Om Malik

Ever wonder what’s up with all these movies coming out – here is a low down from a fellow blogger

In the last few years, there has been a spate of low budget Indian English movies. They don’t have the polish and sophistication that established directors, expensive sets and pricy cinematographers bring to a movie. But neither do they suffer as much from Bollywoodish melodrama. There were also the sleeper hits of last year from well known Indie directors, Mira Nayar (Monsoon Wedding) and Gurinder Chadha (‘Bend it like Beckham’). Both crossed the cultural chasm that plagues movies about South Asian experiences.

What triggered this particular bout of profundities is reading the reviews of Everybody says I’m fine, the first feature film made by Rahul Bose and ‘Where is the party yaar’, directed by Benny Mathews ((via Sajit Gandi and Prashant Kothari respectively). [Random Notes]

Looking for Love…well if you are in Bombay, one thing is for sure, it is not at home. Instead you have to go elsewhere to well *makeout.*

Along Marine Drive, a sweeping ocean promenade ringed by fading art-deco buildings, lovers gather along the sea wall, kissing and caressing each other, seemingly oblivious to the showers of sea spray and frenetic traffic around them.

The new sexual permissiveness in India notwithstanding, Bombay wallahs have a space problem.

But even as Bombayites are finding love, they have nowhere to take it. With downtown apartments often costing $300,000 and salaries averaging $3,000 a year, buying, or even renting, a place of their own is an impossible dream for most.

Its Booker Prize season, and yes our favorite Bengali writer, Monica Ali is a 2-to-1 favorite for winning the Booker Prize.

The other main bookmaker, Ladbrokes, picked as their 2-1 favorite “Brick Lane” by Monica Ali, who moved to Britain from Bangladesh as a young child and takes her birthplace as the setting for her debut novel.

Ali is likely to win the 50,000 pound ($80,000) prize on Oct. 14, reports The New York Times via Reuters.

Director and producer Ram Gopal Varma (aka “RGV”) has revolutionized India’s tradition-bound film biz, rejecting classic costume musicals and weepy melodramas for gritty, urban, low-budget realism. [ Salon.com ]

• Visionary Underground (UK) + Dhamaal Soundsystem (SF) + special guest DJ Tree (Mystik Alchemy), Friday 09.19.03 @ IACC Center (2210 Lincoln Blvd, Venice)
• Visionary Underground on FutureBreaks FM
  Tune in and listen to 90.3 KUSF for an hour long DJ/Tabla Set with DJ Feelfree and Aref Durvesh. Futurebreaks aires every Saturday from 4pm-6pm (San Francisco)
• Visionary Underground UK, Dhamaal Sound System and Sukhawat Ali Khan @ Club Six @ 60 6th Street(between Market & Mission at Jessie) ($10.00 before 11pm $12 after) : 10:00pm – 3.30 am

Okay you are hungry and are looking for a quick currydown where do you go to find the nearest balti place. If you are in UK, you click here. If anywhere else, well you are on your own.

MIT Technology Review is just out with its big TR100 list of cool and smart people in the technology business. Bunch of brown-faces in the digital centurions. About 12 percent of the total. Here are some noteables. (Well I could not come-up with catchy phrases for all of them)

• Dot.Net Daddy, Vic Gundotra
• Need a liver, call Sangeeta Bhatia
• Protein Shaker, Kirshna Kumar
• Fraud catcher, Ravikant Pappu
• Spam Buster, Vipul Ved Prakash

Hey all wannabe actors, Arth Arts, Inc., Washington, DC and New York’s leading Cultural Arts Theater and Film production company could use your talent for a full length play. Interested, try out at George Washington University on Friday, September 19th, 6:30pm-8:30pm, 4th floor-Marvin Center or go the next day, same campus at 1:00pm-3:00pm, but this time in the McNair Auditorium-New North. For more information, please visit us online at www.ArthArts.com and email Sumeet@ArthArts.com or Mika@ArthArts.com

• The Sonic Social – this Saturday 9.20.03 @ open air (121 St. Marks @ Avenue A) in New York @ 10:30PM. More details.
• MagMahal,Saturday, September 20th ~10p-3a
  @ Sayat Nova Lounge, 157 E. Ohio off Chicago’s Mag Mile
  (1/2 block east of Michigan Avenue)