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rrcraft-and-lore · 19 days

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Monkey Man and why I loved the heck out of it

At it's core, it's a Bollywood flick presented to the West with familiar nods to previous action films - I definitely picked up hints of Tony Jaa's influence on Asian action flicks throughout.

It's heavily focused on police corruption, something commented a lot about in India, and here, more importantly, Indian films. Just like America has its love affair with mobster flicks, Bollywood has a long history featuring films that showcase police corruption, sometimes tied into political extremism, fanatical or greedy religious leaders, and Monkey Man comments on all this as well and pays nods to that commonality. We've got televangelists and religious leaders in the states funnelling money, preaching prosperity gospel, and using it to influence politics and fund lavish lifestyles here.

Monkey Man shows this happening in India, and is filled with Indian culture and symbolism through out. The focus on Hanuman, the god and one worshiped by the strong, chaste, wrestlers, champions, and fighters. It's a common thing to have a household deity if you will. Some families might choose to focus worship on Ganesh, others Hanuman, some might do Mata Rani or Lakshmi. Here, it's the divine Vanara (monkey people race) - one of the Chiranjivi - immortals/forever-lived.

Hanuman. Themes of rebirth, common in South Asian history and mythology are present from Kid being a ringer, beat up fighter getting whooped for money to being reborn and facing his trauma through a ritual/meditate process that I don't want to get too much into to not spoil the movie. Post that, he begins his own self alchemy to really become the true Monkey Man. Nods to Ramayama, and an unapologetically Indian story featuring dialogues throughout in Hindi - don't worry, there are subtitles.

And of course a love for action flicks before it, all the way back to Bruce Lee. A beautiful use tbh of an autorickshaw (and you might know them as tuk-tuks in Thailand) which are popular in India with an added kick...I swear, that thing had to be modified with a hayabusa motor. Which is an actual thing people do - modding those dinky rickshaws with motorcycle engines, and considering they weigh nothing at all, they can REALLY FLY once you do that.

Monkey Man brings to the big screen other elements of India people might not know about, such as the gender non conforming and trans community that has a long history in India, presenting them as action stars as they go up against a system of corrupt elites oppressing part of the city, marginalized communities, and minority voices as depicted in the film. I'm not sure if people are going to get all of that without having the context, but I love that it does it without holding anyone's hands.

It's a fun action flick to see in the age of superhero films, and I say that as an obvious superhero/sff nerd. Also loved that Dev included a little bit about Hanuman's own story in the film, and the loss of his powers - almost mirrored by Kid's own loss of self/skills, strength until he confronts his trauma and is reborn, and in fact, remade (not necessarily the same). Also, the use of music was brilliant, including one scene with a tabla (the paired hand drums of south asia) - and Indian music is central to Indian stories.

This is a culture with evidence going back to the Paleolithic with cave murals showing art of Indian dance nearly 30,000 years ago. Yeah, that far back. As well as Mesolithic period art depicting musical instruments such as gongs, lyres, and more.

Indian music is some of the earliest we can find that has high developed beat and rhythm structures such as 5, 7, 9 and now the extremely common and known 4/4 and 3/4 - which so much of Western music is built upon. The foundations and experimentation of/in Jazz. John Coltrane and John Cage were heavily inspired by Indian music and incorporated a lot from it into their works. And Monkey Man blends Eastern and Western music through the narrative as comfortably as it does an Indian story in a very familiar Western accessible structure.

Dev did a wonderful job. And thanks to Jordan Peele for bringing it to screens.

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anotherfanaccount · 8 months

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You know what I love about srk movie releases, people talking about him, how much they love him and how he has influenced their lives, sometimes in bits and sometimes in bigger bits.

And I remember watching his movies and then his interviews and just so utterly charmed by this man exactly my father's age. It was never love for him but just pure admiration and adoration that here's a man who speaks so well and is so witty and funny and oh so charming. Like I get it. How he has charmed an entire generation of women, men, children, just entire families even.

And it just feels so nice to see that he's still there, doing what he does, the good, the bad and the weird.

