Doppelgangers abound on Facebok this week, and they're on my mind.

Feb 2010

1995

(the 2002 Nick Nolte one is just too scary for me to have online, but it captures the spirit of messy hair a little better)

Tags: Shah Rukh Khan, Hugh Grant

It's apparently doppelganger week on FaceBook, which gives me the chance to find out my friend Alejandro identifies himself with Hrithik Roshan, Micropixie is a teenage Donny Osmond, and my filmmaker friend Tricia is Jenna Elfman. I'd never know.

I've decided my doppelgangers are in temperament over looks - I can't think of anyone I've met who I thought looks like me.

And here's a filmi doppelganger for you to enjoy!


Pe..Pe..Pepein (Chance Pe Dance, 2010)
Music Director: Adnan Sami
Love the tongue!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp4shqs45nY
Oh By God (Azab Prem Ki Khazab Kahani, 2009).
Music by Pritam, pulled from Mukhra's "Dupatta Chad Mera"
This song wasn't in the movie, but's on the OST.

Tags: Social networking

I've been traveling in India for about 3 weeks and made a little time while I'm in Mumbai to catch the release of "Dulha Mil Gaya."
Result? http://www.planetbollywood.com/displayReview.php?id=f010910023508

Caught the Apsara Awards rehearsal here too - the show should have some surprises (and a lot of bad jokes). Preity did her best to cut some of the worst ones.

Tags: Shah Rukh Khan, PlanetBollywood

While it wasn't the WORST masala film I've ever seen, it was the worst in a while (I am a little selective). I had higher hopes, but it was not to be.
Three and a half hours can be very long under those conditions.
My review is at: http://www.planetbollywood.com/displayReview.php?id=f092609053712

I'll see about posting the rest of my analysis soon.


Doctor in the house!

A couple other reviews on the same page:
http://www.desipundit.com/baradwajrangan/2009/09/26/review-whats-your-raashee/ : "What does Harman Baweja (playing an NRI from Chicago) feel as he contrives to run into each of the twelve women corresponding to the twelve signs of the Zodiac? ... Baweja’s performance leaves you with very little clue, and Gowariker doesn’t appear too interested, either."

Tags: Priyanka Chopra, film review, PlanetBollywood

My film review of the new Yash Raj film with Rani Mukherjee & Shahid Kapoor. Dil Bole Hadippa!!
http://www.planetbollywood.com/displayReview.php?id=f091909035816

Truth be told, I liked this film better than the review sings it. I generally enjoy Yash Raj films, even the crappy ones. In writing a review, I spend a lot of time considering the audience, and that's who this is for. I'll add an entry here later with more on my thoughts. Maybe I'll have seen it again by then.

9/12/09 - Godkids watching Namaste America after TV autotuned. During "Hai Guzarish" video: "Why doesn't he button his shirt?" Mouths of babes.

Tags: 2009, Dil Bole Hadippa, Yash Raj Films, PlanetBollywood

With a little asking, I agreed to write a more extended editorial about some of the insights that are suggested by Shah Rukh Khan's detention by Customs and Border Patrol in New Jersey.

http://planetbollywood.com/displayArticle.php?id=s082009113752

Tags: Shah Rukh Khan, PlanetBollywood

My film review of the new Vishal Bhardwaj film with Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra.
http://www.planetbollywood.com/displayReview.php?id=f081709113129

and Charlie - is he or isn't he gay? Someone out there wants to know.

and is this better or worse than an A Certificate?
http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20090827/914/ten-puri-seer-demands-ban-on-kaminey.html

Tags: Kaminey, Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, PlanetBollywood, Vishal Bhardwaj

Yesterday Shah Rukh Khan was stopped and secondarily screened at the Newark, NJ airport.
http://in.reuters.com/article/bollywoodNews/idINIndia-41779220090815?feedType=RSS&feedName=bollywoodNews

I'm working under multiple writing deadlines, and don't have a lot of time to comment, so here are just a few thoughts.

It would be hard to buy this kind of publicity for his next film, My Name is Khan, which is about, er, a guy who gets treated unfairly by US Immigration at an airport because his last name is Khan.

Check this report - the assumption is he's already promoting the film, not going for an appearance at another event. I think it's an error (there are a few in here, including SRK's age- go US media!). The film won't be out until Feb 2010 or so. And it doesn't hurt to start raising the profile for the film.

Whether lots of the different American audiences will be much exposed to news of the event is hard to say, partly because they may not be following stories like this, and partly because the story may not get a lot of wide coverage in America. It has been a firestorm among people who do follow Indian film.

