Outsourced - Go and watch it.

Picture this:
A small Seattle based mail-order company is selling patriotic kitsch to Americans. And then one day their whole call center is being outsourced to India. Todd (Jeff Hamilton), the call-center manager, has no real option than going to India to train his replacement if he wants to keep working for his company. So he goes. And he´s forced to jump head-first into a life altering adventure. Having to adapt to cultural differences, wandering cows, endearing call-center employees, love and the pressure from his company at home.












Sounds corny? Not by far! It´s quite the opposite.

John Jeffcoat made a movie that captured the audience at the opening screening in Stuttgart in its first 5 minutes. (Like predicted by the german distributor before the film).
It´s funny. Very funny actually. Endearing. Smart. Schnuffelig. With a great cast (Ayhesha Dharker, Asif Basra and Jeff Hamilton in peticular) And apart from a few scenes, shot entirely in/around Mumbai.

One great thing about Outsourced is,that it is a true "cultural-crossover" film. Some reviews compare it to "My big fat Greek wedding", a statement that only true in parts. As here Jeffcoat took the American guy and put him through the "real" thing. Not only a westernized Immigrant suburb.
And really everbody in Stuttgart seemed to love it. The German Bollywood fan crowd, the Arthouse film buffs who usually frown upon mainstream movies, the Indian filmi-people. Some have been in India before and had a deja-vu experience on some of the scenes and others who only knew life in Mumbai out of movies or the news. You could sense from the timing of their laughter where the various groups sat in the cinema hall. No surprise that it won the Audience Award...











Starting September 26th it is opening on a limited release across the USA. So, anyone who has not seen Outsourced yet and lives in the vicinity of these movie theaters just needs to go and watch it. A post on the movies blog also announced a release in Germany this autumn. And there are plans for a release in India too.

Got curious? Here´s a link the trailer and the movie´s website

Hah. Look what I found.

This is the downside of having a 4 Gig memory card in your compact camera. Never had to wipe it since Stuttgart until today, so I finally downloaded all the pictures taken during the summer and found these 2 small video-snippets from the Bombay Boogie night in Stuttgart in July on it. Don´t expect too much, they are very dark, but still you´ll be able to make out some slick moves:

Surya, Rita and Pooja burning the dancefloor



and here another 25 sec snippet.



And no, there are none with me in them. Count your blessings :D

Bhool Bhulayiaa. Strangely attracted.

I had a ball watching Chandramukhi a while back. Rajni Superstar rulez. No discussions about that.

Now the Hindi remake will come out on October 12th. With Akshay Kumar in Rajnikanth´s role as the a tiny bit wacko psychiatrist. Directed by Priyadarshan.
Hmm. If you just read those last two sentences, its nothing to get that much excited. Especially if you know that at first AB 1.0 was in talks to play that role.

But.

1) Due to Akshay´s almost monopolistic presence in Hindi films in the Indian cinema history here in Vienna during the last 3 years, I somehow grew rather fond of him. Sharp tongues might say I got brainwashed. But I really do like Akshay in comedies. Such hai.














2) The story has enough potential to make for an delightfully entertaining evening. Pyaar. Suspense. Masti. Probably crazy stunts and SpecialFX. Spicy enough for a well rounded Masala fair.

3) Vidya Balan. Finally in a more traditional get up again. In Jyotika´s role from Chandramukhi. Maybe that will make me forget her Heyy Babyy performance.

4) The soundtrack rocks. Love the title track. And Akshay´s swami get up.

Still there are some risky points.

Amisha Patel. No comment. Shiney Ahuja. He has yet to repeat his great performance from Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi, hai naa? Don´t have much hope for it here too. Bhool Bhulayia is a Priyadarshan comedy. And it has been a while since he delivered too..














So all in all, you can count me in for a first day show. If only for Akshay and Vidya in the climax dance.

got a problem. solved it. you live with it. bas.

I started to write a preview of Bhool Bhulayia. And then stopped. Kyu? Bear with me for another short ramble.
Just because I did not blog for the last weeks/month(s) does not mean I did not surf the net and read up on my daily dose of filmi news bits. One of my favorite sites doing that and a daily stop-over is PFC. I love reading their posts and comments, but some of the guys (certain special dear darlings excluded) posting/commenting there are way too intimidating for me. So apart from my not having the guts of posting comments there, it went even so far that I started to question my kind of postings here. But today when I started writing the afore-mentionend Bhool post, I stopped, thought about it and then came to the very healthy conclusion that I don´t care. And that I really shouldn´t.
This is my blog. I like it the way it is. You read it. If you like it, read more. If you think I´m just a white chick who should better zip it, your bad. If you think it´s too mainstreamy, same accounts. My, anyway not too small, self-esteem is back up. I ´ll continue to do my thing. My way. [/end ramble]

Restart. Even I can recognize a sign when I hear it

What does yesterdays "the Police" concert in Vienna have to do with the end of my blogging hiatus?

Ketan Anand. Stuttgart. And Ehsaan Noorani. An early phone interview this morning.... Kya? What is she talking about?

