Category Archives: Human Immortality

Tanya Maniktala in Tooth Pari

Director: Pratim D. Gupta

Writer: Pratim D. Gupta

Cast: Tanya Maniktala, Shantanu Maheshwari, Sikandar Kher, Revathi, Tillotama Shome, Saswata Chatterjee, Adil Hussain

If I were an Indian dentist right now, Id be perilously close to suing Hindi cinema. (Or as they call it today: Leading a troll army of Boycott Bollywood hashtags). As if pop culture hadnt done its bit to convince the world that dentists arent real doctors, horror fiction is on its own trip. Freddy (2022) starred Kartik Aaryan as a lonely Parsi dentist whose heartbreak, caused by a cruel girlfriend, turns him into a vengeful psychopath. And now, Tooth Pari: When Love Bites a Netflix series centred on a love story between a rebel vampire and her human dentist features Shantanu Maheshwari as a shy loner whose blood is unique because hes a virgin and a Mommas Boy.

The lawsuit can be a defamation one. The problem isnt that dentistry is treated as a personality disorder; its that these characters and the stories they occupy are about as compact as the rotten teeth they pull out. The awkward introvert often runs a clinic that looks like a vintage house gone wrong; this one is so artistically (and dimly) lit that its no wonder the young doctors career is a joke. His passion for cooking is introduced in a scene where he coyly asks a bartender at a party if he can make a cocktail for him. The entirely unintended homoerotic tension in this scene is the only chemistry we see across eight episodes. His romance with the female vampire has the aura of two pre-teen siblings cosplaying to amuse their parents.

If I were Bengali right now, Id be even closer to filing that lawsuit. Tooth Pari is another symptom of the Bollywood-Bong syndrome, completing the 2023 trilogy along with the screechy Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway and the clueless Mrs Undercover. The setting is modern-day Kolkata, again. So you have a fanged protagonist named Rumi (Tanya Maniktala) of course, whose lyrical motivations can best be described as all vibes. Rumi lives in the Neeche (Below) section of the city, with a clan of 30 former-human vampires who depend on frozen blood pouches for nourishment. But shes a firebrand, so she sneaks out of the underworld (accessible by a pillar at a metro station) after sunset, parties and seduces amoral Bengali men to feast on their fresh blood. Thanks to some exposition dumps parading as quick chats, the world-building terminology flows thick and fast: Deep-hyp (wiping out the victims memory), blood bar, baaghinis, sharpies, hibernation pods, decapping, vampires greeting each other with a cheerful Goodnight, clan leader Ora, overlord AD, the Cutmundus (a gang of vampire killers) and their witchy leader Luna Luka. It is also unsubtly conveyed that garlic, silver, Howrah bridge, smoking and sunlight are hazardous to vampires. I may or may not be kidding about Howrah and sunlight, but it shouldnt matter.

One night, Rumi bites a drunk mans prosthetic neck (Im serious) and loses her right canine. Her urgent visit to a dentist that soft-spoken, mollycoddled virgin named Bikram Roy sparks off an (alleged) attraction between the two. While she discovers the purity of Doc Roy and hides her mischief from the leaders, her missing tooth triggers a crowd of convoluted sub-plots involving a troubled cop (Sikandar Kher, as Kartik Pal) and his unwitting alerting of the long-dormant Cutmundus. Everyone is out to get someone, and theres half-witted gore and half-baked lore. But most of Tooth Pari feels like an unsupervised root canal because of its uneven tone, flimsy writing, amateur acting and staging. The vampire lair below looks like Tim Burtons Batman raided a video-game parlour; it resembles the B-movie monster pad from the recent Phone Booth (2022), except Tooth Pari isnt supposed to be a spoof.

Its narrative is dead serious, because naturally, writer-director Pratim D. Gupta connects desi vampire legend to the real-world Emergency and conflicts of the Chinese Revolution-inspired Naxalite movement in Seventies Calcutta. The mythmaking is amusing at times, fuelled by the dissonance between what the show thinks it is and what it actually looks like. It fails at such a technical level where the rhythm of every scene exists in isolation to the next that sitting through Tooth Pari becomes an endurance exercise. I missed my swim this morning, so I suppose this will have to do.

