Neeraja | PassionforCinema

I am a grad student.

Neeraja's Blog

9
Yesteryear actress Leela Naidu passes away
Actress Leela Naidu, who acted in a number of Hindi films including the national award winning ‘Anuradha’ as well as ‘The Householder’ by Merchant Ivory Productions, died on Tuesday in Mumbai after a prolonged illness. (TimesofIndia report) She was crowned ‘Miss India’ in 1954 and was declared as one of the most beautiful women in the...
by Neeraja at July 28th, 2009 at 05:07 am
8
Mottled thoughts on some political films
If you are a grad student and you do everything on time then there is something wrong with you. Procrastination – that’s the one word guidebook to finishing your doctoral studies. It is way of living for grad students. And believe it or not – we get paid for that. Needless to say I am one of those geeks who practise this religiously. So it takes me months...
by Neeraja at July 9th, 2009 at 04:07 pm
7
Old songs, new discoveries – I
It started off as a very bad day. A holiday…everything is closed and I realize that I have nothing to eat, my net is not working properly and I am supposed to give a talk on wednesday! How can so many bad things happen at same time? I spent last two days watching 5 movies: ‘Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind’, ‘3 iron’, ‘Double indemnity’,...
by Neeraja at June 1st, 2009 at 06:06 am
32
Fermat’s Room – a mathematical thriller
“The more you study logic, the more you value coincidence” – from Fermat’s Room. Four mathematicians are give pseudonyms Galois, Hilbert, Pascal and Oliva and are called to an unknown place for reasons unknown after they all manage to solve a not-so-mathematical puzzle by a man who calls himself Fermat. A group of people locked up in a room…I...
by Neeraja at March 31st, 2009 at 02:03 pm
25
Gulaal – a colourful canvas of poetic expressions
(Long post. There are a lot of comparisons with things(poems, films, songs) that came to my mind first time I listened to the songs and they might appear strange/surprising to some people. The lyrics given below are not complete.) I have been looking forward to Gulaal songs for so long. More than Dev D, more than any other film this year I have been waiting for Gulaal...
by Neeraja at February 28th, 2009 at 07:02 am
44
Luck By Chance: Moments and reactions
I avoid writing about films which every other person is writing about and voicing the same opinion as mine but what the heck! its been a one long long time since I saw a film like this. A film that I liked from first frame to the last. I think the last hindi movie that I liked was OLLO and before that? I don’t remember! Certainly nothing last year. I am not doing...
by Neeraja at February 2nd, 2009 at 03:02 am
11
Maachis: questions it ignited
Set against the backdrop of the dying secessionist movement in Punjab, Maachis undoubtedly has a powerful and potent story idea at its heart and Tabu’s and Om Puri’s excellent portrayal of their respective characters makes it difficult not to like this film. Not to forget the brilliant songs. The villages of Punjab and snow covered landscapes of the small town/village...
by Neeraja at August 28th, 2008 at 09:08 am
6
Ray’s Kapurush and that story on TV
I watched Satyajit Ray’s Kapurush few weeks back and it brought back nice memories and interesting thoughts. While watching the movie I was reminded of a telefilm I watched on DD long back. I think it was based on a story by Chekhov (and no it was not a part of the lovely series ‘Chekhov ki kahaniyaan’ which used to be on DD long time back. Whatever happened...
by Neeraja at July 20th, 2008 at 07:07 am
28
What are you listening to?
That’s what my mother asked me over phone few days back which made me realize that it was almost 5 months into 2008 and I was still playing songs from No Smoking, TZP, Life in a Metro etc. along with the regular old classics. The only song from 2008 in my playlist was ‘khwaja mere khwaja’ from JA. So I decided to update myself and now that I look around...
by Neeraja at May 29th, 2008 at 01:05 am
84
Hindi in Hindi Cinema
About a year back I was shocked to realize that I couldn’t recall a hindi word for ‘creativity’. This was perhaps a consequence of staying out of touch of hindi literature and hindi speaking people. Even though I make it a point to read hindi whenever I go back home, I do not feel the same command over the language as I felt few years back. The words...
by Neeraja at April 2nd, 2008 at 08:04 am
7
French Film Festival in Australia
This Friday evening, I climbed onto the plane to Paris. The take off was so bad that to take off my mind from the uneasy sensation in my stomach and head, I picked up the Air-france magazine. I was turning pages looking at pictures, cursing the pilot and the weather when I stumbled upon advertisements of these two interesting film festivals. Unfortunately the first one...
by Neeraja at March 23rd, 2008 at 06:03 pm