Kali-Ma beer controversy: Stop complaining

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Films are dangerous. Ask the person who named 'Kali-Ma', the beer named after the Hindu goddess Kali. The beer, by the Burnside Brewing Company based in Oregon (US), also has a picture of the goddess on the bottle. The beer was scheduled for a grand launch on May 15, but the news evoked a chain of fuming reactions from Indians all over the world and the company had to apologise for it. Now, the beer will be renamed and released later.

In its apology letter, the company wrote," In response to pleas from the Hindu community we have decided to postpone the limited release of 'Kali-ma' our imperial wheat ale flavoured with Indian spices and Scotch-Bonnet peppers. It is NEVER our intention at Burnside to offend or alienate any race, creed, religion or sexual orientation. The inspiration for the beer label simply came from a favourite....

What happened to Rajesh Khanna?

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I am assuming that most of us have seen the new Rajesh Khanna fan commercial by now. Isn't it fascinating to see Rajesh Khanna performing after such a long gap? However, I have a doubt. How many of Rajesh Khanna fans wanted him to return in such fashion? The advertisement shows the star talking about the thrill that a star feels when thousands of fans run towards him. The visuals show Rajesh Khanna signing the autographs and feeling good about it. Then the story returns to the current scenario and he is going towards a stage. The visuals try to suggest that the man is going to make a comeback, but anti-climax happens. The superstar of yesteryears is now standing in front of fans (including ceiling, table and exhaust fans). He says with a sigh that the air can change but the fans can't.....

Why do today's Bollywood heroes look the same?

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How would you define Dev Anand's style? I think you are at loss of words. Similarly, Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, and Amitabh Bachchan had their own styles but things started to get blurred during 80s when the Hindi film heroes easily fell victim to confused scripts and vulgar stylisation. 'Surakksha' and Gun Master G-9 achieved a cult status but only due to the jokes. Not many of us bothered to watch the film. At one point of time, one film wonder Hemant Birje was challenging the authorities of established actors. Basically films were devoid of acceptable content and good actors. Among the three Khans of 90s, only Shah Rukh Khan developed a distinct acting style but then came the new millennium and every actor started to look the same. This tendency did not spare the Khans either and Shah Rukh Khan had to....

The perils of the macho hero's sister in Bollywood

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Don't you feel for the guys who fall in love with the girls with macho brothers? It's pretty clear that you have a social leaning but you can't do anything other than saying 'best of luck'. The Hindi film industry also thinks the same. Big brothers are made to protect their tiny sisters. Small sisters also understand the value of their brother's love and probably that's why they overlook a brother's friend at the pub, or at the beach, or in her own locality, so that the brother could know about her whereabouts. Communication without wasting a single penny. However there is a catch. What if Sunny Deol is the brother? He has all the rights in this world to correct the twisted sense of love of the sister's boyfriend, even if the boy has a powerful and rich father, actually it's bad because then Sunny is....

Bollywood, please give us another Govinda

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Find another Govinda or dancing will be reduced to mere exercising... Song 1: Chikni Chameli (Agneepath) Performer: Katrina Kaif First impression: What the hell is she doing? Moments later: She looks cool but... Last impression: Who cares if she does dancing or gymnastics as far as she is in shape. Song 2: Main Aisa Kyun Hoon (Lakshya) Performer: Hrithik Roshan First impression: Doesn't he have bones? Moments later: Should I try it. Last impression: God, I hate working out without eating. Song 3: Disco Wale Khisko (Dil Bole Hadippa) Performer: Shahid Kapoor First impression: Smart moves man. Moments later: The camera is dancing more than the actor. Last impression: Will somebody explain why he was smiling without any reason. Song 3: Nach Baliye (Bunty Aur Babli) Performers: Rani Mukerji-Abhishek Bachchan First impression: Shiamak Davar what a great choreography sir. Moments later: What a choreography sir. Last....

There is music but where is Rahman?

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Are you planning to watch 'Ek Deewana Tha'? Why, because Prateik Babbar and Amy Jackson are there and a celebrated storyteller Gautham Menon is directing the film? Are we missing something? The film has AR Rahman as the music director by the way. Come on; admit it, you also missed his name. Well, it's not a crime. The music is certainly not up to the 'Rahman' mark, and thus missing it doesn't qualify as a musical crime. Is Rahman taking the Indian audiences for granted? Let's start from the year 2009. Two years is not a small duration in any case. The music albums of 'Delhi 6', 'Blue', and 'Couples Retreat' released that year. 'Delhi 6' was good, so was 'Couples Retreat', musically of course, but 'Blue' was nowhere close to the Rahman standard. Rahman decorated eight films with his....

Why are we deprived of dark cinema?

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Those who have seen the documentary 'Capturing the Friedmans' would probably understand the meaning of 'perturbing reality'. The film showcases a family whose head has been accused of child molestation and his wife is convinced about his crime. One of the sons of the house is co-accused in the molestation case while the other is filming everything via his camera. The director Andrew Jerecki used those tapes only to come up with a film which couldn't be called as 'normal' by any standard. The alternate truth is basically the dark truth. Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon explains how we can not call anything real despite it being in front of our eyes. An individual's upbringing or rather life that he or she is provided with determines his or her perspective and there lies a vague sense of truth which is absolutely new to others. Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity tries to....

Remembering 'DDLJ' in a small town

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It's been 16 years of one of the immortal love stories on Indian celluloid screen. Raj Malhotra and Simran Singh had fallen in love for the first and last time on October 20, 1995 amidst yellow flowers. The cable TV phenomenon had not gripped the metropolitans; leave aside the small town in the northern most part of India. The Doordarshan was the only connection to the outside world and watching weekly countdown show 'Ek Se Badhkar Ek' was considered not lesser than visiting Bangladesh, a nearby country where privileged people used to go in connection of their trades. The newspapers used to arrive around 5 in the evening due to irregular transportation but whenever they came educated people used to grab the main page and the not so important page with filmy gossips were left for lesser learned. Those gossip pages informed us that Raj-Simran story....

In solidarity with the loser lovers in Hindi films

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Love triangle is an evergreen subject in the Hindi film industry. Even when the story does not need to focus on the second lover, directors do have a penchant for casting an insignificant character in love with either of the lead pair. At times, the third person provides the narration to the story and sometimes goes on to claim the heroine in the climax, only to get bashed. The third lover possesses some well defined characters that ultimately prove him or her a loser in the eyes of the desired beloved. One can broadly demarcate these characters into five categories. The first loser category comprises of those characters who want physical relationship as quickly as possible. 'Jab We Met', 'Not A Love Story' and 'Aetraz' will make you familiar with such characters. It was happening in the earlier times also but then the filmmakers were....