4th ODI preview!

Three down four more to go. The Indian cricket team is in a little bit of a bind, if they don't win the fourth ODI at Old Trafford tomorrow, they are in for an uphill battle. If England win their third out of seven matches, India will then have to save three matches in order to prevent England from winning the series - phew, it's enough to make a grown man cry.

Worse news for India, England is not going to take it lying down. Flintoff will probably be back, adding to the firepower of the English bowlers, this can only mean one thing for the Indians...buckle down and STOP conceding runs in the field!! Conservative estimates contend that India concedes about 40-50 runs thanks to sloppy fielding. Things are getting so bad that Robin Singh, India's newly minted fielding coach is also sort of wiping his hands off the responsibility of the failures, he is reported by cricinfo.com as saying:

We can only instill as coaches, it's up to the players to execute it out in the middle.

Uh-oh...I guess the players in the middle will have to pull off something major and silence their detractors...if only until the next match. Good news is that India have won the last two encounters they had at Old Trafford, so maybe the ground is lucky for India, good thing too, cuz India is gonna need all the luck they can get. However, it is futile to despair, the only thing to be done at this point is keep faith in the abilities of the team and hope to god that Sachin Tendulkar finds his elusive century!

So, in the immortal words of Shahrukh Khan, Chak de India!

The new IT boy of Hollywood

Isn't that just such a heartwarming photot?

That there is probably the best thing to have come out of Scotland since Sean Connery himself. His name is James McAvoy, and here he is with KieraKnightley at the Venice film festival premiere of their new movie Atonement. Now, not only is Mr. McAvoy is a gorgeous Scottish actor with a gorgeous Scottish accent (what more can you ask?) but he has done some amazing work and it is now his time to shine. He started off in theatre and then moved onwards to British television where he was a part of the highly acclaimed TV series Shameless, he also played Macbeth, in a BBC adaptation of the Shakespeare classic. He found his footing in Hollywood with a majestic performance as a Scottish physician to Forest Whitaker's Idi Amin in Last King of Scotland. In that particular movie McAvoy's brilliant acting was overshadowed by Whitaker's portrayal of the brutal dictator (for which he eventually won the Oscar). Most recently he played Tom Lefroy - the supposed inspiration for Mr. Darcy in a fictionalized account of Jane Austen's early life called Becoming Jane. McAvoy now has a number of high profile projects lined up that I can't wait to see. Just can't get enough of his wonderful performances and not to mention his beeootiful blue eyes ;) !!

It is really easy for actors with nice accents and pleasant looks to fall into the Hugh Grant trap once they get their break in Hollywood. Hugh Grant quickly became the go to guy for the love boy roles in women oriented romantic comedies, case in point - Notting Hill, Two Weeks Notice and Bridget Jones' Diary to name a few. This is not to say that Hugh was anything but good in these movies, but he was none the less the dreamy, English eye candy. So far McAvoy has managed to pick roles that are wonderfully diverse and challenging and let's hope he continues to do so and avoids the temptation of becoming the next victim of the Hugh Grant school of acting!

As long as he keeps doing what he has been doing so far, I think he will be just fine!

4 movies to look forward to this fall

Let's do this in the order of least to most anticipated (according to moi):

1. Aaja Nachle: The only reason I am looking forward to this the least is because the promo was like a particularly unsatisfying amuse-bouche. All we see is Madhuri Dixit dancing and a frame that declares her return. I am sure that once the Yash Raj publicity machine kicks in the movie will garner much more curiosity but for now the return of Madhuri is apparently enough. I was never a big fan of Madhuri so for me one of the main reasons for watching this movie will probably be the presence of Kunal Kapoor and Konkona Sen Sharma.





2. Laaga Chunari Mein Daag: Unfortunately the biggest news about this film: Rani Mukherjee playing a prostitute. Unfortunately because this sort of hype tends to overshadow the other aspects of the film, and from the star cast and director I am hoping for something more than just a vehicle for Mukherjee to display her acting prowess. After Black with Rani and this is again (in the oft repeated words of film critics) an off-beat role for Ms. Mukherjee. From the promo it is easy to glean that the story is about a small town girl from Benaras who is thrust into the big bad world of prostitution. The portions shot in Benares Konkona Sen Sharma look spectacular (this might also be because I am slightly biased towards Benares), I am a little bit worried that the parts with Rani as a prostitute might come off looking cheesy ("Hi, I am Natasha") but I guess only time will tell. I am most looking forward to the Kunal Kapoor and Konkona pairing. This is going to be their season. After Rang De... who doesn't love Kunal? And they were so cute together on Koffee with Karan...in short, I hope they rock!!



