Archive for the ‘Indie’ Category

Call For Entries : NFDC Film Bazaar’s Work-in-Progress Lab & Viewing Room

Posted: August 25, 2015 by moifightclub in Call For Entries, cinema, Indie
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NFDC Film Bazaar

NFDC Film Bazaar, 2015, is calling for entries for the Work-in-Progress (WIP) Lab and the Viewing Room (VR). This year, the Film Bazaar will be held from November 20-24, 2015 at the Goa Marriott Resort, alongside the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2015.

Films previously in the Work-in-Progress Labs at Film Bazaar have had their world premieres at leading international films festivals, often winning awards as well as enjoying successful theatrical runs.

WIP Labs

– Submissions are invited for the two WIP Labs: WIP Fiction and WIP Documentary.

– In each WIP Lab, upto five projects in their rough-cut stage will be selected for mentoring and presentation to a panel of international film experts.

– The WIP Documentary Lab is only accepting feature-length creative documentaries in the rough-cut stage, aiming for a theatrical release.

– Feature-length films of any genre in the rough-cut stage are invited to apply to the WIP lab.

Viewing Room

– Films of all genres and lengths, in rough or final cut, are invited to apply to the Viewing Room where films seeking finishing funds, world sales, distribution partners and film festival exhibition are presented.

– The Viewing Room hosts individual computer terminals in private booths, where investors, world sales agents and film festival programmers attending the Film Bazaar can watch submitted films via specially designed software. This allows them to contact the director or the producer directly through email.

– Feature length films in the rough cut stage are eligible to apply to both WIP Lab and Viewing Room.

– This year, NFDC Film Bazaar has introduced an Early Bird Deadline of 10th September 2015 for application to the WIP Lab and Viewing Room, which offers a discount on application fees.

– The regular deadline is 30th September 2015.

– Please visit www.filmbazaarindia.com for Application Forms and more details.

– For further queries, write to: films@filmbazaarindia.com.

– The most recent successes of the Film Bazaar WIP Labs are:

  • Raam Reddy’s Thithi(Premiered at Locarno Film Festival 2015 and Winner of ‘Golden Leopard, Filmmakers of the Present Competition’ as well as ‘Best First Feature Film Award’)
  • Avinash Arun’s Killa(Premiered at Berlin Film Festival 2014 where it won the ‘Crystal Bear Award’ and National Award winner)
  • Kanu Behl’s Titli(Premiered in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section at Cannes Film Festival 2014)
  • Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely(Premiered in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section at Cannes Film Festival 2012 and National Award winner)
  • Anand Gandhi’s Ship of Theseus(Premiered at the Toronto Film Festival 2012
  • Gyan Correa’sThe Good Road (National Award winner and India’s selection for the Oscars)
  • Ajay Bahl’s BA Pass(Premiered at and won Best Film at the 12th Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival
  • Sange Dorjee Thangdok’s Crossing Bridges(National Award winner)

Raam Reddy’s Thithi Bags 2 Top Awards at Locarno Film Festival

Posted: August 15, 2015 by moifightclub in cinema, Indie, News, World Cinema
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Raam Reddy2

And the good news for the desi indies continues. This time it’s from Locarno Film Festival. Raam Reddy’s debut feature Thithi has bagged 2 top awards at the just concluded festival.

The First award is Pardo d’oro Cineasti del presente (Golden Leopard Filmmakers of The Present) – Premio Nescens worth 40,000 CHF, to be shared equally between the director and the producer. The second award is in the category of First Feature – Swatch First Feature Award (Prize for Best First Feature) 15,000 CHF to be shared equally between the director and the producer awarded to the Best First Film screened in the Piazza Grande, Concorso internazionale, Concorso Cineasti del presente, Fuori concorso or Signs of Life segment.

