Lal Bahadur.  Source: Peeplilivethefilm.com

This is not intended to be a review.
*spoiler alert* Some points give away the story line of the movie.
Peepli Live is a slap fest. It’s a slap across the face, for today’s politicians, the government, it’s babus, their yojanas, and above all, the MEDIA and us, it’s viewers.
Live television has long crossed the boundaries of absurdity. An year ago, the CM of Andhra Pradesh (YS Rajashekar Reddy) passed away in a chopper crash, and the media created a mass hysteria among people …

The video, the latest in a series of funny promos by The Guild, features Codex played by Felicia Day and Zaboo by Sandeep Parikh, in lead roles. As the video plays out, Zaboo convinces Codex, Bollywood ishtyle, to join him in playing the game. [via Om]

Food blogger, Aarti, wins “The Next Food Network Star”, gets own show on the Food Network.

Manoj Kumar with his patriotic movies, forever changed the face of Bollywood, while keeping his own face covered.

A band of boys and girls, from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh are on their way to creating history after being featured on VH1 with their single – ‘Losing Mind’.
Hailing from diverse backgrounds, vocalist Sumitha is a graphic design student by the day, DJ040 works with a defence establishment mixing djing and missiles, rapper Roll Rida aka Rahul is a B.Tech graduate, vocalist Sanjana is a publishing specialist – all met through common friends and of course, their common interest – music – a year ago.
The Hindu
Here is …

SPOLIER ALERT: This review contains spoilers for “Raavan”. In case you plan to see it, don’t read it. I am going to do you a huge favor and tell you : Don’t see it !

I am and have been a die hard Mani Ratnam fan. From the day I saw “Mouna Raagam”, through “Agni Natchathiram”, ” Bombay” ,”Roja”,”Naayagan”, Iruvar” , “Guru”. I loved the recurring elements : the feisty heroines, naughty grandmas, the mature understanding of the man – woman relationship in all its forms, gorgeous vistas in the …

Hello! My name is Joel Swine and I write for Schtime magazine in Switzerland. Recently I traveled back home and I experienced some reverse culture shock – the takeover of the Swiss Alps by star struck Bollywood tourists.

Bollywood to make Hitler movie. No, Asrani won’t play Hitler.

How can Bollywood be good for your kundi?

This post may well have been subtitled “Uberdesi hits new low in attempt to boost readership!”
So per that bastion of journalistic integrity,  “The NY Post” , Lindsay Lohan has a new “cougar” girlfriend. None other than Julia I. Pal-Chaudhari aka Indrani, one half of the “famous” lens duo of Markus Klinko and Indrani , who have shot album covers for the likes of David Bowie (link). With a name like that , we can only assume that Indrani Pal – Chaudhari has some desi connection but we can’t be bothered …

When I got this in my inbox (thanks, Karthik), I thought it was an early April Fool’s Day joke. Sadly it was not be. It appears this trailer has been out for more than a month now and unless this was all to lead up to a massive prank, it appears to be real.
The clip below is an animated version of the SRK melodramatic cheesefest from the 90s that either captivated or scarred for life, an entire generation of Bollywood fans. Count me in the latter group, I still feel …

This post is a kind of 3 in one : a review of a book, a movie and random musings from me.
I just finished reading Orhan Pahmuk’s “The Museum of Innocence”.Pahmuk, the 2006 Nobel Prize winner has written a magnificent, wordy, illuminating and infuriating novel. The  book tells the tale of Kemal a rich young businessman from Istanbul and of his obsessive and destructive love for the beautiful (but poor and hence off-limits)  young Fusun. His obsession leads him to a passionate affair with her while he is still engaged …

I must admit – I have been sneering at the Winter Olympics a bit , because it seems to be a white-wash – if you get my (snow?) drift. Skiing , curling ,luges etc  do not seem to encourage diversity.
The US Figure skating team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White , defending US champs, placed second at the time of writing with this rollicking Bollywood routine and made me happy .I absolutely loved the costumes.
SeeBollywood routine via NBC.com

I watched “My name is Khan” last night. Without spoilers, here are my impressions.
This is a Karan Johar movie and yet it seems to be Karan Johar all grown up. No group dances, Manish Malhotra costumes and very little glamor. I’ll say this : though the movie is too long, it still manages to be watchable and interesting through out. The movie’s protagonist is superbly played by Sharukh Khan . He plays a man with an autistic  disorder, on a mission to convince the President of USA that his name …

And are you a celebrity? Or for that matter even an average person somewhat considerate of unwarranted exposure of your body.
Conspiracy theorist – Alex Jones on his website prisonplanet.com has this to say:
Claims on behalf of authorities that naked body scanner images are immediately destroyed after passengers pass through new x-ray backscatter devices have been proven fraudulent after it was revealed that naked images of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London.
The report is related to a yahoo news article …

I don’t really #follow celeb tweeple, well maybe a few but you get the idea, and this is perhaps out of boredom from being stuck home on a stormy Friday evening. I was reading this particular quote in this story about Shiv Sena v/s Bollywood stars (yaaaaawn) and came across this particular quote. [IBN]
“We will be back to Mumbai. I hope the Bandar Sena won’t stop us. Shiv Sena has become a joke to the nation. They’re instilling hatred. I guess they didn’t learn any lesson from the election debacle. …

Is there such a thing as the “Slumdog Millionaire” effect? [THR]
Hollywood Reporter … ummmm…. reports on the revival of two new Indian-American themed comedies, “Nevermind Nirvana” on Fox and “Outsourced” on NBC.
The two comedies — “Nirvana” at Fox and “Outsourced” at NBC — have something else in common: They both are ensemble shows about Indians and Indian Americans.
A third project, a U.S. version of popular British comedy “The Kumars at No. 42,” about an immigrant Indian family, also is poised for revival. Eight years after NBC took a stab at …

60 years ago, when the constitution of India was adopted, our freedom fighters hardly expected the unity to remain fragile 60 years later. We stand united in our love for ‘miley sur mera tumara’ for it’s star value and…wait! Before I can finish my latest news on our unity, there were a few interruptions, mostly controversies this video generated. But, watch the video first…

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Now back to the latest news, (only 10 or 20 min old) depending on whether you watched the second part of the video or not.
Raj Thackeray condemned …

Savita, every desi guy’s favorite bhabhi, has become a de-facto personification of sorts against the arbitrary censorship standards of the Indian government. [WSJ]
“I’m going to take a shower! You should also change out of those wet clothes,” she greeted a neighbor in a November episode, for example. As expected, the two end up together in the shower. The illustrations are explicit, the dialogue laughably simple: “Oh that feels so…” or “Oh I’m going to…”
Now, some random Mahila mandal in India felt so threatened by this brilliant piece of anti-feminine literary …

Raj Kumar Hirani is the bearer of a lost art, the art of story telling. The problem is sometimes, he overlaps his piece of art with another of his own, that is still fresh in your memory.
And I’ll try to keep the review clean of any spoilers.
3 idiots is a movie ‘loosely’ based on one of India’s ‘best-selling’ novels, “Five point Someone, what not to do at IIT“, by Chetan Bhagat. A book, that critics love to hate and take a jab at it’s ‘popularity’, while a particular section of …