Khalid Mohamed

Apr 04, 2011
Khalid Mohamed

Khalid Mohamed

That wonder boy Sabu

Today, India’s prime actors who are making a bid for international visibility — in roles, major or minor — are amassing reams of publicity and flashbulb attention from the paparazzi. Amitabh Bachchan, despite a brief part in The Great Gatsby, stirred up news headlines and tumult at the extravaganza’s premiere in New York, and then on the Cannes Film Festival’s red carpet. Irrfan Khan and Tabu have received an unconditional thumbs-up from the Oscar-celebrated Ang Lee after Life of Pi, Anil Kapoor is a known factor in international enclaves after Slumdog Millionaire, a cameo in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, as well as the TV series 24.

The bastion for filmdom’s best

If you haven’t ever visited the campus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, you’ve missed out on the heavenly scent of cinema. Quite old-worldly, the 53-year-old institute’s centrepoint is a cool, shade-casting Wisdom Tree.

Why I still love the movies

May 3, 2013, the big 100th birthday of Indian cinema, went by without any firecrackers and fanfare, didn’t it? Unless you count the official announcement that the National Film Awards will be presented in New Delhi on 3-05 every year from now on.

B’wood comes of age, bends gender rules

In an issue of the now-defunct magazine, Fulcrum, author Cyrus Mistry had written a perceptive essay on Sholay, stating that the friendship between Jai and Veeru verged on the homo-erotic — in particular during the song Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge. To be sure that wasn’t on the mind of Ramesh Sippy, at all, while directing Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan astride a mobike.

The master of happy endings

Now, there are countless wizards of mainstream entertainment who deserve to be revisited and revalued. So there is a certain amount of hesitation in declaring that Nasir Hussain of the romantic breezers of the 1950s and ’60s, is one of them. That would be far too facile.

The headlines said it all. The Man Booker International Prize had been awarded to Lydia Davis, the American author. But most Indian newspapers in English announced it as “U.R. Ananthamurthy loses out on Man Booker”. You could almost hear the collective sigh of millions of disappointed Indians.

Today, India’s prime actors who are making a bid for international visibility — in roles, major or minor — are amassing reams of publicity and flashbulb attention from the paparazzi. Amitabh Bachchan, despite a brief part in The Great Gatsby, stirred up news headlines and tumult at the extravaganza’s premiere in New York, and then on the Cannes Film Festival’s red carpet. Irrfan Khan and Tabu have received an unconditional thumbs-up from the Oscar-celebrated Ang Lee after Life of Pi, Anil Kapoor is a known factor in international enclaves after Slumdog Millionaire, a cameo in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, as well as the TV series 24.

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