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pioneerepaper · 2 years ago

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Best Romantic Bollywood Movies to Watch

Bollywood movies are known for bringing a sense of escapism through music and dance. But there's a deeper layer that makes these films so special and romantic!

Romantic Bollywood movies often show the power of love in a beautiful and inspiring way. Whether it's an arranged marriage or unrequited love, the best Hindi movies tell stories that make us laugh, cry and say 'Aww'!

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, directed by debutant Aditya Chopra, became a blockbuster movie. It shattered box office records and has been screened at the Maratha Mandir cinema hall in Mumbai for 25 years, making it one of the longest running movies in the country.

The film is set in London, England, and follows the lives of two Indian immigrants (Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol) who meet through chance. They become a couple and fall in love.

Several later Bollywood films, including Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), were inspired by the film. It also helped to start a trend in Yash Raj Films of using foreign locations as part of the story.

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge is based on the romance between a British-born Punjabi immigrant Chaudhry Baldev Singh (Amrish Puri) and his daughter Simran (Kajol). The romance takes place in Europe, and the film follows the tradition of 1960s romance films set in hill stations, which often saw families opposed to the romantic liaison of their protagonists.

Dil To Pagal Hai

Dil To Pagal Hai was a blockbuster that swept B-Town with its sleek presentation and fresh music. Directed by Yash Chopra, it starred Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Karisma Kapoor.

The film’s opening sequence was a major milestone in the Hindi cinema. It featured dance choreography that was modern, refreshing and unlike what audiences had seen in Bollywood movies before. This choreography was done by Shiamak Davar who won the President’s National Award for his work in the movie.

In the end, Dil To Pagal Hai became one of the most famous love stories that ever graced the big screen. It also taught a lot about finding your soulmate and destiny.

The film’s climax is memorable and won millions of hearts. It also has a very interesting twist that is not very obvious until it’s revealed.

Kal Ho Naa Ho

A wacky and heartwarming love story set in multicultural America, Kal Ho Naa Ho is one of the most beloved Bollywood romances of all time. It stars international superstar Shah Rukh Khan and has become an iconic cultural landmark -- and for good reason.

Despite the movie's remit being set in New York, the film feels like it could have been shot in India. Writer/director Karan Johar and music director Nikkhil Advani package the film with Gujaratis, Punjabis, Sardars, Christians, a video pirate uttering Mumbaiya lingo, and other elements that make this a truly Indian bollywood flick in an American context.

It’s a romantic melodrama, but it also has moments of heartbreak and angst. Unlike most rom-coms of the early 2000s, it actually demonstrates how it can be possible to live a good life without ever finding true love.

It’s impossible not to fall in love with the movie and its cast, particularly Shah Rukh Khan as Aman Mathur, who narrates the plot and makes everyone's lives better with his contagious joviality. Aman's death at the end of the film is heart-breaking, but also a reminder that ensuring a future for others only enriches your own.

Jab We Met

If you’re looking for a fun and romantic movie to watch, look no further than Jab We Met. Featuring Shahid Kapur and Kareena Kapoor, it’s one of the most popular romantic films in Bollywood.

Directed by Imtiaz Ali, who had previously directed Socha Na Tha, this film is a heart-warming tale of love. It features some great performances from Shahid and Kareena, along with Pritam Chakraborty’s soulful music.

The story follows Aditya (Shahid Kapur), who is dejected and suicidal, as he meets Geet (Kareena Kapoor), a cheerful chatterbox, on a train journey. Their mutual attraction sparks into a genuine romance and they go on to have two daughters together.

Although the movie has its share of cliches, it is still very enjoyable with its light-hearted banter and chatter. The music and cinematography also help it stand out from other Hindi films.

Veer-Zaara

Veer Pratap Singh, a rescue pilot, saves Zaara Hayat Khan, a Pakistani girl, following an accident. The two become lovers.

Veer is imprisoned on false charges and a young Pakistani lawyer, Saamiya Siddiqui (Rani Mukerji), fights for his release. She wins Veer's case, and the couple reunites in India.

The film is an unforgettable story of love and peace that transcends cultural, religious and national barriers, as well as feminism and secularism. The message is timeless, even 16 years after its release.

In a world where love knows no boundaries, it can conquer the most extreme of controversies. Veer and Zaara’s star-crossed romance is a testament to this principle, as the movie pleads for understanding and peace between India and Pakistan.

Veer-Zaara is a romantic film starring Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta that celebrates the power of love. It also features songs and dancing that tweens will love as well as a few moments of serious courtroom drama.

Aashiqui 2

Aashiqui 2 tells the story of a former singing sensation Rahul Jaykar (Aditya Roy Kapur) and his protege, aspiring singer Arohi Shirke (Shraddha Kapoor). The film was directed by Mohit Suri.

Aditya and Shraddha create a perfect chemistry in this drama. Their performance made audiences fall in love with their characters and also made the film a huge hit at the box office.

Director Mohit Suri updates the story of Abhimaan and adds a new angst-ridden layer. The film is a romantic musical that follows the classic love story of a famous artiste and his protégé.

It is an old-world romance that has high-drama and well-crafted heart-breaking moments. It is a feel good movie with some great songs like Tum Hi Ho (Arijit Singh), Sunn Raha Hai and Bhula Dena.

