Mainak | PassionforCinema

Engineer by education, filmlover by passion. I

Mainak's Blog

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30 Days of Night(2007)
A beautiful & one of the rare watchable Vampire Flick(inspite of Josh Hartnett). Mainly because they got the look right. IMDB
by Mainak at May 14th, 2009 at 05:05 pm
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CARNAL KNOWLEDGE(1971)
Mike Nichols at his best with some solid acting from Jack Nicholson & Art Garfunkel. Scene IMDB
by Mainak at April 15th, 2009 at 10:04 am
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Discover Richard Jenkins & Frank Langella
2008 was a year of older actors in Hollywood. If one looks at the Oscar nominations in the best Actor category The youngest guy is Brad Pitt who is 40+. Three of them were mostly unheard of to most mainstream audiences. Richard Jenkins, Frank Langella & Mellisa Leo. All three super-talented actors who have been toiling away doing small parts here & there....
by Mainak at March 26th, 2009 at 04:03 pm
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Gomorra
Completely unexpected from the trailer. Amazed at the restrain & maturity of the director. Must Watch. (4/5) IMDB
by Mainak at March 26th, 2009 at 01:03 pm
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Dev D’s Success
Before you start reading this post I must declare that this post is not a critique of DevD. Its my thoughts about its success. I watched Dev D quite late compared to most people here at PFC. So by the time I walked inside the theater, the film was already declared a hit, after a very hard battle over the weekend. It was also a very interesting weekend, as...
by Mainak at March 8th, 2009 at 01:03 am
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Discoveries of 2008
2008 was a very low key year as far as music & movies goes in my life. Esp after last 2 years of marathon movie watching & discovering music. But I would still go ahead & write a diary similar to last years Discoveries of 2007. Books - I read a lot of books this year. I tried to read of lot from the Random’s 100 list. 1) Animal Farm – George...
by Mainak at December 29th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
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Golden Globes 2009
After the non event due to WGA strike in 2008, Golden Globes is back. Hopefully for them the Actors will not ruin the party this year. The nominations in all categories for the 2009 Golden Globes have been announced. This is also a major year for us. AR Rahman is nominated for the Best Original Score. Although personally I thought the score for OYE LUCKY is much better....
by Mainak at December 12th, 2008 at 11:12 am
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Problems of “English” Slumdogs
Slumdog Millionaire Review Everyone seems to be going crazy on Slumdog. People are watching Free Screenings everywhere. Dany Boyle is all over NPR. Even KCRW is talking about it. NPR even had a segment on “HINGLISH” as a related Looks like FOX is backing it in a big way. In next few days you’ll read a lot of great things about the film. And thats...
by Mainak at November 14th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
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[SAFE] 1995
My favorite Todd Haynes film so far. Julianne Moore at her best. A must watch film. IMDB
by Mainak at October 27th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
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ROCK ON
I have to say Rock On has surprised a lot of people with its popularity. For a genre of music which is popular among only 4% of the population, this is quite an achievement for the people behind the film. I remember all the arguments we had in PFC when the trailer first came out, all those 4% Rock junta were really worried that Bollywood is going to rape their world....
by Mainak at September 8th, 2008 at 02:09 am
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The FOUNTAIN
1/5. One of the worst films I have seen in a long time. I will not watch Rachel Weisz for some time now. I wonder if Darren Aronofsky can make anything more painful to watch. IMDB
by Mainak at August 25th, 2008 at 03:08 pm
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The Candidate(1972)
3.5/5 The perfect movie to watch this Election year. Another good political film from Redford. IMDB
by Mainak at August 3rd, 2008 at 02:08 pm
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The Sweet Hereafter
4/5 Atom Egoyan’s masterpiece. One of the best adaptation I have seen in years. IMDB
by Mainak at July 30th, 2008 at 08:07 am
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Chan Is Missing (1982)
3/5. Wayne Wang’s 1st Film. Another gem from him. One of my fav film about Chinese American Experience. IMDB
by Mainak at July 20th, 2008 at 03:07 pm
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Rob Long’s MARTINI SHOT at KCRW
Last few weeks we have had a lot of posts & discussion on screenplays. Dabba dissected the screenplay of AAMIR. Then he bitched about the Conspiracy against Screenwriters. I thought keeping with the tradition of writing on the subject of writing I would share with you one of my favorite radio shows LA. Its called MARTINI SHOT. Hosted by Writer/Producer Rob Long....
by Mainak at July 19th, 2008 at 04:07 pm
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Déjà Vu(2006)
4/5. One of the best Action/Thriller of our times. Best Bruckheimer movie I have seen. IMDB
