Goa gets going with filmi fervour

The big stars may be missing this year but that didn't matter. With its sun, sand and sizzle, Goa is the perfect place for a film festival.

Not that I would know much. I spent most of my time huddled at the media centre buried under an onslaught of press conferences and stories. Films! What films? For the first eight days of the fest, I hadn't watched any. By the ninth day, I was sapped and headed for the India premiere of the French blockbuster Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra - a decision I will never regret.

Do catch up on this wonderful creation of Alain Chabat which features Monica Belucci as the gorgeous Cleopatra and loads of rib-tickling moments. The dubbed version of the film (in English, Hindi and other languages) hits Indian theatres around Christmas 2005.

The only other film which I managed to catch was another French flick - Cannes winner L'Enfant - a thought-provoking film which held audiences transfixed to the screen.

Of course, next year's film festival will be a different ballgame altogether now that Johnny Depp is expected to drop in for a visit.

Here are some of the 50-plus stories this tiresome PTI journalist turned in as others were busy watching films or cruising along in luxury liners or shaking a leg at PIB dos. Sigh! Even rival agency correspondent Faizal Khan got a peck on the cheeks from French supermodel Noemie Lenoir while poor yours truly got left out of all the action.

Rajnikant gets set to jive in French film

Aishwarya Rai to star in Asterix flick

Reddy for global stars to promote IFFI

Big B makes it to IFFI in a sketchbook

IFFI faces desi competition in Goa

First Indo-Italian film to roll in 2006

IFFI loses out on Satyajit Ray film

Filmmaker turns poster boy for IFFI

Italian maestro misses date with IFFI

Iranian film wins Golden Peacock

Britain draws a blank at IFFI

Dholakia stands by his film on Godhra

Taal's UK extra comes to IFFI

Italians say mama mia to Sonali

Bond in movie theatre after 25 years

Indian docu to premiere in NY

Godhra film leads to fracas at IFFI

Premieres rock the boat at IFFI

How Page 3 came about

Get set for gastric lie-detectors

They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. And if Indian-American scientist Pankaj Pasricha has his way, one could also use a man's stomach to know if he's lying.

You can read the rest of my article here.

A bit about Blogging

Wrote an article about the perils of blogging in the wake of the Gaurav Sabnis controversy. It's a bit sketchy on details but I did talk to an IT expert on whether bloggers have any rights at all. You can take a peek at it here -

Mind what you write, bloggers! The days of carefree blogging are over. As more and more blogs get into the public domain, the danger of being sued can only increase.

You can read the rest of the article here

Chetan Bhagat: Round Two

Author Chetan Bhagat is in town. Thousands of Indians laughed and cried over his debut novel Five Point Someone - yours truly being one of them. The book is still on bestseller lists in India even after a year of its release.

Incidentally, Bhagat's here for the release of his second novel One Night at the Call Centre. You can find out here what the author has to say about the book.

I totally agree with Jabberwock when he says that Chetan is a good storyteller. I know that ON@TCC is not the kind of literature classic that everybody buys and never reads. Instead, it's a novel for everyone - people who never ever read novels and even bibliophiles.

Like FPS, I finished Chetan's new book in a single sitting - 6 hours to be precise. Unlike his first novel, parts of which seemed to have been based on real-life experiences, ON@TCC is more-or-less fiction.

However, I do agree with critics who feel FPS is better - I guess autobiographies always come out more realistic than pure fiction. My friends are divided on the issue - some swear by FPS while others feel the second book is a much better effort.

Others have found the God part in the novel a tad problematic. This is something I can't understand, given that everything is sorted out in the epilogue.

But kudos to Chetan for portraying a typical day at the call-centre so realistically. All that research certainly paid off.

Verdict
Worth a Read. Will join its predecessor on the bestseller lists.

ONE NIGHT @ THE CALL CENTER
Chetan Bhagat
Rupa
Price: Rs 95, Pages: 289

Hair now, gone tomorrow Part 2

A youngster I bumped into today wanted to know the time. No problemo. But what troubled me was the word he prefixed to his request - 'Uncle, may I know the time?'

Uncle!!!!!!!!!!Woe is me! As flies to wanton boys are we to gods. They kill us for their sport.

My 20-something mind reels in despair. This ten-or-twelve something boy calling me Uncle. Is my receding hairline so apparent that I look like an uncle already. Help!

Getting up, close and personal with Madhur

Met filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar at the IHC retrospective (of his films) last week.

Quite admire the guy. Though scores of TV and print journalists individually grilled him with questions for that one Exclusive Interview - and I am sure everybody asked the same old questions - he didn't stop smiling and maintained his cool throughout.

Seems like quite a decent chap. You can read my version of the interview here.

Me blogger - me hate tech hurdles

For those who continually breathe a sigh of relief that I haven't posted for a long, long time - be warned this state of affairs will not last very long.

The virus that had overcome my computer earlier has now affected my modem so any posts on this blog would have to be done surreptitiously at the office, which is very very tough considering they just have four Internet-enabled terminals in the entire place.

