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2008 has been a particularly good year for debutant directors.. I was particularly impressed by Raj Kumar Gupta(Aamir) and Neeraj Pandey( A Wednesday). Last Friday, Jaideep Verma, a fellow novelist, released his first film, Hulla, which I’m told is fairly impressive. Have to watch it soon!

This post, however, is for my friend Girish Joshi, another debutant director, whose film Zor Laga Kar Haiyaa should release in December.

Last Monday, Girish held a special screening of his movie at Fun Republic. This was a movie I had been eagerly waiting for, as Girish had narrated the script to me in the days when he would pitch it to producers. This was a subject we all believed in- it delves into the need for tree conversation and has children enacting pivotal roles.

Prior to directing this film, Girish had assisted Raj Kumar Santoshi on Khakee and Shaheed Bhagat Singh. He was also the …

Khuda Kay Liye is a story of grave ironies and deals with some inescapable issues centered around religion.

The lives of two brothers, Mansoor and Sarmad, belonging to an affluent, liberal minded family in Lahore and pursing music as their profession, take unexpectedly cruel turns. One falls prey to indoctrination towards religious extremism. The other becomes a victim of racial profiling in the US, post 9/11. Add to that some interesting characters, each bringing in his own take to the issues: the retrograde Maulana Tahiri, who has a problem with everything that brings happiness to people- as the elder brother Mansoor tells Sarmad; or the chauvinist dual-faced Uncle who has lived his life in London and had a gala time with English women, but dumps his own daughter into Afghanistan to be deceptively married to her own cousin- just to prevent her from getting married outside the religion; or Maulana Wali(played …

I happened to see “Death of a President” recently. The movie follows the investigation of the fictional assassination of President George W. Bush in October 2007. Combining real archival footage with a credible but fictional story, the movie presents a thought-provoking political thriller.
Some interesting political stories have, in fact, been released in India in recent years: Syriana and Crash, being the recent notable ones that I can think of. However to weave a story around the death a living and serving President getting assassinated and an investigative story solving the murder, I thought required tons of conviction. Quite expectedly, the movie was mired in controversy. US theatres banned its screening. Moreover, critical acclaim notwithstanding, it drew opposition from Republicans and Democrats alike.
As for the movie itself, well it has a riveting first 30 minutes till the point the President is murdered on a trip to Chicago and a …

My novel, “that thing called Love” was launched in Mumbai on 25thSeptember last year. After the Mumbai launch, a Delhi reading took place on 1st November. Initial sales were pretty good, media reports were decent and most of the feedback I got from readers was positive.

It was in early March this year that I decided to do another event around the book. However I didn’t want it to be another reading session, which can get boring beyond a point. I woke up one morning visualizing a particular scene from the novel as it would appear on screen if the film, based on the book actually happens. And I knew what needed to be done.

I called up my friend, Manasvi and discussed the idea of shooting a short film based on the novel. He was pretty excited, especially as he had liked the book. However he suggested we shoot a teaser/promo …

The first posters of Dhokha went up on hoardings by end July if I remember correctly. They declared, “Some Betrayals are never forgotten.” I thought that was rather provocative, considering that the story dealt with an extremely sensitive issue like the involvement of a certain community in the bomb blasts.

Thereafter, I followed the pre-release interviews of Mahesh Bhatt. Mr. Bhatt, invariably spoke about ‘certain promises that were made to Muslims at the time of Independence and which have not been met; he spoke about the strong sense of resentment that is building up in communally sensitive pockets and which needs to be addressed immediately.

Well, I’m sure we all agree with that. We all do realize that a volcano is about to erupt; one which will probably be much more decimating than the twin blasts that rocked Hyderabad last month. To that extent, as a concerned citizen, …