yeh mera india

2nd PEIBBM

2008-03-08T13:57:00.009+01:00

Hi. Yah, im back for the moment. Reporting from the epicenter of the central european Bollywoodfanbase: I am at the liveblogging event of the second bollywood bloggersmeetup. Arround 30 Bollypeople are watching "Bunty or Babli" in SAE Munich.

http://www.paint-it-pink.de/blog (Kaddele)

www.mariakaefer.de (Maria)

www.bollywoodblog.de (Michael/Mirie/Mike)

http://bethlovesbollywood.blogspot.com (Beth)

http://babasko.blogspot.com (Babasko)

http://enia4x.blogg.de (Enia4x)

http://nefret.wordpress.com (Nefret)

http://bollywoodforum.ch/blog (Marco)

http://masala.viennablog.at (Willi/guestwriter)

Additionally we have the hardcore fanbase who ist commenting in here

Soo. While everybody tries to comment the movie and the comments of the commentators who seems to be everywhere arround me i just want to say that its really good to be here. Thanks to everybody who made it possible, especially to Babasko, Kaddele an the my fav hobbit Michael.

Now go on blogging, guys. Maybe i jump in for blogging again. I did like the movie when i saw it ages ago.

has it been a year already?

2008-01-15T11:44:00.000+01:00

well. seemingly! time for the next bollywood-deewanas meetup. We are gathering in Munich from 7-9 March! Please see the announcement of beth or babasko for further information.

Quote from Beth (she knows what she is speaking about):
* Fluency in German not required. Friendliness and willingness to be goofy definitely required

OSO- Celebrating the 70s

2007-11-05T18:21:00.000+01:00

Om Shanti Om. 4 days to go. I confess. I am excited. Watch this video and see what Shah Rukh has to say about 70s Bollywood :D

still alive

2007-10-12T21:05:00.000+01:00

Hi! Main janta huun....long time no see.
I am freaking out busy. Just let me tell you one or two important things:

First of all live is good.

Second of all: Dumbledore is gay. Arewah. Cool. Rowling regarded her Potter books as a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and urged her fans to "question authority." I am dying to read the last "Harry Potter" book again soon as possible, it was sosoo great.

Thirdly. Bollywood-horrormovie "Bhool Bhulaiyaa", which is screened in Vienna (UCI-Milleniumcity) right now, has a fantastic Khatak-song&dance number in the end. So incase youre seeing it and spontaneously intend to leave the Cinema earlier, remind that. You should not go without seeing it.

And Finally: Bollywoodbug really has bitten me. Please check out my Bollywood-foto-story, which is published since yesterday on "www.derStandard.at". Click on "Ansichtssache" to see the pix.

spectacular videos

2007-09-23T23:00:00.000+01:00

Cause i was badly jealous on Babasko, who shared the dancefloor with cool people in Stuttgart last summer, i decided to answer it also with another short dance-video.

Bollywood- behind the scenes in Goa

And here you have a flash of Boman Irani singing "we are the World" on KBC. Uahh!

Not enough, here is one bit more, showing the shooting of an advertisment (for what we call a "Wellenbad") in Arambol (Goa).

some more unspectacular Videos

2007-09-15T15:52:00.000+01:00

Chai Wallah

Delhi- scooter

Vatsalas Can- The ultimate Diashow

2007-09-15T15:47:00.000+01:00

Well, Its not a "must see"- thats for sure. I didnt had the time to do nice editing or special effects. But still you may enjoy the exploration of India through the view of an object which is unbound of the circumstances it is used to...

Beauty and Beast of India (Part 2)

2007-09-08T18:02:00.000+01:00

Kerala: "The Boss" himself

Dharamsala: Iyengar-Yoga/ Hanging in Ropes (Sirshasana)

Road to Joshimat/Hemkund:Sikh-Pilgrims

Nainital: Mosque

Uttarnachal: wonderful road

Hyderabad/Ramoji Film City: average stuntshow with killing sound effects

Delhi: boys

indian Television: Ganesha

Nainital: Monkeys at famous school

Somewhere near Delhi

2007-08-31T12:17:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody-ji,
and thanks again for the warm welcome in Vienna. And I am also very pleased to get so nice email-feedback for this weblog. I decided to keep the blog running-
focusing on India and Bollywood - and various randomstuff, like for example crazy foto-serials. Here for example you finally see the viennese Bollywoodfanclub staging the Krrish-mask (I tagged them some ages ago to do it). Adorable, huh?

Uh, seeing Bollywoodsupercell Babasko (4th from the right) reminds me: Dearest Babasko, could you please finally write something about the Stuttgartfestival...tell us -at least- what was the coolest moment? *tagtagtag*

Well, I was really happy to see all of them again. And its soo funny that they seem to be rather overwhelmed of the many Bollywod-related events which have taken place the last 5 months in Vienna. Sometimes many Bollywoodmovies were running in cinemas the same time, awesome… And now we will, thanks to Nithin, have Bollywoodclubbings every two weeks. Some Bollywoodmovies are obviously played now regulary in Cinemas. And some movies, like for example “Aag” will be screened soon after the Indian release. And the "Ishq-Magazin" is now available here. Austria really is getting somewhere according to Indian Popculture. Arewah. Right now “Heyy Baby” is running well at Cineplexx Milleniumcity. In my book I wrote that Austria seems to be a developing Bollywood-country but now things are seemingly really starting...

At this point thanks to Mariakäfer for the write-up about my book. She pointed out that sadly “Faszination Bollywood” is loosing actuality very fast - and she is so right with that. As i found an indian publisher who may want to publish an englishversion I start now to think if it makes any sense to publish it like this. Reviews are very good so far, but still - time is running so fast and the book focus is only till the very beginnings of 2007. Things are developing according to Bollywood and I think I would have to rewrite the whole thing anway - or make a complete new book.

Mumbai…curious?

2007-08-26T18:38:00.000+01:00

Some things you may want to know about my days in Mumbai:

1) The meanwhile-legendary Coffe Can reached Mumbai safely. (Well, to be honest: Once she climbed a tree and had a small accident, that’s why she has a small cut, but nothing serious. Don’t worry.) Vatsala met me at Coffee Days in Mumbai and we had a very nice chat. She is working in Television.She and some of her collegues at work actually followed the journey of the can. I was very honored to hear that. It was somehow a very epic moment to pass it. Afterwards i felt that giving this questitem away released something profound. It was the only thing of my Mumbai-checklist, which i actually did and that felt very good. Thanks to Sophia, who inspired this dramatic journey. And Vatsala: I am still waiting to get a photo of the Can in her new home….

Mumbai: Vatsala with her Can

2) I tried to go to Filmcity. But the contact we had didn’t work out in time.

Mumbai: Filmcity

So, this is all I saw: The picture shows one of the guards, who examined his foot while we were making phonecalls to anyhow come in. Remember this: You’re chanceless to go to filmcity if you are not invited.

3) In Mumbai modernity is clashing together with middleage. When I arrived there my energyreserves were nearly done and I was overwhelmed by the Slumview-skyscrapers and the endless slums. The imagination of the number of lost souls in Mumbai totally overwhelmed me. (So i use the words "slum" and "overwhelming" quite a lot, huh? but i dont find other words right now, sorry.) I simply could not stand it. Its frustrating and depressing and nothing for sensitive people. There have been a millions of things which I wanted to do in Mumbai but my lack of energy and as well monsoon and traffic made it quite impossible to do anything. I keep my Mumbai-challenge -checklist for the next time. I am not sad about that.

Monsoon

Beast and Beauty of India (Part 1)

2007-08-26T17:26:00.000+01:00

Being back feels very good, like waking up from a mindblowing dream. But where to start with writing? Pffff....

Sophia (who is the one who by the way invented the travelling coffecan) said in a chat recently (when i mentioned that I may have lost my sense for aesthetics in India): India is actually very aesthetic. In a sense of "baroque-esk, overwhelming lunacy". Well, i am sure she would come up with a better translation ("auf eine barocke Wahnsinnsart"). In german this sounds really fine. Here are some examples out of my humble camera (please click the pics to enlarge them).
There are more to come later.

Dharamsala: crazy rainbows at Triund

Oldmanali: Dylans Cafe

Arambol (Goa): Who is going to eat pork tonight?

Manali: sleeping drugdealer with dog
(working to much?)

Delhi: tripping white Sadhu

Varanasi: ghats

Manali: Snake shaker

Patnem: sunset

Delhi: Boy with kite, Metrostation Paharganj and Cows

Candolim: Shop with the true indian spirit

Rohtang: 1000s people coming to touch the (globalwarmed) snow

Margao (Goa): Blue Movie-Cinema

Hyderabad: Film-star-promotion

Hyderabad: capitalism

Auli: view from my hut

Candolim: best bookshop in Goa

Hyderabad: Family bike

Ramoji: filmicrap

Himachal Pradesh : cows, trucks,
“frist aid box” and “complant book”

Delhi: 20 seconds horrotrip in Appughar (funpark)

Vashisht- Hindu-Wedding: groom

Rohtang: Bollywood- ice figures named after a movie

Trivandrum: Book exhibition

Candolim: goanesque funart

Joshimat: typical indian shop with useless stuff

See? India is both crazy and beautyful. And as many others I still don’t understand why I actually want to go there again next year. India sometimes seemed to me rude and very tough and ugly and under-educated and mindwashed and basically un-official. And totally free… and everything is possible. Most of my friends started to ask me if I can recommend to travel India and I said no. Absolutely not. You must be crazy to go there. Tourists are basically treated like shit. And its not so cheap as you may think. You will pay also with your energy. And if you are unlucky you pay with your life. If you are extraordinary lucky you will have a nice bombblast in Banaras and go to heaven directly (but make sure you are dying on the good side of ganga. If you are dying on the wrong side you will be reincarnated as monkey!).

And the distances are so big. Roads are a mostly very bad (cause of the corruption-- as Manmohan Singh pointed out). Bus-company-employes will promise you everything just to ensure you are booking with them and (in most of the cases) nothing will come out to be true. And Busdrivers are sometimes not even able to fill fuel and you may be stucked in the middle of nowhere some hours. Crazy!

Delhi: Me, waiting for the bus 6 hours

In the middle of Nowhere: out of fuel

Why is capitalism not working in India? I don’t get it. Maybe one of you can explain it to me. Why is everything corrupt? And why are there thousand of laws and nobody who make sure that the laws are executed? And how comes that people still bribe each other when everybody knows that it nearly all the time will lead into a vicious circle? Why is there no revolution? Why is India staying in Pre-postmodern- times… And how do they manage to make everything that is new look very old?

Shiny new Metro-Logo in Delhi
(the metro, although, looks really shiny and
is one of the best places to be in Delhi)

It may feel strange to you reading questions like this in times where everybody speaks about the fast development of India. Well, this is, anyhow, my point of view.

The Can- experience

2007-08-17T11:09:00.000+01:00

I just read the Introduction for the Mini-Khan experience and decided that it is very funny. I suggest to shoot a short movie (whenever Mini Khan reaches us) which shows all the wonderful sets in Vienna Bollywood has not targeted yet. And maybe Babsy want to have a little Song&Dance with him. I literally can see it. It will be fun.

