Vanity Fair, Classy Entertaining Fare: Film Review. Movie directed by Mira Nair

Mira captures the philosophy of the novel and recalls the yogic question Thackeray posed, “Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire or, having it, is satisfied?”


(Images: BBC and movie website)
If you like movies about the past, about 19th century England with its lords and ladies in their colourful costumes and elaborate hairstyles; about lavish settings appealing to your senses and perhaps your sensibilities, this is the movie for you. Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero is a retrospective story by William Makepeace Thackeray which was serialized in 1847-48 and the movie is directed by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding). If you like classical times and the English with their customs and subtle nuances and humour, as also the British Empire you may like this fare.




The all-British cast with the exception of American Reese Witherspoon - the female lead - (Legally Blonde II), and twice nominated for Golden Globe Awards includes 67 speaking roles. Vanity Fair is a nostalgic narrative of those days of yore when heavy dresses and armour reigned. It was the time of the Regency, Napoleon had captured Vienna and Russia, England and America had their war, and slavery was being eradicated from the British Empire.

It is a story of Rebecca (Becky) Sharp, daughter of an impoverished English artist and a French chorus girl. Orphaned when very young, Becky yearns for a more glamorous life and uses her wit and street smarts, guile and sexuality to go up the ladder of high society. Like so many British stories, this one too has its share of pomp and nobility. Sir Pitt Crawley, the family paterfamilias is played by Bob Hoskins who was nominated for an Academy Award. Gabriel Bryne, an accomplished stage and movie actor, is The Marquess of Steyne and has amorous designs on Becky.

Reese has lived up to your Becky role as the smart, no-holds barred social climber and British actress Romola Garai turns in a sensitive performance starting with Miss Pinkerton’s Academy in Chiswick and later as a conflicted wife. Playing Becky’s close friend, Amelia Sedley, comfortable in her station, (Romola) portrays unmistakable differences in their upbringing, attitudes and ambitions in life. In 2003, Daily Variety cited Romola among 10 Actors to Watch. Mira Nair says, she picked Reese Witherspoon for the Becky Sharp character for her “wit, intelligence, guile and that enticing quality called Appeal, which makes an actor a movie star.”

Becky wins over Matilda Crawley, the family’s rich spinster aunt (played by Dame Eileen Atkins in many Shakespearean roles) and soon moves to London, where she secretly marries Matilda’s handsome heir Rawdon Crawley (played by Britisher James Purefoy). But, here’s the twist: Matilda doesn’t approve of the marriage which is out of class and Becky and Rawdon have to fend for themselves.

Rawdon, who, in real life, traces his family’s history to 1066 in Buckinghamshire, attempts to tame the adventurous spirit in Becky. To a query if he was comfortable wearing those heavy costumes, James Purefoy said, “It is sometimes cumbersome, you put on that waistcoat and you walk differently with all that weight, your shoulders go back, your neck extends and you develop a swagger.” This member of the Royal Shakespeare Company adds, “the idea is to make acting almost seem casual.”



When Napoleon invades Europe, Rawdon volunteers to serve and pregnant Becky is distraught. Amelia’s own husband George Osborne (Jonathan Rhys Meyers – most recently, the soccer coach opposite Parminder Nagra in Gurinder Chadha’s Bend it Like Beckham) also enlists for England. While Osborne does not survive the Battle of Waterloo, Rawdon returns to be with Becky and their son. But the irrepressible Becky is lacking in finance and comforts. Always keen on becoming part of London’s upper echelons, Becky finds a patron in the powerful Marquess of Steyne. Director Mira Nair has taken liberties with Thackeray’s text and said, “I was keen not to make any sets, whether it was a stately mansion or a stable, but to keep the narrative really fluid. Even the hairstyles and jewelry were a blend of the traditional and the modern” – and this creative effort reflects her passion for Thackeray, Empire and the colonial connection with India. Great Pulteney Street in Bath (England) and Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, founded in 1459, were two prominent outdoor scenes.

