KAUFMAN - "Or cramming in sex, or car chases, or guns. Or characters learning profound life lessons. Or characters growing or characters changing or characters learning to like each other or characters overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end. Y'know ? Movie shit."
Kaufman is sweating like crazy now. Valerie is quiet for a moment - from "Adaptation".
We are all about CINEMA. That movie shit.
NOTHING is sacred.
NOBODY is spared.
Because we talk about films, dammit.
Not your sex life.
Films, fests, unsung, indies, undiscovered - all that and some fun. If you have dope on anything related to cinema or you would like to share something, do write to us at moifightclub@gmail.com.
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UPDATE (3rd September, 2011) : The trailer has been removed because it’s not the final one.
The trailer of Ribhu Dasgupta’s debut film Michael is out. Its produced by Anurag Kashyap and Studio18. The principal cast includes Naseeruddin Shah, Mahie Gill, Purav Bhandare, Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Irawati Harshe.
Other credits include Screenplay : Debaloy Bhattacharya and Nilendu Guha, Cinematographer : Somak Mukherjee, Editor : Lionel Fernandez, Sound : Kunal Sharma, and Music : Vinayak Netke, Aatur Soni, B. Gauri (lyrics).
The film will have its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival. And scroll down to read TIFF Programmer Cameron Bailey’s note…
Producer/director Anurag Kashyap (who also exhibits his acting skills at this year’s Festival in Trishna) is leading a whole new wave of vibrant independent cinema in India. With Michael, Kashyap’s latest collaborator, first-time director Ribhu Dasgupta, takes on a slow-burning, character-driven psychological drama.
In the film’s opening shots, Michael (Naseeruddin Shah) stands paralyzed as Kolkata traffic swirls around him. The film then flashes back to a younger Michael, in the days when he was a police officer. We find him nervously surveying a swelling crowd of protesters. When the order comes down to open fire on the peaceful demonstration, Michael shoots low to avoid causing death. Nonetheless, a ricochet strikes and kills a twelve-year-old boy. At this point Michael’s life begins to unravel. His eyesight worsens, he loses his job and he struggles to care for his son. When Michael finds work illegally pirating Bollywood films, he starts receiving phone calls from the father of the boy he accidentally killed, threatening to kill his own son when the boy turns twelve. Michael is sent into a paranoid race against the clock.
Dasgupta uses intricate camera movements, angular framing and hazy point-of-view shots to explore Michael’s psychological and physical deterioration. Kolkata’s rainy, hectic streets, captured in mesmerizing detail by the late cinematographer Somak Mukherjee, provide the bleak and progressively nightmarish backdrop. Performing with strength and subtlety, Shah (Monsoon Wedding, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) carries the film. Opposite him, Mahie Gill (Dev D) delivers a gentle and sympathetic performance as the nurse who becomes Michael’s companion. As Michael’s sight weakens, so too does his grip on reality, resulting in a heart-wrenching tale of a father on the cusp of losing everything.
This post is part of our small endeavour to spupport indie films and give them some visbility. We haven’t seen the film, have no clue about the makers, just a random mail and here it is. Do check out the trailer.
Shuttlecock Boys is a self-financed independent Hindi feature film produced by Pennywise Films and directed by Hemant Gaba. After travelling through some film festivals (Jaipur, Surat & Shimla) in India, it will have its International Premiere in USA at Chicago South Asian Film Festival followed by a screening in the competitive category of International Film Festival Ahmedabad in October.
The film tells the story of 4 boys Gaurav, Manav, Loveleen & Pankaj who embark on an eventful journey of “doing something on their own”, a decision that they take while playing badminton one night in their neighbourhood streets. This journey becomes the litmus test of their determination, courage, luck & spirit of the friendship.
The story originated from the director’s upbringing years in lower middle class, out of his personal experiences of being stuck in 9 to 6 monotonous jobs & his willingness to charter into unknown territory of doing something on his own that the middle class parents always dread. With a small sum of 35 lakhs mostly from his savings & small loans from friends and family, the film was shot handheld mostly with non-actors on more than 18 locations over a span of 22 days in Delhi & suburbs.