By the way, this reminded me that Beth sent me some can-tastic, photoshopped Can-pictures some ages ago and till now i was unable to open them. Here they are:

viennese breakfast

2007-08-17T09:33:00.000+01:00

yeah, i am back home.

It has been a wonderful 5 months trip and i decided its time for me to surrender to my homesickness. But still i dont feel like india has won. I count 3:0 points for me against india. My third trip has given me insights into some depths of the indian ant-heap-system which were astonishing and frustrating and dissapointing. But also i felt in love all over again and had wonderful experiences. I plan to write up the next days. Also many Can-pictures are lining up and waiting for your Dekhonaa. But my laptop is in service and we have to wait till i sort out my crore of photos.

Meanwhile you can enjoy the story of the traveling Shah Rukh puppet. Maybe he should meet Vatsalas Can sometimes... whenever he reaches Mumbai again...?

southern curry

2007-07-27T12:02:00.000+01:00

People driving more crazy in Hyderabad then anywhere else (but this is maybe true for every new city you reach in India). And shops will not open before 11am. Rikschaws are much more comfortable, some having Bollywooddesigns and Music and are named after Movies. People are very moderat and friendly- and honest if you ask them for the way and they dont know where the place is. When it is raining streets look catastrophical, but nobody really seemes to care.

Additionally there are many touristhotspots- like waterfunpark, snowpark, childrens park, IMAX-Cinema, a lake with a buddist statue in the middle and some extraordinary old and modern buildings in various styles. AND- of course- there is RAMOJI FILM CITY- one of the biggest film-compexes in the world.

Ramoji Film City

Started in 1991 and (more or less) completed in 1996 the Ramojifilmstudiocomplex and Funpark has to be named as one of the best attractions of india. It is still not comparable to western Fun-Parks but it comes close. And you easily can spend one or two days there. About 3000 visitors per day - nearly all of them from india itself- enjoying this Disneyland-sort-of-park. The filmstudios themselves and the places where the real moviemagic takes place are not open for visitors. Entry is 300 Rs, including all the rides in the funpark (which are not very many, but still some) and a guided bustour through some sets and gardens.

It was rather dissapointing to see that Hollywood is the main topic in the Fun-Park. Batman and the Terminator lining up with Tombraider and Superman. Big letters on a green hill saying "Hollywood". And the Danceshows in the "Movie-Magic"-aerea we have seen were just about "Macarena" and other famous western songs. Like in Disneyworld some costumed guys walk arround making some fun with the visitors. There costums are not about Mickeymouse or Donald and even not about Bollywood-somethings at all- there are just dressed up as some teddybears with no further meaning. In the many Merchandisingshops you can buy little eiffeltowers, libertystatues and Sai babas. Additionally you will find all the usual stuff you can also find in any market of hyderabad. It takes a little time to find a "Ramojifilmcity"-pen or writingblock or the "I love Ramojifilmcity"-Tshirt, but it is possible. BUT: No Bollywood cups, no Bollywoodstickers no Posters, no Books, no Music. Only one Shop ("Cinema Cinema") has a very small variety of Bollywoodstar-Thsirts (215 Rs, all in white only XL or XXL)- some of the bollywoodstars are cheaply photoshopped into pictures of Ramojifilmcity-sets. It looks not very professional, but very bollywoodish- one could say. Here you can get a small variety of Movies, but every "Planet M"-Shop in India provides more than that.

The "Movie Magic" Area has been designed by western people and is meant to attract indian tourists, who have never seen something like this before. Mr. A.V. Rao, the general Manager for Publicity in Ramoji Film City told me that the feedback is very good and the number of western tourists is nearly Zero. (RFC has nearly 3000 visitors per day.) It seems to be not a major focus here to promote indian cinema at all - but Cinema itself and Hollywood, which is supposingly more attractive for indian people.

Also he added that Merchandising can only work out if you have a big market, and this is not given in india. Kya? I absolutley didnt understand, to be honest. Still India is the only filmmarket worldwide where Hollywood makes only 5 to 10 percent of the Boxofice-earnings. And every Toyshopowner i met, told me that they are just waiting fo more Bollywood-Merchandisingproducts, cause they are selling so well. When i told Mr. Rao that it is nearly impossible to find any Merchandisingproducts according to india-filmindustry he was suprised and immediatley called Merchandising-Department. But i was also told that indian audience is not interessted to buy SRK-Tshirts and stuff like this at all. Whatever- i am not interested to buy Popeye-Tshirts or MickeyMouse stuff when i am in the biggest funpark in the world biggest filmindustry (INDIA). Dont get me wrong- RFC is big fun- but i have to say that all in all it is very minimum compared to what is possible.

Studiotour

Because i am supposed to be a journalist i got a special tour to the studios. RFC has 47 studios, each named after a famous filmaker. RFC provides modern facilities for "cost efficent and comfortable film production", as they say. We saw the huge amount of destroyed sets (incredible when you think of how expensive wood is). We saw many sets (f.e. "Salaam E Ishq", "Tere Naam"). Sadly the set of "Sarkar2" was completly closed and we didnt had the chance for a Dekhonaa of Amitabh, Abhishek and Aish, who have been there just the same days. Because of the strict policy of RFC it was not possible to see any shooting within the studios. But lucky me saw Nargarjuna during an outdoor shooting. He is one of the biggest filmstars.

Sivaji

Finally- I saw "Sivaji" in IMAX-Multiplex. After searching for Hindidubbed-versions or pirated DVDs everywhere i have been so far (without any success) i went to the Cinema in Hyderabad as soon as possible to see the Original without Subtitle. When we reached the Multiplex people where lining up for the southindian Munnabhai Remake in endless lines (sadly i lost all my photos of this happening!).

Well, to follow the Sivaji-plot was not a problem. Rajnikant is the good guy who wants to build a Hospital and a University but bad guys make it impossible for him. So he starts to baksheesh lots of people. And he falls in Love. And he has to fight. And wash some money for good purposes. And there are incredible Songs with the most craziest sets i have ever seen. No wonder it is the most expensive indian film so far. I loved the film for his semi-realism. For example: When Sivaji is trying to impress his beloved with eating one kg of Chillis he really runs to the bathroom after it immediatly and screams like a girl. Or when he is fighting in the musicshop (my favourite scene) and smashing one villain up and down on a Chello, the trousers of the guy are really destroyed. What i dont like is the fact that he actually does throw a pistol like a boomerang and the pistol shoots itself without any explantion, before returning in his hand. Stuff like this is stupid. Also the fair-skin-song was real shit. Everybody in the cinema hated it. I tell you. But however- Rajnikant has a way to say "cooool" and flips chewinggum, specs or coins in a way which is awesome and remarkable- altough he has grown old and lost some of his shape, as some longtermfans may mention. The movie had wonderful funny "Prince-of-Persia/Matrix-style"-fightingscenes and bombastic crazy Dances. Altough...Music was average.

I wondered what happend to the sets of "Sivaji" and asked A.V. Rao from RFC, cause the movie was partly shot there. They spent 1,75 crore for the glasshouse dance scene! (The set was transported somewhere soon after, so sadly I could not visit it.)

It was my first Rajnikantmovie and i look forward to see more of him- the older movies should be much better- i was told. And before i forget: we saw the trailer of "Sultan"(!!!), an animated upcoming movie with Rajnikant. This really will be the superdupermovie for all Prince of Persia- fans.

Picture of the week

2007-07-22T16:57:00.000+01:00

See. Amitabhs Hand is bigger then mine. Cool, huh?

Ps. A quick take on Pottermania

Harry Potter seems to be everywhere. Technorati, a search engine for blogs, reports about 4.87 lakh blogposts about "Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows" on yesterdays releasing of the final Harry Potter book. 1,70.000 copies were sold across india in the first 12 hours, reports todays "Sunday Times of India". Youngsters locking up themselves in their rooms for reading, Delhi-schools arranging discussions about the book and many Potter events took place. I myself got my book at Connaught place- it was coming with a nice Harry-Potter Tshirt, which i am wearing with proud in this pottermaniac country (That reminds me to say thanks to Andi, you know why).
So far i love the new book. And i barely can stop to read. But one Problem hai- after seeing the 5th HarryPottermovie in Delhi Cinema i have again the actors in mind and not my own imaginations. Stupid movie spoils my imagination. Bleh.

Pps. leaving for Hyderabad tomorrow!

How Rajnikant killed Newton

2007-07-09T14:15:00.000+01:00

Hi folks. Internet is a rare phenomenon these days in Himachal. So i just give you a short briefing about recent events.

- Monsoon started.
- The natural Kaschmir-Ice-Lingam melted!
- had to leave one wisdom tooth at manali dentist (cost 150 Rs- incl. fine local anesthesia)
- had spectacular bike accident, cause of a stupid car who was driving without brakes down the road. Crashed into an upcoming car. My langotia-yaar Anant and me were o the bike ca. 4 metres behind. Car crashed into us. Anant placed the bike very gentle. I made a backwardflip from the bike. Fortunatley nearly nothing happend to us. But my camera is broken.
- got a wonderful 1-liner Rudraksh and still exploring its powers.
- met some people from the Calcutta-Rikschaw-Riders in Manali
- saw "Shrek3" (not so good as Part2 but still nice), "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom" (fun!), "Eragon" (what a crap!), 24-new Season (addicted), "300" (pffft), "The Fountain" (interesting; wonderful design), "Spiderman3" (stupid plot, average effects),"Ishq Vishq" (sorry, didnt like it). Would like to see more Bollywoodmovies- but english subitles are not available.
- played a game called "Indigo Prophecy" (awesome, crazy, wonderful multi-storytelling and effects, but absolutely stupid)

- waiting on the new wonderful Rajnikant-Movie, but seemingly it is not dubbed in Hindi yet. I try to grab every newspaper-article i can reach and have a nice collection of Pictures showing people who are milking giant Rajnikantposters. Meanwhile i learned to flip my specs in the Rajnikant-style *veryproud*. And additionally i want to share one email about Rajnikant which i just received. So all of you who have no clue what Rajnikant (the southindian superhero-actor) is all about will get a short introduction.

>Subject: why newton committed suicide..

Here is the reason. Why Newton Committed Suicide…......Once, Newton came to India and watched a few Tamil movies that had his head spinning. He was convinced that all his logic and laws in physics were just a huge pile of junk and apologized for everything he had done. In the movie of Rajanikanth, Newton was confused to such an extent that he went paranoid. Here are a few scenes:

1) Rajanikanth has a Brain Tumor which, according to the doctors can't be cured and his death is imminent. In one of the fights, our great Rajanikanth is hot in the head. To everybody's surprise, the bullet passes through his ears taking away the tumor along with it and he is cured! Long Live Rajanikanth!

2) In another movie, Rajanikanth is confronted with 3 gangsters. Rajanikanth has a gun but unfortunately only one bullet and a knife. Guess, what he does? He throws the knife at the middle gangster? & shoots the bullet towards the knife. The knife cuts the bullet into 2 pieces, which kills both the gangsters on each side of the middle gangster & the knife kills the middle one.

3) Rajanikanth is chased by a gangster. Rajanikanth has a revolver but no bullets in it. Guess, what he does. Nah? not even in your remotest imaginations. He waits for the gangster to shoot. As soon as the gangster shoots, Rajanikanth opens the bullet compartment of his revolver and catches the bullet. Then, he closes the bullet compartment and fires his gun. Bang…..the gangster dies…..This was too much for our Newton to take!

