Pratim D. Gupta | PassionforCinema

I have been writing about cinema for The Telegraph newspaper in Calcutta, the largest selling English daily in east India, for the last 5 years. It was the love for movies that prompted me not to pursue a career in medicine and do mass communication and film studies from St Xavier

Pratim D. Gupta's Blog

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Tim Burton – The 9-letter Genius
His name is made of exactly nine letters. For some those nine letters add up to ECCENTRIC. For the rest of us, the nine letters add up to INGENIOUS. Let’s just call him TIM BURTON. When you spell out those nine letters in that order with a pause after the first three letters, that is when you call out the name of Tim Burton, certain images are evoked in your mind....
by Pratim D. Gupta at August 5th, 2009 at 09:08 pm
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Harry Potter and the Half-Baked Mince
All mush and no myth in HP6 Confession 1: I am not a Harry Potter fan. Confession 2: I haven’t read a single Harry Potter book. I am not proud of the fact but it just happened that I somehow never got myself to pick up one of those Bibles. Confession 3: I have watched all the Harry Potter films and have followed the story sketchily over the years. I wouldn’t...
by Pratim D. Gupta at July 15th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
11
Why did the Brake Fail…
I am going a bit regional here… I think this post will only interest people who have interest in Bengali cinema. And since not much of Tollywood is represented in PFC anyway, this may not be that bad an idea… This is mainly about this guy called Kaushik Ganguly whose fourth film Brake Fail released today in Bengal. The film premiered last night at a city multiplex...
by Pratim D. Gupta at July 10th, 2009 at 10:07 am
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How to script a screenplay
Ok, this is no “how to” post and I am obviously no expert. Yes, I have written a couple of scripts, make that four, but since they are unproduced they are not applicable. Recently I have had the privilege of spending time and co-writing a script with one of the best film-makers of the country, certainly the best scriptwriter around. I don’t want to take...
by Pratim D. Gupta at April 25th, 2009 at 01:04 am
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Rahul: Naam toh suna hoga?
Have you noticed that while we can’t remember last year’s songs, the popularity of RD Burman’s music is expanding every day? Asks Javed Akhtar, who wrote the words for Pancham’s last major film score 1942: A Love Story besides the lyrics of RD soundtracks like Saagar and Gardish. Let’s forget the plethora of remix albums and how the DJ Aqeels...
by Pratim D. Gupta at April 1st, 2009 at 03:04 pm
14
Bollywood 2008 My 10
It’s kind of a ritual for critics in the West to pick their favourite 10 films of the year gone by and even here in Bollywood newspapers and news channels are pouncing on the habit. But sadly, most of the papers and channels pick the Top 10 based on box office collections. While that to me is a great barometer to judge the quality of the film, it is not necessarily...
by Pratim D. Gupta at December 31st, 2008 at 05:12 am
11
Let’s fight movie terrorism!
When the twin towers got hit on September 11, 2001, we all felt bad… we all watched CNN… we all condemned terrorism but that’s it. We didn’t do anything about it like the way we are all doing now. Lighting candles, wearing black, walking out in numbers, being vocal on the net, writing letters, filing petitions… today we are angry and scared....
by Pratim D. Gupta at December 6th, 2008 at 12:12 am
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Movie Quiz I
Here are some questions from the Film Quiz that I conducted at Starmark (the erstwhile Landmark) here in Calcutta some time back. Thought it would be a good idea to post them here. Write in with your answers and try not to google. Will put up the answers — and the names of the people who got a particular answer right for the first time — at the end of the post...
by Pratim D. Gupta at October 14th, 2008 at 11:10 am
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Lear stirs, he lives…
Towards the end of Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear, in a scene, Amitabh Bachchan’s Harry is about to take a step which can put his life at risk. As the tension builds up towards the moment I suddenly felt what if Bachchan died today. Yes, what if Bachchan died today. This man, who had failure pinned on him from the day he faced the arclights, had 12 flops back...
by Pratim D. Gupta at September 12th, 2008 at 01:09 pm
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Anurag & I… Jab Imtiaz Spoke
Imtiaz Ali, the man who gifted us Jab We Met and Socha Na Tha, is in Calcutta to shoot a small schedule of his next film that is Saif Ali Khan’s first home production and stars Saif alongside Deepika Padukone. I caught up with the man and having done the Q&A for The Telegraph, we got chatting about other things. Anurag Kashyap, his friend, came up soon enough...
by Pratim D. Gupta at September 3rd, 2008 at 09:09 am
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Rock On is My Story and Yours
Every morning I would double click the Vanish icon on my desktop. It’s a Final Draft file, a script I am writing, hoping to turn it into a film. If I look at the script five times, I look at the clock on the wall seven times. It’s time, I have to go to office and hunt for an interview, dig out a story and make the newspaper page on Quark Express software. I...
by Pratim D. Gupta at August 28th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
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Ramu, ab phoonk de…
A monkey. A giraffe. An onion. A soft toy. A lemon. A soft ball. They have all moved court to get a stay order on Ram Gopal Varma Ki Phoonk. Their claim: they have not been credited in the beginning or end of the movie. “After all we are the main characters,” says On Ion, whose appearance shot in the film is a staggering close-up filling up half of the cinemascope...
by Pratim D. Gupta at August 24th, 2008 at 03:08 am