by Mainak at July 7th, 2008 at 10:07 am
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Tin Men(1987)
4/5. If you like Tarantino’s Writing style, this is where he gets inspired from. A great unknown gem. IMDB
by Mainak at July 5th, 2008 at 06:07 am
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Böse Zellen/FREE RADICALS(2003)
4/5. A great austrian film about interwoven lives. IMDB
by Mainak at July 4th, 2008 at 10:07 am
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EVERYTHING is ILLUMINATED or How I discovered GOGOL BORDELLO!
Do you believe in destiny? Do you believe “We will meet someone when we are supposed to meet”? Let me apply that theory to movies. I sometimes feel some movies come into our lives exactly when we are supposed to. Not before, not after. After all if some of us had not seen the right film at the right time we would not have left everything to chase our dreams...
by Mainak at June 25th, 2008 at 01:06 pm
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School of ROCK
I never thought I would include this film in my all time favs. And that also is the reason why I never bothered to watch it. But last week I saw the trailer of this film in the DVD of another film. If you have read my last post, these days I’m watching Light Films only. So I got this film from the library & started watching it. I had a blast. You know the...
by Mainak at June 11th, 2008 at 07:06 pm
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Light films
I was on the road for past few weeks. And very busy doing other stuff. I usually try to keep up my goal of watching 7 films a week. But apart from IFFLA 2008 that happened in April I had hardly seen any movies in last few months. That was taking its toll on me. I feel thats the real reason behind my speeding ticket. So the day I was back in LA I immersed...
by Mainak at June 7th, 2008 at 02:06 pm
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IFFLA – Mindblowing!
SHOT IN BOMBAY – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1118078/ A documentary waiting to be made. For last 20 years. The director of this film happens to be a returning filmmaker of IFFLA & one of our favourites- Liz Mermin. She had directed last years OFFICE TIGERS, which I missed. I been told its hilarious. Her most famous film so far is The Beauty Academy of Kabul...
by Mainak at May 1st, 2008 at 01:05 pm
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IFFLA 2008: Day2 – Subtleness of Four Women
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...
by Mainak at April 29th, 2008 at 05:04 pm
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IFFLA Memories
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...
by Mainak at April 22nd, 2008 at 08:04 pm
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IFFLA 2008 – The Talented Mr Richie
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...
by Mainak at April 21st, 2008 at 04:04 pm
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End of NEW LINE
Last week Warner Brothers anounced the final curtains on the prolific run of NEW LINE CINEMA. It marks an end of an era. Started in his appartment in New York by Bob Shaye 40 years back. Bob hit the bullseye with the distribution of the hilarious 1936 anti-cannabis film REEFER MADNESS. Over the years it became one of the biggest American studios. The list of films is very...
by Mainak at March 6th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
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OSCARS 2007- Best Picture/Director
BEST DIRECTOR Julian Schnabel – DIVING BELL & THE BUTTERFLY He has been nominated for this award at almost every big Film Festival in 2007. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401383/awards The IMDB link shows 26 Award wins & 30 nomination. I have seen this film twice. It deserves every award it has won & even more. Schnabel is a genius filmmaker. This...
by Mainak at February 24th, 2008 at 12:02 am
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Oscars 2007 – CINEMATOGRAPHY
CINEMATOGRAPHY Roger Deakins – THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD If there was one great film that most cine-fans missed out in 2007 it would be this one. I say Cine-Fans with emphasis because if you are not it, this film is not for you. Its too long, too slow, too philosophical for a regular movie goer. And the cinematography was simply...
by Mainak at February 21st, 2008 at 11:02 pm
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Oscars 2007 – Best Actors/Actresses in Supporting Roles
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE 1)Cassey Affleck – THE ASSASINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD A superb performance by one of the 3 actors who ruled 2007. Its hard to imagine anyone else in that role after you have seen Cassey’s performance. But its not enough to win. Winners of this category usually are Characters that are very loud & flamboyant...
by Mainak at February 19th, 2008 at 04:02 pm
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OSCAR 2007 – Best Actors/Actresses in Leading Roles
Its OSCAR time in Hollywood. With the writer’s Strike coming to an end yesterday, this town will be gripped with Oscar Buzz now. This year has been an exceptionally great year for films in hollywood. It was a year when the Speciality Divisions of all the Studios did exceptionally well. **************** Best Actor in Leading Role - George Clooney – MICHAEL...
by Mainak at February 12th, 2008 at 06:02 pm