Another person who shares a passion for Thackeray is screenwriter Julian Fellowes who won an Academy Award for Best Original screenplay for Gosford Park. Fellowes’s versatility speaks volumes if you consider that he also wrote the screenplay for a P.G. Wodehouse book – Piccadilly Jim – which was made into a movie. Fellowes says, “Mira was absolutely brilliant in casting Reese – in having just one American with a flawless English accent rather than many Americans with British accents.”


But an Egyptian dance sequence by Becky and her friends which Mira Nair, said, 'Reese learnt to do in 12 -1/2 minutes', lacked rhythm and beat, and seemed contrived. Perhaps it lacked the boisterousness of a Bhangra because we were dealing with a subdued Victorian era. And, Mira seemed to have merely touched upon the Battle of Waterloo where Amelia lost her husband George Osborne. The third person in that love triangle is William Dobbin played by Welsh actor Rhys Ifans who costarred opposite Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts as Spike in Roger Michell’s comedy Notting Hill.

With nothing in their favour, and knowing he is fighting a losing battle - emotionally speaking - Rawdon says to Becky, “I know what we have to win, I’m just afraid of what we might lose. You’re taking favours from a tiger, Becky.” He was referring to the rich Marquess of Steyne. Becky’s reply: “I am not afraid.”

The dialogues are crisp and the man behind the camera, Declan Quinn has captured another memorable monument in celluloid with the décor, the brocades and ornate splendour of those times. While satisfying her “carnivalesque sensibilities” as she puts it, Mira captures the philosophy of the novel and recalls the yogic question Thackeray posed, “Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire or, having it, is satisfied?”

[A Focus Features presentation of a Tempesta Films/Granada Film Production, Vanity Fair is executive-produced by Jonathan Lynn. The executive producers are Howard Cohen and Pippa Cross. The producers are Janette Day, Donna Gigliotti, and Lydia Dean Pilcher. Based on the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, the screenplay is by Matthew Faulk & Mark Skeet and Julian Fellowes. The director is Mira Nair. Vanity Fair has a running time of 140 minutes.]

[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.]

Light Summer Comedy: Harold and Kumar -- Film Review

Kal Penn (left) as “Kumar” and John Cho (right) as “Harold”

Raj S. Rangarajan

NEW YORK: If its summer, its movie time. For some reason the bar seems to be set lower for a comedy, more so if it is released in July-August. Perhaps, it has to do with the general warmth of the season and bonhomie among people - election year and the Iraq war notwithstanding.

A breezy film - Harold and Kumar go to White Castle (87 mins.) - is packed with frolic and fun and attempts to entertain and succeeds most of the time. Being a comic is specially tough in today’s times but two Asian comics – one of Korean origin (John Cho, born Seoul, Korea) and the other Kal Penn of Indian parentage (born Montclair, New Jersey) - perform admirably. All these two guys are looking for is instant gratification: a White Castle hamburger on a Friday evening (Note: not available everywhere, may not be available near you!) and the situations this pair of Harold (Cho) and Kumar (Penn) get into are bizzare, funny and wild: straight out of the escapist’s Hall of Fame, if there is one.

We have to pardon the occasional overacting by the two - a prerequisite for this genre of movie. The language is raunchy but unnecessarily saucy at times though one realizes that smart comebacks among the young constitute the lingua franca of that generation. Harold and Kumar crave for a hamburger known for its unique steam-grilled taste and the film narrates goings-on in one evening ranging from meeting a nocturnal mammal – the raccoon and a cheetah in separate incidents to a skymobile trip around town. You have the nerdy image of a hard-working Korean, Harold intent on completing his projects on time including ones that are dumped on him, and of Kumar, a doctor in the making who’s not particularly interested in medicine, but who, in a moment of introspection, realizes becoming a doctor is a good career move. Stage actor Errol Sitahal who appeared in the play Bhopal in Toronto last November plays Kumar’s father, another doctor at a hospital in New Jersey.