My love for movies started with Om Shanti Om and he'll thus always be a large part of my movie fangirling. Even with his bad projects, I'll find something to cherish, because that's how biased we can get. Also, you're excused just because of those charm offensive dimples. He really got the genes and personality. Like how is that fair to anyone else.

#srk #shah rukh khan #Shahrukh Khan #bollywood #jawaan #just was back in my srk hours #I adore this man so much like it's not even funny anymore #will have to wait a couple more days to watch jawan so I had to let stuff out #the good reviews always makes me feel like crying #he deserves so much more #like how us he so underused as an actor #yes we know he's a superstar but he has the range #use it people

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scarletsabers-blog · 2 months

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Okay soooo i am thinking of starting a review page like for movies and books and i have kinda been thinking for a long time to start it but never really did it… i still dont know if i should or not

#salaar #movie review #need help #i dont fucking know #should i?#new blog #new page #movies #bollywood #books & libraries #book review

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battieee · 8 months

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Honest Jawan review: As a die heart srk fan, this movie was none other than an emotion for me...the way the screenplay and story are written is very smart and clever ...bgm by Anirudh was a total vibe...from the emotional scenes to the mass fan service scenes ..it always slaps hard ...the cinematography and red chilies vfx ...is GODDAMNN! so good..it beautifies the whole movie ..i personally felt nothing bad about this movie ..but yeah Nayantara's character in the second half suddenly disappears... she had potential but it was wasted...her screen presence was great though...now if i talk about the actor's performances ...vijay sethupathi did a...very cool menacing role which was great ....other actors like Sanya Malhotra and Sunil Grover understood their assignment ...Deepika Padukone...gave such an energetic performance ...which was incredible...she literally spoke words with her eyes...and last but not the least ...a forever king SRK...he has played the massiest character ive ever seen ..his charm and performance...made me tear a bit...seeing how good is he....the vision and direction of Atlee...was straight clear and perfectly executed....overall a fun entertainer ...loved it <3333

#srk #mass #bollywood #shah rukh khan #jawan #bgm #anirudh #trending #review #action #thriller #cinema

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mirambles · 8 months

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Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani - An honest review

I watched Rocky aur Rani ki Prem Kahaani because everyone I know on social media and few close folks in my real life said it was very entertaining - funny, progressive, feminist , and it showed gender equality.

So I was taken aback, because the general sentiment for KJo movies should be ‘It’s so shit, but I love it’ - that is a sentiment I can live with because we all have our guilty pleasures.

KJo has his audience who love the shit he pulls off every time he ‘directs’ a film with toxic masculinity, regressive female leads , justifying infidelity (always the answer to unhappy marriages) , glorifying Indian culture, where he adds 30 mins of melodrama and lectures to make the characters redeem themselves. Kjo’s movies are as lame as they can be, but people love them. I get it - ‘this shit is so bad, it’s so good’ category of films. Guilty pleasures are exactly this!

So sell me his new offering in exactly this manner - but all reviews and social media comments were glowing words of praise of how he has addressed today’s issues and it��s a progressive film. Are people suffering from amnesia or have they not watched better Bollywood films? Because I have a whole list of films you should watch that actually deal with ‘progressive’ mindsets - way before Kjo’s time!

Rani is a feminist. A FL as feisty news anchor who gives a 5 min lecture on men’s gaze, objectification of women and rape culture, but does an absolute U-turn 5 mins later by objectifying a handsome man in front of her. This is gender equality. Tit for Tat.

Wearing open back blouses to work is sign of new age feminism (Will I get trolled for sounding old school - has KJo ever stepped inside a corporate workspace - who dresses like Rani does?) What’s next? Women CEOs wearing bikinis? And why not get all men to dress like Rocky Randhawa - that would be peak gender equality in dress code at workplace.

