So You Think You Can Dance: Bollywood Edition

Katee and Joshua performed the first ever Bollywood number on “So You Think You Can Dance” to “Dhoom Taana” from “Om Shanti Om” last night and KILLED it. I absolutely loved this number and the choreographer, Nakul Dev Mahajan, did an amazing job teaching these two the specifics of proper bhangra and classical dance technique.

Sunkrish Swaddled on NFTUB Season Premiere

Sunkrish Bala (ABC/Bob D’Amico)

The second season of Notes from the Underbelly premiered this week, with a cast including Lisa Harris, Jennifer Westfeldt and Sunkrish Bala. (See “Life of a Bala” in NIRALI for more on Sunkrish.) The bedroom scene in which he’s subjected to his wife’s efforts to unravel the secrets of their Burberry-clad French nanny’s swaddling technique is the highlight of Bala’s limited on-screen time in this episode.

Not sure what swaddling is or why it would strike fear into the hearts of new parents? Join the club. “How hard is a swaddle?” asks the show’s expecting mother. “It’s like giving an angry cat a bath when you’re drunk,” answers Melanie Paxson, who plays his wife.

In a recent interview, Bala talked about what he looks for in a girl, entertaining the babies on set, and his character Eric.

(Not So Much) Naveen in Brave One

Andrews and Foster filmed The Brave One in New York. (celebsource.org)

While browsing movie listings over the weekend, I noticed that the cast of The Brave One, the latest Jodie Foster star vehicle, includes Naveen Andrews. As a Lost fan impatiently awaiting the next season scheduled for sometime never in 2008, this piqued my interest. Andrews plays Foster’s “sensitive, guitar-strumming male nurse” fiancé named David Kirmani. Or he does until he dies at the hands of thugs, an event that happens early in the film as the catalyst thrusting Foster’s character, radio host Erica Baines, into vigilante mode.

While Terrence Howard’s role as a romantic interest and detective on the trail of the vigilante sounds like it would ameliorate the suspiciously UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT quality of Andrews’ early demise, that may be small consolation for us fans of Lost’s Sayid looking to see more of Andrews on the big screen. Maybe we should rent Bride and Prejudice or My Own Country instead (actually, Netflix is nugatory on that last title, so maybe not). As for my ultimate choice of movie for last weekend? Rebel Without a Cause. No Naveen (just Dean) but rewarding nonetheless.

Cultural Connect’s Sumaya Kazi on CNN

Young People Who Rock, CNN’s weekly interview series hosted by Nicole Lapin and focused on people under 30 recently interviewed Sumaya Kazi of The Cultural Connect, a media publishing company with a series of online magazines spotlighting young minority professionals. Watch the CNN Live Video interview. Kazi took a few questions from Lapin, and if we didn’t hear it from Kazi herself—“Don’t laugh! it’s my first ever on-camera interview!”—we wouldn’t have guessed that this appearance marks her TV debut. Lapin, on the other hand, struck me as a tiny bit awkward, dropping the “Asian” from “Southeast Asian” (or perhaps she meant “South/East Asian”), resulting in the phrases “Southeast Trinity” and “Southeast background,” the latter referring to Kazi’s background. Maybe words like South Asian or South Asian American don’t exactly roll of the tongues of every news anchor. Or perhaps Lapin was nervous about interviewing someone who has been running with the new CNN show’s basic premise for two years now over at The Cultural Connect!

Lapin and Kazi on Larry King’s set. (Courtesy CNN PR, Sumaya Kazi)

Previously: “Business Week Names Kazi to Top 25 Under 25″

Nina & Ankur Get Extreme

A dancer entertains guests at the reception while Nina and Ankur watch from a balcony. (Photo: Lars Wanberg)

Nina Mirchandani and Ankur Desai’s wedding (featured in Nirali here) will appear on TLC’s Extreme Weddings tonight. The spectacular bi-coastal wedding took place on two separate weekends and featured amazing entertainment and stunning interiors. Watch it tonight, Friday, June 15, at 8 p.m. and midnight ET. Catch it again tomorrow, Saturday, June 16, at 3 p.m. ET.

“No Bingo!” Narkar

Move over Donald “You’re Fired!” Trump, and make way for the Commissioner.