Cho (American Pie trilogy) and Penn (Malibu’s Most Wanted), who were named among Hollywood’s “hottest bachelors” by People Magazine recently are joined by Neil Patrick Harris (Tony Award for Broadway’s Assassins) as himself and Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie), a neighbor of the comics, another known face.

New Jersey’s toll collectors and cops get their share of exposure through cameos but the Garden state’s upholders of the law are shown in less flattering light. One would like to believe that the film’s creators were not getting back at the cops after a couple of racially-motivated incidents on the New Jersey turnpike. Suddenly, beating on cops seems to be fashionably par for the course.

A satirical cameo of accomplished stage and screen actor Harris that the audience will warm up to is Harris appearing as himself, when he steals Harold’s car with an open top and later appears with a topless female.

On a serious note, the writers attempt at exploring racial stereotypes while portraying the story as a tale of two friends forced to face reality by virtue of what they are in America today. Director Danny Leiner has managed to handle the race issue head on while giving it an aura of comic release through goofy Asian characters out for a late-night burger. Leiner says, “Harold and Kumar are sweet characters you want to pull for.” After the hit comedy Where’s My Car? Director Danny Leiner gives us H & K go to W.C. and writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have done justice to a weak story.

It is rated “R” because of the sexual content and not because of crude humor that jars at times. Whether these scenes will actually help Harold & Kumar at the box office is anybody’s guess. But some may prefer to wait for the DVD since the movie is not that compelling. With South Asians now coming into their own and with more films of this genre such as American Pie succeeding, younger folk may indeed decide to see the flick.

If the Cho-Penn shtick is indeed accepted we could expect the duo write their own billing like Cheech and Chong or Abbott and Costello and even Laurel and Hardy did.

[Photo Credit: ©2004 Sophie Giraud/New Line Productions]

[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.]

IN CONVERSATION: Curry in New Jersey

RAJ S. RANGARAJAN talks to Mitra Kalita, whose Suburban Sahibs, a book about the different fortunes of three Indian migrant families in New Jersey, has just been published in India.

IF you thought IFS stood for Indian Foreign Service think again. IFS is Indian Food Smell, specially among Americans who allege the aroma of Indian cooking tends to be overpowering. FOB stands for fresh-off-boat and Dink stands for double income, no kids. These acronyms are some of the generational expressions used by 27-year-old first-time author S. Mitra Kalita whose Suburban Sahibs, a non-fiction effort with interesting stats, has just been published by Penguin, India.

Mitra Kalita, an education writer for The Washington Post, was born in New York to immigrants from Assam and after graduation did her MS from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Her book traces lives of three middle-class families — the Patels: Harish and Kapila; the Kotharis: Pradip (now Americanised as "Peter") and Nandini and the Sarmas: Sanku and Lipi, all of whom immigrated to the United States to pursue the "American dream". How these families' lives have turned out with concomitant pleasures and problems is the subject of Mitra's book. Two of the families moved to New Jersey more than 30 years ago, the third came here a few years ago on H-1B visas.

"We endured little blatant racism but plenty of questions about `what kind' of Indian we were," says Mitra. "What tribe?" one teacher asked. Kalita talks nostalgically about her early days: As an immigrant I became two Mitras: the one at home spoke Assamese, ate with her little hands and slept tucked between two parents in a king-size bed. One spoke in a thick Long Island accent, dreamed of a family past and vacillated between the black Cabbage Patch Kid and the white one, settling on the latter."

Passionate about her association with New Jersey, the Garden State, where between 1990 and 2000 the state's Indian population grew more than 100 per cent from 79,400 to 169,180, Mitra says, the first influx of Indian immigrants arrived as a result of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which gave almost every country a quota of 20,000 immigrants per year.

