July 21, 2008 | 04:22 AM
Heath Ledger and the Dark Knight
Now that the Dark Knight has broken all records at the BO, Heath left a legacy that is unforgettable. Angels do that. They visit us for short periods of time and cause huge impact on our consciousness. I always told Heath he was an ancient soul in a very young mind, a very young body. Angels, or Ancient Souls are never comfortable trapped in their human selves. They will make you restless and the need for honest creative expression of the deepest nature is a driving force. For those of you that knew his music, the other person that had that quality was Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Who I did Bandit Queen with.
My screen test with Heath for Four Feathers lasted a whole day. He would often call me down the years and laugh his deep laughter, and remember that day with a lot of affection . It was a day of deep exploration between an actor and a director of each other.....
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July 10, 2008 | 12:01 PM
Sonya's Picks: Princess Paanchali's Story
Princess Paanchali's Story
Is having 5 husbands a great thing ?
What more could any woman want, you might say. Specially if the 5 husbands, between them, bring to the table, a sons-of-gods combo. Of righteousness, strength, bravery and beauty.
Certainly the lot of Draupadi, husband to the 5 Pandava brothers, doesn't seem bad ( OK OK she had to spent 13 years of her life in exile, and also get gambled away to bad cousin-in-law Duryodhana). But then she had a whole war fought over her. All the men who abused her were killed, or the blood of their hearts drunk up.
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July 09, 2008 | 09:15 AM
The Nuke Deal : Does India's democratic system not allow great leadership ?
Leadership =Courage =The ability of an individual to get out there and stake everything on what he/she truly believes in. The fundamental idea of democracy has a flaw though. It assumes all decisions are of the collective, that nothing major will get decided unless there is a majority in the parliament. And those of us that have watched how the parliament works (on TV), it is a wonder that any decision takes place ! If I were to direct a film based in the principle of consensus, I would not be able to take a single shot in the whole day. So when we say we lack a great leader, are we not then burdening that leader with the collective principles of democracy ?
That has long been the argument of the Armed Forces and the Bureaucracy in India. "Those bickering fools in the parliament are just a bunch of dithering monkeys, and we are the ones that really running/defending the country inspite of them". It is an argument that is difficult to refute if you have spent two confrontational days in the parliament. Remember the swell of public sentiment that once wanted Sam Manickshaw to take over the reigns of the country ?
The current political crisis in India leaves me in no doubt that as we have no strong leader, the collective is bringing the decision making process down. Not in 'the best interests of our nation', (the mantra they keep repeating everyday), but completely in their own selfish interest.
A leader needs to be bold, passionate. Needs to carry the the parliament with his/her beliefs. Needs the respect of even the opposition. And needs to place the needs of the country above both, the self and the party interests. We have not had one like that since Nehru. That's just one in almost 60 years. No wonder we are a mess. Can India afford democracy as we know it in a modern and Global world ? Are we going to go on dithering like this or change the system.
To a system where minister's are NOT elected politicians (who trusts that process in any case ?), but appoint the best proffesionals in the field to lead. So why not have head of Infosys as the minister of IT ? Or our best Military tacticians as the Defence Minister. Allow such highly skilled professional to lead the executive decisions, and to leave the Parliament to discuss, argue, fight over issues of over-all policy.
I for one applaud Manmohan Singh's decision to go ahead with the Nuclear Treaty and stake everything on it. It's what he believes in.
July 08, 2008 | 07:32 AM
Sri Lanka... aaahh !
Like when the God's created Sri Lanka they must have been so jealous of their own abundance that they created a war over it's ownership, and that is the war that is being reflected in Sri Lanka and tearing the country apart. But it is impossible to go there, as I did last week, without just letting out a deep breath at the sheer beauty of the place and become one with nature. How often do we feel that urgent need to let go of the individual self ? Sri Lanka will do that you.
Most people bemoaned the lack of development. The lack of tourists. And though I completely understood, I thought of what we have done to our environment in India ( has anyone been to Goa recently ?) and the question that streaks to my mind is 'what price development ?'. Is development something that lives as a deep desire within ourselves, or do we become slaves to development because someone has created a false aspiration for us, to profit from it themselves ? Just look at the city of Mumbai and ask whether it is worth putting your life's savings into a matchbox that you call a house, surrounded by the greatest filth and pollution that a city can generate. Why ? because you are told that ultimately someone else will be willing to similarly sacrifice their life at a higher cost. We have become slaves to the God of 'capital growth' to whom we sacrifice the quality of our lives. We have become slaves to 'ownership'.
Despite a war that has lasted 25 years, despite very little industrial growth and stagnation, Sri Lanka still has one of the highest per capita incomes in our region. Is there a lesson here that we are not learning ?
