I remembe wathching Sehar for the first time ,it was late 2007 and i had gone to my home for a holiday ,the last scene was ON (the train shoot out one)and then movie ended immediately after thaat,i was disappointed since i really liked the scene and esp pankaj kapoor's acting ,Now Sehar had released in 2005 but I had never heard of it ,i was not really a "cinema lover" those days ,in any case i am sure i wouldnt be able to see it since there is no cinema hall in our city :) ,i finally managed to catch it again on TV and have watched it again and again over the last few yrs
ok,so coming back to Sehar ,it a story about rise of organized crime in UP and interecut with formation of STF to tackle it,with the main character as ajay (arshad warsi.police officer) and gajraj singh(gangster,sushant singh) on the opposing sides of the law ,now both the characters are in a way mirror image of each other as in both want to create a new system in place of existing old system ,as in gajraj wants "VARSCHAV" (total control) and doesnt think twice before finishing old gangsters ,ajay wants to set up STF(special task force) to tackle him and his seniors also oppose his idea(its very much similar in context to public enemies ,it came much later last yr ,as in FBI is set up to tackle john dillinger's looting of banks,FBI starts using a very scienitfic approach similar to be followed by STF by recruting tiwariji(pankaj kapoor) to help them track gajraj,in general i feel kabeer kaushik may be a fan of micheal mann cinema)
there is also character of ajay's mother and love interest played by mahima choudary(she seems to have come out from the set of another movie,she is always wearing sleveless sexy sarees,i checked with my frnds in lucknow,there is no historical proof to verify that such sexy sarees can be worn in lucknow colleges)but hnstly she looks reallly fetching ,i wonder how ajay is able to focus on gajraj :),there is also a track of ajay's father ,who has commited suicide after being court martialed from army for being a coward
as gajraj wants total control ,he starts killing every one who opposes him ,police initially ignores him but he just keeps going in his brash arrogant way ,without giving a fuck about police ,politicians etc,ajay is also trying from his ends but he doesnt get local support from the various cities in UP ,so he asks for setting up STF which is rejected intitially,later gajraj crosses the limit and kills a visting NRI (who happens to CM frnd)and kidnaps his grandson ,only after that STF is set up,now i feel this is sort of sarcastic comment on our rotten ,corrupt system ,STF is sett up only after elite is affected ,
Ajay recruits tiwarji ,an expert professor of cell phone technology,played superbly by pankaj kapoor,now tiwarji is afraid of gun even when its in his sight(there is pay off later in the end),with the help of tiwarji ,ajay mission gathers steam and he kills many of his gang members,gajraj also kills few STF ppl ,so cat and mouse game is going on and on but the movie never gets boring ,dialogues are really good and u need to know good hindi to unstd their true meaning,
there is also a good scene when ajay's senior justifies encounter killings while arguing with a senior lawyer who says that he hasnt done correct thing by killing a gangster in cold blood,finally ajay manages to catch up with gajraj (who is planing to contest election ,if he goes thr with his plan he will be out of reach of STF and may well be drafting laws in our parliament ,such is the sorry state of our democracy),ajay realizes this and wants to finsih him before he goes ahead with his plan ,he manages to track him with the help of tiwariji ,they go the nijamudin railway station in delhi ,gajraj mangaes to escape but not before he kills a politician there ,(the guy who used him to kill his rivals in party,another comment on politics/criminal nexus),there is an encounter in train ,in the end ajay is also killed by gajraj ,when finally gajraj is about to jump in the river ,tiwarji comes and shoots him and the expression on the face of pankaj's kapoor is mix of fear and courage ,he finally manages to not only touch the gun but he kills a dreaded gangstger,
i really liked the movie ,the screenplay is superb ,dialogues suit the milieu in which the film is set ,the film is told in flashback structure ,tiwariji is telling this story to a TV crew,lots of scenes are well written esp the hierarhical structure within govt system esp BABU/POLICE relationships,the way you have to take order and keep ur mouth shut and swallow ur pride even when u know that other side is wrong ,also screenplay is very objectively written,it is showing gajraj as a very focused,dedicated ,planner who is very ambitious,he is not shown as a villain in terms of standard bollywood movies,as in he is not dancing with half naked women,he is not a comic villain,fool etc he gives equal fight to police as in a villain with a mind of his own(another micheal mann trait),ajay character is also well written ,his relationship with his mother and his falling in luv with mahima is shown well ,tiwarji is also a everman guy,he is an observer or helper in the whole movie expcept the last scene in which he becomes a participant ,
the movie is shot well ,nothing flashy but serves the pupose,lot of long shots have been used to establish geography,then camera moves as per the character importance in the scene,encounter scenes have been shot well as in very realistic
editing is superb,lot of good transition hooks have been used esp a hindi song when a gangster is killed in delhi encounter ,music suits the movie
overall a good fst movie by KABEER KAUSHIK ,i dont no what happned to him ,he weent on to direct chamku and hum tum aur ghost ,i think he is not getting the support to exercise his creative freedom ,even chamku had flashes of kabeer kaushik brilliance but hum tum was a disaster ,hopefully he ll get back on track ,
Monday, January 31, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
some more colors from vibgyor
so ,we also had a workshop at vibgyor this yr ,it was a good experince ,now i have been going to film festivals and in general have attended workshops related to screenplay writing,editing,direction,camera etc in geenral but when a checked on the website ,nothing of this sort was mentioned ,so i put a mail to one of their and asked "whats this workshop about"? and i got a rpely saying that "its a general interactive workshop not focused on any particular topic"
now i remember many directors telling in interviewa "you can learn all the technique but most imp. thing is to know :WHT YOU WANNA SAY"?,i think thats the most imp thing as in what the film is about ,whats its theme,whats the common factor binding all the shots,scenes,sequences together ,and i feel its the most difficult thing to unstd,no film school (including ucla or nyu )can teach you this thing ,they can teach all the technical stuff or all the masterclasses(which all available on you tube )but no one can teach you :WHAT YOU WANNA SAY ? ,it has to be very internal and i think thats where this workshop helped me a lot and i would surely rate it as one of the best workshops i ahve even attended untill now and trust me i have been to many and hell lots of stuff on net also,
now getting back to workshop itself,on the first day ,we all came in the afternoon ,and were introduced to Sujata babar (with abhivykati),she took the initial class,the first thing she asked was to describe ourselves thr visuals and not words,now this was a fantastic exp.,i had heard of such kind of exercises in NID ahmedabad from a professor whose workshop i had attend in blore ,but this was my first such kind of experince,now we all talk a lot about ourselves andd in general also but when it comes to such kind of stuff ,you really have to think and find a suitable visual metaphor to depict your core inner self ,this is not easy ,we were given 10 mintues ,at the end ,i really enjoyed the process(i think thats what matters in the end),i really appplied myself for those 10 mintues in thinking what visuals describe me best as an indvidiual ,i had never tht from that angle before about myself ,in end it was really a good exercise in visualizing and putting those visuals on papper,and i think we got very good response
now next session was by K.P Sasi,he is documentary filmmaker from kerala ,he showed some of his music videos related to america and naxalite problems,after that we had a good discussion related to his anti american views and music videos
then the next day session was by Mr. Luis ,i think in 90 mintues i got so much fucking gyan that i never imagined i would get in my wildest dreams while taking the bus to trissur ,so much to absord,first he showed a movie "vitthal",now this is one the best short movies i have seen in my life ,the director really knew his craft very well and showed the anger,frustration and the POV of a child who is forced to cut his hair after his grandfather dies ,some of shots were simply fantastic esp child standing in front of the mirror ,i am sure given a worthy full length screenplay .the director would do wonders in film making ,then he showed animation movies by candian film maker ,esp one the movies "vertical lines" really showed the core of the film making in its simplest form ,there are tomes written on screenplay strucuture,cinematorgaphy,use of color etc but i would suggest any body who is remotely interested in film making to watch this movie,now first time i didnt get et all,actually i was bored but then on public demand it was shown again ,i think it showed another thing which any aspiring film maker should always has:AN OPEN MIND,usually when we c smthing which we havent seen before ,we say that its boring or its bakwas,but you have to be patient,give it a chance and i learned my lesson very well ,then he talked in general about narrative structure and film making in general ,sadly he was part of orgazning committe so he had to leave early ,how i wish he could have extended his session but alas.............
then the next session was by Mr.Baburaj,another docu filmamker,he talked in geenral about his career and docu film movement in kerala ,it was very informative session ,but as always any session which is close to the lunch always seems too long na !
