what we are reading – EightandHalf
Its not exactly VOTD. But Audio Of The Day! Its a rare radio interview of Kishore Kumar where he talks to Ameen Sayani about his three friends – all in three different voices & style, his brother Ashok Kumar, his singing and acting debut and lot of other things…all in his inimitable style!
The magic, the madness, the maverick and the mimicry! Play on!
Amélie: Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC (AC Sept. ’01)
Children of Men: Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC (AC Dec. ’06)
Saving Private Ryan: Janusz Kaminski (AC Aug. ’98)
There Will Be Blood: Robert Elswit, ASC (AC Jan. ’08)
No Country for Old Men: Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (AC Oct. ’07)
Fight Club: Jeff Cronenweth, ASC (AC Nov. ’99)
The Dark Knight: Wally Pfister, ASC (AC July ’08)
Road to Perdition: Conrad L. Hall, ASC (AC Aug. ’02)
Cidade de Deus (City of God): César Charlone, ABC (AC Feb. ’03)
American Beauty: Conrad L. Hall, ASC (AC March & June ’00)
For the complete list, click here. It’s a pretty good list except for the fact that since the choice was by popular vote the winners tended to be those films which had gotten a lot of exposure. There were other films from around which I felt were equally as good but suffered from obscurity.
Hence, this is my list of the most visually striking films of the last decade, which includes narrative, documentary, animation as well as anime. With the exception of the LOTR trilogy, I have refrained from naming flicks which were CGI heavy. I totally see the contradiction that I name anime but not greenscreen but that’s just me.
I feel I also need to address the question of what is good cinematography ? A lot of people say that good cinematography should be invisible and the story should take precedence. I dunno if I agree with that. I mean what would Blade Runner, All that Jazz and Sunrise be without the virtuoso cinematography on display. I truly believe that stories in films are meant to be told with the camera and not with dialogue, which is why excessive classical Hollywood style coverage drives me crazy.
For what it’s worth my opinion is great cinematography is that which transports you to a place and makes you believe that what you are seeing is real. For me it’s gotta be visceral enough that I can imagine myself as a character in that movie. I need to taste and smell it and I think only the camera can do that until Smell O Vision makes a comeback like 3D.
A final note on my selection of films (2000-2010). The films are arranged randomly with no order of preference Some choices may leave scratching your heads while some omissions may make you furious. All I can say is that I might not have seen that film or not liked it enough. Since I don’t watch horror films their absence is particularly telling but that’s just the nature of the beast. Also I haven’t had a chance to watch much of regional Indian cinema so that category is also criminally neglected.
1) The Prestige (USA)
2) City of God (Brazil)
3) Amelie (France)
4) The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (New Zealand)
5) Pan’s Labyrinth (Spain)
6) Wall-E (USA)
7) The Assassination of Jesse James (USA)
8) Into the Wild (USA)
9) The Motorcycle Diaries (Brazil)
10) Reprise (Norway)
11) The Lives of Others (Germany)
12) Requiem for a Dream (USA)
13) Children of Men (UK)
14) The New World (USA)
15) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (USA)
16) Gladiator (UK)
17) Black Hawk Down (USA)
18) Oldboy (South Korea)
19) A Bittersweet Life (South Korea)
20) District 9 (South Africa)
21) There Will be Blood (USA)
22) The Bourne Ultimatum (USA)
23) A Prophet (France)
24) Amores Perros (Mexico)
25) Tropa de Elite (Brazil)
26) Casa de Ariea (Brazil)
27) Hero (China)
28) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China)
29) In the mood for Love (Hong Kong)
30) The Proposition (Australia)
31) Flame and Citron (Denmark)
32) Sunshine (UK)
33) Slumdog Millionaire (India)
34) Y tu mama tambien (Mexico)
35) The Dancer Upstairs (USA)
36) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (USA)
37) Eastern Promises (UK)
38) Carandiru (Brazil)
39) 5cm per second (Japan)
40) Paprika (Japan)
41) Exiled (Hong Kong)
42) Sex and Lucia (Spain)
43) Triad Election (Hong Kong)
44) Millennium Mambo (Taiwan)
45) The Devil’s Backbone (Spain)
46) Save the Green Planet (South Korea)
47) Bangkok Dangerous (Thailand)
48) Mysterious Skin (USA)
49) Invisible Waves (Thailand)
