Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Bollywood 101
As regular readers of this site know, in a former life I was something of a scholar of Bollywood cinema (I promise this will be my last Bollywood-related post for a while!). A couple of years ago a friend asked me to compile a list of my favorite films, which I recently happened upon and decided to reproduce here.
For the most part, these are the films that I would include in an introductory class on post-Independence Hindi cinema and the historical and cultural contexts that produced it. I make no claim to comprehensiveness -- this list skews heavily toward my interests in religion and nationalism in India and towards more recent films. But if you're thinking of diving into Bollywood, you could do worse than starting with these films.
1. Shree 420 (Raj Kapoor, 1955) - Kapoor, the Chaplain-esque king of early Bollywood became an international hero in the Soviet Union for this condemnation of greed and capitalist corruption.
2. Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1957) - Perhaps the most well-known film in India, and an ideological endorsement of Nehru's industrial-developmental socialism over the traditionalist feudalism portrayed as pervasive in village India.
3. Mughal-e-Azam (K. Asif, 1960) - One of the finest "historicals," this period piece is best known for its lyrical Urdu dialogue and beautiful cinematography.
4. Jai Santoshi Maa (Vijay Sharma, 1975) - A throwback to the early "mythologicals" (most of the early Indian movies were stories of gods and saints), JSM basically established a nationwide cult for a previously little-known goddess; a prime example of the interaction of media and religion in Indian culture.
5. Deewaar (Yash Chopra, 1975) and
6. Sholay (G.P. Sippy, 1975) - The movies that turned Amitabh Bachchan from a star into a god; great examples of the "angry young man" genre that featured disenfranchised and dissatisfied young men as their heroes, reflecting a growing disillusionment with the ineffectiveness and corruption of the government in the 1970s.
7. Amar Akbar Anthony (Manmohan Desai, 1977) - My personal favorite, for reasons ranging from the excellent music to the ridiculous costumes; also ground zero for my study of the intersection of religious and national space in Bollywood cinema.
8. Disco Dancer (Baabar Subhash, 1982) - THE Bollywood movie to watch for camp/kitsch, it is a remake of "Saturday Night Fever;" unexplainably, also one of the most popular movies in West Africa.
9. Tezaab (N. Chandra, 1988) - A terrible movie, but a perfect example of the state of Bollywood in the 80s; also helped launch the career of Madhuri Dixit with the song "Ek, Do, Tin."
10. Khal Nayak (Subhash, Ghai 1993) - A reimagining of the Ramayana as a police drama; most notable for the song "Chole Ke Piche" and the incredibly absurd outfits worn by Sanjay Dutt.
11. Hum Aapke Hain Koun (Sooraj R. Barjatya, 1994) - Not a single fight scene to be had, Bollywood begins turning away from the angry young man and back toward the love story/family drama; as economic liberalizations begin to transform India, conspicuous consumption starts becoming a family value.
12. Bombay (Mani Ratnam, 1995) - A beautifully shot and acted film about the aftermath of the 1992 Ayodhya conflict and the riots in its wake.
13. Pardes (Subhash Ghai, 1997) - Not really a good movie, but interesting in its depictions of the conflicts in Indian social life as more and more Indians go abroad.
14. Dil To Pagal Hai (Yash Chopra, 1997) - A fun, goofy, infectious movie, with Shah Rukh Khan at his best (i.e. before people started thinking he was a dramatic actor)
15. Dil Se (Mani Ratnam, 1998) - Mani Ratnam does it again -- and with maybe the best soundtrack ever by A.R. Rahman.
16. Dil Chahta Hai (Farhan Akhtar, 2001) - MTV starts making its presence felt in this coming of age drama about three hip young friends.
17. Devdas (Sanjay Leela Bhansali, 2002) - Maybe the most beautifully shot Bollywood film ever, and fantastic music; Shah Rukh really can't pull off the dramatic lead, though.
18. Main Hoon Na (Farah Khan, 2004) - post-modern, self-referential and ironic, yet loving tribute to the masala film; ridiculous plot but funny and technically perfect -- and great songs, of course.
19. Swades (Ashutosh Gowariker, 2004) - Something of an answer to "Pardes," addressing the question of what happens when NRIs return to India.
20. Rang De Basanti (Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, 2006) - A sensation in India at the time of release, it mixes together the stories of anti-British Indian revolutionaries with the political awakening of a group of young friends.
Did I leave off your favorite movie? Of course I did. Let me know in the comments!
For the most part, these are the films that I would include in an introductory class on post-Independence Hindi cinema and the historical and cultural contexts that produced it. I make no claim to comprehensiveness -- this list skews heavily toward my interests in religion and nationalism in India and towards more recent films. But if you're thinking of diving into Bollywood, you could do worse than starting with these films.
