logo

What is Mendel’s law of segregation?
A 12 cm by 18 cm picture is enlarged to 4 times its area. What are the new dimensions?
State how prokaryotic cells and eukaryotic cells differ …..

How many times have I stared at my test paper stumped by the very first question? Stumped is an understatement. Trembling, sweating, unblinking tormented soul reduced to a pathetic nonentity of dust particle is more like it. Writing and erasing an answer so many number of times… fidget… scratch head… what the heck… hmm this will do… drat! I erased a hole in my answer sheet!

For those of you who have those superb science/math oriented grey cells, get this – you’ll never ever begin to understand the trauma and bewilderment a pure arts brain goes through when it sees a science/math paper. When the paper asks me to solve a sum using …

Michael Jackson did not sing his famous song “Dangerous” keeping Charles Shobhraj in his mind but dangerous word has become synonymous with the name of Charles Shobhraj.

Charles Shobhraj has been one of the most infamous international criminal since 1970s.

As per news a film is going to be made on the life of Charles Shobhraj and Sanjay Dutt has to play the role of a suave criminal.

After playing the simple, golden-hearted Munnabhai, Bollywood top star Sanjay Dutt is set to metamorphose into a cold, calculating serial killer - a la Charles Shobhraj in a film called ‘Charles and I’.

Made by People Pictures, the racy thriller will be helmed by ace director Prawaal Raman and tells the story of the enigmatic French criminal of Indian and Vietnamese origin who sent the …

Its always a numb feeling when one finishes a film. Although it is supposed to be my work, my profession, the last day of shoot is akin to the thrill of a ‘walk on the razors edge’ having come to an end.

It is like Robert Duvalls character in “Apocalypse Now” where he makes his way to bomb the battlefields of Vietnam to the accompaniment of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries not knowing whether he will come out of it alive , he walks on the battle scarred land, looks around him and comments “ I like the smell of ‘Napalm’…it smells of victory”.

One goes through gruelling schedules, days and nights of pushing oneself beyond all limits, setting up daunting goals, fighting against time all the time . But like a soldier who is truly breathing only when the smell of ‘ Napalm’ is around him, …

Pavan Kaul is extremely tied up in the release process of Bhram and sent in these videos.

The first is a 30 second sneak peek into Bhram, followed by the songs!

Sonu Song.. Jaane kyon

Teri aankhon ki narmi

Meri akhiyaan - Richa ( full song)

I am a bad boy

Jaane kaisa hai tu - Shaan

Was pleasantly surprised to see the script of No Smoking in my email box this morning. Due to the many requests we’ve been receiving so far to start a script section on PFC, here’s our first… No Smoking.

It is not the final script. It’s the seventh draft that was still lying on Anurag’s computer and in his own words “…you will see what’s missing from it in the film and what is added later like the comic bubbles…”

So, click on the link below to start reading the script. Enjoy! (the entire script may take a minute or two to load)

Flashpaper

The Script of No Smoking, seventh draft

Warning: This is not a review. This is an extremely personal letter to K - the protagonist of No Smoking. No one forces you to read, leave alone comment!

Dear K,

Hey! I saw the film they made about you. It’s about your smoking habit, they think. I don’t think so. It didn’t have an email address to reach you so I am posting the letter here.

You know, when I was getting into the auto rickshaw to get to watch No Smoking, a madman followed me. I ignored him and he started to follow all the way into the rickshaw. The other side of the rickshaw was blocked as well. The driver was a bit stumped and took time to react, he thought that man was with me, but I panicked for I didn’t know him. The auto rickshaw man took charge and began hurling the choicest abuses at once. …

PFC was in attendence for the facilitation of the winners on of the poster contest for the Film No-Smoking. John was there to give away the cash prizes worth Rs. 25,000 each to the winners. Elvis where there in person. Zaheer and Manav were represented by their parents. Ms. Masooma Contractor was there on Zaheer’s behalf and Mr. and Mrs. Doshi were there for Manav. Me look really look lika a wannabe RGV with my stupid “muchi” and venting my views like a pro….cring even looking at them….kuch zyada hi footage kha liya…anyways without further ado…..Lets take you to the All Sports Bar at Andheri where it all happened.

Thanks to Vasan, KK, Manjeet & the entire PFC Mumbai Gang.

The video’s below are the same in two different formats. Enjoy!

