Durga Puja Aarti wallpapar Hindus will gather for Durga Puja festival celebration 2011

Next weekend, about 300 Hindus from throughout the Midwest will celebrate the biggest festival for Hindu communities of the Bengali tradition.
Events will begin on Friday and continue through Oct. 2 at the Lenexa Community Center, 13420 Oak.
Activities will include worship services, cultural programs, feasting, family get-togethers and greeting exchanges.
“It could be compared to the Christian celebration,” said Anand Bhattacharyya, a member of the Kansas City Hindu community. “Though it is primarily a religious service, its social and cultural aspects are also significant.”
For 15 years, the celebration has brought together ethnic Bengali families from India who live in the Kansas City area as well as Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
The main worship service, which is free and open to the public, will be from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 1. A fee will be charged for meals and cultural events Friday. Call 913-681-3870 for more information.
Hindus worship Durga as the highest manifestation of the universal power of God. The image most commonly worshipped during Durga Puja depicts Durga with 10 arms, surrounded by her children, slaying a demon coming out of a buffalo

Durga Aarti
 Jai ambe gaurii maiyaa, Jai shyaamaa gaurii Nishadina tumako dhyaavata, Hari brahma shivajii

"Glory to you, O divine Mother Gauri, glory to you, O Parvati, who are so rich in maiden grace (virgin beauty), the object of daily meditation by Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva!"

Maanga sinduura viraajata, Tiko mriga madako Ujjvalase dauu nainaa, Chandravana niiko

"O Ambe! On your forehead is a resplendent mark of vermilion along with a mark of musk (signifying good luck). Your twin eyes are bright and your face beautiful as the moon."

Kanaka samaana kalevara, Raktaambara raaje Raktapushpa galamaalaa, Kanthahaara saaje

"Your body with a tinge of gold is splendidly dressed in red attire; on your throat lies a wreath of red blossoms like a beautiful necklace."

Kehari vaahana raajata, Khadaga khappara dhaari Sura nara munijana sevata, Tinake dukha haari

"Your vehicle, the lion, is, O Mother in keeping with your splendid form; you bear a sword and a skull in your hands, and on you attend the gods, men, hermits and your votaries whose grief you drive away."

Kaanana kunadala shobhita, Naasaagre motii Kotika chandra divaakara, Sam raajata jyotii

"You are adorned with rings on your ears and with pearl on the tip of your nose, your radiance looks as splendid as that of myriad of suns and moons."

Shumbha nishumbha bidaare, Mahishaasura ghaatii Dhuumra vilochana nainaa, Nishadina madamaatii

"O slayer of the demon Mahisha, you tore apart the bodies of Shumbha, Nishumbha and Dhuumravilochana. (In the battle waged against them) your eyes reflected a frenzy of fury everyday and night."

Brahmaanii rudraanii, Tuma kamalaa raanii Aagama-nigama bakhaanii, Tuma shiva pataraanii

"You are the beloved consort of Brahma, Rudra and Vishnu. The Vedas and the Shastras describe you as the queen consort of Shiva,"

Chausatha yoginii gaavata, Nritya karata bhairon Baajata taala mridanga, Aura baajata damaruu

"Sixty-four Yoginis chorus your praise and glorify you, while Bhairava (Shiva) dances in tune to the accompaniment of the sound of tambour (mridanga) and drum (damaru)."

Tuma ho jaga kii maataa, Tuma hii ho bhartaa Bhaktana kii dukha hartaa, Sukha sampati kartaa

"You are mother of the universe, its sustainer, reliever of your devotees' affliction and bestower of happiness and prosperity."

Bhujaa chaara ati shobhita, Vara mudraa dhaarii Manavaanchita phala paavata, Sevata nara naarii

"The four arms you have adorned your person, while the hand raised in benediction reveals your benign aspect. Those among men and women who wait on you and worship you have all their cherished wishes ever fulfilled."

Kanchana thaala viraajata, Agaru kapuura baatii Bhaalaketu mein raajata, Kotiratana jyotii

Navratri

Dandiya, the most awaited traditional dance festival of India.

