WEEKLY MAGAZINE, JULY 29, 2012 Free with your copy of Hindustan Times
years of
FREEDOM Total Recall Film historian Rachel Dwyer on the swinging 1960s
Team CID
Catch them soon on the big screen
Band, baaja, baarat – author Ira Trivedi gatecrashes 32 weddings and comes back with tales of excess and ostentation
“I can make good pasta”
John Abraham dishes it out
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VIR SANGHVI
Batman returns
RAJIV MAKHNI
The Tablet wars
SANJOY NARAYAN Discover El Khatib
SEEMA GOSWAMI
Dress codes and you
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W AT C H O U T F O R
29.07.2012
years of
FREEDOM
THE UNCERTAIN ’60S...
Two wars, the death of our first Prime Minister, the lyrical voice of Ameen Sayani, Pandit Ravi Shankar’s beautiful melodies, the irreverent Beatles and the Amul girl – the ’60s was a decade to reckon with. RACHEL DWYER writes on the movies of that decade and more...
inbox LETTER OF THE WEEK! An intense social commentary PART 4 of the Total Recall series made for an intense and thought-provoking social commentary, since present day India continues to resort to violence to address problems. It’s tragic that the ‘Father of the Nation’, Gandhi, has been relegated to paper, and his highly acclaimed practices ignored in favour of ‘Might is Right’. I think overcoming social and political violence in terms of development scams remains one of our biggest challenges as a nation today. — FARHANA GHELANI, via email Farhana wins a Flipkart voucher worth `2,500. Congrats!
A green era for automobiles I WAS amazed to read the benefits of the electric and hybrid cars in your cover story (Life Beyond Diesel and Petrol, July 22). I was unaware of the brands and the difference in fuel cost. The savings can be enormous! I also think new launches can be a hit if the cost comes down and features improve. If this can be achieved, we can have a new era in automobiles. — SAHIL KAURA, via email
Hybrid is the way ahead
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LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch Namira Khan Awesome edition today! I love everything about Brunch and today @SeemaGoswami and @ShikhaSharma totally rocked ! Tuhiram Kaushik Sunday ko sab holiday manate hai aaram karte hai per mera Hindustan Times Brunch sirf Sunday ko hi aata hai :)
@AmritChhetriB @RajivMakhni @HTBrunch Your article on comparative view of Cloud storage is very interesting & useful. Cloud & Amazon C-Drive are also great. @robinv901 Although I can’t afford going there, but I can see and taste diffrnt countries with @VirSanghvi’s articles on @HTBrunch.
BRUNCH ON THE WEB hindustantimes.com/brunch
JULY 29, 2012
Couch Potato
After a 15-year run, CID’s popular (if predictable) plot gets a new twist: a movie
Personal Agenda
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@TheOnlyAnil @HTBrunch @RajivMakhni happy to have 50GB dropbox storage :D @HTBrunch @GirishAnand @RajivMakhni @HTBrunch Thanks for the write-up...I wasn’t aware of all the free “heavenliness” available. It’s life-transforming useful.
Today, the fat Indian wedding has taken a somewhat dangerous turn towards obesity
Actor/Producer John Abraham is eagerly awaiting his new Yamaha R1
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The biggest band, bajaa, baaraat
The shopping voucher will reach the winner within seven to 10 working days. In case of any delays, please contact chirag.sharma@hindustantimes.com
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Gulshan Kumar Arora Green is excellent, but what about the expenses and mileage? The main problem is that cheaper fuel is not available or if it is, it takes hours to get CNG.
I LIKED the insightful article by Sumant Banerji (Life Beyond Diesel and Petrol, July 22). Given the fact that prices of these fuels are skyrocketing, it’s only a matter of time when people will look for alternative fuel. Though hybrid cars have not really burned the pricesensitive Indian market yet; cheaper hybrid vehicles are an option to look forward to. — RAHUL PASBOLA, via email
The best letter gets a Flipkart voucher worth R2,500!!
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Cover Story
12 DOWNLOAD CENTRAL El Khatib’s blues, soul, folk and garage rock could make it big 14 RUDE MOVIES Why The Dark Knight Rises is the best comic book movie ever 16 TECHILICIOUS Google’s Nexus 7 has added to the Tablet shootout 17
SPECTATOR Clothes aren’t important. What you wear is not who you are
Cover Design: PRASHANT CHAUDHARY Cover Image: ROOHSHAD GARDA
There are lavish weddings, and then there are super lavish weddings. And there are weddings which are just oh-my-god-
outrageously-fancy. Lakshmi Mittal’s daughter, hotelier Sant Chatwal’s and Subrata Roy Sahara ’s sons’... Log on and look!
EDITORIAL: Poonam Saxena (Editor), Aasheesh Sharma, Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi, Rachel Lopez, Mignonne Dsouza, Veenu Singh, Parul Khanna Tewari, Yashica Dutt, Amrah Ashraf, Saudamini Jain, Shreya Sethuraman, Manit Moorjani DESIGN: Ashutosh Sapru (National Editor, Design), Monica Gupta, Swati Chakrabarti, Rakesh Kumar, Ashish Singh, Shailendra Mirgal
Drop us a line at:
brunchletters@hindustantimes.com or to 18-20 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001
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WELLNESS
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MIND BODY SOUL
SHIKHA SHARMA
A SHOWER OF ADVICE
Photos: THINKSTOCK
E
VERY MONSOON season brings with it a variety of issues that affect our general health. The pitta in the environment increases at this time of year, along with an imbalance of the vata dosha. The monsoon is the best time to balance and pacify both elements in the human body. The imbalance in the pitta dosha can lead to pimples, small skin eruptions, frequent skin infections, oily and scaly scalp and excessive hairfall. Here are some health guidelines for the season: NUTRITION TIPS Foods that are ideal for the monsoon include those that promote cooling of the stomach to pacify the pitta dosha, as well as foods that are warm and contain salt, which pacify the vata, and finally, foods that cleanse the body. Warm vegetable broths and soups are ideal for this time of year. Foods like oat rotis and rotis made with wheat flour and barley are ideal as they help the body lose excess water. Barley is specifically a monsoon food. Bhutta or roasted snacks are also specifically monsoon-friendly foods. At this time of year, indulge in a variety of snacks like homemade steamed momos, roasted or baked chana, murmura, roasted dals, popcorn
and homemade bhelpuri. Bitter vegetables like neem, bitter gourd, pointed gourd (parwal), cluster beans, apple gourd (tinda) and fenugreek are also suitable for the rainy season. Avoid excessive coffee and tea as it dehydrates the body. Instead, opt for herbal decoctions like tea with ginger powder or mint leaves. Also, don’t eat too little or too much. It is best to eat five small meals to keep the digestive system at ease. WHILE EATING OUT The monsoon is the breeding time for all organisms. Consume only popular items on the restaurant menu and only hot items from street vendors to minimise the risk of infection. Avoid pickles, chutneys and sauces that are sweet and have been kept for a while at room temperature as they could be loaded with harmful microorganisms. Frozen foods like ice cream must be consumed fresh out of the freezer as milk is a very rich ground for breeding bacteria. Avoid non-vegetarian food in the monsoon. Drink clean and pure water as waterborne monsoon diseases like diarrhea and gastrointestinal infections are common. Drinking boiled water at home is strongly recommended as opposed to tap water. FOR UPSET STOMACHS Drink plenty of liquids like nimbu paani with a pinch of salt and a little sugar or coconut water (it has the best electrolyte balance). ■ Always keep oral rehydration salts sachets handy to prevent dehydration. FOR COUGHS AND COLDS These natural remedies are excellent: ■ Add half tsp of turmeric (haldi) to one cup of milk, consume thrice daily.
