HAPPY??? NEW YEAR

Ok .. So im too lazy to send out personal emails to each and everyone of you wishing you luck and prosperity in the year 2007. Plus, i figure that the only reason why you are here in the first place is because in the past 26 years at some point in time we either met or in the past 5 years or so i scribbled down this address for you on a rag piece of paper, the back of someone else’s business card or a café napkin that had probably been used to wipe the sweaty brows of a disgruntled waiter prior to our rendezvous.

So Wakeup … Its just another day and just another year !!! The future really just depends on where you are right now. While some of you are counting another year closer to a fatter paycheck, the rest of you are reminiscing another year away from a broken heart. Its all relative.

Its just the same thing over and over again – year after year. Drink Hangover Traffic Work Vacation Repeat. It’s really all repetitive (perhaps with the exceptional yet ephemerally ecstatic moments of finding a new partner, getting married and giving birth)

This thing we call the future is not really as glamorous as we make it seem. Some of you are making fun of people losing hair. But watch out for your sagging tits, loose skin under the arms, bags under the eye and wrinkles on the neck. Its not the crack in the mirror – its you and its all real.

IM KIDDING !!!! NONE OF WHAT I SAID IS TRUE! – HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! :P HOPE YOU HAVE A FABULOUS YEAR AHEAD !

Dubai international Film Festival 2006 – Day Six

Hollywoodland (2006)

Hollywoodland directed by Allen Coulter

Yawn …. Crap! im not even going to bother writing about this film. Dont even know what the point was. For two hours, i just sat there in a foul mood trying to imagine what the color of the parquet flooring should be in my new apartment – pine? chestnut? hardwood? .. what do you think ? i quite fancy walnut actually….

Dubai international Film Festival 2006 – Day Five

The Namesake (2006)

The Namesake, directed by Mira Nair, based upon the novel of the same name by Jhumpa Lahiri

A little about the film: The lively young singer Ashima (Tabu) meets her future husband Ashoke (Khan) on the eve of their marriage in 1977 Calcutta. She then sets up a home with him in New York, where he works. Years pass and now their grown son Gogol (Penn), named after Ashoke’s favourite author, has become a rising-star architect who must come to grips with his heritage–with the help of his parents, his sister (Nair), his American fiancée (Barrett) and a Bengali family friend (Robinson) – sourced from Shadows on the wall

Here is an enticing clip from the film.

Ok .. so personally this film has been a life altering one. Dont think any diasporic film has touched me as much as this one. Apart from the fact that it deals with the bengali diaspora (which is very close to my heart), it was the attention to detail and the tiny idiosyncracies of a day to day bong lifestyle that seemed superbly enchanting. Almost as if my family and myself were on the big screen.

The film was very obviously abbreviated, which i found to be unpretentious. It was a film that clearly admitted to being adapted from a book and for that i salute Mira Nair. Otherwise, the film was loaded with very sweet insights into a bong family household. My favorite had to be when Gogol and his sister visit Kolkatta and their aunt very typically finds the need to have their feet sizes marked out and have chotti’s (slippers) from Bata made available as soon as possible – ‘Ei! Bata thekeyi anbi .. bujhli ??’ (make sure you get them from Bata )…….. delightful!

Ashoke’s composure, Ashima’s helplessness and Gogol’s inner turmoil could not have been depicted any better. I walked out of the screening with a smile on my face and the longing to call mom and dad and say ‘hello’. They asked me what the film was about and surprisingly i didn’t have an answer, dont think the movie had a definite beginning and an end – it was a beautiful slice of life without any such clear cut resolution.

Am not a voracious reader and the stuff that i do end up reading are not the kind that films could be made of (no i am not referring to instruction manuals ).. so i hate it when people watch a movie and ask me ‘… but have you read the book?’ In this case however, i felt the urge to lie and say ‘OFCOURSE!! wasn’t it great’ … i mean its a given .. isnt it ???

