January 2009 - Posts - First Cut

January 2009 - Posts

What's your favourite Tom Cruise film?

Posted by Priya Ramani at 
I've never been a Tom Cruise person. For me Top Gun was more about Val Kilmer than Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise bare-chested leaves me cold--he certainly doesn't have the same effect on me as, say, Hugh Jackman bathing in Australia . So my favourite Cruise film has more to do with the other people associated with that film than with Cruise. I would...

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Dr Dev D

Posted by Priya Ramani at 
Who isn't waiting to catch Anurag Kashyap's new film, a modern-take on Sarat Chandra's interpreted-to-death classic? How many of the 10 or so Devdas film have you seen? Meanwhile ahead of the film's release on 6 February, Kashyap seems to be having some serious digital fun with his new movie on http://www.devdthefilm.com/. The official...

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At the Republic Day parade, culture = tourism

Posted by Priya Ramani at 
I dragged the husband to the Republic Day Parade in Delhi yesterday. He’s a parade veteran; his father has been parade commander on more than one occasion. Me, I’ve only caught the action on Doordarshan. But watching tiny figures scroll across the screen hasn’t ever done it for me. The bands and marching contingents were fantastic, I enjoyed every jingoistic...

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What's your Slumdog opinion?

Posted by Priya Ramani at 
Why do so many Indians find Slumdog Millionaire offensive? Growing up in Mumbai, one of my childhood fears was always that I would be kidnapped by an evil begging cartel and that they would cut off my arms to make me an object of greater sympathy. It didn't help that I could hold a tune. Long before Danny Boyle and his crew shot a film in an overcrowded...

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How pista became the colour of hope

Posted by Priya Ramani at 
Sure Michelle Obama feels the pressure to do things differently from her predecessors. She didn't want to be caught wearing the usual colours of the US flag for the Inaugural. And black might be considered a downer at a time when the economy's feeling blue. But pista ( pistachio ) as the colour of hope and multi-culturalism? I don't know...

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