what we are reading – EightandHalfTwo new trailers are out. Luv Ka The End – the first film of YRF’s new banner Y Films. It starrs Shraddha Kapoor and has been directed by Bumpy ( Remember Roadies?). Will put a separate post with more details about Y Films.
And here is the theatrical trailer of Dum Maaro Dum. Directed by Rohan Sippy, it stars Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Rana Daggubati and Prateik. It’s written by Shridhar Raghavan, shot by Amit Roy and has Pritam’s Music. And click here to read its official synopsis.
WHAT : The 2011 Satyajit Ray Foundation’s Short Film Competition in association with the London Indian Film Festival (LIFF) is now inviting submissions. They are looking for films that show imagination and creativity and reflect the cultural diversity and experiences of South Asians within their own country or the Diaspora.
Regulations :
– All entries should be under 20 minutes.
– Films should express and inform aspects of the experiences of South Asians (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) either within their own countries or the Diaspora.
– All submissions must have been completed within two years prior to the closing date.
– Previously submitted entries are ineligible.
DATE : The closing deadline is Friday 29 April, 2011
PRIZE : Award of £1,000 for the winning film.
– The award will be presented and the winning film screened at the London INDIAN Film Festival’s closing night gala in July 2011.
FORMAT : The films may be shot on any standard format (film or digital), all entries for consideration should be submitted on DVD only, together with an entry form and film synopsis.
ADDRESS : Send all submissions to: Satyajit Ray Foundation Short Film Competition.
c/o London INDIAN Film Festival. 51 Tweedmouth Road. London, E13 9HT, UK
EMAIL : info@londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk
FORM : To download the entry from please click here
To know more about the Foundation and the competition, click here.
If LSD was camera and sex, add paranormal to it and you have Ragini MMS – the new film produced by Ekta Kapoor. and directed by debutant Pawan Kripalani. According to official synopsis, it’s based on true incidents and the film is about an MMS that captures things beyond the realm of human understanding.
The first trailer of Onir’s I Am is out. It stars Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala, Nandita Das, Rahul Bose, Sanjay Suri, Purab Kohli, Abhimanyu Singh, Arjun Mathur, Shernaz Patel, Radhika Apte, Anurag Basu and Anurag Kashyap.
To quote from the official release, I AM is about people with fractured lives held together by unbroken dreams.
Click on the play button to watch the trailer..
And here is the official synopsis…
I AM is about issues and dilemmas that bruise the modern Indian society. Unraveling and exploring these tribulations, the film unfolds many a tale of individuals struggling to find their identity, and uphold their dignity in a world that is callous, cold and unsympathetic.
Shot in four different cities across India, I AM is a fusion of stories where the protagonists share a common dream – a desire to regain their lives, to regain an identity which has been taken away from them.I AM AFIA is the story of a single woman who feels her identity will be made whole through the singularly feminine experience of motherhood. Unable to trust or even wait for a man, she is frustrated by a society that demands a “husband” to have a child. Thus her search is defined – does motherhood necessarily require the burden of a man?
I AM MEGHA is a story of two friends – a Kashmiri Pandit woman and a Muslim woman – separated by conflict. Against the backdrop of the ethnic cleansing in Kashmir in early 90’s, this story tells of loss of home and identity. If your own home rejects you, where do you go and where are you “from”?
I AM ABHIMANYU is the story of a broken man, with a proud mask. Abhimanyu is trapped by the demons of his past, a past of sexual abuse. To move forward he must first go back, into a world where hi childhood was stolen from him.
I AM OMAR is a horrific tale of sexual discrimination; blackmail and prejudice is part of the torrid fabric. It reveals how the police use Article 377 (law under Indian Penal code which criminalizes homosexuality) to harass and blackmail gay men. In the current climate of media sensationalism, perhaps this story gains even more poignancy.
And having seen the film, we definitely recco this one. Our favourites – Afia and Megha. You don’t need a Lamhaa to know the Kashmir story, you can do it in a much simpler and better way, and without all the dhoom-dhaam-dhadaap. Megha proves that.
Afia is a story about unique friendship between two strangers. Nandita Das and Purab Kohli bring such a natural charm to it, and bet you never knew that Anurag Basu can act too. Do watch.
Click here to know more about the film.
On July 3, 2003, Deepanker Gohain, the 23-year old student of the College of Visual Arts, Baroda (India), committed suicide, which shocked the campus.
What saddened the students was the way the college authorities handled the matter, shielding the facts from the media.
Deepanker’s batch-mate Amitabh Pandey witnessed the suicide, capturing all of it on his Handycam. Pandey came from a well-connected political family. When college sided with him on this incident, the other half of the story got buried in police records.
Watch it.
If Pritam is here, can plagiarism be far behind. And the latest track added to his long list of inspired/plagiarised songs is Dum Maaro Dum is Thay Thayn. And the original is Give it to me by Timbaland featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake.
Nt sure ? Click on the play button, play both the songs back to back and decide it for yourself.
And the story doesn’t end here. Even the Jiyein Kaun track sounds similar to Coldplay’s Fix you. Click here and here to listen to both the tracks and do let us know what you thik.
Earlier it was just Shor and now it’s Shor In The City. Reason – No clue. And here is the first look of the film which is trying hard to project Tushar Kapoor as the new Dude in the town.
The film is written and directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK and produced by Balaji Telefilms’ ALT Entertainment. It stars Tusshar Kapoor, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Nikhil Dwivedi, Radhika Apte and Preeti Desai.
And here is the official synopsis….
