A film by M Night ShyamalanSunday, June 09, 2013,10:19:54 AM
In 1999 when the world seemed to be blown away by M Night Shyamalan’s suspense drama The Sixth Sense, I was perhaps a lonely voice questioning the filmmaker’s talent. I wrote a piece for India Abroad, saying Shyamalan was an overrated....
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Remembering Rituparno GhoshSunday, June 02, 2013,10:26:38 AM
In director Kaushik Ganguly’s film Just Another Love Story, a documentary filmmaker — played by Rituparno Ghosh, is interviewed by a young journalist. The journalist wants to know if the documentary will focus on the life of veteran theatre actor Chapal Bhaduri (the subject of the film) or on his sexuality. ....
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Mallika’s publicity stuntsSunday, May 26, 2013,09:48:37 AM
Mallika Sherawat has some significant public relations people working for her. How else would a woman with hardly any American acting, modeling or other credentials that would make her a celebrity in this country, walk red carpets all the time?....
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Bollywood, glitter and CannesSunday, May 19, 2013,10:36:38 AM
On Wednesday, Shobhaa De posted the following tweet “Vidya Balan does India proud on the red carpet at Cannes. Bravo Sabya!” Anyone following the media reports in India knows that Balan is part of this year’s main Cannes Film Festival jury. De was also saluting Sabyasachi Mukherjee, known for his traditional ....
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A spoof gone wrongSunday, May 12, 2013,06:10:55 PM
Iremember the first time I saw Ayub Khan- Din as the seductive Sammy Rahman in Stephen Frears’ Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, a hard-hitting reflection on race, politics and sex during the time of Maggie Thatcher. ....
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The movies of the spiesMonday, May 06, 2013,08:57:28 AM
I used to know a spy or at least that is how I wanted to believe. There were days when I would tell close friends that there was spy in our family. The death of Sarabjit Singh, took me back to the time of my teenage years when an old lady would sometimes visit our home in Delhi. She always wore salwar....
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Time’s running outTuesday, April 30, 2013,08:57:35 AM
Their campaign in doldrums at the half-way stage, Pune Warriors would be desperate to change the scenario but they face a gigantic challenge when they take on table-toppers Chennai Super Kings today. ....
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Bollywood’s racial biasSunday, April 28, 2013,06:47:35 PM
The people who bought the rights to boxing star MC Mary Kom’s life story have a potential goldmine in their hand. A modern- day fairy tale of a national hero who did India proud by winning the bronze medal at last year’s summer Olympics in the flyweight category. Her story is so inspiring that....
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Being brown amid US attacksTuesday, April 23, 2013,06:47:40 PM
An Indian friend tweeted on Friday morning, “My wife woke up and said Thank God they weren’t Pakistani.” His wife is from Pakistan and as one can imagine she must have been concerned about the possibility of the Boston Marathon terrorists being Pakistani. Then during Thursday night going into ....
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Spelling it out for lifeSunday, April 14, 2013,09:27:36 AM
In the riveting Oscar winning documentary Spellbound (2002), a young Indian-American kid Neil Kadakia goes through intense spelling bee training fueled by his highly competitive father. At times it seems all the learning is of little consequence to him. He is doing it for his father.....
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A critic and a humanistSunday, April 07, 2013,09:33:19 AM
There are two things I remember about Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel when I first started watching their television show in the mid-1980s. I was a journalist in Los Angeles, and I enjoyed their lively film conversations, arguments, and then the thumbs up or down ratings. But people I met would often dismiss them ....
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‘I pronounce you man and man’Sunday, March 31, 2013,11:07:03 AM
July 25, 2011 was a very hot day in New York City. But it was also a happy day. A month earlier, New York’s governor had signed a law that legalised same-sex marriages in the state. ....
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Decoding the Kashmir conflictSunday, March 24, 2013,08:30:37 AM
Last week I sat on stage in front of a group of 100 plus older Americans, members of a club who had gathered to see new films that have not opened in theatres, followed by conversations with the filmmakers or experts in the field. ....
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Kashmir, by SpielbergSunday, March 17, 2013,07:59:20 AM
I like Steven Spielberg. As the joke goes he keeps half of Hollywood employed, even though the private Spielberg was saved and kept financially afloat by Indian, rather Anil Ambani’s money. His films are grand, adventurous, ambitious, although he is also the king of Hollywood when ....
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If Modi becomes the PMSunday, March 10, 2013,09:10:38 AM
I have a Gujarati friend in New York and he painted this scenario for me. What if next year the BJP-led coalition wins the majority in the Lok Sabha and Narendra Modi becomes the prime minister of India. I know many of my liberal friends find that thought upsetting, but I hope they will indulge my Gujarati....
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Humour and disquietSunday, March 03, 2013,08:39:37 AM
One week after Seth MacFarlane’s mostly panned (although he also had many admirers) stint hosting the Oscars, the controversy over his We Saw Your Boobs song, is more or less dying. ....
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Beyond the awardsSunday, February 24, 2013,08:17:59 AM
Lincoln gets boring towards the middle. Life of Pi is stunning in the middle, but it has an odd flavour with a voice-over narrative in the beginning and the end. Amour is heartbreaking, but it is too foreign. Beast of Southern Wild is brilliant but it is too indie. My favourite film of the year Zero Dark Thirty has lost its ....
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Rebuilding in the land of ghostsSunday, February 10, 2013,08:31:21 AM
This column is about two parcels of land. One is 16 acres in size and is located at the tip of Manhattan. For nearly 12 years now it has been a giant construction site. It is commonly known as Ground Zero, where until the morning of September 11, 2001 the World Trade Center’s twin towers stood....
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Last Saturday I went to see Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani at 11.50 am in New York City. I had missed the film’s press screening, so the next best thing was to see a matinee show for $8.00, which is slightly more than half of the full ticket price in Manhattan. The buzz was strong about YJHDand I usually....
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