My thoughts on ‘Frozen’- A brilliant celluloid dream
March 13th, 2009 will remain a special day for me. That’s the day when I had a very interesting experience of watching 2 interesting movies. Before anybody asks me what’s so special about watching 2 movies in a day, after all most of have us grown up watching multiple movies in a day-let me tell you that the day was unique for me due to the films watched and the person with whom I watched the movies alongside. The movies were Gulaal and Frozen and the person I saw the movies together with was Shivajee Chandrabhushan-the director and producer of Frozen.
I had started knowing Shivajee through PFC just a short while before this day in March. When I realized that Frozen had already made the rounds of some 30 odd festivals worldwide and that in spite of having won some 18 awards it was yet to find a release, I was really shocked and surprised. Looking back I still remember telling Shivajee (before watching the movie) that for the sake of Ladakh,Danny & Shivajee I would like to watch the movie at the 1st given opportunity. Yes what also attracted me to the movie apart from the fact that it was well received in so many film festivals was that it was a black & white film shot in Ladakh & it had Danny Denzongpa as the main lead.
Having been to Ladakh myself I was more than curious to know how Shivajee has captured the harsh terrain of Ladakh on screen. Also it had been a while since I had seen Danny in a performance befitting him (his recent few roles being not so noteworthy). Interestingly I had a lot of questions even before I had seen the movie, but kept it to myself till I saw the movie. At first I had a plan of meeting Shivajee in Bangalore (prefer this over Bengaluru) and watch the movie as he had been invited to come over &showcase his movie by a reputed institution there. But thanks to the Feb screening by Enlighten Film Society in Mumbai the theatrical release finally began to look like a reality and so the Bangalore program was dropped.
So when I was wondering when I would be getting to watch the movie I had a trip to Mumbai scheduled in March and that was when Shivajee and I decided to meet up and he promised to show me his film. Since March 13th happened to be the release date of Gulaal, we decided to watch Gulaal before we saw Frozen. Shivajee was quite apprehensive of my response towards Frozen as we were going to watch it after Gulaal- which in Shivajee’s words was a very colorful film. But I asked him to relax and told him that I will still be able to watch it distinctly and give him my honest opinion after the movie is over.
So after the luxury of watching Anurag Kashyap’s Gulaal in Gold class 
at Fame- Malad, off we went to Shivajee’s home cum studio where to my surprise we watched the movie straight from his editing table. To my mind it looked like the next best thing to watching it on the big screen. And for the next 107 minutes or so I was glued to the film and nothing else. In between Shivajee kept disappearing so that I could watch the movie in peace. After the movie I had a fairly long discussion with Shivajee over some red wine regarding the movie. And yes the discussion was made even more meaningful by the presence of Gauri- the female lead of Frozen (who plays Lasya the daughter of Karma- Danny Denzongpa ) and Triparna- the director’s assistant who’s been on the project from the 2nd festival ( of the 30 odd ) till this date and who is the livewire of the team.
The ‘story’ is all about Karma (Danny) who lives with his daughter Lasya ( Gauri ) and son Chomo ( Angchuk ) in the high reaches of Ladakh. It’s about the day to day struggle for existence that Karma and his family goes through and how their life undergoes a series of changes due to some incidents. Now more than the story per se what struck me was the way the story unfolds and the narrative that keeps you spellbound.
As the movie got over I was in a state of shock as it looked like what I had witnessed was poetry on screen. The use of monochrome brilliantly helps in capturing the harsh landscape and one often tends to get lost in the landscape while watching the movie. So is it the beauty of Ladakh or the cinematography of Shankar Raman which deserves the credit? Well I give the credit to both. Shivajee has been able to extract brilliant performances from his cast- be it the main cast of Danny,Gauri and Angchuk or the supporting cast which includes known names like Raj Zutshi,Yashpal Sharma, Aamir Bashir,Shakeel Khan,Shilpa Shukla etc.
What is certainly praise worthy is the level of detailing that Shivajee has gone into with this film. Not one character or a situation looks out of place. Nowadays one comes across the use of metaphors in a lot of movies, but let me tell you that Shivajee uses them subtly and very effectively in this movie. In fact it was difficult to digest that this was all the work of a first time director and producer. So much so that my admiration for Shivajee and his work has only increased after I saw the movie.
The movie finally has released today, the 8th of May 2009 and it’s a great moral victory not only for Shivajee and the team of Frozen but for all who support good cinema.What is amazing about the release is that the distributors – Enlighten Film Society – run by Pranav Ashar and Jimmy Mistry are first timers themselves in terms of film distribution. I wish to certainly appreciate their efforts which have finally helped in the film’s release in India. Also Frozen might probably the first Indian movie to have a staggered release as it releases today in Mumbai first which will be followed by other cities like Delhi,Kolkata,Bangalore etc. This date- 8th May 2009 will always go in history as Frozen will be the only Hindi film to find a release in this date and that too in the multiplexes when the on going stand off between the producers/distributors combine and the multiplexes continues.
Tags: aamir bashir, Danny Denzongpa, Enlighten Film Society, gauri, Raj Zutshi, Shankar Raman, Shilpa Shukla, shivajee chandrabhushan, Yashpal Sharma
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I’m still looking out for Frozen dvd or something in new york area.
yeah sethumadhvan. . it must be a great moral victory for FROZEN team .. . they played against all odds. . .its a well deserved feat..after a patient ride. . .
hopefully this staggered release strategy will pave ways for other independent films as well . . AMEN !!
Kudos!! to Shivajee n Team desperately waitng for the DVD release!
@ Amrita,SID- The DVD release will definitely happen.But of course that will be after the theatrical run is over.And overseas release is also being considered, but after the Indian release.
@ Hemant- yes you are right its a moral vicotry for the Frozen team.Even I hope that other small/independent films also try to look at considering thestaggered release strategy of Frozen
Excellent !! more curious and anxious to see the film !!
BTW did not some of the films in the 50’s, 60’s used to have staggered releases ? I mean first in Delhi, then in Mumbai and then in Kolkata and other places ? just remember reading it somewhere
kcp- yes technically speaking you are right.a lot of movies in the 50’s & 60’s used to follow it.But there was no great strategy in it- it was mainly to do with the economics- i.e the number of prints.in some cases if the film did well in Delhi & Mumbai only then would the prints get increased and it go to the other metro’s and areas like U.P,Punjab etc.But in case of Frozen its a clear cut strategy that is being followed.
sethu: oye lucky! lucky oye!
@ Sethu: hey, though we SMSed on my experience of Frozen, let me share it here for the benefit of all others.
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i had travelled to jaipur on thursday, n returned to mumbai at 11am on Sunday. i SMSed sethu to give me the timings and theatres for frozen, and like a true fraternity-friend, he complied immediately.
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i went to PVR phoenix Mills for 2pm show straight from the airport, and returned to Pune after that (luggage still in the car…)
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for the kick of it, i even shouted “PFC” during the interval, hoping to find at least one PFCian there, but unfortunately no voice responded. i looked like a “fool”, but i felt i had done my bit for “my” site for the day.
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i cudnt SMS all this to u Sethu, u might hv thought my reaction was not so great. well, for the records, i plan to watch it agn this weekend. Mumbai Calling…
@ Shivajee: sirjee, im blown away. please keep ur part of the promise to allow me to interview Shanker Raman in Pune, as i hv fulfilled ur requirement….
Jha- nice to read of your experience in detail.Its true passion for cinema IMO.