July 02, 2008 | 10:57 AM
Is India's economic miracle' over ? Why your voice is so important.
First how much of the Indian economic miracle was a hype ? Can there be an economic miracle when 60 % of the population does not partake on it ? Does making a few billionaires and a multitude of millionaires on the stock market make for an economic miracle for over a billion people ? How much of the peak of the sensex index of 21,000 points was a media generated buying frenzy coupled with insider trading ? And conversely how much of the slide to 13,000 points a media created panic. Such dramatic rise and fall within six months of each other does not make for a mature capital market. International oil prices are not showing any signs of abating. We must get used to higher prices, that is for sure. A weak coalition government that is getting ready for electioneering and not being decisive. No leaders stand in opposition that are capable of shouldering the responsibility of powering a modern and competitive India into the next decade by keeping the entrepreneurial spirit going AND being inclusive of the less privileged sections of the economy, we are heading back 20 years ... does anyone remember those years ? Here's what could happen ...
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June 28, 2008 | 08:29 AM
Has Indian Media become pulp fiction ?
One day I was switched on the TV and watched Aaj Tak, a channel I have respected in the past and given serious exploratory interviews. To my horror the reportage on the Arushi murder case felt like the most C grade exploitative Hindi Movie, or worse a cheap TV Soap. Replete with brutally inter-cut shots of the poor girl and her parents with a song from Tare Zameen Par called "Tujhe Sab kuch Pata hai Maa". I wrote off Aaj Tak as a serious news channel. Last night i saw Star News do something just as bad on the same issue, so do I write off Star News too ?
Here is my issue then. When I direct a film and if there is criticism I take a direct hit personally. An editor of a newspaper (in better times) would take personal responsibility for the content of the paper and it's views. But who is responsible for the quality on a news channel ? I personally know the owners and promoters, and have known them to be intelligent and in-depth thinkers. They were the ones that used to eloquently talk of the bad taste in Hindi Cinema and denigrate it when I first came to be part of it. And this is not just the news channels, some of our best loved and revered morning newspapers have turned into gossip broadsheets.
Question is, does becoming a corporate body put a barrier between you and questions of personal taste ? Does being a corporate body suddenly switch your personal responsibility from value in quality to valuation on the stock market ? I completely understand the idea of economic growth, and market capitalization. Hey ! you put enough sex on the third page, enough skimpily clad sexy girls on TV and you will make money in any case - but turning a murder (and perhaps attempted rape) of a 14 year old girl into pulp fiction is so much worse.
Incidentally anyone remember or anyone in the media interested anymore in the Nithari murders, when over 20 bodies of children were found with their heads cut off. That also happened in NOIDA, not far from where little Arushi was murdered.
Trainspotting and Elizabeth
Here is the text of an sticle that appeared today in the Daily Telegraph in London.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/06/28/bftrainspotting128.xml
Shekhar Kapur, director of Badit Queen, Elizabeth and Four Feathers, explains to Marc Lee why he could never have made Elizabeth had it not been for Trainspotting Danny Boyle's Trainspotting and Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth are two of the most memorable British films of the Nineties, both shot with eye-catching verve, both featuring a riveting central performance. Yet, as cinematic experiences, they could hardly be more different: one drags us through the sordid lives of a bunch of drug-addled losers, the other sweeps us into the court of the Virgin Queen. Nevertheless, Kapur insists he could never have made his film had it not been for Trainspotting.......
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June 27, 2008 | 10:34 AM
From Himanshu : It’s 7pm – The world of Imagination – Can we be at multiple places?
It’s 7pm on a beautiful autumn evening on the banks of the Ganges river in the holy town of Hardwar in North India. The melodious bells, the priests, the fire, the chants, and the devotion of the people give the ceremony a feel of divinity, as if it were something dictated by God for human bliss. The atmosphere is full of devotion and the huge masses look upto the river to bless them and wash away their sins. It’s 7pm, and the same river has become an extremely huge mass of water flowing slowly through the Sundarban deltas. It’s raining heavily in the monsoons and the millions of drops of water create uncountable ripples throughout the huge river at twilight. It is impossible to see one shore from the other, and the thunder and lightning create a rather shocking scene of the power of nature. Far away from the mesmerized crowd, a lonely soul in the middle of the massive river slowly steers his small round wooden boat towards the shore. He can hardly see anything and he keeps trying to move a little bit at a time, lingering on to hope. He cries and his few drops are lost amongst the zillions. He just hopes there was no rain. It’s 4:30pm in the middle of the desert, not a drop of water in sight, the scorching heat enough to make anyone dizzy. Dubai is being made into a miracle city in the middle of the desert.....
