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Home , Milkha Singh, Omung Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, Usha Uthup

Om Saraf, symbol of hope.....Page 4 SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2015 INTERNET EDITION : www.dailyexcelsior.com/magazine Living purposefully...... Page 3 WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL When films are made on team medal in each one of the six world sports such as Lagaan or even Films on sports and sportsmen in Indian mainstream cinema were few in the past. Lagaan (2001) created championships. She is the only before that Awwal Number (1990 Indian woman boxer to have qual- film by Dev Anand), the audience fictional history. But that was team sport - cricket. Nagesh Kukkunoor's Iqbal (2005) was more about ified for the 2012 Summer is aware that the films are pure fic- Olympics, competing in the fly- tion and entertainment is the driv- a hearing disabled boy's struggle to find his feet in cricket. Today, is flush with biopics weight (51 kg) category and win- ing force. The actors too, need on great sportsmen and women. Shoma A. Chatterji explores the trend ning the bronze medal. She lesser training and discipline than became the first Indian woman when they are bringing real boxer to get a Gold Medal in the sportspersons to life. When it in 2014 in Incheon, comes to real-life realizations on South Korea. was celluloid such as Chak De and chosen to play in the Mary Kom, the picture changes. film. Actors prepared to make the Priyanka Chopra has repeated- creative and performing leap must ly said "Mary Kom has been one of be committed to the hard work the hardest films of her career. "I involved in bringing to life the strug- had to really sweat it out in the gym gles, successes and failures of a to achieve the perfect physique to famous sports person with his/her portray the boxer on screen. I had weaknesses and strengths. For the to transform myself from a glam- audience, these films are a motiva- orous actress to a hard-hitting tional force with positive messages sportsperson. It took me two years and lessons in patience, determi- of determination taught by my men- nation and focus being part of the tor Mary Kom herself." story. Priyanka suffered an injury while How do the actors slipping shooting for the film while filming a under the skin of real characters, boxing scene with an actor from the who have excelled in sport, per- North-East. She fell on the floor form with enough authenticity to because of the impact. But as she convince the audience and the got the shot spot on, director sportsperson, if alive? decided to retain it. Take the example of the film on "The cut mark one sees on the , an exceptional screen under her eye is real though athlete, who ruled the steeple- it was touched up with a bit of make- chase event (a 3,000 meter obsta- up to make it seem more real," says cle race that includes a water jump) the director. at the National Games seven years Films on celebrated and classic in a row (his record stood unbeat- sports persons have created a new en for 10 years) in the 1950s and genre of biopics which are always 1960s, and represented India at very positive, strong and optimistic. international competitions. Later, One wonders what stance the direc- he was forced to become a dacoit. tor will take for the proposed biopic Says actor who son that you are essaying. The Olympian Milkha Singh is one of clean diet because I was repeated- won the Best Film Award and has on Mohammed Azharuddin with essayed the role of Tomar: "I heard character required me to be physi- India's most iconic athletes. The ly told that our muscles need time been invested with the Bronze Emran Hashmi playing Azharuddin about Tomar and his extra-ordinary cally fit. Hence after the shoot, I film is based on his life which has to recover and need at least eight Horse Award, the festival's top hon- considering the dark clouds looming achievements first from Tigmang- would exercise. Chambal is a beau- all cinematic elements of drama, hours of sleep," says Farhaan. He our. Mary Kom will be showcased over his off-the-field career. One shu Dhulia. Two months before the tiful place, so I would go for jogs in irony, tragedy, struggles and tri- went into hard training, cardio exer- in Sweden again by the Indian needs to look at Sushant Singh shoot, I took physical training from the evenings," Khan says. umphs. Farhan transformed his cises and a strict schedule. Embassy at the Indian Film Festi- Rajput's realisation of M.S. Dhoni a -based national-level coach His hard work bagged him the look completely and turned himself "Naturally, some of this tends to val next month. The jury for the jun- because Dhoni it is presumed, still on Steeplechase. It was difficult but Best Actor Award at the National into a man with lean body muscle. spill over into your real life even ior section of the festival consisted has a lot left in him to give to Indian enjoyable. I also undertook lessons Awards. He adds that the film has He went through hard core training after the film is over, because the of children from the age of nine to cricket, never mind that he has on voice modulation and pronunci- changed his way of looking at life, for 18 months before shooting main goal was to increase the 17. retired from Test cricket. There is ation as I had to speak in local discipline and commitment. began to acquire the original body endurance," he sums up. Mary Kom is an Indian boxer of penciled in for a dialect." Let us see what Farhaan Akhtar Milkha Singh had as a young man. As this story is being written, present day and an Olympic medal biopic on Dhyan Chand. Will "It was a different experience had in for the title role in Bhaag "But that had only 40% of what news filters in that Mary Kom, winner. She is a five-time World Abhishek Bacchan be able to pull off because you need to be convincing Milkha Bhaag that fetched him the we were working at. The remaining selected for the Stockholm Interna- Amateur Boxing champion, and the a ? Let us wait and see… in all aspects to resemble the per- National Award for Best Actor. 60% came from proper sleep and a tional Film Festival (SIFFJ), has only woman boxer to have won a (TWS) THE SPOT

Is the bindi a fashion statement, a caste mark or a marriage symbol? It is all three. Placed within contemporary perspectives, it is debatable whether it is popular television that has resurrected the bindi as a cosmetic to enhance the feminine image of woman.

