Radha Mitchell at the premiere of The Waiting City in Sydney

By Ashok Kumar

The DENDY cinema auditorium in Circular Quay dazzled under the shine of Aussie stars Radha Mitchell and Joel Edgerton where the Sydney premiere of their new film The Waiting City on last Monday night. The Claire McCarthy-directed film was shot entirely in Calcutta for six weeks, thereby reversing the trend of Bollywood films being shot in Australia. The film is set for release in cinema halls on 15 July

Claire, who wrote and directed the film, said after visiting Mother Teresa’s home in Calcutta (now Kolkata) three times, she thought of making a film there and, hence, The Waiting City.

“My personal experiences working in orphanages and within some of the poorest parts of India and also my experiences of making other films within this context, have offered me access into this rarely seen and unique world. Increasingly globalisation, the accessibility of travel, the high proportion of infertility of women in Australia in their late thirties and our fascination as a culture with exoticism has all been motivating factors to inspire this story.”

The Waiting City, Produced by Jamie Ashok Hilton, is a tale of Ben and Fiona, a childless couple, who travel from Australia to India to adopt a little girl, Lakshmi. On a mythological level, Fiona and Ben’s “soul awakening”; their dreams, fantasies and hero’s journey, take the audience into a parallel narrative universe. Ben and Fiona are forced to delve both into the shadow lands of self and into a realm of mystery, dreams and spirits in order to achieve their hearts desire.

Claire, Joel, Radha and Jamie at the Premiere of TheWaiting City

What they discover on their rollercoaster ride to parenthood scares them, shocks them, liberates them and forces them into a state of true catharsis – independently and as a couple. This is hopefully what distinguishes this film from a nice, polite, realist drama about a middle-class couple from Australia who try to adopt a third world baby and come up against insurmountable odds. In a brief pinpoint in time, we see a portrait of a marriage and a love story that has epic, mystic and psychological dimensions.

The Waiting City is an emotional, visually compelling and timely story that also has broad audience appeal.  Radha Mitchell and Joel Edgerton, both wonderful actors, have brought an incredible authenticity, fearlessness and humanity to their roles. I am very proud of the many and varied contributions to the film from all of the wonderful cast.

On a personal and professional level, The Waiting City augments my fascination with the alchemy of poetic, humanist, psychological drama. My on-going collaboration with producer Jamie Hilton, the strength of our top class assembled creative and technical team and the generous commitments from our investors hopefully has ensured that The Waiting City is a startling and original project that will launch careers and offer a dynamic new direction for Australian cinema.

Radha Rani Mitchell told a waiting battery of newsmen and lens men that filming the film was anything but glamorous, with the entire six-week shoot in Calcutta.

“As much as I love India it is one of the more challenging places in terms of pollution and other aspects … but it can be inspiring,” she said.

“I had diarrhoea so that was an environmental element that had an impact and helped to break us down a bit.”

Joel Edgerton escaped the unpleasant side-effect. “I must have a stomach of steel,” he said. But in the movie, it was he who gets diarrhoea and Radha takes care of him.

Nasib Singh playing Dhol at the after party near Dendy Cinema

All the stars posed liberally for the lens people both at The Red Carpet and later at the after party where the famous Punjab drum player Nasib Singh made quite a few feet to tap to his beats. Among the others who walked the Red Carpet include Producer of the film James Ashok Hilton, former Premier Bob Carr and his wife, Arts MinisterVirginia Judge and Claire’s husband and cameraman Denson Baker.

There is a writer in each one of us. In our daily chores everyone does some writing in some form or the other.  Don’t we write letters or in the present day, emails or SMS.  We deploy our different writing skills. Of course, the needs are different. In schools we write our home work or essays or notes or a story.

Story telling is an age old art of communication.  Then there were play, theatre and finally films. In the present day world, we face new challenges every day.  There were three-hour plays and some had duration of two hours depending on the actors’ and writers’ abilities. Now the new challenge is to tell you story in just 10 minutes. Hence, it is called Short + Sweet.

Alex Broun is a specialist in this form of playwriting and has acted, produced and directed several Short + Sweet plays. Recently, the Abhinay School of performing Arts’ organised a work shop and Alex conducted the training for several budding playwrights at the Hurstville Civic Centre. They all had the talent and Alex helped them discover it.

