USA Today: South Asian Stars Storm Hollywood

Getty Images/USA TODAY/NBC

It looks like USA Today reporter Bill Keveney has been reading Nirali.

OK, perhaps I’m giving our little magazine too much credit—maybe he has finally just noticed all the desi actors who are taking Hollywood by storm. In his April 8 article, “Stars of South Asian Descent are on the Ascent,” Keveney writes that “After years of relative anonymity, performers of Indian heritage are establishing a small but growing presence in TV and film, breaking stereotypes along the way.”

His examples? Sendhil Ramamurthy, Navi Rawat, Mindy Kaling, Aasif Mandvi, Kal Penn, Parminder Nagra, Naveen Andrews (see our upcoming feature) and Ravi Kapoor.

He forgot to mention Aziz Ansari, Noureen DeWulf, Maulik Pancholy, Sunkrish Bala, Kavi Ladnier, Rasika Mathur, Janina Gavankar, Reef Karim and a few others (maybe he should have perused Nirali’s archives?).

It’s fun to see this story in print, even if it does lack a little heft. It would have been much more fascinating if the piece focused on this nugget from our favorite “Hero”:

Now that’s a story. More acting opportunities, more stereotypical roles: Selling out or moving on up? Maybe Keveney can pursue this angle next.

Music & More By Micropixie

(micropixie.com)

Having seen her perform at ArtWallah last summer, I can see how Micropixie might bring to mind a “Desi Björk” (ethnotecho.com). Charming accent? Check. Quirky and whimsical? Check and check. Pixie hair? Make that an eponymous check. But there are things distinctively her own about Micropixie’s (MPX) style. “Made in Bombay, born and raised in the UK, and currently based in San Francisco,” her electronic music defies easy classification with tracks like “Cognitive Dissonance” and vocals covering different styles—jazzy, introspective and konnakol, and the sounds of bongos, puja bells and harmonica.

“My Beige Foot”

If the sonic visuals painted by her debut album “Alice in Stevie Wonderland”, made at home entirely on a Mac computer with collaborator neo eon one intrigue you, then take a look at her short films made under the name Single Beige Female, including the “Flick Trance Groovies” “My Beige Foot” (touching on the randomness of nationality and skin color) and “The Beige of Reason.”

MPX will perform live at the upcoming “Girls Gone World”—“Three Indian singers from Planet Earth bring you ambient, soulful sounds”—on April 15 in Los Angeles at the Temple Bar, along with Manisha Shahane and Sumitra Nanjundan.

More: Micropixie.com; Micropixie’s MySpace
Previously: Rupa and the April Fishes; vidyA
Read the rest of this entry »

Rai Puts Her Best Face Forward

Rai in London yesterday

Aishwarya Rai is in London this week, promoting her latest film, Provoked—a true story based on the life of Kiran Ahluwalia, a Punjabi British victim of domestic violence who killed her husband in 1989.

Rai plays the lead role.

The actress spent part of yesterday inaugurating the photo exhibit Faces: A celebration of 75 years of Bollywood cinema.

Open to the public through April 21 (at Sitaaray), the exhibit features the work of Gautam Rajadhyaksha, the famed photographer who has captured the spirit of screen-legends like Devika Rani and Rekha, Shabana Azmi, Pooja Bhatt—and, of course, Ash herself.

“I do not shoot politicians or religious heads, simply because I am not interested in them,” Rajadhyaksha tells India’s Sunday Tribune. “My original belief is to capture and present the side of famous personalities not known to the public.”

In addition to Provoked, Rai has most recently appeared in the Mani Ratnam film Guru. Listen to “Tere Bina,” from the soundtrack, below—and be sure to check out next month’s issue of Nirali for an exclusive on Provoked.

More:
Ready to transform your…impression of Ash?
Toronto gets Junior Mints out for Junior B
Ash and Abi altar-bound
Provoked screening on May 11th in the Bay Area will raise money for local non-profit Narika.

Lahiri’s Ex Might Be The Real-Life Gogol Ganguli

The “Gogols” (New York magazine)

You’ve read the book, seen the movie, even blissed-out to the soundtrack.

But do you know the real story behind Mira Nair’s latest hit film The Namesake?

Vishaan Chakrabarti thinks he is the inspiration for the main character Gogol, played by Kal Penn. “Maybe it’s just coincidence that nine-tenths of the book is the same as my life,” he says, “but it was my friends who pointed it out. Anyone who knew me well saw the similarity immediately.”

Chakrabarti used to date author Jhumpa Lahiri but says they just “didn’t hit it off.” He is now married and works in Manhattan.

According to New York magazine the similarties between the real-life and celluloid Gogols don’t end there:

Sawhney’s Soundtrack

Sawhney (Undergrowth.Org)

The Namesake continued its impressive showing at the box office this weekend.

To date, it has raked in just under $5 million at the (domestic) box office—not bad, given a limited release of just 237 theaters nationwide.

Based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s best-seller, the film has a fan in Stephen Holden of The New York Times, who feels Mira Nair’s “lush palette lends her films a throbbing physicality that invites you to step into the screen and embrace the sensuous here and now.”

