Archive for January, 2012

First Look : Bittoo Boss (Trailer)

Posted: January 4, 2012 by moifightclub in bollywood, cast & crew, film, first look, Trailer
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From the producers of Pyaar Ka Punchnama – That’s enough to make me curious. Because i have been in a weird position with regard to PKP. Have tried to defend its misogynist point of view in endless discussions about the film and on the other hand, was against the director, and was on the side of the writers when the writing credits were almost invisible on various publicity materials and they were accused of writing just few pages. Anyway, Bittoo Boss is the new film from the same producers. Have a look.

New director (Supavitra Babul), new subject, new faces (Pulkit Sharma), and a young producer (Abhishek Pathak). Great! It looks interesting for sure but what’s the point of wasting 90seconds to tell the same joke again and again and again and again. It doesn’t say anything more than that. As they say, you never get a second chance to make the first impression. And that’s gone. Hopefully the second trailer will tell us more.

Movie Recco : 10 must watch documentaries

Posted: January 3, 2012 by moifightclub in cinema, Documentary, Indie, Movie Recco, Must Watch, Special
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We wrapped up the “Best Of 2011” with all kinds of posts on movies, music and moments. But we completely forgot about the docs. Also because most of us didn’t manage to watch all the best docs.  Writer-filmmaker Mihir Desai saw it all and here’s his recco post on the top 10 docs of 2011 that you must watch. Click on the titles to see the trailers.

2011, like the previous year has been a brilliant year for documentaries. We’ve been exposed to some really personal and special films. These docs have dared to bend the rules and have created a sub-genre within documentary filmmaking. I saw docs that were surreal, global collaborations, re-enactments and just traditional docu-dramas. Hope this genre continues to grow and finds more audiences, after all the first few movies ever made were documentaries too!

Some obvious choices like Pina 3D, Page One: Inside The New York Times and Martin Scorsese’s Public Speaking will be missing from the list as I never got a chance to watch these. Regardless, this should make for an interesting recommendation list, as I am sure most films listed below might have gone unnoticed amidst the Tintin and Mission Impossible hype.

First up, the honorable mentions: Inshallah Football, Buck, Knuckle, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, a short documentary by Errol Morris – The Umbrella Man and Superheroes.

Now, the five runner-ups. Films that almost made it to the list:

15. Urbanized
14. Being Elmo
13. Project Nim
12. Cave of Forgotten Dreams – 3D
11. Tabloid

Finally, the top 10 documentaries of 2011:

10. The Arbor :  Clio Barnard’s portrayal of the late Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar is a brave experimental documentary. Clio uses audio from the interviews of real people and lip-syncs them to the actor’s performance. The whole film is a re-enactment but it isn’t manipulating the facts. The events and story is true, the presentation isn’t (somewhat similar to No. 8 on this list) It can be a little challenging to watch this film but once the story unfolds, you’ll be hooked!

9. Bill Cunningham New York: An 80 year old New York Times fashion photographer riding his bike around New York City to photograph fashionable citizens; the plot of this film is that simple. Director Richard Press portrays Bill Cunningham’s passion for fashion and photography in the simplest manner. The observational approach juxtaposes the glamorous fashion world to Bill’s simple and saintly way of living. Besides being a film about Bill’s photography, it is also an interesting city portrait of New York. Therefore, making New York an additional character for Bill to interact with. This is a truly inspiring documentary. When the movie ends, what stays with you is Bill’s contagious smile.

8. Bombay Beach: Director Alma Har’el comes up with the year’s most poetic, surreal, genre-defying documentary. Some might argue, this isn’t even a documentary, and that’s what makes it so fascinating to watch. The location is real, the characters are real and the story is just an observation of these characters’ lives. Alma treats her film like a narrative feature. There are beautiful musical moments choreographed to songs by Bob Dyland and Beurit that makes the experience very surreal. The irony here is that this film is vaguely about the American dream set in a poor, dying community on the shores of Salton Sea. Bombay Beach is nothing like you’ve ever seen before. Absolutely magical!

7. Senna: The year’s most popular documentary on the life of Formula One driver, Ayrton Senna, is absolutely riveting! Director Asif Kapadia makes the best of unseen archival footage to explore the struggles and achievements of an iconic sports person. It’s the editing of the film that takes it to a whole new level. Gripping!

6. Life In A Day: What. A. Movie! This is a perfect and successful example of collaboration 2.0. Co-directed by Kevin MacDonald and The World, this is a beautiful documentation of common emotions across the globe. Shot on the same day by people from around the world and interestingly woven together by editor Joe Walker, Life In A Day is as real a film can get. Brilliant and compelling! Also, you can legally watch the whole film on YouTube, for free.

