“Kill Bill Vol. I”

REVENGE TASTES best when served cold… that’s how “The 4th film of Quentin Tarantino” begins. The “Reservoir Dogs” director is back after six years with what seems like an ode to Hong Kong cinema, violent though. Incidentally, the opening sequence is a homage to the Shaw Brothers of Hong Kong.

Pregnant bride Black Mamba (Uma Thurman) and members of her wedding party are slaughtered by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. But The Bride, as Black Mamba, is known, survives. She wants her pound of flesh or shall we say, several pounds of flesh! And so, she goes after each one of them, her toughest Viper being O-Ren Ishii also called Cottonmouth (Lucy Liu), the most powerful woman in the Japanese underworld. Her final target, of course, is Bill, the man who fathered her child (that story is reserved for the sequel).

Tarantino loves the martial arts (kung fu, samurai, spaghetti western). Watch the almost poetic fight sequence between Thurman and Lucy Liu towards the end of the film, and you’ll understand.

Another beautifully choreographed (by Tarantino and Yuen Wo-Ping) fight sequence is where Thurman single-handedly butchers the henchmen of Liu.

Cinematographer Robert Richardson uses sepia tones and later just silhouettes to capture the drama.

The idea of using animation to tell the tragic tale of Liu works well. In fact, one wonders whether Tarantino is inspired by the Manga comics. The music by hip-hop artiste RZA complements the action.

That Uma Thurman, Tarantino’s Muse, has undergone rigorous training is evident. Hers is a power-packed performance, literally.

For Lucy Liu, it’s a marked change from “Charlie’s Angels”. As the ruthless boss, she exudes control.

One thing is for sure. “Kill Bill” is for those who love action, of the blood and gore variety. If you can stomach it, it is visually stimulating.

SAVITHA GAUTAM

Hindu On Net

The Anna syndrome

V.GANGADHAR

LOUISE BROUGH, Margaret Osborne DuPont, Doris Hart, Shirley Fry, Maureen Connolly, Darlene Hard, Christine Truman, Althea Gibson, Billie Jean-King, Margaret Court, Maria Bueno, and later, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Tennis buffs would remember them as the greatest women players from the past. The top male and female players competed in all the events and aimed towards becoming triple champions (singles, doubles, and mixed doubles). Doris Hart and Shirley Fry were also doubles champions though the former often got the better of her partner in the singles events. Maureen Connolly became a world champion while still in her teens but died early due to cancer.

The American domination continued with Althea Gibson, the first coloured player to claim the Wimbledon singles crown. Christine Trueman was a rare British oddity who sneaked in to become a one-time Wimbledon champion. While Bille Jean-King restored the American supremacy, Margaret Court (Australia) and Maria Bueno (Brazil) often challenged this. Pretty Ms. Evert engaged in some heroic duels with her archrival, Martina Navratilova, whose hunger for the game had not diminished to this day.

Great champions who lived and breathed tennis. They played mostly in England, the United States and Europe, though Chris and Martina saw more of the world. India never attracted them.

We were never known as a tennis nation despite all the hoopla over Leander Paes defeating some Upper Volta player ranked 490th in the world to take India one step ahead in the qualifying rounds for the Davis Cup. It was front page news when Leander in his late 20s, “qualified” to play in a major event.

He received more media adulation in this country than Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras and others who bagged a series of Grand Slam titles while still in their teens.

We had to make do with our Sumant Misra, Dilip Bose, Naresh Kumar and Premjit Lals. The Krishnans were game triers though John McEnroe once jocularly remarked he felt nervous playing Ramesh Krishnan whose slow serve never seemed to reach him. Vijay Amritraj became more of a PR man than tennis champion, his wide smile more effective than a backhand crosscourt volley.

A tennis watcher, I don’t remember many women tennis players. There was Laura Woodbridge from Bangalore, I think. Starved of champions, the media is highlighting as potential future word champion, the young Sania, who won the Junior Doubles championships at Wimbledon.

