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Thanks to a good friend, I finally watched Harishchandrachi Factory. It is the debut film of theatre veteran Paresh Mokashi and traces the life of Dadasaheb Phalke — the father of Indian cinema. It was India’s official entry to the Oscars this year, but I hear it is out of the race.
Before that, a word about Marathi cinema. In the late 90s, Marathi cinema was not producing any good content. The more famous movies were comedies with an ensemble cast — invariably starring a combination of Sachin, Lakshmikant Berde and Ashok Saraf or movies of Mahesh Kothare where he always played a police inspector and clamped his fist saying ‘Dammits’ whenever something went wrong.
There was no National Award given to a Marathi movie between 1996 and 2000 — that is an indication of how bad the situation was. The reasons for the debacle were many : the prominent one being Marathi cinema was always in the shadow of the larger and more popular Bollywood. Production values were low, audience interest was waning and the quality of films did not help. Mind you, Marathi theatre was superb all the time, but the transition of talent from theatre to film never happened, further contributing to the fall.
Things slowly improved in the 2000s. A big boost came in 2004 when Shwaas was chosen as India’s official entry to the Oscars. The long awaited attention to Marathi cinema came. By now things were in place and with the help of filmmakers like Sandeep Sawant, Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthantar, Marathi cinema was all set and ready for the attention. Traditional ‘Bollywood’ production houses like UTV came forth with the money, the talent was always there and the audiences finally got products they were proud of. Incidentally, this was way before the M.N.S. came along to awaken ‘the dormant pride of Marathi people’.
Writers are advised to write about stuff they know; likewise for cinema. Marathi cinema has thrived on locally relevant issues and that it remains its USP. Themes are always universal, but the setting remains firmly in known territory. The line between good Marathi cinema and popular cinema is almost non-existent now — proving good cinema can be entertaining too.
I, for one, am extremely proud at the resurgence of Marathi cinema. Bengali and Malayalam cinema are considered to be the torch-bearers of good cinema in India, but Marathi cinema is catching up fast. It is sad that Maharashtra is seen through the prism of regional fundamentalism by many now, but I believe Marathi theatre and cinema can be fabulous ambassadors of Marathi culture. Marathi cuisine and music never found their way to the rest of India — but cinema might be Maharashtra’s first cultural export.
When I saw the film about Dadasaheb Phalke today, in a sense it felt like the whole circle was complete. Therefore, this longer post. I have tons of recommendations for those interested in Marathi cinema, and I’ll probably have a post in the near future. As for Harishchandrachi Factory, it has released in India with English subtitles. Please don’t miss this one. I realize I haven’t said much about the movie, but trust me on this one.
The National Awards of 2008 were announced a week ago. Yes, they announce the 2008 awards in 2010 — and that is still early by their standards.
I thought the WTF moment was Priyanka Chopra picking up the Best Actor (female) for Fashion, until I heard Kangana Ranaut won the Supporting Actor (female) for the same movie. I remember reviewing Fashion and I wasn’t exactly impressed by the acting.
I have a theory — every year a couple (just a couple, mind you) of National awards are handed out to popular cinema. We know intense lobbying goes on for the National awards and it has had its share of controversies. I don’t know if this is by design or a product of lobbying, but an award to a popular actor/actress makes the awards relevant and popular in mainstream media. It is ironic.
I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but come on — there were more effective performances in 2008 than hair on Anil Kapoor’s body — before he went all metrosexual and got them waxed. I don’t know exactly when he got them waxed, but I remember noticing no chest hair in Taal. He also had a cap on in Taal, making it his least hairy performance ever. I am surprised they allowed him to get rid of his hair. It should have been declared a World Heritage site. Oh, and who had the courage to agree to do it for him ? And how exactly was it done ? Traditional wax, or a lawn mower ? These are deep, profound questions that need to be answered by the National awards committee.
Wait, did I just digress ?
