How is sound designed for a film? Ever wondered about it? We did and spoke with Academy Award winner Resul Pookutty to find out how he and his team worked on Shonali Bose’s “Margarita With A Straw.” Pookutty won an Oscar for his work in Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire.” “Margarita With A Straw,” is about… Continue Reading
“Miss India America” had its world premiere at the recently concluded Cinequest film festival in Silicon Valley. This humorous film examines the notion of ambition and the lengths to which we go to achieve our dreams. The film and the cast members got standing ovation from the audience. We spoke with Meera Simhan and Ravi Kapoor, the husband… Continue Reading
Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner’s new documentary “Merchants of Doubt,” is inspired by the book by the same name by Naomi Orsekes and Eric Conway. Kennar’s previous film is the award-winning “Food Inc.” that takes you behind the scenes of how the food industry operates. In this new film “Merchants of Doubt,” Kennar takes you behind the scene and shows… Continue Reading
Shonali Bose’s “Margarita With A Straw,” is the centerpiece of this year’s Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) Festival at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre on March 15, 2015. We spoke to Bose about “Margarita With A Straw,” a coming-of-age film, which she describes as a deeply personal film. The story is about a differently abled person’s… Continue Reading
Food is the centerpiece of many Asian-American communities in the USA.There is absolutely no question about that and I can vouch for it. What are we eating today is a daily conversation in my family, and we cook everyday. And there are many memories and stories woven around food in my family. And food is… Continue Reading
India – that is subject of the latest edition of Granta, a British literary magazine founded in 1899 in Cambridge University. The India special has stories, poems, photos and artwork by new and well-known folks like Upamanyu Chatterjee, Neel Mukerjee, Kalpana Narayanan, Aman Sethi, Hari Kunzru, Anjali Joseph, Gauri Gill, Rajesh Vangad and others. A… Continue Reading
Wedding brass bands are a big part of Indian weddings. These bands grew out of the military brass bands in British India as ethnomusicologist Prof. Greg Booth explains. Imagine my surprise when a few years ago I stumbled upon Red Baarat, a brass band from New York. This 8-piece band was started by Sunny Jain… Continue Reading
“Make It Happen” is the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day. Everyday millions of women make it happen for themselves, their family and the society around the world. Over the years I have interviewed many women from different walks of life and have been lucky to talk to them about their lives and how… Continue Reading
Stanley Kubrick, the multifaceted filmmaker passed away on this day in 1999. Kubrick was born in New York, but spent most of his adult life in the United Kingdom. He started off as a photographer and went on to become a filmmaker. His film repertoire includes “Spartacus,” “Lolita,” “Dr. Strangeglove,” “The Space Odyssey,” “Clockwork Orange,” “Full… Continue Reading
If you have ever watched a silent picture in a cinema hall then you know what the whole experience is like.The silent film is usually accompanied by a live musician or an orchestra and it is an absolute treat to be transported back in time. There is an interactive element to the whole experience and you don’t… Continue Reading
Masashi Niwano, Festival director of San Francisco-based Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) breaks it down for us on what to expect at this year’s annual CAAMFest. This is one of the oldest and largest film festivals that has grown over the years and now includes food and music as part of its offerings. This… Continue Reading
What are the sounds of Bollywood music? What are the various influences that shaped and continue shape Bollywood music? If you delve deep into the subject of Bollywood music as Prof. Jayson Beaster- Jones has done, you will discover all sorts of musical influence from jazz, big band to gypsy music and hip-hop. American music… Continue Reading
Meet Mikey McCleary – a Kiwi music composer who is busy creating all sorts of musical waves from Mumbai, the headquarters for Bollywood film industry. If you ever watch Indian TV shows then you have heard his music for sure. He is the guy behind all those advert jingles for Vodafone, Levis, Titan, Coke and many, many… Continue Reading
Actor Omi Vaidya’s film “For Here or To Go?” will have its world premiere at Silicon Valley’s Cinequest Film Festival this evening. We caught up with the actor last night at Cinequest to talk about his new film, working in Bollywood and his future plans. “For Here or To Go?” captures the angst and uncertainties of… Continue Reading
Filmmaker Shlomi Elkabetz’s “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem,” was Israel’s entry for the 2015 Oscars. This is an intense, heart-wrenching and sometimes difficult to watch film that Elkabetz wrote and directed along with his sister Ronit Elkabetz, who plays the central character Vivian Amsalem. The film revolves around Amsalem’s drawn out court battle to… Continue Reading
