film festival of india at the high museum in atlanta: the 2008 edition

The lineup for the 2008 edition of the Film Festival Of India at the High Museum in Atlanta is up. Brownie points are due for not featuring Bollytrash. The festival opens with Buddhadeb Dasgupta's latest film Ami, Yasin Ar Amar Madhubala/The Voyeurs; this one, just as his last film Kalpurush (which snagged the National Award for Best Film, and also figured in the High's lineup for 2006) features Sameera Reddy. It can't really compete with the range of the recently concluded Indian Film Festival Of Los Angeles (IFFLA) or even boast entries like Brahmanand Singh's documentary Pancham Unmixed: An Unending Journey (which had its world premiere at IFFLA) or something like Mumbai Cutting, but comparisons would be quite unfair; LA is LA, Atlanta is Atlanta and it'll be a long while before the Sprawl of the South generates as much interest in such a film festival.

high paa.Nch to oz

for snagging a nice interview with Anurag Kashyap at the screening of Paanch at the 2006 edition of the Indian Film Festival of LA. [noted here previously]. Lots of trivia (but one hoped for even more, alas) and the hope of catching Paanch, when (if?) it finally gets a release in June 2006. My favourite section of the interview lists the reasons that the Censor Board offered for not sanctioning Paanch:

* Too much hate in the movie. It is too stark. Not good to show to an Indian audience.

* Drug usage shown in the movie. The Indian public does not do drugs. Not good to show it.

* You can't shoot in such a dim light. It's bad for the viewers' eyes.

* This movie has no entertainment value.

Right. A round of applause for our Censor Board and Bollywood, ladies and gentlemen.

And here's a post about a theatre workshop that Anurag Kashyap conducted in March 2006 in Bombay. At one point, Fellini had 9^1/2, Kashyap now has 2.8.

Meanwhile, the local excuse called Film Festival of India 2006 kicks off at the High Museum today with Deepa Mehta's Water, the only film in the festival with a credit for Anurag Kashyap (assistance on the Hindi dialogues). Despite the ban in India, I don't think this film will have a problem finding distribution; a cast roster headed by John Abraham and Lisa Ray doesn't help much; and grumpiness at the absence of either Black Friday and Paanch hardly remedies the situation.

Other Anurag Kashyap posts in this space include:

* his Maqbool connection and the small matter of a deleted scene

* Kashyap's guilty movie pleasures (featuring classics like Loha)

* initial notes and more on the music of Black Friday, Kashyap's unreleased follow-up to his unreleased Paanch

* The primary strength of Yuva

* a hasty note on possible influences of Kashyap's second-now-abandoned venture Allwyn Kalicharan

* notes on a few flicks including Paisa Vasool, another producer-requested copy that Kashyap worked on

* the Black-lash where Kashyap and Mishra sounded truer than most of Bollywood about the "loudest film of 2005"

update/review: Oz's review of Paanch, the first fairly comprehensive take I've seen on the film so far, isn't heartening. One could blame the various elements at play that forced Kashyap to make several rewrites and concessions, and one could take heed of Kashyap's warning ("Don’t use logic"), but it all doesn't quite add up, especially when you consider paeans like Surely you're joking, Mr.Kashyap by Abbas Tyrewala. One can't also discount the unfortunate consequences of hype fuelled by years of anticipation and hope. Still, I'd give anything to watch it once -- I'm prepared to deal with any consequential disappointment, if at all.

High Museum of Art: Film Festival of India 2006

[the short verdict: <censored>]

The schedule {link destined to expire as soon as the next theme comes up} for the 2006 edition of the FFI @ the High (recent reference) is up. And it's a mixed bag. No chance of catching Vishal's The Blue Umbrella. No Anurag Kashyap here (where you should be if you want to catch Paanch). And they continue to pick selections that might easily be acquired on DVD, or on cheap VHS versions on heavily reused tapes at a local Indian store. There's nothing as bad as Baghban, but we have strong contenders (aka clear misses). I'm speaking as a person wont to watch most of the Bollywood releases of the year, and my POV might differ sharply from that of the average American, IBCD or ABCD who nurtures a general curiosity or nostalgia (respectively) about "Bollywood" (a term incorrectly applied to the entire unfortunate Indian film industry). The candidates this year (all screenings begin at 2000 at the Rich Theatre) are:

* Water: I haven't seen either Fire of Bollywood Hollywood and I wasn't really blown away by 1947: Earth, but this could be one of the few opportunities I'll get to catch Deepa Mehta's long-in-the-making-and-almost-unmade final edition in her element trilogy (hopefully she nurses no aspirations to emulate Douglas Adams). Tuesday (What? Don't you want people to show up?), April 25, 2006.

