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ALL GROWN UP Dakota Fanning

Catch the Indian television premiere of the award-winning paranormal movie, “Push” this Saturday on PIX. Directed by Paul McGuigan and written by David Bourla, the movie will be showcased on Saturday at 9 p.m.

Starring Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle, Djimon Hounsou and Li Xiaolu amongst others the movie, revolves on a group of people born with various powers who band together to attempt to take down a government agency that is using a dangerous drug to enhance their powers to create an army of super soldiers.

The group comprises the “Movers”; telekinetics with the ability to move and manipulate objects around them; “pushers”, who can push memories and motivations onto unwilling and unwitting subjects; “watchers”, who can see images of the future surrounding specific objects or people. These super humans are hunted by a U.S. governmental organisation to harness their powers for its own ends.

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The Hindu :

British folk singer Laura Marling finds Indian music a brilliant blend of intensity and subtlety

GOLDEN NOTE Laura is renowned for her strong voice, mature lyrics and magical folk melodies

T onight the city will experience a swathe of new-age folk as British folk singer and solo artiste Laura Marling performs on her maiden India tour.

Here as part of the British Council’s Soundpad project, which seeks to bring together musicians from different genres, heritages and musical styles, Laura and popular English folk rock band Mumford and Sons recorded with Papon Angaraag (Lead vocalist of Indian rock band East India Company). Post recording, the quartet and Laura embarked on a nationwide tour.

In the subcontinent for the first time, she described the experience as incredible. “There are so many places to see and the people are so easygoing. This tour is turning out to be quite an adventure,” said an excited Laura over the phone.

Encouraged by her musician father, Laura has been singing from the tender age of five. “Though I initially wanted to be a writer, my parents and friends motivated me to find my true passion in music.”

Laura finds Indian music to be deeply traditional. Reflecting on her recent performance with The Dharohar Project – Rajasthani folk musicians in New Delhi, she said: “Their music gripped me completely. It was incredible to see such intensity and subtlety blend in this captivating cultural display of generational music.”

Renowned world over for her strong voice, astonishingly-mature lyrics and magical folk melodies, Laura released her debut album “Alas, I Cannot Swim” in 2008 and will release her second album in March next year. With two EP’s under her belt, the 19 year old has also performed at numerous music festivals such as the O {-2} Wireless Festival and Underage Festival among others.

More of a songwriter than a singer, Laura welds prodigious lyrics with a masterful voice….More

The Hindu :

Nidhi Gupta quit her job as an engineer to nurture young sporting talent through the Go Sports Foundation

PHOTO: SAMPATH KUMAR G. P.TALKING HEADS Nidhi Gupta: `Finding and fostering young and emerging talent is the major goal’

For most budding sports persons, in their initial days the only people who believe in them are their parents. If support is not forthcoming from parents, many talented youngsters tend to lose interest and focus. The lack of sporting infrastructure also forces many to shelve their dreams of making it big in sports. Many organisations have emerged that aim at nurturing and fine-tuning young talent. One of these is Go Sports Foundation, which aims at providing a helping hand to youngsters in the initial stages of their career

“We support youngsters, who show potential and talent in sports, says Nidhi Gupta, Programme Director of the Go Sports Foundation. “We offer scholarships, which includes monetary and technical assistance. They are also provided a great deal of guidance by experts to put them on the road to success.”

Nidhi shifted careers, dropping a job as an engineer to take up the cause of social engineering in sports.

She adds, “Finding and fostering young and emerging talent is the major goal. We aim at helping those talented youngsters, who face financial problems and are part of families unable to sustain their sporting pursuits. We invite applications and also take the opinion of our panel of experts. A degree of background checks is also initiated. We do not follow any rigid parameters as far as selection of candidates is concerned.” GSF recently supported Sourav Saha, a promising young swimmer from Kolkata.

“He came from a poor family and despite the financial hardships managed to bag a gold in the 200 m butterfly event at the junior National championships. We invited him to Bangalore and took the opinion of National coach, Nihar Ameen and…More

The Hindu : APARNA NARRAIN

Theatres in the city are going 3D coinciding with the release of James Cameron’s visual-effects extravaganza, Avatar, writes APARNA NARRAIN

FEAST FOR THE EYES Avatar, which took 14 years to make, marks Cameron’s return to direction after Titanic

F or everyone who watched “Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs” with the fervent hope that it would feel like pizzas and hot dogs were raining on their heads or saw “A Christmas Carol” hoping to shrink back in the interests of self-preservation every time the Ghost of Christmas Past threw its chains about, it is time to rejoice. Come December 18 and most of the multiplexes and a few single screen theatres in Bangalore will go 3D, including Fame, PVR, Fun, Urvashi and Mukunda.

The move to go 3D coincides with the release of “Avatar”, James Cameron’s much-hyped $230 million sci-fi epic. Urvashi Cinema was the first to get off the mark by going 3D on December 4 with shows of “A Christmas Carol” and “The Final Destination”. According to Amit Gowda, owner of Urvashi Cinema, it is the first cinema to go 3D in Karnataka.

He says, ‘“Avatar’ is a multi-million venture that is supposed to change film-making. If you want to get a proper feel of it you have to watch it in 3D.” He adds, “18,000 screens worldwide have been converted to 3D just for this film. We have tied up with the XpanD brand. The technology used in the cinema is active shutter technology and we have spent nearly a crore on it. In addition we are installing a pearl-based screen at a cost of Rs. 13 lakh. Urvashi is the first cinema in India to use this technology.”