DON’T BE WASHED OUT
This is the time for soup (top). Use a mild conditioner in this season (above left) and wash hands before eating ■ Add a small piece of crushed ginger or a few tulsi and mint leaves to tea. ■ Inhaling steam with neem and tulsi leaves helps in clearing up sinuses. ■ Gargle with salt water thrice a day. ■ Drink fresh radish juice. HAIR TIPS ■ Avoid using too many hair products and use a mild herbal shampoo and gentle conditioner. ■ Use a salve/mask of aloe vera, neem, triphala powder, mehendi and shikakai on hair. ■ Eat a protein-enriched diet along with plenty of fruits and vegetables. SKIN TIPS ■ Use a natural mung dal paste face scrub twice a week to exfoliate skin. ■ Avoid heavy moisturising creams or oily foundations and cream-based colour makeup. ■ Walking in dirty water during the
rainy season can lead to numerous fungal infections that can affect toes and nails. Always keep your feet dry and clean. PRACTICAL ADVICE ■ Wash your hands properly before eating or feeding children, or use hand sanitisers. ■ Wash fruits and vegetables properly to clean dirt and bacteria from them. Leafy vegetables should be cleaned with more attention as they may contain worms and larvae. ■ Opt for a light nutrition diet, including cereals, and cook vegetables in minimum oil. Oily and fried food is difficult to digest. ■ To avoid water retention, do not eat sour food like pickles, tamarind and chutneys which add zing to the meal but become heavy in the body. ■ Add pipali and rock salt to warm water to reduce mucous formation. This can be the best natural cure for monsoon ailments.
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C OV E R STO RY
In many lavish weddings nowadays, the mandaps are the size of spaceships
It has always been chubbier than its western counterpart – but today the fat Indian wedding has taken a turn towards obesity by Ira Trivedi, photographs Roohshad Garda
O
NE FINE steaming summer night deemed to be astrologically sound for weddings, an estimated 30,000 weddings took place in Delhi. I took on the Herculean challenge of attending as many as I could. I was going to be the ultimate gatecrasher. In the span of one night, from 7 pm to 3 am, I was able to cover 32 weddings. I went from Rajouri Garden to Tivoli Garden attending a heady mix of sangeets, cocktail parties, and wedding receptions from across social strata. At all functions I was welcomed with open arms usually by a family member of the bride or the groom, and not once was I asked how I was invited. My goal with my massive gatecrashing effort was to understand how Indian weddings are being celebrated today, and what changes have taken place in India Shining.
My nuptial journey began at home. I spent the day sifting through wedding albums of my own family members – sepia-coloured photos of my parents’ wedding 33 years ago, my father and my ghunghat-clad mother, fuzzy blackand-white photos of my shy, nubile grandmother and stoic grandfather who were meeting for the very first time on their wedding day. I sat down with my mother and aunts and asked them what their weddings were like, and how they were celebrated. I knew that they grew up and lived in decidedly simpler times, but I was struck with the level of transformation between now and then. The traditional Indian wedding that I studied in the photo albums, and was told about by my mother, grandma and aunts, had morphed into a creature of hugely disproportionate, almost unrecognisable dimensions. JULY 29, 2012
xcess is in order in all departEindustry, ments of the Indian wedding estimated to be a staggering
US$ 25.5 billion (R1,42,596 crore) – the economy of a small country – and growing at the explosive rate of 20 to 25 per cent a year. The speed of economic growth in India, which is responsible for the creation of overnight fortunes, is also creating a conspicuous, yet almost desperate type of consumption at weddings. The average budget for an Indian wedding ceremony in the middle class is estimated to be US$ 34,000 (around R19.01 lakh). The upper-middle and rich classes are estimated to spend upward of US$ 1 million (R5.59 crore). This doesn’t include cash and valuables given as part of a dowry. Companies like GE Money India have introduced an “auspicious” personal loan, exclusively for weddings. Giant malls like the Wedding Souk in Pitampura, Delhi, spread over one acre and with over 100 shops dedicated to weddings, have emerged. A recent celebrity wedding that I attended in Hyderabad deserves mention. This celebration had a total of 13 functions which included a slew of lengthy pujas, a pellikotoru or a
function where the bride’s side came bearing gifts (including a race horse, and an AstonMartin), a sangeet at a film studio featuring gyrating film stars, a wedding reception held at a convention center for over 10,000 people, and a 7:30am wedding ceremony attended by over 7,500 people featuring a space-ship sized mandap, and 50 TV screens across the venue, very much in the style of sporting events. The morning brunch included close to 200 vegetarian dishes, and a vast array of soft drinks ranging from virgin mojitos to guava lassies and a dozen varieties of tea. (Sticking to tradition, this wedding had no meat or alcohol at the time of the wedding – the only function that did not.) Indian weddings are celebrated as once-in-a-lifetime grandiose events showing respect, fealty and alliance amongst not just two people (the bride and groom themselves are usually little more than showpieces) but amongst two families. The Indian wedding has always been chubbier than its western counterpart, but today it has taken an unhealthy and somewhat dangerous turn towards obesity. Let me introduce you to a few new faces of the big fat Indian wedding.
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y day, Anil is a soft-spoken, B unassuming man who speaks with a heavy stammer. But by
speakers that can transform any venue into a mini nightclub. He usually throws in smoke machines to give the dancefloor a nightclub effect. According to Anil, the traditional dholak is back in fashion, but with a twist. He demonstrates, beating the dhol to a popular Lady Gaga song. “Today’s youngsters want a mix of the West and the East. No one wants that typical shaadi music any more.” Photo: NEAL KARTIK
night, very much in the way of vampires, he transforms into the life of the party. Anil began his career at small Delhi nightclubs, but his business skyrocketed a few years ago when he began DJing for weddings. Today he has a dozen DJs working under him and co-owns a Delhi nightclub. Anil arrives at our 2 pm meeting,
30 minutes late. He apologises; he has had a late night, performing at a sangeet, which went on till 5 am. Anil tells me that today no Indian wedding is complete without a DJ. “Gone are the days of squeaky shehnais and boring tablas. Nowadays people want a DJ even for simple home functions, like a mehendi. We have become part and parcel of the Indian wedding.” Anil’s DJ services include a portable dance floor and industrial
With DJs performing even at mehendi functions, Lady Gaga numbers are replacing squeaky shehnais at weddings
ajender Masterji is a rotund man R wearing a body-hugging, sequinned Lycra kurta and cat-eye con-
The craze for Bollywood dances really set in only in the last five or seven years
tact lenses. He began his career in Bombay giving dance lessons to aspiring starlets, but today his main line of business is choreographing Bollywood dance sequences at weddings for the family and friends of the to-be-wedded. In full Bollywood style, these dance sequences usually tell a story and are interrupted with mini-plays which tell of how the girl and the boy met and how they fell in love (even if the match is arranged). “Masterji” as he is popularly known, is India’s celebrity dance choreographer, and has choreographed for the reality TV show Shaadi Teen Crore Ki. He refuses to disclose his rates to me,
but my research says that his fees start at a lofty R10 lakh per sangeet. He has laid claim to several millionaire weddings such as Lakshmi Mittal, Ponty Chadha and the Reddys of Hyderabad. According to Masterji, the dance sequence trend at weddings first started with movies such as Dil To Pagal Hai and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, but it is only in the last five or seven years that the craze for Bollywood dances at weddings has really set in. The popularity of these dance sequences has spawned an entire industry of dance teachers or ‘choreographers’ and several dance studios that cater only to weddings have mushroomed in metro cities. Much to my chagrin, at my sister’s recent Delhi wedding, I found myself
in the sticky spot of organising the wedding dances. The cheapest choreographer that I could find came with a price tag of R1,000 for an hour. This seemed to me belligerently high for teaching a few hip swings and gyrations. Dinesh, our personal choreographer, turned out to be a greasy, greedy man who eventually began charging us overtime for dance practice. Once upon a time, not very long ago, the sangeet used to be an occasion when the ladies of the family, usually the girl’s side, came together to sing fortune-bearing folk songs. For better or for worse, for rich or for poor, in sickness and in health – the present-day sangeet has morphed into a full-blown, bombastic, hifalutin’ Bollywood performance.