Enjoyed the fact that Kal Penn kept a production blog during the making of the film and the festival circuit. i sure hope he is going to make a post about what he thought about DIFF and Dubai. Check it out here http://thenamesake.typepad.com/blog/

..and lastly, I must must must metion the superb music in the film. It was ACE! Kudos to Nitin Sawhney and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Read more about it here

Dubai international Film Festival 2006 – Day Four

I love it how during a film festival in every city, everyone becomes so articulate about film vocabulary. Even the most rasta-chaap (street-side) person starts to eloquently use words such as protagonist, antagonist and Cinéma vérité. Quite funny how the most simplest conversation turns out to sound so loaded and intelligent. :P

The Bong Connection (2006)
The Bong Connection, directed by Anjan Dutt, produced by Joy Ganguly (Moxie Entertainments)

The story revolves around two boys and two girls – Peeya Rai Chowdhary is an NRI settled in the US, Raima Sen stays in Kolkata, Shayan Munshi (Jhankaar Beats) comes to Kolkata to commercialise folk Bengali music, while Parambrata, who has no respect for his native place, flies off to join a software company in the US. The story unfolds to paint a delightful ( yet sometimes esoteric) picture of the trials and tribulations that a bong faces in and outside India. (sourced and edited from Rediff)

Before i start writing my two paise’s worth, its imperative that i tell y’all that ‘BONG’ is an urban term used to refer to ‘bengali’ and does not only refer to our thumb happy cannabis inhaler utility :P )

I thought Anjan Dutt’s tribute to Satyajit Ray was appropriately poignant. The fact that he named one of the lead actors Apu was delightful. Whereas Apu ( from the original Ray classics of Apu’s trilogy ) travelled from the village to the city, it was super-refreshing to see the modern day Apu in a similar situation.

… and oh yea !! i totally pissed myself laughing at the Bangladeshi Cabby and his ‘at times’ overacting tendencies. This fella was so obviously influenced by the likes of Al Pacino and De Niro that he simply had to squeeze in a testimonial to them as well. :) Hilarious!

All in all, i enjoyed the film and felt that the depiction of Kolkatta in all its bongness was portrayed in much better light than the NRI counterpart of the film. Perhaps thats only because there were far more compelling characters on one side than the other. The overzealous cabby and the hispanic hooligans leaves a bitter aftertaste only to be sweetened up by the rather amusing speil about the variety of ilish mach (hilsa fish) in Kolkatta. Nonetheless, an enjoyable film that does tickle a few bong bones in my body. Check out the website: The Bong Connection

( gosh.. raima here looks a lot like a moose i once used to know :| )

Dubai International Film Festival 2006 – Day Three

All the Invisible Children (2005)

IMDB Plot Summary for Paris, je t’aime (2006)
Paris, je t’aime is about the plurality of cinema in one mythic location: Paris, the City of Love. Twenty filmmakers will bring their own personal touch, underlining the wide variety of styles, genres, encounters and the various atmospheres and lifestyles that prevail in the neighborhoods of Paris. Each director has been given five minutes of freedom, and we, as producers, carry the responsibility of weaving a single narrative unit out of those twenty moments.

Dubai International Film Festival 2006 – Day Two

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People by Jack Shaheen,
produced by media education foundation, directed by Sut Jhally

A little something about the film: It explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs–from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-wielding “terrorists”–along the way offering devastating insights into the origin of these stereotypic images, their development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much today.

Arabian Radio Network Campaign

Here is a little something that i’ve been a little busy with lately. Too many late nights and weekends but good fun! Click on the thumbnails to see them upclose and personal :)

92FM Dubai Campaign

101.6 CITY FM Campaign

Hit96.7FM Campaign

Special Thanks to Yasmine (Account Manager) for being patient and proactive , Hywell Waters (Photographer) for playing along and being a sport, Sakib Afridi ( Associate Creative Director ) for letting me fly free.

lucky and star fight it out

my mini maltese’s having a tussle behind the door. Watch what happens when they realize i was videotaping them ? .. pretty cute :D

…and it poured

Once upon a time, she swore never to tie the knot with anyone from Pak-land. “It’ll rain that day’ we all had thought. HAH!!! Well… on the 2nd of December 2006… it kinda poured din’t it Sarah !!!:)

click on the image for a better view of this wedding poster i designed for them

Funny thing … i suppose the most beautiful thing about the future is its uncertainity. Congratulations Sarah and Wassim :).. you two better reserve a space on the wall for a little something from me :)

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