Aditya and Shraddha deliver their best performances in this romantic melodrama. They have near perfect chemistry together and their acting is spot on in mushy scenes. However, their performances are not flawless as they have weak moments too.

Love Aaj Kal

Love Aaj Kal is a spiritual sequel to director Imtiaz Ali’s 2009 hit, which looked at the changing definition of love over time. It stars Sara Ali Khan and Kartik Aaryan as two lovers in 1990 and 2020, who go through an intense struggle to find a balance between their professional lives and romantic relationships.

Love is a complex thing to get right. It is why movies like Love Aaj Kal, which attempt to explore the complexity of the human relationship, are always welcome in cinema.

The first trailer of Love Aaj Kal is now out and it looks absolutely delicious. It’s a fun and spicy romance with comedy sprinkled over it like coriander.

While the film’s script is slow and at times overdramatic, the performances are decent and Sara Ali Khan and Kartik Aaryan do a great job of bringing out their characters’ emotional states. Saif Ali Khan is also excellent as Jai, his character is very similar to his role in Kal Ho Na Ho and Dil Chahta Hai.

Shiddat

Shiddat is a story about a man who falls in love but finds it difficult to express his feelings. The object of his affections is betrothed to someone else and asks him to prove his love.

The film stars Radhika Madan and Sunny Kaushal in the lead roles. The trailer of the movie was recently released on social media, giving a glimpse of their characters and the tumultuous romance that unfolds between them.

This film is directed by Kunal Deshmukh and produced by Dinesh Vijan's Maddock Films. The film was shot in Punjab, Paris and London and is slated to release on Disney+ Hotstar on October 1.

In the beginning of the film, we get introduced to Jaggi (Sunny Kaushal), a short, emaciated lad who has come illegally to the UK. He crashes into the wedding reception of Gautam (Mohit Raina) and Ira (Diana Penty).

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mikeruggerispreclovisnews · 6 years ago

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May 18, 2019

New DNA Test of a Blackfeet Clan Member Breaks New Ground.

Darrell "Dusty” Crawford, a member of the Blackfeet tribe, wanted to have his DNA tested, and it has been tested after his recent death. His ancestry shows DNA from the Pacific, and ancestors traveling to South America, then north. His DNA is in haplogroup B, which is of low frequency in Alaska and Canada, and originated in Arizona 17,000 years ago. His closest relatives are in Southeast Asia. The Blackfeet clans trace their clanship back to four females, one whose name was Ina. That name comes from a Polynesian mythical figure who rides a shark. His DNA was 85% Native American, 9.8% European, 5.3% East Asian (mostly Japanese and Southern Han Chinese), 2% South Asian (Sri Lankan Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati Indian and Bengali) and .2% African (Mende in Sierra Leone and African Caribbean).

(My note; The story that the First Americans came across after the Beringia opening has been touted as the only route the First Americans could have taken to arrive here. In all of the research I have compiled, I believe there is a Pacific crossing as well. See my Pre-Clovis news page below. This DNA study also points in that direction).

The report is in USA Today https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/06/blackfeet-man-dna-deemed-oldest-americas-cri-genetics/1121352001/

Mike Ruggeri’s Pre-Clovis World http://preclovisworld.tumblr.com

Mike Ruggeri’s Pre-Clovis and Clovis World Magazine http://bit.ly/1uAWdvk

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michaelruggeriancientamericas · 6 years ago

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May 18, 2019

New DNA Test of a Blackfeet Clan Member Breaks New Ground.

Darrell "Dusty” Crawford, a member of the Blackfeet tribe, wanted to have his DNA tested, and it has been tested after his recent death. His ancestry shows DNA from the Pacific, and ancestors traveling to South America, then north. His DNA is in haplogroup B, which is of low frequency in Alaska and Canada, and originated in Arizona 17,000 years ago. His closest relatives are in Southeast Asia. The Blackfeet clans trace their clanship back to four females, one whose name was Ina. That name comes from a Polynesian mythical figure who rides a shark. His DNA was 83% Native American, 9.8% European, 5.3% East Asian (mostly Japanese and Southern Han Chinese), 2% South Asian (Sri Lankan Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati Indian and Bengali) and .2% African (Mende in Sierra Leone and African Caribbean).

The report is in USA Today https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/06/blackfeet-man-dna-deemed-oldest-americas-cri-genetics/1121352001/

Mike Ruggeri’s Pre-Clovis World http://preclovisworld.tumblr.com

Mike Ruggeri’s Pre-Clovis and Clovis World Magazine http://bit.ly/1uAWdvk

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theconservativebrief · 6 years ago

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What do you get when you combine the raw charisma and star power of a budding mega-celebrity, a heartwarming melodrama about finding love and friendship in multicultural America, and an iconic soundtrack that spans everything from pop-infused traditional Indian music to Roy Orbison?

You get Kal Ho Naa Ho, the beloved 2003 Bollywood romance headlined by international superstar Shah Rukh Khan, a.k.a. SRK, the “king of romance” in Southeast Asia and beyond. Kal Ho Naa Ho, better known as KHNH to its fans, was released 15 years ago this week and arguably did more than any film before it to introduce the style and music of Bollywood to an international audience.

If you’ve never heard of Kal Ho Naa Ho, that’s forgivable. This ebullient musical tale of Indian Americans falling in love in New York City has often been overlooked in the annals of famed Bollywood cinema. But KHNH left a lasting legacy in a number of ways: The movie kicked SRK’s international celebrity into high gear, and its extremely popular soundtrack, which broke sales records in India and abroad, helped export Bollywood music to the rest of world.

