Brunch 23 11 2014

WEEKLY WEEKLY MAGAZINE, MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER JUNE 22, 23, 2014 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times

Dan, Decoded He always knew he was going to be famous – but it took him four decades to figure out how.

This is the story of writer Dan Brown, before and after The Da Vinci Code

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BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

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Shortcut To Smart

by Aastha Atray Banan, Nihit Bhave and Rachel Lopez

The Frontbencher’s Guide To Kim Kardashian

is famous for being famous. But she got famous for a leaked sex tape in 2007. And before that, she was friends with Paris Hilton.

And to do that she had to be rich. And for that her dad Robert had to defend OJ Simpson at his murder trial.

n ENGLISH

Kim’s mum is called Kris, she has siblings called Khloe, Kourtney, Kylie and Kendall. There are 25 more letters in the alphabet and Kim married a Kanye.

n GEOGRAPHY Husband is called West. Daughter is called North.

Five weeks till the end of the year – your deadline to read 24 books. Want to speed through? Read these...

n BIOLOGY Here is

the butt that balanced a champagne glass and revealed its bulbous self last week on the cover of Paper. She’s pioneered belfies (butt selfies). Her breasts sprung a leak on her reality show after she delivered. Those eyelashes? They are human hair extensions. n MATHS That sex tape lasted 39 minutes.

Her first marriage lasted 72 hours. Her reality show has 130 episodes.

She makes $28 million per year.

n PHILOSOPHY

“I couldn’t care less if the media says I’m pregnant with twins by my brother.”

by Saudamini Jain

LOVE IT

n If this doesn’t make you aww: Disney’s The Little Mermaid turns 25 this month. (Fun fact: Ariel was the first new Disney Princess in three decades) n Kill Dil. The Brunch team wanted to kill someone – or themselves – after watching it n Couples who share passwords n That absolutely atrocious books can become bestsellers if they’re marketed well n That after learning Sanksrit in school for five years, I know next to nothing about the language. (Should’ve studied German instead. Don’t troll me)

n Rohit Sharma n That photo of SRK and Salman pecking Arpita Khan on the forehead n Tweeting in Devanagari. Best thing ever. Join us! n When wars break out between people who loved Interstellar, those who didn’t and the ones who don’t care n Free WiFi (in Connaught Place)

SHOVE IT

Photo: THINKSTOCK

Stuff You Said Last Sunday sure to know more about It is a pleasur brity . I your favourite actor or cele ...# it is vigorously wait for brunch up..* best super aawesome!!! Keep it !!!!! .!.... #*.. re# futu for luck of - Mohd Farjad

Absolutely lurvee rea ding Brunch! Every week . Week after week! :) - @SmitaSingla Cover photo: CORBIS

Cover design: MONICA GUPTA

A fabulous artic le about the wedding styles celebrities. But of the rich & what ab poor & haves no out the t?

It is money that wedding grand. makes a A portion of such expenses could be used for the do wntrodden people in socie ty.

- Jagdish Saluj a EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Sharma, Rachel Lopez, Aastha Atray Banan, Veenu Singh, Satarupa Paul, Saudamini Jain, Asad Ali, Nihit Bhave, Atisha Jain

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

Love it: your protest ag ain blue ticks of whatsapp. st Shove it: too much cove rage of wedding #myownloveitshoveitlist - @praveeenn990000 Te ible ostentatious vulgar Terr crass inconsiderate excess in GGG Indian weddings.

Pra Pr y IncTax wake up. Black money full monty - @devshashi9 Find Hindustan Times Brunch on Facebook or tweet to @ HTBrunch or DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor, Design), Monica Gupta, Payal Dighe Karkhanis, Ajay Aggarwal

13. A Moveable Feast

by Ernest Hemingway: Hemingway’s experiences in Paris in the 1920s.

You’ll meet Gertrude Stein, the Fitzgeralds and God! What a lovely book.

14. Franny And Zooey

by JD Salinger: A short story about Franny and a novella about her elder brother Zooey. If you loved The Catcher in the Rye, you have to graduate to this. (And then move on to Nine Stories).

15. The Diamond As Big As The Ritz by F Scott Fitzgerald: This breezy story about two boys who attend a fancy boarding school, will give you some perspective on being rich.

16. Dubliners

by James Joyce: Fifteen short stories by Joyce, all centred around middle-class Irish life in the beginning of the 20th century.

17. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby: Okay, it’s not as thin as the others on the list. But you’ll be able to flip through it fast enough. Plus, one of the best break-up books, ever.

18. Maus by Art Spiegelman: The first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize. This is partly a memoir, in which Spiegelman interviews his father who was a Holocaust survivor.

You’ll find Jews as mice, Germans as cats and nonJewish Poles as pigs.

19. Bonjour Tristesse

by Françoise Saga: This is the story of 17-year-

old Cécile’s romance with amorality. It was published in 1954, but so many of the questions it asks are still being asked by memes and the moral police today.

20. The Outsider by Albert Camus: After attending his mother’s funeral, French-Algerian Meursault purportedly kills an Arab. You have to read this for Camus’ idea of morality, and for joining in jholawalla conversations.

21. My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl: Everybody’s read Dahl’s children’s books. But this is so adult, you’d go “Whoa”.

22. The Prince

by Niccolò Machiavelli: This is supposed to be one of the first ever works of modern political philosophy. You need to read this to figure out what ‘Machiavellian’ really means and why the end often justifies the means for some people.

23. The Humbling by Philip Roth: A sixtysomething stage actor’s talent seems to have “melted into thin air”.

What happens when a man loses the one thing that defines him?

24. The Metamorphosis

by Franz Kafka: Gregor Samsa transforms into this gigantic insect-like creature. Obviously his parents are repulsed. But wait, who’s really the monster here?

Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK

On The Brunch Radar

by Saudamini Jain

12 BOOKS YOU CAN READ QUICKLY (PART 2) For Part 1, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch

Whoa, what just happened? Suddenly news of Kim Kardashian is everywhere and she even threatened to join an Indian reality show or something? Who is she?

Gather around, students. You in the back, stop giggling and let’s revise, subject by subject...

n HISTORY Kim

The Book Club

#BRUNCHBOOKCHALLENGE Another w way for us to get you to read at HOW TO least 24 2 books this year. Read anything READ 24 R (O yo you like – a literary classic or utter tosh.

BOOKS Mak Make sure you tag @HTBrunch using the MORE) IN hashtag #BrunchBookChallenge A YEAR

Drop us a line at: brunchletters@hindustantimes.com or to 18-20 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001

FOR ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT National – Sanchita Tyagi: sanchita.tyagi@hindustantimes.com North – Siddarth Chopra: siddarth.chopra@hindustantimes.com North – Shaila Thakur: shaila.thakur@hindustantimes.com West – Karishma Makhija: karishma.makhija@hindustantimes.com South – Sharbani Ghosh: sharbani.ghosh@hindustantimes.com

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COVER STORY

Just like his books, Dan Brown’s life is rooted in controversy, criticism and cliffhangers

by Saudamini Jain

SUCCESS IS nearly always accompanied by scrutiny. And for Dan Brown, after he wrote The Da Vinci Code in 2003, it came in stages. Controversy at first. Lawsuits soon after. And cruel jokes and criticism that have lasted a decade.

“You have to ignore it,” says Brown. “In the same way you must ignore people who say wonderful, wonderful things.”

This is a rehearsed answer, regurgitated over and over again. But it is also great advice.

“If you believe your fans, you become lazy and think, ‘Ah! They’ll read anything’. If you believe your critics, you become insecure and think, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t write’. Neither one is helpful. You just need to be true to yourself. And do what you gotta do.”

Dan Brown was in India last week. He had been in Delhi for a day when we met on a Mon-

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

day morning. He had seen the Red Fort, “It was beautiful” and two elephants on the road – “like any good American, I stopped to take pictures.”

Later in the evening, at the Penguin Annual Lecture, Brown would repeat himself about ignoring criticism. When asked to respond to Salman Rushdie’s gibe at The Da Vinci Code, “a book so bad that it makes bad books look good,” Brown instantly replied, “He sounds like a very nice man.” A thousand-odd people burst into peals of laughter and delighted applause.

Somebody in the audience admitted that the first novel they ever read was Dan Brown’s.

Another asked permission to rush to the stage to get a copy signed before everybody else. In this crowd, you could not help but realise that it is still not fashionable to scrunch up your nose at Dan Brown in most circuits.

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Photo: CLAUDIO SFORZA

fame and recognition. His fictitious account was seen as a secret history now out in the open. Several versions of the same question are plastered all over Yahoo Groups. “Did Jesus have kids?” “Was Jesus married?” “How many children did Jesus and Mary Magdalene have?”

Ironically, as noted by Time magazine, the Bible is one of the few books to have outsold it.

t has been 11 years since The Da Vinci Code.

Its plot was based on a theory that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that the bloodline of Christ continues to date.