Alex opened the workshop with his commanding words “My aim is to inspire you to write and inform you about some of the tools how to start”. He progressed maintaining his authority and said “why should you write a ten minute play – this is the fastest growing performance around the world’. He also stated that all of you have the opportunity to have your play performed in theatre. He continued “I write because I want to tell my stories and I want my stories get told” and urged “try to write a 10 minute play-just give it a go. Tell your story”.

 He freely shared the techniques and traits of writing, challenging his mesmerised students “turn off your inner critique, stop this negative voice- create something interesting to watch”

Alex created a stimulating environment for the audience which was in awe and frantically taking notes, taking it all in. It was so exciting to be taught the skills by this passionate world renowned celebrity that the participants could not hold their ideas anymore and shared freely what they would like to see on stage and are unsure how it will work. Alex advised “piece of theatre is a sheer act of imagination-you are telling your story, imagine something and take the audience on a journey. There was so much more in his words of wisdom that for three hours he kept his listeners spell bound.

It was an amazing experience to see that the budding writers hungry for knowledge floated some very exciting ideas and opened up a new world for Alex himself. He was touched to see that this diverse culture has so much to offer, a different perspective and so many life stories to tell. These ideas opened a new field, a new dimension for him and he was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the ideas the novice and potential writers brought to the workshop.

 Alex immediately spotted the potential; so many stories and life experiences bubbling inside these enthused participants, ready to be told on stage, will make a very interesting theatre experience. Sharing these ideas will not only enhance the appreciation of the diverse cultures but also opens a new dimension for the  theatrical world by injecting new viewpoints from the Indian, Asian and other ethnic backgrounds..

 He encouraged the inspired the group to get on with writing and offered that Abhinay school will organise their scripts to be played out on stage with experienced actors. He further emphasised that these script writers can in fact direct these actors and see how their script plays out on stage. They then take it a step further and go back and rewrite and fine tune their script. He then took it to extra mile and said they have a chance that their script may be picked up for the Short & Sweet, the biggest ten minute play festival in the world. What an offer; an offer too good to refuse, dream come true for any script writer.

 Abhinay School of Performing Arts President Aishveryaa Nidhi, a well known theatre personality and the only Indian actor to have won the nomination for Best Actress in 2009 Short + Sweet drama festival, has done a great job in connecting Indian and other ethnic playwrights and drama lovers to main stream theatre.

Ms. Nidhi has revealed that the workshop participant’s work would be staged live in August at a venue to be decided later. To those who missed the workshop, August shows would be a great opportunity and inspiration to explore their hidden talent.

For more information log on to www.abhinay.com.au or contact Aishverya Nidhi on 0488 200 222 for future workshops and to watch the plays.

By Mamta Sharma
 
Campbells Cove, The Rocks
 
Visitors to Fire Water, a free performance event that incorporates fires, on and around the harbour of Campbells Cove, this year enjoyed an Anglo-Indian adventure for four fiery nights from June 11 to14 2010.
 
Fire Water 2010 was based on the incredible voyage of a ship named Sydney Cove which was sent to Australia from Calcutta by Australia’s earliest merchant Robert Campbell – of Campbells Cove name. The story of his remarkable journey came alive when told from the point of view of an 11-year-old Indo-Australian girl who was doing a school project to trace her family history using live performance and multi-media to create a theatrical spectacle.
 
The show included a spellbinding performance on the water with a Bollywood-style spectacle featuring tall ships arriving with a glowing light installation, sailors descending down on aerialist tissus, cranes unloading glowing barrels into the harbour and billows of colorful smoke bursting from the ships in the style of the Indian Holi festival.
 
Tomo, one of the audience, said, “I loved the colorful dances and the costumes of the artists.  It was just the perfect view with Opera house lighted behind and colorful smoke coming out in the waters.”
 
Impressed with the colorful Indian dance and music performance, she said she would soon plan a visit India and was keen to see its culture and the famous Taj Mahal.
 
Parminder Singh, who is in Sydney on a vacation with his family and came to watch the show, said,  “Bahut acha laga Indian performance dek kar ke videsh mein (It felt  really nice to experience the Indian performance away from home.“ 
“We  enjoyed the show and also enhanced our history knowledge a bit,” he added with a smile.
 
The role of the Indo-Australian girl was played by Vidushi Sharma, a class VIII student of Hornsby Girls School in Sydney while the choreography was done by Peta Strachan and Sharmila Maitra, who runs the Geetanjali School of Dance and Performing Arts, Sydney.
 
