The Celestial Brides

BANGLA BOOTY

India’s first ‘fully loaded’ and animated 3-D item girl — Lady Chatterjee is all set to make a saucy debut. Conceived by music composer and singer Sawan Datta and her animator husband CB Arun Kumar, Lady C is a delightfully satirical Bengali beauty — “any guy’s dream girl” — typical to a laugh. Large eyes, husky voice, hourglass figure. Says Datta, “I was a major chat addict and music has always been a passion. The Lady C concept emerged out of my personal experiences in chat rooms — in fact Lady Chatterjee was one of my chat personas! The song is simple, yet catchy with language used in daily life. My sister Shabbi, an RJ and I’ve sung it”. For the video, they used images from Kolkata during Durga Puja as virtual backdrops. Lady C also has ‘Shady Da’ giving her company. “He was to be a sleazy character at first, but then evolved into a typical Bengali hero!” laughs Kumar. Buck-toothed, tight-panted: typical Bengali hero?!

The concept was ready five years ago, but with the digital boom, now seemed like the right time to launch it. But before the TV launch, it’ll be out on the Internet, in keeping with the concept. Move over bhangra rap, Bangla hip-hop is here to stay!

AGE OF INNOCENCE?
Where does Shayan Munshi come from? Zanzibar? He’s lived in India all his life but says he doesn’t understand Hindi, and the cops concocted his statement. He also says he barely knew Jessica Lall, though by all accounts, he was a close friend. Post that fateful night in Tamarind Court, he’s done three films — My Brother Nikhil, Jhankar Beats, and Home Delivery — in Hindi. (Did he ghost act in them?) And one cookery show called Cook Na Kaho — where his co-host vouches he spoke it well. His teachers say he made the grades in Hindi in school too. Given his history of truth speaking, should we believe him and wife Piya when they say they were going to Bangkok for their honeymoon????

CELESTIAL HONOURS
Based on the lives of eunuchs in India, The Celestial Brides, Parthiban Shanmugam’s latest documentary, is getting rave reviews all over the US. “We’ve even been asked to submit the film to Doc-Week, a pre-qualification for the Oscars’ nomination!” he says excitedly. The film follows the Aravani festival, observed in Koovagam village in Tamil Nadu and dedicated to the warrior deity, Aravan. Thousands of eunuchs gather each year for the celebrations, which also include open homosexual practices. Shanmugam says he learned about the controversial festival from India’s aids research pioneer, Dr Kasthuri Kantaraj, during the making of his previous film, Mathama. Intrigued, he took the story up — the experience, he says, was unfogettable. “For 15 days, my crew and I stayed with thousands of eunuchs and became friends with many with whom I’m still in touch,” says he. “The greatest reward has been that our film caught the attention of the Tamil Nadu government and the then chief minister Jayalalithaa introduced various schemes for the eunuch community in the state.”

GREEN THUMBS
A spot of good news for the conservation fraternity. The UK’s top conservation prize, the Whitley Award, has gone to 39-year-old Suprabha Seshan, Director of the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary, Kerala. Sponsored by wwf-uk, the Whitley has been awarded to Seshan in recognition of her commitment to protecting some of India’s most rare plant species. Having lived in the forests of the Western Ghats for 13 years, Seshan works with a trained team of local women on what she calls, “ecosystem gardening” — reintroducing native plants to degraded places where they were once found. So far, all her survey and collection work was carried out at great expense and difficulty; the group didn’t even have its own vehicle. With the award, (which is worth nearly Rs 25 lakh), an additional greenhouse and a jeep will be possible, Seshan smiles.

May 27 , 2006