Indian Movies Thread IV

04-03-2007, 09:28 PM

Ramana: Been watching it religiously (pardon the pun), at times even taping it when I can't otherwise watch it. They are indeed dragging it on. See a bit too much of the current day politics injected in the story ('arya' versus asuras, beef eaters versus those who eat beef selectively, veggie v/s non-veggies and laced with some of other social issues) so not sure if it has any relevance to story at hand. Recent episode lists the genesis of the aminmosity between Devas and Asuras as Indra & Vishnu conspiring to get wealth from Lanka (then ruled by Ravan's grand-uncle, Sumali's elder brother).

Is there any place where this story in listed as English translated from original scriptures? Gurus like HH or Sunder or Bodhi etc? Anyone?

ramana · 04-03-2007, 10:39 PM

Thanks Viren. I want to watch when Ravan takes over.

-----------
The key to understanding Namesake is that it is an American novel with Indian characters. It has all the three grand themes of American literature as ennunciated by John Ruskin- sex, lies and death. What the movie does is tell the American audience that the Indian 'model minority' is as dysfunctional as American Pie. Despite all the high achievers, education at the best utys in the US, and the high econmic status, the Indian family is as dysfunctional as the rest of America. In that aspect the film is a project for mainstreaming the Indian presence in the US. The film also has the grand theme of intra familial conflict between the protoganist and the father, sibling rivalry, spousal conflict and so on. The part depicting the early life of Ashoke and Ashima in the New York apartment is what most desis will relate to. The rest does not reconcile with the composite Indian American experience in the US. The film is a window on one family and should not be generalized to stereo type all Indian American diasporia. For example it is not a window on Indian American women who have marched forth and blazed new trails- Indira Nooyi, Radha Basu etc. I am not mentioning the Rutgers Uty social scientists etc.
I feel that it is part of Mira Nair's project to portray the Indian family highlighting the warts and all as she did before in Mississippi Masala genere. The film will leave a bad taste on desi immigrant viewers with a sense of emptyness. The touching thing was Ashoke character who we never see reading another book again after he comes to America and dies alone far from his family. Ashima gets to study music just as in the starting scene. I have no sympathy for the protoganist who creates a conflict like a rebel without a cause. Yeah in the end he does change but causes a lot of hurt in the meantime.

Wonder if there is a plan to project the conflicted middle class Indian immigrant as the ideal IA to the US audience? Why?

Husky · (This post was last modified: 04-08-2007, 11:49 AM by Husky.)

Not really relevant, but has anyone else noticed how many series in the US now have an Indian-origin actor in them? More than 10 years ago, the only programs from North America that had any Indians in them were all Canadian or were US programs shot in Canada with Canadian extras.

However, all of a sudden, I've started noticing quite a few Indians on US programming when channel zapping.

- Something boring called 'Heroes' has the Indian guy who had earlier appeared in ITV channel's 'Ultimate Force'. Something Ramamoorthy is his name. His overly Brit accent is a trifle annoying, but I don't mind him too much because his face looks a lot like two of my cousins. His being Tamil too, might explain why.
- Then there's a program called 'Men in Trees' which has a Indian-looking woman playing a Canadian or Alaskan native American. She looked S Indian to me.
- Then there was that Tony/Ridley Scott series 'Numbers' with an Indian actress called something (Neha?) Rawat.
- And finally, there's the remake of the sci-fi 'Battlestar Galactica' which has gained an Indian actress to the existing variety on the show. A Rekha Sharma.

There might be more, but these were the ones I noticed in the last month or so. It has always been a conscious choice not to have Indians on US tele before, so what has made the US change? Even if today the Indians sometimes don't play Indians at all, and if otherwise they end up playing people with 'christian' (western) names, it's still a big change from not having had any Indians on US TV shows before. Curious development.

