Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Manisha Koirala and Samrat Dahal's fairy tale wedding

Manisha Koirala’s marriage celebrations took place at the Gokarna Forest Resort in Kathmandu. The traditional Nepali marriage was held on Saturday at the Courtyard and the outstation guests stayed at the beautiful cottage-style rooms of the resort. The venue for the Sunday reception is Soaltee Crowne Plaza Hotel and over 3,000 guests including President Ram Baran Yadav, prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Maoist chief Prachanda and former King Gyanendra are expected to attend. The wedding venue, Gokarna Forest resort is located at the serene Gokarna Forest, the former private Royal hunting grounds of the Kings of Nepal. The quiet peaceful haven has ancient towering trees, winding roads and a beautiful valley view.

At the pre-wedding function, Manisha, 41 looked pretty in a yellow saree with gold embroidery and a traditional green garland (made of sewn grass, it is worn by Nepali brides and grooms to bring good luck). Samrat, 33 wore a classic western suit. For the wedding, Manisha wore red while Samrat wore a traditional costume. A Nepali wedding function is a long one, it takes over three hours, and some of Manisha’s Bollywood friends like Jackie Shroff, Gulshan Grover, Deepti Naval, Vivek Mushran, Suman Ranganathan and designer Ana Singh were there. After the ‘kanyadan’ (send-off), Samrat took his bride to his parents home at Maharajgunj in a procession accompanied by a wedding band that played mostly Bollywood tunes.

According to Samrat’s father Surendra Dahal who runs the Kathmandu based company Leather Wings, the newly-wed couple may settle down in Mumbai, New York or Kathmandu. Samrat is the youngest of three siblings. His elder brother Suraj is in the education business, and his elder sister Shuvashree is pursuing her Phd in the US. Samrat also studied in the US and is now setting up bio-gas plants in Nepal, starting with tourist city Pokhara. Manisha’s Koirala family has been likened to the Kennedys and Gandhis. Her grandfather B P Koirala was the first elected prime minister of Nepal, and many of her grand-uncles, uncles and aunts have played a key role in politics. She was earlier engaged to the then Australian ambassador to Nepal Crispin Conroy. She later dated American author and speaker Christopher Dorris, and while rumours were rife that they’ll be marrying, they didn’t take the plunge.(Wedding Sutra)






Manisha Koirala ends her marriage with Samrat Dahal



Ever since Manisha Koirala tied the knot with businessman Samrat Dalal in 2010, her marriage has been under the scanner. Actress Manisha Koirala, who will turn 42 Aug 16, ended her two years of married life with Samrat Dahal.Their marriage was going through a turbulent phase, which was made apparent by her posts on social networking sites. According to sources, the actress is now staying in Mumbai with a friend, who confirmed that she is quite relieved and happy after it's over. Another friend of the actress revealed that although her marriage to Dalal has failed, she still goes to Nepal as her family is living there.The friend insisted that although Koirala tried hard to save her marriage, the differences only deepened with time.The friend, however, added that the pair has taken the split on their stride. (ANI)

Recently the actress was caught by shutterbugs in an inebriated and a poor state at a party. Manisha also made headlines when she hinted about her shaky personal life on her networking page. She is said to have attended special sessions at Oneness University in Chennai to collect herself as well as to save her marriage.


















Manisha Koirala Marriage


Sunday, July 29, 2012

Emotional Song From Satyame Jayathe | O Ri Chiraiyya

A moving, haunting melody that brings out the pain of losing a girl child, music by Ram Sampath, written and sung by Swanand Kirkire.



