My Name is Khan

My Name is Khan to release February 12th, 2010, reuniting Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol after eight years, and a Holly-Bolly co-production of Fox Star Studio, Dharma Productions and Red Chillies entertainment. Karan Johar of Dharma is certainly doing some interesting things these days, and displaying a much more delicate, and slyer, emotional touch it seems, which could help this one crossover. The scenario sounds like a winner. Hope they pull it off Chak de India-style.

Blue: Kylie Goes Bollywood

Kylie Minogue does an item number for the new Akshay Kumar-Sanjay Dutt starrer Blue, said to be Bollywood's most expensive film yet, which is getting nice reviews:

Kisaan: Punjabi Munde

Kisaan - Punjabi Munde (HQ 2009) (Full Version)
Uploaded by PriyanKa_Queen. - See the latest featured music videos.

Wake Up Sid: Trailer

Sorry for the long hiatus from blogging about Indian film -- I am also a human rights activist and lover of Iran and its culture, and have been busy the last few months with the Iranian crisis. (If you want to help please go here.)
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Between the Producers' strike and swine flu, it has been a dreadful year for Bollywood. But things are picking up:



New York Times review here.

"Cowboy of the East," Feroz Khan, 1939-2009

Khan is remembered here.

Kambakht Ishq: Theatrical Trailer

Not to be confused with the Fardeen-Urmila song of the same name... starring Akshay Kumar and white hot Kareena Kapoor, with cameos by Stallone, Denise Richards and Brandon Routh.

Pyaar tune Kya Kiya: Kambakht Ishq

Starring Fardeen Khan and Urmila Mandotkar. Love the red dupatta.

New York: Trailer

Irrfan Khan, Katrina Kaif, John Abraham, and Neil Nitin Mukesh star.

Mughal-E-Azam: Pyaar Kiya to Darna Kya

This 1960 film was a megahit unrivalled until Sholay came along in the 70s. Filmed in both color and black and white (this song is one of three color sequences), it starred Madhubala and Dilip Kumar. Lata Mangeshkar, the most recorded singer in history according to the folks at the Guinness book, sings (Madhubala lip syncs and dances here as the rebellious slave girl in the Moghul court.) Filmed in the hall of mirrors at Ajmer Palace.

Interview with Akshay Kumar

Kumar is one of the most interesting, and best-paid, Hindi stars. He flew under the radar for a long time, and then burst into top-tier films like a supernova. He's had a string of superhits (Chandni Chowk to China notwithstanding), not just in India but abroad. Like Hrithik Roshan (pre-knee surgery), he does his own stunts in movies, and the trickier, the better. He comes from a very humble background, worked as a cook, studied martial arts, until he accidentally got a modelling gig, which lead to acting. In this clip he talks about working in 8 X 10 Tasveer with Nagesh Kukunoor, a young, maverick, auteur type making some of the best films around. (see Dor, Iqbal, Hyderabad Blues, Teen Dewarein.)

Akshay has had quite the week, receiving the Padma Shri (a high indian honor for contribution to India), and then being charged with obscenity for this. That's his wife Twinkle undoing the button. Keep in mind this was for the Levis Unbuttoned campaign and all the models undid their top buttons. I suspect this Bollywood "obscenity" case will be laughed out of court as they always are.

Nadaan: Naach Aye Dil

This is the incomparable Helen. In addition to dancing in over 500 movies, she was also the subject of a Merchant-Ivory documentary Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls. This one is for the pink chaddi girls.

Billu Barber: Marjani Marjani

Shah Rukh Khan's jitem number with Kareena Kapoor.

Dev D: Theatrical Trailer

Anurag Yashyap's modern retelling of the now-classic story of Devdas..

Off-Topic: Everything is Possible

Blind Cricketers.

The "Amar-Akbar-Anthony* of Indian Music

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian, are behind some of the best soundtracks in Hindi cinema*. They did this, and this, and also this song from the Hindi version of High School Musical. They also did this, this, and they wrote this anthem for India.

And more.

Amar Akbar Anthony.



* Hindi cinema is what is known as Bollywood. People who work in it prefer the term Hindi cinema, but when I call in that when talking with Gora (white) people in the west, they're puzzled until I explain, 'Bollywood." Ah.

Luck By Chance: Baware

This looks much better on the big screen, but this will give you a taste of Hrithik Roshan's big song in Luck By Chance, a gentle satire on the Hindi film industry (more popularly known as Bollywood). Lots of cameos in this.

Luck By Chance

Luck by Chance, Zoya Akhtar's directorial debut, has opened in the US (at the same time as in India) and the reviews from mainstream American critics are great. The movie stars Akhtar's brother (also a director) Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sensharma, Rishi Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor and has a host of Hindi film stars appearing in smaller parts, including Dimple Kapadia, Juhi Chawla and Hrithik Roshan.

Zoya and Farhan Akhtar are the children of Javed Akhtar, a renowned poet and lyricist, and Honey Irani, a renowned screenwriter, and the stepchildren of Hindi film great Shabana Azmi.

Baby Halder: A Life Less Ordinary

I stumbled upon this book two years ago at the Jaipur festival. It's the autobiography of Baby Halder, a poor women who became a literary sensation.

Taare Zameen Par: Trailer 2

I underestimated Aamir Khan. I knew he was a talented actor (India's Johnny Depp verging on India's Brando, to put it in E!nglish terms). But when I heard he was directing a movie, I thought, "Another actor who thinks he can direct. Ha." But his movie, Taare Zameen Par, made a fool of me. It's fresh, innovative and intelligent.

Kailash Kher: Dilruba

Kailash Kher. Evocative song, video sucks. Best enjoyed with your eyes closed.