In India, Kal Ho Naa Ho was the second-biggest film of 2003. But internationally, it scored an even more significant milestone: It garnered what was then the biggest overseas box office ever for a Bollywood film, opening in the UK top 10 and breaking box office records for Bollywood films in the US. It even kicked off an industry trend of setting Bollywood films in New York.

But above all, KHNH — which is conveniently streaming on Amazon Prime — gave us a heartwarming, hopeful love story that captured audiences’ hearts while sidestepping tired genre tropes in ways that are still refreshing today.

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The title of Kal Ho Naa Ho translates to “tomorrow may never come,” and the film’s story revolves around a typical New Yorker: clever college student Naina (Preity Zinta), whose family epitomizes Queens’s thriving Indian-American community. But Naina’s headstrong determination never to get married is diverted when her mom, Jennifer (Bollywood veteran Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan), prays for positive changes to come into their lives.

For Naina, these changes happen by way of her bashful, dorky longtime friend Rohit (Saif Ali Khan) and the brash but charming Aman (Shah Rukh Khan) — a recent arrival to America who quickly becomes a huge part of the community. Over the course of the film, Naina falls hard for Aman. But even though Aman is clearly in love with Naina as well, he’s determined to set her up with Rohit, who’s been quietly pining after his best friend for years.

How does everything shake out? Well, I won’t spoil the ending for you, but suffice to say that KHNH devotes most of its dreamy love scenes to the chemistry between Zinta and SRK.

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Along the way, there’s plenty of infectious music, singing, and dancing, thanks to an unforgettable soundtrack and classic Bollywood dance numbers like this one:

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Each of these elements was crucial to KHNH’s success — and crucial to its celebration of multicultural America, globalization, and true love.

KHNH was a deep collaboration between producer/screenwriter Karan Johar and director Nikkhil Advani in his feature-length debut. On the surface, it seems like your average Bollywood movie. It’s got a typical three-hour runtime — outsize in America but standard in Hindi films — and a typical romantic melodrama at the center of the plot. Like nearly all Bollywood films, it features lots of singing and dancing, balanced against at least one giant moment of angst.

But there’s plenty that makes KHNH unique in the annals of Bollywood classics and even among rom-coms both past and present.

For starters, Kal Ho Naa Ho really does feel like a rom-com even when it’s using the traditional structure of a Bollywood melodrama. In many ways, Naina is the typical early-2000s rom-com heroine: an independent, nerdy 20-something city girl (her glasses, rare for a Bollywood heroine to wear in the early ’00s, reportedly spurred a fashion trend). Though Naina clashes with her family over her determination to stay single, she retains a firm agency over her own life.

Additionally, though the film focuses on the love triangle, it’s full of three-dimensional female characters, and its entire plot is fueled by choices Naina and the women in her family make. Some fans have argued that because the role of Naina’s mother Jennifer is so central to the plot, and because Naina’s community is largely directed by women, KHNH in fact presents an onscreen matriarchy — a rarely seen phenomenon in cinema even today.

What perhaps makes KHNH even rarer, though, is the way it treats Rohit and Aman. Critics have frequently noted that the two men’s friendship is considerably deeper than their mutual love for Naina, but despite an unfortunate running gay joke in the film that lampshades this intimacy, KHNH never turns their friendship into something toxic or divisive. Instead, it celebrates platonic male closeness rather than shying away from it — and even better, the two men never allow their friendship to be threatened, despite the fact that they are in love with the same woman.

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The final atypical thing about Kal Ho Naa Ho in the annals of romance is that the film goes out of its way to show Aman actively refusing to pursue Naina even though he loves her — which puts Naina in the position of being the one to court and woo him, something romance heroines rarely need to do.

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All of this could have served as the setup for a flare-up of deep conflict between the three main characters. But instead, Kal Ho Naa Ho constantly affirms the love and friendship that exist between all three of them, both as individual pairs and as a group. Refreshingly, even though Rohit is clearly the softer and less flashy of Naina’s two suitors, the movie never really positions either man as a “better” choice for her — instead, it presents them both as compatible with her in different ways, and ultimately never asks the audience to pick a “side.”

In 2017, director Advani discussed how unique the film’s positive outlook was in the annals of modern Bollywood romances. “It wasn’t a film about Aman and Naina or Rohit and Naina. It was about the friendship that Aman and Rohit shared,” he said. “None had attempted to make a film on those lines, and that’s why it was so successful.”

Though the meaning of the film’s ominous title ultimately becomes clear (again, I won’t spoil it), and though KHNH ultimately adheres to the rule of melodrama wherein even the happiest endings are attained through grief and copious tears, it’s difficult to wrest it away from its rom-com leanings. The film’s treatment of its central love triangle — and indeed, the concept of love itself — is the main reason for this. Kal Ho Naa Ho argues that it’s not only romantic love that saves us, but also a deep collective love among friends that transcends tragedy and helps us overcome grief.

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Beyond its subtly subversive storytelling elements, KHNH is also unique due to the role that New York plays in the movie. Shot mainly in New York and Toronto, KHNH drips with color and cheer. The setting is a key feature of the film, and one that was extremely important to its ultimate success in the US.

