Mukul, Anirvan and I saw "Sideways" on Tuesday. Like a fine wine it is a movie to be tasted and savored for a long time. One of the best movies I have ever seen in the last couple of years.
And a book recommendation (also highly recommended by Anirvan): What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank (2004).
And a web find. Check this out especially if you are feeling poor. You might be surprised by what you find.
http://www.globalrichlist.com/
While in the City last Sunday Anirvan and I checked out Adobe Books. I stared amazed by the magical sight of books arranged by color. What a cool idea! This temporal piece of art is the brainchild of San Francisco artist Chris Cobb.
Anirvan and I checked out the 3rd I South Asian Film Festival on Sunday. We saw Anahat, directed by Amol Palekar. He is an amazing actor and I grew up watching his movies, "Gol Maal" being one of my all time favorites. But this was the only movie that I have seen that is directed by him. The high point of the film was the return of the Queen at dawn, her body covered with marks of love making, her face radiant after a night of pure sex, a woman awakened. According to the rules of Levirate or “Niyog” she is allowed to do this two more times and she demands it. The irony is obvious but seeing it on the screen is powerful. The portrayal of a woman who enjoys sex as an act and is not a "whore" and is not traumatized by guilt because of it is rare in our movies and almost unheard of in reality.
We also saw "Latoo" a documentary about the state of classical dance in Pakistan today. I learnt a lot of things from it. Odissi exists in Pakistan, Sheema Karim is a lovely exponent of the dance form, Pashtun movies are filled with explicit song and dance sequences performed by well endowed women, hijras dance to Bollywood music for a "lower middle class crowd" and that high class fashion shows in the privacy of the high society world in Pakistan display as much skin as anywhere else in the world. All could be topics for fascinating individual films. But in this documentary the voiceover ruined everything. The words were judgmental, the delivery had a chastising tone-- calling everything else but the classical dance forms a "degenerate" way of dance.
I understand the tone to some extent. Classical arts have always had to struggle with popular art. Learning Odissi for the last two years I have grown to appreciate the rigor required to be a good dancer. I have also never been a big fan of the style of dance termed as "Bollywood dancing". But nevertheless the argument for the existence and encouragement of classical dance lies in the intrinsic value of the art form, and not in relation to other types of dance. Picking on marginalized societies and critiquing their means of earning a living seems too defensive and bitter of an argument.
With all that I was still excited to learn about Sheema Karim, the Odissi dancer. She spoke of experimentations where she had performed Odissi to Urdu poetry and even English poetry. For me the melodious Oriya songs are a big part of why I enjoy Odissi. My curiosity is aroused and I hope to be able to see her dance some day. My web research doesn't show any performances outside of Pakistan, so it might be a while.
Speaking of dance...I went to class today, after more than 4 months. Asako is back after months, and is still recovering from cancer. I am amazed at how well she is doing and how she is still stronger than any of us in class. My knees hurt but I have never felt so good.