1. Shree 420 (Raj Kapoor, 1955) - Kapoor, the Chaplain-esque king of early Bollywood became an international hero in the Soviet Union for this condemnation of greed and capitalist corruption.
2. Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1957) - Perhaps the most well-known film in India, and an ideological endorsement of Nehru's industrial-developmental socialism over the traditionalist feudalism portrayed as pervasive in village India.
3. Mughal-e-Azam (K. Asif, 1960) - One of the finest "historicals," this period piece is best known for its lyrical Urdu dialogue and beautiful cinematography.
4. Jai Santoshi Maa (Vijay Sharma, 1975) - A throwback to the early "mythologicals" (most of the early Indian movies were stories of gods and saints), JSM basically established a nationwide cult for a previously little-known goddess; a prime example of the interaction of media and religion in Indian culture.
5. Deewaar (Yash Chopra, 1975) and
6. Sholay (G.P. Sippy, 1975) - The movies that turned Amitabh Bachchan from a star into a god; great examples of the "angry young man" genre that featured disenfranchised and dissatisfied young men as their heroes, reflecting a growing disillusionment with the ineffectiveness and corruption of the government in the 1970s.
7. Amar Akbar Anthony (Manmohan Desai, 1977) - My personal favorite, for reasons ranging from the excellent music to the ridiculous costumes; also ground zero for my study of the intersection of religious and national space in Bollywood cinema.
8. Disco Dancer (Baabar Subhash, 1982) - THE Bollywood movie to watch for camp/kitsch, it is a remake of "Saturday Night Fever;" unexplainably, also one of the most popular movies in West Africa.
9. Tezaab (N. Chandra, 1988) - A terrible movie, but a perfect example of the state of Bollywood in the 80s; also helped launch the career of Madhuri Dixit with the song "Ek, Do, Tin."
10. Khal Nayak (Subhash, Ghai 1993) - A reimagining of the Ramayana as a police drama; most notable for the song "Chole Ke Piche" and the incredibly absurd outfits worn by Sanjay Dutt.
11. Hum Aapke Hain Koun (Sooraj R. Barjatya, 1994) - Not a single fight scene to be had, Bollywood begins turning away from the angry young man and back toward the love story/family drama; as economic liberalizations begin to transform India, conspicuous consumption starts becoming a family value.
12. Bombay (Mani Ratnam, 1995) - A beautifully shot and acted film about the aftermath of the 1992 Ayodhya conflict and the riots in its wake.
13. Pardes (Subhash Ghai, 1997) - Not really a good movie, but interesting in its depictions of the conflicts in Indian social life as more and more Indians go abroad.
14. Dil To Pagal Hai (Yash Chopra, 1997) - A fun, goofy, infectious movie, with Shah Rukh Khan at his best (i.e. before people started thinking he was a dramatic actor)
15. Dil Se (Mani Ratnam, 1998) - Mani Ratnam does it again -- and with maybe the best soundtrack ever by A.R. Rahman.
16. Dil Chahta Hai (Farhan Akhtar, 2001) - MTV starts making its presence felt in this coming of age drama about three hip young friends.
17. Devdas (Sanjay Leela Bhansali, 2002) - Maybe the most beautifully shot Bollywood film ever, and fantastic music; Shah Rukh really can't pull off the dramatic lead, though.
18. Main Hoon Na (Farah Khan, 2004) - post-modern, self-referential and ironic, yet loving tribute to the masala film; ridiculous plot but funny and technically perfect -- and great songs, of course.
19. Swades (Ashutosh Gowariker, 2004) - Something of an answer to "Pardes," addressing the question of what happens when NRIs return to India.
20. Rang De Basanti (Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, 2006) - A sensation in India at the time of release, it mixes together the stories of anti-British Indian revolutionaries with the political awakening of a group of young friends.
Did I leave off your favorite movie? Of course I did. Let me know in the comments!
Labels: bollywood, recommendations
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
iPhone = design porn
Yes, I'm coming to this party rather late -- if I'm going to drop several hundred bucks on a gadget, I want to be sure that all of the bugs have been worked out before I do so. But about three weeks ago, armed with an Apple gift card that my wife gave me for my birthday, I finally took the plunge. And I have to say that -- despite all the geeky hype and the fact that I've been a Mac user for fifteen years, and thus should no longer be surprised by anything they do -- the iPhone has blown me away.
Sure, there are problems -- AT&T's Edge network really is as slow as people say, and if your fingers are larger than an eight-year-old's you will spend a lot of time backspacing over typographic errors. But overall, the device is a joy to use. When you work with computers all day every day you constantly bump up against applications and devices that were obviously designed by programmers or engineers of some sort, and that are thus designed FOR programmers or engineers. The all-important empathic act -- transporting yourself out of your own head into the head of a user with entirely different experiences and goals -- is usually the missing step that could have made these products great.
