Thursday, January 28, 2010

Delicious Thursday sundry.


1. Siddharth, a gift that keeps on giving in the form of a young man hailing from Tamil Nadu, has awarded us, his international fans, an amazing opportunity. According to his Twitter, Striker, his new Hindi feature film, is going to be available on youtube on the day of its theatrical release. With subtitles.

Apparently Indian netizens and American ones won't have the benefit of this precious treat, thanks to the movie appearing on their screens in actual theaters, but we Euros do and let me tell you on the behalf of this great continent: we are romba santosh (that is, very happy). Oh and Americans have to cough up a few bucks to view it, I hear, so they'll still be able to view it.

I have no idea how the thing will work in practise but February 5th is the date this movie hits screens, online and off, and I am marking my calendar with a big heart-shaped circle.

Hence excited capital letters: HOLY CRAP HOW AWESOME IS THIS I CAN'T HANDLE IT AT ALL.

2. Yahoo! Mail and its Citibank advertising banner thinks I'm an NRI and hence worth appealling to with this:

I like Saif. I'm fine with Bipasha. But you cannot, and WILL NOT entice me to apply for a checking account for a free download of Race. That movie is no-go.

3. The above Siddharth screencap is from Oy, which I'll review shortly now that I have screencaps. You know what I really enjoy about Bhavani DVD's releases? Sure I have to jump through monetary hoops to get to them, but in return I get no annoying anti-piracy ads and this:

See, this is what all those Western DVD makers haven't realized. You can't put anti-piracy ads on a legal DVD. That's a turn-off. Why not instead thank us for supporting the legal product?

This feels like a good time to link to two things:

Memsaab's brilliant Indian DVD rant

Adam Buxton's (British comedian) hilarious song about piracy

4. Has anybody read Pran's biography simplistically titled ..And Pran - A Biography? I kind of want to read but am hesitant to order it as I've never tried to track down Indian books from unknown Indian sites.

And while we're at it, any Hindi/Tamil/Telugu film related recommended reading in book form? I have Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief (brilliant overall look at the industry and making of Omkara, essentially) and Maximum City (on all aspects of Bombay/Mumbai, fascinating read) already.

5. Don't forget the poll!

7 comments:

MinaiMinai said...

You lucky Euros, I am jealous! :)

I totally agree with you about the Bhavani "thank you" credit screen- I love it too! It makes me want to hug the screen and say "awwwww!" and feel warm and fuzzy inside for my doing such a good deed! :D

My word verification is "topsu," which immediately made me think of the Telugu pronunciation of "tops." ;)

Filmi Girl said...

Hello, lovely!

...And Pran is highly sanitized but enjoyable. Have you read "Helen" by Jerry Pinto? That is a great one! And there is one on the Big B that is really good... I don't remember the title but it was originally a PhD project that morphed into a book.

Ness said...

Slightly crude but funny spoof of piracy ads from Brit-com The IT Crowd:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wRxfz_6E7o

Hahah the internet thinks I am an NRI too, I love getting those ads imploring me to open an account with Citibank!

ajnabi said...

You should see my Google adwords when I open e-mails from Induna. I could get onto Shaadi.com!

On topic, I can't tell you how happy the Striker news makes me, except this: SO HAPPY.

anitarama said...

Hmm, I'm thinking Striker will release in SOME theatre here in Canada, will we still get it on Youtube as well?!

Anonymous said...

Book recommendations:

The Kapoors by Madhu Jain is an interesting look into the Kapoor dynasty from Prithviraj Kapoor to the modern day.

Balham to Bollywood was amusing. There is some cricket talk, but it's great for insights into the filming of Lagaan.

Shooting Water by Devyani Saltzman, Deepa Mehta's daughter, tells both about her relationship with her mother and about the filming process and all the trouble the Water production went through.

Pran biography sounds interesting!

Harrow Plumbers said...

I knew there was a reason why I am happy to be European !