The novel has sold 80 million copies worldwide and been translated into 52 languages.

When it was published in 2003, the Vatican had to appoint a cardinal to rebut its claims, calling it “a sack full of lies”. Copies of the books were burnt, protests were held at readings.

All this controversy made the book an unparalleled success. And it gave Brown instant

rown was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA, in 1964. His father, Richard G Brown, taught mathematics (and wrote maths textbooks, “used all over the world, maybe even here”). His mother was a church organist.

While his father taught young Dan about the Big Bang Theory, his mother told him that God created the world in six days. It was a childhood seeped in religion and science.

The Browns loved riddles and puzzles. On Christmas, the three children (Dan was the oldest) wouldn’t find presents under the tree, but had to use clues and a treasure map to find their presents hidden around the house.

Even as a child, Brown knew he was going to be famous. He would have “visions” and “epiphanies”. He’d see himself on a stage surrounded by a big crowd. He had an intuitive sense that “I would connect with a lot of people… be successful at what I did.”

It would prove to be misplaced confidence.

Since Brown always loved music, he assumed “I would be singing or playing the piano or something.” And so, a 27-year-old Brown, a few years after graduating from Amherst College, moved to LA in search of the success he had always dreamt of.

The ’90s are perhaps the worst decade in the history of modern music, a time for pretty boy bands and proto Biebers. Singer/songwriter Dan Brown released two albums. Some of his songs resurfaced last year. The World Wide Web had a field day crooning to 976 Love, a terrible song about phone sex, which begins with When I’m feeling small you’re the one that I call.

“It was a total failure,” Brown says, of his music career. But he had a great manager.

Blythe Newlon was well-connected in the music industry. She was the director of artistic development at the National Academy For Songwriters in LA. She was convinced he was as talented as Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Prince. He wasn’t.

He still plays the piano, but music for him is now a personal thing, he promises: “I will not subject the world to any of it”. And admits it took him “about 10 years” to joke about this.

Dan and Blythe would meet every week to discuss his work. Lunch once a week became twice, then thrice but “nothing was happening in my career – there was nothing to talk about.

We were now having lunch four times a week.

Then we were having dinner. At some point we said, I think we like each other.”

They began secretly dating. Blythe is a Californian blonde, with some Native American blood. She is also 12 years older than Dan. When his parents asked him who “this Blythe woman” was, he told them – because he didn’t want them to guess he was dating his manager – that she was a “middle-aged Indian woman.”

It was funny when they finally met her because “my father had pictured somebody from

New Delhi, who was 45 years old!”

Until this point in the conversation, Brown could be mistaken for a suit. He is fit and well dressed. He is charming and witty. But it is only when he talks about Blythe that his face lights up. He looks younger, handsome even.

“When I was a little boy, I saw a movie called A Little Romance, set in Venice. It’s about two kids who fall in love, and kiss at the Bridge of Sighs. I told myself, when I get married, I’m going to propose at that spot, and I did,” he says.

It is impossible to take notes now. Brown lowers his voice till it’s almost hypnotic. “I took her to Venice, we went to the Bridge of Sighs, I had the ring. I proposed to her right there.”

They’ve been married for almost 20 years. n 1993, Brown quit his music career and moved back to Exeter with Blythe. In the same year, when the two were on holiday in Tahiti, he read Sidney Sheldon’s The Doomsday Conspiracy. (A US Naval Intelligence officer is asked to track down ten passengers who had taken a bus in Switzerland. As he finds them, they die one by one, and then he realises he’s the one being hunted.) “What inspired me was how fun the reading experience was! So I set out to write a book that I would want to read.”

Between 1998 and 2001, he wrote his first three novels: Digital Fortress (about the NSA’s surveillance of citizens), Angels & Demons (about a secret society, the Illuminati, trying to destroy the Vatican using antimatter from CERN) and Deception Point (about possible extraterrestrial life in the Arctic). They sold fewer than 26,000 copies combined. If Brown had been a writer in India, he would have proclaimed himself as a bestseller with these numbers. In the US, the books bombed.

“I remember finishing Angels & Demons, and thinking, ‘this is a great book. I love this book.’ It didn’t sell... that was hard,” he says.

But it was inevitable that Brown would write The Da Vinci Code. He had spent a year studying art history in the University of Seville. And in Spain, he attended a lecture on Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, which introduced him to references in the painting that would make up a bulk of the plot of the book. Years later, when he told Blythe about the lecture, she felt very passionately about Mary Magdalene. And so Dan and Blythe, who “now operated as a team,” according to UK’s The Telegraph, spent “thousands of hours poring over books and documents in Rome, Paris and Washington… until they had an almost plausible framework for a work of outrageous fiction.”

When Brown’s editor, Jason Kaufman, left his job at Pocket Books and moved to Doubleday, he insisted his new publisher take Brown on.

“I think if The Da Vinci Code had not worked, I probably would have had to stop writing and get a real job,” Brown says.

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

COVER STORY

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Photo: GETTY IMAGES

The 60-page proposal of the book got Brown a two-book $4,00,000 contract. On 18 March 2003, Doubleday released The Da Vinci Code. The rest, as they say, is history. Millions of readers, desperate for another dose of Dan Brown, devoured his three earlier books. The visions he’d had as a child had come true. “I stood on a stage with a huge crowd, and thought, ‘This is what it was!’ I just didn’t understand then.”

Brown had finally come into his own. He had taken the world by storm, and he wanted to make sure the impression lasted. Carefully, the image of Dan Brown, the seemingly scholarly writer was constructed and cultivated.

According to the Boston Magazine, a newspaper wasn’t allowed to use the photo it had taken of him. Instead, photos where he looked like his protagonist Robert Langdon (dressed in a tweed jacket and turtleneck) were to be used by the press. Even all these years later, this publication was not allowed to photograph Brown.

When Brown speaks at a public event, a part of the speech is devoted to science and religion. His demeanour and appearance too, seem altered. While he looked boyish during this interview, he transformed into a bespectacled professor at the event. He still joked (he is American after all) but was almost pedantic.

His speech in Delhi (in Mumbai two days after) sounded almost the same as the one at the Sharjah International Book Fair the week before. And was recycled from earlier speeches.

One could argue that in creating Robert Langdon – a Harvard University professor who is an expert on symbology, but thrilling in a Bond way – Brown simply re-invented himself.

“He shares all my interests: symbols, codes, ciphers, religion and science. But he’s smarter, more daring and lives such an exciting life.” He is, Brown has said, “everything I wish I could be”. He is what Brown becomes in the spotlight.

During interviews, certain anecdotes reap-

UP IN FLAMES

Protestors burning copies of The Da Vinci Code in Mumbai in 2006, to halt the release of the film in India

pear, in different settings. Here’s one: Brown needed a photo ID for something, but had left his wallet at home. They used his book to identify him. For an interview with the New York Times in 2004, the story went that he managed to board a flight by borrowing somebody’s copy of The Da Vinci Code. In 2013, for a Penguin Random House Google Hangout, it is how he said he passed security at the Google office: with copies of the just-released Inferno. t was a strange time,” says Brown, of the period immediately after Da Vinci Code. “There was a lot to get used to quickly. The success, the criticism, it came as a tidal wave.”

The Church wasn’t the only one upset. Two plagiarism suits followed. The first was by Lewis Perdue, the author of the novels Daughter of God (2000) and The Da Vinci Legacy (1983), who claimed that Brown’s novel was too similar to his books. Brown later said he had never even heard of Perdue. Brown won the suit.

The second was by two English authors.

In 1982, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh had put forward a theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child in a non-fiction book called Holy Blood, Holy Grail. In 2005, they sued Random House in London. The judge ruled in Brown’s favour, saying that a fiction writer could borrow material from a non-fiction book.

Soon after, Dan Brown became an even bigger celebrity. The two film adaptations, The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Angels & Demons (2009), starring Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, made over a billion dollars worldwide.

It wasn’t until April 2009, that his next novel appeared. The Lost Symbol, about Freemasons, a brotherhood of secrets, in Washington, was a bestseller. Last year, Inferno, too inescapably became a bestseller. This time round, Brown became the butt of all kinds of jokes. Critics wrote entire reviews in clunky Brown-like prose, full of malapropisms and incomplete sentences. It didn’t seem to affect the sales.

Photo: AFP

orbes, in 2005, estimated Brown’s annual income at $76.5 million. As of June this year, his earnings are stated as $28 million.

“I’d rather have money than not have money,” he says matter-of-factly. “I could just sit by the pool all day and have people bring me whatever it is I want. But I’m still writing…

Money is just the icing – it’s not the cake.”

The Browns live a reclusive life in a house fit for Langdon in New Hampshire. “People come to our house and can’t believe it,” he beams. There are codes and symbols in the

POWER COUPLE

Dan and Blythe Brown at the premiere party of the The Da Vinci Code movie in 2006 mouldings, the windows, everywhere. “You step out of a wall – it looks like a solid wall – but it will swing. Huge paintings rotate, so you go into other rooms.” A bookshelf moves into a passageway that leads into a sculpture garden.

