Sometimes living in L.A. has great perks, and one of the most recent I’ve enjoyed is the fact that of the four theaters in the U.S. that had The Grand Budapest Hotel on limited release this past weekend, one was just a few blocks from my apartment. I know Wes Anderson isn’t everyone’s cup of…
When Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra e-mailed a cartoon mocking an Indian politician to friends, he probably didn’t expect to be arrested by local police in a midnight raid. Appallingly, Mahapatra and neighbor Subrata Sengupta were arrested in such a raid in April, and their case comes to trial in September. In response to the…
Charlie Bucket lived with his mom and his grandparents in a dirty, downtrodden industrial city that used to be a thriving center of commerce, with factories making cars and furniture and steel and zippers and paper clips. The citizens of the city were happy to work in the factories, because they were well-paid and had…
As if to offer a bookend to last week’s column about Neil Gaiman and creativity, Amazon delivered Alison Bechdel’s new book, Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama. A companion to her harrowing and brilliant previous book, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, which was about her father’s life in the closet and eventual suicide, Are You…
Indians mourned Saturday the death of Anant Pai, known as the father of the nation’s comic book industry, whose vibrant adaptations of Hindu mythology educated and amused young people for years. Pai, credited with launching a series of comics to narrate Indian epics and folk tales, died of a heart attack at the age of…
A while back, there was a spate of Marvel characters that were having their stories retold for different countries, for example Spider-Man India, with Pavitr Prabhakar, his uncle Bhim and aunt Maya. Now Nikki Finke tells us that Marvel may be doing the same for their movies: Marvel Entertainment announced today that it’s forming an…
The Wall Street Journal notes that comic strip characters are increasingly being hired in India as spokesmen for products such as Dilbert shilling for cell phone manufacturer Nokia. “Using such characters as ad faces or endorsers is infinitely cheaper than using real-life celebrities, experts say, and also helps connect with consumers on a note of…
The Burrs were vacationing in India despite Mrs. Burr’s advanced pregnancy. Her condition attracted the attention of the Cobra Cult because the timing coincided with a prophecy about a man who would lead them into the Kali Yuga, the fourth age of the world. He would be one of a pair of Siamese twins, and…
I like it when the DVDs I review here are similar, but I also really like it when they’re very different. And other than being made by British talents, the DVDs in this edition are about as different as they can get. First, there’s the cultural classic that is A Passage to India. Columbia Pictures…
Today, Rolling Stone is reporting that the Foo Fighters are suing Marvel Entertainment, First Serve International, Toonz Animation in India and First Serve Toonz for copyright infringement. According to the article: The band alleges that Marvel used “substantial excerpts” of their songs “Best of You” and “Free Me” as the music for the trailer of…
I may have to do another one of these round-ups on Monday to get the post-publication stuff (and the reviews that won’t annoy Rowling by their very existence), but, after that, I never want to hear the words "Harry Potter" in my life again. (Above, Mr. Potter illustrates my mood.) CNN just realized that Deathly…
AP is reporting that Nicolas Cage has signed to star in the movie adaptation of the Virgin comic The Sadhu. The movie’s script will be written by self-help maven Deepak Chopra, the father of Virgin’s chief creative officer Gotham Chopra, and is slated to be directed by Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur (The Four Feathers). Chopra…