[display_podcast]

AK …

IFFLA 2008 Announces Call for Entries
The Sixth Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) seeks narrative, documentary, music videos, experimental, children’s and animated films of any length and format. IFFLA will run April 22-27, 2008 at ArcLight Hollywood, a state-of-the-art facility located in the heart of Los Angeles. Jury and Audience Choice Prizes will be awarded for Best Feature, Documentary and Short Film.
IFFLA 2007 had over 6,000 attendees and screened 36 films from 8 countries. In addition to the high-quality of presentation of their work, filmmakers in attendance gained access to an eclectic mix of professionals from the Los Angeles film industry.

Check out what our past filmmakers …

Mumbai Meri Jaan’s (MMJ) latest schedule just started. Ashish Shukla and I were keen on visiting the sets. The shoot was suppose to start at 9:00 am in a studio, but was delayed till 2:00 pm, as the unit had to complete the balance outdoor scenes from yesterday. Shooting outdoors is indeed a challenging task. With little control over the elements any amount of planning is found wanting. It makes the filming even more difficult. One has to take decisions fast and correct. We off course were not sincere to reach at 9:00 am. But were there few hours late. It was still too early for the shoot to start. We decided it was time for lunch. After the meal of Aloo Paranthas and still some time left we decided to look around in the local mall. Ashish just could not control the temptation of buying designer underwears. He bought …

Confessions of an (Irr) fan - “Yahaan kitney baje andhera hota hai Dada ? ”

It was a normal working day on thursday untill Oz called me up and informed me that Irrfan is on the sets of Nishida’s MMJ on friday shooting schedule. My eyes widened and i immideately went up to my TeamLead and informed him “I will be on an official planned sick leave on friday. Going to meet Irrfan Khan”

My Team Lead replied “Irrfan who ??”

In a Maqboolesque-killing-Abbaji-with-Silencered-revolver I shot dead my Team Lead !!!

My colleagus surrounded me dumbstruck… “Kya mila tujhey ?”

I replied back ” Kya mila mujhey ?? 3 saal ki naukri .. 3 saaley ki saali kuttey ki tarah vafadari … code kiya .. bugs kaatey … kya mila mujhey ???”

Noticing I had got into the Irrfan-Monologue deleruim … they politely left me. I smiled and went home …

I was in Delhi when Oz called. The Mumbai Meri Jaan shoot was on but I couldn’t make it. Got back to Mumbai and got in touch with the gang to catch up with PFC and get a chance to spend a few hours on a shoot and get back to Mumbai-mode. I am glad I did.

Another interesting film but we can’t talk much yet. Wait for it, you’ll know.

It seems like a film that wants to get into the Mumbai spirit passionately to capture part-reality part-fiction.

The day I landed on the sets of Mumbai Meri Jaan, Nishikant and his crew was shooting a conversational scene outdoor, mid-traffic somewhere in Dadar and then shifting to an Interior location in Mahim.

To my still-outsider- to- Mumbai eyes it was quite wonderful to be out on the streets in rainy Mumbai. Well..Delhi has rain too..but you’ll never find …

Srinivas, a young and passionate film maker from India was present at IFFLA-2007 in Los Angeles. His first short film ‘Tea break’ was screened at the film festival and later it won the best film award in Short film category. What a brilliant start for a beginner. Now he is one of the member of elite film-makers group at PFC. Good to have you here Srinivas.

I and Varun got a chance to talk to him about his start as a film-maker and his experiences while making of ‘Tea break’. Fortunately I had a camera with me and he agreed to give us a short interview. Varun, as an interviewer did a great job. I apologize for the delay in posting this interesting interview. Finally, here it is; thoughts and views of Srinivas, winner of Best short Film, at IFFLA-2007….

“I have not seen a single Guru Dutt film!!!!“. As Somen, Kartik and me heard these words we almost had a Zombi moment….I could hear Guru Dutt screaming loud and clear in my ears….. “jaladoo…issee…..phoonk dalo..yeh duniyaa….”. But then that’s how he is frank, chilled out …he is passionate about his film…he does admit Oliver Stone is like his “Khuda” but in the same breath admits he is not too much into cinema viewing…he has a simple philosophy try and make a film to know how to make a film….no amount of viewing will help you unless you make one”…Words of wisdom poured over on this rather rain drenched night at Vile Parle. We are at the shoot of Nishikant’s “Mumbai Meri Jaan”.

