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Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox and Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout – Tracking all the Cannes buzz

Posted: May 20, 2013 by moifightclub in cast & crew, cinema, Film Festival, film review, movie reviews, News, reviews
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Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox (Dabba) and Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout had their premiere screenings at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival. Lunchbox is selected in International Critics Week section and Monsoon Shootout had a midnight screening. Some early reviews of both the films have been pouring in. For curious folks like us, here are the excerpts and links to the reviews.

Variety review is here

A feel-good movie that touches the heart while steering clear of expectation, “The Lunchbox” signals a notable debut from tyro helmer-scripter Ritesh Batra. The ingredients on their own are nearly fail-proof, yet it’s the way Batra combines food with an epistolary romance between a nearly retired number cruncher and a neglected wife that hits all the right tastebuds. An indie Indian pic with the crossover appeal of “Monsoon Wedding,” it’s sure to be gobbled up by audience-friendly fests before heading into niche cinemas.

Screen Daily review is here

A wistful, elegant love story played out across the streets of Mumbai, The Lunchbox is an unexpectedly aromatic charmer from first-time film-maker Ritesh Batra. Eschewing the pitfalls of what appears, on face value, to be a highly schematic set-up, Batra infuses his film with warmth and humanity, while cameraman Michael Simmonds steps up to deliver delicate visuals of modern Mumbai.

Film Business Asia’s review is here

There’s hardly a shot, line or gesture out of place in The Lunchbox, a hugely impressive feature debut by Mumbai-born, partly New York-based Ritesh Batra that starts out like a foodie film but spins a simple idea into a whole mini-universe of feelings.

– To watch the presentation ceremony video, click here

– To watch Ritesh Batra’s interview, click here

– Two clips from the film

Cast and crew list

Directed, written by Ritesh Batra.
Camera (color, widescreen) – Michael Simmonds
Editor – John Lyons
Music – Max Richter
Production designer – Shruti Gupte
Costume designer – Niharika Bhasin Khan
Sound (Dolby Digital) – Michael Kaczmarek, Ramesh Birajdar, Joerg Theil, Tom Korr
Line producers – Meraj Shaikh, Smriti Jain
Assistant director – Prerna Saigal
Casting – Seher Latif.
Cast – Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Denzil Smith, Bharati Achrekar, Nakul Vaid, Yashvi Puneet Nagar, Lillette Dubey

And here are the reviews of Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout.

Peter Bradshaw’s review is here

It’s a moody, broody downbeat drama for most of the time, a rainy noir. But along with the plot trickery, there are some unexpected turns…..It’s an entertaining popcorn-movie with a twist, for which commercial success is on the cards. There should be space for pictures like it in Cannes.

The Hollywood Reporter review is here.

A cunningly intricate first film from India, Monsoon Shootout combines the best of two worlds – a ferocious Mumbai cops and gangsters drama, and a satisfyingly arty plot that turns in on itself to examine the outcome of three possible choices a rookie cop might make when he confronts a ruthless killer. Three times the story returns to a key moment: a boy with a gun uncertain whether to pull the trigger. Though the idea of Dirty Harry meeting Sliding Doors may sound abstract, writer-director Amit Kumar pulls it off gracefully, without losing the sense of heightened drama that earned the film a Midnight Movie slot in Cannes. The Fortissimo release should make good headway in territories open to India and exotic genre fare and put Kumar on festival radar.

Screen Daily review is here.

Serving up a portion of Rashomon with a side of Sliding Doors, this tasty Mumbai crime story offers multiple outcomes of one fateful decision in a rookie cop’s professional life. Though it sounds like a potentially experimental premise, Monsoon Shootout is a glossy ethical drama designed to appeal equally to more upscale Indian audiences and worldwide genre fans.

Film School rejects review is here

The Upside: Nicely photographed; boasts decent enough lead performances, specifically the presence of Thapa as Adi’s beau; sound editing is also strikingly effective

The Downside: Aspirations towards existentialism don’t pay off well because it lazily recycles some grand ideas, but without the same level of ingenuity and entertainment value; atrocious editing stifles the action beats, which are themselves too sparse and brief to satisfy.