It was practically unheard of in 2003 for Bollywood films to focus on nonresident Indians — that is, Indian characters living overseas. But Kal Ho Naa Ho employed actual ethnic residents of Queens as extras, and depicted Indian and Indian-American characters as an organic part of everyday American life and culture. It even portrayed everyday American capitalism: A major subplot involves Jennifer’s competition with a neighboring restaurant.

Even within its depiction of Indian-American communities, KHNH is notably and impressively diverse. The film’s characters represent India’s own cultural diversity; Naina’s Punjabi family contains members who are Christian and Sikh, while Rohit’s family is Gujarati — a positive mix of subcultures within the Indian diaspora that enhanced the film’s feel-good humanism. Cross-cultural blending is not only accepted but encouraged, as are multiple approaches to love and marriage.

The character of New York is particularly moving and significant. Even though the movie’s production took place in late 2002 and 2003, KHNH in many ways feels like a relic of pre-9/11 New York and pre-9/11 cinema. It carries all the optimism and vibrancy of a city not yet reeling from a wound, set in an America that had not yet developed ongoing friction with its immigrant populations. Kal Ho Naa Ho wears its American character proudly, seamlessly fusing American and Indian culture into the background of its love triangle plot.

And underscoring that fusion is the film’s famous soundtrack, which turned artistic multiculturalism into its strongest selling point.

The KHNH soundtrack was written by the Indian performance trio of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, and Loy Mendonsa, better known as Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy. They were fresh off their rise to public attention with their previous film, 2002’s Dil Chahta Hai — but Kal Ho Naa Ho not only surpassed its success but became an immediate best-seller and an instant cultural landmark.

There are several reasons for this. For one thing, the film’s title track is a ridiculously earworm-y love ballad that croons throughout the film, reminding us that tomorrow may never come. The video for this song, embedded above, clearly played to the film’s strengths — it’s basically SRK making love to the Brooklyn Bridge.

The entirety of Kal Ho Naa Ho’s soundtrack is about fusion — mixing vintage pop and modern pop, traditional and modern Southeast Asian music, and different varieties of international music. We see this most clearly in Kal Ho Naa Ho’s unexpected but delightful tribute to disco, in a scene that unites traditional Bollywood dance with the joy of ’70s music and the New York City club scene of the early ’00s. The song, appropriately enough, announces, “It’s the Time to Disco,” and indeed it is!

But unquestionably, the film’s most American moment, both musically and on the whole, comes when Aman sees Naina for the first time. Immediately smitten, he expresses his interest in her by singing an updated Bollywood cover of Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” against the backdrop of a giant American flag. It’s interspersed with scenes where Aman rallies a classic all-American block party, as a collage of diverse performers all break-dance in front of the flag, reminding us that America is all about multiculturalism and rock ’n’ roll.

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The film’s soundtrack continues to be remembered and celebrated today and is widely considered one of the most successful soundtracks in Indian cinema.

All of this reaped huge box office success for the film.

Most significantly, all of this was occurring during a new intense period of cultural globalization and communication. KHNH was a cornerstone film, in that for many people it was their first experience of modern Bollywood cinema. It allowed nonresident Indians to connect to each other and to the experience of being Indian overseas, while seeing themselves depicted onscreen in ways that made their lives newly accessible to foreign audiences. And it celebrated Indian-American culture onscreen in ways that still feel admirable and unique today.

Above all, though, fans remember it for the tearjerking romance at its center — and the reminder to always seize the day and celebrate love at all costs.

Original Source -> Celebrating 15 years of Kal Ho Naa Ho, the classic romance that brought Bollywood to America

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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rkbahuja · 7 years ago

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Kangana Ranaut is proving to be the show-stealer in her latest film Simran. The actor plays Praful Patel, a frivolous and independent woman who has flaws like gambling and stealing. Playing a key role in bringing out the finer nuances and making her character believable and relatable are Costume Designers Rushi Sharma and Manoshi Nath and Editor Antara Lahiri.

While the designers talk about the key costumes and style adopted for the protagonist, the editor shares the approach she adopted to get into the skin of the character and present Praful’s story in a balanced manner. Here are excerpts from the conversation.

Rushi Sharma and Manoshi Nath, Costume Designers

Costume Designers Rushi Sharma and Manoshi Nath

Kangana’s outfits look simple and not over-the-top, what was the brief given regarding her look?

Hansal Mehta’s vision of the character was painted beautifully through the script. Praful Patel is a Gujarati girl who has just moved to USA from India and works as a chamber maid in the housekeeping department of a hotel. She is a frugal person who doesn’t spend money on appearances. She wants to blend in with the people she works with at the hotel. Therefore, she would probably go shopping in a Walmart or a Ross Stores for less, which makes her look slightly asexual. Her clothing is functional since she mostly wears a uniform provided by the hotel. The only times we see her in her own clothes is when she travels to and from work.

It was an enriching experience incorporating Kangana’s inputs and suggestions into the fabric and outfits of Simran

Since the film is inspired by a true story, did you’ll research and reference the real person?

Researching the real person was how we started Simran. However, in the evolution of this character we took some cinematic liberties. Her roots and surroundings changed enough for us to take a new direction.

A diasporic Gujarati family in America was the new direction we took for our research. Simran is a financially independent girl. There is a character arc to her, where we see her going from a simple Gujarati girl trying to make an honest living to where she accidentally dabbles in gambling.