Campbell was a Scottish merchant and partner in Cambell, Clark & Co based in Calcutta, India. In November 1796, the company sent a ship , Sydney Cove, on a speculative commercial voyage in the new colony of Sydney.
Crewed by 10 British seamen, an Indian manservant and 44 Indian sailors, and loaded with rum, pickled pork and other provisions, the ship was wrecked on a  small island in Brass Strait (Preservation Island). Luckily, a majority of the crew survived.
In the ensuing couple of months , the crew survived another shipwreck off the Victorian coast and discovered that Van Diemen’s Land( Tasmania ) was separated from the Australian mainland.
The survivors then undertook an arduous 500-kilometre journey and is now regarded as the first recorded European overland trek  of the  Australia’s east coast.
Fire Water interpreted this remarkable story of the survival through the eyes of a fictious Indian-Australian girl.
 
Just a few steps away candle-making workshops, delicious food and winter fashion awaited the people at the Fire Water Night Markets which started from 6.30 pm.
 
The Fire Water was presented by Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.

By Ashok Kumar

Today we see several events related to Bollywood or mainly Bollywood based. Time has come now to look beyond Bollywood. In Sydney there is heaps of talent in the form of actors, directors and writers. And, we have an opportunity coming up on 6th June 2010 whereby an ordinary or hobby writer can emerge a prolific script witer or may even be writing a script for a Bollywood film.

Abhnay School of Performing Arts is conducting a Play-writing workshop for the aspiring Indian writers with world renowned Playwright, Producer, Director and Actor Alex Broun at Hurstville Entertainment Centre from 09.00 hrs to 1300 hrs.

Abhinay School of Performing Arts enables students to explore their creativity and learn essential acting skills. We will help you nurture and refine your creativity. Under the tutorship of accomplished theatre personality Aishveryaa Nidhi, you’ll learn the different nuances of acting, from analysing the script to improvisation and dialogue delivery. You’ll also get training in diction and body language.

Abhinay School of Performing Arts also invites experts (veteran actors and directors) from Australia and abroad to share their experiences and industry skills with the students, and sometimes develop ambitious theatre from scratch. As part of Abhinay Theatre, we’ve had workshops with eminent theatre director Arvind Gaur (of Asmita Theatre, New Delhi) and Dinesh Khanna (professor of acting at National School of Drama, New Delhi

Aishveryaa Nidhi is a Sydney-based actor and filmmaker. In 2009, she was nominated for the Best Actress Award in Short+Sweet Sydney (the biggest festival of 10-minute plays in the world), for her powerful performance in Mandragora, written by David Sharpe and directed by Lisa Eismen.

She is the Associate Producer of the 2006 Hollywood mystery- drama Beyond Life. More recently, she has co-directed the Aussie-Bollywood flick Flight to Bollywood.

Aish is also actively involved in popularising Indian theatre in Australia and New Zealand. As the Artistic Director of Sydney-based group, Abhinay Theatre, Aish has produced and acted in immensely popular theatre productions, such as Gandhari (solo performance), Kuntiputra Karna and Hamare Padosi.

 The Indian Sub-continent Times talked to Alex Broun about why the aspiring Indian writers should join the workshop and how the workshop could be beneficial for them.

The IST: The Ethinic Indian writers are wary of what subject to write on— since Short + Sweet audience is mainly Aussie. In other words how would the cultural gap fill in
 
AB: Australia is a very multi-cultural society and that is reflected in the audience of Short+Sweet – as anybody who comes along to Short+Sweet would discover. The Short+Sweet audience is by no means “anglo-celtic”. It is made up of Indian Australians, Chinese Australians, Japanese Australians, Lebanese Australians. Whatever ethnic origins you can think of they will be represented both on stage at Short+Sweet and in the audience. So Ethnic Indian writers shouldn’t worry about the audience. Just write a play on whatever subject you want to write it on and if it’s a good play the audience will enjoy it.
 
The IST: What subject would you suggest that would be appropriate for the Short+Sweet audience
 
AB: Write a play on any subject you like in any style you like. That’s the great thing about Short+Sweet. We present over 150 plays each year in Sydney so we’re looking for plays of all styles and subjects. The only restriction is the play must be ten minutes or less. Apart from that write whatever you like. For example if anyone wanted to approach us at Short+Sweet with a work drawing on the rich cultural heritage of India we would be delighted to have it. Someone just needs to come up with the script.
 
