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2.5/5 Tender and somewhat touching, but gripping it aint.
IMDB

-1/5 yeah!! thats for killing a good concept and i don’t take kindly to caper thrillers getting fucked over.
IMDB

3.5/5 A half bred Johnny Tu but exhilarating to say the least.
IMDB

2/5 Fultu timepass! A bit lame a bit fab….
IMDB

There has been discussions here before on Movies, their marketing and challenges we face in dealing with piracy - i say ‘we’ here for convenience sake (devlish-eheh). India Today organised a conclave with different entrepreneurs and main speakers Aamir Khan, Shekhar Kapur (moderator) and Ashok Amritraj recently (i believe they do it ever year) and aamirkhan.org has put up videos of the event on Youtube for all of us to see.

Aamir had this to say in an interview at the Conclave

Q: Taare Zameen Par touched many hearts. Do you think you have been successful in integrating commercial and art cinema?
Firstly, I don’t believe in the concept of art and commercial cinema. I have never distinguished them. For me, the main aim is make popular films which cater to the popular market, to the masses. To me, the audience is the one that decides. Cinema is an art form in itself. …

Its not everyday that a bunch of filmmakers I like, get together and converse on the medium. For such occasions I always had to depend on film festivals or even take a trip back in time during those glory days of DD. Most such occasion are fruitful when the moderator/interviewer is as well versed or at least someone who can hold his/her own amongst such august company.

Imagine, the thrill when Sudhir, presented the link to this gup-shup between Anurag, Navdeep, Rajat conducted by none other than Bharadwaj Rangan.

All about Old vs New Parallel Cinema - a lovely read this.

Excerpts

Nearly two decades after the demise of what was called Parallel Cinema, three filmmakers from a new age of non-mainstream cinema open up about then and now.

B Rangan: What is your personal opinion of the Parallel Cinema movement of the 1970s/80s?

Rajat Kapoor: I think great beginnings were made. There …

at least one of the parties….

After quite a few months solemn silence from both Aamir and Amol, the latter lets it rip in an interview posted on
AllBollywood

Thus spoketh Amol

It’s misreported that I didn’t like the edited version of TZP. There was no question of not liking the edited version because my wife Deepa was editing the material in Panchgani as we were shooting. We were all very proud of the film. Then we had a wrap-up party. And that’s when Aamir announced he was the director of the film. That’s when I got to know of his intentions.

I’m trying to put it behind me… Let me just say, right from choosing all the kids for the parts to the final editing, I was right there on board… I wanted to preserve the kids’ natural innocence. So I never auditioned them. I used to engage them in discussions and …

Theres no way I can remotely hope to recount the effect of watching “The Killing Fields”, no amount of words can effectively portray the heart wrenching effect the movie had on me and millions who saw it. Regardless of ‘when’ you watch it, it still resonates within you, the emotional aspect of the story as much as the craft of narrating this true story visually.

This comment on IMDB says it all,

“Based on the Khmer Rouge revolution in Cambodia, this is an excellent tale of hardship and friendship. Basically director Roland Joffe` did an wonderful job in exposing the detailed facts so simply in the film that you believe that you are in that time in person. The two actors, Sam Waterson and Haing Ngor both displayed godlike pieces of acting. It’s unfortunate Waterson couldn’t join Ngor in Academy Awards. In addition, the director’s credit is to highlight both the …

Its Calender time again for the YRF folks. I remember seeing last years calender which had oodles of attitude and chic look to it. The posters of Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom was an instant hit and packed up the curiosity factor for the movie. Unfortunately that was the best and only part of the that movie and most of the YRF releases last year.

Remember these?

…

There You go….
Admist all the cacophony of blockbuster movies swashbuckling thrillers etc etc etc, ‘the sleeper hit’ HITS!!!!
Scratching your head over what the #$%^& a sleeper hit is?
The Times of India to the rescue.

In American showbiz, “sleeper hit” is a term used to refer to a film (and sometimes even a book or an album) that gains unexpected success or recognition.