Making much of non-performers runs in our blood. That explains the euphoria in the media over the visit of tennis “champion”, Anna Kournikova, known more for her beauty than achievements on the court despite being on the circuit for several years. She visited India not to play matches but to function as a “Brand Ambassador”. A limousine picked her up at the airport and a Mumbai daily interviewed the driver who had the honour of driving her around. The Anna touch, of course.

There was a time in the 1950’s when international media went gaga over the frilled lace panties worn on the hallowed turf of Wimbledon by American star Gussie (Gorgeous) Moran. The Indian media made much of the fact that Anna appeared at a press conference wearing a sari. The Sahara Group, which hosted Anna, revealed that the 22-year tennis beauty had taken back with her around 20 saris, all gifts. We had breathless details about where Anna’s blouses were stitched, who helped her drape the saris … Anna certainly liked Indian clothes, but not food, sticking to grilled continental dishes. No one mentioned tennis though media persons asked occasional questions at the press meet. On her inability to win any Grand Slam titles, Anna explained, that “she had been trying hard”. She will play as long as she “remained healthy”. When told that the world thought of her as an “under-achiever”, Anna retorted, she did not think so. She has been plagued by injuries and will not play at the Australian Open next January.

Overwhelmed by Anna, the media often contradicted itself. One paper said that the press meet was “low key” and many of the questions-answers appeared to have been rehearsed. In a report packed with adjectives, another daily claimed that Anna answered questions with effortless ease. She had her own philosophy. “People judge you, they like you or dislike you. I don’t expect everyone to like me”. This is the kind of women’s tennis champion who won the hearts of our sports media!

I think Anna is partly responsible for the d
tente between the U.S. and Russia. Though born in Russia, she has been living in the U.S. for 12 years and has not played for her motherland in any international tournaments. Presidents Putin and Bush may not agree on Iraq but will not deny that Anna had helped to cement U.S.-Russia relations! What will Anna be doing after 20 years? “I will be married with children,” she snapped

And what was she doing in Amby valley as the VIP guest of Sahara? According to the host’s PR department, she spent every morning shooting and every night in her hotel room. What more can one ask for?

Hindu On Net

SEPERTI Hollywood yang mempunyai senarai celebrity paling berpengaruh dalam industri filem mereka, Bollywood kini mencipta senarai tersendiri.

Majalah hiburan popular Bollywood, Filmfare dan organisasi penyelidikan pasaran dan maklumat terbesar di India, AC Nielsen Org-Marg bekerjasama untuk menghasilkan senarai tersebut.

Pemilihan dibuat berdasarkan undian, soal jawab dan kajian prestasi ke atas mereka yang terbabit.

Itu termasuk pembikin filem, komposer soundtrack, pembiaya kewangan dan pelakon popular.

Kajian yang disifatkan bebas dan sulit itu memilih dua bintang terkenal Bollywood iaitu Amitabh Bachchan dan Shah Rukh Khan sebagai celebrity yang paling berpengaruh dalam industri filem Bollywood pada masa ini.

Walaupun berasal daripada dua generasi yang berbeza, kedua-dua celebrity tersebut membuktikan pengaruh mereka sama kuat dalam industri tersebut.

Senarai itu turut membuktikan bahawa Amitabh yang sudah membabitkan diri dalam dunia lakonan sejak tahun 70-an lagi terus gagah walaupun pada usia lebih enam dekad itu.

Pada usia 61 tahun itu Amitabh masih mampu mempertahankan kemasyhuran dan popularitinya di Bollywood. Bukan sekadar terus menjadi rebutan penerbit filem, Amitabh juga menjadi pilihan sebagai model dan jurucakap produk mengalahkan artis muda yang lain.

Shah Rukh pula mewarisi generasi muda Bollywood yang paling berjaya pada masa ini. Populariti Shah Rukh bukan sekadar di India tetapi di luar negara.

Aktor dan penerbit Aamir Khan pula tersenarai pada tempat kedua. Aamir baru-baru ini memberitahu bahawa filem India kini sudah berjaya menembusi pasaran antarabangsa dan begitu juga dengan pelakonnya.