Trishna and Michael, both the films will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Michael Winterbottom’s latest film Trishna is not only set in India but it was more than one desi connect. The film’s trailer is out and according to official release, it’s an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles set against a contemporary Indian backdrop. Freida Pinto stars as the titular Trishna, a young woman who is seduced by the wealthy son(Riz Ahmed) of a property developer. As the romance develops, their relationship also becomes increasingly sordid and volatile.
Click on the play button to check out the trailer. what a smooth and soothing track! Wow, Amit Trivedi, scores again? Seems so, at least from the trailer.
Michael is the latest production of Anurag Kashyap films. Directed by debutant Ribhu Dasgupta, the film’s trailer or poster is not out yet. But you can check out some of the stills. It stars Naseeruddin Shah, Mahie Gill, Purav Bhandare, Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Irawati Harshe.
According to official release, it’s a character-driven psychological drama. Using intricate camerawork and intimate point of view shooting, Dasgupta tracks one man’s physical and psychological deterioration in the rainy, traffic-filled streets of Kolkata. Check out the stills.
This is an old post by Pavan Jha. And since it’s Gulzarsaab’s birthday, we thought it would be nice to revisit it with the post. All thanks to @p1j who also runs the website GulzarOnline. Experience it NOW!
Libaas remains one of the most special Gulzar movie for me. Its an Unseen film for me, still I can feel the film like any other films that I have seen. I have read the film [It is based on a short story of Gulzar titled “Seema” published in Ravi Paar] and I have also “heard” the film [thru the songs and dialogues on cassettes]. It was almost as good as seeing the film…
The intensity of script and characters can be felt in the dialogues. Three main characters Sudhir [played by Naseeruddin Shah.. brilliant again as a Theater Director who puts work as the top priority and treat relationships as secondary], Seema [Shabana Azmi, the rebel wife of Naseer, She is more of a character for his director husband than a wife] and TK [Raj Babbar, an old friend of Naseer, [total contrast to Naseer’s character] who visits Naseer after a long time and woos Shabana. He is more of a bubbly and charming character].
The story starts with a theater group, which Naseer is struggling to setup. Shabana is Naseer’s wife and is also the leading lady in his production. The film starts on a lighter mood with a few funny moments with Utpal Dutt (dubbed by Johnny Lever after his death), Anu Kapoor and Naseer.
Utpal Dutt introduces the leading characters in the opening scene…
“Drame me bhi miyaan-biwi ke role karate hain aur ghar pe bhi wahi..bore nahin ho jaate ek hi role karte karte”…
For Naseer, Theatre is life, much more than anything else..
“Khana banana bhool jaaogi to bardasht kar loonga par apni line bhool jaaogi to kabhi maaf nahin karoonga..”..
Though Shabana behaves like a subordinate all the time, she has other demands too from the life.. One of the most important scene of the film speaks all….
Naseer : to hayvadan ki padmini ka kya hoga, aur khamosh adalat ki leela bainare ka?
Shabana : Matlab Padmini aur Bainare mujh se jyada important hain..Mujh mein hamesha apne characters hi dekhte ho.. Kabhi mujhe bhi dekha hai?
Naseer : Are tumhare andar to saara jahaan dekhta hoon
Shabana : Dialogue mat bola karo har waqt.. tumhare liye to mujh se jyada theater important hai na.. I know if you have to choose between theater and me.. you would choose theater.
Naseer : Seema, theater sirf tumse hi nahin, mujhse bhi jyada important hai.. ham dono baad me aate hain, aur theater pahle
..an introduction to the characters completes with the entry of Raj Babbar, a businessman and an old friend of Naseer…
Shabana : Bada hi betakalluf dost tha aapka, is tarah to pahale kisi ko nahin dekha aapke saath…theater me to sab subordinates ki tarah behave karte hain
The story develops and restricts to the three main characters, their egos, the bondage and the break in relationships. The focus is on the character of Shabana.
