Anton Yelchin and Victor Levin’s film 9 to 5, was the closing night film at the 2015 Cinequest Film Festival. I recollect vividly how patiently Yelchin and Levin stood at the Red Carpet answering all our questions. When it was my turn to interview them I checked with Yelchin if he could speak in Russian. And,… Continue Reading
We caught up with actress & animal activist Virginia McKenna during her visit to San Francisco’s Green Film Festival. This year marks the 50th anniversary of “Born Free,” that stars McKenna and Bill Travers, her husband. The film is based on the true story. Joy Adamson’s book Born Free captured how she and her husband helped raise… Continue Reading
Cascada de Flores is a San Francisco Bay area based music group that plays music from Mexico, Cuba and Latin America. The group was founded by Arwen Lawrence and Jorge Liceaga. We caught up with the group to find out about their work and music. They also performed a repertoire of songs. Lawrence is on vocals and… Continue Reading
Filmmaker and writer Rebecca Miller’s latest picture Maggie’s Plan is a 21stc romantic comedy that raises interesting questions about love, procreation and the need for companionship. We caught with Miller at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival to talk about the making of her film based on a novel by Karen Rinaldi. Maggie’s Plan is studded with quirky and… Continue Reading
Joshua Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg’s documentary Weiner is about Anthony Weiner, a former New York Congressman, who also ran for Mayor of New York in 2013. Kreigman worked as Weiner’s political consultant before becoming a filmmaker. The film takes you behind the scenes and chronicles Weiner’s political life and spotlights his 2013 run for Mayor of… Continue Reading
Filmmaker Rebecca Miller talks about Maggie’s Plan that stars Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Travis Fimmel and Julianne Moore. The film is based on a novel written by Karen Rinaldi. Miller wrote and directed Maggie’s Plan. We caught up with her at the San Francisco International Film Festival to find out more… Continue Reading
Kate Beckinsale talks about Love & Friendship, where she stars as the brilliant, charming and manipulative Lady Susan Vernon. She is a widow in search of sound prospects for her daughter and herself. The film is based on a Jane Austen’s epistolary novel called Lady Susan. This kind of novel is usually told via letters and diary… Continue Reading
We caught up with filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and actress Ariane Labed during the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival. Lanthimos was at the festival to show his first English feature film The Lobster. The Lobster has been described as a dark comedy and a dystopian Tour de Force. The film is about a parallel world with rules on… Continue Reading
Filmmaker Whit Stillman described as the Patron Saint of luxury on a budget by GQ wrote and directed Love & Friendship that is based on Jane Austen’s epistolary novella called Lady Susan. The novella was published after Austen’s death by her nephew. We caught up with Stillman during the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, where… Continue Reading
British actress and activist Virginia McKenna talks about Born Free, a film based on Jay Adamson’s novel by the same name. Born Free celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. McKenna and her husband Bill Travers acted in the film about bringing up a little orphaned lion cub called Elsa. The picture’s title song Born Free… Continue Reading
Highlights of an upcoming interview with Kate Beckinsale on her film Love and Friendship. This was the opening night film at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival. The film is based on a Jane Austen novel. Beckinsale plays the lead role of Lady Susan Vernon. Others in the film include Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel , Stephen… Continue Reading
The Man Who Knew Infinity is a 2016 film about the life of the Indian mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, who was born in India in 1887 and died at the young age of 32 years old. Within a short period of time Ramanujan established his mathematical brilliance and became one of the youngest Fellows of the… Continue Reading
The 59th San Francisco International Film Festival is underway from now till May 5, 2016. With over 170 films showing at the festival it is always a challenge to figure out what films to watch and invariably you end up missing some really good films. That is my constant dilemma during film festivals, but the important thing is… Continue Reading
The 59th San Francisco International Film Festival starts today and continues till May 5, 2016. We sat down to speak with Rachel Rosen, director of programming at San Francisco Film Society to find out about the highlights of this year’s festival. The opening night film today is director Whit Stillman’s sharply funny film LOVE & FRIENDSHIP with… Continue Reading
Bollywood live concerts are back in a big way this year in San Francisco Bay area. And kicking off the season was a live concert by Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani or Vishal-Shekhar on Sunday, April 17, 2016 at San Jose’s Civic Center. The musical duo ended their whirlwind tour of the US with their final… Continue Reading
