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It was december 1999 that i passed out from Jamia Millia Islamia, within no time being a mass communication student and that too from a reputed institution like jamia, it was not too haerd to finad a job for myself. Though lookintg back, i think that i would have as well started directing instead of working as an AD for the last seven years. But there was a greed and hunger to perfect the skill before i ventured on my own, though even as an AD i think i have learnt a lot in terms of direction. The work experience never goes waste. All thanks to Umesh Padalkar my first director whom i assisted on a serial called ‘kagaar’ that was aired on Sahara Channel, later on of course i cannot stop but mention the directors under whom i was groomed and trained as an assistant director, and they are …

Popular Cinema

I personally think that most film makers in India are children and most films in India are childrens’ film and rather bad childrens’ films. Their notion of love is that of a fourteen year old. In all popular entertainment the notion of life is going retarded.

It’s an illusion which you make people buy into and you get rather hurt when they realize life is not like that. There’s very little difference between selling a fake notion of life and selling a fake product. It’s like advertising. You fall in love and you live happily ever after, is as stupid a notion as you use a fairness cream and you become fair. All are very idiotic notions, sold to the naive and people make a lot of money out of that.

If everything is about profit in its most crass sense and if the world is to be like that – …

AR Rahman finally releases a music video, something that was long awaited. This song, which was actually released as a single through a mobile phone company, was composed two years ago. Bharatbala, of Maa Tujhe Salaam fame, directs this video with an international crew. This is a fine example of how quality video-making can elevate a song from the stature of great to memorable. The video has started doing rounds of the music channels, and the music should be out too very soon.

Here is a little dekko at the video:

A Western vertical frame opens up this slick video in a street smart genre, with rappers and rockers doing what they are good at, with spliced in images of compassionate faces and people all around. The good part is that apart from all of the stereotypes, the song scores, because it has that Rahman feel to it …

Hi Folks,

 Wanted to announce this first in PFC (written, verbal is already announced)- SAAFA is presenting the inaugural Short and Doc Indo Pak, film series, on Friday, March 30, 2007 (from 5 pm onwards), in the beautiful Southern California city of Long Beach (the city with the largest number of scriptwriters and the Queen Mary).

Along with the showcase of choice short films and docs from India and Pakistan, we will also have on hand the folks in Filmaka. As a group we don’t believe in idealistic “bak bak.” We are all about “show me the money…rokta nahin to kuch nahin boss.” This is where Filmaka comes in www.filmaka.com The company formed by filmmakers and producers (Deepak Nayaar, Mahesh Mathai, Colin Firth amongst others) actually selects, from the short filmmakers, that in whom they see a lot of potential and pretty much gives them all the breaks required to make …

For any artist (actor, musician, filmmaker, or anyone for that matter) in the film industry, one of the most important things for them is to recognize the industry they work in, and to have a basic understanding of the demographic they cater to. Those that understand this simple fact, do go a long way - one of the few reasons I admire Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan as true professionals and experts in their field, who truly know how to tap the nerve of their awaiting audiences and recognize their pulses. This basic understanding should not change with independent artists of any kind either. Which is why I like to mix up my Netflix queue with independent films from time to time. But one I had heard way too much about and didn’t get a chance to watch until very recently finally got the best of …

Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB) had made a film Khamoshi where Nana Patekar and Seema Biswas had played mute couple but that film tasted no commercial success. Wounded ego of a creative director like SLB was waiting to hit back and after earning name and money from HDDCS and Devdas, he became again ready to repeat his experiment on a far bigger level and brought us Black. This time not only deaf or dumb or both, he dealt with a character, deaf and blind. How you would teach a child who couldn’t listen or see. Two obvious senses to learn something in a defined manner, are listening and/or seeing and rest remain, touch, smell and taste, but with these, sufferer can feel something but cant express anything what s/he has felt.

Black is based on the story of Helen keller, who was deaf and blind. Hollywood had already made film …

Had been to a place called Mohamed Ali road in Mumbai which you encounter en route to VT. We all know it’s the place to be for the firni and aflatoon. Happened to be there on a Friday and my friend took to a ritual there every Friday. The Jumma Bazar. I never trusted him when he told me there were Bose speakers and Sony 29 inch TV and Laptops and Rolex for sale on the footpath.

I had my Digicam with me which affords me to take around 6-7 minutes of video. Tried to put them together.

This is especially for those who have been away from India for long and for those new to Mumbai who have never been to these places. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVAXGmtSiAs

[youtube]FVAXGmtSiAs[/youtube]

About Books Being Banished

Recently Mumbai hosted an International Literature Fest. Writers from India and 10 other countries spoke about books.

