By Vidya Pradhan  

The typical Silicon Valley success story has to do with chips, b(y)tes, outsourcing and lots and lots of dough. Well, so does our story, though not in the way you might think. It all started when the bottom fell out of the hardware market in the early part of this century. Mani Krishnan, who had been making a comfortable living exporting computers, printers and peripherals to India, suddenly found himself in the unfamiliar territory of having to hound his Indian distributors for collections.

Having made a resolve never to work for anyone else ever again, Mani was scouting around for ideas for a new business when a friend commented on the lack of good South Indian coffee in the Bay Area Indian stores. A tie-up with 777, a Chennai based company selling various Indian processed foods led to the seeds of a new business, now importing goods into the US instead of the other way around. Mani’s fragrant godown in Mountain View now stocks pickles, sambar powder, puliyogare paste and of course many different brands of ‘kapi’ but the secret to the success of his fledgling company is - batter!

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By Rohini Mohan

Aaja Nachle - another consummate entertainer for the entire family by Yash Chopra. That’s the thought that crossed my mind when the movie was over. It was endorsed by a bunch of teenagers in the seat behind me. ‘Good Movie, tabhi to flop hui’ was  the comment. More »

By Vidya Pradhan 

Sometimes it is all about the treatment.

You can have a complex script, big name stars, special effects and professional comedians or you can have a simple love story that is well directed, smartly edited and best of all, well written.

With a plot loosely similar to a Ben Affleck/Sandra Bullock movie called ‘Forces of Nature’, Jab We Met is director Imtiaz Ali’s second movie after Socha Na Tha. His forte appears to be small, intimate, slice-of-life ‘dramedies’, if I may coin a term. SNT was also expertly directed, though I didn’t enjoy it as much as JWM because I can’t stand Abhay Deol( or at least I didn’t, before Manorama Six Feet Under).

Jab We Met has a rather unfortunate title, because it sounds cutesy, pretentious and very ‘desi’ but it is, in fact, one of the best romantic comedies I have seen in a long time. You just have to watch the first few scenes of the movie to make out that this is a classy product and you are in for a real treat. More »