Archive for November, 2007

  • WHAT WOMEN WANT [ or why women should make movies ]
    Part Deux. …Apart from a little respect, here goes. The first time I was ever slapped was for singing “ Aaraysu ko boi paaraysu kunnanu……kOkaythukeLindi konDagaali… ” This song is basically a very clothes weary heroine’s ostensible lament ruing her blouse flying away leaving her bereft of raiment with a very eager hero. Despite the breezy tune, All that...
    by Krsn Kavita Kasturi at November 30th, 2007 at 03:11 pm
  • The Script of Chhal
    This week it’s time for Suparn Verma’s script of Chhal, directed by Hansal Mehta. Suparn was gracious enough to email us the script. Please do note that the script is a rough initial draft and may be a different from the final draft that was shot eventually. Hansal has this interesting story about him meeting Suparn for the first time. Rediff was doing this...
    by oz at November 30th, 2007 at 10:11 am
  • My joyride in a Time Machine – Films in 2050 !
    iView Author: Srinivas N (Mumbai, India) Email : srinivasn77[at]gmail.com My joyride in a Time Machine ! Lumiere and his brother would never have imagined the great advances made by the motion picture industry even in their wildest dreams. From Mitchell Cameras to the latest Arri 535’s & Panaflex’s Millennium series apart from the advancements made in...
    by PROJEKT iVIEW at November 30th, 2007 at 02:11 am
  • Character Revelations – Padmarajan and Scorsese..
    There is this quiet passage in Padmarajan’s Thoovanathumbikal, where Jayakrishnan ,the film’s protagonist seats himself, and quips gently to Thangal (a more benign version of the “archetypical pimp” in movies) , “You guys don’t know me. There was this one woman I loved and she left me. If I loose Clara too I would end up ruining myself”.. It...
    by Sreehari. at November 29th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
  • Om Shanti Om – Moolah Peace Moolah
    Choreographer turned director Farah Khan’s first venture Main Hoon Na came out in 2004 and was presented as a tribute to decades of Bollywood cinema. One could watch the film with amusement if one could muster enough forbearance for the director’s very passionate tribute to Bollywood. However, while her first film requested the audience’s indulgence, Farah Khan’s...
    by Padmaja Thakore at November 29th, 2007 at 04:11 pm
  • Murali Nair’s ‘Unni’: A delectable experience
    This Unni could have been named Murali. And why not, as Murali Nair – the one who had debuted with a Cannes Camera d’Or-winning Marana Simhasanam (The Death’s Throne) in 1999 – draws from his own childhood to come up with this delectable mix of innocent storytelling and subtle comments on the societal prejudices as seen through a child’s eyes. Yes, Nair makes...
    by Runumi G at November 29th, 2007 at 05:11 am
  • IN MUMBAI…
    IN MUMBAI Please bare with my knowledge of grammer and tenses. It’s around 5.30 in the morning. I am opening door of my train compartment. Sudden fishy smell captures my nose. The particular Mumbai smell… I have come to Mumbai for an official work. I will spend four whole days in this dream city. Though before this I have visited Mumbai two times but this time I am...
    by Shailesh Limbachiya at November 29th, 2007 at 02:11 am
  • Shah Rukh won but he’s no longer a Baazigar
    iView Author: dabba (New York, USA) Email : withheld Shah Rukh won but he’s no longer a Baazigar Prediction – This post will get me more eyeballs than anything else I have written on PFC. The original title was “Strange Love: Or, How I learned to stop worrying and love SRK,” but I put my Producer hat on, and chose this for obvious reasons. Yet another...
    by PROJEKT iVIEW at November 28th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
  • What happened
    They say your first film will be an unforgettable experience also because of the tremendous vulnerability debutant filmmakers face on their films’ release and sheer lack of means they have to deal with all that may get unleashed. Dil Dosti Etc sauntered out on 28 September, and I felt my tiny apartment in Versova becoming an island, exposed to come what may! As I was...
    by Manish Tiwary at November 28th, 2007 at 02:11 pm
  • Saawariya Blues
    Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya, promised to be a unique love story. What it actually offers is, however, a frustratingly lifeless narrative with affected acting, artificially created emotions, and clichéd scenes & dialogues. There’s nothing distinctive, either positive or negative to make the film unique. Saawariya is the story of a young singer Ranvir Raj...
