thani
A Screenwriter. I write here on PFC, and blog at http://thaniblog.blogspot.com/

 

thani's Blog

  • 19
    Sankat City: Pay-off Master
    Befitting the preposterously loony & delightful characters he’s unleashed upon us, Pankaj Advani walked into the cinema-hall Friday night, veiled in a, yes, Burqa. Not surprisingly, the self-aggrandizing ploy didn’t work, at all; as the only straight-faced soul in a hall-full of hysterical communal film savouring, the maker of the film, playing the voyeur that...
    by thani at July 13th, 2009 at 06:07 am
  • 6
    Firaaq: Cathartic Cinema
    The present decade has been the best for Hindi cinema in a long while. Nandita Das’ Firaaq joins the list of outstanding d'©buts made in the period. Firaaq is a day in the life of Ahmedabad in the aftermath of the Gujarat carnage of 2002. An ensemble narrative, Firaaq is peopled with stories that happen to converge on a particular day, of the ones who return from...
    by thani at March 23rd, 2009 at 03:03 am
  • 18
    Dev.D: Can love be monogamous?
    Every filmmaker seems to have a Devdas in him. Emir Kusturica has made two Devdases back to back, in 1989 (Time of the Gypsies) and 1993 (Arizona Dream). While Time of the Gypsies could be described as a (sort of) Devdas sans Chanda, Arizona Dream is a full-blooded recasting of the Devdas affezione, where Johnny Depp is torn between his love for Faye Dunaway’s...
    by thani at February 7th, 2009 at 04:02 pm
  • 123
    Aamir Review: Counterfeit Cinema
    Rajkumar Gupta: “Kaun kehta hain ki aadmi apni kismat khud likhta hain?” thani: “Kismat agar khud likh sakte, to usey kismat kyon kehte!” Anurag Kashyap is India’s most provocative filmmaker. With his filmmaking, he creates avenues for scores of cinephiles to dream their cinematic dreams, and when that’s not satisfactorily accomplished he angers them...
    by thani at June 6th, 2008 at 01:06 pm
  • 13
    India and Cannes: A Reluctant Courtship
    “India embraces the cinema of the whole world…In a future issue, I shall show why India is the creation of the whole world.” Jean-Luc Godard It has been 14 long years since an Indian Film has made the Competition Selection of the Cannes International Film Festival. And that particular Competition Selection, Shaji Karun’s second feature Swaham (1994), happens to...
    by thani at May 12th, 2008 at 07:05 am
  • 15
    Dan in Real Life review: the Amritrajs, Nude Juliette Binoche, & my de-nuded Accent.
    Friday April 11th 2008. Fame Adlabs Multiplex, Andheri, Mumbai – The 11.15 p.m. show. Dan In Real Life is essentially a romantic comedy (romcom), albeit of the much-abused feel-good variety, a genre who’s abuser & the abused is ironically the very same entity – Hollywood. Television’s Steve Carell & French thespian Juliette Binoche star in this...
    by thani at April 12th, 2008 at 01:04 pm
  • 7
    Darna Zaroori Hai: Spoiler-defying, & Camera as Ghost.
    RGV announced the making of Darna Zaroori Hai on the morning of the Darna Mana Hai release day in August 2003, not waiting for the Box Office to determine the making of the sequel. To refresh memories, Darna Mana Hai & Darna Zaroori Hai are RGV’s compilation films consisting of 6-7 segments each, helmed by a proportionate number of directors, releasing 3 years apart...
    by thani at February 20th, 2008 at 08:02 am
  • 19
    After some ‘Me Time’ it’s RGV Time. All over again.
    Thanks to Oprah Winfrey’s Therepautic Magic on the Tube, ‘Me Time’ has become an emancipator for stressed souls all over. ‘Me Time’ is prescribed as remedy for people who think they are “endlessly fulfilling every obligation except the one to themselves”. Maybe all RGV needed was to do what he needed to do to keep himself going. Which partly explains the...
    by thani at February 20th, 2008 at 02:02 am
  • 12
    Bombay to Bangkok Review: Disclaimer Filmmaking
    [This is a re-posting of a review originally posted here, on PFC, on January 21, 2008 at 7:38 pm] No make happy? Yes make happy? No happy, no money! As bizarre as it may sound, it has to be said that this is an excerpt of an important interaction between the leads in Nagesh Kukunoor’s Bombay to Bangkok, the making happy standing-in for copulation in Thai-English. While...