I've wondered if the inspiration for the film script came from the news reports from time to time about Indian celebrities and politicians getting stopped as they come through airports. SRK himself has commented on being searched even before this film was announced.

I found this article comparing US and Indian expectations, esp. about the idea of VIP culture, instructive. I've witnessed differential treatment at a lot of the high-ticket (or mixed ticket events I go to that involve Indian celebrities, and had no idea it had been named. I need to look for more info on this, and info about whether it's accurate that US celebrities DON'T get special treatment at security points.)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4897426.cms

I'm also struck by the comparison between Khan and others being quoted as saying they were singled out for their Muslim name, and the story from last week that a lot of the same people were snickering in the press at the charge that Emraan Hashmi didn't get a house because he's Muslim.
http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?663649
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/04/emraan-hashmi-bollywood-s_n_250899.html
Is it possible that the same people who find it totally credible that US officials would discriminate on the basis of religion have a hard time believing it happens in India? Hashmi's case may or may not have legs, and I find the relative disparities in, say, the education levels of Muslims relative to other religions in India troubling. I'm also troubled that profiling happens in US airports, where I think everyone should be treated with respect, and informed about what to expect from the screening process.

on a mildly related note: Zounds! SAAWARIYA on Encore Love cable channel at 8:15 am Sunday, meanwhile GHAJINI on IFC started at 7. Who needs the Indian channels package? Just in time for "Jab Se Tere Naina."

Tags: Shah Rukh Khan

The title of Imtiaz Ali’s latest film, Love Aaj Kal, highlights 3 stages in time: अाज (aaj - today), कल (kal - tomorrow) and अाजकल (aajkal - these days). His story weaves the three together so that their relation to each other shows them as both distinct and interrelated.



Trains and their metaphor of spiritual movement loomed large in his earlier Jab We Met. The train here suggests the parallel tracks connecting Harleen Kaur and Veer Singh in India 40 years ago, and Meera Pandit and Jai Vardhan Singh in London and India, present day. Travel and journeys here are both outside by tube, train, car, bike and plane, and inside the mind and heart.

As the story opens we meet Meera (Deepika Padukone) and Jai, who live in London and have been a couple for two years. Underscoring just how modern and unattached to conventions of the past they are, we see them kiss on the lips within 12 minutes into the film, which is sill a rare occurrence in Hindi films. They like each other, a lot, and they still decide that since Meera will soon move to India and Jay’s angling for a San Francisco career, the best thing to do is break up. Who needs the tedium of a LDR, with its inevitable emotional and physical distance? They’ll be in touch, but the logical thing is no commitments, right?

They throw a breakup party, and to show how sure they are about their plan, Meera gives her blessing as a guest asks Jai if he’s now single. The friends (perhaps standing in for the audience) are confused about how to react, but it seems like Meera and Jai are happy with this “logical” ending.

But after Meera leaves at the end of the night Jai’s not looking so good, and Veer, who owns the pub hosting the party, steps in and asks a few too many personal questions about what’s going on. Jai, initially bristling at the intrusion, opens up and Veer decides that Jai reminds him of when he was younger. As Veer tells the story of his own pursuit of true love, the setting switches between the two couples in 1965 and 2009, who do have things in common. It’s also clear that Veer’s storytelling motive is to give Jai relationship advice he may or may not be ready to hear.

Love Aaj Kal suggests that love aaj has lessons to learn from love kal if you’re willing to pay attention. A puzzled Veer could be relating countless film plots about separated lovers as he asks why they chose to break up: “Was the family against it? Didn’t you like her?” He doesn’t buy the idea of logical decisions, complaining that “your lives are filled by science.” For Veer, emotion is missing from modern relationships; people hook up casually aaj kal, sleeping together before they know each other’s names.

Jai, on the other hand, laughs at the seriousness when the young Veer pledged that his love for Harleen was eternal. He asks the older man how he could follow her on intuition when he hadn’t even properly met or talked with her. It’s like Jai hasn’t seen any Hindi films ever – isn’t instant and fated love the stock in trade of so many plots from the past?

The disjunct between their points of view is summed up in the difference between Veer’s old-school Dilli or Jai’s Delhi. Jai asserts that he’s going to have many girlfriends from here on out. Veer counters that “You only fall in love once.”

Although they put up brave and “mature” fronts to each other when they talk or write (and they seem to update each other constantly), they’re still entwined, and also committed to this breakup, at least on paper. Actually, even paper would be too much commitment for these two. Jai has to remind himself that these decisions are right because they’re logical, even as he devolves onscreen after reaching what was his ultimate dream job in San Francisco.

We know they’re kidding themselves, even before the interval, and so does Veer (in his older avatar played by Rishi Kapoor). Like the grandfather in Jab We Met, he knows the inside of the couple’s hearts long before they do.