Our research on gambling in casinos like Vegas and Atlantic city showed lots of Chinese women dressed impeccably while gambling. It seemed there is a dress code to follow, which inspired the much talked about red dress. Her life hereon takes an unprecedented turn which forces her to be on the run. We played out this journey by adding active wear to Simran’s wardrobe.

In terms of accessories, could you talk about Simran’s style, were there any trademark aspects of her look? Also, what kind of colors did you’ll largely choose for her?

Simran loves wearing caps and sunglasses while driving her green Toyota Camry, a car for the middle-class girl which gives her a sense of freedom. The Sherawali pendant given to Simran by her mother to protect her child from the evil eye is her permanent accessory.

We used a lot of burnt mid tones and tints for her costumes and accessories like beech, olive, ashes of roses and melange grey separately and combined them with sorbet colours like antique rose, tangerine and persimmon.

The red dress is an important costume that describes her taste when she can afford one beautiful piece

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Simran’s Uniform

Simran loves her caps

In the lovely red dress

Having worked with Kangana before in Queen, how would you describe her in terms of her involvement in the looks and styling?

Kangana lives in her character’s skin and having experienced that in Queen, we were really looking forward to style her as Praful Patel in Simran. In Queen, Kangana loved Rani’s characterization and the end result being her immense faith in our craft.

In the brainstorming sessions between Kangana, Hansal and us, Kangana asked Hansal to entrust Simran to us. It was an enriching experience incorporating Kangana’s inputs and suggestions into the fabric and outfits of Simran.

A diasporic Gujarati family in America was the new direction we took for our research

Were there any key costume pieces created for Kangana’s character?

There are some lovely pieces in Simran’s wardrobe that made an appearance as and when the character developed. The red dress being one of them. It’s an important costume that describes her taste when she can afford one beautiful piece. Another piece is an ostentatious net saree that she wears at her cousin’s wedding, which draws enough attention to her in the Sangeet. The turn of events post the sangeet makes her saree-clad persona vulnerable.

Then there are colourful wigs; the quirk adds to the intrigue of Simran that poses questions like is it a fetish or is it a twist in a tale that moves the story forward. Since we were shooting in the Halloween season in Atlanta, we chanced upon a Halloween shop with crazy costumes. That is where the idea for the Halloween sequence sprung. Kangana’s idea and our excitement translated into the Super Girl costume for her since Kangana for us is a Super Girl inside and outside!

Antara Lahiri, Editor

Editor Antara Lahiri

How would you describe the style of editing adopted for Simran? Does the story flow linearly?

When I started assembling the first cut of the film, it inherently felt like a simple, no frills, non – flashy sort of film. In it’s current form, the story is linear but for a brief period of time, I did debate trying a non-linear approach. I decided against it because this is Praful’s journey, and a very intense one at that, so the audience must feel that they are watching it unfold as it happens. Sticking to the linearity of the story definitely helped one get into the skin of the character and really soak in her world.

If you watch the film, you’ll find that Hansal has maintained a certain rhythm while shooting it. There are a lot of interesting moments and pauses, which you’ll notice particularly in the girl-meets-boy scenes where there is an undercurrent of awkwardness in their conversation. I love the little looks to and away from each other that Kangana (Ranaut) and Sohum (Shah) exchange. There is something so real and relatable about these moments that I just had to incorporate them into this scene, as opposed to sharply cutting to their dialogues.

The most challenging aspect about Praful’s character was to keep her relatable, even when she was at her worst

As a director, Hansal Mehta has a very clear vision about his films. What were the discussions on the edit table like?

Hansal’s clarity of thought reflects in the fact that he doesn’t do a lot of coverage, so the quantum of footage is not overwhelming. Our edit table discussions were primarily centred around the rhythm of the film since we wanted to do justice to the events leading upto Praful’s downward spiral. That was a tricky terrain to navigate since this is a single character film, and one always runs the risk of being indulgent. So we spent a considerable amount of time finessing that aspect of the film.

Sohum Shah and Kangana Ranaut in a still from Simran

Was there anything particularly challenging about Praful Patel’s character?

I think the most challenging aspect about Praful’s character was to keep her relatable, even when she was at her worst. There is a tendency in Hindi films (especially in the depiction of women) to revel in extremes and stereotypes, or tokenism at best. The shrew who must be tamed, the virginal ‘sati savitri’ who waits for years on end while her lover boy has multiple flings in different countries, the career woman who gives up her career for love, because who’s ever heard of a middle-path! Then there’s the new age, progressive woman who’s apparently characterized solely by smoking, drinking, and swearing. Personally, I can’t relate to any of the above, nor do I know any women who fit neatly into the above brackets.

The in-between and all-important shades of the female psyche have slipped through the cracks. Praful is unlike any woman I recall seeing in the movies.I get her motivation completely, I see what drives her, I probably even aspire for all the things she does. She has a certain strength and flippancy before the outside world, but it is in her lone moments when you really break through the bravado, to see her vulnerability, and it’s precisely this delicate balance that I’ve tried to maintain.

Our edit table discussions were primarily centred around the rhythm of the film since we wanted to do justice to the events leading upto Praful’s downward spiral

Music plays an important role in our films. How does it influence your style of editing?

