Tag: amal (last 300)
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(Vid) Matthew Perry spent so much time on ‘Friends,’ he can’t tell Indians apart. (via @aasif_mandvi)
The Jacket, on the DA
Tae con hijab
The last racebender
(Angryasianman) In M. Night’s ‘The Last Airbender,’ originally Asian anime, Caucasian heroes run around and fight, while Asians hang around in the background selling vegetables and weaving baskets.
Fashion of the Night
(Gettyimages Pic) Manoj N. and Bhavna Shyamalan arrive for the state dinner. Skinny tie, formal black & white sari.
Mandvi in ‘Airbender’
(IMDB) Aasif Mandvi plays Commander Zhao in M. Night’s ‘Airbender.’ Nabil Awad, Mohammed Ali have small roles.
Kamala chameleon
(Kamalaharris) Kamala Harris, who helped Obama in his campaign, has nicked his graphic design and font.
Hi$$
Exorcising Raju
(WSJ) Satyam’s new owners are trying to purge its disgraced founder from the company’s culture, but his name is so intertwined, it’s difficult.
Asian fail
(Tumblr Pic) Except for Dev Patel, all the Asian ‘Airbender’ characters were re-cast with white actors, and M. Night presided. More on protests: [via]
Tinseltown fundraising for Harris
(SF Chron) Kamala Harris is raising Hollywood cash dating to her helping Obama’s campaign, not just $ from the Bay Area.
Strange bedfellows
Only their mothers could tell ‘em apart
Shyamalan swaps ethnicities
Airtrailer
Harris’ AG opponents planting stories with press?
(LAT) Kamala Harris questioned over SF program that trained illegal immigrant drug felons for jobs they couldn’t legally hold.
A Vulcan and a comedian walk into a bar...
(Fbook) Sarah Silverman, Jason Bateman, Zachary Quinto (Spock), Brett Rattner doing Kamala Harris for AG fundraiser in Hollywood.
An O.G. riot grrrl
(NYT) Married in her teens to a gay man, writer Kamala Das had affairs with men and women and later converted to Islam. Some called her salacious, others said she was protesting patriarchy.
Politics are a contact sport
(Flashreport) Calif. state senator takes out-of-context swipe at SF DA Kamala Harris after entering Calif. AG race. Says she blocked the death penalty for a cop killer but gives no background.
R.I.P. Kamala Das
(New Yorker) I will take a leaf out of one of Kamalas Das’ own stories, in which a father serves his children ghee payasam, and postpones telling them that their mother died earlier that day.
New photo of Patel in ‘Airbender’
M. Night’s big action flick
(Slashfilm) Both Dev Patel and his 12 yr old ‘Airbender’ co-star are martial arts competitors. The teaser will be attached to this summer’s ‘Transformers,’ and the movie opens July 2 ’10.
Devbender
Avatar not the last race bender
(Racebending) M. Night’s ‘Airbender’ movie replaces all the Asian characters with white people, except villain Dev Patel.
Harris drove down recidivism
(Kcet) Kamala Harris would be the first Afr-Am [and desi!] att’y general in Calif. history. Her rehab program for young first-time offenders slashed recidivism to an astonishing 10%.
Philly filly
(Twitter) Sighted at the Falu show in Philly: Aasif Mandvi and Dev Patel, both in M. Night’s latest, ‘The Last Airbender.’
‘Lifetime’ profiles Kamala Harris
(Mylifetime Vid) Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, Calif. and raised with her sister Maya by Dr. Shyamala Gopalan. She attended Howard and UC Hastings lawe school.
Facebook v. Harris
(SF Chron) Facebook chief privacy office Chris Kelly may go up against Kamala Harris in the att’y general Dem primary. (ht: TF)
But ‘avatar’ is Indian
(Comic) Secret Asian Man’s resident ethnocentrist thinks M. Night isn’t Asian enough to direct ‘Avatar: the Last Airbender.’ [Jay Chandrasekhar *did* remaka ‘The Dukes of Hazzard.]