Here’s the Variety review:

“Monsoon Shootout” is a racy mash-up of Tarantino-esque ultra-violence and-gritty but-hip contempo Indian actioners. Amit Kumar invests a schematic police-thriller structure with a compelling moral dilemma hinging on a standoff between a cop and his suspect.

And here’s the Rope of Silicon podcast on the film.

A look at the film:

Cast and crew list

Production companies: Yaffle Films, Sikhya Entertainment in association with Pardesi Films AKFPL, Dar Motion Pictures

Cast: Vijay Varma, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Neeraj Kabi, Geetanjali Thapa

Director: Amit Kumar

Screenwriter: Amit Kumar,

Producers: Trevor Ingman, Guneet Monga, Martijn De Grunt

Co-producers: Anurag Kashyap, Arun Rangachari

Director of photography: Rajeev Ravi

Production designer: Mayur Sharma

Editor: Atanu Mukherjee, Ewa Lind

Music: Gingger Shankarv Sales Agent: Fortissimo Films

88 minutes

(Pics taken from various online sources/social media)

Update: TWITTER BUZZ…

Since reviews for Indian films are scarce, we decided to add some tweets into the mix.

On The Lunchbox:

THE LUNCHBOX (R Batra): Like a bonsai tree, modest but magnificent. Standout performances. Bit cloying, but only if you want to find faults. — @bgji May 20, 2013

A very well-deserved, sustained, standing ovation for The Lunchbox at Cannes. Congratulations, Ritesh!! — @Shripriya May 19, 2013

On Monsoon Shootout:

MONSOON SHOOTOUT is the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ of crime actioners. I’m not completely convinced, but I do respect the ambition. #Cannes — @RylandAldrich May 19, 2013

MONSOON SHOOTOUT (D-) 3 versions of the same story, except it’s not as the filmmakers abandon the logic of the conceit. Morally dubious too — @CSkinner May 19, 2013

MONSOON SHOOTOUT does somehow seem to have become the defining film of the Festival. #cannes2013 — @JonathanRomney May 18, 2013

MONSOON SHOOTOUT (A Kumar): Thoroughly ordinary. Heavy handed 3 pronged narrative structure/metaphor. More imagination re: Bombay, please. — @bgji May 19, 2013

Monsoon Shootout is the Sliding Doors of cop thrillers. Fleetingly entertaining but the alt-outcomes narrative wears thin… #Cannes2013 — @totalfilm May 19, 2013

Monsoon Shootout – 2/5. Slumdog Millionaire meets Run Lola Run (Run Slumdog Run?) in fecklessly bloodless gimmick thriller #Cannes2013 — @ShaunMunroFilm May 19, 2013

MONSOON SHOOTOUT is the Indian RUN LOLA RUN if RUN LOLA RUN were a predictable cop drama. #Cannes2013 #cannes — @FredTopel May 19, 2013

On Ugly:

UGLY (A Kashyap): A Blaft-like pulp thriller with @ankash1009 bravely pushing his style to the limits. Depressingly hilarious & brilliant. — @bgji May 18, 2013

And finally…

UGLY and MONSOON SHOOTOUT taught me not to be a person who works for, needs help from, or who is wanted by police in India. #cannes2013— @marshalclark) May 19, 2013

Jai Ho. 🙂

Meghe Dhaka Tara (Trailer) – Bob Biswas is Ritwik Ghatak!

Posted: May 20, 2013 by moifightclub in Bengali, cast & crew, film, first look, News, Regional, Story / Plot / Synopsis, Tollywood, Trailer, video
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meghe

Ever since Sashwata Chatterjee made his mark on national radar as Bob Biswas in Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani, suddenly we have been seeing more of him. Or maybe he is getting interesting roles since then. Recently he was in Aparna Sen’s hilarious film Goynor Baksho, and now he is playing the lead role of Ritwik Ghatak in Kamaleswar Mukherjee’s Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud-Capped Star).

