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Anurag’s favorite part of the film has started. It’s Baba Bengali’s legacy, with much awaited Anurag’s very own Gabbar, Paresh Rawal taking the centre stage! An old deserted mill touching the east sea coast in Colaba is the stage for Prayogshala. Its became a favourite spot for Bollywood after the dock scenes of ‘Hum’ and ‘Agneepath’ were shot. For films shot in Bombay vast silent space with high roof n walls within the city limits is ideal for shooting. The studios appear like a warehouse, even warehouses are used as studios ? A film maker inclined towards horror genre would be excited to have the ‘khundars’ here. But, the sets of No Smoking are very different and interesting, and can only be seen in the film. Just to give an example, there is a kind of magic box, where a person disappears when kept in it. Wasiq Khan’s team came …

sorry guys could not click the “prayogshala” nor “john”..nor “paresh rawal”[sala vasan to pir kiya kya????]……anyways a few which i managed. this does have the Narnia guy too. there is a poster i designed too. hopetodo better job if there is a next time.

I hate the past. But I still cannot help looking back. Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar is perhaps the most bittersweet experience of my life. A film whose highs and lows began way before it even started.

Sometime in August 1997 music baron Gulshan Kumar was brutally killed by unidentified assailants. There were many unsuccessful attempts on film personalities before this and it was a fearful time. Dreaded gangsters and ‘eminent’ film personalities were named in many conspiracy theories that followed this shocking murder. But who were the guys that finally pulled the trigger? What were their compulsions? What was their motive? These questions kept plaguing me as I tried to visualize the murder.

I think of myself as a voyeur pretending to be a film-maker. I love making films about internal conflict arising out of shocking tales that one reads in newspapers. I love all the agony aunt columns because they …

Along with Indian movies, Argentinian ones are my favourite at the moment. Completely different from each other, I know, but maybe that is what makes it more attractive and balanced, watching such different kind of cinema.

What I like about Argentinian films is their simplicity, the natural way in which the actors perform and the mixture of moving and emotive scenes with funny ones. Everything seems just like real life - there’s no happiness without pain and vice versa. Great sense of humour, Argentinians have. Another thing I admire them for is their ability to make a great piece of work on a small budget.

Derecho de familia (Family Law) is one of those simple stories that will touch your heart and at the same time will make you laugh. Awarded several prizes during last edition of Mar del Plata Film Festival, Derecho de …

If I Had My Way …

If I Had My Way, plays would have an expiry date labelled on their foreheads.
If I Had My Way, I would put a cd player in the tummy of each and every actor, and I would permit him or her to talk, only, after pressing the ON button.
If I Had My Way, I would have a two-minute silence before every show in order to express my sympathy with the impoverishment of art in India.
If I Had My Way, I would ask of Lorca, why does he discomfit his reader? Almost all his characters live in the presence of death.
If I Had My Way, all playwrights would be gifted with a dog called Audience, who would hear out first drafts, and wag his tail when thrilled or bark in displeasure.
If I Had My Way, I would ban floral tributes in the theatre since flowers have …

OK I know that this is very predictable and clichéd but let me do it….

Its that time of the year when we look back and look ahead. There are no doubts about this year being one of the happiest for the industry in terms of commercial success. Hits were galore, and the cash registers kept ringing Friday after Friday. Whatever came our way we took it to the top and no one was complaining much. ….ohh I feel like throwing up!

I saw some 2 hours of songs from the upcoming releases and from what I saw it looks like a good year ahead.

Guru is looking better now. The promos hint at a depth and detailing, there are well worked sequences dances looks frames and moments. Madhavan and Mithun look promising, the added songs have add more flavor to the goings on. This one looks like …

I wasn’t going to post on this film, but after Cliff shared the tragedy of taking his family to see Happy Feet, I thought I would review another Hollywood “family” feature, one that is truly a entertaining, family film.

First, forget Leonardo DiCaprio, Forest Whitaker, Will Smith, or any of the other names being mentioned for Best Actor in next year’s Oscar race. The award goes, hands down, to the pigs that played Wilbur in Charlotte’s Web. Especially the one who won “the award”. With one look of his big, black eyes, he made me smile and cry more than any human actor did this entire year.

If you are not familiar with the story of Charlotte’s Web, it is a classic children’s book by E.B. White about a girl who saves the runt of a pig litter, who she names Wilbur, to raise as her own. She is …

“This film has three colors….black …white and shit”……this is what Anurag replied to an actor who was playing a nurse who said the film has black and white…2 colors. I was just eavesdropping shamelessly and have no idea in what context it was but that was just what it was at the No-Smoking shoot at Mukesh Mills, Colaba. Intriguing, wacky, puzzling….and everything else we would like to associate with the magic of cinema and Anurag Kashyap.

