NRI TV Film Awards Debut in New York

Letter from USA


Raj S. Rangarajan

NEW YORK: Move over Golden Globes, Bollywood Awards and Oscars. Its now the turn of the NRI TV Film Club Awards. For the first time in North America Non Resident Indian (NRI) creative talent among actors, directors, producers was recognized and celebrated with awards.

Till recently, most of the moral support for performers came from close friends, family and well-wishers. We now have a forum – The NRI TV Film Club – which debuted in December, that honored 15 non-competitive films made in the United States. Brainchild of Tirlok Malik - an actor himself - the NRI TV Film Club aspires to encourage local artists (read South Asian) amidst the plethora of avenues and talent potential available in North America.
(L to R): Kishore Dadlaney, Producer of the film, Kehtaa Hai Dil Baar Baar, H. R. Shaw (TV Asia), Tirlok Malik (actor), Lal Dadlaney, co-producer of the movie and Video Sound, distributors and Sreenath Sreenivasan, Professor of Journalism at Columbia University.
This year’s NRI TV Film Awards function “was our first step and we were happy to honor all those who walked this way before us and all the filmmakers whose films reflected the immigrant experience,” said founder-president Malik.
Keynoter Madhur Jaffrey and actor Tirlok Malik
“We not only aim to provide a platform for all related talent to showcase but also to nurture it and project it into the world.” This year’s NRI TV Film Awards function “was our first step and we were happy to honor all those who walked this way before us and all the filmmakers whose films reflected the immigrant experience,” said founder-president Malik, “We not only aim to provide a platform for all related talent to showcase but also to nurture it and project it into the world.” The NRI TV Film Club is for producers, directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, production personnel and everyone else allied with the world of cinema and television. Malik emphasizes the relation between the artist and the audience. “An artist needs an audience to succeed, and we hope our club will create that awareness to help the audience meet the artist.”

Modeled on the Academy Awards, the Awards celebration included clips of films, commentaries, live performances, a comedy routine and two emcees. Films that won were selected based on the immigrant experience theme. The event was presented by H. R. Shah of TV Asia, a well-known community activist in association with Video Sound who have signed up as the distributing arm for the club’s movies.

A splendid standup act by Daniel Nainan (dad is Indian, mother of Japanese origin) carried the day for several people who understood and applauded his kind of humor. While some were riveted to their seats, many were more interested in the cold samosas that were freely available outside the Grand Ball Room of Manhattan Center Studios. Among other performers were Anisha Nagarajan (Bombay Dreams), the play; Sheetal Shah (Arya), Alok Mehta (American Chai) and Padma Khanna, the Bollywood dancer who teaches dance in the United States now.

Fusion Dance


Tirlok Malik has played more than 40 roles from an immigrant taxi driver to a lawyer to a porno shopkeeper. His first film Lonely in America grossed $20 million worldwide and was shown in 74 countries. He is motivated by the hope of helping other up-and-coming actors and producers specially after he had some unpleasant experiences with a distributing company. His second film Love, Lust & Marriage also continued the immigrant experience. A bachelor in Fine Arts, Tirlok has had professional training at the New York Academy of Theatrical Arts, The Actors Institute, the Weist Barron School of Television and the New School of Social Research.

Just as Indians are creating a presence in the world of mainstream cinema such as Manoj Night Shyamalan, Mira Nair, and Gurinder Chaddha, who have managed the crossover Malik, said, “We dream of achieving success together and developing a market for NRI films.”

Among the NRI fims that picked up awards were American Desi, directed by Piyush Pandya, Kehta Hai Dil Baar Baar, directed by Rahul Dholakia and produced by Video Vision, Piyu Gayo Paresh (Gujarati) directed by Kanu Chauhan, Lonely in America, directed by Barry Alexander Brown and produced by Tirlok Malik and Chander Malik.

Among the award presenters were Reeves Lehmann, Chair for the Film, Video and Animation Department at the School of Visual Arts, New York, Preeta Bansal, a former Solicitor General of the State of New York, Kamal Dandona, organizer of Bollywood Awards, Sreenath Sreenivasan Professor of Journalism at Columbia University, New York and Kanu Chauhan who organizes concerts for Indian-Americans and others.

[Raj S. Rangarajan is a New York based freelance writer. He covers trend stories on art, travel and lifestyles and reviews books, films and plays for media based in New York, California, Toronto, India and Australia.]

Playwright Tendulkar – A Major Hit in New York

Window on U.S.A.

Raj S. Rangarajan

The man was relaxed, sporting his trademark beard and clad in a polo neck sweater and scraggly loafers. In his element – in a theater setting with admiring fans – he seemed happy and at peace talking theater. I am referring to veteran playwright Vijay Tendulkar – in town – to participate in the month-long Tendulkar festival presented by Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) and theater groups in Manhattan, New York.