When i heard about the title of the film, the first thought in my head was blasphemy, blasphemy! But thankfully, the black and white trailer looks interesting. And seems like Sashwata is going to steal the show again, especially towards the end, when he portrays the madness.

Have a look. It’s with English subs. Hope more producers learn from this and realise that they have a market beyond their state. It’s a slow process but that’s how you build your audience. So do release your trailer, promos, songs with subs.

Official synopsis

Kamaleswar Mukherjee’s Meghe Dhaka Tara is inspired in every way possible from the legendary director Ritwik Ghatak’s life. From putting together bits and pieces of his eventful life to using the title of one of his most famous movies, and to naming the characters from his last film Jukti Tokko Goppo, Kamaleswar’s movie is an apt tribute to the great director.

Although inspired from Ghatak’s life, Meghe Dhaka Tara is neither a biopic on him, nor a remake of his famous film. To Kamaleswar, Ritwik is a true star, a legend, with immense contributions to the world of cinema. And yet he is still quite the unsung hero. Hence, he is the “Meghe Dhaka Tara”.

Credits

Starring : Saswata Chatterjee, Ananya Chatterjee, Abir Chatterjee & others
Producer : Shree Venkatesh Films
Presenter : Shrikant Mohta & Mahendra Soni
Direction : Kamleswar Mukherjee
Screenplay : Kamaleswar Mukherjee
DOP: Soumik Halder
Music : Debojyoti Mishra

– For more updates, it’s Facebook page is here.

Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly – Tracking all the Cannes buzz

Posted: May 19, 2013 by moifightclub in cast & crew, cinema, film, Film Festival, movie reviews, News, reviews
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At the ongoing Cannes Film Festival, India has a much better presence this year compared to last few years. So we are back with our regular post to track all the Cannes buzz that the desi films are creating there.

Anurag Kashyap’s film Ugly had its screening in the Directors’ Fortnight section. Some of the early reviews are out.

– The Holly Reporter review is here

Kashyap’s nasty point is that, between violence, greed and corruption, just about no one is innocent in the end. Certainly all the characters are selfish beyond belief. This existential cynicism hits home in the horrific crime revealed in the last shot, But by that time, the emotions feel light years away.

– Translated text of French review on Telerama is here.

Heavy, unbearable. Surprising to the end, vitriolic portrait of contemporary India…

– Twitchfilm review is here

Really, the more divisive issue of the film will be the content itself, and audiences willingness to spend so much time watching greedy, ruthless and often idiotic people going from bad to bottom of the barrel. The ending may be a potential deal-breaker for some too, and while I can’t argue in detail without spoiling it, my sleep-deprived Cannes impression is that the haunting final shot effectively hammers home the moral center of the movie rather than functioning as the cheap, shock-value alternative. In fact, reflecting on the way Kashyap handled the rest of the film, specifically spurts of intentional violence, I do feel that there was a sympathetic voice in the film — it was just behind the camera instead of in front of it.

– The Hindu’s report on the film is here.

“The first 10 minutes of the film have to do with my own life when I depict the relations between the divorced father and his little girl. But the rest of the film came about after I read about the disappearance of children in India.

– Screendaily review is here.

After the five-and-a-bit-hour gangland epic Gangs Of Wasseypur, the godfather of the Indian commercial arthouse sector, Anurag Kashyap, serves up a slimline two-hour hard-boiled crime thriller with Ugly. But the running time is the only thing that’s restrained about this lazy kidnap caper, whose hints of Fargo, echoes of Old Boy and touches of Tarantino are compromised by the story’s sprawling lack of discipline.

Mubi’s short review is here.

The dissonance between the tone of the highly mobile plotting with its harsh and justified moral judgement of everyone in the film and the unconscious, conventionally acted characters break the film’s sinister, society-flailing vision. Thus Ugly‘s interest is more academic than actual—perhaps a failed experiment—and while its disappointing inconsistency instills dullness, it also provokes a strange and blistering series of events, each unfolding in shocking succession.