Ok, let me start at the beginning. I came home from Stuttgart in July and despite being super motivated by meeting all the great people I did there and having the time of my life, I just had to take a break from posting. I had a great summer. Workload at office was ok, Eros started screening their movies (Partner, My Father Gandhi, Heyy Babyy) at release-time in a Multiplex here, Birgit came home from India and there were rumours of a big Bollywood production shooting from September in Austria. But I just did not feel like blogging. So I decided that if things got even more relaxed I would start again..
Well the last 3 weeks have been hell, workwise and with so much happening here in Vienna, so I thought I might take a little more time off.
And then we went to the Police concert yesterday. You know the Sting, Steward Copeland, Synchronicity, Every Breath You Take - kind of Police. A concert I´ve been waiting to attend since 1983 (!) The guys came on stage. And I remembered an anecdote Ketan Anand told us in Stuttgart.
Sometime during the Eighties the Police were in Mumbai and staying at the Anand´s house on the beach in Juhu. The day the guys were supposed to leave, Steward Copeland (the drummer) decided that he just had to take a camel ride on the beach. To make a short story even shorter, an idea that sounded harmless (just like a LOT of ideas do when certain substances are involved in the idea-finding process) turned out to be just the opposite since the camel took off with him for hours and they almost missed their plane...
What ever. All of a sudden a Bollywood connection was even there (Especially since the guy standing in front of me at the concert was smoking weed LOL)
Then this morning I had a phone interview scheduled with Ehsaan of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for the German Bollywood magazine I sometimes write for and when I called instead of the usual ringing sound "don´t stand so close to me" by Police was playing. And as it turned out Ehsaan Noorani is a huge Police fan.
If this is no sign then what is, hai naa? I had a perfect reason to start blogging again.

So I´m back. This time for good. Workload is still hell, but maybe that is another perfect reason to write anyway.

why I´m late with the write-up..

I´m not lazy. Well I am, but thats not the reason why I had no time to write more about Stuttgart yet. Rita Rani, a filmmaker who was in Stuttgart with her shortfilm "Bombay Skies" just came to Vienna for 2 days with her parents and we were roaming the city doing heavy sightseeing and chatting and more chatting. But don´t dispair. The post is coming soon. Kasam se.

Bollywood and Beyond - Stuttgart Last Day

I´m back home, save and sound. And I already terribly miss all the fantastic people I met and hung out with since Wednesday.

Here now the last bunch of pics. Day 5. I´l do the write-up tomorrow. It´s just too hot (37 C/98 F) today and I´m too lazy and tired. I hope everybody got home well. (Edit: Surya did. Just got his mail)












Thank y´all so much for an unforgetable time.

Bollywood and Beyond - Stuttgart day 3+4

So. Here before I rush out for the award ceremony and the closing film.

Day 3 and Day 4. As mentioned in my prvious post, foto descriptions and my write up will follow from tomorrow when I´m back in Vienna.

Bollywood and Beyond - Stuttgart Day 1+2

Way to tired to post. But here for starters some pics. Day 1 (opening night) Day 2 (interviews and all kinds of other fun)

So and since there is a free Jonny Walker bar for the film-related guests and the festival team (to neither group I actually belonged, but that is another story) and it´s 1:30 am and I´ll have to get up at 8 tomorrow, you´ll have to make up your own stories for the time being.

I love it here!

Holidays - sort of..

Tomorrow morning I´ll be heading to Stuttgart (that would be in Germany) for five days of Bollywood & Beyond i.e. the biggest Indian film festival in Germany. Its my first time there, I hope to meet tons of great people, indulge in heavy partying and overdose on Indian cinema in all its aspects.
Btw. I´ll take my Macbook and camera with me and try to update from there.

See ya´ll later.

King of Bollywood - the interview

Thanx to Filmiholic I was part of a very exciting virtual online email interview event today. Anupama Chopra was so nice as to answer all our (read: Filmiholic, Michael, Beth, Maja, Darshana, Jo and myself) questions about her new book "King of Bollywood - Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema" during a day long Email conversation.

Filmholic will put the results of those 36 43 Emails into readable posts on her blog during the next few days. You might to want to head over to have a look then.
Edit 07/10/07: It is online, fun and long..

As for the book which will come out Aug. 2nd in the USA, Aug. 9th in India and Sept. 6th in the UK. I´ve read it and liked it, very much in fact. It is not your average SRK fan book. It is more like a chronicle of Hindi cinema of the 90ies and its industry until today through the life and films of King Khan.

And Anupama, after her books on Sholay and DDLJ, again gave me a highly entertaining book. Interesting background on the industry, the change that it went through during the 90ies and of course a whole lot on the Baadshah himself spiced with fantastic anecdotes like the one about SRK´s phonecall after he got arrested due to... no, you´ve got to read that for yourself.

The regular reader of this blog probably knows that I am not a die-hard SRK fan. What might be new for all is that he was in fact my first Bollywood love. But you know how shilly-shally girls are. Nice Rahul didn´t stand a chance when Sagar/Munna walked in. And since cranky Dev did nothing to get me back, imagine my surprise when after reading Anupama´s book, he fought himself back into the ring. That´s the King Khan for you.
Not sure though if Anupama is to blame or my fickleness ...