It is, he says, their one indulgence. “We love art, we love architecture. So we decided to create a piece of art that we can live in.”

The fame, on the other hand, is a different story. It is unprecedented to get this amount of notoriety as a writer, especially considering that Brown has written only six novels. “I don’t think you ever get used to being famous,” he says. “Blythe worked in the music industry around real celebrities (Jackson Browne, Stevie Wonder) so she’s not impressed by me at all, which is good. It’s important.” ust after his music career had died, and before the writing began, “It was wonderful.

We were barely making ends meet.” Brown was a teacher, Blythe was working at a dental office. They had one car, which she drove to work. “I would get on my bike, ride 10 miles to school, teach, go home, shower, then go to a different school and teach there. We’d meet at the end of the day, go out for dinner and maybe share a glass of wine if we were feeling rich.

We were totally happy,” he says.

A few months ago, they found themselves, by chance, at their old apartment building. “We looked at each other and said, ‘you know what, if it all went away tomorrow, all the money, we’d still be just as happy’.”

Saudamini.Jain@hindustantimes.com Follow @SaudaminiJain on Twitter

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

10

PEOPLE

The Nawab Of Happily Ever After Saif Ali Khan talks about commitmentphobia, the idea of romance, and relationships from a man’s perspective

by Nihit Bhave

A

FTER PLAYING the sidekick and the secondfiddle for the first few years of his career, Saif Ali Khan stopped being just the comic-relief and turned his career around in the early 2000s. The dishevelled hair was gone, raw magnetism replaced that silly charm and the boy who cried ‘love’ grew into a man who went forth and claimed it. Today, he’s one of the Khans and has a rock-steady career, with a marriage to match. Saif Ali Khan explains why boys just want to be boys in relationships.

Happy Ending claims to tell the story of relationships from the guy’s perspective; is it a rom-com for guys?

Most rom-coms in the past have been chick flicks, but this one talks about the male side. It’s got a relaxed sense of humour and a better personality than femalecentric romances.

Were you particularly romantic as a young man? Men rarely plan for the idea of forever.

I don’t remember what I wanted when I was younger. I probably just wanted to make sure I had enough money to continue doing the rubbish I was doing [in my love life]. I think more about stability today. I want emotional stability and a nice home.

What problems do men have in relationships?

“Women like to be looked after… Wait, that’s sexist!”

Commitment is the biggest one. Then there’s laziness, and [not] manning up at the right time.

Why don’t men man up? Why are most men commitment phobic?

I hope I don’t sound sexist, but I think women need security, and it isn’t a priority for men. I think

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

women look for protection, they like to be looked after… Wait, that’s sexist! [laughs] Let’s just say most women look for someone to protect them, whereas men are the ‘providers’ of said protection in societal terms. Men wonder why they would want to take on that kind of a responsibility… So avoiding commitment is just another way of shrugging off some responsibility for men!

As the stereotype goes, women are dramatic and men are indifferent to the drama. Do you think that’s unfair?

I think women get away with a lot because of this stereotype! [laughs] People expect guys to be a certain way – to be unfaithful. I think women benefit from these preconceived notions.

Do you put yourself out there, make an effort when it comes to romance?

I have written a lot of things for women. I’ve written poems, loveletters and such. I think it’s good to be able to articulate a thought.

And I don’t like to express in short cut. I cannot write, ‘Cl me ltr’; that’s preposterous. I mean, if you want to express yourself, word your SMSes properly. That’s the least you can do!

Have you ever cried while watching a rom-com? Do you dare admit it?

I’ve never cried during a rom-com.

Unless I was crying because it was going on for too long.

That is such a guy thing to say!

Yeah, my wife makes fun of me for that. The thing is, given an option between a rom-com and Interstellar, I’d pick the latter without batting an eyelid! Mushy films aren’t my thing.

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Have you ever been asked to get in touch with your feminine side?

No, I think I’m quite in touch with my feminine side! I am, however, averse to the idea of cheesy romance. Flowers, candies and Valentine’s Day aren’t my idea of romance. I like candles and walks on the beach, though. I like setting the mood. I don’t think that’s mush. Kareena and I have very different personalities. She’s deep, stable and grounded, even more so than I am. But thankfully, our ideas of romance coincide.

How much does sex contribute to making a relationship work?

Intimacy matters. That’s a fact. I don’t know whether it can make or break a relationship, but physical intimacy is as important as emotional intimacy.

But is sex the end game for men?

I don’t know if it’s the end game but it’s certainly something that people shouldn’t take for granted.

It can be the ground for a solid relationship.

While women can rattle off the top qualities they want in a man, men are often tongue-tied when it comes to describing their dream woman.

What do you think?

I think as long as the basics are in place, every relationship should be taken as it comes. Men shouldn’t expect their women to know the solutions to the problems of the universe. Sometimes if you want

to talk about something and your wife doesn’t understand where you’re coming from, you can always talk to a friend who may understand you better.

Off the top of your head, what are the most important things for men in relationships? What do men want?

Men just want to feel important.

Every man wants to matter in his partner’s lives and decisions. Of course, some of them even want to be guiding lights and philosophers for their women – not sure that’s always recommended!

As one who has been vocal about being a one-woman man, what do you think of one-night stands?

I think they’re great! [laughs] On a serious note, it’s a very subjective concept. It’s very psychological, actually. People need to be held, to be touched and taken care of. And if that happens with a stranger, it has its own excitement and charm. But it can also turn into an addiction. These encounters aren’t based on reality or personality; they’re based on ideas of each other. I would never condemn it.

Most of my relationships have started as one-night stands.

So is Kareena the happy ending you’d been waiting for?

Let’s call it a Happy Constant State, or a Happy State of Being.

Or… Happy Enough. nihit.bhave@hindustantimes.com Follow @misterbistar on Twitter

HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU Saif Ali Khan gets into the shoes of misunderstood boyfriends all over the world and sets the record straight:

Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK

WHY DOESN’T HE CALL BACK? Saif: Because he doesn’t want to fall into the trap and feel that he has to call every single time. If he feels that he isn’t ‘answerable’, then he probably will call back. He just wants to ‘be’! Sometimes when you call people you want to, it gets to a point where you’ve to call them even if you don’t want to anymore.

WHAT DOES HE MEAN BY “GIVE ME MORE SPACE”?

Saif: Exactly that! He means, “Don’t cling so much, I can’t breathe! I want to be myself and do other things and call you when I want to.”

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

WHY WON’T HE HOLD HANDS WITH ME IN PUBLIC? Saif: Well, it could be that he’s ashamed! [laughs]. He’s probably too awkward about PDA. But I don’t think holding hands is a big deal.

WHY WON’T HE JUST COMMIT? Saif: You know, people who wear their hearts on their sleeves make hasty decisions. Some people who commit too fast retract even faster.

It’s always better to be a bit phobic, than committing and regretting it later.

WHAT ABOUT HIS ROVING EYE? Saif: There isn’t much you can do about it, actually. Wait till he’s 40, and see if it goes away. But give him some space. If he acts on it, then dump him!

12

indulge

Never Buy A New PhoNe AgAiN

How about having a modular phone just like modular furniture?

MORE ON THE WEB For more Techilicious columns, log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at twitter. com/RajivMakhni The views expressed by the columnist are personal

A

SK ANYONE about a dream feature on their future phone and the usual suspects will crop up.

A phone that bends and folds, a phone that can change colour at the press of a button and the old favourite – a phone with a battery life of more than a week. But of late, the one thing that seems to have fired up people’s imagination and is featuring high on the wishlist is a modular phone.

IT COULD SAVE THE WORLD AND YOU

At its most basic, a modular phone is a brilliant idea. Think of a basic frame for a phone and every other single thing that makes up a phone is an add-on module. Thus, you add a screen of your choice, a RAM module, a processor you prefer, a battery (or maybe two batteries if you are a power user), a basic camera or a top-of-the-line camera module if you are a photography enthusiast. What you put together is totally customised by you. Every time a new feature or a new technology comes up that you really want, just buy the specific module and replace it on your phone. And if something goes wrong with your phone, swap in a replace-

Rajiv Makhni

techilicious ment module of just the defective part. Electronic waste is dramatically reduced, the number of discarded phones comes down drastically and the amount of money wasted on lusting after the next big thing is also eliminated. That dream-like device may just be about to become a reality.

A PHONE WORTH KEEPING

Phonebloks is a concept that could add and subtract blocklike modules that could be put together Lego-brick-style

PHONEBLOKS

It all started off with a video about a product called Phonebloks, with the tagline ‘a phone worth keeping’. The video showcased a product that could add and subtract block-like modules that could be put together Lego-brick-style. Whatever was new, cutting edge and on top of your ‘I want it now’ list could be ‘blocked in’ on to the phone in an instant. The idea went instantly viral worldwide. But Phonebloks had a few serious problems. It was more fantasy than reality, there weren’t any real working prototypes and the company behind it was clear that they weren’t going to make it. They just wanted to be “thought generators” and assist anyone who wanted to take this up.