50) The Wind that shakes the Barley (UK)
51) Man on Fire (USA)
52) Control (UK)
53) Munich (USA)
54) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (France)
55) Once (UK)
56) Vexille (Japan)
57) Spirited Away (Japan)
58) Silent Light (Mexico)
59) Reconstruction (Denmark)
60) Heima (Iceland)
61) Mongol (Mongolia)
62) The Dark Knight (USA)
63) Memories of Murder (South Korea)
64) Perfume (Germany)
65) Red Cliff (China)
66) The Good, The Bad and The Weird (South Korea)
67) The Hurt Locker (USA)
68) Infernal Affairs (Hong Kong)
69) Sin Nombre (Mexico)
70) Sugar (USA)
71) 2046 (Hong Kong)
72) Half Nelson (USA)
73) Intimate Stories (Argentina)
74) Into Great Silence (Germany)
75) Ghosts of Citi Soleil (Haiti)
76) Send a bullet (Brazil)
77) Coraline (USA)
78) The Fantastic Mr Fox (USA)
79) Mountain Patrol (China)
80) Encounters at the end of the World (Antartica)
81) Black Sun (USA)
82) District B13 (France)
83) Ghost in the Shell 2 (Japan)
84) Climates (Turkey)
85) The Headless Woman (Argentina)
86) Stranded (Argentina)
87) Read my Lips (France)
88) Antibodies (Germany)
89) Burnt Money (Argentina)
90) Paradise Now (Palestine)
91) Sin City (USA)
92) Ballast (USA)
93) The Libertine (UK)
94) Omkara (India)
95) 36 Quai des Orfevres (France)
96) Kaminey (India)
97) Dev D (India)
98) Uzak (Turkey)
99) Love me if you dare (France)
100) Daybreakers (Australia)
101) Marie Antoinette (USA)
102) A time for drunken horses (Iran)
103) Lebanon (Israel)
104) Restrepo (USA)
105) Road to Perdition (USA)
106) The man who wasn’t there (USA)
107) Far from Heaven (USA)
108) Girl with a Pearl Earring (Holland)
109) Frida (Mexico)
110) Three Times (Taiwan)
What else would you like to add to the list and why ? Do let us know.
PS – To catch Mitch’s work, click here. Have pasted some of the pics clicked by him in the slide show. The Sunrise poster is not by him ;-). The slideshow picked it up because its there in the post.
PPS – Strangely No. 8 is not showing in the post. You can see a smiley there. Not sure why and how! May be it knows how much we love the film!
Since the advent of playback singing in Indian films in late 30s, many playback singers have attained legendary stature for their singing and have connected with film buffs and music lovers through their voice. They became the voice of the On-screen characters in songs, yet created their own space and fan fare, and eventually the “Voice” became their identity.
Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Talat Mehmood, Manna Dey to name a few legendary playback singers, created a separate space for film music beyond the cinematic context. The Voice became “Them”. They created such a strong impact that the record companies, who earlier used to print On-screen characters’ names on the released records, instead of giving credit to the singer, had to make way for the singers’ name with the song instead of the character name.
The likes of Lata, Asha, Rafi, Kishore connected more strongly and had longer and stronger relationship with the fans through their voices than Dev, Dilip or Raj Kapur for that matter. The playback singers played a major success in establishing an actor through super hit songs and shared a special bond with the actors, and were sometimes considered as “The voice” for the actor.
But being a MayaNagari, the filmdom has seen many unusual happenings! Can you imagine Kishore Kumar, the on-screen actor, had to borrow someone else’s voice despite being a major Voice and leading singer!
The first part of following video presentation features a few of some unusual and interesting instances where the singer as on-screen actor has borrowed some other play back singer ‘s voice rather than singing them-self.
The second part of presentation features another interesting aspects of the singers, who were not actors but sometimes appeared on screen in songs. Check it out.
As you might have observed many of the featured instances are of actor Kishore Kumar, borrowing voices of other singers, namely Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey and SD Batish in different songs. This can surely sprung a surprise in viewers mind……why so?
As far as the instances of Ameerbai Karnataki (Kaliyon me raam – Pavanputra Hanuman) and GM Durrani (Unke khayal aaye to – Laal Patthar) are concerned, it can be easily understood that when they were doing these respective roles, they had already left singing and started appearing as guest artist at an old age.