Then post lunch session was on editing by Mr. Cherian ,it was sort of 2 hour marathan session on editing in general,.i think the guy covered everything that can be covered in a 2-3 hour session and gave some good examples also ,i sort of liked the guy's way of conducting the session,he was cracking jokes ,keeping the atmosphere light but still giving lots of gyan also and in the end he talked about walter murch ,now i have been big fan of walter murch ever since i saw conversation by coppola(which i think is the one the best movies ever about loneliness ,and the effect was enhanced manifold by background score by shire and sound design by murch),recently also i read the book"in blink of any eye" by murch,it was so so informative ,the guy has his own style and untill very recently used to edit in film ,how i would love to meet him?
then came the biggies in evening ,MR.Anand Patwardan and Norma Marocs ,just a general brief interaction about their film making and life in general,so this was the workshop in general ,there was another session about which i will write later but i have write about Patwardan here ,he seemed so calm,cool,relaxed, normally what happens is that when your movies get banned or are delayed for release ,stuck in court cases etc ,one tends to turn bitter and may also show "world-is-against-me" mentality but i didnt see anything like that in him,he seemed so sure of himself and above all,his calmness is whcih i liked most ,i admire his guts for making the kind of movies he wants to make but more than that i now admire the person behind those movies more ,
The last but not the least(as always) session was with Mr.Saeed Akhtar Mirza,wow what an experiencce it was ,i can easily say it was most invigorating 90 minutes spent in past few yrs ,he was simply in top form ,he didnt talk about film making as such ,he talked about life in geenral,his experiences,his approach towards life ,his ideology,his views at certain issue close to his heart ,in the end it was all worth it ,we asked few Qs and he replied each one of them in his own inimitable style ,he also recited some urdu couplets and then translated them in simpler language:) for our comfort,he also told its the fire in the belly that counts not the film school degree ,
so thats all ,certainly a gr8 experince ,i gained a lot from interacting with all the ppl and above all with the fellow workshop ppl,i think i was the only person with non media background there ,all of them very passionate about film making ,i feel gr8 whenever i am in company of ppl who are passionate about somthing (it doesnt have to be film mkaing ,it can be anything),you feel more alive and less robotic:)(s/w engg know wit i am talking about),
now i remember many directors telling in interviewa "you can learn all the technique but most imp. thing is to know :WHT YOU WANNA SAY"?,i think thats the most imp thing as in what the film is about ,whats its theme,whats the common factor binding all the shots,scenes,sequences together ,and i feel its the most difficult thing to unstd,no film school (including ucla or nyu )can teach you this thing ,they can teach all the technical stuff or all the masterclasses(which all available on you tube )but no one can teach you :WHAT YOU WANNA SAY ? ,it has to be very internal and i think thats where this workshop helped me a lot and i would surely rate it as one of the best workshops i ahve even attended untill now and trust me i have been to many and hell lots of stuff on net also,
now getting back to workshop itself,on the first day ,we all came in the afternoon ,and were introduced to Sujata babar (with abhivykati),she took the initial class,the first thing she asked was to describe ourselves thr visuals and not words,now this was a fantastic exp.,i had heard of such kind of exercises in NID ahmedabad from a professor whose workshop i had attend in blore ,but this was my first such kind of experince,now we all talk a lot about ourselves andd in general also but when it comes to such kind of stuff ,you really have to think and find a suitable visual metaphor to depict your core inner self ,this is not easy ,we were given 10 mintues ,at the end ,i really enjoyed the process(i think thats what matters in the end),i really appplied myself for those 10 mintues in thinking what visuals describe me best as an indvidiual ,i had never tht from that angle before about myself ,in end it was really a good exercise in visualizing and putting those visuals on papper,and i think we got very good response
now next session was by K.P Sasi,he is documentary filmmaker from kerala ,he showed some of his music videos related to america and naxalite problems,after that we had a good discussion related to his anti american views and music videos
then the next day session was by Mr. Luis ,i think in 90 mintues i got so much fucking gyan that i never imagined i would get in my wildest dreams while taking the bus to trissur ,so much to absord,first he showed a movie "vitthal",now this is one the best short movies i have seen in my life ,the director really knew his craft very well and showed the anger,frustration and the POV of a child who is forced to cut his hair after his grandfather dies ,some of shots were simply fantastic esp child standing in front of the mirror ,i am sure given a worthy full length screenplay .the director would do wonders in film making ,then he showed animation movies by candian film maker ,esp one the movies "vertical lines" really showed the core of the film making in its simplest form ,there are tomes written on screenplay strucuture,cinematorgaphy,use of color etc but i would suggest any body who is remotely interested in film making to watch this movie,now first time i didnt get et all,actually i was bored but then on public demand it was shown again ,i think it showed another thing which any aspiring film maker should always has:AN OPEN MIND,usually when we c smthing which we havent seen before ,we say that its boring or its bakwas,but you have to be patient,give it a chance and i learned my lesson very well ,then he talked in general about narrative structure and film making in general ,sadly he was part of orgazning committe so he had to leave early ,how i wish he could have extended his session but alas.............
then the next session was by Mr.Baburaj,another docu filmamker,he talked in geenral about his career and docu film movement in kerala ,it was very informative session ,but as always any session which is close to the lunch always seems too long na !
Then post lunch session was on editing by Mr. Cherian ,it was sort of 2 hour marathan session on editing in general,.i think the guy covered everything that can be covered in a 2-3 hour session and gave some good examples also ,i sort of liked the guy's way of conducting the session,he was cracking jokes ,keeping the atmosphere light but still giving lots of gyan also and in the end he talked about walter murch ,now i have been big fan of walter murch ever since i saw conversation by coppola(which i think is the one the best movies ever about loneliness ,and the effect was enhanced manifold by background score by shire and sound design by murch),recently also i read the book"in blink of any eye" by murch,it was so so informative ,the guy has his own style and untill very recently used to edit in film ,how i would love to meet him?