PROJECT ARA

Google, through its recently acquired company Motorola, took the idea of Phonebloks forward with a special division that came up with a phone idea called Project Ara. Even when Motorola was sold to Lenovo, they didn’t sell this division but retained it. To-

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

PROJECT ARA

Google wil release three different sized phone endoskeletons called Endos, which will be priced really low

day, the first Project Ara phone is a working prototype and may well see a commercial release in 2015. Project Ara is even more ambitious than Phonebloks. Google will release three different-sized (a mini, a medium and a very large sized one) phone endoskeletons called, well – Endos. That’s the only thing that Google will make and they will price these Endos really low – something like `2,500. They will then partner with and encourage other companies to come up with basic to very high-end modules that will fit onto these Endos. Companies wanting to make modules won’t have to pay any license fee nor any commission to Google.

Anyone with a great idea and a vision for a module can make them with some governing principles on compatibility and module size. Each module will fit onto the endo with a semi-permanent electromagnet and you can keep adding and subtracting to your heart’s content. Want to move from a HD to a 4K screen, want an optical lens for the camera, need a glucometer or a heart rate sensor, want a fingerprint scanner, more RAM or even a micro printer? Just slide in the module! Thus, you can build yourself a really basic phone or the world’s most high-end phone. It’s your call!

THE MODU THAT WASN’T

A phone called Modu tried this modular approach a few years back. It was the world’s smallest fully functional phone. You could use it as a normal phone, or if you really wanted more features, just slid it into specially built jackets. Bigger screen, better camera or even a photo frame – there was a Modu jacket for it. Unfortunate pricing (very high) plus very limited jacket options made sure the Modu died a premature death.

LENOVO LAYERS IT IN

Lenovo has brought a first taste of a real semimodular phone with Vibe X2. Instead of blocks, this one works on the principle of layers. You can add a battery (to get three days of battery life) or a JBL sound system plus speakerphone layer (it even has add-on mics for a full conference call) and many more layers are expected. The Vibe X2 is a great JUST LAYER IT phone that can add new things – but Lenovo’s Vibe X2 is a not replace them.

phone that works on the principle of layers.

You can add things but can’t replace them

A HUMBLER APPROACH

Then, there is the Project Ara rival called Vsenn that is also ready for commercial release soon. This is a modular phone with slightly more humble aspirations as it will only have three swappable components – its camera, battery and processor/RAM. Thus it seems that the journey towards a real modular phone that can be swapped and upgraded and custom-built just for you is about to happen. And if a modular phone becomes reality, future generations will look back and laugh at the time when we used to buy a whole new phone just because we wanted one new feature.

Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

THE FINAL CUT

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(L-R) Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Rick Wright (front) and Roger Waters in 1968 in LA. If Endless River (right) is their last album, it’s a fitting tribute to the band all those albums now, stored in the cloud and retrievable any time I want. And now Pink Floyd’s newest, Endless River, joins the collection.

The deluxe version of Endless River has 21 songs and six videos and is meant to be a tribute to keyboardist Richard Wright who died six years ago. It is almost wholly an instrumental piece of work. Wright appears posthumously in the credits because much of the new album is based on unused recordings made during the recording sessions for Division Bell, Pink Floyd’s 1994 album. Those unused recordings are the base for laying down fresh music by David Gilmour and Nick Mason, the remaining members of the band, along with a bunch of additional musicians. Endless River has an ambient quality – I left it playing on a moderately low volume in the background through a couple of meetings and a stretch of writing – but it also has a sense of sadness. As a tribute to Wright, the album’s elegiac sound works perfectly.

Actually, if it indeed is Floyd’s last album, it works as a tribute to the band as well. Pink Floyd’s has been a very successful yet uneven journey: it lost very early from its fold the highly talented Sanjoy Narayan late Syd Barrett on whom mental illness took its toll; then, the brilliant multi-instrumentalist and singer-composer Roger Waters left; and, later Wright, after a second stint in the band (he had been fired by Waters earlier), died. Endless River is like an epitaph for the band and, for its fans, a must-have.

One album that I sometimes pull out is called Pickin’ On Pink Floyd (2001). It’s a tribARLIER THIS month, while listening to Pink ute album to the band, rendered in bluegrass style. Bluegrass Floyd’s new (and, probably, final) album, Endless is an American musical genre originating in the AppalaRiver, I realised wistfully how long it has been chian region of eastern United States and has influences of since I last heard the albums by that iconic Brittraditional British folk music. Bluegrass music is typically ish band who were the pioneers of a genre that got named acoustic and string-instrument oriented – the fiddle, banjo, progressive rock. If you were growing up listening to rock guitars, and mandolins are commonly used – and improvisamusic in the 1970s, Floyd was indispensable on your ‘playtion is part of the style. The Pickin’ On series features bluelist’ (although that word would only make an appearance grass tributes to several bands, from Clapton and Coldplay to many decades later). Everyone had his or her favourite Santana and Springsteen. On the Pink Floyd tribute album, Pink Floyd album those days. Mine are the really early ones there are bluegrass renditions of See Emily Play, Astronomy – The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967), which is the only Domine, Comfortably Numb, Time and Money. Don’t expect one by the band when it used to be led by Syd Barrett; A faithful copies of the originals but unique interpretations Saucerful Of Secrets (1968); and Ummagumma (1969). I was that have nuanced references to them. too young in the actual years when those alTributes to Pink Floyd abound. There are bums were released to have heard them right WISH YOU WERE HERE bands – Think Floyd and House of Floyd are then but I caught them around the mid-1970s. Pickin’ On Pink Floyd, a tribute a couple – that do only Pink Floyd covers. But My Floyd collection grew in the 1970s, ’80s album, has unique interpretathe most interesting start-to-finish cover of a and ’90s when I was old enough to access their tions with nuanced references Floyd album and one that I enjoy very much later albums in real time. Over the years, I’ve is The Flaming Lips’ (2009) experimental verlost some of the ancient vinyls; some have sion of The Dark Side of the Moon. The added got badly scratched, rendering them unplaybonus: several of the songs feature hardcore able; a couple of the pre-recorded cassettes American punk musician Henry Rollins. I (remember those?), like my copy of Wish know the puritans among Floyd fans may You Were Here (1975), got destroyed beyond sneer at tribute bands but hey, you can either redemption; and others, such as Atom Heart go on listening to all your old Floyd albums, Mother (1971), with its album art of a cow in which I’m sure you know by heart by now, or a field by the design group, Hipgnosis, were try something a little different. borrowed by someone who never returned Download Central appears them. I’ve got digital re-mastered versions of every fortnight

Another Brick in the WAll Pink Floyd’s elegiac new album, Endless River, is like an epitaph for the iconic British band and a must-have for its fans

download central E

MORE ON THE WEB To give feedback, stream or download the music mentioned in this column, go to blogs. hindustantimes.com/ download-central.

Write to Sanjoy at sanjoy.narayan@ hindustantimes.com.

Follow @SanjoyNarayan on Twitter

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

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Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK

The Burger BiTes Back Vir Sanghvi

rude food Every American fast food chain that enters India adopts the “Indianisation” mantra. Will the new entrant get it right?

T

HE SUBJECT of fast food always puts me in mind of a conversation I had with Rupert Murdoch in the Nineties just after he had bought Star TV from Richard Li. I was assigned to interview Murdoch and I asked him what his plans for programming were. Oh, that would be easy, he said. His networks and studios had access to a vast bank of programming. All they needed to do was to dub them into Hindi.

Murdoch was merely repeating the conventional wisdom. At that stage, re-runs of Baywatch in 50 different languages kept the whole world enthralled. A theory had evolved, which said that all good American programming was global. (After all, it was Murdoch who famously said “globalisation is just another word for Americanisation”). You just had to make it language-neutral and it would succeed, no matter which country you showed it in.

I was sceptical of the applicability of this theory to India. We have our own strong popular culture and I could not see Indians crowding around their TV sets to watch Baywatch in Hindi. As it turned out, Murdoch changed his mind very quickly. It took him a couple of years to

realise that Star TV had to be fully Indian (and thank God for that because that is how people like me got into the TV business!) and in a few years, Star was all-Indian, and Star Plus, showing only made-in-India programming, has become the country’s number one channel for what seems like forever. And it is probably Murdoch’s biggest TV operation in the world.

Something similar has happened in the world of fast food. I remember the arrival of McDonald’s, with much fanfare, into India. At that stage, like Murdoch, the chain’s global management announced that it would stick to the global formula. And it offered us the fast food equivalent of dubbing into Hindi: the burger would be made from mutton not beef, to ‘respect Hindu sentiment’ (and to sell more, I would imagine!).

