Main Vari Vari

In 2005, Bollywood produced a historical film by the name of Mangal Pandey : The Rising. It refers to what the British historians (many of them til this day) called The Mutiny in 1857, but which in reality was a revolt against the opressive rule of the British Raj.

The music which can be credited to A.R. Rahman (whose website in itself is a treat!), is truly a delight to listen to and one song and video in particular stands out; Main Vari Vari (click to listen to it).

But it is best heard together with the amazing classical indian dance video with english subtitles.

A fellow blogger has uploaded the whole movie to his/her blog and can be watched here.

You've been hit by...a smooth Muslim!

Who said Muslims don't have humor? I certainly didn't. I stumbled upon a site called Maniac Muslim and a rather hillarious remix of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal. Ya3ni are you ok?

Watch the video here

Expedition Linné

Carl von Linné is being celebrated in Sweden and across the world in many different ways. Swedish Television made a fanatstic documentary where three youth travel the world in search of the plants that Linné or his disciples discovered and named. On their journey they realise what damage man has done to the dwellings of many species. It is in swedish and english but the pictures are telling. Here is the link.

Madhubala - A legend

Born on Valentines Day 1933, Madhubala is said to be one of the Indian filmscreen's most beautiful and charming actresses with a life story more tragic and fascinating than most of the 70 movies she acted in.

She was the 5th of 11 children in a very poor conservative Muslim Pasthun family in India and at a young age a holy man predicted that she would become very successful but her life would be filled with unhappiness.

Her greatest life work can be seen in the movie Mughal-e-Azam (1960) that took 9 years to film where she plays the role of real life historical figure and courtesan Anarkali, who fell in love with the emperor's son Jehangir (played by Dilip Kumar). It's a tragic love story that also reflects in real life. Madhubala and Dilip Kumar had a relationship/affair for 7 years and she wanted to marry him but he was never serious about her and eventually married a 20 years younger actress named Saira Banu.

She was diagnosed with a heart disease in 1950, before heart surgery was available, yet she concealed it from the film industry and continued working hard, at times coughing blood on set knowing she had a large poor family to support. Many of her friends later recount that she was never the same after her relationship with Dilip ended and many say she suffered from a lifelong depression.

She died with a hole in her heart in 1969 after being bedridden for 9 years, and was buried by her family and husband Kishore Kumar (whom she got married to in 1960).

A must see song & video:
In this scene where she sings one of the most beautiful songs in film history Pyaar kiya to darna kya - having loved what is there to fear from the movie Mughal-e-Azam you see her as Anarkali singing to Jehangir (played by Dilip Kumar, the younger man of two men on thrones in the video without a turban, her failed real-life love) and to his father wearing the turban, the emperor, who strongly dissapproved of their love. Madhubala was ill all through the making of the movie including this scene. She starts singing after about 2 minutes.

It is said Madhubala never stopped loving Dilip Kumar and watched the video to Pyaar kiya to darna kya 500 times on her death bed.

It is hard not to be moved by her song to him, whether she is Anarkali singing to Jehangir, or Madhubala singing to Dilip Kumar.

Salam Café Australia!

A group of young muslims in Melbourne figured they wanted to give the people of Melbourne a window into being Muslim and started the tv chat show Salam Café. They are currently on season 3 and have had guests like Australian author and human rights activist Randa Abdel-Fattah and American comedian Azhar Usman and report with humor on life in Australia and highlight important events in Australia be it multicultural or interfaith based.

Watch highlights from different episodes here.

Watch an episode from season 3 featuring Azhar Usman here.

Bush starrs in Arabic Music Video

In my hotel room in Cairo I saw this music video by singer Shams, Ahlan Ezayak (Hi, how are you). It criticizes in a comical way the whole Bush Administration's dealings with Iraq and Guantanamo as well as touching on the topic of plastic surgery. Refreshing for a change. Watch it here.

Tinku's World

I have earlier blogged about American-Indian Muslim lawyer/comedian Azhar Usman and his hillarious ensemble of Allah Made me Funny. I recently stumbled upon a side project he has been working on with two short pilot episodes where he plays the character Tinku Patel, outsorced by a Chinese company from India to make a documentary in the US about the American Dream. Hillarious!

Episode 1
Episode 2

Is you is or is you ain't?

Most of us grew up watching Tom & Jerry. One episode in particular, Solid Serenade (1946), has stayed in many people's minds. Tom plays and sings the old 1940's classic "Is you is" by Louis Jordan.

