The Brew Magazine by Sameer Bharat Ram

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CINEMA, MUSIC, ART & FASHION

Act from your heart

Salman Khan

>Destiny’s child: Beyonce Knowles >”India is a country of colour”: Agatha Prada March 2010

March 2010

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

TEAM Dear Readers, Welcome to the first edition of THE BREW. A tasteful blend of Cinema, music and art is the delight of every reader. We felt strongly that there was a gap in this genre of publishing that we could bridge. Given our love of beer and coffee, this eclectic mix of cinema, music and art has come to be known as The Brew! Through The Brew, we wish to give you a fresh look at good holistic cinema, retro and up-and-coming music and other visual arts thereby creating a lovely reading experience. The Brew understands you very well. It is authentic in experience and enrichment. It is a brand that provides an unpretentious, yet, uniquely engaging experience that enables, entertains and extends your horizons. Ultimately, The Brew helps you discover yourself. To stay true to our promise, we present to you in our first edition, the superstar with a care-a-damn attitude. Salman Khan is controversial, unpretentious and above all entertaining. In an industry that has a reputation for fake people, he continues to be true to who he is whether one likes it or not! We at The Brew aim to build a brand which will go much further, the magazine is just the beginning. We would have on ground cinema events, concerts and art related events. We are also the event partner for “Imaging Cinema”, a filmmaking workshop that is being conducted by the prestigious I.I.T in collaboration with Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. The workshop will feature experienced members of the film industry guiding young students and professionals who wish to pursue a career in film and other media.

Photo by Srinivasan Karthik

I would like to thank the advertisers and the contributors for the support shown. And finally thank you readers for joining us on what will, I am sure, prove to be an exciting and fun-filled journey! On a personal note i would like to thank a few people who have been of great support and inspiration to me : Neeru and Arun Nanda ( I call them Maa and Nanda sir fondly), CKR, Shoukat bhai, Nina Reddy, Sujata Mundhra, Prashant Prasad, Satish (Thalappakatti) and Aruna (The Editor of Ritz).

Graphic Designer Namitha Thomas Viscom graduate getting trained to become a Creative Director in the future. Usually shy and quiet, lets her work do the talking.

Circulation & Sales Sentil Kumar Maverick management graduate who pulls off events with ease. An avid foodie, you might bump into him the next time you go out to eat Biriyani!

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Managing Editor.

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Edited, Printed, Published and Owned by Sameer Bharat Ram, SM BrandMuni Consulting Pvt. Ltd, Printed at Srikals Graphics pvt. Ltd, No.5, Balaji Nagar, 1st street, Ekkaduthangal, Chennai - 600 097. Published from No.609, Lakshmi Bhavan, Anna salai, Mount Road, Chennai - 600 002. Tel.: +91 44 4208 9392. March 2010

Production Srinivasan Management graduate from UK, currently, Director of Srikals graphics at Chennai, one of the largest printing companies around. Working hard to take the company to the next level.He plays badminton and has recently become a father!

Sameer Bharat Ram Sameer Bharat Ram specializes in brand strategy. He has had successful stints in large corporates such as HLL, Nutrine and Mahindra Holidays. He also has a strong advertising background having worked with O & M and Contract. His passion lies in building brands.

Sub-Editor Satwik Gade NIFT graduate who loves reading and writing. A comic strip enthusiast, he is currently working on a graphic novel. He is into making short films and photography as well.

Art Director Sibiraj Bastin Viscom graduate and an upcoming Art Director. Loves to backpack and travel. He is pursuing his M.A in Journalism as well. you might find a feature written by him soon too!

Cover Picture: BSK Network And Entertainment

Enjoy THE BREW.

Creative Director Mihir Ranganathan Viscom graduate, award winning art director and a director at Brand Muni Consulting. He Loves heavy metal. He has a illustration blog online too.

FOLLOW US>// http://www.facebook. com/?ref=home#!/group. php?gid=323105193530&ref=mf TO ADVERTISE: Call: +91 98409 39339 e-mail: info@thebrewmagazine.com The Brew takes no responsibility for unsolicited photographs or material. All PHOTOGRAPHS, UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED ARE USED FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSE ONLY.

March 2010

COVER STORY

FEATURE

20 FEATURES

UNSHARED

Night of the KnowLEs Beyonce Knowles

Great Directors Series Jean-Luc Godard - Aysha Iqbal Viswamohan

46 UNSHARED

Today’s Tansen: Bhimsen Joshi - Veejay Sai

COVER STORY

Act from your heart:

INTERVIEW

Salman Khan

INTERVIEW

ADDING COLOUR TO LIFE Agatha Ruiz de la Prada - Veejay Sai

FEATURE

14 6

March 2010

Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Alba Say Happy VALENTINE’S DAY!

46 56

JAZZ MUSIC AND INDIA - Madhav Chari

MY CANVAS - Thota Tharrani

Ritual as Farce - Mallika V Sarabhai

VANKA by Anton P. Chekhov - Neeru Nanda

REVIEW

COLOMBO INTERNATIONAL FASHION WEEK 2010 - Veejay Sai

March 2010

CONTRIBUTERS Mallika Sarabhai, Artist & Activist Educated as an economist and a business manager, Mallika Sarabhai is one of India’s best-known Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi dancers. She has taken her work and her company Darpana to not only over 90 countries around the world but also to the farthest parts of India.

Photo: Anamit Sen

Madhav Chari is India’s greatest jazz musician. He is also one of India’s strongest presences in the international music world, and has performed across the globe including the cities New York (the jazz capital of the world), Paris, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and Singapore.

Thota Tharrani is an Indian Film Art Director and a recipient of the National Film Award for Best Art Direction. He has won the award twice in 1989 and 1997. He has received the Padma Shri in 2001.

Dr Aysha Iqbal Viswamohan teaches Film Studies, Literature and Culture at IIT Madras. She is a Visiting Scholar at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. She can be contacted at :essaare@ yahoo.com.

ADVISORY BOARD

Neeru Nanda is a graduate from Delhi University. Passionate about writing she freelanced as a feature writer for ten years before switching to publishing. Author of a collection of short stories titled “IF” (Rupa & Co), Neeru is now working on two novels and a series of books for children.

March 2010

Pravin Mani Originally from Chennai, Pravin shuttles between Toronto, London and Chennai on his musical adventure. He has worked with a number of record companies in Australia including virgin, E.M.I, Sony music and secured a worldwide publishing contract with Warner Chappell, Australia. He has a number of album, film and session production credits with a wide range of music directors including A.R.Rahman

Veejay sai is an award-winning writer, editor and a culture critic. He has written and published extensively on indian classical music, fashion, theatre, food, art and loves traveling, researching literary and cultural history. He is an editorial consultant with over 40 brands and designers in and outside india and is on the jury for several prestigious awards in the arts across the country.

March 2010

FEATURE

Sameera Reddy is extremely house proud and attached to her Bandra apartment in Mumbai. A tour of her house … in her own words. Prachee Soman, Bollywood News Service

“I “I

feel that stardom, if not handled correctly, can consume you. What keeps you grounded is your family and the home that you come back to at the end of the day. “I am a product of Mumbai. I was born and brought up in the suburb of Bandra. I have done my schooling from Bombay Scottish and I have graduated from Sydenham College. I would never want to move out of Mumbai. Even when I am vacationing, after a few days, I always want to come back home because I miss my home and Mumbai terribly. “Our home is next to a school and most people would get put off by the noise levels. But for me, that is the most important part of my home and I feel incomplete otherwise “I stay next to the ocean and that is one more reason we have not wanted to shift to any other place in Mumbai. The noise of the ocean completely relaxes me and acts as a lullaby that puts me to sleep. I am a complete water baby. I love swimming and it is the best stress buster for me. I can never stay anywhere away from the water. If I have to stay anywhere else, it will have to be a place next to the ocean. “I stay with my parents and my two sisters. So we have five completely different, all headstrong personalities who stay together in this house. Hence, you will find every room done 10

March 2010

up differently according to individual tastes. “My room is my favorite corner of my home because I do not have any restrictions there. I can go mad in my room and not have to worry about it. I am and have always been a very independent

person. I have always taken my own decisions right from my childhood. I continue to handle my life by myself. “I have personally done the décor of my room. I believe in Feng Shui and have implemented it in my room. I don’t like too much wooden furniture. I prefer modern sophisticated designs instead. I have used some very modern pieces of furniture which add a touch of class to my room. Also I have kept the furniture simple and the walls plain. But have played with a lot of colours to add chutzpah to the room.

are only allowed to make changes to our respective rooms; and not make changes in the other parts of the house. It’s my mom who calls the shots for the rest of the house. My sister is an avid art collector and she keeps buying things for our house. My favorite is the modern art painting of Mother Teresa by M F Hussain. “As a family, we are very private people hence we do not have many guests at home. Parties, if any, are always held outside. “Everyone has their own ways of destressing and relaxing. For me, I like to work with my mother in her causes for kids and at the end of the day I like to come back to the welcome of my own home.”

“My sisters have done up their own rooms according to their choice. We

March 2010

FEATURE

Amitabh Bachchan continues to cut a swathe through films. After capping 2009 with an awardwinning performance in Paa, he begins 2010 with two new major films – Rann and Teen Pattti. Bollywood News Service

Amitabh Bachchan

You have criticized the media many a time through your blog; but at the end of the day you, like every star, also need the media to promote your film. You are right, but I have never meant (what I write in the blog) in a bad way. Basically, if something wrong has been written, I need to tell the truth. One gets the impression that you are not fond of the media You are wrong; if we were not fond then we wouldn’t be here. In the Rann promo, there is a line which says “Khabare banti nahin hai; banaayi jaati hai’. How much do you believe in this line? It is a way of saying. We can discuss this for a long time. Media also shows a mirror to itself; and that is such a good thing. Rajdeep Sardesai, Editorin-Chief of CNN-IBN, had written an editorial in Hindustan Times, in which he said that he was very disappointed that today you can buy space and print news that you want to be printed. He is a personal friend. I called him and congratulated him on his bravery. He said ‘This is our job; we want to see it done as fairly as possible’. He says you should make a disclosure. Let the media disclose that we take money to print this and this is part of our business. There are also examples of great clarity and transparency in the media. We are not going to hammer the media in Rann. When you make a film, you cannot just show one side, otherwise there will be no poetic justice. At the end there has to be poetic justice or

March 2010

the film will not succeed. But as one of India’s biggest celebrities, when you play a character who says ‘next time when you see the news, think’, the audience are going to be influenced. You say the audience listens to what we say; you are wrong about that. The audience believes whatever the media says, not what we say. But there is always talk – like the recent controversy that 3 Idiots has influenced ragging. It is very unfortunate but this is not the first time that a student was ragged. I’m 68 years old, I was in college in 1962. 45 years back, I was ragged. There was no film made on it, but it doesn’t mean that I was not ragged. Which is that one news in the media that has disturbed you the most over 40 years of public life? Dard jab ek hadh se aage badh jaaye, toh woh dard nahin hota. Itni maar khaane ke baad aur kitna mariyega? Your film Teen Patti has a woman producer (Ambika Ahuja) and a woman director (Leena Yadav). How was the experience? I think it is very important that we encourage women in every field. When I accepted the film, the best part was that it was going to be directed and also produced by women. And on top of that, the entire assistant team that Leenaji had were also women. In the film you play a Maths Professor. Yes, I play a Maths Professor called Venkat Subramaniam, who realizes his

Theory Of Probability can be applied to cards as well. If I come to know the card of any one player then with my calculation I can come to know the cards of the other players through my theory and win. My junior Maddy (Madhavan) takes me to an adda to play teen patti. Circumstances change because of greed and where this greed lead them is the story. Did you like Maths in school and college? Not at all, I passed my school in 1958; and in senior Cambridge I got very good grades in Science and Maths. I lived in the illusion that since I scored such good marks, I should become a scientist. But when I went to university for my B.Sc. My very first lecture of 45 minutes destroyed my illusions. I guessed I had taken a wrong decision. I don’t like Maths and I think that a lot of people don’t like it. I like the familiarity with which you call Madhavan ‘Maddy’. We all know about Sir Ben and Maddy and their craft of acting. Maddy recently did a beautiful film called 3 Idiots in which he had a significant role and the film is doing really well everywhere. But I’m most proud of the newcomers Shraddha, Siddharth, Vaibhav and Dhruv. When you see the film, you will feel it doesn’t look as though it is their first film. Lastly, have you played ‘Teen Patti’ in real life? Teen Patti it what is normally called Flush and is normally played at Diwali just for good luck (shagun), otherwise I don’t.