Comfortable in his Indianness and conscious that he was admired for his talent, 76-year-old Tendulkar’s cool demeanour spoke volumes of his confidence and acceptance as a playwright with spunk…a creative original who had reached but had yet to write his last play. Tendulkar reminisced of how even as an infant he had been to plays since “my parents were very much interested in theater.”

The festival is indeed a tribute to Vijay Tendulkar’s prolific genius who has influenced – perhaps dominated – the Marathi stage with his 30 full-length plays, 23 one-acts, and eight screenplays. He has translated nine novels and two biographies into Marathi, and among the plays, eleven were for children and has also written short stories and essays on social criticism.

Apart from Sakharam Binder, at The Play Company in Manhattan, which is currently running, directed superbly by Maria Mileaf, starring Bernard White as Sakharam with Anna George (Laxmi), Sarita Choudhury (Champa) as Sakharam’s women, the festival includes play readings of Kamala, Mitrachi Goshta, Ghasiram Kotwal and Tendulkar’s newest play written completely in English – His Fifth Woman - directed by Sturgis Warner. The program includes screenings of films such as Arth (Shabana Azmi), Ardhya Satya (Om Puri), Nishant (Smita Patil).


Caption: Bernard White (Sakharam Binder) and Anna George (Laxmi) in the play - Sakharam Binder

This versatile screen and television writer, essayist and journalist was much ahead of his times. When his Sakharam Binder was released it 1972 it was surrounded with controversy since Sakharam, a brahmin by birth went against then society’s norms. The central character Sakharam is a bookbinder by profession but he fiercely opposes the hypocrisy seen in the institution of marriage. Through his character and those of the two women - Lakshmi & Champa, Tendulkar reaches into the depths of physical lust and violence in human beings. The other two characters in the play are Dawood, Sakharam's Muslim friend and Fowzdar Shinde, Champa's husband.


Caption: Lark's public reading of Vijay Tendulkar's His Fifth Woman

Interestingly, at a recent showing, thirty-pluses and forty-pluses comprised the audience – folks who were not even born or were just infants when Sakharam Binder debuted in India. Bernard White acquitted himself creditably as a tough, no-nonsense male and Anna George and Sarita Choudhary (Mississippi Masala) as dutiful women.

For the first time Tendulkar has written a play in English titled His Fifth Woman. At a well-attended play reading for Lark Play Development Center in Manhattan, six South Asians of Indian origin strutted their stuff. “Strutted” is being used advisedly because the play ends with actors actually cawing on stage like crows do since the death of a woman initiates a discussion between Sakharam (Sanjiv Jhaveri) and Dawood (Debargo Sanyal) on whether last rites should be performed for a kept woman whose husband had left her.

Tendulkar says, for this production he had to think in English since his normal frame of reference is Marathi - his mother tongue. The play portrays how money changes hands when the priest, performing last rites for the departing soul of the deceased, prior to its passage to the other world, takes short cuts by not reciting certain traditional chants at the cremation ground. Among his memorable experiences, Tendulkar allows with a gleeful glint in his eyes, “the experience of watching your play come to light with good acting.”

Since His Fifth Woman and a version of Sakharam Binder were directed by non-Indians (read non-Maharashtrians) being staged currently, the question, When a foreigner not steeped in the nuances of Marathi theater directs a Marathi play won't the performance suffer in the process? becomes relevant. While a grown Indian may understand the concept of death and crows at the cremation ground and portability of the soul without problem can a non-Indian audience or an audience that has grown up in America understand the concept of an individual’s soul being migrated? Was more explanation needed at some point?

Tendulkar’s candid answers to above questions: “Americans are naturally ignorant about Indian customs and rituals but I write in such a manner as to be understood despite this hurdle. Those who were there at the performance understood what I said. What matters in my plays is the essence and the characters through whom it is conveyed. If a director understands this then other cultural details do not matter so much. An Indian mind watching such a performance of an Indian play will have to adjust to the cultural gap.”

With three crows cawing and playing significant roles in His Fifth Woman, this reporter’s question to Tendulkar was why? Tendulkar’s response: I am a fan of crows and spend my time studying them whenever and wherever I find them. Among animals I have a brotherly feeling for the donkey. Both behave as if they have understood the essence of life and have compromised themselves to its unpleasant aspects. Crows sometimes remind me of wise men who are shunned by society.





