A well deserved honor for the accomplished Orissa-born filmmaker. Mira Nair was my introduction into Indian films in 1991, watching Mississippi Masala with a young Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury. I still love this movie. And I love Mira Nair, whose voice is bold, unapologetic and poetic at the same time. The Namesake is perhaps my favorite. I must have watched it 100 times over. Mira Nair work covers two continents, the merging of cultures, ancient and new. She weaves together the different tapestries, but her heart beats to the tabla and sings to the sitar.Congrats, Mira Nair!!
NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS INDUCTS |
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Mira Nair’s filmography
2009 Amelia
2009 New York, I Love You (segment “Mira Nair)
2008 8 (segment “How can it be?”)
2008/I Migration (short)
2006 The Namesake
2004 Vanity Fair
2002 September 11 (segment “India”)
2002 Hysterical Blindness (TV movie)
2001 The Laughing Club of India (TV documentary short)
2001 Monsoon Wedding
1998 My Own Country (TV movie)
1995 The Perez Family
1993 The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat (short)
1991 Mississippi Masala
1988 Salaam Bombay!
1987 Children of a Desired Sex (TV documentary)
1985 India Cabaret (TV documentary)
1983 So Far from India (documentary)
1979 Jama Masjid Street Journal (documentary) |
Category Archives: Indian films
2013 NY Indian Film Festival from April 30- May 4th
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Satyagraha and Prakash Jha: Bollywood’s voice of conscience
Zeal for truth, this could be Prakash Jha’s red thread common to all his socio-politically charged movies. Sometimes I wonder why men like him aren’t in government positions, then again, not everyone wants to swim with sharks).
Find out more about him on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prakash_Jha
Katrina Kaif sprints into action: who needs romance?
Katrina is excited about her two new action movies “Bang Bang” and “Dhoom3”
but nobody could be more excited than her fans who admired her sprinting through Ek Tha Tiger with Salman Khan. (why wasn’t that the most successful movie of all times? I LOVED IT, but then, I am a huge Katrina fan and I love her in all her movies. she just always shines so bright).
I googled and googled and googled my heart out but I couldn’t find the scene where Katrina shows off her action skills. But if you saw the movie, you know this girl can RUN! :-)
and DIVE:
check out:
Katrina Kaif excited to take up action genre
Press Trust of India | March 14, 2013 20:12 IST (Mumbai)inShare
Katrina will next be seen in action flick Dhoom 3.Katrina Kaif has usually done love stories but the actress says she is looking forward to go beyond her romantic image with action films Dhoom 3 and Bang Bang.The two films, starring Aamir Khan and Hrithik Roshan, involve hardcore action and Katrina herself will be seen performing some dare devil stunts.”Bang Bang is inspired by Hollywood film Knight and Day but we have re-done the story to suit Indian audience. It is an action comedy and I haven’t done anything like this in a long time.“All my previous movies have more or less been love stories. This also has a love angle but with a twist. It is a huge change and I am really excited about it,” she told PTI. Katrina is currently busy filming Aamir Khan starrer Dhoom 3 in Switzerland.
“We are still shooting… Still have a lot of work to do but it is shaping up well. It is a very glamorous and bold role at the same time. I am having a good time working with Aamir. He is a wonderful actor, extremely supportive.”
The Singh Is King star recently joined the list of actresses who have worked with the top three Khan’s (Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir) of the industry.
Though she feels lucky to have worked with the three superstars, Katrina says beyond a point name does not matter more than the work she is being offered.
“The big deal is they are legends and have been in the industry for the longest time… I am very fortunate to have got an opportunity of working will all three. It has been a learning and informative experience but beyond that I think it is not whom you work with but the kind of movies you do and what are you interests. What matters to me is the script and the director I am working with,” she said.
Coming from a non-filmy background and considering her non-fluency in Hindi, Katrina has achieved a lot by delivering hits like New York, Raajneeti, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger and Jab Tak Hai Jaan.
Besides movies, she is also a part of many endorsements. She recently shot for an all new campaign for Mango drink Slice, titled the Slice taste challenge.
Katrina returns to her seductive look in the commercial, which she feels has a very poetic feel to it.
“Slice has been one of my best associations. When they started, their ideas just clicked with me. I believe if the base of the project is strong be it movies or ads, half of the work is already done.
“Also what I like is the sensual and visually appealing look of the ad. The quality is so poetic and it has a story with a message. All of this makes the journey of being with them more special and exciting,” she added.
Commenting on the recent reports about her younger sister joining the film industry, Katrina said, “Isabelle is currently in LA completing her acting course. She is happy there and has no plans of coming to Bollywood as of now. So as and when she completes her course and if she wants to come she can come.”
and here is her juicy Slice ad:
okay, Katrina you got us to eat the pound of sugar hidden in that drink. what else?
almost as yummy is her performance in the song Sheila Ki Jawaani
oh sorry, that was her body-double
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phir milenge at Bang Bang and Dhoom 3
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Jolly LLB on collision course with India’s esteemed legal Incs
Hello lawyers, lighten up! It’s just a comedy.
From the director/writer of the wonderful quirky movie Phas Gaye Re Obama, where a bankrupt American gets kidnapped and devises a plot together with his kidnappers how to make money out of their failing plot, comes a new film along, Jolly L.L.B. This time Subhash Kapoor ventures into the court system in India.
