Indira Varma Lands in Rome

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Even though many recent roles in Hollywood that are accessible to Desi actors are generally geared more towards terror or medicine, there are some actors of South Asian origin landing non-traditional and non-South Asian characters.  British Asian actress Indira Varma, of Kama Sutra and Bride and Prejudice fame is one of these actors as highlighted by the very prominent character she portrays in the new HBO series, Rome.  Varma, who played Naveen Andrew’s sister Kiran in Bride and Prejudice, takes on the role of Niobe,

“the wife that Vorenus has not seen for nearly eight years. A peasant princess from a large and influential Roman clan. Proud, beautiful, selfishly devoted to the interests of herself and her family.” If you don’t get HBO, click on the video button here to see a preview of Rome (again, featuring Varma)   If you do get HBO, the show airs Sunday evenings, from 9-10 in the evening.  More on Varma available over at IMDB.

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Mmm, yummy condescending Colonialism!

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If you’re on the east coast, consider turning off the Emmies and switching to Turner Classic Movies, right now. Sabu‘s “Black Narcissus“– I wrote about it in May– is on! Maybe some of you on the west coast will be able to catch it…

IMDB provides a plot summary:

Anglican nuns, led by the stern Sister Clodagh, attempt to establish a religious community in the Himalayas, and must battle not only suspicious locals and the elements, but their own demons as well.

Enjoy the “exotic” accents. They sure as hell ain’t South Asian. Continue reading →

Mushie loses it.

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Mushie better recognize.jpg On Friday, I posted about a coalition of activists who were planning on calling out Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf by protesting in front of his Manhattan hotel yesterday. Did any of our New York-area mutineers attend? If you did, tell us what you saw– it sounds like it was pure DRAMA (Thanks, Manish):

Pandemonium broke out at a meeting organized to promote Pakistan’s soft image when after a confrontation with human rights activists an irate President Pervez Musharraf declared that those who opposed his policies were the enemies of Pakistan. [link]
You are against me and Pakistan, said the president when a human rights activist referred to his alleged comments in a Washington Post interview which quoted him (Gen Musharraf) as saying that women exploited rape to get visas.[link]

Wow. Way to keep your cool, there Sir.

CNN has more about how Mushie backpedals furiously:

“I am not that stupid to say that kind of thing,” he said. “I know that rape is happening in Pakistan. I know there is violence against women.”
But, he said, “I am supportive of all women, all actions to emancipate the women, against violence against women, and gender equality,” and he said his government has done more for women than any in the past 50 years.
“I have protected them, I have provided finances, I have provided them judicial support.”

He’s provided judicial support to women but he can’t provide his own open ears. More from Dawn:

Provoked by a single question, the president allowed an event held to promote his government’s pro-women policies to degenerate into a bout between himself and part of the invited audience.[link]

I’m scared of you, General Musharraf:

I am a fighter, I will fight you. I do not give up and if you can shout, I can shout louder, said Gen Musharraf.[link]

He’ll especially shout louder if you cite the wrong sources. How Professor-y! Also, if you have something to say, say it to his FACE…when he’s in Pakistan. Continue reading →

Those legs are weapons of mass distraction, apparently.

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lose the socks, please.jpg Don’t these people have anything better to do with their time than pick on a teenager?

Police will provide a huge security detail for Indian tennis star Sania Mirza during a world tennis tournament in Calcutta next week.
The heavy security follows rumours that a radical Islamic group threatened to stop her playing in the tournament unless she changed her on-court dress.

Awesome. Let’s harass one of the few decent athletes India has, it’s a fantastic way to thank her for reaching the fourth round of the US Open.

The radical Islamic group in question is the Jamiat-e-Islami, they claim they haven’t threatened her at all.

“These are rumours, we have not threatened to stop Sania or anybody else from playing,” he said.
“Though it is true that the kind of dress Sania wears offends us – we don’t expect a Muslim girl to wear such skimpy clothes in public.”

Look. If you want to be offended by something Sania wears while playing tennis, go after what’s REALLY outrageous– those horrid black socks she likes. Priorities, people!

