#there’s too much emphasis on funny noises and not enough emphasis on actual comedy. i know kids find funny noises funny but like. still

[fingertipsmp3]

I’m trying to give The Grinch (2018) a chance, I really am, but all I can think is

[sunsetinmyvein]

You Pick a Fight - P2

Eyyyyy it’s prompt time. I have since forgotten what prompt’s @imagine-that-100​ gave me from the prompt list for this part two, but hopefully you enjoy it anyway. :P

And I was right, because it wasn’t over. The pool incident was just the start of much more bickering and fighting over nothing that was set to come during the months between Matty and I. We hadn’t known each other all that well prior to that day, but it definitely set the bar for future interactions. Being argumentative and stubborn was just a habit neither of us could break, much to all of our mutual friend’s annoyance. It might’ve been on the verge of immature, since we were both pushing thirty, but neither of us cared. And we never really meant it. Grudges about stolen floaties were not held for long. It was a rare occasion that we genuinely made up and said sorry, but typically by the end of the day we had either forgotten about it or played some prank on the other to feel avenged about our wrong doing. Over the course of many months of arguing and pranking, Matty and I inevitably became closer. Realistically, Matty was probably one of my best friends by this point in my life. We saw each other at least a couple of times a week for various reasons and I enjoyed his company (mostly). But that wasn’t going to stop me from trying to constantly one-up him and make sure I destroy him any time he challenges me to anything. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right? You gotta know your opponent’s weaknesses to best exploit them.

 However, tonight was our regularly scheduled movie night. So, more than likely no arguing would be occurring tonight. The movie had already been picked by democratic vote by the group, which meant there would be no debates about that. Everyone was bringing their own snacks, nothing to fight over. And we rotated who hosted, so no arguments there either. This week it was Matty’s turn. Last week when it had been at my flat, we had picked a comedy movie to watch and ended up receiving a noise complaint from my neighbour about us being “too rambunctious”. I was hoping that we wouldn’t have the same issue to deal with this week given Matty’s much thicker walls. I was cutting up a tray of brownies that I was graciously bringing to share - one of which may or may not have been spiked with cayenne pepper just to spite Matty for last week when he mixed my bag of skittles with m+m’s - while I replayed the events of last week. The details of the movie were actually a bit of a blur, because after the few drinks that I had downed after a rough day at work, I recalled falling asleep. When I woke up, I found myself snoring on Matty’s shoulder. God, that was utterly embarrassing. Other than my snoring, to wake up cosying up to Matty? I’d rather be caught dead. But I must have been too distracted by these memories, because as I was cutting, I slipped and managed to slice open my thumb with my new knife.

  I felt the cut the instant it happened, bracing myself for what I might see before I looked down. Sure as shit, all I saw was a lot of red. The first thought to run through my head was that my brownie plan was ruined. I couldn’t serve brownies that had been doused in blood. The second was that I absolutely needed to seal this wound as soon as possible. I raced to the bathroom, grabbing a roll of gauze and wrapping it around my thumb as tightly as I could. Do I call an ambulance? No, this wasn’t an ambulance sort of emergency. Emergency, though. I should go to the emergency room. Now. But I had to let the guys know I wasn’t coming. I could see the gauze starting to turn red as I searched my phone for Matty’s contact. Fuck, I felt so bad for bailing on this movie night given it was our regular thing, but this was really not good. Really, really not good. The phone rang twice before he picked up.

  “Hey-”

“Look, I need to go to emergency.” I interrupted in a garbled rush.

“What?” He shouted down the line.

“I need to go to hospital, so I’m not gonna make it tonight.” I explained, slightly slower.

“What did you do?” He asked in an incredulous tone.

“I sliced my thumb open cutting brownies.” I just heard him laughing. “It’s not funny, Matty. I need stitches.” I frowned as I started to grab my essentials. What if they wanted to keep me in overnight? Oh my god, I was absolutely not prepared for something like this. I should have a go bag. Is that a thing normal people did? Have a go bag in case they accidentally injure themselves? Maybe smart people did.

“Do you need me to drive you?” He offered as I was contemplating what exactly I would put in a go bag.

“What? Uh, no. I’m okay. I think.” I rattled off.

“I’ll meet you there.” I heard him say. He what? Why would he want to come to the hospital?

“Wait. No, you don’t-” But he’d already hung up.

  Before I left the house, I slapped another few layers of bandage over the gauze on my thumb to try and put some pressure on this cut that was apparently bleeding like a tap by the rate it was turning things red. Driving to the hospital with a thumb as fat as mine was with all the bandages wrapped around it was not easy to say the least, but I managed to get there in one piece. Once I had gotten there, paid for my parking, and then managed to check myself into the ER, I was able to take a seat and decompress slightly. But, the peace and quiet didn’t last long, because not even five minutes after I sat down a familiar face entered through the sliding glass doors.