Untuk filem Lagaan, Aamir berjaya meraih perhatian di peringkat antarabangsa apabila filem itu tercalon sebagai Filem Asing Terbaik 2001 untuk Anugerah Academy.

Aamir juga disenaraikan sebagai pelakon yang berjaya meraih bayaran paling mahal di Bollywood. Untuk filem The Rising, aktor tersebut khabarnya menerima bayaran sebanyak RM5 juta.

Pembikin filem veteran, Yash Chopra yang cukup terkenal sebagai penerbit filem box office berada di tempat ketiga dalam senarai tersebut.

Tempat keempat diwarisi oleh pengarah filem paling mahal Bollywood, Devdas iaitu Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Sanjay yang bakal menghasilkan filem terbaru iaitu Black dan Bajirao Mastani itu sememangnya antara pembikin filem paling disegani di Bollywood pada masa ini.

Sementara pengarah dan penerbit filem anak-beranak (Yash dan Karan) Chopra pula berkongsi di tempat kelima.

Gandingan kedua-dua pembikin filem tersebut sentiasa menjadi di layar perak dan terbaru sekali mereka bikin kejutan dengan filem Kal Ho Na Ho lakonan Shah Rukh.

Dalam kategori komposer muzik, A. R Rahman adalah yang paling berpengaruh. Komposer tersebut berada di tempat keenam.

Sentuhan muzik A. R Rahman tidak pernah mengecewakan. Selain menjadi rebutan untuk menghasilkan muzik bagi filem Bollywood dia turut menjadi rebutan pembikin filem luar.

A. R Rahman pernah menghasilkan muzik untuk filem Hong Kong, Warrior of Heaven and Earth.

Aishwarya Rai adalah satu-satunya celebrity wanita yang berjaya memasuki senarai tersebut. Bekas ratu cantik dunia itu berada di tempat ketujuh.

Pemilihan Aishwarya mungkin dipilih berdasarkan popularitinya yang bukan saja menyerlah di Bollywood tetapi juga di luar negara.

Profil Aishwarya semakin tinggi sejak kebelakangan ini termasuk pembabitannya dalam filem antarabangsa, Bride and Prejudice. Wajah Aishwarya juga menghiasi majalah Time beberapa bulan lepas mewarisi individu paling berpengaruh dalam industri filem Bollywood.

Penerbit filem Manmohan Shetty pula menduduki tempat kelapan. Tempat kesembilan dan kesepuluh dalam senarai itu dimiliki oleh pelakon tampan Hrithik Roshan dan Ajay Devgan.

Utusan Malaysia

Designs on stars

He dresses up top Bollywood stars, but Vikram Phadnis is modesty personified and passionate about clothes, writes RADHIKA RAJAMANI

Photo: K. Gajendran

FILMS AND fashion go hand-in-hand for him. He is a big name in showbiz. His looks belie the fact that he has been in the fashion industry for a little more than a decade and a half. Salman Khan walked the ramp for him at a fashion show recently. He designs for the bigwigs in the Hindi film industry and the cricketers – Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen, Akshay Kumar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid to name a few. Vikram Phadnis is a happening fashion designer-cum-stylist whose career graph shows more than hundred films in about a decade. He has his own store at Bandra Mumbai and retails at other stores in cities. This cool dude is in top league having wowed many yet manages to keep his feet firmly grounded. “Questions invariably revolve around my film assignments,” says Vikram in response to his association with the rich and the famous. “Films are a great medium to expose my talent. I’m happy my clothes on celluloid will be appreciated by people (world-wide) even after I’m gone. While in fashion shows the acclaim is instant, in films it takes time but once it’s so it’s forever,” adds Phadnis, who entered films by default. For Phadnis it is essential to bond with the star. “I need to communicate with them and we need to understand each other. I am open to constructive criticism.” He believes in comfort and setting a trend and not following one and experiments with cuts and colours. Phadnis is very instinctive when it comes to design and colours. “It’s my gut feeling that works. The only thing in films is the deadlines. One is hard pressed for time.” Ask about his high-profile associations particularly the Big B and he says, “I have grown up watching him and designing for him is a dream come true. He is a thorough professional and he is so punctual.” For Salman he quickly replies, “he’s an older brother. We share a great level of comfort. Ash challenges me to do better work.” Most of the stars are happy with Phadnis’ designs. “Akshaye Khanna is particular about his clothes.” Phadnis has done four ad campaigns with Sachin Tendulkar and he praises the master-blaster for being very non-interfering and non-assuming. He comes to the store off and on to pick up clothes.” Makeovers for the stars come naturally to him. Watch out for his designs in Waqt (Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra), Mujhse Shaadi Karoge (Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra) and Kyun ho gaya naa pyaar (Vivek Oberoi).

