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Bollywood is changing..Being the largest single industry that is growing at an estimated rate of 15 percent per annum and India’s economy with a sustained growth of 9-10 percent, is fuelling this growth whereby consumers have high purchasing power and more leisure time to unwind themselves in the armless reclining seats of the multiplexes where if you don’t like the movie , instead of throwing your arms up in disgust you can put it around your partner and have paisa vasool magic moments regardless of the movie..

Indeed the things are changing in Bollywood..And the time tested 5 C’s of cinematography ( a wonderful primer by Joseph V Masscelli, for anyone interested in learning the nitty gritty of filmmaking) has undergone a complete overhaul..The new age Bollywood has retained 5 C’s but with its own twist and tadka..Now if you wanna be a filmmaker, apart from self study through …

Here is a breif abstract of what happend

Thursday May 24:
went to airport around 6:30 as per striker’s request had couple of beers and some mexican food @ houston airport and we talked about which movies are gonna rock and whats going on with PFC, how it was one year back and how its changed and where its going…

both of us were feeling real bad that OM and Vijay aren’t gonna make to this year…but some way striker had this feeling that these two suckers are gonna surprise us and I was like “I wish they would”….

On flight saw “National Treasure : book of secrets” striker sleept thru most of the flight….

Landed in LA got first call from guess who?????…….suprise!! suprise!! its vijay…..both of us were very happy…took bus to rental car and dabba landed around 11:30 PM….finally after struggling for almost an hour …

Folks,
 
Caught a screening of one of the bigger films of 2008, TASHAN, in LA (Fallbrook) this weekend.
 
They say a movie is all about stars (this one had 4)
 
& what now.
 
I laugh loudest when I hear/see arguments over camera angles/techniques/film vs digital/ other technical stuff (cause in the larger scheme it is so immaterial). But this one had all the right technical and flashy stuff. Super production values
 
& what now.
 
They say it is all about marketing. This film was on all the channels, had some prize rushes and trailers on music channels, yahoogroups, print media, online media, etc , etc. Noise was being made
 
& what now.
 
They say, give them gloss and music and you are done. This one had relative gloss
 
& what now.
 
Some yahoogroups and self styled gurus of marketing claim that it is all about controversy. This one started the controversial relationship between Saif and Kareena
 
& what now.
 
They say “they” have …

Talking about Cannes, reminds me of Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar, the Indian film which won the grand prize in the very first year of this film fest in 1946. Recently the film was screened in Mumbai. The print has its own story. A film personality found the print lying with the bhangarwala (junk dealer). He brought it for dirt. I guess there is no other print and doubt even our prestigious film archives have it. The person then telecined it and made a dvd, which was screened at the venue. I missed the screening. But few friends, who saw the film were raving about it. I so very much want to see the film. If anyone has it please let me know! It is ridiculous how poor we are at documenting our gems. Its not so easy to find films of masters our country has produced. The other winners I …

There was an auto-rickshaw strike the other day. The government wants them to change their mechanical fare meters into fancy electronic ones. So the union decided to flex its muscles. Suddenly the streets were empty of thousands of noisy gnats. My car driving friends were very happy they said they should be a permanent ban on them. But the people (like me) who are dependent on them were in a real fix. I saw people on the streets jostling with each other for that rare taxi.
I had this meeting with a big corporate film company. I had to go some faraway place to meet them. I tired in vain to borrow some transport from my friends. So finally, I decided to get a radio Cab (they are quite efficient). I told the driver to take me there and to bring me back.
So I arrived at my meeting on …

NOTE: This post was typed on April 23rd during the Indian Film Festival of LA. Because of server issues I couldn’t post it on time.

I watched my 1st Adoor Gopalkrishnan film last night at IFFLA - FOUR WOMEN. There are two ways about it. One way would be that I would be very objective to just this film without any baggage of his reputation . Another way to look at things would be that I have no idea about his journey as a filmmaker which has lead him to make this film FOUR WOMEN(Naalu Pennungal).
The movie is based on 4 short stories by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai-the Jnanpith award winning Malayalam writer. As the name of the film suggests, the stories deal with differents aspects of four different women’s lives. They are - The Prostitue, …

“Holy Sardine Batman!”
“Precisely Robin.”

Okay, so it’s not the stuff that might get everyone twisted up in a Siamese human knot but to me, it is. You see, as a South Asian actor in the US, when I see the brown man being cast in mainstream roles, it is fucking inspiring. So inspiring in fact, that it deserved an earlier post. So as I squirmed into the line for a preview screening of Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, the smile on my face was akin to that of a girl scout who just sold her 800th cookie box and won the grand prize. The girl scout within me was beaming ear to ear.

