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[PFC Note: AIDS Jaago is Mira Nair's project funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and has four short films by four different directors. Mira's Migration, Vishal Bharadwaj's Blood Brothers, Santosh Sivan's Prarambh and Farhan Akhtar's Positive. Its currently doing the festival rounds. PFC will showcase all the four films here and will also try to get the directors on why and how of their story. And a big thanx to Shernaz Italia, producer of the film for letting us to showcase the films here. We are starting with Santosh Sivan's Prarambh. Thanks to Santosh who took time to relay his latest blog on the film in spite of being extremely busy in post-production of his new film. ~ phoenixnu]

Click the picture below to watch PRARAMBH - the movie

Prarambh - Behind the scenes

the …

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!

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AK …

Just received the Jodha Akbar stills, which were revealed today. Here’s wishing the Jodha-Akbar team the very best. It would be great if you could vote on what you think about the stills, specially with respect to the look.

{democracy:19}

Some stills from the shoot of ‘Manorama, six feet under’ exclusively for PFC.

All pictures by Gauri Tiwari & Tashi Dorjee.

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This seems to be a season of first films. All my PFC friends - from Kartik to Somen to Mainak - are posting their first videos. That inspired me to scan my hard drive and do a lot of converting to present to all of you the first film I made. This was in 2002 my second year in college. We had a workshop by cinematographer Abheek Mukhopadhyay (all Rituparno Ghosh films plus Bunty Aur Babli, Shoonya) and he picked me to direct this short. It’s called Justuju (Quest), a short about man’s perennial pursuit to cling on to love or to his loved one(s). In the film, a guy returns to his college to relive his lost love. The short was selected to be screened at the Poitiers International Video Festival in France. Hope you like it. Please leave your comments. That always helps. Thanks.

P.S. The dialogues at the …

It must be the the most exciting “1st experience” after “losing your virginity”. Like sex there are all these anxieties & hopes. Am I any good? Lot of times people can’t get past this question. Ashish’s 1st fiction effort Is really amazing. And that is what made me write this post.
In my evening Cinema Class we are supposed to make a chase film. Which I think is a norm in a lot of film schools here in LA. It was almost 3 years back. I was still trying to figure out LA, USA. I was still walking towards the wrong door when trying to get into my friends cars. Anyways fortunately that class also happened to have 2 more Indians. A 1st in that college’s history. 1 was Amit Sadanah from Delhi & Saurabh Kothari from Hong Kong/Jaipur/Bangkok/NY. Saurabh had a car which became our …

Two days after we shot the first phase of Kartiks film, I called KK and asked him…yaar mujhe thoda orgasmic sound chahiye tha, tere paas koi desi porn ki cd hai kya…And KK said, sir aapne bahut sahi aadmi ko phone kiya hai. Aisi cheezein PFC mein do aadmiyon ke paas hi milengi, Bombay mein mere paas aur US mein oz ke paas. I told my funny thought about this film to KK and he burst out laughing. I said, saale has mat mera hero teri hi biwi ko bajayega, south Indian husband tujhe hi banna hai. KK said, are sir bas aap order karo, kar lenge!…

As I have been a totally non-fiction director, this was going to be my first self directed fiction…though it was a 3 mins. funny and stupid concept, I wanted my lead to be played by a professional actor…my second call gone to big bro, …

We have two teaser trailers for Manorama - Six Feet Under, directed by Navdeep Singh… incidentally Navdeep is on PFC and I’m hoping will be writing pretty soon… The whole look and feel of the trailers to me is edgy, rough and straight in your face… gives the impression of a dark suspense thriller… the trailer says it’s releasing next month so we aren’t that far from getting to see this beauty which is being raved about by almost everyone who’s seen it.

Abhay Deol as usual is experimenting, nice to see Sarika coming all the way out to work in different genres Parzania, Bheja Fry and now this… Kulbhushan Kharbanda - seeing him after or long time… and of course the current favorite Vinay Pathak as the cop…

This is intriguing… very intriguing…

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For YouTube Links for both the above trailers click the links below :

15 second teaser on …

And it’s again a first for PFC… for the first time the blogger community gets to see an exclusive first - the trailer of an eagerly awaited movie… and the honor for that goes to …

JOHNNY GADDAR

by Sriram Raghavan who made the taunt thriller… Ek Hasina Thi…

The trailer’s a Whammo… this looks like a movie which will rise above, much above what I’m expecting from Sriram… the opening - how the camera zips and brakes at each character, the humming song “Hey Johnny…” playing in the background, the introduction of characters, a brief idea of what the movie “really is about” (which most film previews forget to mention these days), Dharmendra with all his suaveness, I love how Sriram lends energy to his camera, the darn fun he’s having playing with light and darkness… DAMN IT… in short : it is one hell of an exciting trailer… watch and let …

Nutty (Nataraja Subramaniam, the cinematographer of films such as ‘Black
Friday’, ‘Parineeta’ and ‘Eklavya’) is on to his second movie as actor. He
has been enjoying the best of both worlds: he is an acclaimed cameraman in
Mumbai and is on his way to establishing himself as an actor in Tamil films.
His first film as an actor, ‘Naalai’ (Tomorrow), was released last year, and
had a decent run at the box office. This gave him enough confidence to get
in front of the camera again. But with ‘Chakravyuham’, he is taking on
another role — that of executive producer.

‘Chakravyuham’ also heralds the entry of Sree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision, who
produced Rohit Shetty’s ‘Golmaal’ and Priyadarshan’s ‘Bhaagam Bhaag’, into
the Tamil film industry.

