Bollywood fans will be intrigued to know that their favorite hunk John Abraham is part of ‘Damaru’, Isheeta Ganguly’s new album – in a very different way than they usually envisage him. Rather than a Bollywood hero, his is the thoughtful, strong voice behind the words of “Bande Mataram” and the Tagore poem, “Where the Mind is Without Fear”.
Browsing: Bollywood
This festival brings an eclectic, surprising mix of South Asian based cinema from different parts of the world – and you never know which film will turn out to be the next big hit or major award-winner. After all, ‘Namesake’, ‘Water’ and even ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ first opened here, almost six months before their general release.
It’s not often that you run into Bollywood biggie Karan Johar at a makeshift Chowpatty or chat with Mira Nair while eating kulfis at a fake Pasta Lane – and that too in the heart of New York, inside the Grand Hyatt Hotel!
The event was An Evening in Mumbai, and like the real Mumbai, this imitation Mumbai glittered. Every one of the guests was dressed in Bollywood glam, a mad medley of colors and jewels. For a day, every guest was a star and walked down the red carpet.
At I-View Film Festival 2010 , a powerful band of cinema warriors is coming to town – imagine directors like Vishal Bhardwaj, Aparna Sen, Onir, and Rituparno Ghosh in the flesh along with wonderful actors like Rahul Bose, Rituparna Sengupta, Konkona Sen, Raima Sen, and Juhi Chawla.
This year on 10/10/10 everyone is a Mumbaikar at heart and together we celebrate that great city by the sea which has shown a lot of courage and resilience under attack. Children’s Hope India presents An Evening in Mumbai Gala
For once, the gregarious Shah Rukh Khan didn’t have a word to say. He stood as still as a statue – oh, what am I saying – this Shah Rukh Khan was a statue – a wax one at that! The famous tourist attraction Madame Tussauds in Times Square has now immortalized superstar King Khan in wax, and throngs of fans came to see him holding court in the Bollywood Zone.
Who would have thought Osama Bin Ladin could make you smile? The face that gives one nightmares becomes central to ‘Tere Bin Laden’, a good-natured, cheeky comedy which is almost a fable about America’s war on terror.
What would the real Osama say if he saw ‘Tere Bin Laden’? Says director Abhishek Sharma, “I think even he would be amused to see the way we have used Bin Laden tapes to show the madness in the post 9/11 world.”
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‘Giving Back’ is Meera Gandhi’s cinematic tribute to all her friends in high places and the good that they do for others through organizations for women and children, addressing everything from human rights to micro-credit. In the film she interviews Cherie Blair, Kerry Kennedy, U2’s singer Bono, Peter Raj Singh, interior designer Clodagh, Steven Rockefeller and others.
Watch the video.
Lord Shiva danced the world into existence with a shake of his mighty damru, it is said, and we’ve been dancing ever since.You had to be at ‘Erasing Borders: Festival of Indian Dance’, a three day festival of dance in NYC to see how boldly the ghungroo bells ring and how feet and hands and bodies meld into a thing of beauty. What was eye-opening was the sheer diversity of the dance vocabulary and how it’s being interpreted by a whole new generation of dancers.
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‘Kites’ Review
‘Kites’ is the face of the new global Indian film industry – fast-paced, fast-moving and completely at home on the world stage. From beginning to end, it has the look and feel of a big international film, and moves flawlessly and boldly, from glittering Vegas casinos to raw desert terrain to fabulous mansions. But where is the soul?
Pop artist Anoop Desai has been on everybody’s radar ever since he became a finalist on the eighth season of “American Idol.” Now his first independently released EP ‘All is Fair’ has hit the airwaves. His new single is titled ‘My Name.’
Was growing up in North Carolina with a name like Anoop difficult?
“Kids made fun of it all the time, in the school bus, and I remember coming home from kindergarten and demanding that my mom change my name, because I wanted to be a Bill or something,” he recalls.
“I cringe at that now because I am lucky to have my name, lucky to have my culture. That’s what makes me unique and a lot of people don’t have that.”
What better way to launch a film series about a rich culture than with a Mughal feast?