That it’s a stoner movie was well known from the first movie and could well make Mainak’s Movies to Watch When Stoned list. That it would get even more mindless, raunchy, vulgar, …

Being an Aquarian, I am guilty of a bad road sense. I don’t know the Sun-sign (or should I say, Tashan-sign?) of debutant director Vijay Krishna Acharya, but let me tell you, this guy gave me a huge ego boost. Think about this - you go from Mumbai to Haridwar, via Ladakh and if that is not enough, you travel from Haridwar to Rajastan via Ladakh again!

I am not quite sure what the word ‘Tashan’ actually stands for. Some say, it means ’style’, according to others, it means ‘attitude’. However, the most apt description was found in the film itself, mouthed by Ibrahim, the real life son of Saif Ali Khan - ‘Bull shit…with a cherry on top’.

So, what is the cherry, one might ask. It is a red convertible which, changes during a seesaw ride that ultimately lands itself into deep water. No, nothing Bond-ish happens. It is just …

The carpet was green instead of red. Cause it’s the Green Earth Day. I look around the Arclight courtyard, the Mecca of movie fanatics in LA, and the buzz has started. The tents are put up. Volunteers trickling in. The short and swift meeting wraps up all that needs to be done. The press has setup their cameras, the opening night tickets shows a Sold Out ticker, I check my laces to make sure I do not trip over someone and get caught in a picture perfect moment, brush my jacket using my palms and the flight takes off…

It’s 3 am. And when I rewind the last 10 hours, I found myself to be quiet except the occasional bursts of energy. Unlike the young and hot and raring to go PFC authors, I like to drink in the scene and enjoy it. Age is catching up.

It was a subtle moment …

It really is an obvious idea. To make sure that worthwhile cinema from all around the country is on an equal footing when it comes to being noticed and evaluated (and honoured), nothing can do the job better than a fair, non-agenda-led awards show.

Something that the National Awards perhaps were at one time, but political interference and a diffused arbitrariness has destroyed its credibility. Today all our “private” awards shows out of Mumbai have the same disease afflicting them – stars and glamour.

The quality most missing from our cinema today, especially in Mumbai, is originality. Our awards shows aggressively reflect this. It manifests in the complete lack of respect to the “idea”, and compensating instead with glitz, glamour and buffoonery – reflecting the mainstream Bollywood sensibility more than anything else.

What if there is an awards show that reflects the spirit of the best films that get made …

My 1st year at IFFLA was 2005 and TEJ GILL was spinning his eclectic mixes at the opening & closing nights. The opening night also featured Shankaar & Gingger. This year Gingger is back on Wednesday when she is going to jam with Gurinder Chana. Yes its the same dude who inspired Richie to shoot his music video. That year I also became friends with a really nice filmmaker from UK - Rene Mohandas. He made a very moving film ELEPHANT BOY. He made me his liason for sending Elephant Boy for all the Film Festivals in US. It went on to win the Best Short Film at the LA Short Film Festival. 2005 was also the year I met the man whos work inspired me to be a filmmaker. Anurag Kashyap. And he has become the darling of IFFLA since then. He is the Amitabh Bachchan …

I have got an half hour to write a dhasoo short piece. I will write a music review, for a change. I have not written any music reviews before because a) I don’t know how to review a soundtrack b) there are other capable authors who regularly write music reviews. Anyway, here goes my attempt at writing a music review.

Lately heaps of new Hindi Film Soundtracks were released from Jimmy to Tashan. I have not yet got a chance to check out all the latest soundtracks but did listen to the two latest soundtracks: Tashan & Bhootnath. Both of those soundtracks are composed by the brilliant duo Vishal & Shekhar. I admire their work espeically when they are not composing for Yash Raj. Yes, their most successful work have been with Yash Raj, but I have not liked that sort of music from them. So, I was not …

Class six student, Darsheel Safary, who has got startdom after success of Tare Zameen Par , is feeling something has been changed in his life at his school.

He says about his friends

“They’ve changed totally. I only have some friends left… maybe six in all. The rest have all left me. They’re all the time trying to pull me down. They’re a little jealous of me. When I’m passing by in my car, they go, ‘Hey Darsheel Darsheel. Photo photo’. But I’m happy with my six friends,”

He makes a guess
“I don’t know why my friends have changed. Maybe because I’ve acted in a movie.”

Like adults, the relationships in childhood also face dynamic motions. Success with good money should obviously affect the relationship among kids also. Its not the case where a kid’s parents get rich because here his parents can …

I. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust… the journey of the flesh. If there is indeed a soul or an immortal being it will pass on perhaps into another vessel of flesh, perhaps oblivion. But it is a realm still unknown. What is known is the body and that it will perish and rot. The flesh is a witness and victim of time. It is young and supple at birth. As it ages, it bears the experience of the world- it wrinkles, scars, portions of it drop off, rigor mortis and then dust. Such is the way of the flesh. For all the cosmetics in the world, man is still animal.

