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sitanshi talati-parikh

sitanshi talati-parikh

Category Archives: Musings

The $50,000 sanctuary

11 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Musings

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Yesterday, I came across a lady who received an award from the Jain community in America for gathering $50,000 in funds – to build a temple. Now, as I have been informed by someone on Twitter, “Temples are spiritual centers, protectors of an ancient civilisation  They provide peace of mind to people.”

Yet, I wonder if that money couldn’t have been used for creating a better life for people. For instance, it could have supported villages with sanitation, better infrastructure, solar power facilities, water and irrigation, and even a school or two. It could provide livelihood via skills to many, it could improve the lives of thousands in real and measurable terms.

When will we stop using our money to create inanimate structures that in turn create emotional and psychological dependencies and instead just use the money towards the actual betterment of living things, towards making this a better world?

If temples were the answer to all our problems, we would have been a heavenly planet right now. Apparently, it’s not that simple – our world is not exactly a great place to live, and disparities only keep growing. Do temples solve any problems? Or do we hope that in it’s escapism we can find moksh?

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola – Review

15 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Musings

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Bollywood, imrankhan, indiancinema, Reviews

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola – a review

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From the moment the promos hit the air, it promised to be a strange movie. But you hoped it was a good strange, or interesting strange. It suggested dark comedy, satire, farcical elements with a popular star cast and a winning director.

But when the time came to deliver, it could have been so much more. While one must admire Vishal Bharadwaj for making a film like this, which stemmed from his love for dharti mata, the hinterlands and Shakesperean tradition all combined, he stumbled in areas that he normally shouldn’t have. With Omkara (his Othello), Maqbool (his Macbeth) etc., he had clear direction. He took an Elizabethan setting and converted it to the darkness of a village in rural India. A milieu he understands well, a tradition he can well expand. With Matru…, he took the technique of social satire and farce and moved it to his familiar rural India. Without a strong Shakesperean story to fall back on, he flounders with a premise. Is he merely picking at the problems of rural farmers and their rich zamindars who are out to looto them? He deals with the topic with unwarranted superficiality. If one chooses not to be serious about a serious problem, then one must at the very least attempt to show some depth while plotting around it.

A good student of Shakespeare always has powerful characters and can sketch them well. Bharadwaj hasn’t failed before and doesn’t falter here either. All the characters come alive, are stand out performances and are believable, even if occasionally caricaturized on the premise of satire. Pankaj Kapur as the Jekyll-and-Hyde Mandola is brilliant, if a little too easy to manipulate towards a happy film ending. Bijlee is a free spirit and plays her role faultlessly. Matru is what the actor, Imran Khan, has described as a desi Che Guevara. Matru’s sophistication is obvious, but then we write it off as a Delhi-education that has softened the expected rough edges. Shabana Azmi’s politician and her witless son played by Arya Babbar appear the most caricaturized, but in the space of the film and it’s intentions, the OTT treatment is forgiven, in fact even acceptable.

For someone who should be a stickler for details, Bharadwaj seems to have ignored quite a few things. Why must Bijlee run amok shouting for Matru, when we are later shown Matru wielding a cell phone? How does Matru conveniently manage to pull a favour, get a check of money for his village, and then never have to worry about making the delivery 5 days later of the crop which is ruined? There was a chance to create pressure — those 5 days one would think would have been mentioned for a reason — but it never comes up, as time stands still and the village gets busy with Bijlee’s sudden wedding. Mandola has a remarkable change of heart, we don’t really understand why…and that’s a shame because everything seemed to be building up to him and his idiosyncrasies. It’s all very convenient, but it’s not sharp.

The dialogue on the other hand, is sharp. It’s witty and layered and the delivery is pretty good from all the characters, who show wonderful comic timing all the way. For once, the onus of comedy isn’t on the comic relief but is on all the characters, which is great thing for Indian cinema, especially when it comes to satire. However, the failing was language. With farce and dark humour, one would need one clear, easily decipherable language. Bharadwaj has used three: Hindi, English and Haryanvi, of which one is entirely alien to the multiplex audience and another alien to a single-screen audience. While Kapur is playing his character perfectly, slurring the words like a drunk, he is inadvertently making it harder for the audience to grasp all of what he’s saying, often having the viewer miss key points of humour. The director should have caught that. On the flip side, Khan with his crisp diction is actually easily understood even in his learned Haryanvi, making the experience lighter and easier for the multiplex audience.