The film is a dramatic comedy about how three generations of sons react to the death of Century Gowda, their great grandfather, who is a locally renowned, and is a highly cranky 101-year-old man. Set in a village in the Mandya District of Karnataka, the three storylines intertwine before converging at Century Gowda’s thithi, the final funeral celebration 11 days after a death.

Shot in the Mandya district of Karnataka, this was co-written and developed along with Eregowda, who spent most of his childhood in the same village that the film was shot in. The cast of the film comprises of completely non-professional actors.

Filmmaker Raam Reddy is a graduate of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and Prague Film School. Previously, he directed a critically-acclaimed short film called Ika (Feather). He has also published a novel titled It’s Raining in Maya.

Thithi_Still1

वो, जो सब शाश्वत है – ’मसान’

Posted: August 8, 2015 by moifightclub in cinema, film, Indie, Movie Recco, movie reviews
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Jeev-jantu.

SPOILER  ALERT

’मसान’ के बारे में बहुत कुछ लिखा जा चुका है, लिखा जा रहा है, सोचा कि लिखने के लिए कुछ बचा नहीं है, लेकिन इस फ़िल्म ने इतनी सहजता से दिल को छू लिया कि लिखे बिना नहीं रह सकता. लगभग दस दिन हो गए हैं फ़िल्म देखे हुए, लेकिन ना तो ज़हन से उतरी है, ना दिल से. एक अच्छी फ़िल्म, नज़्म, कहानी या किताब की शायद सबसे बड़ी ख़ासियत ही ये होती है कि वो देर तक आप के साथ बनी रहती है. दिनों तक, महीनों तक, सालों तक और कभी-कभी सदियों तक. और ’मसान’ भी इस में कोई अपवाद नहीं है. और यूं भी जिन जज़्बात और मुद्दों को ’मसान’ में दर्शाया गया है, वे सब शाश्वत हैं और आज के संदर्भ में, आज के परिप्रेक्ष्य में रचे गए हैं. और यही बात, इस फ़िल्म को, इस कहानी को, उन किरदारों को और अधिक ख़ास बना देती है. और जिस तरीके से लेखक वरूण ग्रोवर ने हिन्दी-उर्दू के कवियों, शायरों को इस फ़िल्म में याद किया है, वो इस शाश्वतता के पहलू को और अधिक प्रबल करता है.

चार अहम पहलुओं, शाश्वत पहलुओं से बख़ूबी रू–ब-रू करवाती है फ़िल्म. जिज्ञासा, प्रेम, मृत्यु और उम्मीद. ये सभी वो शाश्वत पहलू या जज़्बात हैं ज़िंदगी के, जिनके बिना जीवन लगभग असंभव है. कुछ-कुछ वैसे ही जैसे शाश्वत समय के बिना.

फ़िल्म शुरू ही देवी (रिचा चड्ढा) की जिज्ञासा से, या यूं कहें कि जिज्ञासा शांत करने की कोशिश से होती है. ठीक एक बालिग होते बच्चे की तरह, जिसे बहुत कुछ जानना है और इस जानने की प्रक्रिया में वो समाज के बनाए सही-ग़लत के पैमानों पर ज़्यादा ध्यान नहीं देता है. ये जिज्ञासा बिल्कुल वैसी है, जैसी कभी आदम और हव्वा को हुई होगी, जिस के चलते उन्होंने वो प्रतिबंधित फल चखा था, जिसे चखने का अंजाम हम सब जानते हैं. अब वो सच भी हो सकता है और मिथक भी, लेकिन है एक शाश्वत तथ्य. सदियों से इस और इसी तरह की अनेकानेक जिज्ञासाओं ने इंसान को उत्सुक बनाए रखा है और एक तरह की तरक्की के लिए प्रेरित भी किया है. आज हम जितना भी आगे बढ़ पाए हैं, उस में जिज्ञासा का बहुत बड़ा हाथ है. कुछ ऎसी ही तरक्की देवी भी करना चाहती है. और उस की ये तरक्की किसी भी तरह से भौतिकता से प्रेरित नहीं है. वो बस आगे बढ़ना चाहती है, शारिरिक तौर पर, मानसिक तौर पर, खुले दिमाग से. एक जगह वो अपने पिता विद्याधर पाठक (संजय मिश्रा) को जवाब भी देती है, “जितनी छोटी जगह, उतनी छोटी सोच”. वो इस छोटी सोच से तरक्की चाहती है. अपनी जिज्ञासा को शांत करने के सहारे, अपनी शाश्वत जिज्ञासा को शांत करने के सहारे.

