Miscellaniaah

Cooking Up Drama Pakistani film,  Cake , was streamed recently to an appreciative audience. The Asim Abbasi film, was released in the UK, and was the country’s entry for the Academy Awards. TV serials from Pakistan have been popular across the Urdu-Hindi speaking world, but hardly any film crosses the border, and those that do (pirated) are usually shoddy copies of Bollywood films—though Bollywood is known to filch their music. Some of the better films—like Khuda Ke Liye or Khamosh Pani— have been screened at festivals, but now even that channel seems to be blocked. Cake   takes Pakistani cinema up a few notches and presents a picture of the country that is modern and sophisticated. Set in the well-appointed home of a wealthy landowning family, the film tells the story of two thirty-something sisters Zareen (Aamina Sheikh) and Zara (Sanam Saeed), single and independent.  Their married brother Zain (Faris Khalid) lives in the US with his wife and son.  While Zara has a fina

Babe In The Hood The first original Indian film that  Netflix presents is  Chopsticks , directed by  Sachin Yardi, whose writing credits include the  Kya Kool Hain Hum  films, and he directed something called  C Kkommpany , so obviously a  Roma  (the Alfonso Cuaraon Oscar-winning film) is not expected here. Somehow, many directors never get over their ‘Bhai’ (gangster) fixation, and try to come up with the most eccentric, colourful or nasty piece of work that they can. But before the film gets into the underworld zone, the viewer is introduced to Nirma Shastrabuddhe (Mithila Palkar), the young woman from Aurangabad (with a washing powder name that evokes sniggers), working as a Chinese interpreter. At her snooty place of work, she is called “behenji” and mocked for her incorrect pronunciation of English words. Because of this, she is also saddled with taking Chinese tourists to downmarket spots like Dharavi and Dhobi Ghat. She needs motivational audio lesson to cope, and practic