Navratri, the festival of nights, lasts for 9 days with three days each devoted to worship of Ma Durga, the Goddess of Valor, Ma Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth and Ma Saraswati, the Goddess of Knowledge. During the nine days of Navratari, feasting and fasting take precedence over all normal daily activities amongst the Hindus. Evenings give rise to the religious dances in order to worhip Goddess Durga Maa.

1st - 3rd day of Navratri
On the first day of the Navaratras, a small bed of mud is prepared in the puja room of the house and barley seeds are sown on it. On the tenth day, the shoots are about 3 - 5 inches in length. After the puja, these seedlings are pulled out and given to devotees as a blessing from god. These initial days are dedicated to Durga Maa, the Goddess of power and energy. Her various manifestations, Kumari, Parvati and Kali are all worshipped during these days. They represent the three different classes of womanhood that include the child, the young girl and the mature woman.

4th - 6th day of Navratri
During these days, Lakshmi Maa, the Goddess of peace and prosperity is worshipped. On the fifth day which is known as Lalita Panchami, it is traditional, to gather and display all literature available in the house, light a lamp or 'diya' to invoke Saraswati Maa, the Goddess of knowledge and art.

7th - 8th day of Navratri
These final days belong to Saraswati Maa who is worshipped to acquire the spiritual knowledge. This in turn will free us from all earthly bondage. But on the 8th day of this colourful festival, yagna (holy fire) is performed. Ghee (clarified butter), kheer (rice pudding) and sesame seeds form the holy offering to Goddess Durga Maa.

Mahanavami
The festival of Navratri culminates in Mahanavami. On this day Kanya Puja is performed. Nine young girls representing the nine forms of Goddess Durga are worshiped. Their feet are washed as a mark of respect for the Goddess and then they are offered new clothes as gifts by the worshiper. This ritual is performed in most parts of the country.

www.Mausam.com Review Round-Up Critics Recommend Mausam Bollywood movie 2011

After its release being stalled thrice, “Mausam” (Season of Love) releases nationwide Friday. The film tells the love story of Punjabi boy Harry and Kashmiri girl Aayat. They are portrayed on-screen by actors Shahid Kapur (who resembles Tom Cruise in his aviators, moustache and airforce uniform) and Sonam Kapoor.
“Mausam” arrives with high expectations. Pankaj Kapur is considered a master when it comes to acting with his performances in films like Maqbool and Rakh and when he dons the director’s cap, great things are forecast. The apparent chemistry between the two leads in the trailers and the songs raise the anticipation level even further.
Many complained of the film’s length, while others thought it was overly complicated. They may have a point: Over the course of two and a half hours, the film takes the audience through some of the most troubled times in Indian history: the Babri Masjid demolition, Mumbai bomb blasts, the Kargil war and Gujarat riots. All serve as backdrops for the lovers to separate and unite.
Here’s a round-up of what some critics had to say for the film:
NDTV’s Saibal Chatterjee gave the film three out of five stars and called it an  “ambitious film that seeks to blend the conventions of mass-oriented Mumbai entertainers with the style and substance of a more intimate and meaningful mode of storytelling.”
While Mr. Chatterjee complained of the film’s length and its tendency to “meander rather listlessly in parts,” he wrote that the film is “enlivened by fine performances” by the lead actors and he also appreciated the luminous camerawork of cinematographer Binod Pradhan.

Finally all the troubles brewing over Pankaj Kapoor’s directional debut, ‘Mausam’ was over and the film saw a grand premiere where Bollywood’s who’s who was present. Celebs that walked the red carpet premiere were Hrithik Roshan and his wife Suzanne. Rani Mukherjee, Bipasha Basu and Ritiesh Deshmukh, Sonakshi Sinha, Rakesh Mehra also attended the premiere. Genelia D'souza came straight from Ahmedabad.
The male protagonist Shahid Kapoor looked extremely excited and Sonam Kapoor looked graceful. They welcomed the guests along with Pankaj Kapoor and Supriya Pathak.