I wouldn’t say music influences my style of editing as much as it sets the tone for it. Typically, while making my first cut, I’m running music in my head that I feel best describes the tonality of the film. Once a cut is ready, I try placing the tracks on the edit to see if they add any extra layer/more value/further dimension to the scenes. As most of our films have playback sequences, I also use elements of the film songs as background music to give a sense of unity to the soundscape.

While I follow this process at an offline edit stage, it is the background music composer who takes the final call on the music. Nevertheless, my process certainly helps define what one may call the ‘zone and tone’ of the film for the director and me.

Simran – Production Posts with Designers Rushi & Manoshi and Editor Antara Lahiri Kangana Ranaut is proving to be the show-stealer in her latest film Simran. The actor plays Praful Patel, a frivolous and independent woman who has flaws like gambling and stealing.

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101percentindia · 7 years ago

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Teaching English In Colombia Was A Life Changing Experience

Colombia isn’t all cocaine.

Young, lost and at a crossroads, I knew I had to make some radical decisions at the age of 24. I’d ‘gone with the flow’ most of my life, doing things because they seemed like the natural progression. I’d only read about breaking away from the norm and following your gut, but to me they were more romanticized notions than actual practice. I found myself at this juncture one day, with a job I didn’t love enough, and a boyfriend who didn’t love me enough, to hold me back. And I thought, ‘if not now, then when?’

It took me six weeks of nerve-wracking research to find a project of my choice. I wanted one that was well out of my comfort zone - someplace I didn’t know anything about and didn’t have family or a friend I could fall back on. I also wanted to make sure the project had substantial strength, enough to ensure I had learning experience as opposed to a six month long vacation. That’s when I found SHAPE Colombia, a teach English program in Bogota which had been running for two years.

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Fellow SHAPE trainers

I think the desire to be a teacher was born quite innocuously. Movies and books I loved always had an English teacher as the protagonist. Whether it was the refreshingly unorthodox Professor John Keating from Dead Poets Society or the alluring Miss Rosemary Cross from Rushmore, the sweet Miss Honey from Dahl’s Matilda or the bookish Emma from One Day - I loved all of them. I decided to give this dream of mine a shot and hit apply, went through the interview and found my passport stamped with a Colombian visa, just like that.

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Lost in the streets of Candelaraia, Bogota

Was Colombia drastically different? All I knew about it was cocaine and magical realism. To begin with, coming from a country that boasts 400 odd living languages, being multilingual felt natural to me. I’ve lived in cosmopolitan Bombay, where you walk down the street and speak to a Maharashtrian rickshawala, have Gujarati neighbours and converse with your uncle in Sindhi. I felt drawn to foreign languages, their varying melody and semantics. So when I first heard conversational Spanish, I was captivated.

The organization in charge of the project I was in, Secretaria de Educacion (the Secretary of Education), provided us with a structure and a curriculum that was designed to help non-native Spanish speakers facilitate their lessons in English. I got assigned to a support teacher, who’s name was Nubia. She was sixty-five, had frizzy ginger hair, wore black boots and reading glasses that she hung around her neck. She was supposed to be my translator, but had so much trouble with my accent. Colombians are more exposed to American media and hence the roll of tongue that I lack, befuddled her.

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Post class de-stress

I found her endearing. She introduced me to the safer parts of the neighborhood (Alqueria) and took me out to lunch. We went over the curriculum the British Council had set for us in association with the Secretaria de Educacion. She seemed enthused by it, in her words, ‘it is the need of the hour’. The education system was crumbling, and this program was here to save the day.

My two other constants at work were Guillermo, the accountant of the three public schools that I’d been assigned to. He helped us with data entries and maintaining records. And Priscilla, my carefree ‘tranquilla’ co-teacher from Uganda. She covered the same load for the afternoon shift. We got along like long-lost sisters. Every time I took over from her, we discussed what we hated about our day and what we loved about our work and our new lives in the city. I think challenges feel smaller when they’re shared, and that half hour chat was enough to set me for the day.

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Priscilla with her support teacher, Luz Marena

My students ranged from little twelve year olds to young adults of eighteen. They came from violence-ridden, broken and financially strung families. To me they represented a new generation, a fresh face and a new hope to the still reeling country of Colombia. The education program aimed at utilizing their moldable minds to create future responsible citizens. They were keenly aware of the importance of working on their English. They’d been exposed to American media - Netflix and pop music commanding their thinking of the outside world. I didn’t have much to do when it came to instilling a sense of urgency in them, however the work ethic in general seemed to be quite laid back. The teachers went on strike for a whole week, two months into the semester, demanding a pay rise from the government. Education wasn’t well funded, and strikes of this kind were not uncommon.

How were the sessions going? My first few classes with the fourth graders felt a little overwhelming. They were adorable, and looked at me with the sort of reverence that I found intimidating. They needed an umbrella, they were looking for a role model and a guide, and their admiration threw me off. Nubia would say I was their window to the outside world.

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Grade four: pure innocence and boundless curiosity

With all the worldly wisdom I’ve gained in the first quarter of my life, I did my best to infuse my classes with a combination of conversational English and Q&A sessions. Things like where I’ve travelled, what I’ve learnt and what life is like for an Indian millennial. Their childlike curiosity was endless. We began with a formidable student teacher distance, one that I had to work hard to thaw. Working on my Spanish was integral for this purpose. Educating the mind without educating the heart is simply not education enough, and my very first week got me to realize that it was essential that I pick up the language they had grown up with.