It seemed like a continuation of themes that has been previously explored in the dark ages. Writers being prosecuted. Books being banished. But much more scary, is the slow and insidious nature of the author being co-opted by forces of intolerance.

The book along with its creator is being seduced. Things are no longer in the hands of the inventor. You may remember that bit of Woody Allen stand-up, where he went to see THE DYING SWAN and the audience were in a state of acute anxiety because book-makers from upstate New York had put money on the swan to live. Something similar was transpiring at Aurangabad. There was bombastic rhetorics. Proclamations made that art is eternal. And the book will survive, after all, politics or no politics.

Years ago, …

It was around twelve noon that i was working on that script evolving the mystery woman, the writer has just reached her office, he was visiting there for the first time that my cell phone blinked thus forcing me to get out of my chair and viewing the message. ” First screening for Big B and the crew at yash raj at nine pm”, the message was from sheel. I was so excited to read that, as i too was going to see the print as i had been missing from the mixing scene for the last four five days.

Immediately, i stopped working on my script, replied to sheel that boss will be there. I had loads of time so i decided to catch up with some friends before i went for the screenings. I tried calling Ashima, wrote a feww scraps to kops and other friends, had my …

A few Kingfishers later, I was in a state of mind where I could pretty much enjoy any movie. Or at least that’s what I thought. I was hopeful that a Farhan Akhtar production couldn’t be half bad. I should have listened to that inner voice that warned me about how the films coming out of his production house have only got progressively worse. It was a Saturday night and there I was, just a couple of miles away from the theater. So I figured, “Kya yaar? Dekh hi lete hain”.

Quirky and subtlely funny Anurag Kashyap dialogs incited a few chuckles as Reema Kagti breezily introduced her characters. Ten more minutes in, and I realized I really didn’t care for these people. I found myself focusing on the ensemble of amazingly talented actors, reminiscing about all their great prior performances. Shabana Azmi, Boman Irani, Kay …

Hi Folks,

Had the good fortune of watching the Oscar’s in the SAAFA Co-Founder’s Projector, where the screen was the entire length and bredth of the war and in keeping with the ‘Green’ mood, only vegetarian food was served and wine was allowed, beer and other alcohol was not (just fine with me since I drink one glass of wine per by weekly period). The obvious advantage of the Projector was that one could see all the plastic surgery that goes on in Hollyland.

So here is the report (not an objective one by any stretch)

COngratulations go to Mexico. A country that dominated the Oscar’s, right from the brilliant filmmakers (yes plaural) to the technicians, to the artists…amazing effort guys keep it up. I am always for the underdog and when you have three directors in the running in the SAME year, it makes us as viewers root for you….and no it …

Sam’s Oscar Report

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 - Hollywood
I had fully intended not to attend, watch, or even think about,
the Academy Awards tonight. I have important stuff to do, movies
I’m preparing, a major book revision I’m racing down to the end
of the finish line. That is what I’m paid for, what I should be
paying attention to.

So, no Oscars for me in 2007. I had announced as much on my
blog, but…so many people wrote from all over, and called and
emailed, saying in effect, “I always read your Oscar Report. I
expect it, I demand it. Sam you have to write one this year.”

Apparently, the Force has a strong effect on the weak-minded, or
at least somebody as weak-minded and distracted as I am today.

So here I am again, and it’s…

SAM’S 2007 OSCAR REPORT - PREDICTION EDITION

Hello!

Sam Longoria here, your Oscar reporter.

First, and foremost, I won’t be there tonight. Not in person,
not by satellite. Not …

K Balachander made three hindi films with Kamal Hasan, Ek Duje ke liye (1981-82), Zara see Zindagi (1983) and Ek Nayee Pahelee (1984) and all the three films are wonderful films and they cover three different social stories. Though love is the common factor between Ek Duje ke liye and Ek Nayee Pahelee but these two films are very different from each other.
Ek Nayee Pahelee deals with lovers of different age but there is no Lolita connection here. When Nishabda is going to be released it would not be irrelevant to discuss about this old film, Ek Nayee Pahelee. Because Hindi films have dealt before also with the love equation between chracters of different age. On one side it deals with generation gap between father and son and mother and daughter but on the other hand same characters start loving characters of different age and here they don’t see …

……thank u, thank u guys. M really honoured with this award. Filmfare means a lot. And i would like to dedicate this one to…no, not dedicate anymore but this time…..i think the more deserving actor in this category is Siddharath for Rang De Basanti. So,I would like to give this award to Siddharth. Come here Siddharth. And if you dont believe me, check out the nominations for Best Actor in Supporting Role category….me n dad for KANK, john abraham for babul, kunal kapoor and siddharth for Rang De Basanti. Am i not rite ?

