Monthly Archives: December 2004

I’m not a soldier, I just play one on TV

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StrategyPage reports on the antics of a Indian soldier / Bollywood wannabees –

December 1, 2004: Twice this year, Indian soldiers have tried to use staged photographs, of non-existent fire fights, to win notoriety, medals and promotions. In the latest incident, a colonel commanding troops against tribal separatists in northwest India used civilians, pretending to be dead, and touched up with tomato sauce, to produce photos of the colonels brilliant combat leadership. The colonel was found out, court martialled and expelled from the army. The major who assisted him was suspended from the army for five years. Last May, some soldiers operating high on the Siachen glacier in the northwest, tried a similar stunt. They were also found out and punished. It is thought that similar attempts may have succeeded elsewhere, so the army is double checking past awards for bravery and outstanding performance in combat. This sort of thing is nothing new, and has been happening before the camera was invented. Especially in wars against irregulars, as India is fighting in its northeast and northwest, the temptation is always there.

Sheesh. Continue reading →

‘Lagaan’ director joins Oscars jury

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The director of Lagaan, Ashutosh Gowariker, was invited to join the film jury for the Academy Awards. He’s not on the foreign film jury, which is either an odd omission or a compliment. Gowariker is now advising the director of Shwaas, India’s current Oscars entry: it’s all about awareness, baby.

I haven’t yet seen Lagaan. The combination of cricket and Bollywood is an enumeration of boredom. You start with baseball, the sport of paunch and waiting. Slow it down further and you end up with cricket. Now play the game over multiple days and film it as a bladder-busting, four-hour Bollywood movie. It all makes Gujarati wedding rites or a flight to Moscow seem like a blessed relief.

Gowariker’s latest movie, Swades, releases Dec. 17. It’s about a desi NASA astronaut but does not star our in-house rocket scientist. Abhi wants you to know that…

Yes. I am VERY bitter.

Personally, I can’t believe Sonali filmed Kal Ho Na Ho in my daily haunts and ‘forgot’ to call me. What’s up with that?

It’s like “Cross Colors”, except it’s not

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How do you solve a tragic, decades-old sort of hatred? Fashion! Well, and cricket…

Friends Ali Khan, a British Pakistani, and Yash Singh, a British Indian, were surprised at the level of animosity between Indians and Pakistanis in Britain, and decided to do something about it themselves.
So, they thought long and hard about the problem and, finally, they had their eureka moment: what love do the two countries have in common? They asked themselves. Answer: Cricket. So, they thought, how can we, in our own small way, harness that common love? Again, they thought long and hard – and came up with an answer: half and half shirts.
That means half the shirt in Pakistani colours and half in Indian colours.

The duo took the “half” concept very seriously:

It was important to us to show the collaboration between our two families, so half the shirts were sewn together by my mum and my sister, and half by Yash’s mum and sister, which meant we had 100 half-halfs to sell at Edgbaston”.
They sold the lot, and could have shifted a lot more, and that meant that the successful day at the match was not the end of the story by any means. The two families went on to make more shirts in time for the Mega Mela in Birmingham in October.

Apparently there’s an under-served market for this unique “couture”:

Again, they were amazed at the response they received from other British Asians. As Ali said: “One lady even asked me if there was a range for babies. She was a Hindu from India and her husband was a Pakistani Muslim, so she said her children were literally half-halfs like our shirts”.

Diplomacy-shlomacy. All they are saying, is give tees a chance.

(You can stop your groaning, I know that one hurt.)

via HT

Kerala does it again

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The land of my ancestors once again makes me proud:

Kerala has become the first state in the country to supply free antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients.
“We are proud of this achievement because no other state has this programme. We began this supply last month through the five government medical colleges,” said Health Secretary E.K. Bharat Bhusan.

Like the rest of India, AIDS is a concern for Kerala:

There are 2,003 cases of AIDS in Kerala while 613 people have died of the disease. The state has close to 100,000 HIV patients.

I love how Uncle Bhushan takes great pains to point out that we’re better than those OTHER, more AIDS-y South Indian states:

Secretary Bhushan pointed out that while Kerala was classified as a low AIDS prevalence state, its neighbours Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were in the high prevalence category.

Whatever. Just do something, and do it now.

Mira Nair to Remake Munna Bhai

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In a weird twist on the usual east borrowing from west, especially with regards to film, Hollywood is now borrowing from Bollywood for one of its films.

Believe it. The trade publication Daily Variety (Subscription required) has announced that Mira Nair will be directing Gangsta MD, the Hollywood adaptation of Raju Hirani’s mega Bollywood hit — Munnabhai MBBS. Mira Nair has teamed with “Bringing Down the House” scribe Jason Filardi on “Gangsta M.D.,” a Bollywood remake that’s been set up at 20th Century Fox.

The story focuses on a low-level gangster who keeps his criminal life a secret from his mother by telling her he is a medical doctor, what else? When his mom discovers his criminal lifestyle and threatens to disown him, he’s forced to do the one thing that would make her proud: become a doctor.

The original film was 2003’s Hindi-language blockbuster “Munna Bhai, M.B.B.S.” A second version was produced this year, “Shankar Dada, M.B.B.S.,” which was essentially the same film shot in India’s Telugu language.

In a first for Bollywood, Fox bought the script rights for the Hindi film earlier this year, and Chris Rock’s name has been mentioned several times during initial speculations.

Gangsta MD is expected to hit movie halls in early 2005.

Here is the rediff.com story summarizing the Variety article.