4) He was completely shaken and decided to go back. But he happened to see another movie for one last time, and thought that at least one movie would follow his theory of physics. The whole movie goes fine and Newton is happy that all in the world hasn't changed. Oops, not so fast! The 'climax' finally arrives. Rajanikanth gets to know that the villain is on the other side of a very high wall. So high that Rajanikanth can't jump even if he tries like one of those superman techniques that our heroes normally use. Rajanikanth has to desperately kill the villain because it's the climax. (Newton dada is smiling since it is virtually impossible? Rajanikanth suddenly pulls two guns from his pockets. He throws one gun in the air and when the gun has reached above the height of the wall, he uses the second gun and shoots at the trigger of the first gun in air. The first gun fires off and the villain is dead.

Tagged

2007-06-28T08:46:00.000+01:00

When i started this weblog the approach was to examine the media and find out what one can do with it. It was not meant to publish private things.
Now i have been tagged, which obviously means that finally i have to make a little soulstriptease here. Bleh. What happens if i do nothing? Will i be ignored for the rest of my onlineexistence? Dont want that to happen. So here are the 8 private random things you want me to publish here, Babasko.

-----
The rules are as follows:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
4. If you fail to do this within eight hours, you will not reach Third Series or attain your most precious goals for at least two more lifetimes.
-----

1) My biggest obsession is my guitar. I play half my life and started after some gipsys brought a guitar to my mothers place. I felt in love with the guitar immediatley and played many hours every day. Music is to be "played" and not only to be "exercised". I still love to improvise on open tunings and let come what may come. I never learned how to read notes but i use tabs sometimes. And actually i have an appointment with one of my ex-guitar-teachers. I am supposed to deliver a new piece every month. But ashamingly i still barely write down my pieces.

2) I love if friends give me a special nickname. I never liked my name (Birgit). Here are some of my names: Bipsi, B., Bee, Bridget, Biergit, Casiopeia, Birguitar, Sapna. Various indian fellows here called me "Gita" or "Bidi". Recently some people kept suggesting the name "Big B." - very megalomaniac. My personal favourite is still: Trudl.

3) Recently i had the dream to write a novel or a filmscript. Thinking about the topic of indian youth rebellion - against parents, censorship and corruption.
I already developed some of the characters and i am still thinking about the plot.

4) Right now i am staying at a wonderful friends place and have some of the best times of my life. But I am also homesick. Yesterday i dreamed about my mothers kitchen. Then suddenly the dream became lucid (which means i wake up in my dream). My mother, whom i miss very much, stood in front of me. Full of sympathy and love, I felt on my knees. And only one word came out of my mouth: "bread, bread, bread,...".
uhhhh. I am sure we have the best bread in Austria- worldwide. And I am sure I would have multiple orgasms if could eat one now.

5) Man, do i really have to write 8 things...Ok, here is one more: I am very childish sometimes. Here you have picture from me with my Krrish-mask, which i recently sent to Vienna. (That reminds me to tag the viennese Bollywoodfanclub to sent me pictures of them wearing this mask! Chalo!)

6) What else...I usually love to laugh on things like: Monty Phyton, The Simpsons, Futurama, Douglas Adams, Alfred Dorfer, My name is Earl.

7) I have to cry immediatley whenever i see the freeze frame in the end of "Rang de Basanti". And recently i had tears in my eyes at the street-kissing-end of "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom" because i still cannot understand why everybody in India is so concerned about what everybody else does. I feel always very emotional when pointless rules or stereotypes are broken.

8) Umph, one more to go. I tell you what i hate: I hate people argueing or estimating about things they dont even understand or want to understand.
Like f.e. muslims who are so much concerned about Rushdies recent given knighthood but never even read the "Satanic verses". Or journalists writing about Bollywood, but never have seen a movie themselves.

Teek Hai. Thats it. And I tag Indianoguy and Maini. And is Michael already tagged?

sweet paan making

2007-06-27T13:10:00.000+01:00

Url:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGsnVeSItBE

Description: See the making of delicious sweet paan, the indian chewing gum, which is kept in the side of the cheek for approximately 30 minutes. I tried also the tobacco- leave in Banaras (cause as you may know Varanasi is famous for it-- "Kaike Paan Banaras Walla"). But sweet paan rulez, man. And Paan-makers seemingly are the yellow press in india. They really know whats going on in town cause everybody talks with them. The dialogue in this video is -however- mainly about the white girl who is filming.

Can speaks

2007-06-23T12:23:00.000+01:00

Remember when i wrote that my friend Nusrat is completely crazy about the Can? When we were up at Joshimath we decided it is time to let the can say something. A comicstrip was the best idea we had. So here it is. Nothing special. But still something, hehe.

intercultural competence milega?

2007-06-20T11:50:00.000+01:00

I had a burn out syndrom in uttarnachal cause of the very unspicy male "Gandus" (assholes). I had various ideas how to get rid of the ball-scratching jerks who keep gathering arround me wherever i go. Even uttarnachal-army-members have to masturbate in front of me- and even if they are surrounded by 5 to 10 other men. I still cannot believe that they are so unconcerned. So many men in india have no sense for empathy. They simply are totally unable to think about other people may feel. grrrr.

Usually i am very unconcerned. But according to the "white-lady-situation" Uttarnachal was realreal shit, men. First I thought about a knife. Indians are very visual people and surely a nice big crocodiledundeeknife would keep them on distance. Then i thought about putting red colour on my forehead to symbolize that i am married and to remember them about respect women. Then the idea of a waterpistol, which looks like a real one, came up. And finally i decided to get myself a Burka. My friend Nusrat knows a nice Traidor who will maybe design a special one for me. Well, i think i should do all of that. What a nice picture. And maybe i should cut my hiar. grrr.

Whatever. These people should immediatley get NGO-help with intercultural workshops. Please somebody help them to learn a bit of compassion and tactfulness.

The ongoing Wow

2007-06-19T11:05:00.000+01:00

Banaras

Well, I always wanted to go to Varanasi. And I finally made it. When i arrived there i was straight running into uncleji Rattan. He took me with him for his daily pooja-run. We visited many holy places. Rituals are performed in a very public way here. It is very astonishing how much time many people are spening with religion. I was staying at Assighat and met many interesting people there. Did some boating on Ganga. Saw the burning of corpses. Talked to manymany people. Met f.e. the wonderful documentaryfilmaker Petr Lom. Have been into the very stupid movie “FoolnFinal” with my friend Aalok, whom I definitely will meet again in Bombay. Saw the first season of “My name is earl”. Did 3 hours of yoga everyday at 47 degrees. It was mindblowing. Then I met a bunch of nice US-girls who took me for a Buddhism tour to Sarnath, where Buddha gave his first teachings. We also went for buying Bollywoodmovies together and had lots of fun. I hope these Bollywoodnewbies will like my Film-suggestions. (I recommended them LRM, KHNH, K3G, Hum Tum and stuff like this). It turned out that they had one AC-Trainticket to Delhi left. So I had a wonderful free ride to Delhi after one week of mindblowing supersticious Varanasi. I still cannot believe how many rituals there are. And I am a very bad anthropologist- I was rather bored of it. Incredible how much time and energy people take for this stuff. And indeed so many Indian people seem to hide something (like smoking, drinking, fucking around with prostitutes,….). It is gross. But everybody keeps talking with the white lady about their secrets and then worries on the next day if I told anybody. Whatever. Banaras was really a tough choice to go, not only cause of the temperatures. But I wanted to see this city which is supposed to be the most “Indian” city. To bad that I am not much of a fotographer.

Delhi
So then I spent one night and one day in Delhi again. I had my backpack with me and explored Chandni Chowk, the Gandhi Samadhi and India Gate. So it was obvious to take more Can-pictures.

I found a nice Rikschawdriver and did what everybody with little money and much time would do: I said: take me to the shop. So then I spent 20 minutes in some shops. And cause the driver got a nice commission for it I had a free rikschaw-ride for the rest of the day.

Then I had the worst busride ever. As all the time I was guaranteed by the travelagent that the Bus is a nice comfortable Volvo, that the Bus will leave in time, that it has AC and all this stuff. Every thing the Travelagent told me turned out to be lie. It was really horrible but actually I was not really surprised. We had a rebellion in the bus at 2pm at 20km outside of Delhi cause the AC was not working. People created a real bad situation. Then finally we could leave Delhi at 3 pm. But we were stucked in traffic till 5 pm. We were supposed to reach Nainital at 7 and finally arrived at 12:30. Well, at least I had some very nice conversation with 17 years old guy named “Honey”, who is fluent in English and will become a pilot soon. And, arewah!, his daddy once played pool with Amitabh. And I think he is looking just like Siddhu, doesn’t he?

Nainital
My good karma made me run into the lawyer Nusrat shortly after arriving in Nainital. So the next days I was with this wonderful and mindblowing openhearted and openminded familyfather from Lucknow in the backlands around Nainital. We did a small pilgrimjourney to the school where Amitabh Bachchan went to. And we also visited the bording-school where “Koi Mil Gaya…” was shooted.

We had an extraordinary good time and it is so fine to be in the mountains again. And Nusrat is amazed about the Can. Oh my god- we had so much fun (more pictures coming up soon). And we went for a clubbing which would freak out some people I know in Vienna. All the familymembers were dancing together to “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom”. The 6 years old children doing a choreography on stage. And the youngsters and parents freaking out in Bhangra-rhytms, while crazy Dj`s changing the music every 30 seconds. Deewanna.

Still many more to say. But no time hai. I have to catch the next bus.
Stay tuned.

Banaras Bollywood Snapshots

2007-06-11T07:15:00.000+01:00

The Bollywood Merchandising Lack

2007-06-10T19:58:00.000+01:00

I talked to a Toys-shop-owner in Varanasi about Merchandising-products. Hollywood is seemingly really doing good in india. "Spiderman" is very popular these days. And "Transformers" is upcoming. "Shrek" puppets are selling well. Indian children love that. I was told that Bollywood is doing to little Merchandising. Only young filmmakers are catching up with this flow. And still there is to less childrens movies in India. When Shah Rukh Khan-puppets or Krrish-puppets and Krrish-masks came up they where sold out soon. Toys-sellers like this one (in Varanasi-IP Mall) are informed immediately by the official filmmakers if something is upcoming but still it is very little. For "Ta Ra Rum Pum" for example there is no merchandising at all- "But we are just selling this red toy-cars and they are doing very well despite they are not officially connected with the movie", he said.

Pictures of the week

2007-06-08T07:34:00.001+01:00

1)
There was this wonderful suggestion to take a Can-Picture with a Cow. The first approach was very funny. On this picture you can see a very ambitious and helpful guy who tried to arrange the picture for me. Search for the Can. Hehehehe.

2) Promotionposter of “Pirates of the Carribean" dubbed in Hindi”. Well, you thought the movie is really bad? Watch it in Hindi!

3) Again! A “sort-of-Abhishek-Bachchan-Lookalike”. Please meet Gopal, who is selling Bollywoodmovies next to the Ganges. When asking him if it means good karma to buy movies here, he was laughing out loud. By the way - he was telling me that 4 out of 10 customers are white. Dekho Naa.

yoga patent?!