Though this means my posts are gonna be sporadic and short, I will surely try my best to bombard you guys with my posts left, right and centre as soon as possible. Be prepared. Be very prepared

Booker bagged by Irishman - but not by Barry

Alas! Sebastian Barry has lost the Booker and the 50,000 pound prize has gone instead to the other Irish writer in the fray - John Banville for The Sea. Barry was the underdog anyway but I suppose Indians would have been rooting for him after he revealed his fixation with the country.

Here's the interview with Barry -

Booker-nominated Irishman recalls Indian link
Tony Tharakan
New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) For Irish novelist Sebastian Barry, India used to come alive at night - with a little help from his grandfather.

Although he's never been to India, the 2005 Booker Prize-nominated author got his first glimpses of the country through bedtime stories.

"My grandfather, a major in the British army, loved Kipling but he also adored Tagore and read him to me as a child in bed. He had worked in India and carried in him memories of it that were valuable to him," Barry told PTI in an email interview.

Of all countries in the world, Barry would like to visit India the most. And for good measure, he holds Mahatma Gandhi to be the only true politician of the 20th century.

The author's childhood fascination later turned into a love of all things Indian, including its authors whom Barry ranks among the world's best.

"There is, as the whole world knows, a great line of Indian writers in English. Rohinton Mistry seems to me to an example of the pure writer," says Barry.

But isn't it surprising that since Arundhati Roy's Booker triumph in 1997 for The God of Small Things, no other Indian has managed to lay hands on the prestigious literary prize?

"Indian writing is a series of mountains, maybe it has gone higher than prizes and the like," says the 50-year-old writer who was nominated for the Booker this year.

Barry, counted among Ireland's foremost playwrights and novelists, achieved that milestone with his latest effort - A Long Long Way.

The novel tells the story of Irish teenager Willie Dunne who volunteers to serve Britain during the First World War. Like his 1995 play The Steward of Christendom, this latest novel is also seeped in a lot of Irishness and autobiographical elements.

Barry knows very well that many people never imagined he would ever achieve literary success. A slow learner, he could not read or write till the age of nine.

"I couldn't learn to read for the life of me and the London schoolmaster made me sit beside a clever girl who was to help me. When we went back to Ireland with my new English accent, I was beaten up in the schoolyard as a little English boy, so maybe suddenly I was very aware of language," he says.

"At any rate I quickly regained my old accent, and learned to read off the Catholic catechism. But I still read slowly I think," he adds.

Even though he's a prolific playwright, poet and novelist, Barry considers himself an odd sort of a writer. His writings seem to metamorphose from one genre to another.

"Usually something starts with a poem, that years later may become a play, more rarely a novel," he says.

That Barry is mainly considered a playwright even though he's been writing fiction since 1977, may have something to do with the fact that his mother Joan O'Hara is a veteran theatre actor.

Currently working on the screenplay of A Long Long Way for a film version, Barry says he was greatly struck many years ago when he read Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.

"In fact, I should think I modelled my early work on Hemingway, at least in the spirit of the undertaking," he says.

When it comes to the new-age fad of blogging, Barry feels he's too old and too scared to start now.

"I do read them though. One thing I have noticed is the astonishingly high quality of Indian literature blogs. Everyone who writes there seems to have the grasp of (literary critic and poet Matthew) Arnold and the penetration of (critic F R) Leavis," he says.

Barry prefers restoring old houses instead - a hobby he picked up after renovating the house in lives in. PTI TT

Barry for the Booker

Interviewed Sebastian Barry for an article. Barry who? Well, for those like me who just got on to the Booker bandwagon - he's one of the two Irish authors on the Booker Prize shortlist for 2005.

Barry's A Long Long Way is about Irish soldiers fighting for Britain during the First World War. The author fills this anti-war book with poetic precision about good and evil and how the human spirit never gives up.

The novel does not contain (to the best of my knowledge) even an iota of India in it but don't let that stop you from reading it.

For Barry, among Indian writers Rohinton Mistry "seems to me to be an example of the pure writer - following his own demanding and human star."

And as to why no Indian has won the Booker since Arundhati Roy long long ago -

"Indian writing is a series of mountains, maybe it has gone higher than prizes and the like."

When it comes to blogging, Barry feels he's too old and too scared to start now.

"I do read them though. One thing I have noticed is the astonishingly high quality of Indian literature blogs. Everyone who writes there seems to have the grasp of Arnold and the penetration of Leavis."

Wonder who Barry is talking about - Maybe Amit Varma or Sepia Mutiny or even Deepak Chopra

Meanwhile, the Booker Prize has kicked up quite a frenzy with even Jabberwock putting in his bit for this grand literary slugfest.

Am waiting with bated breath for the Booker announcement (October 10) - Here's a final look at this year's nominees

The Sea - John Banville
Arthur & George - Julian Barnes
A Long Long Way - Sebastian Barry
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Accidental - Ali Smith
On Beauty - Zadie Smith

Jabberwock may be throwing in his lot behind Barnes but that doesn't stop me from wishing that the best Booker wins.