The Coming of Age Immigrant Story?

"The West has "On the Road" and these Kerouac-type finding-yourself stories, and this is our coming-of-age story, in terms of that young man today."

- Mira Nair

By 'our' she means all immigrants to the West.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist film, based on Mohsin Hamid's page-turner reportedly took five years to make, the biggest block being funding. They got let down a few times. Not surprising as it is a very risky tale to tell. But echoing the words of the film: it's important to listen to the whole story and not to judge before you've heard it all. Good advice to incorporate into all parts of our lives!

I saw it with a friend who afterwards claimed he'd never seen a film before that spoke to his personal story. It's probably also Mohsin Hamid's story- he worked at McKinsey after all. I wonder whether he experienced the tussle between company valuations and his personal ethics? And it seems to have been the personal story of the lead, actor Riz Ahmed as well, he who is practically on screen throughout the entire film.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist highlights the global trajectory after 9/11: the event which changed everything. In the UK so did 7/7. Following both events many men of Asian and Middle-Eastern origin were questioned or arrested without proper grounds. This resulted in some feeling their own countries did not accept them. 

Nair says it's good timing for the film to come out now: the awe that Ahmed's character, Changez, voices in response to the attack on the Twin Towers could not have been publicly voiced even five years ago. Well, except in the book. 

Before you bristle at the earlier paragraph, refer to Changez's explanation at the end of the film that we are all more complex than being for or against a single idea. His 'we' includes the American journalist he's speaking to, who was initially against US foreign intervention. So please, he continues, don't put us in a box and label us. A belief does not necessarily shape everything we are. It's a plea many of us are making - for our layered selves to be understood. Most of all by ourselves. And a realisation that our ideas do evolve.

One really nice addition in the film script is Changez's American girlfriend Erica's art exhibition opening night- a world which Nair understands. I met her at the opening of Lille 3000, where she unveiled her own powerful artwork: lenticular photographs on bus hoardings around the city.

I was surprised to see that in the UK only some multiplexes are showing the film, and not the independents which I would expect. It is noticeably absent even at the Curzon, an arthouse chain.

This is one of the few films which actually tells the story more powerfully than the book. The narrative mechanism (and monologue) really lends itself to an audio-visual medium. The atmosphere and imagery that is built up has rarely been surpassed. And the story, well, this story has rarely been told.

The Origins of Modern Yoga- The Movie

I watched the film, The Breath of the Gods last night- a film by German Director Jan Schmidt-Garre screened in London. And it sold out for its entire run.

Schmidt-Garre wants to answer the question: is there one true yoga?

The film first tries to trace the origins of yoga and finds that although it is spoke about in ancient texts, it was not widely practised in India until the 20th century. And that Krishnamacharya, the 'grandfather' of yoga only died 24 years ago. He was the one who got yoga to be taught in Indian schools and who taught, amongst others, two great teachers, BKS Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois. These two Gurus went on to shape yoga for the West and also for India and both put their unique stamps onto it. Jois or instance made yoga 'difficult and fast'. Iyengar goes against his Guru, who he feels largely ignored him and made him rip his hamstring which took 2 years to heal. But his Guru imposed on him that he would teach yoga to city dwellers, a Herculean task, in which he has arguably excelled.

The film has some brilliant lengthy interviews with these two as well as footage of their teachings, including teaching the film's Director. Iyengar in his studio in Pune and Jois in Mysore.
The film also has incredible archive footage of young Jois and Iyengar performing incredible yoga asanas as well as recreated footage of yogis performing to the Maharajah of Mysore as entertainment. Then there's footage of Krishnamacharya teaching his family yoga- with his children he does balancing asanas which resemble basic acroyoga poses (a form of yoga and acrobatics that I recently started). The Maharajah of Mysore was interested in yoga because of its physical benefits, for sport and fighting. It was the 1930s and coming up to Independence. Agility was much needed.

The film also delves into the basic question of : what is Yoga? As Jois says: Control is coming, otherwise this not yoga. Krishnamacharya's teachings were that Yoga leads to 3 things: physical health, mental health- perseverance and purity of thought - and concentration. He omitted talking about God when he went to the West, so as not to impose his religion. In India talking about God is a common thing, says his son, but not in the West.

Which begs the question: why are people in the West so interested in yoga? That is my question and everyone I asked at the screening replied: because they are searching for meaning. But for me, this doesn't fit, as most, but by no means all, yoga classes in the West are physical practices mainly. Of course yoga is a powerful practice and by doing asana-practice it can affect your physical and also mental health- and though the wider philosophy of yoga is not often explained in Western classes, it is perhaps the experience that speaks to the practitioner directly. They feel better both mentally and physically and it increases their concentration. Thereby imbibing the 3 main effects of yoga that Krishnamacharya taught.