March 2010

FEATURE

Today’s Tansen

hen the government of India announced the Bharat Ratna award to Pandit Bhimsen Joshi in December 2009, there were more celebrations across Karnataka than anywhere else in india. For the real son of the soil had made his land proud and added yet another jewel to his already glittering crown. The last of the doyens of the dharwad school of music, Bhimsen out-lived all his contemporaries and spread the true dharwad style far and wide to global audiences. Like every carnatic musician who flaunts a lineage, he claims to be a direct descendant of the poet saint Tyagaraja, true or not, Bhimsen has a cult following of students, disciples and Hindustani vocalists who claim to be the inheritors of his legacy. There are very few musicians who can have such a reputation as magnificient as Bhimsenji’s. Early years Bhimsen was born into a noble family on 4th February 1922 in Gadag district in north Karnataka.He has very few to compete with him as equals in his field, either fame-wise or box office wise. Panditji’s father Gururaj Joshi was a conservative educationist and an expert academic whose KannadaEnglish dictionary is probably one of the best available even today and his mother Godavaribai Katti was a well known bhajan singer amongst the local bhajan mandali, at a time when women were not encouraged to sing in public. Bhimsenji’s grandfather, Bhimasenacharya was a noted musician of his time. Thought music was

March 2010

BY VEEJAY SAI

very much in the family, and like any other father, his wanted him to be a doctor, lawyer or pursue academics. Bhimsenji’s love towards music posed quite a lot of problems to his parents. For example, he would quietly slip away into any of the passing Bhajan mandalis only to be restored to his worried and anxious parents by some Good Samaritan or a family member. He loved reciting kannada hymns from Kumaravyasa’s ‘Mahabharata’ as much as he loved taking his first music lessons from Agasara Chennappa and the great Panchakshari Gavai. This interest and passion for music took a completely different turn and turned into a raging passion when he heard Abdul Karim Khan’s thumri ‘Piya bin nahi awat chain’. ‘This was the turning point in my quest and I decided to run away from home’, he said years later, reflecting on his childhood. On the surface it seemed like a minor everyday occurrence that could happen in any home. But it troubled the sensitive boy enough to make him want to escape from that rigmarole. It only took a small instance in a family meal for him to get irked and run away when his mother had served all the others extra proportions of ghee except to him, triggering a life-altering course of events. A disgruntled 11 year old Bhimsen left home in search of a guru and all that he had with him was a few rupees and the clothes he was wearing. His quest took him on many unsuccessful visits to Bijapur, Pune and Mumbai. The same routine followed. For instance, in Pune, he wasn’t able to pay his tuition fees to Bhaskarbua Bhakle. Penniless but determined, he boarded the third class bogey of a Gwalior bound train. Throughout his journey’s he would regale his co-pas-

Padma Vibhushan Pandit Birju Maharaj – Kathak Exponent ‘I have known Panditji from 1955. He is like my older brother. That is the relationship we share. I have often breezed into his house without prior warnings with the liberty of a younger brother.I have performed at his festival in Pune innumerable times. He is literally the king of swaras and ragas. His winning the Bharat Ratna is a benediction to the entire music fraternity. Let me tell you a nice secret we shared amongst us, in the days when he use to chew paan and tambaaku, he was one of the best makers of it, and we have often enjoyed endless talk over many a paan. I am so proud for my brother. I pray god gifts him a fabulous life ahead. This award to him was long due’. sengers and even the railway staff with the songs he had learnt from the many commercial disks he heard to keep them distracted from asking him for his ticket. Slipping from compartment to compartment on the sly, sometimes getting off at an odd station for a day or two and not being caught by the railway department, he took about three long months to reach Gwalior. Gwalior, Lucknow and Rampur gharanas had earned fame as being the best for training in Indian classical music. Bhimsenji’s search for a proper teacher had him knocking on the doors of some of the stalwarts of

bhimsen joshi that era like the Sarod maestro Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan ( Ustad Amjad ali khan’s father) , Rajabhayya Pochhwale, Krishnarao Shankar Pandit who were all maestros of the Gwalior gayaki style. Unable to find satisfaction he decided to continue his struggle. He joined a school to become a tanpura artiste. He subsequently dropped out. From there he wandered to Kharagpur, Calcutta, Delhi and then finally to Jalandhar. In Calcutta his guru offered him a stint on the silver screen which he refused saying his interest was not to be in films but to become a classical musician. Those were the years when there was no playback singing and only singing stars since the talkie era had just dawned. Pertinently, nearly half a century later he was going to collect the national award for the best male playback singing in ‘Ankhee’ (1984, starring Amol Palekar and Deepti Naval) where music director Jaidev made him sing ‘Thumaka thumaka paga dhumaka kunja madhu’) With not a penny in his pocket and a head filled with undying passion, young Bhimsen was not ready to give up till he found what he wanted– a proper guru. Jalandhar by then had achieved its name on the music map for the large scale Hindustani music festivals it hosted. Inspite of hanging out at all these big festivals, luck continued to play truant and the restless Bhimsen who wanted to learn Khayal singing still a guru. He compromised by learning some Dhrupad style singing from a local blind musician for four years. It was during this time that Vinakayrao Patwardhan, an exponent of the Gwalior Gayaki style , a renowned scholar of that time advised

the young Bhimsen that it was always best to go back to his hometown and be with his family first and also told him of Pandit Rambhau Kundgolkar aka Sawai Gandharva, who was acclaimed for his teaching abilities. Kundgol, a small town, not far from Gadag was the home of Sawai Gandharva, the prime disciple of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan saab. Bhimsen took this advice seriously and headed homewards after over four years of tedious searching. Gandharva School of music His family was in absolute joy to see him, as much as his father was not happy about the youngster’s committed passion for classical music. Bhimsen’s persistence kept him under the tutelage of the great Sawai Gandharva for the next four years from 1936 to 1940. He was encouraged by being

toured to concerts as an accompanying artist, all over India. This exposure helped him gain immense confidence and improve his knowledge on this subject. He also learnt to study his audiences, their complex psychologies and much more before he could shape his own style of singing. On return from Kundgol, he continued doing his riyaz for a year till he was possessed by the wanderlust once again. He left for another round of travel and this time it was the glitzy lights of Bombay and then to Rampur and Lucknow. He pursued the lighter classical forms of Thumri and Khayal here. Soon he came to be known as a well-known voice over the radio and small time private concerts. It was the 60th birthday of his guru Sawai Gandharva in January 1946 and a concert was organized. This was

March 2010

Bhimsen’s first big public concert that was well-attended and gave him fame over-night. Maharashtra then a province known as Bombay Presidency included Dharwad, Belgaum and Bijapur. Rajan Parikkar had to look after the recordings of artists in this Kannada-speaking region. As part of his work was tours to places like Bijapur. Belgaum, Bailhongal, Dharwad, Hubli and Gadag in search of fresh talent and for newer recording material. During one such tour he came across young Bhimsen. A Kannada drama company came to Bombay to present Kannada plays. A show was arranged at the Podar College hall at Matunga, for the benefit of the Kannadigas residing in North Bombay. Parikkar who did not know Kannada was prompted to go with the curiosity to hear a young Bhimsen on stage. Bhimsen was the hero in the play ‘Bhagyashri’. Seeing him act, he immediately negotiated him for an HMV recording. He sang two Hindi and two Kannada bhajans for his first recording in 1944. Soon afterwards Parikkar got him again to record a beautiful poem ‘Uttara Druvadum’ composed by the well known Kannada-Maharashtrian poet the late D. R. Bendre, and another poem written by the Kannada poet laureate Puttappa in bhavageethe style. With the great success of these recordings, which sold in very well amongst the Kannadigas, Bhimsen began to cut more and more records. By this time he had made a decent name as a classical singer, soon Parikkar got him to do a few classical pieces, which also were a great success. Thus, gradually Bhimsen became well-known and popular as a singer in the music circles and soon his name was prefixed with Pandit for his mastery and scholarship over the medium. The soaring mid career and A fall in the graph The next few years after India’s independence, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi emerged as one of the top most Hindustani vocalists of that era. His LP records and radio concerts increased in popularity. He sang the Abhangs in Marathi with the same ease with

March 2010

which he sang Purandaradasa Kritis in Kannada. The number of stage performances increased and he was in big demand unlike any of his contemporaries. The only other singers in his league who unfortunately didn’t live long enough to see the future decades were Pandit Kumar Gandharva and Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki. Having mastered and trained under the tutelage of so many gharanas, Bhimsen would perform any concert in almost all the styles with equal flexibility and keep his audiences in awe of him. If he started a raag with an aalap in the patiala gharana style, his boltaan would be in the rampur gharana style while his gamak would be in the Gwalior gayaki style. Not being a strict follower of the hardcore rules set down by the guru-shishya parampara, just like his guru, Panditji unconsciously set the parameters of the Kirana gharana style. That has stayed ever since. During the peak of his career, he took to alcohol as a positive from of engagement with his music. He would often come drunk to concerts attracting flak from critics and purists even though his fans didn’t seem to mind. His drinking would vary from being moderate to excessive often keeping the organizers and audiences worried. Soon his concerts started lacking the monumental voice, amazing depth and range that was his signature style. This state of concerts of uneven quality lasted for a while till, fortuitously good sense prevailed and he decided to kick the habit completely in 1979 in the interest of his health and profession. Like his sonorous voice, his career graph soared once more and the good old Bhimsen was back in action. The success of his commercially recorded music earned him a sustained popularity. He is the only Hindustani vocalist to have won the coveted platinum disk from His Master’s Voice making a unique place for himself in the history of 20th century Indian classical music. This popularity led him to achieve many firsts. He was the first-ever Hindustani Vocalist to have publicized his concert programs via posters, billboards and more in cities like New

Padma Bhushan Gulzaar – well known poet , Lyricist , director, playwright, He made the awardwinning documentary on Pandit Bhimsen Joshi’s life. ‘‘Ratnon ka Ratna hain woh! I am overjoyed that Panditji has finally won the Bharat Ratna. He has kept our country’s dignity intact by winning this award after such a long gap of 7 years. Words fail me when I want to express what the feeling of having been associated with him for these many years’ means to me. I feel lucky to have hugged him, to have held his hand and shared innumerable experiences. I wish there was some way I could get it all back. I have attended countless concerts of his, both public and private. He would visit one Dr.Morwani’s house every 10th of October and give some of the most fascinating private concerts. He has the best sense of humor I’ve seen in an artist. He loved long drives. York and elsewhere in Europe and eastern countries. He was also the first Hindustani vocalist to go abroad accompanied by his complete entourage, family, accompanying artists etc. Doordarshan, the major Public service broadcasting medium in India held yet another accomplishment for him. The popular video on national integration ‘Miley Sur Mera Tumhara’, made him a darling of every household in India. A new tryst with popular media started in his already high and growing career. His bhajan album ‘Raam Shyaam Gun gaan’ which he recorded with Lata Mangeshkar in 1985 tops the popularity continues to serve as a morning prayer across half of India while his rendering of Purandara dasa kritis in Kannada had made him an icon to reckon with. He was one of the few Hindustani vocalists to collaborate with Carnatic maestros like Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna and noted painter M.F.Hussain at different occasions to give concerts on the theme of national integration, way before other artistic collaborations happened between other artists These cross-cultural collaborations gained popularity and soon set a trend of classical musicians, vocalists and instrumentalists cutting many a disc later. Awards and Accolades Much before the Bharat Ratna proved

