The Revolution is Rising...

A clarion call for this May 2010!

Finally out in India.

REVOLUTION RISING (INDIA)

Much Love, Respect and Appreciation to all who've been with me on this.

REVOLUTION RISING (US)

Nima (jaana, where art thou?)

Its been a long while that I've met this crazy lovely being. Though the band is no more it makes total sense as everything still remains in ether.

Nima Lavafpour this one's for you!

**What started as a fun research with my deeply spiritual whacked out friends...became a life changing force. This video is a rough collage of what I shot in 2007.**

Nafir means sweet freedom. So does the music of this quartet from Iran exude. Comprising of:

Nafir is based in India and travels across the country spreading the power of love and spirituality through musical compositions of divine intensity and display of sheer energy. They weave a braid of harmonious notes entwining Traditional Persian Music with Jazz and Rock. Sonnets that they sing are mostly inspired or quoted by great Sufi mystics like Rumi, Hafiz, and the likes. Surprisingly and pleasantly you will find some Sanskrit mantras too.

And rightly so Nafir creates the right Sema (ambiance) for any music festival, for a pulse-racing adrenaline rush entwined with spiritual zest. Hu!!!

Nima on Vocals and Daf (Persian Drum)

Sahar on Vocals and Flute

Farboud on Guitars and Backing vocals

Mazdak on Tanboor and Khamanche (Persian String Instruments)

Video by Roy, Girish, Dilip & Dev.

Research, bewilderment & friendliness: Roy & sometimes Nima.

Malice in Ponderland

This is not a review. This is just a view.

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is a big callous blunder. A far cry from Edward Scissorhands or the classy dark Sleepy Hollow, this one's not even close to Ed Wood, Willy Wonka, Big Fish or even Sweeney Todd! I would rather enjoy far out watching 'Corpse Bride' - an animated Depp rather than the aggressively promoted Mad Hatter, who hardly makes an impact in the narrative.

Whatever happened to Johnny Depp?? Jack Sparrow has rubbed furiously off his demeanor and all facial twitches resemble either a Willy Wonka or again a Sparrow. It seems he is living off his characters from films and carrying them forth to the next one. A very scary thought.

Burton and his lysergic diethylamide-induced factory has churned out a total waste of brilliance and economics behind this film. Every frame, every shot reminds you of one of the numerous 'unending falling-into-depth-less-pits', slaying of fire-gamma rays fuming dragon like creatures, futile humor lines and the list will put you to sleep even before Alice does. Infact Wonderland itself looks like an abandoned remains of a set from some old Burton movie.

The supporting cast are overplayed, underplayed, overacted, all around a Taylor Swift types who has played Alice (Mia Wasikowska = who?). Anne Hathaway's frustration of not getting better roles is apparent on screen as the perpetually stoned White Queen. Helena Bonham Carter has been overplayed to the hilt as the Red Queen and the ugliness is over the top. Other characters are as irritating as the 3D glasses.

After being terribly depressed, by the time I walked out of the theater, I overheard things from the crowd like 'Narnia should be in 3D', 'Harry Potter rocks any day', 'Mad Hatter looked like Willy Wonka's acid trip gone bad', of some that I can remember.

Trust me the animated and movie versions of Alice which we saw on our DoorDarshan sets during the summers were a tasteful lot. They were far out than Burtonscape.

It is clear that Burton seriously overestimates himself, which is not bad...but dude we are not on acid!!