Still GM Durrani needs a very special mention.. When Rafi saab was struggling to make a mark and was not a known singer (early to mid 40s), GM Durrani was at peak of his career as a singer. It is documented that GM Durrani was Rafi saab’s idol at that time , and Rafi saab used to follow his style (as KL Saigal was Idol for Kishore and Mukesh in the beginning of their career). So this song (Unke Khayaal Aaye) becomes a significant one considering the fact, a legendary singer is giving playback for his own idol in singing.
Coming back to strange cases of Kishore Kumar, there are different stories with every instance. Like for Ragini’s Man Mora Baawara, OP Nayyar saab has said in one of the interviews that the song had classical flavor and he needed a voice with knowledge of classical singing, so he opted for Mohammad Rafi. Reportedly Kishoreda was not happy of this choice, but couldn’t do much about it due to professional commitments.
As far as Shararat songs are concerned, it is reported that initially Bharat Bhushan was suppose to have those songs picturised on him and the songs were already recorded when Kishore replaced him for the songs.
Karodpati also has an interesting anecdote…..Kishore had some issue of payments with the producers so he declared he wont record the songs for the film, just to create a panic. The director was really worried as he had to shoot that song in the ongoing schedule. The music directors intervened and suggested that they could get this song recorded by Manna Dey. The same day Manna dey received a phone call from Kishore da’s home. His mother requested that Shankar-Jaikishan would come with an offer to sing for Kishore, so please do not accept the other offer. But Manna Dey had very good relations with Shankar-Jaikishan, so he could not say no and recorded the song.. Later Kishore’s issue was resolved with the producer but the song was retained.
Bhaagam Bhaag song (Aankho ko mila yaar se) where on screen Kishore was picturised with two different voices of Manna Dey and SD Batish was clearly an example of mis-direction during song picturisation.
Whatever may be the reasons, these instances have given us many unusual cinematic moments to cherish.. Lets enjoy!
First came the good news…here and here. Venice & Toronto. And now here is the first look of the film! No teaser or trailer but few scenes from the film. Thanks to Umar for the tip.
The movie stars Kalki Koechlin (as Ruth) alongwith Naseeruddin Shah, Prashant Prakash, Gulshan Devaiya, Shivkumar Subramaniam, Divya Jagdale, Kumud Mishra and Kartik Krishnan amongst others.
Its written by Anurag Kashyap and Kalki Koechlin. Music of the film is by Naren Chandavarkar and the cinematography is by Rajeev Ravi. Play.
And here is the official synopsis…
That Girl in Yellow Boots is a thriller tracing Ruth’s (Kalki Koechlin) search for her father – a man she hardly knew but cannot forget. Desperation drives her to work without a permit, at a massage parlour. Torn between several schisms, Mumbai becomes the alien but yet strangely familiar backdrop for Ruth’s quest. She struggles to find her independence and space even as she is sucked deeper into the labyrinthine politics of the city’s underbelly. A city that feeds on her misery, a love that eludes her and above all, a devastating truth that she must encounter. And everyone wants a piece of her.
Not sure if we can call it POTD but since we dont have something called Letter Of The Day, so here it goes. And like million times before, thanks to our bolly-pedia Pavan Jha again for the tip. made our day!
It’s a letter from Sai Paranjpye to Ravi Baswani. And though it mentions the title of the film as Dhuan Dhuan, seems it was re-named later as Chashme Buddoor. Can anyone confirm? Read on.
2009 – He scored a hattrick. Dev D. Gulaal. Paanch. Commercial success. Critical acclaim. And even his unreleased film Paanch found its way out.
2010 – He has done it again! Cannes. Toronto. Venice – A hattrick of different sorts !
Udaan @Cannes Film Festival – Vikramaditya Motwane’s debut film – a film which nobody was willing to back and was even rejected by UTV twice. Anurag decided to produce it himself and almost everyone branded it as a suicidal step. Na sex hai na star na Shah Rukh Khan! Well, the film still made it to the official selection of Cannes Film Festival and was one of the best rated films of the year. Do watch it if you havent seen this gem yet! Whats more, it has even managed to recover its cost.