June 25, 2008 | 12:25 PM
Daddy, we are all God's dream
So as usual my 7 (almost 8, but try telling her that) year old daughter came up with this simple answer to complex questions.
June 24, 2008 | 08:25 PM
Sonya's Picks: The Booker Prize 2008 – Six books you shouldn't miss
It is unfashionable, I know, to be so swayed by the hype of western literary prizes. (Haven't we been colonial captives long enough ? And we still let a crusty committee in the UK , dictate to us, their system of aesthetics?).
Still, how can one resist the lure of a good Lit shortlist ? So here I am , guilty as charged, caught up , in the excitement of not just the Man Booker Prize, coming in July this year, but also of , the special contest that goes with it.
The Booker is after all, the world's biggest literary prize, after the Nobel , and the most commercially rewarding. Bizarrely, it doesn't allow any American writers, but that doesn't prevent the lit world, each year , from getting into a tizzy about winners and losers. This year, we're all invited to join the jury too. We get to vote, on the Best book of all – from 40 years of Bookers prizewiners.
All we need to do ( besides reading these 6 great books ) is to go online (http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/vote) by midnight of 8th July, to register our vote. And the 6 books are ….
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June 21, 2008 | 06:01 PM
Message from the Administrator
Shekhar Kapur is travelling in Kerala and he might not be able to access the internet as often as he would like to. He says that Kerala is wonderful in monsoons and he is thoroughly enjoying with his daughter. He would be back in 4-5 days.
June 17, 2008 | 09:59 AM
meaning to life ?
you are the problem
and the solution too
and everything that lies between
is also you
and so goes on
the endless struggle
to give meaning to life
June 16, 2008 | 11:12 PM
Cops commiting suicide
As the Times of India reported that a cop blew his brains out in front of the Mantralay in Mumbai today, there came with it a full blown report on depression amongst the lower rungs of the police force leading often to suicide. Please look at my blog of a few days ago 'The Depressed Mumbai Constable', where I describe some of my conversations with young constables and their immediate officers.
From RK Pachauri : Nobel Prize recipient on Global Warming : Myanmar is a grim reminder of climate change..
Do current patterns of growth and development define an improving human condition ?
The global economy has reached unprecedented levels of economic output and activity. Earlier predictions of grim disaster associated with Malthusian thought have proved completely irrelevant, because human ingenuity and technological development have provided solutions to the problem of stagnation in production of goods and services that were foreseen during the nineteenth century. Yet a consumerist society, which has focused relentlessly on accelerated economic growth measured according to conventional yardsticks has created problems at a staggering level, solutions to which are at the same time difficult, yet crucially urgent.
The most important challenge facing humanity – as has been voiced by several world leaders including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, United Nations Secretary General, Ban-Ki-moon and former US President Clinton – is the growing threat of climate change. Human society, ever since the advent of industrialization, has been responsible for emitting increasing quantities of greenhouse gases, the most dominant of which is carbon dioxide, which is largely the result of combustion of fossil fuels. This has led to a warming of the climate with several other forms of interference with the earth’s climate system. Precipitation levels have changed in different parts of the world and extreme precipitation events have become more frequent and more intense. Similarly, heat waves, floods and droughts have increased in frequency and intensity, with increasing misery and hardship for some of the poorest communities in the world. Thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of bodies of ice on a widespread basis have led to sea level rise which increases the extent of devastation from cyclones, storm surges and coastal flooding. The recent tragedy in Myanmar is a grim reminder of the severity of impacts of climate change with an increasing sea level......
June 12, 2008 | 05:30 PM
Is this how all of us will get water soon ?
My assistant went out and shot a little video in Colaba, in Mumbai. There's no water in the taps in this area. It is served by Water Tankers, that come once a day if you are very lucky, and you queue up for hours to get water. A few burly guys are pushing and pulling people, bossing them around - (and they have a kind of a barricade for the tanker that is carrying water) - I'm not sure who those guys are. They certainly don't look like government employees to me. They look like local goons.
What's interesting is this is not a slum of Mumbai. This video was shot right in the heart of Cloaba which is where the Taj Mahal Hotel is, one of the ten best hotels in the world.
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The purpose of life
Loved the simplicity with which harb wrote this under the blog 'Can we change our Destiny ?" There is a fascinating discussion going on there that you should visit.
"As for the purpose of life, imagine yourself to be a part of a flowing river, rather an indistinguishable part. Pushed by and flowing with the flow you just carry on with your life and the question of purpose does not arise in you. You do so in fact in your childhood and youth phases in the River of Life.