But with the iPhone, as with most of its products, Apple puts the user experience first. It takes an extraordinary problem -- how do you provide much of the functionality of a personal computer on a tiny mobile device? -- and provides simple and elegant solutions. For this reason alone, the user interface is beautiful. But the real magic, as with all good design, happens in the details. Just as one example, consider the way the screen appears to bounce a little bit if you scroll quickly to the top or the bottom of the screen. This tiny detail, which on the surface seems gratuitous, pulls you into the tactile world of the interface, giving you the impression that you are interacting with a physical object rather than pixels on a tiny screen.
Sure, there are problems -- AT&T's Edge network really is as slow as people say, and if your fingers are larger than an eight-year-old's you will spend a lot of time backspacing over typographic errors. But overall, the device is a joy to use. When you work with computers all day every day you constantly bump up against applications and devices that were obviously designed by programmers or engineers of some sort, and that are thus designed FOR programmers or engineers. The all-important empathic act -- transporting yourself out of your own head into the head of a user with entirely different experiences and goals -- is usually the missing step that could have made these products great.
But with the iPhone, as with most of its products, Apple puts the user experience first. It takes an extraordinary problem -- how do you provide much of the functionality of a personal computer on a tiny mobile device? -- and provides simple and elegant solutions. For this reason alone, the user interface is beautiful. But the real magic, as with all good design, happens in the details. Just as one example, consider the way the screen appears to bounce a little bit if you scroll quickly to the top or the bottom of the screen. This tiny detail, which on the surface seems gratuitous, pulls you into the tactile world of the interface, giving you the impression that you are interacting with a physical object rather than pixels on a tiny screen.
Labels: design, recommendations
Friday, February 15, 2008
Lost & Lonesome
Last Saturday, fellow Lost Cartographer Gabrielle Schafer and I played a short three-song acoustic set at the Charleston as the guests of the Long Gone Lonesome Boys. Aside from being incredibly nice guys, the Boys put on an amazing show, and the LGLBs' John Milne was kind enough to give me a copy of their second cd, "Lonesome Time." While the disc doesn't quite capture the fun and energy of their live set, you should check it out if you enjoy 50s and 60s country along the lines of the Louvin Brothers or anything from Sun Records. Like fellow Chicagoan Robbie Fulks, the LGLBs provide this classic material with wicked wit and a decidedly 21st-century twist (e.g. one of their songs is called "www.lonesome.com," and features the line "tired of Googling porn/and playing with my flugelhorn"). If you can catch them live, by all means do so -- but if you can't, you should pick up this record.
Labels: lostcartographers, music, recommendations
Sunday, January 27, 2008
My Top Five Albums of 2007
Ok, it's about a month too late for "best of " lists, and the idea of "best albums" seems so 20th-century in this Age of Shuffle. But I still wanted to note some of my favorites from this year.
Surprisingly, some of my favorite bands' eagerly anticipated new albums didn't make the cut (Arcade Fire, the Shins, Wilco). Instead, my list is headed by two bands I found out about just this year:
Surprisingly, some of my favorite bands' eagerly anticipated new albums didn't make the cut (Arcade Fire, the Shins, Wilco). Instead, my list is headed by two bands I found out about just this year:
- The Broken West: "I Can't Go On, I'll Go On
" - Americana/roots rock a la Tom Petty, but full of pure pop sunshine.
- O'Death: "Head Home
" - Saw these guys at the Hideout Block Party. Full-on country-punk madness from this New York band.
- Modest Mouse: "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
" - The one highly anticipated album that actually lived up to the hype.
- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: "Raising Sand
" - I never thought I'd like anything Robert Plant did this much, but these are beautiful songs.
- Josh Ritter: "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter (with Bonus EP)
" - My Oberlin College classmate finally starts rockin' out.
Labels: music, recommendations
Monday, January 21, 2008
How To Stay Sane On The CTA
My Roscoe Village apartment and the University where I work are only about 8 miles apart, as the crow flies. Somehow, though, I manage to spend nearly three hours a day trapped in the belly of the beast known as the Chicago Transit Authority, or CTA. In between doomsday scenarios and derailments, I've used my daily public transportation sentence to get a fair amount of reading done. In the last couple of years, though, much of my commuting time has been spent listening to podcasts. Here's a quick guide to some of my favorites, listed by topic:
Music:
Paste Culture Club - Paste is almost my perfect music magazine: heavy does of alt.country/americana and indie rock, with occasional forays into underground hip-hop and the just-plain-weird. While they may throw in a few too many earnestly mediocre singer-songwriters, I'll take that any day over the Frankenstein's monster Rolling Stone has become -- the reanimated corpses of Boomer nostalgia acts steered by the criminally insane brain of top-40 teen-pop (shudder). Paste's biweekly podcast features full-length songs, interviews, and news about new releases.
