1.
City of Joy
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City of Joy is a 1985 novel by Dominique Lapierre. It was adapted into film by Roland Joffé in 1992, kolkata is nicknamed the City of Joy after this novel. Father Stephan joins a religious order whose vows put them in the most hellish places on earth and he chooses not only to serve the poorest of the poor in Calcutta but also to live with them, starve with them, and if God wills it, die with them. In the journey of Kovalskis acceptance as the Big Brother for the dwellers, he encounters moments of everyday miracles in the midst of appalling poverty. The slum dwellers are ignored and exploited by wider society and the authorities of power but are not without their own prejudices and this becomes evident by their attitude towards the lepers and the continuation of the caste system. The story also explores how a peasant farmer Hasari Pal arrives in Calcutta with his family after a drought wipes out the village where his family has lived for generations. The third main character is that of a rich American doctor who has just finished med school and it touches on Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity as well. While the book has its ups and downs, both beautiful and horrific, a feeling of peace and well being is achieved by the storys end. The author has stated that the stories of the characters in the book are true, however, the book is considered fictional since many conversations and actions are assumed or created. The author and his wife traveled to India many times, sometimes staying with friends in the City of Joy, half of the royalties from the sale of the book goes towards the City of Joy Foundation that looks after slum children in Calcutta. The book received Christopher Award in 1986, given for work that exhibits the highest values of the human spirit. The book also refers to Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity, the 1992 film adaption was directed by Roland Joffé starring Patrick Swayze
2.
Dominique Lapierre
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Dominique Lapierre is a French author. Dominique Lapierre was born in Châtelaillon-Plage, Charente-Maritime, France, at the age of thirteen, he travelled to America with his father who was a diplomat. He attended the Jesuit school in New Orleans and became a boy for the New Orleans Item. He developed interests in travelling, writing and cars, Lapierre renovated a 1927 Nash that his mother gave him and decided to travel across America during his summer holidays. To earn his way he painted mail boxes, later, he received a scholarship to study the Aztec civilization in Mexico. He hitch-hiked throughout America living an existence, wrote articles, washed windows in churches, gave lectures. One day a truck driver who picked him up on the road to Chicago stole his suitcase and he found the driver before the police did. The Chicago Tribune paid him $100 for his exclusive story and his twenty thousand miles of adventure beginning with just thirty dollars in his pocket led to his first book A Dollar for a Thousand Kilometers. It became one of the best sellers of postwar France and other European countries, when Lapierre was eighteen, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study economics at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He bought a 1937 Chrysler convertible for $30 and fell in love with a fashion editor and they were married in New York City Hall on his 21st birthday and drove to Mexico in the old Chrysler for their honeymoon. With only $300 in their pockets, they had just enough to buy gas, sandwiches, in Los Angeles, they won another $300 in a radio game show for Campbell Soup. The prize included a case of soup, which was their only food for three weeks, Lapierre sold the Chrysler for $400 in San Francisco and bought two tickets on the SS Presidential Cleveland for Japan. The honeymoon lasted for a year and they worked their way across Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Lebanon. When they returned to France, Lapierre wrote his second book, on his return to Paris after his honeymoon, he was conscripted into the French army. After one year in the regiment, he was transferred to the SHAPE headquarters to serve as an interpreter. One day in the cafeteria he met a young American corporal, Larry Collins, when Collins was discharged he was offered a job with Procter & Gamble. Two days before reporting to the new job, the United Press offered him a job as writer at their Paris office. Collins took the offer from United Press and was picked up by Newsweek to be their correspondent in the Middle East
3.