दूसरा शाश्वत जज़्बात, प्रेम, जिसे ’मसान’ ना केवल छूती है, बल्कि उस में सराबोर होकर नाचती है, उत्सव मनाती है. प्रेम, जो जितना जिस्मानी है, दुनियावी है, उतना ही ईमानदार भी है, सच्चा भी है. कहीं कोई छल-कपट नहीं है. खालिस है. और यही खालिस प्रेम, आम तौर पर परिभाषित और दर्शित प्रेम से अलग है. इसीलिए पहुँच पाता है, और छू पाता है, अंतर्मन की उन गहराईयों तक जहाँ तक का रास्ता केवल असल प्रेम को मालूम है. वही असल में केंद्र है, हर एक इंसान का, और प्रेम का यही दृष्टिकोण, दीपक (विक्की कौशल) और शालू (श्वेता त्रिपाठी) का एक-दूसरे के प्रति (दुनिया के एतराज़ को ध्यान में रखते हुए भी), उस प्रेम को दर्शाता है, जो सुबह की ओस की बूंद की तरह साफ़ है, यही साफ़-पाक प्रेम है, जो असल में शाश्वत है.

अगर एक चीज़ है, समय के परे, जो उतनी ही शाश्वत है, और रहेगी तो वो है मृत्यु. और मृत्यु को इतने अलग-अलग दृष्टिकोण से देखा-दिखाया गया है, एक ही फ़िल्म में कि ताज्जुब होता है. एक ओर पियूष (सौरभ चौधरी) आत्महत्या करता है, सिर्फ़ डर के मारे, शर्म के मारे और अनजाने में ही देवी और पाठक की ज़िंदगियाँ दाँव पे लगा जाता है, दूसरी ओर नियति का हस्तक्षेप शालू को इतनी ख़ामोशी से मृत्यु के आग़ोश में ले लेता है कि एक झटका लगता है. गहरा झटका. तीसरा रूप है मृत्यु का, दिन-रात जलती चिताओं का, गंगा के घाट पे. जहाँ मृत्यु सिर्फ़ एक काम है, एक व्यवसाय है और है एक ’पारी’ का खेल. वो खेल जो दिन-रात के हर पहर में खेला जाता है, ठीक एक ज़िंदा आदमी की चलती सांसों की तरह. जब आख़िरी बंधन को खोपड़ी पर बांस मार कर आज़ाद किया जाता है, (जिसे कर्म कांड की भाषा में ’कपाल क्रिया’ कहते हैं), तो मृत्यु बस एक कर्म बन कर रह जाती है. और इसी मृत्यु का चौथा रूप दिखाई देता है, जब झोंटा (निखिल साहनी) एक लम्बा गोता लगा कर वापिस नहीं आता है देर तक. मृत्यु नहीं है उन क्षणों में लेकिन उस की मौजूदगी का एहसास इतना प्रबल है कि पल भर में मृत्यु के शाश्वत होने का एहसास हो जाता है.