Mandvi joins ‘Airbender’
(Filmofilia) Aasif Mandvi, Shaun Toub (‘Kite Runner’) join Dev Patel in M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Last Airbender.’
Last... in... space!
(Vid) Not content to steal our Oscars, India has thrown its turban into the space ring (at 7:15)... M. Night Shyamalan-brand coffee: starts good, terrible finish (at 15:05).
Patel joins Shyamalan cast
(Variety) Dev Patel will play a fire wielder in M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Last Airbender,’ due 4th of July weekend next year. (ht: Aseem)
Mango conspiracy
(Corpwatch) A Satyam manager moved 5 boxes of docs re: properties owned by 150 Raju companies to new locations around Hyderabad, including apartments, offices, a guest house and a mango farm.
Raju hid docs in circling cars
(DNA) Hundreds of Ramalinga Raju’s property documents were stacked in cardboard boxes and loaded into cars which were kept mobile to avoid the CID. (ht: Arzan)
Raju siphoned profits into property
(IHT) Satyam founder used fictitious salariers to buy land in other people’s names. He did nearly 400 ‘benami’ deals with fake names.
Raju’s billion-dollar heist
(NYT) Investigators say the Satyam founder used a maze of 300 companies to skim $1B from his company. Contradicting Raju’s story, the revenues were apparently real, but were siphoned.
Satyam founder arrested
Harris on the rise
(SF Chron) If att’y general Jerry Brown re-runs for gov., Kamala Harris will run for his slot. Else she may be tapped for an upper-level job in Obama’s Justice Department. (ht: DJ DP)
NARTH’s fantasy
(Jewcy) NARTH sounds like what M. Night Shyamalan would call an otherworldly creature. It’s actually an org which tries to convert gays to straights, and conservative mag ‘Commentary’ took its ad. [via]
Kamala Lopez
(PBS) Kamala Lopez, whose parents are Indian and Venezuelan, had roles in ‘I Heart Huckabees,’ ‘Deep Cover’ and ‘Born in East L.A.’ She grew up in Venezuela and did drama at Yale. Blogs at HuffPo: [via]
Haris, Obama like long-lost Bollytwins
(Sanfranmag) Kamala Harris and Barack Obama look like brother and sister, points out Harris’s mother, UC Berkeley scientist Dr. Shyamala Harris. Others say they’re both pragmatists: ‘She’s like a female Barack Obama.’
Harris and Obama bonded
(More) Obama and Kamala Harris are both biracial and attractive. He’s adopted her ‘smart on crime’ rhetoric, and she could serve in his civil rights division. But she would rather run for Calif. AG in ’10 and later for governor.
Harris could run for att’y general
(Californiaprogressreport) If Dianne Feinstein runs for Calif. gov., all others drop out, Jerry Brown stays AG, so Kamala Harris runs for SF mayor instead of Calif. AG.
Amitava in Denver IV
(Blogsome) SF DA Kamala Harris said her grandmother in Chennai has been going to the temple every day to pray for Obama’s victory.
Kamala for Barack
(LAT) San Francisco DA Kamala Harris took time off from work to travel to Iowa in the winter for Obama, and now she’s in Denver as one of his delegates.
When Night rises
(Variety) Shyamalan’s Night Chronicles partnership will generate 3 thrillers in 3 years. He will produce but not direct and will get a cut of the back end. His UTV deal for ‘The Happening’ gave him 25% ownership.
If O’henry were to do desi
(TO Globe) Canadesian entry to TIFF07 releases to positive reviews. About an honest ricksha driver, plot contrivances and a warm glowing feeling.
Nath revered in India
(WaPo) Kamal Nath got texts reading, ‘You have made India proud.’ He dared Americans to cut even a single dollar of their farm subsidies. In Chhindwara, villagers dote on him, washing his feet in metal basins as a sign of respect.
The end of free trade history
(WSJ op/ed) Kamal Nath preened as a 3rd World hero, claiming to protect farmers. But the rise of India’s middle class has coincided precisely with urbanization and free trade. More Indians will stay poorer because of his obstinance.