Naseer : Ghar me rahti to ghar bore karta tha, theater me ho to theater bore karta hai.. Hamesha wahaan rahna chahti ho jahaan nahin ho, aur jahaan ho usase kabhi khush nahin ho.. You always want to be somewhere else, not where you are.. and you even don’t know where you want to be
Shabana stops doing theater and starts spending time with Raj Babbar..
Gulzar saab like a master craftsman draws parallels between the characters of his film and Mohan Rakesh’s Adhe Adhure using the play being prepared by Naseer and his theater group..
Also the scene where Naseer comes to know about the affair between Shabana and Raj Babbar, and he talks about it with Raj-Shabana is brilliantly handled.. (atleast it “sounds” so).. What happens next should be left undiscussed, hoping the film would release some day..
Music makes Libaas more special film.. It was the last film that Panchamda did with Gulzar saab… Also it was only the second and the last time Panchamda sang with Lata [for kya bura hai kya bhala]…Music of libaas is a kind of a sequel to Ijaazat. The album contains only 4 songs, all top class, including a superb Pancham composition “Sili Hawa Choo Gayee”, a typical gulzarish song, beautifully rendered by Lata. “Khamosh sa afsana” a duet by Suresh and Lata, “Phir kisi shaakh” is the next version of “Khali haath shaam aayee hai” in the mood and rendering, and “Kya bura hai kya bhala” is a lively group number [a bit of qawwali touch]…
Libaas was never released in theaters though it was shown in a International film festival of India in 1992.
“Jitne bhi tay karte gaye, Badhte gaye ye faasle
Meelon se din chhod aaye, saalon si raat leke chale”
We all hope it will see the light of the day.. some day… amen!
Every time a Shammi Kapoor song plays on tv, I stop everything and stare at the screen with eyes wide open. Grinning from ear to ear, my face looks like McDonald’s Ronin. And his songs needs to be seen because there is so much fun and energy in the way he danced. Nobody entertained like him.
Now obits have been written, wikipedia page has been edited and his songs have been played non-stop though the day. Putting three songs/videos in this post which you might not have seen/heard.
First one is a special tribute to Shammi Kapoor by one of the greatest actors of our time, Naseeruddin Shah. This song is from his film Sitam in which he played a Shammi fanatic. And I have been told that he is Shammi fan in real life too. Play on.
And here’s another tribute to him…this song’s lyrics is all about Shammi Kapoor’s film titles.
And the last one. After Shammi Kapoor married Geeta Bali, he was doing a film with Kidar Sharma, Rangeen Raaten. And Geeta Bali wanted to be with him. She requested Kidar to have her as the heroine but Mala Sinha was already signed on for the film. Since Geeta had no female role, she played the role of a man, not in disguise but a male character in the film Rangeen Raaten.
Nagesh-who-went-cuckoo with his last few films, is ready with a new film titled Mod. Starring Ayesha Takia and Rannvijay Singh in the lead, Mod is an official remake of the Taiwanese film Keeping Watch. Check out the trailer…
But why is the text font and the background so tacky? Looks like some intern made it on MS word and paint. And Ayesh Takia, can you please come back to movies. Such a natural actor with a pleasing screen presence.
Here’s the official synopsis…
Mod is a heartfelt, emotional love story between two completely mismatched people.
Aranya, a “full-of-life” 25 yr old, lives in the sleepy and idyllic hill station, Ganga. The little town is the home of many colourful characters – Ashok Mahadeo, Aranya’s whacky father who is the head of the local fan club of Kishore Kumar, the fiery Gayatri Garg, “GG”, her aunt, friend, and confidant, who runs a …restaurant and is a mother figure to Aranya, chubby Gangaram, the local shopkeeper who harbors feelings for Aranya and Ashok’s music band, the ever present Kishore Bhakts.