Infidelity is the answer to all unhappy marriages. Remember KANK? Yes, let’s repeat that here, but let’s twist it into unrequited love between the senior citizens. Then add memory loss and illness excuse to get the 80yr old grandpa smooch his 75yr old ex-lover in front of his wife and entire family. The issue is not old age love, age is never a restriction to fall in love, the issue here is infidelity. But if this isn’t cringe enough, let’s completely destroy the most beautiful romantic number in Bollywood by playing it in the background to immortalise infidelity and later lust under the garb of love.

Let’s get back to our feminism torch bearer Rani, who has now jumped from knowing the guy for two meetings to lusting over him. She is honest with herself (not with Rocky mind you, because at no point have they had any conversation about themselves) that she is in it purely for the physical attraction, it’s just a fling for her. She is an elitist , feminist, Colombian grad, Bengali Girl (who has a terrible Bengali accent) and the crude, can’t speak English well, Gucci/Fendi wearing, Ferrari driving, protein shake drinking, loud Punjabi boy doesn’t match up to her standards. Kjo’s new level of feminism - make women pull the exact shit on men that men have put women through for decades. Tit for Tat! Gender Equality.

Btw at this point I still don’t know why Rocky loves Rani - love at first sight is always about the looks and physical attraction, so convince me why he loves her - because isn’t he this walking-talking green flag just by being understanding of his grandpa’s feelings and calling out Rani checking him out. A walking green flag who gets his grandpa’s ex-lover and his grandpa together to help his grandpa get better - because love is the cure for all illnesses. All doctors and medical researchers have been wasting their time on getting degrees and super specialisations - please enter Kjo’s school of love.

So now Rani realises she is in love - when and why and what changed her feelings from lust to love - I do not know. She drives on a 4-lane highway in the opposite direction - woman should have died there for her reckless driving, but she lives to propose to Rocky on a f&*king Highway! Bollywood I love you for pulling off this shit.

This is supposed to be the pivotal point in their relationship where she professes her love to him, going down on one knee (because hey you see role reversal - she is the feminist, the alpha female) and telling Rocky everything that HE IS NOT , listing her resume and her exes’. Therefore implying he doesn’t deserve her, but she is taking the high road and still falling for him. All the reasons she lists that she loves about him are actually about his physical aspects = Lust. She doesn’t list one meaningful quality that she actually ‘loves’ about him.

It is at this point that I gave up on the film, because after this RRKPK became a collation of scenes dedicated to social media trending topics:

1. Women burdened with household work

2. Women not liberated enough to pursue their dreams

3. Women being fat shamed

4. Cancel culture

5. Men being shamed for pursuing classical dancing (KJo research FFS - 50% of India’s top kathak dancers are males right from 1940s! )

Each topic got 1-2 scenes, tweets converted to preachy dialogues uttered by our ‘feminist’ queen and zero closures or character growth.

The only thing that works in this movie - is Ranveer , not his character, but him! He is effortless in this role, his comic timing is superb, needs some work on emotions.

Alia is a shadow of her awesome self on screen post her marriage to Ranbir. It hurts to say this, cause I have loved her in all her movies except SOTY.

Can people age gracefully, I couldn’t bear to look at Shabana Azmi and Jaya B - former was gorgeous as hell in her younger days, now is swollen with all the Botox fillers! Jaya has forgotten to act completely. Dharmendra should not even be acting anymore.

What was the point of rest of the cast? Only Alia’s dad was a decent act.

The one thing I absolutely love in KJo movies is the music and songs! These were crap too. What Jhumka? Because ruining all the songs from ‘The Golden’ decade of Bollywood was not enough, so they made a terrible mashup of Badtameez Dil & Jhumka Gira Re and killed both the songs in one go! Takes some skill doing this - well done!

Why this long rant if I disliked the movie so much, that too KJo movies? I wouldn’t have written one, if the reviews and comments were honest about the movie being average, typical entertainment; but the moment people praised it to nth level of being socially relevant with feminist heroine and gender equality - they deserved to be called out for their shallow thought process thinking that KJo actually cares about any of this stuff.

Worst people think this is ‘quintessential’ Bollywood. Please watch better films - like Amitabh’s roaring 70s, the romance films of 90s, the fun comedies, the glorious slice of life films from Hrishida, the Yash Chopra multistarrers - that’s quintessential, genuine, charm of Bollywood.