“Good job.” Matty said as he approached, with a slow clap for emphasis.

“Don’t patronise me.” I scoffed.

“Show me.” He said as he took a seat in the uncomfortable plastic chair next to my own.

“It’s okay-”

“Just show me what you did.” He dismissed.

“I mean, I can’t really take this stuff off-” I gestured to my half blood-soaked bandages, “-or it’ll bleed worse.”

He let out a low whistle as he raked a hand through his curls. “Bloody hell.” He muttered under his breath, before glancing up at me. “Pardon the pun.” He added with a smirk.

“Shut up. It’s really not as bad as it looks.” I lied. I was trying to play it down, to pretend like I hadn’t briefly seen how deep that knife went, but I knew that this was definitely very vital that I see a doctor very fucking soon.

He met my gaze, clearly seeing the stress I was trying to hide. “You’re not very convincing.” He chuckled.

  Despite my protests about him wanting to wait with me, Matty continued to ramble on about what he had done earlier in the day while we sat in the crowded waiting room. He also told me not to worry about cancelling on the movie night, and thanked me for trying to make brownies. If only he had known what his brownie was going to taste like. But at least he was distracting me from the weird sensation in my thumb. After about half an hour, I was called through to be seen by the nurse - which realistically just meant that I sat and waited in another room for a further ten minutes until I was finally seen by someone. When she walked in, she introduced herself and asked for a run down of the situation as she started gathering some supplies. After I had explained what I had done, she started moving towards my giant wad of bloody fabric.

“I’m gonna look away.” I warned the nurse, she just nodded in response. I felt her unravelling the bandages on my thumb, trying really hard to busy myself by studying the vision tester chart on the wall. She let out a quiet hum as she analysed the situation.

“All right. I am going to put some glue on this now to hold it, but we are going to need to anaesthetise you to properly sort this out. Is that okay?” She asked in a calm tone. They were going to knock me out? It was bad enough to need to be knocked out for?? Holy shit.

“Um, yep.” I nodded. “I suppose it’ll have to be.” I added with a nervous laugh. “When will that be?”

“As soon as they can get you in. Likely in the next few hours.” She answered.

  When I came back out of the nurse’s station, I sat back down and told Matty what they had said.

“They need to sedate you?” He asked in shock.

“I’ve apparently done quite a number on myself.” I could feel the stress building up as the realisation set in. Oh my god. I had cut off my thumb. I had cut off my thumb and now they needed to reattach it. Holy fuck. Holy fuck.

“Hey, calm down.” He reassured, placing his hand on my shoulder. “It’ll be all right.”

“But what if it’s too late? What if I cut too far? What if-”

Thankfully, Matty interrupted my downward spiral of anxiety. “They would’ve told you if that were the case. They’re going to operate, so it must be fine.” He moved to take my good hand in his, squeezing it reassuringly. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing mind as I nodded in agreement. At least one of us was the voice of reason right now. “When are you going in?” He questioned, seeming genuinely sympathetic.

“They said as soon as possible. I just have to wait here until a theatre frees up.” I replied. He just nodded thoughtfully. “You should go back to the movie night.” I said, eventually feeling guilty that he’d already been sat waiting here for an hour.

“No.” He shook his head as he rifled through his pocket. “You want some gum?” He asked, holding a packet out in my direction.

I looked down at them apprehensively. “They’re not some ridiculous flavour, are they?”

He laughed loudly. “No, I threw the wasabi ones out.”

  It was another hour before I was finally called through to get ready for theatre. Now I was genuinely feeling pretty awful that Matty had been here this whole time. We had well and truly pushed past dinner time, he’d missed the movie, our friends were all sat at his place without him. He can’t have been having a good time stuck here with me.

“Okay, I gotta go in.” I said as I stood up.

“I’ll be here when you wake up.” He smiled up at me from his seat.

“Just go home, I’ll be fine.” I said as I gestured to the door.

“No.” He grinned.

“Go.”

“No.” His dark brown eyes bore into mine, clearly challenging me to push him further on the subject.

“I hate you, so much.” I grumbled as I heard the nurse call my name again.

“I love you, too.” He said, blowing a kiss for emphasis as I walked off.

  The doctors all reassured me that the operation was going to be quick and easy. Knock me out, stitch me up, wake me up fifteen minutes later. Easy peasy. I had never had any issues with operations, being knocked out was easy. It was the stuff you had to be awake for that was hard. True to their word, when I saw the clock when I started coming to, it had been no more than half an hour than when I last checked the time. But my god I felt groggy. My brain felt like it had been replaced with a bunch of cotton balls and my eyelids might as well have been made of lead. I glanced down at my thumb, seeing a much smaller pile of bandages on there, that were now thankfully not soaked in blood. That was nice. I then caught sight of the man sat next to my bed.