And thanks largely to the efforts of Nitin Sawhney, the aural connections that link Calcutta to New York are just as rich and effective.

The Namesake soundtrack is worth a second listen (at least). The tracks manage to gently nudge the plot along, taking you from India (“Shoes to America”), to New York (“Mo’s Affair”), back to Calcutta again with an aching poignancy and tender ease. Says Nair: “I love Indian classical music and I wanted to link that classical sound with the pulsating New York sound of today.”

The London-based Sawhney is responsible for pioneering the Asian Underground movement. Go here to read about his experience recording The Namesake soundtrack with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

More: 21 things you didn’t know about The Namesake

Ready To Transform Your … Impression of Ash?

ProvokedTheMovie.Com

It’s a story about brutality, humiliation and the horrors of domestic violence.

Aishwarya Rai, Nandita Das and Naveen Andrews star in the much-anticipated film Provoked, due to be released worldwide this Easter weekend. Directed by Jagmohan Mundhra, the movie is based on the life of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a woman who, after being abused physically and sexually by her husband for 10 years, murdered him in their Southall London home in 1989.

Ahulwalia was sentenced to life in prison—a conviction she would later appeal with the help of the Southall Black Sisters (SBS), a non-profit that helps women who are victims of gender violence.

“SBS has shown Asian women the road to independence and self-confidence,” Ahulwalia has said, “What they did for me could have been done by no-one else.They have brought light into my darkness.”

According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau, a crime is carried out against women in India once every three minutes. More locally, a recent study suggests an astounding 40 percent of the South Asian women living in the Boston metropolitan area have been victims of “intimate partner violence” at one point or another.

Look for a longer story on the film in an upcoming issue of Nirali.

More: Non-profit groups like Sakhi and Manavi help women cope; Ahulwalia’s autobiography Circle of Light; Aishwarya Rai fan site; Watch the Provoked trailer here; Ash and Abi news on Nirali

Nirali Editor on MTV Live Tonight

Are you a long-haired Parveen Babi or a short-tressed Madhuri Dixit? Nirali editor Roxanna Kassam Kara never identified with the straight, silky locks that most Bollywood heroines sported, though she certainly yearned for them in lieu of her curly ‘do. So in “Bollywood’s Mane Attraction,” Roxy explored Bollywood’s hair stereotypes and what they mean for South Asian women. And now, almost two years after that story was published, MTV has come a-knocking.

Roxy will appear tonight on MTV Live, MTV Canada’s flagship show devoted to discussing issues with a live audience. Tonight the show examines hair stereotypes (blonds have more fun, brunettes are boring), and they invited Roxy to talk about her piece.

We’re thrilled to see Roxy represent Nirali on the small screen! While MTV Live’s audience will have a chance to discuss the issue, you can, too. Is there such a thing as a Bollywood hair stereotype? Which movies represent it? Tell us what you think!

All you Canadian readers, you don’t want to miss Roxanna Kassam Kara on MTV Live on MTV Canada tonight at 6 p.m. ET. We’ll report back after the show.

Penn is Penn Professor

Soon-to-be Professor Penn

The Asian American Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania has just revealed that Kal Penn (The Namesake, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle) will join the faculty next spring as a visiting professor.

The decision was announced Saturday night at a banquet celebrating the program’s 10th anniversary. Penn expressed interest in teaching at the school after a campus visit last November, where he spoke about the experience of being desi in Hollywood.

The actor will teach two courses: “Images of Asian Americans in the Media,” and “Contemporary American Teen Films.” (via)

SheWrite Screening

Stills from SheWrite (K.P. Jayasankar)

As part of a series of events planned to help spark discussion about women and gender roles in the South Asian community, Narika’s student group at UC Berkeley screens SheWrite, an award-winning documentary about four female Tamil poets exploring themes of desire and sexuality, on Tuesday, March 20. The film’s directors will be guest speakers. Anjali Monteiro, currently a Fulbright visiting lecturer at Berkeley, and her husband K.P. Jayasankar, Chair of the Centre for Media and Culture Studies at TISS, have made 25 documentaries over the last 15 years. SheWrite recently premiered in the U.S. at the 2007 New York Arab and South Asian Film Festival.

Criticism of the poets in the press for writing “obscenely” caught the attention of the film’s directors. One male writer urged people: “If you see them on the road, slap them.” (The Hindu). A magazine editor asked, “”How can women demand gender freedom after writing such things?” (The Week). Read the rest of this entry »

By The Power of Shyamalan, I AM HE-MAN!

In an odd twist of fate (?!) it appears that M. Night Shyamalan will be directing a feature length film adaptation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Okay, people. I have to stop and breathe. He-Man. As a film. By M. Night Shyamalan. Right. Okay.

A quick IMDB search yields only rumored cast members (Two of which are Days of Our Lives actors. And one more who was a WWF wrestler.) but now I’m really thinking about who could be cast in the role of He-Man. (And more importantly, will there be a cameo by his twin sister She-Ra?! Oh my God.) To be a fly on that casting director’s wall… Who do you think should be cast as He-Man? Ryan Reynolds? Brad Pitt? The Rock!? Leave it in the comments.