This talk by Dr. Ken Kamler is a recommended watch. Dr. Kamler was one of the doctors on the 1996 Everest disaster. The ’96 season was the worst with 15 deaths occurring on Everest, and this single tragic day contributed to 8 mountaineers perishing. It was a combination of too many summit attempts on a single day, a blizzard, the attitude of Everest climbers and commercialization of Everest climbs.
The incident sparked a major debate in the mountaineering community over these issues. I cannot find the source, but I’ve further read that this single disaster caused a major overhaul of rules and permits at Everest. The bottleneck in the climb is usually a part of the climb called the Hillary Step — just shy of the summit. With 30% oxygen at that altitude, any major delay can be directly fatal.
*****
On a related note, I heard from my hiking partner that permits are now required to hike Half Dome on weekends. If left unchecked, hundreds of hikers gather at the base of the metal cables causing delays of over an hour. The temperatures touch 100 degrees F and I have seen this cause dehydration, cramps and fatigue.
Permits will cause some inconvenience : I won’t be able to decide and drive to Yosemite at night to hike Half Dome, but it is a good move that was needed.
A good friend of mine drew this sketch recently and I found it mildly amusing, so posting it here with his consent (click on the image for a larger preview) :
Now he made it for a friend, so don’t get all feminist on me. I hate it when women are caricatured to 8 qualities — when they can be to 10. I know he has missed out on things like obsession with birthdays and sun-signs, but I cannot help it ! Remember, I am a hardcore feminist too.
*****
This friend has been part of countless and endless arguments on art v. science. He is into art and painting and from an illustrious family of J.J. School of Arts alumni; I like to think I am a fairly good at music. But in a sense, we are opposites : he is an engineer but thinks like an artist, I am a (comparatively limited) artist but I think like an engineer — even in matters of art. There was a time when I believed that all art was science. With music, I could decipher how everything (including the thought process behind its creation) was algorithmic — but not with art. He — being an artist — saw beauty first.
Of course, all this was a few years ago and I have come far since. I still do think art is science, but I’ve also come to see how all science is art. It takes away some magic from art, but brings that much science.
Since the Game for lame post got a few comments, I present one more silly joke from the ski trip. The ski trip was dedicated to obsolete and corny dialogues from Hindi movies of the 70s and 80s, and during one such session, I realized :
Agar maa ka haath ka kheer bana hai, toh maa parosegi kaise ?
That’s impossible to translate, so I hope you know Hindi.
Before you comment, let me tell you that it will act as positive reinforcement for similar content. You are likely to get more such stuff from me. Only you are to blame for it then.
You cannot ignore a headline that says Rakhi threatens censor with hunger strike. I have few simple rules guiding my life : when Sachin plays, you watch and when Rakhi Sawant speaks, you listen — and if an over-zealous reporter is writing the piece, you drop everything and read.
Here is what she says (my comments in italics) :
“I’ll wait for a week and then I go on a bhookh hartaal in front of the censor office,” warns Rakhi. Rakhi Sawant ko gussa kyon aata hai? It’s the kameena ways of the moral police (+1 to the writer for effective introduction of a pun that won’t make sense until after reading subsequent lines). The always-in-the-news actress is excessively angry with the censor board. “Fearlessly, I’ve sent a legal notice to the censorboard. This is the first time something like this has happened. Others do chamchagiri of the censor board. Not me. I’m Rakhi Sawant. Main ishwar ki beti hoon (sorry Jesus dude, ishwar has pwned you. Plus this was chamchagiri, no ?). The censor board has done me injustice by deleting the word Kamini from my song. I won’t take it lying down (ahem .. wrong choice of words, perhaps ?). Dharmendra has been saying the word kaminey for years. Vishal Bharadwaj’s Kaminey came, were the censors asleep ? (With Dharmendra’s movies, they probably did fall asleep. But Kaminey wasn’t bad, so you have a point there). There’re heroines doing love-making scenes with their bare backs showing (while at that, could you please also bring up Anil Kapoor and protest against his bare back ?). Bharadwaj’s films invariably have characters mouthing maa-bahen galis. If Rakhi Sawant sings Kamini tera bhoot chad gaya re the censor board gets stung. The song has been produced by my company Faith Inc. (if you had any doubts how religious Kumari Rakhi was) and I’m being damaged (this means something altogether different).”
