logo

1971- Simply Superb!

When I was a kid; I used to like watching Ramayan, Alif Laila, Krishna and all those stuff made by Sagar brothers. But at the same time; I did not like their terrible technical ignorance and over over over the top acting. Can you imagine a camel cart with rubber tyres in age of Alif Laila or that typical hindi filmy back ground music in Ramayan. In 60s and 70s, Ramanad Sagar made some good movies like Geet, Charas and Aankhein. But after that Sagar brothers made aweful movies and serials with pathetic technicalities, over the top dramatic performances and cheap budget. They made a film on Bhagat singh and the opening sequence was of a jail. And can u believe they show animated version of jail in a live action film.

But new generation of Sagar Family seems to be more knowledgeable than their previous. 1971 is …

iView Author: Medha Dutt
(Kolkata, India)

Email:
primidutt [at] gmail [dot] com

The Phenomenon called SRK

The first memory of Shah Rukh that I have is something that is far from flattering. I was at a boarding school, and on our weekly television viewing sessions, we watched perhaps the ugliest of heroes being bumped around in a bus (or was it a train?) by a group of girls, led by someone who seemed to be hell bent on copying Sridevi.

Later we found out the name of the movie in question – Chamatkar – and the names of the ugly hero and the Sridevish heroine – Shah Rukh Khan and Urmila Matondkar.

Much later, Shah Rukh Khan was associated with the sweet tele serials, Circus and Fauji – though to be honest I don’t remember much of either. In school we were more hooked on to Oshin.

But …

As per the wisdom of ancient Indian sages and scholars, desire to earn name has been among one of the four basic desires any human being follows in his/her life. One wants to see his/her name inscribed in history and if not for long then local history chapter also helps in boosting his/her ego. If its not international award then national will do and if that’s also not possible then state award will also help and even if that’s also difficult then city based awards are there to bring temporary pink colour on the cheeks of the people. If nothing works then recognition and appreciation by friends and family members become indispensable for him/her to continue the creative journey. Very few creators are there who go ahead without bothering too much what others have to say about their creations. They know value of their creations.

Being ordinary people, its …

AANCH (2003) - CLOSE TO COUNTRY SIDE

Aanch (2003) is the story of two lovers caught between fake egos and cultural rules of villages. It is an unusual story and perhaps based on a true incident. The story takes place in two of the UP villages. A boy (played by Suchindra Bali-son of veteran actress Vaijayanti Mala) and a girl (played by Sharbani Mukerjee- who played Suniel shetty’s wife in Border) are engaged and their marriage is arranged. Suchindra is from the village where Paresh Rawal is leader while Nana Patekar is leader of Sharbani’s village. At wedding night people of both villages fight because of a past dispute. Some are killed and just married couple is forcefully separated. The interesting note is that both bride and groom have not seen each other’s face as it is usually happens in indian villages. Separately Suchindra and Sharbani go to city for study …

I know I know. The year is not over yet. We still have some big ticket movies coming up but most of the year is out and it could be a good time to take stock, you know like a dress rehearsal.

So here are my choices for best acting performances in Bollywood this year-till now.

Kareena Kapoor for Jab We Met- Believe me, if someone had told me before I saw this movie that I would be nominating her for his, I would have told them that I would eat my own hat or worse. Thankfully nobody did but I am not ashamed to say that I am very impressed with this lady. Not yet a fan, but definitely very very impressed. Her performance in the first half had me smiling throughout all her scenes. Admitted that she had some very good lines but it was through her acting that she …

Movie making is not easy, man. Making the PFCOne movie is a big lesson to many armchair critics here including me who wax eloquently on where a movie worked, where it didn’t, blah blah blah…I made a couple of movies which are now listed among the entries. It was my first time that I ever attempted making a movie of any kind (excluding random home movies) and it was great fun.

Writing the script is the easy part. That is, once you have the idea or the inspiration for it. Otherwise it’s tough as hell. And writing a script is not something that you can will yourself to do, especially for me, even if it had to last only a minute. If it doesn’t come to you, you can’t help it. Agree?

But how does one write for a minute? I wrote a page of stuff and then tried to imagine all …

REMEMBERING… AMRISH PURI

It was one sentence in the post of George Thomas on Dhaal “It is with Pilot Baba that this film strikes gold” made me desperate to think and write about Amrish Puri.

Very few actors have that capability that when they come on screen, then concentration of audience immediately shift to them. You forget the opposite actor; your eyes ignore other actors and just concentrate on that particular actor. Amrish Puri was such an actor.

I have grown up watching Amrish Puri’s films, seeing him as bad guy and then turning to loving father and grand father. Whenever I used to surf channels, and if I come to see Amrish Puri, I just can not escape that scene. He is one of the my all time favourite actors of hindi cinema.