There was one person whom I recently saw on the pilot episode of 'Supernatural' -the usual monster series. I was sure she was an Indian (she looked exactly like the mother of a Kannadiga friend of mine), but I was wrong. Her name was a 'Sara Shahi'. She's not a Veerashaiva Kannadiga, as I had guessed - nor an Afghan of the Hindu Shaivite Shahi dynasty either. Turns out she's *Iranian*. <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /> Didn't know that Iranians looked that Indian. Also, her surname 'Shahi' seemed curious, but then the word 'Shah' was common in Persia.

EDITED to make it shorter

04-09-2007, 03:29 AM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbup.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbup.gif' /> Big B scores over Morgan Freeman
[ 9 Apr, 2007 0025hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest update NEW FRONTIER: Amitabh Bachchanâs baritone's magic has again cast a spell on foreign shores (AP Photo)

Big B does it again! If Amitabh Bachchan hasn't already become a global name, he's now gone a step further. Having been pitted against Hollywood star Morgan Freeman, Bachchan has emerged victorious. And the Bachchan baritone's magic has again cast a spell on foreign shores.

Bachchan has lent his famous voice for the 2006 Oscar-winning film Penguins, A Love Story (internationally known as March of the Penguins ) for narration in Hindi and English. But the interesting thing is that when the producers and director Luc Jacquet wanted to release a collector's DVD pack in all the versions including French and English, they faced a huge dilemma. Since they had two versions in English â one narrated by Morgan Freeman for the US release and the second by Bachchan for the worldwide release â they didn't know which one to select.

A panel of film buffs and critics were asked to see both and choose the better one. And Big B was selected over Freeman. According to Luc Jacquet, Big B's narration was seen as more emotional and endearing. "We found Bachchan is more emotionally nuanced and also the language is internationally more acceptable. He has really caught the sensitivity of the story," said Luc.

Sunil Doshi, the man responsible for bringing the film to India, said, "The film is all about survival and emerging a winner. A strong metaphor. Right from Bachchan to a common man â it has a universal appeal and Bachchan has got that emotion right. He cuts across all ages right from six to 60. There couldn't have been a better narrator."

ramana · 04-17-2007, 08:07 PM

QUOTE(ramana @ Nov 30 2006, 06:31 PM)Thats why Rama is the ideal purush and maryada Rama.

Have you played chess? Abduction of the queen is an important move.

While at it anyone watching the Rai- Bachan marriage moves? They will have significant impact on the social mores.
[right][snapback]61567[/snapback][/right]


Op-ed in Afterhours section of DNA Mumbai
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1091376

QUOTEBachchans push the star struck nation to an ever regressive low
IANS
Tuesday, April 17, 2007Â 10:58 IST

The family that prays together stays together. That seems to be the mantra of the Bachchans as they hotfoot it from one temple to another in the run-up to son Abhishek's wedding to Aishwarya Rai. And a star struck nation, denied of any real news of the wedding of the year, eagerly laps up the superstitious journeys of Bollywood's numero uno family.

It's the year when archaic terms like 'manglik' jumped out of the matrimonial columns of newspapers to page one, when our screen idols moved out of the silver screen to grace temples across India as they bowed down to blind belief, and when the paparazzi failed to get any real news and compensated by covering every detail of the temple visits.

And filmdom's ultimate screen icon Amitabh Bachchan, wife Jaya, son Abhishek and to be daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai, a formidable family unit with millions of rupees riding on them and millions of fans following every move, are singularly responsible.

From November, when Bollywood's hottest couple went public with their relationship, to now, the Bachchan family have been seen outside numerous temples genuflecting before the gods that be, and to every superstition in the book.

In a country where astrologers are consulted before business planners when starting a new venture, where a much-in-love couple has to call off their relationship because their horoscopes don't match,[B} where women are relegated to second position and where religion and politics have come to make a combustible mix, the Bachchans aren't exactly the best role models.[/B]

They began their religious quest in November when they visited the Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi in the dead of the night reportedly to get Ash married to a tree because she was a Manglik, astrologically Mars bearing.