Im willing to accept that Tooth Pari gets greedy and strives for genre-fluidity. But even within its hipster Tinder-Dracula universe, very little makes sense. A lot of Rumis fears stem from whether Ora and AD will find out about her frequent visits to the top. The penalty is instant death. But theres absolutely no tension attached to her curfew-breaking ways. She comes and goes at will, even though her senior guardians David (Saswata Chatterjee) and Kathak enthusiast Meera (Tillotama Shome) keep insisting that she is playing with fire. Theres never any danger of her getting caught; the security down under is as bad as the imaginary pressure. Then theres the track of the dude she unsuccessfully bites in the first episode, who soon turns into a vampire himself and gets inducted into the clan. Rumi knows that if he recognizes her as the seductress from above, her game is up. But her dodging of him below in this cramped space for 30 vampires is limited to one throwaway disguise sequence and nothing else until the end. The shows suspense is skewed and convenient, arriving only when the premise gets dizzy from running around in circles.

When the love story comes into focus, the track of Doc Roy and Rumi unfurls like its detached from the rest of the shows universe. Theres a cringey meet-the-parents episode in which Roy tries to test Rumi by serving her garlic chicken. (When she says shes vegetarian, she is served only the garlic chunks). Theres also a random meet-the-family episode, where Rumis ageless guardians visit Roys chaste Bengali parents, and the culture clash is mined with the clunkiness of fangs sinking into a concrete wall. Words like my past still haunts me, maybe your love will help and we are like fire and gasoline further blur the lines between spoof and mediocrity. The quirkiness of him asking her to promise that she will never bite (defy your primal instincts for me) is lost in the shows pursuit of phantom longing.

The performances are an extension of this mess. I get that vampires are not human, but the brief to Tanya Maniktala seems to be spirited but robotic its a strange, unfeeling turn that interprets energy as the language of inertia. Much like in Gangubai Kathiawadi, Shantanu Maheshwari looks frightfully young, though I suspect he might have had more to work with had he not been written as a mousy dentist. Some of the characters are downright absurd like AD, for instance, a silver-haired crook (he glows in the dark, I think) who seems to exist solely so that we notice how solid Adil Hussains Bengali is. Foremost among them is Luna Luka, played by Revathi, a vampy villain whose arc is as confounding as the taandav she does while killing vampires. Luna is flamboyant and showy, but she behaves like a bitter English Literature professor who is avenging her lack of tenureship. It takes some doing to squander a supporting cast of this calibre, but Tooth Pari is impossibly wasteful.

Its not Lunas silly dance or the tacky 90s-Mahabharata-aesthetic effects that are the issue so much as the soulless execution of these scenes. There is no sense of coherence to the staging at one point towards the end, a couple goes from happy to sad to combative to heartbroken in a single moment as if they were puppets with different mood buttons. At another point, the couple has sex in the bedroom (scored to whispery indie music) while their parents are busy drinking downstairs; it probably happens, but every scene in Tooth Pari whether its eating, kissing, killing, blood-sucking has the same mechanical pitch. Love is a dry theory here, not a tangible feeling or act. As is sex: When Rumi sucks on Roys gaping wound, his silly smile destroys the very concept of sexual innuendos. Even the few decent elements like the cops sad family situation, or Rumis loaded backstory unfold with alarming nonchalance. Its just cold film-making, as though this were a script-reading session with makeshift faces happening on screen.

The reason Im doubly upset with a series like Tooth Pari is because its a genre killer of sorts. The Hindi storytelling landscape is averse to risk-taking and innovation, which automatically weakens the conviction in sci-fi, zombie apocalypse, vigilante superhero and vampire stories. So when something like this does get made that too in a long format with streaming resources theres the extra responsibility of batting for a virgin genre and future storytellers. But Tooth Pari is the kind of misfire that might drive audiences away from homegrown vampire productions. You get only one chance to create such worlds for the first time, and for better or worse, a lot rides on these little breakthroughs. This is a one-liner that rarely digs beyond the potential of its premise.

The one great vignette of an aspiring actor choosing to become a vampire to preserve his youth only to realize that he is invisible to cameras unlocks the hope of many untapped immortality stories. A few vampires casually speak about how they helped Mahatma Gandhi drape his dhoti or refer to their time during the Battle of Plassey, but the toll of their agelessness is never addressed. They act weird, and thats it, but what about Rumis challenge of having to seduce so many men across generations without falling in love? What about the trauma of having to live through so many different India(s)? What about the tragedy of falling for a human knowing that he will grow old and you will stay the same age (a la Let The Right One In)? What about the epidemic of sickly and suicidal people converting to vampires to cure themselves? What about nocturnal challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic? Theres so much that remains untouched by the makers in their pursuit of cheap wins (like Rumi taking Roy to an abandoned theatre in Maniktala as an ode to the actress playing her). The lack of narrative space is disappointing. If I were a vampire right now, Id be close to suing but closer to spreading blood-sucking terror in the industry. But perhaps the best revenge would be to make a mainstream thriller about dentists, Bengalis and disenfranchised vampires.

