Archive for the ‘life’ Category

filmwritingWe posted about the NFDC’s Screenwriting Lab at Locarno Film Festival in association with Binger Filmlab here. The result is finally out. NFDC has selected six writers/script for the Script Lab. And here is the good news – one of us is in. Here is the complete list of those who are going to participate in the lab.

1. Aparna Pednekar – Mumbai based journalist ( Verve/Vogue/GQ India) . Script – F20.

2. Pratim Das Gupta – Calcutta based journalist ( The Telegraph). Script – Vanish.

3. Siddharth Singh – Mumbai based writer-director ( TVC’s/docus/music videos ). Script – Synchronicity.

4. Somen Mishra – Mumbai based journalist ( CNN IBN) . Script – The Prompter’s Son.

5. Priya Krishnaswamy – Pune based editor (features/docus. FTII grad). 

6.  Vinod Shankar – Chennai based actor-writer-director. Script – Adigaram 79 . 

Hopefully we will be able to blog about all the screenwriting tips from the script lab at Locarno Film festival (8th -12th August) and then the pitching session ( 24th-26th November) in Goa. If interested, keep reading and wish us luck!

david….we think so! Because not many can claim to die at the pleasure point! We know one person who will surely endorse our view. Ram Gopal Verma. Now why we are talking death and sex on a cinema blog ?

If  you are still not aware, its because actor David Carradine is dead. David, the dude from Kill Bill. The cause of death – sex act gone horribly wrong. His dead body was found in the closet of a luxury hotel room in Bangkok, with a rope tied to his neck and genitals. Gossipmongers suggests  its called auto-erotic asphyxiation, a practice designed to boost sexual pleasure. You can read more about his death here

The actor was in Thailand to shoot a film called Stretch. Blame it  on our sick sense of humour, but why would you stretch yourself so much for sex ? On second thoughts, its fine to do so but not in auto-mode sex!And complete no-no if you happen to be Bangkok where its dirt cheap.

We are the last guys to talk moral issues but we could not stop ourself from wondering why would David do it if he was…

1. In Bangkok. Just shout out and you will get sex.

2. He was 72! Not the right age to expriment.

3. He was married five times! And still nobody with him.

Who would have thought BILL would KILL himself and in such a shocking way! RIP!

First the news came out that Chitra Singh has committed suicide. Later on it was confirmed that its NOT Chitra Singh but Monica Chowdhuri, her daughter from first marriage. 

She was 47 years old and committed suicide by hanging herself. Today morning, her body was found by her son. Monica was leading a disturbed family life. She was  Chitra’s daughter from her first marriage to Debo Prasad Dutta. The marriage ended in a divorce and Chitra married ghazal singer Jagjit Singh later on. But Monica stayed with her mother and had a very cordial relationship with Jagjit Singh.

Thats what it looks like. And its a nasty one. To quote from Amitabh Bachchan’s recent post on his blog

Copy of aladin amitabh new-1A complete fabrication of thought word and deed. The calibre of the journal showeth. Or is this the calibre of its newly appointed ‘hack’ recently sacked (notice the rhyming ) from the entertainment editorial of a prestigious news paper. And if he is not careful of his inputs that he provides, as above, he shall be on his way for another sack !! May the Lord save this ‘begum’.

Its obvious and easy guess. Khalid Mohamed was the Entertainment Editor of Hindustan Times (HT) before he was sacked from there. Or did he quit ? According to gossipmongers, it all happened because of Amitabh Bachchan, who was tired of Khalid bajaoing him and his family members almost everyday, in HT. With the help of his bade bhaiyya Amar Singh, Big B pulled the last possible string and Khalid was sacked from Hindustan Times.

Recently Khalid moved to The Asian Age as the Entertainment Editor. The article that Bachchan is refering to in his post is a report published in the same paper. Here is the full post and the report. Whats more, Bachchan even warns him of another sack. It seems Big B surely loves to live upto his name.

But the last line is a mean one…May lord save the ‘begum’. Its not difficult to read that Bachchan is making fun of Khalid’s sexual preference and behaviour. Mr Bachchan, why stoop so low ?  So much gyaan about your father’s literature and legacy and it comes down to this! You can do better. Or do you just pretend ?

Now it may sound impossible, but there was a time when Khalid and Bachchans were great chaddi-buddies. Guess what happened ? Dekhi zamane ki yaari…bicchde sabhi baari baari….

ram-gopal-varmaThe man knows it all. But you cant win all the games. His recent film Rann is on the politics of newsroom, the battle for eyeballs. And so, we thought that atleast Ramu would understand the way news channels work. They are not run by shitheads as he and his publicity smartasses might be thinking. Why ? Read on.

With the distorted version of Jann Gana Mann as Jana Gana Rann, Ramu and his coterie must have thought that they have cracked the next big idea for the publicity of the film. So even before the song got censor certificate, it was smartly handed over to the news channels to play, expecting the right buzz to happen. And thats how its available all over the net. When the intention is not so cool, the coolest idea also falls flat. Thats exactly what happened. With the IPL and election fever on, nobody bothered much about the jana gana rann song. No play, no eyeball, no buzz.

