Zakir Hussain Movies
- 2006
- Add Drum Pad's 20th Anniversary Show to QueueAdd Drum Pad's 20th Anniversary Show to top of Queue
Drum Pad's 20th Anniversary Show contains nearly four hours of music performed by some of the most respected drummers of their time including Jimmy Chamberlain from Smashing Pumpkins, Steve Smith from Journey, and Dream Theater's Mike Portnoy. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terry Bozzio, Jimmy Chamberlin, (more)
- 2006
Rahul Dholakia's drama Heaven & Hell on Earth offers a human drama set during the riots that erupted in India in 2002. In the town of Ahmedabad, Cyrus (Naseeruddin Shah) enjoys a happy life with his wife and two children. His son Parzan (Parzan Dastur) is a dreamer with an interest in sports, and their dutiful younger daughter Dilshad (Pearl Bariswalla) completes the seemingly perfect family. Soon the family plays host to a visiting American college student who is studying the life of Mahatma Gandhi. After a religious attack, the town erupts in violence, resulting in the disappearance of Parzan. Cyrus sets about doing everything in his power to recover his son. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Naseeruddin Shah, Corin Nemec, (more)
- 2004
An illegal alien preys on cultural ignorance for fun and profit in this satirical comedy from writer and director Vijay Singh. Nishan (Vikram Chatwal) is a young man from India who loves Yamini (Smriti Mishra) and wants to marry her, but since she's a Hindu and he's a Sikh, her family forbids it. At wit's end, Nishan travels to Paris, where he tries to get work, though he lacks the proper papers. Fixer (Trevor Stephens), a recent arrival from Jamaica, is sympathetic to Nishan's problems and helps him set up his own business, a cheap curry stand. Unfortunately, Nishan is an atrocious cook, and his business is near the point of collapse when he meets Nathalie (Gabriella Wright), who doesn't know enough about Indian cuisine to realize how awful his food really is. Nathalie hires Nishan to be her live-in chef, and he's soon promoted to boyfriend, though matters become complicated when Yamini arrives for a visit just as Nishan has to put together a gourmet meal for people who would know the difference. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
A new voice in Bombay's growing new wave, Rahul Bose spins this boisterous tale about love and secrets. Xen (Rehaan Engineer) is a popular hairdresser with a curious gift -- he can read the thoughts of people by touching their hair. Of course, such ability comes at a price. Following a bizarre accident, which took the lives of his parents at a young age, Xen has emotionally withdrawn from his surroundings, save the insights he experiences by handling hair. His regulars include Tanya Ruia, a wealthy socialite who is afraid to reveal that her finances has slipped; Mittal, a business professional who enjoys inflicting pain; a pair of college friends secretly in love with each other; and Xen's friend, Rage, whose dreams of film stardom are rapidly vanishing. Eventually, he meets Nikita, a beautiful debutante who seems to have no inner life at all. Soon Xen finds himself attracted to her and the silence that she brings. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rehaan Engineer, Koel Purie, (more)
Shaji Karun's love story takes its inspiration from Kathakali, a dance-drama with a 500-year history, which is indigenous to the Kerala region of India. In the late 1930s, 10-year-old Kunhikuttan begins his training in this very taxing art form. When he is eighteen, he is forced to marry someone he does not love. The marriage is disastrous. As he becomes more and more successful in his career, he meets a young woman named Subhadra who is married to high society but somewhat lost in her gilded cage. Subhadra is obsessed by the hero of the Mahabarata Epic, Arjuna, who also loves a woman named Subhadra. She falls in love with Kunhikuttan, who plays Arjuna on stage; but she is often confused between the real and the imaginary. The film, which carries the habitual sadness of Karun's previous films, Piravi and My Own, is enriched with the photography of Renato Berta and Santosh Sivan and remarkable acting by one of Kerala's finest actors, Mohanlal (who is also the co-producer), in the role of Kunhikuttan. 52nd Cannes Film Festival, Un Certain Regard, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- 1997
This French-British documentary (in English and Bengali) traces the career of Indian actor Soumitra Chatterjee, who is best known in the West for his frequent work with director Satyajit Ray. Gaach (English title, The Tree) profiles the reminiscences of Chatterjee's fellow performers and other associates. Chatterjee's first major role was in Ray's landmark 1959 film The World of Apu. Shown at the 1997 Venice Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Soumitra Chatterjee, Rabi Ghosh, (more)
- 1993
Recalling George Harrison with his 1972 Concert for Bangladesh, master sitar player Ravi Shankhar (a key contributor to that earlier effort) mounted his 1993 'Concert For World Peace' in protest of global armed conflict, at London's famed Royal Albert Hall. The home video issue presents 92 minutes of live footage from the original performance set, with Shankhar joined by fellow world musicians Sarodist Partho Sarathy and Zakir Hussain. As an added bonus, the program features a short documentary on Ravi Shankhar, plus interviews with Ravi, his daughter Anoushka Shankhar, his sister-in-law Lakshmi Shankhar, Zakir Hussain and avant-garde composer Philip Glass. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ravi Shankar
Two women, related but separated by one generation and 60 years, have parallel experiences in the evocative mystical environment of India in this period drama from producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory. Although a little slow-paced for some, and slightly confusing because the stories of the two women are intercut, the scenery and script evoke a time and place that mesmerize. Based on the 1975 novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, a long-time collaborator in Merchant-Ivory Productions, the story begins with Ann (Julie Christie) who discovers some letters written by her grandfather's first wife Olivia (Greta Scacchi) that open up a whole new world as Ann travels to India to continue researching her grandmother's past. The letters reveal that when she was young, the free-spirited grandmother fell in love with an Indian nobleman (Shashi Kapoor) and left her husband -- an administrator in the British colonial government -- for her lover. After Ann arrives in India, her life and the modern rush of cars and people are played off against flashbacks to Olivia's life in a colonial setting. When the environment of each woman is compared and the nature of their momentous decisions placed side-by-side, their rites of passage and the society that dominated their choices stand out in high relief. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala won "Best Adapted Screenplay" at the 1983 British Academy Awards for her script of Heat And Dust. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Christie, Christopher Cazenove, (more)
