Yeah, yeah, we all recognize the lady on the right. But, while most people would be able to guess that the woman on the left is Isabelle Kaif, if you saw her alone, we bet you wouldn’t have been able to. But right now, we’re going to make sure you never forget her.
There was a rumour spread around that Katrina Kaif was in fact fully English and that Kaif was a made up Kashmiri name.
Katrina is with her half sister Isabelle Turcquotte, who is fully English (they share the same mother). The difference is as clear as between night and day (no pun intended).
Isabelle won’t make it in Bollywood since of course the Desi ideal doesn’t map exactly onto the Western aesthetic. She screams foreigner in a way KK 1, KK 2 (Kalki Koechlin) and Sonia Gandhi do not..
Katrina Kaif has a bit of that Kim Kardashian exotic ness (I can’t believe I just wrote that).
“Katrina Kaif has a bit of that Kim Kardashian exotic ness (I can’t believe I just wrote that).”
+21
:LOL: :LOL:
You are now “WOKE”!
If her dad was Kashmiri, that makes her half Kashmiri, not necessarily half Indian 🙂
Droll !!
Off-topic and for Kabir only – http://raiot.in/the-beloved-rebel-professor-of-sociology/
It’s a very fraught issue as you know. Agha Shahid Ali always referred to himself as a Kashmiri-American poet and never once as an Indian-American one.
Given that Katrina Kaif works in Bollywood, she probably is not a Kashmiri nationalist.
My real problem with her is that her Urdu/Hindi accent is atrocious. And her acting tends to be very robotic. She is a beautiful woman but not a good actress. She was in this movie which was “Great Expectations” set in Kashmir with Tabu as Miss Havisham. KK was “Estella” (or Firdaus as they called her in the movie). She is not good compared to Tabu.
Oh yes I remember that movie – We named the last night of our Wedding Reception (the Persian Bahá’í night – I need to remember the names of each function), Firdaus, after that character! Tabbu was excellent
The movie is called “Fitoor” ( I had to look this up). I thought the idea of setting “Great Expectations” in Kashmir was interesting. As an English Literature nerd, I had to watch it. Plus the guy was very good looking (I had to look up his name–it’s apparently Aditya Roy Kapur) His mother is apparently an Indian Jew.
Both Aditya and Katrina are beautiful but both are somewhat robotic actors. Neither compared to Tabu as Begum Hazrat Jahan. Also, the movie was apparently a huge box office failure. According to Wiki, it cost 70 crore rupees to make and earned only 19 crore.
Yes Tabu was excellent in that film..
So, I have looked at this link and all I can say is that this conflict has destroyed so many lives–Kashmiri, Indian, Pakistani. I don’t know what would make an academic suddenly turn to “militancy” (or freedom struggle). His death has certainly destroyed his family.
The Faiz Sahab quote explains quite a bit: “Nisar main teri galiyon ka ae watan ki jahaan”. I guess he thought Kashmir (not India) was his “watan” and he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. This is why a political/diplomatic solution is necessary so that more beautiful and promising young men don’t have to make such decisions.
Yes – I don’t know what’s going there; this came through on my Facebook.. there are some interesting Quora links on the state of Kashmir by Kashmiris.
It seems the Kashmiri language has been completely supplants in Kashmir – hasn’t happened to any other region in South Asia
As far as I can tell, this professor was killed by the Indian State forces a few days back. Whether he was a “militant” who knows?
Urdu is the official language of Jammu and Kashmir but I think most people in the Valley still speak mainly Kashmiri.
Personally, I don’t think the sister looks that different from KK. She looks like plenty of “Indian” women I have seen, especially when dressed in a lengha.
Who; Isabelle? Her features and feel are not desi or even Middle Easterner
Based off just this one picture, it doesn’t scream “white lady dressed in lengha” (at least not to me).
Isabelle Turquotte was definitely not Indian – she didn’t claim to be till she moved to India to try her hand at Bwood..
Diasporan Desis will always have a tough time With accents; I get laughed at even before I finish my sentence haha
Well, you’re not trying to act in Bollywood. One would think someone would coach KK on her accent.
I don’t really have an accent when I speak Urdu but that’s probably because of all the ghazals I learned to sing and the poetry I learned to recite. I don’t even try to speak Punjabi because that is a hot mess. Since my dad is an Urdu-speaker, we didn’t speak Punjabi in our home. Only when I was around my maternal relatives did I hear Punjabi (very Urduized Punjabi). I curse in Punjabi though not in Urdu, lol.
African Americans have a saying for light skinned African Americans, who want to pass as white, Black assed Ni***r.
In Sri Lanka we have a similar saying, “Kalu pukka Suddha”. i.e White guy with a black backside.
Many similar sayings to Africans Americans in SL. e.g. AfAm: Darker the berry, sweeter the fruit. In SL; kalu Dodol (a kind of dark sweet) kalu wunata pani rahi (it is a sweet taste).
Anyway, check the nether regions (man or woman). If its darker than the surroundings, then there is something that is not North European.
That is a litmus test of whiteness for sure or albinism. No wonder vaginal/scrotal lightening creams in India are all the rage.
Btw the kashmiri prof took a sabbatical from his work to fight against the Kuffar too… my heart weeps for him..
(wiping tears away while hoovering and resolving to ask supervising janitor for jihad fi sabilillah summer break later today)
There were a lot of African-Americans (particularly women) who passed as white. The trope of the “tragic mulatto” came up in a lot of American theater.
Zack has previously referred to the “one drop rule” where people who basically looked white were classified as slaves based on “one drop” of black blood– a very problematic and racist notion.
Passing as something you are not is very problematic but I guess it’s an individual’s choice if he or she feels compelled for some psychological reason to do so.
What an eye candy of two sisters in the picture. The fairest in Bollywood is suddenly eclipsed by the pale sibling.
Both are beautiful. I don’t know why we need to go all evil queen in “Snow White” about it (Mirror Mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?)
What is with the desi obsession with “fairness”?
Kabir, In my inner thoughts the color is indistinguishable. I do agree with your comment further above that the two sisters resemble in this picture. If this picture is taken at Sonam Kapoor’s wedding, why is Isabelle wearing a bridal looking dress?
Everyone wore a bridal looking dress in comparison to Sonam 🙂
Also it wasn’t about colour; it’s about the look. Isabelle looks like an English girl in a desi dress; Katrina passes off as Asian etc..
Maybe it’s the makeup
It is customary not to overdress compared to the bride. May be the bride wore a sari, so there is no direct comparison.
I don’t know which function this picture was for.
I think KK looks better in the red lengha (OK, now I’ll stop because we sound like fangirls).
The backstory on Zachery Latif and Zach Zavid please. The handle icon being the same.
I was asked the same thing yesterday – just want to separate my online identity a bit more etc
Zach, I understand that and I would recommend that approach. One Indian blog I follow, the blogger gives barest of details of himself and has an anonymous handle. I found him very effective. To add further, you are one of my favorite online blogger personalities. Be good. 🙂
Thank you haha – I think I’m a better commentator than contributor because I’m more into pop culture then literary culture. I wonder if anyone has seen Raazi?
I also like Zavidé as a unique surname (its a portmanteau) so eventually I’d like to be Zachary L. Zavidé.