then came the biggies in evening ,MR.Anand Patwardan and Norma Marocs ,just a general brief interaction about their film making and life in general,so this was the workshop in general ,there was another session about which i will write later but i have write about Patwardan here ,he seemed so calm,cool,relaxed, normally what happens is that when your movies get banned or are delayed for release ,stuck in court cases etc ,one tends to turn bitter and may also show "world-is-against-me" mentality but i didnt see anything like that in him,he seemed so sure of himself and above all,his calmness is whcih i liked most ,i admire his guts for making the kind of movies he wants to make but more than that i now admire the person behind those movies more ,
The last but not the least(as always) session was with Mr.Saeed Akhtar Mirza,wow what an experiencce it was ,i can easily say it was most invigorating 90 minutes spent in past few yrs ,he was simply in top form ,he didnt talk about film making as such ,he talked about life in geenral,his experiences,his approach towards life ,his ideology,his views at certain issue close to his heart ,in the end it was all worth it ,we asked few Qs and he replied each one of them in his own inimitable style ,he also recited some urdu couplets and then translated them in simpler language:) for our comfort,he also told its the fire in the belly that counts not the film school degree ,
so thats all ,certainly a gr8 experince ,i gained a lot from interacting with all the ppl and above all with the fellow workshop ppl,i think i was the only person with non media background there ,all of them very passionate about film making ,i feel gr8 whenever i am in company of ppl who are passionate about somthing (it doesnt have to be film mkaing ,it can be anything),you feel more alive and less robotic:)(s/w engg know wit i am talking about),
Sunday, January 23, 2011
luv in the time of sabbatical
Shai"chal milna kabhe ,phone karna kabhe"
Munna keeps quiet,looks sad,she leaves ,may be going forver
Now munna in the frame looking even more fucked up,then a long take of him going after shai's car passing thr busy traffic(m a sucker for long takes,i luved it),he bangs on the mirror of the car,shai looks surprised,munna doesnt say anything ,he tears a piece of paperr from his diary and hands it over to shai,the paper contains his new address ,shai is bit shocked,munna leaves without saying anything ,shai closes the mirror and a tear flows down herr eye ,she probably realizes now that Munna is in luv with her
in the scene perceding this one ,shai is looking for munna for some time now after he has moved out of his previous home ,she finally tracks him down but he runs away ,she chases him and finally manages to catch him,they sit and talk .he tells her that his brother has been killed by gangsters,shai tells him "itna sab ho gya ,kuch bataya he nahe?",dost nahe samghe kya?"
m bit confused ,y would a grl like shai be interested in munna as in even making him her frnd,she came from usa ,is on a sabbatical ,is an I-banker ,she must be having her circle of frnds ,and even in mumbai she has frnds ,so y would she even puruse a casual frndsship with a munna ,(who is not in any way connected to her social circle),we can unstd that for tracking arun she needs his help ,but even afer that ,she goes out for a movie with him ,then tracks him down even when he is not interested in talking with her ,class barriers are simply too big for both to overcome to puruse a casual frnship,did she even for an iota of second felt smthing for munna ,would she go back to usa and tell her i-banking frnds"i met an interesting dhobi",even her frnds her were making casual fun of her frnship with munna
but atlastwe gotta see a relationship between ppl from two different class in a realistic way in a bollywood movie(if we can call dhobi ghat so),normally its too melodramtic(amir ladki,garib ladka or reverse) but this one was vvv realistic,
Shai is definitely a warm and unstdng person,the way she selects the other glass when her maid brings two types of glasses (one for her ,different one for munna),at that point she didnt know that he knows Arun ,only immediately after that her maid brings Arun's shirt ,so her warmth and concern is definitely not a put on ,she is like that only,the scene is simply superb i.e second scene of their interaction
but m not really convinced,y is she concerned about munna ,y is she tracking him down ,does she really care if his brother died,?
there is also a good scene in which munna asks her "tumhe kaisa laghta hu mein"?,there is moment of awkarwd silence ,then he says "photo mein?",she replies smthing like "mujhe to tum ache laghte ho",munna expression is priceless,
i liked this track the best of all on dhobi ghat,since i ahvent spent more than 2 days in mumbai so i am not in any position to put down my thts my that angle ,but some of skyline shots reminded me similar shots in wong kar wai "chunking express" which was also a story of lonely hearts looking for sm one ,that story had a happy ending atleast for one couple,but here every one goes there own way
i hope some day there is a movie about shai and munna (like characters)as in full length 90 minutes movie ,i would luve to know what happened to them next ,did he ever call her long distance ,did he opn a facebook accout to be in contact with her ?,did she ever miss his company as a frnd?
we never have realistic class (or caste)difference based plot in any of the movies except may be omi and dolly track in omkara ,omi is half brahmin and dark while dolly is brahmin and fair ,there is also a dialogue in movie in which omi says "itne khubsurat ho ke mujh jasie se pyar kar bethe,ya tu to bahut bade lul hein ye bahut badi dayen"?,omi has a deep rooted inferiority complex,he is never able to accept that dolly honesltly loves him and the end as we know is tragic ,
i can remember also jungle fever by spike lee,a black american guy and italian american gal fall in "luv" with each other but later they discover that they had fallen for each other just out of curiousity of the other person being from different race ,not out of genuine luv and affection for each other ,there is a track in split wide open in which laila rouss wanna have sex with rahul bose frm a smiliar angle
so ,,,does luv really conquers all???
Munna keeps quiet,looks sad,she leaves ,may be going forver
Now munna in the frame looking even more fucked up,then a long take of him going after shai's car passing thr busy traffic(m a sucker for long takes,i luved it),he bangs on the mirror of the car,shai looks surprised,munna doesnt say anything ,he tears a piece of paperr from his diary and hands it over to shai,the paper contains his new address ,shai is bit shocked,munna leaves without saying anything ,shai closes the mirror and a tear flows down herr eye ,she probably realizes now that Munna is in luv with her
in the scene perceding this one ,shai is looking for munna for some time now after he has moved out of his previous home ,she finally tracks him down but he runs away ,she chases him and finally manages to catch him,they sit and talk .he tells her that his brother has been killed by gangsters,shai tells him "itna sab ho gya ,kuch bataya he nahe?",dost nahe samghe kya?"
m bit confused ,y would a grl like shai be interested in munna as in even making him her frnd,she came from usa ,is on a sabbatical ,is an I-banker ,she must be having her circle of frnds ,and even in mumbai she has frnds ,so y would she even puruse a casual frndsship with a munna ,(who is not in any way connected to her social circle),we can unstd that for tracking arun she needs his help ,but even afer that ,she goes out for a movie with him ,then tracks him down even when he is not interested in talking with her ,class barriers are simply too big for both to overcome to puruse a casual frnship,did she even for an iota of second felt smthing for munna ,would she go back to usa and tell her i-banking frnds"i met an interesting dhobi",even her frnds her were making casual fun of her frnship with munna
but atlastwe gotta see a relationship between ppl from two different class in a realistic way in a bollywood movie(if we can call dhobi ghat so),normally its too melodramtic(amir ladki,garib ladka or reverse) but this one was vvv realistic,
Shai is definitely a warm and unstdng person,the way she selects the other glass when her maid brings two types of glasses (one for her ,different one for munna),at that point she didnt know that he knows Arun ,only immediately after that her maid brings Arun's shirt ,so her warmth and concern is definitely not a put on ,she is like that only,the scene is simply superb i.e second scene of their interaction
but m not really convinced,y is she concerned about munna ,y is she tracking him down ,does she really care if his brother died,?
there is also a good scene in which munna asks her "tumhe kaisa laghta hu mein"?,there is moment of awkarwd silence ,then he says "photo mein?",she replies smthing like "mujhe to tum ache laghte ho",munna expression is priceless,
i liked this track the best of all on dhobi ghat,since i ahvent spent more than 2 days in mumbai so i am not in any position to put down my thts my that angle ,but some of skyline shots reminded me similar shots in wong kar wai "chunking express" which was also a story of lonely hearts looking for sm one ,that story had a happy ending atleast for one couple,but here every one goes there own way
i hope some day there is a movie about shai and munna (like characters)as in full length 90 minutes movie ,i would luve to know what happened to them next ,did he ever call her long distance ,did he opn a facebook accout to be in contact with her ?,did she ever miss his company as a frnd?
we never have realistic class (or caste)difference based plot in any of the movies except may be omi and dolly track in omkara ,omi is half brahmin and dark while dolly is brahmin and fair ,there is also a dialogue in movie in which omi says "itne khubsurat ho ke mujh jasie se pyar kar bethe,ya tu to bahut bade lul hein ye bahut badi dayen"?,omi has a deep rooted inferiority complex,he is never able to accept that dolly honesltly loves him and the end as we know is tragic ,
i can remember also jungle fever by spike lee,a black american guy and italian american gal fall in "luv" with each other but later they discover that they had fallen for each other just out of curiousity of the other person being from different race ,not out of genuine luv and affection for each other ,there is a track in split wide open in which laila rouss wanna have sex with rahul bose frm a smiliar angle
so ,,,does luv really conquers all???