If 60s was the …

Responsible for Divyashakti, an adequately downbeat tale of revenge driven by principles and loss bolstered by an interesting villain, Tau (pronounced: taauu), played by Amrish Puri and two films with Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan (Main Khiladi Tu Anari, a rip-off of The Hard Way and Keemat), Sameer Malkan was last heard of when he finished a songless thriller shot in New York City and Philadelphia called Lips: The Kiss Of Death starring Anuj “KKusum” Saxena and Maushmi Udeshi. Despite getting the skin bits excised and getting slapped with an A certificate, the film reportedly still hasn’t made it to the marquee (or did it just quietly get out on DVD?). The film’s about the development and consequences of the crush an illegal Indian in the US has on the enigmatic young sexy wife of a middle-aged millionaire….

iView Author:
SRINIVAS N
(Mumbai, India)

EMAIL:
Witheld

May 28, 1923, 4.32 PM was a defining moment for the people of Andhra. No one has realized it that day but after a few years, everyone would feel the impact of the meteor that stuck them and their lives being changed forever. In a small village called Nimmakuru, Andhra Pradesh which was then a part of Madras state, a baby was born. The baby’s mother wished to name her son as Krishna but his uncle named him Taraka Ramudu, later changed to Taraka Rama Rao. Nandamuri Lakshmiah Chowdhury and Venkata Ramamma would never have dreamt even in their wildest dreams that on that day, they would be immortalized in the eyes of Telugu nation.

After finishing his school in Nimmakuru, Rama Rao’s uncle Ramaiah adopted him and took him to …

Name: Shashank Sahai

Email: shashanksahai [at] gmail [dot] com

City/Country: Tallahassee, FL, US

A personal list of the greatest performances

What better way to jump on the PFC bandwagon than by unleashing yet another list of favorites! Ah, creating a list - that holiest and laziest of the film fanatic’s occupations! Of course it can be anything from listing bad hair days of actors to nominating the worst screen mothers of all time. The topic of my list is fairly uncomplicated though - performances that made my day (, month and year). Hope (am sure actually) everyone has something to say on it. After all, as Ranvijay Singh from Haasil would say, ” Kaahe na karein comment be? Cinema kisi ke baap ki jageer hai kya?” N-joy!

10. Om Puri as Sub-Inspector Anant Velankar
Ardh Satya (1983) Dir: Govind Nihalani

Though several of Om …

The first thing you notice about Nitinsathyaa are his intense eyes; maybe that is what helped him get under the skin of the character he played in ‘Satham Podathey’ (Don’t make any noise). He shone as the impotent sportsman, even though the role was not too well written. Even though his role in ‘Chennai-28’ endeared him to the masses, but it was the role of the anti-hero in ‘Satham Podathey’ that won him loads of critical acclaim and also got him a lot of offers.

“I am on cloud nine after ‘Satham Podathey.’ When I was acting in ‘Chennai-28,’ the responsibility was not much. But now with different roles and films, I feel a lot of responsibility has been thrust on me as the audience expectations are high. But at the same time, my confidence levels are also high after receiving so much of praise for my work in ‘Satham Podathey’,” …

GEMS REVISITED

Doston, peechle hafte hindi cinema ki teen anmol ratan jaisi movies dekhne ka mauka mila. Waise pehle bhi kai baar in movies ko dekh chooka hoon, par jitni baar dekhta hoon, kuchh naya sikhta hoo, kuchh naya paata hoon , aur in filmo ke prati mera aadar aur badh jaata hai.

1.Dosti (1964)

Do doston ki kahaani. Ek andha hai aur ek handicapped (played by Sushil and Sudhir Kumar). Zindagi jeene ke sangarsh me apni jarooraton ke peeche chalte huye ek doosre se milte hai. Aur phir shoroo hoti hai ek doosre ke prati chahat aur qurbani ki kahani. Jarrorato ke liye ekththa huye dost kaise apne bare me sochna chhodke apne dost ki unnati ke baare me sochne lagte hai- yehi hai Dosti ki kahanni. Haan, film me 60s ki stamped melodrama acting maujood hai par shaayad woh …

There is a special place for villains in Indian cinema. Especially in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s before the Hum Apke Hain Kaun phenomenon, our writers created iconic bad guys. Amitabh Bachchan would have never succeeded as the Angry Young Man if he didn’t have equally dynamic enemies to defeat. Personally, I always found villains to be way more interesting and perhaps more real than the shudh, sacha heroes. So I figured, ok why not list my favorite 25 negative performances in Indian cinema. I’m not claiming that this is a definitive list, because it’s MY list, and I obviously have not see every single Indian film out there. Here goes:

25. PINKY - Paresh Rawal, “Daud” (1997)
RGV has (had) a twisted sense of humor. Either you get it, or you don’t. That’s probably why “Daud” bombed at the box office. But among a select bunch …

If you’re in the entertainment industry, sooner or later you’ll find yourself to be a door-to-door salesman, albeit in various forms. And unlike most 9-to-5ers you may not have the technical qualifications on a resume to back you up, which is when it becomes even more necessary to realize the power of words. The power of conversation can hold the power to intrigue, to sell your talent and your ideas to an audience whom you may be meeting for the very first time.

