what we are reading – EightandHalf
WTF is this? Can you please explain. Thanks.
Writer, observer, cynic – That’s how Varun Grover defines himself in his twitter bio. If you have been following this blog for a long time, you obviously know him. If not, he’s the multi-talented man behind the terrific lyrics of Gangs Of Wasseypur and is also a well known stand-up comic.
Like last year, Varun is writing his Mumbai Film Festival diary this year too.
यह निरा रोमांटिक सा आइडिया है, डायरियाँ लिखना. और मैं अब ३० पार करने के बाद ख़ासा रोमांटिक रहा नहीं. पर डायरी लिखना समय को पकड़ने की एक कोशिश भी है, जो लोग ३० पार करने के बाद ज्यादा करने लगते हैं. तो यह वो वाली डायरी है जो खुद को भरोसा दिलाना चाहती है कि इसकी असली value आज नहीं, आज से ५० साल बाद होगी जब हम ना होंगे, जब कोई इसे मुड़ के खोलेगा और इसे antique वाली इज्ज़त देगा.
इस ब्लॉग पर आखिरी पोस्ट पिछले साल के मुम्बई फिल्म फेस्टिवल की डायरी से ही है. साल बीता, लोग बिगड़े, देश पर और गर्त चढ़ी, और फिल्म फेस्टिवल वापस आया. आज सुबह तक सोचा था इस साल डायरी नहीं लिखूँगा क्योंकि इस बार फेस्टिवल का venue घर से बहुत दूर है…आने जाने में ही हर रोज़ साढ़े तीन घंटे बर्बाद हो रहे हैं तो लिखने के लिए अलग से समय कैसे निकले? लेकिन अभी अभी बस, १० मिनट पहले सोचा, कि समय तो उतना धीरे चलता है जितना तेज़ आप टाइप कर सकें. तो सिर्फ कोशिश है….जो आज है, कल हो सकता है ना हो.
Stories We Tell/2012/Sarah Polley/Canada : कम से कम एक उम्र में सबको लगता है कि उनका परिवार weird है. जिनको बचपन में लगता है, उनको बड़े होकर नहीं लगता (क्योंकि शायद वो खुद वैसे हो जाते हैं), और जिनको बचपन में नहीं लगता, उनको बड़े होकर लगता है. Sarah Polley ने अपने बिखरे से (महा-weird) परिवार को जोड़ने की कोशिश की है, अपने परिवार के हर सदस्य को एक ही कहानी अपने अपने निजी point-of-view से सुनाने को कहकर. Documentary और drama का इतना शानदार मिश्रण मैंने पहले तो कभी नहीं देखा. Sarah Polley और उनके पिता Michael Polley (जिनकी आँखें बहुत उदास लेकिन आवाज़ बहुत खनक वाली है) एक साउंड-स्टूडियो में हैं जहां Michael Sarah की दी हुयी एक स्क्रिप्ट अपनी आवाज़ में रिकार्ड कर रहे हैं. कैमरा चल रहा है, माइकल जो कहानी कह रहे हैं वो बाप-बेटी दोनों की है. लेकिन माइकल भी उसे ऐसे कह रहे हैं जैसे वो किसी तीसरे की हो. लेकिन धीरे धीरे और किरदार जुड़ते हैं, सब Sarah को Sarah की ही कहानी सुनाते हैं (“मुझे वो भी बताओ जो मुझे पता है, और ऐसे बताओ जैसे मैंने कभी नहीं सुना”, Sarah शुरू में ही यह निर्देश देती है), और आगे बढ़ते बढ़ते फिल्म memories, love, और closure पर एक अद्भुत व्याख्यान बन जाती है.
Beasts of the Southern Wild/2012/Benh Zeitlin/USA: बहुत चर्चे थे इस फिल्म के. Cannes फिल्म फेस्टिवल में Camera d’Or के अलावा ३ और अवार्ड जीते हैं और Sundance में Grand Jury Prize जीता है. मतलब जैसे कोई नामी पहलवान रिंग में आता है, वैसे यह फिल्म जमशेद भाभा थियेटर में आई. और शुरू के पाँच मिनट में ही पूरा मुकाबला जीत लिया. शुद्ध पॉपुलर सिनेमा की आत्मा (uplifting, underdog story), उसपर art cinema की तकनीक का चोगा (imaginative, allegorical, भयानक sound design और music), और चोगे में Indie Cinema की छोटी-छोटी जेबें. पत्थर जैसे बाप और 6 साल की, खुद को प्राग-ऐतेहासिक जीव मानने वाली बेटी की कहानी (हालांकि बहुत देर में पता चला कि वो बेटी है, बेटा नहीं) – जो उनके छोटे से टापू पर आये तूफ़ान के बाद का struggle ऐसे दिखाती है जैसे कविता कह रही हो. अगर थियेटर वाले बत्तियां जल्दी नहीं जलाते तो मैं अंत में और देर तक रोता.