Friday, January 21, 2011
vibgyor 2011 :random thts
its been over two yrs since i have written something ,had decided that i will write more but just couldnt keep up the promise with myself ,well i didnt waste time actually ,have explored you tube upto its full potential ,watched an insanely huge no of movies over last few yrs covering all major directors,genres,movements in world and india ,ofcourse ,sort of decided now not to watch any movie atleast untill 28th febraury ,hopefully this promise i ll keep :)
now coming back to vibgyor,i have been going to film festivals in last yrs ,i went to bangalore film festival in 2008/2009,goa 2009/2010, and this yr i went to vibgyor film festival in thrissur ,kerala.The main motive was to visit kerala and along with it ,i can indulge in my passion:watching movies back to back over 7 days,i can say it was a good experience overall,i really enjoyed my stay in kerala i will just list few random movies i enjoyed watching at the festival:-
1.MAYTHIL by K.GOPINATHAN:-this was a 41 minutes doc shown on the last day and without a doubt the best movie of the festival for me,now i m from punjab and mostly my reading has been in punjabi/hindi/emglish and i had nevver heard of the writer before this doc but i was hooked for entire duration of 41 minutes,there was so much to absorb that i cannt even remember many things,the guy refered evverything from marxism to robert frost poems to eisenstein's montage ,psychology,women ,sex etc etc.Without a doubt it was the best documentary i have seen on a creative person after "crumb" on robert crumb by "terry zwigoff".BOth the content and the narrative strcture were simply superb,later i went a congratuled the director also,he was a simple ,unassuming man.
the sad thing was that after i serached for english language translation of "maythil" work but coiuldnt find any ,its really sad ,why cant we translate our own indian authors in other languauges ?
2.CENTIPEDE SUN by MIHAI GRECU:-this was one of the best visually moving experiences after a long time ,there is no story ,narrative etc as in all the trappings of mainstream cinema ,just pure visuals and i beleive from my own exp .of watching movies over the yrs ,that such kind of movies are a treat to watch ,its difficult to descibe in words what excalty i was feeling while i watching the visuals ,i just wanted to break the fourth wall and go into the screen and stay there forever faraway from all the metro cities i have been living over the last few yrs ,but then i cant really do "into the wild" right?
now coming to another point as in terms of requirements of narrative,story etc,i firmly believe what we need to engage an audience is an interesting character ,the story will follow from what will happen to that character and waht sort of actions that character takes to resolve the situation arising out of his decisions and other external factors,and even going further ,if we look at a movie like "in mood for love" there is no path breaking story as such ,just 2 ppl and their repressed emotions ,and it is further enhanced manifold by fantastic soundtrack and cinematography by doyle, but then wong kar wai is wong kar wai ,not every one can do this thing
another one of his movie is "chunking express",i have always loved this movie both in terms of usuage of different tools related to cinematic form and as a purely movie buff,there is a scene i like i.e when guy is calling all the girls he has known since childhood but all are married and busy and he is alone with no one to talk to ,and also the one when he is jogging and gets a pager msg from the girl he went to hotel room last night ,
i think love is a matter of right timing and no other film maker has shown it better than wong kar wai,how ,when ,why two ppl fall in love is determined by various factors out of our control,well the post has moved away from vibgyor 2011 but such is the magic of wong kar wai
3.A FAMILY DRAMA by TANMAYEE DEO and DNYANESH ZOTING:-this was a short movie with a trace of black comedy throught the film and its my fav genre,so i ended up liking the movie.The story is that of a girl ,who is free spirited and doesnt want to get married(even thoguh her BF is ready to talk to his mother)and her conflicts with her family(her elder sis,mother and father).Her mother is always after her to get married and a swami blames all the bad things happening to the family of insistence of the younger daughther not getting married,one day she follows her elder sister and finds that she is planning to get divorce.Also,there is a hilarous scene when a dulha comes to see her and she gets her hair cut short (diff from the picture given to the guy),and she shows them a middle finger when they ask her "wahtt the plan after marriage".Also there is a good scene after this when her mother scolds her father for cming out when guy's family ,and last but not the least ,both the sisters are watching the VCR recording of elder's sister getting married but the younger one starts playing it a reverse fast mode,the scene is simply fun to watch and bit sad also as in .they wish if it could ahppen in real life ,overall i enjoyed the movie very much
4.MANY STORIES OF LOVE AND HATE by SHYAMAL KUMAR KARMAKAR:- I simply loved this docu,both the stories were engaging and shot beautifully
(a)story of a kashmiri boy whose father was a terrorist and now he is not getting passport coz of this fact,the docu showed in depth guy's anger ,frustration and shown kashmir visuals diff from what we are used to seeing in bollywood,it showed real kashmir ,one of my frnd had gone to kashmir for her study in early 2000s ,she clicked lots of pics and told me wherever she went ppl used to ask her "kya tum india se ho"? ,i could see lots of those ppl and locations in this movie ,
(b)story of rii,bengali girl,it showed from her POV her disturbed childhood ,her not-so-happy relationship with her father and effects of her father beating her mother .There were fantastic shots in this secction ,one of the shot (if i rem correctly),that a motorcycle is coming from far,then camera turns on the head and folllows it going through ,then we see Rii sitting on the road ,then camera closes on her vagina ,then we cut back to kashmiri story ,
5.SHAPE OF THE SHAPELESS by JAYAN CHERAIN:-now i have been watching lots of weired stuff in lat few yrs including gaspar noe,takashi mike,reyagdas etc but i can easily say that this was equal if not more daring than those names mentioned (in terms of content) coming from an indian film maker ,may be i havent seen other such docs from india so this was a new exp. for me.As another malyali i met at the festival told me that she was also surprised seeing such a movie from a mallu or i can also indian in that context.The story follows a guy who wants to change his/her identity as he/she wishes ,i know this is bit difficult to follow but you have to see this to beleive it ,some of the scenes were explicit in nature and i was worried about the 6 yr old kids sitting in the front and wathching this movie with rapt attention:),next day a women in mid 30s asked the director some Qs in directors meet rgnd censorship and i wont be surprised if anyof the kids watching the movie was her child
6.SONGS OF MASHANGVA by OINAM DOREN:-Now ,this was certainly the best "looking" movie of the fest for me ,the colors,light etc all of it superbly in sync with the songs being sung by the artist in the focus ,i was simply hooked to say the least,it was pretty long and i can safely say that i wasnt even bored for evven a minute ,i like the look of the film ,i feel "7 khoon maaf" look is very similar judging purely from the promos and i like that kind of stylized look ,the doc follows a singer of naga folk songs and how he is preserving centuries old tradition in face of modernity and also shots of rajasthan folk songs festival.When it ended and i looked back ,there were less than 5 ppl in the place where it was playing ,i felt very sad that i couldnt share such fantastic exp with more ppl coz at the end of the day movie watching is a communal exp ,you go to a fest etc to enjoy watching movies with like minded passionate ppl who are crazy about cinema who can watch 6-7 movies at stretch and still luk fwd to next day for watching some more
i ll mention about workshop which i attened in next post and will write about my movie watching exp in general from now on regularly,recently i read a truffaut interview in which he said"just watching and readding movies is not enf,you need to write about movies also ,this helps in exercising your intellect" so i gonna follow truffaut advice
now coming back to vibgyor,i have been going to film festivals in last yrs ,i went to bangalore film festival in 2008/2009,goa 2009/2010, and this yr i went to vibgyor film festival in thrissur ,kerala.The main motive was to visit kerala and along with it ,i can indulge in my passion:watching movies back to back over 7 days,i can say it was a good experience overall,i really enjoyed my stay in kerala i will just list few random movies i enjoyed watching at the festival:-
1.MAYTHIL by K.GOPINATHAN:-this was a 41 minutes doc shown on the last day and without a doubt the best movie of the festival for me,now i m from punjab and mostly my reading has been in punjabi/hindi/emglish and i had nevver heard of the writer before this doc but i was hooked for entire duration of 41 minutes,there was so much to absorb that i cannt even remember many things,the guy refered evverything from marxism to robert frost poems to eisenstein's montage ,psychology,women ,sex etc etc.Without a doubt it was the best documentary i have seen on a creative person after "crumb" on robert crumb by "terry zwigoff".BOth the content and the narrative strcture were simply superb,later i went a congratuled the director also,he was a simple ,unassuming man.
