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Alright!

Whoever said the Black friday party video will be my next post is absolutely right!

Here it is .. ‘The Aftermath!’ –

By the way, i am quite impressed with how much Windows Movie Maker can accomplish!

Watch it – you’ll know.

So – here it is – The Aftermath – kitsch at its worst! (but a few laughs guarenteed)

Starring – Sanjay Gupta, Anurag Kashyap, Karthik Krishna, Vasan, Chaitanya, Manjeet

additional camera credit – Vasan (he shot the only portion that;’s actually lit up..when CT speaks)

Enjoy!

Go here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbmzv3JyUBw

or:

[youtube]Nbmzv3JyUBw[/youtube]

The Author loses his authority over what he has created the moment his work is put into the commercial arena, or in the public domain..thats the first lesson i learnt about filmmaking..Black Friday is finally released and i am not able to react..i have been locked in, tired of answering the same questions..seeing all the euphoria around..they are doing to black friday what they were doing to BLACK..Black Friday is not a great film, its an important film..its a necessary film..barring Deepa Gahlot no body says that the film should not be let go without a debate and i agree with her..only one word in khalid’s review i identified with..”searching”..thats how i wanted to do it..thats what my state of mind was ..i was searching..rest is all relative..I wrote “Black is a great film for those who have not seen better” and i maintain the same for Black Friday..or any …

Two viewings of Black Friday….worthwhile…Friday night..took my breath away, maybe more so by the euphoria created by the media and the response on here, after all it was in waiting for more than 2 years…Sunday i find something missing….does it mean the movie dies on you? I have no answer to it….On the first viewing I loved it, but I also felt that there was something missing in the movie which I couldn’t figure it..and blamed it on the slow first half and the Baadshah Khan track ..there was something in the movie which was stopping it from becoming a masterclass…there was something that all the other reviewers missed..or was I just over-reacting and trying to just find the minutest of mistakes? or that unconvincing factor or that something…no idea…..to start with…the DVD version that I saw had a lot of portions missing and also it had a few portions …

Film’s major achievement is the creation of many, so lively, scenes that audience forget that they are watching actors, merely playing their roles. There are several such solid scenes right from the begining when a cop slaps Gullu. And creation of such lively scenes in the film is the greatest achievement of Director Anurag Kashyap. Usually emphasis is given on actors who are given important roles and seldom directors put any concentration on supporting cast. Unlike other hindi film directors, Anurag Kashyap takes a different approach and put enough concentration on the performances of actors who have small roles in the film. Film promotes and establishes Anurag Kashyap as a good director. Film has many pluses but it has many minuses also and minuses stop it to treat as a great film.
* * * * * * * * *
There are two scenes.

(1) In first a man in …

Reactions from Delhi:

Two of my writer friends from Delhi have requested to forward their reactions to Anurag & team, on watching Black Friday with the Dilli crowd. These are fairly long emails so i am pasting them here as a combined post.

From Sucharita:

Dear Anurag,

Have you ever heard of the phrase “Do not cast pearls before swine”?

You’ve made the most brilliant movie that has ever come out of the film industry in a long, long, time. But i won’t dwell on what i liked , didn’t like, etc. It was the audience reaction in the darkened halls that got my attention.

I went to watch the second show of the film, at PVR Priya, late night. Most of the crowd was made of young people. The kind who’ve come to watch a maar-dhaad film. The rest were the posh, globalized crop, the IIT-types, which …

Hey everyone…since you all have become essential part of our team…I need to share this with all you at PFC…YESTERDAY…was a very big day for all of us…it started on a great note with me reading TA’s review on Black Friday…after I informed you guys that anurag is in Patna, I ask SMS him to check PFC for TA’s review…five minutes and he calls back…what are you saying…he goes…where are you…I go…I am at fame Adlabs…watching audience reaction…it’s interval…in the first show…but you were suppose to be in PATNA…I inquire…I missed my flight…I overslept…he informs me in a disappointed tone…I am coming in five minutes, I go…I run…my five minutes turns fifteen…I am at fame…I call AK…where are you….inside the theatre…how did you get in…I bought the tickets…how do I get in…as I did…I buy tickets for the next show… check the box office…45 percent is the first show …

