Brown Motion

I do not watch Hindi films.  Not as a rule but finding a topic I might like and hoping that it is well executed is a gamble.  I am not willing to risk three hours for it. Myriad other reasons.  But my best half screens them and decides to rewatch some if I am inclined.  One of them was a film called Raazi. Raazi means a pact.  An agreement.  It is an Urdu word from which the Hindi language derives a lot of its own. The film was directed by Meghna Gulzar (daughter of famous duo Gulzar, a talented film music director and Rakhee, erstwhile Indian actress).  That intrigued me as did the subject of the film.  The film is about a young girl in her twenties in the Northwest Frontier region of India (Kashmir) being chosen by her father, who is a spy, to continue his work as he battles cancer. The father is a spy for the Indian intelligence services responsible for gathering intel on Pakistan's military movements.  The actors perform the...

Had an opportunity to go see the US premiere of a Pakistani film (Hindi with English Subtitles) at the Castro theater in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco.  Film is titled Dukhtar (urdu for daughter) and is about a rescue organized by a mother who cannot foresee being a silent part of a criminal undertaking where her underage daughter would be wed in an arranged marriage to a local warlord. The Castro district (so labeled to remember a one time Mexican Governer of Alta CA)  as it is called is a colorful community with a lot of non-straight individuals calling it home.  Wonderfully located on a hill slope rising in the middle of the 50 sq. mile city limits, I was also able to do a short hike up said hill (twin peaks) which I shall write about in another blog. The theater almost a 100 years old is reminiscent of the old days of movie watching.  It has still retained some of its patina, glazed tile street foyer Castro Entry and old ca...