When the noise is deafening, can you really hear yourself ? That is the underlying thought that runs through this gritty, grounded film that revolves around three loosely interconnected stories set in the midst of the noise and grime of Mumbai during the Ganpati festival.
Abhay, an outsider, is forced to come to terms with the fact that he is alone in an unwelcoming city, which he thought was home. Living in a comfortable shell, he soon discovers that he might not be different from the thousands that mill around the city.
Tilak, an honest bootlegger, who pulls scams with his unruly buddies, chances upon a rare loot on a local train, which opens up new, dangerous avenues for them. He is pulled into the unlikely adventure of findings an empty place in the overpopulated city where they can blast a bomb….. For kicks!
Young Sawan has one goal, and more importantly, the only option – to get into the Mumbai Junior Cricket team. In a city where corruption is a way of life, the goal comes at a price1 he needs to find the money first.
In the overcrowded urban landscape that forms the backdrop of this film, the right and wrong are blurred, giving way to the more basic need to survive and succeed. As the characters come to grips with the noise – from within and outside – you realize that in this city, which runs on its own ad hoc rules, you don’t need an excuse to be good or bad; especially bad!
Click on the play button to check out the trailer of the film. It was cut during the MIAAC Fest. They might release a new trailer now.
Blame it on Ides Of March ? When we are wishing desperately that when we grow up just make us Bhagnani, any Bhagnani, and Karan Johar goes for the reverse take!
Think about it – you can be a FALTU Bhagnani and still have everything you want. And we never expected that the one who are born with Khan, Chopra and Johar surnames in Bollywood would openly want to be Kashyap or Bhardwaj. They belong to the two extremes, their cinema and sensibility is different. My Name Is Johar And I am Not Kashyap or Bhardwaj ?
On a serious note, is Karan Johar serious about it ? As in, seriously serious ? One of the most powerful brands in Bollywood, if he is admitting that there is a shift in our cinema, you got to listen. To say the cliche, love or hate him but you can’t ignore K JO.
Or is it the effect of Ishqiya + LSD + Udaan + Peepli Live + Do Dooni Chaar + Band Baaja Baarat + Phans Gaye Re Obama + Tanu Weds Manu ?
Also, you may HATE his films, but there is no doubt he is easily one of the smartest guys around. May be, just next to Shah Rukh Khan. Just that their smartness doesn’t show in the choice of their films, whatever is the reason for that. Lack of talent, conviction, fear of failure or just opting for the easy route.
And here are some more priceless gems from him….( From Anupama Chopra’s show Picture This on NDTV. The topic of discussion was Bollywood discovers its roots. Vikramaditya Motwane and Habib Faisal were also part of the discussion.)
The english speaking critics were watching Dabang like they were watching a Tarantino film.
You have Kashyap as your last name so its all validated. If he was Abhinav Sharma, it was what he is making ? Oh he is Kashyap guy, so definitely he is intelligent. He is making fun of the genrae. He is having fun.
I want to change my last name. It will help a lot.
There is very strong credibility factor that people are aspiring to acheive as well. I have made so many films but none of them have got the credibility of say 3 crore net box office Udaan. I know that for a fact. And that credibility is paramount for a production house. While you want to make the money, you also want the respect. The combination of those two is 3 idiots.
You cant beat them, join them.
(Scroll down and watch the full discussion in the embedded video. And if the video doesn’t work, click here to watch it.)
And if you were surprised about Johar, Kashyap and Motwane joining hands for Motwane’s next, then this video has all the answers. Credibility. Or may be The Unbearable Lightness Of Being.
If KJo is here, can SRK be far behind. Ok, bad one. Shah Rukh Khan was at the India Today conclave recently. To quote him…
– Three essentials to make Bollywood films global – screenplay writing, technology and discipline.
– It disturbs me that all Indian filmmakers are chasing an elusive dream of crossover cinema…It is nothing at all – there is nothing known as crossover film.
Click here and here to read the full report.
We agree on the first point. And completely disagree on the second point. Because Kites is not crossover cinema.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Abhay Kumar – the name sounds familiar. Little bit of searching and i realised that it’s the same Abhay whose short Udaan was in the news when Dibakar Bannerjee’s LSD released. His short was suspiciously similar to one of the stories in LSD and we wrote about it earlier here.
Abhay is ready with his new film and it’s titled Just That Sort Of A Day. Well, when i first heard the title, it felt like just that sort of a title that doesn’t say anything. No emotions attached, no nothing attached. And then i read the official synopsis…
.. Just that sort of a day is a 14 minute short film which follows seemingly random characters as they go about their day to day activities, watching the dense cloud of nothingness which surrounds their lives…
Aha, nothingness again!
And the IMDB synopsis tells you little more or just say, little more about the objects in the film…to quote…
Peeps into the lives of random characters, with their doubts, quirks and misgivings. As these characters hang in a timeless space- they gaze at the universe through letters, galaxies, parapets, and fishbowls
Finally saw the film and it was love at first sight. Quickly wanted to watch it again because it’s just BRILLIANT.
No actors, no names, random characters, all moving around in that very familiar atmosphere with those very familiar emotions. Difficult to put a finger where exactly you connect with them and start flowing with their emotions because it moves fast and jumps from one character to another. Add to that, some biutiful images and you are easily lost in that maze called life.
Made over a period of 9 months and shot on a handycam with zero budget, the film is a Must-Watch for those who have been cribbing about the death of new ideas. Without explaining much, will just say that it also works as mixed art form installation, and i was grinning from ear to ear while watching it. Pure joy!
The film premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival, is also in competition at the IFFLA and has now been selected for the Tribeca Film Festival.Watch it, whenever you can.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 