For 25 years Kathleen Powell and Halfdan Hussey, co-founders of Cinequest Film Festival have worked hard to bring this unique festival that combines films and technology under one roof in the heart of Silicon Valley. Besides well-known filmmakers and actors, the festival features emerging artists and filmmakers and shines a strong spotlight on the contributions of youth… Continue Reading
Silicon Valley’s Cinequest Film Festival turns 25 this year. The film festival opened tonight with Dana Bachman’s “Batkid Begins” at the historic art deco California Theatre in San Jose. This feel-good and inspirational documentary about a little boy’s wish to be a super hero seemed to have resonated with the audience. The film and the filmmakers got… Continue Reading
Damien Chazelle’s film “Whiplash” won 3 Academy Awards this weekend at the 87th Academy Award for best supporting actor, editing and sound mixing. Chazelle wrote and directed the film. “Whiplash,” is an intense film centered around two ambitious musician – a 19 year old drummer (Miles Teller) and his draconian music instructor (JK Simmons). This tightly… Continue Reading
That language is not a barrier to music is amply illustrated in this track “Thuli Thuliyaai” by Vandana Srinivasan. I got hooked to this Tamil song the first time I heard it. While I don’t completely understand the lyrics of the song, I instantly connected with the music. That is what matters in the end, right?… Continue Reading
LISTEN: Academy Award Winner AR Rahman On His Musical Journey Part-2 In February 2009 I spoke to AR Rahman or AR as he prefers to be called about his musical journey and how it all started in his hometown of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. We spoke on the eve of his big Academy Award night… Continue Reading
British actor Eddie Redmayne plays the famous scientist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.” The film takes you into the personal life Hawking and his time as a graduate student at Cambridge where he met his future wife Jane Wilde. It was around this time that Hawking got his diagnosis about the motor neutron disease.… Continue Reading
Lisa Fruchtman is an Academy Award winning editor (The Right Stuff) and a filmmaker. In Part-2 of our conversation we talk with Fruchtman on how she got started as an editor. What seduced her to continue her career as an editor at at time when there were barely any women editors in the film industry. This… Continue Reading
Lisa and her brother Bob Fruchtman produced and directed “Sweet Dreams,” an unusual film about drumming and ice cream shop. Yes, it sounds implausible, but that is the message of the film too. How to think out of the box and make things happen, especially in a war-torn country like Rwanda. Lisa is a successful… Continue Reading
Shonali Bose’s award-winning film “Margarita With A Straw,” has received praise ever since it was first shown at The Toronto Film Festival in 2014. The film is loosely based on her cousin Malini’s story. This coming-of-age film stars Kalki Koechlin, Revathy, Sayani Gupta, and Hussain Dalal. We caught up with Shonali in San Francisco and in… Continue Reading
Mention Walter Murch and you will get two kinds of reaction. The first is one of instant recognition. The second one veers between “The name rings a bell.” or I don’t know who he is.” However, if you ask them if they have heard of Francis Ford Cappola’s The Godfather or Apocalypse Now or George Lucas’s American… Continue Reading
Stumbled upon this delightful track “Balma” by Maati Baani and was instantly hooked. This is a wonderful musical collage with elements of Indian classical music, Klezmer music and hot jazz. Musicians from France, New Zealand, Spain and India are featured in this track. Matti Baani bills itself as a global music band and is the… Continue Reading
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Silicon Valley-based Cinquest film festival that celebrates films along with technology and innovation. This year’s theme is “The Power of Creating,”and nearly 200 films from different parts of the world will screen at the festival. The festival spotlights young filmmakers in multiple ways. There is the Picture The Possibilities (PPT) session that helps connect… Continue Reading
Pico Iyer is a well-known writer and essayist. He is a prolific writer, who spends most of his time living in Japan. In part-2 of our conversation Iyer talks about growing up in England and California, his writing style, globalism, living in Japan and his favorite author Graham Greene. Iyer often writes about globalism, and yet lives in a… Continue Reading
Pico Iyer is a well-known author and essayist. In 2008 during a hectic book tour schedule Iyer graciously made time for an hour-long interview to talk about his book The Open Road: The Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama. He first met the Dalai Lama through his father Prof. Raghavan N. Iyer, who taught at Oxford and University of… Continue Reading
London-based journalist and author Jules Stewart’s second book titled, Spying For The Raj: The Pundits And The Mapping of the Himalayas was released in 2006. Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who is listed as the world’s greatest living explorer by the Guinness Book of Records, has written the forward for the book. I caught up with Stewart in London in 2006 just… Continue Reading
The Kamla Show 