That girl In Yellow Boots @Venice/Toronto International Film Festival – It was the same story again. He was looking for 10 crore to produce three films (Udaan, That Girl In Yellow Boots and Tumbad) and the suited-booted MBA morons had the same answer – Its a suicide! Get a star and you can take 50 crore. Why only 10 crore ? When the marketing budget of the dud of the year Raavan is Rs 28 crore, what can you do in just 10 cr ? And so, Anurag decided to produce it himself again. Aah cinema. Ooh life! Being Uncompromised!
The film will have its world premiere at the Venice International film Festival. And will have the North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. To read more about the film and the fest, click here. Is this his career’s best year ? Seems so. We are not aware of any other such story.
For Udaan, UTV came onboard later on and it managed to reach the theatres and got the visibility it deserves. For That Girl In Yellow Boots, NFDC has come onboard. And if our sources are to be believed, his next production Tumhad has finally managed to get funding.
So, will the big boys of Bollylalaland finally sit up and look beyond the Kites & Raavans! Here is the so called cinema’s enfant terrible…give him few crore and some freedom, bet he will deliver more! As one of the popular campaign goes, we wonder, Next is what ?
And there is some more good news. Remember Amit Datta ? If you follow us on Twitter, we have been raving about his films for a long time. His new film Nainsukh has also been selected for the Venice Film Festival and will be shown in Orizzonti category. Cheers to good ol’ cinema!
We are not sure where he vanishes and from where he resurfaces again and again. Amol Palekar is back with a new film titled …And Once Again. The first look of the film is out. It stars Rajat Kapoor, Rituparna Sengupta and Antara Mali and is written by Sandhya Gokhale. Check it out.
And here is the official synopsis of the film…
And Once Again movie subtly talks about repercussions of violence on human life: its lingering shadow on all of us with its startling shades! Somehow we manage to draw a line between our past and present.
The Rotating prayer bells, the fluttering holy flags encircling the majestic monasteries, the overwhelming peace filled in the valleys, the rhythmic chanting piercing the silence of the snow peaks. All was being devoured by Manuvela and Rishi during their stay in Sikkim, India. Manuvela is an architect who is on her official visit. On her insistence, her husband, Rishikesh Nag joins her. The serenity of the gorgeous hills keeps both of them oblivious to the events dictated by their future!
Rishi is trying to cope with the reality since he had lost his wife and son in a violent attack when he was posted in Yugoslavia. While he was undergoing therapy in order to overcome his trauma, Rishi met Manuvela – his psychiatrist’s daughter! She fell in love with him. Their marriage helped him to get back to life.
While returning from a monastery in Sikkim, Rishi sees a female monk who resembled his first wife Savitri. He gets restless with his doubt: he tries to identify her – unfortunately, his suspicion gets confirmed. Subsequently he confides in Manu about this accidental revelation: she also gets shaken.
The film unfolds their complex situation while tracing the roots of this incredible coincidence. Had Savitri not died? How did she end up being a monk in Sikkim? Does Savitri recognize Rishi? How does Manu react? What is end of this awkard dilemma?
The news came as a big shock. Last week he gave an interview saying how he was preparing to direct a film. Infact, he was in Nainital for the recce of the same film. But seems fate had some other plans. Who would have thought! For all the laughs and for all the magic on silversceen, thanks Mr Baswani. RIP.
And for all you fans of Ravi Baswani & Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, here is some priceless stuff – the making of the film from CNN IBN’s Bollywood Blockbusters series. The cast and crew on the cult classic of our time…the untold tales. Mann me hai vishwaas..poora hai vishwaas.
We told you so! Though we are now bored of repeating it again and again but who doesn’t love some cheap thrills and ego massage. Much before the official announcement, we had put out this exclusive post confirming Dhobi Ghat’s selection for Toronto International Film Festival. The official list is finally out. We knew that three Indian films have been selected for TIFF. So, one is still missing ? Will it be added later on or we got confused ? Someone please enlighten!
Kiran Rao’s directorial debut Dhobi Ghat will have it world premiere at TIFF in the Special Presentations. And here is the official synopsis of the film…..
In the teeming metropolis of Mumbai, four people separated by class and language are drawn together in compelling relationships. Shai, an affluent investment banker on a sabbatical, strikes up an unusual friendship with Munna, a young and beautiful laundry boy with ambitions of being a Bollywood actor, and has a brief dalliance with Arun, a gifted painter. As they slip away from familiar moorings and drift closer together, the city finds its way into the crevices of their inner worlds.