* Paheli: With this movie we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot by nurturing the clichéd view of "Bollywood" that the mainstream West has nurtured for years. Hero seems, at some levels, a similar kind of Oscar-friendly flick, but I found more poetry in its visuals than in Palekar's boring Rajasthan romp. {movie notes, rant about its selection as India's Oscar entry}. Friday, May 05, 2006.

* Memories in the Mist: Better known as Kalpurush, this film has Mithun Chakraborty exercising his rarely seen acting chops and also made more news than it deserved for Sameera Reddy's "art" plunge as a Bengali wife. I hope this is as rewarding an experience as Bariwali (the last Bengali film I saw at an FFI edition @ the High) was. Saturday, May 06, 2006.

* Turn Left at the End of the World: I don't know anything about this film that's been making the rounds at Jewish Film Festivals, but the inclusion here draws attention to the Indian angle. This might well be the most rewarding filmgoing experience of the series, simply because I'll be going in cold not knowing what to expect. Friday, May 12, 2006.

* Amu: Another movie that I've heard and read enough about, but have lost all hope of catching at the local Indian store. A welcome addition. Isn't this what Film Festivals are for anyway? -- to give us an opportunity to catch movies that are hard to find through the usual channels of distribution (multiplex releases, DVD rentals and such). Saturday, May 13, 2006.

* John and Jane: Of course I want to see a documentary about the call-centre industry that conferred splendour on that specious TLA known as BPO. As long as this doesn't disintegrate into a tank of clichés (and thus apply for membership to the Bollywood club of honour), we'll be fine. Friday, May 19, 2006.

* Raincoat: Are you kidding me? This is a 2004 release –- both audiences and Rituparno Ghosh have moved on since then. This flawed adaptation of an O Henry tale (also Ghosh's first directorial venture in Hindi) doesn't measure up to his quieter less sheen-drenched works like Bariwali and makes for a bad coda. The soundtrack by Debajyoti Mishra was more rewarding. Saturday, May 20, 2006.

I wonder if more films are going to added to the list later.

high fives! [courtesy: desi train]

The 2006 edition of the Indian Film Festival of LA. Interesting selection although one could clearly do without movies like Monsoon Wedding now. The real reason to celebrate is the presence of Anurag Kashyap's Paanch, which has hitherto never seen the official light of day thanks to those $$&*#)#@$ Indian censors. The festival rocked last year when they screened Black Friday. The High Museum of Art in Atlanta has an annual Indian Film Festival and the 5th edition's round the corner. The 2004 edition was decent, but the edition last year sucked (what can you do when you find movies like Baghban on the list but there's no sign of Black Friday when other Indian film festivals across the country had it on their lists?). So far the only entry I know of is Deepa Mehta's Water. Here's hoping Kashyap's films make it.

Some old posts in this domain dedicated to Kashyap include a note on his guilty movie pleasures, early notes on the soundtrack of the wonderful Black Friday and an inclusion of the same in my first long take on soundtracks of 2005 almost destined for oblivion.

PIFF rant [january 20, 2005] [such-a-long-url aka the home page]

disclaimer: This has nothing to do with the fact that I was unable to catch Black Friday.

* Goa did a much better job with its maiden attempt at hosting a film festival, while PIFF in its third year still can't understand that a film festival is about films and not star meets for Kalmadi's friends

* The "brochure" (or schedule) has more TBA slots than anything I've ever seen -- the schedule was also unavailable until the first day (by which time you were expected to have registered) so a lot of friends couldn't decide if they wanted to go or not

* The "brochure" is a set of cheap printouts of a table created in Microsoft Word and then stapled together

* White Noise was directed by Vinta Nanda and not Shonali Bose (the director of Amu)

* It's Throne of Blood not Thorn of Blood

* Also noted was the complete lack of film lover-centric marketing. The Indian film festival last year at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta (despite its imbalance in the languages of the films) was an excellent event in comparison (and in general), although movies like DDLJ and WBH2P2 have been easily available locally for a long time.