Lastly before I wrap this up - RRKPK when literally translated is Love Story of Rocky and Rani. I spent 2.5 hours on this shit show and I still don’t know the answer to why and how they fell in love! They didn’t have one decent conversation about themselves! The latter half is about them wooing their families. The film should have been aptly titled ‘Randhawa and Chatterjee Ki Prem Kahaani’ - It’s all about loving your family - K3G Part 2!

#rocky aur rani ki prem kahani #rrkpk #karan johar #ranveer singh #alia bhatt #shabana azmi #Jaya Bhaduri #dharmendra #film review #honest review #Bollywood #kabhi khushi kabhie gham #hindi films

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lovelybabaji · 2 months

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This movie should be viewed as an essential, especially for us, the modern oh-so-open-minded clammy society.

The saddest part is, it's based on a real incident. Still, many of you (the readers) will ignore this, even if you watch it you will forget it. Because we have real problems to think of, hate pehlena priority hai, we don't talk or chant about the actual problems.

#india #mumbai #netflix #movie review #bollywood #bhakshak

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bollywoodqueenkatrina · 4 months

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#Katrina Kaif #Vijay Sethupathi #Instagram #bollywood #bollywood2 #katrinakaifedit #social media #my edit #Merry Christmas #HELL YES!!!#QUEENIE IS GETTING RAVE REVIEWS #so happy for her I'm SCREAMING!!!#she deserves all the love

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theinfinitedivides · 1 year

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someone tell white people stop reviewing Bollywood by mediocre Western standards i'm f*cking crying rn

#film: pathaan #pathaan #local gay watches Bollywood.txt #this applies to pretty much everything but specifically at this moment this is for this film #just saw the Variety review of Pathaan and the first thing he does is compare it to RRR??? goes ahead and calls RRR Bollywood???#chewing and biting RRR is not f*cking Bollywood #it is part of South Indian cinema. more specifically it is part of Tollywood #when the actors in RRR do media interviews and tell you it isn't a Bollywood film #you'd think you'd f*cking listen for once but apparently not #then continues the review by naming a bunch of Western action stars and saying that Bollywood used to feel more exotic #exotic is like a nails-on-chalkboard word for me and #'James Bond meets Jason Bourne meets Jason Statham meets Fabio'#i'm sorry but Don had a better f*cking soundtrack than James Bond's entire career so i think SRK gets to have a little fun #and be a mismatch of overplayed tropes and already seen actors if he wants to. while being hotter than them. just as a treat #(btw Daniel Craig as Bond gets excluded from the 'entire career' bc he's also hot and heavily bisexual. gays get rights in this household)#also how could i forget the sacrilege of 'Khan who suggests a sleeker more ripped Adam Driver in a man-bun'#pls. pls don't compare him to that man he doesn't deserve that kind of slander to his looks and reputation sksksksk #i need to cleanse my eyes from this they didn't deserve that kind of slander either

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pearlgisa · 10 months

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qala and the style over substance argument

so, i watched qala (dir. by anvita dutt) immediately when it came out - a story that exposed the music industry and the position of women in it, especially focusing on the toxic nature of indian classical music? it was like they made the film for me (someone who's spent a good chunk of their life trained in hindustani classical music). however, i was sorely disappointed.

in essence, qala, along with other films that did commercially well that came out in bollywood last year, solidified my understanding that the audience of today's generation of movie-watchers genuinely puts style over substance and in fact, uses it as a way to defend their favourite movies from criticism. the recent resurgence of praise for om shanti om of all films, only strengthened this opinion.

my criticisms for qala are in plenty, yet i will choose to expand on the ones that strike out the most to me, all of which range from the lightest to the harshest criticism:

the choice of music

the acting

the direction + writing

the handling of the serious issues that are the main theme of the film

before you read ahead, please know that there are spoilers.

