oh my. according to the san francisco chronicle, pakistan’s “Drama Hour” dares to “go there”:

One recent Sunday evening at midnight in a town near here, Kohsar Riaz sat down eagerly in her favorite living room chair for her weekly dose of ARY One World network’s “Drama Hour” and was instantly engrossed in the depressing tale of a hijra (cross-dresser) disowned by family and friends, desperate for acceptance and hopelessly in love with a young man who used him solely for money.

…Tens of thousands of South Asian night owls who stayed up to watch the popular television show got a rare glimpse from the other side of one of the region’s most ostracized groups.

…”These are good things,” 56-year-old Riaz, a mother of five, said after the program. “All our Pakistanis should watch and understand that if people have problems, it doesn’t make them bad, and maybe it means they need some help, and we should listen to them.”

besides compassionately examining the plight of hijras, “Drama Hour” has also taken on taboo subjects ranging from divorce to the age-old debate between love and arranged marriages.

Each week viewers get an understanding-driven treatment of sensitive social issues that, while often poorly filmed and acted out with over-the-top melodrama (accompanied by unbelievably cheesy soundtracks), try to promote a moderate, tolerant outlook.

“It’s all about exploring and examining who we are and how we want to live,” says Lahore social worker Humaira Qureshi. “To move forward, we as an entire society have to take a deep look inside at painful, unpleasant issues and decide what we want for ourselves and our children.”

The samples aren’t all exactly from the Bollywood of the 1980’s, but Raghav,theIndo-Canadian pop-star, who is climbing to enormous fame in the UK, is certainly riding the wave of Bollywood sampling and modern production (a la puff daddy) to make hit records. Let’s work it out, his second solo single, released today in the UK, is the fourth single featuring him since he arrived on the British scene this year, and the last to be released before his album “Storyteller” releases on September 6 (V2 Records).

Raghav has fared quite well on the mainstream British charts thus far. His first single ‘So Confused’ featuring dj/producer 2 Play went as high as number 4 on the British charts and his debut solo single ‘Can’t Get Enough’ entered the British charts at number 8, the same spot as the last collaboration single with 2Play ‘It Can’t Be Right’, featuring Naila Boss.

manish is usually the “culture-vulture” mutineer, but i HAVE to bring this article to your attention. In a matter of days, “Phir Milenge”, starring Salman Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Abhishek Bachchan will be released. PM is the very first bollywood phil-im to address AIDS/HIV:

The movie, directed by former actress Revathy , tells the story of a 26-year-old advertising professional Tamanna (Shilpa). At a school reunion, she meets Rohit (Salman), on whom she had a crush in school days. They spend time together, fall in love and have sex, then part, promising to meet again.

…Revathy says that her main objective in making Phir Milenge was to remove the stigma of this disease and spread its awareness among people. The film is being supported by UNAIDS.

According to the estimates, there are currently 43 million people with HIV/AIDS in the world, with five million new cases being added every year. India, with 5.1 million HIV/AIDS cases, has the second highest incidence of the disease in the world after South Africa.

aside: i feel crazy for admitting this, but i was utterly shocked when i read that first paragraph about how shilpa shetty is going to hook up with salman khan before they “part”. considering the gravity of the subject matter, i want to flog myself for getting hung up on that, but i just don’t associate sexuality with mumbai’s fine filmy products (which i’ve seen all of SEVEN of). based on my almost total-ignorance of the genre, i’m guessing they won’t show it, and my astonishment was for naught. perhaps one of you bolly-philes can edify me as to the chances of fornication on celluloid. 😉

Browntown is a satirical comedy that explores the issue of cultural stereotyping from the point of view of three brown-skinned actors at an audition for a less-than-original TV-movie, The Color of Terror. The actors, who are competing with one another to play the role of an Arab terrorist, grapple with their misgivings about the script. With only the help of casting directorÂ’s ridiculous advice, all three actors do their best to embody all the qualities of a truly vicious terrorist.

5 shows only, from Tuesday 8/24 to Saturday 8/28. For more information on tickets, etc, go to the show website. This is part of the Fringe NYC festival, “the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues”. Let me know how it was if you happen to catch it …

The BBC is doing a show on Sikhs in the UK. Their press release starts with this little factoid: “There are enough Sikhs in Britain to fill the Royal Albert Hall one hundred times over.” I’ve never thought of counting groups’ population sizes that way before ….

The documentary is narrated by Kulvinder Ghir from “Goodness Gracious Me.” It will include interviews with Comedian Sody Singh Kahlon, nonagenarian marathon record holder Fauja Singh, and twin artists Amrit and Rabindra Kaur Singh, amongst others. (This is a painting by the twins, btw.)

Now we know how many Albert Halls it takes to sit Brit Sikhs … Nah. Tell Paul he doesn’t have to worry about his day job yet.

Well, not really, but they did find the recently created Sikh contribution to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

Part art history, part anthropology, it provides an opportunity to view 19th-century miniatures alongside contemporary pictures. Much of the 20th-century work, particularly Arpana Caur’s self-taught oils, is heartfelt schlock overly indebted to Western kitsch. But the English tag team of Amrita and Rabindra Kaur Singh achieves a pungent synthesis of East and West, old and new. The twins’ gold-dusted 1998 gouache “Nineteen Eighty-Four (The Storming of the Golden Temple),” which commemorates the slaying of hundreds of Sikh nationalists by Indian troops that year, melds Punjabi traditions of detail and decoration with the significant gesture of Giotto and the satirical intent of British wartime realism.

“Sikhs: Legacy of the Punjab” at the National Museum of Natural History, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. daily through Sept. 6, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. daily thereafter

Great news for South Asian 6-10 year-olds whose Clifford the Big Red Dog and Curious George books, just weren’t providing enough depth for discussion over afternoon tea. They now have a new literary magazine named Kahani:

Our Story [from the Kahani website]

It began as a wish for more, a wish to enrich a little girl’s life with literature rich in characters and plots through which she saw her everyday reflected. From that special grandma far away to the neighborhood friends she plays with, the little girl could read about her life, her unique experiences of growing up in overlapping cultures.

Many years later, that wish has come true as Kahani, a South Asian literary magazine for children who call America home. It’s the perfect title to reflect the simple but empowering concept of the magazine: ‘kahani,’ the Hindi word for ‘story.’ Named by that ‘special grandma,’ Kahani would be just that, a place where the stories of South Asian children – just like that little girl – would be told.

What began as one mother’s vision now includes the drive and energy of three other committed women. As parents themselves, the Kahani idea resonated immediately. Even more amazing, each brought in specific professional skills crucial to Kahani’s success. (How their initial meeting happened is a separate story in itself. Let’s just say it was meant to be.) Cradling crying babies in one hand, while jostling spreadsheet numbers with the other, they got down to work. The magazine was no longer just a vision.

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