“Courtship to marriage, as a very witty prologue to a very dull play” – William Congreve in The Old Bachelor JULY 29, 2012
C OV E R STO RY
nudeep Kapoor aka Prince A recently invited me to a wedding he had catered. I arrived at a large
hall on the outskirts of Delhi, where Prince had set up various food stations. There was a Punjabi dhaba complete with jute stools and steel tables, a ‘western bar’ where the waiters donned cowboy hats, oversized boots and served mocktails. The French corner featured a human being-size Eiffel Tower with
‘People come to Indian weddings to eat. That is the basic purpose of the wedding’
in 1936, Jea Band, touted Lbandaunched to be the oldest brass wedding in the country, has been fea-
tured in Bollywood flicks such as Love Aaj Kaal and Band Baaja Baaraat. But the baaraat is no longer simply a horse; fluorescent lights buzzing like flies, and a cacophony of sound. Today it features exotic cars to ferry the groom, a zoo of animals accompanying him and imported instruments that could put an orchestra to shame. According to Anil Thadani of Jea Band, the average spend on a baaraat has gone up 10 times in the last five
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pastries stacked on top. “People come to Indian weddings to eat. That is the basic purpose of the wedding. The bride’s family has to put up a show, and anyone you have interacted with in your lifetime is fed. In many ways,” says Prince, “a wedding is like a mass charity event.” Except, when I look around, none of the guests strike me as being in the least bit malnourished. According to Prince, “Gone are the days when the halwai came and set up behind the tent. Now at least three types of cuisine are expected. The minimum that we offer is 25 dishes, and we can go up to 500 varieties of food. Even the lower middle class will opt for about 25 dishes. The current ‘in’ concept is to recreate spaces, like a Punjabi dhaba, a French cafe, a seafood shack, so the wedding guests feel transported to a holiday destination.”
years, as has the size of the baaraat. “First people wanted horses, then they wanted fancy horse carriages, then they wanted themed buggies to go with the fancy horse carriage. We had to change uniforms, add umbrellas, and get new instruments. For a Japanese-style baaraat, we imported kimonos from Japan. Another baaraat featured pole dancers. Budgets have increased and there is a whole new standard of lavishness. The band, baaja, baaraat as we know it, is fast changing, I am curious to see what form it will take.”
n the day of Akshaya O Tritiya, regarded by the Hindu Vedic calendar to be
the most auspicious day of the year, there is a fish-market-like mania at the South Extension branch of popular multi-storied wedding outlet, Frontier Raas, as families stock up on wedding wear. Frontier Raas started their sari business in Phagwara, Punjab, in 1960, opening their first retail store in Delhi in 2000. They specialise in designer Indian wear, which basically means copying top Indian designer styles and selling them at half the price of the original. Says Tushar Batra, owner of Frontier Raas, “People today have an awareness of brands, even in Indian clothing, and amongst the middle Today’s trousseau is all about class. They know what the designer wear; people want to stay up to date celebs are wearing and they want to wear it too. In the earlier or wedding wear tops the charts. generation, it was all about the sariAt Frontier Raas, a typical wallas in Chandni Chowk and other trousseau spend, even for the marketplaces but today it is all middle class, is a minimum of about designer wear and R2 lakh, going up to R15-20 people are willing to spend on lakh amongst the upperthis. Styles are constantly middle class. “Many people changing, and people want need to get dressed, the bride, to stay up to date, especially the mother, the sisters, the for weddings.” aunts, and everyone wants new According to a recent clothes. With the increase in disMcKinsey report, India’s posable income, even the apparel market is changing. grandmother comes trousseau Rising urbanisation has shopping, and is willing to spawned a new class of conexperiment with new styles, sumers with more money to which was never the case earlier. spend, and a passion for fashion. What a grandmother spends on In India’s high growth retail clothing herself is what a bride used to spend market, spend on special occasion on herself 10 years ago,” says Batra.
he big fat Indian wedding has Ttowards taken an unfortunate, ill-fated turn obesity as the great Indian
middle class continues its alarming pace of consumption fuelled by an exponential increase in organised retail, and taking cues from the lavish spending of the rich and the famous.
The average spend on a baaraat has gone up ten times
Weddings are (hopefully) a once-in-a-lifetime event, and matrimony is a big event, but as we all know, happy memories are certainly not created by extravagant spending. As the big fat Indian wedding eats its way to explosive obesity, a no-carb diet is in full order.
Ira Trivedi is the best-selling author of books like There is No Love on Wall Street, The Great Indian Love Story and What Would You Do to Save the World. Find her on twitter @iratrivedi
“A man in love is incomplete until he is married. Then he's finished.” – Zsa Zsa Gabor JULY 29, 2012
Photo: PRIYANKA SACHAR
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MIXED BAG
Hanni El Khatib (below) has got blues, soul, folk and garage rock – all of which you can listen to on his debut album, Will the Guns Come Out (above)
H
AD IT not been for an email from a young colleague at work (“Have you heard Hanni El Khatib? The guy is awesome. Very Black Keys. Shazamed it on Californication”), I’d probably have never heard El Khatib. Till he became more famous, that is, and I’ve reasons to believe that he may well become so. Hanni El Khatib is a half Palestinian, half Filipino musician based in Los Angeles and when my colleague referred to ‘Shazaming’ it on Californication, he was referring to the American TV series that is now into its sixth season and stars David Duchovny. Some of El Khatib’s songs are part of Californication’s soundtrack and that’s how he discovered the musician. The songs on that series are all from El Khatib’s debut album, which came out in 2011 and is entitled, Will the Guns Come Out. So, after tooling around with a few YouTube videos and on his refreshingly utilitarian website (hannielkhatib.com), I decided to go get that first album of his. Sometimes (not all the time), you don’t need more than one listen of an album by a new artiste or a band to get the feeling that they have it in them to be big. Perhaps even very big. Listening to El Khatib could make you feel like that. El Khatib, 30, began as a creative director at the skateboard fashion label, HUF, and also worked in advertising before getting into music full time – besides writing and performing music himself, he is part owner of the indie label, Innovative Leisure. El Khatib’s first album has a rawness that certainly harks back to The Black Keys (as my discerning young colleague mentioned) but also to The White Stripes and old garage bands. His music – he’s a multi-instrumentalist but plays a beefy guitar – has a back-to-the-roots character to it and is garagey but with clear influences of soul, punk and blues. The first song on Will the Guns
Photo: CC/MARK RUNYON
One listen of his album, and you’ll know Hanni El Khatib has it in him to make it big. Maybe very big
Sanjoy Narayan
download central
HE’S GOT A BLACK KEY TO SUCCESS
Photo: GETTY IMAGES
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ON THE RIGHT TRACK
Khatib’s next album will be produced by Dan Auerbach (above), the guitarist and vocalist of The Black Keys
Come Out, which is titled the same as the album, is a minute and something, almost a capella rendition that even sounds hip-hoppy. But that doesn’t prepare you for the rest of the album. El Khatib says his music is targetted at “anyone who has ever been shot or hit by a train” and that may be a hey-there-notice-me kind of marketing line but his album is definitely one that stands out. My colleague mentioned The Black Keys. They’re definitely an influence on some of El Khatib’s minimalist blues-infused tracks but you can also hear the influence of Jack White’s primal guitar sounds in his riffs. On the album, besides his own compositions, El Khatib has covered others’ songs too – you get a raw and edgy (with a banjo in the lead) interpretation of Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel and a typically garage-rock rendition of Funkadelic’s I Got a Thing. His talent and versatility is underscored by the range of tracks – some such as Wait. Wait. Wait. are primarily acoustic, others such as his version of Louis Armstrong’s You Rascal You is given the psych-rock treatment, and the skanky guitars on Fuck It. You Win make you instantly recall the older albums by The White Stripes. So what kind of stew is El Khatib cooking up? He’s got blues, soul, folk and garage rock – all of which you can listen to on his debut album. It may seem bizarre to read that description about a single album but when you listen to Will The Guns Come Out, everything jells quite well. Yet, you get the feeling that maybe Hanni El Khatib needs a producer to steer him into making something more sustainable. He actually has one. Enter Dan Auerbach. It was learnt recently that El Khatib’s next album will be produced by Auerbach, the guitarist and vocalist of The Black Keys. Earlier this year, Auerbach produced the New Orleans’ legend, Dr John’s tremendous comeback album, Locked Down. Now, he’s zeroed in on El Khatib. Although the name of the album and when it will be released is still to be announced, I’m beginning to think we’re on to something really good. To give feedback, stream or download the music mentioned in this column, go to http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/download-central, follow argus48 on Twitter