5. How To Die In Oregon: Oregon was the first state in the USA to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Director Peter Richardson follows the life of cancer patient Cody, and it is through her point of view we get to learn about the pros and cons of Oregon state’s “Death with Dignity” law. Richardson handles this topic in a very sensitive manner without invading Cody’s private space. A thought-provoking documentary that some might find a little tough to watch. Yet, this is one of the most important films of the year and is sure to call for a healthy debate about the ‘death with dignity’ law and about the voyeuristic nature of documentary filmmaking.

4. Into The Abyss: Werner Herzog has his way of doing things, and no one else does it better than him. Herzog creates a moving profile of two men on death row and explores their relationship with those outside of prison. This film is not so much about capital punishment but about exploring the fear and philosophies of death. A very honest portrayal of the fine line between what is right and wrong.

3. Nostalgia For The Light: If Terrence Malick makes a documentary, this is what it  will look like. With gorgeous imagery and a philosophical narrative, director Patricio Guzmán constructs a story about the fusion of past and present. In the Atacama Desert, astronomers study the boundaries of the universe while surviving families of the Chilean exiles continue to look for the remains of the loved ones. Nothing comes close to the experience of watching this movie. This is the film I would have loved to see in 3D. It’s a hypnotic film that asks complex questions about life, memory and the universe. Unique film, unique experience.

2. Marwencol: Jeff Malmberg’s documentary is about the fantasy work of Mark Hogancamp, who creates a 1/6th scale World War II ear town which helps him get away from his nightmarish past. Mark is a very complex character and this film studies him with utmost sincerity. The filmmaker never tries romanticizing Mark’s motivations. Truly an authentic character study that might just leave you shattered.

1. The Interrupters: The Academy once again snubs one of the best documentary filmmakers, Steve James. Last time it was for Hoop Dreams and this time, for the mind-blowing, The Interrupters. Set in Chicago, Steve James follows three members of the Ceaserfire program for a whole year. Also known as violence interrupters, their job is to protect their community from the urban violence of the city. This is a side of America not many are aware of. The characters are, in my opinion, real-life superheroes. Steve James and his crew fearlessly film every detail they can. They are always there in the middle of conversations, danger, and threat. The Interrupters is powerful, dark and hopeful at the same time. Without a doubt, the best documentary of 2011.

Take some time out from mainstream movies and seek out these masterful films. There’s a whole lot out there!

Happy New Year!

– Mihir Desai

( PS – For more film posts by Mihir, click here.)

Good Morning – And we go trippy!

Posted: January 2, 2012 by moifightclub in cinema, Film Festival, Indie, Movie Recco, short film
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Yes, yes, yes, we know. For a change we’re behaving like the incestous bollywoodwaalas and promoting someone who is a good friend and who also happens to be a punju 😛 (but unlike them, we know our boy man is zooper talented). Kabir Chowdhary dabbled in theater and arts in Chandigarh before making a one minute short film called Dolly (click here to see it) which won the Gold PFCOne award (passionforcinema.com one minute film festival). He was an intern on the sets of DevD, and for those who claim to have seen the film many times, let’s see if you can figure out which scene in the film gave a tribute/promotion/plugin to his short film.

He later moved on to direct more short films like Pour, this low budget spunky music video here, a black humored clay news spoof  ‘Balbir News on Nithari Killings and worked on the art department for films like Wake up Sid, Aisha, and now going independent art director with Midnight’s Children.

He’s directed a 43 minute short film ‘Good morning’ which played at SAIFF film festival NY and won the grand jury award for best short. Our verdict? A trippy ride with some lovely visuals and performances. Pretty good sound design and music too. Nitpick – a few minutes long but still engaging. Do watch it if you get a chance.
Click on the play button to check out the trailer and if it looks interesting, scroll down to know more about the film. Over to Kabir.

Good morning is a psychological drama that explores the obsessions and insecurities of a married man who is completely dedicated to his wife. His world is shattered one day when he discovers his wife in bed with another man.

What happens next is diabolical, cold and shocking.

When viewing a film I have directed, my mind always wanders to what I was thinking when I was making it.

Which I guess is a very normal thing to ponder over for anyone who has been a part of a film project.

However, with Good Morning, all I can think about every time I watch it, is what an utter explosion it was for all of us working on it.

It was a guttural, visceral spewing of all our collective emotions, it was like I had lit a firecracker and burst it in my own hand.