All in all, a clever attempt but a near miss. It will go down in the books as something to be dissected, analysed and categorized. It is a film of no small significance, it’s just unfortunate how close it came to being a serious contender for something special. Not to mention, slash 20 min off the run time, it would have read as well and tightly as Delhi Belly, another mad caper film. And Matru… could have retained it’s rather good music.

 

Full of Emptiness (Taken off from @parmeshs’s column)

07 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Musings

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Thoughts

I recently read Parmesh Shahani’s (Editor-at-Large, Verve Magazine) latest column in Verve Magazine’s April 2012 issue. He speaks about Kenya Hara’s (Japanese creative director of global brand Muji, writer, professor) recent visit to India and his talk at the Godrej India Culture Lab.

“Empty does not mean simple…. Empty is about the possibility of being filled. It is about alternatives, about potentiality.”

I think in any consumerist culture, you tend to fill voids, spaces and minds with a lot of junk. Particularly in a socially-networked world, you are not only filling your mind with things that interest you, but also things that appear to happen to and interest everyone else you know. In much the way that if your walls are not free to host that work of art you may find along the way, or your home is cluttered with so much stuff that you can barely find your way to the door, our minds tend to be filled – all the time. From the moment we wake to right before we sleep, we are unable to declutter our minds. If there is no space to think, then how will we ever become creators or visionaries?

Empty spaces and empty minds are not valued in developing cultures – because there is a greed to own, consume, buy, fill – to prove that one has arrived. That one exists. It may very well be true that one exists when there is nothing to prove or display. The very void that scares us, gives us the chance to grow. It is about time we distanced ourselves from consuming, and gave our minds a chance to breathe.

Vidya Balan: The Next Aamir Khan?

02 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Musings

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Aamir Khan, Bollywood, indiancinema, vidyabalan

Why Vidya Balan is all set to be the female version of Aamir Khan in Bollywood….

Many actresses have looks and talents and a few have both. But what sets a handful apart is when audiences wait for their next as unique and different, as unsual choices, and worth watching. Post her initial success, Balan, like Khan floundered in a couple of commercial films that did her talent no merit. But quickly, she found her ground and stood it. She is treading the fine line between off-beat and commercially successful that possibly only Rekha could before here, where her films now make for coffee-table discussions.

What works for Balan is her sheer versatility. She can morph herself into the character, much like Khan, so that there isn’t a trace of her real-life persona visible, besides her voice and features. No mannerisms, no particular nuances that one attributes to a person. She doesn’t bring herself on screen, she only brings a character, and that too a finely-drawn, deeply nuanced character.

That is possibly the difference between a fine actor and a movie star. A movie star can’t let go of their own persona, even momentarily on screen – think Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor – while a fine actor becomes whom he/she requires to be on screen. Many actors can don this persona for a specific kind of role – Ajay Devgn for gansta films, Abhishek Bachchan for Guru, Saif Ali Khan for Omkara, or Anil Kapoor for humorous, slimy characters like the one in Slumdog and MI4. And some like Saif Ali Khan and Anil Kapoor can even show a breadth of talent across the board. The others not listed here, like Ranbir Kapoor, are all extremely watchable, entertaining and even powerful in their screen presence, but they can’t let you forget who it is on screen that’s playing that role. Their personal presence often or momentarily overpowers their character.

To become another person on screen, and remain so through the entire film, over and over again through a wide range of films is possibly the mastery of only two actors at the moment in Hindi cinema – Aamir Khan and Vidya Balan. Their choices will always be followed, their movies will always have a definite audience, and their fans will remain discerning. That is not to say that there isn’t a place for other actors and movie stars, but it is to point out that Khan and Balan will remain a class apart in their profession of choice – acting. They will remain actors before they become superstars or moviestars.