14
Anjan Dutt – the new ray of hope
That urban Bengali cinema has been dead meat for the last couple of decades is as widespread a phenomenon as the very existence of Bengalis across the face of the earth. Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Aparna Sen, yes folks you are very good film-makers and we critics love your work but sadly the people haven’t turned up to watch your stuff. A couple of non...
by Pratim D. Gupta at June 21st, 2008 at 11:06 pm
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Why Bill never gets Killed
There’s a shot in Kill Bill when The Bride meets Hattori Hanzo in Okinawa to get his steel and learn the art of using a HH sword from him. They do not discuss Bill, another Hanzo associate, but talk about The Bride’s vermin. Vermin of revenge. Finally as part of a guessing game, in quite a lengthy shot Hanzo writes Bill on the glass window with his finger and...
by Pratim D. Gupta at June 19th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
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The Darjeeling Limited: Musically yours!
Just saw Wes Anderson’s latest fratricidal fun-on-the-run The Darjeeling Limited! Totally loved it. Love the meandering (and seeking) nature of the narrative, which is similar in structure to the Coens’ comedy work but yet so different. And that’s got a lot to do with Anderson’s dialogues, which sound profound if put on paper but in the context...
by Pratim D. Gupta at February 28th, 2008 at 06:02 am
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No Sunglass in Ray land
Four years back just after passing out of college, I started writing a film script. It was initially meant to be in Hindi but in the 1200-odd days (of writing, thinking, deleting, more writing, more deleting) that followed I figured out that I was better off making my first film in my regional language, Bengali. Why? Well, because I have been a firm believer and I have...
by Pratim D. Gupta at January 8th, 2008 at 06:01 am
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Bollywood Top 10 2007
It’s kind of a ritual for critics in the West to pick the Top 10 films of the year gone by and even here in Bollywood newspapers and news channels are pouncing on the habit. But sadly, most of the papers and channels pick the Top 10 based on box office collections. While that to me is a great barometer to judge the quality of the film, it is not necessarily the best...
by Pratim D. Gupta at December 28th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
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No Smoking: The Hanzo sword which cut through ‘God’
DISCLAIMER: The opinion in this article is entirely mine and bears no viewpoints of any other author of PFC. If this piece of writing hurts anybody, I sincerely apologise for the same. The best way, according to me, to understand a film director is to watch his films together. You understand his creativity across the reels. You understand his sensibility beyond one story....
by Pratim D. Gupta at October 28th, 2007 at 05:10 am
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Gloom barabar gloom
Friday the 21st of September, 10am, INOX (Kolkata), I am sitting with five people sprinkled in different parts of the 250-capacity audi and watching Navdeep’s Manorama. By the time the interval comes one of the multiplex personnels have joined the lonely gang and by the time move ends, even the cleaner is completely hooked. Head count: 7. Same day, same time, FAME...
by Pratim D. Gupta at September 23rd, 2007 at 12:09 pm
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Justuju (2002) – My first film
This seems to be a season of first films. All my PFC friends – from Kartik to Somen to Mainak – are posting their first videos. That inspired me to scan my hard drive and do a lot of converting to present to all of you the first film I made. This was in 2002 my second year in college. We had a workshop by cinematographer Abheek Mukhopadhyay (all Rituparno Ghosh...
by Pratim D. Gupta at September 13th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
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SLB & Saawariya: Oppression of Opulence
First, a lot of firsts. The first teaser of Saawariya (saawariyafilm.com) is out. This is the first Indian co-production of Sony Pictures. This is the first film of Rishi Kapoor’s son Ranvir Kapoor and Anil Kapoor’s daughter Sonam Kapoor. And it is being billed the first international film from India. Oh, I forgot – it’s a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film. The man who...
by Pratim D. Gupta at August 25th, 2007 at 10:08 am
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How Jaideep Chak De-ed (Exclusive on PFC)
It’s rare in our industry to talk to or about scriptwriters but Jaideep Sahni (Jungle, Company, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Bunty Aur Babli) has changed all that. He is not only doing a whole lot of good for his breed, which is still rare in Bollywood, but he has also been the reason behind some terrific cinema in the recent past. Here’s an exclusive chat with Jaideep for PFC...
by Pratim D. Gupta at August 15th, 2007 at 10:08 am
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Re-introducing RGV…
We love to hate him these days. For reasons as varied as his recent on-screen outings to his off-screen quote martials. Now, with Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag releasing in a couple of weeks, we are long ready with our knives out. And the man knows it that if he flounders one more time the ready obits will be published with elan. Well we have to wait till end-August to find out...
by Pratim D. Gupta at August 3rd, 2007 at 05:08 pm
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Aamir’s Momentous Memento
Friends, film-makers, and film-buffs, it’s indeed an honour to write on PFC. And since this is my first post, just wanted to introduce myself… I write about cinema for The Telegraph newspaper, the largest selling English daily in Calcutta, and I am an aspiring writer-film-maker (hopefully not the “who isn’t?” kind). I am sure many of you have...
by Pratim D. Gupta at July 27th, 2007 at 12:07 pm