Watching Dead Poets Society reveals a lot about the viewer. Are they a realist and accept the ending of the film? Are they a romantic and accept the profundity of the lesson the students learn? Or are they a Bollywood aficionado and realize this is where Mohabbatein got most of its plot!

@nitinkhanna neither. I was born in the 1960s West Indies. Different culture and different time. I was 23 when the movie was released and I had lived in the USA for only three years at that point. I didn’t understand most of the film. The ending of the film held no significance for me.

@khurtwilliams that reveals a realist attitude to me. Pure acceptance of the ending as it is seems to be a realist approach. Not saying you are a realist in all other contexts, just this one.

@pratik @nitinkhanna I watch a lot of Bollywood, and Mohabattein was the least memorable. My family is addicted to K3G and anything starring Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan. My nephews are literally named Rohan and Rahul. Those are the only two character names Shah Rukh uses in his movies. 😄

@pratik Parampara! Pratishta! Anushasan! Vomit!

@stupendousman Haha! My dad loved it, not surprisingly.

@pratik i honestly dont think Aditya Chopra has made 1 good movie. Including DDLJ every movie he's made have been complete crap. Its too bad he could never get an iota of his father's talent.

@khurtwilliams @nitinkhanna That's SRK fandom right there.

@stupendousman I consider the Akhtar siblings as more creative. They still make movies about their strata of society, but they have plenty of nuance in them. Yash Chopra should've sent Aditya to live on his own for a while away from the loving embrace of his family for him to have more depth. Even Karan Johar (perhaps due to him being gay in Indian society) has some understanding of nuance and depth.

@pratik Zoya in particular is just really talented. I think of Farhan as one hit wonder like KJ, but Zoya seems to just have a knack. If you haven't seen Made In Heaven yet, you should - just like Raj & DK, she's really gotten TV right (even though S2 did too much).

@stupendousman Yup, we are watching Made in Heaven right now. In the middle of Season 1 now. Farhan was good as a director (DCH, Lakshya, Don, etc.), but I think he desperately wanted to be in front of the camera instead of behind it.

@pratik Completely agree. Both Farhaan and Zoya are very talented. I like Farhaan as an actor too, if not for anything else but his gruffy voice.

@vaibhav I think Farhan is a better director than actor/singer, but I guess you can't tell him what he should or should not do. I'm not Javed & Shabana ☺️

@stupendousman hahahahahahaha perfection! :D

@pratik oh glad you specified you're on S1 of Made in Heaven. There's a controversy around an episode on S2 which Zoya handled in the worst, tone-deaf manner possible. Lemme know when you've watched it all. @stupendousman

@nitinkhanna halfway thru S2

@nitinkhanna Done with all. Which episode was it?

@pratik the one with Radhika Apte playing role of a Dalit woman. The entire story is lifted from an actual person. Including the name of the book she wrote. Obviously the marriage aspect of it was fictionalized. But the life story was not.

@nitinkhanna OMG! Really? Did the real story end differently?

@pratik the controversy was that the actual person came out and said that she was never consulted for the story. She’s a very well known author in the academic circles. She’s been very brave about her Dalit acceptance and openness. And yet she felt betrayed that the team erased her so easily.

@pratik the worst part - after she came out and pointed these things out, she also pointed out that the director of that episode is Dalit and she respects him but even he went silent on this issue.

@nitinkhanna Dang! That’s definitely not good and reflects badly on Zoya & the show

@pratik And Zoya Akhtar came out with an utterly tone deaf non-apology stating the story is not based on a real person. That their research showed that grandparents are often toilet cleaners in Dalit caste. But this is all very obviously meant to ward off any lawsuits.

@pratik since there is no marriage aspect in the real story, we don’t know how it ended. But literally everything else about her life, her book, the term “coming out”. They’re all exactly the same. Not even parallels.

@nitinkhanna Sigh! India won’t change easily in terms of caste

@pratik true that.

@nitinkhanna I had no idea about this. They could've at least credited it as "inspired by". It was not one of my fav episodes either so didnt bother. That said, each of the storylines in MIH is unique that you could argue they are inspired by... someone. I honestly would've thought the lesbian couple story was real. @pratik

@stupendousman a lesbian couple with parents ghosting or antagonizing? Seems like SOP for conservatives. But the name of the book, that it was a Dalit woman who spoke up, her internal struggle, her acceptance by the academic community? All so obviously real that they should have credited her.

@nitinkhanna Yep, should have 100% credited her, or atleast dedicated the episode to her. I had no idea, but yeah sucks, but also seems in line for Bollywood.

@stupendousman I didn't know either. My SO alerted me to the controversy thanks to her journo friend who follows the actual author on Insta.