Indians initially settled in Jackson Heights (some call it lightheartedly "Jaikishenagar") and Flushing, New York and over the past 10 to 15 years, people settled around Central New Jersey which houses one of the largest communities of South Asians in the U.S. "In Edison neighbourhoods, around dinnertime the smell of curries and cardamom wafts over freshly manicured lawns," where well-known names such as Ford, Revlon, American Can, Johnson & Johnson have a major presence. An estimated 1.7 million Indians are legal immigrants of the U.S.

Thirty years ago, Indian groceries and sari shops were few and far between. Today, Oak Tree Road in Iselin, NJ, is a "little India" where even mainstream American supermarkets stock veggies that Indians favour. An eloquent statistic says all: "The Yellow Pages for both Edison and Woodbridge (now) have more Patels than Smiths and more Shahs than Joneses." Interestingly, according to a conservative think tank, only three percent of Indian arrivals lack a high school education, and about 75 percent of Indian immigrants who work in the U.S. are college graduates compared to about a third of the U.S. population overall.

Of the three families, one never made it and continues to struggle. There are indeed many untold stories or those waiting to be told, of NRIs in a bind, who live from month to month, after decades here. Many face problems like their brethren they left behind in India. Media stories tend to talk only of Indian-American successes but Mitra refers to a certain economically-deprived NRI segment which, for fear of shame and ridicule, will not go back to India, whatever the frustrations, insults and lack of respect they are heir to.

To a question if Indian-Americans in other parts of America or Canada can relate to her book, the former Rutgers student declares, "New Jersey is unique in that it is not in a urban setting and the book has lessons that are universal to other states or counties with large expatriate communities." On the subject of Indian kids raised here, Mitra says, "it was easy to talk with them, hard to write about. I feel protective of these young people but also have an obligation to my reader to be honest." Mitra hopes that her book will resonate across cultures, specially among non-Indians.

While Mitra has produced an excellent dossier on Indians in New Jersey, I wish she had also included more on NRIs who live in other parts of the country such as Jackson Heights, NY or on the numerous NRIs on H-1B visas in California.

Politicians generally like to talk of the American dream. Would the H-1B visa or Outsourcing become a bone of contention this election year for Indian applicants? You bet. The race to replace George W. Bush as president of the U.S. is heating up (general elections on November 2, 2004). Media reports regularly talk of the flight of jobs to countries such as India and China where outsourcing is the new mantra among multinationals.

With more and more Indian-Americans aspiring to join the legislative class by contesting elections here and with some victors in the Garden State, "Namaste" and "Jai Hind" will become staples for sure-fire vote-getting, specially if one wishes to hold public office in Middlesex County, New Jersey, concludes Mitra.

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Festival at Toronto temple

The Azhwars and the main deity decorated








DEVOTEES AT the Richmond Hill Hindu Temple in Toronto, Canada, celebrated the first anniversary of the consecration of Azhwars and Sri Ramanuja with a two-day festival on September 19 and 20.

This year's feature included a divine wedding, where a ``Pasuramaalai" containing ten gold medallions with inscriptions of the ten verses of the famous Amalanaadhipiran of Thiruppaanaazhwar was dedicated to the Utsava Perumaal.

Devotees sang with great love and joy several Pasurams of the Azhwars including the Amalanaadhipiran, Varanamaayiram of Sri Andal and Pasurams from Thiruvaaimozhi of Nammaazhwar.

The golden Pasuramaalai

Earlier Thirumanjanam of Sri Moolavar Perumaal was conducted followed by the Thirukkalyaanam Utsavam of Perumaal with Sri Padmaavathi Thaayaar and Sri Andal. This temple is the first in North America to have a shrine for all the 12e Azhwars along with Sri Ramanuja. An interesting feature of the idols consecrated here last year is that they are replicas of those present in the shrines at the original birthplaces of the Azhwars.

On the previous day, Friday, the function started off with Maha Sankalpam, followed by Kalasa Aradhana, Sri Sudarshana Homam and Thirumanjanam for all Azhwars and Sri Ramanuja along with Utsava Perumaal and Thaayaar amidst the rendering of Naanmukan Thiruvandhadhi of Sri Thirumazhisai Piran.