Providing ABC’s newest game show with what might be the next catch phrase to sweep the nation, Sunil Narkar is National Bingo Night’s black-and-white clad co-host and bingo official. Commissioner Sunil verifies winners from the studio audience, with his trademark flourish. Fortunately for those who haven’t tuned in yet for the chance to win prizes like a patio furniture set or a motorcycle ride with Erik Estrada, the Internets are brimming with clips of the Comish, and the most recent NBN episode is online.

A YouTube tribute to the announcer showcases his signature style in action. Fans on the net find him “adorable” if “corny” and think he’s “the best part of” the show. Variety hails him as the show’s “one real breakthrough.” Prior to his stint on NBN, Narkar has worked in Los Angeles promoting Marathi language and theater since 1990.

His TV face-time also includes commercials, starting with one for Chase Card on Spanish TV. “I play a Mexican who uses his credit card to duplicate a key. There are thousands of Mexicans who auditioned, and it was an Indian who got selected. Now, I am noticed by every Mexican on American streets,” he told ExpressIndia.com. He went on to star in a Butterfinger spoof set in a Bangalore call center.

When he’s not busy with bingo, Narkar is involved with carrom, the “ultimate board game,” and has served as a nationals organizer for the United States Carrom Association.

Shalini is On The Lot

(egothemag.com)

I’ve kinda gotten sucked into FOX’s new reality show On The Lot where a group of talented aspiring movie directors are given weekly challenges to make short films and are voted off by viewers American Idol-style.

Last night’s episode featured the filmmakers 1-minute comedy shorts… there were definite standouts (Adam Stein’s Dance Man) and films that left me scratching my head (Kenny Luby’s Wack Alley Cab).

Of the eighteen contestants is documentary filmmaker Shalini Kantayya of Brooklyn, NY. While her comedy short wasn’t conceptually one of the best last night, it was still beautifully shot and sent me off to Google to search for her work.

I found her film A Drop of Life, starring Nandita Das and liked what I saw in the trailer.
From the movie’s web site:

This woman has definitely got a voice. Tune in tonight to the results show to see if she stays in the competition. (And read more about her from Ego Magazine’s interview with her last year.)

On The Lot airs on Monday and Tuesday nights at 8/7 c on FOX.

Power Couple Palman Does The Rounds

Padma Lakshmi is gearing up for the third season (her second) of Top Chef, the Bravo network’s popular culinary competition. Starting June 6, tune in at 10 p.m. ET to see Lakshmi host the series which, this time around, takes place in Miami.

Not one to be left out of the spotlight, Lakshmi’s husband, Salman Rushdie, swung by the Colbert Report Wednesday evening to discuss the death of mainstream literary criticism. Colbert asked the Booker Prize winner why “it’s important to have need these elitist, ivory tower Ph.D.-types in magazines and newspapers” letting us know us what we “should and shouldn’t read” (especially with Oprah already telling us). Check out Rushdie’s response here:

Sanjaya Keeps On Surfing

“I’m just riding the wave,” Sanjaya Malakar said Saturday, at an after-party for the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which he attended as a guest of People magazine.

So far that wave has included an encore-worthy appearance on David Letterman’s Late Show to read a Top 10 list of “Things I Learned From American Idol” (#10—the camera adds 10 pounds to your mohawk), an appearance on the Today show, and being slimed on Nickelodeon’s ME:TV. Did I miss any? (Update: At least one—Ellen.) Where will this wave take the boy with golden highlights?

Previously: He May Be Gone, But Sanjaya Is Still Our Papaya

The Kumars At No. 42 Are Looking to Move

Meera Syal (BBC)

Brits Ricky Gervais and Sacha Baron Cohen have made the journey.

And now it might just be Meera Syal’s time.

The actress and author is in talks to bring her enormously popular BBC comedy chat show, The Kumars at No. 42 ,to American television viewers.

“There’s interest from America and we are in talks,” Syal told reporters earlier this month. “It’s early stages and so much depends on the budget … I’d be really interested. Can you imagine, the Kumars interviewing Sylvester Stallone and Nicole Kidman? I think it would be hilarious.”

Syal’s previous projects include the (instant classic) film Bhaji on the Beach and Broadway’s hugely successful Bombay Dreams . She can next be seen in Ayub Khan-Din’s latest Rafta Rafta—a play about newlyweds who move in with the ‘rents and, er, have trouble consummating their union.

Rafta Rafta opens this Friday, April 26, at the National Theatre in London.

More:
Life isn’t all ha ha hee hee
Anita and me
YouTube clip of The Kumars at No. 42