Dr. No in Doha
(WaPo) Indian commerce minister Kamal Nath may have played the biggest role in undoing the Doha trade talks, blocking developed nations from greater access to India’s market. It was cheered as heroic in India.
Kamala Harris discloses city passwords
(Infoworld) SF DA Kamala Harris has entered into the public record 150 usernames and passwords for the city VPN as part of a case against a network admin. They must be combined with a second password to access the network. [via]
Indian trade minister holds out on trade
(Alibaba) -Kamal Nath just said ‘No’ for 12 straight hours. -I won’t negotiate the livelihood of millions of poor for the benefit of noncompetitive European industries. The future of autos is not in Detroit or Stuttgart, it’s in Asia.
Stephen King digs ‘The Happening’
(EW) M. Night Shyamalan really understands fear, has completely let himself go and had something to prove. ‘The Happening’ plays as a small movie. There’s little fun to be had in explanations; they’re antithetical to the poetry of fear. [via]
Shyamalan saves himself
(Portfolio) ‘The Happening’ outpaced ‘The Sixth Sense’s’ opening numbers. Its R rating diversified his audience, and the marketing piqued audiences’ curiosity without entirely giving the plot away.
Why the ‘Happening’ hate?
(New Yorker) Movies every bit as stumbling as ‘The Happening’ come out every month, and few are greeted with such contempt. M. Night is plainly obsessive, and we are made uneasy and embarrassed by it.
What’s not ‘Happening’
Kamal Hassan in whiteface
(Filmiholic) Kamal Hassan plays Dubya and a flaxen-haired, waxy-faced, ex-CIA assassin in whiteface in ‘Dasavatharam’ (Ten Incarnations). But can he beat Hrithik Roshan playing the Queen?
How Shyamalan got his name
(Reddit Comment + ‘Happening’ SPOILERS) Why ‘M. Night’? Manoj is the Indian equivalent of Bob. He chose ‘Night’ because he though it would make him sound eclectic to college admissions.
‘The Happening’ fisked
(TNR·L SPOILERS) If you’re not planning on seeing ‘The Happening,’ here’s why it’s plot makes no sense. [via]
Not ‘Happening’
(Salon) Shyamalan’s such an eager recycler, grinding out the same ideas and images again and again. The man who showed such promise less than a decade ago has been leaving a diminishing creative footprint ever since.
Was ‘Sixth Sense’ a fluke?
(Time) ‘The Happening’: A lot of impotent anger, people walking into harm’s way and the sniper-like picking off of supporting players — all the dumbest tropes of horror movies. Shyamalan may be the first to make 5 in a row, each inferior to the previous.
Gaia strikes
(Yahoo SPOILER) Reviewer reveals the plot of the Happening. Feels the movie is underwhelming and riddled with inconsistencies.
Ten Tomatoes
(Vid) Dasavatharam releasing this summer has Kamal in ten roles (though I could only spot four in this). The trailer is a bit crammed but seems visually slick. Then again one expects superior cinematography fromTamil cinema.
New ‘The Happening’ trailer
‘The Happening’ spoiler
(Io9) Spoiler for M. Night’s upcoming ‘The Happening.’ Only read if you want to know who/what the villain is.
Everybody gets a gold star
(HT) Lots of Padma Bhushan and related honorees this year: Tom Alter, Hans Raj Hans, M. Shyamalan, Sunita Williams, Edmund Hillary, Ratan Tata, Lakshmi Mittal, Sachin Tendulkar, Baichung Bhutia, and someone for... mango farming :) [via]
Indian film studio cutting innovative deals
(Newsweek Dec) 3 Indian studios IPO’d on the LSE. Screwvala is putting up $27M for Shyamalan’s “The Happening." UTV is doing an animated film with Will Smith, one directed by an Indian animator for “Ice Age," and WarDevil, a PS3 game from a UK acquisition.
‘Indiana Jones’ sequel: development hell
(LAT) ’97: Chris Columbus pens “Indiana Jones and the Monkey King." ’00: M. Night Shyamalan says he’s in talks to write the next script. Fortunately, no monkey brains.