Lawyers filed a petition against the film claiming it undermines the dignity of lawyers and judges of India’s legal system. That’s funny already and should be incorporated in the film as a side-show. Look, I would think the dignity of Indian courts is in question when rapists get a slap on the hand, when VIPs, who trespass the laws, never serve a sentence…but no, a comedy, a satire apparently is more inflammatory and damaging. Okay.
Here is a good interview I found on TOI with Boman Irani, who’s playing a hot-shot lawyer in the movie, talking about his costar Arshad Warsi, children, and India’s New Wave cinema.
“Shootout at Wadala” already making waves
I love Indian crime stories. They are gritty, messy, wild, passionate. In the US they are polished, predictable and boring. Bharat mein, pre-release there are always some little scandals surfacing, pushing much awaited release dates back. Personally I believe that monies might get shoved under some tables to make more people happy.This is India, afterall, where honey cakes get divided, or else!!
Shootout at Wadala is no exception. but it’s not about release dates but rather it might step on some sensitive toes in the underworld. specifically, we hear, Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar is not happy with his depiction by Sonu Sood :-) so there, let’s quickly change the character’s name..we don’t want Ibrahim to be sulking.
I just ordered the book the movie is based on. Dongri to Dubai by Hussain Zaidi at amazon. I hope it’s not written in Hindi :-) i did it a bit in a hurry.
Directed by Sanjay Gupta, close friend of Sanjay Dutt, who was proofreading the script and exclaiming here and there,” no it wasn’t like that at all!” I am making fun of course, Sanjay Dutt has no connections to the underworld whatsoever.
What I am looking forward to is John Abraham and not because of his muscles displays. He is just getting better and better with every film. more forceful, more powerful, more convincing. He can play the phonebook, he’s good at comedy at action at drama at romance. John Abraham is maturing like a good bottle of Bordeaux. And boy, I wish I had him in my wine cellar. I want to add, I very much enjoyed his first gig at producer, Vicky Donor, it was a hilarious movie. (btw, i think Hollywood might have stolen the idea, just saw a trailer yesterday which reminded me very much of Vicky Donor, a bit too much! )
Most of all, I love John’s naughty little smirk. but that’s just an afterthought….
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If Inkaar has taught me one lesson: don’t sleep with your boss or Mayday Mayday
This movie never made it to my shores. An interesting and multilayered film dealing with sexual harassment at the workplace. But if you think you learn something, then let’s cut to the chase. Don’t sleep with your boss. EVER. Under no circumstances. We know from experience how messy that can get. Case in point: Inkaar
A panel of investigators is summoned to determine if a sexual harassment suit filed by the creative director of an ad agency, Maya (Chitrangda Singh) against a CEO, Rahul (Arjun Rampal) has any merit and a solution can be found internally without creating too many waves. The questioning takes place over three days and we viewers feel just as exhausted at the end of this film as the members of the panel. But then comes the film’s climax and we realize our sufferings were in vain.The two feuding parties were just trying to figure out how they feel about each other. Duh!
So what started out as a really interesting premise of He Said She Said, the whole muddiness of office romance, game of ambition, blame and accusation had me in its grip. Usually sexual harassment is about one willing and one unwilling party, but in this case there was mutual attraction and boundaries were crossed consensually An ambitious young attractive employee finds a mentor in her boss and climbs up the ladder.
To illustrate how young and dumb she was in the beginning of her odyssey we see Maya adorned with unattractive body piercings until she morphs into a sophisticated dame in accordance with her new position. of creative director, which turns her into a mean and patronizing boss who fires old tested employees at will. Maya never appears as a victim and never gets our full sympathy. except of course we ask ourselves, in order to climb the ladder in a company on the fast track, do we need to sleep our way up? and that’s a concern of many women. It’s legit. We see it happen all the time. Maya does and gets somewhere fast. She has a good mind and everyday situations are converted into creative ideas that benefit the agency. So even if she hadn’t slept with her boss and mentor, she would have probably climbed up pretty fast. We understand his well-controlled rage and anger when she is being promoted and encroaches now on HIS territory.
We see their relationship play out in their reciprocal flashbacks. And our sympathies may switch from one to another as we can understand their viewpoints..
I was happy to see Chitrangda Singh, who had so impressed me in Desi Boyz. She is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful actresses in Bollywood these days. She exudes elegance and sophistication. Somehow she reminds me of Zeta-Jones.. What I loved about her in this role is, that she remained enigmatic to the end. A superbly nuanced performance.
This was a fantastic role for Arjun Rampal, too. I could too fall in love him and hate him and admire him, just as Maya. This emotional roller-coaster kept me glued to the story.The tension was building up, but helas, it collapsed like an undercooked souffle which you have pulled out of the oven with great anticipation and then see it sadly deflate.
I wish I could re-write some of Bollywood’s endings. They oftentimes feel rushed, clumsily put together and reverse the positive feelings you built up during the movie. No exception here. They should have brainstormed the ending maybe via a focus group. The climax and resolution was the weakest part. So weak indeed that I felt that I had wasted two hours of my time. Still, the characters resonated with me and I therefore I would recommend watching it to my friends, warning them ahead of time about a weak ending.