This weekend the Bay Area will see another form of “Sita art”, this time in the form of a theater production. Siren Theatre Project’s production of Janaki – Daughter of the Dirt will be hitting the stage at the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco for it’s world premiere this Sept 16th -18th. This ground breaking stage production written by Virali Golkadas touches upon issues of power, sexism and classism from the perspective of Sita.

“I wrote Janaki – Daughter of Dirt to show that Hindu goddesses, just like the women in my family, are not self-sacrificing devotees,” said playwright Virali Gokaldas.  “They are complex, powerful, strong-willed examples, helping us hold compassion for others and ourselves, guiding us when making hard decisions, and above all, giving us the courage to live out our own destinies.” [sirentheatre]

As for the controversy in San Jose, here’s what Virali and Anirvan Chatterjee have to say:

Our ability to recontextualize the Ramayana is precisely what makes it a living story, instead of a dead one….The Ramayana is as rich and diverse as India.  If our Indian traditions allow even a 180 degree twist like Ravana being the hero, then what right do protestors have to censors new ways of expressing the story?

As Bay Area writers who have our own visions of the Ramayana to share, we take the attack on the tradition of diverse Ramayanas personally.  The Ramayana speaks to us, just as it did to those creators whose works were being protested in San Jose. [sirentheatre]

Art for arts sake or art to honor and personalize faith? Check out the play this weekend and form your own opinion. And just for our Sepia Mutiny readers, tickets are only $20, with the discount code “Sepia Mutiny” over at Brown Paper Ticket. For more information on Janaki – Daughter of the Dirt or Siren Theatre Project, visit their facebook page and their website.

Need more convincing? Watch the trailer below.

Just days after the 9/11 attacks, playwright Rehana Lew Mirza was heartbroken by what she encountered while walking in New York City. “I saw a flyer of a missing South Asian woman with holes burnt into the eyes and mouth,” she said. It was a seminal moment for the young artist and one that inspired her to pen “Barriers,” a raw look at the struggle of a Pakistani-Chinese family who suffered loss in the 9/11 tragedy. (WSJ)

The play features actors Sunkrish Bala and Pooja Kumar. Playwright Mirza and her sister co-founded Desipina as a fusion arts company focusing in film and theater, dedicated to promoting cross-pollinations of artistic, political, and cultural dialogues.

For Ms. Mirza, the latest production of Barriers is an attempt to untangle the many conflicting narratives that often present themselves as authoritative accounts of 9/11. She draws on her own mixed heritage – Filipino and Pakistani – to portray a multicultural family. “New York has become a political minefield,” she said, referring to the controversy surrounding the construction of an Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan. “The stories that came out of 9/11 were extremely political but, really, it was a very human moment in our country’s history.” The script stands out for the humanness she’s infused it with, like the strained interaction between Naima and Khalil, the mourning parents of Nabhil, a victim of the attacks, and the poignant outbursts from their daughter Sunima. (WSJ)

“Mooni! Hey Mooni! Gadherini! Do you know I’m going to hit you? I’m going to beat you up, dirty girl! Every time I’m calling you and you’re not answering the phone!

And what is this “micro-bicro-bixie-dixie”?! You went San Francisco, you went to cut off my nose in San Francisco?! Don’t you know in San Francisco they have all those gadherini lesbian girls? What is all this lesbian stuff you’re doing, this Yoni Ki Baat “yon-ki-baat”, what is all that? Shameless girl, don’t you have any shame? [ASIDE TO HER HUSBAND: Hey Kaka, you see that girl she's going to cut off my nose did you hear this girl? She's opening (her legs)...]. Tell me, you’re not standing on stage with all your clothes taken off are you? Hai, hai! Who on earth will marry you? Who’s going to wed you?! How can you talk this nonsense?! This vageena, vageena-talking about your yoni ki baat gadherini? Hei?! You’re going to stop all this micro-bicro-pixie type stuff! Who will want to marry you? Which boy will marry you? Don’t you have any shame talking about all this dirty, disgusting stuff? As if one could ever talk about these things! Disgusting girl! When we were little we never spoke about this thing. What is this vageena talking-talking all the time? As if a vageena can even say anything, you brainless girl! As if, when you go and piss, you can talk with it! Don’t do all these things! Don’t you cut off my nose! Do you hear me?! Or I’ll give you one big whack. And make sure you phone your aunty soon… shameless girl!” [youtube]

