Browsing: Features

When Bhairavi Desai met President Barack Obama on the receiving line at the Administration’s first State Dinner at the White House, she introduced herself as the director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. Obama smiled his high voltage smile and bending down, confided: “I was an organizer too!”

“It was such a thrill to hear him say that – it was such a nice endorsement of my profession,” recalls Desai, who is a fearless advocate for the rights of New York cabbies. She and co-founder Javaid Tariq were both guests at the glittering dinner with celebs and politicos, a party which possibly America’s entire population wanted to attend but to which only 320 guests were invited, not counting the gate-crashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi.

Riveting.

That’s probably the word one is searching for when asked about the new face of Pakistani art which is now being shown in art centers internationally. For a country in so much pain politically and socially – not to mention economically – Pakistan is surprisingly on top of things where art is concerned.

“The steel structure of Spine is transformed through the stitching of red suede, and was inspired by the two-piece choli that is worn at weddings in the Subcontinent. Spine led me to rethink the function of the choli and the inherent contradictions it carries; it is, at the same time, flirtatious and oppressive.”

– Naiza Khan

What can be better than a feast of cinema? A feast of cinema with several glittering parties and celebrities-in-the-flesh! The Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council festival of Indian films had ample doses of both, and drew an enthusiastic crowd.

What’s cooking with Aasif Mandvi? A whole Indian feast! Well for one, the zany commentator from ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ has turned chef, worked at Tandoori Palace, found a new love, and even bagged a best actor award.

Sure beats Deep Space Naan!

His brand new movie ‘Today’s Special’ – all about the travails of a sous chef – premiered at the MIAAC, New York’s Indian Film Festival in Manhattan and has been a real crowd pleaser.

Is Bollywood entertainment getting outsourced? At a big Indian wedding in New York there are the usual beaming uncles and aunties, lots of great Indian food, the latest Bollywood music. The dance floor clears and there’s a bespangled dancer doing all the classic moves from ‘Umrao Jaan’ as the appreciative crowd gathers around and claps.

The dancer is Russian and doesn’t speak any Hindi!

She is Inessa from Uzbekistan and is quite the star at Indian community events in New York, be it weddings, engagement parties or other celebrations.

New York is full of surprises and unexpected treats, of twists and turns. You can take a detour and find yourself face to face with the cinema you loved in your youth, the films which gave you goose bumps and showed you the futility and heartbreak of life, films which took you into a deeper, more complicated world and made you disregard the bag of chips in your hand. Who can forget the aching pain of ‘Pyaasa’, the disillusionment of ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ or the churning emotions of a fading way of life in a changing world in ‘Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam’?

Can two Asian actors – one an Indian and the other a Korean – be regarded as All-American? And can Hollywood actually make a comedy with them in the lead?
They can – and it did.

If you can’t go to Salman Khan, Salman Khan is coming to you – by video conferencing! A press conference hosted by Studio 18 with the stars of the new movie ‘London Dreams’ linked New York and Mumbai with face to face interaction with Salman and Asin, the stars of the new blockbuster from director Vipul Shah . Ajay Devgan, the third angle of the eternal triangle, couldn’t be there due to a missed flight.

New York City was abuzz with the launch of Mira Nair’s new film ‘Amelia’ which comes from a big studio and stars big names Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. Directed by Nair, the film follows the fabled adventures of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. The film, while different from Nair’s recent India-related films, stays true to her fascination and empathy with strong women. It is a film about woman power, about a woman before her time, ‘a flying yogini’ as Nair likes to call her.

What could be more British than a bulldog? An Indian! Indeed, there’s an Indian entrepreneur behind Bulldog London Dry Gin, an ultra premium gin which was named among the top 50 spirits last year by Wine Enthusiast Magazine which gave it a superb (90-95) rating and highly recommended it.

Krishna the Blue God and the Beautiful Names of Allah are both the work of the same artist, and each painting is suffused with a spirituality which cannot fail to move viewers. For Salma Arastu there is but one god and one humanity and she reiterates this belief in painting after painting.

In recent years, Kashmir has been a flawed paradise, a killing field where families have been torn asunder and homes lost forever. The timeless, idyllic place that visitors in happier times remember may well be lost, never to be experienced again. Yet there is a strength and beauty that lives on in the arts of diehard, resilient Kashmiris who, in spite of all the difficulties, continue to create crafts that blossom like the flowers of their native land. (This antique shawl above shows the map of Kashmir)

If there’s one panacea for broken spirits and hearts, it is cinema. Cinema, when done well, can heal wounds, probe motivations and even foster debate. It’s hard to believe that 25 years have passed since the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, for the hurts still linger. Over the past few years the Sikh community has worked to get the word out, and in a post 9/11 world, it’s become increasingly important to talk of the Sikh culture and identity.

In this festive season, as Diwali approaches, are you the perfect host?

Well, here’s a story that will make you re-evaluate your hospitality skills, for the host in this tale is none other than Lord Krishna. When his boyhood friend, Sudama – hungry, impoverished and in rags – arrived at the palace, the guards almost did not allow him in. But Lord Krishna, overjoyed to see his old friend, received him with open arms and joyfully led him to his throne. He personally washed his feet and fed him with his own hands.

(Ashok Amritraj seen here with Dustin Hoffman on the sets of Moonlight Mile)
When Ashok Amritraj was growing up in Chennai, he saw the Hollywood film ‘Ben Hur’ and was mesmerized. Watching Charlton Heston in that huge epic, he was hooked on to cinema forever. So it was particularly sweet, when decades later, as a big Hollywood producer, he was awarded a plaque at the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences by none other than Charlton Heston himself.

Whether it’s the California text books decision or the passage of the Congressional Diwali Resolution, these are not free gifts which have been dropped into the palms of Indian-Americans but rather hard-won victories by advocates, including a band of young second-generation Indian Americans of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF).

Would you like to go to a birthday party? A 94-year-old’s very special birthday party? Should I add – M.F. Husain’s 94th birthday party?

With a birthday cake decorated with his famous horses and the iconic artist himself showcasing his latest work – a grand 45 by 13 feet canvas which chronicles 9 decades of his life – it was a must-see, must-be-at event.

In the heart of Chelsea in New York stands a bountiful bulwark and anchor of Eastern spirituality, a treasure trove of hundreds of Himalayan artifacts, as peaceful and inspiring as a Buddhist temple. This is the Rubin Museum of Art, started just four years ago by the noted philanthropists and collectors, Donald and Shelley Rubin.

She may have thousands of fans but Bollywood star Preity Zinta is a diehard fan of – New York City!

She comes in to New York so often that it’s like a second home to her. She says, “It is my favorite city in the world because a) it’s one city that never sleeps. b) Its a city that can swallow you and you can disappear in it, which is fantastic. c) It’s so diverse and every time I come back so many things have changed about it.”