महाभारत में जब यक्ष ने युधिष्ठिर से ये प्रश्न किया था कि क्या है जो सबसे हैरत-अंगेज़ है, तो उस ने जवाब दिया था कि सदियों से सब मृत्यु को प्राप्त होते आए हैं, लेकिन फिर भी जब तक जीते हैं, इस तरह से जीते हैं, जैसे अमर हों. मानव-जाति की यही बात सबसे हैरत-अंगेज़ है. और यहीं पर आकर हम अगले शाश्वत जज़्बात से मिलते हैं, उम्मीद, आशा. जिस के सहारे दुनिया तब से चल रही है, जब से ये असल में चल रही है. सब तरह की उम्मीदें, चाहे वो अपनी जन्म-जाति के बंधनों को शिक्षा के ज़रिए तोड़ कर, अपने मनपसंद जीवन-साथी के साथ एक अच्छा जीवन निर्वाह करने की दीपक की उम्मीद हो, या अपना सच्चा प्यार किसी भी तरीके से (घर से भाग कर भी) पा लेने की शालू की उम्मीद हो या फिर सब कुछ बिखर जाने के बाद भी एक नए साथ के साथ एक नया सफ़र शुरू करने की देवी की उम्मीद हो, जिसे अंत में एक नई भोर की तरह की दर्शाया गया है. वो भोर, जो ज़िंदगी, जिज्ञासा, प्रेम, मृत्यु और उम्मीद की ही तरह शाश्वत है.

और भी बहुत से शाश्वत जज़्बात हैं, जिन्हें फ़िल्म बहुत सहजता से पेश करती है. प्रेम के बिछोह से उपजा दर्द, सदियों से हिन्दुस्तान में प्रचलित जाति व्यवस्था, और बंधनों में जीने की देवी की छ्टपटाहट. और वो सब भी यूं घुले-मिले हैं पूरी कहानी में, जैसे आँसुओं में नमक. जो है भी, तक़लीफ़ भी देता है, लेकिन अलग से दिखाई नहीं देता है. इतनी ख़ूबसूरत और ख़ूबसीरत फ़िल्म लिखने और बनाने के लिए लेखक वरूण ग्रोवर, निर्देशक नीरज घायवान और डी.ओ.पी. अविनाश अरूण को गले लगा कर शुक्रिया देने का मन करता है. लेकिन वो फिर कभी सही.

फिलहाल ये एक ही गुज़ारिश है, अगर आपने अभी तक ये फ़िल्म नहीं देखी है, तो कोशिश कर के देखिए. ऎसी फ़िल्में बार-बार नहीं बनती.

 – मोहित कटारिया

(Mohit Kataria is an IT engineer by profession, writer & poet by passion, and a Gulzar fan by heart. He is based in Bangalore and can be reached at [kataria dot mohit at gmail dot com] or @hitm0 on twitter)

Fund A Film (FAF) : Rudro Bhandary’s Hopanta

Posted: August 7, 2015 by moifightclub in FAF (Fund A Film), film, Indie
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Through this blog, we have always tried to spread the good word about various crowd-funded (Kickstarter, wishberry and such) projects. Here’s one more film which looks interesting and you can contribute to its making.

HOPANTA POSTER 1

SYNOPSIS

Whether Hopanta is mad or not is not the question: his existence in the village is a story by itself. Hopanta is a very young man, he lives in a typical village of West Bengal with mud houses and thatched roofs. A village that is untouched by city life ; a village that is self-sufficient in growing and producing vegetables, crop and oil.

Hopanta may have come from some other village, no one has bothered to question and no one in the village cares, but these same villagers provide him with everything for his survival.

Hopanta, like any other person, has his own preferences and demands, the house he lives in is customized for his needs and daily chores, the food he begs from the villagers is eaten the way he prefers to. Hopanta likes to live his adventurous life in his own way, which is sometimes influenced by the world he sees around him.

Hopanta likes to worship gods, as he has seen people do so in their own houses. He does it not for what it is but for the way it is done. Similarly he is influenced in his take on politics, women and simpler things like the electric supply of the entire village. His innocence is his strength and source of happiness. He owns nothing but he probably believes he does, and maybe that’s why he is called mad.