The show was started by the South Asian Sisters here in San Francisco in an effort to bring a South Asian version of the Vagina Monologues to the scene. In it’s seventh season, Yoni Ki Baat has been replicated in cities all across the nation. I had the chance to check out the show in Los Angeles, but am looking forward to the show in San Francisco on March 5th and 6th. If you are in the area, I highly suggest you check out the show – but buy your tickets now, the show sells out every year.

Are any of you planning on being at the show? If so, maybe we can plan a Sepia Mutiny San Francisco meetup before the show…? Do let me know in the comments!

This Sunday I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Brownstar’s “Faster than the Speed of White” at the NYC Fringe Festival. There are two remaining performances, today from 3:45-4:55 PM and tomorrow from 8:45 to 9:55 and if you’re in NYC you really should go see them.

Brownstar is a theatrical performance duo, comprised of NORTHSTAR (Pushkar Sharma) and SOUTHSTAR (Sathya Sridharan). Their style is a hybrid of improv sketch comedy, like the Second City troupe, old school spoken word, and Hip Hop. This is not your parents South Asian theater by a long shot. [See our earlier post about them here for more about their background, origin story, and influences]

FTTSOW is a compilation of their earlier shorter sketch comedies into a single 70 minute show, the story of Captain Northstar and Ensign Southstar’s voyage on the Brownstar Galactica to the alcove of answers. As you would expect from the Fringe Festival, this isn’t a traditional play, it’s more like a concept album, a mashup and weaving together of several different sketches that share a set of common themes: South Asian American Identity and what it means to be a desi artist in America. The hybridity of their performance genre reflects the hybridity of their subject, like browns in America, their style reflects a variety of different influences.

Although these are weighty themes, the show is comic rather than somber. When you see the ode to the squat toilet or the mashup of Midnights Children with Kal Pen’s biography, you’ll see that Brownstar don’t take themselves seriously. Their work is thought provoking and consistently surprising and definitely worth a look for yourself.

TICKETS: Available online from NYC Fringe

Speaking of Amma, one of the videos I linked to in that post included part of netta’s collaboration with D’Lo, who referenced an “Amma” character. Herewith, a few more of those joint sketches, including appearances by Amma herself… and if the tickets haven’t all gone yet and you are in New York, then, you lucky reader, you can get a ticket and see D’Lo live tonight at D’FunQT : A BIG D’Lo SHOW. (You can pronounce it “defunct.” Did I mention TONIGHT? It’s part of Dixon Place’s 2010 HOT Festival.) Wish I could go! I met D’Lo a few years ago through mutual friends, and… what an actor! what a mimic! what a riot!

The show is described as “a stand-up story show with tales from the QT side mixed in with a Sri L.Ankan twist. D’Lo the artist explores topics relating to South Asia, transgender social justice, hip-hop culture, loneliness, and the resilience of the human spirit.” I’m struck by the mention of loneliness; one of the most touching things in the videos I’m linking below is the genuine sweetness of D’Lo’s attempt to alleviate auntie netta’s loneliness.

Here’s some more D’Lo / Nimmi stuff, and then, below the fold (can I say that on a blog?), Nimmi answers questions about a few things, including their collaboration.

—–Nimmi on netta’s live show, her career, and collaborating with D’Lo—–(edited e-mail conversation)

VVG: How did the show go? What did it mean to transition this character from these brief video sketches to a much longer performance on stage? What were the challenges?

NH: The show actually went well! We had full houses for both performances. ( I had to do two shows in one night as that was the only day off I had from the theatre tour I was part of at the same time). The idea of auntie netta on stage came from the artistic director of Tamasha theatre company, Kristine Landon-Smith. She and her team had enjoyed the sketches and felt their could be a future for her on stage. They were have a new writing event last December and asked me to submit a piece for this. So to cut a long story short, I am rambling, no? I performed an excerpt of the piece at the Hampstead Theatre and from there Tamasha in collaboration with the Battersea Arts Centre produced the show that went on in May.

