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Imtiaz Ali, the man who gifted us Jab We Met and Socha Na Tha, is in Calcutta to shoot a small schedule of his next film that is Saif Ali Khan’s first home production and stars Saif alongside Deepika Padukone. I caught up with the man and having done the Q&A for The Telegraph, we got chatting about other things. Anurag Kashyap, his friend, came up soon enough and I asked him what I always wanted to ask him how two such close friends make such different cinema. Here is Imtiaz’s side of the story…

POV: Anurag and I have this distinct ability of looking at the same thing in very different ways. So if this bottle is kept on the table and we both look at it, very different things will come to our mind. Each point of view will lead to a story and he will be very surprised …

Possibly India’s “Crash”.. or i don’t know how else to describe it..Saw the rough cut , on Nishikant’s avid.. he wanted to bounce it off me and i was cleanbowled.. again the familiar feeling went through me.. why did i not think of it and why did i not make it..

The film begins in a police station with cops discussing sunil more(the marine drive rape case), one(Vijay maurya) of who is going on a holiday and the other(Paresh Rawal) counting his last few days in the service..then it introduces us to the computer salesman(kaykay) with his unemployed friends in a irani cafe talking about cricket and you also see that he has a phobia of muslims or probably distrust and hatred, then you see the bicycle coffeeseller (Irrfan) who is fond of perfumes and then the film introduces us to the bite hungry TV journo(soha ali khan) and her boyfriend …

Jan 1st 2001. The first day of the year. I was at I think one of the lowest points in my life. Ironically, I was standing at the highest point above the ground I’d ever been. Maybe 100ft and I was scared when I looked down. No not scared, I was shit scared. But I jumped. I mustered up whatever little courage I had left and jumped. As I hurtled towards the ground, I lost track of everything..time, my mind, my sight. It was only when the bungee cord pulled me back up did I regain my senses. The feeling was exhilarating. The throbbing in my head wasn’t. The sudden rush of blood to my head made it hurt. Actually, I was at the Andheri Sports complex where a bungee jumping camp was being organised. I had four hours …

iView Author:Gajendra S Shrotriya
(Jaipur, India)
EMAIL:gshrotriya[at] yahoo [dot] com

Title: Gulaal – the last shot canned

Today 9th July 2008, place Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK) in Jaipur. Since Sunday, I got occupied so much with my work that could not visit the Gulaal sets.

Tuesday evening, I checked with Vasan if the shooting was over for the day. If yes, what would be the location tomorrow? I immediately got the reply that it was already pack up for the day and tomorrow, the last day would be at JKK auditorium.

The day began with incessant drizzling. At around 3 ‘O Clock in the afternoon, I could go to the location. An indoor shot was being filmed on Raja. I could only hear some sounds which helped me understand that Dileep (Raja) was being ragged by his …

iView Author:Bhavesh Purohit
(Mumbai, India)
EMAIL:b_star87 [at] hotmail [dot] com

Title: Searching Hrishikesh…

About me, I have been a very silent reader of PFC but I liked it throughout and was just searching time to write in it.

I have seen all kinds of discussion here on PFC about world cinema where people praise directors like kurosawa, kielowski and tarantino, lynch. Of course they are brilliant and I love few of them too. But somewhere I also noticed that a lot of great Indian directors are ignored and discussed mostly in comments section. I thought about one of my favourite directors Late. Hrishikesh Mukherjee and even here where people are so passionate about films forget this passionate director. Maybe he have been discussed but I am sure not much.

Infact Hrishida, don’t know why is always ignored when great directors from Indian cinema are counted. He made so …

iView Author:Gajendra S Shrotriya
(Jaipur, India)
EMAIL:gshrotriya[at] yahoo [dot] com

Title: Gulaal – moves into the final leg of production

2 days ago I had missed to catch the making of Gulaal at Chomu Palace.

I had reached there at Chomu Palace but to be told that the unit packed off around 4’O clock in the morning. All through the way I was excited about meeting Vasan and AK. Excitement was more for the reason that I would get to see these people at work.

