what we are reading – EightandHalf
What we know – Ashim Ahluwalia’s debut feature Miss Lovely is going to Cannes in Un Certain Regard section this year. The film is set in Bombay’s B/C grade film industry and it stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Niharika Singh and Anil George.
What we don’t know – what does the film look like? No stills/clips/trailer available on the net so far. What’s it all about?
And so we have got it all. The official synopsis and some stills from the film.
OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
Bombay, 1988. Vicky and Sonu are brothers and partners in crime. They produce “C” grade films in the lower depths of Bollywood – lurid horror films, erotic bandit pictures, sleazy social dramas. From a humid one-hour hotel, amidst spilled whisky and bouts of womanizing, Vicky churns out illicit titles like “Dolly Darling” and “Lady James Bond” for India’s small-town picture houses. He leaves the donkey-work to Sonu, his withdrawn, dim-witted younger sibling, who often cleans up after him.
Returning exhausted from a sales trip peddling erotic reels in the hinterland, Sonu encounters a mysterious girl on the train and is drawn to her fragile beauty. She’s only just arrived in Bombay and her vulnerability soothes his own sense of despair. Her name is Pinky and she appears to be a struggling actress.
Vicky dismisses the girl as a gullible piece of flesh but Sonu is desperate, bewitched by Pinky’s silent radiance. He knows that only she can save him; make his emptiness disappear.
As the seasons change, Sonu begins to resent his hard-edged brother. He no longer wants toslave for Vicky’s lawless operation and decides to make a film of his own, with Pinky in the lead. A double debut – producer and star. It’s a reckless, nihilistic venture with no story and no crew in place. But he has a title – the film will be called ‘Miss Lovely’ and Sonu will do whatever it takes to make it.
But nothing is what it seems in this garish underworld of shifting alliances, double dealing, and quivering flesh. Out on the streets three years later, Sonu realizes that his whole world has turned upside down.
A baroque tale of betrayal and doomed love, the animal instincts of the struggling actress prove to be the most cutthroat of all. As paranoia and violence spiral out of control, brother turns on brother, and blood spills like water. Sonu, now alone and abandoned, aimlessly wanders the streets, junkyards and film studios, aching for one last glimpse of Pinky.
Click here to read an interview of Ashim on the making of Miss Lovely.
Cannes film festival has just announced its list for films for competition, out of competition and Un Certain Regard category. And an Indian film has made the cut.
Ashim Ahluwalia’s debut feature film Miss Lovely has been selected in the Un certain regard section. The film stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Niharika Singh and Anil George. According to imdb, this feature is set in the lower depths of Bombay’s “C” grade film industry. It follows the devastating story of two brothers who produce sleazy horror films in the mid-1980s.
Click here to read an interview of Ashim on the making of Miss Lovely.
And click here for the complete list of the line-up announced so far.
Shame and The Swell Season – like many other film buffs, I have been waiting for these two films for a long time. It’s finally out #YouKnowWhere (twitter code) or the place-that-shall-not-be-named.
Shame is Steven McQueen’s film with Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan in the lead. It premiered at the Venice Film festival where Fassbender bagged the top actors award and also the Fass-boner jokes started because of the explicit display of his monster in the sex scenes. The film made headlines for obvious reasons and most of us have been tracking the film since then.
The Swell Season (TSS) has no connect with Shame. It’s a documentary on the lives of indie musicians Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, stars of the musical indie film, “Once”. It was a tiny film made on a shoestring budget and was shot in just 17 days where the lead stars were non-actors. But the sound was all soul and that thing called chemistry was in abundance between these two unassuming and talented artists . The film got rave reviews and the song “Falling slowly”went on to win the Oscar Award for the Best Original song. And their worlds changed forever.
She was just 18. He was 36. They fell in love. They made some great music and went on musical tours. But their worlds were different. And that bitch called age – love always doesn’t conquer it like they show in films and say in fiction. The Swell Season is the story from the other side of the camera. It captures their post-Oscar journey. Music bought them together, fame separated them – that would be too simplistic way to define their relationship. But a man, a woman and an Oscar makes a difficult threesome.
I saw both the films (Shame & TSS) back to back. And i felt they had lots in common in the way the characters gorgeously bared themselves in both the films – one real, another reel. Nothing dramatic happens in both, but with powerful visuals and ever lasting sound, they sketch stark nude portraits of the leads – both physically and emotionally.
Interestingly, when you watch Shame you will realise how asexual those sex scenes are, in their impact. I am not sure how to dissect it. Is it the sound? Is it the acting? The set-up or the guilt? It never gives you that vicarious pleasure which happens with other films, which is a great achievement in direction. I was underwhelmed with the film but director Steve McQueen is an artist to watch out for (Do watch his previous film Hunger too). The man doesn’t need words, he can do everything with visuals and music. There is a long sequence in a subway – watch it to know what i mean. Aesthetics should be McQueen’s middle name.
Similarly, in The Swell Season, in one scene both Glen and Marketa undress and run naked into the sea. If you have seen Once, you would desperately want the couple to be together. And that feels like a great moment of joy – the couple whom you want to be together, they happily shed all their inhibitions in that moment and you are part of it. Physical inhibition is always the first barrier and the most visible one too. May be that’s why the first time when you see both the lead characters of Shame, they are completely naked. There is nothing left to imagination. And again, it’s not the nudity of pleasure but nudity that gives you intimacy.
I remember reading a great quote by a filmmaker who hates sex scenes in films. I don’t remember his name now but i vaguely remember the quote – in a film when you see two people getting nude and indulging in sex, as an audience, at that moment you forget that they are characters but you see them as actors. Agree. But these two films stands out in this context and proves that it’s possible otherwise too.