– Directors Fortnight videos

Interview of AK

Q & A after the screening

– The Hollywood Reporter on Kashyap getting the French honour Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres honour (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters)

– Cast and Credit list from THR

DAR Motion Pictures presents a Phantom Films production

Cast: Ronit Roy, Rahul Bhat, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Anshika Shrivastava, Vineet Kumar Singh, Girish Kulkarni, Surveen Chawla, Siddhant Kapoor

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Screenwriter: Anurag Kashyap

Producers: Madhu Mantena, Vikas Bahl, Vikramaditya Motwane, Arun Rangachari, Vivek Rangachari

Co-producers: Vivek Agrawal, Shahnaab Alam

Director of photography: Nikos Andritsakis

Production designer: Mayur Sharma

Costumes: Divya Gambhir, Nidhi Gambhir

Editor: Aarti Bajaj

Music: Brian McOmber, G V Prakash Kumar

Sales Agent: DAR Motion Pictures, Mumbai

124 minutes.

(Pics – from social media/DF Facebook page)

First Look : Pan Nalin’s Faith Connections (Trailer)

Posted: May 15, 2013 by moifightclub in cinema, Documentary, film, first look, News, Trailer
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Faith Connections

Remember Pan Nalin? Samsara, Valley Of Flowers? He is ready with a new documentary titled Faith Connections. And its trailer has come online. Have a look.

And here’s a note on the film –

“Faith isn’t faith until it’s all you’re holding onto.”

Filmmaker Pan Nalin travels to Kumbh Mela, one of the world’s most extraordinary religious events. There, he encounters remarkable men of mind and meditation, some facing an inextricable dilemma; to embrace the world or to renounce it. FAITH CONNECTIONS explores such diverse and deeply moving stories as a young runaway kid, a Sadhu, a mother desperately looking for her lost son, a yogi who is raising an abandoned baby, and an ascetic who keeps his calm by smoking cannabis — all connected by one faith against the spectacular display of devotion.

Anand Gandhi’s Ship Of Theseus to release on 19th July, 2013

Posted: May 14, 2013 by moifightclub in cast & crew, cinema, Indie, News
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Ship Of Theseus We have been hearing about the news since last few months. Finally, the official announcement is out. Kiran Rao loved the film and she is now releasing Anand Gandhi’s film Ship Of Theseus with the help of UTV.

This is a great initiative. Hopefully she will continue to release more such films. And we need more people like her because they can make it happen. Because making films have become easier but releasing them in theatres seems like an impossible task. Especially when there’s no alternative platform or venues for non-mainstream films. And when the focus is only money and opening weekend collection, nobody wants to think beyond that. A film like Ship Of Theseus deserves to be seen.

Here’s the official synopsis….

If the parts of a ship are replaced, bit-by-bit, is it still the same ship?

An unusual photographer, celebrated for her intuitive work, successfully captures the essence of her experience in her photography. However, she also struggles with insecurities over authorship in the context of larger questions about subjectivity and intent in art.

An erudite monk, who is an ideologue and practitioner of non-violence, and involved in animal rights activism, is forced to make a choice between death and medicine – medicine that is either derived from, or tested on animals. As death closes in, he re-questions all the ideas that he has always taken for granted.

A young stockbroker has a frictional relationship with his grandmother, whom he nurses in a hospital. When it is discovered that a neighbouring patient has had his kidney stolen, he starts out on a trail that leads him to a kidney tourism racket. Altruism and concern leads him to confront the recipient of the kidney, eventually making him discover how intricate morality could be.

Following the separate strands of their philosophical journeys, and their eventual convergence, Ship of Theseus explores questions of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death.

