SLP metapost

I had a computer meltdown this evening - this was a brand new computer so I wasn't expecting it - and I've lost a bunch of stuff that I might not be able to recover.

If you've ever sent me email, for any reason, and you'd like me to have your email address, can you please drop me a note? You can send it to filmigeek at comcast dot net.

Star Voice of India

This week's Shabana-gaana takes a little patience. It's a portion of an episode of the TV show "Star Voice of India" that aired a couple of weeks ago. "Star Voice of India" appears to be some kind of talent contest show; you'll have to squirm through a couple of contestants' performances to get to the reason I'm posting it here - a little preview of Shabana ji's talent-contest performance in Loins of Punjab Presents.

Watch the video here. And many thanks to reader fadista de mouraria, who didn't give up in the middle of the agonizing boy-band rendition of "Papa kehte hain" as I did the first time I tried to watch this clip, and so was able to confirm for us that it contained Shabana ji's performance.

Change of plans?

Folks, I just received in my inbox the latest press release from SAIFF about the Lifetime Achievement Award the festival is giving to Shabana Azmi. She's being honored on opening night, before the Loins of Punjab Presents showing.

That's not news, but this is: the press release says that Shabana ji "will not be able to accept her award at the festival in person due to scheduling conflicts."

I had been operating on the assumption that she would be there, as SAIFF originally announced, and as she was in the U.S. as recently as the day before yesterday - I just figured she'd stay till next week. For those of you who were planning to attend the festival, sorry for the bad news! I'll keep you posted if I find out more.

Report from the HungerFREE rally

The HungerFREE blog has another report of Tuesday's rally in which Shabana Azmi participated. There are also pictures, including the one above, and some pictures of Hollywood actor Tim Meadows and Nigerian actor Hilda Dobuko who joined her there.

Shabana ji looks fantastic, and her rhetorical kung-fu is powerful. "I found it shocking that the United Nations has not thought it necessary to go to all means to put food on the table," she said. "We cannot bask in the glory of development when millions go hungry in a country of abundance." Indignation looks so good on her!

She's amazing!

"Empowerment is about participation in the decision-making process."

-- Shabana Azmi

Source: An entry in the blog of HungerFREE, the organization with which Shabana ji recently appealed to the U.N. to expand its programs to combat hunger. Evidently someone at HungerFREE was impressed with her, as the original title of the post included the breathless editorial that I have borrowed for the title of my post: She's amazing! The HungerFREE site has unfortunately since been edited, but the truth of the statement stands.

Dus kahaniyaan trailer

We've now got a glimpse of the upcoming Dus kahaniyaan, Shabana Azmi's third film of the year, which I mentioned once before here. Here's a trailer:



It's no trivial matter to present the flavor of ten unrelated shorts in a 90 second promo spot. It looks like several of the stories will be steamy - though that could be a result of judicious trailer-editing. It's hard to tell from this what Shabana ji and Naseeruddin sahib's story will be - but since it's only ten minutes long, I don't think I want to know too much about it before I see it.

Shabana Azmi news roundup

Please forgive me another roundup post. Real life has seemed busier than usual the last several days, and there's lots and lots of news; I can't keep up with it all.

• Shabana ji has been at the U.N. General Assembly protesting with ActionAid's HungerFREE campaign. "It’s time we took starvation seriously — one out of every four Indians is dying of hunger," she says. "These are startling facts. Everyone looks at these as cold statistics, but we want to make them emotive issues. We want to ask people how they’d feel if their child or parent went to bed hungry." (Source.) India e-news has a few more words about that, along with some of the other stuff Shabana ji is up to these days - home remodeling (me too!), going to the movies for her birthday, talking to the BBC.

• More from the internet stalking headquarters: After the stop at the U.N., Shabana ji is heading to Yale for a conference on India's Future and Women's Global Leadership.
  

• Loins of Punjab Presents opened in India late last week. The cast and crew attended a premiere in Juhu, the Mumbai suburb where Shabana ji lives. Here's Shabana ji with Javed sahib and the kids, Farhan and Zoya -
  

Sweet family! (Here are more pictures from the premiere.) The film has gotten some nice reviews, like this one from Baradwaj Rangan, who recently won a National Award for film journalism. There are lots and lots of articles and reviews since the movie opened, but I haven't read many of them - I don't want to know too much more about the movie before I see it - so no more links. You can read what Manish Acharya himself has to say about it, though, here.

• Not much to say about this nice little biographic piece from Glamsham, but it's a pleasant read.

• And finally, Here's a year-old note (that for some reason just turned up in the news search) about a BBC TV production Shabana ji did last year called Banglatown Banquet. I always thought this sounded like an interesting project and I'd like to see it some time.

Tide-you-over metapost

I've spoiled everyone, I'm sure, by posting daily to SLP and keeping up, for the most part, with the weekly features. It's Friday, Shabana-gaana day, and I have something in mind but I won't be able to get the post ready until this evening at the earliest. I also have another news roundup - but I don't have time to prepare that right now either.

So to tide you over here's the cutest picture I've seen in a good long time - Shabana ji and Loins of Punjab Presents writer/director Manish Acharya. (As always, click on the image for full size.)

Aww, cute!

Also - we have been discussing plans for the SAIFF premiere on the comments to this post. As the date approaches I would like to take this discussion private. So if you are planning to attend the SAIFF premier of Loins of Punjab Presents in New York, please send me an email (filmigeek at comcast dot net) and I'll put together a list we can use for making plans. Thanks!

Also, if any readers in India have seen the film, which opens there today, please do let us know what you thought.

Birthday news roundup

Once again, if you missed yesterday's birthday post, please have a look and drop a note if you want to. For today, here's a roundup of a couple of little news articles noting Shabana Azmi's birthday.

• Times of India reports on Shabana ji's sweet birthday wish: great success to Manish Acharya, writer and director of Loins of Punjab Presents.
  

• This wire service report (I'm not sure of its provenance) tells us that Shabana ji didn't plan a party for this year's birthday because her home is under renovation, and she and Javed sahib are living crammed into a small corner of the house. (Let me tell you, I feel her pain on this one - my renovation project is well into its fourth month and I want my kitchen and master bath back!) Also, Shabana ji notes that she is observing Ramadan, another reason to forgo any festivities.
  

• Finally, one more reason a birthday party would have been impractical - it looks like Shabana ji is in New York this week. The Wall Street Journal places her at the UN protesting for the right to food with HungerFREE. Here's a little more about this from Hindustan Times. (Thanks to dormeg for the link.) That last article also provides this week's bon mot:

It's very simple, really. Food needs to be put on everyone's plate.... How can we think of making progress, when everyone doesn't get enough to eat?

I love this woman!

If Shabana ji is in the States this week, it's possible that she won't return to India between now and the Loins of Punjab Presents premier on October 3. I'll keep you posted with any news of further U.S. appearances that may cross my desk here at SLP's cyberstalking headquarters (*) - please let me know if you hear of any as well.

(*) joke.

Is it kismet? Is it dumb luck? Who cares?

Folks, I am sorry to interrupt the birthday festivities so soon - and if you haven't yet seen the Birthday Post below, please make sure you stop by and leave your best wishes for Shabana ji if you want to - but this is just so fun, I have to share it.

Remember a few weeks ago I said that I hoped "Chura liya hai tumne" would be one of Shabana ji's songs in Loins of Punjab Presents?

Well, just have a look at this promo at IndiaFM. It's only ten seconds long but I can't get enough.



Oh yeah baby! Fingers crossed that the song is on the soundtrack CD.

There are lots of other great promos for the film, by the way, on that IndiaFM page. You can find them at the bottom left, under "Related Videos."