Bollywood Lives

By today's special guest blogger, Hooray For Bollywood gossip columnist Ganesh Parthak



Greetings! Today's edition of Hooray For Bollywood is brought to you by New India Air. New India Air - where everyone flies first caste.

So what's buzzin' in Bollywood this week? Besides our nuclear reactors, the story generating the most heat is the marriage of actress/singer/superstar Janaknandini Novandi ("J-No") to Hindu music hearthrob Tushar Shamir. You know, Janaknandini has been married so many times now, she might as well travel with a sacred fire. But seriously, who can blame her for giving the holy union another shot? Her first marriage was arranged, and ended when her beloved "found the spirit" in a yak; her second spoilt by the pressures of sudden fame, like so many relationships where the wife earns greater karma than the husband. So let's just hope this marriage of two multi-talented Brahmins is the one that lasts several lifetimes. While the happy couple honeymoons in the Himalayas, HFB says, Don't do anything I wouldn't do - and if you do, name it after the Great God of Righteous Devotion!

Tongues are also wagging over the news that Mohan Bhatti, handsome star of the popular soap The Bold and the Heretical, has just outed himself as an untouchable. Of course, rumours to this effect have been circulating for years. But most Bolly journalists were respectful enough not to trawl through trash in the Mohan family village. Mohan himself says he didn't make this announcement to head off the tabloids but to be an example for other untouchables in the entertainment industry. Bhatti also states that he is not looking to exploit this area of his private life. "I don't want to be thought of as an 'untouchable actor' but as an actor who happens to be untouchable," Mohan tells The Daily Vishnu. For all the controversy, make no mistake: Mohan Bhatti is still one of the most eligible bachelors in Bollywood, if you're willing to be disowned by your family.

Quick Cuts: Everyone's favorite funnymen, Bhagwan Ghosh and Omar Debnath, have reunited for another buddy comedy. This time they go undercover at a Calcutta leper colony in All Hands Off Daki...Who was that mystery man with Lakshmi Guta last night at the opening of the Bengali House of Bliss? As they say, that was no man, that was a eunich! Yes, Lakshmi is a big advocate of eunich pride and often hits the club scene with a hijra friend or two. Lakshmi may love the night life but she certainly hasn't given up her day job: her new album is now complete and is said to be heavily informed by Guta's studies of Western mysticism (can you believe she's read the Left Behind series twice?!)...The most highly-anticipated documentary of the year is hitting theaters soon. It looks at the human impact of "insourcing", ie. shifting business from a part of India where labor is cheap to a part where it is even cheaper. Entitled Rajiv And Me, the film by first-time director Mihir More is garnering raves from critics everywhere, though representatives of the Indian auto industry are saying it plays fast and loose with the satyam...

I want to conclude today's column with a special plea to the writers, directors and producers of Bollywood. In a time when negative consciousness seems to be suffusing the globe, is it not the responsibility of the artistic community in India to set forth a more positive vision? To that end, I feel it is time to dispense with the insulting stereotypes of Westerners predominant in so much of Indian mass media. In particular, the depiction of North Americans as greedy socially inept merchants who come to our country only to gawk at our women and exploit our youth has got to end. Aren't immigrants to India entitled to learn a living too, as long as they obey our laws and don't disrupt the chakra? Remember, the one you find beneath you today may well be above you on the sacred ladder of tomorrow. As Mohatmas Costello once sang, What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding That All Life Is Transitory?

From Bollywood with Baba Ganoush wishes and curry dreams,

GP