Archive for DesiPundit

Priyanka Chopra in Saheli-Ana: Why Should Boys Have All the Fun?

// December 31st, 2009 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit, Videos

I can turn my brain off for a second and enjoy this video of Priyanka Chopra in a new avatar:

Of course, I don’t understand why the other woman has to appear dressed like a man to denote that kind of ‘Dostana.’ This adoption of gayness for humor is a troubling trend that reveals the deeper homophobic attitude of India. Why on earth is a gay relationship funny and any different than a straight relationship?

So far, only men have been acting gay for humor on the big Bollywood stage (Saif Ali Khan and Shahrukh Khan have entertained us with their gay act for far too many Filmfare Awards), but now Priyanka takes the cake for going a notch further.

Anil Kapoor in American Series 24. Kudos But…

// December 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit

Longtime Bollywood icon Anil Kapoor (known in America as the anchor in Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire) has been roped in for some cameos in Season 8 of the hit television cult series 24.

That’s great for the presence of Indians on American television but what is up with Indian actors playing the role of “Middle Easterners” in Western scripts? It is certainly a trend.

Anil Kapoor plays “Omar Hassan” in 24, a Middle Eastern leader who comes to the U.S. on a peace-making mission.

In I Can’t Think Straight, Bollywood actor Lisa Ray was roped in to play a Jordanian (with a really bad accent, might I add). She’s forgiven due to her unforgivable chemistry with Sheetal Sheth.

But wait. Why not actually roping in an actor from the Middle East to play these roles?

Kal Penn, also of Indian origin, has already done a stint on the series, albeit as a terrorist. I suppose some particular features serve as a proxy for ‘terrorism’ as much as being Latino serves as a proxy for ‘illegal status.’

Of course, there is a difference between mis-representing and under-representing.  Ben Kingsley played Gandhi with finesse and character.  Straight actors on the L Word portayed their gay roles with compelling performances that made us doubt their heterosexuality.

Still, it begs the question – Why not increase the visibility of Arab-Americans and other peoples from Central Asia and the Middle East on the global platform and tackle stereotypes by giving them such positive roles? There is not a lack of people who can perform in such roles.

Cover Up Kareena!

// November 15th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit, Gender

Never one to be a Kareena Kapoor fan (let alone a Saifeena one), when the Shiv Sena took out a ‘morcha’ against the new poster of Kareena in Kurbaan, with her back in nude, I momentarily agreed to not just cover her back but the whole poster. Just get the ungodly and offending sight of her away from my eyes.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/834/kurbaan.png

A Shiv-Sena activist said:

“We objected to the posters as they showed the actress semi-nude and we found to be in very bad taste. It violates our Indian culture.”

Well, a semi-nude Kareena is certainly bad taste but I am not sure it violates our culture. Maybe all our other senses. Still, it is a wonder how and why the Shiv Sena is attacking the posters a whole month after they were plastered all over the city.

My ragging on Kareena is in jest. She has the freedom to pose with her back nude. We have the freedom to avert our eyes. The Shiv Sena has a right to take to the streets for our pure entertainment, and as a result, create more publicity for the movie that they are ‘morally policing.’

What is disgusting about claims of ‘bad taste’ by the Sena is that Kareena is the one being morally policed even though we see no ‘offending’ parts of her body. Why is Saif Ali Khan allowed to show his bare-chest? Why isn’t anyone covering him up? Double-standard much?

Gunda-gardi (gangster tactics) is not new to the Sena. A month ago, the Sena objected to the use of Mumbai’s name, Bombay, in Wake Up Sid (another Johar production), and he bent over backwards to insert a disclaimer in the film.

Wake Up Sid turned out to be a hit. I wish the same luck to Kurbaan.

Maybe the Sena is lucky for Johar after all.

I wonder what they think about L word posters.

Identifying MacroStructual Trends in Asian Economies

// October 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit, Nationalism, Politics

This post recognizes the error in assuming that all Asian countries are undergoing similar socio-cultural-economic processes and placing diverse Asian countries on the same trajectory of development.

That said, when identifying and ranking important macro-structural trends in Asia, one must keep in mind the larger context of modernity within which these trends exist. The Asian nation-states are facing the structural, economic and socio-cultural trends so particular to modernity, namely globalization, contradictions of nationalism, and security problems that originate from the wrestling with conceptions of identity.

Asian nation-states are wrestling with neo-liberal globalization in this era of deterritorialized production and virtual capital, and trying to gain more economic security through inter-economic cooperation and alliances such as ASEAN and APEC. One example of inter-economic cooperation is the call for a Euro-style common currency. Yet, a trend particular to capitalist modernity is the creation of hierarchies of race, class and gender, and uneven development that tends to alienate and marginalize internal populations. Coupled with this is the fact that the core powers of the U.S., Western Europe and Russia have a vested interest in keeping Asia as semi-peripheral and prevent it from initiating a common currency, which would pose a definite threat to the current economic order of things. Therefore, they encourage foreign direct investment and neo-liberal development, and the U.S. specifically depends on China and Japan to finance its trade deficit. However, with Asian states slowly coming out of their financial crisis and looking for security in this era of increasing globalization, the trend is definitely towards more economic cooperation and integration.

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Dil Bole Hadippa – Yash Raj Films, Try Something New

// September 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit

Ingredients: Punjab ka sarson ke khet, dialogues on India-Pakistan friendship, folk dance, estranged parents, sprinkles of NRI flavor, boy-meets-girl, pursuit of dreams, tie up lose ends, and all’s well that ends well.

