PICTURE SPEAK

The Pin Drop Violence band

MUMBAI Independence Rock, or the "Glastonbury festival of Mumbai", as music director Ehsaan Noorani describes it, completes two decades this year. Popularly known as I-Rock, this show-now synonymous with the city-is a platform for our own desi versions of Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. "Farhad Wadia (the show's organiser, whose erstwhile band Mirage was one of the first participants of I-Rock) has braved the police and censors to keep the spirit alive," says Noorani.

This year five bands, Prestorika, Vertigo, Helga's Fun Castle, Joint Family and Sledge, will be competing for the winner's title on the first day. These will be followed by performances by their seniors like Zubin and Mahesh of Indus Creed, Loy Mendonsa, Noorani and local rock acts by Zero and Vayu. The second day brings back I-Rock "alumni" like KK, Gary Lawyer, Wadia, Pervez Quadir (Shiva) and bands like Pin Drop Violence, Agni, Chakraview and Acquired Funk Syndrome. Milind Deora, MP from South Mumbai, will put up an act on his blues guitar.

I-Rock is all about head-banging rock lovers, ear-deafening music, some covers and some originals but all this with loads of attitude. Get rocking, at the Gateway of India, on September 3 and 4. Tickets available at Rhythm House, Kala Ghoda and Hiro Music Store, Hill Road, Bandra.

-By Vanita Singh

PICTURE SPEAK

Salman in No Entry

NO ENTRY
Director: Anees Bazmee
Starring: Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta, Esha Deol and Celina Jaitely

David Dhawan is the king of the nonsensical comedy. Like Yash Chopra, he has spawned his own school of cinema, which could be labelled DND or dimag nikal ke dekho (shut off your brain while watching) films. In No Entry, Anees Bazmee, who wrote the classic Dhawan howler Aankhen, gets behind the camera for a comedy of errors. No Entry is mostly about suspicious, nagging wives, extra-marital affairs and lots of semi-clad, sexy bodies cavorting in foreign locations.

The humour is unapologetically low brow. Some of it is fun, especially a madcap sequence in a Mauritius hotel. But to keep up this buoyancy for three hours is a near-impossible task. No Entry keeps going long after the gags have petered out.

The acting ranges from competent (Anil Kapoor and Fardeen Khan) to clumsy (Celina Jaitely). Salman Khan, who makes his entry predictably shirtless and surrounded by bikini beauties, doesn't even pretend to act anymore. He plays himself: a Bollywood rock star. Esha Deol's reasons for doing this film remain inexplicable till the end. She has about two and a half scenes and does not even get to strut her gym buffed body since she plays a salwar-kameez wearing pativrata nari. Perhaps these days, being Salman's heroine is enough reason to do a film.

-By Anupama Chopra

PICTURE SPEAK

Indersalim

DELHI A game of golf to take the debate on some of the burning issues of today to a deeper level. That is Peace Game, the brainchild of artists Laura Martin, 34, of France and Indersalim, 45, of India, and the centrepiece of Issues, an art installation on peace and violence. Parts of the gallery floor will be covered by a map of the world and players will have to putt a golf ball into holes made in different countries. There will be a surprise once the ball drops into a hole. While the installation is an affirmation of peace, says Indersalim, "it is not just about criticism and taking sides, rather about opening up new perceptions". More importantly, according to Martin, interactive ideas like the Peace Game help build an openness that "spawns new ideas".

At Alliance Francaise, Delhi, from September 3-17.

-By Gaurav Rajkhowa

Index