FILM

The story of Hopanta is told through a Baul Song (a folk song form of Bengal). The film also depicts the story of the villagers who live with Hopanta, and how their lives entwine. It focuses on how Hopanta adopts a lifestyle from the village and the villagers, showing how every one of us is like him in our own way. We too do not bother to know anything about religion or politics etc. to follow them and live with them.

If you wish to donate, click here to go to film’s wishberry page, and make the donation. The page also has more details about the film, the director, the way they plan to spend the money and other info.

Vetri Maaran’s Visaarani selected for Venice Film Festival, Ruchika Oberoi’s Island City at Venice Days

Posted: July 30, 2015 by moifightclub in cinema, Film Festival, Indie, News
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visaranaiThe fest news continues. After Toronto’s list, now Venice Film Festival is out with their line-up. Vetri Maaran’s Visaarani has been selected to premiere at the fest.

The film will compete in Orizzonti (international competition dedicated to films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema) section of the fest.

Titled Interrogation in English, the 106 minute long film stars Dinesh Ravi, Samuthira Kani, Murugadas Periyasamy .

Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court was in the same section last year where it bagged two top awards.

Guru Dutt’s classic Pyaasa will be screened in the ‘Venice Classics’ section of the fest.

The other Indian film is Ruchika Oberoi’s Island City. This film will be at Venice Days which is an independent section at the Venice Film Festival, and is promoted by the Italian Association of Filmmakers and authors. The idea was to develop a parallel sidebar on the lines of Directors Fortnight at Cannes.

Starring Vinay Pathak, Amruta Subhash and Tannishtha Chatterjee, the film ties together three absurd stories in a modern-day Indian city.

The first story revolves around a diligent office worker who wins the office ‘Fun Committee’ award. The second is about the domineering head of a family who suddenly falls into a coma and how his family slowly replaces him in their psyche with the seductive hero of a popular soap opera. The third is about a girl who falls in love with a man who writes her love letters. The first two stories are black comedies while the third one falls into the tragicomedy genre.

Guru Dutt’s classic Pyaasa will be screened in the Restored Classics section of the fest.

Six Scripts Selected For NFDC India Screenwriters’ Lab, 2015

Posted: July 27, 2015 by moifightclub in cinema, Indie, News, Screenwriting, writing
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screenwriting-215x300National Film Development Corporation, India announced its selection of six projects for the Screenwriters’ Lab 2015, from submission of about 280 applications.

Previously hosted in Toronto, Locarno and Venice film festivals, Screenwriters’ Lab is going to be held in collaboration with the Sarajevo Film Festival this year.

Selected projects will travel to Sarajevo in August for the first part of the lab and then to Goa in November for the second, before being presented at Film Bazaar, the annual international film market, held alongside the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

The selection this year includes projects spanning across varied stories, styles and genres.

Scripts

Bombay Rose – Gitanjali Rao

City of Light – Shubhashish Bhutiani

Dastaan-E-Awaargi – Ankit Kothari

Mango’s Tale – Sidharth Gupt

The Return – Asad Hussain

The Sun Goes Round the Earth – Arijit Biswas

Writers

Gitanjali Rao is an animator and filmmaker whose latest project, True Love Story, premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week, 2014 in competition. Her other animation short, Printed Rainbow, received several awards including the Kodak Short Film Award, and the Young Critics Award at Cannes Critics’ Week, 2006.

Shubhashish Bhutiani forayed into filmmaking with his short film Kush which won the Orizzonti Prize for Best Short Film at Venice International Film Festival. He has previously worked as an assistant director in commercials and feature films.

Ankit Kothari is an emerging writer who graduated with a BFA in Applied Arts from MSU, Baroda. Kothari worked as an art director in the advertising industry before venturing into filmmaking.

Sidharth Gupt is a filmmaker who wrote and directed one of the segments in Shorts, a compilation of five short films, produced by Anurag Kashyap. As an assistant director, Gupt has worked in Dasvidaniya, Gangs of Wasseypur and Khoobsurat.

