SAJAforum

FILMS: Q&A with Mehul Shah, director of "Bollywood Beats"

Sitting at Starbucks, talking to his friends, Mehul Shah had his first idea to make a movie. And he didn’t let the idea go. 

In 2003, soon after he graduated from Southern Methodist University in filmmaking, Shah collaborated with one of his friends, Mansi Patel, and completed a short independent movie called "Diwali."

That was the beginning of a dream for the 27-year-old Dallas native. After five years, Shah is ready with his latest movie "Bollywood Beats." The movie premiered at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival this week.

A fun, comic movie that delves into various issues in the India-American community, "Bollywood Beats" raises questions on various levels. From homosexuality to extra-marital affairs and dreaming out-of-the-box, the movie talks about them but in a lighthearted way.

As Shah says, “It’s a dreamer’s story,” full of music and moves. Songs from different eras from Bollywood and lively music from the U.K.-based rapper Hard Kaur and Canadian artist Bilz liven up the ambiance.

Here are the excerpts from an interview with Shah outside The Magnolia theater hours before the screening of "Bollywood Beats."

How did your interest in film making start?

I’ve always been fond of films. Movies are always a great escape. Ever since I was a little kid, I was able to be watch Bollywood and Hollywood films. I got a good blend of both cinemas and that kind of affected my upbringing of wanting to bring those two together. I wanted to see what I could do with it. I just decided to major in it and study it more, go more in-depth about history of films.

What is "Bollywood Beats" all about?

SPORTS: L.A. Clippers to celebrate India's Republic Day

Sammy Chand, a music producer in Los Angeles and former member of Karmacy, tells us that the L.A. Clippers basketball team will be putting on a desi halftime show on Jan. 26, India's Republic Day, when the Clippers will be going up against the Portland Trailblazers. More at the NBA's website, which is emblazoned with the banner above.

From Sammy:

"The halftime show is a highly entertaining showcase featuring Rukus Avenue artist Sandeep, dance from choreographers Janet Roston, Bosco and Yogen Bhagat and his Bollywood Step Dance, and singing by Nauzad and Kushi.  The entire night will be a celebration of India, and we want to give everyone a taste of India, and we thought fusion music like Sandeep's and Bollywood culture would be very effective."

[FYI, last month, singer and bharatanatyam dancer Shaheen Sheik sang the national anthem at the Staples Center, where the Clippers play.]

As you can see from the press release below (which has Clipper contact info), portions of the proceeds from ticket sales are meant to benefit victims of the Mumbai attacks. But Sammy's had trouble lining up a beneficiary and is soliciting suggestions.

"We haven't found an organization that will receive the funds from us. We were in contact with the Indian Red-Cross, but didn't quite make that happen. Do you know an organization that could be the beneficiary for the money we raise? 

I asked him how a South Asian entertainment company like his, Rukus Avenue, pitches an idea like this to a major sports franchise. His response:

"The LA Clippers have been amazing and their willingness to blend our culture into the Staples Center that night shows true progress.  Bringing our culture to the Los Angeles mainstream is a celebration of our contributions to our greater community.  Our pitch was to help generate awareness for the Clippers but more importantly the NBA to the South Asian community. The NBA is looking to spread its brand to India and our organization thought this could be an excellent way to partner with this powerful entity and begin a ripple effect of publicity.

Please post your suggestions for groups that should receive any funds below. As a friend recently pointed out to us, it doesn't make much sense to highlight the event if we bury info about the recipient of any donations.

Here's the press release:

DANCE: Indian dance course at Columbia

If you know of other schools doing this, please post in the comments section.

From: Sabrina Buckwalter <sb2997[at]columbia.edu>

To: sai_list@columbia.edu
Subject: NEW COURSE OFFERING: Indian dance Spring 2009
We would like to announce the following new course that will be offered within the Barnard dance department during the upcoming Spring semester
at Columbia University.

