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Class apart
What is the most common question asked at press conferences when an actor comes calling? Here's a guess - As a child, did you always want to become an actor? Bull's eye! And so, the moment Tom Alter (the name is enough) took the mike, he replies, "I am still a child. Although I wanted to become a sportsman like Milkha Singh, I am satisfied with being an actor and want more." Easy wit and straight approach, Tom Alter at his best! In the city to perform M Sayeed Alam's biographic play, Ghalib, as part of the Chandigarh Theatre Festival, Tom's answer opens up his multidimensional personality. Actor, movie star, author, sportsman…how does he like to see himself as? "Well, I don't have to choose, I enjoy being all," he says. But then, when 90 per cent of the conversation is about theatre, one gets the idea. "Theatre has been much more to me than just acting. It has been a challenge, a conscious effort on my part to keep the child in me alive." The reason why Ghalib, a biographical play on the life the poet, fascinates Tom, "Ghalib was a child inside; he believed in living with an open mind and heart. And he was a real secularist. His expression that it's difficult to be a human than to be anybody else explains it." Well, similar thinking, as Tom impresses with his impeccable Hindi and Urdu. "I feel offended when people still categorise me in 'foreigner' category. In the over 250 movies that I have done, just 10 odd movies have me playing foreign characters. Why not consider the roles of Maulana Azad, Mirza Ghalib, Lord Ram, MF Husain, which I have played in theatre over the years." We get the point, so those who are still debating over his 'Indianess', grow up please! And there have been even more absurd questions apart from this, which had him wondering - 'Do you consider yourself to be as popular as somebody like Rajesh Khanna? "My only reply to that can be - ask my female fans. If I have some." Well, we are sure he has a bunch of them! Currently busy with 25 theatre productions and a workshop in US, Tom feels the misconceptions surrounding the theatre industry should be cleared once and for all. "When people talk about theatre being a dying art, it's out of sheer ignorance. It has always been a self-dependent industry. Now, with good scripts in Hindi and Urdu, fresh talent and better production standards, theatre is a thriving industry." But then challenges are everywhere, "The challenge is not to get sponsors, but to convince the audience to buy a ticket without any," he emphasises. Ask him what excites him after theatre and he is quick to reply, "Sports of course. I was in Boston last weekend and I saw a group of people playing hockey. I went over and joined them and it was for the first time after 40 years that I played a good game of hockey. It was an amazing experience." Is there anything left to be tried? "So much. Like I want to learn Punjabi and work in a Punjabi play." After Urdu, Hindi, Assamese English…multidimensional and multilingual as well! nehawalia@tribunemail.com
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Notes from the West
It's been four days we've been here…the city's very nice…it's much different from America, there if you drive around you don't see anybody…" Amy Aquino, Justin Jones, Jacob Walker, Alexander Lach and Gurkaran Singh, have just begun with their India experience. A group of five singers from Houston, Texas, will pull all the strings possible for their performance. Think music spanning opera to a cappella to contemporary songs. Ahead of their Rock Garden performance, here's doing a sound check on their kind of music.
"We've been to Patiala, in the city to Rock Garden, just been relaxing and not really seen much in the city…haven't really met any singers from here," chips in one. Back to the backgrounders, the group's been trained in the western classical vocal tradition. And has an assorted repertoire of performances; having played with a variety of groups at several venues in Houston and across America, in cities including Boston, Los Angeles and New Orleans. "We're here for another three weeks and post this we move to Amritsar," shares Gurkaran, himself having trained in Western classical. As of now, he's learning the Indian instrument, Dilruba. "It seems a little better than the keyboard. And is really different from the Western instruments. Indian classical is a lot more into nature, helps me connect better." In between, we are told the city was their first choice to begin with in India. Also lined up is the performance at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, next month. "Over there, they will be solo performing, which means there would be no other singers," informs the host. The group members are a regular at the Texas Renaissance Festival. The list of recognition extends to having been selected to the Texas All-State Choir multiple times. As for what defines their music, it's "16th century music, to the modern world music, some of the songs are religious, renaissance pieces." Somewhat similar to what they'll be doing in the city. "Oh we'll be playing the 16th century English pieces, as also the contemporary pieces from the last 10 years," they chorus. The fresh graduates from Catholic College Preparatory Schools in America, each among them has plans in place. While two plan to pursue majors in music, Alexander wants to go ahead with engineering. For Amy it's pursuing Oprah. "Oprah in America is the most popular choice…it's also very competitive." manpriya@tribunemail.com (To perform at the Rock Garden
on July 27) |
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Mind games
Anything that doesn't fall into the permissible limits of logic is illogical, and anything illogical cannot be explained. What cannot be explained is an illusion. Uff! This might be a nerve-cracker, but for Franz Harary, a world magician, nothing is real or unreal, for there is no greater magician than the human mind! A celebrity guest on Star One's show India's Magic Star, Franz Harary codes and decodes combinations and permutations, and explains what lies behind an illusion.