Asad Hussain’s journey as a screenplay writer led him to co-write Children of War, a film based on the war for Bangladesh’s liberation. He has written the additional screenplay for Bajrangi Bhaijan. Apart from these, Hussain has also worked for educational content in Afghanistan.

Arijit Biswas is the co-writer of Agent Vinod and Badlapur. He has also written extensively for Hindi and Bengali television.

First Look : Mozez Singh’s Zubaan (Poster, Teaser)

Posted: July 27, 2015 by moifightclub in cast & crew, film, first look, Indie, Poster, Trailer
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10409588_391302141077650_8545138430389074028_nWith Vicky Kaushal getting rave reviews for his debut performance in Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan, it seems like the perfect time to launch the first look of another film starring him – debutant Mozez Singh’s Zubaan.

The film has Vicky Kaushal, Sarah Jane Dias, Manish Chaudhary, Meghna Malik and Raaghav Chanana in lead roles.

The official FB page has only one line description so far – Zubaan is a coming-of-age musical drama about a young man who has a fear of Music!

Do check out the trailer.

Trailer

Crew

Story & Directed by: Mozez Singh
Produced by: Guneet Monga, Shaan Vyas, Mozez Singh
DOP: Swapnil Sonawane
Editor: Deepa Bhatia
Action: Sham Kaushal
Sound Design: Anthony Ruban
Screenplay: Thani, Sumit Roy, Mozez Singh
Dialogues: Sumit Roy
Music: Ashutosh Phatak
Additional Songs: Ishq Bector-­‐Shree d, Manraj Patar
Lyrics: Surjit Patar(Punjabi), Varun Grover(Hindi)
Costumes-: Aki Narula
Production Designer: KhyateeKanchan
Choreography: Uma‐Gaiti

For more info, FB page is here, and Twitter feed is here.

बस इतना ही कहना है…

Posted: July 24, 2015 by moifightclub in cinema, Indie, Poster
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बस इतना ही कहना है कि आज पिंजरा खुल रहा है। 3 साल की चप्पल घिसाई, घुड़सवारी, हवाबाज़ी, खुद को बहलाना, आपस में लड़ना, ट्रेनों के दरवाजों पर बैठे गुज़रते हुए गाँवों को देखते हुए किसी उलझे सीन को सुलझाना और ये भी सोचना कौनसा साला ये फिल्म बनने ही वाली है, बार बार बनारस के चक्कर और हर चक्कर में कम लौंगलता खाना ये सोच के कि बनारस तो अभी फिर आना है – के बाद आज सबका कुल जमा देश भर में फैली 240 स्क्रीनों पर टूटते तारों सा बिखर जायेगा।

बस इतना कहना है कि कुछ खास नहीं है कि इस फ़िल्म में अनेकों लोग शुरू से ही जुड़े हैं (मैं, रिचा, अविनाश, नितिन) – नाबालिग़ उमर के आशिकों की तरह – कई फ़िल्मों में जुड़े होते हैं। लेकिन ये खास है कि उनमें से बहुतों की ये पहली फ़िल्म है – नीरज घायवान, नितिन बैद, श्रुति कपूर, विक्की कौशल, श्वेता त्रिपाठी, और एक तरह से मेरी और अविनाश अरुण की भी। पहली फ़िल्म का नशा एक ही बार होता है, यही नियति है। पहले चुम्बन की तरह। ठीक से समझ भी नहीं आता कि हो क्या रहा है पर बहुत डिवाइन लगता है।

पूरी याद्दाश्त और पूरी कायनात मिटा के फिर शुरू करनी पड़ेगी अगर पहली फ़िल्म का कष्ट-रूपी आनंद दोबारा लेना है तो।

और जाते जाते बस इतना ही कहना है जो एक बार संजय मिश्रा जी ने कहा था – उम्मीद तो अपने बच्चों से भी नहीं करनी चाहिए, तो फ़िल्म से क्यों करें। रिव्यूज़ सुंदर आ गए हैं, कुछ शहरों में लग गयी है शिवजी की कृपा से, मार्केटिंग का खेला अपनी गति और दशा से चल रहा है, और ले-देकर फ़िल्म अब हमारे हाथ से गैस से टंच भरे गुब्बारे की तरह छूट चुकी है।