As Iyengar says "Those who embraced yoga in the early days, they were maybe mentally disturbed or had quarrels with their parents...' This could be the key as to why it's so popular..?


Krishnamacharaya's children did not admit to the profession of their Father. It was not cool to practice yoga in the 1930s. How things have changed : today the number of people in the USA who practice some form of yoga has grown from 4 million (in 2001) to 20 million (in 2011)

source: Wikipedia

Bob Marley- how a poor boy from Jamaica became a global icon

Bob Marley with Kate Simon, photographer, 1977

Kevin McDonald’s new film, Marley, about Bob Marley’s life highlights the incredible journey of this unlikely global icon. He started off life in a shack without electricity, one outfit and pair of shoes. If we look at it through a branding lens we see his move from ska music, which was about fun and dancing, to creating reggae, which was more spiritual. Chris Blackwell from Island Records then launched him worldwide under the guise of  ‘black rock’ in the early ’70s- 'Catch A Fire' album. This built on the following Jimi Hendrix and others had. Marley’s music, once at Island, had to become less political and certain members of the Wailers left, like Pete Tosh, because he didn’t like Blackwell. It must’ve been hard to surrender to the White Man given their Rasta politics, although Marley was half- White (English) and wanted all races to live in harmony through music. Blackwell, incidentally is also Exec Producer of the film.

The Rastas have a belief that a certain type of music will be listened to around the word because all people can tap into its spirituality. And they see this as Bob Marley’s music today.

Marley’s music, surprisingly, didn’t break into African American audiences in the US in his lifetime, though he had a huge following amongst White audiences there. The last performance of his life was supporting the Commodores in an attempt to get to exactly those audiences, though in reality he should’ve been the main act rather than the support. In parts of Africa, they loved him. The film shows an incredible performance in ‘Rhodesia’ on the night of their independence with Mugabe being sworn in and also in Gabon, where the dictator’s daughter fell in love with him.

The way Marley’s music has traveled now is almost a cliché of itself- every beach hang out plays it, but does it still have a revolutionary aspect to it? Listeners of reggae are full of peace and love which certainly can change the world on a local level. It’s unfortunate that the spliff smokers ‘brand’ is that of a lay-about and non-doer. But as with most clichés it’s important to remember why they became so- Marley was crucially important in Jamaica as someone who discussed politics and gave money to those who would queue outside his home in Kingston every day. He was brought back from exile in London by the Jamaican government specifically to unite the races in Jamaica. And all this before he was 36 years old, when he died of cancer. He was definitely a doer.

How his anti-capitalist brand lives on

Marley now ranks in the top five dead celebrities in terms of dollar earnings, according to Sanjay Sood, a UCLA marketing professor. The others being Michael Jackson, Elvis, Marlyn Monroe, Andy Warhol. Marley's family including his legendary number of children from different mothers, manage his brand cleverly, which stands for positive nature. The brand values are reggae music, hope, redemption and social justice. Some new merchandising include headphones made of recycled plastic and sustainable wood and 'Mellow Mood' herbal drinks to chill out, to counter the Red Bull energy phenomenon. "There were too many hyper people running around in the world", says Marley's daughter Cedella.

Source: The Billion Dollar Rasta by Reed Tucker.

http://bit.ly/IjtCQZ

  

The Dixie Chicks: smart , sassy country band

I saw the film Dixie Chicks: Shut up and Sing, last night..definitely worth seeing! It's the story of the largest selling band in North America- a country band made up of 3 gorgeous young white chicks from Texas. On stage in London, one of them professes: "I am ashamed that the President of the US is from Texas!" This is just as Mr Bush is about to invade Iraq. This then spins the band into freefall for some years as all radio stations refuse to play them, and their sales fall. They get death threats and all kinds of people react towards them with contempt. Over time, they manage to build themsleves up and rebuild their brand, ending of on the cover of Time magazine. This turnaround is helped by Bush's popularity decreasing. It really does portray the general US audience as being quite thick and unable to think independently. What is very inspiring is how the girls all stick together and support the lead singer, Natalie's comment, despite the factthat they are very worried as they have families to support. Also extremely interesting is the power of radio in pushing bands' sales and the (buying) power of the redneck/country audience in the US, the very people who got Bush in to power.. all very dangerous stuff..