Love Letters for Peepli Live

The latest Aamir Khan/Kiran Rao production, Peepli Live, the first Indian film invited to the Sundance festival, is getting great reviews from American critics (and reportedly got a standing ovation from the Sundance audience). Here's one review. Directed by first-time director Anusha Rizvi.

Saw Ishqiya last night and both my movie friend Mantu and I gave it five stars. A gem that will change the way you see Bollywood. 2010 is shaping up to be a breakout year for fine Indian films, a New Wave.

Ishqiya

Can't wait to see this.

Calcutta Telegraph Review here.

The consensus among the many glowing reviews is that with an original plot, standout performances, adult humor and situations and a 120-minute running time this one could crossover.

Bollywood Roundup 2009

Here. Most interesting to me is the Holly-Bolly dealmaking, and that Kites will have two edits, an Indian version and an international version:

"Hopes are high from Kites as its international version is being edited by Brett Ratner, best known for the Rush Hour series and for Family Man. He is currently at work on the English version of Kites and is tailoring it to appeal to an international audience.

The Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol film on terrorism, My Name Is Khan, has been selected to screen at the 60th annual Berlin International Film Festival. Directed by Karan Johar, the film has been acquired by Fox Star for a reported $20 million.

Fox Star has also signed a two-film deal each with Vipul Shah and A R Murugadoss.

Paul Schrader of Taxi Driver fame is making Xtreme City on Mumbai slums and mafia in collaboration with Bollywood director Anubhav Sinha and writer Mushtaq Sheikh.

Reliance BIG Pictures has inked deals with Nicolas Cage's Saturn Films, Jim Carrey's JC 23 Entertainment, George Clooney's Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus' 1492 Pictures, Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions, Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, Jay Roach's Everyman Pictures, Brett Ratner's Rat Entertainment, Julia Roberts' Red Om Films and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment to develop scripts."

Love Aaj Kal: Twist

3 Idiots: Trailer

Free Time, Play, a Chance to Meander

An art teacher I met Christmas Eve noted that the real value of a good art education is not that it will lead to better engineers, lawyers or scientists, though it will, but that children need time and space to be creatively free and have fun. All the schools I have visited so far embody this philosophy. There's also an appreciation for what one principal described as a "healthy naughtiness."

There is a dark side to Indian education, no schools for many kids, corrupt schools or strict schools where children are brutalized physically or emotionally to the point of suicide. Now, the simmering debate on the future of Indian education seems to be breaking wide-open. Bollywood is of course doing its part, with recent films like Taare Zameen Par and 3 Idiots, which just opened. Stay tuned.

At one school, I was asked to speak to 90 class 9 girls, not realizing I'd be introduced a an expert on arts education. I am a student of it, not an expert. In situations like this, it's best to keep the speech brief and go quickly to the Q and A. I was as curious about them as they were about me, if not more curious. Their questions said a great deal about their concerns: poverty, political corruption, and the roles of the media and society in resolving these things. Their consensus was that the biggest problem India faces is political corruption and that resolving this would alleviate other problems.

All in all, a great afternoon that wholeheartedly supported my obvious biases.

Off to Kerala soon, where meaningful literacy is almost total (and there are also some nice beaches and wildlife preserves, providentially). :)

The quote on the blackboard says:

"The principal goal of education is to create men and women who are capable of doing new things not simply repeating what other generations have done."

(Seen at the Fabindia School in Bali, Rajasthan)

Off-Topic

I chanced into a funded project on arts education for underprivileged children in India and am now on the subcontinent visiting a few of the many innovative schools here. The perennial debate in North American education -- are arts essential or elective - is more pressing with the recession. In India, there is an explosion of schools and programs for poor kids in which the arts are a core part of the curriculum. Results: Better grades, more creative thinking, higher self-confidence. Here is one of the many programs in Mumbai and Pune. Note the emphasis on a "Good Time." (Fun is so underrated.)

I have about a hundred links, leads, and tips to follow, and a book to finish, so probably won't be a good blogger for the near future.

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:

Wake Up Sid: Trailer

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.

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 item number with Kareena Kapoor.

Dev D: Theatrical Trailer

Anurag Kashyap'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.

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.

(Click on photos for larger versions.)

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: 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

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.