Indian-Americans Love Hollywood and the Oscars! Indians love cinema, drama, music and they also…
Browsing: Hollywood
Ben Kingsley nothing is ever forgotten or lost – just filed away for the future.
“I am fascinated by people. I love watching them. I do have a vast memory bank and I can access them,” says Kingsley. “It’s a very lucky gift that I have, being able to absorb things.
Indian doctors are everywhere but you wouldn’t have expected one to be right on the glittering stage of the 2021 Academy Awards! Dr. Meena Makhijani was in the elite group receiving the Jean Herscholt Humanitarian Oscar. This year the winner of this prestigious award was the Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF) where Makhijani is physician and the Chief of Staff. Yes, she actually held the iconic Oscar in her hand and recalls with delight: “It had heft!”
Kelly Macdonald and Irrfan Khan star in a beautiful, understated film ‘Puzzle’.
The 800 lb gorilla in America is still the issue of immigration and affects so many lives. Be it the construction of the border wall, detention centers, the elimination of chain migration and the visa lottery and the limbo lives of so many green card hopefuls – most of them Indian and the possibility they may still be waiting 50 years later.
Yet as South Asians turn to political activism and support civic organisations that fight for immigrant rights and human rights in America, we see some famous names in the arts taking on these issues on television and on the big screen.
An all-Indian cast heads the animated film ‘Mira, Royal Detective’ – a great way for young Indian-Americans to see people like themselves on the big Hollywood screen.
elanie Chandra is a South Asian actress who has been seen in several Hollywood movies and TV shows including ‘Code Black’. She currently is producing and acting in ‘Surina and Mel’ with ‘Outsourced’ actress Surina Jindal.
So what is ‘Surina and Me’l about? As Melanie Chandra describes it, it is loosely based on the real-life friendship of Surina (brash, non-committal) and Melanie (poised, type A) the show follows this odd-couple duo as they unsuccessfully navigate their lives as grown-ups, one micro-aggression at a time.
Ten ticking minutes which won’t ever come back are a valuable commodity.
You could spend them waiting for the subway train to arrive or watching your chicken biryani cook on the stove.
Or you could spend ten minutes having a most happening conversation with the very happening Kumail Nanjiani! Well, that’s what I was lucky enough to do – and I tried to squeeze an hour’s conversation into those ten minutes – and we really talked fast!
Remembering legendary actor Omar Sharif on his 86th birthday through a Google Doodle, some video interviews and one’s own memories of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and ‘Dr. Zhivago’ and other films.
ow does a 21st century, modern Indian transform himself into a 19th century British Raj clerk, a servant of Queen Victoria?
In ‘Victoria and Abdul’ the story of an unusual friendship between Queen Victoria and her Indian servant Abdul Karim, this was the challenge for Ali Fazal, boy from Lucknow, Bollywood actor from Mumbai who had done a cameo in ‘Fast and Furious’.
Well, this nice middle-class girl from Bombay did follow the road less traveled. It led her all the way to New York City, the school of hard knocks, the elusive hunt for success and happiness. Did she find what she was looking for?
‘The Big Sick’ is a story for our times and what makes it kind of cool is that it’s a real life story – it actually happened and is not the figment of someone’s imagination. Yes, immigration, love, breakup and marriage, sickness and coma, terrorism and multiculturalism all come into it but it’s always upbeat, always funny. Big ambitious topics for a sweet little romantic tale but ‘The Big Sick’ pulls it off.
Are you all Oscar-ed out with the talk of black, white and brown, who said what, and who wore what? It’s been a real blitz on social media with the coverage of the 88th Academy Awards but one thing is certain – desis were really tickled to finally see South Asians at the Oscars. Yes, there was an Oscar for Asif Kapadia’s ‘Amy’ and for Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s ‘Girl in the River’, and Sanjay Patel’s short animated film ‘Sanjay’s Super Team’ was nominated for an Oscar.
Lavina’s Picks – Cruising the Web. There’s info overload, so what do you read? Well, certainly about George Clooney’s upcoming wedding to Amal Alamuddin! Also about Zubin Mehta’s passion – chilies and his love affair with Indian food. And all about the young Indian-American who created E-Mail!
The fabulous Helen Mirren, the quite wonderful Om Puri – loads of French and Indian food – and a love story with music by AR Rahman. Add to it Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey! Perfect ingredients for an unexpected romance set in France.It is based on the critically acclaimed book by Richard C. Morais which has been a best seller in 29 countries.
It’s the City of Dreams, of Make-believe.
The strivers, the strugglers keep coming but Hollywood’s gates are often closed. Can their stories ever be told, if they are a minority, an outsider? Writers of color are often underemployed in cinema.
Recently the Writers Guild of America, an influential Hollywood entity, set up the Features Access Project to rectify this by encouraging diversity in writing.
Among this year’s eight multicultural honorees, three trace their roots back to India – Radha Bharadwaj (Final Boarding), Nayan Padrai (Billion Dollar Raja) and Tianna Majumdar-Langham (Guns and Saris) who won the honor with her co-writer Chris Bessounian.
Could there be a filmi success story brewing in here? We saw some young unknown and aspiring filmakers with cinematic dreams – and we saw how far they went! We’re talking M.Night Shyamalan and Nagesh Kukunoor here.
Well, meet Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad, a young filmmaker from Detroit with a passion to stir up a devilish hell with his supernatural thriller ‘Jinn’. The film had a glamorous premiere in the fabulous Detroit Institute of the Arts with a packed hall. Get ready to get goose-bumps and some sleepless nights for ‘Jinn’ releases nationwide tomorrow and in Canada.
Yes, Bollywood in all its avatars is eternal and continues to take audiences on a seductive, addictive emotional roller coaster ride. Long live the 800 pound gorilla!
“When Katrina Kaif was photographed in Ibiza, Spain over the summer in a bikini, I was surprised by the amount of media attention that it got. Having been an avid follower of Hollywood my entire life and seeing paparazzi take invasive photos of my favorite celebrities, to me Bollywood is very tame in comparison. There is more privacy; the focus is more on the work and less on scandals and private lives.
When everyone else is doing a thing of their own, can you maintain a conservative mindset in your 20’s, 30’s and beyond? Most of us were born into conservative families because India was engraved in us. Can we maintain that thought system through life or do we get influenced by the western world?” Guest blog post – The Single Desi
“The fashion, the best dressed, the worst dressed, the wardrobe malfunctions, the hits, the misses…. I love the movies!
Old Hollywood, New Hollywood, the glitz, the glamour, the prestige, the paparazzi, the fashion, the hair, the makeup, the products.
The diamonds, the designers, the dresses, the free swag, the red carpet, and everything that leads me to believe that being a movie star is everything it is cracked up to be and more,” says the Single Desi, summing up Oscar Night