--LYRICS--
Chiraiyya

Mukhda
O Ri Chiraiyya
Nanhi si chidiya
Angana mein phir aaja re X 2

Cross
Andhiyaara hain ghanaa
Aur lahoo se sanaa
Kirnon ke tinke
Ambar se chunke
Angana mein phir aaja re

Antara 1
Hum ne tujhe pe hazaaron sitam hain kiye
Hum ne tujh pe jahaan bhar ke zulm kiye
Hum ne socha nahin tu jo ud jayegi
Ye zameen tere bin sooni reh jayegi
Kiske dam pe sajega mera angana


Mukhda
O Ri Chiraiyya
Nanhi si chidiya
O Ri chiraiyya
Nanhi si chidiya

Antara 2
Tere pankhon mein sare sitaron jadoo
Teri chunar thanak satrangi bunoo
Tere kaajal mein main kaali raina bharoon
Teri mehendi mein main kachhi dhoop maloon
Tere nainon saja doon naya sapna

Mukhda
O ri chiraiyya
Meri chiraiyya
Angana mein phir aaja re

Mukhda
O ri chiraiyya
Nanhi si chidiya
Angana mein phir aaja re

Cross
Andhiyaara hain ghanaa
Aur lahoo se sanaa
Kirnon ke tinke
Ambar se chunke
Angana mein phir aaja re

NY Times on Aamir and Satyamev Jayate

LINK


MUMBAI, India — Aamir Khan spent more than two decades as one of India’s most admired movie stars, appearing in a string of socially conscious but mainstream films. Now he has gained even more fame as the host of a hugely popular weekly television show that is calling attention to some the country’s longstanding social problems.

Taped in front of a live audience, Mr. Khan’s show, “Satyamev Jayate,” or “Truth Prevails,” is something more than a talk show but less than “60 Minutes.” Mixing Oprah-style interviews on a couch with short reports from the field, it tries to shine a spotlight on festering issues like dowries, domestic violence and indignities in the caste system.

In just three months the show has become a national phenomenon, distributed in seven languages and drawing a cumulative audience of nearly 500 million, according to Star India, India’s largest private TV network, which is owned by News Corporation and which commissioned and broadcast the show.

One of the early programs, in May, provided a vivid example of the show’s influence. Mr. Khan, 47, highlighted a seven-year-old sting operation by two TV reporters who had broadcast footage of more than 100 doctors offering to illegally abort female fetuses. While the legal cases against them languished in India’s notoriously slow courts, the doctors continued to practice medicine.

But just days after Mr. Khan featured the topic on his show, the top elected leader from the State of Rajasthan, where the journalists did their investigation, met with Mr. Khan and promised to have the cases transferred to special courts that expedite the dispensing of justice.

That kind of swift reaction has made Mr. Khan — variously described as India’s Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney or Bono — increasingly sought after by policy makers, social advocates and others who see him as a savior or champion for their causes. In addition to meeting with the chief minister of Rajasthan, he testified before a committee of Parliament about the country’s health care system after he did a program on medical malpractice. And last week he met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to press for a government ban on the practice of having human waste cleaned and carried away by people born into the lowest rungs of the Indian caste system.

He also has a weekly column in The Hindustan Times, takes calls from viewers on a weekly national radio show and is frequently interviewed on prime-time TV news shows.

“Mr. Khan is doing the nation a service by raising important issues which need greater public debate,” said Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, which is financed by the government and nonprofit organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Shyam Benegal, a respected TV and film director and a former member of the upper house of Parliament, said Mr. Khan has done what many others have failed to do — reach the Indian mainstream by using Bollywood tropes in the service of larger causes. His shows, for instance, always include musical performances, frequently show him crying as he interviews his guests and include jokey banter.

“This is effective because Aamir Khan is a film star,” said Mr. Benegal, who once made shows for the state-owned broadcaster, Doordarshan. “And he is a pretty good P.R. man for himself, as well. And all those things help.”

Mr. Khan’s fame has helped the show attract sponsors like India’s largest cellphone carrier, Airtel and the foundation arm of one of the country’s largest companies, Reliance Industries.

