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So, Himesh Reshammaiya, is back, but fortunately or unfortunately, not with a new soundtrack, but stills of his second film KarZZZZZZZZZ - Did I Miss a ‘Z’? Now I had written a piece on him when I started blogging on passionforcinema.com. I had prayed that he should stop singing and should not enter into acting bijneess, but he is back to….

Why does he need two bodyguards when he has entire Rickshawallahs behind him? Hang on, where was Himesh when Rickshwallahs getting kicked out of Mumbai? They badly needed their spokesperson support…then… Will the rickshawallahs support him in his next film?!

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Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (The Band’s Visit) by Eran Kolirin

Winner of the Best Script Award and Best New Director Award in 2007.

The Band’s Visit is a very simple but sweet story about an Egyptian Police band that travels to Israel in order to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab culture centre, but for some reason they are left stranded at the airport.
The director of the band is too proud to ask for help from the Embassy and he decides they should find the place on their own. And that is how they arrive at a small Israeli town where they interact with some of the locals.

The strength about The Band’s Visit is that, unlike other films, even if you read about the plot or watch the trailer, it won’t spoil it for you, since the charm of the film is not …

Seminci is an International Film Festival held in the Spanish city of Valladolid. It was its 52nd edition this year, and once again I tried to watch as many films as possible.
There is so much going on during these ten days, that it is impossible to attend everything, even though there are several screenings for the films. The fact that the six cinemas showing the films are quite close to each other helps a lot. The main cinema hall is a theatre (Teatro Calderon) and that is where the opening and closing ceremonies take place, as well as some press conferences. However, I find it quite uncomfortable and it is more expensive, so I prefer the newer and more comfortable Cine Roxy. These two main cinemas are where most of the competition films are shown. The rest of the halls are for the …

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}

Continued from Part 1…

Having bagged the role, it was now time for me to flesh out the character. The producers and the director had already decided on the look for Ravichandran - they wanted the quintessential elements of a Kollywood hero: the big hair, the mustache, the paunch, the south yindian yenglish accent. If Mohanlal had been in their budget, he would’ve been my first recommendation, since Srinivasan from Company was the first thing to come to my mind. Then again, if Vasan, Kartik, or even Vijay had been here, I would’ve suggested them instead of myself. I remain wondering to this day if they’re disappointed I couldn’t bring in the paunch.

Knowing further that my character would be the main comedic element in the script, I was determined, and pretty adamant about not making Ravichandran a caricature. Sure, he …

Here are some more pictures from last night!!

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A rare occasion where many from PFC Bombay turned up for the premiere of Manorama Six Feet under. Vasan must have slumped and fallen asleep on his puter since his email contained only pictures and a short message “Done”… Some of the gang ended up at Phoenixnu’s place and are probably still snoring when this one gets published… the event in words will be covered by them in the comments section most probably… so until then… here’s the pictures and the gang seems to have had a rocking time!

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

All pictures by Gauri Tiwari & Tashi Dorjee.

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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, …

Mumbai Meri Jaan’s (MMJ) latest schedule just started. Ashish Shukla and I were keen on visiting the sets. The shoot was suppose to start at 9:00 am in a studio, but was delayed till 2:00 pm, as the unit had to complete the balance outdoor scenes from yesterday. Shooting outdoors is indeed a challenging task. With little control over the elements any amount of planning is found wanting. It makes the filming even more difficult. One has to take decisions fast and correct. We off course were not sincere to reach at 9:00 am. But were there few hours late. It was still too early for the shoot to start. We decided it was time for lunch. After the meal of Aloo Paranthas and still some time left we decided to look around in the local mall. Ashish just could not control the temptation of buying designer underwears. He bought …

Why am i making Khoya Khoya Chand? Because the story comes to you. You can’t rationalize everything. You think that making a film about two individuals caught in the mad world of movies, where there are contradictory aspirations, where there are all these lures of popularity and people grappling with that and also their personal situation is interesting. And we try and put it in another time. But, you are also talking about yourself and your contemporaries.