Directed by Chris Dapkins, Nick August-Perna and Carlo Mirabella, TSS has a completely non-intrusive approach and is shot in black and white. That automatically adds a bit of romanticism, right? Once and The Swell Season are companion pieces like Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. As one of their fans told them after a show, hope you two can make it to the end.
And there’s no “the end”in Shame. In contrast to the B&W, colour has never looked so dark, grey and grim as in Shame.
Both Shame and The Swell Season are honest and brave nude portraits of its characters. Where there is no inhibition and nothing is sacred, that’s a rare cinema genre. Watch it.
If you haven’t seen Kamal Swaroop’s cult classic Om dar badar, you still haven’t seen the best of Indian cinema. And if you are friends with him on FB, his wall is like a pandora’s box for visual art.
Tehelka Tv has been doing an interesting series called “Cinema & Me” where they talk to filmmakers of life, cinema and philosophy. The new video features Kamal Swaroop. Must Watch.
Sometime back we had a put a post on Kabir Chowdhary’s indie film Good Morning. The entire film is online now. Click on the play button and enjoy!
Synopsis: 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.
Starring: Manish Kumar, Sukhmani, Emannuel Singh, Dolly Ahluwalia, Happy Vij, Gick Grewal, Payal, Daanish Singh, Raagini Ghai.
Director: Kabir Singh Chowdhry
Cinematography: Rahat Mahajan
Editor/Costumes/Art: Sakshi Bhatia
Music: Hari Singh
Screenplay : Kabir Chowdhry and Sakshi Bhatia
Story: Can Themba
Producer : Pate Picture Company(2011)
– Awarded The Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative short at South Asian International Film Festival, New York 2011.
Genre: Psychological Drama
Studio: PATE Picture Company 2011 in association with Mahamudra Film Company
Description : Good Morning
Fiction(Short)
Running time: 42 Mins
Budget: Rs.30,000 ($600)
Location: Chandigarh
Camera: Canon 5d
Musa Syeed’s low-budget debut feature, Valley Of Saints recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and also bagged the World Cinema Audience Award for dramatic feature. It’s currently screening at the International Film festival Of Rotterdam.
To quote from the official synopsis, during a violent summer in the beautiful Kashmir Valley, a young boatman tries to escape. But then he finds a new love. It’s a story of conflict, but it’s also about the environmental destruction of the beautiful Dal Lake.
Do check out the trailer.
To know more about the film and the director, click here to read the DearCinema.com interview.
Earlier this week Ashvin Kumar released the 7min preview of his new film Inshallah, Kashmir : Living Terror. And now he has released the full film online. The film is available for viewing for 24 hours. Watch it NOW.
After he faced problems with the Censor Board for his last film, the idea is to bypass the Censor Board and reach out to the audience directly with this one. Click here to read a Tehelka article on the film.
You can also click here and have a better view on the Vimeo page.
DISCLAIMER : This is a compilation of live interviews. The statements of the interviewee are completely their own. The explicit nature of the content may affect the viewer’s sensibility and therefore viewer discretion is advised. Please proceed to click only if you wish to watch the contents. The viewer shall be fully responsible for the access to and viewing this content.
We apologize for the low resolution of the video – it has been impossible to upload larger files. We’ll continue trying.
We have been thinking about starting a Podcast for a long time. And the excuses were many and like all other excuses, quite silly too. Finally, a bunch of us got together, got drunk and recorded a podcast khichdi-cast where about 10 people were raving, ranting and shouting at the same time. We discussed Sudhish Kamath’s film Good Night Good Morning, the angry post that he wrote, indie filmmaking and other such stuff. But blame it again on logistics that we still don’t have the access to the audio files. Hopefully we will sort out in a day or two.
I recently saw the marathi film Shala. It’s the directorial debut of 25 year old Sujay Dahake. Wrote a post on it and thought why not start a formal podcast with him. If you still haven’t seen the film, do watch it.
The idea of the podcast is to put focus on those films and people who don’t get much space in the mainstream media and to discover their stories.
Do tune in and let us know your honest feedback. Good, bad, fugly – everything is welcome. The audio quality is not that great and hopefully we will find a better solution soon.
You can listen here or click here to go the soundcloud page to have a better view.
You can directly jump to specific time codes if you want to skip other questions.
0:55 – Background. Cinema education.
02:50 – when the author Milind Bokil refused to give the film rights to him because of his age.
05:00 – And how he convinced the author.
06:26 – When 39 producers said NO. And world is not always fair to 5’4″ man.
08:10 – No hero, no heroines. How is the scenario in Marathi film industry?
10:00 – Difference between the book and the film.
11:50 – Is emergency just a tokenism?
13:44 – Casting actors. Workshops. And how to direct kids? 1600 kids auditioned for 40 actors.
16:00 – How do you shoot “i have butterflies in my stomach”?
18:00 – “Destination Versus journey” cinema.
19:40 – Foreign DOP. My teacher.
21:00 – The look, the colour and the logistics. Who is telling the story – my camera or your actors?
23:10 – Shooting in Archaeological Survey Of India protected area. Back to 70s.
24:40 – Making a film VS releasing it. We only knew about making a film.
27:30 – Subplots.
30:00 – No subtitles? Lack of judgement. Limited release.
31:00 – My average audience is in his 40s right now.
32:45 – Nothing new. But well told. Bothered?
35:20 – My age. My age. My age. It’s sounding corny now.
37:30 – This film is a completely social media product.
38:40 – And the producers are knocking at the door now.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 