2007-06-05T09:04:00.000+01:00

found this one in last weeks newspaper:

Edit: One more: Times of india (7.6.07)

arewah!

2007-06-04T16:17:00.000+01:00

My Bollywoodbook is ready! Check it out.

Travelin' Light

2007-06-03T18:06:00.000+01:00

J.J. Cale/ from the album "Troubadour"

Travelin' light, is the only way to fly
Travelin' light, just you and I
One-way ticket to ecstasy
Way on down, follow me
Travelin' light, we can go beyond
Travelin' light, we can catch the wind
Travelin' light, let your mind pretend
We can go to paradise
Maybe once, maybe twice
Travelin' light, is the only way to fly
-.-

There are so many psychodelic good songs from J.J. Cale. Go- explore! I just picked this one cause it fits to my mood. I would recommend to listen f.e. to: Ride me high, Thirteen Days, It´s hard to tell, Boilin`Pot. All of them are very fine composed. Some lyrics are smart, others are nasty. Anyway, this was the music we used to listen in Bhagsu. So smooth...and chilled. Right now i am melting and i am off to go on even hotter places.

Tomorrow i will leave Delhi. Uhhh. I am so happy. And i will not tell where i am off to. No way. Dont worry, it is not Rajastan. I read Newspaper. (I am talking about the Gujja-Meena Clash). And i tell you that it is not Bombay. Not yet.

My guitar sadly has to stay in Delhi cause otherwise i will just play her all the time. But the Can is with me. Actually there is a canspiracy going on and even though i should not talk about it i reveal that we will have more sophisticated can-input in the web soon.

By the way: Has anybody of you ever been in Ramojifilmcity? Thinking of going there sometimes. And i have to tell that i am so excited about the planned Bollywood-Themepark in Mumbai.

Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd

2007-06-03T15:28:00.000+01:00

I saw this movie and i liked it. Babasko (who recently started to blog also for AOL.in!) told me that the filmcrew was mostly female. And she recommended the movie. Reason enough to give it a try. Actually i have nothing more to say. Watch it- its fun. I would say it is the better version from "Bhaji on the Beach".

AND IT HAS MAGIC, humour, true love, indian tango-dancing, arranged marriage, love-marriage, a runaway bride, sophisticated characters, wonderful actors (f.e. the indian version of Gerad Depardieu- Boman Irani), sensitive homosexual men, a pink bus, a supersexy Arjun Rampal, and one fine happy song and dance number. And even superheroes. And much more.

And its just 2 hours long.

Oh, i have to spoiler you with my favourite scene from the movie, despite it seems impossible for me to communicate the tremendous humour:
The indian busdrivers are talking about how to learn english. The one guy recommends the english-clueless other guy to always simply repeat the last word of the english speaking guy and nod. So he will learn one word after the other. Well, this was very funny- trust me. In India manymany people behaving like this.

Well, Please go here for a good written german Review. And here is the official website.

The Ta Ra Rum Pum Vertigo

2007-05-28T12:16:00.000+01:00

Spoilerwarning

I was told that “Ta Ra Rum Pum” is somehow compareable to “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. I haven’t seen “Chitty Chitty” but I know that it is a very famous American family-movie about a funny magic car. Additionally I was well informed that “Tara Rum Pum” is supposed to be the Yash-Raj-Bollywood-Blockbuster of the year, starring Rani and Saif.
So, bravely I went to a PVR-Multiplex in Delhi to see it without subtitle (And – to my surprise - I had only very barely problems with understanding the dialogues).
My (yoga-washed) brain created colourful images of a flying and speaking car and a funny-family-Song-and-Dance-Scene above the clouds.

Can you imagine how disappointed I am after seeing it? There is NO MAGIC but just one psychedelic Mary-Poppins-kind-of Animation Dance with Disney-sort-of bears. What a crap. Well, for Indian cinema this is something new (I guess) and children will love the interaction of humanbeings and cartoons.
If there is any magic in this movie then you may find it within the way how Saif and Rani are dealing with their children. That’s probably the main reason why the movie actually will become a Blockbuster. Rani and Saif have this well running chemistry. I especially like this inner weakness that Saif is showing sometimes and this inner strength of Rani. It is fun when they are playing games with such qualities and balance out each other. But however: The whole Reality-Tv-Game-Storyline, one could define as magic of this movie, is just a bad copy of Begninis “Life is beautiful”. Also the tragic of Arvi loosing his job and house didn’t affect me in any way. The racing-parts were way to loud (in the PVR) and besides a few nice effects this was just dizzy. Four times you will see (more or less) the same shots of the racing. And always this annoying flashbacks, sigh.

Bollywood-Disney conspiracy?

A incredible thought came to me during the Mary-Poppins-like dancing-bear scene. Mamabear and Papabear try to kiss, but are interrupted in the very last moment.
OMG
I was so laughing.
In American Animation-movies we see kissing all over. Maybe this is enough reason for conservative Indian parents to not allow their children to watch them? Did somebody ever thought of that? Maybe Bollywoodproducers are thinking similar and actually react on Disney and Pixar to target both the children and the parents. F.e.: The racing scenes in “Tara Rum Pum” are surely nice for the kids who wanted to see the American Animationfilm “Cars” but probably weren’t allowed. Hmmm. But why? Was there probably a kissing scene in “Cars”?
This is mindfucking, I know. Ho jayega. But still- “Tara Rum Pum” is a very good mix to serve both parents and children. And maybe grannys. Not so much the youth- they seemed rather bored. No, not “censor bored” cause of the not kissing bears. Bored because it is a long boring movie with to many repeats of always the same racing thing.

Song and Dance

So what is good about this movie despite some well-played Rani-Saif interactions? The Soundtrack is nice. First song has memorable choreography. Very much “in your face”. (I liked that). The Bhangra-Song had nice Chickenstyle-dance. (I copy that). Ranis “Tara Rum Pum” Part is what we call a earworm. As well the more energetic “Tara Rum Pum” Theme which is performed with the controversial Cartoon bears. Additionally I remember this frustrating song in the second part, which is nearly to good for the movie. And I think there was a average romantic song- showing all the NY-settings we know already from KANK and KHNH.

Revenge

When Arvi won his first race he cheated and bumped another car. Later on he himself gets more heavily bumped and now we are supposed to think that this is unfair. And in the end there has to be revenge. So he bumps the guy back even more heavily. Welcome to “Ben Hur”. (Unsurprisingly we had some people in the hall who applauded.)

Conclusion

It is a cruel movie with no kissing bears and very bloody revenge. But still it has nice actors and songs (and according to some theories Hindi-Cinema does not need more to be successful). The plot is poor if you ask me. Familydrama is boring. Racing is boring. Taxidriving is fun.
But there is no such thing as magic. Bleh.
I want magic.

End of Spoiler

Exercising

2007-05-26T16:51:00.001+01:00

Hello there. Yes. Despite only a few people are commenting my blogposts (many thanks to them) i go on writing stuff here. I am really happy that some of you mailed me that my Weblog is nice. And i know very well that some of you have fun while reading it because of my many english mistakes. Bleh. One has to exercise, so what.

The last weeks i spent with my Cousin Niko`s family in High-Sky-Bhagsu (near to Dharamsala) and found some peace. One could say i reached true silence. Up there i slept without my earplugs. Additionally Internet was far away. And I had one more reason for not-blogging. I was busy exploring my consciousness and body…

It`s like Pumba in “Lion King 3” has said: “When the student is ready the teacher appears”.

I started with Iyengar Yoga at Sharat`s place. His Yoga-Center is really beautiful and offers many useful props- like ropes, belts and bolsters. With the help of these items and the very precice instructions of Sharat Yoga is possible for everybody. And even 90years old are doing the handstand here after some time. By the way: Sharat will come to Vienna this summer. Please contact Heidi, if you are interested in further information about this course. But notice that he is very strict and not cheap. Iyengar is just for people who take Yoga very serious. Bad example- pictures are following.

"Can-Yoga or can´t Yoga?"

In the next picture we see the wonderful benefits of Yoga. My adorable Quest-Item itself started to float light in all the colours of the rainbow.

"Rainbow-Can"

Everybody seems to love the Can. So does my nephew.

"Manu plays with the Can"

Ps. @Anna: If you read this: Please sent me the link immediately if you are going to start the Fotoserial about the colourful long underwear of your Ex.

Goodbye/Hello

2007-05-26T12:46:00.000+01:00

“I don’t know why you say Goodbye I say Hello” (The Beatles)

Sometimes I am very bad in saying Goodbye. And sometimes I just miss these moments cause i am simply not at the right place in time. And then there are situations where somebody has to catch a bus or a flight and everything happens to fast. During the last weeks I met some wonderful people- they know what I am talking about. So I want to greet, hug or respectively thank them here. It was great meeting you:

Dilip (GB), Garfield (Goa), Christine (Germany), Tania (Russia), Tania (Russia), Aaron (Austria), Johanna (Austria), Kristi (USA), Olivier (Belgium), Adlina (Bombay), Matte (Finnland), Anant (Manali), Manoj (Delhi), Rakesh (Dharamsala), Rohan (Bombay), Shadab (Goa), Somu (Bangalore), Anna Karin (Sweden), Rachel (GB), Naomi (Ireland). Sharat (Dharamkot), Layla (Germany) and Dittmar (Germany). Many thanks to Gerlinde, Peter, Olivia, Niko, Noy, Manu and MC.

Stay in touch.
And good Luck.
And Blow Horn- Please.

Intermission

2007-05-04T12:43:00.000+01:00

Time to write a short summary about what i (re-) learned during the last 6 weeks.

1) In case of doubt just honk
2) Dogs will not attack you if you carry a stick
3) Stay cool if a cow attacks your scooter while driving
4) Don`t go to national theater- Cinemas
5) Small things can take much time in india
6) take one day off if you have to go to the post office
7) Never agree to the first offer. Except sometimes.
8) Bargainers and Rikschawdriver dont know the word "no"
9) Try to speak to everybody cause you will never now what it is good for
10) Be always aware that everything is possible
11) Say "dire, dire" to slow down crazy Rikscha drivers
12) Don`t hide yourself from india. Just go with the flow and try to become a part from the local system.
13) Like my 4-years old niece told me: Always wear shoes when driving scooter.
14) India is a big ant-heap and everything is connected. So: get yourself at least a mobile.
15) Everyone who starts with Bollywood-business gets exploited, thats normal
16) Despite No.15, Bollywood has the ultimate addiction-factor for people who start working there
17) If you make it in india, you can make it everywhere
18) Deal with the things that happen and don´t get upset. And dont think to much.
19) Whatever you are off to do or wherever you are heading to: be aware that it will take double time
20) Always try to figure out what you want or anybody else will tell you.

-.-

Edit (16.5.2007)

21) Impressing Indian fellows with knowledge about Bollywood is first class fun
22) Fear nothing. Besides your own shadow.
23) If you fall off the scooter get up again immediately or you probably never drive again.
24) Try Yoga. Just do it. Find yourself a teacher of your trust and do it.
25) Never leave your shoes out of sight in case you are giving them to shoecleaners. They will ruin them and charge you for repair.
26) Don’t waste your energy in getting upset with Indian traffic. For example: In case you are driving on a small road and a bus is coming up to bring tourists to the upperclass hotels, it may stop the whole traffic there for a long time. Just find a place to park your car an enjoy the spectacle. Be aware that the policemen have also a hard live, despite some things they are doing seems like nonsense. In case you have no sense of humour consider to join people who have, while participating at the chaos.

