Aditya Mani Jha
I am a 19 year-old guy, who absolutely cannot survive without my books, my music and my movies(though not necessarily in that order...) Currently in the second year of college at IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal , India(my hometown is Ranchi in Jharkhand) Let's get the weird stuff out first, shall we? I have always been an avid collector of trivia of all sizes and shapes....... which has developed into compulsive quizzing.... My all-time favourite TV character is Alan Shore(played by James Spader) from Boston Legal, one movie I can watch again and again is Pulp Fiction....things which define my comfort zone(for now) are- 1) Never-ending bakwaas with my friends over magically self-refilling cups of coffee 2) Reading at least one worthwhile poem or story every day(and squeezing in a movie or two every other day!) 3) Waking up every day to do more of the same.....and loving it! Enough said!

 

Aditya Mani Jha's Blog

  • 20
    Revenge of the Idiots: 3 Idiots Movie Review
    There were quite a few reasons behind my breathless anticipation of the release of “3 Idiots”. Some are not hard to see: Rajkumar Hirani had struck gold with each of his two previous directorial efforts, the twin Munnabhai films. He had proved himself a bona fide original while displaying a keen ear for the rhythms  of the traditional Bollywod potboiler. And this...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at December 25th, 2009 at 06:12 am
  • 23
    Steeper By The Dozen: What’s Your Raashee
    It has been a longish break from blogging, one spent mostly in conducting dramatics workshops and then putting up a play with the freshers in my college who took part in said workshops. One and a half months, and an hour-long version of “A Christmas Carol” later, here I am. In one of the genuinely funny moments in Ashutosh Gowariker’s “What’s Your Raashee?”...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at September 28th, 2009 at 05:09 am
  • 19
    “Unbreakable” and The Three Shyamalans
    It has been well-established by now, that there are at least two individuals who go by the name of Manoj Night Shyamalan. The first is the maverick auteur, the Hitchcock of modern times, the writer-director of stunning films like “The Sixth Sense” , “Unbreakable” and “Signs” . Following the release of the latter, it is widely believed that aliens abducted said...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at July 9th, 2009 at 10:07 am
  • 17
    A Few Good Ones: Lit-Adaptation Wishlist
    “Thou, of the blogger’s faith, shalt not revert to the “list” post, ‘cept if ye haven’t banged thine keyboard for a while, or the Indian cricket team has been knocked out of the World Cup, or both….”                                         – The Underground Bible Of Bloggers Seeing...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at June 15th, 2009 at 08:06 am
  • 8
    Chronicles of World Cinema II : The Mirror
    The second on my world cinema series is a film by Iranian director Jafar Panahi. Western audiences know Panahi, most recently through  his 2006 film “Offside” which depicted the efforts of two Iranian girls to get inside a football stadium, disguised as men. This film created enough of a buzz in the Western critical circles, and also bagged the Silver Bear...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at May 9th, 2009 at 02:05 pm
  • 15
    Chronicles of World Cinema I: The Man Without A Past
    (Been home for a full five days now….. time to kick-start the blog again) When we finally got rid of the friendly neighbourhood cable guy and his spider-web of wires, hooks and assorted paraphernelia; and switched to a DTH service, the best thing which came with it was the World Movies channel. Now, this was a channel dedicated to showing quality cinema from around...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at May 5th, 2009 at 07:05 pm
  • 27
    The Year Of The Graphic Novel
    (It’s been a weird kind of semester. Starting off at full steam, it seemed like it’ll all be over and done with in two shakes of a dog’s tail… but it’s ended up dragging on and on. Mercifully, it’ll be over soon… my exams are starting in a week, and this will be the last entry in this blog for 15 days.) Every year, around this...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at April 13th, 2009 at 04:04 am
  • 21
    Gulaal and The Future of Indian Cinema
      I saw Gulaal today in a crumbling, fading, bleeding ramshackle masquerading as a cinema hall….at least from the outside. Gulaal was sandwiched between two contemporary gems “Dil Ko Churaanewaali” and “Maa Kasam Badla Loonga”. (I would have uploaded the posters as well…but wasn’t entirely sure where PFC stands on this…)...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at March 15th, 2009 at 10:03 am
  • 22
    Dev D on V-Day
    (Statutory warning: This reviewer has got an incurable Nostradamus complex and is prone to spouting pseudo-profundities just for the heck of it…..)   Valentine’s Day is not my favourite part of the year……. I have an extraordinarily strong mush-radar, which was going haywire at about midnight on the 13th of February. My college(IIT Kharagpur) stands...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at February 26th, 2009 at 11:02 am
  • 10
    “Revolutionary Road”: Bleak, Bold and Brilliant
    Once you are done with your board exams, and the laundry-list of competitive exams which follow, there is a lull-period of almost three months before you actually join college. People do all kinds of stuff during that time: some learn how to drive(and then proceed to channelize messrs Schumacher, Hamilton and Raikkonen), some take to uselessly useful stuff like the odd...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at January 6th, 2009 at 04:01 am
  • 43
    “Ghajini”: Aamir Khan and joie de vivre
    I’m part of a theatre troupe in my college. I remember, about 18 months ago, it was my first day in the group, and the very first thing I was told was “exaggerate”…… A.R. Murugadoss sure seems a guy who knows the meaning of that word! For “Ghajini” is exaggerated with a capital E…..and this is likely to be the bone of contention...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at December 27th, 2008 at 04:12 am
  • 20
    Rab Ne Bana De Jodi: The YRF Factor
    Okay, so Jahan pipped me to the post for this one. After a wretched two weeks of Geology field work under a harsh sun, I came back home yesterday. Within a few hours of returning, I was on my way to catch the morning show of “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi”. Two and a half hours later, dull rocks and dreary scientific instruments were but a distant memory….. Oops……was...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at December 15th, 2008 at 06:12 am
  • 2
    The Persepolis Experience
      Okay, so nowadays I am on a graphic novel spree. Having devoured Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” (although an outstandingly original work,Persepolis is unmistakeably influenced by “Maus”) Alan Moore’s “From Hell” and closer home, Sarnath Bannerjee’s refreshing debut “Corridor” in the last few weeks, I have read...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at November 13th, 2008 at 09:11 am
  • 7
    4 Quick Ones: Short Films about AIDS
    Before we sink our teeth into the film bit, I have to mention this pleasant surprise I had yesterday. I was in Bhubhaneswar for an open quiz along with a couple of my friends…. the quiz was really exciting, and after a nail-biting tie-breaker with a team from Infosys, we won….but it got better. The mild-mannered, soft spoken guy in glasses sitting at the table...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at November 2nd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
  • 30
    The Master At Work: A.R.Rahman’s “Yuvvraaj”
      There is a very good reason why I have titled this post A.R.Rahman’s Yuvvraaj……because considering Subhash Ghai’s track record of late, (the seeped-in-cliches “Black and White” and the-lesser-said-the-better “Kisna” )the odds are that “Yuvvraaj” will be another Ghai film which will flatter to deceive…..and...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at October 22nd, 2008 at 07:10 am
  • 25
    The Legend Of Johnny Depp
    Let me preface my first article as a PFC author by saying that it is a heady feeling to be sharing this forum with the people whose writings I have been following avidly, not to mention people like Anurag Kashyap and Sudhir Mishra,  whose films have enthralled me time and again. I am sure I’m gonna have lots of fun! I was about 10 when I saw “Edward Scissorhands”...
    by Aditya Mani Jha at October 13th, 2008 at 11:10 am
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