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Showing posts from June, 2014

Movie About Infidelity

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Karan Johar’s Indian film Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is about forbidden fruit.   Only two people know whether it is kiwi or mango.   The fruit salad situation hurts other people when they found out.   It is not fiction.   It is my story and yours but is it worth all the pain?   Hollywood calls it a crime of passion. It is quite simple really.   Maya (Rani Mukherjee) marries Rishi (Abhishek Bachchan) out of gratitude because his family took her in when her parents died.   Rishi’s father (Amitabh Bachachan) loves her and Rishi has loved her for years, but she feels otherwise.   She finally gives in and agrees to marry him. What is the point of waiting for true love, something that doesn’t exist?   Rhea meets Dev (Shah Rukh Khan), who is ‘the one’, but is already married to Rhea (Preity Zinta).   The two strangers sit on a garden bench and discuss love and marriage.   Dev convinces Maya to marry Rishi. Four years down the road, they meet again and despite their efforts to hold on th

Zulu 19 - Food

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We go to work for a variety of reasons.   The main one is to get money for food, ukudla in Zulu.  One of the wonders of the world is a child enjoying food, taking the whole thing seriously.   Equally, there is nothing painful like a child crying because it is hungry. It is difficult to explain how you say ukudla .   The sound ‘dla’ will come from the sides of your slightly closed mouth, and the tongue pressing on your upper palate. ZULU ENGLISH Baba. Ngicela ukudla. Father.   May I have some food please? Sizodlani? What are we going to eat? Udlani? What are you eating? Ngidla inkukhu. I’m eating chicken. Usudlile? Have you eaten? Sebedlile? Have they eaten? Uzodla nobani? Who are you going to eat with? Ngizodla no mama. I will eat with my mother. SAMPLE CONVERSATION FATHER:   Udlani? CHILD: Ngi

Mini Stories in Films

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Shooting a YouTube video or short film, the script is still the beginning.   Salaam-e-Ishq, directed by Nikhil Advani reminds me of my origins.   I wrote short stories before I became a poet, before I became a journalist, before I wrote screenplays and before I became a novelist.   I regard Saalam-e-Ishq as a cinema quilt of five stories, some are related, others not.   This Indian film is a combination of chhoti chhoti stories.   We can even call it an anthology on film. Love, the subject matter is as old as the Rocky Mountains that guard Canada, but the treatment is original.   You can interpret the stories as individual entities or as part of the whole film. My photography teacher at Columbia University in New York said we must first understand the basics of photography before getting creative, pushing film and other tricks.   The script writer in Salaam-E-Ishq knows the composition of a screenplay and then bent the rules a bit.   The first thing to decide is connecti

Zulu 18 - Grocery Shopping

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Write a grocery list.   Please note our ancestors did not have the food items that have English names.   You say ngiyothenga , if you are going to buy something. ZULU ENGLISH ORIGIN isinkwa Bread Original Zulu word ubisi Milk Original Zulu word amasi Buttermilk Original Zulu word amanzi Water Original Zulu word ithanga Pumpkin Original Zulu word imifino Collard greens Original Zulu word inyama Meat Original Zulu word inkukhu Chicken Original Zulu word itiye Tea Comes from tea ushukela Sugar Comes from sugar utamatisi Tomato Comes from tomato irayisi Rice Comes from rice umbila Maize Original Zulu word

Zulu 17 - To Give

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  To give is ‘nika’   in Zulu.  You pronounce it like Nikema Williams, Georgia Congresswoman. Nikiwe is a common name for both girls and boys meaning, "We've been given." ZULU ENGLISH Nika. Give.   Bring it here. Nikiwe A girl’s name.   (We have been blessed with a daughter) Simnikiwe. A girl’s or boy’s name. Nginike imali. Give me money. Mnike. Give him/her. Mnike imoto yakhe. Give him his car. Mnike i-computer yakhe. Give her her computer. *Nginike ukudla. Give me food. Nginike imoto. Give me the car. Ubani okunike imoto? Who gave you the car? Nginikwe usisi. My sister gave it to me. Banikwe ubani?? Who gave them? Banikwe ubaba. Father gave them. Banikwe umama. Mother gave them. Banikwe uthisha. The teacher gave them. Banike inyama. Give them meat

Zulu 16 - Have a Bath

There’s a kwaito/hip hop song that tells kids to have a bath so that they can be beautiful, ‘ Sizogeza sibe bahle .’   It never fails to amuse me because my parents said the same thing.   It is common for a child to declare, ‘ Sengimuhle ,’ meaning I am beautiful, after a bath.   Ukugeza is to have a bath or washing yourself.   ‘ Geza’ is the same sound as ‘get’ in English. ZULU ENGLISH Hamba uyogeza. Go and have a bath/wash yourself. Ngiyageza. I’m having a take a bath/washing myself. Geza amazinyo. Brush your teeth. Geza imoto. Wash the car. Bayageza. They are having a bath. Sizogeza. We will have a bath. Geza ingane. Give the child a bath. Nigezile? Have you had a bath? Nizo geza nini? When will you have a bath? Sizogeza manje. We’ll have a bath right now. Bayogeza emfuleni. They’ve gone to the river to have a bath. S