I remember this instance in those days where flights were rare and trains were untimely, he drove all the way from Bangalore midnight to reach the concert venue an hour earlier and went up on the stage directly to perform. That was some commitment and only someone with his passion for music could have had it. He was very passionate about cars. Even till date there is an old Mercedes sitting in his compound. I used to tease him a lot. Once he was eating achaar so I asked him was it not bad for a singer’s throat. To which he immediately replied that his throat turned wooden long ago, because of his singing and he could eat everything. Another time I asked him teasingly if the ancient raags like Deepak did cause fire and Raag Megh did cause rains. He said in ancient times people were so truthful and committed to music that when they sang these ragas, they literally felt the fire and rain in them. Today it’s all the opposite. They sing megh after the rains have gone. This way I feel so lucky and honored and proud that panditji, one of my heroes has won the Bharat Ratna.’

to be his crowning glory, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi had, in a career spanning six decades picked up almost every award and citation you could think of. Being one of the few rare artists to have achieved all the three Padma Shri (1972) Padma Bhushan (1985) and Padma Vibhushan( 1999), Bhimsenji’s national and international awards sit lightly on his shoulders. In addition to the prestigious sangeet Natak Akademi award (1976), the Maharashtra Bhushan ( 2002) and Karnataka Ratna ( 2005)award’s he has many more to his credit. He is the only other Kannadiga to have won India’s highest civilian honor other then M.Vishveshwaraya, he is a heartthrob of lakhs of his fans across the world. Till date hundreds of temples across the state open with his records of Purandara Dasa Kritis and Bhajans. People worship his picture in their shrines and children in schools across listen to the tale of his passion for his art. His cervical spondilitis never bothered him when he roared on the stage with a neckband around, as much as his brain tumour from which he had an operation done. He was known to walk out of hospital beds when he wanted to sing at a concert, much to everyone’s awe. He is religious and believes in the saint Raghavendra swami of Mantralaya, Satya Sai Baba and has probably sung at the beckoning of every holy

saint in the country. In his six decade or longer career, he has been a man of many hats. An avid car racer, a vintage car collector, football enthusiast, art connoisseur, yoga fanatic, a swimmer, a stage and theatre performer and many more of his facets that people associated with him know him for. Being twice married, Panditji has had his share of going through managing two families. His son srinivas Joshi is the only one amongst his children to keep up the musical heritage of this great legend. However Panditji has an impressive list of students to take his legacy forward and keep the lamps of the Kirana gharana brightly lit in the world of Hindustani classical music. His winning the Bharat Ratna is not surprising and was something his fans, lovers and contemporaries felt was long due. Although it isn’t easy to size up the Bhimsen aura in a single line, an avid music collector and fan once said ‘We haven’t seen or heard tansen perform, but who wants him now when we have Bhimsen?’

March 2010

Q: For the parents, how do you find time for romance with kids at home? Alba: Mine goes to bed at 7, but I’m usually too tired, unfortunately. Garner: You change the definition of romance. Romance is romance, but in addition, romance can just be breakfast over the tops of heads. You just have to get through the day. You’ve got to create that romance.

The Warner Bros. release, Valentines’s Day is one of the biggest romantic comedies of the year. Released around Valentine’s Day, the movie boasts of a splendid starcast with actors like Jessica Alba, Jennifer Garnerand Ashton Kutcher.Brew brings you an interview where the stars of Valentine’s Day share with you what this day means to them!

INTERVIEW

Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Alba Say

Happy VALENTINE’S DAY! Q: A theme of this film is the idea that the right person for you could be your best friend that’s been there all along. For the ladies, was there a moment you realized you had a friendship that became more? Garner: Somewhere around the second kid, I thought, “This is turning into something.” Alba: I married my best friend. We were friends first. It lasted 10 days. Q: Can you give any tips for a healthy Valentine’s Day? Kutcher: I think watching this movie is a healthy Valentine. We had a green set, so there was a lot of dedication to using solar panels and clean energy, and recycling. Due to the fact that the movie was shot in L.A. that was actually an easier thing to make happen. I think that every opportunity we have in our industry to make what we’re doing something more environmentally conscious is a good thing. So, this movie was

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Q: Was there another character in the film that you would have liked to play? Garner: Well, Julia [Roberts] got to sit the whole time, and she pushed the cry button, at the end. I knew it was coming, and I still cried. Q: Jennifer, you did great work with the baseball bat and the pinata. How did you prepare for that? Garner: I like batting cages, as much as the next girl. Girls can do that stuff, too. I’m from West Virginia and we tip our cows like that. Q: This film is a love letter to Los Angeles. What do you love about L.A.? Kutcher: I love the weather. Alba: I second that. Garner: Farmer’s Market. Q: What do you think about the film’s representation of L.A.? Is that how you see it? Garner: What’s great about the way Garry [Marshall] uses L.A. in the film is that it’s just a city. It’s not celebrity central. It’s not about Hollywood. It’s a city, and you never see it that way. You always see it as the backdrop for some other world. This reminds you that L.A. is just a city full of people going through the same little triumphs and tragedies in their love lives as anyone, anywhere else in the world.

mostly a green movie and coming and supporting a movie that was made that way can contribute to that.

Kutcher: A friend of mine once told me that Los Angeles is a city filled with the second best looking person from every town across the America. The best looking person stays home because they have it good there. The best looking guy in Iowa (where Kutcher is from) was Casey Prince.

Garner: And you get popcorn, which has lots of fiber.

Q: How will you celebrate Valentine’s Day this year?

Q: Ashton, are you romantic in real life, like your character in the film is?

Garner: I think most of us will be promoting this movie. That’ll be romantic.

Kutcher: I had the good fortune of playing a florist in this movie, and one of my best friends is a florist, so I got to work with him. What I really learned about that was that these guys are like the real cupids, passing these messages off from one person to the next person. The way that an arrangement shows up can affect a relationship. It’s almost like, if you can find something like that, that can really translate what it is that you’re trying to say, it’s a big deal. That was my experience on this movie. As far as being a romantic, I don’t know. I love life, I love people and I love sharing, so I would say that I’m romantic.

Alba: We’re pretty spontaneous. We try to squeeze in a smooch here and there, or a little card or note to say, “I love you.” Q: What’s the key to a successful relationship? Alba: I think communicating is important. Q: It seems like love and the pursuit of it is what everyone wants. It’s like a drug. People want to be happy and that’s really the only thing that makes us happy. Do you think that’s the case?

but at the end of the day, you don’t get to receive it until you start to give it. That goes for everything. What you give is what you receive. If you want the drug, you have to give the drug. Q: Why is Valentine’s Day so important? How do you know if you’re doing the right thing for that day? Kutcher: For the movie, we’re doing a thing online where people are posting their best Valentine’s Day gifts and their worst Valentine’s Day gifts, tagged V-Day Gifts. They’re going to compile them into the 100 best gifts and the 100 worst gifts, so just go to the best list and pick something off of that for your significant other.

Kutcher: When it comes to love, everyone wants to receive it,

March 2010

Beyonce 20

March 2010

Night FEATURE

of the

Knowles “This has been such an amazing night for me and I’d like to thank the Grammys.” – Beyonce BY BIJU ASHOK

March 2010

What makes Beyonce Knowles stand out among Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Lauryn Hill, Alison Krauss, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys and Amy Winehouse? Beyonce won more than 5 Grammys twice in her career and the others didn’t!! The last time she swept the awards was back in 2004, when she won 5 Grammys for her debut Album “Dangerously in Love”. This year, she Put a ring on it and took home 6 Grammys. Beyonce’s 6 Grammys came out of a total of 10 nominations: • Song of the year - Single Ladies (Put a ring on it) • Best R&B song Grammys - Single Ladies (Put a ring on it) • Best traditional R&B performance - At last (performance at President Obama’s inauguration) • Best contemporary R&B album - Album “I am… Sasha Fierce” • Best R&B female vocal - Single Ladies (Put a ring on it) • Best pop vocal performance – Halo She has also created a new record of winning most awards in a single year by a Solo female. Now her tally is a whopping 16! Forbes listed Beyonce as the 4th most powerful & influential celebrities in the world back in 2009. She is an established R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, model & she has her own ready-to-wear fashion line called “House of Deréon”. She won her first Talent Show at the age of Seven, singing John Lennon’s Imagine. Her first step to fame was with her Band “Destiny’s Child”. Destiny’s child released a total of 4 Albumsand sold over 50 million records worldwide. The group however disbanded in 2004, which started the wonderful solo-career of Beyonce Knowles. Her debut album Dangerously in Love was Billboard 200 No.1 and had singles featuring Jay-Z and Sean Paul. She won 5 Grammys that year and 1 BRIT award for International Solo Artist. Her second album B’Day was released in 2006 was a huge commercial success selling over 541,000 copies in the first week and won her another Grammy for the Best Contemporary R&B Album of the year. In 2009, she released her third album “I am… Sasha Fierce”which had Hit singles such as Halo, Single ladies (Put a ring on it) & If I were a boy and the rest was History. (Sasha Fierce has always been her stage name or an alter ego for a long time) Beyonce has acted in a few movies in lead roles which includes The Pink Panther, Cadillac Records, Dreamgirls&Obsessed. Beyonce married the rapper Jay-Z in 2008, after a 6 year long relationship with him. Beyonce has had a busy life as a struggling artist in the early 90s, a Destiny’s Child in the late 90s and early 2000s, an actor, a Solo-artist & a live performer ever since. Her inspirations come from Madonna Ciccone, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Prince, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston amongst others. 22

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he first time you see her, you are left wondering what is this fairly aged woman doing, drenched in a riot of so much colour, unlike anybody around? Is it supposed to be the new trend? Is it a fashion statement? For she has in the past, constantly re-defined the European sense of style and popular perceptions about what fashion is. Is she a lunatic? If the devil wears Prada, what does Agatha Prada wear? Trying to seek answers to a weird set of questions and mixed emotions, an extremely awestruck Veejay Sai interviews Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, the queen of European highfashion in this exclusive chat.