-.-

Edit (26.5.07)

27) Earplugs are India- travellers best friends

Introducing Vatsala`s Can

2007-04-30T14:29:00.000+01:00

Can at Fort Aguada (Goa)

I have this austrian Coffee-Cooking-Can with me. Its a gift from somebody settled in Vienna these days to somebody living in Bombay. And cause i just decided to try everything at least once in my live, this can is with me till i finally will move to Bombay. Actually I am not forced to deliever it but am allowed to use or leave it anywhere and whenever i want to. But once i have my own coffeeconnections and this can is so shiny (and the camera really loves it), i still carry the thing arround. To shoot a crazy, absurd fotoserial was just something i had to try, and this is probably the best chance to do it. To be honest, this was not my idea, but the charming vienna-settled-persons. Whether the idea came up just to convince me to deliever it in Bombay or to give me the possibility to meet somebody nice in the ugliest place in the world... it doesn`t matter if you are sitting in Vienna, drinking wine and imagine nice pictures of the can in front of the Taj Mahal, the Himalaya, at Ganges or at Kajura-temples. So then. Quest accepted. One of the slots in my bag is now exclusivley occupied by the Quest-item.

Me, thinking what to do with the can

I definitley want to keep the can for my Bombay arrival. I can already see myself there with an adressbook full of names to call, but then completly planless whether to start with Sanjay Dutt, Simi Garewal or Shah Rukh. Finally I maybe will decide to meet the girl named Vatsala first and at least will cook one fine coffee for her.

Banyan-tree-can

To sum it up: I am just exercising with the object and the room arround it, without any special reason or further knowledge about photography. If any other can now feels discriminated or abused or jealous cause of this pictures.... well, i am sorry, but honestly thats not my problem if you decide to read my blog. Go and boil some water.

Happy-beach-can

romantic-night-beach-can

Scooter-accident-Can

Aishwarya-Can

social-can

Himalaya-can

Please-Horn-Ok

2007-04-23T06:53:00.000+01:00

Sunday. 23, April. Delhi.

Hi out there. I know- It has been a while since the last posting. I am fine, don´t worry. In fact i had so many experiences that i just didnt had the time to write something here. Right now i am in Delhi and have some time left before i will catch a bus to northern India tomorrow.

First of all i forgot to give you my next "best picture of the week", which i took right before i went to Panjim. Please meet Javer, who is a kaschmiri trailor settled in Calangute (North Goa): He is not just very good in his profession but also an adorable Abhishek Bachchan lookalike.

By the way- the last weeks it happened rather oftenly to me that indian fellows told me that i look like Bollywood-actress Katrina Kaif. Well, i dont really kow what they mean, but it is sort of an extra-bonus to be seen like this. And once Katrina Kaif is not one of the worst choices and seems to be of growing popularity i can live with that. But people who know me, may laugh now. But, dear friends- you know what? I consider a original Krrish-Mask my own- and you don´t! So who is laughing now? Ätsch.

But there is something that i would like to share with you: I participated at Bollywood-Movie Shootings in Goa! The Movies title is "Shaadi Ke After Effects", starring Arbaaz Khan and Malaika Arora Khan, directed by Mr. Indrajit Lankesh.

If you want to know how this could happen to me read the following:
It started with my plan to move from Palolem to Patnem. Palolem is actually nice, but still to loud and to busy. And overfilled with crazy dogs and a recordnumber of cows. And sadly we had two drowned honeymoon-indians on one day, cause of the very dangerous waves. So i took my guitar and searched for a silent place.
When i arrived in Patnem i checked some beach-shacks and spoke to a bargainer-guy who forced me into some smalltalk-chai-shadow-sitting-thingi. Well- it took only 2 minutes when he realized with a glance in his eyes that i am somehow interested in indian Cinema. He immediatley sent me to discover the next beach. So i climbed the rocks there and run directly into a nearby song&dance set. One or two moments were passing by while i was deciding to whom to talk first. Then decided for the guy with the cap. Lucky strike. It was the director. After a ten minutes of this spontaneus interview i was allowed to stay with the crew, taking pictures and speaking with everybody.

I spent the next three days with them and spoke to the Producer, the Stars, the choreographers, the dancers, the Set designer, and many of the crewmembers like decoration department or the technicians and the equipment-carriers- but the lower the hirachy goes, the more difficult it gets, cause many of them came from Bangalore and weren`t able to speak english.

The shootings were quite stressing but seemed very concentrated to me. There was no script on the set cause it was just song and dance, but usually they worked with one for this movie. It was the last scene for the film, which will be released in August. I was surprised to learn that all of the dancesteps are learned by the actors and backgrounddancers right on the set. Arbaaz Khan (brother of Salman Khan and husband of Malaika Arora) did very good with that, despite he was not really dancing in his earlier career. It took 2 to approximatley 6 rehearsels befor the real take. The backgrounddancers themselves wouldnt need any rehearsels at all, cause they are understanding really fast what to do. And even if the stressed-out assistant Director says something like "Girls! Do something! Just something", they stay professional and it will look good.

To sum it up i would say, that everybody who worked on this film enjoyed it. Some guys, like f.e. Somu, who is doing makeup nowadays, have done other jobs in the past, but so much enjoy to work within filmmaking (Somu f.e. has been a former IT-Student ). The guy who is transporting the cameracran maybe 20 times a day earns arround 600-800 Rupies, which seems to be quite much. I havent had the impression, that a single person here gets exploited.
Another perception one could have made, is that there were no women on the set, besides the Production Designer, the actress Malaika and sometimes her mother- and the background dancers. (Plus: there was one hair-dresser-transvestite who seemed to be as well a close friend and assistance of the Khan- family and seemed to float most of the time good energy to the whole set.)

Do i really have to tell you more? It was amazing. And it gave me much more to write and think about. On the other hand it was just three coincidence days of song and dance. If you want to know more you may post it to the comments.

PS: Good news for the beloved Bollywood-Bloggers! I got the Hardnewsmagazine! Have 5 of them and will sent it to Babasko when i am back from my Himachal-Trip. If you force her nicely she may forward it to you. If you want me to buy more pieces please tell soon.

The Inox Experience

2007-04-15T10:34:00.000+01:00

Tuesday, 10th April.
Panjim, capitol of Goa, city of “Gurtpflicht”. Staying here right now cause of some important checkings, like parcel-sending, getting a mobile, running for the Hardnewsmagazine cause of Mehru Jaffer`s article about the bloggermeeting, and - of course- watching a movie at the Inox-Cineplexx here.

I had a short look at the "National Theater" as well- sadly this is mainly a bloody porn movie theater with bugs of all sort crawling around. Some nice Panjim-people even denied to show me the way to this sinkhole, cause the were very worried about me.

At Inox I had the choice between “Namastey London”, “Shakalaka Bum Bum” and “Provoked”. I was too much afraid of the lifesize-Ad from Akshaye Kumar from NL who welcomed us at Inox-Multiplex and as well from the Shakalaka- Trailer- so the (“based on a true story”-movie) “Provoked” won. If you ask me, it was an average movie. And it has much too less showings of the abuse and the domestic violence (which this film intends to communicate), if you ask female Indian audience here.

Inox Cineplex is a highstandard and modern designed Mulitplex-Cinema with AC, Snackbar and Lounge. Tickets cost 100 Rupies. Popcorn and Coke will cost you more then the ticket. The halls are like ours, with approximately 500 comfortable seats. Barely 30 people were participating at the “Provoked” 6:50pm screening. After some advice not to spit or to eat chewing gum or paan insinde the Inox, the national anthem is following. So everybody gets up, and is listening for one minute to the hymn; staring at the waving flag on the screen (OMG, I really want to know if the national anthem is also shown in the National Theater!). By the way: No weapons are allowed in Inox. There is a metal detector at the entrance. The backside of my ticket says furthermore: that no “items” are allowed at all. Whatever that should mean…

Provoked

Aishwarya embodies Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a Punjab-NRI-women, who lived in Southhall (London) and was physically, mentally and sexual abused by her arranged-marriage-husband Deepak. This goodlooking, but sadly highly mental-injured psycho-husband is played by wonderful actor Navin Andrews (who played f.e. the character of Zayed in “Lost”). Well, she killed him accidently after ten years of communication- and love-lack. Even respect on the lowest level was missing. Also in real life, Kiranjit didn’t want to kill him but “thought that if I hurt his feet, he wouldn’t be able to come after me again.”

Maybe people like me aren´t able to understand, what this women must have felt like. W h y n o t b r e a k u p ? One has to make her own decisions. So then deal with the consequences. (Quote from Zeenat in the movie "Dor")

The movie "Provoked" seems to aim a higher awareness of domestic violence within NRI-families, which is surely a huge problem. Also in Austria the number of beaten and abused (austrian) women is astonishing high, and people who worked with these women told me that it has become especially a problem within higher income classes. Austria has set a special focus on domestic violence in 2007, many events are planned- by the way.

“Provoked”, shows bites of violence within Kiranjit`s flashbacks, which are framed in a very personal way. There was rarely one scene where she was sharing her experience with details to another person in this movie. Like she herself seems to work up step by step what she was actually going through, also the people who are trying to help her, are starting to realize, how her case can be argued in court.

Radha Dalal (the founding member of Southhall Black Sisters- a radical group of women whose mission is to help women suffering from domestic violence) is one of Kiranjit`s helpers and is played by gorgeous Nandita Das. She points out the cruel juristic truth, when she is asking in a rhetoric way: “what kind of world is this, where a women has to loose her marbles, and a man only has to loose his temper?” By the way: Nandita`s performance made the movie really seaworthy- and not Aish´s, if you ask me.

The filmmakers intend to stage “Silence” as the main problem, followed maybe by the secondary female role model, followed by the problem of the inmoral inactivity and defamation of familymembers or inlaws- shame on them.

-.-

By the way: I saw other movies, which i would really like to recommend:
"Traffic Signal" and "Kabul Express".

picture of the week

2007-04-09T12:38:00.000+01:00

foto: by umananda
title: "india unbound"

making friends

2007-04-02T10:34:00.000+01:00

Karma has done good work during the last days:
I just met the right people and did some mindblowing guitarsessions. Also I was coincidently watching some KBC with Sanjay Dutt and Boman Irani (Boman was singing “We are the world, we are the children”, iiiih). By the way: Did you know that Shah Rukh Khan uses his red-colored DDLJ-Swiss-style-hat in this show? It’s calles the “think-hat”. If somebody takes to much time for thinking SRK cogently flips it on this persons head (underlined by a funny sound). Will try to capture it the next time.