“Hey, you’re up.” Matty said quietly as he stepped over. As soon as he leaned over the bed frame, the fluorescent lights above him just illuminated his dark, curly hair. Holy shit. It looked borderline angelic. “How’re you feeling?”

“Your hair…” I mumbled as I reached out my good hand to touch it.

He seemed surprised by my actions at first, before letting my run a hand through it. “What about it?” He asked with a quiet laugh.

“It’s really soft.” I answered, genuinely quite surprised by how nice it felt. “Has it always been that soft?” I felt like I had been missing out. I could’ve been touching this hair for nearly a year now and instead I had been swapping his shampoo for ranch dressing and perfume.

  Matty seemed keen to indulge my anaesthesia haze, letting me bother him with all of my weird questions about his hair. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy. I did a lot of mean shit to him and here he was, sat with me in emergency all evening instead of hanging out with his friends. After the pranks I’d pulled, I likely didn’t deserve a friend like him. But he’d pulled them on me too. We were a pretty good pair, I suppose. And I had no idea if it was this lighting or what, but dare I say, Matty was looking pretty attractive today. Had I really just been so focused on butting heads with him that I never noticed these things before?

“Are you sure you really look this good? I feel like I must still be dreaming.” I said, pretending to shield my eyes.

He frowned, before the realisation dawned on him and his eyebrows shot up in surprise, “Are you flirting with me?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged.

“Don’t use cheesy pickup lines on me.” He chuckled.

“How else am I meant to pick you up?” I scoffed as I rolled my eyes.

“Are you trying to?” He asked as a smile slowly made its way onto his face.

“Maaaaybe.” I said in an attempt to be non-committal, but then my curiosity got the better of me. “Is it working?”

“I’m gonna remind you of this when you’re properly out of the anaesthetic.” He just looked amused. Not the reaction I had hoped for. But I was too tired to keep trying to come up with clever lines.

“Okay.” I muttered, nodding softly. “Gon’ sleep now, though.” I added.

“Rest up.” He agreed. “You’re gonna need all the energy you can get to deal with me giving you shit for this tomorrow.”  

Part one

Part three

[daydreaming-jessi]

I hope you’re ready for a story about death. Beware, this will mention suicide and some gross things like bones cracking. Y’all said you wanted to hear it so I decided to go ahead and post it! The story of how Juno met Beetlejuice’s father and how she came to become the demon she is when we see her. It’s a mix of a fanfic with a lil comic in between because i drew it before I wrote this lmao and I wanted to include it but there wasn’t really a great way to do that. It’s a long boy, so the story’s under the cut. Hopefully it works, I don’t wanna clog anyone’s dash ^^’

Once, in a time long before cable tv was even a pipe dream much less when it was considered to be on its deathbed, there was a city where all thought it would reign endlessly. In that city there was a woman, long tormented by those above her. She felt powerless, that her fate was never in her own hands. She chased off all men that tried to marry her and control her even further, cut herself off from others that tried to subdue her. She was jeered at and made a pariah. She despised it all. She cursed the gods for bringing her to a world where she held no autonomy, she pleaded for something to change, something to give. It seemed that she would receive no aid though.

One night, she felt it was all too much. Drunk on gluttonous amounts of wine, she decided there was no hope for her. She took a knife, and one last time, despaired. “If I hold no freedom in life, then I shall seek it in the underworld, gods be damned!” And sliced her throat open. Her blood soaked the ground.

When she awoke again, she found herself not in what is described as the underworld. Instead, it was an endless void, with few shadowy wisps wandering the inky, black scape.

There the woman wandered, her wound on her throat constantly aching, forever reminding her of her deeds, though most everything else of her life was long forgotten in the void. Far did she walk, for there was no time to keep, no exhaustion or desire to hold her back, as she searched for anything. It was not until the darkness became a misty white did she take pause, wondering if any of this was worthwhile.

Then, she heard a noise. A groan, the shuffle of something large moving, and she felt that something with an endless gaze was watching her.

“Hey, that something has a name thanks! Also, you make me sound creepy, I’m just looking at the lady that’s wandered onto my turf, narrator!”

The woman startled, it had been so long since she’d heard another speak in a tongue she understood.

“Why so serious, eh? I thought this was supposed to be a funny story! Like, I know this story has a suicide in it and stuff, but man is this a downer. Ever heard of dark comedy?”

“Who’s there?” The woman asked, her voice a croak from long disuse, the air hissing out of her throat.

“What, you can’t see me yet? Are you blind or something? Oh crap, wait are you blind? This will be awkward if you’re actually blind, shit,” the voice responded.

The woman squinted her eyes, seeing a towering mass in the mist, just out of sight, sending a chill of terror down her spine. “Are you a god? A beast? Here to finish me off finally?” The woman tried to hide her fear, standing behind a mask of pride.