The character of auntie netta has stayed the same, but to create the intensity of the 3-minute sketches in a 30-minute show would have left me a heap on the floor and also I don’t think that style would have worked for the stage. She is still a mad hatter, but I think a more real, believable person! I think after working with the director, Amit Sharma, what we wanted was a more human, real auntie netta. And what I wanted to achieve from the script was not just a bunch of comedy gags, but rather to use this opportunity to express issues that have been of great interest to me since coming to London in the past 2 years. Apart from performing I also have been working in the area of theatre development and when I first got here I worked with young adult refugees through Pan Centre for intercutlural arts. It was a real learning curve for me as well as them, hearing their stories of seeking asylum here in the UK and the difficulties etc and I think this is where my inspiration came from to write a piece about a little old auntie who has to seek asylum and her journey. One of the biggest challenges was that I still wanted to keep her funny and mad and at the same time have her tell her story. I think it worked, people laughed and cried together with her, which as a performer was a pretty special experience.

VVG: Can you talk about the experience of being on stage as opposed to making films? With Netta, how much of the production have you personally been doing? How did this change, or not, for the stage?

NH: Both the medium of film and theatre are amazing:) My background was the theatre starting from when I was a shy retiring 6-year-old who didn’t talk much, so my mum sent me to ‘Aunty Nalini’s drama club’ down Kynsey Terrace in Sri Lanka…I loved that so much, being able to jump into various characters etc. And from then when I moved to the UK I became a member of the National Youth Theatre…. On stage it is live in the moment…. in this last tour I did of a new British Asian play by Rani Moorthy, a Handful of Henna, [I learned] that when you do a 5-month-tour the performance changes, evolves, and also can depend on the audience too. It is a different experience in film and I love it equally if not more…the challenge of shooting out of sequence, the long hours of waiting around and preparing for the role is pretty similiar; it is just different in the execution of it.

For the sketches it has been pretty much homegrown and with the theatre piece I have had a lot of support from Tamasha and Battersea Arts Centre gave me an ‘actor/writer residency’ where I was able to develop my piece in my own space.

VVG: Can you tell us a little bit about your collaboration with D’Lo?

NH: First of all D’Lo is my hero! The learning experience was phenomenal and as a performer D’Lo is a hugely giving human being! I would love to get the chance to do more work with D’Lo, but now with being like super-famous and doing all the red carpets etc, not sure whether D’Lo will have time for little auntie netta!

VVG: What’s next for netta?

NH:Well, a comedy producer came to see auntie netta, Holiday for Asylum and invited me to compete in this competition called Funny Women…so auntie netta forayed into her first stand-up gig last week and lets see where that takes her. But I am also working on a small idea for a tv show and hoping and praying that will take off:

Got interviewed about competition.

VVG: [What's next] for you?

NH: For me in the comedy side of thingsI have so many characters waiting to jump out and perform I would love a platform to do a series of sketches. But otherwise there are few films in the pipeline

The dark feel of the film stayed with me for years. Then, in late 2008, a friend sent me a link to a Sri Lankan comedienne doing an auntie character I found hilarious. One of my favorite lines from the first video: “I’m calling from abroad–yes, that’s why I’m wearing a hat, and everything–you can’t see, no?” (At about 20 seconds in.)

When the friend mentioned that the actress had also appeared in the Sri Lankan film “Akasa Kusum,” I did a bit of Googling, and thought that without her auntie getup, she looked familiar. Had she been in the film I’d seen on the plane? I read the descriptions of the rest of the films in her IMDB history and realized that on that flight, I’d watched bits of “Ira Madiyama / August Sun”. She had played the young woman desperate to find her missing husband. And that luminous actress was ALSO auntie netta. Now I was intrigued.

