Let's talk about Bollywood!

My first impression upon viewing Raj Kapoor’s mythical Satyam shivam sundaram, an impression shared by many other bloggers, is that the Showman had purely and simply been manipulated by his lecherous pulsions, and had also manipulated us spectators! Gone...

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Hallo all Nutan lovers (Harvey and Bollywooddeewana, especially!) I have been reminded by the above Nutan afficionadoes (like tornadoes?!) that aaj yeh Nutan ki janmadin hai (check Harvey's correction of my hindi in the messages section!!), so I thought:...

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I have only recently been made aware of the interest of movies by and with Aparna Sen, having seen Baksha Badal recently (check Sharmi’s take on it), and so here’s a look at a pleasantly intimate story, shot by the Bengali director in 2000. The film’s...

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The 2008 collection of short stories entitled « Unaccustomed Earth » by author Jhumpa Lahiri, well-known for her novel The namesake, which Mira Nair shot in 2006, has the unusual quality of being (in fact) a collection of little novels, rather than actual...

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Contrary to what many people think, love isn’t a simple passion. First many things, such as the family, the social situation, the history of the two lovers, etc. combine to create the particular context of the relationship, but also in itself love challenges...

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Hi! Last thursday my wife Frederique asked me to introduce Bollywood to her final year students, and since it was fun and also since I was not able to show the last two slides, here they all are, with the links to the two extracts! Enjoy! Bole Chudiyan...

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Rabindranath Tagore Deception 1918 From: Selected poems, translated by William Radice, Penguin classics, 1918 Click on the pictures to read the poem How much of this poem is autobiographical I cannot know, but in 1902 Tagore’s wife died young, at 25 after...

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After I saw Ganashatru, which Satyajit Ray shot in 1989 (see Ray’s website ), I noticed that it was based on Henrik Ibsen’s play An Enemy of the People , and some good soul has uploaded on YouTube Arthur Miller’s adaptation of Ibsen’s play , so I watched...

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When I first watched this 1982 movie by Mahesh Bhatt I knew it was a good one, so many people had written so already. I knew that the main roles were exceptional, Shabana Azmi (Pooja) and Smita Patil (Kavita) leading the team. But Kulbhushan Kharbanda...

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Even today, I suppose all India is bracing itself, preparing itself and half-hoping that it will not come that soon, not just yet: he might still live twenty more years, mightn’t he? Our king is such an indomitable man, why fear? But then we’re all, all...

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In the Mahābhārata, Gandhar i voluntarily blindfolded herself throughout her married life. Her husband Dhritarashtra was born blind, and on meeting him and realizing this, she decided to protest silently by blindfolding herself. (source: Wikipedia – Jatland.com...

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I thought at first I wouldn’t have much to say about Peepli live (Anusha Rizvi, 2010), but as I started writing, the following article poured out very easily! I had told myself that the film wasn’t much more than a properly engineered denunciation of...

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What is the soul of poetry? Isn’t it a kind of universal music which, universal as it is, springs fresh and clear from a homely and unique source of inspiration? When Tagore writes: Nahin kisi ko pata kahaan mere raja ka rajmahal Agar jaante log, mahal...

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In Chhalia (Manmohan Desai, 1960), we have another of Raj Kapoor’s avatars: his character personifies a “chhaliya”, translated by Philip as a cheat, or artful deceiver, but who in fact doesn’t deceive anyone, and I wonder whether we shouldn’t say “cunning...

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The cinematographic monument Mera naam Joker, which was directed, produced and starred by Raj Kapoor took 6 years to complete, cost millions and was a catastrophic flop when it came out in 1972 (see the wikipedia page ). No wonder: the first version was...

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