History shows that men of royalty, priestly families The journey began with Shanti on where and high caste men in India sported a mark at the cen- the young and naïve Mandira Bedi in the title role, tre of their foreheads as a mandatory cultural custom. attracted everyone with her strikingly original bindi, an Even today, children in many Hindu families wear a dot arrow in reverse instead of the normal red dot. This was of curd on the forehead as an auspicious sign before followed by 's mega-serial Saans where a job interview or an exam for good luck. In a Bengali the title logo was a red bindi underlined with a black widower old enough to be her father. The director placed Make-up artist Rajesh Patil blames the westernised marriage, the foreheads of both the bride and the groom line, a metaphor for the commitment of a modern wife repeated stress on Nirmala's half-afraid and half-defiant look of mainstream cinema's female characters are marked with a decorative bindi drawn out of san- and mother to her family. act of putting on kumkum every morning. Her rebellion is today for the fading out of the bindi from mainstream dalwood paste (chandan) to signify the auspicious Ekta Kapoor's serials brought about the radical a conscious one, a tragic irony on her sham of a mar- cinema. brought it back in Dev- event. metamorphosis of the bindi. Sudha Chandran, who riage. Her act of looking at herself in the mirror repeated- das and Parineeta took it up later but both these are But traditionally it is the woman who is associated made the zig-zag parting of her hair in her Kahin Kissi ly stresses her introspection and her fear of her uncer- 'period' films. with the bindi to set her apart as a Hindu married woman Roz a fashion statement, said, "My bindis were more tain and dark future. Till the end, she refuses conjugal Today, heroines in Bollywood films on or off screen though it has also been used as a facial adornment and memorable than my performance in the serial." The rights to her husband who, from a sense of deep guilt, do not wear the bindi either as a fashion statement or a caste mark for men in some regions. round red bindi is reserved for the sati savitri house- commits suicide. as a sign of marriage because sartorial choices have Also loosely known as 'tika', 'pottu', '', 'tilak', wives in saas-bahu serials, while all kinds of squiggles, On the other hand, the blurred bindi suggested rape changed over the years. But television still holds the 'tilakam', 'teep', 'kumkum', a bindi was originally a small triangles, question marks, often in black, decorated with of the protagonist Radha in Mother India. It stood for bindi as almost a mandatory cosmetic for the married sequins and stars, depict the femme fatale. or a big, eye-catching round dot. In , loss of virginity upon marriage in umpteen films while woman. Crooner Usha Uthup uses the first consonant of the Gujarat, the Punjab and some southern states, girls wiping it out when a suhaagan becomes a widow was Asha Hariharan who runs a beauty salon in Mum- Bengali alphabet "kaw" like a bindi as an expression of also an oft-repeated metaphor. In Basu Bhattacharya's bai, echoes this stating that. the bindi represents liber- choose to wear a bindi, while in Uttar Pradesh, , her love for . Ingenuous jewellery designers hit Anubhav (1971), the blurred bindi suggests reunion ation. Young girls who happily wear the bindi now often Orissa, West Bengal and Assam, it is a mandatory prac- upon the bejeweled bindi in precious and semi-precious tice of the married woman to adorn a red bindi, though stones. Today bindis decorated with stars and sequins between a couple after a phase of misunderstanding. worn as a tattoo, temporary or permanent, with their unmarried girls can also wear it. The same applies to are quite popular for festivals and parties. Youngsters The big screen lost its love affair with the bindi since sweatshirts and jeans defy the 'unwritten' code that the married women in Nepal. now wear these bindis in different parts of their bodies 's big red bindi in a hundred different bindi/tatoo goes only with Indian attire. Women in the Bindis in different colours to match the clothes came in place of tattoos. films followed by and . The bindi West go gaga over the bindi and many of them sport it later. There was a phase when 'not wearing a bindi' was Hindi mainstream cinema thrived on the bindi as sig- faded out with the entry of stars like , Karisma with their western attire. considered an assertive fashion statement by women nifier of many things between 1959 and mid-70s. But Kapoor, and Priyanka Chopra sporting The bindi today signifies different things to different but it did not last long. there is an old film too that uses Kunku (bindi) as the title foreheads stripped of the bindi. Bindiya chamkegi people. For women in this part of the globe and even A lot of it has to do with the popularity of television of the Marathi film. Directed by V. Shantaram, Kunku remains one of the most memorable songs framed Europe, it is now a fashion statement and a symbol of serials, giving it a new identity as a fashion statement. (1937) was about Nirmala, a young orphan, married to a around the bindi from the hit film Do Raaste (1969). changing culture in a globalised world. (TWF)