And a new teaser trailer of the film

The cast and the credit list…

Director: Anand Gandhi

Language: English, Hindi, Arabic

Runtime: 139 minutes

Exec. Producer: Mitesh Shah, Ruchi Bhimani

Producer: Mukesh Shah

Production Co.: Recyclewala Films

Principal Cast: Neeraj Kabi, Sohum Shah, Aida Elkashef, Faraz Khan, Vinay Shukla, Amba Sanyal

Screenplay: Anand Gandhi

Cinematographer: Pankaj Kumar

Editor: Adesh Prasad, Sanyukta Kaza, Satchit Puranik, Reka Lemhenyi

Sound: Gábor Erdélyi, Tamás Székely

Music: Rohit Sharma, Naren Chandavarkar, Benedict Taylor

Prod. Designer: Rakesh Yadav, Pooja Shetty

Int. Sales Agent: Fortissimo Films

The film is a MUST WATCH. Here are the links to some of our previous posts where we have written about it

–  “2012 Rewind : Coming of age for desi indies – Miss Lovely and Ship Of Theseus” post is here

– A small recco post on the film in “2012 Rewind : What kind of bird are YOU?” post. Click here.

– A small review in MFF wrap post is here

First Look : Ritesh Batra’s Dabba (The Lunchbox – stills & official synopsis)

Posted: April 27, 2013 by moifightclub in cast & crew, cinema, Film Festival, first look, Indie, News, pics, Stills, Story / Plot / Synopsis, Xclusive
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For those who have been curious about Ritesh Batra’s Dabba, we have got the first look of the film. Here are some of the stills from the film which look really impressive. We do also have all the cast, credit and official synopsis details.

The film will have its international premiere at Cannes Festival in International Critics Week section.

(Click on any image to start the slide show in hi-res)

Though Nawaz was also in Paan Singh Tomar, but it looks like this film finally brings together two of the finest actors of our generation in full fledged roles. And is Irrfan Khan in Namesake avatar again? Bring it on!

Official Synopsis

A mistaken delivery in Mumbai’s famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an old man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox. Gradually, this fantasy threatens to overwhelm their reality.

Mumbai, a city of miracles.

One of Mumbai’s miracles is Mumbai’s Dabbawallahs – a community of 5000 dabba (lunchbox) deliverymen. It is a hereditary profession. Every morning the Dabbawallahs deliver hot meals from the kitchens of housewives to the offices of their husbands, and then return the empty lunchboxes back to the homes in the afternoon. For 120 years they have provided Mumbaikars with a taste of home in the office. They navigate through the overcrowded local trains and chaotic streets – that often have a namesake or more than one name. The Dabbahwallahs are illiterate, and instead rely on a complex coding system of colors and symbols to deliver dabbas in the labyrinth that is Mumbai. Harvard University analyzed their delivery system, concluding that just 1 in 8 million lunchboxes is ever delivered to the wrong address. Dabba is the story of that one lunchbox.

A mistakenly delivered lunchbox connects a housewife, Ila Singh, to Saajan Thomas, a lonely man in the dusk of his life. Ila lives in Dadar, the conservative middle class Hindu enclave. And Saajan lives in Ranwar village, Bandra, an old Christian neighborhood that is threatened by the new high rises in Mumbai. Very soon Saajan will retire and bid goodbye to a Mumbai that has crushed his dreams, took away his loved ones one by one, and turned his hair white. Just then Ila comes into his life. In the big city, that crushes dreams and recycles them every day, both find a dream to hold on to. Ila begins a fantastical affair with a mystery suitor, pouring her heart into cooking meals for him. And Saajan looks forward to lunch box deliveries from a mystery woman every day. They exchange notes via the lunchbox and create a fantasy life. As the lunchbox goes back and forth, this fantasy becomes so elaborate that it threatens to overwhelm their reality. The characters of The Lunchbox exist on the line between the Mumbai of reality and the Mumbai of fantasy.

The Lunchbox is the story of the life we dream of versus the life we live in, and of the courage it takes to turn out fantasies into reality.

