, felt like ���finally a nerdy female character who is not shown as one of the bros or an introverted thick-rimmed glass-wearing geek or even a stereotypical tomboy.” Meeta, in my books, will always remain a superhero scientist, creator of the perpetual motion machine polymer ball whose story still needs to be told.

Meeta is not a manic pixie dream girl who's here to save the male protagonist from his depressed life and show him the “world through a different lens,” nor is she a damsel in distress who needs saving. She's here for herself. She comes home from China for her lab, her project, and her passion. Meeta is an extremely intelligent, career-driven woman who also knows that “Do half mein ek full se zyada milta hai”! 😉

[ldagence-celbs]

Priyanka Chopra - Indian Actress and Singer -