For the son of doctor-parents with nobody in the fashion line, Phadnis is a self made man. “My parents were upset when I joined this line but today they are happy. It’s been difficult but god has been kind.” Surprisingly Phadnis had his first ramp show years after he started. About the gap he says, “I wanted to do it right so I took time. I believe in practical clothing, which people can relate to and not just ramp wear. I don’t like bizarre clothes. I like to cater to all and I am not unattainable and inaccessible.” He started off as a stylist (where he puts together the entire look). “A designer just designs clothes whereas I look into everything – clothes, accessories, hair and make-up.” Phadnis enjoys competition from fellows in the industry as he feels “it keeps me on the edge. I love competition and I don’t look it as insecurity or a threat. I share a healthy relationship with co-designers and even today I can go with them comfortably and have a drink.” Although Phadnis is responsible for makeovers in the glitz and glamour industry, he is a casual person when it comes to dressing himself. Believe it or not this Libran-Scorpion (cusp) does not own formal trousers or shoes. “I am a denim-linen-jacket person.” But beneath this casual and cool exterior lies a creative soul who is passionate about clothes and takes his work seriously.

Hindu On Net

Breadfruit’s bounty

A plant, which became famous thanks to history’s greatest ever mutiny, the breadfruit’s value and worth are incomparable

WEST INDIES: the 1780s. Plantation owners, seeking cheap and abundant food for their famished slaves, funded expeditions to the South Pacific for breadfruit plants. On April 28, 1789, one such vessel, HMS Bounty, was three weeks out of Tahiti, laden with potted breadfruit plants, when Master’s Mate Fletcher Christian famously mutinied against Capt. William Bligh. The most famous mutiny in history culminated in one of the greatest ever feats of seamanship — which was only weakly depicted in the Anthony Hopkins-Mel Gibson movie: with only a compass, a watch and five days supply of food and water, Capt. Bligh navigated his launch and crew across 6,000 km of the Pacific Ocean to Timor.

For centuries in Polynesia, the breadfruit’s significance as crop of abundance and as a lifesaver in famine spawned many creation myths around it. European seafarers first stumbled upon this fruit in Micronesia in the late 16th century, and ships like the HMS Bounty helped spread it from its native habitat of Polynesia and Indo-Malaya to the New World where it is now a leading food crop.

In the tropical paradises of the South Pacific, the islanders eat the fruit boiled, baked on hot rocks, fried with syrup and palm sugar, pickled, candied, fermented, and as soup. In the Caribbean, breadfruit flour — more nutritious than wheat flour in its amino acid profile — is a common starch base for bread and porridge.

The seeds, salted after being roasted, boiled or steamed, are a popular snack on the streets of Latin America. About 100 gm of the raw fruit contains 105 calories, mostly in the form of carbohydrate. The raw fruit is purgative, and some form is cooking is a must for most varieties. Seeded breadfruit is more nutritious than the more convenient seedless varieties because the seeds are rich in protein. The flour is energy dense, with 100 gm containing nearly four gm of lysine-rich protein and 76 gm of carbohydrate, amounting to nearly 330 calorie.

Crushed breadfruit leaves are a common folk cure in the Pacific Islands for oral candidiasis. In the Caribbean, the leaf decoction is a folk cure for hypertension and asthma, the leaf juice for ear infections, and the roasted flowers for sore gums. The crushed fruit is a condemnable poultice for tumours, and the latex is a weakly effective remedy for skin infections.

RAJIV. M

Hindu On Net