Movie references:

Vidya: Ishqiya, No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture, Paa, Parineeta, Guru, Salaam-e-ishq

Aamir: All his films since he began doing a single film a year! (mid 90s), particularly the ones in the last decade.

And one man we love to hate. (Hint: Five Point OMG)

14 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Musings

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Tags

Books, Chetan Bhagat, India, Literature, Love2HateU

Just watched Love2HateU with the celebrity guest being Chetan Bhagat. I feel rather bad for the hater, the poor girl stood no chance against Bhagat’s generous Gandhi-ism. He was so beatifically patronizing and condescending that I wonder she didn’t throw something at him. But that’s Chetan Bhagat – a huge icon and idol to some and a huge eyebrow raiser to others.

Bhagat’s success – and he is astonishingly successful – is because he has crawled through the cracks and found his target audience. And what a target audience that is. The non-readers. Instead of churning out a high-brow book filled with beautiful metaphors and aiming for the Booker, Bhagat does what he does best – appeal to the section of the readers that is undiscerning. But that’s not to say that his writing has no merit. It’s just unpalatable to a reader who wants something more – an enhanced literary experience, if you must.

Bhagat makes no pretensions about his literary aspirations, but he appears to consider you with pitiful glances if you question his success. He basks in his own stupendous success, often lying on a raft of self-appreciation, and what irks people is that his raft never, ever capsizes. Top models can have a bad hair day, brilliant directors can have a box office flop, the Sensex can crash, but Chetan Bhagat only goes from strength to strength.

His hater questioned the audience and their intelligence. One girl defensively answered, “Ya we read other stuff. But I don’t want to read Rushdie. I’d much rather read Bhagat.” So you have a polarized readership of Indians. The ones who read Rushdie or Amitav Ghosh and the ones who read Bhagat. Bhagat has automatically found his masses, found his safety in numbers and addressed the people who look for easy escapism in reading and not for anything challenging. Bhagat is proud of the fact that he has made people who don’t read, read. Readers are appalled by the fact that these non-readers have begun with reading his books and set their literary standard there. But each to his own, right?

And in a democratic world, readers should have that choice. Readers should have beach novels, glossy magazines, Mills & Boon and Bhagat. It isn’t annoying that Bhagat’s books are valid reading options for people. What’s annoying is how much people like them, and give him a reason to keep going. And it would be far less annoying if he didn’t think so much of himself. “I’m happy to be on this show (Love2HateU) because my new book has just released and I want to know that there are people here who don’t like what I do, not just people who enjoy my books.” Oh stuff it.

Rockin’ Rockstar poster

28 Wednesday Sep 2011

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Musings

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Bollywood, imtiazali, indiancinema, Rockstar

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Imtiaz Ali’s upcoming movie, Rockstar, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri has some absolutely stunning artwork and sketches. Very reminscent of the angry young man bollywood posters of the 70s, but far superior. The artist is Grzegorz Domaradzki from Poland, and I can’t wait to see what more he has in store. I wonder if Imtiaz Ali will think of marketing some of this beautiful artwork as a part of the promos? Like selling the posters – remember the time we used to find Salman, Aamir and Madhuri posters all over the place to be kept on walls?

PS: Font remind you of Def Leppard any one? It’s not identical, but quite reminiscent.

Check out a great interview with the artist here: http://onesmallwindow.com/interviews/those-cool-rockstar-posters/

Some related links:

Grzegorz Domaradzki’s official website
Grzegorz’s Vector Movie Posters series.
Rockstar – Official Website

 

 

 

Nama Yum Yum

28 Wednesday Sep 2011

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Musings

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chocolate, Food, Royce Chocolates

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A good friend suggested picking up some Royce chocolates while in Singapore. Sooo unassuming: the name, the location – in the basement of Takashimaya, but I began to perceive how sensational it would be when I saw them packing the chocolates up. An insulated bag with a icepack for travel and storage. Trying some of it won me over – completely incredible, ready-to-melt-in-your-mouth dark chocolates. If life is about experiences, this is definitely one of them. My favourite? The Petite Truffe – Orange. It’s got slivers of orange peel tucked into the folds of dark truffle. It kicks Belgian chocolate’s ass. The Nama chocolate in various flavours (running with some amount of liquor or champagne) are fabulous. There’s even a slab of what they call ‘Black Chocolate’. And a bag of chocolate potato chips that I didn’t try. Hailing from Hokkaido, Japan, I’m not surprised these bits of heavenly cocoa have a cult following. Can they come to Mumbai, already?