It was the first confirmation that the couple were getting married. And photographs of the family, with a deglamourised Aishwarya's forehead smeared with vermilion, with Abhishek and his parents (and Samajwadi Party's Amar Singh of course) had the nation giddy with excitement.

From uber success and glamour, Aishwarya was suitably reduced to 'bahu' status, head bowed demurely and the Bachchans took on patriarchal dominance. Just like it is in much of feudal India.

It was also an opportunity for much of India to brush up on their terminology. Hey, what exactly is a Manglik? How does one describe the term? Do you really have to get married to a tree to ensure your husband doesn't die? Those were the questions doing the rounds of not only media offices that had to write the story, but also of many drawing rooms.

In the end, whether Aishwarya really got married to a peepul tree in Varanasi, a banana tree in a Bangalore temple and a god's idol in Ayodhya as was widely reported didn't really matter.

The damage had been done. Father-in-law Amitabh - rings of every stone and hue on his fingers obviously to ward off the evil eye flashing from every photograph - denied that she had done so. But who cared. By that time, the message had gone down. The powerful Bachchans are as susceptible to the worst kind of superstition as the next person.

To expect them to be different and help stem the regressive slide of Indian society would obviously be too much.

Since then, the media - and all of us - have faithfully followed their travels to the Vindhyavasini temple in Mirzapur on Amar Singh's birthday, their much publicised 15 km trek to the Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai (the favourite of all the stars) and some more to help Aishwarya's smooth induction into the family.

In the latest, Bachchan senior and his confidants, industrialist Anil Ambani and Amar Singh, have visited the Tirupati temple and offered Rs5.1 million each to the temple trust, one of the richest in the country. Amitabh, who is said to have also donated 100 kg of gold, placed a card for his son's wedding on April 20 at the deity's feet.

The motive was honourable no doubt - for poor children and hospital facilities in Tirupati. But Tirupati presumably doesn't need the money, other places could do more with it.

One of the few signs of protest came from a Bihar feminist lawyer, Shruti Singh, who filed a PIL against the Bachchans in the Patna High Court.

"The rituals performed by Aishwarya, Amitabh and Abhishek would only promote superstitions and blind faith among common people," says a furious Shruti.

It could so easily have been different. It is the same Amitabh who has been hugely successful in making a dent in the campaign against polio simply because he has such a huge following and people believe in him. He tells us what to drink, what suiting to wear and what battery to use.

He could also use his power over the people to deliver a progressive, rational message through his personal life.

But that is not to be.

If this can happen to Aishwarya Rai, who symbolises ultimate power, money and success, think of other women in India. She should have broken the stereotype instead of becoming one. The Bachchans have failed India.

Did anyone say religion should be a private matter?


I made the cryptic remark in November 06 for I foresaw the reactions to the Bachchan parivar's faith. I thought thare will be a huge reurn to faithseeing the frevor with which Amitabh was showing his devotion and commitment to Hindu religiona and traditions. You cant be Hindu 'lite'. You have to believe everything. No more will people be ashamed to be Hindu when the most popular star family of Bollywood affirms their belief in Hinduism and its rituals.

This article is by a deluded post modernized Indian elite who was disappointed that the Bachchan's are traditonal Hindus and not the secular DIE. I could easily have posted it in the India and Modernism and the Hindu narrative thread.

Why doesn the dork get it -one can be modern (not Modern) and be a Hindu.

04-17-2007, 09:22 PM

dnaindia is run and owned by Muslim.
He will go gaga- for Haj.
Ramana,
I think you missed dnaindia Id chand controversy. At that time he was more to follow Mullah of Sunni mosque and against of Shai Mosque sighting.

Why they are not promoting moon sighting based on astronomy but Mullahs of different mosque?

ramana · 04-17-2007, 09:36 PM

The issue of moon sighting for religious reason is an issue of dominance of one sect vesus the other. It has nothing to do with science.
Non-sequitor.