in indian classical music, there are two distinct forms: hindustani (or, north indian) and carnatic (or south indian) music. each have their differences and similarities and even someone who hasn't trained can tell them apart upon listening. within hindustani music - which is the genre of music that qala learns from her mother - you have many different styles of singing, ranging from shastriya sangeet (classical form of singing) to laghu sangeet (semi-classical and sometimes, light music). of course, this categorization also has its roots in religion and caste. shastriya sangeet has forms of singing like dhrupad (the oldest form and a strictly devotional medium), khyal (the most common one, telling tales or speaking of human emotions), bhajan (also a devotional medium), etc.

laghu sangeet has forms of classical music like the thumri, a form of singing popularized and invented by courtesans. the lyrics were sensual, romantic and more explicit. of course, owing to these, they were looked down upon. even the british had a huge role in diminishing the status of indian women performers. the "other woman" concept was specifically one that they propagated and the rise of the "perfect housewife" phenomena began since the seventeenth century. the extreme effect of that? the courtesans lost out on their patrons and were forced into prostitution.

hence, that was the primary history behind qala's mother, urmila, shaming her into never being a performer, i.e, in a more derogatory term, a "singing girl". a courtesan, essentially. which is accurate, considering the film is set in the 1940s. if a girl was too "out there in the world", i.e, her achievements being publicised in newspapers or her getting recognition for her academics, her future marital prospects were ruined. and the "shame" that befell the family if she was learning music or dance was worse. a significant number of the prominent female musicians that emerged from this era of pre-independence to post-independence were unmarried. or they had many patrons and salacious rumours regarding their love life were in plenty. the film pakeezah (1972) explores such themes quite well. and the many renditions and retellings of devdas also serve as a good example of the stature of performing women.

however, it's the music itself where it goes wrong for me. the choice of songs as well as qala's singing (of course, all of qala's songs are sung by the amazing sireesha bhagavatula), is in a style all too similar to laghu singing. the years of egregious training, no matter how much her mother dismissed her, would've developed a voice which would've sounded a lot more like what a lot of classical singers would sound like, unless they were singing a lighter form of singing. and it isn't a matter of pitch or using falsetto. qala's mom is referred to as a master of qawallis, which is a sufi form of devotional singing (and comes well under hindustani music too). even the lyrics of qala's songs, while full of very obvious foreshadowing, do not match the overall orthodox classical upbringing that the film portrays.

while bhagavatula has an amazing voice well versed in classical music (especially since she sings bhajans so often), considering the time that qala was set in, you would've expected a sound similar to something along the lines of noor jehan or even roshan ara begum. instead, it sounds a lot like a mix of semi-classical instrumental with a more pop-based voice. which is easier for our generation to digest and consume, however, it comes at the cost of a sound which is very typical of the 50s-70s era of bollywood.

one that qala does right are the costumes. they do their job well. not the sets as much, which i will get into later. at some points, they are well in line with the rest of the era of the film, other times it just sticks out like a sore thumb. here's where the "symbolism" comes in.

one of the most jarring examples is the song qala sings at the first performance, a very light classical song just by the sound of the vocals. even the song jagan sings is very contemporary at its core. despite the characters having an allegedly strict, traditional schooling of music (jagan's voice is devoid of the typical heavy accent or dialects that those who are from underprivileged backgrounds tends to have), the songs at hand present a very modern take on qawallis, despite bollywood being a flourishing ground for many iconic qawallis. therefore, the compositions sometimes falter at some points specifically because of the vocal choices. choosing to do away with alaaps, especially in qala's part, less aakar and more bariki, are all signficant details that feel jarring to someone who's lived in the world of classical music as long as qala. otherwise, there are some signature sounds retained from the era that the film is set in.

and while still on the topic of singing, a very important issue that i find least addressed is the acting of it. despite there being little vocal variations in the compositions, the actors don't show that they are singing. and in the film specifically revolving around music, that's an extremely important detail that i find amiss. hardly opening the mouth, the movement of the lips, the posture as well as the hand gestures (yes, a very important detail!), are all obvious flaws. a recent film that does that does those details well is the disciple (2020). the first scene of urmila teaching qala singing displays urmila wearing an elaborate piece of nose jewellery that covers half of her mouth, and that's when they're doing rehyaas (practice), not a performance. it's huge details like these that don't sell the film to me.