The original script of Good Morning was 60 pages long and was written by me about 5 years ago, but we only got down to making it after I recently fractured my hand.

There was little activity in Chandigarh (my hometown), I was utterly bored, but brimming with a sense of purpose when my friend and the editor (Sakshi Bhatia) suggested, we rework the 60 page script and do a 10 minute film (which ended up to be 45 minutes running).

The 10 minute script, unlike the final film was written like an absurd comedy, it had extensive dialogue written in rhyme and was layered with a lot of nonsensical humor and a few sexually explicit scenes which were all later slashed out of the film.

Because once the casting process started it became very difficult for us to find an actress in Chandigarh who was willing to get naked! We did meet a lady who came all the way from a hill station about 3 hours away, and asked for 8000 rupees for the nudity involved. Without wanting to spend so much, we finally gave up this extensive search and decided to ask my cousin (Sukhmani, the actress in my earlier film Dolly) without giving her a copy of the script – and figured we will deal with the sex scenes when we shoot them! (we finally worked our way around the sex and made it suggestive, because we were obviously not going to shoot my sister naked!!!!)

Manish Kumar (Sunny) and Emanuel Singh (The Suit) who have both been trained at the NSD readily agreed to be a part of the film and were told that they were incharge of leading the actress (as she was unaware) and surprise her with their actions!

Our aim was to make a very small film on the I-phone, but the cast in flesh, blood and training was too exciting to keep it low quality, which is when my dear friend Rahat came down from Kashmir with his Canon 5-d and we were finally all set to start shooting.

Having been around conventional film sets with my work as an art director, I developed a sincere disdain to the long and arduous process of filmmaking, I feel boxed in and bored and genuinely feel that it drains the spontaneity out of everyone on set!

On our own film I wanted everyone to be themselves and have fun working! I also wanted to shoot without any prior rehearsal or deciding the location of the scene. And once the emotional quotient of the film was explained to the actors, they were made to let go of themselves completely as everyone was allowed only 1 take as I didn’t want anything to look remotely mechanical or well rehearsed!

Everything in this film for me was relying on the trust with the actors and the environment that the scene took place.

The actors were allowed to be themselves and bring themselves fully, without any penalty. So if our actor was a drinker or a hash smoker, within takes we would let him smoke or drink and come and get naked on a railway track, or dance wildly in the meat market with eels and a chicken!

And on the day of the climax, keeping up with our traditions, everyone got sloshed, ! (barring Rahat, the camera person, who literally had to focus!) and it was getting almost impossible to manage a room full of drunks (being a little drunk myself!)

As is, with a bunch of spontaneous crazy and creative people working together, it was four days of relentless chaos that was created and captured. The shooting process was a coming together of palpable energies stemming from being confrontational and disruptive to the real spaces and people we were around, but it seemed like everyone’s energies, even a crowd that collected(wondering what the hell was wrong with the actor and paying no attention to the camera!) was working in tandem to create this piece of work. it was a fulfilling, satisfying and mildly exhausting journey for everyone involved!

With this film, we have tried to carefully assemble a lot of nonsense, all held together by an element of no reason. There are no particular reasons why this film was made, its not trying to make any strong points, but it is more an emotional journey, a very personal piece of work that has fuelled within us the fire and the longing to stay true to ourselves and the film that is being created, we want to allow ourselves to be able to let go of ourselves and still be restrained and most of all make the experience for everyone involved, personal, therefore memorable and hopefully will be the same for the people who get to watch it!

The film is 45 minutes long and was made on a budget of Rs 25,000, with a crew of just 3 people and it was shot over a period of four days in Chandigarh.

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Facebook page of the film is here.

The film also won the Grand Jury Prize for best Narrative short at SAIFF and is currently doing the festival rounds.

POTD : Goodbye 2011

Posted: January 1, 2012 by moifightclub in cinema, pics, POTD, Special
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And with this POTD we close the year and come to the end of “Best of 2011” posts. This sketch and the note that follows is by Sumit Purohit.

Every cinema buff loves to look back at the year that went by and comes up with his or her pick of best/worst films of the year. So here is mine. I haven’t watched all the films that released this year (and hence some might be missing from the list) but from all that I did, these are, for me, the fifteen important films from 2011 – the films I enjoyed, the films that I think did something new and different.

I resumed sketching this year with sketches inspired from films. And therefore what better way to share my favourite films from 2011 than visually.

Enjoy figuring out the films. I hope you can 🙂 And just in case you need help, you can check this link.

– Sumit Purohit

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