SOLD is a feature film about human trafficking and is based on the novel by the same name by Patricia McCormick. In this interview director Jeffrey Brown and actress Susmita Mukherjee take us behind the scenes. Brown shares how he read the book in one sitting and optioned for it the next day. He was… Continue Reading
Director Jeffrey D.Brown and actress Sushmita Mukherjee talk about SOLD, a film about human trafficking. SOLD is based on a novel by the same name by Patricia McCormick.The film is told from the perspective of Lakshmi, a 13-year old Nepali girl, who is sold to a brothel in Calcutta, India. Mumtaz (Mukherjee) plays the role of… Continue Reading
April is Jazz Appreciation Month. Hot music or jazz traces its roots to New Orleans in Louisiana. It was in New Orleans that Bardu Ali or Bardou Ali or Bahadur Ali was born in 1906 to an African-American mother and a father who came from India. Interestingly, Ali’s father Moksad Ali is believed to have… Continue Reading
March is Women’s History Month and here is a collection of my interviews with women from various walks of life from authors to filmmakers to entrepreneurs to engineers and venture capitalists. In each of these interviews the goal was to find out how about their journey and how they developed a passion for what they do. … Continue Reading
Oscar nominated director Lenny Abrahamson’s film Room has got 4 Oscar nominations. They are for best director, film, best female actress and best adapted screenplay. That the film scored 4 Oscar nominations may come as a surprise to some, but not to those who have seen the film. We recorded this interview with Abrahamson in San… Continue Reading
The San Jose Jazz Winter Fest starts on Feb 25th and runs all the way through March 8, 2016. And this year they have a great line-up of singers, who will perform in downtown San Jose and in Palo Alto. I think this is the first time San Jose Jazz is spreading its wings and reaching to… Continue Reading
Forget zooming up and down the coastal towns of Kerala, Karnataka and Goa to explore the various cuisines of this region. Instead head straight to Karavalli at Taj Gateway in Bangalore to explore new and old dishes from these coastal towns that are a patchwork quilt of Christian, Hindu and Muslim communities. There are the… Continue Reading
Indian filmmaker Prashant Nair’s award-winning film Umrika will screen at San Francisco’s CAAMFEST. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award. Umrika generated a lot of buzz after it premiered at Sundance. Umrika is a humorous film about a young man’s journey from Punjab, India to Umrika, or America.… Continue Reading
Nila trailer from Selvamani Selvaraj on Vimeo. Nila (Moon) from first time director/screenwriter Selvamani Selvaraj will premiere at Silicon Valley’s Cinequest Film Festival this year. The film is part Spotlight section of the film festival that you can watch on Friday, March 4, 2016 at California Theatre in San Jose. Nila is an independent Tamil film from India. Over the past… Continue Reading
I was craving for some Mexican food from San Jose’s La Victoria Taqueira in Bangalore after seeing all those Superbowl 50 tweets about salsa and burritos. If only there was a local taqueria from where I could order a veggie burrito and get some nachos with some guac it would be wonderful I thought. While… Continue Reading
Bill Pohlad directed and produced Love & Mercy (2015), a biopic of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys fame. This is Pohlad’s portrait of the talented singer and composer Wilson and is not a “cradle to grave” biopic as he puts it. The film focusses on two different parts of Wilson’s life that is… Continue Reading
Fitoor is a new Bollywood film starring Aditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif and Tabu (who acted in Mira Nair’s The Namesake). Abhishek Kapoor of Kai Po Che and Rock On is the director of Fitoor, which is an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel The Great Expectations. Tabu plays the role of Miss Havisham and Kapur I guess plays the role… Continue Reading
I finally got to watch Neeraj Ghaywan’s directorial debut Masaan, an Indo-French film. The film generated a lot of buzz on my Twitter time line last year. Masaan won two awards at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The first was an award from the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci), and the second was Prix de l’Avenir award that it it shared with Nahid, an Iranian film. I… Continue Reading
Meet Mythili Kumar, who is the founder and artistic director of Silicon Valley-based Abhinaya Dance Co. She founded the dance company in 1980 and has won many awards for her original and innovative work in dance. Recently, we sat down to speak with Kumar to find out more about her work as a cultural ambassador and… Continue Reading
Mojave is a new thriller film starring Oscar Isaac, Garrett Hedlund, Louise Bourgoin, and Walton Goggins. Academy award winner William Monahan wrote and directed the film. Monohan was a novelist before he began writing for Hollywood. In 2007 he won an Oscar for his screenplay for The Departed. It will be interesting to watch this film since… Continue Reading
The Kamla Show 