I like to play with words. String them together, thrust them apart. Dissect. Deconstruct. Analyze. Create. As I live, I find myself surrounded by words. I constantly seek to explain … why what is, is. Read more »
LATEST PROJECT: Rishi Kapoor reflects on a Bollywood dynasty
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Rishi Kapoor reflects on a Bollywood dynasty
Published April 30, 2012 Born into the third generation of Bollywood’s most famous dynasty, it was inevitable that Rishi Kapoor would become an actor. His grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor acted in India’s first “talkie,” Alam Ara (1931). His father Raj Kapoor has been called Indian cinema’s Victor Hugo. He established RK Films in 1948 and was the [...]
Bollywood gets hotter than vindaloo
Move aside tulip-filled meadows, virtuous heroines and the occasional moment of heavy breathing. Fuelled by voyeuristic reality TV and relaxed social attitudes to sex, Indian filmmakers are adding way more spice to Bollywood screens
A Fishing Expedition:
The pool at the centre had been filled with fish, a thousand trout to be precise. This was no prank, rather an exercise to teach children — and grown-ups — how to hook, line and sink, even scale and prepare their catch to bring home for dinner.
Finding her voice: A profile of Toronto singer Azalea Ray
Petite, long hair framing her face, dressed in jeans and a kurti, Azalea Ray reminded me of hip, young Bengali women I grew up with in Delhi; they were intellectual-beauties, in an art-house cinema kind of way. When we spoke, she was alternatively brooding and reckless with her laughter.
From the “Little Mosque” Creator: “Putting the Fun Back in Fundamentalism”
How do you bring a little fun back into fundamentalism? By making a sitcom, as Zarqa Nawaz is fond of saying. Nawaz is the creator of the new Canadian TV series “Little Mosque on the Prairie.” The show debuted Jan. 9 on CBC TV–to unexpectedly strong ratings–and airs Mondays and Wednesdays at 9 p.m. and [...]
Sacred and sublime
For Malavika Sarukkai, Bharatanatyam dance is a way of speaking and connecting with the audience, irrelevant of whether the audience is Indian or Canadian.
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
Call it Bombay or Mumbai, the city has been attracting tourists for centuries. Back in the day, the phoren people came by the boat load to buy spices, cotton and an assortment of exotica to stock their houses. Today desis come by the plane load to stock up on the latest Ritu Kumar designs for [...]
Woman leads mixed-gender prayer
The Globe and Mail, [04/23/2005] Backyard gathering of Muslims crosses ‘another threshold of conservativism’ APARITA BHANDARI SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE For Raheel Raza, becoming the first Muslim woman in Canada to lead publicly announced prayer was awe-inspiring, a “silent revolution.” And while the gathering of more than 20 men and women yesterday in the backyard [...]
Distantly famous
The Montreal Gazette Montreal’s JoSH is not troubled by mobs of fans at home, but over in South Asia, MTV India picked the duo as best new artist and their songs are everywhere on radio, TV. APARITA BHANDARI SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE By the time JoSH came on stage at Toronto’s Docks Nightclub, the 3,000-plus [...]
Guess who’s coming to dinner
The Globe and Mail SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE It was Diwali night, the Hindu festival of lights, and the temperature had dipped to ungodly lows. Decked in their good silk saris and satin salwar-kameezes, fingering the gold bangles on their wrists, a group of South Asian women swapped stories about their children, venting about their [...]