Through the friend, I called the actress up for a chat and she told me a little bit about how she’d come up with auntie netta, and also that she was thinking of maybe developing the character into a stage show. I last posted about her right before that show, auntie netta’s Holiday from Asylum and promised a follow-up that would include a q&a with her.

This interview with Nimmi Harasgama, the award-winning London-based actress behind both of those performances, references that first conversation, so I’ll preface the q&a with some of the background I learned then… and will follow with another post including the more recent exchange.In our first chat, Nimmi told me she had been very shy as a kid, and that her mother took her to drama club in Sri Lanka as a way of helping her learn to speak more. She realized she liked performing–”being other people,” as she put it. She moved to England in the 1970s, and when she was 14, became involved with the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. In the summer she did plays in the West End of London. Eventually she did compromised between drama school and university by going to university, but using her time there to do a degree in drama and theatre arts.

She got into film over the past decade, in Sri Lanka, where she was generally cast in serious and glamorous roles. Both Akasa Kusum and Ira Madiyama, by Prasanna Vithanage, won critical acclaim. (I need to try to get them so I can watch them properly. Akasa Kusum is in my Netflix queue; August Sun, sadly, isn’t an option.)

But while she had been successful as a dramatic actress, “nobody tends to cast me in comedy,” she told me. Creating auntie netta was her way to break out of that. If you’ve watched the auntie netta videos, you can see why at first I might not have recognized her. Indeed, as auntie netta she seems totally transformed.

How did she come up with auntie? Well, Nimmi told me, “She’s been in my head for years and I’ve not been brave enough to bring her out.” When she had to be home for a couple of months, she finally started experimenting with the character, who is a mixture of “different people in Sri Lanka.”

“And me,” she added. “I’m quite shy and boring and I’m a bit mad, I suppose.” If she was going to be like auntie netta when she was older, she guessed, she might as well start now. With bits and fragments of stories from real life, plus a considerable amount of her own madcap invention, auntie was born.

For some time, Nimmi and her co-conspirators filmed netta without a standard camera; they had only a webcam, and auntie’s early routines were limited because they were carrying around a laptop. Still, you can see from the early shorts that netta makes the most of what she has–she’s inventive in small spaces. (netta’s been a fan of “Skippy,” for example, the Internet VOIP service. Nimmi has since acquired some Flip cams and a standard videocamera.)

“First time on Skippy for you, no?”

Despite–or perhaps because?–of the comedy’s simplicity, viewers have really connected with it. “I get comments like, ‘This is my auntie,’” Nimmi told me. Some of the stories are based on real people, or aunties her friends have told her about–but she’s also different: “Basically she’s not exactly like all those aunties because she’ll actually say it the way it is,” Nimmi said. What’s happened to auntie over the course of her life, Nimmi noted, has made her a person who’s honest and to the point.

Now, Nimmi would like auntie netta to have a more elaborate stage. When we first talked, Netta was hosting a comedy show and Nimmi was thinking about the one-woman show. Nimmi didn’t want her to just be a caricature, and was looking at the whole idea of people seeking asylum in England as a possible concept for the show. Auntie’s Sri Lankan, but she isn’t supposed to be particularly Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, or Burgher. “I want her to be able to talk about them all and get away with it,” Nimmi said.

Here’s a link to auntie netta making reference to multiple Sri Lankan identities (and there are also some in the second video embedded above, if you watch the whole way through–and a reference to the developing storyline of her seeking asylum). (You’ll note that this link includes a collaborator, the awesome D’Lo. More on that in the next post.)

Nimmi herself is part-Sinhalese and part-Tamil. She has worked in a few different jobs in Sri Lanka in addition to her acting, including a stint at Young Asia Television. She speaks Sinhalese and understands Tamil, and has been planning to study Tamil more formally. She moved to London because she wanted to give acting in English a go.

“There should be a space for different types of comedy,” she says. “We’re all just having fun… with a small message.” And Auntie Netta is gutsy enough to deliver that message. “I wish I could just be her the whole time. I could get a whole lot more done in life, I’m telling you!” Nimmi said.