BTW, Googling for PIFF returns results dominated by Suresh Kalmadi -- talk about statistically sound politics.

baa.Diwaalii[previous knot in the 2004 Indian Film Festival in Atlanta thread]

That's (almost) how one would pronounce Bariwali. I wonder who came up with the counter-intuitive English spelling. That annoyance (manifested by even more incorrect pronunciation from the person who introduced the film -- with nothing much to say except a fragmented version of the blurbs in the handouts!) aside, my first look at the ouevre of Rituparno Ghosh held out remarkably well. The presence of Kiron Kher as Banolata, the "Lady of the House", had me getting uneasy. A lot of filmmakers have used actors and stars of another linguistic body of film. Several examples amount to these people bringing aboard their iconography and having their voices dubbed by speakers of the language in question (sometimes even famous actors -- like Revathi for Tabu in Kandukondain Kandukondain). People like Mani Rathnam have long used stars in special song appearances (Sonu Walia in Dalapathi, Mallaika Arora in Dil Se). But in Ghosh's film, Kiron Kher not only decides to turn in a poignant performance, but also dub for herself as well (please please correct me if I am wrong). The comparisons to Ray are generous, and Ghosh's patient unsentimental handling of the events that are triggered by the arrival of a film crew at the remarkable residence of a single "unlucky" woman merit the laurels. The colours, the framing and the subtle use of filmic devices were a joy. Great performances all across the board. Wonder if the aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (if I remember correctly) was mandated by creative or budgetary reasons ...

kanduokondain kandukondain/wbh2

[previous knot in the 2004 Indian Film Festival in Atlanta thread]

Admittedly, I was one of the few people who turned up for the screening of Rajeev Menon's second directorial venture Kanduokondain Kandukondain without the intention of ogling at Aishwarya Rai. Ang Lee's adaptation has nothing to fear from this adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, which could be best described as a bad Hindi mainstream flick made in Tamil. Menon snags the on-screen services of Aishwarya Rai (to draw in the mainstream crowds), Tabu (to draw in the mainstream audiences who would like to think they are patrons of alternative cinema and acting), along with other resident stars and even Mammootty all the way from Kerala (although M's Tamil appearances are not rare). He then snags the lass with the face-splitting grin Pooja Batra and the language-independent-nonactor Dino Morea. And then he gets people to dub for Rai and Tabu (Revathy for Tabu, if I remember correctly). He enlists the assistance of A R Rahman and Vairamuthu (and pays them back with references -- video for Rahman, dialogue for Vairamuthu -- to them in the film). I didn't like ARR's tracks for the film when I had heard them for the first time (except for the Chitra/Yesudas duet in raag natakuranji), and Chitra's voice comes across as a tad too squeaky for comfort. The subtitles sucked on occasion (both by having mistakes like "a women" and by being generally outrageously funny). Although Menon must be credited for his efforts at translocating Austen's tale to the vernacular ambience of the South, he needs to be drawn and quartered for showering us with one unbearable irritating song sequitur after another ... complete with location switches to Egypt and Scotland. Some of the comic dialogue works, but one cannot deny the overarching preponderance of schmaltz and mush. Madame Rai continues to astound me at her ability to snag plum roles with nary a sign of acting prowess. Madame Tabu proves the fragility of her acting abilities as she swings between good and unbearable.

What was more interesting was that while a couple of us nearly died laughing and falling out of our seats in our own Mystery Science Theatre talk on the film peppered with NC-17 rated alternative interpretations, the audience (a good mix of Indians and non-Indians) moved swiftly from being astounded by the randomness of the songs and dances to getting into the spirit of things and laughing out loud at the goings on. The applause at the end of the film could have been interpreted in several different ways, but my stomach hurt so much.

What shocked me in the wake of this film was the review of the film in the latest issue of Creative Loafing. The review makes uncomfortable references to this as a Bollywood product. Clearly, the reviewer knoweth not the difference between Bollywood and Tollywood Kollywood (as it were). The film pokes fun at Bollywood's ludicrously over-the-top production values while deriving a great deal of visual pleasure from their toe-tapping excesses. Nope. The film continues to subscribe to the Bollywood excesses, and makes no conscious attempt at satire. And then it even gets the cast wrong: clubbing poor Abbas, Srividya and Shamili as one entity and Ajith and Mamootty as another. I'm no longer surprised about how the West gets Indian cinema wrong. Just as Hong Kong flicks have their own Americanised mythology, the West will continue to regard India as a producer of brain-dead, feelgood, unreal sad sacks of mush like this and celebrate the "exhuberance" and "opulence" of sick pieces of drivel like Bhansali's Devdas, or extoll the celebrations of Monsoon Wedding and Bollywood Hollywood and churn out their own carbon copies (which, like Moulin Rouge often turn out with superior production values) of their idea of a "Bollywood musical". A pity.