the acting is quite underwhelming and here is where disagreements with my opinions might enter. i find trupti dimri's rendition of qala extremely, for lack of politer words, exasperating. she tends to show the same expressions for all of her problems, i.e., there is no great difference between her feeling anger or feeling despair or feeling depressed or feeling cheated or just plain exhaustion. qala's character is a complex one and difficult to act, which is a concession i will give, however, the hype around her is a little unnerving when the audience is given such an unremarkable delivery of dialogues and emotion. it comes off as school-play acting at times. swastika mukherjee, who plays urmila, is quite two-note with her acting, which sometimes suits her character and sometimes just feels very low-effort. babil khan has his moments, yet there is such less versatility. you'd think the babil of qala's hallucinations and the one who existed in real life would have some distinct characteristics (which they do), but they never come off as that. it feels so half-hearted at times.

the whole point of symbolism is that it's subtle at heart and not on the face. qala has on-the-face symbolism, which is an irony in itself. the black swan scene, the frosty room in the beginning, the ghostly jagan, etc. almost made me bump my nose into a wall. it comes off as pretentious at best, as if the viewer is stupid. it is also very off-putting in some scenes. for example, the black swan scene - there is very little buildup and it feels very predictable in the sense that "it all goes downhill from here". however, there is one scene which i like, which is the gargoyle one (a very traumatic scene, for those who recall, it is the one right before ghodey pe sawaar gets recorded for the final time). i think that is the most effective filmmaking in the entire film. the best thing about symbolism is always the subtlety. it makes the viewer keep coming back to pick up on something they might have missed in the first watch, it helps them pick up the pieces along the way instead of being able to tell the twists thirty minutes before they are revealed.

and one of the most egregious crimes of the entire film is the direction. here is where we get a little more technical (but just briefly, do not worry). the way it cuts from one scene to the next is like watching a poorly edited reel put out by the team of an out-of-touch marketing firm. the editing could have been better at many places. the writing falls flat specifically when it comes to the characters. i'm pretty sure on paper, the script must've been a delight to read. the story has so much potential - considering that it's based on two books, where there might've been even more depth given to the characters - it isn't new in any way but it offers a different, feminist perspective of the indian music industry. yet, the characters are paper thin on screen - in their ambitions, psychology and sociology. hence, urmila suddenly turning a new leaf in the last ten minutes of the film is something that feels wrong, because all along, she has been portrayed as a heartless mother. qala's actions make sense because her character has nearly always been rooted in self pity and rage. jagan is nothing without music. there is very little dimension to them apart from me summarizing their characters in one sentence with less than thirty words each.

that is why, the film feels even more half-hearted when it speaks of the issues that it centers around. all of these elements add up and make for a tiring watch. i gave qala a second chance, to be fair and omitted some of my pettier criticisms, yet the more serious ones remain. to a certain extent, it does aestheticize depression, which i have a huge issue with. however, baby steps as always with bollywood. it's no dear zindagi considering it is set in a different period with a different ending. however, the writing of the characters could've been so much better. a little more exploration of urmila's intentions would've given her so much depth. a few more interactions between qala and jagan might've given qala the chance to befriend him and not just see him a rival, thus intensifying the decision she took. the characters do not feel human, they are strictly white or black and qala being the anti-hero feels very off since it requires better writing and a stronger plot. and of course, much better acting.

however, qala re-opened up discussion of a nearly-always forgotten discourse - that of the position of women in music. and for achieving that bare minimum, i give it full credit. however, when there have been films with much better writing, characterization and cinematography in bollywood itself, with a similar theme, qala needs to be seen for what it contains than what it displays. just because it glitters, doesn't mean it's gold.

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creatinganewwlife · 3 months

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“Log sath sath isiliye nhi rehte kyunki vo bhool jaate hai, log sath isiliye rehte hai kyunki vo maaf kr dete hai.”