Two more videos from Anurag’s discussion with the PFC team

1. Chaitanya asks Anurag about whether the stay order on Black Friday was justified and AK explains..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVa_rp_nTYA

2. Kartik asks Anurag whether the Badshah Khan track in Black Friday was required to be so long…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab6OXo2rAlY

All for now!

Since I haven’t seen any Black Friday movie reviews here, I thought I would re-post this review I had written when the film premiered in LA in 2005, winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.

—-

By Vijay Venkataramanan

On Friday, March 12, 1993, Mumbai, then known as Bombay was rocked by serial bomb blasts in its most densely populated areas. More than 250 innocent people died and hundreds more were injured. As fingers were pointed and law enforcement investigated the cause, Hussain Zaidi researched and documented the proceedings in tremendous detail in a book published two years ago. Based on the same book, Anurag Kashyap’s “Black Friday”, which is struggling for an Indian theatrical release against the wishes of the Supreme Court of India, is not just a gutsy, gritty, and mind-boggling adaptation, but is also one of the finest films …

Saurabh Dixit, PFC’s ardent fan got a chance last night to watch the special screening of Black Friday in LA. Got an excited mail from him about his experience, Saurabh says:

Black Friday Screening

7:20 in the evening I am still at my desk. The plan was to leave at 7 and go the fallbrook theater to catch the screening of Black Friday. Me thinking “First we are going to buy the tickets and then we will go to Chili’s and have coupld of drinks and finally the movie”. I wanted to watch the movie when I am drunk cause I notice a lot of things when I am a little high…no matter what kindaa high I have.

The place is 10mins from my office, still I am worried about the availablity of tickets.
I leave office at 7:30, my roommate is joining me and he is also as excited as I am. …

Here’s a video snippet from Anurag’s discussion with PFC. You’ve already heard the entire discussion that Chaitanya and Vasan uploaded earlier. I am just pulling out some portions from the video that i shot . Here’s one in which he explains how dialogue affects an actor’s performance. Enjoy!

or go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcxOlWQbHtQ

I still remember getting that call from AK…to come to TAJ LANDS END…some time in the afternoon…for the narration of the script of BLACK FRIDAY…Great…will be there…some time in the afternoon…We all are seated in the conference hall…Arindam Mitra, ChanderMohan Puppala, Anurag, Dev…I can’t recall if there was anybody else…we just wait for Mr.Sudhir Mishra or Sudhir sir as everybody calls him fondly…to join us…he comes in…greetings are exchanged…a few jokes cracked…and the narration begins…three hours of spell bounding narration…with just one break in between…a much required tea and smoke break…Anurag goes through the last page…narrates the last line…closes the script…looks towards all of us…there is few seconds of silence…then Sudhir sir goes…it’s brilliant…you have nailed it man…Arindam is more than happy… ChanderMohan is too… they know they all have nailed the script…Anurag is not sure…asks them again…they repeat the same…He smiles…he is sure…he has nailed the script…there is only …

The casting process took two months..Dr. Gautam Kishanchandani was the casting director, he hates to be called a doctor..we had two doctors working on the film..The first actor to screen test was also a doctor,that was dr.satish sharma who was rejected in the audition process but was with us during the Tashkent shoot of No Smoking..

Anyways, while writing the script few actors i always had in mind..the ones who didn’t have to audition..I wanted KK to play Rakesh Maria..Naseeruddin Shah to play Tiger memon and Irrfan to play Badshah Khan..Aditya Srivastava was to play Dangle..Nowazzuddin to play Asgar Mukadam and Pankaj jha to play theba and Dubyendu bhattacharya to play yeda yaqub..Siddhu was the only choice for samra..