Patrick Swayze
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Patrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer, and singer-songwriter. During his career he received three Golden Globe Award nominations and was named by People magazine as its Sexiest Man Alive in 1991. Patrick Wayne Swayze was born on August 18,1952, in Houston, Texas, the child of Patsy Swayze, a choreographer, dance instructor, and dancer, and Jesse Wayne Swayze. He had two brothers, actor Don and Sean Kyle, and two sisters, Vickie Lynn and Bambi. Swayze and his siblings were raised in their mothers Roman Catholic faith, during this time, he pursued multiple artistic and athletic skills, such as ice skating, classical ballet, and acting in school plays. He played football for his school and was hoping to receive a football scholarship for college until a knee injury ended his career. He studied gymnastics at Coastal Carolina University for two years, in 1972, he moved to New York City to complete his formal dance training at the Harkness Ballet and Joffrey Ballet schools. Swayze had a role in the television series M*A*S*H, in season 9 episode 18 Blood Brothers. His first professional appearance was as a dancer for Disney on Parade and he then starred as a replacement playing the role of Danny Zuko in the long-running Broadway production of Grease before his debut film role as Ace in Skatetown, U. S. A. Swayze became known to the industry after appearing in The Outsiders as the older brother of C. Thomas Howell. Also in 1983, Swayze played a U. S. M. C, trainer in Vietnam rescue film Uncommon Valor with Gene Hackman. The following year, Swayze, Howell, and Howells friend Darren Dalton reunited in Red Dawn, then in 1986, Lowe and his first major success was in the 1985 television miniseries North and South, which was set during the American Civil War. Swayzes breakthrough role came with his performance as dance instructor Johnny Castle in the film Dirty Dancing, alongside his Red Dawn co-star, the song became a top-10 hit and has been covered by other artists. After Dirty Dancing, Swayze found himself in great acting demand and appeared in several films and his biggest role came when he starred in Ghost with Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. In 1991, he starred alongside Youngblood castmate Keanu Reeves in another major hit, Point Break. For his contributions to the industry, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997. Swayze was seriously injured in 1998 while filming HBOs Letters from a Killer near Ione, California, both of his legs were broken, and he suffered four detached tendons in his shoulder. Filming was suspended for two months, and the aired in 1999
4.
Pauline Collins
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Pauline Collins, OBE is an English actress of stage, television, and film, who first came to prominence portraying Sarah Moffat in Upstairs, Downstairs and its spin-off, Thomas & Sarah. In 1992, she released her autobiography, titled Letter to Louise, Collins played the title role in the play Shirley Valentine, for which she won an Olivier Award in 1988, and Drama Desk and Tony Awards in 1989. She reprised the role in the 1989 film adaptation, winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and receiving Golden Globe and she also starred in the television dramas Forever Green and The Ambassador. Her other film appearances include City of Joy, Paradise Road, Albert Nobbs, Quartet, Collins was born in Exmouth, Devon, the daughter of Mary Honora, a schoolteacher, and William Henry Collins, a school headmaster. She is of Irish extraction, and was brought up as a Roman Catholic in Wallasey near Liverpool and her great-uncle was Irish poet Jeremiah Joseph Callanan. Collins was educated at Sacred Heart High School, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Before turning to acting, she worked as a teacher until 1962 and she made her stage debut at Windsor in A Gazelle in Park Lane in 1962 and her West End debut in Passion Flower Hotel in 1965. During the plays run, she made her first film, Secrets of a Windmill Girl, released in 1966. Collins played Samantha Briggs in the 1967 Doctor Who serial The Faceless Ones and was offered the chance to continue in the series as a new companion for the Doctor, but declined the invitation. Other early TV credits include the UKs first medical soap Emergency - Ward 10, Collins first became well known for her role as the maid Sarah in the 1970s ITV drama series Upstairs, Downstairs. She co-narrated the animated British childrens TV series Little Miss with husband John Alderton in 1983, in connection with her Upstairs, Downstairs role, Collins recorded a 1973 single for Decca, What Are We Going to Do with Uncle Arthur. She was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life in April 1972 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews, in 1988, Collins starred in the one-woman play Shirley Valentine in London, reprising the role on Broadway in 1989 and in the 1989 film version. The film won a number of awards and nominations and she was voted sexiest woman in Britain in 1990. It ran from 1989 to 1992 over 18 episodes, Collins film credits include 1992s City of Joy, 1995s My Mothers Courage, 1997s Paradise Road, and 2002s Mrs Caldicots Cabbage War, which also featured Alderton. In 1999 and 2000, Collins starred as Harriet Smith in the BBC television drama Ambassador, other television credits include The Saint, The Wednesday Play, Armchair Theatre, Play for Today, Tales of the Unexpected, Country Matters and The Black Tower. In 2002, she guest starred in Man and Boy, the dramatisation of Tony Parsons best-seller, in 2005 she appeared as Miss Flite in the BBC production of Charles Dickens Bleak House. In 2006, she became only the actor to have been in both the original and new series of Doctor Who, appearing in the episode Tooth and Claw as Queen Victoria. Later in 2006, she appeared in Extinct, a programme where eight celebrities campaigned on behalf of an animal to save it from extinction, Collins campaigned to save the Bengal tiger and won the public vote
5.