The other film selected for TIFF2010 is Anurag Kashyap’s That Girl In Yellow Boots starring Kalki Koechlin. The film will have its North American Premiere under Special Presentations. And here is the official synopsis of the film…..
Ruth is searching for her father – a man she hardly knew but cannot forget. Desperation drives her to work without a permit, at a massage parlour, where she gives ‘happy endings’ to unfulfilled men. Torn between several schisms, Mumbai becomes the backdrop for Ruth’s quest as she struggles to find her independence and space even as she is sucked deeper into the labyrinthine politics of the city’s underbelly.
Yay! One debutant and one the voice of good ol’ indie! Cheers to good cinema, fests and more! To read the complete list of TIFF 2010, click here.
What’s next ? Venice Film Festival – anyone wanna bet ?
BTW, NFDC’s Nina Lath Gupta is on the jury of 67th Venice International Film Festival for “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a Debut Film. The jury will be chaired by filmmaker Fatih Akin. Click here to read the full report.
Update (29-07-2010) – And there is some more good news. Its a hattrick of Anurag Kashyap. Click here to read more.
Will Udaan survive ? Will it manage to fly ? Cannes is great, and that too after so many years, but, can We, The (Dumb) People, give the film its due ? Will the bitch called box office be on our side for a change ? And how many bums does it require to get that elusive “hit” tag ? Do we count ? And if we do, how much ? Since the time we saw the film, all of us had the same questions and doubts but nobody knew the answers. Only one thing was common – we all LOVED the film.
By now, am sure lot many have seen Udaan. Its easily one of the best rated films of the year so far. So, it seems some people out there are writing good scripts, making uncompromised films too, though far and few in between, but have we been able to crack the “budget” ? And even after doing so, how will the film reach the theatre ? And if it does so, will it manage to get those valuable bums who turn “shit” into “hit” ? Aah life. Ooh cinema! So, here it is all……after the art & craft of cinema…the arithematics of Udaan….. by someone who has been there, done that and seen it all. Anurag Kashyap. Am sure, he doesnt need any introduction. And if he does, you are on the wrong page. Read on….
Udaan has finally been declared a success. It was the only film amongst others in the week which garnered the same box-office on Monday to Thursday, as it did on the first weekend.
Faith, in the end, has won.
There was no-way a film like Udaan could have got this kind of a release. Amidst the speculations and accusations on Twitter and Facebook that the marketing of Udaan was bad, it has survived.
Well, Udaan was not an easy film to sell. We racked our brains on it, Shikha and her team at UTV, Vikram, all of us tried coming up with every idea we could to sell it. Most of them had nothing to do with the film, so were rejected. The pressure on the team was so much, because of what they did with Dev.D. But the idea was not to do anything that would give the wrong perception of Udaan.
We also wanted to release the film the way it was cut. For once we had a film that everyone thought was poetic and had its own pace. All those decisions became a big no no for exhibitors. No one wanted to give many shows to Udaan, because the film smelled strange.
Hard negotiations followed. Gaurav from UTV armed with biggies like “Thank You” and “Tees Maar Khan” negotiated with theatre owners, got us two to three shows.
UTV similarily negotiated the TV rights. Who knew the fate of Udaan, but we had faith on good old word of mouth. In the second week, our number of shows have reduced to one or two shows but on Friday night in some theatres, it was packed yesterday.
Here is hoping it continues its silent march through the theatres. For all the people screaming bad marketing, the truth is we just did’nt have the budget, we had to make do with what we had.
The fact is Udaan could very well have been “Firaaq“. A good film that got lost. But it isn’t. Today we sold our TV rights for 3.5 crores, film is released on Warner’s VOD , which has access to 20 million homes in the US. The same site where most of the indies and international arthouse films are releasing in the US today. Disney has got the homevideo rights for around 75lakhs (Plus T-Series has the music rights). And our first week net is 2.5 cr. It makes us profitable by around 25% of the investment and makes a film like Udaan a viability in the future.
If the film continues like this and just the box office starts to show us that so far elusive ‘Profit Margin”.. we are here to stay.
Today, I can say, after seeing him struggle with the industry, the market, himself and fate.. that Vikramaditya Motwane has truly arrived, and thank you Sanjay Singh and UTV for that.
Pic Courtesy – Making Of Udaan
PS – If you can read hindi, click here and read the post by Mihir Pandya…a different perspective and one of the best pieces on Udaan.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 