I also wrote a LAK film review here:
http://www.planetbollywood.com/displayReview.php?id=f080309021944

Awesome blogger Beth Loves Bollywood has a fantastic write-up as well:
http://bethlovesbollywood.blogspot.com/2009/08/love-aaj-kal.html

Tags: 2009, Imtiaz Ali, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Beth Loves Bollywood, Love Aaj Kal, PlanetBollywood

I've begun to add film reviews on PlanetBollywood.com. Here's a link to Soham Shah's latest, a little ditty called Luck.

http://www.planetbollywood.com/displayReview.php?id=f072909035126

Tags: 2009, Sanjay Dutt, Imran Khan, Soham Shah, PlanetBollywood

Love Akshay. Love Kylie. Love yellow. can't wait for Blue (10/16/09 release).



"Out of all the mysteries that have plagued humankind over the centuries, none is quite as baffling as how America got stuck with boring old Madonna while the rest of the world got to savor the deliciously irresistible Kylie Minogue." - Aidin Vaziri

"Rahman had Kylie and the best he could do was a song about a frog???"



Now this is more like it!

Tags: 2009, Akshay Kumar, Kylie, Anthony D’Souza, Blue, Kermit The Frog

At its core, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008, dir. Aditya Chopra) is a story of good people trying to make the people they care about happy. How they do it is full of fumbles, bumbling, well-intentioned goofs, mistakes and the conundrums of logic that go with plans that seemed logical at the moment but fall apart once you put people, including yourself, into the mix. This kind of story generally makes me happy too.



Taani’s busy trying to kill the bubbly effusive free spirit she was because she believes the love in her died with her first love. Suri’s life is bounded by lonely, quiet routines of dry toast breakfasts and work in a cubicle, hunched over his laptop. The only hint of passion in him is that Balwinder, er Bobby, a brassy salon owner, is his best friend. Suri must have a personality in there somewhere to get along with someone like Bobby.

Suri’s already bottled up and Taani’s desperately trying to get there herself. They aren’t dead, but not really alive either.

The tensions of the film revolve around Suri’s plans to keep Taani happy, which dovetail with his wish that in so doing she’ll remain the person he fell in love with at first sight, laughing and dancing on her wedding day. He knows she’s trying to change, and doesn’t want it. She’s told him she has no love in her and in seeing her unconscious laughter at the Dhoom ripoffs they watch together in theatres, he hatches a plan to make himself a “hero” for her so she’ll be happy. He tries to take on the persona one morning in his generic work shirt, khakis & cheap track shoes, rolling up his sleeves and flexing a little, but her self-absorbed self doesn’t notice the difference at all.

So Suri takes it up a notch, asking Bobby to turn him into a film hero type so she’ll love him. That’s the first idea. He doesn’t want her to change AND wants her to love him for who he is. Somehow the plan makes sense in his mind – he’ll go out with the new look, watch her unnoticed at her dance class, then meet her at home with the surprise of his new look, and of course she’ll love him. Problem solved! But this happens at 40 minutes into a 2.5 hour film – you know there’s got to be more…

Suri becomes not-Suri, and after luck, er, Rab sees him partnered with her for a dance contest, on impulse he decides to change the plan. He’d rather continue to dance with Taani as this different person than to follow his Plan A. Making it up as he goes along, he steps (no pun intended) into the role of Raj ("नाम तो सुना होगा/naam to suna hoga"), namechecking both Dil To Pagal Hai and Om Shanti Om). Rationalizing that Suri is the cause of her dard (pain) by reminding her of the tragedy that brought them into marriage, he thinks as Suri his plan is bound to fail. As Raj that baggage is gone and he has the chance to make her happy. This is his reasoning – as Raj he can say what he can’t as Suri. Following so far? Good.

And clearly Suri’s looking out for himself here too- he’s now dancing with Taani and admitting that as Suri he’s not so good at expressing himself. So hey, why not be somebody else?

And Suri builds this shaky foundation. He’s hoping his wife will accept Raj’s love as a proxy for Suri’s, without knowing they are the same. It sounds like a plan for more pain – he’s virtually encouraging the woman he loves to fall in love with someone else.

As a viewer, it’s tempting to judge and think gee, if you can be so charismatic and vulnerable as Raj, why not just change Suri to act as Raj rather than hide Suri when you are Raj? Wouldn’t she love Suri looking as he does and acting as when he’s Raj? In his success as Raj, clearly Suri has those qualities already inside. It’s not like he goes to acting school to figure out how to be Raj.

