http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/hari-raj/ Hari Raj writes for The Weekly Review. He has worked as a journalist and sub-editor in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and China. On these shores, his work has been published in The Age and The Big Issue, but he is most proud of his fearless reportage of music for nuptials that appeared in Melbourne Wedding & Bride. He has a degree in commerce from the University of Tasmania which he has never used and a master’s in journalism from RMIT, which he uses occasionally. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/bridesmaids-the-funniest-mixed-race-buddy-film-ever/ Labels are the problem. Male or female, black or white, comedy or drama, PG-13 or R? In which section of the DVD store will this film end up? How do we market it? To whom should the product placement and the trailers before the film be skewed? It is for these reasons that a gem like Bridesmaids receives qualified approval like “the funniest R-rated female driven comedy of all time”. There’s a glaring missed opportunity, given the ethnicity of one of the film’s leads – surely an enterprising reviewer will dub it “the funniest mixed-race buddy film R-rated female-driven romantic comedy of all time”. Perhaps with an exclamation mark or two for good measure. Bridesmaids stars Kristen Wiig, who co-wrote the film with Annie Mumolo, and a host of other Saturday Night Live alumni. At the time of writing, it has made almost US$125 million in the US alone and is one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Hari Raj) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/bridesmaids-the-funniest-mixed-race-buddy-film-ever/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/bridesmaids-the-funniest-mixed-race-buddy-film-ever/#item6096 Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:55:20 +0000 Hari Raj | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-the-medium-becomes-the-message-in-the-media/ For observers partial, impartial or militant, there is now a barometer for the turbulence in the Middle East. The Qatar-based news outlet Al Jazeera has set up an online tool to track Twitter updates from Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and Yemen. But if you’re an aspiring insurgent worried that your movements are now more visible to the government you’re trying to topple, rest assured – social media will find a way. When Libyan secret police monitored Facebook and Twitter, revolutionaries seeking to oust Muammar Gaddafi from power turned to a dating site called Madawi, assuming aliases from “Sweet Butterfly” to “Melody of Torture” and exchanging coded messages. Their missives, and their mission, are another entry in a series of social media-attributed uprisings that has already claimed the scalp of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Hari Raj) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-the-medium-becomes-the-message-in-the-media/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-the-medium-becomes-the-message-in-the-media/#item5392 Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:35:15 +0000 Hari Raj | Author bios | The Punch