Sound Opinions - Featuring Chicago's own major-paper rock critics, "The World's Only Rock-and-Roll Talk Show" was on WXRT when I moved to town, and has since moved to Chicago Public Radio. I'm pretty sure it's one of the only shows on public radio where you'll ever hear people wax on about the talents of Ghostface Killah.
Design:
Design Matters - Sterling Brands' Debbie Millman (she designed the Burger King logo, among others) interviews some of the top designers in the field (Steven Heller, Milton Glaser, etc.), along with other cultural luminaries like Malcolm Gladwell.
Be A Design Cast - A group of young designers from (of all places) Omaha puts together this entertaining bi-weekly podcast. They too interview design big-wigs (including Debbie Millman), but don't take themselves (or much of anything, except Mountain Dew can redesigns) too seriously.
Freelance Radio - Not really a design show, but applicable to those like myself who do freelance design work. The hosts discuss things like contracts, time management techniques, and client horror stories.
Web Design:
Boagworld - Hosted by two Brits who run a web design company called Headscape. The dynamic between old friends Paul, the often-cranky designer type and Marcus, the ex-pop-star salesman/project manager is itself worth listening to the show. The fact that it's full of interesting news, reviews, and interviews is just icing on the cake.
Miscellaneous:
This American Life - Single-handedly responsible for making me a member of Chicago Public Radio, TAL is the most popular podcast on iTunes. I actually listened to all 300-plus episodes on the web before they began podcasting, which means I wait with baited breath each week to see if the lastest podcast will be a new episode or a rerun.
The Story - Kind of like TAL, but daily.
Savage Lovecast - "America's only advice columnist" Dan Savage is even funnier live than he is in his weekly column. Warning: anyone who doesn't find hilarity in the idea of elderly grandmothers inadvertently pleasuring their pet parakeets probably shouldn't listen.
So -- any suggestions for ones I should absolutely add to my list? I'm all ears.
Music:
Paste Culture Club - Paste is almost my perfect music magazine: heavy does of alt.country/americana and indie rock, with occasional forays into underground hip-hop and the just-plain-weird. While they may throw in a few too many earnestly mediocre singer-songwriters, I'll take that any day over the Frankenstein's monster Rolling Stone has become -- the reanimated corpses of Boomer nostalgia acts steered by the criminally insane brain of top-40 teen-pop (shudder). Paste's biweekly podcast features full-length songs, interviews, and news about new releases.
Sound Opinions - Featuring Chicago's own major-paper rock critics, "The World's Only Rock-and-Roll Talk Show" was on WXRT when I moved to town, and has since moved to Chicago Public Radio. I'm pretty sure it's one of the only shows on public radio where you'll ever hear people wax on about the talents of Ghostface Killah.
Design:
Design Matters - Sterling Brands' Debbie Millman (she designed the Burger King logo, among others) interviews some of the top designers in the field (Steven Heller, Milton Glaser, etc.), along with other cultural luminaries like Malcolm Gladwell.
Be A Design Cast - A group of young designers from (of all places) Omaha puts together this entertaining bi-weekly podcast. They too interview design big-wigs (including Debbie Millman), but don't take themselves (or much of anything, except Mountain Dew can redesigns) too seriously.
Freelance Radio - Not really a design show, but applicable to those like myself who do freelance design work. The hosts discuss things like contracts, time management techniques, and client horror stories.
Web Design:
Boagworld - Hosted by two Brits who run a web design company called Headscape. The dynamic between old friends Paul, the often-cranky designer type and Marcus, the ex-pop-star salesman/project manager is itself worth listening to the show. The fact that it's full of interesting news, reviews, and interviews is just icing on the cake.
Miscellaneous:
This American Life - Single-handedly responsible for making me a member of Chicago Public Radio, TAL is the most popular podcast on iTunes. I actually listened to all 300-plus episodes on the web before they began podcasting, which means I wait with baited breath each week to see if the lastest podcast will be a new episode or a rerun.
The Story - Kind of like TAL, but daily.
Savage Lovecast - "America's only advice columnist" Dan Savage is even funnier live than he is in his weekly column. Warning: anyone who doesn't find hilarity in the idea of elderly grandmothers inadvertently pleasuring their pet parakeets probably shouldn't listen.
So -- any suggestions for ones I should absolutely add to my list? I'm all ears.
Labels: design, music, podcasts, recommendations