An actor may try to convince a producer or director to use their talent. A writer/director may try to convince a producer that their screenplay is the best thing since sliced bread. A producer may try to do the same with his film to a distributor. Straddling the line between …

this is an article i have written for my research paper and i would like to share it with PFC readers for comments.

FIRST PRINCIPALS These are things that every one who is associated with the medium knows but still there is a need to drive it across again and again. These are guiding principals and common place wisdom by the gurus which I have read across many books and collected in the form of these 14 points , these are not mantras which if you learn by heart will make you better actors but are observation points for an actor to explore throughout and thoroughly during any shooting scenario in which they are actively involved, to understand the mechanics of the medium not only as performers trying to prove your point but as a part of the whole, …

Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna and Govinda have one thing in common. All the three are members of parliament and have registered their come back in the films in last 6 months.

Dharmendra : He has registered his accomplished work in the history of hindi cinema. He gave successful films belonging to different categories. He was equally good in the role of police officer as he was in the role of a bandit or a thief. He was equally good in comedy as he was in emotional role. He was soft in romantic roles and looked so violent in action packed roles. Not only one of the most handsome male actors of hindi cinema but he remains as one of the most talented actors of the hindi cinema also. Audience (male/female or kids), rushed to see the magic of this “He Man” of hindi cinema. He was so smooth in his …

Amrish Puri : Birth - 22nd June 1932, Death – 12 January 2005

What was contribution of Amrish Puri in Hindi films, can be understood by the fact that if someone who has been watching hindi films regularly and if he closes his eyes then he will be able to recall atleast 20-25 films where he liked Amrish Puri very much. This is a fantastic achievement which very few actors can get. Remembering him and his films are chain reactions. Recall his Hum Panch and it will lead to Ashanti or Saja-e-Kala Pani or snake charmer of Nagina. Recall his very first big role in Nishant and it will lead us to his association with Shyam Benegal in the films like Manthan, Bhumika, Kalyug, Mandi etc. Mandi was released in 1983 and when after a gap of 10 years Shayam Benegal and Amrish Puri joined hands again to adapt amazing book …

SARFAROSH (1999) - ORIGINAL AND AWESOME

Perhaps all of PFC guys have shown this superb film but I want to discuss this film as this film has impressed me lot with respect to story telling, griping script, dialogues, characters, performances and music.

Sarfarosh was John Mathew Mathan’s first film after making ads and in his first film he seems to be prominent director of hindi cinema. Let’s discuss this film by its qualities

Story: The first rule of cinema is it should be entertaining. The good message attached with it is secondary thing. Sarfarosh is entertaining as well it conveys the message of patriotism which writer and director want to say. The story has superb balance of qualities of commercial cinema as well as off beat cinema.

Story deals with exposure of weapons racket supported by ISI and our in-house terrorists. Film starts with mass killing and loot of passengers by some south …

One Sunday afternoon, after a delicious lunch of Rajma Chaval (red kidney beans and rice), went in to my bed room to find my phone ringing. The name ‘Toto’ was flashing. Toto is Anurag’s still photographer in No Smoking. I pick up the phone and go, “ haan bhai Toto Singh”(yeah tell me Toto Singh).The voice from the other side doesn’t sound like him, it goes,” Toto nahin Rohit bol rahan hoon” (its not Toto its Rohit). Rohit Khaitan is Anurag’s assistant and is working as a production manager for a series of short films being produced by the Sahara group. After trying calling me a few times and leaving a sms he was calling from Toto’s cell. He wants me to act in a small role in a short film directed by Manish Jha. I have to be at Gateway of India at 5:00 am sharp the next day. …

Charlie Chaplin was not mute but he worked in the silent films. Without uttering dialogues from his mouth he was able to create magic on screen through his acting ability and he proved that you don’t need heavy dialogues to make impressive presence on the screen. Presence has to be generated through facial expressions, expressions in the eyes and body language.
Almost all great actors of the world have never been dependent solely on their dialogue delivery skills and they have been equally great in the scenes where they have not a single word to say from mouth. If three factors, face, eyes and body language don’t support an actor then s/he never can deliver a good performance no matter he has got best dialogues written by best writer of the world and we call such actors as actors with wooden face.
Kamal Hasan did wonder in “Pushpak” where he …