INTERVIEW

ADDING COLOUR TO LIFE 24

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Where does one start with someone who has accomplished so much? Visiting Asia for the first time in all these decades, she comes with rather strong affirmations for a first-timer. ‘I love Asia. I think in the future of fashion, Asia and India have a strong leading role to play. I am also looking at China as a market but one of the dreams of my life has been to produce and manufacture in India. Let us see. I would love to spend some of my working time in India also’ she says. While we wish she arrived sooner than that, it is important to go back to see how this one woman shaped the entire history of European fashion with her brand. ‘I come from a family which was always into architecture. If I had actually taken to it, I would have been the 9th generation of architects in our family. Our family was one of those families instrumental and closely involved in the making of Spanish history,’ she recollects talking about her earliest exposure to design. Her mother’s side was very close to Antonio Gaudi, (who belonged to the modernist style art nouveau movement and was famous for his unique and highly individualistic designs) and several reputed architects. ‘My father himself was a rather well known architect of his times and was one of the most important collectors of art in the country. When I was a little girl, I always wanted to become a painter. I was always painting. I loved

colour. And that lead me to take on to mixing of media of design, art and colour and that I guess lead me to fashion’, she adds talking about her early childhood memories. Like one knows how the earliest influences in one’s life always have a long-lasting effect, it is not impossible to see them in this case with Agatha. Having said that, nothing came easy for Agatha in a highly patriarchal world where women, forget working women, seldom had any say. ‘When I started designing, there were hardly any women designers. There were hardly any good schools to go and train in. It was almost impossible to get any work anywhere for a young woman who wanted to start off on her own. I started in a very crazy set-up. It was those years when Spain was just about beginning to be a democracy after the death of General Franco. It was the freest period in the history of Spain and the likes of Pedro Almadovar were trying their own ways of expressing through their film medium. Those were the real magic years and being in Madrid was the place to be. So I was very lucky because I think it was sheer co-incidence that I was there during those years. I began to do my fashion shows. I became popular overnight with the people there and with the media’, she says recollecting her initial

years of toiling and hardship. She grew from fame to fame and there was no looking back for this young girl. ‘Though I was accepted widely, I was seen as a crazy woman. I was still looked down upon as someone who makes dresses for a clown and that nobody was going to buy any of my things. For years I tried to get the right shapes and colours and that got me a lot of recognition with the Spanish population. It was very difficult to sell. I was selling in private circles to friends and family. Most of the sales I did in this period were private. I was almost convinced that I could never sell. I had made my studio which was my own world. But because of places like ‘la movida vilena’ and the Olympics, Spain became the focus of the world press for some time. All the important newspapers, magazines and news channels started coming to Spain more frequently. When they came to spain, they wanted to visit five or six people who were the most important part of Spanish cultural life. I happened to be amongst those five or six people alongside the likes of filmmaker Almadovar, singer Alaska and so on. It was also those years when Andy Warhol visited us in Spain and it was a landmark visit for all of us. While I was amidst all this international attention, I was happy, but I was not

March 2010

selling a thing,’ she says remembering how she shot to instant fame without much effort as luck favoured her and she happened to be at the right place in the right time.

stride with a dash of colour. ‘Now they make Prada fakes in China and other markets but when I go there , I hear stories of how people talk as if Agatha has copied some Chinese company called foo chi choo or some such name. It makes me want to laugh out loud’, she says with a giggle. ‘In the beginning there were very few Agatha. It was unpronounceable. I was very upset with my mother for calling me that name. But all along I knew that I was always different from the rest of the people. This difference and acknowledging it I guess helped me a long way’, she adds.

‘During that period I was with a journalist who told me that I have an idea but not a product. I never knew much about having a product. Coming from an architectural background I was very fascinated by industrial design. I began to work for a lot of companies. Today you call it ‘co-branding’. For years I worked for Swatch and Absolut vodka’, she adds. One must not forget, decades later Absolut vodka came out with a special designer collector’s edition bottle as a tribute to Agatha’s design legacy, an honour no living designer ever got from any company. Her associations payed off in the long run and today Prada does co-branding with over 200 important companies worldwide including some big names like Air Europa, Audi, DHL, Absolut. ‘This became my favourite pastime to go and do co-branding with so many more companies that came to me. At that time I launched my first perfume in the shape of a heart shaped bottle and I also tied up with El Corte Ingles, which was one of the world’s biggest departmental stores with over 25% distribution networks in their hands. This was a landmark development in my business’ she adds. In no time, Agatha had so many products which all the designers in Europe put together didn’t have as a collective. ‘I have always wanted to become a democratic designer and not just a luxury designer. In a way Swatch represents a lot of what I am. There is a little bit of something for everyone. And in a way that is also my philosophy’ she says. Finding more about her signature designs for her latest collections ‘My signature is my colour’, pats comes the reply. ‘For decades and decades in the fashion industry worldwide it has been the tyranny of black colour. So there was this assumption that if you are in the fashion world, you have to be dressed in black, all your life. It’s very crazy and sad. For me black is a colour that brings in a lot of bad energy and there is a huge spectrum of colours

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So what is her sense of fashion? ‘I think fashion is all about communication. What you wear says a lot about the kind of person you are. Fashion surely can have its political ambitions. Fashion in the future has a lot to do with ethics and ecology. We need less and better. There is a famous shoe brand which says ‘If you don’t need it, don’t buy it’. We need to know conservation. I have always been an ardent supporter of environmental issues and been an active member of the Green party so for me fashion is my way of expression’ she says.

that give you a good energy’, she adds. Today you can look at a garment and make out if it’s a Prada product by seeing the bright lively colours it comes in. ‘initially I tried to be very avant-garde and serious. But that is just not me. For years and years I have always made my collections for the common man in colours. For Europeans I needed to tell them what colours were. But speaking to an Indian is different. For India is a country of colour. You perhaps will not easily understand because across Europe, from Paris and Milan, everyone is dressed in

black always! Everyone who sees my colours asks me to go to India and see how different and close to my philosophy it is. Also, the family of my grandmother is from Guatemala so I think a lot of my colour comes from that part of the world because Spain has a history of being neutral or black or being afraid of colour’, she says. Going by the veracity of her collections it is impossible to ignore Prada. ‘You can like my work or hate it, but you can recognize it instantly. Initially I had done some women’s wear which dint work much. During my stint with

El Corte Ingles, they told me to do a children’s wear collection. At that time I had two thoughts in my mind. I had a daughter who was three years old and so it felt nice to have a children’s wear collection but I was angry because I never wanted to do a children’s collection. I was always asked to do clothes for children or for a carnival. Once I was in Madrid as a part of the jury of the carnival, and they kept directing me to somewhere else till I told them I was a jury member. I never liked to do children’s collection because I felt it was like a failure of my women’s wear collection. But I was mistaken.

It was one of the biggest successes ever for me. In fact for any designer I think to come out with a children’s wear collection. I couldn’t believe we were selling as much as we sold. I also didn’t know that El Corte Ingles, which is one of the world’s most important players in the retail market, started off as a children’s store before it grew so much! ’, she says in utter surprise about her work and how it took on a different trajectory. Such high name and fame comesits own set of disadvantages, but Agatha knew how to deal with them as well, taking everything that came by in her

The post-war Sri lanka woke up this year to a glitzy Colombo International fashion week arranged at a larger venue attracting the likes of Agatha and in turn she finds Asia as the next big promise, enough to venture here after decades of making a name in European fashion houses. ‘I hope to work with India sometime soon. It is a large country with such vast superior cultural experiences, history, heritage and traditions. I would like to come there, stay there, learn and understand there and work there’, she says about her future plans with India. Colourful, lively and yes, the diva of style and substance, the ultimate czarina of vibrancy, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada is a name to reckon with in international fashion. For decades to come, one only needs to wait and watch how she might bathe the rest of the world in her colours.

Veejay Sai is a writer, editor and a culture critic.

March 2010

STYLE MANTRA

Actress-model-TV hostess Malaika Arora Khan is a true blue trendsetter in the world of fashion. She shares her style mantra Anita Raheja-Heena Agarwal, Bollywood News Service

FASHION My favourite outfit: A pair of jeans. I love wearing jeans because I can give them a casual as well as a semi formal look. My tops keep changing depending on my mood. I could pick up anything from my cupboard when I wake up in the morning For evening wear: I would choose an Armani suit or a saree if it’s an award function. I love wearing sarees for film functions. I feel they look very classy and elegant. I would also sport a nice salwar-kameez for formal occasions Night wear: I take extra effort while picking up my night wear. It makes me feel so much of a woman

Malaika Arora

I look best in: A saree, I can really carry it off well. I love authentic sarees like Banarasi and chiffons

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In Indian designers I like: Monisha Jaisingh, Wendell Rodricks, Hemant Trivedi, Sumeet Verma, Seema Khan My favourite brands: Armani followed by Prada, Gucci and Versace My favourite colours: Red, black and white. In winter, I prefer beige and neutral colours I have a fetish for: Shoes. I have over 200 pairs for shoes. I don’t pick up shoes from India as I feel they haven’t mastered the art of making them. Occasionally, however, I do pick up a pair from Rinaldi in town In handbags my favourite brand is: Dior, Gucci, Fendi My handbag contains: Credit cards, a wallet, a dairy, a mobile and its charger. I love carrying large bags so that everything fits in My wardrobe is incomplete without: Colour co-ordinated clothes. Every piece I own has a history behind it. A lot of love goes behind every bag and shoe I buy For my first day’s shoot I wore: I wore a chaniya choli for my first film shoot and for my first MTV shoot I wore a red bustier and a flaming red hot skirt

March 2010

According to me, the best-dressed men are: Arbaaz Khan, Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh and Kabir Bedi

and don’t try to be somebody else. One should wear the latest trends only if one is able to carry it off

According to me, the best-dressed women are: Besides myself, I like the way Amrita Arora and Victoria Beckham dress

HAIR

For my church wedding I wore: A Wendell Rodricks outfit; it was very beautiful. Arbaaz wore a black Versace suit For my nikaah I wore: A grey-andsilver saree which I had bought from Benzer. Arbaaz was still in his suit For our wedding reception I wore: A Hemant Trivedi outfit. It was a fusion kind of a drape -- a ghagra choli with the ghagra in lungi style. Arbaaz wore a greyish suit from Gabbana I love shopping at: Los Angeles and New York. Sometimes I pick up stuff from flea markets too. In London and New York, they always have the uptown and downtown shops

My favourite perfume: Gucci Envy. I don’t like to change my perfume too often My fashion tip: Create your own personal style, wear what you are comfortable in

March 2010

I like to highlight my hair: Bronze, copper and gold I shampoo as well as condition my hair with: L’Oreal products My hairstyle at home is: Simple. I like to tie up my hair. I hate doing anything fancy to my hair. My hair is very manageable and whatever you do to it, it stays. But when I am shooting, I experiment occasionally

Much of Christiopher Nolan’s, Leonardo DiCaprio starrer ‘Inception’ is kept a mystery. Nolan, however, recently told LA Times that this is the biggest film he has made, even bigger than ‘The Dark Knight’ Christopher Nolan said,“This is the biggest challenge I’ve taken on to this point… We’re trying to tell a story on a massive scale, a true blockbuster scale – the biggest I’ve ever been involved with. We tried to make a very large-scale film with ‘The Dark Knight’ and with this one we wanted to push that even further.”

My hairstyle for formal functions: I like to leave my hair loose My personal hairstylists are: Kanta and Clarabelle A man whose hair I admire is: (Singer) Shaan. His hair are so silky, I tell him he has no business to have such beautiful hair

Inception is slowly growing to be the most anticipated movie of 2010, critics are rating it higher than the much anticipated, Robert Downey Jr starrer ‘Iron Man 2’

Hair care: I oil my hair twice a week, I make my own oil at home. I don’t like to wash my hair too often because it gets really dry, so I wash it only if it’s greasy. I use a really mild shampoo. Once in a while, I deep condition my hair MAKE-UP My favourite brands in makeup are: Max and Bobbi Brown When I am not shooting: I hate using make-up. I just use a moisturiser. I believe in a fresh, clean, natural, radiant look -- it is the best. I really don’t have a problematic skin so my make-up is minimal The feature I accentuate: My eyes and my lips. I love using mascara as I really have long eye lashes and a nice blusher to highlight my cheeks My favourite shades in make-up are: Bronze/fresh pink/ peach/ orange/ brown My make up tip: Your inner state reflects on your skin. So you should live a stress-free life

Inception Bigger than The Dark Knight?

On January 12th, after a month of solid speculation, the track list for the upcoming soundtrack to Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” was released, there’s a lot of pop/punk on there. Avril Lavigne, All Time Low, Tokio Hotel, Pete Wentz and Mark Hoppus are just some of the acts confirmed to appear on the soundtrack, which is called Almost Alice. Joining them will be the All-American Rejects, Motion City Soundtrack, the Cure’s Robert Smith and the Plain White T’s. Lavigne’s “Alice (Underground)” has been tapped as the first single.

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Almost Alice!

The most expensive o u t f i t I have bought: A Gucci gown and a close s e c o n d would be my black Armani suit

Hair colour: I like to experiment with colour. Red hair looks great on Indian skin. I also like nice rich chocolate tresses

celluloid

I like to see Arbaaz in: A suit, really soft linens and pyjamas. I like to choose Arbaaz’s clothes

Length: I like my hair really long

Salman COVER STORY

Khan

It has been 20 years since Salman shot into cinematic prominence with the smash success of Sooraj Barjatyaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Maine Pyar Kiya (released in late 1989). After two decades of uninterrupted stardom, the star still retains a deeply enthusiastic passion for films.

