tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1800744 2021-04-07T14:43:56-04:00 West meets East - the musings of a Canadian fan of Hindi (a.k.a. Bollywood) cinema. TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ce06c53ef027880218f26200d 2021-04-07T14:43:56-04:00 2021-04-07T14:43:25-04:00

Tenzin (Tsering Tashi Gyalthang) is an entrepreneur looking to open a coffee shop in Kathmandu – he knows what he wants: the right combination of location, atmosphere, and good coffee, in some ways the very things that western coffee culture (which has spread worldwide) offers. His friend, Jachung (Tulku Kungzang), understands some of what Tenzin is looking for: trendy coffee and stylish serving-ware he can understand, but he grows increasingly stressed by the locations Tenzin feels are suitable, finding them too steeped in an ominous tradition or folklore that Tenzin rejects. Tenzin, though, experiences a series of troubling dreams or...

katherine tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ce06c53ef026bdeb4fc15200c 2021-01-11T17:20:29-05:00 2021-01-11T17:20:29-05:00

The Malabar region of Kerala is home to a form of football known as “Sevens” – seven players a side, a smaller pitch, slightly different rules. In places like Malappuram, where Sudani From Nigeria is set, football is more popular than cricket, and each village will have their own team, with tournaments running over several months (November to May) and players recruited from African nations such as Sudan, Nigeria, and Gambia. This is the world that Sudani From Nigeria drops us into: the local team MYC Accode, managed by Majeed (Soubin Shahir), has recently acquired three Nigerian players, including Samuel...

katherine tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ce06c53ef0263e9852ef7200b 2021-01-01T21:19:47-05:00 2021-01-01T21:27:38-05:00

What a way to open the New Year than with a film about January remembrances? It’s the new year in Kodaikanal (in Tamil Nadu), and visitors arriving to the “Princess of the Hill Stations” are greeted upon arrival by Authorized Joseph (Jagathy Sreekumar) so called because he is one of the authorized guides of the region. But Joseph is perpetually drunk and incapable of securing a tour group (despite rhyming off the eighteen sites of the region visitors should see), so it falls to Rajan (Mohanlal), an unauthorized guide, to take visitors around. Rajan is an orphan who was raised...

katherine tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ce06c53ef026be43148f3200d 2020-12-31T20:45:20-05:00 2020-12-31T20:45:20-05:00

Nayana (Namitha Pramod) is a young Malayalee who, like many young Keralites, finds herself working in Dubai to try to secure a better future. One day, she is visited by a man (Siddique) claiming to be the father of Tom (Anoop Majeed), encouraging Nayana to have her marriage arranged with Tom. Nayana isn’t sure, but everyone around her thinks marriage to Tom is a highly practical solution (because Tom is, apparently, rich), so, in the end, Nayana agrees. But Tom, as it turns out, isn’t exactly great marriage material, nor, as we discover, is that his true intention. At the...

katherine tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ce06c53ef026be42ff644200d 2020-12-26T13:53:51-05:00 2020-12-30T14:31:09-05:00

Manu (Sarjano Khalid) goes from official to official to try to secure the release from of his big brother, Sachi (Mohanlal), in prison because he killed his step-mother’s abusive ex-husband. Underaged at fifteen, he is sent to a juvenile home where he makes three friends -- Khan (Tiny Tom), Khani (Vishnu Unnikrishnan) and Pareekkar (Irshad). But when his friends are beaten by a sadistic police officer, Sachi kills the policeman to protect them and, because he is now sixteen, he’s sent to serve two consecutive terms in jail. Upon arrival at the central jail, Sachi is placed in a dark...

katherine tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ce06c53ef026be42d0a8c200d 2020-12-15T15:35:09-05:00 2020-12-15T15:34:59-05:00

Eyo (Arun A. Kumar) is a young man with no credentials and not much going for him – he freely admits he hasn’t finished his B. Tech degree (and is highly unlikely to do so). He’s unable to find a job – even his sketchy friend Shiva (Dharmajan Bolgatty) manages to find work. His father, Pauly (Mukesh) arranges his marriage to Annie (Nikki Galrani) – a situation that causes some concern in the family, because Annie is divorced. But Annie is from a wealthy family, and Eyo becomes smitten with her. Despite the perceived shame this could bring to his...

katherine tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ce06c53ef0263e97de7c4200b 2020-12-06T13:01:09-05:00 2020-12-06T13:00:10-05:00

The year is 1951 – four years after Partition, which gave rise to two states independent of British rule (India and Pakistan). Everyone is looking to the future of this new India, including Lata Mehra (Tanya Maniktala), a literature student. On a personal level, Lata’s sister, Savita (Rasika Dugal), is being married to Pran Kapoor (Gagandev Riar), the son of the prominent politician Mahesh Kapoor (Ram Kapoor), the State Minister of Revenue. Lata neatly sums up her sister’s marriage in one sentence: “She’s only met him once before, for one hour, chaperoned.” Lata’s mother, Rupa (Mahira Kakkar), is overjoyed at...

katherine tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ce06c53ef026be40ffd63200d 2020-09-09T15:42:19-04:00 2020-09-09T15:42:19-04:00

In the town of Manjadikunnu, the local school begins organizing a function to celebrate the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. The head of the PTA suggests to the recently arrived headmaster (Maniyan Pilla Raju) that there is only one person suitable to be the chief guest on such an occasion: Gandhi Jotsyan (A.V. Anoop), respected not only for his work as an astrologer, but also because he seems to be someone who lives a life according to the principles of his namesake. Gandhi Jotsyan’s grandson, Appu (Master Ridhun), is a student in the school. When we first meet him, Appu is...

katherine tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ce06c53ef026be40f631c200d 2020-09-07T15:09:53-04:00 2020-09-07T15:17:21-04:00

"In between the celebrations of life, death enters unexpectedly." Ravishankar (Mammootty) is a respected writer and journalist who finds himself dying of blood cancer. He’s looked after by his wife, Malini (Gautami), and their close friend Rajendran (Manoj K. Jayan). Ravishankar’s doctor prescribes another treatment for him, but Ravishankar is unwilling to proceed with it. He’s seen it fail in another patient, and he has decided that rather than see his friends and family waste their time and money, that he will accept that it is his fate to die. He decides to return to his ancestral home, preferring to...

katherine tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341ce06c53ef026bde8e82cd200c 2020-08-31T21:00:27-04:00 2020-09-05T21:02:41-04:00

Jimmy (Roshan Mathew) meets Anu (Darshana Rajendran) via an online dating app – in fact, all of their relationship is conducted on-line, mainly through Google Hangouts. Anu seems to be careful about what she shares – most of the photos she shows Jimmy are older, though she occasionally sends a current photo of herself, or of her guitar, or books on a shelf. Video chats get added to the mix, though very often Anu stays only briefly on a call, saying she can’t talk while her father is around. Jimmy seems more forthcoming, revealing he’s recently broken up with someone,...

katherine