I urge you to think it over. This article is from IANS and represents the psec disenchantment with AB family. That is what I want to concentrate on and not dnaindia's ownership.

04-17-2007, 11:45 PM

QUOTEThe issue of moon sighting for religious reason is an issue of dominance of one sect vesus the other. It has nothing to do with science.

...
[ the Bachchan family have been seen outside numerous temples genuflecting before the gods that be, and to every superstition in the book.
]
If they check almanac they will know in advance, no need for Mullah fighting, but they allow Mullahs to make discussion because its part of tradition and Islam.
But when Hindus follow tradition they are called superstitious. This guy is saying visit to temples as superstitious. I hope he refer to Mecca for Haj is a Islamic superstition. Or Mulsim displaying Mecca picture as supersitition.

QUOTEI urge you to think it over. This article is from IANS and represents the psec disenchantment with AB family. That is what I want to concentrate on and not dnaindia's ownership.
I think we should also view from where it is coming, who are against Hindu tradition.
Any Hindu ritual performed openly are labeled as regressive. Few months back, NDTV and IBN were busy labeling visit to Hanuman temple are regressive and waste of money.

AB is icon, and people follow him, His public or open display of tradition goes against any neo commie script writers of bollywood and external financiers.

04-18-2007, 05:49 AM

For this CPI MP, a film is âmore powerful than 1,000 speechesâ
: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print
New Delhi, April 17 : In any crowd, not just among Parliamentarians or communists, Pannian Ravindran will stand out for his shoulder-length hair.

When Daivathinte Vaal (The Sword of God), a feature film, is released later this year, the Thiruvananthapuram MP will be more visible than ever.

The CPI leader is playing the role of a âGandhian communistâ in the Malayalam feature film, directed by Madhu Parthasarathy, an alumnus of Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. 

The movie, Parthasarathyâs debut venture, tells the story of how extremist elements are trying to exploit the unrest among tribals, a result of the loot of tribal welfare funds by middlemen, politicians and bureaucrats. Ravindran plays Velutha, the tribal leader who helps people see reason.

The MP is clearly swayed by the power of the medium. âActing in a film is equal to giving 1,000 speeches that I have been doing as a political activist and peopleâs representative,â he says.

What does his party think of it? âIt should not be a problem with my party. I havenât taken any money, itâs a meaningful role and hasnât affected my party work in any way,â says Ravindran.

The MP had a two-day packed shooting schedule in Wayanad. âThe location was a tribal area on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. Itâs serene, apt for the storyline,â he says.

The director, a Wayanad native, thinks the MP fits the bill in more ways than one. âHe is a genuine artist,â says the director who also wrote the script and screenplay.

âThe character of a Gandhian communist suits Pannian. When I was writing the script, his was the only face that came to my mind. And when I approached him, he agreed,â he says.

04-18-2007, 03:19 PM

Ramana: QUOTEDid anyone say religion should be a private matter?

Notice the self-goal on the last statement. Now AB and his family have been doing this religious tours/circuit for past couple months for personal reasons and not to promote any new movie or candidacy into political office or to raise any funds. And this is a very personal issue - don't these journalists get it? In fact over 20 years ago when AB was badly injured during the shoot of 'Coolie', Jaya B walked barefoot from Juhu-Parle Scheme to Siddhi Vinayak temple - a walk distance of about 4 hours dodging traffic, hawkers, mobs etc; all just to pray for her husband's life.
Recently AB donated about Rs. 50 lacs to Tirupati, Balaji willing it'll go to good causes.

Recently read elsewhere that now Sachin's being attacked for performing 'Sarpa Dosha' puja at Subramanium temple. Go figure!!

I think this discussion could be moved the communal narrative thread.