"Anything outside logic or the boundary of science is illusion," puts in Franz, the magician and inventor from America who appeared on television shows such as the first episode of NBC's The World's Greatest Magic, where he made a space shuttle disappear. And sometime back while touring in India, he did the same to Taj Mahal as well! Made it vanish! How on earth was this possible? He laughs. "Let me put it straight. Magic doesn't happen on a television screen, it doesn't happen in our imagination. Magic only happens in our mind. I only create a number of optical and psychological misdirections, which in turn creates a short-circuit in the mind of the audience. And that's it." That's it, we wonder. So, is it just playing on our psyche? Only if we knew! "Even then you wouldn't understand. Illusions occur everywhere, rainbow and a road mirage, what are they? Illusions, but of course," says Franz who has designed illusions for N*SYNC, Cher, Snoop Dog, Tupac Shakur, Tone Loc, Styx, Dr. Dre, Usher, Boyz II Men, Queen Latifah, Hammer, Tina Turner, Reba McEntire and Missy Elliott. "Getting permission to make Taj Mahal vanish was the biggest challenge," he says, rather than performing the actual feat. And finally I did it. It happens so suddenly that it takes time for a mind to register that a trick did take place." So, how did the onlookers react? "When we see something beyond the normal, the reactions are generally of reservation and strangeness. There is a disconnect between the left and the right side of the brain, which makes it difficult to register the trick." About his experience on India's Magic Star, Franz says he was amazed at the talent India has. "Magic was born in India almost 5,000 years back and eventually moved to Europe. The only problem with the magicians is that they haven't moved beyond traditional magic. I am here to work with the Indian magicians to create new magic," adds Franz. jasmine@tribunemail.com |
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Take a call
It needs more than a bundle of gathered nerves to introduce yourself and on top of it sell! Wouldn't the thought of cold calling leave you cold? Picture trying to vend an insurance product to a nagging homemaker and we're talking morning hours. With due respect to legal issues and 'Do not disturb lists' marketing calls are here to stay.
While it's here to stay, here's making an effort and going beyond hearing, that is listening to the random myriad voices on the other side of the tele-marketing world. An insurance product, a credit card, a policy, a tariff plan... it isn't easy to begin with. "Some people are nice, but that's rare. Majority are rude and insensitive, and snap back at us with statements like — 'We were sleeping, you disturbed us. Don't you have any other work to do'," shares Sandeep Kaur, six months into the profession of telecaller at Bharti AXA. She adds, "It's our job and we have to do it. Hardly 10 per cent of the people listen to us. Mostly it's the urban people that are cold and indifferent." Cold calling or telephone marketing is yet another selling tactic where the salespersons approach prospective customers telling them about their new products. The word 'cold' in the term signifies the unsolicited nature of the call. Recall a modulated voice announcing, "I'm calling up from…we have a new plan…If you buy this…." Busy, meeting, driving, sleeping, out of town; any excuse to avoid…"Driving right now is the most common and ready excuse they cite to avoid even listening to us further," shares Karan Rana, former TATA Indicom marketing executive. He adds, "Then they ask us to call at a certain time, let's say four, but they never ever pick up after that." Looks like all from the profession will share the sentiment. Nods Harvinder Kaur, telecaller, Airtel broadband, "Driving is by far the most common excuse. Busy or in the meeting, or at work, come later. They ask us to call later at a certain specified time but never take the call after that." Being shunned is one thing, while being shooed quite another. The latter is what puts down, at times. Shares Harvinder, "At times, there are people who aren't just rude but plain abusive. Then we just cut down the call." Err…Isn't it upsetting? "Of course it is. In such cases we do feel really bad. Then we call up other people, if they talk nicely it feels good and then we forget about it." Let alone lessons on turning cold calls into business leads, they're first and foremost taught on difficult customers. "We just say sorry and immediately keep the phone down. Even at training they teach us to not say a word and disconnect," shares Sandeep. Then the perennial gender problem, share the girls, "Some crazy idles, even insist on meeting us first and later buying the product or service. But by now we know how to deal with it." Internet, meanwhile, abounds with tactics to handle marketing calls. Those at the other end of the phone are themselves handling a handful! manpriya@tribunemail.com |
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Picks & piques
After a spew of flops Akshay Kumar appears to have gone right back into the arms of the director who managed to gift him his biggest hits. This time Akshay is also producing the film to ensure an overflow but this witless gamble is unlikely to pay off for the once successful director-lead actor jodi. Priyadarshan and Akshay have failed to plug the massive hole that has opened up in their joint creative pursuits. Their most recent effort Khatta Meetha, is as a matter of fact, is more painful than joyful and being the sole release this week will be of no help at the Box Office!