Credits

director: Ritesh Batra
screenplay: Ritesh Batra
cinematography: Michael Simmonds
editing: John Lyons
sound: Michael Kaczmarek
production design: Shruti Gupte
music: Max Richter

Cast:
Irrfan Khan
Nimrat Kaur
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Denzil Smith
Bharati Achrekar
Nakul Vaid
Yashvi Puneet Nagar
Lillete Dubey
Sada (Dabbawala)

The film is produced by Sikhya Entertainment (India), Dar Motion Pictures (India), and co-produced by National Film Development Corporation (India), ASAP Films (France) and Roh Films (Germany).

Btw, Michael Simmonds? The DoP of Ramin Bahrani’s films? Chop Shop, Man Push Cart, Goodbye Solo and Plastic Bag. That’s a great talent to have on board.

To know more about the film and the filmmaker, click here to read his interview on DearCinema.

Director

Ritesh Batra is a writer/director based in Mumbai and New York. In 2009, Batra was selected for the Sundance Writers and Directors labs for his feature project “The Story of Ram”. He was also named the Sundance Time Warner Storytelling Fellow and an Annenburg Fellow. He was part of the Graduate Film Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, from which he dropped out in 2010. His short films have been presented in many international film festivals and fine arts venues. His recent short “Café Regular, Cairo” was featured in the 2012 Inter- national Film Festival of Rotterdam and 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. His upcoming short ‘The State of Siege’ is currently in post-production.

His feature screenplay THE LUNCHBOX was part of the 2011 Binger-NFDC Screenwriting Lab, it won an Honorable Mention from the Jury at the 2012 edition of the Cinemart at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam and was part of the Berlinale Talent Project Market.

(Cast/credit/synopsis/Director’s bio taken from various co-producers’ site)

Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly selected for Cannes Directors’ Fortnight

Posted: April 23, 2013 by moifightclub in cinema, film, Film Festival, News
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The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight section unveiled its official selection list today. And there’s one Indian film in the list – Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly. His two-parter Gangs Of Wasseypur was also screened in the same section last year.

An edge of the seat thriller, Ugly stars Rahul Bhatt, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Ronit Roy, Girish Kulkarni and Siddhant Kapoor.

Interestingly, five films which are going to Cannes this year has some kind of connect with Kashyap or his company, AKFPL. Ari Folman’s The Congress, Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout and Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox – these three films have been co-produced by AKFPL. And Kashyap has directed one of the shorts in Bombay Talkies which is going to have its Gala premiere at Cannes.

Click here to know more about The Directors’ Fortnight section.

Ritesh Batra’s “Dabba” selected for Cannes International Critics Week

Posted: April 22, 2013 by moifightclub in cinema, Film Festival, News, Story / Plot / Synopsis
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Dabba 2

The 52nd Cannes International Critics Week unveiled its lineup today.

Among the 11 features screening in the sidebar, which showcases first and second films, there’s one film from India – debutant director Ritesh Batra’s Dabba (The Lunchbox). The film stars Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Nimrat Kaur.

And here’s the official synopsis from the site of one of the co-producers, Cine Mosaic

A mistaken delivery in Mumbai’s famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an old man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox. Gradually, this fantasy threatens to overwhelm their reality.

The Lunchbox is the story of the life we dream of versus the life we live in, and of the courage it takes to turn out fantasies into reality.

Apart from Dabba, Cannes will also screen Bombay Talkies and Monsoon Shootout.

DFF’s Satyajit Ray Retrospective. Entry FREE

Posted: April 21, 2013 by moifightclub in cinema, Film Festival, Gods of Cinema, News
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Satyajit Ray

(from official release)

Satyajit Ray: The 21st Century Man

As part of the centenary year of cinema in India celebrations, the Directorate of Film Festivals, Satyajit Ray Society and Lightcube Film Society are working together to organise a Retrospective of the director responsible for more masterpieces than any other great in Indian cinema; illustrator, painter, visualiser, author, musician, photographer, film society activist and filmmaker, Satyajit Ray.

