Indian Writing

“…where I hardly got to wear even a pair of jeans.” Minissha Lamba on her first film, Yahaan.

One sincerely hopes she got to wear something.

*****

And here’s Bipasha Basu talking to CNN-IBN’s Anuradha SenGupta:

Bipasha Basu: Being a model, I knew what fashion was. But looking at some of the outfits that I wore in my first film Ajnabee, I sometimes say “Oh my god! What am I wearing? What is kind of make-up was I wearing in that film?”

I was asked to wear a dark-coloured lipstick, which does not suits me at all. Now when I look back, I realise all these things.

Anuradha SenGupta: So, you keep looking back at your work? That is like having a critically eye.

Bipasha Basu: Yes, I do that all the time.

(CNN-IBN really needs to proofread its transcripts)

*****

Meanwhile, one of the conspiracy theories floating around about Omkara’s supposed lukewarm run at the box-office is that women are being paid to walk out of the film. Well, I’ve seen the film twice already (we managed to see it yesterday evening, during a short window in the downpour - yesss) and I didn’t see anything, uh, incriminating. The sense of dramatic intrigue getting to the Omkara team, maybe? Anyway, this time I liked the film even more.

Why on earth would a few cusswords give anyone a cold sweat? Okay, this is a truly awful review, but fine, the reviewer is entitled to his opinion about the film. What I don’t understand is this kind of statement:

A film set in Mumbai, with generous doses of Mumbaiya lingo, appeals more in Mumbai/Maharashtra than in Gujarat, Punjab, Bihar or Rajasthan. Similarly, the U.P. dialect, the setting, the ambience, even the expletives would find tremendous identification from U.P. and Bihar, not at other regions.

By that reasoning a film set in Australia would appeal more in Australia, a film set in New York would appeal more in the Big Apple, a film set in Canada would - flop? Wtf?

And the generous usage of expletives [MCs, BCs, Cs] and dialogues [sample: Teri aur meri kismet gadhe ke *@!# se likhi gayee hain] could give you a cold sweat.

And then there’s this:

Also, since the film follows an unconventional route, it tends to get dark and disturbing at times.

(Italics mine)

Hello - are we talking about the same film? This plot is based on Othello, not Fun with Dick and Jane. It’s going to get dark and disturbing.

The bloodshed and violent slant is also not something that would hold universal acceptance.

Yeah, except in real life I guess. (Funny, a film like Gadar never had a problem being popular, hmmm?)

In fact, it wouldn’t be erroneous to state that every sequence in the film bears the stamp of a genius and most importantly, someone who knows how to adapt an English play into a 2-hour Hindi film.

Wow, that must be really something. Not only genius, but ALSO the ability to adapt an English play into a 2-hour Hindi film!

But on the other hand, OMKARA tends to get too realistic at times.

Yeah, just when they ought to zip off to Mount Titlis for an Anu Malik song they start jumping on trains and shooting people instead. Such meanies.

The director and his team of writers… could’ve toned down the expletives in the film… Dialogues are natural to the core, but, again, the expletives in the dialogues make you uncomfortable at times.

I agree. We’ve never heard the word ch***a before! The audience was getting conniptions! I tell you!

Also, the tense-filled moments get too heavy after a point and would work only for those who appreciate realistic cinema.

On the other hand, if Omi Bhaiyya and Dolly Bhabhi would only come to Bombay, go to Australia, play some football… or basketball, maybe, like that cute K2H2 song with Kajol and SRK?

(Taran Adarsh review via George Thomas)

Iditarod champion, animal lover, professional woman, wife, mother and all-round achiever Susan Butcher died this weekend, aged 51, after a well-fought battle with leukemia.

Her story was the making of outdoor adventure novels: leaving behind an upper middle-class upbringing in Cambridge, Mass., to live in Alaska in a shack without electricity or running water so she could train champions… In an interview before her final Iditarod in 1994, she talked about her dedication to dogs: “When I was in the first grade, I wrote an essay that said ‘I hate cities.’ Do you know why I hate cities? Because my dog hates cities.”

When she was 20, she and a friend took three huskies to the Wrangell Mountains in Alaska’s interior. “We didn’t see anyone for six months,” she said. “The place was complete wilderness. We saw wildlife around every bend. It was a great place to mush. I depended on those dogs for everything. They saved my life constantly. They were my whole life.”

The second woman to win the Iditarod dogsled race, Butcher was a four-time Iditarod champion. In 1979, she became one of the first two people to take a dog team to the summit of Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America, at 20,300 feet.

“I do not know the word ‘quit.’ Either I never did it, or I have abolished it.” - Susan Butcher

More gems from Mayank Shekhar’s interview with Shahrukh Khan:

MS: How do you explain being the prime draw among NRIs?

SRK: The technical reason is the return of the cinema in the ’90s after VCRs became outdated. We did ‘yuppie’ films that featured English-speaking actors. However, let me also tell you that NRIs are the villagers of India. You meet them and they go, “What you are doing yaar; I don’t know what the f*** is happening, yaar”. They went abroad from Amritsar, Pind; and even now, 90 per cent of NRIs are from the villages of Gujarat’. The South Indians are the only educated people you will find abroad and they are not the greatest audience we have. We have a South Indian film audience but they are not our NRI audience. The bottom-line is that we are again catering to the same people.
…

MS: Would you consider yourself the last of the old-world filmstars, who owns a bungalow that becomes an address in Mumbai; gets anointed ‘King’; usually plays a romantic hero…

SRK: People tell me I could be the last of the superstars. It’s nice to hear that. But I don’t think so. I’m sure there won’t be any actor who would buy my bungalow from me; but maybe construct a triplex or a building. I have got a bungalow, because I’m from Delhi, I don’t understand apartments. I always thought people in Mumbai who lived in these apartments were poor. Also, I’m very flamboyant as a person. I’m not very attached to money, so I don’t like getting into calculations; I spend freely, being extravagant in all areas of my life, whether it concerns production or any other aspect. I would like to believe I’m the last superstar, but that would be like believing that I’m going to live forever.

Well, it seems to me SRK can build himself another little bungalow with the bricks he drops every time he says anything.