what we are reading – EightandHalf
The first look of Meghna Gulzar’s Talvar is out. Starring Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Neeraj Kabi, Sohum Shah, Atul Kumar, and Gajraj Rao, the film has been written by Vishal Bhardwaj who has also given the music. It has Gulzar’s lyrics and has been shot by Pankaj Kumar.
Do check out the trailer.
The film is based on Aarushi Talwar murder case and looks at it from the point of investigation.
Talvar will have its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
A new Vishal Bhardwaj film is always cause for celebration. Even his weakest films have so much to savour, and in an industry so plagued by intellectual and creative bankruptcy, Bhardwaj is the rare filmmaker who could perhaps truly claim auteur status- he produces, directs, writes, composes- and does all of it with a style so distinctive and quixotic- there’s no mistaking his stamp. We’ve got to admit, we’re fanboys, and unashamedly so.
The much awaited trailer for Mr Bhardwaj’s new film ‘Haider’ has arrived along with a trio of posters. Haider is based on Hamlet and is the final film of his Shakespearean Trilogy (preceded by Maqbool and Omkara) and stars Shahid Kapoor, Tabu, Shraddha Kapoor and Kay Kay Menon among others (including Irrfan Khan in a special appearance).
Notably, Haider has been co-written with Kashmiri author and journalist Basharat Peer and also marks the filmmaker’s first collaboration with cinematographer Pankaj Kumar, who is best known for shooting Anand Gandhi’s Ship Of Theseus. Click here to read an interesting article about Peer’s collaboration with Bhardwaj.
Take a look at the trailer and posters and let us know what you think:
After releasing digitally restored classics like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Salaam Bombay, Chashme Buddoor and Om Dar B Dar, PVR is releasing Satyajit Ray’s timeless classic Mahanagar (The Big City) on 18th April, 2014, under its PVR Director’s Rare banner.
The movie will release with English subtitles across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad. Mahanagar has been digitally restored by The RDB Organization under the leadership of Mr. Kamal Bansal.
Mahanagar was originally released in 1963 and Satyajit Ray won the Silver Bear at the 14th Berlin International Film Festival for it in 1964.
Whether you’ve seen it before or not, this is one unmissable big-screen event. Here are some good articles to bookmark and read on the this timeless and universal classic:
And finally, here’s the original illustrated poster by Ray himself followed by a fan made poster by Jahan Bakshi:
Gitanjali Rao’s new animation film ‘True Love Story’ bagged the Golden Conch Award for Best Animation Film at the recently concluded Mumbai International Film Festival. This 18 minute animation, set in the streets of Mumbai explores what happens when the ultimate Bollywood fantasy is applied in reality. It gives glimpse into the influence of Bollywood on real life in Mumbai, told through puppet animation.
Here’s the trailer of the film
More about the film from Scroll – It’s a frame by frame painted 19-minute film about love, told from the eyes of two migrants who come to Mumbai and fall in love with each other. The boy in the film is hugely influenced by Bollywood and he falls in love with the girl across the street. Who will teach him how to woo her? This is a boy-meets-girl story, from the perspective of people who find themselves adrift in the big city.
As we have said million times in the past, and still keep repeating ourselves, if you have not seen Rao’s work, you have not seen the best animation that this country has produced. So we are embedding one of her popular animation films here. Do watch.
From her official website –
‘Printed Rainbow’ describes the loneliness of an old woman and her cat, who escape into the fantastical world of match box covers.
Gitanjali painted the entire film frame by frame over three years as a labour of love dedicated to her mother and cat. The film went on to premier in Cannes in 2006 and won her the first set of laurels with three Awards for the Best Short film in Critic’s Week, Cannes 2006. Then followed 22 international awards and screenings in over a hundred international festivals.
– She also did the delicious opening credits of Stanley Ka Dabba. To know more about her work and films, click here.
Thanks to PVR, we were running a contest for Inside Llewyn Davis. The ticket winners were announced on daily basis. The poster contest was aimed at having some more fun and for true lovers of the film.
We asked people to pose like Llewyn Davis – with their cat, dog, parrot, snake, dinosaur, or any pet they have, and if nothing, props will also do. Some entries were genuine, some just copy-pasted from net (so no prize), and some for fun which have been sent by friends. We are sharing some of the pics here.
Click on any image to start the slide show. You can see the person’s name/handle on left bottom. Or just right click to open individual pics in new window, you can see the contributor’s name on top. or just hold the cursor on the pic, you can see the names.