बचपन में जितना मज़ा गुब्बारे को हाथ में धागे से लपेटे रहने पर आता था, उतना ही उसे छोड़ देने पर भी। एक बार दुःख होता था – बिदाई हमेशा कठिन होती है – लेकिन एक अजीब सी खुशी भी ये देखकर कि वो उड़ा जा रहा है दूर किसी ऐसे आसमान जहाँ हम कभी नहीं जा सकते।

आँख से ओझल होता हुआ… बड़ा सा गुब्बारा जो हमारे हाथ में था अब एक बिन्दु से भी छोटा। आँख बस एक बार हटाई और ग़ायब!

– वरुण ग्रोवर

(“Our Roger Ebert wins Pulitzer” – Remember that image of Ebert holding the newspaper with this headline? No? Here.  I always thought what immense pride that one word “our” must have added. Similarly, it’s time for us to say Masaan is by “OUR” Neeraj Ghaywan and Varun Grover. Do watch it in theatres. It’s limited release but if you try, you can manage for that odd show timing too. This one deserves that little effort. Also, we are posting here 4 beautiful posters sketched in Madhubani style by Grover’s better half, Raj Kumari.)

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Raam Reddy’s Kannada film “Thithi” selected for Locarno Film Festival, 2015

Posted: July 16, 2015 by moifightclub in cinema, Film Festival, Indie, Kannada, News, Regional
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Raam Reddy’s directorial debut, Thithi has been selected for the prestigious Locarno International Film Festival. Also, this marks the end of a dry spell of eight years since an Indian film made it to the competitive section at the fest. This year’s edition of the festival will take place from August 5 – 15, 2015.

Thithi will be presented in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente (Filmmakers Of The Present) section and will be competing for the Pardo d’oro Cineasti del presente – Premio Nescens at the festival. This section features 14 films this year.

Last year, the Kannada-language film was selected for the Work-in-Progress Lab at the NFDC Film Bazaar where it was declared the Best Work-in-Progress Fiction Feature.

The film is a dramatic comedy about how three generations of sons react to the death of Century Gowda, their great grandfather, who is a locally renowned, and is a highly cranky 101-year-old man. Set in a village in the Mandya District of Karnataka, the three storylines intertwine before converging at Century Gowda’s thithi, the final funeral celebration 11 days after a death.

Shot in the Mandya district of Karnataka, this was co-written and developed along with Eregowda, who spent most of his childhood in the same village that the film was shot in. The cast of the film comprises of completely non-professional actors.

Filmmaker Raam Reddy is a graduate of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and Prague Film School. Previously, he directed a critically-acclaimed short film called Ika (Feather). He has also published a novel titled It’s Raining in Maya.

Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet will also have its screening at the festival.

Music and Lyrics of “Masaan”

Posted: July 16, 2015 by moifightclub in cinema, Indie, Lyrics, music, songs & videos
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Masaan Music

Neeraj Ghaywan‘s FIPRESCI winner at Cannes 2015, MASAAN releases in India on 24th July. Here, film’s screenplay writer and lyricist Varun Grover talks about the music of the film.

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Masaan  is the most difficult music album I have worked on till now. It has just 3 songs, out of which one (‘Bhor‘) is written by Sanjeev Sharma, and still the amount of distress and self-doubt I went through figuring out the lyrics for the other two was more than me and Sneha Khanwalkar felt on the mammoth ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ album.

Prime reason was the burden of being the writer of the film as well and hence this feeling that lyrics in this film should be ‘extra-special’. As I said elsewhere, “Jab halwaayi ke ghar mein hi shaadi ho toh mithaayi se expectations unreal ho jaati hain aur halwaayi ki zindagi haraam ho jaati hai.’