Khatta Meetha is Priyadarshan's umpteenth attempt to serve up yet another of his southern comedies for the national audience. This film is a remake of his 1989 hit Malayalam film Velanakalude Nadu, refitted but not exactly well-suited. The story is reset into a Maharashtrian household and the set-up is replete with a large joint family residing in a huge square traditional, Kerala styled bungalow. Chauvinistic men and mild spirited women populate the script. To top it all, Akshay Kumar plays an unlikely Sachin Tichkule, an adarshwadi who loses his way, becomes a civil contractor engaged in municipal work, adopts corrupt ways, gets himself heavily into debt and finally finds his way back to his adarsh roots with some gentle persuasion from lady love Gehna(Trisha). There are quite a few sub-plots added on for complexity but they only add to the general confusion. Sachin is the younger son of a retired Judge (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) who is also a Gandhian. Sachin's elder brother and his two elder sisters' husband's are extremely rich, corrupt contractors. Sachin's youngest sister Anjali(Urvashi Sharma)is married off to the local goon turned politician and ends up committing suicide. There's an attempt to falsify charges and another to expose corruption. Then there's a property angle and plenty of in-house politics too, so there is no shortage of diversions but none of it is interesting enough. The narrative appears over-populated with characters and there is a lot happening in terms of incidents and counter incidents but there doesn't appear to be any solid believable objective to the entire proceedings. The lead character 'Sachin' seems to have so many character traits both positive and negative that we stop believing in him in the first few minutes of the runtime itself. Akshay's struggling contractor act is extremely irritating and his character's sudden bout of conscience towards the end appears manufactured. Akshay plays him loud and obnoxious. The forced levity appears inappropriate and un-digestable for most of the run time. It is also quite impossible to believe that Sachin's ex-girlfriend Gehna, now municipal commissioner, whom he incessantly harasses to the point of her attempting suicide, can find it so easy to forgive him on the basis of a half-hearted, ill-worded apology on his part. The narrative is a continuous and incessantly shrill rant but the audience will be hard-pressed to figure out what it's all about. Priyadarshan's lead character adopts corrupt ways when it suits him and also seeks to play holier than thou when confronted. It is totally confused writing and makes the entire experience ineffectual and frustrating. The dialogues are rendered at ear-splitting volume, without any pause. The performances are also for the course so-to-speak, befitting to Priyadarshan's confused milieu. 'Khatta Meetha' was designed to be a satirical comedy but ham handed treatment, confounding ideology and loud performances leave it well short on laughter and entertainment. johnsont307@gmail.com |
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These instant noodles feature a healthmaker, which is fortified with nine vital nutrients and is packed with the goodness of iron and calcium. Foodles from Horlicks is available in two options — regular and four-grain. The four-grain variant is made with the nutritious grains -rice, corn, ragi and wheat. The two packs are priced at Rs.10 and Rs.15 for 80gm respectively. Each variant is available in three lip-smacking flavours. The regular pack comes in flavors like must masala, crazy curry and spicy treat whereas the four grain pack is available in Ala Masala, Curry in a hurry and slice of spice. — TNS Cut to cut
Bosch is offering a complete range of garden tools to make gardening as easy and enjoyable as possible. Cordless tools eliminate the need for a cable thereby offering unrestricted movement without the hassle of untangling and with no risk of cutting the cable. In addition, cordless tools are lightweight compared to conventional petrol tools, are easy to start and produce no petrol fumes. The new range consists of Cordless Lawnmower Rotak 34 LI that mows the garden with increased run time by 10-20 per cent. It is lightweight and is up to 40 per cent lighter than other cordless and petrol lawnmowers. Its unique grass combs allow it to cut right to the edges. The cordless ISIO Shrub and Edging Shear is the perfect way of fostering one's gardening creativity as this compact and lightweight tool helps in effortless cutting of bushes and small leafed hedges. The cordless Grass Trimmer ART 23 Easytrim is another lightweight and ergonomic tool designed for convenient edging and trimming of grass borders. The Cordless Hedgecutter AHS 48 LI is wonderful application that comes with a Bosch Innovation: "Anti-Blocking" System, which ensures continuous cutting performance! — TNS