The IST :  How many Indians writers, actors and directors are active in Short & Sweet?
 
 AB: Some of our most talented artists in Short+Sweet are of Indian heritage. There is Uma Kali-Shakti, who is wonderfully talented Fijian-Indian actor, writer and director and we also have an Indian director – Sadashivam Rao, whose brilliant production of Rain and Ruin was one of our gala finalists in Sydney this year. There was also the very talented young writer and director Rajiv Rajendra who travelled over from Singapore to direct a play at Short+Sweet in Sydney this year, also the actress Karina Bracken and of course Aishveryaa Nidhi, one of our most talented actors, who was nominated for Best Actress for the entire festival last year. These are just a few of the wonderful artists of Indian origin who contribute to the Short+Sweet community.
 
The Artistic Director of Short+Sweet International, Mark Cleary, also travelled to India recently to explore the possibilities of launching Short+Sweet India – so look out for more news of that.
 
The IST : What makes a gripping and captivating script 
 
AB: The five criteria that we feel make up a good script at Short+Sweet are Character, Story, Dialogue, Dramatic Tension/Humour and Theatricality. But the secret to a really good ten minute play is a great middle. Something needs to happen around the four to six minute mark that both raises the stakes and accelerates the action. It’s like the car’s been cruising along at sixty and suddenly it accelerates to one hundred. The play speeds towards a thrilling but inevitable conclusion. If you get that right the audience will get so caught up in the characters and story they will forget they are even watching a play.”
 
The IST : What is expected of the workshop and where the participants will go from here
 
AB: The main aim of the workshop is to Inspire people to write a ten minute play and then Inform them with the tools to do it. At the course writers will learn about how to write a ten minute play and we hope that then they will go away and write a play that can then go on to be produced at Short+Sweet and other theatre festivals around the globe. Local Ethnic Communities can also form their own theatre companies and present work but again it all start with someone writing the play first. You can enter a play to Short+Sweet now as well. Just go to – http://www.shortandsweet.org/shortsweet-theatre/submit-script 
 
The IST: Also, would appreciate if you would like to give any message for the Indian budding writers
 
AB: The message I would give to budding Indian writers is write. Just write. You’ll never know what you can come up with unless you try. Begin now. Join a theatre group, write a play, take an acting class – get involved. Do my playwrighting course! If you want to be involved in the industry then get involved at whatever level you can. There’s very little chance you’re going to be discovered sitting in your lounge room. Get out and do something and who knows what might happen. Also read the plays available on my website – www.alexbroun.com – where you can read, download and even perform my work for free. If you are interested in reading some ten minute plays – that’s a good place to start.

For details of the workshop interested writers may contact Aishveryaa Nidhi, President of Abhinay Theatre on 0488200222 or visit www.abhinay.com.au email abhinay.schoolofperformingarts@gmail.com

The sounds of Dhol reverberated the Westfield in Parramatta heralding the premier of Punjabi film Virsa at the Events theatre 7 on Sunday 2 May 2010. A procession led by lead actor of the film Aaryan Babbar and well known DJ and Music Director Bally Saggoo.

The film was shot entirely in Australia and mostly in Sydney. Other actors in the film include Gulshan Grover, Aman and Kanwaljit Singh.

In his speech, Aaryan said “the movie is special for me” as it had brought luck to him. His father, veteran actor and politician Raj Babbar dissuaded him to do a Punjabi film so early in his career but somehow Aaryan felt the director Pankaj Batra was full of passion about the strong script and wanted to go ahead. He said after Virsa he had landed so many other projects and now he is very busy. Virsa, he said is very close to his heart since it happened when he had no work at all and now he is most sought after.

To a question, given the tension in Indo-Pak relations, this movie deals with two families from India and Pakistan, he said the beauty of the film is that there is no mention of animosity or tension between the two nations. It’s all about friendship and love between the people of the two countries, he said.

Asked about the role his father played in Insaaf ka Tarazoo, Aaryan quipped you will see many such insaaf ka  tarazoo in this film. Continue Reading

By A Correspondent

On January 15, 2010, Sydney Girl Sanghmitra made a quiet entry into Bollywood with the release of “Bhavnao Ko Samjho” in which she plays the lead role. The film has also entered Guinness Book of records for featuring 51 stand-up comedians. The story of the film revolves around Suman (Sanghmitra) who is the doting grand-daughter of a wealthy businessman and heiress to his property.

