Category: Pop culture

  • Official Song of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 – Another Bust

    The official song of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (SEL), was released on Dec 31, 2010. In my opinion, it’s another miss, close on the heels of A.R. Rahman’s official song for the Commonwealth Games. It’s easy to explain why you love a song or why you hate one, but really hard…

  • Quentin Tarantino songs

    I watched Inglourious Basterds last night and, as with other Tarantino movies I have seen, loved the songs as much as the movie itself. There is a certain quality to Tarantino songs – off-beat, melodic, dark, retro – that sounds amazing in the movies but also make for great listening by themselves. My original plan…

  • India’s First Backward Narrative Song?

    There are many reasons to watch “Manmadhan Ambu”, Kamal Hasan’s movie released yesterday. For me, just one was enough – the backward narrative song “Neela Vaanam”. There is something weirdly compelling about watching a story unfold backwards. It’s jaw dropping how everything in the song moves backwards, except Kamal’s lips which sync perfectly with the…

  • AR Rahman’s 2011 Golden Globe Nomination

    Golden Globe announced the nominations for 2011 awards. The nominations for ” BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MOTION PICTURE” are as follows: Alexandre Desplat – The King’s Speech Danny Elfman – Alice In Wonderland A.R. Rahman – 127 Hours Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross – The Social Network Hans Zimmer – Inception As a big AR Rahman…

  • Why India Survives

    Two incidents in my apartment complex resulted in a lot of debate related to religion and language in India: 1.     Religion – It was discovered that two maidservants who identified themselves with Hindu names were actually Muslims. The residents’ association banned these individuals from the complex since their integrity was now in question. Debate: Did the…

  • We will not touch your junk

    Indians aren’t private people. We are conditioned by years of living in joint families or crowded communities, a throng of relatives visiting us or calling us over, and lots and lots of people all around us everywhere we go. So while, Americans demonstrate outrage at being patted down (and by the way, not even the…

  • Bollywood or MumFI?

    Amitabh Bachchan tweeted this last night – “T180 – FI : Film Industry, InFI : Indian Film Industry … a much recommended and apt name than the other plagiarized often used euphemism !”. I respect Mr Bachchan and am struck by his deep love for Bollywood. This is not the first time he has stood…

  • Mallus and booze

    True story. A group of friends are making plans to go out bar hopping. Someone asks the new guy in the group if he drinks. Pat comes the reply “What question are you asking, da? I am a Mallu!”. The Mallus’ fondness for hooch is well-known. At dusk, after a hard days work, hordes of…