The transition is almost instantaneous, helped by the external stylings of shoes, torn jeans, tight rivet tees, and gold highlights supplied by Bobby. So why does he prefer to keep the daily charade of mild Suri and dancing Raj at night? Isn’t that more work? Touchingly, Suri is still convinced of the value of mild Suri, and his desire to be loved in that form, without the flash of Raj. But what he believes and what he does don’t seem to be talking to each other.

Suri’s interpretation of his plan shifts with time, as he becomes increasingly invested in his split self. One night at the salon, about to change back into Suri, a drunken Raj taunts his empty work shirt that Taani is pulling in closer to Raj: “To ji, ab main Taani partner ka haat pakar ke karoonga dance de romance 5,6,7,8. Aur aap tiffin paka re khush lena” (So, you – after taking Tanni’s hand I’ll be dancing and romancing – 5,6,7,8. And you’ll be happy with your tiffin). Then he sobers up to ask what if in falling in love with Raj, Taani forgets Suri? She will have run away with the wrong film hero and Suri won’t have Taani there.

It seems like an obvious question given his plan to show her Suri through Raj. And one that could have a very painful answer since Taani has indeed begun to dream a chirpy Raj at the theatre instead of the potboiler melodrama on screen (a catchy flashy number with the requisite cameos that leaves me a little flat as it seems calculated to crank up the emotion off the viewers’ nostalgia for classic films and stars).

Suri is discovering that the pain of being in love is augmented by the pain of disguising himself to be able to be open to expressing his feelings. Even in accepting Raj’s displays of affection, Suri remains invisible to Taani – how could it be otherwise?, as Bobby points out, predicting that if Suri shows Taani Raj’s love, she will forget Raj. Bobby’s trying to honor Suri’s increasingly complex plans, loaning him his motorcycle and styling him each night even as he tries to impress on him how the deception pulls Suri farther from his goal of being loved as Suri, not Raj. Suri’s logic dictates Raj is supposed to love Taani, Taani is supposed to love Suri. Still following?

And Suri ties the noose around his neck just that much more in his paradoxical stubbornness. He wants her to love him in his mild Suri avatar for his haule haule love. He insists that she recognize him in this way. Somehow in the bright light of Raj’s glow, he wants her to eventually notice the small star that he is. Taani, caught up in grief and perhaps self-pity, trying to repay the huge debt she feels she owes Suri, and losing herself in dancing, doesn’t have this kind of discernment. His love remains off her radar.

This is the gendered catch-22 of the film. Suri, who fell in love with Taani at the first sight of her, wants her to look deeper and love him based on who he is inside. As Suri he refuses to look or act as Raj.

Suri’s going over the question that’s now impossible to avoid – does she love Suri or Raj? They are the same but she doesn’t know they are the same. He used to see them as two parts of one person, and to an extent they were, but he’s enforcing the split and this is the bind he’s made for himself in manipulating the situation on his own. He’s set up two situations that can’t coexist forever – Taani with Raj or Taani with Suri.

And Suri’s fading into the background, or maybe that’s where he always was. Raj and Taani plot to leave together, and Suri plans his own end so that can happen.

If you’ve sent the film, you know the resolution, and if you haven’t seen the film, you may well be able to guess the resolution (I didn’t). I’m of a mind that it makes a certain kind of illogical sense – where everyone’s trying to make good out of a funky situation, with no coordination, no ill intentions & hope, the emotional truth will out (especially in a film).

As Taani finally sees Suri at long last she exclaims: “झूठ. सब झूठ. झूठ कहा ता आप ने मुझसे क्या आप ने जानते प्यार के होते।/ Jhut. Sub jhut. … Jhut kaha taa aap ne mujhse kyaa aap ne jaante pyar ke hote.” (Lies. All lies. You said that you know nothing about love.) He was always close to genuine, just took the long and windy path to the right destination.

-------
I kept myself away from analysis and commentary on this film so I could write this without other ideas coming in – finally I can see what others said. Email me your comments, please.

Here's a posting focusing on Taani as a character: http://buzz18.in.com/showblog/abhishek-mande/why-rab-ne-bana-di-jodi-rocks/105681

Transcriptions and translations mine. I take responsibility for any errors.

Tags: 2008, Shah Rukh Khan, Yash Raj Films, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

I'm the feature story in this week's East Bay Express - a Northern CA weekly.

Namastey East Bay
The local Indian filmmaking community has Bollywood dreams. The goal is not as far-fetched as it might once have seemed.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/namastey_east_bay/Content?oid=799102

I'm excited about the feature because the Express is the only one of several local magazines I've been pitching stories about Indian cinema to lately that bit. It's been perplexing to me a little, because as I may write about later, for a whole bunch of reasons I think that N Cal is so ready to read more about Indian cinema. And I'm so ready to write more!

