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25 Sept-01 Oct, 2012
small world
Ejection
Film Dacoit Queen gets Political Lesson
Anil Budur Lulla

BANGALORE ~ Pooja Gandhi, a popular Kannada actress, is being forced out as the Janata Dal-Secular’s youth wing working president. This is because she played the role of a murderous dacoit in the film Dandupalya. The film is based on a real story about a gang of killers from a village by the same name as the film. Dandupalya is 30 km from Bangalore. Residents of the village are also upset with the film as it labels them as killers.

In January, Gandhi joined the party headed by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda with much fanfare. The intention was to lure young voters. But she turned out to be a liability, it would seem. The film gave the state opposition a chance to call the party a “gang of dacoits’’ and Gandhi their “queen”.

HD Kumaraswamy, former Karnataka Chief Minister and Gowda’s son, said his party did not need the endorsement of film stars, even as Gandhi refused to resign. (“I have earned my post, I will not quit the party,’’ she said.) Kumaraswamy’s statement is surprising. He is a film producer who knows what glam quotient can do for a party with a sagging morale.

The mention of the Dandupalya gang evokes dread even today. Their modus operandi involved woman members approaching the targeted house for menial jobs. Once they identified places where valuables were kept, their male colleagues swung into action. They would not hesitate to murder. Many of the gang members are now in prison and ten of them have been awarded death sentences. Gandhi plays the role of one of these women, a vampish one who shows off plenty of skin and entraps her victims.

Villagers protested against the film, even though its director, producer and actors, including Gandhi, had visited Dandupalya, seeking to assuage feelings. But Venkatesh M, a former panchayat member, says people from Dandupalya have suffered enough already. “Our youth don’t get jobs the moment they say they are from Dandupalya,” he says, “Even police verification for passports is always delayed.”

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Take Two
Vocal Chops
Devika Bakshi

When I heard Priyanka Chopra’s singing debut was going to be made at this season’s NFL kick-off, I assumed the expression of a pug faced with a math problem. To quote PC’s oft-used Twitter exclamation: say whaaaaa?

How does a Bollywood actress get that gig? Alright, she’s a babe. And judging by that one Koffee With Karan episode where she serenaded Shahid Kapoor with a coy rendition of Mere khwabon mein jo aaye, she can sort of sing. But still. At the Mumbai launch of the single In My City, she tells the story of how it happened. She’d recorded a little playback for Pyaar Impossible with Salim-Suleiman, “just for fun”, then chickened out. Later, when Universal and Desi Hits were shopping for an Indian Shakira to launch into the global music scene, Salim suggested PC.

Priyanka is obviously marketable. It doesn’t hurt that she seems most at home in movies set in New York or Miami, and that she sounds like she has spent more time in Boston than Bombay, let alone Bareilly.

In four of her last ten films, PC has played the same NRI party girl-next-door. With her chatty, flirtatious manner, her bellybutton ring and newly acquired Daddy’s Lil Girl tattoo, she often seems like an extension of that character. Her pop-glam persona makes PC a perfect candidate for a cross-over star. It also often makes her a worse actress than she has the capacity to be.

The story of Priyanka’s career is great swathes of pretty mediocrity, interspersed with glimmers of real talent. Last Friday, there was a new redemption with the release of Barfi!, with which she  reminds us that she can, in fact, act. Why, then, does she covet the pedestal of an ethnic pop princess? Why is she waving pompoms and striking pseudo-glamorous poses on American television? And why are we so proud of it? Perhaps because we, like Shah Rukh Khan, are desperately excited at the prospect of “the first crossover star from India, our first creative export”.

Whether In My City will catapult her to global stardom is uncertain. It’s pretty unremarkable stadium pop, her debut song. But she seems determined to do it all—easy pop, cheesy romcoms and the toughest roles out there. I’m sceptical about whether such a stretch is possible. And yet here I am, watching.

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Bitter Pill
No Country for Farmers
Shahina KK

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, created a minor political storm in Kerala with his prescription for reducing unemployment in the state—get out of agriculture. At Emerging Kerala, a global investors meet conducted by the government, Ahluwalia said that instead of trying to preserve dying-out paddy fields, the thrust must be on sectors like industry and tourism. And immediately, both the ruling Congress-led front and the Left opposition started fuming. Congress leader VS Sudheeran said that the statement was a reflection of the sordid attempts of the land mafia to grab agricultural land. Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan said that it went against a law passed by the Assembly which prevents the use of paddy fields for industrial purposes.

 

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25 Sept-01 Oct, 2012