As soon as I entered I read the by now famous sign. “No-Smoking in set, Rs.500 fine”. I did not have that kind of money with me and had not got my stock as well. But I will never regret the decision, I borrowed one for he king himself. That was one holy drag I had from Anurag. Thanks…..it never felt so good before.

Back to business. Today was the all important shoot …

Friends!

I don’t think i’ve done such appalling photography ever in my life. Have been resisting from posting these online, but PFC are a determined lot. See, as i posted earlier, i landed at the No Smoking shoot only with the intention of getting a feel of the shooting, milieu and of course to observe AK at work.

Capturing images was incidental…never thought i would be posting anything here ..not even the experience…

So do excuse the terrible pic. quality - exposure, contrast, levels — all wrong.

good thing is, i like my photography unhearsed, candid and raw .. one day when i make my film i want my doP to have lots of work to do. ok.i’ll stop dreaming now…lot of hardwork to do in life…

Hope to post more..when i have work and a decent internet connection — or sooner…who knows.

…

I love short films. They’re perfect for when you’re in the mood to watch a film but don’t have the time. Hell, I even try to catch a couple here and there during the day at work. Sadly, the market for short films is just not there with the masses. Unless a Darna Mana Hai or Darna Zaroori Hai comes along with Ramu’s banner behind it, the audience won’t care much for it. But that’s just another reason I’m obsessed with Ramu :) I digress. This is not a post about Ramu.. calm down striker…

Short films can be just as challenging to make as a feature film, if not more. Feature films have a 2hr (or more) luxury time in which to captivate the audience. In some cases, even if the first half isn’t good, the second half can make up …

You wanted low budget, commercial movies?-Prem Naseer doled out 100’s of them, over 700 to give a ballpark figure. Cine Goers loved him, especially women who loved the tear jerker family dramas he acted in with Sheela, Sharada and Jayabharati.

If Sathyan was the upper-crust elitist’s accomplished actor, Prem Naseer was everybody’s hero, a true blue collar working class actor, who tirelessly churned out movies after movies for the rich and poor, the penniless farmers and the handrikshaw pullers, the coolies at the railway station and the expatriate malayalees, like my parents who moved to northern part of India looking for work and a better life. He romanced the heroines, beat up the bad guys, played the unemployed union activist, dedicated son and rich spoiled brat with a soft heart, with equal aplomb.

He made a good team with Adoor Bhasi as the comedic sidekick. As a lead pair, Sheela …

Alfonso Cuarón achieves a rare and deeply satisfying balance between form and content with Children of Men, a tale set in a dystopian future (2027, we are told) plagued by infertility and hurtling to doom as people and lands are devastated by war, civil and political breakdown and terrorism. We are in the London of the future. The urban landscape is bleak, polluted, filthy and shrouded by depression and gloom. Despite this being years into the future, the vehicles don’t look futuristic at all, but merely aged versions of their current selves — double-decker buses look just as dusty and mundane; only advertising seems to have made big strides: billboards and bus signs are now animated. One of the advertising spots running even informs us that The world has collapsed; only Britain strives on. A nationalist government is aided by a brutal police force and all …

Both made by Mani Ratnam. Ayutha Ezhuthu - the Tamil version was made first, I guess… after which Ratnam started work on Yuva.

Watched Ayuthha Ezhutha with English sub titles (courtesy: striker’s info about iTalkies.com and Kartik’s pushing me to watch Ayutha Ezhuthu was driving me to the point of insanity)

Since the notes I made while watching Ayuthha Ezhutha are at home and I’m at work amidst a shit load of lose papers, cold, cough, a mild fever and fuck-all feeling to call it a day, drive home and call it a day… there may be few elements in my notes that I may miss it here. Not to mention that this will be a very short one.

First things first. Yuva and Ayuthha Ezhutha stay same for most of the part… frame to frame. It’s what the individual actors bring to the table that gets noticed almost instantly.

Starting with …

You take…
The most charismatic directors of Hindi cinema a.k.a. KARAN JOHAR
                             +
Add to that the most famous bolly star ever…the legend of Indian Cinema i.e. AMITABH BACHCHAN
                             +
Most famous bolly star of current generation (and the only one to match Snr.AB Charisma) i.e.SRK
                             +
The hottest actors among the current crop of actors and the most eligible bachelor in India i.e. ABHISHEK BACHCHAN
                             +
The current best actress of B town…i.e. RANI MUKHERJEE
                             +
The current second best actress of B town…i.e. PREITI ZINTA
                             +
                        40 CRORES
                             +
The best locales of one of the best cities in the world  i.e. NEW YORK