Caption: Sarita Choudhury and Vijay Tendulkar (Photo: Carol Rosegg)






Caption: Vijay Tendulkar and Sturgis

At the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre where a staged reading of Tendulkar’s Ghashiram Kotwal (set in 18th century Poona) was presented to the accompaniment of drums by Raj Kapoor (of Nepali origin), Tendulkar said, “This play was a parallel but narrative reflection of those times (1972) when an arrogant political party (Congress) in Maharashtra state was ruling the roost little realising that a major political force was forming (Shiv Sena led by its founder Bal Thackeray). Interestingly, the cast included Filipinos, Japanese and two actors of Indian origin – Farah Bala and Bina Chauhan. Ably directed by Tisa Chang, the reading highlighted the arrogance of the Maratha ruler and how a Brahmin was enmeshed in the mix of contemporary politics.

No piece on Tendulkar can end without a reference to the controversy that Sakharam Binder created with the play being initially censored and banned because of its theme and saucy language. With tongue-in-check humour Tendulkar derided “the universal tribe of moralists”, many of whom hadn’t even seen the play but were taking sides. To a question if any play should have a message, Tendulkar’s response: “Actually, a play need not convey a message, but at least it should make a statement.” An ardent fan of famous American playwright Arthur Miller, Tendulkar confessed, “I do not like to watch my play being staged.”

[Raj S. Rangarajan is a New York based freelance writer. He covers trend stories on art, travel and lifestyles and reviews books, films and plays for media based in New York, California, Toronto, India and Australia.]

Splendid Odissi Spectacle Warms Hearts

Raj S. Rangarajan

NEW YORK - The rhythm, the swagger and the vibrant costumes were unmistakable. And, so were the charming, graceful movements and bold passion that the Odissi dancers showcased recently. The show was Neel: The Eternal Blue and the performers seemed to be extensions of the terrific ensemble they have created. One didn’t have to be born in India or to have learnt Oriya, the language spoken in Orissa in eastern India, where Odissi originated. All one needed was an open mind and an interest in the performing arts.

The multi-layered presentation was the creative choreographic effort of the Trinayan Collective, a group of dancers devoted to the study, performance and dissemination of Odissi. The spiritual content and sensuous variation of the music and the beat helped one comprehend the nuances that the dance-form offers.

Color has always been a mainstay in Indian dance interpretation and even the deities from different parts of India acquire different hues of the region and as understood by the locals for centuries. Krishna, the blue-bodied flute player, Shiva, the blue-throated one and kali, the blue-black goddess were alive, as one would expect, in merciful resonance with the limbs in tandem. The song-and-body gestures on occasion were robot-like though with a certain purpose symbolizing meaningful fulfillment. The blue color, of course symbolizes the fifth chakra in the human body, located at the bottom of the throat wherefrom creative inspiration springs forth.

Trinayan, or the third eye, represents the site of our inner selves, reportedly, the nexus of divine energy in each human being. Trinayan’s five core artists comprise Bani Ray, the teacher and re-stager for the group, Kakoli Mukherjee, Alicia Pascal, Taiis Pascal and Nandini Sikand, each with versatile skills. A Odissi dancer herself, Rajika Puri is the storyteller or narrator – a sutradhara – in traditional Indian theater who creates the collage of dances through stories, chants and lucid comments. An ardent follower of the Deba Prasad Das style of Odissi, Rajika’s knowledge of Indian and western classical music has helped her create for the stage (Flamenco Natyam) and the screen (Mississippi Masala) and many more visually appealing gems.

Each of the dancers has a personal story, and each is motivated with the common aspiration to dance and excel. From the age of 6, Bani Ray has been dancing and learned from gurus such as Shri Valmiki Banerjee, Sri Durga Charan Ranbir and late Shrinath Raut. An exponent of Mohini Attam and Manipuri styles as well, Bani is also active at Nehru Institute of Odissi Research and Training in Delhi. Originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Kakoli Mukerjee has been dancing Odissi since the age of 12 and works for a weekly publication in New York. A Manhattan speech therapist by day, Alicia Pascal started at 15 and learned under Deva Deva Jagatpate and now under Bani Ray and Guru Durga Charan Ranbir. Taiis Pascal too enrolled when merely 11 and works as a certified physical therapist in a New York hospital. Born and raised in Delhi, Nandini Sikand started learning Odissi at the early age of 7 under Shri Shrinath Raut. She moved to America for graduate school and studied with Ritha Devi and currently is a disciple of Shri Durga Charan Ranbir and Bani Ray. This Neel effort was her debut exploration of dance and film and is working for her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology.

[Raj S. Rangarajan is a New York based freelance writer. He covers trend stories on art, travel and lifestyles and reviews books, films and plays for media based in New York, California, Toronto, India and Australia.]