Episode 13: The Last of the Summer Whine

Cinéfolle Episode 13 (duration 26:15 - MP3 file size 24.0 MB)

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Shownotes:

In this episode, I whinge Yet Again about missing out on the Toronto International Film Festival, and play the "What if?" game with a twist -- not only choosing a festival top ten, but also the Number One Film to see, if one could only choose one film.

And what a film!  The Last Lear, directed by Rituparno Ghosh, and starring mega-super-hyper-mega Bollywood star, Amitabh Bachchan  (AKA "The Big B").

It's been a long time since I tried an unscripted episode, but I was inspired by some of my favourite podcasters -- Ted Riecken of Island Podcasting, the wonderful Scarborough Dude, and my particular podcast chouchou, The Big Z.  Er.  The Zedcast, that is.  In fact, it was because Bruce Murray seemed to find it hard to fathom that I needed to work with a script to avoid sounding like a blithering idiot that I decided to just turn the mic on and give 'er a whirl.

Okay, okay, I made some notes.  But I didn't write a script.  Really.  Honestly.

And I'm sorry about hitting the mic so much.  I found it really annoying when I was editing, but short of throwing out the episode and going back to a script, well, we're all stuck with that.

As for The Big B, as promised a couple of YouTube moments. 

1.  The song "Say Shawa Shawa" from the film "Khabi Khushi Kabhie Gham" (or "Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sadness", and also known as "K3G").

I love this clip not only because it features both Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, but also because it's Amitabh Bachchan doing his own singing (most Bollywood song numbers are sung by others and lip-synched by the actors, but in this case, Bachchan's voice is so wonderful that it's great to hear it in the song.)

(BTW, this one doesn't have subtitles, but I turned up a translation.)

And the wonderful "Yeh Dosti"  ("This Friendship")from Sholay (1975):

(and if you're still curious, Veeru's Water Tower scene from Sholay)

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Audio FX, Sound and Music Attribution:

"Cinema projector sound" taken from sample recorded by jlozano and posted on The Freesound Project

Music featured in this episode:

"Famous" by Ben Warren (via the Podsafe Music Network)

"A Stone's Throw Short of Perfection" by Union of Lanterns (via the Podsafe Music Network)

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Additional Information and Links:

Toronto International Film Festival

"Bollywood, the Big B, and Me" -- Jessica Hines on Amitabh Bachchan.

Comments

[Bruce Murray (The Zedcast)]

I was tickled to hear you speaking "off script". It always seems a bit unnatural when you're trying something new, but YOU DID IT!

In answer to your question, "How do you people that don't script, keep from making a lot of noise?"...with many, many, MANY takes and lots and LOTS of editing, (not kidding).

I wasn't suggesting that you should do your shows without a script, because you write so beautifully and it sounds very natural when you are reading, (many people don't sound so comfortable when reading).

I checked out the "Big B" and he reminds me of the Sean Connery of Bollywood. "Say Shava Shava" was awesome, even though I didn't understand a word. - Bruce