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I have been gazing at my navel really badly for the past few weeks and even my work life has been a little hectic. I have been hearing great things from production houses but none seem to take it forward. At this semi frustrating state, I decided to do what motivates me the most…A Short film over the Weekend..Yeah Baby..Yeah..

A short film over the weekend. This is one kick-ass adrenalin surge activity for me & I reach a sort of nirvana when I am in the process. The action, the activity, the heat, the unavailability of anything and everything, this keeps me in such a Kwan (refer to Jerry McGuire for this word) for some time to come. Tiger had his club, Jordan has his hoop, Sachin has his bat, Schumi has his car & I have my pleadings to one and all for technicians, equipment, actors, music, lyrics, make-up …

I am sure this topic is going to get a lot of adrenalin surging and more personal onslaughts than required as this is one topic that is close to many of our hearts. We all might in refined society crib about the heavy violence in our movies and how we as a society have got degenerated but at the bottom of our portable paradises, we carry a list of movies that we tend to watch and love as they are centered on the underworld. I have decided today to put down some of my best loved gangster flicks (in no particular order). These are movies that I really enjoy and quote excessively from (one I tend to make the voice like the hero but it comes out like a croak. No prizes for guessing which movie this is) & tend to watch more than a healthy number of times. So …

It all started off from PFC only and a link in a post not at all related to Screenwriting. A wonderful person had put a link to the workshop and I thought “Why Not?” so promptly wrote off a concept that was brewing in my head for quite sometime and sent it to the jury who, although my concept was written like a teaser & not complete, seemed to like it and called me over to join the workshop at Goa between the 17th and 23rd of March 2008. This article is only about that week and all the fun we have had. There were 10 participants and the event was held in the International Center, Goa. The main sponsors of the workshop were the British Council, Sa Re Ga Ma, Eelenora Images, Business of Cinema & a few others. The workshop was structured extremely well and we had 2 …

I was up late last night watching the Telly and particularly a Kannada movie channel called Udaya Movies and chanced upon a movie that had me in splits and so much of laughter that once I get rich and famous, am going to hunt the director down and pay him a lot of money to make another movie like this. This was simply stupendous. BTW, before you get me wrong, this was supposed to be a quasi serious dramatic movie with some thriller and horror elements but in reality was the best comedy film I have seen in the past few years. This movie set me thinking on how we have as movie viewers watched some really good formulas over the past few decades and how we have seen it in practically every language in this wonderful country of ours. I want this to be a running list and please …

The title line should say it all & this article is about the scary aftermath once a movie becomes extremely popular & a big hit.

Consider this as the premise. Taare Zameen Par (TZP) was a well made movie with a very good cast (my opinion) and something that can be looked at again and again for time to come. Now the problem is not in TZP but the minute it became a popular cinema, we have had it. I am actually very scared to go to any parties or even homes of friends. I shall explain this scenario. I will be at peace with the world after a meal & relishing a nice dessert or a nice after dinner drink and suddenly there is a painting stuck in my lap and 2 gleaming (or 4 if the grandparents stay, 6 if others. you get it) adults want me to …

I have put it in the Title and am going to tell that again. Long live the new K. Asif. I also want to put a disclaimer right here, that I really love Ashutosh Gowariker as a director and have loved Lagaan immensely, Swades is one of my all time favorites and by Jove, Jodha Akbar is now there in that list.

This movie works on so many different aspects of cinema that I loved each and every part of it. Please do not go in expecting a History lesson and get your biases stuck there. Go in to see a story, a well woven script and for amazing cinematography, art direction, choreography, music, lyrics and of course the direction.

The movie as you might have all guessed by now from the various interviews and promos are about the marriage of convenience between a Rajput Princess and a Mughal Emperor. The story …

I have been meaning to write about this particular rant of mine but always put it off since was not too sure how it will be accepted. Since then have seen far too many of this kind and felt should write about this to find out how you all feel.