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s far as introductions go, it is difficult to think of too many people who need it less than Salman Khan. He is one of the most talked about people in India. “Is he good?” “Is he bad?” is what people keep asking themselves and each other .The celebrated writer Oscar Wilde once said “It is absurd to divide people into good or bad. People are only charming or tedious”. Say what you will about Salman, right from his debut in 1988, he has remained one of the most colourful personalities in the film industry for over two decadesno mean achievement! Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan( bet you did not know that!), who made his acting debut with the film Biwi Ho To Aisi (1988), had his first commercial success with the blockbuster Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), and won a Filmfare Best Male Debut Award for his performance. He went on to star in some of Bollywood’s most successful films, such as Saajan (1991), Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994), Karan Arjun (1995), Biwi No.1 (1999), having appeared in the highest earning films of five separate years during his career. In 1999, Khan won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his extended appearance in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), and since then has starred in several critical and commercial successes, including Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), Tere Naam (2003), No Entry (2005) Partner (2007) and Wanted (2009). Romantic hero, a rib tickling comedian, a tragic lover, an action-hero and a lovable boy-next-door: Salman has been there and done that. Salman Khan’s on screen names are as famous as his acts. We certainly remember his favourite character names, Prem and Radhey. There have been rumours of late that another rather interesting one is being added to the list. In his forthcoming film DEBANGG, Salman will be playing Chulbul Pandey! Although he has been quite infamous for being on the wrong side of law

March 2010

more than once, he surprises us with his silent working association with cancer patients or the more recent show featuring eight of Bollywood’s biggesr stars for Salman’s Being Human charity, at the Mumbai Fashion Week. He has more than his share of detractors but an over-whelming number of people call him the nicest guy around. Well, clearly, whether you love him or hate him, he continues to be himself. Salman is the safest man to be around in Bollywood because you will never be in doubt as to what he has in mind. One thing is clear, in the film industry, Salman is one star who has, time and again, played by his own rules. For this reason and many, many more, he is the Cover Story of this issue of The Brew. You have been controversy’s favorite child for a long period of time. I am not; you make me so. I sit here and relax; and I sit in jail and relax too. You guys get hassled. Have you learnt anything from the experiences? What is there to learn? If you have done something wrong, only then you learn, na. Why do you get entangled in all these controversies? I don’t get entangled. I just want to live a normal life. I want to ride a rickshaw, stay at the farm, and do what I have to do as a common man. You guys want me to be a star and be politically correct all the time. I can’t do that. Do you think link-ups are media created? What happens is that when you start seeing somebody, you yourself don’t know ke ‘Bhaiya ye last hoga ke nahi last hoga’ Here, even before friendship develops, you make them into a couple. Then everybody starts feeling awkward. The buzz is that your relationship with Katrina is no longer as strong as it used to be. Has Katrina said this to you? Have I said it to you? No. Then why are you asking? If you hear from Katrina or me, then you should ask such questions. March 2010

Any plans to get married? They got me married a million times. They have married me to many people, got me divorced too. It doesn’t make any difference. You need to carry on with your normal life. Is marriage important to you? One has to get married. I will get married but when I decide. You share an amazing relationship with your dad. Don’t you think about being a father yourself? Hmm … That will also happen. Do you think you will be a great dad? I am not too sure about myself as a husband, but I will be a great father. It’s interesting to note that both the films you have written – Baaghi in 1990 and Veer in 2010 -- explored the

father-son relationship. What is your relationship with your father, Salim Khan? Yes, Baghi explored the relationship between father and son; and so does Veer. I just believe that fathers and sons should be very good friends. My father and I chill together; but if I cross any line, I just run away. I go to an outdoor shoot for two months. So, they should be the best of friends but at the same time, the son should have respect for the father. Was Salim Khan a strict father? I remember when I was in the seventh standard, I failed in my mid-term examinations and I was petrified. I was in Indore on a holiday and my dad called up and said, ‘Beta, enjoy your holidays but work harder next time. Don’t mess

up your holidays’. Would you call your dad a great father? My dad is a real Veer. I admire his thinking. He takes a stand when he has to, but he also shows a lot of respect to people. He always supports the right path. I believe you have turned Mithun into a fitness freak too. I told him, ‘Dada, thodisi body-vodi banani padegi’. He said, ‘Main toh nahin karta’. I pleaded with him and his kids convinced him. They said, ‘Mithun yaar, do it’. Yes, his kids call him Mithun! I was amazed -- we were all at his home chilling and calling him Mithunda when suddenly Mimoh asks me: ‘Have you ever tasted Mithun’s food?’ I was like ‘What did you just call your

dad?’ He coolly answered ‘Mithun’. All the children call him by name. They share such an amazing relationship and in Veer that is the same relationship we have portrayed between my character and Mithun.

I think Zarine has a resemblance to Katrina. I have never felt that. I think comparisons are made just because she is fair and has a sharp nose … I think they have same complexion. Give God credit; He has never made two people alike. If anyone should see a resemblance, it’s me; and I don’t see a resemblance at all.

Which quality makes a person a true fighter? A person who has capability to resist a fight is a true fighter. When did you feel like a Veer in real life? I have lived in the jail, na. Which are your favorite period films from the past? Lawrence of Arabia, Ben Hur and Mughal-e-Azam. Last year, you had a smash hit in Wanted but could not repeat the feat with London Dreams. What do you think went wrong? London Dreams was an amazing film but it was 25-30 minutes too long. I told Vipul (director Vipul Shah) to cut the film; but he didn’t. Just because some of your friends say, ‘Oh it’s good’ … it doesn’t work like that. I had seen the film. I knew. It would have been a superb film had it been cut to two hours twenty minutes. After the March 2010

Since fights are common in a relationship, who should take a lead to solve them? Either can take the lead. There is no point in stretching the fight. As soon as anything happens, solve it immediately. But at that time, one-upmanship comes in, ego comes in. Whoever feels the need, should initiate the patch-up. You should act from your heart.

After almost half-a-decade you worked with a new heroine in Veer. Where did you find Zarine Khan? I met her by coincidence on the sets of Yuvraj. For Veer, we needed a heroine who looked young and fresh. Moreover, we needed somebody who had a yesteryears’ look; something on the lines of what our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used to look, na.

For the first time on film, you sported long hair in Veer. This time I grew my hair. In Suryavanshi, I had a blonde hair wig with black chest hair (smiles).

things that the other person likes. But over a period of time, a year or two or even five, your real self will emerge.

release, he wanted to cut the film. The film should have ended at Hanuman Chalisa. The last song is a beautiful song but sounds pompous. I think you should keep the length of the film as long as it’s interesting. 3 Idiots is twohours-fifteen-minutes long; and it is damn interesting. After working for 20 years do you still feel excited and nervous when a film releases? Yes. Every Friday aapki kismet line pe lag jaati hai. Now, thankfully, I have reached a position where I can choose the films I want to do. But I do still get nervous and excited when a film releases. You have acted in several love stories. How would you define a man-woman relationship? Many people say it is about compromise, it is about sacrifice; but I don’t think so. If you start a relationship with lies, saying ‘Main aisa hoon, main to yeh hoon, main to woh hoon’ and if the opposite person believes your lies, then there will be a problem. In the beginning of a relationship itself, if you come out in the open and state: ‘These are my faults and this is what I am; now you decide’, the relationship can’t go wrong because you have said who you are in the beginning itself; and later you try and change for the better. What do couples fight about? At the start of a relationship, everyone puts their best step forward – when you meet for a couple of hours, you do

You wanted to direct before you became an actor. Do you have any plans to turn director? Not now. I will start direction jab fans laat maar ke bhaga denge. No danger of that right now. You have several assignments. Have you signed Shirish Kunder’s film? Yes, I have signed Shirish Kunder’s film. I believe you are getting a leaner body for Dabanng? I am going to maintain my weight but visually I will look leaner. Don’t you feel altering your look for a film can harm your body? I don’t have any bad habits. I eat correct. Which is your favourite sport? I like cycling, swimming. Do we see yourself in politics? No, no. I am happy with ‘Being Human’. I am more than happy with my charity work. It’s a very difficult country to rule with so many different parties. Eventually when the education system is made right and people start to vote, things will improve gradually. By supporting ‘Being Human’, are you disassociating yourself from other charities and only concentrating on it? No. If there is a charity which does good work and puts 70 percent funds into the cause, of course I will support them. Anything left that you are looking forward to? No yaar … whatever comes my way.

March 2010

was rocking his brat in its cradle, I unfortunately fell asleep. And during the week, my mistress told me to clean a herring, and I began by its tail, so she took the herring and stuck its snout into my face. The assistants tease me, send me to the tavern for vodka, make me steal the master’s cucumbers, and the master beats me with whatever is handy. Food there is none; in the morning it’s bread, at dinner gruel, and in the evening bread again. As for tea or sour-cabbage soup, the master and the mistress themselves guzzle that. They make me sleep in the vestibule, and when their brat cries, I don’t sleep at all, but have to rock the cradle. Dear Grandpapa, for Heaven’s sake, take me away from here, home to our village, I can’t bear this any more... I bow to the ground to you, and will pray to God for ever and ever, take me from here or I shall die...”

UNSHARED

VANKA by Anton P. Chekhov

ine-year-old Vanka Zhukov, who had been apprentice to the shoemaker Aliakhin for three months, did not go to bed the night before Christmas. He waited till the master and mistress and the assistants had gone out to an early church-service, to procure from his employer’s cupboard a small phial of ink and a penholder with a rusty nib; then, preading a crumpled sheet of paper in front of him, he began to write. Before, however, deciding to make the first letter, he looked furtively at the door and at the window, glanced several times at the sombre ikon, on either side of which stretched shelves full of lasts, and heaved a heartrending sigh. The sheet of paper was spread on a bench, and he himself was on his knees in front of it. “Dear Grandfather Konstantin Makarych,” he wrote, “I am writing you a letter. I wish you a Happy Christmas and all God’s holy best. I have no mamma or papa, you are all I have.” Vanka gave a look towards the window in which shone the reflection of his candle, and vividly pictured to himself his grandfather, Konstantin Makarych, who was night-watchman at Messrs. Zhivarev. He was a small, lean, unusually lively and active old man of sixty-five, always smiling and bleareyed. All day he slept in the servants’ 38

March 2010

BY NEERU NANDA kitchen or trifled with the cooks. At night, enveloped in an ample sheepskin coat, he strayed round the domain tapping with his cudgel. Behind him, each hanging its head, walked the old bitch Kashtanka, and the dog Viun, so named because of his black coat and long body and his resemblance to a loach. Viun was an unusually civil and friendly dog, looking as kindly at a stranger as at his masters, but he was not to be trusted. Beneath his deference and humbleness was hid the most inquisitorial maliciousness. No one knew better than he how to sneak up and take a bite at a leg, or slip into the larder or steal a muzhik’s chicken. More than once they had nearly broken his hind-legs, twice he had been hung up, every week he was nearly flogged to death, but he always recovered. At this moment, for certain, Vanka’s grandfather must be standing at the gate, blinking his eyes at the bright red windows of the village church, stamping his feet in their high-felt boots, and jesting with the people in the yard; his cudgel will be hanging from his belt, he will be hugging himself with cold, giving a little dry, old man’s cough, and at times pinching a servant-girl or a cook. “Won’t we take some snuff?” he asks, holding out his snuff-box to the women. The women take a pinch of snuff, and sneeze. The old man goes into indescribable ecstasies, breaks into loud laughter, and cries:

The corners of Vanka’s mouth went down, he rubbed his eyes with his dirty fist, and sobbed.