The mutton burger (foolishly dubbed the Maharaja Mac) failed and was withdrawn. Instead McDonald’s slowly Indianised its menu, with aloo-tikki burgers and masala on demand and found much greater success in the Indian market. Though its recent tussles with one of its operators have been PR nightmares, there’s little doubt that the chain is here to stay.

Which leads me to wonder: if a global chain uses international processes but completely Indianises its product, can it become the fast food equivalent of Star Plus?

It is a serious question. McDonald’s is worried about the US market. According to the Financial Times, same store sales in its US outlets fell in ten of the last twelve months. In October it announced that profits were down 30 per cent in the last quarter. Sales growth in Europe is sluggish, a Chinese food-safety scandal has hit McDonald’s and Moscow has opened (probably unjustified) hygiene and finance investigations into nearly half of McDonald’s outlets.

So is India the next El Dorado for fast food chains? My guess is that yes, it could be.

There are crucial advantages for foreign players in the fast food market. The first relates to the aspirational nature of the Indian middle class. In most Western countries, no middle-class person goes to McDonald’s or KFC out of choice or is proud to be seen in one. (The delivery chains, like Domino’s, don’t face that problem because their products are consumed at home.)

As a consequence, the kind of food associated with fast food chains – say hamburgers – is now consumed by the middle classes at upmarket places (Dylan in the UK, Five Napkin Burger in New York etc) or at trendy chains such as In-N-Out Burger (in California) or Shake Shack (now global). The vast industrial-corporate nature of the big chains goes against them.

In India, on the other hand, there is no shame – even among the middle class – in being seen at a McDonald’s or a KFC. And among what might be called the emerging middle class, there is a certain glamour to eating at such places.

The aspirational nature of the new India has another advantage. In the West, flipping burgers or working behind the counter at a fast-food store is considered a lowly job that pays minimum wages and can be a source of

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shame. People who work at fast-food outlets often hate their jobs, which they’ve accepted only as a last resort or as a stop-gap. And it shows in the service.

In India, however, most fast food employees are firstgeneration English speakers who take huge pride in their jobs and are thrilled to wear the uniform of a great global brand. They love their jobs, they love the malls they work in, and they don’t regard themselves as underpaid.

While researching this article, I went to two food centres in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj. At the cheery Ambience food space, all the guests were having a great time and acting as though they were enjoying a restaurant experience.

The staff at the stalls were as happy. At McDonald’s, they smiled a lot and were keen to explain the menu. At KFC, they urged me to try new dishes in the manner of attentive maître d’s at top restaurants. At Subway, the guy who made my sandwich looked crestfallen when I said I would come back and collect it. “Sir, please wait and watch me make it. It will only take a minute!”

The Promenade food court is largely soulless but even there, the staff at the foreign chains took real pride in what they were doing and guests were having fun. (The one dud was an Indian bhujiawala chain, which I will not name, where the staff were sullen, service was disorganised and menu items were not available. So obviously, global systems have something to do with running a good operation.)

Given this background, the global chains should find it easy to flourish in India. We have no snobbery about eating in chain restaurants. We love it! I can understand the crowds that greeted the first Starbucks (which has a sort-of-trendy image) but even Nando’s had customers lining up. And crowds thronged the opening of the first Burger King store in Saket in Delhi.

Ah, Burger King! That has been the noisiest fast food launch so far and at last count, they were selling over 4,800 burgers a day at their outlet. This does not surprise me, though when I first heard that Burger King was coming to India, I was a little intrigued.

As you probably know, Burger King is a great American fast food brand but its primary point of distinction from McDonald’s has been the superior quality of the beef patty it puts into its signature burger: the Whopper.

So, I wondered, how would the all-American Burger King survive in a no-beef market? (Another US chain called Wendy’s whose most famous put-down of McDonald’s thin patty was “Where’s the beef ?” is also coming to India. I guess we’ll all go to the stores and ask, “Where’s the beef ?”)

But Burger King has Indianised to

McDonald’s slowly Indianised its menu and found greater success in the Indian market

the extent that the menu is now uniquely Indian. Only the processes and service are American. Unlike McDonald’s, which abandoned the hamburger, Burger King has taken the challenge head-on by developing a lamb (not goat) patty for the Whopper. I tried the patty and was impressed: it had texture and a nice, spicy tang, and the characteristic Whopper construction.

Other dishes include a chicken tikka sandwich (good) and a range called the King’s Melt, which turns the cheeseburger principle inside out by infusing the cheese into a patty rather than putting a slice on top (and then adding chilli). I tried some and thought they worked well in texture terms. And even a confirmed paneer-hater like me was impressed by the Paneer King Melt.

So how has Burger King got it so right at the very start? Two reasons. One, they’ve learnt from McDonald’s mistakes. And two: they are no longer a great American corporation seeking to impose truth, justice and the American way on the rest of the world. They are now owned by a Brazilian company called 3G, which recognises that India needs its own menu.

It is funny though. Years after McDonald’s abandoned the burger, the hamburger is back in India in a big way. The success of Dunkin Donuts in this market is not due to the donuts (Krispy Kreme has attracted little attention here) but to the very popular burgers – created for the Indian market. And now Burger King has repeated that triumph. More are sure to follow.

HAIL THE KING

Burger King has had the noisiest fast food launch so far.

At last count, they were selling over 4,800 burgers a day at their outlet

MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Vir Sanghvi, log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch The views expressed by the columnist are personal

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Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK; Imaging: MONICA GUPTA

Sherlock or Poirot?

Which of them deserves to be crowned the best detective in fiction?

Seema Goswami

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MORE ON THE WEB For more SPECTATOR columns by Seema Goswami, log on to hindustantimes.com/ brunch. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ seemagoswami. Write to her at seema_ht@ rediffmail.com The views expressed by the columnist are personal

S REGULAR readers of this column will know, I am a huge fan of detective fiction. Give me a good murder mystery and I will shut myself up for the rest of the day, gobbling it up greedily, devouring every plot twist, chewing on each red herring, and drinking in the denouement with delight.

So you can imagine my joy when I managed to lay my grasping little hands on the latest Anthony Horowitz. The author first brought his brand of magic to the Sherlock Holmes oeuvre with House of Silk. And now he’s dealing with the period immediately after Sherlock’s famous ‘demise’ at the Reichenbach Falls. The book is called Moriarty and that is all I am willing to say at this point, lest I be accused (yet again!) of planting spoilers.

But as I galloped across the pages at breakneck speed, I began to wonder: is Sherlock Holmes the most popular fictional detective of all time? There must be at least four, if not five generations now who have been brought up marveling at his deductive skills and intuitive insights. And yet his charm – or rather the talent of his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – never seems to fade. Re-read The Hound of the Baskervilles today and you will feel that familiar chill run down your spine. But if you give Holmes first place then who else would feature in the top ten?

So this Sunday morning, here’s my list of the top ten detectives in fiction. Needless to say, this is an entirely subjective list based entirely on my own preferences and, dare I say, prejudices. Feel free to compile and share your own and we’ll take a crack at making a more universal, comprehensive one!

But speaking for myself, this is how the list would go.

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

1. Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle): The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was what I grew up on, cutting my detective-fiction-loving teeth on an impressively bound volume of Conan Doyle’s collected works that belonged to my grandfather. When I re-read these stories on my Kindle these days, they evoke memories of sunlit afternoons in the verandah of my childhood home, the wonder I experienced as a child at a story well told, and my absolute awe at Holmes’ many exploits.

2. Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie): His giant ego, his French-accented English, his little eccentricities, his luxuriant moustache, and those ‘leetle grey cells’ all combined to make Poirot one of the most recognisable creatures of detective fiction. (Though I must confess that these days when I think Poirot, I see David Suchet!)

3. Thomas Lynley (Elizabeth George): Lord Lynley, or the eighth Earl of Asherton to give him his full title, is the archetypal tortured genius. He is estranged from his mother, his brother has a drug problem, his rash driving has crippled his closest friend, Simon St James, who is now married to Deborah, who used to be in love with Lynley. If that isn’t enough stuff for psychological drama, you have Lynley’s on-off relationship with Lady Helen Clyde and his volatile partnership with his working class detective sergeant, Barbara Havers.

All that before you even add on a murder mystery!

4. Guido Brunetti (Donna Leon): The best part of this detective series is that it is set in Venice, and the city’s beauty is apparent at every turn. Guido Brunetti is that stranger to detective fiction: a good family man. He lives life the Italian way, going home every afternoon for a three-course meal with his wife, Paola, and their kids, Raffi and Chiara. He counts on his aristocratic father-in-law, Comte Falier, for insights into Venetian high society, and by way of light reading, dips into the writings of the Roman historian, Pliny.

5. Adam Dalgliesh (PD James): How can you not love a detective who is also a poet? A cerebral, quiet, thoughtful, intensely private man who brings his subtle intellect to bear on the most knotted of cases and untangles them with gentlemanly ease. If that ticks all your boxes, then Dalgliesh’s your man.

