Posts Tagged ‘bombay-india’

Passage to India, A (1984)

Friday, December 19th, 2008
Genres: Adventure | Drama
Countries: UK | USA
Actors: Judy Davis | Victor Banerjee | Peggy Ashcroft | James Fox | Alec Guinness | Nigel Havers | Richard Wilson | Antonia Pemberton | Michael Culver | Art Malik | Saeed Jaffrey | Clive Swift | Ann Firbank | Roshan Seth | Sandra Hotz
Directors: David Lean
Download: DivX iPod 

Adela Quested, a young Englishwoman, travels to India in the late 1920s to visit her fianc?, a British magistrate posted in a small town; her traveling companion is his mother Mrs. Moore. They want to see something of the country and to meet everyday Indians, but are frustrated by the British community’s insistence that relations with the locals are best experienced from a distance. Finally, a friend introduces them to a Muslim doctor whom Mrs. Moore had seen briefly on her visit to a mosque. He takes them on an outing to the nearby caverns (a local attraction), but what happens there threatens to destroy any civility between the British and Indian societies.

Gandhi (1982)

Friday, December 19th, 2008
Genres: Biography | Drama | History
Countries: India | UK
Actors: Ben Kingsley | Candice Bergen | Edward Fox | John Gielgud | Trevor Howard | John Mills | Martin Sheen | Ian Charleson | Athol Fugard | G?nther Maria Halmer | Saeed Jaffrey | Geraldine James | Alyque Padamsee | Amrish Puri | Roshan Seth
Directors: Richard Attenborough
Download: DivX iPod 

When ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ (qv) first set foot in British India, he had already been to Britain and South Africa, and had created quite a stir for the betterment of the people. But in India, he realized that he had first to live the life of a peasant to understand what it is to be an Indian. This resolve will lead him to shed his westerners clothing, and don a simple loincloth, be subjected to racial slurs from none other than Winston Churchill (Half naked Indian Fakir); Mobilize awareness of local industry and less dependence on imported clothing and material; the historic dandee march for withdrawal of the salt tax; a fast unto death to stop the virtual slaughter of British troops by irate Indian mobs; and be imprisoned several times. His resolve was to work with stalwarts such as Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Sardar Valabhbhai Patel, Professor Gokhale, J.B. Kripalani, Maulana Azad, and Pandit Jawarharlal Nehru to ensure first of all to get the British to quit India, and then run an Indian Government under the Congress party. Gandhi will soon realize that it is not enough to be just an Indian, for India has many facets - Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, and Christian. The British relied on these many facets as an excuse for their continuance as they wanted to ensure that the minorities are not oppressed by the Hindu majority. Concerned over the inroads made by Gandhi to unite the Hindus, Muslims, and all others under a common umbrella, the British invited Jinnah for talks, and it is here that a seed was laid for a separate country called Pakistan. When Gandhi came to know about this, he pleaded with Jinnah to unite the Muslims, even take over as the first Prime Minister with his choice of Muslim candidates for Parliament, but separatist Jinnah had already made his mind. The World Wars of 1914 and 1944 having taken it’s toll on Europe and Britain in particular, the weary British finally decided to leave India in 1947 - not the India they had conquered - but an India that was ready to be divided in East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Now after the much awaited independence was the real test for Gandhi - a test that will make him or break him - as he started a fast unto death to try and stop the violence that was threatening to break out into a civil war, not realizing that he had indirectly fanned Hindu extremism, which would later be called the Shiv Sena, into taking the matter directly in their hands to ensure that Muslims are kept out of their Hindustan forever.

Independence Day (1996)

Friday, May 4th, 2007
Genres: Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Bill Pullman | Mary McDonnell | Jeff Goldblum | Judd Hirsch | Margaret Colin | Will Smith | Vivica A. Fox | Randy Quaid | Robert Loggia | James Rebhorn | Harvey Fierstein | Adam Baldwin | Brent Spiner | James Duval | Lisa Jakub
Directors: Roland Emmerich
Download: DVD DivX PDA 

On July 2nd, communications systems worldwide are sent into chaos by a strange atmospheric interference. It is soon learned by the military that a number of enormous objects are on a collision course with Earth. At first thought to be meteors, they are later revealed to be gigantic spacecraft, piloted by a mysterious alien species. After attempts to communicate with the aliens go nowhere, David Levinson, an ex-scientist turned cable technician, discovers that the aliens are going to attack major points around the globe in less than a day. On July 3rd, the aliens all but obliterate New York, Los Angeles, and Washington. The survivors set out in convoys towards Area 51, a strange government testing ground where it is rumored the military has a captured alien spacecraft of their own. The survivors devise a plan to fight back against the enslaving aliens, and July 4th becomes the day humanity will fight for its freedom. July 4th is their Independence Day…