At the comedy show, her first public outing, “people just warmed to her. People wanted to have autographs taken with her and hold her hand.” No matter how difficult auntie was, “they loved her,” Nimmi said. Kind of a can-we-be-your-nieces-and-nephews-type situation. What does she tell those who ask if Netta will be their auntie?

“Come, darling. Of course,” she said, immediately slipping into her netta-voice. Of course, she added, she was stroking her cheek as she offered the invitation.

I thought Auntie Netta was pretty frickin’ hilarious: she’s cunningly raunchy and very specifically Sri Lankan in some of her humor. Now, Netta’s creator, actress Nimmi Harasgama, is taking her to the stage, in London. The show goes up tomorrow night, Londoners–get your tickets!

Update: In an e-mail, Nimmi says that while the show is about Netta’s “craziness,” “it is also about her seeking asylum and as such has a serious side to it too.”

There’s a whole series of Netta on Funny or Die.

Facebook event here.

My chat with Nimmi about the character will hopefully be an upcoming post, but I wanted the flag the show for those of you who might be interested (and flag the videos for those of you who might have headphones at work).

Himanshu from the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) passed on information about an event I thought mutineers around NYC and Stanford would find interesting. Tea with Chachaji is an off-Broadway family musical based on the the book “Chachaji’s Cup” by Uma Krishnaswami and directed and choreographed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj. It tells the story of a boy, his great-uncle and a teacup. Produced through a partnership between IAAC and Making Books Sing, the musical stars Raja Burrows as Neel, a young boy whose great-uncle, played by Tony Mirrcandani, teaches him valuable lessons about life through stories about a teacup brought over from India.For more information about the cast and performance dates, click here. And if you see a performance, let us know your thoughts in the comments.

I knew I had to bring the BROWNSTAR to the Mutiny. I had the chance to hit up Sathya and Pushkar in a gchat interview to ask them some questions about the BROWNSTAR REVOLUTION. Here’s what they said.

Taz: For those of those of the mutiny who may not know, who exactly is BROWNSTAR?

Pushkar: We’re a performance poetry duo, two-man spoken-word show.

Sathya: We’re more than just that though. We’re theatre; we’re comedy; we’re poetry. We like to throw everything into the pot and create something that isn’t always seen on stage.

Taz: How did you get your start? Did you start doing poetry first? Or performance first?

Sathya: I’ve been performing and writing in some way all my life, mostly being a clown for my family, or friends. I was a Drama and Eng Lit major in college, where Pushkar and I met. He directed me in my first show in college. I’m pursuing acting as well as this whole Brownstar thing. Ideally, I like to think of myself as an actor who likes to write poetry on the side. Pushkar: Our boy just made his film debut— look out for him in the Aaron Sorkin/David Fincher/Justin Timberlake super movie about… FACEBOOK. BROWNSTARs shining.

But we met at Washington University in St. Louis, when I directed Sathya in a play. I cast him because he had sweet long hair that I wanted but could never grow myself….But I started acting in high school (what up NILES NORTH HIGH SCHOOL– SKOKIE IL) and began directing in college.

Taz: So you guys are both in theatre in college. How did that turn into BROWNSTAR REVOLUTION?

Pushkar: I was looking for something to contrast the standard, slow, Chekhov/Shakespeare or family-fun! musicals they always did at college… And when I read this piece Sathya did for the South-Asian group’s annual Diwali show, I was like “Man, we should write something together.” (I secretly wanted to learn how to write and steal his brilliance.)

Sathya: He basically harassed me for a while about it.

Taz: How did you get convinced?

Sathya: I think it had to do with the fact that Pushkar A) is very convincing and persistent and B) he was right: we talked a lot about how there wasn’t something like THIS out there for young brown/South-Asians… something that speaks directly to them. We had similar experiences growing up and that is important to have with someone you are working with.

Pushkar: Yeah, the fact that we shared this twisted, bizarre, unconventional approach and a similar pop-cultural bank was pretty unique.

Sathya: Truth. Except I get NO Star Trek jokes.

Pushkar: I’m not a trekkie…What was that piece you wrote about Wrestlemania X?

