Masala Rum is 20! Now What Happens?

Yes I suppose nothing will change, I'll still be doing jumpology shots!

Well this is a very momentous occasion today, because I am 20 and no longer a teen in title but always a teen in my mind!

Yes my faithful flock that have been following and reading this blog when I started out as a hyper exuberant 17 year old to my present day state as a moderately mature but still exuberant 20 year old! I thank you all, for reading the inane posts full of few

commas, and typos, but I though I'd better do a filmi meme of MASALA Empress RUM! Because Masala is definitely my middle name, when I think of my 20 years of movie watching, and naturally I'm Empress of the Masala Pradesh state which was formed when I was a giddy eighteen year old, and Rumnique being my oft-mangled in pronounciation name! Chalo shuroo hojaiye!

The epitome of a thoughtful Masala film

M se hota Masala - You didn't think I'd forget Masala did you now? Or name dropping my favorite redonkulous film Disco Dancer now? Well since I was 2 till 20, Masala has been in my veins and my blood type must be Masala as well because instinctively I can label a movie as masala even if it has two brothers/sisters/Sheroo birds that are not long lost, or a particular masala vehicle for Brownie Moti in Teri Meherbaniyan

The Man that started it All!

A se hota hai Anil - Yes of course Anil had to be here, and I have to thank him for making 1942 A Love Story and making my first ever film viewing at 2 years old the best film to start my odyssey with. 20 years later, that film is still the most special, wonderful, beautiful to revisit all the time, which is definitely the cheesy reason I had to bring it with me to my new home in the middle of nowhere Canada, because Anil in that movie is just super freaking adorable and can channel an old Hollywood star with his gallant striding around in that film!

Ohh the emo pain of Filmi Bachhas everywhere

S se hota hai Shameful Classics - Of course the week I devised was the best week after Chichi, Khanna-o-Rama, Sridevipalooza, and all the other star related weeks. What was revealed that week was astonishing, lots of you have a lot of besharam films you adore, and hell me included if I managed to be have a BARSAAT cry in Toofan. Naturally I was the one to champion the Shameful icons Uday and Himesh with their earnest acting. I think there's some quote by Steven Spielberg about how if you can find a nugget of goodness in any film, good or rubbish, then that's the magic of cinema, and really that's me! I loved that week for finding the crazy brilliant nuggets from Toofan and Radio, and reading all your discoveries as well!

A se hota hai Amar, Akbar, Anthony - The touchstone of the quintessential Masala film by the Masala auteur of craziness Manmohan Desai, is the film that I can watch over and over to get a zap of my masala power! Its got all my favorite actors, and the best title song and climax ever full of hysteria and hijincks that only Desai can put on the table. There have been many imitations of the Desai way of masala filmmaking and really it doesn't work and you have go back to the source material, and behold the sheer glory of the piece!

The Film that Created My Filmi Pagal Blog!

L se hota hai Love - I wouldn't have made the Masala Pradesh or this glorious blog if I didn't SUPER LOVE Indian films, because naturally when the internet came along and when blogging was the new kid on the block, I just had to chronicle my filmi descent into madness about films. This is the perfect outlet to unleash my overwhelming love for all things Masala, Batshit, and downright Bakwaas. As you'll see I have a ton of lists like the Moustache post at the beginning which shows the extent of my BollyHollyMusical-itis and general pyar for EVERYTHING! And here's for more outpourings of unabashed Looove!

Most people's reaction to my shelf!

A se hota hai Abundance - I just came home this weekend to Vancouver for this celebrate this birthday in a city, and when I got in everything seemed so new, and that includes the dvd shelf. I went upstairs and looked at the 2 sagging shelves that might just split in half carrying the magnitude of the dvds I've bought since being in this country and I've been in Vancouver since 2002! Yes its quite a huge shelf and whenever my grandma or auntyji's from London come over, they shriek and go all Nirupa Roy on me and bemoan my addiction to films. Once a film addict, always a film addict, but even though I'm terrible with budgeting and earn the ire of my parents. I have a pretty fabulous collection of classics from every era, films bought only for Filmi animals and Filmi Bacchas, and the rest is all a hodge podge of anything and everything.

No I'm not really a Moody Vijay in real life

R se hota hai Reality - Yes as I begrudgingly learnt Masala films exist in another universe from Earth and there's no Rahul/Raj persona dragging me out to Switzerland to dance with him, no Chichi ribaldry jokes that sound good in conversation, no Sheroo the Wonder Bird to scratch some annoying person's eyes out in Coolie, no way of seeing life through Manoj's crazy cinematography. BUT there is a way to channel my inner 60's heroine, I can put eyeliner on as high as Saira Banu's, I can try and buy every funky dress in Sharmilee and Purab aur Pachim, I can, I can be fierce like a feisty Asha Parekh, I can buy a ton of vintage sunglasses and walk around looking like Zeenat out of Hare Krishna Hare Ram and I can be a Moody Vijay(my new word of being very angry and vigilante-esque like the Amitabh's Vijay) when things don't go my way!

Aww shucks aren't we all we all so like this!

U se hota hai U R SO GREAT - I copped out, I really don't know a good U word this morning, but you all out there that read this blog are so lovely, funny, and wonderful. Though I haven't met some of you, I'm sure I will one day on my travels, if I do ever get some disciplined budgeting skills WHich I will and we'll oodles(love that word) of fun! So thank you for reading and following me for so long and I hope you stick around for more to come!

I'll be the Guddi that still loves the illusion of the silver screen!

M se hota hai Masti- Yes a very underused word that aptly describes me! Full of masti masala mayhem I am always getting up to many pranks and hijinks. Now that I'm 20, the masti will not stop of course because I think at heart I'll always be that crazy, infectiously enthusiastic, and passionate 16 year old discovering the madness and brilliance of movies! Hopefully the 16 year old spirit won't affect my real world judgments and I'll be that 16 year old chatty kid for the film club I just created at Uni as well!

Well there's my quick birthday post, and I'm kinda glad I didn't spell out Rumnique because there's not really many words other than Queen that describe as well! So I hope you keep coming back for many posts and hopefully for a few more years as well. For wherever there's Masala, lost brothers/hamsters, vigilante Vijays, and singing in fields, there'll be Rum!