Shyamalan’s unusual trajectory
(Calendarlive) Hollywood directors usually go from hero to zero. One of the few to go from the outhouse to the penthouse [and back] was Shyamalan, who triumphed with “The Sixth Sense" a year after Miramax buried his “Wide Awake."
Leguizamo joins Shyamalan flick
(Thisisderbyshire) John Leguizamo has joined ‘The Happening,’ playing Mark Wahlberg’s best friend in Shyamalan’s ecodisaster flick.
Deschanel joins Shyamalan flick
(Variety) Zooey Deschanel has inked to star with Mark Wahlberg in M. Night Shyamalan’s 20th Century Fox thriller “The Happening." Story concerns a man who takes his family on the run when an apocalyptic natural crisis threatens to end civilization.
Indian movie company financing Shyamalan
(Variety) The Indian production company UTV committed 50% of Shyamalan’s $57M budget for ‘The Happening.’ UTV also co-financed ‘The Namesake’ and Chris Rock’s ‘I Think I Love My Wife.’ Mark Wahlberg will play... a science teacher :D
Wahlberg might do Shyamalan film
(Joblo) Mark Wahlberg is in talks to star in M. Night Shyamalan’s next film THE HAPPENING. It’s an eco-thriller about Mother Nature seeking revenge on Earth.
Shyamalan finally sells disaster flick
(Cinemablend) The Happening sounds like The Day After Tomorrow crossed with Signs: a thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis. $57 million dollar pic, and M. Night’s first R-rated movie.
Shyamalan building $18M manor
(Philly) The work in progress on M. Night Shyamalan’s $17.9M property suggests an elegant manor house. Shyamalan might create formal gardens and has built an 8-foot deer fence of plastic netting around the grounds.
Doyle: script optional
(Voice) -How important is the content of the film for you? Christopher Doyle, ‘LitW’ cinematographer: I’ve done eight films that I don’t know the story of. Tell me what ‘In the Mood for Love’ is about.
Shyamalan could sweep Razzies
(Financialexpress) LitW has been nominated for 4 Razzies, each of which personally involves Shyamalan: worst picture, direction, screenplay and supporting actor.
Its savior is that it is up against Basic Instinct 2.
Shyamalan’s latest script panned
(Tabloid) M. Night Shyamalan’s newest screenplay, “Green Planet," is about an aliens invading earth using plans and animals. At least three studios have passed on it. [via]
Worst movie villains
(Phatphree) Worst villain: ‘Unbreakable,’ a comic book collector whose femurs break when the wind blows. That M. Night used badass Samuel L. Jackson in this frail role is bad enough, but giving him that haircut was Unforgivable.
M. Night and Kingsley nominated for worst movies
(Monstersandcritics) Up for the worst movie competition are M. Night Shyamalan’s fantasy ‘Lady in the Water,’ ‘The Wicker Man’ starring Nicolas Cage, and ‘BloodRayne,’ a vampire movie with Ben Kingsley, directed by Uwe Boll.
Shyamalan opposes digital film
(New Yorker) ‘In ten years, I doubt there will be any more film.’ But Spielberg and M. Night Shyamalan want to continue shooting and exhibiting in the traditional way. [via]
Shyamalan’s new ‘Avatar’
(Filmfodder) Shyamalan is doing the first of 3 films based on a quasi-anime Nicktoon called ‘Avatar,’ set in an “Asian-influenced fantasy world." James Cameron wants the same title for a space opera.
Shyamalan directed the AmEx ad he starred in
(IHT) The spot was a glimpse into the world of M. Night Shyamalan. Shyamalan made the mistake of acting in the commercial, which he also directed. He is no Olivier.
After flop, Shyamalan switches agents
(Variety) M. Night Shyamalan has signed with CAA. The writer/director left UTA, the agency which has repped him since ‘Wide Awake,’ after the disappointing $42M take of ‘Lady in the Water.’
‘Heroes’ reminiscent of M. Night
(Ndsmcobserver) “Heroes" (Sendhil Ramamurthy) revolves around ordinary people who discover they have uncanny abilities. It has glaring similarities to Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable," and its ensemble cast and sprawling scope are hallmarks of “Lost."