Sanghmitra has been appreciated by the critics for her scintillating performance in the movie and seems to have crossed the first hurdle in her journey to stardom. Her next film, Idiot Box is also due to be released soon in which she plays a pivotal role. Continue Reading

Sydney girl Sanghmitra Kumar’s Bollywood dreams are going to be realised soon with two of  her films “Idiot Box” and “Bhavnaon ko samjho” are being released back-to-back on 15th January, 2010 

“Bhavnaon ko samjho” is an out and out comedy in which there are 52 comedians, including the Producer and Director Sunil Pal, the Indian Laughter Challenge Champion and Johnny Lever. The second one “The Idiot Box” a rather mischevious and funny with the story based on the gimmicks of the TRPs. On the  eve of the music launch of ” Idiot box” Sanghmitra was interviewed by a film magazine in Mumbai:  Here are the excerpts from the interview.  Continue Reading

In the artistic world, it is said that even two minutes are enough for an artist to give a memorable performance. Kieran Foster, Aishveryaa Nidhi, Leanne Zaccar and Susan Stapleton had ten minutes between themselves to prove the point in Mandragora and take the play to glory at the Short+Sweet Sydney 2009, the Biggest Little Play Festival at the Newtown Theatre. David Sharpe’s intriguing and thrilling Mandragora edged out equally popular Bridgette Burton’s At the Threshold to earn the Judge’s Choice as the winner in the Week 1. The two plays were neck and neck the entire week with the final count giving it to Mandragora by just a single vote. Making her directorial debut, Lisa Eismen deftly extracted moving performances from Kieran Foster, Aishveryaa Nidhi, Leanne Zaccar and Susan Stapleton.

Mandragora, which in December was runners-up at Short + Sweet Melbourne 2008, with the Best Dramatic script, becomes the second play to be invited to participate in the Gala Final of Short + Sweet Sydney 2009 at the Seymour centre on February 20th and 21st. Mandragora was pushed all the way by At the Threshold, which took a very unusual look at the path to infidelity, featuring stunning performances by Roanna Dempsey and Andrew Doyle with Dempsey also directing it. In third place in the Judge’s Choice, in what was a very strong programme, was the haunting and at times disturbing Night Vision by S L Daniels, featuring a tour de force performance by Stef Dawson with detailed direction by Stephen Wallace. In an impressive double Mandragora also won the People’s Choice for the week, voted by audience members, with 20.75 of the votes received. Continue Reading

Legendary filmmaker Baldev Raj Chopra, better known as BR Chopra died on Wednesday at his residence in Mumbai following prolonged illness. He was 94.

Chopra was not keeping well for some time and the end came at 0830 hours at his residence in suburban Juhu.

Chopra, one of India’s most respected film personalities is survived by his filmmaker son Ravi Chopra and two daughters.

The eminent producer-director was the elder brother of filmmaker Yash Chopra. Continue Reading

A quiet family celebration was on the cards for his 66th birthday. Normally, it’s an open-house at Jalsa, the Bachchan residence in Juhu, with the scent of jasmine in the air. That wasn’t to be.

Amitabh Bachchan took ill around 12.30 pm on Saturday following abdominal pain. He was rushed to Nanavati Hospital, a brief drive away from his house. Abhishek was with his father in the ambulance with wife Jaya Bachchan, daughter Shweta Nanda  and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai following in a car.

Bachchan had been complaining of stomach pain since Friday evening. “The cause of pain is being investigated. Bachchan has undergone blood investigations and a CT scan of the abdomen. The reports will come on Sunday,” said Lilavati Hospital spokesperson Mohan Rajan.

The family, too, announced that this was a routine check-up. But from Nanavati Hospital in Juhu, Bachchan was taken to the Lilavati Hospital in Bandra.

The last time Bachchan was admitted to hospital was in December 2005. That time it was for inflammation and perforation of his intestines. Bachchan was operated on and discharged after about three weeks.

On Friday, the actor was shooting for Teen Patti, produced by Ambika Hinduja. He was to resume shooting on Monday. In 1984, he had suffered from a neuromuscular ailment while shooting for Mard. In 1982, he had suffered a near-fatal stomach injury while on the sets of Coolie in Bangalore.

“He will be in the hospital for 48 to 72 hours. There is slight improvement in his condition,” Abhishek said.