— Saru, Sanam Teri Kasam (2016)

#sanam teri kasam #desi #desiblr #desi cinema #mawra hocane #harshvardhan rane #desi aesthetic #desi tumblr #love story #movieblr #bollywood #bollywood cinema #movie review #movies #🍿

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mormonbooks · 7 months

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The Bollywood Lovers' Club Review

This book absolutely wrecked me (affectionate)

4/5 Stars!!!!!!!

Amrita Sidhu moves away from her home in California, leaving behind a community and extended family where she knows who she is. Her new home in Ohio is cold and lonely but at least she has a couple of classes with Dave Gill, who is sweet and funny and awkward and Mormon. Amrita is Sihk and is not supposed to be dating anybody, certainly not a Mormon kid that her family doesn't even know. Dave is already struggling with how to tell his parents he won't be going to college like they expected, and he's still undecided on a mission. Falling for a girl outside his religion just adds another secret into his life.

This book centers around religion, faith, family expectation, and personal goals. I wish I'd had this kind of book to read growing up. For once I felt like my high school experience was accurately portrayed.

Spoilers under the cut

1. Well written - 5 Stars

Admittedly, you could probably find flaws in the plot if you looked. It's a High School Romance. Some things are cheesy or happen too fast or whatever, but personally I found the story and writing style engaging, realistic, relatable, and anxiety inducing at time.

2. Fun level - 5 Stars!

I love to read, but it's not often a book can hold my undivided attention for 4 hours straight. This book did. Every time I picked it up I felt myself sucked into Dave and Amrita's world. It might not be everyone's cup of tea (it IS a high school realistic fiction novel. No magic or spaceships) but I was entertained the whole way through.

3. Complex faith - 5 Stars

This is my favorite representation of Mormon life that I have EVER seen. It is exactly the kind of book I am looking for in this project. Dave is Mormon. He goes to early morning seminary and helps out in his ward. He loves his faith but he's also not afraid to ask questions about how things pertain to him personally. He grapples with his faith, and with what people have told him to do, before coming to his own conclusions.

Importantly, Amrita's religion is portrayed just as complexly throughout the book. And neither Dave nor Amrita ever consider giving up their faiths or converting or anything. I appreciated that they included Dave's grandfather, who converted to Mormonism from Sihkism, and explored how Dave feels this disconnect when he visits the gurdwara, like it's a place he should belong, but doesn't.

This book treats religion as a mixture of personal beliefs, family tradition, and community belonging, which is how I feel about my religion.

4. Homophobia scale - 2.5

Absolutely no mention of queerness at all. So it just gets the most medium score. There was no preaching but no gay people.

5. Mormon weird - 2

We had Dave explaining his green jello video project at one point, and a portrayal of Mormon wedding reception in the church gym (someone in Dave's ward at the beginning of the book). But overall it was light on the things that make Mormonism unique. Which I think worked for the story it was telling but does get it a low score in this area. It made me feel all the more represented for that I think.

6. Diversity of characters - 4

There are only like, two white girls in the whole story. Everybody else is Punjabi/Indian. Although that's really just one demographic, I am giving it a high score here because of how much it showed of Punjabi culture, and how much respect and honor those traditions were shown by the narrative. It wasn't just a ton of token characters, it was genuinely working to share a kind of story that doesn't always get told.

7. Other problematic stuff - 5

Didn't notice anything more of note.

Conclusion:

This is the kind of story I wish I had been able to read in high school. This is the kind of book I could recommend to someone as just, genuinely a good story and also it includes mormons. And Mormons done well! I feel like a lot of Mormon media I've seen focused a lot at making fun of ourselves, and I love that this book doesn't do that at all.

The end was heartbreaking. But I like that it allowed each character their choice, and it gave honor to prioritizing something other than romantic love.

#mormon #mormon representation #religion #The Bollywood Lovers' club #james goldberg #janci patterson #side note: interesting how both this and daughter of the deep have an indian girl and a mormon boy #gonna recommend this book to everyone who ships gem and ana/j #book review

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