Guyanese-made Bollywood film debuts in NY
February 11, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment
“Ek Chameli Mali Ke Liye” or “A Jasmine For A Gardner”, a film made by Guyanese Mahadeo Shivraj and Dr Churaumanie Bissoondyal, debuts this weekend in Queens.
A scene from the film “A Jasmine For A Gardner”
The movie is a merging of Hollywood and Bollywood approaches into a distinctive Caribbean genre featuring song and dance opera style, copying the style of “Kashmir Ki Kali, Sangam”, and “Devdas”.
Shivraj, who has been active in theatre for the past 25 years as an actor, producer, director and set-designer, made his debut at the National Cultural Centre in Guyana, and acted in over 90 plays in Guyana and the U.S., described the film as “a romantic thriller” Guyanese would with.
Shivraj is the creator and director of the hit stage series – “Laff Til Yuh Belly Bust” and acted in several independent films including “Playing Both Sides”, “Deep Trouble”, “Pressure”, “Snitch in New York”, “The Laverne Affair” and “Kicking it High”.
Dr Bissundyal, who produced several Hindi plays including Raja Pratabhanu, Bhakt Prahalad, and Sarwan Kumar, said “with fresh strength and deliberation, the film revives dialogue as an important ingredient of drama so that action cannot be superfluous and ineffective”.
Dr Bissundyal was raised by poor rice farming parents in Leguan. At age 17, after he passed his General Certificate of Education (GCE) examinations, he started as a pupil teacher at the Good Shepherd Anglican School in the Barima River, North West District. He wrote his first long poem “Glorianna” published in 1976. Since then, he has completed five books of poems. He received his PhD in the U.S.
The movie centres on the two characters, Neetu Raghubir and Ravi Devdas, showing their hidden fears, their needs, their quest for a higher world, and their labour to find a balance between the material world and the divine. Neetu, a medical student in New York, becomes tired of her parents’ domineering hammer over her, their boast of wealth, and their rigidity for social success and big life. As a reaction, she quits her studies to challenge her parents by turning to music, an offensive thing to the Raghubir family. Her mother Sharda, appalled at her new path, asks her to return to Guyana for a short holiday.
When she arrives in Georgetown, her father Sukul (a Guyanese tycoon) commands her to marry his young friend Govind Somrah, a multimillionaire, owning more than a score of sawmills and trawlers. On meeting Govind, Neetu’s sixth sense tells her that this is not the man for her, that Govind only promises a life of luxury, jewellery, and extravagant travels.
Though basking in splendour of wealth, he cannot access the simple beauties of the world, cannot hear the music of the wind, see the glory of the moon, or sense the passion of the stars. Then, one morning in the Botanical Garden, after an incident, Neetu meets the gardener Ravi Devdas, a man of music and a seeker of higher planes. Sensing his quest for true happiness, she falls in love with him. Here the movie takes an acute turn, brooding conflicts and crises that will fill scenes with questions, guesses and anticipations, underlining the plot of a wealthy girl going crazy for a poverty-stricken man.
Later, Govind’s true character unfolds. Amid Sukul’s praise and admiration for him, Govind’s killer demons cannot be contained. To clear the way to get married to Neetu, he murders his girlfriend, Pinky Gajadhar, indicating his underworld life. He craves to own Sukul’s trawlers and sawmills. But a hurdle appears like an ogre in his way: this is Sushma, Neetu’s sister, a law student at St Augustine, Trinidad.
Govind now pushes his way with Neetu. Neetu would also fall in love with Ravi and the plot thickens. Govind would be arrested for crime. Many other scenes happen and the story is not made clear until the end. The movie is quite entertaining and is worth viewing. Some of the actors are Mahadeo Shivraj, Bhavana Samtani, Gem-Madhoo Nascimento, Nazim Hussain, Dimple Mendonca and Neaz Subhan.
February 11, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment
“Ek Chameli Mali Ke Liye” or “A Jasmine For A Gardner”, a film made by Guyanese Mahadeo Shivraj and Dr Churaumanie Bissoondyal, debuts this weekend in Queens.
A scene from the film “A Jasmine For A Gardner”
The movie is a merging of Hollywood and Bollywood approaches into a distinctive Caribbean genre featuring song and dance opera style, copying the style of “Kashmir Ki Kali, Sangam”, and “Devdas”.
Shivraj, who has been active in theatre for the past 25 years as an actor, producer, director and set-designer, made his debut at the National Cultural Centre in Guyana, and acted in over 90 plays in Guyana and the U.S., described the film as “a romantic thriller” Guyanese would with.
Shivraj is the creator and director of the hit stage series – “Laff Til Yuh Belly Bust” and acted in several independent films including “Playing Both Sides”, “Deep Trouble”, “Pressure”, “Snitch in New York”, “The Laverne Affair” and “Kicking it High”.
Dr Bissundyal, who produced several Hindi plays including Raja Pratabhanu, Bhakt Prahalad, and Sarwan Kumar, said “with fresh strength and deliberation, the film revives dialogue as an important ingredient of drama so that action cannot be superfluous and ineffective”.
Dr Bissundyal was raised by poor rice farming parents in Leguan. At age 17, after he passed his General Certificate of Education (GCE) examinations, he started as a pupil teacher at the Good Shepherd Anglican School in the Barima River, North West District. He wrote his first long poem “Glorianna” published in 1976. Since then, he has completed five books of poems. He received his PhD in the U.S.
The movie centres on the two characters, Neetu Raghubir and Ravi Devdas, showing their hidden fears, their needs, their quest for a higher world, and their labour to find a balance between the material world and the divine. Neetu, a medical student in New York, becomes tired of her parents’ domineering hammer over her, their boast of wealth, and their rigidity for social success and big life. As a reaction, she quits her studies to challenge her parents by turning to music, an offensive thing to the Raghubir family. Her mother Sharda, appalled at her new path, asks her to return to Guyana for a short holiday.
When she arrives in Georgetown, her father Sukul (a Guyanese tycoon) commands her to marry his young friend Govind Somrah, a multimillionaire, owning more than a score of sawmills and trawlers. On meeting Govind, Neetu’s sixth sense tells her that this is not the man for her, that Govind only promises a life of luxury, jewellery, and extravagant travels.
Though basking in splendour of wealth, he cannot access the simple beauties of the world, cannot hear the music of the wind, see the glory of the moon, or sense the passion of the stars. Then, one morning in the Botanical Garden, after an incident, Neetu meets the gardener Ravi Devdas, a man of music and a seeker of higher planes. Sensing his quest for true happiness, she falls in love with him. Here the movie takes an acute turn, brooding conflicts and crises that will fill scenes with questions, guesses and anticipations, underlining the plot of a wealthy girl going crazy for a poverty-stricken man.
Later, Govind’s true character unfolds. Amid Sukul’s praise and admiration for him, Govind’s killer demons cannot be contained. To clear the way to get married to Neetu, he murders his girlfriend, Pinky Gajadhar, indicating his underworld life. He craves to own Sukul’s trawlers and sawmills. But a hurdle appears like an ogre in his way: this is Sushma, Neetu’s sister, a law student at St Augustine, Trinidad.
Govind now pushes his way with Neetu. Neetu would also fall in love with Ravi and the plot thickens. Govind would be arrested for crime. Many other scenes happen and the story is not made clear until the end. The movie is quite entertaining and is worth viewing. Some of the actors are Mahadeo Shivraj, Bhavana Samtani, Gem-Madhoo Nascimento, Nazim Hussain, Dimple Mendonca and Neaz Subhan.