It was great working with the Express- the editors were responsive and sensitive to some of the preferences I expressed (ie: avoiding the word "Bollywood" in my narrative, though you'll notice many of the people I quote use it. Hey - chacun à son goût!), and I felt we worked together well to craft an interesting piece. They originally proposed an article title that included the word "Bollywood," and we compromised for the "Namastey" title and "Bollywood" in the "deck." I love the wink in "Namastey East Bay" - not only does it rhyme, but it's a nod to 2007's "Namastey London," which is one of the films I'll be looking at in more depth in my next book, which is just in its embryo stages.

Working with a paper for the first time I can get a little anxious about the relationship with the editor. I was once commissioned for a cover story interview (for a magazine that doesn't exist anymore) where the editor changed both my quotes AND those of my interviewee to create a story angle she wanted (she was convinced my interviewee was in a secret relationship with the director of a film about her, and wanted that to be the drama of the interview). It tried my abilities to be diplomatic to keep what I thought was the integrity of the piece. And I chose not to work with them again.

Check it out - I'm interested in your feedback.

Tags: Kunal Kohli, Yash Raj Films, Shah Rukh Khan, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic

This past weekend I trucked it to the local Hindi cinema to see the new Yash Raj offering - Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic. YR has been taking a beating lately in terms of audience, and I'm interested to see the different formulas they're trying. By turns I was both endeared by and also annoyed by the hipster Inglish used to promote Tashan, and I imagine they had high hopes with the star star star star cast.

Anywho, there were some delightful moments in the film for me - mostly linked to the nationalism thread I'm tracing in film. The first dance number finds the kids bored in a museum, and their angel guardian, walks them through history, saying India has come a long way and will still go far, thumbing her nose at racist colonials along the way and inserting herself into grainy archival footage of Gandhi. "Now we will make everyone dance to our tunes," she chirps, kids in tow. It would sound ominous but for the Disney--fied setting.

In LA Geeta the angel switched the HOLLYWOOD sign to read BOLLYWOOD (anyone else see a pattern developing in this film?)

But for me the penultimate surprise comes at the end of the film when Geeta in her hiding place is virtually upstaged by the large BUCK FUSH scratched into the brick wall. Kyaa baat hai!! After the sweetness of the film, with its clean and bright Yash Raj stylee, that was like jumping into a cold pool- a shocking wakeup that got me thinking. We need more Hindi film exposure in the US to give more people a chance to see some of the perceptions of our country from other places, 'cause we Americans may not be all clued in. This kind of message in such a mainstream family film is something worth noticing. Oh, and how about more people who aren't put off by subtitles? That might help.

If you're really looking around, you can read my snarky comment on the film at the Guardian's blogsite.

Tags: film review, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic

My recent stint crewing on a Hindi film by a local filmmaker netted me a small role. I was working on set, being my usual chatty self, talking to people about films and actors. When he found out I knew about Indian films, one actor's first bon mot was that Shah Rukh Khan is "much darker" in real life than he appears on films. He said they use makeup to make him lighter, and had a bunch to say about how he's not really a light-skinned person.

I think this info was supposed to scandalize me, and I didn't have the heart to tell him that I too have noticed SRK getting lighter over time, and wondered why. Maybe he's so rich he can hire an umbrella-holder! Shoot, I wear SPF 30 myself, so I'm not as dark as I used to be.

To be honest, I'd welcome more darker people in films, Indian or otherwise, unless of course they are playing all the bad guys or stupid people.

That's why I like commercial Indian cinema over American - I wanna see brown people as doctors, lawyers, teachers, truck drivers, sub kuch. Good people and bad, funny people and sad, the gamut. Not just as the occasional salsa dancer or hooker with a heart of gold. Yes, I know it's lighter people featured in Indian films too, but at least it's in the brown range. Having grown up watching American films where even the indies are relatively monochromatic in culture, I'm ready for something new.

One day on set the director asked in Hindi where an actor was. I answered him in Hindi, and he replied incredulously "You speak Hindi?" Uh, well, a little. I've been teaching myself for a few months.

I play a mean money lender. This bumbling guy is trying to shoot the TV pilot that will make him rich, and all he needs is the money. He's tried everything else, and I'll give it to him at 15% for the first couple months, then the rate goes up.

You can find me at: http://balaxfilms.com/htm/kyutension/kgallery.htm .

Tags: Irene

The ups and downs and ups of a fallen woman. Read More...

Tags: film review, Rani Mukherjee, Abishek Bachchan