A souvenir released by Sri Gopala Krishnan, Treasurer and Trustee of the Hindu Temple Society of Canada marking the special occasion gave an insight into the philosophic import of the immortal verses of Sri Thiruppaanaazhwar along with the text both in Tamil and English.

Verses inscribed on the back of the gold medallions.











The publication also detailed contributions and the spiritual legacy of the Azhwars and Sri Ramanuja to our heritage.

The author Dr. N. Ranganathan, a devotee, commenting on the event, points out that the devotees had dedicated previously a Pasuramaalai containing twenty-five verses (from 39 to 63) of Naanmukan Thiruvandhadhi of Thirumazhisai Piran adorns the Moolavar.

The verses 59 to 63 from this work beginning with Pasuram ``Anbhavaai" as well as the ten verses of Amalanadhi Piran are sung routinely every Saturday at the temple during the Aradhana. Among the devotees one could spot people of South Asian and Caucasian origins now living in Canada, U.S.A. and the U.K.

RAJ RANGARAJAN

(The author is a resident of New York city.)

The Lord in unique company

The idols of Azhwars ready for consecration







FOR THE first time in North America, idols of the twelve Azhwars and Acharya Sri Ramanuja were consecrated to the accompaniment of Vedic chants and the Azhwars' Tamil devotional hymns, and installed near the sanctum of Lord Venkatesa Perumal in the Richmond Hill Hindu Temple in Toronto, Canada. The twelve Azhwars were a distinctive group of Tamizh Vaishnava saints who showed intense devotion or Bhakti towards the Divine. Of the twelve, the first three — Poigai Azhwar, Bhoodhatazhwar and Pey Azhwar were believed to be of mystic birth dating back to the Dwaapara Era. The fourth, Thirumazhisai Azhwar was said to have been born of a sage. Kulashekara Azhwar was a Chera king. Periazhwar, Thondaradippodi and Madhurakavi were born into Brahmin families. Nammazhwar was born in a farmer's home and Thiruppannazhwar belonged to the Pana community.

The only female among them, Godha (Andal) is well known for her "Thiruppaavai" and is considered an incarnation of Mother Earth (Bhoodevi). Thirumangai Azhwar, the youngest of the Azhwars was a chieftain of a Chola king. Despite the differences in their origins, they were similar in terms of their divine experiences and philosophical outpourings.

The installation event, held over three days in April, observed the traditional Danyadivasam (immersion in grains) on the first day, Jalaadivasam and Thirumanjanam (holy bath) on the second day and Pratishtai (installation and consecration) on the final day followed by Sri Andal Thirukkalyanam, held in a grand manner.

The installation ceremonies were conducted by Balaji Bhattar from the Boston Mahalakshmi Temple, Saranathan from Pittsburg and Gopala Bhattar from Toronto. Pointing out that the Azhwars are not present together even in Tirumala-Tirupati, Sri Balaji Bhattar quipped, ``Perhaps the Lord's wish — to be seen with the Azhwars — has been fulfilled here in Toronto. Something He does not have in Tirumala." It is noteworthy that in this sannidhi, Thirumangai Azhwar is seen with his consort, Kumudavalli Naachiyaar. And the priest had a beautiful story to narrate.

Kumudavalli, an enchanting and divine woman, had laid down two conditions for marrying her: one, to embrace Vaishnavism by taking proper instruction from an acharya, and two, to serve 1,008 devotees with a grand meal every day for a year. It was while trying to fulfil these conditions and win her over that the Chola chieftain became Thirumangai Azhwar being drawn by the loving Lord.

Among the Azhwars' literary and spiritual contributions are devotional Tamil poems — paasurams or verses sung in praise of Sriman Narayana.