He does recommend the film for the way it has been put together. “Writer-director Kapur, the accomplished actor that he is, orchestrates the emotional ups and downs of his tale with a commendable degree of moderation for the most part. ‘Mausam’ is certainly worth a viewing,” he wrote.
Film critic Nikhat Kazmi in English daily The Times of India wrote that the film begins on the beautiful note of an old-fashioned romance with a charming lead pair filmed in scenic locales.
For her, the movie worked in parts and she liked the first half where the vintage love story “proceeds through unsaid words, unexpressed feelings, stolen glances and lots of melody.” But once the protagonists part ways, she thought the director lost his grip.
“Too many comings and goings, meetings and separations, missed calls and opportunities, spurred on by the cataclysmic political events of the nation, tire you with their repetition,” Ms. Kazmi noted.
Ms. Kazmi added that the climax of the film, with the lovers trapped in the burning streets of Gujarat, was “too bizarre, too unnecessary, bordering on the ludicrous.”
But she appreciated the balance that the film strikes between art house and mainstream cinema and nonetheless recommended the film saying, “Don’t be dissuaded however, for ‘Mausam’ has lots to offer to the viewer who doesn’t mind his cinema languorous, laid back and moody, with loads of beauty.”
In the magazine India Today, film critic Kaveree Bamzai, wrote that the film’s slow pace and length tires viewers. “Every scene is beautifully shot, the romance is meant to grow on you with its artful glances and coy exchanges. But instead of a slow burn, it’s just plain exhaustion.”
She added that the director aims for an old-fashioned romance and “he pours his heart and mind into it, tying it up in a neat little bow into a message for ‘insaniyat’ [humanity] in the time of brutality, but I wish his lovers had been more ardent.” She complained that it defies logic that in the age of email and cellphones, the lovers rely on their neighbors.

www.raonemovie.com Farhan stunned with 3D trailer of ´RA.One Bollywood movie 2011

Shahrukh Khan starrer Ra.one is a movie of one of its kind and that is without a
doubt known to every man in the Bollywood Industry and is the spotlight in the
eyeball of the common man.
The movie is setting its own records and is breaking the clutter on ALL levels
and has a lot of FIRSTS to its credit. The movie has experimented on all kinds of
mediums to get their fans feel at home and connected to the movie. The movie has
achieved remarkable success prior to its release itself.
Ra.One has been the first movie website in the Bollywood Industry to hit the
highest Alexa India Rankings. The movie is in the first 5000 most visited websites.
(Precisely: 3,588) and is Globally ranked at 76,662 as on 23rd September, 2011.
The website is innovative and is easily the love of any SRK fan who has so much to
offer to them apart from the movie.


The most anticipated movie related is the G.one Squad. The concept relates to the
character of the Khan of Bollywood who with his good deeds teaches something
about the other.
The movie has also linked their digital work to ticket booking and bringing direct
ROI into the campaign which makes a lot of sense as at least 10-12 % of ticket
booking is now being done online. (A mind working on 1000 things is baseless if not
achieved success to monies, believes the agency behind Ra.One who is putting their
heart and soul to make it one of a kind of a campaign)
If movies get THIS digital savvy then it won’t be too long before Digital becomes
as important if not more than OOH and Print in movie campaigns and provide
independent channels for smaller movies to release with a BANG and out of the box
thinking will become a norm and not an exception.
Digital and Merchandising Alliances Head Shailja, Red Chillies Entertainment says:
The world is moving fast & for SRK, we had to be a step ahead than the rest of
Bollywood. What Redchillies & Everymedia have achieved together for Ra.One is
going to create a benchmark for Bollywood. Wait & see how the movie marketing
strategies are going to be built around the digital world in the time to come!

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Gibson be good for the Maccabees Mel Gibson’s plan to produce a movie about the Maccabees is not an existential threat to Jews

As loathsome and absurd as it may seem to many, Mel Gibson’s plan to produce a movie about the Maccabees is not an existential threat to Jews — unless, of course, he decides to change the ending so that the Maccabees lose.

