Friday 18 20 February Wednesday March 2011 2013 25 21
5Ws
Bengaluru Chronicle
When
India’s first zombie feature film releases on April 5
do the dead come to life?
Stills from Rise of the Zombie AYSWARYA MURTHY DECCAN CHRONICLE
Hollywood can always boast about George Romero and his pioneering zombie flicks, British director Danny Boyle gave us 28 Days Later, the undead get their due Down Under with Brain Dead (directed by Peter Jackson!!! If you have watched the movie, you’d understand the multiple exclamation marks), mainland Europe got its kicks by mowing down Nazi zombies in Dead Snow… hell! Even Pakistan has paid tribute to the walking dead with Zibahkhana. Come April 5, India also would have done its bit for this massively popular genre, with the release of the country’s first zombie film – Rise of the Zombie. “Horror films in India often get a heavy ‘Bollywood-treatment’
and are largely restricted to the supernatural. And with the proliferation of video games and graphic novels, we thought the time was right to introduce this pop culture element, which hitherto has been left completely untouched here,” says Devaki Singh, who has directed the film along with Luke Kenny. A novel effort that could only help in its own way to bring back to life the stale and formulaic Indian horror genre, (Bhoot Bungalow – check, white saree – check, creepy god man – check and check), the duo wanted to have their say before the zombie genre got all commercial. “When Brad Pitt’s World War Z hits theatres, zombies would have officially arrived,” laughs Devaki. Shot on a laughably low budget (“Producers allocate this kind of money for just a song,” says Devaki), the feature-length
Hindi film stars Luke Kenny as the protagonist Neil Parker, a wildlife photographer whose forced isolation in the jungle turns him into a creature that’s anything beyond human comprehension. “He literally starts wasting away – physically, mentally,” says Devaki. “Most international zombie flicks have the survival horror element. The zombie apocalypse has already broken out and our heroes are left fighting off hordes of the undead. We wanted to do something different. Every zombie was once a human and each has a unique story of transformation,” says Luke, “This is Neil Parker’s story. Chapter One, if you will. So we have stayed away from slambang special effects and have focused on makeup effects and simple, organic storytelling that lets you travel with Neil into a zone that he can’t quite understand.” For those tapping their feet impatiently for a full-blown outbreak (because let’s admit it, that’s when the fun really begins), two sequels are already in the scripting stages. So with this movie promising tonnes of “repulsive horror” we ask Luke what was the grossest thing he had to do in the movie? “I’d tell you,” he says sincerely, “But then I’d have to eat your brains... Come watch the film!”
The movie lets you travel with Neil into a zone that he can’t understand LUKE KENNY ACTOR/CO-DIRECTOR
What
is tearing up Facebook users? The festive season is a great time for advertisers to get unabashedly sentimental. Bernas, Malaysia’s rice regulator and distributor, never fails to get the population teared up on Chinese New Year with ads that focus on family bonding. Last year, a son, paralysed waist-down,
is taught to walk once again by his estranged father. This 3-minute video has become a big hit among Indian Facebook users and is being extensively shared and liked. This year again, Bernas ushered in the new year with the story of a mom, her son and a bowl of rice.
Why
did this couple rob a bank with their kids? It was apparently Bring-Your-Kids-toWork-Day for this husband and wife team that robbed a bank while their two children where right outside, strapped into the getaway car. Tooele police arrested the 27-year-olds soon after the robbery and discovered the two kids, aged five and two, sitting in the back seat. The threat of eviction and mounting medical bills and debt had pushed them to take this extreme step, the couple confessed. (ANI)
Where
can you earn a ‘sex diploma’?
Swedish parents who had sent their kids to a Church camp were shocked when they discovered that the camp wasn’t instilling the fear of God in their children but instead was certifying them as ‘qualified for sex’. At the end of the camp’s sexed class, entitled Love and Sexuality, the teenagers where given a physical certificate proving that they were ready for the big step. And you thought church camps were dull and drab.(ANI)
Who has the most in-demand nose? Well, you can’t have her life but at least you can get yourself the royal nose. Plastic surgeons in New York are minting money (almost $10,000-12,000 a pop) on a new obsession – Kate Middleton’s pert and feminine olfactory organ. Dr Thomas Romo, director of facial plastic surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital, said that he's already performed 100 of these procedures. Dr Stephen T. Greenberg, a Manhattan plastic surgeon and author of A Little Nip, A Little Tuck said that it has become so popular that they have made a file of a dozen Kate Middleton pictures to show patients when they come in for their consultation. (ANI)