And here are the winners –
@kafucka and @sashaBCC – one poster. Because love is all about sharing Coens film poster.
@nusratjafri and @sumit_roy_ – one poster. Because same reason as mentioned above.
Congrats to everyone! Thanks for participating.
Here’s another good news. If you still haven’t seen the film, it is still in theatres in select cities in its second week.
PVR Ambience Mall Gurgaon 5:45 pm
PVR Forum Mall Koramangala Bangalore 4:10 pm
PVR Phoenix Lower Parel Mumbai 12:10 pm
Do watch and do spread the word so that we get to see more Coens films in our theatres.
Few years back when i was searching for a copy of Om Dar B Dar, every search ended in disappointment. Everyone had heard about the film, few had seen it and nobody had a copy. As the chain spread through friends, and their friends and more friends, we finally got to know someone who had a copy of the film. But he wasn’t willing to give it to us for the screening. He said he will come with the copy, screen the film and take it back. And that made sense because who would part away with something so rare. This is what you call a cult classic.
Thanks to NFDC and PVR Directors Rare, the film has been restored and is getting a release this friday. Don’t miss this one in theatres. Can bet that you haven’t seen anything like this in Indian cinema. As i keep repeating myself, i remember it as mixed media art installation. It’s esoteric, funny, trippy and yet completely accessible. If you have any apprehensions, don’t worry, just enjoy the ride. And remember, Kamal Swaroop made frogs cool much before P T Anderson discovered them.
Recently Kamal Swaroop posted a status on FB asking for fan posters. And entries have been pouring since then. We are sharing some of the fan posters. The last one is the official poster of the film. Click on any pic to start the slide show.
– To check out more fan posters, click here to go to its FB page.
– To check out the film’s new trailer and more info about it, click here.
Coen Brothers latest film Inside Llewyn Davis has just released in India. The film won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival and has been getting rave reviews since then. If you still haven’t seen the film, here’s your chance to win tickets. And if you have seen the film and loved it, here’s your chance to win posters. We are running this contest with the help of PVR Cinemas.
For “Inside Llewyn Davis” Tickets
Just answer these 3 simple Questions. We are not looking for right answers (at least for the first two questions). We are looking for interesting answers. The more creative you can be, better is your chance of winning.
1. In Inside Llewyn Davis, why is the cat called Ulysses? (we don’t want correct wiki answers, think of a new reason and tell us)
2. If you were one of the Coens, what would you have named the cat? And why? Put your Coen cap on.
3. What’s your favourite Coens film and why. Tell us in one line.
– Mail us the answers to these 3 Questions and just write “ILD” in subject. Our mail id is moifightclub@gmail.com
– We will be giving away free tickets everyday, for Monday-Thursday shows of the film. If the answers are really good, there is not limit to the number of tickets to be won.
– Since the film has released in just 6 cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad) so you have to in one of the cities to participate and win. For theatre listing, scroll down. If the response is good, PVR plans to release it in other cities in second week.
– For the tickets, do scroll down and check out the theatre listing. Along with your entries, do let us know your preference for the city/date/theatre/show. Give us at least 2 choices. We will try to give you the tickets for the same.
For Inside Llewyn Davis Posters
To win the film’s posters, it’s a much easy contest. If you have seen the film, then pose with your cat like Llewyn Davis. It can be from any scene of the film. If you haven’t seen the film, just google “Inside Llewyn Davis + cat”, you will see enough images. Get your cat and pose exactly like that. If you don’t have a cat, try it with your dog, parrot, dinosaur or whatever pet you have.
– Click the pic, tweet it and tag us – @NotSoSnob and @ShiladityaBora. We are not obsessed with the moronic idea of trending dumb hashtags, so not asking for the same. If you are not on twitter, mail us at moifightclub@gmail.com with subject “ILD PIC”.
– If you don’t have a cat or dog or dinosaur or any such pet, you can try it with your or your friend’s kid or even any prop/object.
– The interesting the pic, the more creative you can be, the closer it looks like Inside Llewyn Davis pose, better is your chance of winning the poster.
– For any queries or doubts, comment here or write to us at moifightclub@gmail.com
– Thanks to PVR Cinemas for getting the film here and for the contest.
And even if you don’t win tickets, don’t miss this film. Click here for our recco post on the film and click here for a terrific review of the film by A O Scott.
