Category Archives: Video

A Video Post on Desi Dance

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Video posts are never popular in RTDM. I never understand why. Perhaps people dont have time to play all the videos. Perhaps they don’t like my choice. I don’t know what the exact reason but I do realize I have not done one for years. Years I have spent trolling the alleys of Youtube looking for gems and diamonds, spending hours awash in the kind of joy that Kalmadi feels everytime he signs an approval letter for a contractor at the Commonwealth Games.

So like it or not, here is a video post once again, if only for sharing my pleasure with the world.

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Maha Patriot

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Amidst the tumultuous events of the last few weeks, two patriots have risen from the flames, very different in their perspectives, almost mirror opposites and yet combined, they somehow complete each other (like Batman and the Joker). Or maybe the more accurate word would be—neutralize each other.

One is of course minorities minister Antulay, whose patriotic credentials were never in doubt —after all who could be a greater patriot than someone, who as a chief minister, was convicted of extorting builders to donate to an Indira Gandhi trust. The fact that such a person, even after this, can hold a ministerial post is evidence enough of how high we value his service to the nation.

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The Heartland Strikes Back

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Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya
Glanirva Bhavathi Bharatha,
Abhyuthanam Adharmaysya
Tadatmanam Srijami Aham.

Indeed. These are “yada yada” times. With terrorist, corrupt politicians and chauvinists everywhere trying to tear the country into “tukda tukda”, the nation, especially those appearing for railway exams out-of-state, look for a messiah, an avatar of mythic proportions.

The good news is that he has arrived. His name is Kamal R Khan (KRK). Director and hero of “Desdrohi” releasing this week in a theater close to you.

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Suga Mama

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Subho Bijoya and Happy Dussehra to everybody.

I have often lamented the passing of the old-world charm that characterized Durga Pujos in favor of commercialization and “novelty”. Well it is indeed heartening to see that there are some folk in Delhi who have held on to the traditional Durga Pujo in a way that is truly endearing.

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Les Be Happy

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Before people remind me of my ban on Bhojpuri music at RTDM (a tat-for-tit ban imposed because of Mithun-da’s movies in Raja Bhoja-land), I will say that just when I thought I could go on to other topics, Bhojpuri music has scaled yet a new height of excellence, a height that compels me to blog about it, despite my best intentions.

Long time readers know that I admire Bhojpuri music videos for their vision of purity — their “saadhgi” which stands in stark contrast to the decadent Western wanton lasciviousness  we are bombarded with through television, radio and Times of India. In an age where innocence is as extinct as the dodo, Bhojpuri’s concentration on loosening jeans, double duties of newly married wives, hyperactive tailors and ladies with Pepsi cola in their lehenga has earned my unending admiration.

As also that of migrant laborers, like me, all over the world.

So what is this new height that I talk about?

The love of a woman for another woman. What narrow-minded people call “girl on girl action”.

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Moonshine Forever

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[Long post warning]

[Figure 1: Clip with sub-titles from the movie "Bow Barracks Forever"]

In the long list of grouses (the marginalization of Subhash Bose in the Indian national Congress, the policy of freight equalization, lack of funding for Bakreshwar power plant, Sourav Ganguly’s treatment at the hands of the BCCI, Soumitro Chatterjee being overlooked for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and “Ami Kolkattar Rosogolla” not being made the national anthem being some of them) that we Bengalis have nurtured over the years like festering wounds that refuse to heal, nothing perhaps rankles more than the fact that Moonmoon Sen was never given the iconic status in Bollywood that she so richly deserved.

People who closely follow Bengali movies noted amazing flashes of brilliance in her performance in “Baidurya Rahasya “where she played a no-nonsense lethal detective who goes undercover as a sexy Vaishnavite priestess with a craving for fish (her famous line “Mamu ami maach bhaja khamu” [Uncle, I want to eat fried fish]) still gives me the shivers whenever I hear it). Soon her flawless pronunciation, unaffected manner of speaking, acting prowess [video] and her overdone femininity (called “nyakamo” in Bengali) had made her the darling of what Taran Adarsh calls the “classes and the masses”.

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GooGooGaGaChoChweetChweet

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[Update: Many of the video links are dead links as Youtube seems to have suspended many accounts of users who have uploaded Hindi movie songs.]

Yes folks. Valentine’s Day is almost here. Which means its time to show how much you love your lovey-doveys. And as we all know there is nothing that expresses ethereal longing as purely as expensive greetings cards, shiny chocolates and overpriced flowers. But, this year, before you rush over to the Archie’s outlets either to empty your wallet or to try to pelt stones at the store and harass its customers, let me take a moment (and a few more) of your time to tell you of a new Valentine’s Day gift-item that is sure to arouse your interests.

Among other things.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me present GooGooGaGaChoChweetChweet, a CD of the very best, and I mean the very best of Valentine’s Day music brought to you by GB Industries —yes the same corporation that ushered in a lingerie revolution in India with its “Victor Banerjee Secrets” line of sensual inner-wear.

Oh no you say. Been there, heard that. “Valentine Day ke din main kahe doon ankehi”. “Abh mujhe raat din tera hi khayal hain.” Every music company with a CD burner releases these sappy tracks around this time of the year, hoping to rake in a quick buck.

But wait. This one is different.

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A Ban Is Imposed

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I am, by nature, not a violent man and so do not believe in retaliating angrily to every provocation or perceived injustice.

But sometimes, just sometimes, something happens that totally makes me lose my cool and lash out with righteous anger and vengeance.

I am referring to Biharsharif MLA Sunil Kumar Singh’s, chairman of some organization acronymed BIMPA (Bihar-Jharkhand Motion Pictures Association), imposed ban on the showing of any movie that stars Mithun Chakraborty in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh since April.

If Mr. Singh’s goonda-gardi had been restricted to just Prabhuji I would still have been been angry but perhaps not as frothing at the mouth like I am now. But no, that dark agent of Sauron has gone further and even banned movies of Mithun-putra Mahashakti-shaali, God of all things, Mimoh. (not that Mimoh has any movies released but that’s not the point)

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The Caves of Youtube

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Readers at RTDM would be aware of my ceaseless quest to understand the Hindi heartland, its society, its politics and its people through the study of subaltern visual/audio art as found in the caves of Youtube. History is written by the conquerers, editorials are written by those who can pay for them—it is only in the non corporate embodiments of popular culture that the truth of its times lie. And may I also say a lot of its beauty.

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Rasia Tailor House Haw

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“Dhartiputra” Radheshyam Rasia is in the house.

The undisputed king of Bhojpuri music, he is not just a great singer, entertainer and a total ladies man but the voice of the marginalized, those who when they hear a tune on radio can never say “They are playing our song”.

People like tailors—those misunderstood people forever berated for getting the measurements wrong, delivering months after delivery dates and sometimes of even letting their fingers linger for a second too long while taking measurements.

Well not any more. In “Rasia Tailor” , Radheshyam Rasia paints an evocative picture of the tailor’s life through a ballad highlighting the difficulties that he has to surmount every day in the performance of his duty. [Watch the video here]

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