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“I have not seen a single Guru Dutt film!!!!“. As Somen, Kartik and me heard these words we almost had a Zombi moment….I could hear Guru Dutt screaming loud and clear in my ears….. “jaladoo…issee…..phoonk dalo..yeh duniyaa….”. But then that’s how he is frank, chilled out …he is passionate about his film…he does admit Oliver Stone is like his “Khuda” but in the same breath admits he is not too much into cinema viewing…he has a simple philosophy try and make a film to know how to make a film….no amount of viewing will help you unless you make one”…Words of wisdom poured over on this rather rain drenched night at Vile Parle. We are at the shoot of Nishikant’s “Mumbai Meri Jaan”.

Have been hearing about him since long and after he met the US PFC junta at IFFLA earlier this year we too were eager to meet him. As …

 So, Himesh Reshammiya’s eerily (and numerologically) titled debut acting vehicle Aap Kaa Surroor: The Moviee-The Real Luv Story finally released yesterday- and he, along with director Prashant Chaddha and most importantly- producer Vijay Taneja must be anxiously hoping for the moviee’s success, with umpteen crores of rupees riding precariously on the infamous nose of the composer-turned-singer-turned-actor. After all, Himeshbhai even hilariously turned up in a burqa at the Ajmer Sharif to pray for the film, much to my endless amusement- it wasn’t exactly a pretty sight, you see.  In fact, Himeshbhai even requested the Deols to kindly shift the release of their family drama Apne, to make space for his own release. They refused, and Himeshbhai had to contend only by saying graciously that he has …

Bombay’s first theatre was called the Bombay Amateur Theatre, it came to existence in 1776. During the days of the old Bombay Gujarati, Parsi and Urdu plays, there was a phenomenon of the times; an long tin board in front of the rows of the pit class which would be stamped on by the audience to create a din, this was the audience’s way of demanding an encore.

Bangwadi
the famous theatre off Princess
Street incorporated dwellings of performers and a company kitchen. The atmosphere was of a labyrinth of lanes leading up to the auditorium. Then there were soft sounds of music, theatre books for sale. All this added to the experience of seeing a play.

Some of Mumbai’s, grand old theatres like the Royal …

It had every sign of the lugubrious epic bore- the weep- as - though- there’s- no- tomorrow sentimentality of Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Ghum, Veer-Zaara’a annoyingly wholesome Punjabi fixation, the ear-splitting jingoism of Gadar, a terrible Himesh Reshamiya soundtrack lacking even that primitive jhankaar, an aging icon long faded and last seen being awkwardly amorous with Nafisa Ali and his two sons- one with obtuse hips, prosthetic hair and an obnoxious autorickshaw horn for a voicebox and other- blonde and more or less inconsequential- a shameless casting gimmick and add to that- Kirron ‘I’m-the-face-of-post-menopausal-Punjabi-kuddis’ Kher and Shilpa Shetty still plastic since her reality TV sojourns and Katrina Kaif with the screen presence of upholstery and then there’s Victor Banerjee, last seen in ‘Tara Rum Pum Pum Pumzzzzzzzzzzz’. What horror could Anil Sharma and his firm belief in loud vocal pyrotechnics possibly concoct out of this tasteless smorgasbord? Would the Deols conspire …

Dharmendra is returning in a big way with this film. With him, director Anil Sharma has given four hit films namely Hukumat, Elan-E-Jung, Farishte and Tehelka. Anil Sharma has also made Gadar- Ek Prem Katha like super duper hit film and a avergae hit Hero-Love story of a spy, with Sunny Deol and he has made Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Sathiyon with Bobby Deol also. This time he has gathered all the three Deols in his next film “Apne”. This can be Sunny and Bobby Deol’s efforts to make a film where their father, Dharmendra’s skills are utilized properly.

* * * *
Nana Patekar once said in his one of the interview, while talking about reality touch in the acting, that How Sunny Deol can know about what is hunger?

Both Sunny and Nana have been good actors in their own manners. Its quite possible that an …

When Apne go to make a movie with a backdrop of world boxing title at stake–first for redemption and then for revenge,you know you have exposed yourself to blows and bhaashanbaazi by not some ETs but your own Apne.

When Apne start talking nonsense in English and then switchover to Hindi to make some sense and Sunny Deol says Aa saale tujhe yahin gaarh doonga, you wonder whether its an arena or an akhaara.

When Apne in the boxing ring mouth more gaalis than land ghusaas at each other and a reigning world champion some Luca Garcia mouths I F*** you, and Sunny Deol echoes it to the tee and when the champion raises the bar a notch and shouts you motherf***** and Sunny gives him back a mouthful of motherf***** you dont wonder anymore –you simply feel f*****.