II. William S. Burroughs calls it ‘the cellular equation’, the insatiable cravings of the flesh that bring out the savage within. David Cronenberg who adapted Burroughs’ seminal “Naked …

iView Author:
Bharath Vineeth
(Boston, USA)

Email :
WITHHELD

Dil Se… One Of Mani Ratnam’s Best

I don’t know how many of you still remember Dil Se. This movie was supposed to be the first true mainstream product that wanted make an impact globally like no other movie from India. It had some big names coming together Mani Ratnam, RGV, Shekar kapur.

This was the last of trilogy, the first two being roja and Bombay. Even though the music became a rage, the movie bombed and just faded into oblivion.

I first watched Dil Se when i was 15 years old, first day first show. Was a kid then so i did not understand the movie other than the fact that i was mesmerized by the music and the cinematography.

I saw dil se recently on DVD, am 24 now and have to say that it blew me away. Not stunned by the movie …

It would be apt to say that IFFLA is probably the most reputed Indian Film Festival outside of India. Its growing at a phenomenal rate. I remember when I had moved to LA around 3 years back & I met this Indian Guy Gautam Mishra in my Cinema class. He suggested that I should volunteer at IFFLA as I was new to the city/country, it would be a great opportunity to make some friends. And I did. Since then the 3rd week of April has been the best week of the year in LA for me.
Gautam also gave me his gyan from having volunteered before. He suggested that we volunteer in transportation. That was the second best advise he gave me. 2005 was much smaller in scale compared to this year. Madhur Bhandarkar was probably the only famous guy …

“I need 29 bags I need 29 bags”

There are six of us stuffing gift bags with various goodies for guests in the courtyard. Inside another twenty odd volunteers are busy getting gift bags ready for a different set of guests. The phone rings…

“Hi oz, this is Bipin…. Bipin Nadkarni”

My back hurts, my sinus headaches acting up in the chill flowing around AFI campus, I need my 29 bags for the event I’m managing, and in all that, the brain fails to register who is Bipin Nadkarni.

Mercifully the blank state of mind flows back into gear… darn that’s the brilliant director of Marathi Movies who’s movie has been selected for the festival.

Problem.

He’s at the airport.

Problem.

He’s trying to find his pickup… the volunteer sent to get him from the airport. Damn…

Pass the phone to Felicia.

Nitin, who handles the entire complex transport system for the festival, is off dialing the number of the …

….thats what i told myself. I am also struggling with my words these days. Like me, i know so many who want to write. And the keyword is “want” and not “write”. Because we are more concerned about why, whom, what, where,how, for whom ? Enough.

Check out the contest “Pen Uthao Bollywood Hilao”

what it is about ?

I can walk stories, I can talk stories, I can write stories!

Pick up that pen or sit at the computer and let your fingers fly on that keyboard. The story should be in English or Hindi. Could be any story, don’t worry. Love story, crime story, children’s story, political story, musical, courtroom drama. Art house, Masala or somewhere in between. Anything’s fine as long as the story’s good, and can be made into a great film. Would you like to see your story as a big film watched by the whole world?

Short …

Sorry about a late Sunday 100… took time to recover from the self flagellation of the weekend movie watching.

First Krazzy4, then Jalsa, and then U, Me aur Hum.

So this Sunday 100, which could have been crazy or kinky now gets mushy.

So here goes…

(you know something? it’s not my mistake - because our dear Honhaar Goonda’s AWOL is messing the series).

So this week the topic is :

Remember those Archies/Hallmark cards you have fastidiously handpicked, remember those love track CDs you have painstakingly compiled, remember those poor attempts at being Keats… and, you know something? The topic is —

First Love

The Great Indian Tamasha, “Cricket ka SharmYuddh” has finally begun… Infact its two days and three matches old already.. The box office collections of first two days is quite encouraging for the organisers, franchises, players and for almost everyone who is involved in the carnival of cricket..

You might ask what Cricket and IPL is doing on the PassionForCinema frontpage and I agree.. it a complete out of the context PFC post, a wrong place to talk about it.. but then today bollywood is finding itself in a wrong place.. in the stadium on the cricket ground, not in cinema halls.. on Friday none of the hindi films got released due to IPL opening. The music directors and singers are busy in composing team anthems, the costume designers are busy in designing the dresses for the cricket teams, the stars are busy in giving company in the pavilion …