“Ha, God! That’s a good one. Beast is probably closer. Here, lemme just, don’t wanna scare this one off…”

The mass twisted and the sound of bones cracking and bloody flesh squelching filled the air. The woman tripped backwards hastily, watching as the creature moved inhumanly. Finally, a man stepped forward, a man much bigger than her, both physically and seeming mentally, wearing clothes the woman had never seen before, strangely tailored to his body in a way she had couldn’t quite comprehend. His hair flared out wildly, seeming to be a sort of black with green tint that seemed to be… moving. His eyes were the most startling of all, a bright luminescent green that seemed to pierce into the woman’s very soul.

“How do ya do? Been a while since one of you newly dead’s wandered all the way out here. Usually it’s just me and my two buds,” the man grinned, revealing sharp teeth that belonged more to a predator than a man.

The woman swallowed thickly. “Buds?” She asked, trying to keep her body from shaking.

“Yeah, Tunk and Harley. They’re a riot,” the man said, jutting a thumb to two boulders that seemed to suddenly appear from the mist.

The woman blinked, taken aback by this man, thing, creature’s attitude.

“Speaking of, what about you? What’s yer handle?” The man was suddenly at the woman’s side, eyes darting over her in a quick one over. The woman startled away, gasping. His skin was almost translucent, and he reeked of sulfur.

She took a deep breath, composing herself, before the question hit her. Who was she? She almost crumbled to her feet upon realizing that she had no answer.

“Ah, jeez, they sent another fainter. Here, sit on Harley, she doesn’t mind the weight,” the man helped the unnamed woman onto the bigger of the two boulders.

The man plopped onto the other one in a most undignified state, picking at his sharp teeth with fingers that, upon a second look, were not human hands. It was as if his fingertips were frostbitten, but rather than fall off, they grew claws that belonged to a bear.

“What is this place?” The woman finally asked, desperate for some sort of answer to all this madness she’d been subjected to.

“Ah, there’s that thousand dollar question. You, my friend, are the lucky new inhabitant of the netherworld! Applause may be had now,” an uproarious applause filled the air, as streamers and balloons manifested as well, though how the unnamed woman knew what these things are was uncertain. The man crossed his legs, twice. With a third leg.

“Now, you may be wondering, Netherworld? But I thought the afterlife was ‘insert belief here’, and I’m here to tell you everything you knew was wrong! There’s no god, no cycle, no anything! It’s all one big ol’ void! Welcome, to the rest of your afterlife! Drifting around nowhere forever, until you finally dissolve into that nothing. Exciting isn’t it?” The man continued.

The woman’s head spun. Nothing? No gods? No underworld? No judgement? Only a void? It sounded so... chaotic. “But, but how could there be nothing? How could there be no gods? We-we came from something how could we dissolve into nothing?” She asked.

The man shrugged, still seeming quite chipper about the whole thing. “Don’t ask me. I just live here.”

“But, but… what about you? Aren’t you going to fade away as well?” The woman asked, desperate.

“Oh I can’t. I’m technically not dead! No I’m a shoggoth, and we just... Live here. Rents cheap, restaurants are alright, and just lookit all this space! Can’t complain, I guess.”

“But, but, how can you live? Why must I die? What is the difference between you and I? Dammit! Dammit all, it’s just as unfair in death as it is life! Damn everything, damn it all to oblivion with me!” The woman stood, rage filling her empty veins. All of the suffering, it was never ending. She would never find peace.

The man, the shoggoth, watched the woman with interested eyes. A plan was forming in his mind, a plan he’d long since been thinking. “It is unfair, isn’t it? Man everyone hates it! No point to doing anything, it’s all for naught. We’re all gonna waste away. Well, you are. I won’t. I’ll just be stuck here in the boring old Netherworld. Forever. Chatting with rocks and making mist puppets.” He demonstrated this skill with a beautiful puppet recreation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

The woman paused in her ranting, looking over to him. “There must be a way, there must be a way to change this.”

Hiding a smirk, the shoggoth stood. “Well… there could be. Might be. Possibly be. It all depends, I guess.”

“Enough of your riddles. What is it you have schemed, I can see for myself you know a way.”

The shoggoth blinked, caught off guard by the woman’s rushing through his theatrics. He quickly shook himself back to his plan.

“Alright, smart woman I see. So, I’m a shoggoth. A powerful, unstoppable beast. I can crush cities, move mountains, do whatever I want. But I’m trapped here. No shoggoth can leave the netherworld. And newly deads? They’re powerless wimpy lil things, but. If they were to have the power of a shoggoth, well, I always thought you lil air suckers are pretty unstoppable. No way could the netherworld hold you back if you had the right tools to get outta here. So! I think, maybe we should form a deal!” He held his hand out to the woman, trying to smile charmingly, emphasis on trying.

The woman stared at him flatly, unsure. “A… deal…” she said.