Why @delhibellymovie makes for a marketing study

29 Wednesday Jun 2011

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Aamir Khan, Bollywood, Delhi Belly, imrankhan, indiancinema, Vir Das

Any movie that has a tagline “Sh!t Happens” is doing two things very knowingly: alienating a section of people, and getting another section of people curious. Possibly only a gamble Aamir Khan is willing to take: selling a movie about potty stuff and a stomach condition. There will be those who will consider him not quite off the rocker, and those who will grudgingly drag themselves into the cinemas next weekend to see what’s up. Or down.

Aamir’s movies would make for a brilliant marketing study in themselves. They use elements of the films very carefully, carving a niche audience even before the release – in this case, possibly queasy college kids – and are always unique. He never tends to repeat himself, and what is fabulous: he never openly sells himself. He sells his intellect, which people have seen and appreciated over the years; he sells his choices, which people have grown to trust; he sells tenets of the movie that may not be obviously saleable and he, ingeniously, makes them saleable.

He waited many years to release this film, even queuing it behind his production house’s other releases, so much so that people got tired waiting for it to release, rumours began spreading about tension brewing between the director and the producers. When he finally decided to release the film, which is a short English-language film (also being dubbed in local languages) without an interval and with no songs (besides background music), he worked in an alternative promotional strategy.

1. Imran Khan, now a household name, is selling sex in the movie. Crushing the ‘nice kid – now married and settled’ image, Imran gets down and dirty in the movie.

2. There are a good number of expletives used – particularly in the song which has been touted as a cult classic ‘Bhaagbhaagdkbose’. The ‘good kids’ of the film, claim to not know these words and their meanings. Aamir suggests an ‘A’ rating. The censor boards get into overdrive. See video of the song (my personal favourite): http://youtu.be/8OVGbdOG7dA

Also: Selling reverse psychology. Telling people not to watch something is like a sure fire way to get the people to come see what they are told not to watch. Snap.

3. The actors remain straight-faced and yet severely dry and mocking in their humour when being interviewed. (See @thevirdas’ tweets about conversations with a journalist)

4. The songs. THE SONGS. For a movie that has no songs, the songs are a raging hit.  Shot recently, they are cleverly envisioned – each one a distinct and innovative study in youth culture, popular lingo, satire and clever misconceptions. Music and lyrics, bang on. Cult classics in the making.

5. Soft selling. What does the youth who will be coerced to watching this movie want? T-shirts. Funky, irreverent t-shirts, selling the Delhi Belly brand. Imran and the others are busy doing that.

6. Food: Delhi Belly refers to a stomach condition. You find the Delhi Belly trio, ironically being photographed at gourmet and fine dining places – presumably to now avoid getting a ‘delhi belly’?

7. Irreverence. Therein lies the foundation on which this film is built. Three kids go through sh*t. And hopefully come out of it alive. With the name, the songs, the attitude and the overall marketing, Delhi Belly is selling a good degree of irreverence.

8. Item Number: Aamir, is for once, selling himself. An item number done 70s disco style. #MAJORWin. See video: http://youtu.be/IGYA_P7ZHcw

9. I like a movie that sells it’s men rather than it’s women. A gratifying change. However ‘shitty’ it might be.

Now it’s just up to the target audience to lap it up.

Aamir has a way of making films and concepts iconic and into a brand. His auteur, unlike other directors, isn’t a kind of film, it’s merely good cinema – path-breaking, unique, and never cut from the common cloth. The success of his films has enough to do with his marketing brainwaves, experience and perfection at the editing table as it does with the film itself. SO much nicer than cheap marketing pot shots that many other films are reduced to.