04-19-2007, 12:20 AM

Some pictures at Subramanya temple
Hema Malini and Esha
Sachin
at Mangalorean.com:
<img src='http://mangalorean.com/images/news/temp3/0508kukke6.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

Husky · (This post was last modified: 04-19-2007, 01:33 PM by Husky.)

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=84992
QUOTEGere appeared to overstep the mark: UK media
Press Trust of India
Posted online: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 1623 hours IST

London, April 17: Highlighting the inflamed public reaction in India to Richard Gere kissing Shilpa Shetty on stage at an AIDS awareness event in New Delhi, the press in Britain on Tuesday commented that the Hollywood actor âappeared to overstep the markâ.

In front of a crowd of truckers, Gere, a practicing Buddhist and a regular visitor to the sub-continent, kissed Britain's Celebrity Big Brother show winner Shetty on the hand before bending her back in a full embrace, kissing her lingeringly on both cheeks.

"He appeared to overstep the mark at a televised press conference in Delhi on Sunday night to raise awareness of AIDS and HIV among India's lorry drivers, one of the highest-risk groups," The Times observed.

According to The Daily Telegraph, "Gere jokingly grabbed her and planted several kisses on her cheek, to bowls of appreciation from an audience of New Delhi lorry drivers."
Gere might merely have done it to make a performance to raise more money/get more publicity for the campaign. And I think Shetty wasn't offended as much as embarassed, an AIDS awareness thing is not where you try to pull off a such a show - that would be the Oscars or MTV awards where random actors pretend to flirt with one another.

Gere's a Buddhist, not anti-Hindu, so it's safe to say there was nothing sinister in his intentions at all.
But this was in India, Indian people. I understand that Gere was trying to be spontaneous, friendly and make the event more publicity-worthy, but he should have realised that in India this sort of thing doesn't go down well at all. Most people don't like it, and at best it tends to make uncomfortable viewing.

It seems not only are lots of people angry at Gere, Shilpa Shetty is also a target of displeasure because of it, even if in the footage of the event that started it all, she seemed an unwitting and unwilling player.

Here's something rather strange:
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=84936
QUOTEIn Varanasi, Shiv Sena and Bande Mataram Sangharsh Samiti activists as well as Muslims staged protests in various parts of the city and burnt effigies of Gere and Shetty to protest against their âindecent behaviourâ which, the protesters claimed, was "an attack on our cultural ethos".I mean, Gere is a Buddhist, Shilpa a Hindu. What offends them? Would have thought they'd use the occasion as proof that 'kafirs breed indecency and immorality'.

It's reminded me of several reviews I read written by NRI muslims and Indian ones about Aishwarya in the UK film 'Bride and Prejudice' where they accused the west/'hollywood' of stealing 'Indian' actresses. They also expressed fears that because she was being paired off with some 'American' guy in this movie (by the way, No, Martin Henderson is a NZ actor who does a darn good American accent) Indian women will no longer find Indian men attractive <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' />
(Note I only came across reviews of muslims of Indian origin expressing such fears. Other Indians were only bothered about the bollywood genre being stolen and used elsewhere, or feared Aishwarya might not return to Indian cinema.)

Made me wonder why muslims should care, as they're whining about specifically Hindu women (kafirs!) not Indian muslimahs. Or maybe in their mind they have already circled all Hindu womenfolk as their future property: apparently only Indian islami men have the right to leech off Hindu women, no one else.

ramana · 04-19-2007, 07:28 PM

Husky, Have you wondered why the film Umrao Jaan was re-made with Ash in the lead role? It tanked for it was a pale shadow of the Rekha starrer. However the posters of Umrao Jaan with Ash were a big attraction to the TSP. There was something at work I dont get.

04-19-2007, 07:47 PM

QUOTE(ramana @ Apr 19 2007, 07:28 PM)Husky, Have you wondered why the film Umrao Jaan was re-made with Ash in the lead role? It tanked for it was a pale shadow of the Rekha starrer. However the posters of Umrao Jaan with Ash were a big attraction to the TSP. There was something at work I dont get.[right][snapback]67419[/snapback][/right]Sorry Ramana. I have no clue. That might have to do with my not knowing what Umrao Jaan is (what does the title mean, for instance) and not knowing what it's about.
But I'd like to know your views on it, with maybe additional background info on the film itself.