Have been hearing about him since long and after he met the US PFC junta at IFFLA earlier this year we too were eager to meet him. As …

June 16th, 2007, 3pm

I arrived at the venue where the biggest Indian film release of the weekend… no wait, not weekend.. biggest Indian film release of the year, had attracted a crowd of 500+ fanatics of all ages, caste, and believe it or not, colour (yes, there were Americans!). The organizers of this film screening tried hard to keep people inside the ropes, as if trying to keep the bulls well-cornered at El Encierro before the stampede let loose. It was an amusing sight to watch, no doubt, but what amused me even more as I was being involuntarily moved along in this mosh pit was the thought of rewinding myself back to the experience of watching a film only a couple of hours before…

January 16th, 2007, 12:30pm

A crowd of one. I’m sitting in my room, happy to have just received my password to watch …

About 2 months ago. It was around 2am in Orange County. We all were about to crash into our beds. While Nishikant was swinging between watching American TV, answering my questions on cinema and dozing off, while Anurag was busy on my computer checking his emails and loudly poking jokes at us from the other room. And as Nishikant was talking about how, what, where and why of his style of work on sets, I got to realize that here was guy who had such a completely different style of working than Anurag. Nishi likes to be left alone on sets. Nothing should come between his technicians and actors during a shoot. So if an actor is late or the grip is missing, it was upto the ADs to tackle the problem and leave Nishikant completely immersed in his shoot.

Which became a challenge for us… while on Anurag’s sets, …

Kamal Kamaraju, lead actor of Confessions of a Filmmaker sent me this funny story that I couldn’t resist and had to publish for your pleasure.

Dont forget to watch out the space @ Confessions of a Filmmaker website for the June 15th internet release of COF.

Have a look at the poster in the meantime

Poster

There is a slight shift in the mood as we started that evening for the days shoot…there could be three possible reasons

1) Overly stressed routine of the shoot which was now extending into the 24th day

2) I have a clean shave, sporting a moustache.

3) we are shooting some refreshing love sequence as an image sequence…

But no, none of the above were more overwhelming than one important association to this scene..a skirt!!!.. Yes a damn white skirt which was to be worn by the girl.. in the image …

So as the film nears its release date, I am faced with questions I ask myself often. “Anish, whatever got into your head, to make a film like this”? A damn good question, I must say myself. Shouldn’t every filmmaker confront himself with a question like this.?
Let’s see….did I hope to make money? not really….however I hope I can validate my investment by recovering it…..
did I make it,because I thought it was important? yes,ofcourse, I knew it was important…I knew it was important enough for me to risk all the goodwill I have fostered over the years in this place…..

I was hurting….and making this film was my only way to finding some peace….A peace, that I will finally have, once the movie comes out this Friday….yes, a peace that will take over me, whether its ridiculed, or whether it earns $2 gross.
Somehow, the things that’s most important for …

Had an opportunity to talk to Kamal Kamaraju, the lead actor of Confessions of a Filmmaker. As promised i will be bringing in news about the movie. While the Trailers, Music videos, etc are on the way…how about having a one-on-one with the actor himself. Right, Kamal will be here to answer all your queries. Right on this blog, right on this article.

Having said that, i had a conversation with the man himself over the phone, and what a conversation it was. Kamal was off the hook. A pucca hyderabadi…..as Nagesh Kukunoor says in Hyderabad Blues ” once a hyderabadi always a hyderabadi”….Their a peculiar way Hyderabadis pronounce ” Cafe” and nah its not Ca-fey as is the usual norm, we pronounce it ” k-ef”….hadn’t heard that for a long time…..Kamal brought me back those memories…thanks for that Kamal.

Kamal is an Architect, …

GALA EVENT: Music Release of Confessions of a Filmmaker

Where: Passionforcinema.com

When: Right Now

Invitees: Viewers of Passionforcinema.com

Speakers: YOU!!!!!!

Just got off phone with Anish Kuruvilla and boy o boy does he have plans or does he have plans? Currently i am bound with a verbal contract not to reveal anything as of now…but, rest assured that something big is on the way. Though this post is not about the big plan concerning Anish and Confessions of a Filmmaker, i promise i will be giving away subtle hints on them, you can read between the lines, eh?

Anish has decided for …

Finally .. A nightmare of a process is over.. after three months in the editing room, we have it locked.. we missed the Cannes deadline .. we haven’t yet announced the poster contest winner.. we missed a lot else.. so much for telling everyone that it will be a hundred minute film.. I ended making a 160 minute film.. its so painful to cut out your favourite shots.. its so difficult to find objectivity.. I had to frequently get away from the film to find it..had to take week long, sometimes a fortnight sabbatical from it to fall out of love with my shots.. Finally had to ask Vishal to come in and be ruthless with my film.. who do I have to thank for it.. Mira Nair.. still remember what she said to me when I complemented her on her economy of shots , she said ,”oh we …