To put this article into perspective, let’s just move back in time, like Dr. Evil in Austin Powers (I) and bring some background to this. About 15 years back, there was a world that we all lived in. This world had lesser pollution, lesser traffic, better people with more civility, fresher air yada yada and most importantly there was no internet available to the common populace. Lest some of the readers start to think that am against the internet let me set the record straight by telling that love the internet for what it can do and feel sad due to …

I did not have much expectation as I walked into the theater. Golmaal was an ok movie with some humour but bits of it were quite forced. So I really did not expect any great change but was totally disheartened to find out that Money is one of the greatest enemies of creativity. This film more than proves the point.

Why money? Well every popular Director (more or less, some have deviated from this rule, thankfully) in India has gone through this path. They enter the industry with a punch (some really good). The first film they do has a lot of hunger and a really tight budget. They stretch every single rupee doled out by the producer to 120-140 paisa and there is a certain amount of Junoon in making that film. If the film ends up becoming a mass entertainer like Golmaal & makes bucket loads of money, et …

Life officially stinks. I really mean it. The day job I do is hardly an enriching experience and the only thing other than my passions for making movies that kept me getting up every working day was the fact that there used to be a sitcom line-up in the morning in Star World(English Channel in India and part of Murdoch’s empire). The thing I loved about this line-up was Simpsons coming on at 8:30 and I would always catch up some bits of it or all of it, depending on what shitty schedule I had. This used to make my day really good.

I do not know how many of you love the Simpsons but I have been a hard-core fan of the same for many many years now. Although I have watched almost all of the episodes that come in Star World now, it always used to give me a good start to see the same in the morning. Now Star World has gone and changed their program schedule and moved some Crappy talk shows & soaps into this slot. Do we not have enough soaps already coming out of our ears that they now need to be everywhere? Hence the bloody Withdrawals and the Morning Sickness are rampant in my body now. Do not be too surprised if the Stork visits me in a few months’ time :-)

Friday, 4 January 2008

Phuleeze do not get befuddled by the SSS in the title and assume this to be a write-up on a “Nagin” film but this is more a self-obsessed write-up on 3 of my really favorite films and all three being with “S”. Like the white supremacists having their KKK, I have my SSS & hope more will join. Well if you readers who visit PFC want to know what these “S” are, they are Frank Darabont’s Shawshank Redemption (Yes, there’s a THE but we all know it as Shawshank), John Mathew Mathan’s Sarfarosh & Ashutosh Gowariker’s Swades. These are 3 movies that I must have seen at least a zillion times and I still tend to see them whenever have run out of movies to see and these are the only movies that I have in almost all possible viewing formats (DVD, Divx, Ipod & Iphone …

Friday, 7 December 2007

I was planning on faking many an illness and also planning on the whole modalities of watching 2 flicks this week as there were 2 movies released this week. I wanted to see the bad and then the good, so opted to see Dus Kahaniyaan before I watched Koya Koya.. I think I did the right thing.

I was one of those people who were very optimistic about this film. I believe Short films are a great way to tell a story and really can make a man think well. We have had so many good ones from across the world of this concept and this one had a good caveat also. It was by different directors. I had started to drool when I first read it, but quickly got scared when I realized that the man of all style and no substance would be at its helm. …

Well I am a numbers guy and somehow also like to write. I am not saying that I write amazingly well but it’s something I consider that am capable of doing and something I deeply enjoy.

I read in a post few days back that people who want to make movies take up writing simply because it’s easy to do. I found this funny and offensive both at the same time. Funny because this was on a portal devoted to the world of cinema and offensive since the writer somehow was ascribing to the fact that writing is simple stuff when say compared to cinematography or the other technical aspects of film making. I read his post in detail and at the end could understand him since it was a struggler/aspiring filmmaker who most probably has not gotten the right break and hence venting his frustration on the new joiners into …

6 hours of film back to back can sometime be an enchanting affair but at times can also make you tired, fretful, and as there are 2 films can leave you with Mixed feelings. Saw OSO & Saawariya back to back in the same order and my head is a maelstrom of emotions. Since Oz has given me a user id and pwd to log on here and voice my opinion, thought will talk about these 2 movies.

