Saturday, January 24, 2009

Homage to....

Abba's Mama Mia!

This is like a family anthem around our house. The kids trill it all day long. Why I even caught the husband singing it under his breath in the shower.

The movie was such a delight. We laughed, we cried (okay I did), and we totally got caught up in the celebration that is Mama Mia the movie.

I remember watching THE ABBA MOVIE movie, oh so long ago when I was a preteen I think. New Excelsior or Sterling. Smuggled in Vithals Bhel. Sweaty hand holding with objects of our affection. Giggly girls and boys. Even getting dressed for the movie was an adventure. I actually wore too big, borrowed, plastic white gogo boots under my bell bottomed jeans in the Mumbai heat! I was Annifrid incarnate!

And yes I sang all the songs. Badly.

But no one sings more enthusiastic covers than these people.
I specially love it when WING SINGS!

wing sings mama mia



Here is an innovative bunch of Danish (I think) musicians.
I guess there are more uses for bottles than just drinking wine from!

Inflastikas spiller mamma



And then ofcourse the original

Abba sings Mama Mia



Do let me know if you have other interesting versions of this song.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Another Kiran, off topic but had to say this: love the picture and title of your blog. It makes me feel like doing a cartwheel myself.

Double Seven said...

I am a guy who loves Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2 et al.
Loving ABBA is altogether a very different 'high'.
My friends say I am gay to have liked Mamma Mia- The Movie so much!
But I hardly thought that it was just meant to be a 'chick-flick'.

I then asked a question on Yahoo Answers, asking random Yahoo users if liking ABBA and liking Mamma Mia- The Movie was gay- here's what some of them had to say:

My Question was- Is it gay if I like Mamma Mia and that I absolutely adore ABBA?

(A little summary to that question) The problem is that people think that I am gay to like such a beautiful musical movie like Mamma Mia.

Kindly help.

1) "No, it is extremely catchy and addictive music. You cannot help but like good music."

2) "nooooo wayyyy

i LOVE ABBA and i loved the movie Mamma Mia

no way are you classed as gay your just different to everyone else and that shouldnt worry everyone. You just like something different to everyone else, who knows so of the other people around you loved the movie as well but they are keeping it a sceret."

3) "no, it's not gay that you liked Mamma Mia. my gf dragged me to it and i liked it as well. especially pierce brosnan singing, that was classically hilarious. however, to adore ABBA, i think that puts you over the top. you must now go drink a six pack of old milwaukee to reclaim your manhood."

4) "are you straight?
because if your straight and like Mamma Mia and ABBA then obviously its not gay to like it
Plus if if you were gay theres nothing wrong with it"

AND THE ULTIMATE-

5) Watching movies does not make you gay. Being attracted to the same sex makes you gay.


--
77

PS: 1) I am hearing Lay all your love on me... as I write this...

Double Seven said...

"Mamma Mia! is not a man's film. I mean this in the way that films about football hooligans who get loaded and smash the skulls of other hooligans are not women's films. But I suspect that a fair few men (and not a few women) will find that this film appeals to an urge for wholesome trash and confounds their expectations. Against the odds, 'Mamma Mia!' is a summer movie that's as camp as Christmas and as enjoyable as a pantomime."-
Author: Dave Calhoun
Time Out London Issue, July 10 -16, 2008
_______________________________________________
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd

Mamma Mia! The Movie

Starring:
Meryl Streep
Amanda Seyfried
Pierce Brosnan
Colin Firth
Stellan Skarsgård
Dominic Cooper
Julie Walters
Christine Baransk
_______________________________________________

Why precisely I am going to watch this highest grossing musical in the history of Hollywood for second-third-fourth-fifth and so on number of times in the coming weeks! is because it is not alleged to be what it actually is in reality- few tough men still like this movie.

i seriously can't think why people would say that this is purely a 'chic-flick'. i think that it is preposterous to even think that way.

ABBA is not gonna appeal to many men out there, but that doesn't mean that it is gay to listen to their addictive music!

i mentioned ABBA because this movie (and also the broadway show) is based on the most successful songs made by ABBA. (Just in case some people might not know the history behind Mamma Mia for them this is).

It is more entertaining to watch this movie than mere Yashraj 'musicals'.