                             =
   
A 3.5 hr un interesting ,insipid non tolerant tearjerker (all fake tears mind you!!!) DUD called KABHIE ALVIDA NAA KEHNAA. (Alvida it is from my side).
*******************************************************************************************************

Now you take…

Most famous bolly start of current generation “I AM THE KING (Khan)” which he proudly says.
                                  +
           One of the hottest actress of B …

AM NOT THE ONE WHO’S SO FAR AWAY WHEN I FEEL THE SNAKEBITE ENTER MY VEIN. NEVER DID I WANNA BE HERE AGAIN AND I DONT REMEMEBER WHY I CAME……. AM BREATHING…..FEELING….AM COMING BACK AGAIN…..VODOOO….VODOOOO……I NEED SERENITY AT A PLACE WHERE I CANT HIDE

thank you Godsmack

Motherfucker seperate the seeds from the leaves…..I need a hit…..Shit the inhaler is gone black with the residue……Fuck…get the 2 ltr Pepsi bottle …..cut the bottom half….get a container with water and make a Hydra …real quick….i wanna complete Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle when i still am High……

A laugh riot erupts….A laugh riot erupts whenever the screen in not black or in static mode…Holy Fuck….was the director high when he made the movie….motherfucking son of a bitch…was the writer high when he wrote the …

Not all kids are the same.Never.Some are dumb,some are bright,some naughty and some simply devils! Now the big dads of Hollywood, running the studios are surely baffled when disobedient , wicked and rotten kids like the Coen brothers,Charlie Kaufman,Wes Anderson and Tarantino come up with their scripts. Not only are these scripts devoid of the conventional thrills and frills which define commercial American films, but in a way rebellious of the cliches existing in them. While Kaufman’s ‘Adaptation’ spoofs Hollywood screenwriting and it’s norms, Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ is a wicked take off on all the mafia films portraying stereotypical gangsters. ‘Kill Bill’ is a never seen before homage to Kung Fu films and ‘Being John Malkovich’ is probably the best blend of fact,fiction,fantasy and emotions in recent times employed to bring about a theme which is as real as ever. But real and Hollywood? Isn’t Hollywood all about larger than …

I am not that familiar with (history of) Indian Television (shows), however, I want to write about sitcoms on our Indian Television. That is because, I believe, sitcom is one of the hardest form to direct and make it success. So I just want to give a bit of limelight to those kind of shows. And I love this kind of art; I (sort of) have been grown up with watching all British, American and Indian sitcoms. I am not going to compare it, though. I will just (briefly) take you through some of my favorite Indian sitcoms.

“Dekh Bhai Dekh” - you have to start with this sictom; it is a classic! It was first aired on Doordarshan in year 1993 and then, the sitcom has done a lot re-runs on both Doordarshan and SET (Sony). “Dekh Bhai Dekh” was produced by Jaya Bachchan and a lot of filmi …

As we watch the films of today, it is great to take a moment and think about where this medium has evolved from.

In the 1890s, the Lumiere brothers were hard at work to make a motion picture camera. Their father was a photographer and working for him, the men were introduced to the medium and the materials. These are the guys who invented the sprocket hole – the holes on the side of the filmstrip that is used by the camera to advance the film across the lens.

The motion picture camera (cinématographe) was patented on 13 February 1895. On the 19th of March, 1895, the Lumiere brothers shot the first film – people coming out of the Lumiere factory. I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but all they were trying to do is capture motion on film and it was this first step that helped establish the …

It took two days to erect larger than life sets on a beach in front of a bungalow in secluded Madh Island. The call time was 7:00pm and went on till the sunrise. It was an elite party set. It required tons of light to illuminate it. Even the coconut trees in the background were lit separately. 30-40 junior artists were called to represent socialites. As the night grew it became chilly. Pavan, Hiroo and other people had come prepared with fleece and jackets. Check out the pics. The actresses were given Shawls.

Some new thing I learned on the setsJ How would the lights show up, when the negatives are developed? How can you judge it during night scenes? Any guesses? I knew that at 24 frames per sec, the exposure time is 1/60th of a sec. May be I could write a separate …

Sometime back in one of the interviews Ram Gopal Verma said that he wanted to run a film magazine/trade guide. I feel, now its the right time for him to do so. If you have been following all those news about RamGopal Verma ke Sholay then you must have realised how every 15 days there is some bit of info about the film. First the casting news, then new Gabbar’s new look, the new Basanti and her autorickshaw, Mohit Ahlawat being kicked out of the film, the new Jai and the recent one is Jai and Veeru’s new look. And am sure more will follow soon….just keep on counting 15 days.
Also, because the curiousity factor for this Sholay is much bigger, the producers are making sure that everything slowly passes on to the audience. New stills of the film are being released every 15 days. The strategy, that is exactly …