the sad thing was that after i serached for english language translation of "maythil" work but coiuldnt find any ,its really sad ,why cant we translate our own indian authors in other languauges ?
2.CENTIPEDE SUN by MIHAI GRECU:-this was one of the best visually moving experiences after a long time ,there is no story ,narrative etc as in all the trappings of mainstream cinema ,just pure visuals and i beleive from my own exp .of watching movies over the yrs ,that such kind of movies are a treat to watch ,its difficult to descibe in words what excalty i was feeling while i watching the visuals ,i just wanted to break the fourth wall and go into the screen and stay there forever faraway from all the metro cities i have been living over the last few yrs ,but then i cant really do "into the wild" right?
now coming to another point as in terms of requirements of narrative,story etc,i firmly believe what we need to engage an audience is an interesting character ,the story will follow from what will happen to that character and waht sort of actions that character takes to resolve the situation arising out of his decisions and other external factors,and even going further ,if we look at a movie like "in mood for love" there is no path breaking story as such ,just 2 ppl and their repressed emotions ,and it is further enhanced manifold by fantastic soundtrack and cinematography by doyle, but then wong kar wai is wong kar wai ,not every one can do this thing
another one of his movie is "chunking express",i have always loved this movie both in terms of usuage of different tools related to cinematic form and as a purely movie buff,there is a scene i like i.e when guy is calling all the girls he has known since childhood but all are married and busy and he is alone with no one to talk to ,and also the one when he is jogging and gets a pager msg from the girl he went to hotel room last night ,
i think love is a matter of right timing and no other film maker has shown it better than wong kar wai,how ,when ,why two ppl fall in love is determined by various factors out of our control,well the post has moved away from vibgyor 2011 but such is the magic of wong kar wai
3.A FAMILY DRAMA by TANMAYEE DEO and DNYANESH ZOTING:-this was a short movie with a trace of black comedy throught the film and its my fav genre,so i ended up liking the movie.The story is that of a girl ,who is free spirited and doesnt want to get married(even thoguh her BF is ready to talk to his mother)and her conflicts with her family(her elder sis,mother and father).Her mother is always after her to get married and a swami blames all the bad things happening to the family of insistence of the younger daughther not getting married,one day she follows her elder sister and finds that she is planning to get divorce.Also,there is a hilarous scene when a dulha comes to see her and she gets her hair cut short (diff from the picture given to the guy),and she shows them a middle finger when they ask her "wahtt the plan after marriage".Also there is a good scene after this when her mother scolds her father for cming out when guy's family ,and last but not the least ,both the sisters are watching the VCR recording of elder's sister getting married but the younger one starts playing it a reverse fast mode,the scene is simply fun to watch and bit sad also as in .they wish if it could ahppen in real life ,overall i enjoyed the movie very much
4.MANY STORIES OF LOVE AND HATE by SHYAMAL KUMAR KARMAKAR:- I simply loved this docu,both the stories were engaging and shot beautifully
(a)story of a kashmiri boy whose father was a terrorist and now he is not getting passport coz of this fact,the docu showed in depth guy's anger ,frustration and shown kashmir visuals diff from what we are used to seeing in bollywood,it showed real kashmir ,one of my frnd had gone to kashmir for her study in early 2000s ,she clicked lots of pics and told me wherever she went ppl used to ask her "kya tum india se ho"? ,i could see lots of those ppl and locations in this movie ,
(b)story of rii,bengali girl,it showed from her POV her disturbed childhood ,her not-so-happy relationship with her father and effects of her father beating her mother .There were fantastic shots in this secction ,one of the shot (if i rem correctly),that a motorcycle is coming from far,then camera turns on the head and folllows it going through ,then we see Rii sitting on the road ,then camera closes on her vagina ,then we cut back to kashmiri story ,
5.SHAPE OF THE SHAPELESS by JAYAN CHERAIN:-now i have been watching lots of weired stuff in lat few yrs including gaspar noe,takashi mike,reyagdas etc but i can easily say that this was equal if not more daring than those names mentioned (in terms of content) coming from an indian film maker ,may be i havent seen other such docs from india so this was a new exp. for me.As another malyali i met at the festival told me that she was also surprised seeing such a movie from a mallu or i can also indian in that context.The story follows a guy who wants to change his/her identity as he/she wishes ,i know this is bit difficult to follow but you have to see this to beleive it ,some of the scenes were explicit in nature and i was worried about the 6 yr old kids sitting in the front and wathching this movie with rapt attention:),next day a women in mid 30s asked the director some Qs in directors meet rgnd censorship and i wont be surprised if anyof the kids watching the movie was her child
6.SONGS OF MASHANGVA by OINAM DOREN:-Now ,this was certainly the best "looking" movie of the fest for me ,the colors,light etc all of it superbly in sync with the songs being sung by the artist in the focus ,i was simply hooked to say the least,it was pretty long and i can safely say that i wasnt even bored for evven a minute ,i like the look of the film ,i feel "7 khoon maaf" look is very similar judging purely from the promos and i like that kind of stylized look ,the doc follows a singer of naga folk songs and how he is preserving centuries old tradition in face of modernity and also shots of rajasthan folk songs festival.When it ended and i looked back ,there were less than 5 ppl in the place where it was playing ,i felt very sad that i couldnt share such fantastic exp with more ppl coz at the end of the day movie watching is a communal exp ,you go to a fest etc to enjoy watching movies with like minded passionate ppl who are crazy about cinema who can watch 6-7 movies at stretch and still luk fwd to next day for watching some more
i ll mention about workshop which i attened in next post and will write about my movie watching exp in general from now on regularly,recently i read a truffaut interview in which he said"just watching and readding movies is not enf,you need to write about movies also ,this helps in exercising your intellect" so i gonna follow truffaut advice
Sunday, February 8, 2009
hattrick
well never worked so much in my life tht i cant indulge in my only true passion :movies ,i was so busy in last month or so tht i didnt go to theatre even once ,i dont remember when this has happened during last 3 yrs since i hve fallen in love with cinema ,situation simply didnt permit me so i had to wait untill last friday to go and indulge in my passion all over again and i watched 3 movis back to back ,i ll just write bout them in watching order only :)
1 LUCK BY CHANCE
i remember first time hearing about this time when i was in my engg 3rd year,then it was on and off for few yrs and last yr watched promos in theatre and was really looking forward to this movie all over again,now the movie is directed by zoya akhtar,i chked on her profile in imdb and found that she has worked as casting director on some very unusal movies like kamsutra,bombay boys,bhopal express etc ,its very surprising considering she is sort of an insider ,then i read her many interivew esp one of bollyspice.com ,that was simply one of best interviews i have read of an indian film director in recent times ,there she explained her characters,about success and failure in general and in context of bollywood,i think may be her casting director exp came in handy as she was saying in her interview that she came in contct with many "outsiders" who come to bollywood ,note that scene in LBC when a guy asks farhan to fill his form ,from his voice he looks like from hindi belt who doesnt unstd english ,she may have noticed it during those days ,it was also there in mtv roadies few times
well now coming back to movie itself ,since last few yr i always keep an eye on credits rolling initially i m interested in ppl jinke sirf names aate he screen par but this time in LBC i got to see them also and see virtually every body even watchman ,it was really thoughtfully done esp 2 scenes 1.grl in pari dress going to toilet 2.men wearing space suits sitting for a chai