A similar excitement I had when I was driving to Hotel Clark’s Amer in Jaipur around twenty years back.
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It was our BE Third year at MNIT. We used to organize an All India Basketball Tournament in which national teams participated. I was in the organizing committee. That day we were planning who to …

…..and a few more words for Mumbai industry

Just returned back from the sets of Gulal.. For more than a week, I was so heavily occupied in the work, the I could not manage to visit the location (currently filming at Chaumu Palace, about 40 kms from Jaipur city).. and then came July 4th, the Independence day of US, became a day of freedom for me as most of my clients were busy spending time at a holiday… So I left early (9.30PM) from the office and directed my car on to the highway. It was an adventurous ride to the location.. I was so heavily engaged in my projects in last few days, that I forgot Vasan told me its Chaumu Palace and I took it for Chaksu (Near Chokhi Dhani, I remember Chokhi Dhani reference in the film so I did not even cared to confirm back) and I set off in a wrong …

A very good beginning… I am an amatuer blogger.

This is the beginning of a new chapter for me. One is always trying out new things in life and this is something that I am trying out for the first time.

I am not a regular blogger. I just have enough patience with my emails and looking up information that I want to read on the internet. Yes of course I try to keep in touch with my Yahoo group on my web site… not as much as I like to!!!

PFC was introduced to me by Anurag Kashyap when I met him at the IFFLA this April. I enjoyed reading it and wanted to be part of it…. so here I am.

WRITING is something that I admire in people. Sometime we have thoughts but to put them in words is not that easy. It has been always been a task to …

a late response to Anurag’s No Smoking, but I have said things probably not said before, and have given a larger picture of what the film is about, and defending it against the shamelessly stupid reviews it received

I had just quit whatever I was doing till then and had taken a solemn oath of eternal poverty and struggle. Cinema…..Was writing for someone those days…..donno what happened to that script. We were having a narration…..half way thru we had a sutta brake. The person whom we were narrating was a reputed editor…..he mentioned “Gulaal ruk gayee…..this was Anurag’s last hope…”…Did not know him then…and never imagined I would ever be writing this…..

There are many films you wished you were a part of. Like I always wished I was a part of Dil Se.. donno why…the feeling for Gulaal was the same….when it was launched…..when it was stalled….always wished…I wanted to be a part of it. June 28, 2008 am in Jaipur, already into the 4th day of shoot.

Gulaal for me was the beginning of the most exciting Director-DOP combo in the industry…maybe after Guru Dutt – …

3/5. Slick but with a confused soul.
IMDB

All the reviews are pouring in and poring how. Everyone, every reviewer, every critic, every channel is raving about Aamir. Unfortunately i havent seen the movie yet, and am not sure if i will be able to watch it soon, as it maynot release in Dallas. If anyone knows of show timings please do let us know. Well this is not about my take on Aamir, instead its on the take of other reviewers on Aamir and Raj Kumar Gupta and Rajeev Khandelwal, and everyone associated with Aamir.

Never since the release of Black Friday has each and everyone praised of the movie in teh same breathaway..coz i guess both the movies took their breath away…and to think about it, Rajkumar Gupta and Anurag Kashyap were associated with both the movies. From what i have heard and seen of rajkumar Gupta he is the next best thing to …

Its not everyday that a bunch of filmmakers I like, get together and converse on the medium. For such occasions I always had to depend on film festivals or even take a trip back in time during those glory days of DD. Most such occasion are fruitful when the moderator/interviewer is as well versed or at least someone who can hold his/her own amongst such august company.

Imagine, the thrill when Sudhir, presented the link to this gup-shup between Anurag, Navdeep, Rajat conducted by none other than Bharadwaj Rangan.

All about Old vs New Parallel Cinema - a lovely read this.

Excerpts

Nearly two decades after the demise of what was called Parallel Cinema, three filmmakers from a new age of non-mainstream cinema open up about then and now.

B Rangan: What is your personal opinion of the Parallel Cinema movement of the 1970s/80s?

Rajat Kapoor: I think great beginnings were made. There …

iView Author:
Gajendra S Shrotriya
(Jaipur, India)

Email :
gshrotriya [at] yahoo [dot] com

PICNIC – Poster & Synopsis

Folks… because of some delays in post production, I could not cut the teaser as expected. It looks that I won’t be able to release it before 9th Wednesday. So in the meanwhile, I just thought to share the poster of the film which got ready few days back. Also I felt, PFC readers deserved to have a closer peek into the story, so here it is;

The story of the film Picnic is weaved around the political ambitions of three friends, who go on a picnic to relax themselves before the ensuing elections. Something dreadful awaits them at the picnic which turns this outing in a never ending nightmare.

Vikram aspires to be the state president of his political party. His rivals to …