Shyamalan’s $10M fee for ‘The Village’
(Slashfilm) ‘The Village’ budget: see what goes into a $71M movie. Shyamalan’s writing/directing payday of $10.7 million. The first assistant director got paid $189K for 8 months.
‘Haroun’ play at Arizona State
(Asu) Rushdie’s ‘Haroun and the Sea of Stories’ is being performed as a play at ASU. One day, Rashid’s passion for storytelling disappears, and Haroun begins a voyage to the ocean for the Streams of Story,�the source for all storytellers. Like LitW.
A whole book on Shyamalan flicks
(Highpoint) She is working on an essay on the films of M. Night Shyamalan for a new anthology called “Spoiler Warnings: Critical Essays on the films of M. Night Shyamalan."
Cute one-liner about M. Night
(Alligator) Comedian Paul Varghese: only Shyamalan has succeeded in Hollywood, because “how are you going to make a movie called ‘The Village’ and not put any Indians in it?’"
Bible Belt prof teaches M. Night as religion
(Baylor) At Baylor, “Wide Awake: Spiritual Quests in the Films of M. Night Shyamalan" explores why Shyamalan introduces a theme of spiritual quest into other genres. But he’s not an evangelical, or even Christian.
Great one-liner about ‘LiTW’
(Jsonline) In ‘Lady in the Water,’ writer-director M. Night Shyamalan killed a film critic. (While watching it, I thought, “Lucky guy.")
‘LitW’ beautifully filmed but odd
(Ndsmcobserver) “Lady" remains an exercise in style, a beautifully shot film with humane touches. But it’s a safe bet that Shyamalan’s next film will be his most commercially viable project since “Signs."
In defense of ‘Lady in the Water’
(Thisisbasingstoke) It’s sad when the press interfere, removing the innocence of audience expectations.
And such a fate befell M. Night Shyamalan. I’ve seen countless worse films, none of which received half the flak Lady has taken.
College reviewer digs ‘LitW’
(Da) “Lady in the Water" was another in a long line of Shyamalan fantasies misunderstood by almost every casual viewer. It was a jolt of creativity in a summer sorely lacking it, and remains one of the best films of the year.
KANK beats LitW in UK debuts
‘Signs’ mashup about Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitism
(Vid) Video mashup of M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Signs’ pokes fun at Mel Gibson’s alleged anti-Semitism. [via]
An extremely silly ‘Lady’
(Philly) It’s a busy made-up universe — with rules, rituals, and a deity-tree that could give the Hindu hierarchy a run for its rupee. Sarita Choudhury brings levity to the role of M. Night’s hot sister.
The Dead Pool
(Voice Village Voice) Genuine yarn-spinning, even as a doomed ambition, is virtually extinct in American movies. Shyamalan’s movies are at least attempts at making the tale an emotional experience, not Avid-spasm editing. But this movie is nonsense.
In defense of M. Night Shyamalan
(Slate) Since The Usual Suspects, Bryan Singer reinvented himself as a director of comic-book blockbusters. He’s been making movies for the studios instead of what Shyamalan does — persuade the studios to make movies for him.
M. Night responsible for nearly $10B in revenues
(Philly) Total gross of all of Shyamalan’s movies: close to $10 bil. Only John Lasseter at Pixar did better, and he didn’t write and direct all his movies. Insiders can’t believe he, like Mira Nair, passed on Harry
Potter. (via SM)
M. Night’s inflatable head
(NYT) Shyamalan has given himself a big role in “Lady in the Water.” In the current flurry of image-shaping, the egotist satirized in “Buried Secret” seems all too real.
A hagiography of M. Night
(NYT) M. Night Shyamalan has set a new high-water mark for this sort of sycophancy: A full-length, unintentionally riotous puff book. When he appeared on the cover of Newsweek, his father told him that Time had a bigger circulation.
M. Night disses Disney
(LAT) Review of ‘The Man Who Heard Voices,’ about M. Night Shyamalan’s split with Disney (via India Uncut).