6. Aurelio Zen (Michael Dibdin): He’s a bit of a mess really. With a complicated love life, an ageing mother, and a propensity to land himself in near-death encounters in various scenic parts of Italy. This is an anti-hero you find yourself rooting for despite yourself.

7. Cordelia Grey (PD James): She is the one character that I wish James had made more of. Grey has so much potential. Shaped by a peripatetic childhood, she has worked at all kinds of odd jobs till she ends up in a private detective agency, which she inherits when her mentor dies. If anyone deserves another outing among fictional detectives, it is Cordelia Grey.

8. Lord Peter Wimsey (Dorothy L Sayers): The original prototype for Lord Lynley, Lord Wimsey (later the Duke of Denver) is an amateur detective, whose whimsical, slightly foolish manner, conceals a sharp, deductive mind. Think upper-class fop crossed with Hercule Poirot.

9. Miss Marple (Agatha Christie): We’ve all known someone like her. That ageing busybody who pokes her nose in everyone's business, and keeps a close watch on proceedings from behind her twitching curtain. But it’s an absolute joy to read what Christie makes of her.

10. Kay Scarpetta (Patricia Cornwell): The medical examiner as detective was an unusual conceit when Cornwell came out with her first book, Postmortem, in 1990. But what I like best about Scarpetta is her brisk, almost brusque, take-no-prisoners attitude, which in recent novels, she has transmitted to her computer genius neice, Lucy Farinelli.

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PEOPLE

Cross Border O Chit-Chaat What impressed Mahira Khan, star of the popular Pakistani serial Humsafar, most on her trip to India? Was it Bollywood – or bhelpuri?

by Veenu Singh PHOTO: SANJEEV VERMA

F COURSE Mahira Khan loves Bollywood. How could she not? The 31-yearold Pakistani is an actress after all, even if she is from across the border. So when she arrived in India on a three-city tour after her popular TV show Humsafar ended, of course Mumbai was on her itinerary.

But it’s hard to say which of these three was Khan’s most important stop in Mumbai: meeting her fans, meeting Bollywood people, or meeting a bhelpuriwalla she’d heard much about. We suspect it was the bhelpuri vendor, because Khan denies signing any kind of Bollywood contract, but eagerly demands to know where the best chaat is available.

TERA BHARAT MAHAN

Khan was meant to have been in India much earlier, when the channel Zindagi began airing her show, but the usual visa issues arose. Still, she’s making up for lost time, adding another layer of great memories to those she already has of Humsafar. The show aired in Pakistan in 2011, catapulting her to fame; and she’s now reliving that experience.

“I never expected Indians to stop me in the streets by calling my character’s name – Khirad,” she says excitedly. “It’s a real honour to be here.”

Her excitement shows on her Twitter account: if she could, she’d document every moment of her stay in India there. “I joined Twitter quite late, encouraged by people who said it would be good for me professionally,” says Khan. “My make-up person on my new show, Sadqay Tumhare, even taught me how to take selfies and pout.”

CHOTI SI ASHA

Khan began her career by hosting MTV’s Most Wanted in 2008, and debuted on the big screen in 2011 with Bol. After that came Humsafar with Fawad Khan. “Pakistani cinema doesn’t have the kind of standing that Bollywood has,” Khan explains. “Our TV dramas are much better appreciated. But that doesn’t mean that I have gone off cinema. I’m currently working on Asif Raza Mir’s upcoming film project.”

Humsafar was Khan’s big break. A huge part of the show’s popularity came from the chemistry between the lead pair. But Khan says they were simply professionals working together.

“We didn’t really know each other,” says Khan. “We did all those romantic scenes, but we didn’t talk to each other. By the time the show ended, however, we had become good friends.”

Pakistani shows tend to be much less over the top than Indian serials. But Khan is all praise for Indian soap queen Ekta Kapoor. “Her saas-bahu idea for serials was genius,” says the actress who’s watched several episodes of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. “She’s offering what the audience wants to see.

Now, however, I think some of that audience wants a change.”

I’m a diehard fan of old Hindi films, songs and also Shah Rukh Khan

WAY TO GO

Mahira Khan (left) documented her moments in India on Twitter; a still from her TV show Humsafar

FILMI FUNDAS

In Mumbai, Khan hung out with the cast of Kill Dil, which included her compatriot Ali Zafar. She’s a big fan of Shah Rukh Khan: “The way I keep blabbering about him, I’m sure he is going to think that I’m some kind of a madwoman!”

In her family, Khan is the only one to have been bitten by the filmi bug. “My mother is an educationist, father a banker and my brother is a serious journalist who thinks my work is nonsensical,” says Khan.

“So they don’t show any particular interest in my work.” But she does feel guilty about leaving her fiveyear-old son at home while she’s at work.

“The unfortunate part is that most people think that ours is a fun job without realising that we are like all professionals who step out for work and do what is required of them with the utmost sincerity,” she says. veenus@hindustantimes.com Follow @Veenusingh12 on Twitter

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

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REEL WORLD

Tall Order For Short Films Given their format, it’s tough for short films to reach audiences. But some filmmakers continue to do interesting work within this space

GEETHU MOHANDAS

Her directorial debut, and most important work in the short film genre is Kelkkunnundo (22 min; 2009) – about the adverse effects of urbanization

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by Asad Ali

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HEN ASKED what advice he would give to aspiring filmmakers about to start making short films, Anil Thadani quipped, “To not start.”

Thadani helms AA Films, one of Bollywood’s biggest distribution companies and he isn’t the only one to voice borderline disdain for what is arguably cinema’s most neglected genre, the short film.

More so in India where audiences have largely become conditioned into consuming movies that are at least two hours long. Ironically, a number of Indian films that aren’t feature-length and don’t find much industry support here, at least initially, end up doing quite well abroad. So why does this form lag behind back home? Thadani points to the near-zero market demand because “the audience wants entertainment, which short films don’t have.”

Anuj Malhotra, publisher of Projectorhead, an online film magazine, and the founder of Delhi-based Lightcube Film Society, says, “I think the market has in recent years expressed a strong preference for work that is easily familiar to their audience. So short

WHAT IS A SHORT FILM? Academy Award guidelines stipulate that a short film “is defined as an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less including all credits”. It is further divided into two categories – animated short films and live action short films. If the film deals with non-fiction content and has a similar running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits, then it automatically falls under the Documentary Short Subject category.

Here are three filmmakers who have achieved recognition in the short film space.

Each of them has a unique voice and has tackled different themes

REEL IN THE HILL

The third edition of the Dharamshala International Film Festival pulled in crowds at Mcleodganj (above). Codirector of DIFF, Tenzing Sonam (right) films – or any film that offers an alternative form of engagement – is excluded from consideration.”

Malhotra says that the very term ‘short’ film “induces anxiety to those in conference rooms”, since it announces at the very outset that the product is short in duration, and hence unlikely to fetch profits. He shows consideration for the powers that be, though.

Exhibitors don’t necessarily make money by showing films, but by selling subsidiary food items. “A short film that requires the audience to invest only a few minutes wouldn’t really get much revenue by the side of popcorn!” he points out.

The third edition of the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) was held in Mcleodganj recently, and it showcased an eclectic mix of shorts. Themes ranged from a day in the life of a transgender to a slum boy’s ambition of making a film to a slice-of-life portrayal of a differently-abled boy and his family. DIFF co-founder Tenzing Sonam agrees that short films aren’t given enough space in India and suggests that a compendium of short films is probably the

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

way to go. COO of BIG Cinemas, Ashish Saksena, also thinks that more thought should be given to packaging short films. “Putting together a selection of say, 10 odd short films, definitely stands a better chance of getting a release.”

The short film genre though, stuttering as it may be commercially, has always been fertile territory for aspiring filmmakers to hone their skills and showcase unbridled creativity. For example, before Umesh Kulkarni won a National award for his feature film Deool (2011), he was already a respected name for his short films such as Girni (22min; 2005) and Gaarud (11min; 2008). And it isn’t that uncommon a trend.

erala-born filmmaker Geethu Mohandas has known the camera intimately since she was about five years old. At that age she starred in a Malayalam film, Onnu Muthal Poojyam Vare (1986), and went on to win the Kerala State Film Award for Best Child Artist for that year. Tasting success that early can be tricky for a child and Mohandas’s parents understood that: “It’s one of the prime reasons they took me abroad. My middle school was spent in Malaysia and high school and undergraduate education in Canada.” When asked about the filmmakers who inspired her, she says, “To start with I was influenced by Malayalam cinema, because that’s my language, and we had some amazing talents such as KG George and John Abraham.”

After her education, Mohandas returned to cinema and soon went on to win an award for Best Actress for the Malayalam film Akale (2004) – this Shyamaprasaddirected feature was an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie. But Mohandas says, “I think I became an actor by default because I was a child artist. I always wanted to direct. I was just waiting for the right time to make a switch.”