Read the original here:

Tooth Pari Series Review: Half-Witted Gore and Half-baked Lore With Vampires in Kolkata - FILM COMPANION

The NFL and MLB have become battlegroundsfor a social debate that has gotten very loud over the last decade.

The question is whether Native-American mascots are offensive? As society changes and public opinion sways, the question is being asked on all levels of athletics. Recently, the New York State Board of Regents simplified the issue for school districts throughout New York this week. According to ABC 7, the board voted unanimously to prohibit the use of Native American themed images, names and mascots.

Team mascots and logos are expected to be changed by the end of the 2024-2025 season. Any schools who do not comply with the ruling will be denied state funding. This mascot ban will impact dozens of schools in New York State, including the Mahopac Indians.

By My Count

I raised questions about this in a December 2022 article titled: "Do You Think Mahopac High School Will Change it's Nickname from the Indians?" In the article, I ran two informal polls, asking readers to share their opinion on two questions, will Mahopac change it's mascot and are Native American mascots offensive. These are the results as of (4/19/23).

Do you think Mahopac Will Change it's Mascot?

Yes - 55.37%

No - 44.63%

Do You Find Native American Mascots Offensive?

I Do - 70.94%

I Do Not - 20.51%

I Don't But I Could Understand if Native Americans do - 8.55%

The Change is Happening

The mascot name change is no longer a question, it's a certainty.In January 2023, The Examiner News published an article laying out the framework for the process. According to the report, the name change will be worked on by the "Mascot Selection Committee" which is made up of around 60 individuals "representing diverse perspectives in the community."

That committee will be responsible for selecting a field of options to present to the students. Those options will then be shared with Mahopac students ages K-12th gradeand put to a vote. According to LoHud,one of those selectioncommittee meetingstook placethis week. The LoHud report states:

Mahopac students, parents and community members met privately in the high school cafeteria in the second of three meetings to select finalists for Mahopacs new mascot. Students from kindergarten through 12thgrade will vote on the finalists in June.

Mahopac Superintendent Christine Tona reportedly denied LoHud access to that meeting. The winner will be announced in June and the mascot logo will be rolled out in September.

Google Instant Street View

A Town Voice

I reached out to former Carmel/Mahopac Town Supervisor Ken Schmitt for his reaction to the impending transition. This is what Schmitt had to say:

"Hey Lou, I strongly believe there's a disconnect between the NYS Board of Regents and the people. The threats of withholding State aid funding ( our money )to School Districts that have Indian mascots is ridiculous and nothing more than extortion tactics. Mahopac people are proud of our strong Indigenous history and culture. We've honored the local Indiantribes for many years as the Mahopac Indians. Any notion or belief that we are somehow discriminating or disrespecting indigenous people is completely absurd andridiculous."

Ken Schmitt - Facebook

Scmmitt was the town's highest elected official for 14 years. After a few years on the sidelines, Schmitt has decided to run again and has already begun the process.The former Supervisortold us he submitted his Republican Nomination Petitions, collecting 715 signatures.

In the Name of Change

The move for a new mascot has been years in the making. A 2019Change.org petition organized by a 2012 Mahopac grad named Daniel Ehrenpreis hasnearly 8,000 signatures as of today. One petition signer named Ingrid left a petition comment in 2022 that read:

"It is embarrassing that at this point, the district leaders have to be pushed this hard to change the name. They are perpetuating backward and racist thinking."

A Way to Honor Those Who Came Before

Soon after the 2019 petition began to circulate, a counter-petition made the rounds according to the Mahopac Central School district Wikipedia page. The folks in favor of the mascot, argued the name 'Indians' was originally chosen to honor early Native Americans in the region.

Google Instant Street View

Hoodies On-Sale

It's worth noting that Mahopac Indians apparel is currently on sale for 25% off on the Spirit Shop. It's not immediately clear if that sale has anything to do with the name change.

What About the New Name?

I'm not 100% sure how this move will be received in Mahopac but it will be interesting to see how the town handles the change. The real question is, will they come up with a cool new name or blow it? There are professional marketing and PR people that can't get this type of thing right.

I'm sure the NFL team in Washington hired top-level PR people and marketing advisors when they transitioned away from the Redskins. The absolute best, those brilliant, well paid minds could come up with was "the Commanders!?" That is easily one of the worst names in pro sports. Cleveland's baseball team also spit the bit with "the Guardians."