04-19-2007, 07:50 PM

Interesting bit about people getting upset over kiss. I remember just about a year or so before Charles married Diana, when he was in India, Padmini Kolhapure planted a kiss on Charles cheek (or vice versa) and how media covering the page 3 kinda socalities went gaga speculating if Padmini would become next Queen of England <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' />

Some people haven't really taken well Shilpa winning that Brit reality show, especially after/despite those racists Goody's comments. Note the headline:
Shilpa Shettyâs community in India linked to exploitation of Dalit women in Bollywood dance bars
Perfect pysch-ops. Does anyone print a headline stating "Andhra CMs YSR's community linked to exterminating millions of Jews and leading inquistions in Goa, Spain etc"?

ramana · 04-19-2007, 10:22 PM

A review of Namesake from Telegraph, 19 April 2007
QUOTESMALL REVELATIONS
- Fiction isnât only about the shock of recognitionÂ
Mukul Kesavan
mukulkesavan@hotmail.com

Iâve just seen The Namesake, Mira Nairâs adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiriâs novel. For those who havenât read the book or seen the movie, this is the story of a young Bengali, Ashoke Ganguly, who leaves for America in the early Eighties with his wife, Ashima. He teaches engineering at a university, she remains the Bengali housewife in exile, they have two children, a boy and girl and the novel is centred on the boy, Gogol, named after Ashokeâs favourite Russian writer. I had read the novel first, when it was published four years ago. The film follows the book closely, but there is a shift in narrative emphasis: the film is carried by the story of Ashoke and Ashima while the novelâs action was more routed through the experience and sensibility of their son.

I liked both Namesakes very much, but several of my Bengali friends did not and their criticisms of the book and the film illustrate the different, even contradictory expectations readers and viewers have of realist fiction in its two mediums, the film and the novel. The criticism I heard from Bengali readers of the novel made two main points. The first one was that the telling of Ashoke and Ashimaâs very Bengali lives was boringly ethnographic in its detail. This detail, they complained, might be of some interest to the non-Bengali American reader, but for a Bengali it was redundant and seemed to explain too much. The second criticism of the novel was related to the first but more damning: The Namesake was seen as an instance of a genre of American writing, the Immigrant Novel with an Indian accent and therefore not sufficiently novel. I remember a friend mentioning it in the same breath as Monica Aliâs Brick Lane, a novel about the experience of a Bangladeshi woman in London, published around the same time as The Namesake, and predicting an epidemic of novels about dislocated desis, a rash of East-in-West stories.

If the criticism of the novel was that it was too anthropological (another way of saying that it achieved its effects by making taken-for-granted Bengaliness exotic for the Western reader), the criticism I heard of the film was the reverse: that its ethnography was poor, that it was a film about Bengalis that didnât really understand the natives. This led, so the critique went, to mistakes that made it impossible for the cultural insider (the Bengali) to take the film seriously. For example, the film has a Bengali wedding taking place with the sun shining outside. According to its critics, this clanger, coming as early in the movie as it does, torpedoes the film because in an immigrant story, reliable narrative realism is crucial and everyone knows that Bengalis get married at night. (The fact that the filmâs director, Mira Nair, is the ultimate non-Bengali, i.e. a Punjabi, might have made Bengali viewers specially vigilant about the filmâs authenticity.)

