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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 resident Bengalis in Houston may have your DVDs flown down but Calcuttans don’t queue up at the theatres for a Dosar or a Kaalpurush or a 15 Park Avenue.
But maybe someone out there has found the impossible formula of how to get Bengalis back to the cinemas. In Calcutta and elsewhere. Perhaps, fingers crossed and wood touched, it’s finally happening!
Dutt’s the man, Anjan Dutt. Mrinal Sen’s favourite actor, a musical phenomenon, a failed Bollywood film-maker, Dutt knows what he is saying when he says …

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 then walks off. There’s a cut and The Bride comes and wipes off the letters B I L L from the window. She does it in one go, looks at the window and then wipes of the little residue of BILL in the corner.
I can’t get over this shot. Every time I watch Quentin Tarantino’s 4th film, and I have watched it more number of times than MF Hussain has seen Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, I am totally fascinated. If Uma …

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 of his films are completely redundant.

Like this scene towards the end of the film when Francis (Owen Wilson) unwraps his bandage to reveal the wounds he suffered in an accident (maybe attempted suicide). The three are all looking at the bathroom mirror, with brothers Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) checking out Francis’s bloody face reflected on the glass.
Francis: I guess I’ve still got a lot of healing to do.
Jack: Gettin’ there, though.
Peter: Anyway, it’s definitely going to add a lot of character to you.

It’s completely sumptuous but what makes …

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 written about this here on PFC that it’s very difficult to make a small Hindi film and get seen. You can scratch your heads and the two names you will come up with are Iqbal and Khosla Ka Ghosla. Exceptions like that prove the rule.
As a prospective first-time director I was not thinking of getting a big star cast or a big budget, both of which are inseparable concepts. So I thought I was better off making a small Bengali film with limited …

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 one. The paper I write for, they too, are going by the box office profits as a basis for zeroing on the best films of the year 2007. Which gives me complete liberty to pick my favourite 10 Bollywood films of this year. Here they are in no particular order with a couple of lines on why I think they should be on the list.

1. Chak De! India - Formula story reaching great heights for the choice …

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. You understand his understanding of the medium in general.

I remember how I watched all the Almodovar films back to back, over a week. I watched all the Coen Brothers movies one after the other. Even for Guru Dutt I saw everything from Baazi to Kaagaz Ke Phool without a David Dhawan or a Wachowski Brothers break. And it is such a joy when you can feel the same warmth in the frames, the same glow in the faces, the same layers in the folds. It is NOT …

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 (Kolkata), my colleague is sitting with four people in an even bigger audi watching Manish Acharya’s Loins of Punjab Presents. My friend, she wants to laugh but she finds it odd laughing alone. The only time she can’t hold her laughter is when one of the musical show contestants in the film sings the national anthem and one of the four audience members stands up in respect.

I am worried. I really am. And even though Anurag’s posts and his sheer optimism (ask him about the chances of Paanch …

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 films plus Bunty Aur Babli, Shoonya) and he picked me to direct this short. It’s called Justuju (Quest), a short about man’s perennial pursuit to cling on to love or to his loved one(s). In the film, a guy returns to his college to relive his lost love. The short was selected to be screened at the Poitiers International Video Festival in France. Hope you like it. Please leave your comments. That always helps. Thanks.

P.S. The dialogues at the …

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 debuted with Khamoshi, went on to make Hum Dil De Chuka Sanam, Devdas and Black. Bhansali means a lot of things to a lot of people. For some he is modern Indian cinema’s only auteur, the only cinematic progeny of Guru Dutt, the only star director of our times. For others, he is a big ball of shit who disguises everything in grandiose but fake sets and copy-pastes other cinematic treatments calling them his own.

Well, the way I look at him, and the entire purpose of this …

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 on how he ideated, scripted and executed Chak De India. Also, a very Happy Independence Day to everyone. Chak De…

The idea: A couple of years back, I had just finished doing Company. Between Company and Khosla Ka Ghosla… In fact Khosla Ka Ghosla we had done first but Bunty Aur Babli got released earlier (smiles)… Somewhere around that time I read this article about the Indian women’s hockey team doing well in some championship. It seemed like a thing to …

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 if RGV Ki Fire (it’s hopefully not Brokeback Mountain meets Deepa Mehta) backfires or sets screens on fire. Till then we will continue to slam the man for every little twist he turns into his script, from the cleavage drop of Mehbooba o mehbooba to the length of Thakur’s flapping kurta.

For some more food for thought on RGV, I am presenting this anthology of sorts. It’s a list of people he has introduced in this industry. What I started …

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 been following Aamir’s blog on lagaandvd.com. I mean he gets a 1,000 replies on an average even when he is talking about his fondness for Federer. Anyway, in one of his blog posts titled “Ghajini” he writes about why he agreed to do the remake of the Tamil film by A. Murugadoss. For those who didn’t read his post, here are a few chosen lines…

Aamir writes: “When I was offered GHAJINI I didn’t take it very seriously as I’m not usually keen on remakes. But when I saw the film I really loved …