Ah…if only. If only somebody can teach “art of giving” now. Enough of “art of living”. But since m not junior AB, its just a passing thought.

I know, i know…the discussion can go on and on. Because we all know the truth. Its Filmfare or FilmUNfare or whatever u want to call it. Who should win and …

What all was wrong with the 52nd Filmfare Awards?

Kangana Ranaut getting the Face of the Year takes the cake for me.

You know guys, we are a star-starved society, we crave for icons…and Hrithik Roshan with his gymn-toned body and chiselled looks is the perfect candidate for the title…at least for the unhappy millions for whom movies are a way of getting away from daily drudgery. So Hrithik did not get the award (Best Actor) for his performance (or should I say non-performance) in Dhoom 2 (such a bad film, it was funny to see it getting nominated). The man got the award precisely because we are slaves of the star-system in Bollywood and will do everything to keep things the way they are. So year after year, the Roshans, the Bachchans and the Kapoors will keep getting undeserved awards.

Though Fanaa was a crappy film, Kajol’s performance was …

The 52nd Filmfare Awards ended with much and mush (read: the Bachchan parivar milan) aplomb. However, the awards nominations and most of the results were a sheer disappointment (at least, to me). For the ceremony that was once considered even prestigious than the coveted National Awards, Filmfare is now reduced to a poor shadow of its glorious past.

For once the stage graced filmmakers like Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, actors like Dilip Kumar, Balraj Shani and actresses like Meena Kumari and Nutan. There were films like Do Beegha Zameen, Anand and Chakra. Now they have given way to duds like Fanaa, Krissh and Dhoom 2.

Undoubtedly, the above mentioned films might be stylish, slick and blockbusters but no sane cinema lover will consider them classics which should vie for the celebrated Filmfare Awards.

Hrithik Roshan looked well, fought well and danced well in Dhoom 2. But give me one scene from the film …

Thanks to the rave viewing the previous short film made by Codered films got, Gajraj Rao forwarded me the National Anthem film, that he and his team had made sometime back. I think most of you might have seen the video. Nevertheless, multiple viewings are always guranteed for a well made and patriotic film !!!

It has the same cobbler (the caretaker of the hostel in the previous film) and I think I also saw Pankaj Jha (Black Friday-Tu tameez sey baat karega Badhshah) and Mona Ambigaeonkar (Where is she these days ??)

[youtube]7sn40JvmglE[/youtube]

A big Thank you to the team of Codered films

P.S : Gajju bhayya seems to be really fascinated with water (be it in the holi film or rain here)

Bachchan says that there is nothing physical in Nishabd and if there would have been any sexual angle in the movie ,he would have not done the film.
I have no qualms in what Bachchan thinks…I mean an icon like Bachchan in a country like India has to take care of his image (especially after the flak he received post BOOM).
But if that is the case , RGV has a tough film in his hand…I mean Bachchan says Nishabd dealt with the physology of the 60 year old man who is attracted to an 18 year old girl…dont know what kind of psychology/attraction he is talking about , but the trailers show an entirely different picture.
Imagine this:
- The heroine of the movie (Jiah) is in minimal clothes (all WET and SULTRY)…giving all the seductive poses/expressions to Bachchan (or is it for the audience???).
- Notice Bachchan’s awestruck (seems to be lustfull) expressions …

the editorial in today’s edition of the Times of India lauds modernity for being able to open itself up for ridicule and criticism. despite attacks on the very soul of modernity over the years, the churning has gone on and never stopped. every creation of the human universe puts itself up for praise and ridicule at the same time. should it be different for cinema? it is not. art that does not elicit a response is not art at all. a film without the characteristic ayes and nays is nothing short of dead wood. but cinema is not dead wood and hence there are reactions in favour of or against films.

stories are often ripped apart by critiques who pose difficult questions to the filmmaker wanting him/her to respond. the cast is sometimes at the recieving end of even greater comment. but natural considering that the Bombay film industry does …

GENERATION NOW

A few months back there was a screenwriting conference at the FTII, where there was a lot of bullshitting going on. Even some of the people there had no idea about writing and had written some terrible scripts. Today, the problem is that people theorize too much. They think they have become events, before they have actually become events. Before you know it, people are masters and actually when they talk they are writing Oscar speeches and they seemed not confused at all and they seemed to know everything.

And I find that stunning about some of the younger people. There is more conversation than an attempt to hone talent. Of course, there are exceptions too, like Anurag Kashyap, for example.

Often, I find a lot of the young film makers of today and the young people of today, like the intellectual bull-shitters of the 1960s …