My wife pointed out something a couple of days ago that I hadn’t actually noticed myself — that we’ve seen a number of Indian movies and TV shows that dealt with the pandemic, but that there were hardly any shows from the west that incorporated the pandemic into their story.

It’s almost as if the pandemic does not exist in the fictional worlds of western movies/TV 😛

In fact, the only show I can think of where I remember the pandemic being dealt with extensively was “All Rise” … and there was a movie called “7 Days” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14494586) but it had an Indian director and Indian cast (but the movie was in English) and so I think it only counts as half a point 🙂

And that was since the pandemic began!

Compared to that, just in the last week I’ve seen at least 2 - 3 Indian movies which centered around the pandemic and wasn’t just referring to it as a passing thing.

I just find the contrast interesting …

#Pandemic #Movies #Reflections

@f It's true. The only movie I saw that showed masking or any pandemic concern was Glass Onion, and they disposed of it early on in that film.

@f the Apple TV+ series Mystic Quest had a standalone episode set between their first and second seasons that dealt specifically with the pandemic (and working via zoom). It was among the best tv episodes I’ve watched in the past decade (and by far the best addressing the pandemic I’ve seen)

@Rycaut I did see that and had forgotten about it — thanks for the reminder 🙂

The only quibble I have is that that episode was about the pandemic but the rest of the show had nothing about it. Whereas “All Rise” had a similar Zoom-based episode (if I recall correctly) but they also incorporated masking and ongoing pandemic related stuff into the rest of the season …

But it’s been a few years and so my memory is hazy on the details now about both shows 🙂

@f I don’t remember much about the season that followed. But I’ll give them a pass for the first season as it was I believe filmed before the pandemic.

I definitely have to seek out some of the films and shows you have been posting about (my wife is Indian, though born here so not Hindi fluent)

It is remarkable and sad that few shows normalized masking on screen. I truly think it would have helped (especially in normalizing being safe) but similarly there is little media from the 1918 flu

@Rycaut I think some people just want to forget and move on … but if we don’t remember, will we learn anything from it? 🙂

Plus, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least some of the actors are against any sort of masking (on screen) since they might think that they won’t be noticed. But this is just speculation and not backed by any facts …

For some of the Indian movies, they do show photos during the filming process at the end and I see that at least some of the people are masked, (or chin-masked 😛) but since I haven’t seen much similar photos on the Hollywood side, not sure how that went …

Incidentally, I’m not Indian but I do love Indian movies since there is so much to choose from — each region has their own feel/flavour and it adds a ton of variety (and different viewpoints). If you are looking for anything particular, let me know. I love talking movies all day, everyday 😛

@f I love a good heist movie or good SF/Fantasy. I know I want to catch RRR but haven’t had a chance to yet.

From what I gather US studios actually had really excellent COVID protocols - isolation, testing, ventilation of filming spaces, minimizing who was on set, only actors being unmasked etc. but much of that I think has been rolled back. I did see some specials on how they were dealing with it

@Rycaut I think you’re hitting the Achilles heel of Indian movies with those genres 😛 There are a few heist movies I can think of, but all of them fall short on plot because at some point or other you have to suspend belief if you want to keep on watching … Or, they are a copy/re-imagining of a Hollywood movie — sometimes I watch those just to compare/contrast. The “Dhoom” series is probably one of the best examples here for all of the above in one way or another …

Not quite a heist movie, but “Thaanaa Serndha Koottam” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6237966/) is a good one in the con-man genre that you might like.

But if you want a brilliantly crafted crime/cat-and-mouse kind of story, then you can’t go wrong with “Drishyam” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3417422) and the sequel. I linked to the original Malayalam version, but it’s so good that it’s been re-made in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu and I’ve watched all of those versions 🙂

There have been a few good time travel movies but the rest of the SF genre is generally not very well represented on the Indian side. The most famous SF movie that I can think of (off the top of my head) is “Koi… Mil Gaya” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0254481) but if I recall correctly, it was a mishmash copy of “ET” with the standard dose of romance thrown in and the characters being adults, or something like that …

You can argue that most Indian cinema is fantasy in some way, but they do do brilliant historical/fantasy movies. For example, if you haven’t watched “Bahubali” you might want to …

I have “RRR” in my to-watch pile but I keep putting it off for fear that all the expectations will be for nothing. Great cast though. So I guess I should watch it at some point, but I keep adding to my to-watch Indian pile and at like 2.5 hours generally, it does take longer to get through all of them 😛

@f thanks! That’s enough to keep me quite busy! (I’ll add them all to my never ending list of media I want to catch) it will be fun to track them down.

@Rycaut Enjoy! When you watch them, would be interested to hear what you think 🙂

Some of them will require a lot of suspension of belief and I’m not sure that anybody has that much of patience — I just end up yelling at the TV but I still watch them 😛

@f will do! May be a while my media watching time competes with my book reading/mastodon feed reading/podcast listening to while I do household chores/ and getting work done after my son’s asleep time these days….