OSO

Om Shanti Om, well what is left to be said. King Khan has been everywhere plugging his film and well its has its high points and you somewhat feel let down by seeing a man with some good skills letting the script go awry. Shah Rukh, how much ever the audience on PFC tell otherwise, is a entertainer and you do not feel let down by his films. In Om Shanti Om, you …

Well just got out of a theater in Bangalore 30 minutes ago and still wondering how it went wrong.

When you start to think that YRF is coming out to the good side and you start to feel elated after “Chak De”, they throw you back on terra firm by providing you a movie like “Laga Chunri..” The EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

The movie started of really well. I mean the introduction song was good and the story had a sense of realism in it. We were getting a view of middle class rural India and suddenly it all went wrong.

I mean “Laga..” is a pretty dated story and if you were a viewer of fare from the 70’s in any Indian language or even Swahili, you would have seen a movie like this.

A girl torn under circumstances has to choose that inevitable path that she never wanted to trod. This topic …

No. This is not a upcoming movie title although it surely sounds like that. This is in reality a write-up on one of India’s less known and highly forgotten Film Director.

Puttanna Kanagal was one of the finest directors South Indian cinema had the benefit of having in its repository. He was at foremost a director in Kannada language and also did quite a few films in Malyalam & Tamil. He was one of the key aueters to have started off a concept of cinema that was both mainstream but touched topics that even acclaimed directors of today are petrified to take upon.

He was also the only director to have launched a high number of new faces who are now the super stars of the South like Rajanikanth, Vishnu Vardhan, Ambarish et al.

Well, I seem to have stroked some curiosity in …

I am posting this a little late in the day but just saw RGV KI Aag and I am so depressed that I can hardly think, breathe or even fathom what the hell happened. I have as of today witnessed the worst train crash in my life and its called RGV ki AAg.

Before some of the more “Intelligent” readers of PFC jump at me and tell me that this is a review I am writing to impress the “Exclusive” writers, let me clear out the air and tell all, that my passion for films increased tenfold when I started to see RGV’s early works. I still remember being in the 9th Standard when I saw Shiva and it left me awestruck. I was in my graduation when I saw “Rangeela” and was amazed at the biting wit and direction sense. I was a young employee when I saw “Satya” and …

I am not only writing a review in this post of the Movie by the same name done by the GREATEST (Its Sarcastic) Director of all time - Sajid Khan but also a condolence write-up for the death of cinema and the sad growth of Crap.

Yes, this movie in a nutshell is all about Crap. It starts off about crap being hit on Akshay, there is a kid that craps all along and the story is CRAP. What the Fuck was Sajid thinking when he DID this movie? Was he thinking he will collectively DO the audience also. I mean if he has a mid life crisis and cannot pull a girl, then at least let him go and sort out things personally but he cannot really thrust all his views on all of us.

The story revolves around 3 men who have had too much of a good …

This post is not about the same name movie in Tamil from Gautam Menon. That movie was incredible and well proved beyond doubt to its viewers about the capabilities of Gautam. I am rather writing about the urban legend surrounding the name. Apparently Kakha Kakha is ascribed to a poem and literally means “Waiting Waiting”. Gautam had put this name as his movie title simply because he waited for a really long time before he could make this movie.

These past few weeks and months, I feel exactly like that and believe me, its not funny from any angle. We have bound scripts but are only in a mode of waiting waiting. Harsha & Me (We write/direct and want to eventually become filmmakers) have been knocking on many producer doors and waiting in their lobbies for time immemorial. These past few weeks seems to me like the same with …

This is my first post for PFC (ahem ahem). This should be fun and please be tender :-)

I did not put up that rather profane title for this post to get your attention but meant it. If it got some guys as an added bonus to read it, then fantastic

I am trying to simply highlight a rather true piece of data about a lot of people from my generation. We are part of a family and do have a lot of friends and relatives around us but we all have one umbilical cord connection to the world of films.

This is a relationship where we are not sure of the giveback from our parents the films but we are definitely the Bastard children of this. We pine, wait, kick, pull and wail, wait all to seek escapism in its deep folds. This gives us a kick, a sense of joy …