The second criticism of the film also sprang from the strict demands of mimetic realism: Ashoke and Ashimaâs accents when they spoke English and Bengali werenât satisfactorily Bengali. This is not a criticism that a novel is likely to encounter. While there are some novels that go to great lengths to render dialect and accent accurately (The Bonfire of the Vanities actually spells them out), and some critics will go on about a writerâs âearâ, the average reader is unlikely to be so quickly put off by the âinauthenticityâ of printed speech: film, by its very nature, tends to encourage literal-mindedness. Besides, Jhumpa Lahiri steps around the whole problem by minimizing speech in inverted commas. Conversations are described or reported, not dramatized. The scriptwriter and the director must have had to invent nearly all the dialogue because thereâs very little in the book that can be lifted and used in a film.

Tabu, who plays Ashima, and Irrfan, who plays Ashoke, arenât Bengalis. The film has them speaking Bengali occasionally, but mostly they speak English as Bengalis might speak the language. Not being Bengali myself, I canât judge how persuasive their Bengali was, but Irrfan Khanâs English seemed plausible enough. He sometimes sounded like a purabia, someone from the eastern edge of the Hindi belt, but on the whole he seemed to make a reasonable fist of being Bengali in English. I have prabashi or expatriate Bengali friends who sound rather less Bengali while speaking English than Irrfan did in this film.

Tabu, who is otherwise completely believable as an immigrant housewife half-oppressed by exile and half-fulfilled by her family, does have an accent problem. When she speaks English, she sounds conscious of the need to speak it in a Bengali way and she sometimes lapses into a generic Indian sing-song. Cumulatively, through the length of a film, this way of speaking English tends to infantilize her. Towards the end of the film, when she tells a gathering of family and friends that sheâs decided to leave America and return to Calcutta, she makes a little speech that is brave and poignant and moving â itâs her best moment in the film â and halfway through it, I realized that she had forgotten to Bengalify her accent.

Tabu would have been even better than she already is in the film if she had canned the Bengali business from the start. Most film audiences, like most novel readers, are generous when it comes to suspending disbelief. Iâm convinced that Bengali movie-goers would have been happy to take Tabuâs Bengaliness on trust. Itâs only when actors are caught out impersonating âtypesâ imperfectly that the natives reach for the Authenticity Bludgeon. Better not to try. Itâs one of the great paradoxes of modern times that an Indian who tries to speak Indian in foreign parts will sound like Peter Sellers.

But to allow Tabuâs accent or a morning wedding to get in the way of enjoying a good film would be perverse. Fiction isnât only or even primarily about the shock of recognition, the pleasure we feel when a writer or director or actor gets something âjust rightâ. Thatâs one of its minor rewards. An example of one of the real pleasures of good fiction is the rush of sentimental empathy that I felt when I saw the adult Gogol sitting in a barbershop having his head shaved because his father had died, the poignance of that scene heightened by its juxtaposition with a scene from Gogolâs childhood when the boy sees his father (Ashoke/Irrfan) clumsily shaving his head with a razor in his American bathroom because his father had died. Or the saddest moment in the book and the film when Ashoke walks Gogol to the end of a frozen pier. Alone with his son in the cold desolation of another world with no camera to bear witness to their bond, Ashoke asks Gogol to remember the moment. How long for, asks the boy, obediently. Forever, says the father who has travelled far enough from home to know that he has to live on in his sonâs mind. Otherwise, what was it all for?

The alienation of the immigrant life and the way in which immigrant men try to make themselves whole with filial piety and son-love are conjured up with an intensity that no other form of writing or telling can even attempt. The summarizing ugliness of that previous sentence tells us why we turn to fiction. It is for small revelations like these, that have nothing to do with analysis or anthropology or authenticity or recognition.

04-21-2007, 09:43 PM

QUOTEThe glamorous wedding 
link
Abhishek(31) and Aishwarya (33) entered into wedlock in a north Indian style ceremony with the golden couple exchanging garlands at Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan`s family home "Prateeksha" last evening. Eleven priests from Varanasi conducted the rituals. 

The ceremony held on the auspicious day of Akshay Tritiya climaxed three days of festivities starting from a Sangeet function on Wednesday and the traditional Mehndi ceremony on Thursday.

