City Light...

Trick Of The Trade
The first rule of journalism. Strict discretion, so that when you break a news, you don't ‘break’ somebody’s life and livelihood. Let the law-and-order enforcement officials do their duty, we’ll just tell you the reality, with discretion, of course. The place is a night haunt, with lot of people hanging around, suddenly realising that they need a puff, or a paan perhaps, or a packet of gutkha (Gutkhas are banned, aren’t they? But who cares!). But it’s past midnight. All the shops are closed. Police patrol is doing the rounds. And you are desperate for that smoke.
Just chill. Take a good look around, and try to locate a paan kiosk where lights are still on. The shop is shut, of course. Only the shutter is not completely fastened. You go near the shop, pick you lose change and push the money through the half-closed shutter, and whisper whatever you want: A gold flake mild, a goa, a gai chap...
You are thrilled at getting a smoke at two in the morning. You want to light up immediately. As you do so, a voice inside the shut shop pleads, please move away from the shop lest the police get the whiff..."

Fashion In The Time Of Flu
She is a public relation officer with a private company and she is petrified about the current swine flu scare (or shall we call it Influenza A H1N1?). Anyways, while she has filled the house with stakes of face masks to combat the flu, she is also warming up the positive side of wearing the mask. For one thing, she does not have to spend an enormous amount of time in front of her mirror and with the make-up kit. You just wear a good looking mask, and probably a pair of dark glasses, that’s it. Only thing is that you never remove them in public, be it in the office, or while meeting a client. Then, when you are wearing the mask, you can actually make faces at someone, without that person noticing it. What fun! Besides, the mask also give you the excuse to avoid people you don’t want to meet or say hi to, in office or anywhere else. If that person complains, you can always say, it wasn’t me. Everyone’s wearing the same masks, aren’t they?

Nowhere in Africa

‘New Moon,’ the next film in the ‘Twilight’ series of the teen romance involving vampires and werewolves, and of course, a mainstream heroine, releases in a few months' time. The film will be a blockbuster, no doubt about it. However, what I am thinking about, is how the film is going to portray the Native American community, which plays a major role in the plotline. They are the ones who turn into werewolves. A marginal community turns even more marginal. How the mainstream Hollywood is going to handle it?
Very badly, if my hunch is right. Hollywood has always been fascinated by alien cultures — from Tarzan to the Safari movies, from ‘The Treasure of Sierra Madre’ ‘Dances With Wolves’ to ‘Out of Africa.’
Africa especially has been a fascinating subject for Hollywood. It’s the heart of darkness, a land of unexpected adventures. And, it’s always, always seen from the point of view of an outsider, the mainstream. Even when the film is set in Africa, for example, Maryl Streep-Robert Redford starrer ‘Out of Africa’, the continent and its people is relegated to mere props, nothing else. Same is the case with most Hollywood movies involving Native Americans. There are no attempts to understand the minority community; they are there to highlight the story of the mainstream protagonist. Even a genuinely sympathetic film like ‘Dance with Wolves,’ the focus is only the character portrayed by Kevin Costner. Even when he takes a wife, it’s an European raised by the native, not a native herself. To an extend, ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ tells the story of the Native Americans in a realistic manner. Here again, Hawkeye is an European adopted by the Indians.
That’s the reason why a talent like Adam Beach does not get enough work. He was, however, used to full potential in Clint Eastwood’s epic ‘The Flags of Our Father.’
It’s therefore a different feeling altogether when you come across a film that give the minority community equal importance, makes it part of the larger story, like the German movie, Nowhere in Africa (2001). Directed by Caroline Link and based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by Stefanie Zweig, the film, which was awarded 2002 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, tells the story of a Jewish family that emigrates to Kenya during World War II to escape the Nazis and run a farm.
Most films tell you a story, and ask you to observe the actions from a distance. However, there are a few of them which invite you to be a part of the action. Before long, you start caring about the characters on screen and want to know what happens next; you want them to make the right decision. You want them to be happy. Nowhere in Africa is one such film.
But, what is most fascinating about the film is how the country Africa, Kenya, to be specific is used in the context of a Jewish family from Germany. There are several binaries at work here: black and white, minority and mainstream, insider and outsider...
The Redlich family is a minority in Germany, that’s why they came to settle down in Kenya. But here, being white, they are now bwana. It is especially more acute in relation to Jettel’s behaviour towards the Masai cook Owuor. As the story progresses, Jettel comes in terms with Owuor’s presence and even comes to respect it.
The tagline of the film reads, sometimes home is where you least expect it. It becomes especially true in case of Jettel, who in the beginning hates being in Africa and when it’s time to leave, she is not willing to go.
For young Regina, who narrates the story, the bridging of the cultural divide comes easily. From Day One, she feels at home in Africa. This is the only home she knows, and takes the diversity of the situation for granted. She does not find it difficult to make friends with the local children even if there is nothing common between them; only childhood innocence...

Love Aaj Kal

How you wish if Deepika Padukone could act! She’s easy on the eyes, what the hell, she is beautiful. Even in the presence of the so-called ‘mystery girl’, Harleen Kaur, who is ethereal and absolutely mysterious, Deepika holds her own in Imtiaz Ali’s much-expected rom-com after hugely popular ‘Jab We Met,’ ‘Love Aaj Kal.’ Only if she could act.
She is smart. She has warmth and honesty in her voice. She has fantastic screen presence. She does not speak English with an accent like most young heroines do. All these are good qualities, but only if she could act. In most of the film’s running time, you do not notice her lack of acting, thanks to Saif Ali Khan’s goofy presence (a sort of screen persona that Saif has perfected since ‘Dil Chahta Hai’), the production design and the marvellous outfits she wears (I loved the dress she wore in the ‘Dilli’ song.) But, when it’s time to do some drama, she falls short. Very glaring is the climatic scene, when the pair had to repeat their first conversation, "about the angles..." she is hanging by a scaffold, her voice cracks and god, she does not know how to act. Imagine someone else in her place, say Kajol, and imagine the magic. (For that matter, imagine the entire film with Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, it would have been a super-duper hit!!)
I enjoyed Love Aaj Kal. It’s smart, it’s breezy, there isn’t much rona-dhona, equally, less melodrama... the film can be considered a finest example of Bollywood romantic comedy, which is a rare breed so far as Bollywood is concerned, who likes to serve everything in a single dish, from action to comedy, melodrama to love triangles.
Triangles are very much part of LAK as well. But the film succeeds in shedding the extra flab of the surrounding to concentrate on the lead pair, especially in the ‘Jai and Meera’ story. Friends, family, other lovers are all relegated to the backdrop. They just have no roles to play in Jai and Meera’s lives (In the bargain, poor Rahul Khanna gets a raw deal and he does not even get the girl!!). At one point, Saif’s Jai even asks, what my parents have to do with my love affairs?
The premise is simple. It compare the love life of ‘wham, bam, thank you mam’ today’s generation with the love life of the ‘ankhon hi ankhon mein’ generation to prove the good ol’ theory, love conquers all.
There is nothing new in the story. But the presentation is unique, by Bollywood standards at least.
It’s good ol’ fun!!!