Om Puri
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Om Prakesh Puri OBE was an Indian actor who appeared in mainstream commercial Indian films, as well as independent and art films. He is best-known for his roles in films like Aakrosh, Arohan and television films like Sadgati and Tamas and also light-hearted roles in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. He had various collaborations with director Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, Puri also appeared in non-Indian productions in the United States, Britain and Pakistan. Puri was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India, in 1990, Om Puri was born in Ambala in a Punjabi family. His father worked on the railways and in the Indian Army, as he had no birth certificate or records, his family was unsure of his date and year of birth, however his mother told him he had been born two days after the Hindu festival Dussehra. Puri came from an underprivileged background, when he was six years old, his father who was a railway employee was put behind bars on allegatons of theft of cement. This resulted in their family becoming homeless, to make ends meet, Puris brother worked as a coolie and Puri worked in a local tea shop. Thereafter, to support his family, he had to start working at the young age of seven. He did odd jobs, worked at a neighbourhood dhaba, a tea stall and he and his brothers children were later brought up by a maid servant. While working, Puri continued to study, after his primary education, he joined the National School of Drama in Pune to study theatre acting. A fellow NSD student who became a friend, Naseeruddin Shah, encouraged Puri to follow him to the Film. In an interview with The Times of India, Puri later recounted his family was so poor that he did not have a decent shirt to wear when he joined FTII, Puris first film was Chor Chor Chhup ja, a childrens film. During this time, to make ends meet he also worked at the Actors Studio, subsequently Puri worked in numerous Indian films, as well as many films produced in the United Kingdom and the United States. Puri made his debut in the films genre in the 1976 Marathi film Ghashiram Kotwal. It was directed by K. Hariharan and Mani Kaul in cooperation with 16 graduates of the FTII and he has claimed that he was paid peanuts for his best work. In 1999, Puri acted in a Kannada movie A. K.47 as a police officer who tries to keep the city safe from the underworld—it became a huge commercial hit. Puris acting in the movie is memorable and he rendered his own voice for the Kannada dialogues. Puri had a cameo in the acclaimed film Gandhi
6.
Shabana Azmi
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Shabana Azmi is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. The daughter of poet Kaifi Azmi and stage actress Shaukat Azmi, she is the alumna of Film and she has also received five Filmfare Awards, and was honored among women in cinema at the 30th International Film Festival of India. In 1988, the Government of India awarded her with Padma Shri, Azmi has appeared in over 120 Hindi and Bengali films in both mainstream and independent cinema, and since 1988 she has acted in several foreign projects. Numerous of her films have been cited as a form of progressivism which portrays Indian society, its customs, in addition to acting, Azmi is a social and womens rights activist. She is the wife of poet and screenwriter Javed Akhtar and she is a Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Population Fund which seeks to spread contraception and abortion in India in order to limit that countrys population. In appreciation of Azmis life and works, the Congress partys government gave her a membership of the Rajya Sabha. Shabana Azmi was born into a Saiyyid Muslim family of Arab origin, in Hyderabad and her parents are Kaifi Azmi and Shaukat Azmi, both of whom were members of the Communist Party of India. Her brother, Baba Azmi, is a cinematographer, shabana was named at the age of eleven by Ali Sardar Jafri. Her parents used to call her Munni, Baba Azmi was named by Prof. Masood Siddiqui to Ahmer Azmi. Her parents had a social life, and their home was always thriving with people. It was not unusual for her to wake up in the morning and find members of the communist party sleeping about, Azmi did her schooling at the premier girls school, Queen Mary School, Mumbai. She completed a degree in Psychology from St. Xaviers College, Mumbai. I really marvelled at that and said, My god, if by going to the Film Institute I can achieve that, Azmi eventually topped the list of successful candidates of 1972. Azmi graduated from the FTII in 1973 and went on to sign on Khwaja Ahmad Abbas Faasla and her first release, however, was Shyam Benegals directorial debut Ankur. Belonging to the genre of neo-realistic films, Ankur is based on a true story which occurred in Hyderabad. Azmi played Lakshmi, a servant and villager who drifts into an affair with a college student who visits the countryside. Azmi was not the choice for the film, and several leading actresses of that time refused to do it. The film went on to become a critical success
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