Outcome: Rehash of yesteryear’s Yash Raj films turned into an average, cliched affair that leaves you yearning for more.

Watch it for: Rani Mukherjee gender-bending as a 5′ 2 sardar boy to play cricket in the men’s team.

Dil Bole Hadippa is full of taunts and recollections of movies such as Bunty aur Babli, Hum Aapke Hai Kaun, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Veer Zaara… Maybe Yash Raj films is trying to make fun of itself, but it is wholly unimpressive. Dialogues are cliched and nothing sticks out as memorable besides the initial buffalo-girl banter between the main protagonists, Veer(a) and Rohan. The screenplay is rough and jagged at times and besides a good 20-20 game towards the end, it just does not flow together. Songs are hastily put in and impede with the already lagging screenplay.

Women’s liberation is a subtle theme that never really threatens to turn preachy. I still don’t know whether that is a good thing or bad. The slight undertones of homophobic panic does not help. If Director Anurag Singh had stuck to just achieving one thing with this movie, it might have worked. He put the whole Yash Raj bag of tricks into one movie and it comes out as a bad recipe which is neither a Chak De India nor a DDLJ. It just doesn’t go down well. Hazam nahi hua.

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My Name is Khan And Hence I was Detained

// August 15th, 2009 // 8 Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit, Immigration, Racism

Imagine detaining Tom Cruise in Mumbai because his common name is on a list of common names allegedly associated with ‘terrorism.’

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Shahrukh Khan is living a Kafkaesque nightmare — detained in New Jersey for his last name while he is in the United States shooting “My Name is Khan.”

And ironically, he was detained because his name ‘Khan’ (a common Muslim last name) is on some ‘no-fly’ list. Talking about giving credence to his new movie.

The Times of India reports:

The actor, who is visiting the US to attend a South Asian event where he was the guest of honor was released after Congress MP Rajiv Shukla spoke to the authorities in the US and the Indian consulate. The actor was detained after his name flashed on the computer. He was asked several questions about the purpose of his visit. His hand baggage was checked. He was not allowed to even make a phone call for nearly an hour.

I know about ridiculous things that happen due to airport security paranoia. I know that even former Indian President, Abdul Kalam, was frisked last month by an American airline in New Delhi.  Shahrukh seemed offended and perturbed, rightly so.

“I told them I was a movie star and had recently visited the country for the shooting of my film. Nothing seemed to convince the immigration officer. There were other immigration officers who even vouched for me but this particular officer did not listen to anyone. I even told them I had an invitation from the South Asian community and was there to attend an event.’’

What’s interesting is that Dave from Change.org was just telling me earlier today that Newark is not a safe space to travel for undocumented immigrants. Apparently, immigration officers don’t just discriminate based on documentation but race is also a proxy for criminality.

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Bollywood Actors Mistaken for ‘Illegal Immigrants’

// June 5th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit, Immigration

This is absurd but also surreal.

The sight of an army helicopter hovering above a sailing yacht off Comino, followed by the disembarkation of 20 people onto two dinghies raised suspicions among observers that illegal immigration had taken a new twist.

The scene took place last week in the Malta-Gozo channel and had some Gozitans seeing conspiracy all over the place.

The persons handling the dinghies wore blue. Were they police officers? The people on the yacht were dark skinned. Were they migrants ferried all the way from Libya? Were the army and the police in cahoots with criminals?

Reports with such questions reached The Times but, in the end, it turned out that the whole shenanigan was no more than a scene of an Indian Bollywood love story being filmed in Malta.

Such is the sensitivity of people on the issue of illegal migration that the whole exercise was accorded a sinister twist. An army spokesman said the helicopter was providing its services to the film crew that had been in Malta for 10 days to shoot parts of a feature film about the romantic relationship of a young Indian couple.

I know the Indian disapora has assured that Indians are literally everywhere, but undocumented presence in Malta?! If it had been a Hollywood crew instead of a Bollywood one, the assumption of ‘illegality’ would not have been made.

Alas, race (read: brown) is often a proxy for ‘illegality.’

Web 2.0 Mapping – LGBT Indians

// May 20th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit, Immigration

Trikone is out with its latest Desi LGBT mapping project. What does that mean? If you identify as a ‘desi’ (generally denoting of Indian subcontinent descent but the term is loaded with political implications), and are LGBT, then you should put yourself down on the map.

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All maps are political for they embody the basis of power relations in society, the marking of territory, resources and identity. Web. 2.0 has made it possible to map alternative and hidden geographies, geographies across arbitrary borders.The Global Detention Project is an excellent example of a map that could be counter-hegemonic. The jury is still out on whether this mapping has helped to advance any critical agenda and what needs Web 2.0 mapping has fulfilled.

What needs does this Trikone map fulfill? Certainly nothing critical or counter-hegemonic but maybe it denotes a longing for community.

I wonder if undocumented youth would ever agree to mapping themselves. There are certainly internal maps of youth organizers but nothing we have released externally.

“Hi ICE, I live in Antioch, California, come and get me.”

It is definitely a documented privileging and one that men are seemingly exercising more than women. Is it because Trikone is marketed more towards Indian men or because generally, men browse the web in bigger numbers than women? Or does it have to do with women being more reluctant to put themselves on a tracking map due to privacy issues?

Questions to ponder.

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