By Rohini Mohan
Jodha Bai, Queen of Hindustan and wife of the greatest of Mughal emperors, Akbar, may not have ever existed, claim some historians. Others claim that she was his daughter in law and not his wife. Ashutosh Gowarikar’s latest blockbuster Jodha-Akbar starts off with this disclaimer – but goes on to convince us that we have indeed been remiss to ignore this great love story which may well have shaped Mughal history. Continue reading
By Aarti Johri
It was over a year ago. A friend and I were involved in a project with some young children that used a tie- dye kit. Our preteen girls were also participating. “Here”, my friend said, “your daughter can also tie-dye something for herself; this would look great in that blue”. I looked at what she was tossing me, a Hanes sleeveless T-shirt. I realized my otherwise brilliant friend had some idiosyncrasies, this probably being an example of them. I politely smiled and scrambled out of the situation, puzzled nonetheless why she would give my daughter an undershirt, obviously purchased for her son.
Director Nagesh Kukunoor’s oeuvre has been relatively small but I would love to see someone come out with a “Best of..” DVD set. In it would be Iqbal, arguably the most uplifting of his movies and Dor, a quiet but polished look at two women brought together by sad circumstances. I would also include Teen Deewarein, a thriller with twists galore, Bollywood Calling, a sly look at the movie industry, and of course Hyderabad Blues, his debut film, which invigorated many viewers sick of mainstream pap dished out by Bollywood.
Not all of Kukunoor’s movies are consistently engaging. Rockford was pretty dull, even for those familiar with the boarding school environment, and Hyderabad Blues 2 stretched the arranged marriage joke a bit too far. Bombay to Bangkok, though being way better than some of the other movies in the theaters right now, falls in this category. Continue reading
Navin Gulia severely injured his neck and spine while clearing an obstacle in a competition at the Indian Military Academy, where he was in the final term as a gentleman cadet.He was 22 years old then. Refusing to let his disability define him, he decided to conquer the world in a wheelchair.
He created a modification kit to allow him to drive a car and has notched up over 200,000 kms driving up the Himalayas in Uttaranchal, Himachal and Ladakh. He has driven up to the Khardung La (pass) in Ladakh, then the highest motorable pass in the world. He has also practised flying powered hang-gliders. Here he writes about his experiences driving from Delhi to the Indo-Pak Border.
Growing up, deserts have caught my fancy a number of times. From movies like ‘Omar Mukhtar – lion of the desert’ to the Hindi classic ‘Lamhe’ and books and stories on deserts. I had no real experience of the desert except what I had read. Going to Jaisalmer, the essence of deserts in India and the beginning of Thar, had been my fantasy for a long time.
When I got a call from the Ability Foundation to go on an assignment to Jodhpur, I grabbed it. Jaisalmer was 300 kms away and the India Pakistan border another 140kms. Continue reading
By Vidya Pradhan
After being sneered at, looked down upon, and generally treated as the shameless tramp of the global movie making industry, Bollywood is being given more than a modicum of respect these days. Even the venerable Economist gave it a block, pointing to the increasing interest from producers and financiers from Hollywood in the now-legitimized, mafia-free industry.
Hollywood is courting Indian film producers: Disney, Viacom, News Corporation and Sony Pictures have all done deals with Bollywood companies in the past few years, and within the next month Disney plans to increase its stake in UTV Software, the parent of an ambitious young film studio in Mumbai, from 14.9% to as much as 30%.
UTV's symbol of a tri-colored rangoli may be quite familiar to movie-goers even in the US. Lately the company,which is now the second largest studio in the country, has produced movies like Parineeta and Taare Zameen Par. Ronnie Screwvalla, who runs UTV, pledges to make movies with more depth and less song and dance, a development for which we surely have the multiplex phenomenon to thank. The economics of multiplexes makes financing low-budget movies with lesser known stars possible and loyal audiences in the immigrant heavy areas of UK and USA allow for lavish spending in special-effects heavy mainstream masala.
Suddenly movie-making in Bollywood has become less like a lottery and more like a casino, where the house always wins. If that strains credibility a little here's more proof in an article in Variety.
Iconic financier George Soros has paid $100 million for a stake in Indian movies, gaming and Internet conglom Reliance Entertainment.
He is picking up a 3% stake in the privately held operation controlled by the billionaire industrialist Anil Dirubhai Ambani's Reliance ADAG. Deal values Reliance Entertainment at some $3.3 billion, making it the most valuable entertainment company in the fast-developing territory.
Reliance Entertainment controls the Adlabs group, which is India's biggest film processor, and in recent years has diversified to become a front-running movie production and theater operation.
If UTV is the second largest studio in India, Adlabs labels itself the largest entertainment conglomerate in the country. Originally a processing studio, it now produces, markets and distributes movies and television serials and owns over 150 theaters all over the country. It also recently became a majority stakeholder of Siddhartha Basu's Synergy Communications, a leading player in quizzes and game shows in India for almost two decades.
Synergy is probably the right term to describe what is happening in Bollywood today. There has never been a shortage of talent, only the constraints of a perhaps regressive audience. With globalization comes an unfettering of the creative process and it is not surprising that given the right kind of money and connections, Indian producers and directors are making a foray into Hollywood. UTV has co-produced two movies with News Corporation's Fox Filmed Entertainment, and this year the two studios will release “The Happening”, a thriller directed by M. Night Shyamalan which is costing them about $28m each.