“We want to give something fantastic to the audience and we want all kinds of people to come and watch the film. We have tried to keep ticket prices as low as…More

The Hindu :

Stones of varied shapes and shades seem to beckon the style-conscious. Here’s why they cast a spell

Fathima Babu sparkles when she sits down to read the news bulletin. Suhasini releases gorgeous ones in her TV shows. Stones of all colours sparkle as participants stick their neck out with comments on “We The People”. Anchors in suits wear them, so do TV stars in conventional clothes. Corporate women take them to boardrooms. From informal and occasional to formal and regular — stone-and-silver jewellery has made it to the mainstream. Did narikuravas beam off their popularity, selling them off the street?

“Women wear stones for a string of reasons,” says Ashok Kumar Kadel of Sri Jugal Kishore in Chennai. Gold prices are up and recession has made them unreachable. Coincidentally, women’s wardrobes have expanded to include non-sari outfits, and colour is the concept. “You couldn’t wear chunky jewellery with salwar-kurtas and slim trousers,” he says. “You mix-and-match jeans with traditional Kashmiri embroidery and bling work, and need accessories to go with that. You need new thinking.”

Brides join the race. And, that is to buy multi-coloured stones strung together into chic jewellery. “Ten years ago, if you bought silver/silver-dipped-in-gold, the family would “aiyo paavam” you,” Ashok points out. Only toe rings ( metti) and anklets ( kolusu) were made in silver. Now, even brides wear funky jewellery, says a salesgirl at Sukra, Mylapore, which has a huge foreign/NRI clientèle for its temple jewellery.

“Gems have always fascinated me,” says Revathi Seshadri, 68, who’s fallen hook, line and silver for the trend. “I’m happy to wear something valuable as well as beautiful. There’s no resale value, and hence chain-snatchers keep away.” She believes bead culture will usurp the place of gold, at least among youngsters. “They’ve better use for their money.”

Plain to exotic

Retailers are cashing in. “We exchange, and we modify what customers bring,” says Ravi…More

The Hindu :

Tea Bungalow in Fort Kochi carries forward its history in a spanking new get-up

SITTING PRETTY A view of the Tea Bungalow and the breathtaking pool

Long before Tea Bungalow in Fort Kochi became a boutique resort it used to go by the moniker Brooke Bond Bungalow. Those who developed the property have incorporated elements to keep the history of the building and the theme intact.

History

Way before it became the Brooke Bond Bungalow in 1956, it used to belong to a company called United Carpets. Built in 1912, the bungalow was the workshop and office of the company, which used to export spices and coir. Since heritage seems to be the magic word these days, the new owners have tried to work on that and come up with a ‘heritage’ holiday experience.

Therefore there are 10 suites, each named after ports in the Indian Ocean that ships in the spice and tea trade would have to sail through. The rooms are Cochin, Zanzibar, Galle, Mombasa, Mallorca, Mauritius, Muscat, Cambay, Goa and Calicut. The rooms are spread out in the two floors and an outhouse. The suites in the ‘outhouse’ are popular given the privacy these afford. The bathrooms deserve special mention, they have been treated as entities and not just appendages to the rooms. Some of these open out to a small patch of green. Privacy guaranteed, we are told.

The belief that ‘God is in the detail’ seems to be the guiding principle while designing and deciding upon the décor of the rooms. They have a dominant painting that depicts a scene or there maybe a curio and another set of paintings all offering a glimpse of the country that the port is located in. The rooms open out to the multi-cuisine restaurant Café Du Mahe – you can indulge on Indian, Kerala or Continental cuisine, which gives you the feel of being…More

The Hindu :

Roopa Pai’s Taranauts series transports children to a fantasy world

PHOTO: K.V. SRINIVASANALIEN COOL Roopa Pai

R oopa Pai writes children’s books for a very simple reason — that’s what she loves to read herself. “It’s not just that I like hanging out with kids; I love kids’ books and writing,” says Roopa. “I don’t have patience with most adult fiction — sometimes I think I have a bit of alien blood in me!”

The alien blood might be the reason why the author has ventured into outer space in her latest series of children’s books Taranauts — specifically to the glittering fictional universe of Mithya and its eight shining worlds that bob in the endless sea, Dariya.

The first book of the series, “Taranauts: The Quest for the Shyn Emeralds,” was launched last weekend. The lively city-based author explained that fantasy fiction was the ultimate escape, especially from the rigours of writing for Indian children in English.

“Because almost all their entertainment comes from the U.S. or the U.K., Indian children reading in English expect marshmallows over the fire and language such as ‘ awesome!’.

“Writing English the way it’s actually spoken in India is tricky too. If I were to write in Hinglish, a child in Chennai may not respond to it, just as a child in Mumbai may not relate to ‘Come on da!’.”

Creating an entirely fantasy world such as Mithya has allowed the author to mine Indian mythology and tradition for her story, while retaining trappings of Western popular-culture (brightly-coloured sneakers and awesome superpowers).

This book is the first of an eight-part series published by Hachette India, in which three children with special powers — Zarpa, Zvala and Toofan — set out to save Mithya from the evil Shaap Azur. Fast-paced and filled with colour and action, this book takes its readers (eight- to 11-year-olds) on a lively ride of riddles and word…More