This post aint a ‘tell me why’ session on Sleeper HIts, rather it is about Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day featuring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams and which has an Indian helming it - Bharat Nalluri

IBNLive carries this story

The American box office saw biggies like 10,000 BC and The Bank Job hit screens but what’s really got film-goers and critics interested is a simple small film titled Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.Directed by Indian-born Bharat Nalluri, this directorial debut has been declared …

Aah.. the big hoopla over giving the oscar to one when u rightly expected the other to win it. That’s what happened behind the closed doors of the author’s club a few weeks back as the oscars were announced. Apart from ranklings on the best picture and best actor categories, the big argument was over why they gave the oscar to Golden Compass when Transformer’s metalloids had strutted their stuff so slickly on screen last year.

The 80th annual Academy Awards ceremony was good to a cute, little rat, a big, bad wolf and some powerful polar bears as Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille, Suzie Templeton’s Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and New Line Cinema’s The Golden Compass walked off with gold statuettes.

- The Animation Magazine

Frankly speaking, this shouldn’t have been a 2 pronged argument when the Pirates were also there in the list.
(oh well, we gave it to them …

Amidst all the controversies, Jodhaa Akbar has seen the box office moolah pile up. Just when the controversies were showing signs of ebbing away and Jodhaa eclipsed by more Rac(e)y fare at the box office, Rushdie comes pumping up his fictional oeuvre on none other than Akbar.

I can see some one reading up a passage out of context and coming up with yet another fatwa on the man. The Outlook has already posted a somewhat misleading excerpt which goes like this

Did Jodhaa really exist? Yes, says Rushdie—in Akbar’s imagination. She was the ultimate male fantasy, not the woman “of big breasts and a small brain” that boys dream of, but an emperor’s erotic fantasy dreamt up by a bored Akbar, stealing traits from his many queens in the harem: sensuous, mistress of the kamasutra, especially the art of unguiculation (”using the nails to enhance the act of love.

Now …

I chanced upon this site a few weeks back and to say its been a great find would be an understatement, especially after what i found today…

Thanks to wonderdude Mike Goedecko..

Everything you have ever wanted to know about the RED ONE CAMERA. We try to answer the questions before you end up on the set wasting valuable production time. Many thanks to Indie Rentals, the best place to rent the RED CAMERA.

Njaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

Click here for your knowing everything there is to know about the RED ONE

The Buzz — PFC is powered by your submissions. Send in your news, tips, scoops, hot topics

Did you know this legendary hero was a despicable bully when he was 10, and used to beat up other children if they didn’t let him win the game of marbles?

Did you know his friends used to always complain that he walked very fast and needs to slow down and wait up?

Did you know he used to roam around wearing cycle chains a la garlands?

Did you know he was a tea boy, a rowdy, a coolie, before he became “the bus conductor who got noticed for his flair to be a star”?

Rajni! Pera Kettaley Chumma Athirudhulla? (Isn’t the sound of his name simply earth shattering?)

All this detail and more about this simbly south super star’s private life will be made available to his ardent masses when the hero’s biography is released during this weekend.

The book “The name is Rajnikanth” in English (Tamil version of the book is titled “Rajni …

Ok, i confess!!

In all the 80’s action movies franchises, Indiana is a name which strikes pretty close to my heart. Been on the trail of the new movie ever since its been announced. Now we have the first glimpse!

Take a look…

Another one to hit the net is M. Knight Shyamalan’s new offering, The Happening!!

and SURPRISE SURPRISE!!!! a familiar logo in the first few frames– UTV!!!!!!!!

Looks like you have the professor with the whip rescuing you from another one of those ETs this summer…!!!!!!!!!

What do ya think?

Buzz - PFC is powered by your submissions. Send in your scoops, cine news, hot topics

And the wah-wahs reach the same crecendo this year too.
To add anything more about these awards would be worthless.