The older kids were more versatile; they knew what they wanted and where they wanted to go. They regarded me with disdain in the first two weeks, wary of yet another adult about to preach something to them. It was our shared urban roots that helped us break that barrier. We went on to become friends, discussing music, movies, life and love with such effortless ease, a third person would find it hard to tell we’ve come from opposite sides of the globe. I truly felt it was a tribute to the homogenous nature of culture we’ve been exposed to in India. I shuffled from being friend to mentor and mentor to friend. Some teachers may think maintaining a distance from students is more effective, but the opposite worked for me.

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Cuz football is in every Colombian kid’s blood

Three months into moving and living in Bogota, I could speak broken colloquial Spanish. Duo Lingo helped a lot, but nothing compared to greasing one’s grammar by conversing with the locals. My neighbor John and I would only exchange awkward smiles at the beginning. Slowly we moved on to ‘Hola’ and ‘Hello’. By the end I could ask John how the weather is, what he did that day and what was interesting to watch on TV. He was a full time artist and a carpenter, and a part time cycling enthusiast and an amateur guitarist.

By the time I had to leave, Bogota started feeling like home. The local lunch lady knew the meal of my choice even before I ordered. The security guard knew exactly what time I take my breaks and the kids invited me to their lunch hour gossip sessions.

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Magnitude of cultural diversity at SHAPE Colombia

I wrapped up my project with an official conference, after submitting exhausted reports and getting reviewed by the British Council. We were required to plot changes and spot differences in attitude and behavior as benchmarks of the success of the project (and of us, as teachers). My last day had a total of around hundred of us in one conference hall. It was inspiring to see the big picture and the collective of what our micro tasks had achieved. A hundred young adults from different parts of the globe in one city. The seeds of change had been sowed. The magnitude of it could get a little overwhelming. But I like to think of it as a gear we set in motion, hopefully facilitated by future trainers to help establish long term change and guarantee impact.

I’m now back in Bombay. Every now and then I still get a message from my student Gian Franco Duarte Polo. These messages fill me with warmth, they serve as a reminder that I might have actually created something worthwhile. The fact that I am remembered, loved and respected in a country I didn’t know, by people I did had no connection to and no idea about, makes a difference to me. Clichéd as it may sound, SHAPE Colombia did shape me, and I hope I helped shape them too.

Sometimes I find it hard to recognize myself in the mirror. Many people say I could easily pass of as a Colombian. I take that as a compliment.

Read Divya’s South American diary here: https://www.101india.com/travel-food/lost-and-found-south-america

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are independent views solely of the author(s) expressed in their private capacity and do not in any way represent or reflect the views of 101India.com

By Divya Punjabi Photographs by: Divya Punjabi

#colombia #teaching #teacher #english #football

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anebebebooks · 8 years ago

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Rani Patel In Full Effect

Sonia Patel

2017 William C. Morris Award Finalist

Almost seventeen, Rani Patel appears to be a kick-ass Indian girl breaking cultural norms as a hip-hop performer in full effect. But in truth, she's a nerdy flat-chested nobody who lives with her Gujarati immigrant parents on the remote Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, isolated from her high school peers by the unsettling norms of Indian culture where "husband is God." Her parents' traditionally arranged marriage is a sham. Her dad turns to her for all his needs—even the intimate ones. When Rani catches him two-timing with a woman barely older than herself, she feels like a widow and, like widows in India are often made to do, she shaves off her hair. Her sexy bald head and hard-driving rhyming skills attract the attention of Mark, the hot older customer who frequents her parents' store and is closer in age to her dad than to her. Mark makes the moves on her and Rani goes with it. He leads Rani into 4eva Flowin', an underground hip hop crew—and into other things she's never done. Rani ignores the red flags. Her naive choices look like they will undo her but ultimately give her the chance to discover her strengths and restore the things she thought she'd lost, including her mother.

Sonia Patel is a psychiatrist who works with children and adults. She was trained at Stanford University and the University of Hawaii. She lives and practices in Hawaii. Rani Patel In Full Effect is her first young adult novel. BookExpo America Editor's Buzz Selection 2016 Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Books 2016 New York Public Library 50 Best Teen Books 2016 Book Page Top 10 Best Teen Book 2016 Texas Library Associations Top 10 Teen Books 2017 Multnomah County Library Best Books 2016 The Volumes Bookcafe Staff's Best 20 of 2016 2017 Amelia Bloomer List Recommended Feminist Literature For Birth Through 18

#United States #Hawai'i #adolescence #family #abuse #heritage #decision making #culture #music #relationships #Asian

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seo90210 · 8 years ago

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This Website Wants To Be The Snopes Of WhatsApp Hoaxes In India

Akash Iyer / Via BuzzFeed India

Shammas Oliyath has spent every lunch break for the last six months telling strangers all over India that a Gujarati woman didn’t really give birth to 11 babies at once, malicious Indian grocers aren’t really selling AIDS-laced fruits, Guinness hasn’t really declared Kannada the world’s oldest language, and the UNESCO certainly hasn’t named Narendra Modi as the world’s best Prime minister.

“It’s a social service,” he said. “I feel really good about clearing people’s misconceptions.”