THE JUKEBOX
A
l Spx, a Canadian singer-songwriter, calls herself Cold Specks on her recordings and performances. A purveyor of what has been called ‘doom soul’, Cold Specks makes music that has a strikingly goth influence underlying what could be otherwise called gospel music. Her debut album is called I Predict A Graceful Expulsion. Worth a listen. But first, check out her YouTube videos such as Winter Solstice and Lay Me Down. Goth and gospel make for an interesting combo. Photo: THINKSTOCK
JULY 29, 2012
indulge Every element in the Bat pantheon is brilliantly integrated in The Dark Knight Rises. And the end has an emotional power that is unusual for comic book pictures
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MAKER’S CHAMBER
When Batman’s original creator Bob Kane (above) failed to come up with enough comics, a platoon of new writers and artists took over
Vir Sanghvi
O WE know how it ends. Batman retires and Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, which began with the magnificent Batman Begins, draws to a majestic close. I’ve been a Batman fan almost from the time I learnt how to read and have loyally followed the character through good (Frank Miller’s re-invigoration of the legend; the first Tim Burton movie; Nolan’s Batman Begins; the death of that nasty little creep, Jason Todd, who was the second Robin etc.) and bad (the 1960s TV show; Batman and Robin, possibly the worst movie in the history of cinema; and the introduction of Aunt Harriet as a character in the Wayne household). But never has the myth of The Batman seemed as potent as it does now, after Nolan’s trilogy. Spoiler alert: if you have not seen The Dark Knight Rises and intend to see it, then you should stop reading here lest I give away too much. There are broadly two kinds of Batman fans: those who know him from the comic books and those who know him from movies and TV. Even within those categories, there are subdivisions. If you liked the Batman TV show, then you are probably not considered cool by fans of the later movies. If you liked the Sixties and Seventies comics when Batman and Robin came across as a pair of boy scouts (or like scout master and scout), then ‘real’ comic fans don’t see you as cool. If you like the graphic novels that have populated the Batman universe over the last two decades, then you are so cool that you might as well be a nerd. (The line between fanatical graphic novel fans and geeks is a thin one.) I’m not sure which of these categories and sub-categories I fit into. I got into Batman through the Sixties comic books and though they seem pretty lame now (at one stage there was a whole Batman family of Batwoman, Batgirl, Batmite and even Bat-Hound), they appealed to kids of my age. And many of the elements that we thrilled to: Batman’s secret identity as playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne, the Batmobile, the Batcave and such villains as the Joker and Catwoman have stood the test of time. What I did not know, when I first read the Sixties comics, was that they were sanitised takes on the original Batman. Created in May 1939 as a masked avenger along the lines of Zorro and the Phantom (who predates Batman and was clearly an inspiration), the character was first called The Bat-Man, tended to appear only at night, was on bad terms with the cops, wore a mask as much to avoid the police as to protect the people he loved, and had no hesitation in dispatching criminals to their death. But within a year, DC Comics had begun to soften The BatMan by giving him a young sidekick called Robin. And soon, when Batman’s original creator Bob Kane failed to come up with enough comics, a platoon of new writers and artists, each of whom had his own vision of the character, took over: Dick Sprang, Carmine JULY 29, 2012
THIS IS A MUST-WATCH
In Christopher Nolan’s latest, The Dark Knight Rises, Batman appears with Bane and Catwoman
Infantino, Mort Meskin, Jim Mooney etc. Almost as influential as Kane himself were writer Bill Finger and artist Jerry Robinson who created the Joker. Kane, however, insisted that his byline always appear and was reluctant to share credit. Even in this softer form, Batman went on to become an international rage, was featured in two movies in the 1940s and got his own hit TV show in the 1960s. The dark Bat-Man of the original comics was more or less forgotten for over 40 years till Frank Miller wrote The Dark Knight Returns. This was a series of comics set outside the normal continuity which imagined a future where a middle-aged Batman came out of retirement to fight crime. In Miller’s world, the public had turned against superheroes, TV was full of the same idiots debating the same issues every night. And corruption had seized control of society. Almost all retellings of the Batman legend have drawn from Frank Miller’s version of the character. The idea of a dark and dangerous Batman intrigued Hollywood and a Dark Knight movie with Mel Gibson (playing Batman as an anti-Semitic midget, presumably) was planned but never got off the ground. Eventually the project went to director Tim Burton, known
THE BATMAN & THE JOKER Photos: GETTY IMAGES
IT DOESN’T GET BAT-TER THAN THIS
rude movies
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In Tim Burton’s film, Michael Keaton (left) played Batman; Jack Nicholson (right) played the main villain, the Joker, and stole the movie
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Photos: REUTERS
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OUT OF THE DARK
The dark Batman of the original comics was more or less forgotten for over 40 years till Frank Miller wrote The Dark Knight Returns
MAKING A FRESH START
Director Christopher Nolan’s reboot of the franchise, Batman Begins told the story in a realistic, matter-of-fact manner
for his weird and fantastic view of life. Burton took a dark Frank Miller-like Batman and placed him in an imaginatively designed Gotham City which was described in the script as looking “as if hell had erupted through the sidewalk.” Because the studio was not sure that Michael Keaton (who Burton cast, against type as Batman) had enough star quality, Jack Nicholson played the main villain, the Joker, and stole the movie. Burton made one more Batman-in-a-weird-Gotham-City movie, costarring Danny DeVito as a depraved, sewer-dwelling Penguin. By then the comics had also decided to focus entirely on grownup themes and a much darker Batman. Bane, a muscle-bound villain, was introduced and in 1995, in the long-running Knightfall series of comics, he actually beat Batman, breaking his back across his knee. Even as the public thrilled to a darker Batman, the movies lost the plot. A new director, Joel Schumacher, made the comic booklike Batman Forever (with Val Kilmer as an excellent Batman) and then followed it up with the disastrous, campy Batman and Robin which even the casting of George Clooney as Batman could not save. That movie, as Clooney often admits, sunk the franchise. When the Batman movie series was revived, the British director Christopher Nolan agreed to direct only after he could
Heath Ledger (right) played a Joker who was as dark and dangerous as Christian Bale’s (left) Batman in The Dark Knight
start afresh, wiping out memories of the last dud picture. The studio agreed and Nolan’s reboot of the franchise Batman Begins starred another Brit, Christian Bale, as Batman and told the story in a more realistic, matter-of-fact manner. (The movie was packed with Brit and Irish actors: Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson etc.). But Nolan went back to the idea of a Dark Knight, abandoning the comic book persona of the last two Batman pictures. Batman Begins, a terrific movie, was followed by a film actually called The Dark Knight which most people (except me: I thought it went on for too long) regard as the finest Batman movie at least partly because Heath Ledger played a Joker who was as dark and dangerous as Bale’s Batman. (Jack Nicholson had gone over-the-top with his portrayal). But Nolan also introduced topical themes. At many levels, the Dark Knight was an allegory for the America of the post 9/11 era, fighting a battle against terrorists whose motivation it could not understand. The end was morally ambiguous: Batman beats the Joker but pays a terrible price. And serious contemporary subtext kept cropping up. The Dark Knight Rises begins eight years after the events of The Dark Knight and freely borrows from the Frank Miller series and from Knightfall. Batman has retired. He has not been seen for eight years. The villain is Bane who wants to take over Gotham and who releases all of the city’s criminals. Bane is in league with Ra’s al Ghul (as in the comics), the villain from Batman Begins. There is even a reprise of the famous scene where Bane breaks Batman’s back across his knee. From my perspective, it is the best comic book movie ever made partly because it is tightly plotted, well-acted, (Anne Hathaway almost steals the picture) and well put-together. And once again, Nolan taps into America’s current concerns: Wall Street is bad; Bruce Wayne is cheated out of his fortune through bogus futures trades. America is no longer the land of opportunity and the cracks beneath the surface are coming to the fore – in this movie literally – right after the Star-Spangled Banner is sung at a football game! I won’t give more away. But even if you have no previous interest in Batman, go and see this picture. For once, every element in the Bat pantheon is brilliantly integrated. And the end has an emotional power that is unusual for comic book pictures. What a pity it is the last movie in this trilogy! JULY 29, 2012
URBAN LEGEND
Tim Burton took the dark Frank Miller-like Batman and placed him in an imaginatively designed Gotham City
KILLER MISSION
Director Joel Schumacher made the comic book-like Batman Forever and then followed it up with the disastrous, campy Batman and Robin
indulge THE GREAT TABLET SHOOTOUT BEGINS...