Throw of Dice/1929/Franz Austen/India-Germany: यह वाली सिर्फ इसलिए देखी क्योंकि Germany से एक Orchestra आया था जो इस silent फिल्म के साथ live music बजा रहा था. यह अनोखा अनुभव फिर कहाँ मिलेगा यह सोच कर हंसल मेहता की ‘शाहिद’ आज कुर्बान करनी पड़ी. और जितना सोचा था, उससे कहीं ज्यादा मज़ा आया. फिल्म अपने आप में बहुत सरल, और काफी मायनों में मसाला थी. जर्मन निर्देशक को हिन्दुस्तानी exotica बेचना था शायद…गाँव की गोरी बनी हिरोइन को अपने पल्लू का भी सहूर नहीं था (क्योंकि वो कोई एंग्लो-इन्डियन ऐक्ट्रेस थी), हाथी, सपेरे, आग खाने वाले कलाबाज़ वगैरह बड़ी देर तक कैमरे के आगे रहे, राजा निरे ऐय्याश और प्रजा निरी stockholm complex की मारी. लेकिन असली खेल Orchestra का ही था. सिर्फ ८-१० तरह के trumpets, २ तरह के drums, और चिमटा-घंटी से उन्होंने जो समां बाँधा वो out-worldly था. एक तरह से फिल्म को कई जगहों पर reinterpret कर दिया उन्होंने. जहां सीन बहुत self-serious था, वहाँ orchestra ने ‘मेरे हाथों में नौ-नौ चूड़ियाँ हैं’ का एक version बजा कर परदे की कहानी को एक अलग layer दे दी.
और फिल्म ख़तम होने पर मिली तालियों से musicians इतने खुश हुए कि उन्होंने जाते-जाते एक ऐसी धमाल धुन बजाई कि १००० लोगों से भरा auditorium खड़े होकर साथ-साथ लगातार ताली बजाता रहा. पहले दिन का आखिरी अलौकिक राग!
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कल क्या देखना है?: Ai Wei-Wei पर एक documentary है, Jacques Audiard की Rust and Bone है (जिसमें खूब भीड़ होने की पूरी संभावना है), और Takeshi Kitano की कान में पेचकस घुसा के मारने वाली Outrage:Beyond है.
(This was first posted on Varun Grover’s blog.)
The first trailer of Vishal Bhardwaj’s new film Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola is out. The film stars Imran Khan, Anushka Sharma, Pankaj Kapoor and Shabana Azmi.
Now, this looks like Entertainment, Entertianment, Entertainment. (Ok, blame that overdose on Vidya Balan) It surely looks like great fun – mad characters, rustic setting, colourful elements and dhinchak music.
But what is it about? It says almost nothing.
If it’s a Vishal Bhardwaj, it just can’t be boy-meets-girl, right? Some of us have read the script and the same two words comes to mind again – great fun. Only issue is the hotchpotch climax.
We can also tell you that there is a serious political issue in it but the trailer has masked it completely. Because they want your bums on the seats in the first weekend itself.
So see the trailer again. And see if can you connect the dots and guess the basic plot.
The screening schedule of Mumbai Film Festival is out. Have a look and start planning your day. Btw, if you are much confused, click here for our first recco post in the series which covers world cinema category.
From press release
~ Three final projects will be funded with rupees one crore each~
~The completed projects will premier at the Venice Film Festival 2013~
NFDC Labs, the training and development division of NFDC (National Film Development Corporation), announces the launch of a very exciting partnership with Venice Biennale, Venice Film Festival and Gucci. This partnership has been formed with an objective to reach out to the filmmakers community across the globe, with NFDC Labs reaching out to the filmmakers in India.
While the entire initiative will be sponsored by Gucci and Venice Biennale, Gucci will fully cover lab costs and accommodations for the resident workshop(s) and include the possibility of travel scholarships for successful teams selected from outside of Europe.
The initiative is a unique incentive for micro budget films from across the world, which will support teams of directors and their producers to make their first or second feature length audio-visual work. A community of selected film makers from around the world will work alongside an invited team of international experts and tutors to the aesthetics of micro-budget filmmaking and the new integrated models of production, which engage with an audience from the outset.
Modalities: After a first 10-day workshop in Venice for 15 selected projects in January 2013, up to 3 teams will be invited to a second 15-day workshop between February and March and supported with 150.000€ in order to produce and screen the projects at the 2013 Venice International Film Festival.