then we are introduced to the sona (konkona sen sharma) coming to a producer's
office and he explains her that its destiny that has brght her from kanpur to bollywood ,then we cut straightway after 3 yrs where sona is working in a 1 min role with aamir khan in raju hirani's film,she explains to her frnd outside tht she did this coz her producer frnd told her to do it since it was 1 min with aamir khan,
then comes farhan ,he goes to an acting school,there are few funny scenes here ,esp when a grl asks "sir heroine banane ke liye kitne mehnet chiyee" ,then macmohan scene when he is asked to recite his dialouge from sholay
then these two meet thr farhan frnd who is also a struggler from delhi working mostly in theatre ,he is an idealist type ,ther is another frnd working in mahesh bhatt camp aspiring to be a director
farhan and sona start getting close to each other along with on going struggle to make it in bollywood,there is also a producer's character played by rishi kapoor(it was bit like om puri's character in naghesh kukonoor's bollywood calling)who anounces a new movie "dil ki aag" starring yesterday superstar(in film) dimple kapadia's daugher played by isha sharavani and zaffar khan (hrithik ),now the movie is directed by sanjay kapoor ,some of lines said by his character well really ironical in a way ,i am still thinking and ll always keep thinking for the rest of my life how did zoya akhtar managed to convince sanjay kapoor to take this role ,watch the movie and find out urself,there are many camoes in the movies but u have to admit each one really in sync with current moment in the story ,
at this moment sab is k ,then hrithik gets a call from karan johar that he wants him in his next production ,hrithik then wants to get out of romy rolly(rishi kapoor)movie,he cant say it directly coz as per the script romi had launched hrithik when he was a nobody,now hrithik some how drops out of dil ki aag ,there is a very good scene there are tears in rishi kapoor's eye for that thing that hrithik is not taking his calls and he has to run after these kids for completion of this movie ,there his wife played by juhi chawla conforts him ,its a beautiful scene esp when juhi consoles rishi ,dialogues are really good
sona's producer ditches her but by sheer luck sona drops farhan's photo in his office and then it reaches romy rolly office who is looking for a new hero to replace hrithik
farhan goes and gets selected and before going to audition there is a fantastic scene between him and konkana ,she tells him about producer's story,farhan tries to console her by saying that its the individual who selects success and failure(i totally agree with this line)and some motivational stuff ,
farhan gets selected also courtesy his earlier meeting with heroine's mother in a party,she sort of recommends him ,and then the shooting shifts to an outdoor location,there is lot of drama there esp between farhan and isha's character ,also there is scene involving farhan and konkona when she comes to meet him on his shooting location
there after story is about farhan's upward swing in his career but downward swing in his personal life ,then at the climax he realizes his mistake and goes to sona ,better watch the ending urself
in the end sona's character says a line which i really like "kitna log he jo subah utke wahein kam karte he jo unko aacha laghta hein" or something like that ,the whole point is how many ppl get to what they really LOVE TO DO,tragedy is most ppl dont even no what they love to do forgetting even doing it,i have seen in number of rgv interviews ,he always says as in something like i get up in morning and do exctly the kind of work i want to do and that for me is Success ,its same for sona's character ,she is happy nd content coz she is doing the work she LOVE,thts wit steve jobs has said during his famous speech ,i read that speech few yrs back and it such a gr8 speech ,normally i avoid reading motivational books nd all this kind of stuff but i keep coming back steve jobs speech of nearly 4 pages ,he has said wit is really most important as in to find wit u love to do
now coming back to LBC again ,it was set in bollywood but the same story can be set in software industry,its by sheer stroke of luck that some ppl gets long term onsite or a really good project in terms of learning ,also how do u define success here ,staying onsite for long term or doing really quality work in a small company in india ,there can be n no of options but its really very personal ,to each its own kind of stuff ,par itna he mushkil he woh each its own really me dundna ,
rest two movies were slumdog millionaire,dev d
both were really gr8 one strange thing happned ,i never tht ever in this life i ll hear ppl whistling ,dancing ,clapping in a multiplex in an anurag kashyap movie (though i really like his kind of movies)and it happened in dev d ,wooooooowwww wit an exp it was ,i ll watch again today and then i ll write bout it
1 LUCK BY CHANCE
i remember first time hearing about this time when i was in my engg 3rd year,then it was on and off for few yrs and last yr watched promos in theatre and was really looking forward to this movie all over again,now the movie is directed by zoya akhtar,i chked on her profile in imdb and found that she has worked as casting director on some very unusal movies like kamsutra,bombay boys,bhopal express etc ,its very surprising considering she is sort of an insider ,then i read her many interivew esp one of bollyspice.com ,that was simply one of best interviews i have read of an indian film director in recent times ,there she explained her characters,about success and failure in general and in context of bollywood,i think may be her casting director exp came in handy as she was saying in her interview that she came in contct with many "outsiders" who come to bollywood ,note that scene in LBC when a guy asks farhan to fill his form ,from his voice he looks like from hindi belt who doesnt unstd english ,she may have noticed it during those days ,it was also there in mtv roadies few times
well now coming back to movie itself ,since last few yr i always keep an eye on credits rolling initially i m interested in ppl jinke sirf names aate he screen par but this time in LBC i got to see them also and see virtually every body even watchman ,it was really thoughtfully done esp 2 scenes 1.grl in pari dress going to toilet 2.men wearing space suits sitting for a chai
then we are introduced to the sona (konkona sen sharma) coming to a producer's
office and he explains her that its destiny that has brght her from kanpur to bollywood ,then we cut straightway after 3 yrs where sona is working in a 1 min role with aamir khan in raju hirani's film,she explains to her frnd outside tht she did this coz her producer frnd told her to do it since it was 1 min with aamir khan,
then comes farhan ,he goes to an acting school,there are few funny scenes here ,esp when a grl asks "sir heroine banane ke liye kitne mehnet chiyee" ,then macmohan scene when he is asked to recite his dialouge from sholay
then these two meet thr farhan frnd who is also a struggler from delhi working mostly in theatre ,he is an idealist type ,ther is another frnd working in mahesh bhatt camp aspiring to be a director
farhan and sona start getting close to each other along with on going struggle to make it in bollywood,there is also a producer's character played by rishi kapoor(it was bit like om puri's character in naghesh kukonoor's bollywood calling)who anounces a new movie "dil ki aag" starring yesterday superstar(in film) dimple kapadia's daugher played by isha sharavani and zaffar khan (hrithik ),now the movie is directed by sanjay kapoor ,some of lines said by his character well really ironical in a way ,i am still thinking and ll always keep thinking for the rest of my life how did zoya akhtar managed to convince sanjay kapoor to take this role ,watch the movie and find out urself,there are many camoes in the movies but u have to admit each one really in sync with current moment in the story ,
at this moment sab is k ,then hrithik gets a call from karan johar that he wants him in his next production ,hrithik then wants to get out of romy rolly(rishi kapoor)movie,he cant say it directly coz as per the script romi had launched hrithik when he was a nobody,now hrithik some how drops out of dil ki aag ,there is a very good scene there are tears in rishi kapoor's eye for that thing that hrithik is not taking his calls and he has to run after these kids for completion of this movie ,there his wife played by juhi chawla conforts him ,its a beautiful scene esp when juhi consoles rishi ,dialogues are really good
sona's producer ditches her but by sheer luck sona drops farhan's photo in his office and then it reaches romy rolly office who is looking for a new hero to replace hrithik
farhan goes and gets selected and before going to audition there is a fantastic scene between him and konkana ,she tells him about producer's story,farhan tries to console her by saying that its the individual who selects success and failure(i totally agree with this line)and some motivational stuff ,
farhan gets selected also courtesy his earlier meeting with heroine's mother in a party,she sort of recommends him ,and then the shooting shifts to an outdoor location,there is lot of drama there esp between farhan and isha's character ,also there is scene involving farhan and konkona when she comes to meet him on his shooting location
there after story is about farhan's upward swing in his career but downward swing in his personal life ,then at the climax he realizes his mistake and goes to sona ,better watch the ending urself
in the end sona's character says a line which i really like "kitna log he jo subah utke wahein kam karte he jo unko aacha laghta hein" or something like that ,the whole point is how many ppl get to what they really LOVE TO DO,tragedy is most ppl dont even no what they love to do forgetting even doing it,i have seen in number of rgv interviews ,he always says as in something like i get up in morning and do exctly the kind of work i want to do and that for me is Success ,its same for sona's character ,she is happy nd content coz she is doing the work she LOVE,thts wit steve jobs has said during his famous speech ,i read that speech few yrs back and it such a gr8 speech ,normally i avoid reading motivational books nd all this kind of stuff but i keep coming back steve jobs speech of nearly 4 pages ,he has said wit is really most important as in to find wit u love to do
now coming back to LBC again ,it was set in bollywood but the same story can be set in software industry,its by sheer stroke of luck that some ppl gets long term onsite or a really good project in terms of learning ,also how do u define success here ,staying onsite for long term or doing really quality work in a small company in india ,there can be n no of options but its really very personal ,to each its own kind of stuff ,par itna he mushkil he woh each its own really me dundna ,
rest two movies were slumdog millionaire,dev d
both were really gr8 one strange thing happned ,i never tht ever in this life i ll hear ppl whistling ,dancing ,clapping in a multiplex in an anurag kashyap movie (though i really like his kind of movies)and it happened in dev d ,wooooooowwww wit an exp it was ,i ll watch again today and then i ll write bout it
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
love for cinema
it all started from zee cinema when cable tv came to our town,i remember watching all the hindi movies of old decades during my holidays and even on weekends ,i think i watched all from amar akbar anthony,anand,karz,shammi kapoor,shashi kapoor ,rajesh khanna movies etc etc ,i didnt watch any of the english movies untill class 10th
i remember the first english movie i had ever watched ,it was "broken arrow" ,at that time i tht it is the best action movie ever made having grown up on the diet of dishum dishum ,khoon pe jiyogha stuff,then i moved onto terminator and all the arnold movies,untill then i dont think i ever watched a movie by the name of its director ,it was only arnold movies,tom cruise,srk,amitab bachan etc
i think i watched all hit action english movies of 90's on star movies or video ,
in my engg ,i really didnt progress a lot in terms of movie watching experencnce it was still the hit movies by the actor' name ,i didnt know the name of tarantino,scorcese etc untill final year ,i think the env around such was that nobody used to talk about these kinds of movies which was surprising cnosidering that these directors have given big commercial hits ,i think the only director i knew that time was speilberg, internet was not accessible to me in those days ,it was only once in two weeks or month cyber cafe visits, later on i moved to metro cities esp i will say my banaglore stay changed me a lot in terms of my love ,passion ,junoon for movies ,i rem going there first time for a course in film appreciation by a leading film critic ,i went there without any expectations ,there is some background to this story also , since i got virtaully 24 internet access i had started searching net for various things related to film making esp direction the more i searched the more my passion increased ,i was not watching any of those movies but i was enjoying reading about them ,the interview of their director's background of story etc esp related to 70's like coppola ,speilberg,scorcese,lucas,the way these guys started and brought a new era in film making ,it was really inspriing in a strange way ,so i started searching even more ,whenever i used to get net acess which was actually available 24 hrs a day ,i used to go to wikipedia(this and rediff are two sites without whom life will be incomplete)and search about that movies,slowly i had "read" about how the film making started ,how hollywood came into picture ,early hollywood ,50's,60's and new eras ,french film industry and on the whole eurpoean film indsutry,i never felt tired reading at times upto 4-5 hrs on one stretch ,it was all on net that was ok for me but i now i wanted to learn some practical things and watch some of those stuff ,so i started searching on net regarding the possiblities of such things in bangalore and then i found suchitra film society and here i attended my first work shop for film appreciation ,the guy showed some clips and talked about things in detail which was sort of related to genres and early european stuff but i was again hooked completely,he bashed bolllywood ,i didnt like it but still he was talking some sense ,after that i was a regular visitor to suchitra society in bangalore film screenings ,witever the timings may be i used to be there ,witever discussion anything related to films i used to be there ,i was falling in love all over again :), then one of my frnds while going to forum bangalore intoduced me to crosswords in forum,he told me that we can sit there and read a book for "some time " ha ha ha now some time is differnet for different people na ,so i used to sit there whole day for 6-7 months and virtaully read most of books in their film section but i loved those books so much that i started buying them,they were bit expenssive even for a s/s guy's salary but now i am gold membership card holder for crosswords ,so it was a gain for both cross word and me :),then i attended few workshops in blore itself related to practical work ,by the end last yr i attended another workshop at suchitra for scripwriting ,then at the start of the year i attended bangalore film festival as a delegate member ,wowwwwwwwwwww wit the the time it was i can easily say it was the best one week in my life long time ,from morning 9 to night 1 or 2 i used to be there watching movies after movies,few workshops were also there , as i said earlier i was maily using wiki and some other sites and blogs( not some really :) ,there are nearly 15 k links realted to these things in my delcious account ,whenever i log into delicious and loook at my no of links i feel gr8 for no apparent reason :))but i still hadnt discoverd the potential of youtube ,it was only this year that i started going to you tube seriously apart from other fun stuff ,and wit a treasure youtube is really ,there are some gr8 videos related to every aspect ,decade,genres etc etc as in witever one wants to learn bout film making ,now my you tube is gonna cross 10,000 views in early next ,so this is sort of my journey describing my love ,passion junnon for cinema ,lets c wit comes out of it
i remember the first english movie i had ever watched ,it was "broken arrow" ,at that time i tht it is the best action movie ever made having grown up on the diet of dishum dishum ,khoon pe jiyogha stuff,then i moved onto terminator and all the arnold movies,untill then i dont think i ever watched a movie by the name of its director ,it was only arnold movies,tom cruise,srk,amitab bachan etc
i think i watched all hit action english movies of 90's on star movies or video ,