No story of the Azhwars is complete without mention of the "Naalaayira Divya Prabandham" (4,000 verses) that Sri Ramanuja (1017-1137 A.D.) popularised and made part of the Vaishnava religious practice.

According to one of the active temple devotees, N. Ranganathan, an interesting feature of the idols consecrated were made as replicas of those present in the shrines at their birth places of the Azhwars.

RAJ S. RANGARAJAN
(The writer works out of New York city)

July 15, 2002









COVER STORY:
RAJ S. RANGARAJAN ON HITTEN ZAVERI, Associate Research Scientist, Department of Neurology, Yale

AMAZICANS
Backing The Brains


The man sails, scuba-dives, windsurfs and hikes. He is also involved in social service. And 9 to 5? Well, he studies brain disorders at Yale University. Meet Dr Hitten Zaveri, born in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, student of St Peters School in Panchgani, Maharashtra, and the University of Michigan, where he piled up degrees: a BS and MS in electrical engineering, a BS in computer engineering, an MS and PhD in bioengineering.

Epilepsy, a brain disorder, affects approximately 1 per cent of the world's population. With no cure for it yet, the primary treatment options are the use of anti-epileptic drugs or epilepsy surgery. Zaveri studies why an abnormality occurs in the functioning of a person's brain, how it gets transmitted to other parts of the brain, and how and why it terminates. Says Zaveri, "We study brain pathways to understand these aberrant signals and whether an implantable device can be created to control them."

In short, a pacemaker for the brain. But is it feasible? Zaveri is confident: "Yes, there is a fair amount of promise in the field. Recently, there has been increased interest in the control of seizures through seizure prediction. For years there has been a belief that seizures could be predicted. Our patients, on occasion, tell us they can anticipate when they are at greater risk for seizures."

An associate research scientist with the Department of Neurology at Yale University, Zaveri has had extensive training in electrical, computer and biomedical engineering and since graduate school has sought to bring this expertise to fully bear upon the study of brain function and dysfunction.

When not studying the brain, Zaveri, 41, is active in aquatics and volunteer activity. He raises funds and awareness for basic education of underprivileged children in India. He has been wind-surfing for two years and sails a 420 boat at the Yale Corinthian Yacht Club for recreation. Zaveri has also hiked part of the Appalachian trail in New England as well as the foothills of the Western Ghats in Maharashtra, apart from scuba-diving off the coast of Massachusetts and the Cayman Islands.

Portable Power, July 15, 2002

COVER STORY
Raj S. Rangarajan on AMIT MEHRA, Chief Engineer, Turbine Engine Research, D-Star



AMAZICANS
Portable Power

Imagine a jet engine in your laptop computer that ran for weeks without being recharged. Imagine producing energy on a small scale." That was how Dr Amit Mehra described his doctoral research last year while winning first place at the Merrill Lynch Innovation Grants Competition that recognises original academic ideas likely to succeed in the marketplace. Mehra developed a working model of a two-centimetre-sized jet engine combustion chamber that could eventually be used to convert chemical energy of fuel into electricity for portable electronic devices. "The portable power unleashed by this conversion," Mehra says, "could be used in numerous industrial and consumer products."

Mehra, who graduated with undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Caltech in California and MIT, majoring in aeronautics and astronautics, worked with a team of top MIT engineers. This team hopes to one day take large engines such as the ones used in aircraft and try to miniaturise them to fit in one's palm. The long-term picture is to make a jet engine-powered battery that would create more energy than regular batteries used in portable electronic devices.

Currently chief engineer of turbine engine research at D-Star Engineering, an aerospace research and development company in Washington, DC, Mehra has published several papers on micro-combustion, fluid dynamics and silicon fabrication. His present focus is on developing similar miniature devices for high-energy release using chemical fuels.

When he is not busy researching jet engines, Mehra, 29, flies a single-engine Piper Tomahawk for fun. This eligible bachelor also enjoys his golf and boasts a high handicap. His ex-merchant navy father Jeet Mehra and his mother Ashi live in Delhi.