New course - Spring 2009

DANCE IN ASIA: INDIA-Perspectives & Bodies
DNCE X3567.001
Call number 04849

Professor Uttara Coorlawala
Tuesday & Thursday 10:35 am - 11:50 am

This 3 credit lecture course on Indian dance, its history and cultural significance will review the amazing variety of dances, historical literature and performance texts.  The course will consider the traditional and innovative genres that co-exist; representations of Indian-ness in India, and outside India; the transformation of global identity in Bollywood films and the American dance scene.

What can we learn from the aesthetics of the dances and the people who perpetuate its performance? What is useful for us here and now in the performer training practices, and in the theorizations of practice, the body and the performance of gender?  What do the various classical,post-traditional and vernacular dance forms signify within India, outside India and among globally located persons of origin from the
subcontinent?  How might this information be understood or re-interpreted in global situations of multiple simultaneous perspective?

More on the prof here.

VIDEO: Natalie Portman as Bollywood Princess

Natalie Portman plays the role of a Bollywood princess in Devendra Banhart's new video - Carmensita - where the princess is being saved by the prince. It includes a cameo by Kali.

Here are the prince and princess in real, tender life.

Portman does a good job lip syncing and dancing. Notice how the video starts with the classic Bollywood Central Board of Film Certification followed by a Hanuman Chalisaa.

The song, by the way, is sung in Spanish - Banhart was born in Houston but raised in Caracas, Venezuela. He was named 'Devendra' by Prem Rawat (aka Maharaji), an Indian philosopher and humanitarian whom his parents followed.

Let us know what you thought.

UK: London Mayor Boris Johnson "Struts His Funky Stuff"

Last week, London's new Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson made a pitch in support of the upcoming London Mela, a major festival celebrating British Asian arts and culture that some have called the "Asian Glastonbury." Speaking at the press launch for the festival, which will be held in early August, Johnson urged Londoners to "get on down" to the festival and "strut [their] funky stuff." He acknowledged that he had merely a "passing" acquaintance with bhangra and reminisced about his effort to learn some moves at a cousin's wedding in Delhi:

I was told you had to do "lightbulb lightbulb, motorbike motorbike." I practiced a great deal, and I had my kurta pajama, and my chappals, and my everything else, and I thought I looked absolutely tremendous. And everybody else turned up in a suit. [link]

Get the Flash Player to see this video.

TV: Fox's So You Think You Can Dance gets its Bollywood on

Many Americans who tuned into Fox's hit reality show So You Think You Can Dance earlier this week got their first introduction to Bollywood when contestants Katee Shean and Joshua Allen danced to Dhoom Tana from the hit film Om Shanti Om.

Neither dancer had heard of Bollywood prior to meeting choreographer Nakul Dev Mahajan, who gave the couple their first lesson in mudras. "The story is guy likes girl, girl plays hard to get, but eventually gives in," said Mahajan as he described the dance to the couple.

Check it out:

The performance apparently prompted loads of people to do a Google search of "so you think you can dance bollywood" - the search term was the 77th most popular, according to techdreams.

The routine also received rave reviews from the show's three judges. Judge and Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe seemed particularly pleased. "I've been trying to get [Bollywood] on this show for three years," he said.

Here's what a Fox News TV critic had to say:

DANCE: Michael Jackson meets the Sardar

Check out this great video of Suleman Mirza, a Michael Jackson impersonator who auditioned for the TV show Britain's Got Talent. Simon Cowell of American Idol is one of the judges. The real treat isn't Mirza's impersonation-- although that's plenty good--it's what comes afterward, in the form of a big, burly Sikh guy wielding a broom. And the crowd goes wild...

The Sikh man is Madhu Singh. Video via SikhSwim.

THE ARTS: EnGendered 2008 Festival - a report

EnGendered 2008, a multi-disciplinary arts festival exploring the complex gender and sexual identities in South Asia was held recently at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. The three-day event presented by the Nayikas Dance Theater Company, was, in the words of founder Myna Mukherjee, “was a conversation between New Delhi and New York”. Through visual arts, performing arts, film and writing, EnGendered encouraged an open dialogue on gender identities and gender roles, the still taboo subject of sex, sexual choice and the intersections of all these with religion and ritual.