Some of India's Real Slumdwellers

Slumdog Millionaire gets the DGA award. For a movie about the tenacity of hope, it's poetic justice. So what if Boyle and Beaufoy are British. Art knows no borders, right? Anyway, Boyle's family is Irish I think, so he gets a pass on the whole empire thing.

SM seems to be accomplishing what all great art should, inducing us to look at ourselves and those around us in a fresh way. Hope is palpable in rising India. Vikas Swarup, who wrote Q and A, the book the movie is based on, discerned and expressed that with humanity, and it was vividly brought to life by Boyle and his cast and crew.

Swarup got it exactly right: The Indian slums teem with geniuses.

Inspired by Millionaire, Rediff, an Indian news service, profiled some slum kids:

The Car Washer Who Wants to Play for India.

The guy makes 1000 rupees a month (about 25 US dollars) and puts half of it towards cricket training.

Does it sound ludicrous?

Ten Paise per shoe.

It is now the kind of India where these dreams can come true in multitudes. Millionaire captures that India perfectly. My ex-boyfriend, a handsome Rajput man who funds and runs schools for poor kids in Rajasthan, can speak volumes on this subject.

The girls below, Kajol and Pooja (L-R), live with their mother in a lean-to outside Newmarket in Kolkata. They go to a free school, and after school they change from their crisp uniforms into beggar clothes. Their father is dead. Kajol, the older sister speaks Bengali and Hindi, and understands English but is too shy to speak it. Pooja speaks English superbly, in addition to Bengali and Hindi. She's very animated, clever, and cute, could easily be an actress, but plans to grow up to be the prime minister of India so she can help the poor. (This earnestness and sincerity runs like a river through India.) I hired them to show me around Newmarket and got a tour that blew all the guidebooks away.



And finally, this is Father Paul, the coolest priest in India. He, Brother Charles, a dozen teachers and a half dozen German volunteers, run the Gandhi Ashram school in Kalimpong.



The school uses violins to help kids embrace education, It was started by a Canadian, Thomas Edward "Ed" McGuire, who passed away in 2005. He was a very funny guy, a philosopher, and a student of other religions. He never preached his own. Watch this and weep when Kushmita plays. She is now at a prestigious German conservatory on scholarship.

If you want to give to the Gandhi Ashram school, there is a donation link here.

A very good NGO that works with poor kids in Mumbai is Atma Mumbai

In Jaipur, The Alternative Development Centre.

Deewar: Amitabh Bachchan

Something for you fight fans... Amitabh Bachchan mops the floor with a bunch of goonda(s) in this 1975 blockbuster. Thanks to Bollywood Food Club, link on the left under Choice Bits.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (RNBDJ): Haule Haule Trailer

Shah Rukh Khan plays an ordinary guy who has to win the love of his wife.

Delhi 6: Title Song

AR Rahman, now familiar worldwide through the music of Slumdog Millionaire, personifies fusion music in India, blending traditional Indian music with everything from Rock to classical to rap. Abhishek Bachchan and my new favorite actress Sonam Kapoor star in this beautiful looking film.

Delhi 6: Masakalli Promo

Starring Abhishek Bachchan (son of actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri) and Sonam Kapoor (daughter of Anil Kapoor of Slumdog Millionaire and Bollywood). Music by AR Rahman, also of Slumdog.

Do you think they sewed that dove to her head?

Young Jamal at the Taj Loves Majid Majidi

This young actor who played young Jamal at the Taj in Slumdog Millionaire is one of the reasons I can't help but believe in reincarnation. The video is by his favorite director, Iranian Majid Majidi, who made this for the Beijing Olympics.

Forbes loves Bollywood

... says Holly Bolly (link on the left side somewhere). Story here.

Relevé: Vishal Solanki

This is not a Bollywood video, but it is Bollywood related. In Mumbai, I was lucky enough to work with a gifted director of photograpy, Vishal Solanki, just returned from the United States. Solanki was director and DP on this video.

Hare Rama Hare Krishna: Dum Maro Dum

Dev Anand tries to save his sister Zeenat Aman after she falls in with drug-addicted hippies. Also starring a cast of gora hippies raked off the beaches of Goa and/or shaken from the hostels of Kathmandu. Thanks to Little White Lies for this and Typewriter Tip etc. Singer: Asha Bhosle. A longer version here.

(Dum Maro Dum, roughly translated, means 'Take another toke.')

Bombay Talkie: Typewriter tip, tip, tip

Here's one for the writers (the ones who remember typewriters in any event). Here, Shashi Kapoor and Helen, the "Queen of the Nautch Girls." From Bombay Talkie, a Merchant-Ivory film.

CID: Aye Dil Hain

Mumbai, circa 1956. Johnny Walker sings: Bombay Meri Jaan. Click on it twice to bring up the Youtube page.

"The Empire has been finally, overwhelmingly trounced."

Ten Oscar Nominations for Slumdog, including three for the magician A.R. Rahman, and good reviews in the Indian press for the movie, opening in India today.

"The Empire has been finally, overwhelmingly trounced."

Cultural imperialism is dead, long live cultural free trade.

Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega: Socho Kya Karogi

That's Saif Ali Khan and Sonali Bendre. Saif's a sort of prince in real life as his father is the Nawab of Pataudi (as well as a renowned cricketer back in the day). This makes him the Chhote Nawab. His mother is Bollywood actress Sharmila Tagore who sits on Indian's film review board.

Race: Khwab Dekhe

Jab We Met: Nagada Nagada

Hit romantic comedy from 2008, starring Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor, a real-life couple when they made this film.