Mel Gibson Photo by Ian Wilson/WENN.com/Newscom

Of course, that a man who, in 2006, turned a drunk-driving arrest into an opportunity to assail Jews for waging all the wars in the world should now set about making a film based on two of the Jewish holy books does seem bizarre. Is this Gibson’s attempt at some kind of perversion of teshuvah, or just a deeply insensitive expropriation of Jewish lore?
At best, the notion resonates as a kind of grand farce.
“If you were making a satire of Hollywood, you would have the anti-Semitic, drunk, racist, misogynistic movie director making the Judah Maccabee biopic,” The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg said to me by phone from Washington, D.C. “It’s an act of outrageous chutzpah for an anti-Semite to appropriate a Jewish hero for a movie. Would you have a person who is widely believed by black people to be a racist involved in a movie about Martin Luther King Jr.? Would you have a person most gay people believe is a homphobe direct ‘Milk’?”
At worst, the film could become a kind of insidious Christian propaganda film, à la “The Passion of the Christ,” in which Jews were mostly depicted as extremely unattractive, blood-lusting and demonic, not to mention complicit in deicide. “If this [movie] were shown in the theater during the Third Reich or in Iran, people would cheer that the Jews, who rejected Christ, are finally shown for what they are,” Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance, said.
But, in fact, no Jews were harmed in the making of that film — or in the movie theaters that showed it, or even outside of them. Mostly, “The Passion” played out in the pages of the press, and life went on. Hurt feelings aside, the worst grievance Jews could direct at “The Passion of the Christ” was that it made its already wealthy anti-Semitic creator even richer.
Any Gibson-produced Maccabee movie is unlikely to pose actual danger to Jews. In an age of real violent threats, “This is not a crime against humanity,” Goldberg said wryly. But even so, that is not why many Jews oppose it.
When the story broke, Jewish outrage was palpable. Anti-Defamation League national director Abe Foxman told The Hollywood Reporter that the decision was a travesty: “Judah Maccabee deserves better,” he said. Hier called the project antagonistic and disrespectful — “an insult to Jews.” Others called it “bottom-feeding on the bottom line.”
The danger, as these Jewish leaders see it, is that allowing an anti-Semite to have his way with Jewish history in this far-reaching and influential medium casts him as a kind of cultural authority on the subject and lends legitimacy to his worldview, which they believe comprises deep theological hostility to Jews and Judaism.
They don’t look at Mel Gibson and see a great artist; they see a Nazi.
As one friend put it, “Had Mel Gibson lived in 1940s Germany, he would have been one of those Nazis who shot Jews from a rooftop and then went inside and listened to Bach.”
But the Jewish leaders who flooded the pages of the Hollywood trades with their dismay and disgust do not know Mel Gibson. And the portrait that emerges from talks with some of the Jews who have worked with Gibson, including Alan Nierob, his publicist of 17 years, is one of a loyal, caring friend and a consummate professional.
“People love working with him,” said Dean Devlin, producer of “The Patriot” and a close friend of Gibson. “He is one of the few movie stars who doesn’t bring any ego to the set, and he was always making people laugh.” Devlin said Gibson would help carry equipment and play practical jokes, and that he helped set up a clinic for battered women near their South Carolina set, as well as a local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous, whose meetings Gibson attended. “But,” Devlin added, “he also has this reputation for being a guy who would say outrageous stuff and infuriate people; Mel is a guy who loves to shock.”
Richard Donner (nee Schwartzberg), who directed Gibson in the “Lethal Weapon” movies and has known him for three decades, agreed that Gibson is “one of the nuttiest guys” he’s ever met but does not believe he’s anti-Semitic. He described Gibson as an “off the wall” creative genius who can sometimes do bizarre and outlandish things. He said he was “thunderstruck” when he heard about Gibson’s 2006 tirade.
“I couldn’t believe it — I didn’t want to believe it,” Donner said. “And yet, in my heart, having known how he was brought up, I said to myself, ‘Well, maybe this is something that’s been suppressed for so many years and it decided to raise its ugly head now.’
“If you’re brainwashed from infancy,” Donner added, referring to Gibson’s Vatican II-
