Author: Lavina Melwani

“One day you are uprooted and told that this is not your home any more. Not only that – this is a different country altogether!

Then follows an insane bloodshed which scars the lives of friends and neighbors for years to come. I cannot understand this absurdity. I find it very stupid, drawing lines on paper and fighting over land. The worst is we continue to thrive on hatred, the seeds of which were sown in 1947.”
– Nitin Kakkar, director of ‘Filmistan’ which has won the 2013 National Award for best Hindi film.

‘Raanjhanaa’ – we don’t see men like that anymore – men who are willing to annihilate themselves, subsume themselves for the woman they love, bringing almost a noble, heroic luster to unrequited, unconditional love. ‘Ranjhanaa’ is a Grecian tragedy set in Varanasi, on the ghats and alleys of the holy city and you won’t forget it easily.
I have to admit the film became somewhat of an obsession with me when I saw the pre-release Youtube videos of some of AR Rahman’s songs. They totally blew me away, especially the song ‘Tum Tak’ – so rich in its Sufi textures, so overwhelmingly about a higher love that it had me totally obsessed. I found myself watching the videos again and again, trying to piece together the story from dialogues.

When the movie came out, I was there right in the front char anna class, like a genuine filmi fan, drinking it all in.

This year Mira Nair celebrates the 25th anniversary of her first feature film, the Oscar-nominated ‘Salaam Bombay’ and also the birth of her new film, ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’.
On the eve of the release of ‘Salaam Bombay!’ in New York back in 1988, I had taken a subway downtown to interview the new, not-so-famous filmmaker in her tiny apartment.
The world had not yet discovered ‘Salaam Bombay’ but she was exuberant, excited, animated.
Twenty-five years later, she seems exactly the same – exuberant, excited, animated. There have been critically acclaimed films from ‘Mississippi Masala’ to ‘Monsoon Wedding’ to ‘The Namesake’. The awards and accolades have been coming thick and fast.’The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ screened at The Venice International Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival, among others. Nair calls it her labor of love, five years in the making.

‘Midnight’s Children’ – a major film collaboration born out of an epic book – and film-goers are waiting in excited anticipation, popcorn and soda ready.
At a preview screening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, author Salman Rushdie and director Deepa Mehta were in a fun mood, completing each other’s sentences, putting a light-hearted spin on things, and what came through clearly is the rapport they share.

I think I’ll entertain you all meanwhile with the goings on of that evening.

Hop into my yellow and black taxi cab as we cruise the web and find the most meaningful, fun, silly, provocative or useful articles from the globe! So click and come along for the ride! Meet the Masseurs of Mumbai; find out why half a million Indian kids want to be engineers; and forget cricket – they are now betting on the dead in Varanasi! And do we need a sexual revolution in India?

Phoolan Devi, India’s notorious Bandit Queen, was gunned down at the age of 37 – yet she continues to live on in the popular imagination. Rape victim and avenging angel, oppressor and oppressed, she finally won respectability, embraced Buddhism, and a seat in Parliament before a barrage of bullets ended it all.

Vengeance. Rape. Murder. Bloodshed. Violence. Her short, chaotic life was indeed the stuff of melodrama, and several artistic ventures have tried to capture its turbulence.

There is a continuing fascination with Phoolan Devi’s life, and in her latest avatar she is the central figure in an opera – ‘Phoolan Devi: The Bandit Queen’

From today I’m inviting you to a new daily feature on Lassi with Lavina – Lavina’s Picks! Hop into my yellow and black taxi cab as we cruise the web and find the most meaningful, fun, provocative, silly or useful articles from the globe! So do click and come along for the ride!
Can you divorce your spouse on Skype? Which fashion brands are the heroes in Bangladesh? Can NYT serve you garam-masala spiked nuts with your reads?

You’re in the comfortable upper middle-class home of Changez Khan’s parents in Lahore where a qawwalli concert is in full swing and the mesmerizing sounds of Sufi devotional music pervade the room.
The camera zones in on the red paan-stained mouths of the performers, then cuts to the kidnapping of an American academic on the dark streets of Lahore, then back to the musical energy, the total civility of Urdu poetry in bloom. Paan stains and blood. Ethereal music, gun shots and screams. The crescendo rises and you are totally hooked.

There’s no shame in it – so let’s just face the world and say it out loud: we Indians are addicts – filmi addicts! We are incomplete without cinema; we have our withdrawal symptoms if we don’t get our quota of films, be it in a darkened theater, a borrowed video or a sighting on Netflix.
Life without our desi cinema is unimaginable, for who will teach us about love and heartbreak, truth and beauty, family and sacrifice? We need Raj Kapoor’s blue blue eyes to tell us about yearning and lost love; we need Amitabh Bachchan to paint the harsh complexities of life and strife; and we need Shah Rukh Khan to tell us how to battle a million obstacles and win the sweetheart we all dream of.
All this – set to the music which every lover of Indian cinema has coursing in their veins. ( Also check out the wonderful video which says it all! )

The great thing about New York City is that you never know whom you’re going to meet and where. It’s like pulling a slot machine lever every morning and watching a waterfall of casino coins tumble out – or not!
So if you had told me that before the week was midway through I’d be sipping wine at Tina Brown’s fabulous apartment and hobnobbing with celebrated author William Dalrymple and a bunch of celebrities, I would have been skeptical. But that’s the way the week turned out. Only in New York City…

Few 100-year-olds are this vibrant but Indian Cinema has all the sass and punch in its centenary year and we can expect exciting things from an industry which has embraced so many different genres. The upcoming New York Indian Film Festival, presented by Indo-American Arts Council, promises to serve up a feast of movies which are making waves. So here’s to a taste of cinema, past and present.

