BANG BANG!!

i woke up yesterday to a phone call from the hotel desk, "happy diwali! we need your room now so get packed by noon." so i spent an hour packing, wondering where, on this busy holiday, i would go. they said they would put us up in the guesthouse, ok. kind of a drag. waited around for them to pick us up and at noon, a knock at the door, "good news madam. you can keep your room." only 2 words for that...IT'S INDIA.

spent 3 hours of the afternoon in air conditioned splendor at the world famous EROS theatre for the premiere of the fully restored colorized "mughal-e-azam" starring dilip kumar, the unbelievable beauty and cult heroine madhubala, and prithviraj kapoor-daddy of shammi and raj (rishi kapoor's dad-one of my faves check out "hum kisise kum naheen" and "bobby"). it was an unbelievable spectacle for the eye-a kalidescope of spendor. it's the oldest hindi film i have seen, me being stuck in the 70s. i had a ground floor seat, which is much better than balcony, contrary to popular belief, the sound and vibe rocks down there if you can stand the crowds. the place was chock full of old timers re-living the past, singing along, clapping for the stars. the guy next to me almost shot out of his seat each time madhubala was on screen, his palms sweating. she's quite the beauty. this is one of the most important movies in indian history, taking 10 years to make with no budget. it was intended to be filmed in color, except it wasn't available till the end of the filming, in which the final dance sequence was the only part filmed in color. of course there are not subtitles here, so if anyone knows how he was poisoned (feather and rose??), please kindly e-mail me with the information.

than we ventured out to the diwali festivities, which was not much fun for me because they are very fond of explosives-the m80 kind and dynamite. bombay had turned into a war zone and it really freaked me out. for a moment i felt what it must be like to live in bagdhad. i especially felt sorry for the street animals and children. if you didn't have earplugs, you were in serious danger of getting your eardrums blown out. i had to sleep with all the windows closed. apparently all this fest was about was whoever has the most and loudest "crackers" wins. a definitive "mans" holiday.

bindifry