For long, Satyajit Ray’s been thought of as being symbolic of the ‘alternative’, or ‘the other’ – the notion that despite the existence of the bludgeoning mainstream industries across the country exercise almost vulgar control over markets and minds alike, there is still the possibility that a figure like Ray may exist and make films that resemble personal visions over forty years. In that, the existence of Satyajit Ray has throughout been of a figure who existed in spite of the system, instead of because of it – this evaluation of him as an artist whose being is carved out primarily through opposition or perversion is, however, terribly reductive and unmindful of the fact that after all, Ray films made not against someone, but in favour of the medium he so loved. To highlight Ray’s status as a cineaste and film-lover over his status as a ‘parallel filmmaker’, the Directorate of Film Festivals, Satyajit Ray Society and Lightcube Film Society are collaborating to organise a three-day long Retrospective of his work at Sirifort Auditorium, this runs from the 26th April to 28th April 2013.

– The Retrospective will feature both Satyajit Ray’s long-form work and his shorts, alongwith Mr. Shyam Benegal’s 1984 documentary on him, entitled Ray (this film opens the Retrospective).

– The vision behind the programming of the festival, where all films will be exhibited on 35mm, is to represent as a whole Ray’s career – both in terms of its various phases (from the autobiographical musings of the first era, to the politically charged films of the middle and his assimilation into the larger culture of the world in the final) and the various ideas contained within it.

– These films will be discussed at length in panel discussions that will feature close associates of Satyajit Ray, colleagues and members of the Ray Society who have worked actively for the past twenty years to preserve Ray’s artistic legacy.

– The screenings at the Retrospective will also be accompanied by an exhaustive exhibition which will have on display a  wide selection from Ray’s numerous artistic work, such as ad-artworks, book jacket designs, posters, booklets, set and costume  designs, sketches from shooting scripts, as also still photographs of people and places.

– The Retrospective runs as part of the Centenary year of Indian Cinema celebrations organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals.

DATE : 26th to 28th April 2013

VENUE : Sirifort Auditorium, New Delhi

ENTRY : Free

SCHEDULE :

Friday, 26 April 2013

2 pm: Satyajit Ray / Shyam Benegal

4:45 pm: Pather Panchali


Saturday, 27 April 2013

11 am: Jalsaghar

1.30 pm: Charulata

4 pm: Pratidwandi

7.30 pm – 8.30 pm: Dhritiman Chaterji, in a Q/A session with members of the audience; moderated by Shantanu Ray Choudhury.


Sunday, 28 April 2013

11 am: Rabindranath Tagore, Sadgati and Pikoo’s Diary

1:30 pm: Sonar Kella

3:45 pm: A multimedia presentation tracing the etymology/origins of Feluda, the character.

4 pm: Ghare Baire

6:25 pm: Panel Discussion: ‘On Ray’s Oeuvre’ featuring Mr. Dhritiman Chatterjee, Mr. Shantanu Ray Choudhury and Ms. Swati Joshi.

– For inquiries, call: 011-7838340196, write to lightcubefilmsociety@gmail.com | satyajitraysociety@gmail.com

Indian films at Cannes 2013

Posted: April 18, 2013 by moifightclub in cinema, film, Film Festival, News
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Cannes

Cannes Film Festival has just announced its official selection list. And as expected not too many Indian films at fest this year.

As part of tribute to 100 years of Indian Cinema, Bombay Talkies will have its Gala premiere at the fest. It’s a collection of four short films directed by Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar and Zoya Akhtar.

Another selection is Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout which is in Midnight Screenings section. It stars Vijay Varma, Nawazuddin Siddiqi, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Neeraj Kabi, Geetanjali Thapa.

And here’s the official synopsis – A rookie cop faces a suspected gangster in a dead-end alley and has to decide whether to shoot or not to shoot. Three separate scenarios explore the impact of his decision on other people’s lives.

Amit had earlier directed a terrific short called Bypass which won many awards. Click here and here to watch the film in two parts.

Also, Indian actor and director Nandita Das is part of the CineFoundation and Short Film Jury.

To read the complete list, click here.

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