Fabulous jewels, opulent palaces, courtesans, high melodrama and a vanishing way of life is what enthralled us in the classic historical movies like ‘Pukar’, ‘Najma’, ‘Mirza Ghalib’, ‘Mughal-e-Azam’, and more recently ‘Jodhaa Akbar’.Now you can get the flavor of those bygone days with a rich cinematic feast worthy of the Mughals – and actually indulge in a royal celebration.
They may live in American cities, go to American schools but Bollywood runs in their blood. We’re talking of young Indian-Americans, thousands and thousands of them, scattered across American towns and cities. Weaned on Bollywood movies on DVD since babyhood, they learn the Shah Rukh moves, the Madhuri moves, the Shahid moves, almost by osmosis in family living rooms.
Later many of them learn dance, classical and Bollywood, at the scores of Indian dance schools that have sprouted up in towns and cities. They dance at family events, birthdays and weddings, as naturally as if they were in a Bollywood movie and it was written into the script of life.
Are Hollywood movies going to be a cash cow for Indian-American producers? Generally you have NRI filmmakers making movies with Indian themes or Indian actors but Naveen Chathapuram of Chicago has just ventured into mainstream territory, by producing ‘CA$H’, a psychological thriller with Hollywood stars Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings), Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Star Trek) and Victoria Profeta (Push, The Drew Carey Show). The film is written and directed by Stephen Milburn Anderson (South Central)
Indian filmgoers have endured through much to see their favorite cinema, right from projections on a sheet in the open air in villages to screenings in ramshackle halls across the Diaspora. Early immigrants tell of renting small tattered theaters or community centers for a single showing of an Indian film to which starved filmiholics would drive from miles to get sustenance. Now they finally have a theater chain of their own.
Life seems to be turning into a Bollywood movie and you won’t even need to lip-sync as you sing and dance your way through life with your romantic hero – just wear a musical sari! Yes, you’ve seen those Made in China Christmas cards which sing, autos from everywhere which talk and clocks which nag you to wake up. Now you have a Made in India intricately embroidered sari which comes embedded with a digital player in the ‘pallu’, 8 micro-speakers on the border and can play over 200 songs for four hours.
All aspiring dancers probably fantasize about one day starring in a Bollywood movie, in a big musical number dancing with their favorite movie idol. Well, for Sapna Rohra and Shivani Thakkar, both from Los Angeles, this became a reality when they won Verizon’s Bollypop contest. The grand prize? Round trip tickets to India and a chance to dance with Shahid Kapoor in the Bollywood movie, ‘Chance Pe Dance.’ What’s it like to move from the audience to the big screen?
For all those who’ve been following the real life drama of the release of ‘My Name is Khan’ it will be a relief to know that there’s a happy ending to this blockbuster. After more cliffhangers than the Himalayas, the film finally got to open in theaters across Mumbai and was seen by thousands of people. ‘My Name is Khan’ is an intriguing example of how sometimes reel and real life intersect in this major metropolis.
A movie about racial profiling made by a Muslim man, albeit a Bollywood superhero, itself became a vehicle for racial profiling by the Shiv Sena which sent its army of believers out to threaten and ransack. Well, the people of Mumbai came through, overwhelmingly showing that no one group has the monopoly to speak for the millions in this big, cosmopolitan city.
The bride in her glittering red sari was carried into the ballroom in a palanquin held aloft by four burly Westerners dressed in turbans. As the gathered guests watched, the bridegroom came forward to claim his bride and the couple walked to the stage. Standard wedding fare you’d say – except both the bride and bridegroom were children!
All you Bollywood fans, do you ever wonder how the Indian film industry got started almost a hundred years ago? Forget superstars, overseas locations, musicals and spicy dance item numbers – there wasn’t even sound! It’s hard to believe women’s roles were played by men since even prostitutes considered acting in the cinema too demeaning a task.
‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ is a wonderful little film – only 95 minutes compared to the 3 hour Bollywood blockbusters – and it is a journey into the making of India’s first film by Dhundiraj Phalke, who is acknowledged as the father of the Indian film industry.