Understandably, Sania’s safety is important to the authorities who are taking all threats very seriously.

“We cannot take a chance with the security of someone like Sania,” Calcutta’s additional police commissioner Gautam Chakrabarty said.
“We have deployed the best of our women police, nearly a hundred of them, to guard her both on and off the court and we have made special arrangements to frisk all spectators attending the tournament,” he said.

What does sweeeet Sania have to say about all this nonsense?

Sania Mirza has refused to be drawn into the controversy, merely asking forgiveness “for whatever I have to do on court as an 18-year-old.”

She didn’t write something irreverent about the Prophet Muhammad. She didn’t molest a mullah. She doesn’t have strange hair and a penchant for criticizing Islam. Don’t get it twizzy– she is not the enemy. Continue reading →

Food for Ogling, er, I mean, Thought

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I believe I lead a call for more sexy sepia men on the Mutiny, but now that a reader sent in some pics, (thanks Ananya) I’m not sure what to think. (mental note: research loopholes and plausible deniability) sepiaPETAchili.jpg

Over on the right, we have John Abraham, the 6’1″, half-Keralite/half-Parsi, 1999 winner of Gladrags Manhunt India. Let me hasten to add that he’s now fast becoming an established Ahctor with roles in Dhoom, Water, Viruddh and the soon-to-be released Baabul, among others. The last two with none other than the Daddy-O of Hindi cinema, his excellency Amitabh Bachchan.

As an avowed vegetarian, Abraham recently posed for a PETA India campaign to release caged birds, (see the sexy results below), but it’s this latest poster promoting vegetarianism that caught our tipster’s eye. “Abraham appears dressed in green onions, chilies and what looks like green peas,” s/he succinctly writes. Am I the only one rather turned off by this pic? I dunno, but a scallion grass skirt covering a man’s tender parts entirely makes me lose my appetite. For anything. And what’s with that highly ridiculous crown of chilies? Is this a pun on hotness?

“I’m against cruelty of any kind. That’s why I’m associated with PETA and work against cruelty to animals. Though I’m not the moral police, I’d like people to be considerate to other living beings,” he says. [link]

Sure, sure, but what about cruelty to men, eh? I think forcing a man to wear vegetables surely counts in that category. Continue reading →

Good ice cream can be a spiritual experience

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The new Brit blog Pickled Politics links to a funny story that you just have to see to believe:

The design on the lid apparently looks like the word ‘Allah’ in Arabic.

One customer told the Sun the design was “sacreligious”. BK says: “As a result of feedback our supplier is amending the design.” MCB’s Inayat Bunglawala: “We commend the sensitive and prompt action to prevent any hurt being caused to the religious sensibilities of others.”

It beggars belief that the Muslim Council of Britain keep giving credence to these stupid stories with their own quotes. For god’s sake, it only gives the impression that all Muslims are hyper-sensitive. BK should never have changed this, I haven’t seen a single campaign or email about this issue.

The Scotsman fills in the ridiculous details:

The offending lid was spotted in a branch in Park Royal last week by business development manager Rashad Akhtar, 27, of High Wycombe.

He was not satisfied by the decision to withdraw the cones and has called on Muslims to boycott Burger King. He said: “This is my jihad. How can you say it is a spinning swirl? If you spin it one way to the right you are offending Muslims.”

A Muslim Council spokesman said: “We commend the sensitive and prompt action that Burger King has taken.”

Mmmmm.  Softserve ice cream.  Obviously Akhtar has never got his swirl on otherwise he’d know that, that is in fact what a tight spiral on a softserve cone looks like.  My college dorm at UMich had a softserve ice cream machine.  Every day I’d come back from the gym and make two glasses of softserve milkshakes with dinner.  Intending no offense I ask you, is it so wrong to be reminded of God when contemplating the goodness of ice cream?