A child does not ask for purpose rather enjoys living his natural life which comprises mainly of playing games and indulging in senses. So with a youth, he does not ask the purpose, rather enjoyes his life chasing opposite sex, loving and so on....
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June 11, 2008 | 10:12 AM
The depressed Mumbai constables
The other day I went 'somewhere' in Mumbai and got there early. So sat down with the really nice young constables outside and shared a cup of tea with them. How different they were to the constables either made fun of in our films, or derided as corrupt individuals. It was startling for me to discover that all of them spoke primarily about job related stress, suicides amongst young cops, and the inability to make two ends meet.
"you have no idea how much pressure we have from above, and can never be sure when and how we may be implicated in some political game to protect someone senior or a political big wig'. And this could happen in any of the jobs we are called to do, so constantly have to watch our backs'.
This was a startling statement - and it came passionately from every one of them ....
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June 10, 2008 | 09:27 AM
Sonya's book list : L N Mittal vs Arcelor, Who's side are you on ?
You might look upon him as an underdog ( never mind that he's the world's fourth richest man) Or you might (as much of the European establishment did) see him as the noveau riche, pesky Indian, getting above his station in life . With a peskier son by his side . But whichever way you look at it , L N Mittal's 5 month long battle, for the crown jewel of the European steel empire , is a tale worth trawling through ( Cold Steel by journalist Tim Bonquet and communications consultant Byron Ousey, pub Little Brown UKP 20). Its racy ; and with its bizarre twists and turns, its code names, its moles and it's multiple locations, more thriller than business book.
It's a battle of billionaires that began with Mittals's bid to buy Arcelor ( code named Operation Olympus) . A bid that also made the Indian born entrepreneur into the barbarian at the gate ( he was ok as long as he kept buying rust bucket plants in Uzbekistan and Mexico) .....
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June 07, 2008 | 10:05 PM
Am I in control of my Destiny ? Who is the 'I' ?
Aditya, my new assistant asked : Am I in control my destiny ?
There is a more fundamental question. Who is the 'I' that is asking that question ? If the question is being asked by stepping outside the illusory 'I' and looking it from a universal point of view, then the 'event' (that is perceived to be destined) and the 'I ' are the same. There is no difference between the two as they are locked in an eternal embrace. There is no 'question' that can separate the two, existing as they are, in the same matrix of bubbling potential. However if the question is being asked from inside the illusion of being in the 'I', then the question is completely valid and will always remain a valid question with no valid answer. It is in the nature of the Illusion of our existence that the world can be imagined only in questions and resolved, if at all, in fantasy. For ultimately all the questions arise from desire, and what creates the desire is the imagined separation between desire and the event that is desired. That separation or duality gives rise to the question.
Socially unacceptable behavior
Does anyone remember when Indira Gandhi declared an emergency ? And because there was a food shortage at that time, she forbade any party of more than 50 people if food was being served. Is it time to do that again ? In this lopsided world where some people fly private jets all over the world for fun, regardless of the shortage of aviation fuel, and the number of cars that cost 1 crore and above, which are the greatest gas guzzlers in the world snail through the Mumbai traffic, is it time for us to sit back and actually make it socially unacceptable to indulge in such consumption ? Instead f admiring their wealth and aspiring to do the same ? How can one talk about food riots, the economy on the brink of bankruptcy, and yet all over the world the very people that cause such shortages in the world through speculation and economic manipulation for their own profit, continue to act and live as if these problems do not exist ? And why do we, our press, our aspirations encourage such behavior by making such consumption socially acceptable ?
June 03, 2008 | 09:59 AM
Sonya's Desert island List
Talking Books
One woman's inspiration is another man's toilet paper. Nowhere is this truer than in the world of books. In my family, there are emotional arguments. The man I married, is disappointed in me. I never , never, he complains, get around to reading the wonderful non fiction volumes he dips into- Danziggers Travels, Spice, An Intimate History of Humanity et al . I'm unhappy with him as well. He can't afford the time, he says, to get drawn into the fiction I'm constantly gripped by.
At my book club, the divisions are even sharper. There are Rushdie haters. There are Rushdie Lovers. ....
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Other people on our blog ?
I have long struggled with that. Not that I wish to be the only voice, but because blogging requires commitment. If I am going to invite someone else, then they should commit to us that they will be regular. For we begin to look forward to their entries, and we look forward to discussing them amongst ourselves. My web administrator was totally against it - but I have convinced him that we should include other voices on this blog. Sonya Dutta Chowdhary writes regular book reviews for many papers and magazines, runs a book reading club in Mumbai and teaches reading and writing skills to children. She has committed to writing regular reviews on books and about authors etc. under something called "Desert Island Lists". Welcome Sonya.
