Film flags safe and fun Sydney

A new Bollywood movie takes a light-hearted perspective on student life in the city

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BY -~ DANIELLE 'a,-. MATHIAS

Endearing love stories, unstab le family relationships, crosshenuspheric locations and tongue-in-cheek humour - aU these themes are incorporated in Praceek

Chakravorty's highly anticipated

BollY"vood film Fro111 Syd111y with Love

The film was mostly shot at die University of New South Wales during 2011, and feam r es other popular Sydney locations such as Bondi Beach and Cenrral Station.

The film is the story of Meghaa Banerjee, a small town girl from West Bengal who moves to Sydney after winning a prestigious scholarship to UNSW Co mplirntions arise as her o ld and new culmres collide and love begins co take over.

Meghaa's story is drawn from C hakravorcy's own experiences a nd memories of his time as a student in Sydney.

"FiLrung here has been really nostalgic," h e said. "It remin d s me of m y o ld college days back in Sydney and remrning here is almost Like reliving die w hole college experience all over abi-ain".

Prateek is the gra ndson of popular filmmaker Pramod Chakravorty and he wrote, directed and starred in Fro111 .'i_J1d11v1 1JJith uve The film is a comeback for the family banner Pran1od Fi lms, whic h a lso produ ced film s such as Deedr1r ( 1992) and Barood (1998)

Fro111 Sydmy JJJith Love is typically a vibrant an d musical BoUywoodstyle experience. The timely, well - produced music score and sound effects add to the emotion a l in tensity of me melodramatic scenes.

However, the m o re Western aspects of the Elm, e nh anced by tl1e youthful college se tting, are emphas ised b y cliches a nd cheesy lines like, "Dude, I seriously owe you one," verbalised b y Prateek

Chakravorty's character Raj Bakshi

The film premiered at the Ri tchie Thearre at U SW on August 1, a nd die cast of Bidita Bag, Sharad Malbolrra and Karan Sagoo, Rew in from India for the occasion.

Sadly, due co a famil y emergency Chakravo r ty was unable to make ir to the premiere. Anupam Sharma, head of production in Australia fo r rhe film and himself a UNSW alumnus, described C hakravorty as a "visionary and a wonderful person".

Chakravorcy is hoping that the m ovie can change rhe be lief that Australia is unsafe for Indian students, an imp ression created in 2009 when assaul ts against Indian students here were deemed by me media as being 'racially motivated'. This resulted in protests and a signi1i.cant decline in the number of Indian students coming to Australia.

1n its aftermath, Bollywood began reconsidering shooting fi lms in A u stralia, and acclain1ed star Amitabh Bachchan turned down an honorary doctorate from me Queensland U niversity of Technology, which he subsequentl y accepted in October 2011.

Indian acmr Aanur I-Chan had also stated, ''It is mosr disturbing to hear about racist attacks on Indians living in Ausrralia rh e frequency and seriousness of such attacks, I think , caUs for an extraordinary reaction from tl1e Australian autliorities."

The leading lady of Frofll .l_)'dllCJ' With uve Bidita Bag (w h o plays

Meghaa Banerjee) described the events of 2009 as ' unfortunate incidents', and said she had no bad experiences while filming in Sydn ey.

"Aussies are nice. Witl,ouc their help and support this film would not have been poss ible," she said.

" The film will do good things to he lp bridge the two cultures as emotions are die same everywhe re," she added, clainung th.at tbe film would relate to Indians and non-Indians alike.

As for filming at UNSW di e cast and crew had nothing b u t praise.

" It's been so welcoming, so warm ," said actor Karan Sagoo. "Noc just the weather, the people have been great, and di e un iversity has been so bospitable. l would love to come bad , a nd shoot h ere as much as possible to be honest. It's been an absolute ly fantastic journey, like wonde rland".

Ms Bag, who left university to scare modelling, said mar fi lniing ar UNSW made her want to start studying again and was impressed with the university facilities a nd in frastructure.

" I've never seen peop le just l ying on the grass in Indian universi ties," she s,ud.

P ro-Vice. Chancellor of UNS\V, Ms Jennie Lang, has been a big suppo r ter of rhe film mroughom irs production. "The synchroni sation that occurred between a nniversity as a cenrre of lear1ung and a wo n derful production team of mis calibre bas just been phenomenal," she said.

In h is shore s peech at tl1e fil m 's premiere, cast member Sbarad Malliotra took me oppornmity co thank the Australian med ia and tourism, followed by an address b y Ms Lang who stated that UNSW was proud of its close links with India, and mar it was a "dream come true to we lcome the scars and crew h ere".

"Should there be a sequel, you're welcome back an yti me," she added \Vith a smile.

Fro!ll Sydmy With ]...,Qve i s an enjoyable film tl1a c will hopefull y change India's perspective positively o n d1e way meir smdents are bein g rreaced i n Sydney.

"Co me and fall in love w ith Sydney!" is actress Bidi ta's advice to Indian smdents contemplating studying abroad.

"l clunk Indians are pretty excited abouc coming to a different counu-y and smdyi.ng in Australia. A t first mey rnigh c be a little apprehensive, bu t slowly and steadi ly, l ike me, they gee used to die environm ent and at the end, they can become more Australian man Indian," sta ted C hakravorcy.