When Apne Dharam Paaji with his …

DOORDARSHAN- DOWN MEMORY LANE

Yes, I know this site is for cinema only, but Doordarshan is the birth place of some of the today’s successful personalities of Indian cinema so … Let myself be 10 years old and get back to late 80s and early 90s- the era of Doordarshan. The one and only daily entertainment dose of every Indian.
Let’s check out some goods and bads of Doordarshan and our memory power.

Most of the serials were of 13 episodes and so people were associated with character for 2-3 months and it made more concentrated and sensible serials.

- Ramayan and Mahabharat- how can we mention doordarshan without Ramayan and Mahabharat? Literally there was Curfew like situation on Sunday mornings when these two epics were telecasted. These serials made life of Arun Govil (Ram), Mukesh Khanna (Bhisma), Punit issar (duryodhan), Rupa Ganguli (Draupadi) , Dipilka(Sita) etc.. Though technically poor, these two serials …

Recently saw two movies. somehow similar. dont move and talk to her. one spanish, the other italian.

am not big fan of those hi-fi, sci-fi, mind-blowing, mind-fucking movies. just give me a good story. human drama where characters involve me in such a way that i just want to listen to them, be part of their stories for next 2hours. these two films turn about to be the same. there is no joy like discovering a good movie. And if its during the weekend, you cant ask for more.

Talk to her. Its Hable con ella in spanish by pedro almodovar. to be honest, whatever i have seen, m not big fan of his films. in my dictionary, i call them “kinky” films. m big follower of all kind of kinky movies but dont connect with them always. may be its the stories or those settings or the problems that his characters …

(reconstructed from bits on my mind and pages of a scratchpad from a film appreciation workshop I recently attended)

It has been 3 days since the workshop got over and I got stuck yet again in the mundane inanities of credit card debit card salary reimbursements short of funds broke and the works. But I rewind to Friday and see this cloudy morning when I am lost somewhere asking for IISC, where the Film Appreciation workshop was happening. To my great less-sleep-getting-late morning luck, I didn’t get any help from anyone, and was pretty much lost in mind as in ways. Things kept getting worse- I was running on the streets like some family-drama trouble-stricken protagonist asking random people, “ye IISC kahaan hain, koi to bataao…ai bhaai …ye IISC kahaan hai ….”

The IISC campus was another Crystal Maze, like those IIT forests (I call them forests because colleges or the ones …

Gajraj Rao…

His filmography reads like a dream run for any actor, having worked with only the best names in the business. Shekhar Kapoor’s Bandit Queen, Mani Rathnam’s Dil Se, Hansal Mehta’s Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar and Chhal, Rakesh Omprakash Mehra’s Aks, Sudhir Mishra’s Hazaaron Khwaishen Aisi, Shoojit Sarcar’s Yahaan and Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday and No Smoking. Wow! How could we miss a man who has such an amazing filmography?

His short film “Hostel (Holi)” won the Bronze Lion at Cannes (there’s no Gold Lion or Silver Lion award this year for this category… ). The response at Cannes has been overwhelming. Bob Scarpelli, this year’s Jury President of Cannes Festival, has this to say about ‘Hostel’ (Source: Agencyfaqs)…

Honestly, when we screened this film, we were touched. The film was full of emotions, and also had a surprise element in it. One takes a little time to discover …

On 68th birth anniversary of RD Burman ;-

Dada Moni, Ashok Kumar or SD Burman himself made a historical mistake when either of them gave a nickname “Pancham” to RD Burman. RD was master of Saat Sur and he should have been given name “Saptam”. There is no second RD Burman. He was a master piece a gem in the field of music.
He was generationless music composer. Audience belonging to any age and era can enjoy his music. On one hand he created the music which could represent the those days generation and on other hand he carried whole generation to the height of music. He defeated everyone in terms of versatility. He was Kishor Kumar in that sense. RD’s predecessors took care of purity and many remained devoted to Indian classical music and instruments only. RD did not feel any hitch in using his knowledge of western classical and Jazz. …

“Film-making!- Most over-rated profession of the world”- said a person who has been in the industry for more than 30 years, who has directed over 50 films and has retired from direction sometime back. Whose energy and passion for films and story-telling is so high, I wont be surprised if he talks from his grave . Also the only two words that can best describe his head-stone would be- “Action, Cut it”
However coming back to what he said…is it true?
For I believe it is. And I’ve hence wondered why it is so? May be you’ll be able to help me with the answer…or a variety of answers to conclude an answer from!
What is it about filmmaking that gives us a superlative feeling for it definitely does! Is it because we play god- the writer pens the life of his characters- the director gives it shape and form and the …

Okkadu - Gilli - Ajay

Besides the same story, these three movies had two more things in common.

1. They were THE box-office hits of the year, in the respective languages - Telugu, Tamil, Kannada.

2. The role of the anti-hero, in all the three languages, had to be essayed by the same person.

Obul Reddy, the Kurnool factionist

Muthupandi, the Madurai sandiyar

Veerabhadra, the Hubli huccha!!

