DesiReflections

मैं तेरा गुज्ररा हुआ कल हूं मुझे देख के हैरान न हो , ये दिन गर्दिश के भी गुजर जाएंगे परेशन न हो. इतनी दौलत इतनी शौहरत किस काम की गर आदमी इक अच्छा इन्सान न हो जिन्दगी कितनी बे मजा हो जाती है घर के आंगन में गर बच्चा कोई शैतान न हो दिल दे दिया है आपको बाकी नहीं कुछ पास मैं अब खुदा के वास्ते कोई इम्त्तिहान न हो इस आइने के सारे चेहरे तेरे अपने ही तो हैं इस तरह देख के तू बे बजह हैरान न हो -- pradeep gupta

MESSAGE OF VIJAYDASHMI - Pradeep Gupta Nine Day fasting has ended with Vijaydashmi. This is a festival celebrate in almost all the state in one form or the other. For Gujrati community it is the season of Dandia Raas, Garba dancing before Ambe Maa invoking her blessing. For north Indians 10 days long enactment of Ramleela, condensing the entire Ramayan epic in a capsule of ten days. For Bengali community this is Durga Pujo when the entire Bengali culture and tradition is confined to Puja Pandals. Mysore Dassera is another name of tradition and form of grandeur. Mumbai is melting pot of India, where all caste creeds intermingle with each other and easily adopt traditions, culture and practices of other communities with ease. I had an occasion to be a part of Sankalp crowd at Goregaon probably the biggest Dandia and Abhijit’s Durga Puja Pandal at Lokhandwala Andheri. What I share with you the kind of enthusiasm, bubbling youth energy and disc...

LOINS OF PUNJAB PRESENTS : INTERESTING CROSSOVER BY MANISH ACHARYA -Pradeep Gupta Yesterday I saw Manish Acharya's Loins of Punjab Presents here in Fun Republic. It gave me an impression that another competitor for Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta in crossover genre has arrived. It is a small film on shoe string budget which is evident from a number of frames but it allow you to laugh. But I do not understand what prompted Acharya to use four letter dirty words. The Film is all about a made for TV 'Desi Idol' contest in New Jersey. and pranks that each one undertakes to make it to the Top. The choice is of course limited, age and color no barrier. Ruthless rich and philanthropist(?) Rita Kapoor played by Shabana Azami, an over protected Preeti Patel of Potel owner Patels (Ishita Sharma), a reckless actress Sania Rahman who do not know Hindi (Seema Rehman), a statistics spewing businessman Vikram Tejwani (Manish Acharya) an American Entrepreneurial Jogi ( who combines J...

Victoria No.203 When we see remake of a hit film, we tend to compare it scene by scene with the original. That's why remakes of hits are most of the time a big disappointment. Kamal Sadanah tried his hands on his father late Brij Sadanah"s hit *Victoria No.203* which was one of the longest running films in the year 1972/73 when it was released. The original *Victoria No.203 *is still remembered for its hit songs, out of the box comic performance of Ashok Kumar and Pran. The lead was played by Navin Nichol and Saira Banu. The remake is directed by Anant Mahadevan and in case one watches it without drawing parallel with the original, it seems quite entertaining. The remake has taken certain deviation in the script but the concept and storyline is less or more same which was crafted by master craftsman K.A.Narayan. The movie is about the theft of some of the world's rarest and exquisite diamonds which are worth more than 100 crores. Bobby Bombata (Javed Jaffrey) an industr...

KARUNYA : NEXT SINGING SENSATION Some says that his face looks very similar to Abhishek Bachhan, some says that he was better singer then the no. 1 of Indian Idol II. Yeh to baaten hain bateon ka kya. But fact remains that Karunya is one of the most versatile singer in the making. Occasion was formal release of Karunya’s self titled album at a disco pub at Juhu in Mumbai.. His mentor Lesle Lewis gladly gave music to his solo album so obviously he was present at the release ceremony with his music buddy Hariharan. The album was released under title of Times Music. Adarsh Gupta ,CEO of Times Music also graced the event. Karunya remembers that when most of the kids of his age barely learn to speak, he was being trained in Karnatic Music. Not surprising when children of his age were in prep, Karunya was busy in recording music album ! At the time of release of album my friend Shri Manohar Thakur from FFJC asked him whether he would like to act in his forthcoming film. Karunya politely ...

SRI LANKA : LOCATION, LOCATION AND BAHUT SARI LOCATIONS FOR FILMS Recently I was in Srilanka. Though it was a brief stopover on our way to Malaysia but whatever the time was at my disposal and whatever I could see, I feel that this Island is a small universe in itself. It contains as many variation of scenery, climate as some countries a dozen times its size. Over the centuries, the Island has acted as a melting pot.. In the 6th centaury B.C. emperor Ashok., sent his son, daughter with few of his courtesans across the seas to spread message of Lord Budha. During the course of their voyage, the contingent reached Sri Lanka also and left strong foot prints of Budhist faith on the island. The descendents of this contingent mingled with locals and thus the Singhalese clan came into existence. Also, people keep on ferrying between Southern Coast of India and Srilanka and many among them specially of Tamil region settled there. Thus the country was influenced by many cultural and reli...

So now some of the Bollywood films made for Desi Audience and forgetting Subsidies from Foreign Countries or co-branding A CASE STUDY : JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM Yesterday I have seen JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM. Whaat a movie ! Made purely to keep great Indian diaspora in mind. It uses the same lingo that a Desi speaks, the characters dress uplike Desi men and women, undergo similar cultural transitions as theDesi undergoes after facing the culture shocks.And of course, to make Desis Jhoom on the Indian folk lyrics/ rhythmmusical trio shanker Ehsan and Loy rapped it up with latino/rap/hiphop chashni.Probably it is first time that lounge, disco, rave,club versions of a song are also in the movie.What is really missing - a story.Yash Raj banner is now known for its musle power as well as businessacuemenship, no other producer could dare to release his film thisweek, so the Indian audience will not have any other new movie insingle theatre or multiplex.Most of the film critics have ranked thi...