The success of Google’s Nexus 7 will ensure more innovative products at competitive prices
twitter.com/HTBrunch
COMPETITION SUCCESS REVIEW
A few things stand out in the chart: ■ The iPad is still king of the displays with its eyebending retina screen and astounding PPI (pixels per inch). But the real marvel in the new iPad Rajiv may well be its battery. Nothing comes even close. Makhni Look at the mAh they’ve packed into that case. Battery life will be an important criterion for all HE WEEK started off with a bang with future Tablet buyers. The Nexus is number 2 here. ■ Tablet cameras more or less suck. Some don’t two particular headlines that stood out. The first: Samsung has sold 10 million even have one, some have a front or back one and Galaxy S3 phone units. This was big news not just that too a very average one. Once again, just the because of the astounding numbers but also iPad has something worthwhile in specs – but in because it was done a week before the target was real life even the new iPad camera doesn’t perto be achieved. The claim now by Samsung is that form well. The Nexus 7 has a front camera (which they will manage selling 19 million phones by is good), but it isn’t an optical wonder. ■ Most Tablets don’t really have much scope to autumn (just around the time the iPhone 5 should be out). Thus the ‘Best Phone in the World’ title go thinner and frankly there’s really nothing to now has two big contenders. choose from as each, irrespective of screen size, The other piece of news that made the world is almost the same as the other. ■ The market will get divided into 7-inchers and sit up was the discovery that the Google Nexus 7 Tablet is almost sold out. The 16GB is all gone and bigger. The weight of a 7-incher is almost half (see the 8GB stock is nearly all out. chart) of that of a bigger screen device. Thus it’s It appears as if Google either wasn’t expecting not just size but weight that will also tilt the scale such runaway success or that production can’t in terms of true portability. Apple will have to keep up to demand. Either way, this is great news come out with a 7-inch Tablet soon, as will for consumers as serious contenders in the Tablet Microsoft. ■ The Nexus 7 is the lightest at just 340 gms, and market will make sure that the competition will bring in even more innovative products at better at this price point is the only Tablet to have a prices. quad-core processor. But within this ‘happy news for consumers’ Thus, the above does prove that the Nexus 7 headline were buried many questions and other has some things that truly stand out and some concerns. that are adequate to take on the competition. The Google Nexus 7 has truly set the cat amongst the pigeons. Thus the much hyped term ‘the no-compromise economy Tablet’ It’s an almost no-compromise Tablet at an extraordinary price, is fitting for it. Also floating in are concerns that many Nexus and has thus shaken the foundation of all other players. Even 7 units have dead pixels and also the screen isn’t fitting into those that would never have dreamed of an Android device are the case very well. Early reports are saying these manufaclooking forward to giving it a shot. turing problems are very isolated, yet it does bring up the other In the last month, the questions I’ve been asked – incessantbig question. Can Google really continue to deliver a perfect ly, and without a break – is when does this device come to India, device at this perfect price? Should you wait for the Nexus 7 how does it really compare to the other big guns and is it really to launch in India? Will it be worth waiting it out? At about the all it’s hyped to be? R10,000 mark – this device has literally no competition. Will Here’s a comparison shootout chart of the top contenders in they be able to control quality as well as deliver devices in tune the Tablet market, now and in the future. with demand? Now that is the billion dollar question!
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techilicious
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THE SERIOUS TABLET CONTENDERS SPECIFICATIONS
GOOGLE NEXUS 7
THE ‘NEW’ iPAD (iPAD 3)
SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB 2 7.0
MICROSOFT SURFACE RT
AMAZON KINDLE
PRICE
$199
$499
$250
$399 (expected)
$199
STORAGE
8/16 GB
16/32/64 GB
8/16/32 GB
32/64 GB
8GB
OS
Android 4.1
IOS 5
Android 4.0
Windows 8
Amazon Android
THICKNESS
10.4mm
9.4mm
10.5mm
9.1mm
11.4mm
WEIGHT
340g
652g
345g
676g
415g
SCREEN SIZE
7 Inches
9.7 Inches
7 Inches
10.6 Inches
7 Inches
RESOLUTION
1280 x 800
1536 x 2048
1024 x 600
1366 x 768
1024 x 600
SCREEN PPI
216
264
170
192
170
PROCESSOR
1.3GHz Quad Core
1.0 GHz Dual Core
1.0 GHz Dual Core
Tegra 3 Quad Core
1.0 GHz Dual Core
RAM
1 GB
1 GB
1 GB
Unknown
512 MB
CAMERAS
Front Only 1.2 MP
Front VGA/Back 5.0 MP
Back Only 3.0 MP
Unknown
None
BATTERY
4325 mAh
11500 mAh
4000 mAh
Unknown
4400 mAh
Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3. Follow Rajiv on Twitter at twitter.com/RajivMakhni
JULY 29, 2012
indulge
THE DRESS CODE
NOT VERY PROPAH
Photos: THINKSTOCK
I still wouldn’t wear a short skirt to a political press conference
W
OMEN AND clothes. It really doesn’t Seema get more complicated than that. Goswami There’s conflicting advice coming from every corner. Everyone has an opinion on what you should or should not wear (and where you should or should not wear it). There are people who seem to believe that your choice of outfit has a direct connection with your personal safety. But no matter how much care you take to dress every morning – or evening – you can rest assured that there will always be someone out there who believes that in those clothes, you are simply asking for it. As for me, all through my life, I have tended to take the path of least resistance when it came to clothes. Growing up in Calcutta, where I went to a school and college run by nuns, there was a certain assumption that ‘good girls’ always dressed conservatively. And quite frankly, I never had a problem with that. I wore salwar kameezes and churidar kurtas routinely and felt incredibly grown-up whenever I wore a sari on special occasions. Looking back, I often wonder why more of us Loreto girls didn’t rebel against the unspoken dress code that even outlawed something as tame as pedal-pushers (if you have no idea what these are, consider yourself lucky). My guess is that it was mostly because we never really paid that much attention to what we wore. We didn’t see clothes as a means to making some sort of political statement. And I most certainly didn’t think that they defined who I was in any manner. Clothes definitely did not make this woman, I would have said if I had given any thought to the matter. But quite honestly, I never did. I had more important things to think about (like when I would finally get through the interminable James Joyce opus; and why I could never keep all the characters in War and Peace straight in my head). After college, I began working at the ABP group, which – in those days at least – was a bastion of orthodoxy. All the women wore saris to work (only one lady with a particularly racy reputation would wear tight kurtas with trousers, which was regarded as the height of daring) and I duly took my cue from them before relaxing into the odd salwar-kameez and finally graduating to that old journo standby, blue jeans. However I may have dressed on my time off, at work I always veered towards the line of sartorial safety. I would no more have worn jeans and a T-shirt to cover an election rally in a rural area than I would have worn a bikini to an official banquet at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The idea was always to blend in, to seem non-threatening. If I was going to be the proverbial fly on the wall, then I had to be a cipher, nondescript enough to disappear into the background. I couldn’t be that
NOT ME, REALLY!
