LIVERPOOL 1 - 0 Chelsea (1-1 on agg, 4-1 on penalties)

WE DID IT! WE DID IT! WE DID IT! JOSE REINA DOES IT AGAIN! JOSE REINA ZINDABAD! LIVERPOOL FC ZINDABAD!

"Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never, ever walk alone.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never, ever walk alone."

Cinema and Globalization

For many, Japan and Indian cinema may seem poles apart, but for those who know a little bit about the connection, this post may not come as much of a surprise. Earlier this afternoon, I came across 2 YouTube videos (under LJ-cut) of Japanese girls dancing to popular Tamil movie songs. I don't know the origins of either video but from what I could tell, they were both taken in Japan!

Very few Indian films are shot in Japan, but interestingly, the earliest film to be made almost entirely in the island-nation was "Love in Tokyo", starring Joy Mukherjee* and Asha Parekh. The movie released in 1966, more than forty years ago! Since then, few attempts have been made to use Japan as a film locale. Fast-forward nearly three decades and we arrive at 1995. This was the year Tamil action-hero, Rajnikanth, starred in the Tamil blockbuster, Muthu** (or Kiss), for which he won several awards in India. Somewhy or another, Muthu made it all the way to Japanese screens, where it was dubbed into the vernacular and renamed Odoru Maharaj (The Dancing Maharaj). Since then, Rajni has become a huge hit with the Japanese, and there are several online references to his growing popularity in the island-nation. Here are a few excerpts:


A group of Rajni fans posing in front of a train in Japan.

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