Comrade Chakra

I do not know how many times it has happened with you, but I can recall various occasions when I and others I know, have returned from a movie totally disappointed. No, not because it was a bad movie but because it turned out to be too heavily censored. It is not a well kept secret that the success of “Film Festivals” at one time depended on the collection of “bold” films that would form part of the “World Cinema Panorama” . These films would be much sought after among the discerning audience not for the fancy camera work, or play of light and shadow or distinctive editing techniques, but because of the various bold scenes. French cinema and various East European cinemas would fit the bill (not that they were otherwise deviod of rich cinematic content, but then, who's watching that!). These scenes would be well publicised by the festival organisers through the media by organising discussion forums and seminars featuring the local cognoscenti and the intelligentsia. However, occa...

How many times in your life do you get the chance to say “I told you so”. If the answer is “very often” get out of here you bore. If you say ‘never’ well, get out of here anyway, you must be either too dumb or too polite. Sometime back I had written about big changes coming (see previous post) and how our tastes, preferences and priorities are changing. Well, now that Om Shanti Om (aka OSO ...the uncannily similar sounding title acquired by a certain Rajnish who also was closely associated with nudity and ofcourse sex...and ok...if you insist..divinity) and Sawariya have released, I can, for once, proudly say…I told you so. Nudity and filmdom have gone hand in hand since…well since we had films I guess. Bollywood , or rather the part of Indian film industry that is based out of Mumbai (how long winded is that!) has had several watershed moments as far as nudity goes. Dimple Kapadia in Sagar , Kimi Katkar in Tarzan and predating all these, Zeenat Aman in Satyam Shivam Sundaram ...