Highlights:
- The South Asian Film Festival
- clips from early silent films at the Mission Cultural Center
- and an amazing crowd at Om Shanti Om for the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival at the Castro.
This story and all others will be collected at the series page, which is also linked on the left of the main site. We'd love to hear yours and hope to add a new each week, so send yours in! Submission requirements and instructions, as well as an overview of the project, are on the series page.
It makes so much sense to hear you talk about the crowd effect with Om Shanti Om - I feel the masala entertainer is something that really pays a theater viewing. Hollywood has its 3D and CGI extravaganzas; Bollywood has men in puffy shirts. Sounds fair, imo.
ReplyDeleteI saw OSO in the theater too - not a film festival at a movie palace, just regular opening weekend at a zillionplex in the Chicago suburbs, and my crowd was pretty rockin' too. Most definitely one I'm glad I caught in a full and appreciative audience.
ReplyDeleteAnd - nice one, Amrita! You sneaked a puffy shirt reference in!
@Beth - I iz sneakeh!
ReplyDeleteAishwarya's eyes blown up to planet-size? That sounds like esoteric sci-fi! Is Bollywood missing out on an opportunity to make great niche sci-fi?
ReplyDeleteBeth & Amrita, I'm really savouring this collection of podcasts!
ReplyDeleteTod, I'm so glad you talked about THAT song from OSO. A bit like yourself, I'm lost in a world of classic Bollywood so it often takes a while before a BIG movie registers on my radar. And there came a day when EVERYONE around me was discussing all those stars in THAT epic sequence from OSO. It made me feel so out of touch that I got the DVD and sat down to watch it as a matter of urgency. I had my misgivings about the film but counting off the stars during Deewangi Deewangi more than made up for it.
I loved hearing your experience of that song in particular at the cinema. I felt quite envious of your experience actually since your description of the crowd's reaction was really evocative, and I watched OSO by myself on DVD - my own fault though for leaving it so long!