It was unfortunate that a projection failure interrupted the screening of Waisa Bhi Hota Hai on Saturday. And the "long version" as they called it was shorter than the version on DVD. This has to be the only desi flick where the subtitles were bolder and more obscene than the actual dialogue. Of course, those not in the know probably lapped all this up with nary a doubt. The "genericisation" problem of subtitles persisted as all references to Mahima Choudhary were replaced by references to an "actress". So be it. Couple of other interesting things of note were the photograph of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani on the wall of Ganpat Godhi's living room, and that in one scene Gangutaaii's underlings are clad in desi ripoffs of popular American brands. Still love the flick. It's not perfect, it's not great, but it's definitely fun. [NOTE: the version of allaah ke ba.nde in the film differs from the one on the soundtrack -- it's a single-voice version with different recording embellishments. Moreover, Kailash Kher doesn't even strum the right chords all the time]

Cinema India 2004 opens [previous knot in the 2004 Indian Film Festival in Atlanta thread]

with Sumantra Ghosal's engrossing 2-part documentary on Ustad Zakir Hussain The Speaking Hand: Zakir Hussain and the Art of the Indian Drum. Lots of great performance extracts (although unfortunately none of Shakti even though John McLaughlin's name pops up in the acknowledgements), but no mention or appearance of Taufiq or Fazal Qureshi. It was something special to see Ustad Zakir Hussain's father, another tabla maestro, Ustad Allah Rakha, who passed away in 2000. Excellent subtitles too (although they inevitably missed out on some of the regional flavour of the original dialogue). My favourite moment would be Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma talking about a 11-beat cycle taal called chaar taal kii sawaarii, immediately followed by an extract of the performance -- a little learning along the way. Noticed Ram Madhvani credited as a producer. Is this the same Ram Madhvani responsible for Let's Talk?

third atlanta film festival of india opens

[first knot in the 2004 Indian Film Festival in Atlanta thread]

with Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamittal. First off, I have to say that the film was not as bad as I had feared it would be. MR's Spielbergian tendencies have always been a cause of concern for me. While there is no denying his talent and genius at using technique and style to achieve his ends, I failed to find closure even with this flick for a pet peeve of mine: how his well-shot song sequences fail to mesh in with his well-shot narrative moments. The songs (especially the Amudha-dedicated gimmicky su.ndarii) jar. MR strikes a decent balance between his pet themes of terrorism, its impact on families of different kinds (cross-religious unions in Bombay, cross-geographical and cross-cultural matches in Roja, and now adopted children of interesting parentage) and position on the fence between art and commerce. ARR's songs and background score function best when they accompany the on-screen happenings while being relegated to the background. Every time they came to the fore I found myself uncomfortably shifting in my seat. Just about the only interesting (and relevant) visual moment I noticed was Amudha imitating a statue in Sri Lanka at the close of the Madhavan-driven version of the title song. There seemed to be richer content in those few seconds than in the rest of the beautiful yet incongruous songs. P S Keerthana goes through the motions of being the daughter trying to deal with the truth that she is an adopted child, but occasionally grates with a limited palette of expressions (some of which seem to stem from a refusal in the script to attempt to present us complex moments). But there are undeniably good moments, some of which reminded me of Spielberg's Ryan outing (for no particular reason, really). And MR is less simplistic in presenting the effect of terrorism here than in Bombay (where the strict religious polarity resulted in an inundation of clichés). As may be expected, MR chooses a strong technical team to build his vision giving us treats like Sabu Cyril's production design (I kept thinking of Kerala every time they showed the jungles of Sri Lanka, and an online article underscores my reaction by informing me that SC built a lot of the film's Sri Lanka in Kerala!!), Ravi K Chandran's camera (this is Chandran's first film with MR, and is probably known for his two collaborations with Rajeev Menon and his work on Virasat and Koi Mil Gaya). The ARR/Vairamuthu combination struck gold at the National Awards. It was interesting to see Prakash Raj pop up as Harold Vikramasinghe, a guide to the troubled family in war-torn Sri Lanka. Which brings me to another irksome aspect of the film: hardly any character development. Arguably, this works to the benefit of the focal point of the narrative: the family. But it doesn't offer us enough counterpoint when the focus shifts occasionally to terrorism. Thankfully, MR doesn't take a stand on that front. But these recurring annoyances aside, I have to say it was a satisfying experience overall. If only they had an MR showcase ... Aah yes, must also note strains of puuryaa dhaanashrii in ARR's background score as well as a portend to Meenaxi's chinnammaa chilakamma.