“All the film industry is going to Cannes to celebrate the 100th year of Indian cinema. We are the perfect global kick-off because in 1913 on May 4th was the first-ever Indian movie – and that’s the date of our closing night!” said Aroon Shivdasani, the Executive Director of IAAC, who along with Aseem Chhabra, director of the festival, has selected the eclectic mix of films.

Meet Dr. Neha Sangwan, a young physician based in San Francisco, CA. She has been on the precipice and seen just how traumatic burnout can be. In fact, Neha Sangwan was her own first patient!

Do you have a few extra million dollars lying around? Did you just pick up the phone and bid $39 ,323,750 on a diamond? No? Well, someone did!
An anonymous collector bidding by phone just parted with $ 39.3 million at Christie’s. This was no ordinary sparkler – a rare 34.65 carat Fancy Intense Pink diamond named the Princie, which originated from the ancient Golconda mines in India.
It is the most expensive diamond ever sold at Christie’s – or in the US.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Annu Palakunnathu Matthew is an America-based artist who grew up in Kerala. In the late 1990’s she made a portfolio titled Satirizing Bollywood, about her memories of her life as a woman in India. She calls it her ‘Angry Woman’ years. Misogyny and a patriarchal society existed then, and as the recent gang rape and unending cases of abuse of women prove, nothing much has changed. Now two decades later, Matthew has taken on the subject again.

“It’s very Andy Warhol goes Indie-pop,” says designer Sabah Arenja Vig about her collection – and that got me a-wondering: what would Andy Warhol think about our wild, multi-hued surreal Indian fashions? Probably turn them into equally wild, multi-hued surreal art!

Yes, Indian couture is certainly riding high. With a young ever-burgeoning population in India and the diapora, the demand for bridal wear and fashion with a touch of India is only going to grow. Recently Shireen Vinayak of Shehnaai Couture showcased the latest collection and answered some burning questions about the new fashion trends, especially for New York fashionistas.

Guess who’s in town? Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor! They are all in Times Square and why this hasn’t quite caused a stampede yet is because they are not quite the real thing. Not even the reel thing. They are here in the wax! At Madame Tussauds, traveling all the way from London.

For thousands of fans this may be the closest they’ll get to the Bollywood superstars. You can stand inches away from them, breathe the same air and even get your photograph with them! True, Amitabh Bachchan can’t give you his autograph nor will you hear Aishwariya’s voice or Kareena’s laugh. Nor will King Khan rattle off an inimitable dialogue for you. But you can stand real close and maybe even shake their hand or sneak a hug! Won’t your friends weep with envy when they see your photo with Hrithik Roshan? Who’s to know he’s a fake?

Every day is an opportunity to learn something new and enter new worlds.
Here are three great events during April and May which guarantee you a new perspective and maybe even help you mobilize a new talent.
Really Useful News tells you about free lectures on innovations in technology sponsored by Tata at the Liberty Science Center; free scholarships for Indian students by the Government of India; a free art exhibition at the undiscovered architectural gem of the Flushing Town Hall in Queens, and more. The best things in life are free!

Ah – March! Comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb – not! Just yesterday New York was suddenly blanketed in snow even as the floral buds were beginning to bloom in our backyards.

Today it’s supposed to be officially spring. So let’s think positive and prepare for a glorious golden season. And if spring is here, glorious summer and the barbecue season can’t be far behind!

Hemant Mathur, the noted chef of Tulsi, creates classic Indian tandoor dishes in the Homdoor, a Made in America tandoor.

Call for Artists, Graphic Artists and Photographers by the Indian-American Project

What do you think of the H 1-B Visa? What are your thoughts on Immigration, outsourcing and the diaspora? If you’re an artist or photographer who can put these experiences into art, the Smithsonian wants you!

“I wish that my family could pay our electricity bill because I would really like to study in the evenings but I can’t. Also, every morning I wake up with 5 new mosquito bites and I don’t like it.” – Laxmi, 8

“I wish that we had more computers because I love computer class but I get impatient having to wait my turn!”- Mansi, 13

“I wish that I could go for driver training. I LOVE cars and everything mechanical.” – Jeetu, 16.
Such small, modest dreams. The young professionals supporting Children’s Hope India granted all these in one evening of fun – Winter, Wine and Wishes.