Director Jay Chandrasekhar (The Dukes of Hazzard, Super Troopers) strikes a blow for brown underachievers everywhere with his new movie Beerfest. NASA gives you the Chandrasekhar X-ray Observatory? Jay parries with beer, bratwurst and boobies.
The frat boy comedy revolves around a beer-chugging competition at Oktoberfest:
After getting out-drunk by their German cousins, who taunt the residents […]
My buddy Nikhil Kamkolkar has slaved away on his indie film Indian Cowboy (Sheetal Sheth, Deep Katdare from Bombay Dreams) since time immemorial. Today he finally released the soundtrack, after lining up artists ranging from Karsh Kale to Shaheen Sheik to Alms for Shanti, and distribution via Amazon and CD Baby (via Sree).
You can listen […]
Check out a hilarious track called ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ by the D’Archetypes, a British Asian rap and spoken word group (thanks, Jana). Click ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ at top right.
It’s not the usual — it re-envisions shopkeepers crossing the dark waters, designing their future cornershops in posh, poncey British accents.
The D’Archetypes are rockin’ Mocha […]
The Ganesh creches are up throughout Bombay: silver Ganesh with searchlights and disco, glitter Ganesh riding an electric blue peacock. The lights I loved so much during New Year’s in Rome are present here in short-sleeve season.
Sri Lankan-Bahraini beauty queen Jackie Fernandez turned up to the Emmies in something très près à porter:
Jazz pianist and math geek Madhav Chari
dropped out of Illinois just before his Ph.D. to become a jazzman in the Village. He caresses notes from ivory tongues
and sometimes lets satellite radio be his patron, in Bombay, Paris, New York.
At the NCPA at Nariman Point last night, Chari played original compositions, Cole Porter, Gershwin, Duke. He […]
Here’s the video for A.R. Rahman’s rendition of ‘Vande Mataram‘:
It’s a lovely, not-secular song with Durga, Lakshmi and temple metaphors, but the surest way to kill patriotism is to try and make it compulsory:
.. the BJP [directed] all [Indian] states ruled by it to make singing of the national song [’Vande Mataram’] compulsory in all […]
Javier Moro’s novel about the Spanish flamenco dancer who married the maharaja of Kapurthala in Punjab, Pasión India, was released in India in an English translation Aug. 8. The story sounds fantastic, from the time that she and Raja Jagatjit Singh Bahadur met cute:
Marrakech comes to Punjab
Anita [Delgado]… drank the hot water in the […]
According to the latest Virginia poll, Jim Webb, Sen. George ‘Macaca’ Allen’s opponent, is now the frontrunner for the first time:Now all the challengers will be getting their own Indian kids
For the first time, a new poll shows Democratic candidate Jim Webb ahead in the race for U.S. Senate in Virginia. In the Wall Street […]
A few noteworthy things I’ve been meaning to post:
Kahani
Kahani, a literary magazine for children of South Asian descent, was recently awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award by the Association of Educational Publishers. Featuring original short stories and illustrations, the quarterly magazine’s mission is to “empower, educate and entertain  (more)
I (heart) Shiva
I (heart) Shiva hosts a […]
Just in time for Ganesh Chaturthi comes the news that a desi Malaysian will make the first 3D movie about Ganesh:
The filmmaker would use a high-tech Chennai studio, owned by Tamil Superstar Rajnikanth’s daughter for the film… [Link]
Hopefully it turns out better than the 3D Krishna flick, which has animation so amateur, it’s worse than […]
Kaushik remixes Karsh Kale’s ‘Manifest’ from his new album Broken English. I’m groovin’ on the familiar, mystical desi vocal over rap. Listen here.
The album’s swaggering opening track, “Manifest,” parcels rapping from MC Napoleon together with dhol programming and classical Hindi vocals from Vishal Vaid, one of Kale’s immensely talented, longtime collaborators. It is a startling […]
A long and fascinating Vikram Chandra interview in the Hindustan Times contains this nugget:
Vikram and Melanie are newlyweds. They met a few years back at an Asian festival in LA called Artwallah, at a cocktail party… “She’s Jewish, so we did a Jewish ceremony in LA, then came to Bombay and did a Hindu ceremony […]
Sen. George Allen was tailed by a giant banana and a guy in a monkey suit at a campaign rally in Virginia on Friday (via DailyKos). Since when did political theater start cribbing from Chaplin?
He also changed his campaign schedule to duck protests over Macacagate:
Sen. George Allen… [bypassed] an afternoon stop in downtown Staunton for […]
Until I laid eyes on this shirt.
When Chunky Pandey walks into a bar, he buys two drinks: one for himself and one for his leetle friend.
The Bombay cops tried hiring Chunky Pandey’s shirt to torture criminals, but exploding eyeballs leave marks.
Chunky Pandey’s shirt met Chuck Norris in a dark alley. Only the shirt walked out.
Chunky […]
Can’t argue with that (thanks, hairy_D). But do they really have to wear the light blue pags?
Indian soldiers of the United Nations force in southern Lebanon , known as UNIFIL, stand at an observation post along the Lebanese-Israeli border across from the northern Israel town of Manara… [Link]
Because one can never have enough turquoise spandex, silver hula skirts or golden touch football flags, here’s the instaclassic ‘Auwa Auwa’ from Disco Dancer, which rips off at least two American songs.
This pinnacle of Bollywood was released well after disco died in America. If I ever feel the need for emergency pants, these won’t be […]
Sameena Sitabkhan has a great collection of Bollywood art found on autorickshaw mudflaps.
In the summer parched city of Ahmedabad, in north-western India, a rickshaw rattles by, adorned with vibrant airbrushed mudflaps of favorite Bollywood legends, capturing a bloody or steamy film moment, with the protagonists waiving guns, bottles, and cigarettes, and sporting larger than life […]
Aap Ki Khatir (For Your Sake) is a mediocre ripoff of a mediocre ripoff. It’s a Bollylift of The Wedding Date, a Debra Messing vehicle which was a mashup of My Best Friend’s Wedding, Pretty Woman and The Bodyguard. Its cadences have that special inertness which bespeaks bad direction, slack editing and an improvised script. […]
The second album of Zoe Rahman, a part Bangla, part English jazz pianist, was nominated for Britain’s best-known music award in July (via Sepia Mutiny). Listen to a clip here and also at the bottom of this page.
Zoe studied music at Oxford University and jazz performance at Berklee College of Music, Boston… [Link]
Last night, the […]