“Off with it, it will freeze to your nose!” He gives his snuff to the dogs, too. Kashtanka sneezes, twitches her nose, and walks away offended. Viun deferentially refuses to sniff and wags his tail. It is glorious weather, not a breath of wind, clear, and frosty; it is a dark eight, but the whole village, its white roofs and streaks of smoke from the chimneys, the trees silvered with hoar-frost, and the snowdrifts, you can see it all. The sky scintillates with bright twinkling stars, and the Milky Way stands out so clearly that it looks as if it had been polished and rubbed over with snow for the holidays... Vanka sighs, dips his pen in the ink, and continues to write: “Last night I got a thrashing, my master dragged me by my hair into the yard, and belaboured me with a shoe-maker’s stirrup, because, while I

“I’ll grate your tobacco for you,” he continued, “I’ll pray to God for you, and if there is anything wrong, then flog me like the grey goat. And if you really think I shan’t find work, then I’ll ask the manager, for Christ’s sake, to let me clean the boots, or I’ll go instead of Fedya as underherdsman. Dear Grandpapa, I can’t bear this any more, it’ll kill me... I wanted to run away to our village, but I have no boots, and I was afraid of the frost, and when I grow up I’ll look after you, no one shall harm you, and when you die I’ll pray for the repose of your soul, just like I do for mamma Pelagueya. “As for Moscow, it is a large town, there are all gentlemen’s houses, lots of horses, no sheep, and the dogs are not vicious. The children don’t come round at Christmas with a star, no one is allowed to sing in the choir, and once I saw in a shop window hooks on a line and fishing rods, all for sale, and for every kind of fish, awfully convenient. And there was one hook which would catch a sheat-fish weighing a pound. And there are shops with guns, like the master’s, and I am sure they

must cost 100 rubles each. And in the meat-shops there are woodcocks, partridges, and hares, but who shot them or where they come from, the shopman won’t say. “Dear Grandpapa, and when the masters give a Christmas tree, take a golden walnut and hide it in my green box. Ask the young lady, Olga Ignatyevna, for it, say it’s for Vanka.” Vanka sighed convulsively, and again stared at the window. He remembered that his grandfather always went to the forest for the Christmas tree, and took his grandson with him. What happy times! The frost crackled, his grandfather crackled, and as they both did, Vanka did the same. Then before cutting down the Christmas tree his grandfather smoked his pipe, took a long pinch of snuff, and made fun of poor frozen little Vanka... The young fir trees, wrapt in hoar-frost, stood motionless, waiting for which of them would die. Suddenly a hare springing from somewhere would dart over the snowdrift... His grandfather could not help shouting: “Catch it, catch it, catch it! Ah, shorttailed devil!” When the tree was down, his grandfather dragged it to the master’s house, and there they set about decorating it. The young lady, Olga Ignatyevna, Vanka’s great friend, busied herself most about it. When little Vanka’s mother, Pelagueya, was still alive, and was servant-woman in the house, Olga Ignatyevna used to stuff him with sugar-candy, and, having nothing to do, taught him to read, write, count up to one hundred, and even to dance the quadrille. When Pelagueya died, they placed the orphan Vanka in the kitchen with his grandfather, and from the kitchen he was sent to Moscow to Aliakhin, he shoemaker.

“Come quick, dear Grandpapa,” continued Vanka, “I beseech you for Christ’s sake take me from here. Have pity on a poor orphan, for here they beat me, and I am frightfully hungry, and so sad that I can’t tell you, I cry all the time. The other day the master hit me on the head with a last; I fell to the ground, and only just returned to life. My life is a misfortune, worse than any dog’s... I send greetings to Aliona, to one-eyed Tegor, and the coachman, and don’t let any one have my mouthorgan. I remain, your grandson, Ivan Zhukov, dear Grandpapa, do come.” Vanka folded his sheet of paper in four, and put it into an envelope purchased the night before for a kopek. He thought a little, dipped the pen into the ink, and wrote the address: “The village, to my grandfather.” He then scratched his head, thought again, and added: “Konstantin Makarych.” Pleased at not having been interfered with in his writing, he put on his cap, and, without putting on his sheep-skin coat, ran out in his shirtsleeves into the street. The shopman at the poulterer’s, from whom he had inquired the night before, had told him that letters were to be put into post-boxes, and from there they were conveyed over the whole earth in mail troikas by drunken postboys and to the sound of bells. Vanka ran to the first post-box and slipped his precious letter into the slit. An hour afterwards, lulled by hope, he was sleeping soundly. In his dreams he saw a stove, by the stove his grandfather sitting with his legs dangling down, barefooted, and reading a letter to the cooks, and Viun walking round the stove wagging his tail.

March 2010

UNSHARED

BY Mallika Sarabhai

ast week I was performing for the opening of the Malabar Festival in Kozikode. The stage, set on the breezy beach, was created like a ship and for the inauguration it was full of over twenty men. And me. Sitting next to me, I found to my delight, was the great writer M T Vasudevan Nair, someone whose work is legendary and an author that I have read with delight. I tried to make conversation amidst the general din of fire crackers and speeches but only got as far as knowing that he knows the Kerala side of my family well and had, in fact, visited my ancestral home recently. Then came the ritual lamp lighting. Now as anyone even vaguely familiar with India knows, the lamp lighting is born of Hinduism. The lamp is a symbol of Saraswati, knowledge and is lit to dispel the darkness of our minds and to light up the proceedings. The wick is also traditionally the focus of meditative thought. In events, like the Festival, or the opening of most anything nowadays in the country, the lamp is lit. Usually by suited booted men. But does it mean anything? Which Hindu, whether or not a believer, would enter a temple with shoes on? Who would do the same for a puja room in the house? Or for that matter in a puja of any kind? Then why is it that we don’t even think of removing our shoes when we do this routine make believe lighting on a stage or at an inauguration? Wouldn’t it be better just to have an electric lamp and switch it on? It would save oil – and it would stop people like me squirming when we see even cultured people like Vasudevan Nair light the lamp with his shoes on! Another ritual that has become a comic gesture is the traditional mini sashtanga dandavat pranam. Originally, to 40

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touch the feet of a revered elder, a person would prostrate before the elder. Then over the years, it got curtailed to touching the feet of an elder. This had a special significance, mostly lost on the doer and the receiver. When I touch the feet of a guru or an elder, I am bowing to the spirit and the knowledge and wisdom that that person is a carrier of – not to the person per se. Now, with short cuts the rule of the day, and fat bellies impeding bending over, the namaskar has become the knee-askar, with the bender barely touching the knees of the elder or guru! Do we need to continue these beautiful rituals without understanding or imbibing the thoughts behind them? Why don’t we just throw them out and stop the pretence? Of course we could take the time to understand them.

March 2010

MY CANVAS UNSHARED

BY THOTA THARRANI

still remember the good old days when i went with my father to the studio as early as possible. This was a long time ago when making a movie was a laborious task. There were times when our arrival preceded that of the workers! We would get down to work immediately. We would start to sweep the floors, never hesitating to do even the most menial jobs ourselves.

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These were the days when most production houses never took over two films, for movie making was a laborious task. These were times when projects were planned carefully for a year or more. The tasks, the timelines and the set were all pre planned neatly and executed painstakingly. The technology not being quite as advanced today, such organisation was extremely essential. Let me relate to you a small anecdote about an incident that occured during the shooting of a Tamil movie. This movie was being shot entirely in Vijaya Vahini studio. We would be up late into the night finishing up the set, so we could get it ready for the next day’s shooting. This one time we were required to make a set for a jail, for this was the scene where the mother comes to rescue her son from captivity. We arrived at the location to find that we had neither the men nor the material to make the set! We quickly got some brown paper and glue. As my father applied glue to the paper, i carried it to my father’s assistant(Bhaskar Raju)and he stuck it in a way that they resembled the bricks of a wall. The 6th floor of this studio holds many memories very sweet to me. I spent many nights here assisting my father. It was on one such nightly vigil that i stumbled upon the sets of a K.R Vijaya movie and lo, behold! there stood Director Deva. The director at midnight, was asking his assistant if there was any food available as he had forgotten to eat his food! Such was the dedication of the great man. The dedication I found in the men of the industry in those days is the memory I cherish. I strive to continue that legacy.I try to emulate them the best way i can.

ROUND TABLE INDIA’S FREEDOM THROUGH EDUCATION Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it: Mahatma Gandhi Donating for this cause might be insignificant to you, but this small gesture can change the lives of a few children forever. For more details to donate log on to www.roundtableindia.org. or call Prabhat on 98400 51106 or Sameer on 98409 39339 42

March 2010

No. 29, 1st Main Road, Sastri Nagar, Adyar, Chennai. www.sanskitchen.com

For free home delivery (2kms) March 2010 43 Call 43511000

FEATURE

On my first day of shooting for Abodh, I wore a chamkeela ghagra choli with a long choti. I kept tripping on my ghagra all the time Anita Raheja-Heena Agarwal, Bollywood News Service

M Clothes a d h u r i D i x i t

My favourite outfit: Anything which I am comfortable in. For instance, loose pants and shirts and salwar kameezes. My favourite outfit for casual daywear: When I am in the US, I wear shorts most of the times. When I am in Mumbai, I can’t go around in shorts so I usually wear loose pants and loose shirts or long skirts and a shirt. My favourite outfit for evening wear: If I am going to a friend’s place, I wear pants teame lm function, I would wear a sari. In saris, I like to wear: Soft saris, not the thick ones. I like to wear soft silks. At night I like to sleep in: My bed. My favourite designers: Reza Shariffi, Hemant Trivedi. I love Ritu Beri’s bridals. Her work is amazing. The outfit I wore for my wedding in Los Angeles: I wore my grandma’s Navvari sari. It was cobalt blue in colour. I also put on traditional Maharashtrian jewellery, including a nathani and a kamarpatta. The outfits my husband and I wore for our wedding reception in Mumbai: My husband wore a cream sherwani and I wore a peach ghagra choli. Both outfits were designed by Reza. I like my man to be dressed in: Casuals

March 2010

like T-shirts and jeans. I’d like him to wear suits for formal functions. My favourite colours: I like all shades of orange, peach and pastels. Sometimes I like to go in for really bright colors like red and shocking pink. An old piece of clothing I am fond of: I actually like my old, old T-shirts, because they are so soft that they are really comfortable. It does draw my mom’s attention but I really like to wear them as I am most comfortable in them. My favourite accessories: I love to wear rings, but I like delicate ones and not the chunky variety. My wardrobe was incomplete without: Belts, but not any more. I have lots of them. The outfit that suits me the best: In Indian clothes, I like myself best in saris, in Western outfits, I like myself in suits or jackets and pants, or long coats. The brands I patronise: I am not a brand freak. You should look good -that’s it. I hate carrying labels with me.

On my first day of shooting for Abodh, I wore: A chamkeela ghagra choli with a long choti. I kept tripping on my ghagra all the time. Before I signed the film, I had lovely, long hair. But one day, I went and cut my hair really short, like a boy. Now, when I had to report for the shoot, I had to wear a long wig, which was so difficult to manage. Today when I see Abodh, I feel that my head looks bigger than my body.

Hair My hair is: Thick, dark brown and shoulder length. My hairstyle at home: I like my hair tied in a casual ponytail. My hairstyle at parties: I like to leave my hair loose. My hairstyle at nights: I just clip my hair casually. For hair styling and haircut I frequent: Kanta at Nalini Yasmin. My hair care regime: I oil my hair once a week with coconut oil.

The best-dressed men in the industry according to me: Jackie is the best. And I think Shah Rukh dresses very well too. The best-dressed woman in the industry: Rekha.

March 2010

Breathless was feted by critics and lapped up by the cinegoers and expectedly spawned off several imitations about lovers on the run. Interestingly, Godard was offered to direct Bonnie & Clyde (finally directed by Robert Altman) but could not do so for some reason.