Taz: What was the first piece you did together?

Sathya: It was called “Fuck the Drive Thru.” Pushkar: It was based on history. My personal experience trying to walk through a Taco Bell drive thru cuz I don’t have a car.

Taz: How did you guys come up with the name BROWNSTAR?

Pushkar: We really liked the Black Star album. Mos Def + Talib Kweli = Black Star. Sathya: That was the first hip hop album that blew me away.

Taz: Who are your inspirations?

Pushkar: Midnight’s Children is like our bible. Meaning that we’ve written two major pieces that have been heavily influenced by this book- “The Kal Penn 15″ and UNIFICATION. And then I wrote a play called “Midnite’s Vultures” that was recently produced in Chicago (xoxo Rasaka Theatre), also influenced by the book.

Sathya: Hip-hop wise I listen to a lot Mos Def, Common, Tribe Called Quest, Pharoahe Monch – those guys know how to make rhythm and language lie next to each other beautifully. They make them work in concert with each other. I dig folk and indie stuff too, such as Sufjan Stevens, Elliott Smith.

Pushkar: Lyrically, I go to musicians who I consider poets. Beck is my guy and (MF) DOOM. Guys that Sathya thinks make no sense.

Sathya: Not that they don’t make sense but …. They make sense on a different plane of existence.

Taz: What about your poetry and play influences?

Sathya: I love Shakespeare. That can’t be said enough. Saul Williams is probably my biggest spoken word influence. Both of them are masters of words and rhythm. Kerouac, Jack Gilbert, Salinger… a spattering of all types of writers and poets – American Romantics to modern writers. People I find myself reading time and time again. Pushkar: I’ve been really into people who tell stories that aren’t often told. John Leguizamo, whose autobiographical one-man shows “Freak” and “Sexaholix” tell about his experience growing up Latino in America really inspired me. Also, Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”.

Taz: It seems that a lot of your influence is varied – but was wondering if you had any South Asian influences poetically/play/word/music/lyrically?

Pushkar: I think the answer to this question is the reason why we do what we do; we’re trying to encourage other South-Asian artists. There has been some great work out there though: Shishir Kurup’s play “Merchant on Venice,” Tarsem Singh, and Mira Nair showed me how we could make our own kind of powerful art in America. Big respect to Mira Auntie.

Taz: Speaking of Hollywood, you have a controversial piece on Kalpen Modi…?

Sathya: So like Pushkar said, “The Kal Penn 15″ is an homage to Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. In the book, Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of South Asia’s independence. What happens to the region happens to him. We looked up onto the silver screen, and saw Kal Penn – he was the man. He was our face.

Pushkar: It’s like, whatever happens to him, whether he wins an Oscar or Lindsay-Lohan-cokes-out, will reflect on us. Sathya: So “Kal Penn 15″, is basically drawing Kal Penn as OUR Saleem Sinai (and by “our” I mean our generation of the South Asian diaspora). We rise and fall with Kal.

Pushkar: Let me just say we respect Kal Penn very much. I think our piece was meant to demonstrate our confused feelings: we have to applaud the guy in “Namesake,” but should we revere the guy who was Taj in “Van Wilder”? It’s like this strange mix of emotions about a man who has been both trail blazer and trail blazed.

Taz: You have one performance piece called UNIFICATION which is about this kid and his confusion around Freddie Mercury… Was that a personal story?

Pushkar: A lot of our stuff is our own experiences adapted for the stage. For me, that piece came from the confusion of being “Indian” with a family that has lived for generations in Pakistan. All my grandparents are from Lahore. Because a new nation was created 60 years ago, does all my history linked to that land get tossed out? And now it isn’t politically “right” for me to associate with Pakistan… We selected Freddie Mercury to represent someone who has lived on multiple fault lines of identity. Plus Sathya really wanted to sing “We are the Champions” on stage.

Taz: Lol. Well you both get to sing it.

Sathya: We could have written a piece called UNIFICATION documenting every historical conflict that Pakistan and India have undergone, but we thought the key was making the political personal. That would get to the heart of what we wanted to say and would get people to listen.

