Category Archives: Arts and Entertainment

Parveen Babi passes quietly

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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]

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Kal Penn to Appear in HBO’s Six Feet Under

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The TV Guide Insider is reporting that Kal Penn has landed a role in Six Feet Under’s final season, that begins airing in June. Penn is slated to enter the show later in the season, and play one of Claire’s (Lauren Ambrose) boyfriends, who, if you don’t watch the show, tend to be of the off-kilter variety.

Turns out, SFU creator Alan Ball loved [Penn’s] his goofy stoner flick, which costarred Off Centre’s John Cho. “You really are offering me something on Six Feet based on the character of Kumar?” Penn asked in disbelief when Ball called. The honcho’s reply? Yup.

But this is my favorite line from the article…

“So far Penn (who’s no relation to Sean)…”

I don’t know how someone would confuse the two. Continue reading →

Familiarity breeds…

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Sajit posted about a version of Bombay Dreams set to open in Bombay itself.

The show may have the opposite problem in Bombay from the one it had on Broadway. Would it seem the least bit novel in the city that serves as its muse? Or would Bombayites give it a collective shrug, like Delhiites did with Monsoon Wedding: ‘That’s a documentary, not a musical’?

I had the damnedest time getting my cousins who grew up in India to see Bombay Dreams with me. ‘This is a play about Bollywood?’ they said. ‘But we watch that every day only. Isn’t it?’

Bombay Dreams, Heading to Bombay

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The Indian Express is reporting that everyone’s favorite Bollywood inspired Broadway musical will be heading to the city that named it, Bombay. The show, which did a lot better in the UK, than it did in New York, will be heading to Bombay before heading to China and Hong Kong.

A.R. Rahman, the genius behind some amazing Bollywood soundtracks and the music for Bombay Dreams, sounded a bit annoyed by the response his show received in the States, suggesting that we Americans aren’t as able to think outside of our culture.

‘‘Americans are always talking about their own culture, so they can never be at the receiving-end and accept something from outside,’’ he said, adding that the musical moved to America at the wrong time. ‘‘This was the time when Americans felt that Indians were stealing their jobs, though I’m not at all disappointed.’’

I wonder if Star and Buc Wild saw Bombay Dreams? Continue reading →

An Englishman in New Delhi

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I don’t drink coffee, I drink tea, my dear… Sting is giving a concert at Delhi’s Nehru Stadium on Feb. 6th. Be still my beating heart.

On the occasion of his concert, a special Limited tour Edition of his latest album Sacred Love , which contains his rare singles, is being put together. The single, Sacred Love also has an Indian touch since it features Anoushka Shankar on the sitar.

With Sting’s long-standing interest in yoga (he owns a studio in New York) and professed mastery of tantric sex, it’s surprising he doesn’t play India more often. Maybe his Englishness gets in the way.

“… I mentioned to Bob [Geldof] I could make love for eight hours. What I didn’t say was that this included four hours of begging and then dinner and a movie.”

Please don’t label this the highlight of his career:

Sting’s career hit a real high note in ’94, when he, together with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart, performed All For Love for the film, The Three Musketeers… [ToI]

What a repugnant thought. Sting, like Bono, is that rarest of birds, a thinking rocker with fractal lyrics that unfold. I spent many delicious hours on a bus through the USSR listening to ‘Russians’ and ‘Fortress Around Your Heart.’ U2’s ‘Vertigo’ has bite, but they’ve both been putting out geriatric stuff lately which makes the young’uns look askance when you admit to being a fan. Plus there’s the whole megagroup thing, hipster ammo; screw it, I sometimes drink Starbucks.

Bollywood Hearthob Vivek Oberoi Throws Down a Challenge

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“For all those who talk about publicity, come here, get your hands dirty. Sleep four hours every night, walk around in the daily sun, run around in this fear of epidemics, come and do it, put your life at risk here. Then we’ll talk.” [CSM]

According to the Christian Science Monitor, Bollywood pretty boy Vivek Oberoi has left Bombay for Devanampattinam where he is taking a hands on approach to Tsunami relief. Instead of simply writing a check, or sending relief supplies south, he’s in the effected area, going house to house, handing out supplies. Continue reading →

Salt ’n peppa yo’ mango, live

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M.I.A. is playing NYC on Feb. 5, along with partner in crime Diplo (via SAS). Tickets are just $12. She’s also rockin’ L.A. on Feb. 3. I think I’m having an Arulpragasam.

From the last time she performed in NYC:

… her super-limited debut UK single featured fuzzy, electro-tinged dancehall beats, vaguely political raps, and one of the most unexpectedly catchy hooks in recent memory. Completely modern urban music that didn’t sound the slightest bit forced or space cadet about itself (sorry Dizzee); I was captivated on the first listen…

Check out the ‘Sunshowers’ video and the remix MP3s. Here’s a previous post on M.I.A./Maya.

Boing Boing discovers paan

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The normally reliable cypherpunk cool-hunters at Boing Boing discover a strange new delicacy called ‘paan.’ They’ve linked to bloggers who, in typical geek fashion (I mean that as the highest compliment), have catalogued its production with step-by-step photos and reference objects for scale. Spitting contests with laser ranging can’t be far behind.

In related news, I’ve spotted an obscure Western dessert called ‘canoli.’ A mass spectrographic analysis will follow.

Here’s what I say: leave the paan, take the canoli.

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Checking in with my favorite authors

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Zadie Smith, she of the Bangla-Jamaica mashup White Teeth, got married last September; they met at Cambridge. I ran into her at a small London birthday party at an age when she was considered precocious, well before I’d read her. She was all biting wit, creeper hair and privacy. Authors never look like their jacket photos, nor friendsters like theirs.

She’s due out with a third novel, On Beauty, in September. Autograph Man was studiedly trivial, seemingly an entire chapter devoted to Alex-Li’s body fluids. You’ve gagged on the wealth and hype jalebi, now toss me some more of that fine, fine namkeen.

Rushdie dogged my steps all through this India trip via the gossip columns. He returned to his eternal muse, Bombay; worked the press in that quintessential writer’s city, Calcutta; and held court at a fashion designer’s nightclub in that most elegant of settings… a Noida mall. Avoid-a the New Okhla Industrial, y’all.

Kitabkhana drolled on about Rushdie’s Delhi reading:

“That story, man, that story, it has the touch of genius, pure, jaano, calibre aachey. Each line has the stamp of a Master.” (Displaced Bong intellectual wannabe who spent most of the reading with eyes closed in ecstacy that would have been more convincing if he hadn’t snored once or twice in between.) … Sleepy photographer… wanted to go home but had been told by his editor to stay till the bitter end. “In case,” the editor apparently said, “Rushdie gets shot or something.”

… my last glimpse of the Rushdies was of them using upturned plastic chairs to hold at bay hordes of… squeaky-voiced journalists asking original questions (“Mr Rushdie! Are you writing a new novel?” “Padma, what’s your favourite food?”)

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First 60 Minutes, and Now Nightline?

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This Friday, ABC’s Nightline, one of the better known newsmagazines, will be doing a show highlighting, surprise, surprise, Bollywood. The episode, senior produced by Madhulika Sikka is dubbed as “an introduction to Bollywood for the novice,” and will feature Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, and of course, Bollywood crossover Hottie-to-be, and oh yeah, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, Aishwarya Rai.

I wonder if SM can patent that phrase, or if soon Ash will be like Michael Jackson, and be announced T as TMBWITW, Aishwarya Rai. Maybe we should patent both.