Archive for the 'Comedy' Category

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Teesri Aankh—the Hidden Camera

Published on April 9, 2006 in Comedy and Reviews. 63 Comments

Hallelujah.

“Dirty Harry” Baweja is back with another socially-relevant scorcher that takes on the biggest problem India faces today.

Hidden cameras.

They are everywhere: in honeymoon suites, in women’s changing rooms, in toilets —shamelessly capturing, in a clandestine fashion, disrobed female bodies engaged in private acts.

As ACP Arjun (Sunny Deol) rues, in a heartbreaking sequence : “Kahaan chupayenge humare ma behenon ko?” (Where will we hide our mothers and sisters?)

Yes things are that bad.

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Skeleton in the Wardrobe

Published on April 4, 2006 in Comedy, India, Pop Culture and Society. 68 Comments

Chunari gayee Sarak sarak sarak

–Devdas (2002)

Shocking. Simply shocking. Unless you have been living under a Stone, you should know by now about the cataclysmic attack that was inflicted on Indian culture and our traditional way of life during Lakme India Fashion week.

Yes I am referring to the wardrobe malfunctions of Carol Gracias and Gauhar Khan which lay bare to the watching eyes of millions a set of female breasts and a woman’s derrière.

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Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) Instinct

Published on March 28, 2006 in Comedy, Memories and Pop Culture. 49 Comments

You cannot turn on the TV nowadays without being bombarded by trailers of Basic Instinct II with a 48-year old Sharon Stone trying to reprise the role of femme-fatale Catherine Trammell , the hypersexual novel-writer with a propensity for ice-picks and cigarettes and a queer affliction of restless-leg syndrome from the cult classic, Basic Instinct (1992)

Incidentally, I cannot rid myself of the feeling that in some dark corner of the world, Dev Anand is chuckling to himself—Sharon Stone at 48, me at 84. Both sultry sex symbols.

Over the years, Basic Instinct has spawned so many B-grade wannabes [identifying characteristics: 1) blurb inevitably contains one or more of these stock words "Dangerous", "Passions", "Dark", "Obsessions", "Twisted" , "Lust", "Seduction" and "Double-cross" 2) cover art consists of shadowy bodies or a skimpily dressed lady with a gun/knife in her hand.] that I doubt a sequel can promise anything new either in terms of story (really who cared) or in terms of shock.

But even then, I will still go to watch Basic Instinct II—-simply to pay obeisance to the phenomenon of the original.

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Excuses Excuses

Published on March 23, 2006 in Bollywood, Comedy and Mithunda. 51 Comments

I have nothing but the greatest contempt for ungrateful people who try to cover up their own miserable failings by blaming everyone but themselves.

Case in point: Kalpana Lajmi.

She directs “Chingari”—or perhaps “directed” is too charitable a term to use when someone creates a celluloid monstrosity on this scale. Even a bloated corpse with a megaphone could have done better.

And then in an [link courtesy: Amit Pandeya] interview to Subhash Jha (who along with Taran Adarsh can be considered to be the “movie reviewer from hell”) , she blames virtually everyone on the sets for the sorry debacle of “Chingari” except herself and Sushmita Sen—the two people who are actually responsible for the sorry mess.

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Some Things I Never Thought Would Happen

Published on March 17, 2006 in Comedy and Pop Culture. 45 Comments

Some things I never thought would happen:

1. Jaya Prada becoming a hip hop artist. Possibly the most matronly heroine around (with the honorable exception of the bovine-eyed Rakhi)—even in her heydays, I would never have thought of her becoming a desi Missy Elliott or Lil Kim once she was on the wrong side of 40. Or it may be 50.

Jaya Prada with a doll in her hand singing [Sanjog]:

“Zhu zhu zhu, zhu zhu zhu, Yasodha ka nandlala, Brij ka ujala hai, Mere laal se to sara jag jhilmilaye, Raat thandi thandi hawa gake sulaye, Bhor gulabi palke choomke jagaye…’’

Yes. I get that.

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