    by Padmaja Thakore at November 28th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
  • Naal Pennungal (Four Women): He Knows What They Are Talking About
    J’ACCUSE’,(I Accuse) screamed the old man at the audience exuding an impotent violence as he watched both the world and fate swoop down vulture-like on his hardworking, self-sacrificing daughter’s plight. It is a scene of tremendous provocation causing the audience, till then sitting comfortably in the auditorium ‘watching’ Ritwik Ghatak’s classic ballad of...
    by Siddharth Pillai at November 28th, 2007 at 02:11 am
  • Veri in Tamil can be loosely translated as Passion-for/ Obsession-for etc. If this website, PassionForCinema, were to be in Tamil it would be called what i have titled this piece – Cinema Veri. And Cinema Veri can also be translated as Trippy Cinema which ‘Tamil M.A’ totally is. Few films stay with you irrevocably for a particular impact. Like a certain...
    by thani at November 27th, 2007 at 02:11 pm
  • Revisit No Smoking!
    [I thought to start my posting at PFC with a review of No Smoking – Kashyap is a well-known figure here; but also because in a recent post he bemoans how people don’t get his film]. [display_podcast] The protagonist of No Smoking, K (John Abraham, in a namesake role as Franz Kafka’s protagonist in The Trial) is a smoker who refuses to give up. His family and friends...
    by Padmaja Thakore at November 27th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
  • Kurosawa- Intent and Interpretations..
    I was reading this article by Kartik, a very detailed review of Akira Kurosawa’s Ran. It drew to a closure with the following query.. //Why can’t we have a similar adaptation of King Lear in bollywood, given India’s history of kings and sultans??? // At the risk of sounding outlandish, I dont think it works that way. I find that statement to be a lame end to...
    by Sreehari. at November 27th, 2007 at 01:11 am
  • Success is a double-edged sword!
    iView Author: Abhishek Asthana (Hyderabad, India) Email : abhishek.asthana [at] hotmail.com Success is a double-edged sword! Some months back I read the book review of ‘Orson Welles: A Biography’ by Barabara Leaming. I have always known Welles as the creator of the great ‘Mars Attack’ hoax on radio. This article however was focussed on Orson Welles,...
    by PROJEKT iVIEW at November 26th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
  • PFCOne 2007 : The Schedule
    Congratulations to all the participants of the PFCOne Film Festival 2007. Thank you for taking up the challenge to make a one minute movie. Now it’s time to show them to the world. To the judges. And then wait… until December 5th, when the winners will be announced. The festival starts on December 1st, 2007 when the movies are released for viewing on PFC. Day...
    by oz at November 24th, 2007 at 07:11 pm
  • Khamosh Pani
    iView Author: Kapil Varindani (Bombay, India) Email : kapil.varindani [at] gmail.com Khamosh Pani (2003) Recently saw a Pakistani film – ‘Khamosh Pani’ …my first Paki film The story of the film is set in the 70′ies in a small village called Charkhi in Pakistani Punjab…. it revolves around the life of a simple,middle-aged woman, Ayesha[ Kiron...
    by PROJEKT iVIEW at November 24th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
  • Filmmakers, Step Across This Line
    “When you think of what is true of India….the opposite is also true” - John Kenneth Galbraith (progressive economist, liberal and former US ambassador to India) So what’s true of India – a rapidly growing economy, burgeoning affluent middle class and a young vibrant working populace making its mark in a globalized economy? But then as Galbraith had accurately...
    by Subrat at November 23rd, 2007 at 11:11 pm
  • “Duel” in the Sun
    It is said that “Psycho” (1960) gave birth to this new genre called “slasher” flicks. And with slashers was born the concept of the relentless, merciless killing machine, a la Leatherface (From Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Jason Voorhes (from Friday the 13th), Michael Myers (from Halloween), Freddy Krueger (from A Nightmare on Elm Street), to name...
    by Rupak Ghosh at November 23rd, 2007 at 08:11 am
  • The Script of Manorama Six Feet Under
    Thanks to Navdeep, we have the script of Manorama Six Feet Under We produce two versions of the script. One, where the dialogues were written in English. And the second where the dialogues are now in Hindi (written in Roman script). This is more or less the final version of the script though Navdeep does mention that there were some changes mading during the shooting of...
    by oz at November 23rd, 2007 at 08:11 am
  • My First Tryst with Film Making
    iView Author: Gajendra S Shrotriya (Jaipur, India) Email : gshrotriya [at] yahoo.co.in My First Tryst with Film Making Before I even start this write up, I want to sincerely thank my friend Dr. Rahul Tikku who actually sent me the URL of PFC. He himself wanted to be a singer but ended up being a doctor, and knew my interst in film making, thought I would find it interesting....