Backlog. Eklavya and Guru

In the draft section of my blogger admin site, there are a few unfinished posts that deal with a number of films I watched during the last weeks but that never came out of the draft stage. Since I don´t feel like finishing them and still I want you to know, here a short résumé.

Eklavya. This one pains me a lot. I really really really was looking forward to seeing it. I mean take in the cast. AB 1.0, Saif and his mom, Jimmy Shergill, Jackie Shroff, Vidya Balan, Raima Sen and mera pyaara Sanjay. It is the first direction of V.V. Chopra after Mission Kashmir. The promos hinted at a "Gone with the wind" like outset.
And then V.V. blows it. My Eklavya draft was subtitled: "It might have been grand" and that precisely how I feel about it. The setting is grand, the acting too, even the basic story. Then why, oh why did he have to cut it down to 107min? It is an epic saga, it demands an epic length. So instead we are left with hints at some backstories and we almost don´t learn anything about what drives the characters. And that assembles to a lackluster feeble movie. There is potential, and you get a glimpse of it in various scenes, like at the the climax. But. But it feels like an abstract of a Shakespearean drama for a 3rd grade english class homework.
Two presumptions:
One: In addition to the mutilated story, the very last, bahut kharab scene hints at some "higher power" that forced Chopra to a) give it a masala standard fare ending and b) to edit the length to some "western cinema" timeframe. Big mistake.
And two: It is still rather difficult to get the official DVD. None of the leading online stores have it yet. The only place I found it is amazon.co.uk . I so hope that this hints to a directors cut version in the hopefully not to far future.
So if you can get your hands on a copy. Go and watch it. If only for the acting and treat it like a preview of what might come one day.

Film two is Guru.
I love Mani Ratnam. He is my favorite director. Bas.
But, and here comes another but, Guru is his weakest film so far. I just can´t empathise with the characters here. And that is such a pity. I feel it is the death of any movie if you just don´t care what happens. And that is exactly the problem I have with Guru. Unreflected greed as main statement just does nothing for me. Corruption is good as long as I can turn it into wealth? Journalism should use all means to get the story across even if you have to stage the stories? Don´t get me wrong, but where´s the message? And I don´t mean a profound life altering message. Anything would do, leave it open or tell me you don´t have a message for all I care, but give me something.
So is it a bad film? No. It is still a Mani Ratnam movie. It´s a AB 2.0 one-man show. I love the songs. And technically (in any way) its a great film. I just don´t care about it.

Dil To Pagal Hai. I had nothing better to do

Just like any healthy human I sometimes get cravings for various stuff. Sprüngli Truffes for example. Or Sushi. Or sitting beside the ocean watching the sunset. Yesterday after again stumbling over the Aaja Nachle stills on the Yash Raj site my life would have ended on the spot if I had to live one more moment without watching a Madhuri Dixit film.

Thankfully I have some of them at home. And since this pic of SRK of last week made me loose my cool too, I thought why not combine the two. And to make it three I decided to give one DVD a try that has been lying unwanted and unwatched around for at least two years. Dil to Pagal Hai.

Why didn´t I watch it before? Well, I´m not too fond of Karisma Kapoor. And the only time I tried DTPH before was short after I watched Raja Hindustani where I really hated her (sorry Alan).

And that´s when the DVD went to the bottom of the "to be watched" stack and lingered there until yesterday. So for all those who haven´t seen it either:
Rahul (SRK - who else) is a singer/director who has a dancecompany that does fairly successful naachgaana shows. His female star dancer is Nisha, who in addition to being his best friend also happens to be madly (and of course secretly) in love with Rahul. Who in spite of producing one tearjerking love story show after the other is completely alien to the concept of love. So far so nothing-new.









Now Nisha has a small accident while rehearsing for the show that is in production and leaves the play without a female star. Enter Pooja (Madhuri) an orphan who grew up with her aunty, uncle and cousin Ajay (Akshay Kumar). Guess what, his best friend love turned into the real thing a while ago (quel surprise!). Oh and did I tell you that Pooja is convinced that for every human there is a perfect match made in heaven. (And Ajay is not it)









Oh and of course she dances like a godess.

The rest is as sweet and harmless to watch as it is predictable. Pooja fills in for Nisha. Ajay asks Pooja to marry him. Pooja despite not loving him and thus betraying her believes says yes. Nisha gets drunk and confesses her love to Rahul. Rahul falls in love with Pooja. Pooja falls in love with Rahul. They both sacrifice their love on the altar of obligations/friendship/inanity. And all live un-happily ever after? Oh, c´mon its a Yash Chopra movie. No points for guessing.

There are a lot of songs in DTPH and a lot of late 1990ies gym-clothes. And the steroptypical Rahul, a pleasantly nice Karisma, way to little of Akshay Kumar and my fix of Madhuri.
Dancing, smiling and being the devine loveable Madhuri I so missed. There is way better fare out there but for a hot summer afternoon this was one perfect, harmless timepass.