Naveen Andrews stars in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’ neo-retro double feature Grindhouse, which tries to recreate the feel of a ’70s exploitation theater, albeit with 20 times the budget (via Angry Asian Man). The movie is split into two features, ‘Planet Terror’ and ‘Death Proof,’ separated by fake movie trailers which sound hilarious:
… fake […]
Sunday afternoons at Juhu Beach are always packed with families:
The king of Hindu sex talk promoted a new book in the middle of the virgin birth. It’s a match made in heaven:
Spacey Chopra and prickly Colbert make for a strange combination. In a moment of disarming honesty, Chopra says:
Colbert: Are you a prophet?
Chopra: If you spell it ‘p-r-o-f-i-t…’
Colbert: Do you exfoliate?
Chopra: If you […]
I’d pay big bucks to see Being Paresh Rawal, a mockumentary about the raccoon-eyed genius who’s played the same role in every movie since Hera Pheri. Sometimes he’s even done the same plot twice (a dance troupe owner overseas in Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota and Bhagam Bhag).
The guy from Inside the Actors Studio would […]
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says in his biography iWoz that the first time he ever got drunk was on a flight to Sri Lanka:
… I didn’t even get drunk until I was thirty… It was on my first flight out of the United States to Sri Lanka. I was extremely scared on the plane so […]
Last week, my local watering hole was overrun by drawling interlopers. The doorman had given up trying to restrain the crowd and struggled just to keep the door open. Inside there was barely room to move, and twenty minutes later I realized I wasn’t going to get a drink. My local friends stayed away in […]
Sanjay Patel at Pixar has released an expanded version of his Hindu manga book, The Little Book of Hindu Deities. The not-so-little book is now over a hundred pages (via Boing Boing). He changed the title from Little India so as not to lump in non-Hindus, found an agent at ICM, sold the rights to […]
Check out two very funny Indian TV ads about marriage (via Brown Guy). This one’s a Click-like fantasy about picking an arranged mate:
The ubiquitous Bombay good luck charm consists of chili peppers, a lemon and a piece of coal on a string, hung from a vehicle bumper or a tree. Add in the European belief in the repellent powers of garlic, and you’ve got yourself some mighty potent pasta sauce.
The Indian marketing team for Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum renamed the flick Museum Ke Andar Phans Gaya Sikander (Alexander Got Stuck Inside the Museum). Stiller’s character is actually named Larry, but Alexander/Sikandar is slang for conqueror/badass, and rhymes besides.
The title [of an older film, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar] means “Conqueror of destiny,” but it […]
Here are some of my favorite photos from the dedicated bloggers (and NGO workers) at Mumbai Daily Photo, which y’all should go and bookmark forthwith. Click each photo to read the post.
Crêpe seller:
Towing a rick:
In this shot from Amar Akbar Anthony, Shabana Azmi seems to be standing at the curve of Bandstand where it meets the koliwada, where boats are parked during low tide (thanks, B-Fug):
As it is today:
But it could just as easily be another part of Bombay’s western coast. Consider this a question in cryptogeography: can anyone […]
Sadhu and Santa in Allahabad (via ToI)
The cast of Goodness Gracious Me would like to remind you that Santa Claus is from Jalandhar:
A great collection of early 1900s circus posters from the Netherlands.
With this website, Stichting Circusarchief Jaap Best wishes to make the cultural heritage of the circus available to a broader public. While some of the illustrations it contains may be experienced as offensive or shocking, it is not our intention that our publications should offend […]
Frenchman Pascal Héni sings classic Hindi, Tamil and Bengali filmi songs phonetically:
… he is bedecked in “wild 100-rupee shirts, a chrome belt, a junk 50s watch, Madras fish-skin shoes, glitter trousers in raw silk…
… his singing of… Mukesh, Mohd Rafi and, especially, Kishore Kumar, has astounded the purists. “He cannot speak Hindi, but will sweep […]
If Superman’s cinematic revival turns him into a Christ figure, surely there exists a Hindu comic book superhero. I speak, of course, of Shaktimaan, whose lotus and Star of David strike spiritual calm and peace into the hearts of evildoers everywhere. And this genius is only nine years old:
… Shaktimaan is… an Indian television superhero […]
I take great pleasure in collecting unfamiliar terms in the Bombay papers. Here’s a partial glossary of Bombayisms translated into American English. Some are specific to Bombay and its history of organized crime, most are Indian English, some are by way of UK English.
aluminium
aluminum
arms dump
arms depot
backwardness
poverty
baksheesh
tip
bandobast
security arrangements
bang behind
directly behind
batata
potato […]
The case of Santhi Soundarajan, the Asian Games runner stripped of a silver medal for failing a gender test, turns curiouser and curiouser. Theories being floated include the possibility that Soundarajan is hormonally abnormal:
Gender tests are only carried out if another person becomes suspicious… it was a fellow athlete from India, but this could not […]
Cary Grant in Brylcreem
Cricket star Mahendra Singh Dhoni shills Brylcreem, the graying baby boomer’s last attempt at style, on Indian TV. Like Marriott, Domino’s and Pizza Hut, the brand has moved upmarket in India with a line of colored hair gel aimed at teens.
I’ve got just two questions. First, whose bright idea was it to […]
Hot rodders add parts outside a rice rocket store in Bandra:
Poor family sleeps on a two-foot-wide median in Andheri: