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iView Author: Pratik (Cleveland, USA)

Email: mailpratik [at] gmail [dot] com

I watched a few movies at the MIAAC film festival in New York the week of November 3, 2008 (more details here). Ended up watching short docmentaries Beware Dogs & Personality, and feature films Chai Pani Etc., Vallu, Pancham Unmixed and Amal. Gave Slumdog Millionaire a miss since I knew it would have a wider release. Debatable decision but not regretting it, so far at least. Call it luck or personal taste or just plain state of mind, enjoyed each and every one of them. Thanks to PFC for publicizing some of these independent films or else I’d never drive 450 miles, and back, just for a film festival. Totally worth the effort of driving all the way to New …

Heart rate. Check. Pulse Rate. Check. Cause after watching these videos they may just shoot through the roof! Part One shows the hilarious three calls Dibakar made to Paresh, Abhay Deol perfecting the art of jumping walls… Part 2 starts with a startling statement from Paresh Rawal followed by Neetu Chandra, and above all Sneha Khanwalakar the music director showing videos of her research that she did in the interiors of Haryana and Punjab!

For Hi-Res (fast internet connections) click: Part 1 and Part 2

For slow net connections click YouTube Part 1 and YouTube Part 2

It’s here! Click Image below to watch the trailer…

UPDATED: Included Hi-Res Superchor Promo
It’s out! …

And…
Click here for the zip pow zing theatrical trailer

Tauba tera jalwa
Tauba tera pyaar
Tera emotional atyachaar

YES IT IS, but before we move on to that, allow me to inflict upon thee some “emotional atyachaar”!

Love it or hate it, No Smoking has been one of the most discussed and debated film all over the blogosphere for the last one year, and continues to be so and Anurag Kashyap is here to stay. And if the trailer of his latest film is anything to go by, the stay is going to be a rocking affair for film buffs around India.

DEV.D, based on characters from Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic Devdas is as far detached from the book as the characters are from sainthood. In Anurag Kashyap’s own words he has used Devdas as an adjective and not as a work of literature or cinema; it’s a look at relationships through the phenomenon that is Devdas.

Abhay Deol, who also came …

Check out the trailer to find why everyone is raving about this film!… including Anurag’s thoughts on the movie seen at London Film Festival

Video tip: Mainak

First teaser of Aditya Chopra’s December flick. Hollay Hollay!

Tom Cruise stars in the suspense film, Valkyrie, based on the true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) and the the men who led the operation to assassinate Hitler… directed by Bryan Singer. Click below to watch the trailer

And while you are at it, here’s RGV on the casting for Rann (or is it Runn?)

This is the one film in 2008 that I’m most excited about! The official trailer at last gets released!

For larger screen, check YouTube and for HiDef check Yahoo

Check out Ravptor’s review of the movie here

They did it to The DaVinci Code. Now they are doing it to Angels and Demons, Dan Brown’s preceding novel to DaVinci Code, which actually had readers jumping to his earlier works. And Angels and Demons become much bigger than it was thanks to DaVinci.

So will Angels and Demons be better than what they managed to do in DaVinci? The trailer sure looks like all screws are tight in place. Personally though I love The DaVinci Code (the book) than Angels and Demons.

Here’s the trailer

There have been movies on delusion, but there’s something special about the way Special goes about telling the story of a man going delusional under prescribed drugs!

Trailer of Aamir Khan’s Ghajini… I see 6 packs, I see beautiful locales, I see (a bit over) intense Aamir, I see dead people…

Video tip: Uddhav Ranjan Ghosh

Another teaser surfaces. Watch out for A.R. Rehman’s peppy background score! And in an exclusive discussion with Cinematical we get to know that Danny Boyle is upset over the ‘R’ Rating given to his movie

So far everyone thought it was just a rumor. Boondock Saints came, raised hell and was tucked in every Boondock’s fan DVD collection. Troy Duffy, supposed to be the next big thing, during the making of the movie, was nowhere to be found. Hollywood, it seemed shunned him and no one wanted to do anything with him.

Then nine years later after Boondock Saints came out, started the rumor that there was a sequel being planned. Well finally, it is confirmed.

There is a Boondock Saints 2 and the director Troy Duff is back. With a vengeance. And he’s blogging every day about the movie. And he’s taken it a step ahead. He’s VIDEO blogging the entire shoot.

More power to blogging! He’s putting all his video blogging up here, if you would like to start following his blog.

Meanwhile here’s …

Safat Ali, from Rajasthan, had blown us away with his one minute movies he had submitted last year to PFCOne 2007. He won the Silver Minute award for his hard work. So when we approached him with our list of awards to choose from, we did not realize that he was a big fan of Onir’s work. From the entire range of internships with writers and directors that we offered him, he was quick to choose Onir’s next project.

The next project was ‘Sorry Bhai’. Since Onir was busy and was a bit let down by the crap and vitriol of some commenters on his blog, he decided to take a break (from blogging about the movie)

So, our next bet was to ask Safat Ali on his experience of working with Onir and Sorry Bhai. Graciously Safat sent us his account mustering enough courage to write his experience in whatever English …

This has been going around for a couple of months. I first saw it on TV. I think it was B4U… (did the programmers there even see what they had bought)… and had walked away. A few weeks later it was on YouTube. And today I was shocked to find that it is one of the most upcoming videos on YouTube.

Those of you who get easily swayed to the thought “I too can become a hero” are strongly advised to skip this post. Seriously.

Those of you who have any sharp objects near you (knife, letter opener, sharp paper edge, pen, pencil) or any heavy objects near you (desktop,laptop, mouse) or any thing you could strangle yourself with (wires, wires more wires) - are advised to put all those away from your reach, before you watch this video.

Vasan Bala saw this video today and had this to say

for fuck’s sake …

Dibakar Banerjee is back. After Khosla Ka Ghosla with Oye Lucky Lucky Oye. PFC received this music video from the movie and like Dibakar’s last comic outing this one too looks like it’s gonna be one hell of a ride. News is that Paresh Rawal has a “triple” role in it, and has personally mentioned that Mumbai Meri Jaan and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye are the two movies he was proud to be working in this year. And that is quite loaded statement!

The movie releases in the US on November 26th and opening worldwide on November 28th.

Click the video below and let us know what you think. For a lighter version of the video, click here for the YouTube video

…

……and ye ye this time its for real!!! I know, the fake ones were damn entertaining. Hopefully the real one will not disappoint you.

Here is my latest theory on Ramu. The filmmaker who made Satya and Compnay died long back, most probably during a film shoot. An aspiring but less talented guy who was AD on the same film set, died with Ramu. The AD knew that now there is no way to make his debut and also because the factory closed down ( so no more ADs will turn director), the guy’s ghost got into Ramu’s body. Ramu’s ghost was ofcourse more eager to meet the menakas and urvashis of other world, so he never bothered to check the status of his body. Its no more “directed by RGV” but “ghost directed by RGV”. since its all black screen, one cannot make out the word “ghost”. we …

Cutting edge, sharp, looks good. Rajkumar’s first directorial venture. This probably is the first film in Bollywood where the rights were bought from the original. The promo had me wanting more… how does the film turn out… lets wait for the release and watch it May end…

We are happy to present the teaser for ‘PICNIC’ - a short film by our IView author Gajendra. He has deligently provided information about his short before and for the late comers amongst you you can catch the posts here - ‘Poster and Synopsis’ and here ‘A Short Thriller’.

iView Author:
Gajendra S Shrotriya
(Jaipur, India)

Email :
gshrotriya [at] yahoo [dot] com

PICNIC – The Teaser

Folks… finally the teaser is here. I am thankful to my production team to deliver this today. Let me have your feedback.

The following are, in no particular order, a few hopefully good super hero movies that I anticipate will make my/our mainstream movie watching experience worth its buck!

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY

Guillermo del Toro returns, with the dark horse of this year’s comic-book movie, bolder bigger and better than its 2004 predecessor, to give the other superheroes a run for their money.

THE DARK KNIGHT

Nolan and all his key cast members are back (except for Mrs.Cruise, who, thankfully, has been replaced by Maggie Gyllenhall). Heath Ledger’s unfortunate passing, sadly, makes this his final farewell gift to the moviegoers. His reinvented joker is one scary psycho and is the darkest of them all. Can’t wait to see him beat (almost) our brooding superhero.

BABYLON A.D.

Vin D dropped out of windy s/Hitman to essay the lead role in this scifi …

Jab We Left - Movies and Memories
Warning - Random personal rambling post ….

Jab We Left…. left forever… Reminds me of the last scene of Sadma where Kamal hassan with a painful expression on his face does all the monkeying around in the hope that Sridevi will recognise him… But she’s lost all memory .. she won’t … She’s forgotten or may be she chose to forget … can’t blame her … As far as she is concerned Kamal’s chapter is closed. Kamal can’t understand why Sridevi can’t recognise him… After all … he was with her all this while … caring for her .. nursing her .. fighting with her .. enduring her eccentrities and madness… Kamal became mad with her long before she left him. Who with a sane mind would pretend to be a monkey with a bucket on his head and caryy water .. dance at …

Pavan Kaul is extremely tied up in the release process of Bhram and sent in these videos.

The first is a 30 second sneak peek into Bhram, followed by the songs!

Sonu Song.. Jaane kyon

Teri aankhon ki narmi

Meri akhiyaan - Richa ( full song)

I am a bad boy

Jaane kaisa hai tu - Shaan

Well, as you can suggest from the title, this post is about Qawwali, so obviously, it will be heavily dedicated to Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. But, I am no expert when it comes to Qawwali or Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. I know what a Qawwali is, thanks to wiki. And I know how many songs Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has done, thanks to Google. But still, I am no expert, so ain’t going to be talking about any technicalities or Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s discography.

However, I would like to share a few youTube videos of his live performances, which I think are, (let me call up the thesaurus) phenomenal - not the exactly word I was looking for - but there isn’t a superlative that would describe how brilliant Ustad Nurat Fateh Ali Khan is at performing.

I was having a lazy Sunday - India …

Amma Said:
“When a man and a woman move together with love,
mutual understanding, and a willingness to be flexible
to the other’s needs, what develops is not equality
between them, but union - the union of Shiva and
Shakti. That is the world of joy. The man and the
woman become one, forgetting all differences. Each one
makes up for the deficiencies of the other. Through
love, each transcends any anger in the other; and
through forbearance, each accepts the weaknesses of
the other. In this way, both enjoy real freedom.
People need this blending of the masculine and
feminine qualities in life. The feminine power
complements the man, while the masculine power
compliments the woman. In a relationship, each needs
support, encouragement, and inspiration from the
other. They are not a burden to each other, but are
supportive and protective. To achieve this ideal, we
need to understand spirituality. Spirituality helps us
to forget external conflicts and to realize our inner
union, the essence of the Self.

By the …

The good news first: Sultan the Warrior is being readied for a release
by the year-end. And the bad news: we will still have to wait for a
lot many months before we get to watch the boss in action, though in
an animated version.

The release of the second trailor of the film was held at a press
conference in Chennai on Sunday, and the atmosphere at the Inox theatre
was nothing less than electrifying. It was almost as if those present
were waiting for the premiere or the “first day first show” of a
Rajnikanth movie.

Sultan the Warrior is being produced by Ocher Studios in association
with Adlabs. The movie is being directed by Soundarya, the 23-year-old
daughter of the superstar and the managing director of Ocher Studios.
The animators and others working on the movie at Ocher Studios were
out in strength to cheer their MD and also to see how mediapersons
would react to their work.

And the moment Soundarya …

[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 …

Since Its that time of the year when everyone looks back & gives their list of things. I’m gonna do a do a series on them. I’ll start with the best things I discovered this year but which may not necessarily belong to this year. These are books i loved, movies I discovered, music I loved, youtube videos that entertained me.

Books -

1) Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone - Rajiv Chandrasekaran
http://tinyurl.com/2as35t
This is a must read for anyone who wants to know what & how things went wrong in the 1st 3 years of the war. Chandrasekaran was the Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post. The reason this book tops my list is because its a very objective account of what happened. Its not a leftist journalists rants against the stupidity of this administration. Infact Paul Greengrass(Bourne Ultimatum, United 93) is going to make …

I was shooting at the Rhodesia House, a dormitory of St. Peters School, Panchgani. Rhodesia House fits approximately 40 boys under the charge of a matron….this house accommodates the youngest (7 to 8 years) students. Being a boarding school, the admission at St. Peters starts from 3rd Std.
Every time I watch TZP promo on tv, I get nostalgic with the first film(AV) which I made as a director….every frame of little, innocent students reminds me of similar shots taken by me, exploring various dorms of St. Peters.

Being known as European Boys’ School before independence, St. Peters has very glorious past and presence….apart from many governors and business tycoons, our legendary rock superstar Freddie Mercury, from band ‘Queen’ was one of the alumni from the 1958 batch. Bruce Murray (lead vocals)
Victory Rana
Farrokh Bulsara …