My bet is that the children of Mahopac will do a better job with this transition than the multi-billion dollar pro sports franchises that have gone through it.

I humbly ask the students of Mahopac to consider the following options:

Mahopac Machine - It's gritty, tough and no one else has it. For the logo you could use a tank.

Mahopac Mailmen - This is a job that once carries great prestige in our country and it's almost completely dead. Let's let our Mailmen and Mail Ladies have their day.

Mahopac Murder - Slow your role, relax. A murder is a large group of crows and that is what I am talking about. How cool would a football helmet look with a bunch of menacing crows on it.

Mahopac Mustangs - You probably already have that one.

Mahopac Malarkey - Malarkey is just fun and funny.

Mahopac Mugwump - A Mugwump is a person who is independent or neutral in their political views. You can smell the irony on this name.

Mahopac Mermaid - This is a big change, big risk, big reward change. In my opinion, you would have to go with a completely different color scheme, moving away from yellow and blue but if we're doing this, let's do it.

Mahopac Centaurs - The Centaur is half man and half horse. You mean to tell me a human with horse legs is not going to dominate at field hockey?

Mahopac Phoenix - This is my favorite mythical creature. The phoenix is a symbol or rebirth, immortality and resurrection. The phoenix rises from the ashes, it cannot be kept down.

In case you could not tell, I'm way into alliteration. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Google Instant Street View

The Worst Name Change Ever - WCSU

Whenever the matter of mascot name changes comes up, I feel it is my duty to highlight and underscore the worst mascot name-change in history. It's not so much the mascot as the rationale for the change. In April of 2022,Western Connecticut State University changed their mascot from Colonial Chuck to the Wolves.

The reason the University provided was that Chuck was a Minuteman soldier. The Minutemen were soldiers from the Revolutionary War and that was "too violent" a time period in our country's history.

I s--- you not!

I would never s--- you on this

You're not being s---ted.

This is the absolute truth. I said it then and I believe now, WestConn should be embarrassed of the move and I intend to bring it up every chance I get. Apparently, I was in the minority on this because I started a Change.org petition to get them to change it back.

It's been afull year since and the petition has 60 signatures. I realize that is ahorrendous number and I have no real support but I'll go to my grave screaming about how ridiculous that decision was.

Check out the Ethan, Lou & Large Dave Podcast on Apple and Spotify

Putnam Lake is a Hamlet of the Town of Patterson In Putnam County, NY. Originally, the community was a vacation getaway for city folks who wanted Lake property in the country. Today, its not any kind of weekend or destination getaway but a great place to live, I would know, I grew up there. Like any small town, Putnam Lake, NY has its setbacks. Its difficult to open any business and even harder to keep the doors open. These are some of the long vacant commercial properties of The Lake.

If you are in the market for killer views and ultimate privacy, 181 Barrett Hill Road in Mahopac, NY is for you.

Photo Credit: Aurora Photography

The rest is here:

Board of Ed Outlaws Native American Mascots in NY, What's Next ... - i95rock.com

Disney takes time to honor those who have contributed to the companys success by recognizing them as Disney Legends. One of the Disney Legends is Bill Farmer who worked in animation. He is best known as the voice of Goofy and Pluto but has also provided countless other voices over the years. Lets take a look at some of the best films, series or shorts on Disney+ featuring Bill Farmer.

A toon-hating detective is a cartoon rabbits only hope to prove his innocence when he is accused of murder.

A prince cursed to spend his days as a hideous monster sets out to regain his humanity by earning a young womans love.

When Max makes a preposterous promise to a girl he has a crush on, his chances to fulfilling it seem hopeless when he is dragged onto a cross-country trip with his embarrassing father, Goofy.

A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman action figure supplants him as top toy in a boys bedroom.

A deformed bell-ringer must assert his independence from a vicious government minister in order to help his friend, a gypsy dancer.

The son of Zeus and Hera is stripped of his immortality as an infant and must become a true hero in order to reclaim it.

A misfit ant, looking for warriors to save his colony from greedy grasshoppers, recruits a group of bugs that turn out to be an inept circus troupe.

When Woody is stolen by a toy collector, Buzz and his friends set out on a rescue mission to save Woody before he becomes a museum toy property with his roundup gang Jessie, Prospector, and Bullseye.

Max goes to college, but to his embarrassment his father loses his job and goes to his sons campus.

