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Once Upon a Time (1922)

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Movie

"The Shah of an Eastern [Indian] province is dethroned by a jealous subordinate whose favorite...

David McK (3600 KP) rated The Last of the Mohicans (1992) in Movies

Jul 24, 2022

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

1992 | Drama, Romance, War

7.4

(21 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Early 90s Daniel-Day Lewis starring Romantic Drama, set during the French and Indian War of 1754-'63, with Day Lewis as the adopted son of a dying native American tribe - the Mohicans of the title.

Lots of weeping panoramic shots throughout, with a rousing (and now - over three decades later - quite famous) musical score, but the film does seem to jump around quite a bit, with little really in the way of character development and, well, things just seemingly happening for no discernible reason at all!

Kudos

Braddock's Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution

David L. Preston

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

On July 9, 1755, British and colonial troops under the command of General Edward Braddock suffered a...

Booksnthreads (19 KP) rated Behind the Beautiful Forevers in Books

Jun 5, 2018

I must say, I’m disappointed. I discovered this book from a list of “books every woman MUST read” sort of thing, and I still don’t understand why this book was on that particular list. There’s nothing about the story that appeals to or directly speaks to being a woman. BUT, that’s not the only reason why I didn’t particularly like this book.

Maybe if you chose to read the book because you wanted a glimpse into the sordid lives of slum dwellers in Mumbai, you might actually appreciate the book. The story isn’t really about an individual character, or even about the characters at all, but about the political and social constructs that serve to keep people in poverty, about the corruption in the government that, while professing to advance the cause of helping these people, only serves to perpetuate injustice. If that’s what you are reading it for, to see an absolutely horrific depiction of Indian social services, then by all means, read on. If you prefer to read something that uses character development and plot to more subtly put forward ideas and truths, look elsewhere.

The other thing to keep in mind as you read this novel is that it is written by an American reporter. While I do not question Boo’s qualifications and knowledge of the topic, it’s good to remember that she is an outsider with an agenda. However positive her agenda may be, and however knowledgeable about the Indian slums and the plight of the poor she may be, I couldn’t help but wonder as I read how the narrative might have been influenced by her Western lens and how it might have been different if written by an Indian author.

Kudos

Jonathan Donahue recommended Inside The Kremlin by Ravi Shankar in Music (curated)

"I chose a live album because you can hear where East meets West. It's obvious Ravi's known for his traditional music with Indian instruments. But with Inside The Kremlin he has the strings going. He's got a very orchestrated formality to mix in with his own Indian-tempered scale melodies. You can also hear the giant strings very clearly, so for me this is heaven. You've got the Indian modality mixed in with classical music. It's part of where we learned to orchestrate - where you can hear the sitars, for instance. It didn't take long for us to think, hey, this is how you put a cool guitar, strings or oboe piece together! Before that - and the same happened on Ocean Rain by Echo & The Bunnymen - it was the first time in a long time that we began to suss out this orchestration thing; it's not rocket science! I know the composers seem like they're physicists but if we can just take the melodies we can already play on the guitar and we put them on these classical instruments, that's orchestration, isn't it? We didn't have to be Mozart to do this. But in my case, this is where I began to figure some of these things out, certainly with Ocean Rain and Ravi Shankar. When I was in The Flaming Lips making the In A Priest Driven Ambulance album, it was very similar in that there was a guitar melody, but there were also strings doing it. That led to the beginnings of the orchestration in Mercury Rev as well as Flaming Lips. Listen to Ravi Shankar, and then listen to modern Bollywood - that's the Western or Hollywood side of Eastern music."

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Kudos

Farali vangi, recipes of delicius for upvas and vrat (Fasting)

Food & Drink and Book

6.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

App

Indian families practice the traditional form of fasting where they consume only some of food items...

ames_morgan (8 KP) rated Love, Hate, and Other Filters in Books

Jun 19, 2018

Love, Hate, and Other Filters

Samira Ahmed | 2017 | Romance, Young Adult (YA)

8.3

(8 Ratings)

Book Rating

A compelling coming of age story about a young girl born in America but belonging to a Muslim family. This book is YA but can definitely transcend this genre. Beautifully written this book tells the story of Maya who is a senior in high school. Maya wants to be a good Indian daughter but she also wants to go to NYU and study to be a filmmaker. Maya's parents forget that they themselves defied their beliefs to a point by coming to America and starting a new life with a love marriage. As Maya and her parents start to come to an understanding a horrible act of terrorism happens too close to home for Maya's parents especially when a Muslim man is initially named as the terrorist. All of Maya's hopes and dreams are suddenly crushed as her parents decide that it is too dangerous for Maya to go away from home. And to further add insult to injury Maya has gone and fallen in love with a boy who is not Indian and definitely not a Muslim. Now Maya has to decide what she is willing to lose to follow her heart. Profound, witty and beautiful!