So then I had some cricket- conversations. But India is out, what a pitty. But I am not very much interested in watching cricket at all. Hopefully I will play it soon, cause some of my companions here keep inviting me. And there is this one guy, who is a musician today, and was a professional Cricket-player for Goa’s Team not long ago. Would be fun to throw some balls with him. But sadly its not possible now. Let me explain:

Best things in live are free. But on the other hand one has to pay for everything. Remember when I wrote that I got a TV-Ad-Shooting on the beach for a barefootstep into dogshit? So, according to this strange logic, what will I get for stepping into cowshit? Well, I watched my step since then much better- but unfortunately I had a scooter-accident the other day. Maybe I should have stayed on the beach, making friends and writing songs, then exploring Goa. There was a sharp turn covered with sand on the road to mapusa…and despite I was driving with much less then 10mph I was kissing the ground hardly. Luckily a first aid-shop was just 10 metres ahead. And business was good this day. There were other and much worse accidents on this very spot.

Eyening my 14cm wound on my swollen foot, I thought, that I would be just fair if Karma is giving something really nice back to me. And this is what happened after one day of wound licking:

1) Participated at a Shaadi- celebration, including a drumssession-danceparty with Bollywoodmusic-influence. No pics, sorry, but one Soundfile .

2)Got a hint for an event: the “Bollywood- Night” in Baga. Sadly it was cancelled in the last minute, because there was too little tourist-interest in Bollywood. So then we explored Baga and found coincidently - and with overwhelming pleasure - a “Coffee Day” there. I tell you that because Coffeday is the traditional viennese meetingpoint of the Bollywoodfanclub. Somehow i felt them being here. Traditionally we had to have coffe (exactly the same quality like in Vienna) and Samosas (less quality). I met also my first (livesize) Shah Rukh there. How charming.

3) Jesus and Maria passed by in Shiolim during the annual christian festival there. Many hundreds of people participating.

4) Spending time with Shahbad in Baga and learned some new amazing magic tricks (like the levitating match, the dissappearing coin, and some very annoying mind-tricks which will make you completely freak out). Funny thing is that I had known him before (Met him on my first india-trip in Manali). He was one of my very first Carrom-challenger back then. You may call it coincidence...

5) Spending time with exercising the magic tricks in publicsphere. Some were impressed, some kept laughing, all of them kept me to do the tricks all over again. So funny.

5) Next station: The “Bollywood-Orchester”. 800 to 1000 indian fellows participated in a stage-concert, including our driver and my magic-trick audience, who heartly welcomed us (which was good, because we felt rather alienated there). No white faces besides ours. Classical Bollywoodsongs were performed- including f.e. “Yeh mera Dil” (Don). No Pics, sorry.

I give you a beachcow-picture instead. Boring, I know. Sorry.
Muuuuuuh.

GoAndHavFun

2007-03-28T12:56:00.000+01:00

Ke batao me? I am so gone. But not in a Wizard-of-Oz-"I think we are not in Kansas anymore"-way. India feels like home. Staying at Arambol right now- which is probably the best kown Hippy-meeting-point in Goa. Good carma managed a nice little 200 Rupi-appartment for us, including wonderful people and (I still cannot believe it-) a fridge. W a h. But indeed there is something i miss- stupid me forgot my Nithin Sahwney CDs, what a crap. And somehow I forgot to kidnap Babasko and bring her here. I am so sorry. Here are some Saif-Chips for you, meri jaan. Please be nice and share it with the other Bollywoodbloggers.

Teek hai. Now I have to start writing immediately. Not cause I am an online-junkie but because so many nice things are happening. And at least I would share some of them. Arambol is really a crazy place which I rushed through on my last journey (2004). Finally now I am taking a closer look at this strangely commercial (halfbaked-) hippies paradise. Well, Its nothing for real hippies. Please ask the Hippy next to you, if he or she would really stay in secondhand-Babylon, with techno-music and bargainers everywhere you look, and a plastic-crap-landscape at the backside. But I can clearly see that some people really like this place. And once it is offseason it is really smooth.

I saw a documentary about Arambol (“Shanti Plus”) the other day and would like to confirm the description of Dorothee Wenner, when she was saying, that Arambol is an “in-between-world”. And despite it is not what I would call a paradise, it is an island for all the ones who want to spice up their holidays with spirituality. Sort of “cheap and best”. And besides... Osho, Che, Shiva and Shah Rukh- they are all here... being sold on bags or t-shirts and doing now satsangs with some dreadlocked spiritourists.

The local Newspaper “Travel-Talk” says about Goa that it is a “door opened to the discovery of the inner resources of every human being. When coming to Goa bear in mind that the true seeker will find his way there toward his self-realization.” What a funny and clever formulation. Former-Goa-traveler may please confirm.

But by the way I found also some extraordinary good qualities here. Not only in the many exorbitant friendly locals or f.e. in the wonderful food they are doing here. There are also very high-standard Yogaclasses one could try. But for now i am too busy with other things then becoming a yogin… like singing Bollywoodsongs with the locals, playing guitar on the beach and drinking chai with differentdifferent people and slowlyslowly really arriving in india. Tomorrow I will have my first tabla-guitar jamsession with two nice indian fellows. But I think you are more interested in the next story I want to come up with: There was a camera-team on the beach today.

Hehe. Lucky me. But I barefoot-stepped into dogshit the day before- so you see I also had to pay for this good carma. Round twenty people, one model and one producer were involved in this shootings. Everybody seemed like hopping just right out of a pictures book.

Well, sadly it was no movie but just an tv-advertisement for a “Wellenbad”, some will start in the mountains. But the shootings of the spot was really funny. The models name is Madhu, and she was saying here something like: ” Hi, I am Rhea and believe it or not…blablabla”. She had the same voice and behaviour like Preity Zinta in “Salaam Namaste”. The Producer was giving her the text right in front of my eyes and and kept saying motivating stuff like “Smile” and “good energy”. Was fun.

By the way- I will see “Namaste London” day after tomorrow, in case none of you guys keep me away of it. One of my many new friends here, Mahadev, translated the Indian newspaper (including the cinema-schedule from Mapusa) for me. Actually he was here when “Dhoom2” was shot near to Arambol and he saw also godess Aishwarya Raj. He told me that filmmakers don’t have to pay taxes for shooting here, and this is one of the many reasons why so many movies are actually made here.

Also our adorably nice taxidriver (Babban) - who brought us to Arambol on the first day - had lot to tell about the Goa-shootings. And by the way he already got Amitabhs Darshana. When Babban realized that I can do some hindiphrases he started to babble like a waterfall and meanwhile constantly came up with new words and local sayings, which he ment to be usefull for me (f.e “achibathe”- which is a nice saying of “very good”). In summary I was happy to still know the phrases I had already known before. But what a nice guy. He really liked us. We had really a perfect arrival.

O god, there were so many more smart conversations. Bas. I keep also the “unwritten-indian-rulez-stories” aside (maybe for my necglected german blog)and close this legendary first India-posting with some more Bollywood-related perceptions.

Imagine you are passing a restaurant in Arambol where a Hollywoodblockbuster is screened. Visualize the exclusively white audience. Count around 30 halfbaked-hippypeople. The exorbitant big TV-Screen is showing a not ending 5 minutes tonguebreaking kissing scene. Visavis you have another restaurant with the same amount of indian people. They are not giving a look. Somehow they are seeming outstanding busy…So this is what intellectuals mean when they talk about cultural clash and disjunctures, I guess...

Later in the same night I had some thoughtfull walk through Arambol and while understanding slowly that I already lost orientation I by the way explored Bollywoodscreenings all around- in cafes but also in private houses with open doors. So I slowly followed this good vibes and so then found home easily (dramatized).

So then we had “Krrish” the next morning for breakfast. Again no other tourists in the café despite us seemed to have any interest in this cable-tv-screening without subtitles. Somehow all this experiences made me felt like you wonderful Bloggerguys out there where with me and therfor I enjoyed it.

But the obvious truth is that India has more to offer. And Bollywood is actually just a very small but colourful and spicy part.

Phir bhi dil hai hindustani

2007-03-23T12:40:00.000+01:00

Hoooooraay. It´s Travel-time. Very lucky me had some wonderful Goodbye-celebrations in Vienna and now am ready for takeoff. Time to celebrate freedom and explore this so called "offline reality" some keep talking about...

seriously- Wah!

2007-03-20T22:08:00.000+01:00

Please read this superb interview with Shah Rukh Khan, that journalist Mehru Jaffer did back in 2004 during the shootings of "Swades" for the monthly indian politic-magazine "Hardnews". So then confirm that you liked it and feel free to leave a comment.

The Pictures are published here with permission from the author.

Questioning the Questioner:

Umananda: "Did Shah Rukh Khan came up with the anwsers very fast (When i understood it right, there was never a moment of irritation...) ? Was he getting nervous sometimes? Was he smoking all during the interview or just in certain moments? How did you experience him?

Mehru Jaffer: "I was very impressed at how mature and poised the young man is in real life. A thorough gentleman. He asked for the recorder I was fiddling with and inserted the tape the right way. Not for a moment was he irritated or annoyed at the questions and spoke spontaneously without any pause.
Although he is a chain smoker he was not smoking when he was with me. Being a thorough professional he allowed me to perform my job as a journalist while he did what he thought was his job to give straight answers without any 'nakhra'." (in english nakhra translates as humming and hawing).

staging indias einstein

2007-03-18T18:28:00.000+01:00

Complicite
A Disappearing Number
Drama

“A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns….”
(G.H. Hardy)

"An equation for me has no meaning, unless it represents a thought of God." (Ramanujan)

Press release:
Simon McBurney, who debuted in Vienna at the 2002 Wiener Festwochen with The Noise of Time, incessantly invents alluring, complex theatrical worlds where memory and the past play key roles in illuminating the present. His new work, which will be premiered in London in April 2007 as a Festwochen co-production, is centred on the outstanding Indian mathematician Ramanujan, whose “civilian job” was that of a Madras post-office employee.

A self-taught spare-time mathematician, he was considered one of his era’s most brilliant mathematical thinkers by the international academic world of the early 20th century. An Indian physician and a man dreaming of India round off a cast of characters whose story explore the dreams of our new global migration society. This is a theatrical meditation on the dialectics of knowledge and power, on communication and loss.

“Successfully navigating the apparent divide between avant-garde experiment and a popular mainstream, Complicite has become known internationally for the physical dexterity and darkly comic inventiveness of its collaboratively devised work.”
(Fifty Key Theatre Directors, 2005)

Nitin Sawhney is widely regarded as one of the most creative talents in music today, a music pioneer who has collaborated with many of the world's leading international artists, orchestras and music producers.

Concept and director: Simon McBurney
Music: Nitin Sawhney
With: David Annen, Firdous Bamji, Paul Bhattacharjee, Hiren Chate, Divya Kasturi, Simon Pandya, Saskia Reeves, Shane Shambhu
Production Complicite, London

Shows: 29, 30, 31 May, 1 June, 7.30 p.m., Hall E at the MuseumsQuartier

Discussion with the audience, free admission, 30th May, following the performance. Hall E at the MuseumsQuartier

Information and Tickets:
Festwochen Service Phone (+43-1) 589 22 22
www.festwochen.at

Passages to Bollywood

2007-03-15T10:21:00.000+01:00

Finally we have a Bollywood-introduction-hand-book in german language. Author Claus Tieber has done some interesting university-courses about Hindi-Movies in Vienna since 2004 and has now published a book which discusses indian dramaturgy, ways of production and aestetics of commercial Hindi-movies. This books yearns to "destroy" some of the cliches and prejudices about Bollywood "in a sustainable way", as Mr. Tieber said.
He himself has by the way obviously a special worship for superstar Amitabh Bachchan and the 70s movies. The book deals especially with Hindi-Films since 1947 and ends more or less with "Kabhi Khushi Khabie Gham". First of all the book portrays the historical view of Hindi-Mainstream Movies, but there are some sidetalks about NRI-Diasporafilms as well.