In order to power the city, monsters have to scare children so that they scream. However, the children are toxic to the monsters, and after a child gets through, two monsters realize things may not be what they think.

When a young Inuit hunter needlessly kills a bear, he is magically changed into a bear himself as punishment with a talkative cub being his only guide to changing back.

To save their farm, the resident animals go bounty hunting for a notorious outlaw.

Manny, Sid and Diego discover that the ice age is coming to an end, and join everybody for a journey to higher ground. On the trip, they discover that Manny is not in fact the last of the woolly mammoths.

On the way to the biggest race of his life, a hotshot rookie race car gets stranded in a rundown town, and learns that winning isnt everything in life.

A look at the relationship between Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and James P. Sully Sullivan (John Goodman) during their days at Monsters University, when they werent necessarily the best of friends.

The famed stepbrother inventors know what theyre gonna do today. Theyre gonna rescue their sister from an alien abduction.

A poor boy and a prince exchange identities and lives while the villainous Captain of the Guard plots to take advantage of this.

Three tales of Christmas past about Donalds nephews reliving the day on repeat, Max Goofs belief in Santa being challenged, and Mickey and Minnie making ends meet.

Jaq and Gus create a storybook based on three events that happened after the first film. The stories include Cinderellas opposition to the courts strict etiquette, Jaqs becoming human for a day, and Anastasias redemption through love.

Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog are best pals and the unsung heroes of the African savanna. This prequel to the smash Disney animated adventure takes you back way back before Simbas adventure began. Youll find out all about Timon and Pumbaa and tag along as they search for the perfect home and attempt to raise a rambunctious lion cub.

Mickey, Donald and Goofy are the French three Musketeers.

Mickey and all his Disney pals star in an original movie about the importance of opening your heart to the true spirit of Christmas. Stubborn old Donald tries in vain to resist the joys of the season, and Mickey and Pluto learn a great lesson about the power of friendship.

The classic Disney character Goofy is a single father raising his son, Max, in Spoonerville. Pete, a frequent antagonist from the old cartoons, lives next door with his family.

The misadventures of Donald Duck and his rebellious teenage nephews with attitude, Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Mickey and his friends Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Daisy, Goofy, Pete, Clarabelle and more go on fun and educational adventures.

Higglytown is full of everyday heroes like Mail Carrier Hero (Kathie Lee Gifford), Fireman Hero (Donald Faison), and Bus Driver Hero (Stuart Pankin). This inventive series taught children about their ever-growing environment in an entertaining way.

Minnie and daisy open a bow shop in which they help people and have adventures.

Mickey Mouse takes on new adventures finding himself in silly situations in different settings.

An animated TV show that follows a band of young pirates who spend their days competing against Captain Hook and Mr. Smee for treasure.

Donald Duck decides to forgo flying south for the winter in order to spend Christmas with Mickey Mouse and his other pals.

At the end of Halloween night, Mickey attempts to cap off the evening by telling his and Donalds nephews the scariest story ever.

Ordinary Anne Boonchuy, 13, finds a music box that sends her to Amphibia, a world full of frogs, toads, and giant insects. With help from Sprig, she must adjust to life in Amphibia and discover the first true friendship in her life.

Vampirina tells the story of a young vampire girl who faces the joys and trials of being the new kid in town when her family moves from Transylvania to Pennsylvania.

The comedy-adventure series chronicles the high-flying adventures of trillionaire Scrooge McDuck; his temperamental nephew Donald Duck; grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie; Launchpad McQuack; and Mrs. Beakley and her granddaughter Webby.

Mickey and his best pals Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto embark on their greatest adventures yet, navigating the curve-balls of a wild and zany world where the magic of Disney makes the impossible possible.

Follows Funny, an enchanted talking playhouse who leads Mickey Mouse and his pals on imaginative adventures.

The lovable chipmunk troublemakers in a non-verbal, classic style comedy, following the ups and downs of two little creatures living life in the big city.

Goofy shows us how to get through this pandemic as only he can.

The series centers on the adventures of Chibi versions of Disney characters as they live in their own universe.

Bill Farmer, the voice actor of Goofy and Pluto, tells the stories of working dogs across the United States while educating viewers on responsible pet care.

Those are some of the amazing movies, series and specials featuring the wonderfully talented Bill Farmer. What will you be watching?

Jeremy has been a big Disney fan since he was a kid growing up during the Disney Renaissance. One day he hopes to go to every Disney Park in the world.

See original here:

Best Bill Farmer Films, Series and Shorts on Disney+ - What's On Disney Plus