She continues :
Ladkiyan Khule-aam choli utaar rahi hai (Notice the decoupling of aam. I’m just saying). What was Choli ke peeche kya hai? What were they asking? We all know what’s behind the choli (No, what’s the answer ? Heart ? Lungs ? Back ? The person standing behind ? Or in Anil Kapoor’s case, the Amazon rainforest ?).
Rakhi Sawant uses the word kamini and it becomes a dirty word. In serials we have men dragging their wives by their hair muttering. ‘Kamini main tujhe chodunga nahin.’ (OK, that’s hardly offensive. Plus it promotes family planning) No one pays any attention. Why point a finger at me? Stop all the malpractice on television and I too will shut up (Promise ? Pinky swear ?). We live in a corrupt and hypocritical democracy where the institutions appointed to monitor morality are bribed. Producers go with bulging suitcases and get their films passed (So why didn’t you go with your bulging … er .. suitcases ? On second thoughts, suitcases is such an apt metaphor here). Aisa nahin chalega.”
What would we do without Rakhi Sawant ? That reminds me — why was Rakhi Sawant not included in the Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara video ? Who else is representative of the contemporary Indian society if not her ? I need an answer, and now — else I’ll go on a hunger strike.
I mentioned once that I work in the agricultural sector for a fruit company. I need to add that I also help in making medicinal products now.
Namaste.
I’m sorry but this post is better off being discreet.
If you followed the technology news section today, you’d know who the Dude of the Week is — because however tomorrow turns out — no matter if he was right or wrong — this guy will look like an idiot.
And that is some foolproof ‘Dude of the Week’ness.
Blogging has been slow and I don’t know about you guys, but to me, the urge to blog comes in waves. There are times when I don’t feel like blogging, so I end up making small posts that don’t require any effort. I find it difficult to get back to blogging after a hiatus — the longer the break, the tougher it gets. In such cases, I usually just pick up any topic and write to get over the mental block. This is one such post.
It took me a couple of weeks to get on track at work after returning from India — and I am really excited about the event on the 27th. I am trying to settle into my winter schedule now. Weekends are spent skiing, and this weekend was the first propah ski weekend. Remember out annual Colorado hiking event in summer ? We are trying to supplement that with an annual skiing event every winter, and this weekend was the first. The hiking group and some other friends flew in to the Bay Area for a weekend of skiing at Squaw Valley at Lake Tahoe. It had snowed the whole of last week, so the snow was fabulous. The rusty feet are gone and we are now comfortable skiing down black and double black slopes. My hiking partner and I have a season pass for Squaw Valley — which also has night skiing. So the skiing only ends at 9.30 p.m. instead of the usual 4 p.m, — but it is that much more tiring.
At Squaw, only one cable car operates from 4 p.m. onwards that takes you to the top of a mountain. It is a single 3.2 mile medium difficulty ski run back to the cable car. The cable car leaves every 10 minutes, and the most thrilling part is that adrenaline rush as one tries to ski down to take the next cable car. The skiing has to be non-stop at full speed. By the time I reach the base, the feet almost cry out. They recover on the ride up, and suffer again on the run down. The cycle continues.
The toughest part about long skiing sessions is maintaining the level of concentration. A single microsecond of lapse can be dangerous depending on your speed.
We skied in three sessions — Saturday afternoon, Saturday night and Sunday morning. We had to leave early on Sunday to avoid traffic (which we couldn’t anyway). The drive back was great with another friend who I discovered was a passionate Rabbi Shergill fan. Amidst the music discussion and translations of Rabbi’s songs, the 8 hour drive was immensely enjoyable.
On our way back, we stopped at Panda express — a popular chain that serves Chinese food. They give out fortune cookies. After 2 days of hectic and draining skiing and hardly any sleep in between, imagine the feeling on reading my fortune cookie :
You thrive on adventure. Try something new.
!!$#!#$$!#!@