We have finally come to the last post of our Rewind 2013 series. If you missed our previous posts in the series, here’s the complete list – 20 Things We Learnt At The Movies and 13 Unanswered Questions is here, Top 10 Musical Gems We Discovered This Year is here, 15 Film Fanatics on 17 Terrific Films That Have Stayed With Them is here, 14 Bollywood Songs We Played in Non-stop Loop Is here, and 16 film buffs on 16 most memorable scenes of the year is here.
This one is on posters. So what is a film poster suppose to do? With so much hype around the release of first look of any film, it’s your first pitch for the audience. It might not make or break your film but it surely starts setting the mood for the film. But do they always tell what the film is all about? A good film poster is a rare thing. And recycling is the funda of the game (we recycled this para too). Click here to read an interesting piece – thirteen movie poster trends that are here to stay and what they say about their movies. And if you heart posters like we do, here‘s another interesting site for minimal movie posters.
We were trying to make at least a dozen honest movie posters. But thanks to computer crash and last minute ditch by another contributor, Varun Grover and Rakhi managed to make only these six. Enjoy. Do share if you have made any.
A new bengali film titled Apur Panchali tries to explore that. The trailer and poster is just out, and it looks interesting. Have a look. Though the trailer doesn’t have subtitles yet.
The film is directed by Kaushik Ganguly, and stars Parambrata Chatterjee, Parno Mitra, Ardhendu Banerjee, Gaurav Chakraborty & Ritwik Chakraborty.
Some more info on the film (from TOI article) – Talking about Apur Panchali, Kaushik said, “The film is inspired by the real-life story of Subir Banerjee, the child actor, who played Apu in Ray’s Pather Panchali. Despite being one of the most celebrated child actors in the industry once, nobody cares to find out what he is doing now; no one remembers him. My film is a take on that. The USP of the film is the subject which has never been explored in Bengali cinema before. Interestingly, Subir’s life has an uncanny resemblance to what Ray had depicted in The Apu Trilogy. And that’s what inspired me to make this film. Albeit Pather Panchali was Subirda‘s first and last film, but if you study the man’s life, you’d sit and ponder if Satyajit Ray had written The Apu Trilogy keeping Subirda in mind. Having said that, I’d like to make it clear that my film is a work of fiction, and not Subir Banerjee’s biography.”
– To read the full article, click here.
– More about the film here.
(click to start the slide show. Right click to open in a new page)
The much awaited Versova Indie (coined by the director, not us), SULEMANI KEEDA will have its premier at Mumbai Film Festival this year. It’s shown in the ‘New Faces of Indian Cinema’ section. This is a film about writers, star writers, is directed by a writer, and produced by guys who manage writers.
SYNOPSIS:
Mainak (Mayank Tewari), an optimistic hustler, and Dulal (Naveen Kasturia, the new Vodafone guy whose mom keeps calling him), a brooding poet, are writing partners who are struggling in Bollywood with their screenplay which no one bothers to read.
Perennially hungry and horny, they lie around, drink, smoke weed, name drop, lurk in bookshops and attend poetry readings to cling on to unsuspecting women.
They see a ray of hope in Gonzo Kapoor (Karan Mirchandani), the industry’s oldest new comer and son of a famous B movie producer who is not only interested in their work but also wants them to write a European style dark and sexually explicit art house script for his launch film.
But a witty and beautiful photographer, Ruma (Aditi Vasudev) enters Dulal’s life and Mainak is not too pleased by his friend’s new distraction.
This is a slacker comedy about three days in the lives of Mainak and Dulal which test their friendship and make them re-valuate their life plans. Besides exploring the world of migrant writers in the city’s western suburbs, the film also talks about their hopes and ontological anxieties in a brutally commercial world.
Sulemani Keeda (International Title: Writers)
CAST AND CREW :
Writer & Director: Amit V Masurkar
Countries : India, USA
Year : 2013
Language : Hindi
Runtime : 90 minutes
Producers : Datta Dave, Chaitanya Hegde
Associate Producers : Deepa Tracy, Sailesh Dave, Suresh Mhatre
Production company : Tulsea Pictures in association with Mantra/Runaway Entertainment
Cast: Naveen Kasturia, Mayank Tewari, Aditi Vasudev, Karan Mirchandani, Krishna Bisht, Rukshana Tabassum.
Cinematography: Surjodeep Ghosh
Editor: Khushboo Agarwal Raj
Sound Design: Niraj Gera
Music: Arfaaz-Anurag
Location Sound: Shailesh Sharma
Line Producers: Deepak Arora, Arvinder Gill, Rakesh Singh, Navit Dutt
First Assistant Director: Omar Nissar Paul
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 