Greatest paisa vasool moment in Iron Man: Jeff Bridges, the Big Lebowski, whispering ‘Yeh hai tumhara tofa‘ in bad phonetic Hindi into Faran Tahir’s ear.
Second best: Bridges’ first appearance as Obadiah Stane (get it?), his beard gelled and squared off like a Sikh soldier’s.
And: Two cute desi-ish reporters played by Meera Simhan and Irani-American actress […]
A quick word about Amruta Patil’s dark, intense graphic novel Kari: it’s the story of an alienated young woman working in an ad agency in Mumbai while dealing with acute loneliness and the heartache of separation from her soulmate Ruth. (The book o…
Stephen Colbert played a clip from Superman ripoff Dariya Dil on last night’s show, and for a brief, shining moment, Govinda, Kimi Katkar and Aarey Milk Colony shimmered on America’s screen:
These days, they can outsource any American job to India. Look what they did to Superman. You thought Superman 4 was bad.
Penny Arcade wants you to know that chicks dig nonsensical Indic scripts outside Bollywood too.
The Kridana toy company lets desi kids experience the highest joy of growing up in America: acting out their ultraviolent fantasies in plastic. Breakdancing, ‘roided-out Hanuman-ji looks pretty good, except for the coprolite in his hand that’s supposed to be a mountain. Rama, on the other hand, looks like Princess Jasmine’s hair shagged […]
NYC cabs bore psychedelic flower stickers all summer. Check out the detail on this Voice toon about the NYC Halloween parade:
Yet again, I’m deciding whether to cheap out, strap a plastic sword to a sherwani and march in the parade. Makes the viewing so much easier
Virgin Comics are churning out an ever-increasing number of Indian titles for the racks at your local Virgin Megastore, which as I’ve noted before is not just another name for Delhi. These thin, $3 comics are printed graphic novel style with gorgeous, original artwork but crap writing. Like Bollywood, the heroes tend to have Western […]
I went to high school in Saratoga, California, which started out as a quiet retirement community. At the time there were less than five desis at Saratoga High; one or two Iranians whom we vaguely suspected of being desi, though the names threw us; and a handful of East Asians. It was the kind of […]
I’m diggin’ the art style of the Ramayan 3392 comics, a futuristic dystopia loosely modeled on the Ramayana (thanks, Super Maneesh). The writing, not so much. Check out their first year and previews of their other Indian comics. Of Snake Woman, a friend from Bombay writes:
This was a real sentence on the news last […]
Will be hopscotching continents. Here’s a fabulous time waster for those of geekier persuasion: The Order of the Stick web comic. It’s South Park meets World of Warcraft.
For years I suffered through explanations of desi holidays in the local S.F. Bay Area papers. It’s usually a photo in the feature section with a short, two-line description and a whiff of well-meaning leftism. Then Johnny Hart, R.I.P., would embed some baffling Biblical allegory in B.C. every couple of weeks, which I could decode […]
Sanjaya Malakar’s ponyhawk is apparently an all-purpose metaphor:
As a special surprise, we present the now legendary comicbook Nagraj vs Shakoora the Magician. Copyright infringements and grammar be dammed!!
NPR talk to Sanjay Patel, an animator for Pixar Studios and creator of Ghee Happy, yesterday. Take a listen to the interview…..also BUY THE BOOK!
After the World Cup debacle, David Beckham is joining his own Galaxy. Perhaps Bend It Like Beckham 2 will feature tarty desi Valley girls cooing over his quads, like, innit? More likely it’ll feature the saronged, nail-polished metrosexual inspiring a new generation of torchbearers in Bendier Like Beckham. I for one welcome our new footie […]
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 […]
Sutton Impact pokes fun at the Jim Webb - Dubya throwdown at a D.C. party. Read the whole thing.
President Bush, spying Webb across the room, walked over to him and asked, “How’s your boy?” Webb’s son is a Marine in Iraq… “I’d like to get them out of Iraq,” he replied… “That’s not what I […]
If you don’t already read toonista Rajneesh Kapoor’s perceptive comic strip about life in India, get thy kundi over to ‘This Is Our Life,’ stat.
After a somewhat protracted silence, I have returned from my kingdom of obscurity to ring in the Christmas season with the aid of BoyMongoose (yeah-yeah, Christmas is colonial hegemony, cultural suppression-cum-oppression, etc., but in my world its also the one time of year when one can praise the lord, pass the whisky, kiss your cousin […]
Just how much does Bombay love its soap operas? Enough to live them again and again as a comic strip in the Mumbai Mirror.
This is like straight man shark repellent. Carry it at night. Bust it at the first sign of trouble.