“Yes’m, a deal! Just one little itty bitty deal that combines my powers with your soul, giving you the power to do as you please, and giving me the ability to finally go where I please. All we have to do is share a name, giving us a connection.”

He could see that she was hesitant. It was time to put on the charm. Humans like nicknames, right?

Power filled the air. The woman, now Juno, felt her body tear itself apart molecule by molecule, and repiece itself back together. She wasn’t sure if she screamed or if it was the sound of the world around them bending to the shoggoth’s will.

After what felt like eternity, Juno opened her eyes. Abdul looked back worriedly. Upon seeing her moving, he breathed a breath of relief. “Oh good! I thought you were like, dead squared.”

“What... is this...?” Juno brought her hand to her face. Already her thoughts were filled to the brim, she knew the ins and outs of the netherworld, how to manipulate it, to control it. Energy hummed under her skin, the sensation of her slashed throat long in the past. Slowly, she moved her hand, the mist formed into a ball before her. Slowly, a smile filled her face.

“This is having control over your own soul. Looks like we’re not powerless anymore!” Abdul grinned, reaching a hand down. Juno took it and he helped her stand up, and she slowly moved forward, marveling at the way everything looked now. She understood what it all was, what Abdul was, what she was.

“So, partner! Ready to take the world by storm?” Abdul asked. Juno turned back to him, and for a single second Abdul felt a flicker of hesitance. Something was different. For one moment, Abdul saw something in Juno’s now red eyes, and for the first time ever he felt a shadow of fear.

But then Juno smiled coolly, looking normal once more. “A demon and a shoggoth together are unstoppable. It is time to bring order to the netherworld. A system. We cannot have souls wandering around so freely. What if they found shoggoths as well? We can’t have everyone have this power, lest one starts to take it away from others for themselves. Come, Abdul. Let’s get to work.”

Abdul watched as she started off, back to where the souls came into netherworld. “Hey, narrator... is this really a happy ending? I’m not so sure. I mean, Juno seems nice and all. Just, is this really what she should have?” he muttered.

I cannot answer.

Abdul sighed, unhappy at the lack of response, and started after Juno. “Probably just overthinking. I always overthink, y’know? Who cares. Soon I’ll be able to see earth. I’ll be able to see what the humans like about life so much. Hell yeah. Yeah! Wait up Juno!” He hurried after her, leaving Tunk and Harley in the mist.

[hirakdesherrani]

Why I love Shrenu Parikh as GKS?!?

Had posted this on Indiaforums two days back on occasion of Shrenu’s birthday. Thanks to @sitaaronkepaar, my Saathiya in the Tumblr world, for suggesting me to post it here as well. <3

Playing the character of Gauri is very difficult because it's very easy to dismiss Gauri as a typical, sanskaari' character without any substance. The only reason why the audience understands Gauri's motivations is because of how Shrenu plays her, and literally elevates the inconsistent and patchy script, to make Gauri likable. Here are some of the scenes which I loved:

1.    The breakup scene

This has to be the best scene written for Gauri till date. First off, credit goes to the scriptwriters and directors, because this scene was scripted and directed really well. Coming to Shrenu's performance, it's no secret that emotional scenes are Shrenu's forte. The sequence was aired in two parts. In the first part, the focus was more on Om. However, there were little things that I noticed in this scene. There is this tiny movement where Gauri touches her ear as if she can't bear to listen to what Om is saying. These slight movements do make a difference to the whole scene because it shows just how hurtful Om's words are, that Gauri is not able to bear them anymore and also can't believe what is happening. Shrenu always does these small movements, which add depth to the scene. The closing shot of the first scene where Om stomps out, the camera focuses on Gauri's face, and Shrenu clearly portrays Gauri's rage, disgust, and how she is done with the accusations.

Act 2 of the break-up scene focuses completely on Gauri. Here, as expected Shrenu excels. The whole confession scene has been praised enough for how Shrenu conveyed her feelings in English as a person who has newly learnt the language and made the diction believable. Again the small movements are important here as well, how Gauri pulls up Om's face to look at the proofs she's throwing at him, how Gauri shows her frustration by slightly stomping her feet, and the physical uneasiness displayed to show the contained rage and disappointment; Shrenu got it all correct.

Coming to expressions, there was everything from disappointment, rage, hurt, love, frustration, and a feeling of finality that she is done with everything. I don't need to go into more detail about how Shrenu portrayed all the emotions and switched effortlessly to make it a superlative performance.

The fact that this whole sequence was shot while she was still recovering from dengue shows how much of an experienced and nuanced performer she is.

2.    Thakurain Gauri

Though of course the break-up scene was the most powerful scene written for Gauri, my favorite scene in terms of Shrenu's acting prowess remains Thakurain Gauri. Shrenu was marvelous in this scene. First things first, what I immediately noticed was the voice modulation. I feel Shrenu tweaked her voice a bit, to make it sound more mature. Also, the authoritative tone can't be missed. Right from where she enters, and comments on who's making so much noise, there is a change in her voice.

Major part of this scene was portrayed through Shrenu's eyes. She did a perfect job of getting the arrogance and mockery just right for Thakurain. Thakurain Gauri had a commanding presence, and Shrenu was actually given heavier eye make up and heavier clothes to justify that. Of course, her acting had a lot of weight, which is why it did not look out of place when Om actually followed her command and agreed for the tika.

I loved how Shrenu switched really fast between Thakurain Gauri who mocked Omkara as opposed to Gauri who was scared for Omkara as well as herself. When Om mentions Chulbul, Shrenu actually conveys Gauri's pain and somewhat pride at their friendship only through her eyes, because at the mention of Chulbul her gaze softens. That one second eye movement, is difficult to miss and yet too quick. Shrenu superbly did it.

Shrenu had to show a lot of restraint as Thakurain Gauri who is cold and completely opposite to Gauri in nature. Also, in the scene where Om manhandles Gauri, Shrenu had to portray dual fear: Thakurain Gauri's fear that Om is getting violent so this fear had to be superficial and materialistic fitting into Thakurain Gauri's personality as someone who only cares for herself, and Gauri's fear that Om hates her so much and she might get him into more trouble.

I think through this scene Shrenu proved her potential to take up a negative role in future or even the role of a matriarch who lords over everyone else. Shrenu was brilliant in this scene.

3.    Dangal scene

Again in this sequence, the direction was flawless and needs to be complimented. This scene saw Shrenu portraying a different aspect of Gauri, which can be dubbed as cold rage. Thankfully, the script was crisp and did not demand any over-the-top dialogues, which would have ruined the effect. Shrenu gave a pretty measured performance in this scene, where Gauri's rage can be felt but its more calm in the sense that she is trying to prove a point.

As an actress, Shrenu needs to be commended for doing something rarely done in Indian television. Also, this was a greater challenge for her as she is petite for this kind of sequence. Again the action director needs to be congratulated for getting the action moves just right to make the scene believable.

Shrenu had to act in a way to make her screen presence feel weightier as she crossed off with a wrestler. This she managed to do pretty well as her expressions was calculative as well exuding confidence. Also, the last moment where Gauri is cornered and struggling, was done really well.

4.    Rage scenes

Starting with the second episode itself, i.e. the bulldozer scene, which is a favorite of many. One peculiar trait of Gauri is how the tears flow out when she is angry, and Shrenu mastered that really well. The "aansu nahi angaarey hain line fits perfectly here. Again, Shrenu portrays the anger through her eyes. The expression "eyes blazing” literally fits the bill for Shrenu in those scenes. When she bulldozes over Om's car, and the expression of contentment after the job is well done, which is equivalent to letting out all the anger, is pretty subtly portrayed by Shrenu.

Other scenes where I noticed the expressions of rage were in Gauri's confrontations with Kali. An example is one Kali is pulling her to the mandap the second time and she has a broken bottle in hand, there is an expression of calculated rage and determination, which makes the whole scene believable. It's difficult to portray a puny woman getting better of a villainous character without any defense skill sets, but Shrenu brings a certain heavy presence to her acting in those scenes, which make it not only believable and highly enjoyable to watch.

5.    Emotional scenes

There are several other scenes, which I liked a lot, but a blow-by-blow analysis will make it repetitive. One of the most powerful scenes we got to see recently was Omkara's confession. The best shot of Shrenu in that scene is when Gauri laughs off Omkara's sudden reminder that she is married to him. Shrenu's immediate change of expression from mirthless, hysterical laughter to rage, and how she punctuated that rage by shoving Omkara away, was very well done. Throughout this scene, there was specific emphasis on particular words and in general the intonation of dialogues in that scene was very well done. Scenes like the Goodbye scene in the staircase, both the exhibition scenes where in the first one she meets Om after leaving and flees and the second one where the fiasco happened, the Finale scene of DBO, the confrontation after the inspiration scene, the scene where Gauri is asking about the princess' future while Om is narrating a story to Pari, etc were beautifully done, and Shrenu's acting is so heartbreaking, that I literally needed to brave up myself to watch it. Shrenu always gets it right balance between over-the-top (TRP-audience-pleasing) crying and bawling. The slight gulping or reaching for air or sniffing (with her nose going red) or hesitation, depending on the scene, adds to the quality of the scenes. I've said this before, but Shrenu cries beautifully and emotional scenes are her forte.