At work, I veered towards sartorial safety. I couldn’t be that girl in shorts, who thought she was striking a blow against patriarchy by showing off her legs
girl in Bermuda shorts, who thought she was striking a blow against patriarchy by showing off her legs. But then, these are choices that most women of my generation made because we wanted to be taken seriously – and we had bigger battles to fight. So, we wanted attention to be focused on our brains rather than our bodies. And we wanted the conversation to be about our talent and professional abilities rather than our clothes. I guess we’ve come a long way from that (er, baby, as the sexist Sixties line would have it). And in a way it is comforting that we now take enough of our freedoms for granted to finally be able to have that conversation about clothes. At some level, I suppose it must be seen as a sign of progress that women are all charged up to fight for their right to wear a mini-skirt and not be leered at. But speaking for myself, I still find the idea of a SlutWalk risible in the Indian context, when women in rural areas who are wrapped up in six yards of fabric get sexually molested, assaulted and raped every day. And call me sexist if you will, but I find it hard to sympathise when women complain of being leered at after putting their breasts out on display in their latest push-up bras. Hell, there are times when even I gawp in horrified fascination at those acres of cleavage on display, so I’m not one to point fingers. When it comes to clothes, though, I think the common-sense argument is the most compelling one. Of course, you can wear what you like. Of course, you can go where you like while you’re wearing it. And of course, nobody has the right to molest or rape you because of the way you’re dressed. But there is such a thing as ‘appropriate dressing’, and we would be fools to deny it just to sound politically correct. For instance, I still wouldn’t wear a short skirt to a political press conference. And I certainly wouldn’t wear a skimpy top while reporting from a rural area. At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that clothes are really not that important. Because what you wear is not who you are. So, let’s not make the mistake of believing that our identity is wrapped up in our clothes. It is possible to be a feminist in a sari as well as a skirt – and we should never forget that.
spectator
It really doesn’t matter what you wear; you can be a feminist in both a sari and a skirt
THE MATURE STYLE
I felt incredibly grown-up whenever I wore a sari on special occasions
seema_ht@rediffmail.com. Follow Seema on Twitter at twitter.com/seemagoswami
JULY 29, 2012
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18 C O U C H
P O TAT O
Hello! Hello! CID?
After a 15-year run, CID’s popular (if a tad predictable) plot gets a new twist: a movie by Shreya Sethuraman
A
COUPLE IS having dinner at an upscale restaurant and talking about their impending wedding. After sipping the wine, the guy falls to the ground, and the girl shrieks in shock and horror. A nearby diner makes a call, “Hello, CID?” That is pretty much how every episode of CID begins. On air for the last 15 years on Sony, the show has acquired a dedicated following, with fan clubs on Facebook and numerous Twitter handles. And now, it looks like the show will be made into a film. Producer BP Singh, the man behind the series, who also plays the role of DCP Chitrole in the show, says, “The plan to make CID into a film has been on for the last four years, and now we have a budget for it.” But what is it about the show that despite the simple, sometimes ludicrous plots, its popularity never flags? How did the ‘team’ come together?
ACP Pradyuman, and senior inspectors Abhijeet and Daya, the pivotal characters of the series, have been with the show since it began, and have become household names by now. Marathi theatre veteran Shivaji Satam who plays ACP Pradyuman, the boss of the team, had worked with Singh on many projects. Prominent among these was the Marathi crime show Ek Shunya Shunya, which was popular in the late ’80s. “Having worked with BP on so many projects, I had to be part of CID,” says Satam. Aditya Srivastava, or senior inspector Abhijeet, though introduced in the show as a criminal, was later absorbed into the CID team. “I had only agreed to 26 episodes. In 1998, I was also doing some films, but BP sir gave me the flexibility to come and go as I felt like. But I began to enjoy the role of Abhijeet, and so stayed on,” says Srivastava. Singh wanted Srivastava to be part of his team after
‘HUMSE BACH KE KAHAAN JAOGE!’
BP Singh: DCP Chitrole The producer of the show, Singh occasionally features as DCP Chitrole, who has a love-hate relationship with the CID team
(made in the early ’90s) featured actual forensic doctors. It was while working closely with them that Singh got attracted to the science and decided to create the forensic science department in the show, headed by the entertaining Dr Salunkhe (played by Narendra Gupta of the violently dyed hair).
NOT STARRY-EYED
The CID team is aware of the adulation that viewers have for them, but refuse to be swayed by it. Neither Srivastava, nor Shetty are Web-savvy and don’t know about the various fan clubs on Facebook. However, they are naturally pretty happy about it. For Shetty, “ignorance is bliss. I think it’s good that I’m away from the online stuff,” while the reticent Srivastava says, “I don’t think a lot about this.” However, Satam is active on Facebook and Twitter and tries to
Dayanand Shetty: Senior Inspector Daya He’s burly, dependable and never opens doors (he always breaks them down)
Photo: PRASAD GORI
Aditya Srivastava: Senior Inspector Abhijeet The sharpest member of the team, Abhijeet is intense yet vulnerable, with a dark past
Shivaji Satam: ACP Pradyuman The tough, no-nonsense boss, has no time for anything except his duty
seeing his work in Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya. Dayanand Shetty (Daya) was spotted by Sanjay Shetty, a member of the CID production team, in a community play, in which Daya was adjudged best actor. So impressed was Singh with Shetty that he finalised him five minutes into the audition! Loved by children for his habit of breaking doors, Shetty says, “None of us thought the show would run for so long. We had enough episodes to last for around two years, but slowly our popularity began to rise, and we kept doing more and more episodes.” This tall, strapping man, who also featured in last year’s dance reality show Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, says that “our show is such that four generations can watch it together.” But how exactly did Singh conceptualise the show? Following the success of Ek Shunya Shunya, based on real crimes and a great deal of coordination with the police, Singh wanted to expand the scope of the genre. “Many real life cases are sub judice and there are other complications. Also, fiction gives us more freedom,” he says. The pilot episodes of CID
You know
Daya keeps breaking you are doors again and again watching without waiting for ACP CID when... Pradyuman’s orders ■ The suspect gets slapped on an outdoor location and ends up in the CID headquarters ■ You can’t keep count of the slaps in each episode ■ You hear lines like: Ab rote rahna phansi ka order aane tak ■ There is no police on view, ever
■
JULY 29, 2012
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keep track of online activities. Even after playing the same character for 15 years, Satam says he isn’t bored or exhausted. “Our show will run till God becomes tired of CID,” he says with a laugh.
AND THE CULT GROWS...
