The University of Chicago’s sizable Indian population has finally caught the eye of the supreme deity that is the Bollywood film industry.

Hitting theaters last month, “What’s Your Raashee?” stars Harman Baweja as Yogesh Patel, a Booth School student who studies by day and disc jockeys by night. Summoned home by his parents, where, like in almost all Bollywood movies, a marriage is forced upon him, Patel decides to meet exactly twelve girls—one from each sign of the zodiac. All are played by Priyanka Chopra in a deeply complicated undertaking of lengthy proportions.

While the film has received chilly reviews back in India, I, for one, am glad that some attention is finally being brought to the Booth School’s seedy underworld of wild DJs.

Check out this excerpt from the film of Patel break dancing in all his branded glory.

(Thanks to the University of Chicago Magazine, which tweeted this to our attention.)

This year’s Chicago Humanities Festival, which begins today, is devoted to a topic everyone can relate to: laughter. The kick-off begins appropriately on the South Side (where the roots of improv grow deep).  Here’s the breakdown:

• Tim and Tom: A Comedy in Black and White will take place from 2-3pm today at the DuSable Museum of African American History at 740 East 56th Place. Tim Reid was a Dupont Marketing Manager, and Tom Dressen was an insurance salesman when they met in 1968.  They were at a Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting in Chicago and decided to form a comedy duo, Tim and Tom. Through the increasingly tumultuous ’60s, they were the first (and only) black and white comedy duo. Here, they’ll reflect on their time together through an exciting period in Chicago’s history.

• From 4:30-5:30 PM at the International House at 1414 East 59th Street, An Incomplete History of Comedy in Hyde Park will feature Anne Libera, executive artistic director of The Second City Training Centers, and Sheldon Patinkin, founding member of The Second City and chair emeritus of the Columbia College Chicago Theater Department as they take the audience through the history of Hyde Park’s role in comedy.Chicago comedy might bring up associations with the impov group Second City, but Hyde Park was actually a pivotal place for the development of improvisational comedy. Second City itself came out of a comedy group at the University of Chicago in the 1950s. The evolution and development of Second City included the Compass Players, with Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine, Wait Until Dark), Elaine May (Primary Colors, the Birdcage), and Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Charlie Wilson’s War), and has concluded with the current form of improv we see today.

From the People's Atlas of Chicago project; AREA Chicago

A panel discussion on arts and activism in the Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit will be held simultaneously from all three cities, linked via the internet this Thursday. In Chicago, Little Black Pearl in Kenwood is hosting the event. The event is part of the “Arts and Activism in the Midwest” series, which is part of the Chicago Calling Arts Festival, which is itself part of Chicago Artists Month. In Chicago, the panel is Lindsay Obermeyer, Carol Ng-He, Jennifer Karmin, Dan Godston, and at least one other artist. That may seem like a big panel already, but keep in mind St. Louis and Detroit also have four to five panelists each. It should be interesting to see how a 15-panelist, three-location discussion can take place without collapsing into chaos, let alone be productive. Still, they must know what they’re doing.

October 1, 7-9pm
Little Black Pearl
1060 East 47th Street