6.    Chulbul track

Coming to something that I've seen on Indian TV after a long time, the infamous or famous (depending on who's watching) Chulbul track.  The thing with cross-dressing plot is that it can go horribly wrong. The audience knows it's a girl, so the trick is not how to make it believable (because the suspension of belief is already at work), but how to make it funny without making people cringe. I liked how Shrenu portrayed the dichotomy of two characters. Chulbul's awkward gait, hand gestures, and overall personality were very well done. The point here was not only to make it look comic for a girl pretending to be a boy, but also to keep in mind that its small town girl with traditional values, who is impersonating a boy, so Chulbul had to be extra shy. Shrenu caught that bit really well. There were quite a few funny scenes in this track but some of my favorites were the one night stand scene, the leaf skirt scene, and the "hum chirota nahi, chiraiyaa hai” bit. I just wish the track wasn't stretched so much, and we had more funny moments. As an actor I think, Shrenu pulled off this track pretty well.

7.    Comic timing

One cannot end this post without mentioning Shrenu's excellent comic timing. Every comic scene is like perfection itself. The best part about the comic scenes is Shrenu's expressions. She is without doubt the expression queen in the entire IB cast. She manages the balance with over-the-top comic antics and understated comedy so effortlessly. Whether it's the ‘bhooot' in the car or the ‘bhaujaaiii' in the motorbike, Shrenu's expressions are unbeatable. Also, the whole bhang ladoo scene, and the expressions which she is making, what is even her face! Also, the scenes where Shrenu has to emote expressions when Gauri is talking in her mind, like the scene with Ragini, or in the car with Om, those scenes were superbly done. Just the right amount of drama for the television screen without making it over-the-top.

Finally, though IB/DBO is not really a dramatic serial on par with others, Shrenu, at least, got to portray the most varied shades of a character on this show, for which as a fan, I'm grateful, because I got to see her superlative performance.

[chucklingdevil]

The Rise of Skywalker review

I will put the spoilers under the cut. So if you don't want to see any then don't read ahead of that. You've been warned.

Ok, I only just saw this today, so I'll give my honest opinion, based on the first viewing alone. I'll need to see it again to really understand how I feel about this latest Star Wars movie.

The first thing I noticed was the pacing. It is very rushed. That, coupled with the info dumping leaves it a bit scrambled. This movie gives you a lot of information in clumps. With hardly any time to adjust before pushing you through to the next scene. Seriously, the amount of cuts between scenes was almost ridiculous. Especially for a two hour film.

It didn't really feel like Star Wars to me? I don't know what it was but the whole tone of this film was very different to any of the other films. Slightly off.

The story itself was interesting. Nothing at all like I'd been expecting. Major changes to previously established canon, in some aspects. But it wasn't overly horrendous. A lot of good things that need more expanding on.

The character development was honestly a little stunted. Especially for some characters. There really isn't much more I can say without spoiling anything. So...

Spoilers below the cut:

General Hux

Look, I'll be honest, I went in to the movie only wanting to see more Hux content. There was very little of it. Which wasn't surprising. He's got a balance of TFA Hux and TLJ Hux going on, so that was nice enough to see. The main point of Hux in this film was to be the one leaking information to the Resistance. Now, if I hadn't been spoiled for this plot point already (because some people just don't seem to understand that others want to watch the film), then I might have genuinely been giddy with my surprise over Hux's declaration to being the spy. It's played as more of a comedy bit, unfortunately, but it was still something that held some weight to the film. If only for the first third or so of it. And it was nice to see Hux being the dramatic bitch for once.

There have been arguments and speculations over Hux's actions during the film, and they all have valid points. But, given the circumstances, it was probably the best the Hux fans would have gotten out of it. And I know that some of us are staunchly refusing to believe he is actually dead. Because, you know, it was never confirmed on screen. We'll know more when we get our books and comics.

Allegiant General Pryde

I had been expecting more. A waste of a good actor, really (like a lot of this film). He's stone-faced and one dimensional. Sure, we don't really want our space nazis to be overly likeable, but this character wasn't really fleshed out for the audience. He was just something severe for the film goers to look at. Something tacked in to make a connection with the Empire and the First Order. His character roll could have easily been filled in by Hux instead. Just a shame Richard E. Grant didn't get more to work with. He was still interesting to watch, for the most part. 

New characters

Look, it's a big wide galaxy, full of billions and trillions of life forms, but we don't need to be introduced to every single one of them. Yes, the point of the Resistance is to help these sentient beings and to fight for them, but having too many given to us at once is just asking too much of the audience. We get that it's a vast place, but do you think the audience will care overly much if the film focused on the characters that have already been established, rather than introduce, possibly, old flings of Poe Dameron, and countless other nameless sentients? Even those of the Resistance? For that matter, what about characters that had already been established but never got any proper characterisations? The Knights of Ren, for example? What happened to them? Nothing. They were faceless, nameless grunts that did the foot work, with little given to make them even remotely interesting. They were just there.

Rose doesn’t get much screen time at all. But it was good to see that her role in the Resistance played to her strengths.