Next, as expected Censor Board didnt allow the song. Ramu was more than happy with the news. It was moving in the direction as it was planned. Rann’s publicity managers tried to convince the news editors to debate, dicuss and dissect the issue. Blame it on Varun and Rahul baba’s high election drama and fakeiplplayer’s entertaining posts…those were much more interesting. Deadend again.

Next, Ramu approached the court to get the song cleared. And as expected the Supreme Court slammed Ramu for distorting the national song. Here is more.

We always thought this was one dude who would never pretend to be holier-than-thou and try to show us the mirror because he always said that he looks dirty when he watches himself in the mirror. We expected Ramu to be the last man to give us gyaan on the state of the nation and blah blah. But then, for publicity people do strange things.

So What does Mr Amitabh Bachchan thinks about this publicity gimmick ? The man who is always ready to butcher the media. Or he has no clue.

And here goes our love letter to the man whom we love to hate or hate to love…

Dear Ramu,

After your horrible attempts like Sarkar Raj, Contract and Phoonk, we are not sure about others but we will be there.  Because we still think that you are the original inglorious bastard, one who can talk about the love for RIFLE so openly and without any guilt. Only few dare to do so. This is the real you or atleast thats your image. You are not jana gana rann. Dont give us lecture. And please dont pretend. Bollywood is anyway guided by too heavy morals. We dont want one more conscious citizen.

If for nothing else, we will watch Rann for the honest man who tried to fake it with Jann Gana Rann.

fightclub

i didnt. I have never done. Its Mothers Day. Its all over the place.

Do you feel guilty ? I dont. I never do. I dont even remember her birthday. I dont bother. Like a true anti-family anti-social guy, i never cared much about birthdays of my siblings,parents and relatives. They all know. They dont feel bad now when i dont wish them on their birthdays. I dont even like celebrating my birthday. Wish everyone could erase that day from their diary. Reason ? Just like that. Are there are more like me ? or am i the only one ?

If you want to know more about how and why of Mother’s Day, here is the wikipedia link. And if you want to know more about Ana Jarvis, who took the intiative for celebrating Mother’s Day and how it became one more holiday, here is the wikipedia link. 

And if you are just a selfish inglorious bastard like me, here are two songs for the d-day, enjoy. Mother’s Day is just another excuse. One is mumma from Dasvidaniya, sung and composed by Kailash Kher. The other is from Rang De Basanti. Luka chhupi, sung by Lata Mangeshkar and A R Rahman. Music – A R Rahman.

Well, there is nothing filmy here. But she deserves the headlines.  Shubhra Saxena has topped the UPSC ( Union Public Service Commission) Exams this year.

She quit a well paying IT job to sit for the IAS exams.  An IIT-Roorkee alumnus ( in Paper Technology 2002), Saxena joined Oracles in Hyderabad in 2002 but shifted to Noida when her software engineer husband Shashank began working for CSC. Soon, Shubhra too joined her husband in the same company, but she was not satisfied with her job.  Itching to serve the rural population, she would deliver free lectures to students who came to her for guidance on rural development schemes.  And then came the IAS dream.

Born in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareli, Saxena had most of her education in Jharkhand as her father was an engineer with Coal India.

And the cherry on the top is that this year, all the top three positions have been bagged by female candidates. At second position is Sharandeep Kaur who has done her MA from Punjab University. And Kiran Kaushal has secured the third position. Woohoo! Go Girls go!

For more on Shubhra Saxena, click here.

One of those days, nothing sounds quite right, even mood doesnt want to swing, may be just do nothing, think nothing. Complete blank. And then suddenly a song floats in, from somewhere, some corner. Mujhe jaan na kaho, meri jaan.

The sound of love, life and closeness. All it takes is one magical song. The soothing and sensous voice of Geeta Dutt. Music by Kanu Roy. Lyrics by Gulzarsaab. From film Anubhav, directed by Basu Bhattacharya. 

Its all about silences and glances. Sanjeev Kumar and Tanuja – were they really in love ? Or is it what you call “chemistry” ? No clue. They dont make stars like them any more. We don’t create sounds and moments like these any more. Play. In non-stop loop.

Mahasweta@Prithvi

Posted: April 23, 2009 by moifightclub in life, writing
Tags: , ,

Noted bengali writer and social activist Mahasweta Devi was at Prithvi Theatre on Monday evening. A documentray film on her was screened ( very boringly done. but her quotes were priceless) followed by Q&A with the author.  Unlike many she was completely candid, spoke about her writing, her two marriages, kids and even her two suicide attempts.

And with a razor-sharp tongue, she dismissed everyone who tried to be cool or intelluctual. A guy framed a long question mixing religion, politics, beliefs, ideology and eveything possible. She looked at him and asked “But, whats the question? ” Nobody could control their laughter.

And those of you who missed it, here is the tip of the day, the quote which wrapped up her thoughts…. 

Right to dream should be the first fundamental right of every human being in any country.

Aha….couldnt agree more.