This self-doubt also made the choice of a music director for the film difficult and after meeting some really worthy composers, we decided to request Indian Ocean to come on board.

1. Tu Kisi Rail Si

As I was low on confidence and the film has an element of poetry (Shweta Tripathi’s character is a shaayari-fan), we thought of using some existing Hindi poetry for the love song. One poem by Uday Prakash saab (Kuchh bann jaate hain) I loved in particular and we shared it with Indian Ocean who gave us strange looks as it’s in Mukd Chhand and nearly impossible to compose.

Then suddenly, these lines by Dushyant Kumar saab came back to me and I knew we have a starting point. I had heard these lines first many years ago at an informal kavi sammelan at a friend’s wedding in Lucknow. (Haan ji, Lucknow mein shaadiyon mein bhi kavi-sammelan hota hai.)

I wrote the rest of the lyrics, taking the first two lines from Dushyant Kumar’s ghazal ‘Main jise oadhta bichhaata hoon‘. After many tunes by Indian Ocean, we finally arrived at a consensus on one based on the footage, tempo, tone, and rhythm of the song. Since the footage was already shot and it had to be a celebratory number, these criteria were necessary to be fullilled.

We also got to meet Dushyant saab’s wife (Rajeshwari ji) and his son Aalok Tyagi ji who by a huge stroke of luck happened to live right across our editing studio in Versova! They gave us permissions and blessings for the song.

Dushyant Kumar ji

Swanand Kirkire recorded it in his grainy voice and we had our song ready.

Lyrics: 

Mukhda
Tu kisi rail si guzarti hai
Main kisi pull sa thartharaata hoon
Tu bhaley ratti bhar na sunti hai,
Main tera naam budbudaata hoon.
Kisi lambe safar ki raaton mein,

tujhe alaav sa jalaata hoon.

Antara

Kaath ke taaley hain,
aankh pe daale hain,
unmein ishaaron ki chaabiyaan laga.
Raat jo baaqi hai,
shaam se taaki hai,
neeyat mein thodi kharaabiyaan laga.
Main hoon paani ke bulbuley jaisa,

tujhko sochoon toh, phoot jaata hoon.

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2. Mann Kasturi Re

If the first song killed us, the second one did it twice over. This song is supposed to be the soul of the film, the theme that connects all the stories and characters which meant ‘Anthem jaisa kuchh chaahiye‘. Another problem was that the reference track on the footage was ‘Aik Alif‘ from Coke Studio Pakistan and it was too overwhelming a track to compete with.
For this one too, my first instinct was to run away and leave the job to some great. So we chose Nazir Akbarabaadi’s ‘Banjaranama‘ and Indian Ocean did a fantastic job of composing it into a stunning anthem. The only problem – the tempo of the footage was on another level. Marta kya na karta, I had to step in and attempt writing new words.

Like it happens most of the times, difficult to tell how/when this phrase ‘Mann Kasturi‘ popped in my head but the rest of the song became easy after that. Kabir and Banaras were constant in my head while writing it.

Lyrics

Mukhda

Mann kasturi re,
jag dasturi re,
baat huyi naa poori re!
Khoje apni gandh naa paave,
chaadar ka paiband naa paave,
bikhre bikhre chhand sa tahale,
dohon mein ye bandh na paave.
Naache ho ke phirki lattu,
khoje apni dhoori re,

Mann kasturi re!

Antara

Umar ki ginti haath naa aayi,
purkhon ne ye baat bataayi,
Ulta kar ke dekh sake toh,
Ambar bhi hai gehri khaayi.
Rekhaaon ke paar nazar ko,
Jisne phenka andhe mann se,
Satrangi bazaar ka khola,
Darwaaza phir bina jatan ke!
Phir toh jhooma baawal ho ke,
Sar pe daal fitoori re

Mann kasturi re!

For lyrics in Devnagari, click here.

Full album here:

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