"Passages to Bollywood" has all in all arround 180 pages and a 2-pages forword of Yash Chopra. I just snooped for one hour into the book and have to confess that i didnt buy it or read it fully yet (thats cause i am what we call in austria a "bettelstudent"- and spent my last money for the Hepatitis-injection for my india-journey just the same day).

Mr.Tieber was presenting his book in Schikaneder-Cinema in Vienna yesterday. It was a huge success with arround 50 or more people participating. The announced "surprise-movie" was "Kaala Patthar" (1979, starring Amitabh, Shashi and Rakhee). Audience seemed to like it and i think Bollywood made some new friends in Vienna.

"Kaala Patthar" is one of the maybe less known Yash Chopra-movies subjecting the cruel exploitation through the indian coal-industry. Amitabh is playing the "Karna"-like angry young man. Adorable young Shashi Kapoor plays the morally obliged architect of the incredible hair-reasing dangerous coalmines. Just in short i would point out that the movie was a good choice in ascpects purchasing Mr. Tieber´s book. "Kaala Patthar" had some great (sometimes endless) dialgues and in ways of cinematography it really made me dizzy. But thats ok. Its Bollywood. But it´s a pitty that there was no intermission.

Richard Kisling, the Speakersmen of "Lit-Verlag", who published the book, articulated his excitement about the book, with the word "Wahnsinn", which is a austrian way of saying "Wah-Wah"! The first 300 Books are already sold (within the last 3 weeks). And thats in spite of "Lit-Verlag" didnt have the chance to promote it accurate yet. "This took us completly by surprise", Kisling said. "We had no idea that the Bollywoodcommunity is that huge- and that they are so much interested in scientific books."

Well. They are. And if you follow the forum-discussions it would have been no surprise at all. Western Bollywoodfans in the germanlanguaged aera obviously just where waiting for something like this. I confess this makes me confident for my own book (which deals with the Bollywoodtrend in Europe since the Millenium). But i will be in india, when my book will be published (which should happen in April) -- and if there will be any discussions about my book i can decently hide myself there.

But i have one more thing to write: Mr. Tieber´s first introduction page is a decent refusal of the Bollywood-Trend in europe. He is telling that "the numbers" (he doesnt quote any- but at least i know that he meant the ones which i researched for my thesis) are showing that there is no european Bollywood-"Boom" (which media tried to construct) that "some should take serious". He writes that this is just a lifestyle-Hype. I contradict partly - in so far that i suggest that we should take it very serious. And ironically the succes of his own book is a objection to these words themselves.

Plus: Actually DVD-Numbers are declining (there are no more Top30 Hits in Germany since the last months) and on the other hand there are Hindi-Movies who had (if you ask me) major impact to a non-indian community (f.e. "Veer-Zaara", "Krrish" or if you take "Water" for a Hindi-Movie then also this Oscar-nominated, canadian production in hindi-language).

But however. I wish Mr. Tieber all the best for his book. Its like he himself writes in "Passages to Bollywood" somewhere: It makes even more fun to consume Bollywoodmovies if you have some background-knowledge. Thats so true. And if you are interessted in Bollywood-Backgrounds you will find them in this handsome and well-written book (except the word "Schnödipus" in context with the bollywoodian oedipus-complex, which confused me a little to be honest).

Well. What more to say? Go and buy "Passages to Bollywood". So then have double fun with your bollywoodmovies. And if you want to learn more about the reception of Bollywood arround here (including various facts and numbers) i suggest you will risk a deep look in to my upcoming book ("Faszination Bollywood", Tectum-Verlag).

peibbm/live blogging

2007-03-10T14:11:00.000+01:00

The ultimate Bollywood-Blogger Meeting in Vienna has begun. Means Bollywoodmaniac people doing Bollywoodrelated stuff, and we all love each other. hehe. I am liveblogging on my german weblog- please go there for updates.

+++listen to original bollywoodbloggerlaughter during our "Main Hoon Na" Filmsession and "shake your booty".

+++ listen to koi playing the violin during the "Main Hoon Na" Intermission. Wah!

The world is not ready for Dhoom2

2007-03-02T13:48:00.000+01:00

Reading some shattering german reviews of "Dhoom2" i have come to a terrible point of view. Mera metlab hai: "Dhoom2" (2006) is uncompromising entertainment and western audience seems to be just not ready for it. Most of the Bollywoodfans in the germanlanguaged room seem to hate it. Additionally "Dhoom2" is nominated for the annual "green ladoo" at the ACEBA´s (the price for the most dissapointing movie). Tsts. Unbelievable. We had great 152 minutes-chuckling-time with this movie and absolutley would like to recommend it to people who just like to giggle. Here are some reasons why you should watch it:

1) Forget all your daily problems (including logic, gravity, etc.) and giggle.

2) see Hrithik Roshan constituting and oiling his muscly body.

3) see Abhishek Bachchan doing magnificent mindwork to fight the "coolest and most intelligent thief ever."

Personally i didnt expect anything else, than i got from this sleeky movie, which misses no chance for arrant overacting in every sense of cinematography, special effects and narration. I think it is perfectly clear why this action-movie had become a blockbuster in india. It has astonishing bolly-effects and bolly-ideas, which nobody in Hollywood would ever dare to try. And it is pathetic in a way, that make Tom Cruise and co. look very poor and boring. Take for example the scene where Hrithik Roshan is unlocking a rope form a train after duneboarding - He is waving his arms in the biggest possible radius arround and is ending this performance with his toughest possible glance:

"Dhoom2" develops a new idea of what coolness is all about. It is a sort of very sexy movie with superbombastic and unbelievable unrealistic actionstunts. Song- and Dance-sequences are unfailingly very naughty ("uhuhuh, touch me...") and do not broadcast further wisdom. But they are well choreographed and designed.

"Dhoom2" offers a (bollywood-at-its-best-sort-of) artistic autonomy which is adorable and this is why i dare to give this movie ten out of ten points. And why not giving an extra point for the quoting of the "Krrish"-brainscripts which are cogently re-activated with music-elements and stunts:

It has tradition to quote other movies in Bollywood- so i dont see why anybody is upset with Hrithiks superpowerstunts. Comeon- it is ok. He played superhero "Krrish" (2006) and therefor there is no logic problem with that. Did you really expected "Dhoom2" to be realistic? Teek hai, in that case...muhje mansur. But don´t blame it on the Chopras. They have done a great job with this high-entertaining movie.

Edit: Where do i get a Winch6000? Next time i yearn to catapult myself i want to do it with style - and in less then 8 seconds...

music-melange

2007-03-01T22:20:00.000+01:00

Please compare "Subah Subah" (Bollywood-Soundtrack "I see you") with "Love Generation" (Bob Sinclair, WM 2006 hymn) and confirm that this would be a great match. I suggest the similarity is no coincidence...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CzU4YBnaos
Subah Subah - I See You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4FM2_t3ALo
Bob Sinclar - Love Genaration

Is there anybody out there who is able to create a carambolage-remixversion?
May i remind you of the brilliant remix-version of "Loose yourself" and "Mundian To Bach Ke":
"Eminem vs. Punjabi MC".

Its defintely possible - and it simply rocks to mix east and west...

Chukkallo Chandrudu

2007-02-24T11:54:00.000+01:00

Is there anything more exciting than to fall in love? Teek hai- you are absolutley allowed to say no. And if you are in love right now than maybe you will giggle like a fourteen year old. But on the other hand it is also really exciting to watch adorable actor Siddharth falling in love with three women the same time. And it will make you laugh as well. This movie creates a lot of (unspectacular but entertaining) tension by letting you in the dark who will be his final heroine.

Some might say, that this movie is just about Siddu. Well, thats true. But not unfortunately. There are some extraordinary nice scenes...

And by now it is prooved that Siddharth and puppys are a great match. It´s already three in this scene! Is this a sign of a increasing siddu-puppy-trend? To finsish this stupid controversy, i would like to say, that everything is allowed to let Siddu look even more sweet. Bas.

Te followind screener shows Siddu screaming "She loves me" while throwing flowers. I liked his girl-like-funny voice and overacting behaviour...

And here we have the Rang-de-Basanti-sort-of-revolutianary Siddharth while screaming "Inqualab Zindabad" ("Long live the revolution") to a group of greenpeace-sort-of-studentactivists. Amazing.

Go watch it. Its just a nice movie.

ACEBA

2007-02-18T22:15:00.000+01:00

Namaste!

Cause i was busy programming the voting-tool for the current ACEBAs, i am a little tired now and therfor want just to quote the invitation to participate from bollywoodblogger babasko.

-----
4th Annual Central European Bollywood Awards
Yay, it´s award season.

Marco the Swiss Bollywood guruji of the german-speaking BW-community has just opened the polls for the 4th annual central european bollywood awards. So if you´re located in Central Europe and can read German you´re eligible to participate.

Just go there. Register. And vote!

All you other wonderful people. Sorry. But you still can get to the nomination list here. And if you like, give a prediction here.

PS: Nana Patekar is nominated for Taxi 9211 in the best lead actor category. Shabash Marco, shabash.

(end quote)
-----

Personally I would like to see "Dor" and "Don" winning some prices but inconveniently i am much of a moral humanbeing. So i wasn´t able to cheat while programming the tool. And my diligent (by wish anonymous) partner (who was by the way the ingenius head of this operation) wouldn´t let me anyway.

Wishing all the best for the ACEBAs. I suggest we will have an incredible number of participants.

Alaipayuthey - analyzing the Bollywood-momentum

2007-02-16T19:03:00.000+01:00

Bollywoodmovies are made for people who love a good cry. And - of course - for those who like to fall in love all over again. This happens to me sometimes as well- and it doesn´t correlate exclusively with adorable actors or actresses. Some movies are just well composed and some just have this wonderful moment - which i want to call the "bollywood-momentum" respectively the "bollywoodfactor".

It is a specific remarkable moment, in which something profound in the narration is shifting and suddenly you are able to see (and feel) the whole thing. You could also call it "catharsis" (which was a term from Aristoteles to describe the cleansing-effect of antique drama) or purification. In many indian movies this would be the point, where the flashback ends. In an emotional view its the point of no return. If the narration caught you somehow before (and you were sympathizing with the protagonists), then this is the moment where you may start to cry. Or youre noticing at least a little foreknowing feeling that you will start to cry veryvery soon - because many of the movies will start to celebrate the drama right after this moment. Actually its difficult to say something in general because the moment could be as well in the middle but also in the very end of the movie (f.e).
Ok, Whatever.

"Alaipayuthey" ("Jumping waves") is actually not a Bollywoodmovie, which roots from Bombay-industry, but its a southindian Tamil film (from the year 2000) directed by ingenius Mani Ratnam. But it has a nice and dramatic "Bollywood-momentum", which made this movie seeworthy for me. The film made its European premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2001 . Therefor it might be a movie which is a little more popular in germany then other movies from Mani Ratnam. But (like in comparable cases - according to indian movies) this dosn´t necessarily mean that is an exorbitant good movie. Which it isn´t, if you ask me...

