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Sea, sand and cinema
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| A scene from Breathing Without Air |
Spring is in the air and it?s time for romance, adventure
and new ideas. Add sun, sea, sand and cinema to this stirring mix and you?ll have
some idea of the atmosphere at the Bring Your Own Film Festival at Puri this week.
The BYOFF, now in its second year after a splendidly successful debut, is a free-wheeling
festival of film, music and the visual arts where participants land up to showcase
their skills to an audience of other filmmakers, students, artists and performers,
and is an ideal platform for student filmmakers to make their mark. Last year,
Kapilas Bhuyan?s short film Breathing Without Air went from the BYOFF to a good
reception at the New York Short Film Festival ? after being rejected by the Mumbai
International Film Festival.
Ramayana redux
Spring might be the season of rejuvenation but do
we really need another reinterpretation of the Ramayana for younger audiences?
I?m very sceptical about Gotham Comics' much-hyped Ramayana comics, retold
by Deepak Chopra and Shekhar Kapur and marketed somewhat stupidly as Asia?s LOTR.
The new comic-book epic reexamines epic themes in a modern urban context and stars
a superheroine named Devi and an overworked police inspector. Yawn. But Gotham
Comics has an excellent track record ? it's the leading provider of international
comic-book titles to Indian stalls, and was last in the news for transforming
Spiderman into a masked Mumbaikar named Pavitr Prabhakar, so the Ramayana retelling
might not be all bad. But here's a plea to Indian comic-book publishers ?
when you have funds to initiate big projects for a hungry audience, could you
please at least strive for original content?
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Fresh, Original and discontented ? that?s Chris Rock. The
organisers of the Oscars are retaining the comedian as this year?s Academy Awards
host despite his calling the event an idiotic fashion show that straight people
didn?t watch. |
Rhyme season
A slightly less discontented man is Anurag Mathur,
who?s just picked up a Publisher's Recognition Award from his publishers,
Rupa ? though why it took Rupa 14 years to recognise their best-recognised author
is an interesting question. This spring, Mathur?s thoughts have turned, as any
writer?s should, to poetry ? his first volume of poetry is on the verge of publication.
He?s been working on it for over two decades.
Spouse sells
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| Shobhaa D? |
On Valentine?s Day, five of Delhi?s Page-3 couples
gathered in a plush hotel and tried hard to convince a largely disinterested audience
how extremely happy they all were with their marriages. The occasion: the launch
of Shobhaa D??s latest sure-fire bestseller, Spouse: The Truth about Marriage.
The action on-stage was all about trust, companionship and compromise, peppered
with occasional burning witticisms from the glamorous author; the air above the
front rows was wet with fine spray from Delhi socialite air-kisses, and far at
the back, in the shadows where predators of the literary jungle (like me) prowl,
the only sounds to be heard were the occasional screams of hapless waiters as
hordes of journalists and poor writers pounced on the food and wine trays.
AWARD OF THE WEEK
Mikhail Ali, a three-year-old British genius with
an IQ of 137, is now the youngest member of Mensa. Mikhail knows the entire Arabic
alphabet and teases his parents by spelling words backwards.
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