coming soon: high times and MAQBOOL

Thanks to AB for pointing me to the note about the Indian Film Festival at the High Museum in April/May 2004. Apart from the usual "Bollywood"-ian fare (including two appearances by Ma'am Aishwarya -- YUCK!), and the disgusting inclusion of the now-clichéd inclusion of DDLJ, I am pleased to see The Speaking Hand: Zakir Hussain and the Art of the Indian Drum, Bariwali (now I can find out if Kiron Kher is over-rated!), Mr and Mrs Iyer; pleasantly surprised to see WBHHP2 and overjoyed (nay, over-overjoyed) to see Maqbool. Here's the listing for non-IE and/or lazy surfers, who appreciate the brevity of pertinent information (and can't stand irritatingly slow eye-candy animation and scroll bars).

*Kannathil Muthamittal {Friday Apr 30}

*Mr. and Mrs. Iyer {Saturday May 01}

*The Speaking Hand: Zakir Hussain and the Art of the Indian Drum {Fri May 07}

*DDLJ {Saturday May 08}

*Kandukondain, Kandukondain {Friday May 14}

*WBHHP2 {Saturday May 15}

*Bariwali {Friday May 21}

*Maqbool {Saturday May 22}

film fest

The 2003 Latin American Film Festival kicked off in Atlanta at the High Museum on Friday, October 03, 2003 with Eduardo Mignogna's directorial début La Fuga (Breakout or as the official title goes, The Escape). The film follows several inmates who escape from the National Penitentiary in Buenos Aires in 1928. Oddball, sentimental, moving and constantly engrossing, the film reminded me of the cleverness of the plot of Kukunoor's Teen Deewarein. Constant use of flashbacks (and flashbacks within flashbacks) and soaring background music (although there's a nice calm piano motif) peppers the narrative, giving it a useful dynamic.

Come saturday, and I settled down to my favourite weekend activity: watching movies. First up, Nicholas Roeg's cult 1976 film The Man Who Fell To Earth. Roeg exploits the apparent discomfort that glam rocker David Bowie might feel in making the transition from the musical arena to the silver screen. There are snatches of Holst's "The Planets" and a lot of the trademark aspects of the 70s films (and especially Roeg): high angle track-aways, a general calm and foreboding instead of the fantasy spectacle of the current century (this is not denying the occasional sci-fi moments as Bowie's alien remembers his home away from here, but even that is mixed up with visual nostalgia and cross-cutting visions). This surreal journey of exploration, success, failure, debauchery and self-pity is slow, but worth its while (the unexpected operatic sequences of gratuitous nudity could be distracting, but thankfully they contribute to sealing off any chance of the alien getting anywhere close to accomplishing his goals).

Two sessions (Saturday-night and Sunday-morning) helped me soak in the experience that was Martin Scorsese's Bringing out the Dead. This film deserved more. A great exploration of the lives of paramedics and taking place mostly after hours, the film explores the twin feelings of being god and being compassionate on the job. Everyone in the film is great, as they swing from being normal people caught in the rut of a job that challenges your sanity to going oddball and sarcastic about the business without completely going ballistic. Scorsese embellishes this hallucinatory, darkly comic and intriguing film adaptation of Joe Connelly's book with some great songs on the soundtrack (what better use could R. E. M. 's what's the frequency, kenneth have found than here?). He continues to explore themes of religion and loss, and paints another realistic portrait of the city of New York. There are some cool visual experiments too: a series of four dissolves after Mary (Arquette) sees her father in the hospital; high-angle tracking shots of the paramedic ambulance, providing a very skewed trippy view of the NYC skyline. And then there's closure: Early on in the film, Frank (Cage) tells Mary "... something good will happen and everything will just glow". The ending echoes this sentiment and the sirens, street noise and dispatcher messages cover the credits, just as they had introduced the film. [stuck between dying and dead | early draft of Schrader's screenplay]

A trip to the Indian store ensured that I had some desi flavour to my movie-watching proceedings. Preliminary scan reports follow:

Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai? marks Hansal Mehta's third film (I loved his previous films Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar! and Chhal). This is expectedly a big studio effort and unfortunately Mehta does not work wonders this time around. Should I blame him, given that (a) this is the desi-ization of American Pie (whose braindead pandering to all things base won several fans, but gets a big egg in my book), which means minimal flexibility with script and screenplay (b) he has to deal with four morons (including a Jason Biggs lookalike) (c) lacklustre songs from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

Joggers Park: Subhash Ghai should stick to funding directors and their visions instead of interfering with them. The late Anant Balani clearly had more to offer as is evident from the later portions of this film. The opening moments are irksome. The dialogue (predictably written by Ghai) reek of the immaturity and pointlessness that one would expect in the recent Dev Anand films. And the theme song sung by Usha Uthup grates. The background music borders flits between 80s pop and soft-core porn film scores. Victor Bannerjee, although a good actor, doesn't seem like one who can rise above bad material. Debutante Perizad Zorabian plays a character I would find really irritating in real life (purely based on her terrible voice -- last heard from the likes of Demi Moore and Rani Mukherjee) -- one of those "South Bombay" types. The proceedings could have benefitted from some better dialogue and flow control. The lead players do their best. What irked me once I had shifted to the next tape was that this film had a "U/A" rating, and had Perizad's character use the F-word not once but twice. Yet, the next film (see below) on my cards, despite getting an "A" rating, had bleeps. What can be worse than the F-word ??

Mumbai Matinee made my evening. Honestly. I seem to enjoy Rahul Bose's performances. He can be unrestrained and controlled, both with equal skill. Another of Anant Balani's films, this one benefits from his getting a freer reign from Pritish Nandy Communcations who also helped Jhankaar Beats). A good script, good dialogue, great background music, cool songs and a host of wonderful actors (Bose, Saurabh Shukla, Vijay Raaz, Asrani). Mention must be made of Prithvi Zutshi's cameo as a Bengali police officer, Kabir Sadanand (brother of film vamp Kunika who made a crash with Deewanapan) as Bose's colleague. And the little yoddle motif every time Monica (the cute secretary who sets everyone's heart aflutter, played by Sunila Karambelkar) crosses her legs. Although marked a débutante Anusha Dhandekar only seems to have one item song. GAFFE: In a scene where Bose pays Asrani with a credit card, Bose's character does not sign any transaction slip after Asrani swipes the card (several times!). I guess that meant he got a Rs. 5000 discount!

A little more about Anant Balani: Made three movies Gawahi (1989) with Zeenat Aman, Ashutosh Gowariker, and Shekhar Kapur; Patthar ke Phool(1991)(Salman Khan and Raveena Tandon in her debut film); Jazbaat (1995) (starring Rohit Roy and Suchitra Krishnamurthy aka Mrs Shekhar Kapur). The failure of the last film ruined him financially. He reappeared with a sudden stroke of good luck to direct 4 films: Joggers Park(Perizaad Zorabian, Victor Banerjee), Mumbai Matinee(Rahul Bose, Perizaad Zorabian), Ek Din (Rahul Bose, Nandita Das), and Chameli (Rahul Bose, Kareena Kapoor). But unfortunately he passed away before seeing the release of even one of them. He also directed TV soaps like A Mouthful Of Sky (being a failed proof-of-concept for "we are models but we can also act" with a decent title song) and Kabhi Kabhi.

piff!!

The first Pune International Film Festival opens on Friday, November 29, 2002 {at the same time, half way around the globe, desis and other South-Asians with join Americans of all races and creeds in a capitalist binge as they line up to pack stores across the United States in the day-after-thanksgiving sale}. Former Amitabh Bachchan shadow player/disillusioned Osho-ite/B-ham and current minister of state for tourism (recently starred in Leela, a movie shot completely in the US of A and catering to the NRIs aka the Indian diaspora) and cultural affairs Vinod Khanna ... {read more}

Related: Upperstall's review of Leela

Indian Film Festival at the High Museum
The Indian Film Festival kicked off today at the High Museum today evening at 1900 with The Making of the Mahatma. The screening was preceded by a number of rather banal speeches of thanks, peppered with some intentionally and unintentionally hilarious anecdotes. The film was rather disappointing and it was just as well Shyam Benegal was unable to make it today to introduce the film. Pretentious background music by Vanraj Bhatia.