In an interview earlier this month — after spending two hours at the gym to prepare for an coming action film — Mr. Khan likened his approach to the show to his 2007 movie, “Taare Zameen Par” or, literally, “Stars on Earth.” The film, which he directed and starred in, told the story of a family’s and school’s inability to meet the needs of a dyslexic child.

“If I tell you I am making a film on dyslexia, how many people are going to walk into the theater?” he said in a discussion at the Taj Land’s End, a five-star hotel frequented by Bollywood stars. “No one will walk in: ‘Oh, come let’s watch a movie about dyslexia.’ So, I have to tell you it’s a film about childhood and children.”

In the same way, he said, Satyamev Jayate does not announce in advance the subjects he intends to cover.

There is little in Mr. Khan’s upbringing to suggest he would end up hosting such a show. He dropped out of college to pursue his movie career and his first breakout film, in 1988, was a popular Bollywood musical in which his character elopes with his girlfriend because their families do not approve of their relationship.

Starting about a decade ago, however, Mr. Khan began to go down a different path tinged with social activism. In the 2001 Oscar-nominated movie “Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India,” Mr. Khan played a villager in colonial India who challenges a British regiment to a cricket match to determine whether his village must pay an extortionate land tax, or lagaan.

Some entertainment industry analysts trace the change to his relationship with Kiran Rao, an assistant director on “Lagaan” who became Mr. Khan’s second wife. Ms. Rao is known for eclectic interests and for making films that do not hew to the well-worn Bollywood formula.

Since “Lagaan,” Mr. Khan has starred in and or produced movies that deal with issues like political corruption, indebted farmers and India’s regimented higher education system. Most popular Indian actors like Shah Rukh Khan and Salmaan Khan, who are not related to Mr. Khan but with whom he is often compared, have largely shied away from such subjects.

“It’s hard for people to remember now that in the 1990’s, that he was a huge star — one of the three Khans,” said Rachel Dwyer, a professor of Indian cultures and cinema at the University of London. “It’s in this decade that he has remade himself.”

Mr. Khan said he does not see “Lagaan” as a turning point for his career. But he acknowledges that Ms. Rao, who he described as “full of life,” helped him become less insular.

While his show has won much praise, it has also been criticized for its sometimes simplistic treatment of complicated subjects. The Indian Medical Association has protested its portrayal of doctors, which it says casts doctors as money grubbing and unprofessional on the basis of a few errant examples.

Mr. Khan and the top executive at Star dismiss that criticism as self-interested.

“We are very clear here that we are mass media, you cannot take the masses out from it,” Uday Shankar, the chief executive of Star India, said in an interview. “In order to keep the masses engaged if you have to simplify, so be it, because anything less would be meaningless. Then it would become an academic paper on the health sector.”

Other critics have argued that the show is too meek in identifying culprits. For example, it did not name the doctors accused of offering illegal abortions.

“He needs to catch a few throats,” said Dilip Cherian, a newspaper columnist and founder of Perfect Relations, a public relations firm. “A little bit of name and shame will probably work well for the show.”

Mr. Khan said he never intended to make an investigative show along the lines of “60 Minutes” and argued that he was having a much bigger impact by bringing big issues in front of mainstream audiences in a way that seeks to shame them out of their apathy. “We are not mincing our words,” he said, but added in Hindi: “Our attitude is not to blame this or that person. We are all to blame. First, you have to understand that.”

Both Mr. Khan and Mr. Shankar declined to provide financial details about the show, other than to say that Mr. Khan’s production company is paid 35 million rupees ($630,000) for each of the 13 episodes of the first season, which ends on Sunday. Both say they would like to do another season of “Satyamev Jayate” but will wait a few months to make a decision.

In the meantime, some of Mr. Khan’s supporters have suggested that he run for elected office, which has often served as a sinecure for Indian film celebrities. Mr. Khan denies any interest in politics.

“He could definitely make a good politician,” Mr. Benegal, the filmmaker and former legislator, said. But he added: “I think. ‘why should he?’ He has already been successful in politics now without being in mainline politics.”