Cultural Learnings of India Make Benefit 'Boleh' Nation of Malaysia

Recently, I've acquired a book called 'Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found' written by Suketu Mehta. It was a good bargain from the recent stock clearance and I've been eyeing on this book for quite some time, not buying it earlier because I was waiting for the right price. It's basically part journal and part essays & travelogue book on India/Bombay. It's a good book, definitely not an 'Oscars' material, but it has its interesting moments inside. But why the interest in India? Well, I'm the kind that reads books with a great diversity of topics (all but not chick-lit please). I wouldn't even mind reading back the children's books like Enid Blyton. So, as long as it's not too boring, I'll read that book. Same goes with films, I practically dig all kinds of it (even the slow-moving art films), all but not horror (no please!).



Recently I've discovered a Hindi film which will be shown soon (15 March 2007) in GSC International Screens, and it's called 'Water'. Somehow it got me interested to watch it. 'Water' was nominated for the recent 79th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but it didn't win. The director for this movie is Deepa Mehta. If you didn't know, there's also 'Earth' and 'Fire' by the same director, so it's sort of an elemental trilogy. All these films are not connected though, but they all share the same background: India. They explore different interesting issues: sex, marriage, adultery, homosexuality, etc. Some of these films are known to be controversial and might have been banned in some countries, even in India itself.

It would be great if I'm able to watch all three of the 'elements trilogy' of Deepa, since I'm a foreign language film-nut. I've watched Hindi/Tamil movies in cinema before, but I'm not sure whether they have the obligatory dancing scenes in 'Water'. As long as they have English subtitles down there, then it should be okay.