Best Actor
Shahrukh Khan - Chak De India

Best Actress
Kareena Kapoor - Jab We Met

Best Film
Taare Zameen Par

Best Director
Aamir Khan - Taare Zameen Par

Critics’ Award For Best Actor
Darsheel Safary - Taare Zameen Par

Critics’ Award For Best Actress
Tabu - Cheeni Kum

Critics’ Award For Best Film
Shimit Amin - Chak De India

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male)
Irrfan Khan - Life in a… Metro

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female)
Konkana Sen Sharma - Life in a… Metro

Best Lyrics
Prasoon Joshi - (Maa - Taare Zameen Par)

Best Playback Singer (Male)
Shaan - (Jab Se Tere Naina - Saawariya)

Best Playback Singer (Female)
Shreya Ghosal - (Barso Re - Guru)

Best Music
A. R. Rahman - Guru

Best Story
Amol Gupte - Taare Zameen Par

Best Screenplay
Anurag Basu - Life in a… Metro

Best Dialogue
Imtiaz Ali - Jab We Met

R. D. Burman Award
Monty Sharma (Saawariya)

Lifetime Achievement Award
Rishi …

1 Bhajan, 1 Khoochi Koo number, 1 Enthu get-the-yelling-chorus-out number (of course there was more but I have a very limited vocabulary with respect to adjectives without resorting to expletives), all packaged into 4 hours of unimaginable torture…— the definitive Gowariker formula of moviemaking emerges.

Hell!!! It would have been much more enjoyable if Jeetu bhai and Thunder thighs did a guest appearance when the drums started rolling for the Shahenshah, at the very least I wouldn’t have this splitting headache ..

The Cool Dude and Miss World do their part rather effectively, cutting down on a large chunk of swagger and a quite a bit of histrionics to portray a director’s myopic and loose vision of a truly great era. How and why Ashutosh has stooped to create his own ‘formula’ for film is lost on me. Not that he created anything remotely great before, but Lagaan and Swades reflected a …

“In the dark depths of the nether world, for wanderers searching for the ultimate prize clues are everything”.

Oh well!! that was as cheesy as it can get..
:-)
but couldn’t resist.

Cheesiness apart, it is so subliminally true!

for all those geeks with cool names stalking the net for music, movie and the like…
(porn? Nah… porn is passé..)
everything you get is from that passing comment at a forum..
a chance chat remark…
a ‘recommended site’ link on a website purporting to have it all!!!….
all of which eggs you to the darkest part of the net in search of that treasure trove.
(see the treasure is guarded so well that it keeps changing location every week or so- think saddam being whisked away for fear of an american attack).

Its therefore supremely important to rummage around every nook and corner as you wander about..
you just might hit a trail. thats what happened here.

so there i …

Amidst the myriad cacophony of visual media which is hurled at us from the minute we wake up, its very difficult to find a meaningful stretch of frames which makes one pause and ponder. So its a stroke of luck which brought me to this digital short on the Buzz18 site (i was trying to locate another video for a friend of mine).

Iraada didnt blow my mind, but certainly made me smile- the kind of smile you have after having an amazing meal at a dhaba in some no man’s land, which you discovered accidentally. The name of the guy who made it rang a bell, so did the guy on the screen. Fellow PFCites might know him from before.

I thought it might be a better idea to let you hear from the horse’s mouth than rant on myself. So without further a do - i present Iradaa and …

WARNING: the following excerpt in no way contains Spoilers for the movie. Simply because there no tangible way of doing that. However you may be better off watching the movie before reading the rants of T and D below, simply cuz it would make more sense. If you don’t care about any warnings just read on…. But let me warn you it’s a pretty long road ahead, get a glass of your favorite beverage before you take the ride

Prelude: D meets T at P F C and they go to watch K. D and T being Ms, they make a note to head to the nearest Billabong regardless of what K might have in store for them. After Ks antics, change in plan. D and T reckons it might be a better idea to head to D’s flat with some rum than burn their pockets drinking all night at the …