Indian directors have already crossed over. Mira Nair had her heroine Becky Sharp( played by Reese Witherspoon) dance to a Bollywood number in Thackeray's ultra-British Vanity Fair. Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth had more than a little bit in common with Shashikala and Lalita Pawar, two scheming 'villy's' from the golden years of Bollywood. Can Mission Impossible 4 with Hrithik Roshan be far behind?
By Rohini Mohan
Simplicity is the one word that amply describes this timeless classic. Ashok Kumar, Pearl Padamsee, Rakesh Roshan, Bindiya Goswami, Deven Varma, Preeti Ganguli and David all deliver understated and natural performances in a very Desi remake of ‘Yours, Mine and Ours’. Continue reading
Gaurav Rastogi is blogging his thoughts as he reads the Bhagvad Gita for the first time. He is 35, lives in the Bay Area, curiously religious but not a Sanskrit scholar. His blogs on the first few chapters of the Gita can be found in our archives under the category "Blogging the Gita".
As I read and blog the Gita, I notice that my approach to life is improving! As you will notice I haven't become a complete Karma Yogi or an Ascetic yet. Like all year-end reviews, let me rate my favorite verses/advice in ascending order of ease of use. Continue reading
Shobha Reddy is a fitness guru and personal trainer based in the Bay Area. She will answer reader queries on fitness and nutrition. Questions may be sent to her via our feedback form.
1. What are the diet challenges for a vegetarian who wants to train for a marathon?
For any person training for a marathon, he or she needs to consume a lot of complex carbohydrates which will give him a lot of energy for endurance events, such as marathons. Complex carbohydrates include whole wheat bread and brown rice, NOT white rice and white bread, etc. Moderate to high protein consumption is also needed. This is one of the challenges for vegetarians. Good vegetarian protein sources are nuts, lentils, tofu, and cheese. There is nothing wrong with adding a little protein powder to a meal as well. Morning fruit smoothie shakes with protein powder is a great addition.
The key is not to skip balanced meals when training for a marathon.
2. After age 40 what are the diet no-nos and fitness yes-yesses for a woman?
Women need to cut back their sugar intake, including sweets, simple carbs such as white bread/rice, and soda, and increase their iron intake such as broccoli and green leafy vegetables. Fitness should be increased to at least six times a week. Weight training is a must to prevent osteoporosis, especially after age 40.
Bollywood has been indulging a bout of navel-gazing this last year, offering up movies that have been tributes, analyses and spoofs of itself. If Om Shanti Om treated the 70’s as a glorious, inventive period in Indian mainstream cinema, KKC takes a peek into the 50’s, a time when heroines led perhaps more emancipated and free-thinking lives than their contemporaries today, and moviemakers, cast and crew, were literate and cultured. Continue reading
Salil Chaturvedi takes a humorous look at the American obsession with spreading democracy around the world.
Americans had stopped going to heaven. It wasn’t the air-conditioning. That was the most obvious thing that came to mind, but a quick discussion between St. Peter and the angels threw that possibility out of the window.
“But we don’t need any air conditioning here in heaven,” said an angel fluttering his wings. “The physical body might need it but an astral body lives in a constant state of comfort and bliss, at least when it’s in heaven.”
“Then why aren’t the Americans coming to heaven anymore?” asked a second angel, playing with a cloudlet.
“That’s got me stumped,” said the first angel.
“Me too…do you think they are going to hell?” suggested a third angel.
“I checked with Satan,” said St. Peter. “He said that things were normal and there was no dramatic increase in American souls in hell. He was interested in what was going on, though. I guess he figures that if he could find these lost souls he could get them in to hell somehow.”
But don’t these American souls turn up at the Pearly Gates? Perhaps we should check with St. Michael if there’s a problem during the soul’s journey to heaven” the second angel asked.
“I checked with the archangel, but the transportation is progressing normally. I just don’t know where they are disappearing to, or why.”
“Could it be that the American souls can see souls of people from communist countries here? Or maybe they can see souls of some Iraqi children and innocent bystanders. Do you think we should build a barricade so new souls can’t look into heaven?” asked the first angel.
“That’s as silly as the air-conditioning idea. The astral body perceives everything, it does not need to ‘look.’ And what a crazy idea… partition heaven! I say we keep things as they are and not change any thing. Next, you’ll say let’s introduce sin credits,” said the second angel, as it absent-mindedly shaped a cloud into the Statue of Liberty.
“Wait! There is one thing. During the interview at the Pearly Gates they all ask one strange question. Maybe that holds the key to this riddle. Come to think of it, I’m certain it does,” said St. Peter.
“Well, what is it?” asked angel two, making a fish out of a cloud.
“They ask if they have voting rights.”
“And what do you say?” asked the first angel.
“What do you think? The obvious thing, that there’s no voting in heaven. They do look very disappointed with that,” said St. Peter.
“Don’t you get it?” said the second angel. “No voting means no democracy. And what are Americans dying and killing for? Why are decent, god-fearing Americans supporting military action in places far away from their homes? For democracy! And if they die and find out that there’s no democracy in heaven…”
“You could be right,” said St. Peter.
“So what do we do now?” asked the third angel. “Should we introduce democracy in heaven?”
“That’s up to Our Father,” said St. Peter. “I don’t think he’ll like the idea too much… it’s not going to be viable to do that. Imagine running the Universe by majority consensus.”
“What about the lost American souls then?” asked the first angel.
“I guess we’ll have to wait for them to get over their democracy trip,” said St. Peter. “Maybe they’ll remember that it’s ‘Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven,’ and not the other way around.”
Water, No Ice 