The Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) screens the work of filmmaker Mani Kaul on Monday night, and will have the New Indian Cinema trailblazer in attendance for questions.

Some of Kaul’s more notable films include “Uski Roti,” “Siddheswari,” and “Naukar Ki Kameez.” The 60-year-old filmmaker’s work has screened at festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Rotterdam and Pesaro, as well as venues such as New York’s MOMA and Paris’ Centre Georges Pompidou.

The REDCAT is located in downtown Los Angeles at the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall. You can kill two birds (if you’re into that sort of thing) with one stone by finally visiting the architect’s recently completed and hotly-debated building.

General admission tickets for the Kaul event are $8, and are available for online purchase.

REDCAT: An evening with Mani Kaul
Indian Cinema Database: Mani Kaul

Continue reading →

Actor Sanjay Madhav recently auditioned for a part in a comedy festival promo, and was so offended by the sketch, that he shared his experience on Hollywood Masala’s message boards.

The spot entailed Mohandas Gandhi (not the part that he auditioned for) playing a prank on his followers by ordering a meat-lovers pizza. From Madhav’s original post:

I do have a sense of humor about these scenarios, however this is offensive to many, including myself. When will the non-Indian population realize that Gandhi is to many Indians, what Martin Luther King is to the African-American people. Would they dare make such a mockery of Martin Luther King without public backlash? I think we know the answer to that question.

Wait, I have a different question: What brand of pizza did he order? Since I haven’t seen the promo, it would be inappropriate for me to weigh in on Madhav’s specific complaint. However, it would definitely piss me off if Gandhi was depicted ordering some cheap, craptastic, fast food pizza. I’d like to think that if Gandhi was going to buy pizza for his followers, he would spring for something good like California Pizza Kitchen or Round Table. He was the father of an entire subcontinent — give the man some respect and portray him ordering a slab of the top shelf pie.

Continue reading →

The movie Born into Brothels isn’t the only film featuring South Asian youngsters to get an Oscar nod. So does the short film The Little Terrorist about a boy that climbs over the wrong fence in search of his cricket ball. From The Times of India:

Ashvin Kumar’s Little Terrorist has been nominated for an Oscar in the Short Film (Live Action) category. “The news hasn’t sunk in yet… I didn’t see the nomination coming but after I received a call from the Academy three weeks back, I thought I might make it,” says Ashvin, son of fashion designer Ritu Kumar.

Little Terrorist is about crossing boundaries and is based on the true story of a Pakistani boy who crosses the LoC after his cricket ball lands on a minefield in Indian territory. “The boy is given shelter by an elderly orthodox Hindu Brahmin and the relationship between them is what my film is about,” says Ashvin, pointing out that though the setting of his film is political, the essential theme is that of humanity. “The film shows how, despite artificial boundaries and barbed wires between people, the basic human instinct to give shelter to an innocent remains — no matter how many lines are drawn between people.”

Continue reading →

“Born Into Brothels,” the documentary about children of prostitutes in Calcutta’s notorious red-light district, earned a highly-coveted Oscar nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday morning.

The critically-lauded film documents the experiences of photojournalist Zana Briski, who supplied the prostitutes’ children with cameras in order to capture a glimpse of their harsh existence.

“Born Into Brothels” has already captured a slew of awards — Sundance Audience, L.A. Film Critics, and the National Board of Review — and has screened in nearly every prestigious film festival around the world.

The Academy Awards telecast airs on Sunday, February 27, on ABC.

Oscars: Documentary feature award nominations
“Born Into Brothels”: Official site
Sepia Mutiny: Kids with cameras

Continue reading →

Turbanhead just posted a video clip of Parveen Babi in gold lame shrinkwrap, shimmying to the bouncy hit ‘Jawani Jaaneman’ from Namak Halal. It’s ’80s fabulous!

Watch the clip.

Parveen Babi, a screen rival of Zeenat Aman, passed away prematurely a couple of days ago at home in Bombay. The actress from Ahmedabad, a Gujarati Muslim, starred in Amar Akbar Anthony, Deewar, Namak Halal and Shaan opposite Amitabh Bachchan, made the cover of Time magazine, filmed a serial in Italy with her lover Kabir Bedi and lived in New York for many years.

Hailing from the nawab family of Junagadh, Parveen Babi did her schooling from Ahmedabad… Deewar personified the new Bollywood woman through her — smoking, drinking, not shying away from a live-in relationship, and yet desperate for the sindoor in her maang. If the film made the coronation of Bachchan as the “angry, young man” official, it also established Parveen Babi as the new western face — and figure — of the desi silver screen. [Telegraph]

Her hour of glory came when Time featured her on the cover [in 1977], much to the consternation of her screen rivals. A product of the flower children, yoga, Beatles and the students’ movement of the 1960s, Babi remained an outsider in Bollywood. Her cinema career came to an abrupt end amidst reports of alcoholism and drug abuse. [ToI]

She lived in a fishbowl, reportedly suffered from schizophrenia and then turned recluse:

Some claimed it was… the release of Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth (a semi-autobiographical look at his extramarital relationship with Parveen) and her disturbed state of mind that prompted her to abandon everything. [Rediff]

[Babi] led the life of an absolute recluse because she was afraid people were trying to kill her… Babi was afraid of doorbells and phone calls. [Telegraph]

Continue reading →

Veteran actor Amrish Puri died Wednesday morning at a hospital in Bombay. He was 72.

Various reports indicate that Puri suffered a brain hemmorage, and was in a coma at the time of his passing. He was also undergoing treatment for malaria, and was in the hospital just one week earlier for a surgical procedure.

Puri, who started acting at a late age, is best known for his roles in “Mr. India,” “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge,” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”

He is survived by his wife, son and daughter.

Rediff: Amrish Puri is dead

Continue reading →

The PR machine formerly known as Mira Nair says fast and cheap is where it’s at (via India Uncut):

When you have a big budget, like a Harry Potter, you have that many more people to answer to. You are simply one part of the machine that takes it over. It’s actually the freedom, the creative freedom, that is imperative for me. It comes only when the stakes are really low financially. That’s why I had total freedom to make a Salaam Bombay, or to make a Monsoon Wedding or to make a Namesake… If you have a big budget, you have that many more men in suits to deal with…

I like to do things unobtrusively and quietly, without much fanfare. People often don’t know what we are up to until it’s over. And that’s the secret.

She whips out her population and lays it on the table:

Let’s just face facts: our Indian cinema audience is now bigger than the Hollywood audience. So it’s not about wanting to be what they are, it’s about them opening their eyes to us…

On desi provincialism:

The extraordinary irony in making Mississippi Masala was that the African-American community and the Indian community were remarkably similar — in their love for family, in their communal sort of way for operating, in religion even, in that sort of emphasis on family bond and God for instance. But would an Indian ever cross the track into an African-American family? No way.