NEW DELHI: That this is perhaps the first German book with references to Bollywood is not the only novel factor. That it tries to intelligently intersperse the Indian film industry in the anthology of three stories against three different backdrops is what appeals the most.
Vienna-based writer Dorothea Nurnberg’s book Reflections: The Bollywood Connection that has been translated into English has allusions to Bollywood in ways more than one.
Though Bollywood is not her “first connection” with India, Dorothea has “simply loved” all the Hindi films that she has seen in the past few years right from “Hey Ram” and “Dil Se” to “Saathiya”, “Kisna” and “Paheli”.
“Bollywood was exposed to Austria through film festivals and television channels only about five years back. There is so much of passion, feeling and beauty in these films that people have warmed up to them. The songs and dances are very lovely. The familial ties and old values in Bollywood films make them very special,” says Dorothea, who has been procuring the DVDs of these films from “an Indian friend in Vienna”.
Dorothea’s book is a compilation of three stories: a love story between a Bollywood actor and a Viennese college lecturer who is in love with India; Bollywood’s effect on the Indian diaspora in Mauritius; and an Indian author and professed Bollywood-basher working out his childhood trauma through the film version of his novel and the incidental encounters that he runs into.
An ardent fan of Indian spirituality and writers like Arundhati Roy and Vikram Seth that she is, there are also references to Lord Krishna and Rabindranath Tagore’s poems in her book.
“The main theme in all my books has been foreign cultures which I have got to explore and study as I have travelled extensively. I have visited India on several occasions and have travelled to Rajasthan, Varanasi, Bodh Gaya, Agra, Madurai and Kancheepuram among others. It has been a good experience,” says Dorothy, whose latest book will be released in the Capital this Tuesday. Accompanying her is her husband Michael Nurnberg, a cardiologist who has specialised in pacemaker therapy. During his stay in India he will deliver lectures on the history and future of pacemaker therapy and home monitoring of cardiac pacemakers. Ask him if Bollywood fascinates him and he says: “I have seen only a few films like ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam’ and ‘Veer Zaara’ and Rani Mukherji is my favourite actor. I have not written anything except medical literature.”
source
Vienna-based writer Dorothea Nurnberg’s book Reflections: The Bollywood Connection that has been translated into English has allusions to Bollywood in ways more than one.
Though Bollywood is not her “first connection” with India, Dorothea has “simply loved” all the Hindi films that she has seen in the past few years right from “Hey Ram” and “Dil Se” to “Saathiya”, “Kisna” and “Paheli”.
“Bollywood was exposed to Austria through film festivals and television channels only about five years back. There is so much of passion, feeling and beauty in these films that people have warmed up to them. The songs and dances are very lovely. The familial ties and old values in Bollywood films make them very special,” says Dorothea, who has been procuring the DVDs of these films from “an Indian friend in Vienna”.
Dorothea’s book is a compilation of three stories: a love story between a Bollywood actor and a Viennese college lecturer who is in love with India; Bollywood’s effect on the Indian diaspora in Mauritius; and an Indian author and professed Bollywood-basher working out his childhood trauma through the film version of his novel and the incidental encounters that he runs into.
An ardent fan of Indian spirituality and writers like Arundhati Roy and Vikram Seth that she is, there are also references to Lord Krishna and Rabindranath Tagore’s poems in her book.
“The main theme in all my books has been foreign cultures which I have got to explore and study as I have travelled extensively. I have visited India on several occasions and have travelled to Rajasthan, Varanasi, Bodh Gaya, Agra, Madurai and Kancheepuram among others. It has been a good experience,” says Dorothy, whose latest book will be released in the Capital this Tuesday. Accompanying her is her husband Michael Nurnberg, a cardiologist who has specialised in pacemaker therapy. During his stay in India he will deliver lectures on the history and future of pacemaker therapy and home monitoring of cardiac pacemakers. Ask him if Bollywood fascinates him and he says: “I have seen only a few films like ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam’ and ‘Veer Zaara’ and Rani Mukherji is my favourite actor. I have not written anything except medical literature.”
source
Comments