3. Om Shanti Om: The expectations from this film are mammoth, Farah Khan's sophomore effort after the blockbuster Main Hoon Na, Shah Rukh Khan riding high on the success of Chak De India the gorgeous Deepika Padukone who in Karan Johar's words is the most beautiful face to hit Indian screens in a while. Forgive me for saying this but with all these expectations something was bound to crumble, and it did. The promo wasn't all that great. I really wanted it to kick ass, and it just didn't. The costumes, however look great (Kudos to Karan Johar), srk was kinda annoying in the promo, but one will have to wait and watch to see how much of the promo will be translated on to the big screen. The expectations are still high and I hope to god this will be a good movie, because frankly I didn't like Main Hoon Na, but I really like Farah Khan, and good movies should happen to good people ;). Om Shanti Om is a sure shot hit, but it would be disappointing if it is successful solely because of its star power. (Deepika Padukone looked like such a star on this Sunday's episode of Koffee with Karan, and they were all having so much fun!!)




AND SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST....

4. Saawariya (squeeee!!!): Possibly the most anticipated movie of this season. Not only because it is Sanjay Leela Bansali's first film after the magnum opus that was Black , but also because he has achieved a casting coup of sorts by pairing Ranbir Kapoor (we all know his lineage) and Sonam Kapoor (Anil Kapoor's daughter). The story of Saawariya has been guarded with the utmost secrecy, but wikipedia is reporting that the movie is an adaptation of Dostoevsky's heartbreaking short story White Nights. If this is indeed true, Saawariya promises to be a wonderful story as well as a visual treat. The promo itself is poetry in motion with the stamp of Bansali throughout. If each frame in Black was a brooding painting in the tones of grey and charcoal, Saawariya's frames are dyed in the hues of greens and blues representing youth and love. Words cannot express the purity and beauty reflected in each frame of the promo. My favourite part: The last frame where SLB - the showman beyond compare of his generation - pays homage to Raj Kapoor - the original showman. Am beyond excited for this movie!!! This much excitement warrants excessive punctuation!!!

In conversation with Khushwant Singh and Ghalib

The grand old man of Indian literature, Khushwant Singh has - along with Kamna Prasad - compiled a masterful collection of Urdu poetry called "Celebrating the Best of Urdu Poetry". This beautiful edition brings together selected works of Sauda, Meer, Bahadur Zafar, Zauq, Ghalib, Faiz and many more.

Urdu kya hai kothe ki tawaif hai
Maza har ek leta hai mohabbat kaun karta hai

These disheartening lines are chosen to inform the reader of the status that Urdu enjoys in society today. An immensely quotable language has become just that - a collection of quotes. Everyone quotes Urdu poetry but few study it. I, unfortunately, fall in the first category.

I come from a family that prides itself on being able to recite reams and reams of Urdu and Hindi poetry from rote. Interest in poetry is practically a requirement. Until very recently I was bucking the family trend quite radically. For me, Khusrau and Ghalib were relegated to the background while the works of Shakespeare and e.e. cummings took centerstage. All that changed when I heard chap tilak sab cheeni.

Disclaimer

Welcome, bienvenue, namaskar etc. etc.

Indian popular culture can be a very mystifying being. Most sociological studies on culture acknowledge the existence of hierarchical tiers within culture, evident amongst them is a high culture and a low culture. Popular culture would, in most cases, be consigned to the lower culture stratum. Forgive me for resorting to cliches, but India is bursting at the seams with the copious amounts of culture, high or otherwise, available for consumption. Although, more often than not, Indian culture has been condensed to certain dominant forces. To the untrained eye (this is not to say that I am in any sort of way trained to spot cultural trends - apart from the basic understanding of culture that is imbibed just by living in India) popular culture of the Indian variety can be boiled down to two things, Hindi cinema and the glorious-ness that is Cricket.

Now, regardless of individual preference, movies are the national pass time and Cricket is the national religion. It is not hard to imagine why they emerge as the representative forms of Indian popular culture. However, in endowing Cricket and Bollywood with the ability to represent what India is about, we end up losing a lot of what India is. Personally, I love Bollywood and I worship Tendulkar (in spite of recent loss of form), but I also have high regard for Hindi and Urdu poetry, for Indian secular ideals, for Indian music, literature, history, dance, theatre, the list is endless. I am not trying to encompass Indian culture in the very limited space of this single blog, neither am I an expert of cultural studies, so some of my observations might seem extremely naive and ignorant. I am just someone who holds India and everything that defines it, very close to my heart. I am just trying to express (as best I can) what it all means to me and give the age old cultural debates a fresh perspective. Cricket, Bollywood, poetry, history all included.