Azeem-O-Shaan Shahenshah | Performed by Molee & Nathan

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP | A film by BANKSY

Dayanita Singh | 'Dream Villa'

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Dayanita Singh: Dream Villa

Opening Friday, January 15th, 2010
Exhibition continues to Saturday, February 13th.

Nature Morte is proud to host an exhibition of new color photographs by the prominent photographer Dayanita Singh. Premiered at the Frith Street Gallery in London in November 2008, the body of work is entitled "Dream Villa." The color photographs explore how the night transforms what seems ordinary by day into something mysterious and magical. These lush images are saturated with intense color and present a landscape which exists as much in the artist's imagination as in the real world. Ms. Singh travels to many different cities to find her images, never knowing where Dream Villa or its inhabitants will present themselves. The empty streets, the arrangements of neon lights and the silent façades have an unsettling and at times sinister atmosphere, this is a place where nothing is quite as it seems – it comes into being at night, when all is lit by artificial light and the moon is just ornamentation.

Surabhi Saraf | PEEL

Peel, Short Excerpt from Surabhi Saraf on Vimeo.

PEEL presents a visual and sonic echo of the present instance: it takes an unexamined moment and gives it life. The transitional motion of going to the fridge to get an ingredient is stretched into the echo of an unforgettable instant, and what emerges is an examination of the subtlety and hidden beauty of that moment.

The work was announced as the winner of Art vs Design organized by http://www.artistswanted.org/ at the New Museum.

M.I.A in 2010 | Maya Arulpragasam

Direct from M.I.A. H.Q. at a recording studio in sunny Los Angeles comes this brand new YouTube video that pushes the boundaries of the MacBook screen-mounted camera. Lo-fi and beautiful at the same time, the new video gives us a taste of what's to come from M.I.A.'s new album dropping Summer 2010. Can't wait!

McSweeney's | Panorama

Issue 33 of McSweeney’s Quarterly will be a one-time only, Sunday-edition-sized newspaper—the San Francisco Panorama. It'll have news and sports and arts coverage, and comics (sixteen pages of glorious, full-color comics, from Chris Ware and Dan Clowes and Art Spiegelman and many others besides) and a magazine and a weekend guide, and will basically be an attempt to demonstrate all the great things print journalism can (still) do, with as much first-rate writing and reportage and design (and posters and games and on-location Antarctic travelogues) as we can get in there. Expect journalism from Andrew Sean Greer, fiction from George Saunders and Roddy Doyle, dispatches from Afghanistan, and much, much more.

Check out some more images from the Panorama here, and a San FranciscoChronicle piece about it here.

DO CO MO | Design

TATA's DO CO MO, a new GSM phone service in India, launches its creative design for its brand identity & t.v. commercial. These GEOMETRIC design for an Indian company truly has a unique Indian touch to it! DOCOMO comes in a colorful identity package designed by Wolff Olins.


Brand Identity:




T.V. Commercial:

First Look: ISHQIYA | इश्किया

Abhishek Chaubey, writer & assistant of Vishal Bhardwaj, makes his directorial debut with Ishqiya. It stars Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi and Vidya Balan.

And if you havent seen the controversial promo of the year, do check out the video as well. Packed with some of the best lines….tumhara ishq ishq aur hamara ishq sex!

The Spiral | Jang Hee Chong

JANG HEE _ A petite islander girl, born in Korea but raised in Saipan, Northern Mariana Island. She has recently graduated from R.I.T with a degree in photography & is currently working in Manhattan.

I met Jang Hee at R.I.T when she had just transfered from Boston University where she studied writing/film making for almost 2 years and later decided to apply to R.I.T in Rochester, NY.

After 3 years of hardwork & dedication to art & photography, Jang Hee has come a long way. Below are some of her strongest images.

For more: JangSpiral.com

3 Idiots | By Aseem Chhabra

True Take on the much hyped movie 3 Idiots!

A few years ago a journalist friend questioned my appreciation of Bollywood films. He said that even though I admired works by the world’s greatest filmmakers, including Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Pedro Almodovar and Wong Kar-wai, I viewed Bollywood films with a different benchmark. I would like to believe that is not true. We have learnt to accept the weakness of a lot of Bollywood films by giving them the ‘time pass’ stamp We were arguing about Jodha Akbar. I had liked the film for its scale, visual imagery, songs, dramatic content and performances. My friend thought the film was a long drawn out melodrama and it did not measure up to world standards. I stuck to my position and, even today, I would recommend Ashutosh Gowariker’s grand drama. The issue has come up again. Last week, I wrote a review of Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots for another publication. My take on the film is that it holds a lot of promise, but ultimately, is very disappointing. Readers criticised me for not getting the film. If the masses have loved the film, then why would a critic like me write anything against it? This position does not bother me. A critic often has to live in a lonely place. It is a critic’s job to advise the viewers, but beyond that he/she has no control. A film like 3 Idiots, with all the trappings of a blockbuster – huge promotion, star cast, elements of comedy, melodrama – was bound to be a hit. But, now I feel I am arguing with friends on my take on 3 Idiots. A dancer friend in New York wrote on her Facebook status that she loved 3 Idiots, referring to it as a smart and a perfect feel-good holiday movie. When I questioned her statement, she responded by saying that I had been away from India too long and so had forgotten details about the country’s educational system and university life. So, now we were no longer discussing the strengths and weaknesses of 3 Idiots. The discussion had moved to how much of India I still remembered. Besides, why must a holiday movie have a ‘feel good’ sensibility? Lately, I have been hearing from a lot of people saying they would rather not see Precious – one of the best American films of 2009, because it is too depressing and bleak. I would like to believe holidays are a time to see good cinema and not just ‘feel good’ films. Another journalist friend also told me she enjoyed 3 Idiots. When I asked her to explain what she had liked about it, she said it was a perfect ‘time pass’ movie. This takes me back to my first friend’s comment. Why must we compromise our abilities and opportunities to appreciate good cinema by giving credibility to ‘time pass’ films? To me ‘time pass’ is a rather dangerous term. We have learnt to accept the weakness of a lot of Bollywood films by giving them the ‘time pass’ stamp. Instead, we should strive for a higher standard, the same benchmark that we use for the best of world cinema. Bollywood alone does not produce ‘time pass’ films. Hollywood is well known for its mediocre ‘time pass’ blockbusters, from 2012 and Independence Day, to the mindless teen horror films and more. But, Bollywood does produce an excessive amount of ‘time pass’ films and a lot of these films could be far better, if only the filmmakers would not sacrifice their artistic integrities. India has the most prolific film industry in the world. While we commend ourselves for the recognition that Bollywood blockbusters like Devdas and Om Shanti Om have received at major international festivals, we forget that these films rarely compete for awards and are mostly appreciated for the gloss, good-looking stars and over-the-top melodrama. Most of our popular Hindi language films still do not measure up to world standards. Maybe that is not always the aim of Bollywood filmmakers. 3 Idiots has broken box office records and, for the filmmakers, that would have been the ultimate goal. But, just imagine how much more exciting it would have been if 3 Idiots was not a flawed film.