    by thani at January 30th, 2008 at 09:01 am
  • 4
    Halla Bol Review: Conscience, Goregaon-Style!
    [This is a re-posting of a review originally posted elsewhere, on PFC, on January 14, 2008 at 8:04 pm] Street Theatre practitioner, & Cinema-Hero-aspirant, Ashfaque (AjayDevgan) has just managed to get the go-ahead from his father, to chase his heroic dream in Bombay. He meets the ladylove of his life, Sneha (VidyaBalan), in a farewell-walk in the environs of a Goregaoned...
    by thani at January 21st, 2008 at 10:01 pm
  • 33
    2007, Indian Cinema in the Year of Anurag Kashyap
    Jean-Pierre Melville was there. A full decade before the ‘there’ would be christened La Nouvelle Vague [French New Wave Cinema]. Though released on April 22nd 1949, Melville was filming his debut feature Le Silence de la Mer in 1947 in methods that he himself later enthusiastically acceded as the New Wave aesthetics – “…natural location, non-synchronized...
    by thani at December 31st, 2007 at 09:12 am
  • 59
    Taare Zameen Par review: NGO filmmaking
    Every human life, in the way it’s lived, holds, & makes for, at least one feature-length film. While Brando popularized Method Acting, Tarantino the Method Writing, Novelists/Filmmakers living their book/film (much before it becomes the final work) has been in vogue through the entire course of both the disciplines. In that sense could we term this phenomenon Method...
    by thani at December 23rd, 2007 at 05:12 am
  • 17
    Khoya Khoya Chand review: Bhansalification of Sudhir Mishra
    Life seems to have come a full-circle for Sudhir Mishra’s protagonists Zafar & Nikhat, for Sudhir Mishra’s producer Prakash Jha, & for Sudhir Mishra himself. I’ll start with the producer. Prakash Jha in January 2005, very rightly & vocally, expressed his disappointment with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Black’ employing Rani’s...
    by thani at December 7th, 2007 at 12:12 am
  • 30
    Veri in Tamil can be loosely translated as Passion-for/ Obsession-for etc. If this website, PassionForCinema, were to be in Tamil it would be called what i have titled this piece – Cinema Veri. And Cinema Veri can also be translated as Trippy Cinema which ‘Tamil M.A’ totally is. Few films stay with you irrevocably for a particular impact. Like a certain...
    by thani at November 27th, 2007 at 02:11 pm
  • 29
    No Smoking, Calling all film-lovers! PFC’s shortest post.
    Everybody wants to be heard. Evidently, i do too when calling attention to this post with the concoction of a title i’ve come up with. Owing to our own biases (for & against), we tend to be determined to Love or Hate the film we bought a ticket for. Having done that to our heart’s fill let us not deny ourselves the experience that’s entirely ours...
    by thani at October 27th, 2007 at 04:10 pm
  • 43
    No Smoking pReview: Noir as Personal Filmmaking
    Anurag Kashyap’s 4th feature ‘No Smoking’ opens with John Abraham’s K finding himself in an apartment in an unfamiliar environ of pristine blues & whites. There’s a Russian newsreader on TV, talking about a curfew that has marching soldiers ensuring upkeep. John looks out of the window – it is the same scene from TV, & he is in Siberia! This information...
    by thani at October 21st, 2007 at 02:10 pm
  • 13
    Antardwand (2007)
    A Son’s been studying in Delhi while his parents live in the small-town of Kaanti in Bihar. The Son’s presumably no dilettante, preparing for the much sought-after [& competitive] Civil Services. Son has only-recently impregnated his girlfriend of 4 years, meant as an accident or as a Freudian slip. The couple broaches the topic of Abortion but consent to settle...
    by thani at October 2nd, 2007 at 04:10 pm
  • 130
    Manorama – an Addendum & a Re-View
    iView Author : Thani(from Project i View) Email : thanikachalam [at] gmail.com City/Country: Mumbai, India Manorama – an Addendum & a Re-View : Star Comics, in the 80’s, used to run a series of titles around Sunny Gavaskar & his myriad adventures. There Sunil Gavaskar would tackle his villains with great aplomb & still make it in time to lead...
    by thani at September 22nd, 2007 at 03:09 am
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