Commenting on the launch of the partnership, Marten Rabarts, Head- Development and Training, said, “It’s a very exciting initiative that we at NFDC Labs have partnered for with Venice Film Festival, and Gucci. With this we will leverage our platform and network to reach out to filmmakers in India and give them a brilliant chance to get work with a international experts and get funding for their project, once selected. Venice
The Call for Applications is open from the 30th of August 2012 to the 22nd of October 2012 only to teams of directors making their first or second feature and producers with varying degrees of expertise who must have produced at least 3 short films distributed and/or presented at Festivals.
To know more about all the details, click here.
And it looks so damn good! Have a look.
The treatment and the mood reminds me of Johnny Gaddar meets Manorama Six Feet Under. Also, like the fact that the makers have realised that their films have the potential to go beyond Maharashtra and so have subtitles in the trailer. Hope from Marathi filmakers start doing the same.
And here’s the official synopsis…
In this engrossing thriller, Amar Apte is a private detective who gets his business from suspicious spouses out to catch their cheating partners in the act. When a femme fatale client enters his life, Apte snaps out of his uninspired domesticity-complete with a nagging wife and mounting bills-and finds himself in dangerous territory.
Set in Pune and against the backdrop of the financial reforms in 1992, Pune 52 juxtaposes the impact of globalization on a city with one man’s inner struggle. With a nod to Raymond Chandler and a hypnotic and ferocious performance by Girish Kulkarni, Mahajan’s debut fiction feature explores the aspirations and frustrations of a small man dreaming big.
The film will be screened at the Mumbai Film Festival where it will compete in India Gold category. It will have a theatrical release on 12th December.
Cast & Credit :
Starring: Girish Kulkarni, Sonali Kulkarni, Sai Tamhankar, Kiran Karmarkar
Editing: Abhijeet Deshpande
Sound Design: Baylon Fonseca
Director of Photography: Jeremy Reagan
Produced by: Abhay Gadgil, Shrirang Godbole, Girish Kulkarni, Umesh Kulkarni
Original Story, Screenplay and Directed by: Nikhil Mahajan
It’s produced by the makers of films such as Valu, Vihir, Deool and Harishchandrachi Factory and is the debut feature of writer/director Nikhil Mahajan.
To read the director’s note, click here for our previous post on the film.
Mumbai Film Festival has unveiled its complete line-up. This is where the confusion starts – what to watch and what to skip. And so here we are going to help you out. This is the first post in this film recco series where we look at the films in the World Cinema section.
WORLD CINEMA
1) Love (Amour) – First reason : Michael Haneke. 2nd reason : Cannes Palme d’Or Winner. 3rd Reason – 5 star review by Peter Bradshaw.
2) Stories We Tell – Filmmaker Sarah Polley puts the camera on her family members as they look back in this documentary film and family secrets come out of the closet. Venice, Telluride, Toronto. Another 5 star review by Peter Bradshaw. Do read.
3) Reality – By Matteo Garrone, the director of Gomorrah. Eough? Was in Cannes competition where it won the Grand Prix. Though the opinion was divided on this one, Indiewire called it a horrific spin on ‘Big Brother’ obsessions.
4) Beyond The Hills – 1st reason : From Cristian Mungiu, the director of 4 Months, 3Weeks, 2 Days. 2nd/3rd Reason : Premiered at Cannes where Mungiu won the award for Best Screenplay, and Flutur and Stratan shared the award for Best Actress. And 4 stars by Bradshaw. (Have we quoted too much of PB? Oh, we love him)
5) Gebo And The Shadow (Gebo et l’ombre) – At 103, Manoel de Oliveira is still making films. He is the oldest living and working filmmaker of our time. Doesn’t it count as rarest of rare case? More about the film here.
6) On The Road – Walter Salles’ film based on the Jack Kerouac cult classic novel of the same name. The story is based on the years Kerouac spent travelling the United States in the 1940s with his friend Neal Cassady and several other figures who would go on to fame in their own right, including William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. (from wiki) Though the reviews have been mixed, it was in competition at Cannes.
7) Snow White (Blancanieves) – The film is intended to be an homage to 1920s European silent films and seems quite delicious. Read more about it here.
8) 7 Days In Havana – One week in Cuban capital Havana. 7 segments. By 7 filmmakers – Julio Médem, Laurent Cantet, Juan Carlos Tabío, Benicio del Toro, Gaspar Noé, Pablo Trapero and Elia Suleiman. Not great reviews so far but wouldn’t you want to watch Emir Kusturica on screen? See the trailer here.
9) Children Of Sarajevo (Djeca) – It competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes where it won the Special Distinction award. Selected as the Bosnian entry for the Best Foreign Language at Oscar. Bradshaw described it as “strange, haunting film, the Bosnian war keeps bubbling up from where it has been buried”. More info on TIFF page.
