An informed European-American reader of this blog told me that Bollywood films always make her feel good. It would be very hard to make any one feel good about the tragedy in Myanmar and the historic city of Yangon or Rangoon as it used to be called. The only way I know is to bring you the great song…
The New York Times has reported that a boat carrying some of the first aid to Myanmar sank, apparently after hitting a submerged tree. The article uses this fact to highlight the enormous logistical difficulties of delivering aid to the region. But, the article does not mention what happened to the crew of the boat, the crew…
The story of the natural disaster in Myanmar is utterly tragic. Historically, Myanmar has been a prosperous region with abundant natural resources and a fertile land, fed by the Brahmaputra and Irawati rivers. Myanmar and India share great cultural, religious, social traditions and heritage. The Far Eastern states of India (Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland) border Myanmar. During the Mahabharat period (130 generations before…
When we ask this question of our friends, they think we are joking. Most people are not even aware that New York Times reviews Bollywood films. Well they do and they do it well! We are becoming fans of Rachel Saltz who reviews Bollywood films for the New York Times. She is critical when she…
This is the second article in our series about Bollywood Interpretations of Hollywood Films. In the desi tradition of using short forms, going forward, we will use our phrase Bolly-Holly (copyright of and by CinemaRasik) for this category. Changing Lanes is a 2002 film that stars Ben Affleck and Samuel Jackson. IMDB (www.imdb.com) describes the film as…
Did you know that the Company Yahoo, Inc., was named so for the great Shammi Kapoor song “Yahoo” in the 1961 Bollywood film “Junglee“. Yahoo’s founder Jerry Yang was a fan of Shammi Kapoor and was inspired by the classic song. May be that is why Yahoo’s first campaign was titled “Do you Yahoo?”! Come Monday morning,…
Witness and Paap – Bollywood Interpretations and Hollywood Originals – I A young boy is waiting in a Philadelphia station with his mother. He goes to the bathroom and becomes a silent witness to a murder. The detective in charge of the case discovers that the murderer is a senior police officer. He shares this…
In the past, this question would have been greeted with derision. Those days are long gone. Bollywood has become very good at making terrific films by adapting Hollywood films to the Indian setting. Many of these Bollywood “interpretations” have proved to be better films than the original Hollywood inspirations. In some cases, the interpretations add a totally different dimension to…