Three languages, three different accents, one person!

Who is he?

Manirathnam chose him to portray Selvam (Kalaingar’s alter ego),
against Mohan Lal’s Anandan (Thaliavar’s doppelgänger) in his Iruvar (the duo).

Rajkumar Santoshi, it is said, wanted him to play Ravana, against Ajay Devgan’s Rama, in his Ramayan.

Who is he?

As a struggling stage artist, he was used to going without food for several days - he once lived without food for three days, only having a few cups of tea and coffee that people shared with …

One of India’s talented cameraman and an upcoming Tamil director, Jeeva died of a massive coronary in Russia, where he was with his crew shooting the film Dhaam Dhoom, under severe weather conditions for the past one month or so. He was 43.

Jeeva began his career in films in 1993 as a cameraman working for the movie Gentleman, which was Shankar’s directional debut. Jeeva himself turned to movie direction in 2001 with 12B which was a rehash of the hollywood movie Sliding Doors. His second movie as a director was Run the hindi remake of the Tamil namesake. Then came the Tamil movie Ullam Kaetkume (the heart asks), which was a coming to age movie. His last movie as a director is Unnaale Unnaale (because of you, because of you) in 2007, which was his biggest hit as a director.

He had worked as a cinematographer for almost …

Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna and Govinda have one thing in common. All the three are members of parliament and have registered their come back in the films in last 6 months.

Dharmendra : He has registered his accomplished work in the history of hindi cinema. He gave successful films belonging to different categories. He was equally good in the role of police officer as he was in the role of a bandit or a thief. He was equally good in comedy as he was in emotional role. He was soft in romantic roles and looked so violent in action packed roles. Not only one of the most handsome male actors of hindi cinema but he remains as one of the most talented actors of the hindi cinema also. Audience (male/female or kids), rushed to see the magic of this “He Man” of hindi cinema. He was so smooth in his …

I finally watched Sivaji on Monday, which is practically blasphemy for a Rajnikanth fan and a serious follower of Tamil cinema. But I think the wait was well worth it, as going to a theatre in the first week would have rendered impossible any attempt to follow the movie or its dialogues.

After seeing the movie though I realised I had done the correct thing by not getting into a frenzy about it. For, though it proves that Rajni is still the boss, Shankar seems to have exhausted all his ideas.

Rajni plays a software systems architect who returns to India to set up a college to provide free education and a hospital where all the patients are to be provided free treatment. But once he sets off on this journey, he realises that the changes that have taken place in the society are only artificial. That though his intentions …

To,

Mr. Anurag Kashyap
Mr. Sudhir Mishra
Mr. Mani Rathnam
Mr. Shyam Benegal
Mr. Govind Nihalani
Mr. Rahul Dholakia
Mr. Tigmanshu Dhulia

and

Mr. Jahnu Barua

Gentlemen,

Through this open letter I take the liberty and the audacity of addressing all of you at one go (I would consider myself immensely fortunate if this is read in context by even one of you greats). Wasting no more of your priceless time, I would attract your attention to a news item in The Hindu dated May 19, 2007:

Another blast rocks Guwahati, 13 hurt

A powerful blast near the Guwahati Central Jail at Fancy Bazaar….injured 13 persons. Fancy Bazar is the business hub of the northeast……Police had to use teargas shells and batons to disperse protesters angry at the failure of the district administration and police officials to prevent the blast. The mob pelted stones at policemen. The blast occurred around …

Last Friday PFC-ites from Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles flew down to HQ. Amidst loads of beer, tea, DVDs they got hold of a camera and went to Guerrilla filming mode to shoot two short films for the heck and fun of it within the HQ. On my return from work on Saturday evening, I found the HQ - my humble hut, had been converted into a studio. The closet was flung open to get characters’ dresses, the kitchen for makeup, all bulbs in the house were now at a weird angle… I guess for lightening effect, I’m still trying to locate my dining table (where are you?), the rose bushes now protrude at some weird contrived angles and for the first time, the quiet HQ was served a notice by the neighborhood for breaking the peace.

QUIET??? Hell no… it was one rocking hell of a place to …

Though “Lost and Found” may trigger off the typical Bollywood formula movies produced so far, this is a Sunday 100 - and hence it the term could be applied to anything.

And hence this week’s Sunday 100 is :

LOST AND FOUND

Make a story of exactly 100 words. Title not required. And if you include a title it will not be included in the word count.

This is an exclusive transcript of a short film that has already been selected for the award in one of just-for-the-heck-0f-it festivals even before the competition section films have been finalised.I know it sounds really paradoxical and contradictory as any Bollywood messed up masalas . But what to do. Thats how the world is. And thats how the script is:
…