There are more than 10 Facebook pages on CID; one of them is exclusively devoted to Daya’s slaps (Daya is generous when it comes to slapping criminals on the show). Shetty remains a particular favourite with kids. Remembers Delhi-based student Shantanu Argal, 25, “When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up and be like Daya as he was always this larger-than-life character.” Argal still loves to imitate ACP Pradyuman – scrunching one eye, keeping one hand on the waist, the other shaking vigorously, and saying grimly, “Pata karo, Abhijeet!” Adds BP Singh, “We knew early on that kids love our show, which is why we’ve always been careful with the show’s presentation.” Grown-up fans often find the show amusing but enjoyable. Says Urvashi Singh, a 29-year-old Mumbai-based lawyer, “It’s predictable and the endings are so stereotypical – the suspect is always getting slapped in the end! It’s quite funny actually. But it’s entertaining.” Her favourite character is Abhijeet as she finds him
OTHER CRIME SHOWS AND THEIR ANCHORS Anup Soni, Crime Patrol
Sushant Singh, Savdhaan India
Gaurav Chopra, Savdhaan India Karan Kundra, Gumrah
“The audience connects to the honesty of the show”
“We analyse the crime and make viewers aware”
“People are now open to “Gumrah explores the viewing violence on screen” psyche behind a crime”
Crime Patrol began in 2003 on Sony, but failed to garner good TRPs. However, ever since Anup Soni started hosting Crime Patrol, the show has done well, and features in the top 10 list. Creator-director-writer Subramanian Iyer credits it to the way Soni narrates the plots. “He talks as if he understands,” says Iyer, who gets his information from national and regional media. Brilliant acting works in favour of the show. “It is honest and makes people aware,” says Soni.
Another ‘gritty’ crime show, Savdhaan India@11 which deals with real-life crimes, airs on Life OK and is hosted by Sushant Singh. Though similar to Crime Patrol, the actors on the show are not as good. However, Singh is an excellent and engaging narrator. “We’re not trying to glorify crime, we analyse it and make viewers aware,” says Singh. At the end of each episode, viewers are urged to share personal incidents.
More than one production house handles Savdhaan India@11, with Gaurav Chopra as the other host of the show. “I do episodes where people from modest backgrounds fight their oppressors,” says Chopra, who still hasn’t left a deep impact on viewers (maybe he tries too hard to please). Chopra also does his own research before each episode. “We should not turn a blind eye to other people’s problems but do our own bit,” he says.
rather intense. In the show the CID officers don’t have surnames and there is no focus on their personal lives. The show did try to focus briefly on personal tracks, which included the story of Satam shooting his criminal son. “That episode was emotionally draining,” recalls Satam. However, Shetty feels that the prime focus of CID is crime, and personal tracks
don’t merit a mention. Among the crew’s most memorable episodes is one that was shot in a single take and lasted 111 minutes! It has found a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. It isn’t that CID has enjoyed a smooth run all these years. As producer BP Singh says, “There were times we thought the show would go off the air.” But somehow it always
Hosted by Karan Kundra, Gumrah (Channel [V] and Star Plus) centres on crimes committed by teenagers. Creative director of the show Vikas Gupta says, “There’s nobody to guide teenagers properly. Gumrah shows teens as they are.” Kundra is an engaging narrator, with a good youth connect. “Gumrah is not a crime reporting show. It explores the psyche behind the reason for committing the crime,” he says.
survived. As fans wait for the film, expected to go on the floors by the end of 2012, they will have to make do with watching the show, and hearing ACP Pradyuman’s famous lines, “Teen khoon karne ke liye, ab tumhe sirf phaasi hogi, sirf phaasi!” shreya.sethuraman@ hindustantimes.com
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T O TA L R E C A L L REWIND It was a time when the West was coming to India, whether as hippies seeking enlightenment, new budget travellers or wealthy jetsetters 1965 1962 1961 1964 1966
Portuguese rule ends in Goa after years over 400 years. of The last shadow of colonialism vanishes with it
FREEDOM
The first SinoIndian war erupts over a border dispute. Hindi-Chini are not bhai-bhai
Prime Minister Nehru dies. A nation is orphaned
India and Pakistan fight the Second Kashmir War. It finally ends in a UN-mandated ceasefire
Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistani President Ayub Khan sign a Soviet-mediated peace pact in Tashkent
Lal Bahadur Shastri dies of a heart attack a day after signing the Tashkent Declaration. Indira Gandhi becomes Prime Minister
Ravi Shankar teaches Beatle George Harrison to play the sitar. Shankar becomes an overnight star
1967 The Naxal movement is born after a left-wing peasant uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal
1968 India wins its first overseas cricket Test match in New Zealand
Part 5 of Total Recall, our special seven-part series: The 1960s
1969 The Government of India issues an ordinance to nationalise the 14 largest commercial banks
Congress splits in two – one faction under Indira Gandhi, the other, Congress O, under K Kamaraj
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE Kashmir was the destination of choice, with movies going colour
The ’60s marked the end of the postIndependence Nehruvian Golden Age, even as filmmakers ushered in a new era
A MILLION HOPEFUL COLOURED DREAMS
I
AM A TOTALLY unreliable wit(1997’s Border is the first I recall) but ness of India in the 1960s as I first must have been the campaign in visited India in 1981. My vision of which our hero fights. India’s new India in the 1960s is imaginary, secular gods of the nationalist movement are celebrated in Mere desh ki thanks to books, but above all to the dharti and no one had any idea that films of the period. the ‘Gungi Gudiya’ was about to be a The ’60s marked the end of the new charismatic leader. post-Independence Nehruvian aj Kapoor’s Sangam takes us from Golden Age but filmmakers were this new militarisation – our herolooking even further back into the ine marries a man not out of love but past, when Europeans had barely because of his heroic sacrifices as an strayed into the lands of the Great Air Force pilot – to the new conMughal. The narrator of the sumerism. In his first colour film, RK voiceover that opens Mughal-e-Azam whisks us to Europe, still in his miliis of India himself (no Bharat Mata tary uniform, his bride in her sari, to speaking here), recalling a time when prove to us India’s global standing Muslims and Hindus mixed and and equality with the old colonial intermarried and India was united, powers. His lover is more ‘forward’ and the great Mughal, Akbar, himself than the girls in any Western nightworshipped Krishna. club – Buddha mil gaya. more critical selfIn reality, foreign travassessment was forced el and foreign exchange on India by China, with could only be dreamed of the 1962 war, and two and the West seemed far years later India’s great away. But the West was helmsman, Nehru, died. coming to India, whether Kaifi Azmi’s and Madan as hippies seeking Mohan’s Kar chale hum fida bring tears to my enlightenment, the new RACHEL DWYER is a Professor of Indian eyes for the end of what budget travellers or Cultures and Cinema now seems like an age of wealthy jetsetters. Goa at SOAS, University of innocence, when families finally joined India in London. She is sacrificed their young 1961 though it did not currently finishing men and women even become a travellers’ desher 11th book, donated their jewellery in tination until later, while ‘Bollywood’s India’. support of their new Rajasthani princes began country. But pride is restored with to convert their palaces into hotels, Manoj Kumar’s unabashed nationalnotably Udaipur, visited by the First ist paean, Upkar, as our soldier and Lady, Jackie Kennedy, when still a farmer heroes herald the end of private residence. Dev Anand played Nehru’s non-militarisation policy and a guide in Udaipur who seduces a the onset of the Green Revolution. married woman, defrauds her, is Although the latter ended famine in imprisoned, then becomes a spiritual India with its high-yielding crops and guru in the fully filmi treatment of irrigation, it brought in overuse of ferRK Narayan’s novel, Guide. Domestic tourism rediscovered Kashmir as an tilisers. Jai Jawan Jai Kisan (as my earthly paradise, ignoring its simhusband says every time he does mering political discontent, while a some gardening). The ’65 war with whole host of films picturised it as a Pakistan is not mentioned directly