The visual arts exhibition Pardah, featuring artists from India, Pakistan, Germany and the US, opened the festival. The works exhibited included paintings, prints, photographs, digital art, installations and the works of the traditional art form Mithila painting.

The opening night titled Linga Sarita (Rivers of Gender) explored the possibilities of interpreting and constructing gender through neo-classical forms of dance, followed by a keynote plenary. The backdrop for the evening was the cityscape of Manhattan seen through the enormous glass wall of the Allen Room, and definitely a world apart from the usual dark curtains or panels printed with advertiser information, and at certain times of the year, a temple shikhara (dome).

DESI SPOTTING: Indian Events Hit NYC

It was 4 p.m. on Sunday, and my family and I had just piled into a yellow cab outside Manhattan's Bryant Park. The 4-year-old twins and their parents were exhausted from a day of watching Indian entertainment, handrcarafts and more at the park. The cabbie who picked us up was a Bangladeshi and was full of questions about the event and the programming. He'd heard about what was going on and wanted to know more. We handed him a brochure and told him about all the India-related stuff going on in the city through Wednesday. The kids loved watching the folk dances, the Bollywood dancing (choreographed by the legendary Saroj Khan, who's the biggest dance choreographer in Mumbai) and seeing the huge, fake Taj Mahal. See the full lineup of events, Sept. 23-Sept 26. Photos below by Shaju John, freelance photojournalist - ask him for reprints, hi-resolution versions: shajujohn2005 at gmail.com.

MUSIC: M.I.A.'s Second Album, "Kala," Coming This Week

The Sunday New York Times "Arts & Leisure" has a big inside spread about the rapper M.I.A., whose real name is Maya Arulpragasam. Her new album, "Kala" (named for her mother), comes out this week, following up on her 2005 debut, "Arular" (that album won over critics, but the paper says it only sold 129,000 copies).  "An Itinerant Refugee in a Hip-Hop World," by Ben Sisario, starts out with the singer in her Brooklyn apartment.

MAYA ARULPRAGASAM’S Brooklyn apartment was a neglected mess when she finally returned to it last month after six months abroad. But it took only a day to straighten it up and turn it into her version of a pied-à-terre, a makeshift multimedia headquarters. An audio mixing board, film canisters and shiny gold and black dancing outfits stood on one side of the apartment, and half of an uneaten papaya waited on a table in the back.

Ms. Arulpragasam — better known as the rapper M.I.A. — was in town for only about a week before going on tour, and when asked when she would return to the apartment, a spacious studio in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a Caribbean and African immigrant neighborhood, she shrugged. “I spent time finding that couch,” she said, pointing to one of the few items of furniture, “and I haven’t even sat in it.”

The piece goes on to explore her life and her politics.

“I’m just trying to build some sort of bridge,” she said of her work, picking at a slice of Oreo cookie cake. “I’m trying to create a third place, somewhere in between the developed world and the developing world.”
<snip>

Even in conversation M.I.A. leapfrogs the planet. Over a couple of hours she discussed an uncle who works for Amnesty International in Sri Lanka; described shooting a gun into the Baltimore sky on New Year’s Eve with Blaqstarr, one of the producers on “Kala”; wondered whether Nelson Mandela  deserves her respect as a good family man; and recounted a trip to Liberia to help reintroduce former child soldiers into society. “I went there just as a human being,” she said. “I wanted to see what a country looks like after a war because I come from a place that has never seen the end of it.”

These have not traditionally been blockbuster topics in pop music, and along with M.I.A.’s unorthodox recording choices, the bad track record of British rappers in the American market and her intense if ambiguous political messages, they raise the question of how much impact she can have on the mainstream.

Read the whole piece here and post your comments below.

M.I.A.'s psychedelic official site is MIAuk.com - you can read about her, listen to her music and watch some of the new videos.