in my engg ,i really didnt progress a lot in terms of movie watching experencnce it was still the hit movies by the actor' name ,i didnt know the name of tarantino,scorcese etc untill final year ,i think the env around such was that nobody used to talk about these kinds of movies which was surprising cnosidering that these directors have given big commercial hits ,i think the only director i knew that time was speilberg, internet was not accessible to me in those days ,it was only once in two weeks or month cyber cafe visits, later on i moved to metro cities esp i will say my banaglore stay changed me a lot in terms of my love ,passion ,junoon for movies ,i rem going there first time for a course in film appreciation by a leading film critic ,i went there without any expectations ,there is some background to this story also , since i got virtaully 24 internet access i had started searching net for various things related to film making esp direction the more i searched the more my passion increased ,i was not watching any of those movies but i was enjoying reading about them ,the interview of their director's background of story etc esp related to 70's like coppola ,speilberg,scorcese,lucas,the way these guys started and brought a new era in film making ,it was really inspriing in a strange way ,so i started searching even more ,whenever i used to get net acess which was actually available 24 hrs a day ,i used to go to wikipedia(this and rediff are two sites without whom life will be incomplete)and search about that movies,slowly i had "read" about how the film making started ,how hollywood came into picture ,early hollywood ,50's,60's and new eras ,french film industry and on the whole eurpoean film indsutry,i never felt tired reading at times upto 4-5 hrs on one stretch ,it was all on net that was ok for me but i now i wanted to learn some practical things and watch some of those stuff ,so i started searching on net regarding the possiblities of such things in bangalore and then i found suchitra film society and here i attended my first work shop for film appreciation ,the guy showed some clips and talked about things in detail which was sort of related to genres and early european stuff but i was again hooked completely,he bashed bolllywood ,i didnt like it but still he was talking some sense ,after that i was a regular visitor to suchitra society in bangalore film screenings ,witever the timings may be i used to be there ,witever discussion anything related to films i used to be there ,i was falling in love all over again :), then one of my frnds while going to forum bangalore intoduced me to crosswords in forum,he told me that we can sit there and read a book for "some time " ha ha ha now some time is differnet for different people na ,so i used to sit there whole day for 6-7 months and virtaully read most of books in their film section but i loved those books so much that i started buying them,they were bit expenssive even for a s/s guy's salary but now i am gold membership card holder for crosswords ,so it was a gain for both cross word and me :),then i attended few workshops in blore itself related to practical work ,by the end last yr i attended another workshop at suchitra for scripwriting ,then at the start of the year i attended bangalore film festival as a delegate member ,wowwwwwwwwwww wit the the time it was i can easily say it was the best one week in my life long time ,from morning 9 to night 1 or 2 i used to be there watching movies after movies,few workshops were also there , as i said earlier i was maily using wiki and some other sites and blogs( not some really :) ,there are nearly 15 k links realted to these things in my delcious account ,whenever i log into delicious and loook at my no of links i feel gr8 for no apparent reason :))but i still hadnt discoverd the potential of youtube ,it was only this year that i started going to you tube seriously apart from other fun stuff ,and wit a treasure youtube is really ,there are some gr8 videos related to every aspect ,decade,genres etc etc as in witever one wants to learn bout film making ,now my you tube is gonna cross 10,000 views in early next ,so this is sort of my journey describing my love ,passion junnon for cinema ,lets c wit comes out of it
Friday, December 19, 2008
review continued
so carrying forward RNBDJ review ,ok its not a review actually ,i ll write about some scences in the movie whenever i feel like doing it esp the scences i have liked the most
there is a beautiful scence in the movie in which "raj" talks to the statue of "suri" ,i really think after some decades ,this scene is going to be counted as one of best SRK scenes ever
raj is talking to suri and sort of taunting him for his inability to make his wife happy in his origianl avaatar
and challenging him to stop "raj" from taking his wife away from him but the thing is that "raj" and "suri" are same ,
so there is lot of stuff for "intellectuals" to debate upon in this scence :)
i said it in last post also i ll write it again,i think this is one of best movies to have come out in india in last few yrs
the problem is that whenver a YRF becomes hit (i am not much a fan of yrf films)ppl start saying that since the film has become hit ,it is sure that 1.it is not logical2.it insults the intelligence of audience
ertc etc
of course ,there were FILMI moments in the film esp in the climax but i can easily say that if a similar concept has been executed in european film industry or hollywood every one would have praised such a train of thought but since this is yrf ,it is crimial to prasie their creativity and fashionable to say that such movies become hit due to forgiving indian audiences
also ,one thing that many reviews has pointed that Y tani doesnt recognize her husband's changed avatar but the point is that TANI hasn't spent any time with her husband ,she has just seen him from a "distance" ,they are not close to each other
there is a real life incidence with us in our project,there was one guy who was with us for 6 months ,then he went to onsite ,when he came back his look was totally changed ,we couldn't recognize him despite working with him 8-10 hours on a daily basis for 6 months on trot ,
but some people have taken this point and blasted the movie
i ll keep writing about RNBDJ ,
i m looking forward to ghajini now ,the promos look good and i think its been a time since we have seen a full on masala action movie
also,saw the promo of luck by chance this time ,it is directed by zoya akhtar
i think the promo was really good ,i checked on zoya after wards on imdb ,she has a rather interesting profile having worked as a casting director for movies like bhopal express,bombay boys etc
there is a beautiful scence in the movie in which "raj" talks to the statue of "suri" ,i really think after some decades ,this scene is going to be counted as one of best SRK scenes ever
raj is talking to suri and sort of taunting him for his inability to make his wife happy in his origianl avaatar
and challenging him to stop "raj" from taking his wife away from him but the thing is that "raj" and "suri" are same ,
so there is lot of stuff for "intellectuals" to debate upon in this scence :)
i said it in last post also i ll write it again,i think this is one of best movies to have come out in india in last few yrs
the problem is that whenver a YRF becomes hit (i am not much a fan of yrf films)ppl start saying that since the film has become hit ,it is sure that 1.it is not logical2.it insults the intelligence of audience
ertc etc
of course ,there were FILMI moments in the film esp in the climax but i can easily say that if a similar concept has been executed in european film industry or hollywood every one would have praised such a train of thought but since this is yrf ,it is crimial to prasie their creativity and fashionable to say that such movies become hit due to forgiving indian audiences
also ,one thing that many reviews has pointed that Y tani doesnt recognize her husband's changed avatar but the point is that TANI hasn't spent any time with her husband ,she has just seen him from a "distance" ,they are not close to each other
there is a real life incidence with us in our project,there was one guy who was with us for 6 months ,then he went to onsite ,when he came back his look was totally changed ,we couldn't recognize him despite working with him 8-10 hours on a daily basis for 6 months on trot ,
but some people have taken this point and blasted the movie
i ll keep writing about RNBDJ ,
i m looking forward to ghajini now ,the promos look good and i think its been a time since we have seen a full on masala action movie
also,saw the promo of luck by chance this time ,it is directed by zoya akhtar
i think the promo was really good ,i checked on zoya after wards on imdb ,she has a rather interesting profile having worked as a casting director for movies like bhopal express,bombay boys etc
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