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JULY 29, 2012
location for romance, conveniently populated by Hindus. Shashi Kapoor became known overseas as the beautiful star of Merchant Ivory’s films, which picked over the conflict of modern and old India and were obsessed with sexual encounters and impossible romance between foreigners and Indians. Satyajit Ray, revered in the west after his great Apu trilogy, began to shoot films about urban Calcutta, its youth and its cinema stars as well as his costume dramas. ndia’s new youth culture exploded on the Hindi film scene in the 1960s. Shammi Kapoor yelled ‘Yahoo!’ and gyrated exuberantly, while composers added Indian flavours to the twist and rock and roll. Indians experimented with informal Western fashion while the West discovered hippie chic. Bouffant hairstyles were in for women – and some of the men – and eyeliner was drawn almost to the ears. Sadhana became a style icon with her churidars, tight kurtas and fringes while others tied their saris dangerously low. Sharmila Tagore, the beauty first seen in Ray’s films, waterskiied and played a double role in An Evening in Paris, and shocked (and delighted) the public by wearing a bikini for a Filmfare photoshoot. By the end of the decade, she played a mother role (another double role) in Aradhana and married the peerless Indian cricketer, Nawab ‘Tiger’ Pataudi. India’s beat poets were meeting and scribbling in coffee shops in then Bombay, and the Samovar opened its doors to the city’s bohemians. Bombay’s jazz performances ended before I heard them. In Calcutta, the gilded youths who weren’t joining the Naxalbari movement were playing
I
Western rock in the nightclubs of Park Street. I missed seeing Calcutta’s Skyroom and Magnolia but did catch Olypub (earlier Olympia) and the Coffee House. Initially a little disappointed in the latter, my imagined participation in furious debate was rekindled when a student yelled, “I thought that too, the first time I read Hegel”. he food my grandmother made me in ’60s Britain was preserved in India’s ‘Continental’ menus. Now that so many choices are available it’s hard to recall that there were only a handful of places like Spencer’s in Madras, Wenger’s in Delhi and Flury’s in Calcutta, even in the 1980s. Kwality restaurants were a luxury then, with their cold interiors so dimly lit that I invariably tripped when entering, probably suggesting I was a drunken and disreputable teenager rather than an earnest student of Sanskrit. I never heard Hamid Sayani’s Ovaltine Hour on Radio Ceylon but I smiled as if I had when Ameen Sayani read the credits of Tanu Weds Manu. All this belied what I read of ’60s India in Naipaul’s Area of Darkness, but I didn’t have a personal score to settle. My first contact with India was also in that decade. A Punjabi girl joined the all-white local infants school in Northumberland I attended for a very boring two years. I was fascinated with why she wore trousers and a dress (a salwar kameez). She and her mother made me chapatis, my mother and I baked her scones. I wore the glass bangles they gave me until they broke.
T
The views expressed by the author are personal
Next week, The Fifties by Ashok Vajpeyi
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The Amul girl is conceived as a mascot for Amul butter in 1966 after Sylvester daCunha’s ad agency, ASP, gets the account. The chubby girl in polka dots melts everyone’s hearts
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THE ’60S – FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT Cinema was bright, frothy and escapist. The reality was dark and bleak. There were two wars and the deaths of two beloved leaders; and the still-undeveloped idea of a nation
1964
1963
Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, dies in office after a tenure of close to 17 years. It leaves India absolutely heartbroken
Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri dies a day after signing the Tashkent peace declaration with Pakistan. It sparks off a number of conspiracy theories
1966
Binaca Geetmala hosted by Ameen Sayani is the weekly dose of entertainment on Radio Ceylon. Millions tune in to their Murphy radio sets SADHANA starts a Photo: THINKSTOCK
fashion blizzard with her eponymous haircut, tourniquet-tight salwar-kameezes, high bouffants and milelong eyeliner in Waqt
1965
BOLLYWOOD GOES COLOUR with
romantic capers such as Sangam and Junglee made in Eastman Color. Locations include picturesque hill stations and exotic foreign cities
1966
Persis Khambatta (right) wins the Miss India title, goes on to act (much later) in the Star Trek series; Reita Faria (above) is crowned Miss World, the first Indian to win the title Photo: GETTYIMAGES
We’re self-sufficient! Dr Norman Borlaug (above right) introduces high-yield wheat hybrids. This, combined with the efforts of Dr MS Swaminathan (above left), the increased use of fertilisers and better irrigation marks the start of the Green Revolution
Arguably India’s greatest Test captain, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, 21, takes over in 1962. He instills the winning mentality, and becomes the architect of the famed spin quartet of Bedi, Chandra, Prasanna, Venkat and India’s first overseas Test and series wins
The crinkly-eyed RAJESH KHANNA delivers hits such as Aradhana (1969) and becomes the first superstar of Indian cinema. His brand of romance drives women wild, makes them write letters to him in blood
1968
THE BEATLES visit the
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram in Rishikesh to study transcendental meditation. It turns out to be one of their most creative periods as a foursome
1965
MUGHAL-EAZAM finally releases after being in production for more than 15 years!
1960
Sangam
India and Pakistan fight the SECOND KASHMIR WAR. It ends in both sides agreeing to a UN mandated cease-fire
1962
Teesri Manzil
Junglee
China declares WAR on India over a border dispute. Lesson learnt: India needs strong defences as much as good border relations
An Evening in Paris
JULY 29, 2012
PERSONAL AGENDA
22
twitter.com/HTBrunch
Actor/Producer
John Abraham if i could...
I WOULD RIDE TO WORK EVERY DAY
Not that easy in Mumbai currently
SUN SIGN Sagittarius
BIRTHDAY
December 17
HOMETOWN Mumbai
SCHOOL/ COLLEGE
FIRST BREAK
Bombay Scottish, Jai Jism, in Hind College, Mumbai 2003, directed PLACE OF BIRTH by Amit Saxena Mumbai
HIGH POINT OF YOUR LIFE
Doing my MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies
RULE THE COUNTRY
It would be a great thing to do
THE GADGET YOU LOVE?
My iPad
Photos: THINKSTOCK
LOVE TO EAT 24X7
With no worries about calories How was the experience of learning Marathi for Shootout at Wadala? I was fine with it. I just needed to brush up on my colloquial lessons to get the flow. What makes the character of Manya Surve so different? I have never played a character of a don earlier. Manya Surve JULY 29, 2012
wanted to be an engineer but he ended up becoming a dreaded gangster instead. Do you think you have the male equivalent of a bikini body? I think I’ll get there soon! Which Hollywood actor inspires you? George Clooney. I really admire his choice of films.
LOW POINT CURRENTLY OF YOUR LIFE DOING
My high points are enough to cover up any low points that I may have had
Endorsing Philips styling products and gearing up to play a don in Shootout at Wadala
You would turn gay for? I would turn gay for gay rights and for Abhishek Bachchan. Which bike are you lusting after now? I am waiting for the delivery of my new Yamaha R1 and I also like Suzuki’s GSX-R1000. What will we find in your bathroom? Philips body groomers that can be used even in the shower. What’s your style mantra? A very minimalist style – but that doesn’t mean minimum clothes! Your dream cast as a producer would be? I love to work with new people, but I would definitely love to cast Aamir Khan. How do you react to the ‘sexiest vegetarian’ tag? It’s nice to have a tag like that. Your favourite co-star for a romantic film? I prefer doing more action films, but for this I would take Abhishek. Who is your 3 am friend? My school friends from Bombay Scottish. The biggest surprise you ever gave your girlfriend? I keep giving her surprises as I like it and I am quite a romantic at heart. The last line of your autobiography would read... ...He was a simple guy. Your favourite street food? I used to love eating at Sardar Pav Bhaji in Mumbai. What do you love cooking the most? I’m not much into cooking, but I made some nice pasta recently. What makes your day? Watching a film. What spoils it? Someone lying. You destress with? Riding. — Interviewed by Veenu Singh