She did make the switch quite successfully. At the time Mohandas was applying for funds to the Huberat Bals Fund at Rotterdam for her then nascent venture Liar’s Dice, she decided to make a short film as well. That short film, Kelkkunnundo (2009), explored how, in the name of development, rapid urbanisation was affecting the environment. It went on to win a slew of awards, and got a world premiere at the Rotterdam film festival. “Which is why I said that my short film helped a lot towards making Liar’s Dice.”

Liar’s Dice, Mohandas’s first full-length feature deals with

twitter.com/HTBrunch

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GITANJALI RAO

Major award-winning work from Rao includes Printed Rainbow (15 min; 2006) – about an elderly lady and her cat; True Love Story (19min; 2014) – a love story between two street kids in Mumbai; and Chai (11 min; 2013) – about four tea sellers in Mumbai

G MAN OF LETTERS

A still from Kelkkunnundo (above), Geethu Mohandas’ (right) short film

the issue of migration to cities and the price a certain class of labourers have to pay to survive. The film, which is India’s official entry to the Oscars for next year, had its world premiere at Mumbai Film Festival in 2013. It has won two national awards, besides numerous others at various film festivals across the world.

But what does she have to say about short filmakers not getting enough visibility? “There’s no proper platform to release your work and recover costs. I was lucky because most festivals where my film won had some cash prize with it.

So I could recover some costs.” She explains that even packaging shorts into anthology format may not always work. What’s needed, she says, is for a known name or big corporate house to come forward and back the project. But Mohandas is quick to add, “As a filmmaker, irrespective of the format, you still have to tell a story and make it as convincing as possible.”

ABHAY KUMAR

His most recognised short film is Just That Sort of a Day (13 min; 2011) which ”follows the lives of seemingly disconnected characters as they try to find sense in the everyday events haunting them”.

Other shorts include Life is a Beach (5 min; 2011) – about two individuals’ equation in a city and Sagar Setu (3 min; 2009) – about two young kids in a Mumbai fishermen’s colony

itanjali Rao pushes creative boundaries a bit further by working in the realm of animation shorts. Says Rao: “I can blend the forms depending on the script. I’m working next on a biopic of Begum Akhtar which will need to have a lot of past events recreated.

In such cases I think animation works much better. But at other times I feel like including live action too.”

Born and brought up in Mumbai, Rao was always exposed to a lot of cinema.

“Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Bimal Roy, Satyajit Ray… I liked the usual greats.” She finished

COLOUR ME WILD

Poster for True Love Story (below), Gitanjali Rao’s (inset) most recent project

I

t’s still a bit awkward for Abhay Kumar to explain what he does to most people, he says. “I get asked what I do, and when I say I make short films, I’m asked whether it’s running in the theatres. When I say it isn’t, they think that I make documentaries!” chuckles Kumar, adding that people have no clue what this form is all about.

Born and brought up in Chandigarh, Kumar says he followed the usual trajectory of wanting to be a cricketer, and then preparing for medical and engineering exams. He went on to study mass communications in Delhi and completed his postgraduate diploma in film from Xavier Institute of Communications in 2008. Kumar recounts his first proper attempt at

NEW ANGLES

Abhay Kumar’s (left) 2011 short film Just That Sort of a Day (extreme left)

her graduation from JJ Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai and dabbled in advertising briefly: “The concept of selling wasn’t quite my thing… I was always too much of an artist to do that work,” she says.

Rao ended up producing her first animation short, Orange (4 mins; 2002) which she now says “wasn’t a good film! It didn’t even get selected for Mumbai International Film Fest (MIFF)!” Her next short animation though created quite a stir. Printed Rainbow won about 25 awards including one for Best Animation at MIFF. It got a Cannes premiere in 2006 and won three awards there in Critics Week. “It was about an elderly lady who lives alone with her cat in a city, and she likes to collect matchboxes. In fact, I used to observe my mother with her cat and the idea to make a film came from there,” says Rao. Her next animation short, True Love Story, was screened this year at both DIFF and Cannes. “It’s a love story between two Mumbai street kids and their realities,” says Rao, who also directed a segment in Anurag Kashyap’s 2013 production Shorts. In the Kashyap anthology Rao directed the film Chai (11 min; 2013) which was about “four individuals who’ve migrated from various parts of the country and sell tea in Mumbai.” It was also the first time Rao made a live action short film.

But Rao doesn’t think she’s ever been perceived as ‘mainstream’: “Only a few are aware of my short animation work. In India, unless you do a proper full-length feature no one will take notice.” Before you can finish asking how the situation can change for the better for short filmmakers, Rao quickly says, “It won’t change, not anytime soon at least.”

filmmaking: “I made a 45-minute film on a college trip and submitted that as part of my end-year assignment!”

Kumar says that short films gave him the ideal platform to find his voice. They also helped him understand whether he really wanted to take up filmmaking further. Kumar made about six short films, each with varying degrees of success and recognition. But his biggest success came with his 13-minute animation short, Just That Sort of a Day, which explores the meaning of life and existence without any pretence.

Besides winning a National Award in 2011, it premiered at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam in January, won a Special Mention at the Regensburg Short Film Festival, Germany, in March and became the first ever Indian animation film to compete at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival.

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

But Kumar still remembers how Just That Sort of a Day was rejected at every film festival back home before it finally gained recognition on foreign shores. Which is why, explains Kumar, it’s best for short filmmakers to adopt a stoic approach to the reception their work gets – expect little. If you get an audience, it’s always a bonus.

For the time being though, Kumar doesn’t need to worry about an audience for his next production. Placebo is touted to be a ‘hybrid-documentary’ about the darker effects of the education system. And it is now set to have its world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) this year. It is the only Indian film this year to compete in the IDFA First Appearance category.

asad.ali@hindustantimes.com Follow @AsadAli1989 on Twitter

22

WELLNESS

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HERE ARE two kinds of people in this world: one who live to be fit, and the other who try to be fit to live. While the former welcome the drudgery of gymming, the latter dread it, just as they dread any form of physical exercise – walking, jogging, aerobics, swimming, yoga, even Zumba – which becomes routine after a point. I’m one of the second kind of people. And so it was with much scepticism that I dragged myself to the Banjara School of Dance in Delhi’s hip Hauz Khas Village the other night. I was slated to attend a session of the latest fitness regime in town – something on the lines of dance fitness, but with a twist apparently – and the only thing that attracted me, besides fun-looking photos on their Facebook page, was their slogan.

“FITNESS IS A DANCE PARTY”

Crush Fitness India came into being in June this year when 27-yearold Uday Raj Anand, an Oxford-returned developmental economist, attended a dance fitness class by 26-year-old Bharat Sadana, a dancer and fitness enthusiast from Amritsar. “I never used to exercise before, I hated any form of workout,” says Anand. “But when I started doing this, I was immediately hooked. I felt Bharat should take it to more people.” He hopped on board with Sadana and two other co-founders (Neha Sadana and Rajat Bedi) and the new regime, the Crush Club Cardio, was born.

How is this any different from other dance fitness classes? “The usual such class is based on only

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The la AI MARTIA are de st 15 minut L e inside dicated to p s of Capoe ira a ‘Rod laying a’ a gam e one particular dance style, Zumba for instance, with a particular set of rhythms and moves. It is mostly based on the concept of a routine,” explains Sadana. “We mix six different styles of music and dance forms – salsa, Bollywood (umbrella term for Hindi pop, bhangra, Marathi and even peppy, flamboyant South Indian music), jazz, hip hop, merengue and bachata – into one hour of an intense workout.

Plus, it’s all freestyle, so there’s no pressure to get the steps right.”

Sadana says he never prepares for any of the classes: “I just listen to the music, follow the sounds, feel the rhythms and the steps automatically flow.”

Anand elaborates on the science behind the regime. “Basically, your body is designed to do its work using the least amount of energy possible, just like an efficient car engine. When you do the same exercises every day, your body learns

Effective exercises are those that keep your body in a state of surprise

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

to do them efficiently. So effective cardio exercises, particularly for weight loss, are those that keep your body in a state of surprise.”

The multiple dance forms in Crush Club Cardio engage different parts of your body and keep it in a state of constant surprise, thus maximising your body’s response to the workout. Even lazy folks can’t say no to a good dance!

WHEN FITNESS IS A GAME

If you have two left feet, or live in Mumbai, there’s a chance you might still get fit, toned and all hot-bod, without ever hitting the gym. A new fitness regime has hit the shores of this busy city as well.

And it is martial arts plus dance plus music all rolled into a game.

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art, which was developed

by African slaves working in sugarcane farms in Brazil sometime in the 16th century. “At that time, if the slaves were caught practising any form of combat or martial arts, they were punished and beaten. Hence, they disguised the movements into a form of dance,

accompanied by music, claps and games,” says instructor Sunil Singh, 22, the first to commercially start Capoeira classes in Mumbai.

He was introduced to it when a few Israeli Capoeira enthusiasts conducted a workshop in the orphanage where Singh grew up. He went on to learn it over two years from expats and Indians who have been practicing it.