The movie is directed by buddy Mahesh (complete name Udayabhanu Maheswaran),
who had earlier debuted with ‘Naalai.’ Mahesh has worked with Shoojit Sarkar
earlier, and was one of the writers of the much-acclaimed ‘Yahaan.’

I had asked Mahesh if I …

“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 …

Last Friday PFC-ites from Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles flew down to HQ. Amidst loads of beer, tea, DVDs they got hold of a camera and went to Guerrilla filming mode to shoot two short films for the heck and fun of it within the HQ. On my return from work on Saturday evening, I found the HQ - my humble hut, had been converted into a studio. The closet was flung open to get characters’ dresses, the kitchen for makeup, all bulbs in the house were now at a weird angle… I guess for lightening effect, I’m still trying to locate my dining table (where are you?), the rose bushes now protrude at some weird contrived angles and for the first time, the quiet HQ was served a notice by the neighborhood for breaking the peace.

QUIET??? Hell no… it was one rocking hell of a place to …

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, …

Today’s technology is breaking new grounds. Cinema is just another field witnessing the winds of change. Films or rather movies (How can we call them films, when they are shot digitally :) ) like Collateral, Apacalypto, Star Wars, Sin City, 300…..being shot digitally. But is the present technology cheap? The above mentioned films used professional high end digital cameras to meet a particular purpose, mainly to get the ambient light effects, shooting in low light or for the ease of computer graphics. These films (can’t stop myself from using the same word, please do not mind if I use it again) were not cheap, infact much more expensive than the conventional ones shot on film medium. Wouldn’t it be great if we got a digital camera, which would give similar results as the above mentioned films at a fraction of the cost. It would be relatively easier for aspiring film …

You rarely get golden moments like these. When you get the opportunity to kick ass… ;) literally…

So when you accidentally find a movie online (while browsing for indy cinema in India) that was made by Anurag Kashyap, you know Shakalaka Boom Boom was bound to happen for our banner boy Anurag. Expect another post called Fuck Fuck to Mahakali pretty soon :))

It’s his first direction and according to the video details it was made way back in 1997/98 for television. The length is about 50 minutes…. Enjoy and do post your reactions… Maybe you’ll like it or would love it… but it’s nice to see the dude’s directorial beginnings…

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In our tribute to Deepti Naval, the screening of Mirch Masala on Saturday, April 21 @ 8:00 pm has been REPLACED by the stunning Main Zinda Hoon directed by Sudhir Mishra. This is a rare film that is not available on DVD, VHS, or VCD, and NFDC has been kind enough to strike a brand new subtitled print for us, specially for the tribute. Don’t miss one of Sudhir Mishra’s finest films and Deepti Naval’s best performances as this may be your only chance to watch the film on 35mm in Los Angeles. Book your tickets now at http://www.arclightcinemas.com. For more information on the full program, please visit http://indianfilmfestival.org.

IFFLA Live Webcast & Filmmaker Interviews

IFFLA is going live on the web this year. For those unable to join us here in Los Angeles, you too can be a part of the festival by checking out …

AR Rahman finally releases a music video, something that was long awaited. This song, which was actually released as a single through a mobile phone company, was composed two years ago. Bharatbala, of Maa Tujhe Salaam fame, directs this video with an international crew. This is a fine example of how quality video-making can elevate a song from the stature of great to memorable. The video has started doing rounds of the music channels, and the music should be out too very soon.

Here is a little dekko at the video:

A Western vertical frame opens up this slick video in a street smart genre, with rappers and rockers doing what they are good at, with spliced in images of compassionate faces and people all around. The good part is that apart from all of the stereotypes, the song scores, because it has that Rahman feel to it …

This is not Priyadarshan’s loud comedy like Hera Pheri, Hangama etc. Its a sobre comedy film with enough romantic and emotional flavour intermingled in  the plot.

Revathi is no Sri Devi or Jaya Prada as far as physical beauty is concerned but her spontainity is not less than Sri Devi’s and if you like to watch an younger Revathi in a comedy role or in a comedy film then Muskurahat can be a great satisfaction for you.
A strict retired Judge (Amrish Puri) is living alone in Ooty after his retirement away from his family members. Judge is as bitter towards life as Neem or karela or karela growing on a Neem tree. He does not like interference of anyone in his life. He has big moustache and self made principles about life. He has a servant - Charausia (Jagdeep- perhaps his last good performance) who is as cynical as his boss is. …

As we watch the films of today, it is great to take a moment and think about where this medium has evolved from.

In the 1890s, the Lumiere brothers were hard at work to make a motion picture camera. Their father was a photographer and working for him, the men were introduced to the medium and the materials. These are the guys who invented the sprocket hole – the holes on the side of the filmstrip that is used by the camera to advance the film across the lens.

The motion picture camera (cinématographe) was patented on 13 February 1895. On the 19th of March, 1895, the Lumiere brothers shot the first film – people coming out of the Lumiere factory. I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but all they were trying to do is capture motion on film and it was this first step that helped establish the …

Many say that the word ‘Bollywood’ is a cheap imitation of Hollywood and thus we should avoid using the word. I have consciously and specifically chosen the word ‘Bollywood’ in the title of my post as this post is about cheap imitations of the west. A lot has been said about blatant plagiarism and dvd remakes thriving in Indian cinema and hence will not waste time upon stating the obvious. What can be of great interest though is tracing the roots of plagiarism in Hindi films and trying to get an insight on a practice which in it’s ultimate analysis is a crime. Being madly in love with films and having keen interest in the entire ’stealing’ business, I have made a documentary titled ‘Four Step Plan’ along with two of my friends which critiques the trends of plagiarism in our films. Adopting a sarcastic approach, the documentary proposes a …