I just watched the new FLDS documentary, and now I’m listening to a really good in depth podcast on the Short Creek polygamist community in America. Which has got me thinking about polygamy, and how it is present in all cultures to some degree, and yet in the modern world we resist acknowledging it.
Continue readingThe 8 central characters are such great types, super fun to cast. Don’t worry, if you somehow don’t know the story, I will summarize the main bits that are important for casting.
Continue readingI’m back! I kept thinking I had already finished this, and I think that is just because I already wrote my Karna post, and like Duryodhana, I felt like once he died, why go on?
Continue readingPart 6! Back to the main storyline after a detour into Krishna and Karna. Although I guess there will be more detours here, that’s what the Mahabharat is about, all the little stories that make us think about how things happen, how they begin and end.
Continue readingI already did Karna, now here is the other main character of the Mahabharat who is not part of the Pandava 5 brothers, Krishna.
The Mahabharat is so complex, each character is the lead in their own story, and each character (of the many many characters) could easily have their own post. But I am going to restrain myself and just focus on the two most intriguing (to me) characters of the epic who are not part of the Pandavas or the Kauravas, Krishna and Karna.
Okay, it’s the really really complicated one! And it’s supposed to be complicated, the Mahabharat is a challenge to us to understand the complexities of the world and the choices we make in it.
I want to clarify, I am in no way a religious scholar or even just a regular average Hindu. This is the story and philosophy at the most basic level as I have gleaned it through reading various simple versions of the text, and seeing how it played out in the lives of people I know and in the films.
This was a request from Angie, to break down the essential elements of these stories and save you the effort of trying to research them yourself. Obviously, if you are a desi person, you already know them more than well enough. But if you are a non-desi, I can give you a sort of primer on them.
Happy Monday! So much news to catch up on! For instance, Amitabh went to the hospital, which is always an exciting experience for the international news media. Poor Amitabh, can you imagine if every time you went in for a routine procedure, your picture was headlines everywhere in the world? So stressful!
Okay, the Aamir story has finally reached the point that I feel like it is worth reporting instead of ignoring. And the point when I am hitting myself in the forehead and going “well, duh! Why didn’t I put that together before?”
I already posted a spoiler free review, discussing the major themes and meanings of the film. Now I think I am ready to get into the nitty-gritty details of what happened and why it was like that.
I am having such an American weekend! Star Wars yesterday, and finally catching up on Fargo today! But, since I am still a student of Indian film, just like Star Wars yesterday, Fargo made me start thinking about what it has in common with Indian narratives, and how those narratives might actually be universal.
In this case, the Mahabharata. Or more accurately, the Mahabharata versus the Ramayana.
dontcallitbollywood 