It’s Seabiscuit meets RRR, your classic boy-in-love-with-horse-meets-freedom-fighters movie. Check out our review of Azaad, streaming now on Netflix.
One day a stablehand messes with the daughter of the zamindar, the local landowner, and is forced to run away. He runs into some rebels who are trying to take down the zamindar and the British rule…I loved the historical elements. This is not a documentary, but it touches on real life things that were happening at that time.
Finally, a children’s book written by a child. In this adventure fantasy about a multiracial family (like ours!), a teenage girl and her twin brothers are sucked through a whirlpool to a strange island full of mysterious inhabitants and must figure out how to get back home–but not before helping their new friends battle the dreaded Pineapple Pirates.
When I.B. Stanley was 8, he told me he wanted to write a “real book” like my published plays. I told him fine, let’s do it. He wasn’t able to type yet, so our process was to start with my asking him to come up with a protagonist and a basic storyline. I suggested limiting it to 10 short chapters, and explained that each chapter should end in some kind of cliffhanger to encourage the reader to keep turning pages to find out what happens next.
After a few days, he told me who the characters were and what should happen in the first chapter, as specifically as possible, at my urging–what are their names, how old are they, where do they live? We had done a lot of camping, backpacking, and canoeing, so I wasn’t surprised that those elements came into play in his imagination.
I’d then type up a draft, print it out and read it to him. He would approve or reject each element and tell me specific changes to make and I’d make them. When he was satisfied with a chapter, we moved on to the next one. And thus we proceeded over the course of about a month.
He then wanted me to draw a picture for each chapter. I am not a visual artist in any way. I’d draw a pencil sketch for a chapter and get his approval or disapproval, working through the drawings the same way we’d worked on the chapters.
The story is his, the title is his, he approved all of the content. I just acted as his mechanism for making it concrete. We self-published it privately on amazon, ordered a bunch of author copies and gave them out to friends, family and teachers. Seven years have passed since then and we’ve now taken it live.
Our latest review is live! This month, we review the action romantic-comedy Dhoom Dhaam (meaning Fanfare), rated UA 13+, streaming now on Netflix.
With me, the comedy is the test is always, is it funny? Did I laugh? And the answer is yes. My favorite part is when they find out where Charlie is hidden . . . And there’s the scene where the groom has to fill in for a dancer at a bachelorette party. I’d never seen that in a movie before.
Welcome to Season 2 and The Jeff & Ishan Show (he passed the audition in December). This month, we review the family drama The Mehta Boys (UA 13+) and its outstanding performances. Our original theme music by Ano Malee.
It’s a slow burn. And in a way, I appreciated that because it avoided cliches. This is not a Bollywood romance, and I thought that was great about it...There are some strong family themes and parts that were super serious but woven through was also the comedic aspect.
💚 Those are my peeps! The Eastern Band of Cherokee. Happy to see this, having grown up in the region and my family and I having traveled to the Smokies many times.
GATLINBURG, Tenn. (AP) — The highest peak at Great Smoky Mountains National Park is officially reverting to its Cherokee name more than 150 years after a surveyor named it for a Confederate general.
The U.S. Board of Geographic Names voted on Wednesday in favor of a request from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to officially change the name Clingmans Dome to Kuwohi, according to a news release from the park. The Cherokee name for the mountain translates to “mulberry place.”
“The Great Smoky National Park team was proud to support this effort to officially restore the mountain and to recognize its importance to the Cherokee People,” Superintendent Cassius Cash said in the release. “The Cherokee People have had strong connections to Kuwohi and the surrounding area, long before the land became a national park. The National Park Service looks forward to continuing to work with the Cherokee People to share their story and preserve this landscape together.” CONT’D @apnews.com>>.
