Category Archives: Entertainment

Baabul – Sasur Ka Saga

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By Rohini Mohan
I was really expecting very little when I rented the Baabul DVD.  I knew I was setting myself up for 3 hours of tearful farewells, long winded songs, far fetched scenes, complicated emotions and an anachronistic storyline. Every now and then when scripts are wanting, Hindi movies stray into the area of some neglected social melodrama. Film makers know fully well that we hopelessly forgiving Bollywood audiences will gratefully gobble it all up. Not to mention the whole astrology angle which Bollywood financiers seem to happily substitute for old fashioned mathematics. I can just imagine Ravi Chopra’s thought process; Baghbaan starts with a B, has the big B in it; and Salman and Hema to boot. Same deal with Babul. Throw in a few Saigal style songs and some masala tear jerking, and Voila! Baghbaan super hit, hence Babul super hit….unfailing Bollywood logic. (Case in point, all the K movies made by Karan Johar – talk about preying on the subliminal!)

Showbiz India's Reshma Dordi

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By Vidya Pradhan

Reshma Dordi is the host and producer of the popular weekly Bollywood program ' Showbiz India'. WNI caught up with her when she was in town showing her support for Ruchika, an organisation that supports schools for homeless children in India.

Gorgeous and gracious, Reshma spent a few minutes talking about her career track and plans for the future of her successful show.

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Cheeni Kum – watchable

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By Vidya Pradhan
Finally, a Bollywood comedy for grownups! Ad film director R. Balki brings the same slick approach to the story of a May-December romance, though in this case the December may be quite a few years apart.

Amitabh Bachchan is the high-strung, temperamental and arrogant chef/owner of an exclusive Indian restaurant in London, who has the unlikely name of Buddha. He meets his match in more ways than one in one of his disgruntled customers, Nina, played by Tabu. The story follows the arc of their unlikely romance and all the chaos that ensues when the news is broken to Nina’s father, who happens to be younger than her suitor.
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The man with the golden voice

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By Rohini Mohan

A slightly nasal but melodious voice follows me whenever I walk down memory lane; a security blanket that envelops me in its comforting embrace. Manna De, Asha, Talat, Hemant Kumar, Lata, Geeta Dutt, Rafi, Kishore- I grew up with all of them, but none made an impact as much as Mukesh, the man with the golden voice.

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Provoked – 'There are some things worse than prison

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By Rohini Mohan
‘Provoked’ is the story of soft spoken Kiranjit Ahluwalia who accompanies her Asian- British husband to England, a young bride at the cusp of a new life, with hopes of continuing her education, becoming a mother, maturing as a woman. Alone in a strange country, with below par English speaking skills, she finds herself at the mercy of her new husband, Deepak, a Dr Jekyll, Mr. Hyde kind of character.

Tara Rum Pum – Bollywood takes on NASCAR

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By Rohini Mohan
A rags to riches to rags to riches story full of clichés and homilies, Tara Rum Pum is the latest offering from Yash Raj films. Directed by Siddharth Anand of ‘Salaam Namaste’ fame, TRP is a pretty forgettable tale of a race car tire changer RV (Saif Khan) who becomes a champion race car driver, marries Radhika (Rani Mukherjee) and has two kids who, believe it or not, are christened Champ and Princess.

The dream family lives a dream life in a dream house but due to a major accident on the race track they are banished to a classic pokey New York one roomer in “cabbie alley”. The parents tell the kids that the whole “poverty” thing is not actually happening; it is part of a reality show to inspire them to “don’t worry and to be happy”. (an unhappy lift from ‘Life is beautiful’). What happens next is entirely predictable even to very young kids who have watched the Disney movie ‘Cars’.

Curry – a tale of cooks and conquerors

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By Vidya Pradhan

Curry has to be the most misunderstood and most misused word in the food lexicon. Even in South India, where the word first originated as ‘kari’, it could mean a dry vegetable dish or meaty gravy. And of course, the British have adopted it for their very own in a form that is probably unrecognizable to most Indians. Author Lizzie Collingham traces the evolution of British ‘Curry’ from the time of the Mughals to its various avatars in the early days of British and Portuguese occupation in India. In her epicurean voyage, she discovers that there is no such thing as an authentic Indian meal. Indian food as we know it today is a product of our history of occupation and the fusion of various traditions brought in by the many nations that sought to conquer us.

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Khamoshi-mesmerizing, captivating, timeless

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By Rohini Mohan
My motto is – it is better to watch a good movie again than to put up with the dreck that passes for entertainment these days. I decided on “Khamoshi” – not the Manisha/Salman one, but the old black and white Waheeda Rahman starrer. Not really what you would deem “Bollywood”, Khamoshi is one of those timeless classics in the genre of greats like “A Million Pound Note” or “Madhumati” or “Casablanca” that gets better every time you watch it- and this was only my third time!. With scintillating music by Hemant Kumar and magnificent lyrics by Gulzar, I know it will not be my last.

The Namesake

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By Nandini Minocha
I didn’t think I could do the ‘Namesake’ justice as I hadn’t read the book, but hopefully, I am coming from a non- biased position and can see whether the movie can stand alone.

Set in the 1970’s, the Namesake chronicles the experience of early Indian immigrants to this country and their children and how each generation deals with the challenges of assimilation differently.