There is a song literally every after 7 mins on average!
If you like listening to solo chic artistes with the likes such as that of Christina Aguilera, Leona Lewis, Kelly Clarkson, Estelle or Rihanna then you won't have any problem digesting Abba's award-winning songs as well (that is for the people who are unaware of what/ who Abba really is)
The story line is not unique at all which is not a fault in itself, and you can relate to the story of Sophie's character (played by Amanda Seyfried) with any of your friends' or colleagues' day-to-day lives.

Well a little bit of synopsis now- She (Amanda Seyfried) is about to marry her childhood love (played by Dominic Cooper), and she wants to find out who her father is (she wants her father to give a walk-down-the-isle thing to Sophie on her wedding day). She doesn't know and even her mother apparently doesn't know who she made love with during her hay days!
But it is sure that Sophie's father is one among the three men roles played by Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård and Colin Firth.
Sophie's mom's character is played by Yale Drama Institute alum Meryl Streep- she is enthralling and captivating and you wish to be entertained by her in every frame of the movie; my guess is that she would win an Oscar for her award-winning performance in this movie. So basically she is also unaware of who Sophie's father could be- apparently she was a slut in her youth and she consecutively had sex within a gap of only few days with the three men mentioned above, according to the movie story.
So Sophie in her quest to find out about her true paternal connection, invites all the three men for the wedding occasion. She keeps it a secret and doesn't ask her mom before inviting them (Sophie gets to know about them from her mom's personal diary; and that 'dot-dot-dot' thing is too too hilarious, you will need to watch the movie to get what i mean by that lol)

Set in the picturesque landscape of some Greek island, supposed to look like some Nordic village of Sweden (Abba's birthplace is Stockholm, Sweden), this musical has by far in my mind got the best cinematography ever!

In the end what happens is that Sophie at the time of that priest announcing them as 'husband-and-wife' thing suddenly feels she is not ready for the marriage and all. And she thinks she should wait and she also feels that she should first visit the outer world for more exposure (she is shown as a village girl with untapped talent in drawing/ painting). So she wants to explore more opportunities in life. She doesn't get married and convinces her fiance against it and still being together thing and all!

So the thing that takes place between these two episodes (her invitation to calling her mom's alleged 3 ex-lovers for her wedding AND the climax part when Sophie decides against marrying and Mr Ex Bond decides to marry Sophie's mother instead) is where all the real action takes place- with all the singing and dancing and stuff.


Verdict: I would rate this alleged 'chic' flick giving it 4/5 stars!
I don't think that's a lot, I am getting just too carried away I think with ABBA and the story-line and Meryl Streep's acting talent and the sweetness of Amanda Seyfried and last but not the least the picturesque Greek island. THAT'S IT!

Double Seven said...

Oh by the way, the above one is a review for this movie, written by me on 11/23/08.

--
77

Another Kiran In NYC said...

Aspi:
Welcome! The picture makes my heart happy too! It makes me want to run and jump like a giddy six year old too but I am afraid I might just hurt myself! That is my (then) 5 year old daughter turning cartwheels in our backyard, last summer.

Doubleseven:
Gay is a not a lifestyle choice. You like some music, thats all that matters. Music is music, so revel in ABBA if you like it. I dont think music can be categorised into homosexual or heterosexual. Would be a pity if that was true.
I loved the movie. I felt like I was vacation in the Greek islands. the setting was pretty accurate from my memory of the islands. Besides any movie with Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth can do no wrong.

Double Seven said...

I didn't mean gay, 'technically'!

Gay as in as if it's girlie to be listening to ABBA music when the fact remains that you listen to hard hitting songs such as that by Metallica.

So... like you know how Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan don't go well with most men?
That ways...

--
77

Unknown said...

cool.. kiran.. love your blog name.. my husband calls me that:)
btw please check out my blog.. just started hehehe
www.hmmlife-simplyliving.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I was thinking where you were as my wordpress snapshot didn't show your blog updated.

So when are you planning India trip?

DeeplyDip said...

lol...wings version was truly the best! I looove mama mia - and well all the songs by abba...have seen the musical twice so the movie was ok for me...meryl streep was good though...

Ava said...

Gosh, I saw the movie in Chandigarh. I dragged my brother to it and enjoyed every every every crappy bit of it. As an homage, my brother gave me a dvd of Abba Gold, I nearly wept with nostalgia watching that !

Anonymous said...

I eventually get to Mama Mia and Abba by the end of this post:

http://bollywoodfoodclub.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/nikaah-1982-or-talaq-talaq-talaq-and-abba-in-hindi/

Here's a direct link too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAbTlBPfwEc

All the best!
Sita-ji