UNSHARED

Jean-Luc Godard (1930- ) For Godard’s A bout de soufflé (Breathless, 1960) critic Roger Ebert declared, “Modern movies begin here. No debut film since Citizen Kane in 1941 has been as influential.” So what was so special about Jean-Luc Godard? A firebrand of the Nouvelle vague cinema, Godard started his career as a film critic. He wrote in the magazine Cahiers du Cinema (kind of a Bible for French film critics), “The whole New Wave can be defined, in part, by its new relationship to fiction and reality.”

Great

Directors Jean-Luc Godard

The plot in Breathless centres on Michel Poicard (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a petty Parisian crook, who has just murdered a policeman. Anxious to flee the country, he persuades his girlfriend Patricia (Jean Seberg) to accompany him. The film, which literally bursts with energy, was dedicated to Monogram, a Hollywood production house, known for making ‘B’ pictures. All through the film, we cannot help but notice how unabashed is Godard in expressing his admiration for the US popular culture. In one of the sequences, Michel stands admiringly before a poster of Humphrey Bogart. The implication is clear: Michel has leant well from the gangster/film noir Hollywood flicks—a Bogart forte. To be cool is the ultimate high for the Breathless characters—they smoke endlessly, sport chic clothes, and mouth lines from Faulkner, “Between grief and nothing, I take grief.” At the outset, Michel looks at the camera and announces, “I’m a son of a bitch” and later asks his girlfriend, “Why don’t you wear a bra?” A new hero was born right there! As a key film of the French New Wave, Breathless rejected the well-made traditional French cinema and adopted an edgier, more experimental style. The film was shot on a shoestring budget and Godard used natural lighting, wheelchair dollies and shots of Paris extensively. Of course, Breathless is also a testimony to the fantastic sense of camaraderie that bonded the practitioners of cinema. On retrospect, it is interesting to note the number of exponents of French New Wave who collaborated on Breathless. The original story was by Truffaut, production design by Chabrol, and cameos for the writer Daniel Boulanger, director Jean–Pierre Melville (who had earlier directed Bob the Gambler) as well as for Truffaut and Godard.

Like most directors of his group, Godard had strong sociopolitical commitments. His next, Le Petit Soldat (The Little Soldier, 1960), was banned by the French government for three years because it commented on the Algerian War. The film was shot on the rain swept streets of Geneva and Zurich. It had explicit torture sequences (fans of Quentin Tarantino may recall the famous ear-splicing scene from Reservoir Dogs; a direct quote from Le Petit Soldat). In fact, the film was considered so provocative that no US distributor would touch it. It was premiered at New York Film Festival, two years after its release. Godard and ‘jump cut’ The jump cut involves an uncanny jolt in a film’s progress, drawing the viewers’ attention to disturbing elision of time and space. A film might cut abruptly from one location to the next without any attempt to employ those devices or matches of eyeline that are essential for continuity. It was the French pioneer Georges Melies who first recognized that a jump cut could generate magical or comic effects if the appearance of a subject filmed from a single vantage point was altered between shots. Although Godard was not the first to use or think about the possibilities of a jump cut, modern use of the technique has more or less come to be associated with him. Breathless, as a finished film was long by thirty minutes and instead of cutting out whole scenes or sequences, Godard chose to trim within scenes, thus creating the jagged cutting style, which gels well with the on-the-edge quality of the film. Over the years, this editing technique has come to be associated with Godard. Godard’s life Godard was married to the beautiful Anna Karina. Together they made films, such as My Life to Live, The Little Soldier, Band of Outsiders and Pierrot the Fool. Hs Alphaville is a science fiction parable about a world ruled by a giant computer that deprives citizens of free will and turns them into ideological zombies. From the 70s, Godard temporarily stopped making commercial films to form the Dziga Vertov Collective (named after the Soviet political filmmaker of the 1920s), creating a series of 16 mm protest films. From 198998, he worked on an ambitious project, History of cinema, a chronicle of the medium. Now leading a quite, retired life, Godard will be remembered for his adventurous and rebellious brand of cinema, an artist who galvanized an entire generation of filmmakers. His famous aphorisms encapsulate the man and his works: “All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun”, “Tracking shots are a question of morality”, and “You need a beginning, a middle and an end—but not necessarily in that order.”

BY AYSHA IQBAL VISWAMOHAN 46

March 2010

COLOMBO

2010

REVIEW

INTERNATIONAL FASHION WEEK

Photos by Chamil.T

Emerald Island on high heels It was last year at the International fashion week, as the 2nd sequence took off on the ramp at the ball room of the Taj Samudra, that the LTTE planned a surprise attack on Colombo city. It was a tormenting experience for a whole host of international media persons, designers, models and the event organizers who subsequently fell into doubt as to whether the event had any future at all in a warravaged country. Ajai Veer Singh, the President of the International fashion week in Colombo in collaboration with Prasad Bidapa, India’s ace style guru, returned stronger this year and had the fashion week at a larger venue with even bigger brands and names involved, placing this celebrated event on the world fashion map, marked in bold letters. Celebrated designers like Prada from Europe, Bibi Russell from Bangladesh, Rizwan Beyg from Pakistan and Rohit Bal from India were the first to come forth and show their support to the cause of fashion. To make their even statement stronger, the organizers had a larger-than-life pyramid titled ‘Fashion gives back’ at the lobby of the venue, where products from Sri Lanka’s brands and designers were stocked up to raise funds for the underprivileged children. The response to that was a donation box over-flowing with currency notes from across the world. The glitzy ballroom of the Hilton was

March 2010

Celebrated designers like Prada from Europe, Bibi Russell from Bangladesh, Rizwan Beyg from Pakistan and Rohit Bal from India were the first to come forth and show their support to the cause of fashion. packed with the who’s who of Sri Lanka’s rich and famous, turning the CIFW 2010 not only the biggest fashion event of the country, but also the biggest cultural event (overtaking the Galle literary festival). International buyers like Kimaya and other investors found it perfectly suited to strike profitable deals over coffee-table conversations. Here is a quick lowdown on those who took the bow at the head ramp to thunderous applause. Designer – Ankan Brahmachari for LiCC For a fresh brand that started only a year ago, LiCC has come a long way in creating a niche market within Sri

Lanka for their prêt segment. Headed by designer Ankan Brahmachari and the efficient owner Rakhil Hirdaramani, LiCC’s products of denim wear now take a place of pride in every youngster’s closet. This year they had well-cut jumpsuits, jersey hoods, zipper denims, waist-coats, striped muscle t- shirts, crew-neck t shirts, denim corsets for and several more which were tailored to perfection. Their accessories, shoes and other paraphernalia had the models catwalking out in crisp notes. By the end of the evening LiCC’s product sales had risen alarmingly thanks to the wearability of the products. Designer Bibi Russell from Bangladesh Being the cultural ambassador for the U.N clearly does not tire out the legendary Bibi Russell. She continues the fascinating work she does on her ‘Fashion for Development’ project worldwide. For every show she does across the world, she has a new collection in place at a record time. Handlooms in colourful unity have always been the Bibi style statement. In addition to that were hand-crafted jewellery, sling bags and footwear accessories, handmade silk bangles and moresuch products designed to drive the eco-fashion point home in no uncertain terms. After seeing her collection, it wouldn’t take one long to understand why Bibi Russell is called the queen of eco-fashion.

March 2010

Galliano, he always manages to take his audiences through a ride of shock and awe. Showcasing his latest collection ‘Yashas’ (meaning prosperity), Rohit’s models walked the ramp like they belonged to a large royal family, revelling in absolute opulence and

Designr Rizwan Beyg from Pakistan He has dressed the likes of Lady Diana, Cherie Blair and Jemima Khan. Master of craft and technique, couture king Rizwan Beyg is Pakistan’s answer to the highbrow halls of Paris and Milan. Having been one of the few rare Asian designers to get a standing ovation at the Milan fashion week, Rizwan has taken the indigenous art forms of Pakistani textile traditions and placed them on the global map of fashion giving the Guccis and Versaces a clear run for their money when it comes to trade. One of the founding members of the Fashion Pakistan Week, Rizwan has also been a mentor to thousands of students of design from across the globe. His current collection ‘Niwar’ inspired by the white salt plains of Karachi was created with the help of the artisan women of the haripur hazara

March 2010

It was Agatha who had the honour of dressing the legendary Barbie for her(Barbie’s) 50th birthday. region. This not only created valuable opportunity for economic growth but also helped in reviving a lost art form. Designer Agatha Ruiz De La Prada from Spain Colourful, vibrant, lively and full of positive energy, one could keep adding to the list of adjectives when it comes to the latest collection of Agatha Ruiz De la Prada. The queen of high fashion from Europe has come a long long

style. Stone-studded bridal wear to milky white free flowing muslins with brocades shashayed down the ramp wooing Sri Lanka like never before. And guess what! Before the models could take their costumes off in their green rooms, there was a long line of

customers waiting outside as several price quotes were being rumoured. Such was the trade he attracted. Designer KT Brown from Sri Lanka A lawyer by training and profession

way since her couture days. ‘Black is not my colour’, she says in a rather fashionable way. She had the crowds going wow to the entire candy-floss colour rampage under the glitzy lights as models cat-walked out to Spanish numbers. Her vivacious and effervescent coloured clothes made the ramp look like a Barbie doll private party. We might not be far from the truth, for it was Agatha who had the honour of dressing the legendary Barbie for her(Barbie’s) 50th birthday. You know we are talking real high-end luxury when Walt Disney, Audi and 200 other brands consult her and Absolut Vodka dedicates a whole new collector’s edition bottle in her honour. Designer Rohit Bal from India There’s no doubt when it comes to deciding who the King of Indian Couture is. Rohit Bal needs no introduction to world fashion. Being India’s answer to

March 2010

and a designer by passion, Kanchana Thalpawila is one of the best Sri Lankan Designers one can come across. Her brand KT Brown seems to grow from strength to strength year after year. Simple, wearable designs are her knack. Free flowing blacks mixed with a hint of silk, indigenous fabric and stylish designer accessories are the trademark of KT Brown. She had the entire front row of investors and buyers going gaga over her collection and as predicted, she sold out before the fashion week ended.

FEATURE

Last year he launched Arugam Bay beachwear and this year a prêt collection called String hoppers. Ajai Veer Singh’s eye for detail and colour is impeccable. Pristine white cotton trousers complimented by a dash of the vibrant Sri Lankan handloom coloured cummerbands was a delight to watch. Their range of cotton shirts had mass-appeal and before the show ended, international buyers and investors had marked them right for sales and exports. Subtlety in design, wearability and affordability seemed to be the signature tune of String Hoppers. Their shirts could be the next big thing in your closet for the summers. Designer Orsola De Castro from London “Making sustainable fashion sexy and profitable by using fashion as an alternative answer to the upcoming environmental disasters is the way to do” Orsola de Castro’s style seems to say. Along with Filippo Ricci, her mission for taking up this eco-sustainable cause has got her to tie up with the best brands in Europe, from whose surplus fabric scrap, she creates magic. The hybrid clothes she creates don’t look one bit like they could be made out that. Going by her ideas, Orsola’s module of fashion and accessories might be the next big thing that fashion industry across the world needs – flaunting eco-sensitivity without being condescending, yet being classy and aesthetically appealing.