Watch it here.

Epidose Updates:
Tom & Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl (episode appears after 1 h 34 min featuring Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss Jr.)
The Cat Concerto feat. Hungarian Rhapsody no 2.
Mouse in Manhattan.

Picture courtesy of the ultimate fan site Tom & Jerry Online.

Water

The third and final movie in Indian born Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta's trilogy, Water, tells the story of 1938 India, where widows suffered three fates: To burn with their deceased husband. To live a life in self denial. Or to marry the husband's brother if his family permits.

We get to follow the fate of Chuiya, a 7 year old bride whose significantly older husband passes away, and she is lead to a widows home where other widows dwell till they die. It is an absolutely beautifully made movie with a simple story that captures you.

Watch clips of the movie here. Watch trailer here.

Also read about Saudi Arabia's first feature film, Keif al hal.

Her other two movies are Fire and Earth.

Keif al hal?

Screening at Stockholm's 17 th annual International Film Festival is Saudi Arabia's first feature film, Keif al hal? A comedy-drama shot in Dubai.

"The ultra-conservative Khaled wants his sister Sahar to marry his righteous and God-fearing friend Waddah. Sahar on the other hand has no plans what so ever to quit her job as a journalist and seems much more interested in Sultan, a director of experimental theatre and also a close friend of the family."
-David Fukamachi Regnfors

Watch the trailer here.

Iranian Kidney Bargain Sale

Sohaila, a well educated woman, 27 years of age tells us her story about what leads her to sell her kidney. It’s a story about a system where women are prey by constitution. Raped in early age she flees into a marriage with a psychologically disturbed man. To get a divorce she has to borrow money and buy herself free, a freedom which is imaginary even though she gets a good position in a computer company and is able to pay the interest of the loan, faith caches up on her. Her abusive stepfather is now about to sell the elder of her half sisters, who already tried to commit suicide, to a crippled considerably older man. Sohaila decides to take care of her two half sisters. Meanwhile the half of the loan which was private has to be paid of immediately. Sohaila face a situation where social authorities waves her away in spite of her impossible situation with hints that she always could sell her body. Sohaila refuses to do so but she still has to sell a part of it – her kidney.

-Excerpt from the Swedish made documentary by Nima Sarvestani shot in Iran, "Iranian Kidney Bargain Sale"

Hysteria Film AB

Yusuf Islam a.k.a cat Stevens in Dubai

In May this year I travelled to London and attended an evening of remembrance of the Prophet Muhammad, and at the event Yusuf Islam showed up unexpectedly and a video was played where he pulled out his guitar on stage which he had left in the closet for nearly 20 years and sang what was to me the most beautiful version of the old Arabic song "Tala' al badru 3aleyna" (the white moon rose over us).

A song that was sung by the people of Medina upon the arrival of the Prophet Muhammad to the city.

I have searched for the video on the net and today by chance I stumbled upon it, here it is, from his live performance in Dubai earlier this year.

The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam

One of the main characters in Amin Maalouf's Samarcand is philosopher, poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam of Persia. Born in 1048, he was to change the way people viewed the world. Not only did he calculate the number of days in a year accurately by six decimals, but his calculation has only one day error every 5000 years whereas the Gregorian Calendar has one every 3330 years. He also proved to people around him, among them prominent scholar and philosopher Imam Ghazali (see previous post about him), that the universe did not revolve around earth but that infact earth revolved on its own axis.

A lunar crater and an asteroid have both been named Omar Khayyam after him.

Films have been made about his amazing life. Back in 1957 a Hollywood film starring Cornel Wilde was made, and in my old copy of an Agatha Christie book (Death in the Air) from 1946, a book of poems by Omar Khayyam called Rubaiyaat of Omar Khayyam (meaning quatrains, referring to the style of four lines of poetry) was on second place of New Avon Library's Best Selling Titles of that year in America.

More recently however, in 2005 Iranian filmmaker Kayvan Mashayekh filmed and came out with a movie titled The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam with actors like Vanessa Redgrave.

View the trailor here.

George Galloway, telling it like it is

Think what you will of Hezbollah or Israel, but for once, in media, with sheer honesty and straightforwardness, without political games, a person is given\taking the opportunity to speak a few honest cents about media broadcasting of the long ongoing conflict in the Middle East and although I don't support killing of civilians of any kind, no matter what, there is a constant silence when it comes to Israel, as a state (I remind you, a state!), massmurdering civilians, all in the name of justice.