We got some..others we didn’t..Naseer dropped out because he did not want to play a muslim terrorist ..it was a very sensitive time then..Gujrat was burning..and you know how in times like that …

We still didn’t have the script..

Things had not worked out with Ramu..Jhamu Sugandh by now had come on board..Mid-day also realised that they would have to put in most of the money..Tariq was game..but it being a listed company, the forming of a film company had to be passed by the board..Mid-day Multimedia ltd was already in existence making news stuff for TV..Board passed the proposal..we were on but we didn’t have a script..

Script

All this AM thought that i was working on the script..he would ask me “kitna hua” and i would say “ho raha hai”..i had figured out by then what would go into the script and what is to be left out..but i could not find a structure hence no script..then one day we were sitting at China Gate in bandra..AM,CM and me..and AM said:-

“Is it possible to structure the film in a way where it ends at …

It all began with S.hussain Zaidi..He wrote the book..he was the chief crime correspondent of mid-day..before mid-day, zaidi was working with Indian Express, covering the blasts..all i remembeed about blasts before reading the book, was the front page of TOI in delhi and images in it..images came and they went away from my memory..i was too busy trying to figure out what to do once i reach bombay..93 was the year i came to the city..june 3rd..it was raining..rains that did not stop for two days..
Anyways..so hussain was approached by Penguin to document his findings in the book..as and when hussain finished his first draft he asked Arindam Mitra to read his manuscript…now i met arindam a year before that..he was trying to create some noirish , detective TV shows for mid-day..One day when i was as usual sitting depressed(i have come to a conclusion that i thrive in that …

If you can’t beat them, do not join them..arrange to have them beaten..and how do you arrange that..by prayers? get God on your side? does he care? is he there?..rest of the industry wants you to help them grow, they don’t want you to grow..have i started believing in conspiracy theories..am i getting delusional again or am i reading too much into things..What is the art of survival? in the March of the Penguins, it says when the mother doesn’t get back on time with the food, the father abandons the baby to the cold winter and rushes to the ocean for its own survival..so should we abandon our children, our babies, our ideas, our dreams in order to survive..what is more important..me or my dreams..i am confused..
a question they always ask me about BLACK FRIDAY..what is your stand on the whole issue..i say we need to be more …

The media blitzkrieg has started..i am giving interviews everywhere..its all so strange..people ask the same questions..nothing new they have to ask me..its all so scary..i am told all the publicity we can get from the film is fine..i have started looking like a publicity hound..

Black Friday is finally releasing on 9th february..i am scared i just might breakdown..what will i say..what will happen..till now all that i have done was all speculation..now i am going to be exposed..just saw THE NAMESAKE..what a film..brilliantly written..brilliantly edited..i love Sooni Taraporewala..I adore Mira..they are going to watch my film..what will they think..how will they react..
The amount of heartaches everyone has gone through..the last time it was on the day of the premiere that they stopped us..when i was all ready to go to Eros..i remember getting that call from arindam, my producer, the true hero of Black Friday..the man who fought all …

[oz note: Vasan was on the sets of No Smoking with a digital still camera, from where he had this opportunity to capture the unveiling of the Black Friday poster by Anurag Kashyap himself... using the same digital camera to capture the video... so the quality may not be that great... but Vasan... thanks a ton for this!!!

UPDATE 2: Message from Manjeet:

Tommorow (January 12/2007) theres a shoot of 'No Smoking' at Gateway of India at 7pm. Everyone is welcome to be part of screen and can bring their friends along with them. The scene is of New Year Eve's celebration and need lots of people. Hope to see you folks!

Holy Smokes!!! WOW!!! Now I wish I could be there!!!

CORRECTION : THE shoot is at MUKESH MILLS in Colaba, close to Colaba Fire Station at 7 pm and not Gateway of India.

UPDATE : Manjeet's pictures uploaded!

I think PFC is the ...