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Tarot Talk
TAURUS: "The Star" says what you have been dreaming and wishing for has come true in part. Shareholders may find the week quite beneficial. Businessmen think twice before signing a new deal. Spend your time in the company of your loved ones. Newborn in the family gives you happiness. A move may improve your emotional outlook. Tip: Plan your life to avoid the delays that comes your way. Lucky Colour: Crimson. GEMINI: "The Emperor" gets you in touch with your leadership qualities. It will be the minor pinpricks that provoke you. Your co-workers may cause a number of delays. Home life will cause some interference. Newly married will find home atmosphere tense. Tip: Don't make hasty decisions as it could lead to waste of time and money. Lucky Colour: Brown. CANCER: "Wheel of Fortune" says good times are round the corner. Group activities should be highly successful. A sudden improvement in your fortune is indicated. Relationship could be severely damaged. Tact is required to avoid a head-on collision. Tip: By applying yourself you can build great success. Lucky Colour: Ebony. LEO: You draw "Two of wands" to invoke mental power and intelligence. Businessmen find the weak quite hectic. A nagging doubt gets cleared. Take care of your health on Wednesday. Hostellers may enjoy in the campus. Sportsmen may win the game. Love life is exciting. Tip: Be careful not to over-commit yourself. Lucky Colour: White. VIRGO: "The Knight of Discs" supports you through a busy and turning week with healing and earthy energy. Cash may not come smooth. Make every effort to further your ambitions. The silver lining is closer than you imagine. Beloved showers you with gifts. Problems of others may have to be attended too. Tip: Excessive travelling could prove harmful. Lucky Colour: Orange. LIBRA: "Hermit" invites you to take an astute and honest look at your close relationships. A week of heavy spending. Your love life will be active. There is little you can do to advance your own affairs. Tuesday will be difficult for dealing with business partners. Seniors are in cheerful mood. Tip: "Where there is a will, there is a way" is an old saying that holds true in your case this week. Lucky Colour: Pink. SCORPIO: "Ten of pentacles" bodes extremely well for relationships and romance. Cheer up! Excitement and happiness is on the cards. This is an easy-going week. You will have much energy. Interesting week for mixing up with people from overseas. Little extra care with the desk-work is essential on Wednesday. Tip: Do not refuse offers without seeking the advice from someone else. Lucky Colour: Cherry SAGITTARIUS: This could be quite a good week for work. Domestic happiness plays hide and seek. Speculation is best avoided. Encroachers: expect a notice from the government. A Libra friend brings pleasure on Monday. Tip: Don't be bullied into accepting situations you dislike. Lucky colour: Electric blue. CAPRICORN: "Seven of Cups" brings fairy dreams. The week favours legal matters. Students check your canteen dues. Finances are in a frowning mood. Hidden assets may be uncovered. Be sure when you speak or sign any document. Unconventional people should be given a wide berth. Tip: Take limited risks while speculating. Lucky colour: Yellow.
PICSES: You draw "The World". The relationship between employer and employee get amicable. Job applications yield good results. You will feel unsettled. You might suffer a sudden loss of confidence on Tuesday. It would be best not to stretch yourself too far. Money matters require special caution. TIP: Use careful judgment in handling issues involving property. Lucky color: emerald green.
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Film: Khatta Meetha
Are your kids finicky about the food they eat? Do you often have 'food fights' with your kids? So, if you are looking for some tasty snacking options, which are also nourishing, breathe a sigh of relief as GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare has launched- 'Foodles' from Horlicks.
Bosch Power Tools unveiles its new range of corded and cordless innovative lawn and garden tools, powered by Lithium Ion technology. 
ARIES: "The
Wheel of Fortune" blesses you with sensitivity and creativity in whatever
you do. Do not go out on a climb. A visit made under a certain amount of
secrecy could turn out to be most rewarding. Put your extra cash in safe
investment. Focus on health and diet on Friday. Tip of the week: Do what
is right and watch your best interests. Lucky Colour: Baby pink.
AQUARIUS: "The
Empress" takes you towards the fast and protective lane. Do not be in the
grip of false hopes. Your critical problem is going to be solved. Financial
arrangements will be favourable. Working women be careful while dealing with
clients. Children may enjoy the company of their parents. Tip: You gain
by being practical; don't be emotional. Lucky Colour: Burgundy.