Veejay Sai is a well known writer, editor and a culture Critic 52

March 2010

Crossroads

Designer Ajai singh for String Hoppers from Sri Lanka

from Chennai

ormed to satisfy the immense demand for Rock ‘n’ Roll and Blues in the city, Crossroads brings you a completely new variety of music that is both exciting and classic!!! The Band also has a reputation for playing music that’s both diverse and as close to the original as you can get! While all this sounds exciting, the best part about Crossroads is that they, actually, are not limited to one genre of music and play hits from the the Rock ‘n’ Roll madness of the 60’s and the hardrock of the 80’s to the grunge and pop of the 90’s! The band cites The Beatles, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Eric Clapton, Bon Jovi and the Eagles as major influences. Fronting the band, is one of Chennai’s most popular vocalists, Ram who comes all the way from Australia to enthrall Indian audiences, Issai (a.k.a The Shredder) and Darren provide a dual lead guitar attack to the band with their varied styles, well renowned bass guitarist Jerry provides the excellent bass line and the setup is rounded off with the multi-instrumentalist drummer Eugene Guest. The band has won numerous competitions [Spectrum ‘09, Rock On ‘09, Gymkhana, Swirl ‘09] and made headlines at many pubs in the city such as Geofreys, Bunkerz, Kafeoke and currently @ Geofrey’s. The band is a major attraction on wednesdays and fridays . All in all, Crossroads roads can guarantee you an unforgettable evening and leave you feeling nostalgic!!! Call Jerry on 98846 22726 to get in touch with the band

March 2010

Katrina Kaif “

FEATURE

The first thing I have in the morning: Is lots and lots of water. Invariably, my breakfast consists of eggs and cereal. If I am traveling outside India, then I might indulge in pancakes and the like; but I am most happy with eggs and cereal. My lunch: I am not too fussy about what I eat. I do try and eat light for lunch. But I don’t carry lunch to the sets of my films. More often than not, I am quite okay with eating ‘set ka khaana’; and if it seems very oily / spicy, then I call for something health-friendly from outside. My evening snack: When I am shooting, I always carry water, fruits and cereal. I binge on a pizza, ever so rarely.

Anita Raheja-Heena Agarwal, Bollywood News Service

I love sushi! I can have sushi morning, noon and night!

My diet: I am a non-vegetarian.

My favourite fruits: I like all kinds of fruits though not many people know that some fruits have a high sugar content to them. I think I resemble a watermelon – tough on the outside, softie inside. My dinner: Again, there is no pre-set menu. I am not someone who overeats at any given point, but I do try and eat light before going to bed. I am okay with eating whatever is available on the table though. I am particular about: Not eating undercooked food. My Sunday lunch is: By and large the same as any other day. My favourite cook from my family: My older brother Michael. His Eggs Benedict is unparalleled by the best chefs in the world’s best hotels. My comfort food: Actually, I am not sure if you could call it comfort food but I am an all-day breakfast person. An omelette is amongst the safest things you can have in any city in any part of the world. If I am really sick though, a soup does the trick for me. I feel guilty about having: The excessive amounts of black coffee I consume to keep the energy levels going when I am working. The problem though is that when I am done with the day, I am still high on energy and take some time to calm down and sleep. My favourite restaurants abroad: There are many quaint restaurants abroad that one visits but doesn’t remember the names of. For instance, this little Italian restaurant in Innsbruck, Austria. We ate there regularly when we were shooting for Subhash Ghai’s Yuvvraaj; I don’t remember the name of the place but the pastas were freshly made and heavenly. My favourite cuisines: I am a multi-cuisine person. I do enjoy typical Indian food once in a while. And I love sushi! I can have sushi morning, noon and night! My idea of a romantic meal: Is a candlelight dinner in a nice quiet place.

March 2010

The secret of Katrina Kaif’s hour glass figure is healthfriendly food and no overrating. The only no-no in her otherwise worthemulating diet is the fact that she drinks many cups of black coffee throughout the day. March 2010

Arabic, Sanskrit and Bhojpuri among other influences, jazz music is a hybrid music form with the main influences from marching bands, ritual and secular music of west and central Africa, gospel, blues, western classical music, and the music from the Caribbean (including Cuba). The geographical influences include America itself, Africa, Europe and Latin America and Caribbean. The music forms that have either been influenced by jazz music or have influenced jazz music include rock (Jimi Hendrix), blues, gospel, R&B, Broadway showtunes, western classical music (including 20th and 21st century classical music).

UNSHARED

JAZZ INDIA MUSIC AND

azz music is one of the most important artistic contributions of humankind in the modern era, and one of America’s greatest contributions to the world of art.

One of the guiding features of jazz music is improvisation: the art of spontaneously creating sounds in real time. Improvisation within jazz music is not an “anything goes” approach and has guidelines and principles. This process of improvisation is analogous to improvisation in Hindustani and Carnatic music. In all these forms of music improvisation is structured (and the sound itself is structured according to particular musical grammar and vocabulary), there is a strong rhythmic basis to all the sounds that are created (and definite protocol in terms of rhythmic articulation or the way rhythm is projected), and there is a dynamic interplay of the different musicians on the bandstand (in other words musicians should be listening to each other). Within jazz music there is also a dialogue between the musicians in real time known as “call and response’’ and this is similar in principle to the saval-jawab idea in Hindustani music.

March 2010

By Madhav Chari However, the similarity ends there: the way in which jazz musicians organize sound is very different from carnatic or Hindustani musicians. To use a metaphor of language, the grammar, vocabulary and structure of the language and its idioms is radically different from carnatic and Hindustani, and is more closely related to western classical music and music forms from west and central Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. For an initial taste of jazz music, describing the music using the English language will not take anyone very far, and the only solution is to experience it firsthand: just listen to the great recordings of jazz musicians past and present. Make friends with the music, and do not worry about the “structure” of the music: just taste it for now. A good starting point would be these musicians (this is an incomplete list drawn from the many important musicians who contributed to jazz music): Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Django Reinhardt, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Nat “King” Cole, Thelonius Monk, Hank

Jones, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, John Lewis, Max Roach, Ray Brown, George Shearing, Charlie Mingus, Miles Davis (all recordings before 1969), Fats Navarro, Milt Jackson, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Rollins, Billy Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, J.J. Johnson, Clifford Brown, Art Blakey, Hank Mobley, John Coltrane, Johnny Griffin, Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, Blue Mitchell, Horace Silver, Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelley, Phineas Newborn, Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal, Dave Brubeck, Errol Garner, Cannonball Adderley, Curtis Fuller, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, George Coleman, Cedar Walton, Paul Chambers, Oscar Pettiford, Jimmy Garrison, Ron Carter, Joe Henderson, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Booker Little, Thad Jones, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Roy Haynes, Louis Hayes, Tony Williams, Cecil Taylor, Billy Higgins, Kenny Barron, Keith Jarrett, Betty Carter, Woody Shaw, Dewey Redman, David Murray, Fred Hersch, Kenny Kirkland, Mulgrew Miller, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Joe Lovano, Ellis Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis and Branford Marsalis. Just as the Hindi language is a hybrid language whose parents are Urdu,

The Indian influences in jazz music are not so much specific music forms such as Hindustani or carnatic but ideas behind these music forms (such as the drone to anchor the tonality and provide one reference point) and the idea that music is a conduit to higher consciousness. John Coltrane did some initial study on scales used in Indian music, but rather than organise tonal material using the structure of a specific raga, he was more interested in the “spirit of the music” and not so much the specifics of the music. In any case if one listened carefully and for a sustained period to his music in the 1960s, one can hear that his organization of sound is derived from both the blues as well as a sophisticated understanding of harmony. In fact if one wanted to make an analogy with Coltrane’s music and Indian cultural traditions, the closest link would be the Bhakti movement within India, and the idea that ecstatic trances can provide conduits to higher consciousness (whether or not they are generated by music). In India, jazz was probably first performed regularly in the metropoles Calcutta and Bombay around the late 1920s. African American musicians such as pianist Teddy Weatherford (who recorded with Louis Armstrong) and Crickett Smith were some of the founding fathers of Indian jazz music, and the 20s till the 40s was a golden era for jazz music within India. In the late 40s Bollywood was employing many musicians who were mainly jazz

or western classical musicians, and one can hear strains of swing, cha cha cha and more basic jazz harmonies in the early music soundtracks. In that sense jazz music is not at all foreign to India. Currently the Indian jazz scene is weak, and worse is the claim that many musicians in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore or Kolkata “play jazz”, when in fact the bulk of these musicians have little or no understanding of the working knowledge and grammar/ vocabulary of jazz music: they do not even listen regularly to the works of the jazz masters. However there are listeners of the music, and if many listeners seem to be “turned off” by jazz music in India, it is not so much a fault of the music as the fault of substandard jazz (or not so jazz) musicians and promoters who perform and program the music with little passion, knowledge and integrity. If you have a belief based on very partial knowledge and experience that jazz music is not accessible, that idea propagates itself and tends to become a self fulfilling prophecy: my own suggestion is to be open to the music, taste it a little bit, tap your feet to the swing of Count Basie or Horace Silver, be open to be moved by the bluesy sound of Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong and you are already on your way to becoming a listener of good jazz music. It really does not take that much effort. The fact remains that high quality jazz music can have a resonance with audiences in India from western classical music, blues music, some rock music (especially very high energy jazz music), latin American music (e.g.salsa and tango are sister music forms to jazz), Hindustani/Carnatic (extremely dedicated high quality improvisation with dynamic interplay of musicians), and audiences who like music from “ecstatic” Bhakti type traditions including Sufi music from Rajasthan and Baul music from Bengal (the music that is deeply influenced by John Coltrane played with intensity and passion works well). I know this firsthand and all these audience groups have

listened to me perform across India. The important principle to understand from a naive audience viewpoint when it comes to music is that people always remember the passion of the musician more than specific “things” that a musician did or specific nuances of a music form in a performance. Jazz music also has resonances within India outside the immediate world of music. India is starting to make a very important mark as a serious global player on the world political and economic stage, and specific insights from jazz music can be used as pathways of creativity within the corporate workplace and can benefit India a great deal: for example a cutting edge project, the very first of its kind in the world, is a duet collaboration between Chennai based martial artist George Kuriyan and myself. This multidimensional project initiated by George Kuriyan not only includes a duet concert performance, but targeted corporate workshop modules for both senior and middle management on creativity, leadership, crisis management and effectiveness in the workplace. This project in totality not only provides a link to the modern world, but at the same time provides access to the traditional mythologies and spiritual traditions of the world (including India). It answers an important question on an experiential level that India has been asking for over a hundred years: how to simultaneously access modernity and tradition. My own response to the current Indian situation is to see possibilities where others do not see it. I also prefer to look at cups that people say are half empty, and see them as half full instead. This alteration of perspective has allowed me access to audiences that jazz musicians in India have never accessed in the entire history of jazz in India. All this is without diluting the core of the music that I play. I do not play fusion. Is there a viable future for jazz music in India? I think so, I am optimistic.

March 2010

The German born composer Hans Zimmer Once a member of ‘the Buggles’ whcih was famous for the single titled ‘Video killed the radio star’. Hans Zimmer earned his first academy award nomination fot ‘Rain Man’ which went on to win the Oscar for the Best picture. Zimmer has composed the music for various hollywood films and won the academy award for best original score for ‘Lion king’ He is currently working on Christopher Nolan’s Inception His work on sherlock Holmes is worth mentioning. He has worked on other famous movies like gladiator, the dark night. Nominated for oscar best original score sherlock holmes

NOTES

Maxwell back with Black summers’night

After Maxwell’s first album ‘Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite’ sold over 2 million copies and earnig 2X platinum Status and the huge success of his second album ‘Embrya’ he released his third album in 2001. Maxwell’s third studio album, ‘Now’ which became his first No. 1 on both Billboard 200 album chart and Billboard’s R&B chart. After which he was on a 7 year break. And when asked about his break he has been quoted saying,”Just to take time off. The music industry has so much competition and there was no rush for me”. And now Maxwell is back with ‘BLACKsummers’night’(july 2009), which has already received six Grammy nominations. The soul man received nods for Song Of The Year(Pretty Wings), Best Male Pop Vocal Performance(Love You) and four other nominations.(Best Pop Instrumental Performance (“Phoenix Rise”), Best R&B Album (Blacksummer’s Night), Best R&B Song (“Pretty Wings”), and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance (“Pretty Wings”) won two grammys

March 2010