rejecting father, Hutton Gibson, a Holocaust denier, “that probably causes great emotional anguish.”
“Mel has never, ever said anything against the Jews on the record,” Devlin insisted. “Somehow, in a drunken, crazy rage, he was reported to have said some ridiculous things; but I gotta tell you, if every single one of us had every word recorded in the height of drunken anger, we’d all look like lunatics.”
Whether Gibson’s colleagues are defending a friend or in denial, it’s clear there is also little consensus in Hollywood on what constitutes anti-Semitism.
As recently as December 2010, the actress Winona Ryder revealed to GQ Magazine a disturbing encounter she’d had with Gibson long ago: “I remember, like, 15 years ago, I was at one of those big Hollywood parties. And he was really drunk,” she told GQ. “I was with my friend, who’s gay. He made a really horrible gay joke. And somehow it came up that I was Jewish. He said something about ‘oven dodgers.’… I’d never heard that before. It was just this weird, weird moment. I was like, ‘He’s anti-Semitic and he’s homophobic.’ No one believed me!”
Perhaps an industry-wide malaise of shame or self-hate makes it too difficult to call anti-Semitism what it is. With few exceptions, like Amy Pascal, who decried Gibson’s 2006 outburst in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, and Ari Emanuel, who wrote on the Huffington Post that, “alcoholism does not excuse racism and anti-Semitism,” the silence has been deafening. Calling out anti-Semitism where it exists seems too tribal and parochial for such a worldly industry. God forbid Warner Bros., the studio that greenlighted the Maccabee film, should bear any moral responsibility for assigning a Jewish story to a storyteller who has repeatedly antagonized Jews. All that its Jewish studio head Barry Meyer could muster through a PR rep was: “No comment.”
Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of Clal, The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership based in New York, said he couldn’t care less about analyzing the vagaries of Gibson’s attitude toward the Jews. “I worry about anti-Semitism when it actually wields power that is going to hurt the Jewish people,” he said. Kula has been consulting with Gibson about the Maccabee movie and said Gibson has as much right to produce the story as anyone.
“No one owns the Jewish story; this is a historic story,” Kula said, adding that the Jewish community should view the film as an opportunity. “More [Jewish] people celebrate Chanukah than any other festival — 80 percent of American Jews claim they celebrate some sort of Chanukah, which means Chanukah is bigger than Rosh Hashanah, bigger than Yom Kippur. What if, when the movie comes out, we were able to create a national conversation around one of our most important stories?”
After all, not even Gibson’s critics deny that he is one of Hollywood’s most talented filmmakers. And his penchant for archetypal good-versus-evil stories could wind up highlighting Judah Maccabee’s heroism, omitting some of the harsher, more ambivalent aspects of the Book of Maccabees, such as the zealous persecution of secular Jews. What if, in the end, Mel Gibson makes a darn good movie extolling Maccabean virtues that would make Jews proud?
“People say to me, ‘You know what? Maybe he wants to make amends with Judah Maccabee and this is his way of saying, ‘Welcome me back,’ ” Rabbi Hier said, confessing that as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he voted for Gibson back in 1996, when he was nominated for “Braveheart.”

Dookudu Movie Gallery,Wallpaper,Video Song,Dookudu Has Fetched its Producers a Whopping Rs. 38 cr. Even Before Its Release

View Dookudu Gallery

If some trade sources are to be believed, Dookudu has fetched its producers a whopping Rs. 38 cr. even before its release.  The much-hyped film, releasing on September 23, has earned the most money.

Anyone who knows the commerce in Tollywood would not find it surprising.  The reason being, Dookudu is not only the biggest flick in the race slated for a pre-Dussehra release, but also it stars Mahesh Babu.  The actor, who is very much adored by audiences across all sections, has his hopes pinned on it.  Sreeu Vaitla, with the highest success rate, is another winner for the movie's business. Dookudu: A Vytla treat in climax [Videos]  - [Updated on 21, September, 2011]

These days, it is not unusual to see massive films making humongous profits.  In the case of Dookudu, which was made on a budget of Rs. 35 cr., the film has been sold internationally well, say reports.

A press briefing is scheduled today evening.  The film is releasing on Friday amidst the on-going Sakala Janunal Samme in the Telangana region