    by PROJEKT iVIEW at November 22nd, 2007 at 12:11 pm
  • Performance: The Movie That Exploded
    A grenade tossed into the sherry party of English fiction’ - sci-fi messiah J.G. Ballard on William Burroughs’ ‘Naked Lunch’ ‘Maybe we should call Dr. Burroughs’ - Performance (1970) Naked Lunch:———- arch anarchist William Burroughs’ depraved junkie howl from the land of the damned. A miserable soul- senses deranged, displaced, screaming...
    by Siddharth Pillai at November 21st, 2007 at 05:11 am
  • Grace Under Fire–Reviews,Results And Responses
    Between OM SHANTI OM(OSO),SAAWARIYA and NO SMOKING(NS) so much heat has been generated , one feels as if these are also a culprit in adding to Global Warming! This is not about films OM SHANTI OM(OSO), SAAWARIYA & NO SMOKING(NS) per se..This is not about their reviews either..This is about makers of these films..And that too more specifically about the makers of...
    by krysh at November 20th, 2007 at 07:11 am
  • Chak De India : Jaideep Sahni disappoints this time !
    iView Author: FAISAL (Kolkata, India) Email : faisal_k4 [at] yahoo.co.in Chak De India : A Relook I saw Chack De India on the first Sunday of its release. After the show ended I remember walking out of the theatre with no remarkable feelings. For me the film was as lifeless as the promos (which were withdrawn) promised. I did not think about Kabir Khan, nor did I think...
    by PROJEKT iVIEW at November 20th, 2007 at 02:11 am
  • Kukunoor Ki Kahaniyaan……….
    “Am I speaking to Kavita? This is Nagesh Kukunoor. I am making a documentary on Arranged Marriages. Would you be interested in a screen test?” 1997. Hyderabad, India. If I had known anything about film making 10 years ago I would have wondered why Nagesh needed to ‘screen test’ for a documentary!! Being naïve has its benefits; one has a truckload of stories...
    by Krsn Kavita Kasturi at November 19th, 2007 at 05:11 pm
  • My Merry Evenings: A Love-Affair with Cinema
    iView Author: S. Goyal (New Delhi, India) Email : withheld My Merry Evenings: A Love-Affair with Cinema As a graduate student at Columbia University, struggling to finish my doctoral thesis in economics, days and nights were rough going. Seventy hours of non-stop work was commonplace; mind, body and soul were pretty shattered. That is when, one evening, moping around...
    by PROJEKT iVIEW at November 19th, 2007 at 03:11 pm
  • My acting debut, first shorts n now d oscar speech (plz bear)
    Those who can – DO. (And yes…Do be do be do too.) Those who cant – CRITICISE. i have always belonged to the second category. And have been quite vocal too. To admit it honestly, its great fun. No, not because you judge someone’s work and pass a verdict. Because you are excited about that filmmaker’s new film, a new album, a new voice and every...
    by Phoenixnu at November 19th, 2007 at 05:11 am
  • Performances of the Year
    I know I know. The year is not over yet. We still have some big ticket movies coming up but most of the year is out and it could be a good time to take stock, you know like a dress rehearsal. So here are my choices for best acting performances in Bollywood this year-till now. Kareena Kapoor for Jab We Met- Believe me, if someone had told me before I saw this movie that...
    by Anand Bharadwaj at November 18th, 2007 at 07:11 pm
  • …Sure, I see the bigger picture!
    “Look at the bigger picture” …was the only explaination given to me thru’ out the filming of chak de..and thats all i did,day one..till the film released. something within told me”wear the horses’s blind and run on the path”…and one year is a long…….time.. the only girl who landed for the audition with a hockey...
    by Shilpa Shukla at November 18th, 2007 at 04:11 pm
  • Gimme some sugar, I am your Reader
    iView Author: Dabba (New York, USA) Email : withheld Gimme some sugar, I am your Reader Yeh to hona hi tha. The deliciousness of the irony of it all has not been lost on me. I hated to read growing up, and would twiddle my thumbs or sometimes stick it up my arse since it was more fun than listening to my friends discuss Wodehouse or Forsyth or some other nonsense that...
    by PROJEKT iVIEW at November 18th, 2007 at 02:11 pm