George Galloway, thank you for speaking your mind, and for saying to Anna, the Sky News reporter " It is clear that Israeli blood is worth more...".

It is one of the biggest truths of the past century and it looks like it will be for a long time.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,31200-galloway_060806,00.html

Mostar Jump

The annual competition held in Mostar coincided with my visit luckily, and I got to witness the men of all ages taking a plunge into the Neretva river from the newly re-constructed Mostar Bridge.

At this event everyone who jumps is judged by a handfull of former jumpers and every year a winner is crowned.

The Doha Debate Video on Extremism

Here is the Video (Google video) to an earlier Doha Debate on BBC with Tim Sebastian that I blogged about in March.

I recommend especially in the current times we are living in with what is going on in Lebanon, Religious Extremism among Muslims, State Terrorism and Israel etc, to watch this very enlightening debate between Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Former Palestinian Authority Spokeswoman Diana Butt and Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding John L Esposito, with inputs from Alliance of Civilizations member Rabbi Schneier and author Karen Armstrong.

An excerpt from the debate:

TIM SEBASTIAN: Can you have mutual acceptance though of people who commit atrocities or other extremist acts?

RABBI SCHNEIER: Do not stereotype and do not generalize, and above all, it's very interesting, by the way in Judaism, in the Bible not once, 36 times it's repeated, 'Love your stranger,' not once, because it's the tendency of the human being to be suspicious of the other. What are we talking about, xenophobia and anti-Semitism or Islamophobia, what is it? That's what we're talking about, so the way to go is really respect for the other, respect for human life, respect for the stranger. You talk a lot about democracy. You want to have a definition of democracy? How the majority treats the minority, whether it's politically or religiously speaking, that is a barometer, how the majority treats the minority.

Muslim Stand Up!

Azhar Usman, an American Muslim lawyer part of the Allah Made Me Funny crew brings Muslim stereotypes to light in a hilarious way. Watch a video clip here.

"He's been called the Ayatollah of Comedy, and lately people have been calling him Bin Laughin. Whether the audience is Muslim or not, young or old, serious or laid back, Azhar Usman's standup comedy is sure to please."
-Allah Made Me Funny

Doha Debate on Extremism

Tim Sebastian has always been one of my favorite journalists, and tonight a debate on Extremism will be re-broadcast at 22:10 GMT and also tomorrow on the 19th at 9:10 GMT on BBC World.

Two members of the UN group, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and John Esposito, founding director of the Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding, were among the four panelists answering questions from a student audience. They were joined by Hamza Yusuf, the US-based Islamic scholar, and Diana Buttu, former spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority.
-The Doha Debates

Baraka

On the occasion of the International Women's Day, I felt it appropriate to present a beautiful movie showing the blessings of this world. A movie with no script, no actors and no plot. Shot by Ron Frick and Mark Magidson on a journey through six continents and 24 countries, Baraka to me captures the essence of life, its birth and destruction. The soundtrack also deserves an honorable mention.

Some of the shots are breathtaking and really inspire the traveler in you to go on a journey exploring this world that we so cherish and destroy. With scenes of destruction from post-war Kuwait to scenes of prayer and worship at Temples, Mosques and in nature all across the globe, you're taken to places you perhaps would never visit, for one reason or the other.

A highly spiritual journey that will undoubtedly strike a cord somewhere in your heart.

The Alchemist of Happiness

Every religion and movement had its famous thinkers; Confucious, Aristotle, Nietzsche among many others. Ovidio Salazar, is responsible for bringing one of Islam's greatest philosophers on to the movie screen in his latest picture Al-Ghazali: the Alchemist of Happiness, and thus portraying the life of an ordinary man with an unordinary mind.

"Exploring the life and impact of the greatest spiritual and legal philosopher in Islamic history, this film examines Ghazali's existential crisis of faith that arose from his rejection of religious fanaticism, and reveals profound parallels with our own times. Ghazali became known as the Proof of Islam and his path of love and spiritual excellence overcame the pitfalls of the organized religion of his day. His path was largely abandoned by early 20th century Muslim reformers for the more strident and less tolerant school of IbnTaymiyya. This film argues that Ghazali's Islam is the antidote for today's terror."

View the trailer here (high quality), here (medium quality) or here (low quality).