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GWOT In Pakistan… Updates

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Stratpage has a roundup of some interesting news from the Pakistan front –

September 16, 2005: Pakistan has compiled a list of 173 clergymen, believed to be active in supporting terrorist activity. Pakistan has lost patience with religious leaders who support terrorism, and is cracking down.

September 14, 2005: In Pakistan, troops raided an al Qaeda base, a religious school, arresting 28 terrorist suspects, most of them foreigners. Weapons, bombs and other equipment were seized, including a small Chinese UAV. That was unusual, and the terrorists were apparently using the UAV to scout routes for infiltrating people across the nearby Afghan border, and to spot troops or police operating near their base. That didn’t work, as the UAV was on the ground when the troops swooped in. The army had been tipped off by a local tribesman. The base was also used by the Taliban, to recruit local men for raids across the border in Afghanistan….

A friggin’ UAV? Sheesh. Makes you pause.

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Rushdie Rocks the Mic Tonight

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Sorry sorry…wery short notice, thousand apologies, but I just saw this in Flavorpill:

Launching their latest anthology and a new, more svelte format for the magazine, Review editor Philip Gourevitch hosts this evening, featuring Rushdie on the mic and a performance from that precious, precocious kook Miranda July.

That would be the Paris Review, and Miranda July of Me and You and Everyone We Know fame.

Good times are sure to be had by all, so head on over:
Sat 9.17 (7pm) Celeste Bartos Forum, New York Public Library (5th Ave at 42nd St). $15 Continue reading →

The WashPo has a new web(news)master

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Rajiv Chandrasekaran used to be the Washington Post’s Baghdad bureau chief.  That’s some major street cred right there.  He has just been named as the Post’s “Continuous News Editor,” a job that gives him editorial control over what breaking news makes it to the Post’s website.  He is the newspaper’s first Asian American assistant managing editor.  Who else but the Washington Post reports:

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a Washington Post reporter who started as a summer intern 11 years ago and subsequently covered local and financial news and served as the newspaper’s Baghdad bureau chief, has been named assistant managing editor for continuous news, the paper announced yesterday.

In his new job, Chandrasekaran, 32, of Washington, will head the department responsible for feeding breaking news to The Post’s Web site. The announcement was made by Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Managing Editor Philip Bennett.

“Ever since he started as a summer intern, he has been one of the most energetic, smart and hard-driving journalists in the newsroom,” Downie said. During the selection process, Chandrasekaran “demonstrated real vision about the future relationship between the newspaper and its Internet site,” Downie said.

Chandrasekaran became the newspaper’s Middle East correspondent in 2002 and moved to Baghdad on the eve of the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

Rajiv was actually outspoken in his criticism of what he judged were missteps by the administration in rebuilding Iraq.  He was interviewed by NPR for this great article in the Post from last year.  The best part of this is that Chandrasekaran is young enough that he probably sees the symbiotic relationship that blogs and newspapers can have and will seek to foster that relationship.

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“As long as they don’t make me the 7-11 guy…”

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We almost had a shot last year at having South Asian characters in a prominent role on network television…but it fell through.  According to reports, Russell Peters has just inked a deal to have his own sitcom on a major American network.  The Canoe Network reports:

For a guy who’s just inked a deal to star in his own sitcom for a major American network, comedian Russell Peters is remarkably calm.

“I just signed the deal with Warner Bros. this week. They want to build a show around me,” Peters says over the phone from Los Angeles. “I’m working with the guys who produced The Cosby Show and In Living Colour, so it’s pretty cool. I guess I’ll be shopping for real estate in L.A.”

While it’s too early to say precisely what the series is about, the 35-year-old knows his East-Indian roots will play a big part of the comedy.

“My heritage is a big part of my comedy,” he says bluntly. “Frankly, I’m open to it. As long as they don’t make me the 7-11 guy or the taxi driver.”

Now I was hesitant to post this story.  It seems that more people find our website by searching for “Russell Peters” than by any other means.  That is very irksome.  It will be interesting to see how the American network executives change his act.  Peters often borders on racial insensitivity.  Having seen his act, although I found him generally funny, I did cringe a few times. Continue reading →

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