Capoeira not only teaches you martial art techniques but is also a way to overall fitness. “I have dancers coming in who have great flexibility but little strength, I have footballers who have strength but want to increase their flexibility.

Then there are office-goers who just want 90 minutes of a great workout mixed with fun,” says Singh.

The classes begin with basic workouts that engage your core, arms and legs; you’re then taught Capoeira techniques like cartwheels, handstands, backflips and kicks. The last 15 minutes are dedicated to a game where two players enter a circle which is called a Roda (pronounced Hoda in Portuguese) and execute these techniques against each other. Students are also encouraged to learn Capoeira songs, which were composed by the African slaves as messages of the hard times they faced, to be passed on to future generations.

Mumbai-based journalist Pavni Mittal has been attending Singh’s classes since August.“I used to gym, do yoga, aerobics, but nothing really bore any result. This is the first time I have tried any kind of martial art. I may not have lost weight yet but my body is so toned now.” She believes that Capoeira is more than just a way to fitness. It’s a philosophy, a movement. satarupa.paul@hindustantimes.com Follow @satarupapaul on Twitter

WELLNESS

23

MIND BODY SOUL SHIKHA SHARMA

For any worries related to unplanned pregnancy:

What women should know about Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

F

Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK

ROM A doctor’s point of view, it’s interesting to note that many women diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) are also struggling to lose weight.

From the patient’s point of view, it’s unfortunate that the condition is not well understood. Hence, treatment is incomplete and often not timely.

WHAT WOMEN WITH PCOS MUST UNDERSTAND 1. PCOS is a metabolic problem with a variety of symptoms.

2. It’s called PCOS because the ultrasound reveals that women diagnosed with it have ovaries with several balloon-like cysts.

3. Analysis reveals that the metabolic problems and the cysts are the result of hormonal imbalance. The imbalanced hormones include insulin (which helps carbohydrate metabolism), estrogen, progesterone (responsible for monthly cycles and fertility) and androgens (found in very small quantities in women). Hence, women with PCOS may suffer from the following problems: n Increased facial hair n Abnormal monthly cycles n Fertility issues n Weight gain around the abdomen, waist and arms that’s hard to lose n Pimples and dry skin n Hair fall 4. The levels of the horWATCH OUT

Don’t eat foods that are high in sugar if you have PCOS

mone insulin and the levels of blood sugar are separate readings with different meanings.

This point is often misunderstood, leading to faulty therapy.

5. There is a genetic component to this hormonal disorder. Usually, a person with PCOS has a family member with a metabolic disorder like diabetes.

6. The way to control this condition in terms of diet is to eat food with a low glycemic index.

These are foods that break down very slowly in the body to release their sugar. Foods with a low glycemic index do not cause insulin imbalance.

7. You must not skip meals.

8. Avoid dairy products because they are full of hormones that throw our body’s hormones out of balance.

FOODS WITH A HIGH GLYCEMIC INDEX Sugar, bread, cornflour, maida, biscuits, bakery products, naan, noodles, pasta, fruit juices, chocolate, wheat roti, all sweets, ice-creams, white rice, potatoes and barley.

FOODS WITH A LOW GLYCEMIC INDEX All dals, all sprouts, all salads, all organic non-vegetarian foods, all vegetables (except beetroot, potato, sweet potato and corn).

HERBS WITH A LOW GLYCEMIC INDEX Methi seeds, cinnamon and curry leaves. ask @drshikha.com

MORE ON THE WEB For more columns by Dr Shikha Sharma and other wellness stories, log on to hindustantimes.com/brunch NOVEMBER 23, 2014

Write to us at consumercare@piramal.com or call us at 1800-22-0502 (toll free) or sms ICAN to 56070 Website: www.i-canhelp.in

1. Dear Doctor, as we are planning to go for a short weekend vacation this month, I want to know that is it ok if my partner consumes an emergency contraceptive pill after coming back? Or should she consume one after every intercourse?

An emergency contraceptive pill is not meant to be consumed frequently after each intercourse. Since you are going on a vacation and plan to have intercourse, then the safest thing for you is to use a protection like condom.

Emergency contraceptive pills are ineffective if consumed after 72 hours of intercourse, hence if there is any delay by your partner in consuming the pill after coming back, then you run a high risk of having an unwanted pregnancy.

2. Dear Doctor, I am 44 years old and my periods have become highly irregular since last 8 months. As I am assuming that I am approaching menopause, can I have unprotected sex with my husband? I will surely not conceive at this age, right?

Chances of conception remain as long as you are menstruating.

Menstruation is indicative of the fact that eggs are still being released from ovaries. Since you are approaching

menopause, you should be even more careful as your ovulation would be happening at irregular times and tracking it is almost impossible. Clinically, a woman is considered to have achieved menopause i.e. a stage when there is no longer any menstrual cycle, only after an entire year has passed without any period.

Once you achieve complete menopause, will it become impossible for you to conceive. It is better you continue using your regular contraception until such time you attain complete menopause.

3. Dear Doctor, I consumed an emergency contraceptive last month and 10 days later, I had some bleeding. This month my periods are delayed for 3 days. Please tell me is it normal or an indication of pregnancy?

A delay of few days in periods is acceptable and a known sideeffect of consuming an emergency contraceptive pill.

However, you may have to recount your period cycle from the first day of the bleeding that you had after consuming the pill instead of the first day of your last month's period. This is because sometimes the pills may slightly change the cycle length which may confuse you to think that your period is delayed.

Queries answered by Dr Nirmala Rao MBBS, MD, DPM; a well known psychiatrist who heads Mumbai based Aavishkar - a multifaceted team of expert doctors and health professionals. Aavishkar has a comprehensive approach to mental and physical health, with an emphasis scan this QR code to visit website on counselling and psychotherapy.

Supported by:

MediaMedic ICH/Q&A/1104

THE INSIDE STORY

24

PERSONAL AGENDA

Actor BIRTHDAY

August 27

SUN SIGN Virgo

twitter.com/HTBrunch

Neha Dhupia FIRST BREAK

SCHOOL/ COLLEGE

A play titled Graffiti, directed

by Roshan Abbas

Army Public School, and Jesus & Mary College, Delhi

my movies

If you weren’t an actress, you would have been...

I always wanted to be an athlete or an IFS officer, but life had planned differently for me.

What does style mean to you?

Style is something that defines you. You need to be extremely comfortable in whatever you wear and let your personality show through.

The most stylish actor in Bollywood.

Saif Ali Khan and Rahul Khanna. And otherwise, nothing beats Italian men.

And the fittest ones.

Akshay Kumar and Ranveer Singh.

Directors you want to work with.

Christopher Nolan, Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater.

Your favourite co-stars are...

I enjoy working with Anupam Kher, Akshay Kumar and Vinay Pathak as they are very funny.

If you had to wear a style for the rest of your life, what would it be?

A classic white shirt with blue jeans and tan shoes.

Are Indian women stylish?

They are getting there, but there is definitely big room for improvement. The main problem is

THE FILM YOU HAVE SEEN MORE THAN FIVE TIMES

True Romance (1993)

THE FIRST MOVIE YOU SAW ON THE BIG SCREEN

True Lies (1994)

THE MOST PAISA VASOOL FILM

All SRK films

A MOVIE THAT WAS A PART OF YOUR CHILDHOOD

Sholay (1975)

PLACE OF BIRTH LOW POINT OF YOUR LIFE

Kochi

HOMETOWN Delhi

that they don’t dress according to their body types.

And what about the men?

Men need to stop wearing logos on their chests and learn from the Italians.

What are you most comfortable in?

I have run a marathon in high heels and can easily live in pyjamas too.

A dessert that describes you.

Chocolate fondue with vanilla ice-cream. Blow hot, blow cold.

Your fitness fundas.

An hour or more either at the gym, doing yoga or in the pool.

Your dream co-star for a romantic film.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. I like the big beefy types.

Which Hollywood actors inspire you?

Meryl Streep, who is simply amazing, and Amy Adams.

One piece of advice you wish someone gave you ten years ago.

That you should just be very clear about what you want to do in life.

Your favourite street food.

Bhel puri.

Your dream destination.

In a villa on Lake Como, Italy, hopefully next to George Clooney.

What turns you on?

A sense of humour and a great conversation.

Three skincare products you can’t do without.

A great under-eye cream, a good moisturising lotion with sunscreen and most importantly, tons of water.

What makes your day?

When I make it on time everywhere and manage to finish everything I wanted to.

And what spoils it?

Being stuck in a traffic jam.

You destress with...

A long run and by disconnecting from everything.

The last line of your autobiography would read…

And she smiled through it all.

— Interviewed by Veenu Singh

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

Moving out of home and moving alone to Mumbai

HIGH POINT OF YOUR LIFE

Winning the Miss India pageant in 2002

CURRENTLY I AM...

Enjoying being appointed as a style director at Limeroad.com and also keeping my fingers crossed for my next film Ungli