Oliyath, a software engineer at IBM in Bengaluru, is the co-founder of Check4Spam.com, a website that focuses on fact-checking and busting viral hoaxes, urban myths, and political propaganda that are spreading on WhatsApp and rapidly becoming India’s own fake news crisis.

“We are hoping to become the Snopes of India,” Oliyath told BuzzFeed News, referring to the San Diego-based website that, in its 20-year history, has evolved from busting urban legends (Does a colony of alligators make its home in the New York City sewer system?) to fact-checking America’s 45th President himself. “We want to take the work Snopes has done and apply it in a very Indian context.”

“We want to take the work Snopes has done and apply it in a very Indian context.”

Doing that not only means debunking Indian hoaxes but also doing it on the very platform where they originate: WhatsApp. The Facebook-owned instant messenger is used by more than 160 million Indians and is by far the fastest way that misinformation spreads in the country. Last year, the Indian state turned off internet access in large swaths of the country to prevent WhatsApp rumor-mongering from inciting tensions.

Check4Spam provides a dedicated phone number for people to forward any hoaxes they receive directly over WhatsApp. On a typical day, this hoax-busting hotline gets between 60 and 70 forwards to fact-check.

Oliyath works methodically through each forward he gets, sending back links if the rumor in question has already been busted on his website, and trawling the web to verify new ones.

He usually skips the first few dozen pages of search results and starts searching from the back “because that’s often where the original real post or image on which something fake is based on exists.”

Often, he relies on what India’s mainstream press has already reported, but says that he will frequently double and triple check even traditional sources to prevent any inherent media biases from tainting his debunking.

“Sometimes, we’ll get a lot of a certain piece of fake news or a hoax, so we can actually tell which hoax is trending on WhatsApp on that day,” Oliyath said. “WhatsApp is a good barometer.”

"We can actually tell which hoax is trending on WhatsApp on that day."

This ability to spot patterns in hoaxes is particularly useful. In the last few months, for instance, Oliyath has noticed a particular kind of hoax gaining popularity: fake promotional messages that promise free cellular data and voice minutes (including this gem where President Trump gives every Indian free mobile minutes) in exchange for clicking on a link or installing an app that inevitably turns out to be malware.

“I’m an English-speaking software engineer and I’m fairly savvy, so I can tell that things like these are fake,” said Oliyath. “But a lot of older people, early smartphone adopters, and people who don't read or speak English in India are often unable to tell that these promotions are fake and end up installing malware on their phones.”

Worse, Oliyath discovered that a significant number of his non English-speaking users often ended up mistaking his English debunk itself for a genuine promotion and ended up falling for it anyway. So now he writes “fake” in half a dozen Indian languages on these posts to make sure that users who don't understand English know it's a hoax.

Some rumors, like a recent one about buffalo-headed fish found in an Indian river, are fairly easy to bust: Oliyath ran the picture through a reverse image search and instantly found the original one (a regular fish, in case you're wondering). “Most of these guys are pretty bad at Photoshop!” he laughs.

Others are harder. Last year, when a WhatsApp forward about 275 job openings in Indian IT giant Wipro started doing the rounds, Oliyath had a Check4Spam volunteer call and email Wipro’s HR department to check if the news was true (it wasn’t).

“It’s a lot of legwork,” said Oliyath. “It’s tough to do it at scale.”

That’s the reason why Check4Spam recently started accepting debunks from volunteers over WhatsApp. “We allow anyone to volunteer,” said Oliyath. “But I do scrutinize volunteer-submitted debunks before posting them on the website.”

Oliyath said that the site currently receives half a million pageviews a month, driven largely by word of mouth (Snopes can get 2.5 million in a single day). Before Bal Krishan Birla, the site’s other co-founder came on board in July, Oliyath had been struggling to figure out a way to grow it. Birla, a serial entrepreneur and an SEO expert decided that staying topical was the key to growth.

When J Jayalalithaa, a prominent Indian politician, was admitted to a hospital in a critical condition in December, for instance, the duo stayed focused on debunking hoax messages and photographs about her death days before she actually passed away. “Once people receive a WhatsApp forward, they want to know whether it is true or not and they invariably end up looking it up on Google,” Birla told BuzzFeed News. “So SEO is important for us to grow.”

Birla lets Oliyath focus on the actual debunking and calls himself Check4Spam’s tech guy, focusing on keeping the website up and running. But he’s also drawing up a roadmap: he would eventually like to build a browser plugin to detect Indian fake news on the internet. And if WhatsApp ever lets third-party bots hook into it like Facebook Messenger, he thinks that building a fact-checking bot for India's most popular instant messenger would be a terrific use case.

A fact-checking bot for India's most popular instant messenger would be a terrific use case

For now, Check4Spam remains a labor of love. Both Birla and Oliyath said that they’re not looking for funding or revenue yet, mostly because their real jobs keep them busy, but might think about hiring one or two more fact-checkers to ease their load. The real motivation, they say, comes from the feedback they get.

“People are really overwhelmed when they actually send something over WhatsApp to our hotline and promptly receive a response,” said Oliyath. “I’ve had elderly strangers who are obviously new to WhatsApp thank me profusely for our service. Even if the website doesn’t grow or turn into anything significant, I’ll still bust hoaxes on WhatsApp for them.”

Want to verify a WhatsApp forward? Send it over to Check4Spam’s WhatsApp hotline at +919035067726.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2kzRY36

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seoprovider2110 · 8 years ago