The who`s who of Indiaâs rich and famous including movie stars, top industrialists and politicians graced the occasion. They included Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bollywood actors Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Kajol and close friends of the Bachchans, Anil and Tina Ambani and Amar Singh and Sachin Tendulkar.

The function was held at a huge air-conditioned pandal in the garden at the Bachchan`s family home. Red and pink flowers, encircled by gold and green curtains covered the tent.

Before the start of the wedding rituals, Abhishek came in a baraat from another of Bachchan`s family residence "Jalsa", close to the marriage venue. Dressed in a gold-embroidered white sherwani and with his face covered with a frill of jasmine flowers, Bollywood`s Bunty rode a colourfully decorated white horse with his nephew Agastya sitting in front of him. Aishwarya was adorning a golden coloured saree worn in South Indian style with heavy Kundan jewellery and jasmine flowers in her hair tied in a bun.

Tight security had been put in place for the function.

As the accompanying musical band played popular songs from Abhishek`s movies like "Kajra Re" and evergreen tunes such as "Aaj Mere Yar Ki Shaadi Hai", the groom waved to multitudes of fans and onlookers who had gathered outside Jalsa, eliciting crazed cat-calls and shrill whistles.

While male members of the `baraat` wore saffron turbans, the women were clad in richly embroidered sarees in dazzling colours.

Earlier, all the `baraatis` or members of the wedding procession boarded several luxury buses that took them to Prateeksha.


Now they will be called "Hindutava" by seculars. <!--emo& Big Grin

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

04-22-2007, 11:16 PM

Abhi-Ash with Big B visit TirupatiQUOTETirupati, April 22: Newly-wed Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai sought blessings of Lord Venkateshwara at the famous hill shrine at Tirumala.

The Bollywood stars, who entered wedlock on Friday, were in the sanctum sanctorum for about ten minutes, temple sources told PTI.

Abhishek's father Amitabh Bachahan, mother Jaya Bachchan, noted industrialist Anil Ambani and his wife Tina accompanied the couple.

During their stay at the sanctum sanctorium from 0940 am to 0950 am, the priests chanted prayers and offered them the celestial ghee lamp 'arathi', the sources said

04-22-2007, 11:23 PM

Ash-Abhi wedding catches imagination of PakQUOTE Islamabad, April 21: The Aishwarya-Abhishek Bachchan âdream weddingâ made waves in Bollywood crazy Pakistan with the media in Pakistan going on a feeding frenzy over the event.

The wedding in Big B's household remained a top story for several days on Pakistani TV channels like Geo and ARY which deployed special staff to anchor âexclusiveâ features highlighting various events of the wedding with footage from their Indian TV collaborators.

Struggling actress Janhavi Kapoor, who allegedly attempted suicide outside the Bachchan residence on Friday claiming she was married to Abhishek, also provided much fodder for the channels.

The channels aired live shots of the 'barat' (wedding procession) on Friday.

The print media splashed the story on the front pages on Saturday, with photographs and details of the marriage.

Some channels roped in Pakistani actors to comment on the wedding of the Bollywood's celebrity couple, whose movies have been vastly popular in Pakistan.

Bollywood has a large fan following in Pakistan even though the movies are banned in theatres.

CDs of Indian movies, most of them pirated, are released in Pakistan either on the same day or, on some occasions, even earlier before they are released in India.

Commenting on the wedding, popular actress Reema said Aiswarya and Abhishek were lucky to have a âdream weddingâ in real life. "Film stars normally have such weddings in films. Very few have them in real life," she said


After Raksha Bandhan, I hope Paki will go back to their ancestor's other tradition with same spirit.

04-26-2007, 10:56 PM

India May Arrest Richard Gere Over Kiss
QUOTEA court issued arrest warrants for Hollywood actor Richard Gere and Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty on Thursday, saying their kiss at a public function "transgressed all limits of vulgarity," media reports said.

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