 

Why Bollywood Talk Show Hosts Should Host Less

23 Thursday Jun 2011

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Musings

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Bollywood, Deepika Padukone, Karan Johar, Koffee With Karan, Ranbir Kapoor, Simi Garewal

Recently two celebrity talk shows that once reigned supreme have returned to television in a brand new avatar. Simpering, buttering and at best cajoling their guests into letting go of certain inhibitions to guarantee TRPs.

Lately, Simi Garewal – famous for her Rendezvouz With Simi show, where she played agony aunt to all her celebrity guests – got them to cry on her shoulder, laugh and reminisce all while holding their hands, giving them a chance to open up their lives, loves and unhappiness in front of the entire nation, is back with Simi selects India’s Most Desirable. This time, she uses the show to reestablish her iconic status and that of her guests. She repeats frequently in the show why she considers her guests ‘India’s most desirable.’ I think we would know why a handful of top Bollywood stars are desirable. Do give the audience some credit. She uses the show to suggest how Ranbir Kapoor, whom she is obviously incredibly fond of, possibly even charmed by, is actually really a sweet little Mama’s boy, very acceptably interested in women. What’s amusing is how Ranbir manages to charm her and keep her charmed throughout. And we shouldn’t even get to the part where Mama actually comes in with her endearments for Son. Simi’s botoxed and sugar-coated avatar give the audience less of a chance to see the real person, and more of a chance to see the avatar she wishes to – or has promised her guests to – unfold before the audience. Add a reassuring tarot card reader, a live audience that is highly impressionable and possibly enamoured by star power, and you have a celebrity I’m-so-famous-that-it-hurts show.

Karan Johar’s Koffee With Karan was funny, irreverent and iconic in that he managed to make a chat show into a gossip session that allowed his guests a ‘get out of jail free’ card to be as bitchy and frank as they liked when they did their rapid fire round. This time around, KWK is like a badly made cup of weak Koffee – quoted from my earlier post Decaffeinated Koffee With Karan:

“After a long hiatus, Johar is back with season 3 of KWK, and despite being much awaited, it fails to satisfy. It is disappointing, just like his movies: dramatic without meat, one-sided and microcosmic. Where you look for incisive questions, probing analysis and incurable wit, you realize that the show now balances on Johar’s relationship with his guests – so he treads on eggshells, pleases them, praises them and it becomes a mutual back-scratching hour. The questions are boring, dull and jaded – do we really care how some actors rate other actors? Do we want to know about only 5 actors – the Khans and Akshay Kumar? With only the bitchiness or sharp wit, straight-faced untruths and simpering (respectively) of Kareena, Saif, Ranbir and Priyanka provide some entertainment or relief, the show falls completely flat for the same reasons his movies fail to excite: they remain relevant to an older time, they assume only 5 people of either sex exist in the industry or Karan’s world, the format hasn’t got updated with anything but blatant in-show marketing of advertisers and sponsors.”

Note: Deepika comes into Simi’s show advertising blatantly for Neutrogena. She goes to Karan’s show taking Nescafe breaks – another one of her brands. Simi and Karan openly advertise these brands on their show. Maybe the hosts/ channels are afraid they won’t make the TRPs or the advertising revenue the normal way, so need to add this extra marketing to the mix?

What is it about these smart, savvy and experienced talk show hosts that they find themselves sinking into mediocre hosting? Pressure from that fact that they are a part of the same industry? Wouldn’t it be far more interesting if an outsider quizzed these people, without having to worry about having to make movies with them in the future? Or to not have to face that odd, cringing feeling when the guests have to choose from a list of tired-and-famous directors, and when the talk show host puts himself on that list. In a spectacular display of self-preoccupation. So the hosts are full of themselves, the guests are full of themselves, the hosts are insisting on the popularity of their guests with audience clips, accolades and praises – and in all of that, the viewer is left feeling…very-taken-for-a-starry-ride-to-nowehere-ish. Oh snap.

 

Goa: Red Earth and Pouring Rain

12 Sunday Jun 2011

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Musings

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Goa, Green, India, Monsoons, Rain

Goa, super famous for its beaches and laid-back life, is also home to one of the rainest monsoons this side of the country. Caught in its early showers, here is what Goa looks like when it rains: lush, green and not too beachy. Be prepared for chlorophyl overkill!

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