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New Features: A History Of The Indian Movie Thermos!

DECEMBER 3, 2004

STOP THE PRESS!  SHUT DOWN THE INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER!  TIE JOHNNY LEVER DOWN AND MAKE HIM EAT A ROCK!

I'm not one to spread rumours or anything, unless they're likely to bring me a fleeting taste of fame.  But I have it on good authority (mainly my own) that there has been another sighting of an Indian Movie Thermos!  And what's more, this thermos has shown up over TWENTY YEARS after the Bedi Family's Plutonium Thermos, which appeared in 1983 and apparently marked the end of film thermoses in recorded history.

But that's bull...we found a thermos in a film that was just released just a few months ago!  We're keeping the name of the film secret until we can confirm our sighting and get it reviewed by a panel of experts*, but we thought we'd better let you know, just in case you were planning on writing a thesis about it or something.

* (us)

OCTOBER 11, 2004

In honor of Oktoberfest (and Amitabh's Birthday), BollyMike has renovated, restored and rejuvenated the ol' BollyBob site. We're still getting it tweaked to perfection however, so please bear with us as we deal with our "growing pains."

We're particularly aware that our Internet Explorer 5.5 users are seeing an ugly mess on some of the pages, and BollyMike is frantically finding ways of fixing all those little problems. Meanwhile it's Muffy's job to correct broken links and make the font sizes a little prettier.  Don't worry...when we're done, things will be smoother than ghee, prettier than Sridevi, and faster than Helen's dancing feet!

APRIL 19, 2002

    We've been trying to get our little society back together for some more movies, but things just haven't been working out.  Either I'm stuck in my bathroom waxing my entire body, or BollyMike is in Toronto at a bohemian Japanese-folk-solstice-barnraising-film-fest, or BollyJay is out helping old ladies cross the street and feeding soft food to stray cats.  It's my theory that, before long, the planets will align and there'll either be a world-wide plague or we'll finally get to see "Lagaan," just so we'll know what the fuss was all about.

    Here at the BollyBob society we've been sitting on a gem for an awful long time: a fabulous commercial for ghee that we found on David Chute's "Mard" videotape.  We've been humming and hawing and drinking a lot of Kingfisher trying to figure out how to present it to you, and I've finally decided to provide a sort of "symbolic representation," using actual screenshots but taking a few liberties.  In lieu of any substantial updates to our reviews, I present you with a BollyBob exclusive: GHEE!  This presentation is in no way a substitute for the original bizarre commercial, but short of buying the South African "Mard" videotape this is the only place you'll be able to see it.

    Oh yeah, and we didn't really drink any Kingfisher.  Yuck.

FEBRUARY 17, 2002

    If you've seen the original version of Mard then you -- like the rest of us here at Bollybob -- have already fallen in love with Melton, that most lovable of bizarre Bollywood historical-drama lackeys.  Disappointed at his lack of exposure in the film, you've been crying out for more: his own series!  His own toy line!  Personal appearances and an autobiography!

    Realistically, those things are not going to happen.  But those of us who love Melton just can't let the poor guy linger in obscurity...here, for the first time ever, is episode one of the "It's Melton!" online comic, entitled "No Privacy In India."  With a special obnoxious appearance by Miss Seema Poppins!!

FEBRUARY 14, 2002

    Last year I made brief comments about an email that I received from Jackie Schroff.  At that time I felt bad about revealing the word-for-word contents of the email, as I didn't want to make fun of him.

    But since I don't care if I make fun of him anymore, prepare yourself for an exclusive Planet Bollybob Jackie Shroff expose!

FEBRUARY 13, 2002

    A series of misfortunes crippled Planet Bollybob just when it was starting to thrive.  In my opinion, this was all some sort of test on the part of Devi Maa, but not a very effective one, because rather than face adversity we just walked away.  We in the Bollybob Society did our own things for a while.  We even stopped watching Indian movies.  Freewebfile, the server that was hosting this site, disappeared without a trace (or even a "Dear Muffy" note to tell me we were through).  BollyMike had never gotten around to reviewing that ghee commercial.  Things looked pretty bleak for the future of Bollybob..

    But what do you know?  So many people have said so many sweet things about this website, and about my grandfather in particular, that it seemed like a shame not to resurrect it.   BollyMike sent me a list of reputable free web servers, and I started feeling nostalgic for the time spent slaving over a hot computer doing goofy video captures in the wee hours of the morn.

    And here we are, back again.  I doubt there will be too many screenshots in the reviews for a while, but I'll try to keep the reviews coming strong.  I'm going to start up a little message board.  And in the meantime, drop me a line and wish us luck here on our new server...crack open a few coconuts in the hopes that 2002 is an auspicious year for Planet Bollybob!  And if you see any missing links or pictures, please let me know...we've just moved in here, and maybe we still have some unpacking to do.

    Incidentally, when I mention "missing links" I'm not talking about Melton.  By way of apology for being away for so long, I present a single frame from the currently unfinished Bollywood comic, "It's Melton!"

If you feel you really must view our stale & musty old news they can be viewed here.

About Us:

The Bollybob Society is named after a relatively obscure 80's Bollywood actor, Bob Christo. We don't know much about him, but he was a very white, very bald, slightly silly man -- apparently from Australia -- who played thugs in movies such as Sharaabi, Suparman, Mr. India, Disco Dancer and Gumrah. Basically, all of us really like Bob, and maybe we have dreams of following in his (and Fearless Nadia's) footsteps... more

Who is Talkin' About Us:

Here we link back to those brave souls who have so kindly linked to us...

Muffy's article in the alternative newspaper, LA Weekly sheds some light on her love of Bollywood. There's a link to us at the bottom (well it is to Dangermuff.com so it is close enough).

Bollywood: Further Research by David Chute gives us the nod in this Web version of his list of links from the May-June 2002 Film Comment. He has our link wrong by the way, but we like the guy so who can fault him for that. David also links to us in his extensive Hungry Ghost Links page.

Zachary Woodruff mentions us (no actual link) in an article published in the May 22 2003 Tucson Weekly (in an article, bizarrely, about Summer Blockbusters).

A really cool article in a Scottish paper, The Sunday Herald, about Bob Christo that mentions us in all but name in the second last paragraph.

Helen - BollyWood501 Small but nice Helen site that links to Muffy's review of Teesri Manzil.

Bollywood Film Reviews graciously links to us via his Gumnaam review. Lots of great screen captures.