Story: Engineering graduate Kharthik (R. Madhavan) is eyening Shakti (Shalini) everyday while their trains are passing each other. They are sweet.

But suddenly things are speeding up. They want to get married. Usual cinderella-like problems with the in-laws are following. Kharthik and Shakti are getting married in secret and for a while everything is fine. But slowly further problems occur during they are exploring their feelings. Take a look at the DVD-Cover to see what i mean. The movie has this existential dimension. And Mani Ratnam takes his time to develop it (156 min).

Spoiler: The film gets really exciting in its final parts. While facing death the protagonists are finally able to answer the question what the phrase "I love you" means for them. I would locate the Bollywood-momentum in the second when we realize why Kharthik is smiling in the very beginning and what this traffic-accident was all about.

Baghban - explore the dark side of K3G

2007-02-13T20:04:00.000+01:00

This movie reminded me much of Rowan Atkinson`s "Mr. Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie". In both films you are getting nervous seconds before something realyyreally bad is going to happen. And both films are not missing any chance to confirm a brainscript which is very easily created. Finally both movies are showing us worst-case-scenarios. "Baghban" ("the caretaker") is a terrible familydrama from the year 2003, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini and Salman Khan. I was somehow forced to see this movie, after somebody touted too charming. I was not much surprised that i actually hated it... no, i mean i loved to hate it. I would say it is a seeworthy average movie with a soundtrack that didn`t knock my socks off. But it was good to bridge some time. And finally now i can see why people in fact like Salman Khan (who deserves one or two glorioles for this movie).

Story: Raj (Amitabh Bachchan) and Pooja Malhotra (Hema Malini) are married since 40 years. They are so nice together, that you can barely sit still watching them soft-soaping each other. All his life Raj did everything for his four sons. And in many acts of self -abandonment he also gave away his annuity to fulfill the wishes of his kids. See? He is a very nice bighearted father. Furthermore he adopted a street kid (Salman Khan) and funded his education. Now imagine what should happen if Raj rentires....For the first time in his life he is asking his sons for help. The four Sons (and their wifes) should savoury contest about who may take care of their parents, right? Bad selfish sons doing the opposite. They dare to isolate them from each other and try to get rid of the unpleasent situation by thinking up a sickly roundsystem, where every son has to take one parent for six months. Shame on them. Notice how sad Raj and Pooja look, because they will get parted for the first time since 40 years:

And here is what happening right before they will get seperated: One of the sons is going to get the two doggys of Raj and Pooja, while saying something like: "I take them with me. I cannot see them stay apart and suffer". Pfff. I know... thats ugly. And it hurts. Again thats a bad case of not proper functioning of indian film-censorship. Here is the evidence-screenshot.

The next two hours we are confronted with the misarable, heartbreaking agony both of them are going through. Here you can see Raj, whose eye-glasses are broken by accident from his nice little grandson. Poor Raj is not able to read the loveletter of his wife. Guess what his son is replying to him, when Raj is asking his son to repair it: "its not possible, maybe next month".

Message from "Bagbhan": Life is unfair sometimes. Children could become very bad and selfish. Modern Times are dangerous `cause Respect is missing. People who let their parents suffer are bad. Take a good look on the follwing screenshot and see how bad people look like.

So, tell me, why is it that this highly manipulative movie became a Superhit in India? Is it simply because it shows how things are developing if you don´t give a damn on traditional values (like respecting the own parents)? Is it because it is the exactly opposite of (also highly manipulative ) "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..." (2001)? Is it possible that "Baghban" has the potential to balance our western (suposable overstated) emotional K3G-feelings out? Hmm...not exactly i guess...

Dor

2007-02-12T19:04:00.000+01:00

Last year i saw so many Bollywood-Blockbuster, which were starring the usual staff, that i was growing a little tired of them. Especially the women. I am a overdozed with Preity, Rani, Aishwarya and Kajol. And actually i am preety much disturbed by some female role-models which seem to appear all over again in Bollywood-movies. I yearned for strong women in indian movies. Finally- here they are. The movie is called "Dor" (from Nagesh Kukunoor, 2006). Actually i don't have a clue what the title means. If you know it please share it with me.

Story: Zeenat (Gul Panag), a strong self-assured muslim woman, lives in pittoresque Himachal Pradesh and found true love up there. But her Husband Aamir has to leave India to work in Saudi Arabia. Sadly we will not see much of him again- which is awfull because they have such a fine chemistry.

Aamir meets Shakir in Saudi Arabia and somehow they become roommates. Shakir is the beloved husband from Meera(Ayesha Takia) and used to live with her in Rajhasthan. He was forced by his parents to make money in Saudi Arabia. An unfortunate accident takes place. Shakir dies. Aamir is charged to take the guilt. He should be executed within two months- unless Meera, the wife of Shakir, signs a paper which frees Aamir from capital punishment. So Zeenat starts her journey to Rajhasthan and searches for Meera - who meanwhile had become an opressed widow and suffers under the terrible treatment of her heartless in-laws.

With the help of the trickster-character Behroopiya (Shreyas Talpade), Zeenat finds Meera. And this is the very precise point where we should stop talking about the plot. Immediately.

Review: "Dor" is not a classical Hindi-Movie (but at least it has one wonderful dance-sequence). I would say it is a romantic but very realistic high-quality Drama, with great cast, strong feelings and great visuals and aestetics all´a "Himalaya meets desert". And the protagonists are speaking such a nice and slow hindi, that you really can use this movie for hindi-learning.

Like Deepa Mehta's"Water" (which is Kanadas Oscar-nominee 2007) "Dor" shows the oppression of widows in India. But the story of "Water" is settled in the 1930s, while "Dor" plays right now. In both movies we are reminded about human compassion and the importance of sisterhood and emancipation. Hopefully many konservative people will watch "Dor". And hopefully the (incredible-very-decent- and-beautyful) kissing scene in the beginning is not scaring them.

Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana

2007-02-12T17:29:00.000+01:00

Do you know Telugu-Movies? I was introduced to southindian cinema some weeks ago, when i saw this wonderful film with this tongue breaking title. Try and read it a few times. Watch some videos on youtube. And then go there and order it immediatley. Its impossible to not like this high-energetic-overloaded, bombastic and funny Blockbuster from 2005, starring adorable Siddarth and Trisha.

The story of this movie is not new: Rich,hyperbolical NRI-sunnyboy meets decent indian girl from the landside. They fall in love. And there are some evil eyes and problems with the "should-be-in-laws". But as hindustanitimes-columnist Prasoon Joshi formulated it a while ago: "In Hindi films, it’s not about what, but how." With "Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana" you will find the perfect match for this sentence. Its a pure-hearted, well-choreographed, super-creative Telugu-Movie, with tons of little moments, which will make you forget all your daily problems. And it is guaranteed that you will fall in love with Siddharth and Trisha. I dont't dare to spoiler anybody- please go here for another nice review with more content and explore the siddhu-effect.

If you are going to watch it, be prepared and focus on this wonderful mickey-mousing effects (means that sound and pictures are perfectly nice synchronized). Maybe you should be also warned, that it is full of overacting, colors, and heartbreaking and badly manipulative moments (+ it has a irresistible soundtrack). And surely it is a very controversial point, if Siddarth really needs two puppies in this scene, to look even more sweet.

Screenshoting this movie was fun. So here are some more.

Satyam Shivam Sundaram

2007-02-10T16:22:00.000+01:00

Hi again. You may think it is a little early to start my travelblog one month before actually going. Well, you are right, but the journey in my head has already begun and i have to bridge the time anyway.

Lets quote the legendary first posting from my adorable Bollywood-Guru Babasko to describe what is currently going through my bharat-maniac head: "since i am spending most of my free time with hindi movies, so why not blog about it too?".

Haan. If you are looking for reallyreally good and supercool english and hinglish bollywood-reviews you are going right there.
If you are happy with just reallygood ones, please stay here, take a seat, have a chai, do some eye-yoga and go on reading.

Chalo. Lets start with the last movie i saw.

"Satyam Shivam Sundaram"

A late 70s Bollywood movie with prince charming Shashi Kapoor in the male leading role. Title stands for "Truh, Godliness and Beauty" and could be translated as "Truth is God and God is beautyful". I think there must be millions of reviews out there - what an awsome, psychodelic and also very naughty movie. No wonder it had major problems with indian film censor board. The awful-poor Heroine Rupa (Zeenat Aman) has to wear the Sari of her childhood- which is self-evidently not qualified to disguise her fruity overwell gifted grown up body. This very body- and her beautiful singing voice- are enough reason for the Ingenieur Rajeev (Shashi) to fall in love with Rupa. But problem hai: Rupa has this ugly scar from a childhood-accident on the right side of her face and neck. And furthermore all of the villagers, including her father have this unfortunating believes about her- also cause Rupas mother died when giving birth to her. Rajeev, who has a great sense for beauty, misunderstands her mysterious behaviour for shyness. Rupa is hiding her scar from his amourous glances- and, well this leads to a row of serious problems...

Point is that Rajeev is a very very bad man. And he maybe stands for all of the bad men out there, who dont have a sense for inner beauty. He should close his eyes and diligently play blind for Rupa (I think there is a story like this also in the Mahabharatha, isn´t it?). He should consider getting hypnotized - for example by her ever-present boobs. But no. If she would have 11 fingers i think it would be the same problem with rajeev...perfectionistic nerd...
Bas.

pictures stolen from missionbas, mirie and marco

Sure, the scar-thing is nasty. But there is a scene, which is really even more discusting and by the way shows one more time that indian film-censorship doesn't always work as it maybe should. I am speaking of Rupa puking into the well. I mean- anywhere else would be ok... but the well? And moments later people start asking questions: "What about Rupa? Is she not well?". Well. No...

On the other hand i had no problem with halfnaked Zeenat, who brings a little erotic to the landside and the temples. There is also a kissing szene and this waterfall-romantic-thingi which probably divided the indian cinema-audience back in 1978 in basically two groups: the ones where blood is flowing and dammed up in reddened heads - and the other ones, where blood is stowed in lower parts of the humanbody.

All in all it is a luscious and delicous movie with great special effects and charming actors and a psychodelic dream-sequence that killed me.
And i definitly want to know where this waterfall can be found...

Namaste

2007-02-10T02:41:00.000+01:00

Dear friends, family, in-laws, colleagues, and whoever!

Yes! Finally it´s happening! I am going to india! After reflecting about indian film industry for the last months for my thesis (and then my book) i definitly had to do this. Still i am unable to stop reflecting things, as you may soon perfectly understand while reading this blog.

I confess that i have become an online-junkie through the last year. This has to stop. Lets say blogging is just my Methadone.

What else? i was lost in india before, i loved it and -as most people would sum their india-experience up- i was also shocked by this country (but that sounds always so harsh). This is the reason why i will start this journey in Goa and not in Bombay or Delhi. I am just not fit enough for this megacities with no ending (And yeah, well, furthermore my one-way-flight from condor was simply to cheap to deny).

If there is something i learned from my past journeys it is, that it will totally depend on your perceptions and descisions what you will experience. what a simple truth. But so bloody true for a trip through india. I suggest you find it out for yourself sometimes(+ consider to read my blog meanwhile ;-).