The timing of Comedy and the dialogue

Like I said before, there was a lot of information and most of it was given to us through dialogue. About half the time the dialogue in this movie was clunky. Especially when it came to delivering the key points of the whole film. Nothing was visual. The only time we got a visual output of information it was later overly explained. We didn't need all the talking! It was too much noise in an already noisy franchise. And the dialogue for the comedy, what was that? It was very modern, is what it was. I get that you need to placate the audience in some ways and give them something they're familiar with, like stuff from The Office or any other current comedy show from America or Canada, but that really didn't hold well in this universe. It was awkward. Some of the running gags were alright (they fly!) but the main examples I can give would be the following:

'Be a little more positive' (I'm paraphrasing, my memory isn't that good). This is given in response to some bad news. The answering dialogue? 'Everything's going wonderfully'- or some such. To a situation that really shouldn't be joked about.

'You're relieved to see us.' 'Oh, yeah, so relieved. Thank god you're here.' Stormtroopers being Jedi mind tricked can defiantly lead to comedy, TFA showed us that. Here, it was just weird. There wasn't anything funny about it. It feels too much like a Marvel movie, with a joke being thrown in every ten minutes.

Having said that, Palpatine's dialogue was on point. There's no denying that.

The finale of Palpatine and Rey

Ok, look, I’m not really sure if I like the whole ‘Rey being Palpatine’s granddaughter’ bit, but what can I really say on that? Their scenes together were still good. Rey is still Rey, and the Emperor is still his groovy self. 

Redemption

Look, the whole point of redemption isn’t whether someone deserves it or not, but still. Did Kylo Ren really need redeeming? Given his action, through all three movies, I don’t think it was the right direction for his character. The sudden change, brought on by the death of his mother, was a little much. (And I don’t even know what to think about the way Leia’s death was used in this). Yeah, he’s had a shock to the system, and he’s probably fed up with the constant push and pull from all sides, but I don’t think he actually was redeemed? It didn’t seem like it to me, anyway. He just threw away another aspect of his life he didn’t like and tried for something else. Does that make sense?

The Kiss (Capital 'K', to emphasis my dislike for it)

The Kiss. The. Kiss. Why? Just, why! It wasn’t needed (and apparently only put in in re-shoots?) Honestly, I knew it was coming (another spoiler, thanks for that guys) and I was dreading it the entire film. The only way I can logically see it playing out, Rey was just so relieved to be alive that she just had an impulse of sudden idiocy? Like, the whole film, the dialogue between them wasn’t romantic, in any sense. Not to me, and not to other people I’ve talked with about it. Seriously. I honestly think these two just wanted to be friends, but wouldn’t be because of their aversions to one another’s actions/ beliefs. ‘I offered you my hand’, that wasn’t at all like a marriage proposal. Every time Ren mentions Rey taking his hand it genuinely just feels like a desperate plea for friendship. Watching them kiss was disheartening. The fact that these two complex characters had been reduced to fan fodder like that, a decision made for some bizarre reason, just felt so disappointing. They worked well as a team, they could have worked well as partners, but a romantic relation between the two just never seemed feasible. The actors did the best they could, but you could tell they didn’t like the re-shoot.

Things I found interest:

There were actual female voices given to the stormtroopers this time. It's always been established that any stormtrooper could be anyone but this was the first time I could recall hearing different voices. You could actually tell them apart

D-O is adorable, end of discussion

The cinematography was amazing. Not quite as striking as what we were given in TLJ but still good. As always. I really enjoyed the Sith Throne Room and every scene in Exegol

Emperor Palpatine's final form outfit was beautiful. I want one. I will have one

The design of Sith Rey's lightsaber was wonderful. Good use of a double bladed saber that can fold. Pity we didn't get to see more of it

The whole scene of the festival, and the children, was just beautiful. Don't care that it took away form the plot a little. They were happy and grooving around

Better choreography for lightsaber battles

Hux's 'boardroom' scene

The fact that they actually took time and care to show that Chewie would grieve for Leia's death

There were other defector stormtroopers

Leia's lightsaber

Rey's lightsaber

Hux with a cane

The music. Oh, the way they spruced up Rey's Theme for this film was good. I distinctly remember it playing towards the end, as she's looking up at the stars, and hearing Jedi of the past bolstering her. Looking into her eyes and hearing her theme playing was really something

And probably some other stuff that I'll remember when I go and see it again

Rise of Skywalker wasn't really good or bad. I don't know what to think of it. I think it just needed to establish itself a little better in terms of the tone of the overall film. It just didn't sit quite right. Too many movies crammed in to one. If they had made two parts, it was have worked much better. But, of course, they couldn’t break the Trilogy Recipe.

Anyway, rant over. I’ve probably missed a lot, but these were just some of the things I remember now. The themes and messages are all muddled and I’ve never been very good in analysing those. So yeah.