10) After Lucia (Después de Lucía) – Competed in the Cannes Un Certain Regard section where it won the top prize. Also selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. More about it here (wiki).
11) Robot & Frank – sounds like a delicious plot – Set in the near future, it focuses on Frank, an aging jewel thief played by Frank Langella, whose son buys him a caretaker robot. Resistant at first, Frank warms up to the robot when he realizes he can use it to restart his career as a cat burglar. It won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Trailer is here.
12) The Angels’ Share – Competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and Loach won the Jury Prize. Also, Bradshaw’s 4 star review where he calls it “whisky Galore!-influenced comedy”.
13) Antiviral – Brandon Croneberg’s debut film which competed in the Cannes Un Certain Regard section and gives a complete new twist to both its subject – of celebrity obsessed society, and its genre – horror, in which a company harvests diseases from celebrities and injects them into paying clients
14) Cannes Catalogue – Apart from these films, there’s an entire catalogue from Cannes. So if you can’t go to Cannes, the films are all here.
– Like Someone in Love : Abbas Kiarostami’s latest film which was Cannes competition
– Night Across the Street (La noche de enfrente) : screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section. Read more about it here.
– Mystery : From Un certain Regard section. Peter Bradshaw’s 3 star review here
– The Hunt (Jagten) : Cannes competition. 4 star review by PB.
– A Royal Affair (En Kongelig Affære) : Was in Cannes competition
– Renoir : In Cannes Un certain regard. A review here
– Three Worlds (Trois Mondes) : from Cannes Un Certain
– You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet! (Vous n’avez encore rien vu) – Alain Resnais’ film which was in Cannes Competition. Indiewire review is here.
If we have missed anything that you have seen and you would like to recco, please do let us know in the comments section. For the complete list of films which are being screened at the festival, click here.
The Other Way – Its a film by Aniket Dasgupta and Swathy Sethumadhavan who are documenting the indie filmmaking scene in India. The feature length documentary aims to understand the various facets of an independent filmmaker and attempts to capture the passion that drives these new wave filmmakers to work out of the mainstream film industry.
And in a country where we don’t have much culture of documenting our cinematic history, this seems to be going in the right direction. More so because in the last 4-5 years the way we are making films, it has changed drastically. Filmmaking has moved beyond the domain of counted few and “indie” is being redefined with new filmmakers rewriting the rules.
UPDATE – Deadline Extended for NFDC Film Bazaar’s Work-in-Progress Lab & Viewing Room. The New Deadline is October 17, 2012.
On popular demand from directors applying to the Work-In-Progress Lab, NFDC Film Bazaar has extended the deadline to October 17, 2012. This deadline extension is applicable to the Viewing Room as well.
NFDC Film Bazaar 2012 invites entries for the Work-in-Progress Lab and the Viewing Room.
Date & Venue : The 6th Film Bazaar will be held from November 21-24, 2012 at the Goa Marriott Resort (India) alongside the International Film Festival of India 2012.
Deadline : The submission deadline is October 10th 2012.
Work-in-Progress: At the Work in Progress (WIP) Lab, 5 selected projects in their rough cut stage are presented to a panel of international film experts. The intention is to help the filmmaker achieve an accomplished final cut through expert insights.
– Celebrated film critic & historian, Derek Malcolm; Head of Israel Film Fund, Katriel Schory & Chris Paton from Fortissimo Films were the mentors for 2011 WIP Lab.
– The films from the 2011 Lab have gone on to have World premieres at prestigious international film festivals: Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely (World Premiere, Cannes Film Festival in official competition section-Un Certain Regard) Manjeet Singh’s Mumbai Cha Raja and Anand Gandhi’s Ship of Theseus (World Premiere, Toronto Film Festival 2012), Ajay Bahl’s BA Pass (World Premiere, 12th Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival).
CRITERIA : The lab is open only to feature length films and documentaries in the rough-cut.
Viewing Room : Previously known as Screening Room, it was successfully introduced in FB 2011 with the aim of presenting films seeking finishing funds, world sales, distribution partners & film festivals to investors, world sales agents and film festival programmers.
– The Films are viewed on individual computer terminals in private booths via a specially designed Viewing Room software, which allows the viewer to watch complete films, access details of the film as well as contact the director or producer.
CRITERIA : This section is open to films of all genres and lengths which are complete or in the rough cut stage. Films presented in this section last year have been selected by various film festivals.
CONTACT: For more details and application forms visit www.filmbazaarindia.com (WIP Lab page is here and VR page is here) or write to films@filmbazaarindia.com
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 