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Excelling in English (Part 1)

Ever since that morning when results spilled out, when printers overdosed on HSC headlines, when ABC and Channel 7 haggled for interviews with the sisters of mothers of best-in-shows, when the high achievers, topof-the-states and child prodigies were spattered across the pages of the Sydney Morning Herald, I think I may have been asked the same question a good few hundred times:

"So, how did you do it?"

I was left grappling for a h alfway decent response each t ime the loca l journalis ts drilled me to the core. " I have no idea1" I wanted to scream, as all of t hem hovered in si lence, their pens poised and breath baited, anx ious to unlock the secret of success. How was I to possibly gabble out a coup le of sentences that would transcribe what I had done, count off on my fing ers a list of bul let points that alphabetised the road to high ach ievemen t?

You've probably gathered that landing top of the state in both the Advanced and Extension 2 Eng lish courses came as much of a shock to me as it did to the rest of New South Wales.

But then, once the reporters had pr ied and p ressed and the storm of excitement had sett led, I began to think about how I might an swer that question properly, with all fact ors and ingredien t s in mind. And I t hink - having now had the time to think - that there might just be something of a formula to finishing well in English. Don't get me wrong: there are always t hose th ings th at can't really be taught (natural ta lent and an intrinsic f lair for the written language, perhaps), and I certain ly cannot promise to pave a d irect path to First-in-the-State territory, but there are some steps I took which, though doing so subconscious ly and witho ut a second thought at the t ime, I fee l I might be able to pass on to you, albe it w ith a li ttle experience behind me.

I suppose this is it in a nutshell, for now

1. Commit yourself to English

The first thing you need to understand as you enter in to the p reliminary and HSC stages of English is t ha t YES, it is a lot of work, YES, it is very time consuming, and YES, it can become very ted ious at moments!

Look yourself in the mirror and co ns ciously decide to make a comm itment to your English study. A lot of students

(myself included!) who pass through the HSC find that studying for more black-and-wh ite, right-and-wrong type subjects like maths and science comes far easier - and so requ ires fa r less energy - than sitting down to struggle through an English essay.

Remember that 2 unit English is the only subject that is compulsory for everyone in the state, and is a d iscriminating factor in determining your ATAR. so comm it yourself and your t im e to tack ling what is, in actual fact, a very comp lex and difficu lt component of study!

2. Know and use the Syllabus requirements

I've lost count of t he number of times I've come across a student who just has not read the syllabus requ irements for any particular unit of study!

Take time to read the syllabus prescriptions: they will tell you exactly what is required of you, and set a k ind of perimeter around, a premise for the work you produce.

Remember t hat you r HSC exam inations can O NLY test you on t hat which is referenced in the syllabus - so if you are not comp lying w ith it's prescriptions , you will not be g iving those markers what they want to read.

Particularly with the Area of Study (the focus of Paper 1), the words used in the syllabus to describe the unit ca n actually help you to develop t he ideas around wh ic h you write your extended response and creative composit ion. Personally, all three of my 'insights' about 'Inner Journeys' were taken d irectly from the syll abus b lurb itself - and I guess it went down pretty well!

3. Think structure

The first fact or your exa miners w ill look for is whether you have structured your response/s soundly: that is, whethe r you have organ ize d and/or orde red your ideas i n a way th at allows the reade r to easily follow your tra in o f thought.

If you asked me to choose one word that defines the Advanced English Course, I'd say Structure, that is, whether you've organized your ideas In a way that is easy to follow."

Remember that each of your extended responses need to have:

• An Introducti on (wi t h an opening statement, a summary of you r ideas and references to your text)

-') TALENT100

• A Body (at least 3 or 4 pa rag raphs constructed v ia IDEA, NOT TEX T, as mention ed under ' Thi nk Conceptually' and chockablock w it h detailed ana lysis / deconstruction of your texts)

• A Conclusion (with an overall st atement t hat reeva luates your opening statement, and a clos ing insight that recognises what has been learnt/discovered/unveil ed from your study of t he unit)

Th is is a pretty compressed rundown of the bas ic structure you need to memorise, and our programs offered at Talent 100 will flesh out th is formula in specific detail, making use of specific examples and sample responses.

You shou ld memorise th is str uc ture and do not let it slip. At a ll t im es, ensu re that your ideas move appropriate ly from one t o the next, that your sentences a nd deconstruction f low and directly support the id eals you have presented, that your language of connection (how you link your ideas and/or texts) is inserted in the right pl aces an d crafts appropriate t ies.

4 . Identify, Support & Explain (ISE) - the most important acronym you' ll ever know!

Whi lst sett ing up clear a nd insightful ideas w ithin each of your responses is, as already mentioned, extremely important, it is essentia ll y yo ur deconstruction o f your texts - your identification of how a composer shapes meaning through hi s or her text via his or her use of d istinctive language features - that will award you your marks. Therefore, if I had to choose on ly one acronym to memorise throughout t he dreaded HSC, it wou ld be this one: ISE.

To be continued

Keep an eye out for Part 2 of Excell ing in English.

Article wr itten by Alex Borowsky

2007 HSC graduate, 100 UAI

100/100 for Advanced English

50/50 for Extension 1 English

50/50 for Extension 2 English

Cou r se Developer at Ta lent 100 HSC Tu ition

Trial our course for free! Contact us on 1300 999 100 or info@talen t -lOO.com.au for more information or enrol online at www.ta lent-lOO.com.au/enrol