Taz: Speaking of family and personal history, how does your family receive what you do?

Sathya: They think it’s important work. My parents haven’t seen it, but they feel it. My sister and brother in law are number one fans. They get what we are trying to do and they are on board.

Taz: No push to be doctors or lawyers, huh?

Sathya: When I was like in middle school, sure. But they got that there was a passion for something else. It’s not just art for entertainment sake… it’s something bigger and more holistic.

Taz: So I’m curious? Why Boston?

Pushkar: Well, I had a job here and when the Kid graduated in May we needed to reunite. I think things are working well; the community here really cares for us and fosters our work and the college scene out here is great.

Sathya: Get those ISAs and SASAs to bring us out! Show them that brown folks can talk about the issues we face and spark a dialog about South-Asian identity, though I really think at the heart our stuff is an immigrant story. It’s interesting that the more specific we get with our experiences, the more it reaches all kinds of people – they get it even when you’d think they wouldn’t.

Pushkar: We’ve gotten serious love and support from the broader Asian-American community. Special shout out to them. And we would be remiss not to shout out our boy Hari Kondabolu, our guru Giles Li, and the whole BPAC crew.

Taz: So what next for BROWNSTAR?

Pushkar: We’ve got a few things in the pipeline: A) We’re developing a show for the NYC Fringe Festival, B) UNIFICATION II scheduled for Manhattan on Aug 14-15, 2010 and C) An EP celebrating the 25th anniversary of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, called the Temple of Dhoom. And maybe… a west coast tour this summer….

Taz: How can people get a hold of you? See what you got? Invite you to perform?

Pushkar: We’re on Youtube, Facebook…

Sathya: Check out our blog: http://thebrownstarrevolution.tumblr.com or visit us at www.BROWNSTARREVOLUTION.com for info on how to bring us out. Pushkar: We do conferences.

Sathya: We do weddings.

Pushkar: Truth.

(Sorry, Joolz, not Keegan Singh.)

Due to popular demand I’ve got three more segments of the MTV Iggy interview with Naseeruddin Shah. Looking back, I can’t believe we asked some of these questions. He continued to be gracious, thoughtful, and startlingly candid:

What’s the difference between theater and film? Legendary Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah explains to us why the two should be starkly delineated. “I can’t understand why they remake movies as plays — and then do them exactly like movies!” he says, referring those well-known Broadway plays in which helicopters crash and ships sink onstage. With his theatrical company, Motley, Naseeruddin is bringing back the lost art of Dastangoi, the ancient practice of storytelling in which the end of one story leads to the beginning of the next — bringing theater back to its original intent: one actor, one audience:

InnerView > Naseeruddin Shah – The Magic of Storytelling
Naseeruddin Shah

Whatever we asked Naseeruddin Shah, this legend of Indian cinema took in stride and answered with thought-provoking candor. Whether it’s about homosexuality in India (changing, but like “the hang-ups we have about blind people, disabled people… lepers”), advice for young Muslims (“do not read the Koran like a parrot, try and understand it”), or his own orthodox Muslim parents, Naseeruddin truly graced us with every response. He gave us the clearest definition of what it means to be a fundamentalist we’ve ever heard, talked about why actors cling tightly to superstitions when they become successful, and even told us why his children are being raised without religion. Want a bracing conversation about religion and culture over dinner? Just don’t take him out for French or Italian!:

InnerView > Naseeruddin Shah – Homosexuality, Islam, Acting, and… Dinner
Naseeruddin Shah

With over 150 films to his credit Naseeruddin Shah is known for an illustrious career in international cinema. Recently, his film choices have tended towards darker, more political films, specifically Khuda Kay Liye (In the Name of God) and A Wednesday. Both deal with issues of terrorism and fundamentalist strains of Islam. In this segment, he talks about what he looks for when reading scripts, his instincts in choosing work, and why A Wednesday strikes a chord with every average person who has felt sidelined, trapped, or forced to pay when violence erupts:

InnerView > Naseeruddin Shah – Choosing the Right Film
Naseeruddin Shah