Shub Nag Panchami!

Happy Nag Panchami! The Film Fesssstival gearing up, and we already have one contribution with more coming in the next two weeks.  Check out Jenni's "Filmi Snake Spotter Field Guide" over at Cinema Chaat.

Frequently Hissed Questions:

What is this all about?
Nag Panchami Film Fesssstival

Where will the posts be collected?
http://www.delicious.com/dustdevil.liz. I'll do a wrap-up post here in late August.

Is there a twitter hashtag?

#nagfilmfest seems like a short enough one. (Unless you are trying to steer clear of  Nagarjuna superfans...)

To kick things off, enjoy "Naag Panchami Aayi," from the Kannada film Maha Shakti Maya starring Pandhari Bai. 

Shameful Pleasure Week: Sumanth

This summer is turning into a good blogging workshop, what with all of the "weeks" and "months" going on. This week, it's Rotikapadarum's Shameful Classics/Pleasures Week (2nd Annual Edition), which could not have come at a more fortuitous time, since I just got an order of DVD purchases and rentals featuring my shameful pleasure: the films of Telugu actor Sumanth.

It's not that there's anything particularly shameful about Sumanth's movies. Godavari and Golconda High School were quite good, and he's been in a number of perfectly enjoyable Telugu action movies. However, what is slightly shameful is how much happiness I seem to get from watching his movies.

Maybe it's the ridiculous outfits that make me happy:

Or that he often shares scenes with gym equipment:

Or it might be the...enthusiastic dancing:

("Mila Mila" from Chinnodu)

("Chalre Chalre" from Pourudu)

I was inordinately pleased earlier this week to learn that there is a Telugu remake of the Malayalam hit Classmates, starring Sumanth!

The one oddity about Sumanth's filmography is that Prakash Raj doesn't seem to have been in any of his films, which is pretty unusual, considering the ubiquity of Prakash Raj in Telugu films. (And perhaps this is why I feel slightly shameful about watching films that don't advance my blogging goal...hmmm.)

Nag Panchami Film Fesssstival

August 4 is Nag Panchami, the "festival of snakes", and to celebrate this auspicious event, there will be a Film Fessssstival in filmi-blogland.  During the first two weeks in August, I and (I hope) other fans of the nagin/a genre will be blogging about our favorite snake-themed Indian films, and snake-themed scenes in films.

Once things get underway in August, I'll create a list of posts.  Folks can email me or tweet their links (#nagfilmfest seems like a good enough hashtag.) In the meantime, please feel free to post in the comments if you want to call "dibs" on a particular film or topic, or if you have a suggestion for a good nagin/a movie. If you are looking for inspiration, the BollyWHAT thread on Snake Films is a great place to start.

If you are curious about the Nag Panchami itself, I found all of these links very interesting:

• Wikipedia- Nag Panchami
• "iloveindia" festivals
• theholidayspot.com
• Festivals of India
• Wikipedia- Nagula Chaviti (this is a Telugu regional celebration of Nag Puja, and it falls on October 30 this year, which will give me a chance to repost the links, and if you miss the August date, feel free to create something for October.)

                               

Round-up for June 2011

Monthly Prakash Raj Movie Total (June, 2011): 6
Overall Prakash Raj Movie Total (as of June 30, 2011): 99
Paramasivan, Swarnamukhi, Bhadra, Naa Autograph, Pavithra Bandham, Kalki
Creeping up on the 100 mark! A little romance, a lot of Ravi Teja, and some unsubitled '90's films.