All films are in the present, because you are shooting now. So, all this bit about historical and all that is nonsense. There is no such thing as a historical film. You are not history writers. Every film is in …

I was always sure about cinematographer Nutty’s acting abilities, and thought he acquitted himself quite fairly in his debut venture, “Naalai.” But I was always curious to find out if he could dance as well too; in his first film, he had no such scenes as the character he played sported a broken leg for most part of the movie.

So the invitation from director Mahesh to visit the sets of “Chakraviyugam” (this is the official spelling, had got it wrong in the earlier piece) came at the apt time. Mahesh said they were shooting their first song, scored by composer Karthik Raja, during the weekend. The incentive was that it was an item number, featuring Mumbai dancer Malishka.

It was a dream come true for me (actually it turned out to be more of a wet dream).

The shooting was on in full swing at the fourth floor of AVM …

Never been a fan of the city….Delhi. They say big roads and big house…what’s the use if you cannot get out on it and of it unless you have a vehicle of your own. Hate the rick guys….got into fights this time too. The past ten days were split between abusing them in chaste Tamil, watching some path breaking cinema….meeting my HERO “Paruthiveeran” and meeting up with some of the brightest minds who are going to hit Indian cinema like a tornado in a few months to come. Just came back a few hours ago.

It all started when Ayesha Mohan [I call her Ayesha Kauffman these days], the lead of Gulal wanting Anurag Kashyap to discuss her script. She was to leave for Delhi and so was Anurag in a couple of days and it was decided it will be done there. We …i.e Tani [AK’s AD] and Me …

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 …

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, …

Watching Gulal and Paanch with Anurag

Last night I got a call on my cell from Wasan saying that he, Chaitanya and manjeet are at Anurag’s place to discuss Black Friday and try and cover it ‘in detail’ for PFC.
Movie fanatics that we are, we ended up watching Paanch and Gulal (80% complete) !!! and of course in between drinks and dinner, went through his DVD collection as well

But let me not jump the gun. Lemme take u through with my journey. I was stuck in a routine conference call in my office with my American clients, and was begging that the call be over ASAP. It must’ve been a good day, as my Team Lead was in a genial mood and after finishing my ‘role’ in the call, rushed all the way to Anurag’s house. History was created yesterday as I boarded a Virar Fast train from …

Manjeet has sent in these pictures of the No Smoking shoot that took place at Velocity. Vasan has given a detailed coverage of the Velocity shoot a few posts down below.

The No Smoking shoot is nearing completion and that’s got many PFC’s bloggers running to meet the fabulous team of No Smoking from Anurag, John, Joy to Rajkumar, Gautam (the ADs) to Rajeev Ravi and the technicians…

You can feel the excitement when you talk to bloggers in Bombay. It’s as if the charged up energy flows right through the cell phone waves from Bombay to Orange County. You wish you could be there experiencing the shoot.

One thing that I would like to mention here is the warm welcome extended to everyone on PFC on the sets of No Smoking. The cordial and delightful atmosphere along with the constant encouragement to PFC’s bloggers to treat the sets of …

sorry guys could not click the “prayogshala” nor “john”..nor “paresh rawal”[sala vasan to pir kiya kya????]……anyways a few which i managed. this does have the Narnia guy too. there is a poster i designed too. hopetodo better job if there is a next time.

Friends!

I don’t think i’ve done such appalling photography ever in my life. Have been resisting from posting these online, but PFC are a determined lot. See, as i posted earlier, i landed at the No Smoking shoot only with the intention of getting a feel of the shooting, milieu and of course to observe AK at work.

Capturing images was incidental…never thought i would be posting anything here ..not even the experience…

So do excuse the terrible pic. quality - exposure, contrast, levels — all wrong.

good thing is, i like my photography unhearsed, candid and raw .. one day when i make my film i want my doP to have lots of work to do. ok.i’ll stop dreaming now…lot of hardwork to do in life…

Hope to post more..when i have work and a decent internet connection — or sooner…who knows.

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