Aranya’s mother left to pursue bigger dreams in the city when Aranya was a little girl and both father and daughter hope that one day she will return. They wait dutifully everyday to see if the lone train that passes by their house will bring her back. Aranya runs a watch repair store, a legacy handed down by her mother to support her father and herself.
One day a total stranger, Andy, lands up at her doorstep to have his watch fixed. He is painfully shy, but keeps returning day after day to have his water logged watch repaired. As payment he leaves a 100 rupee note in the form of an origami swan. Aranya slowly warms up to this quirky stranger and through a series of meetings and against all odds they fall in love.
But who is Andy? Where is he from? And what is his past?
As Aranya discovers the truth about Andy, the film heads to an exciting and emotional climax in the strongest tradition of great love stories.
Like in Hollywood, this is the year of 2,3,4 in Bollywood too. Murder 2 is still going strong at the box office, and now the first trailer of Don 2 is out. And it seems D2 is going to be exactly like the earlier Don. The film is directed by Farhan Akhtar and stars Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta, Kunal Kapoor and Boman Irani.
Tigmanshu Dhulia is back, again. And we are again hoping that this time he will be back as the good ol’ Dhulia. Not the one who directed Shaagird. Even as his last film Paan Singh Tomar is yet to get a theatrical release, trailer of his new film Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster is out. It stars Jimmy Shergill, Randeep Hooda and Mahie Gill.
Remember Parvin Dabas? Yes, the actor is now director. And remember Preeti Jhangiani? She is now producer, and they are married. Here’s the trailer of directorial debut of Dabas, Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande.
Experimental, obscure, tangential, inaccessible and over indulgent. These are just some of the adjectives commonly used to define the cinema of Mani Kaul. If you ever tried watching (or watched) any of Kaul’s film, you will understand what these adjectives mean. And if you haven’t, then you must give it a try. Because if artists don’t indulge, experiment and go off tangent, then who will? The result might be inaccessible for the majority but when has the majority ever voted for anything that’s cult.
And the bigger problem is to find the resources to figure out what Kaul tried to say through his cinema. Thanks to our lack of interest in any kind of artistic documentation, we have access to best of cinema from across the world, but we don’t know where to look for the desi ones. So, in this post we are putting all the links related to Mani Kaul. If you have any, do comment or let us know.
The Films of Mani Kaul by Just Another Film Buff. Quite elaborate post that covers Uski Roti, Duvidha, Satah Se Uthata Aadmi, Dhrupad, Siddheshwari, Nazar, Naukar Ki Kameez and Een Aaps Regenjas (A Monkey’s Raincoat).
Not sure why but I was expecting a Harmony kind of show. Remember that musical show on Sony/Set Max? But Coke Studio at MTv went to the other extreme and started without any warm-up. It opened with a jugalbandi pitching a bollywood/popular name with a folk (unknown) singer and followed the same pattern for the entire show. And there was more jazz with every possible camera angle covered and fast cuts to show that they have it all. What i missed was thehraav. Leave the camera angles and cuts outside the music, let the singers do the jazz. Introduce the singers to us with solo numbers. Give that slow warm-up, let us absorb and then built the tempo with jugalbandi. At least that’s the pattern which every music or anything that’s musical, follows. Also, can we please have subtitles for the songs in other languages. Some of us are insane when it comes to lyrics.
Aha, that’s just the intro. This post is by Rohit, for whom music is lifeline and whose middle name these days is Coke Studio. I don’t know anyone who follows it with so much passion and enthusiasm. Don’t think even MTV was so excited about the show as Rohit was. Read on..
This is not a review. It can never be.
This is a chance to showcase an opinion. If you have one, please use the ‘comment’ box. Would love to hear it.
Being one who drives the car from a longer route because the favorite song hasn’t ended yet, it was a blessing when I came across Coke Studio Pakistan last year.
Any new sound from Pakistan has an extra oomph attached to it, and this is quite accentuated by the fact that our filmmakers have been using the Pakistani artists in our films a lot.
The first thing which struck me about the Coke Studio was its setting. A small but cozy arrangement of musicians with latest (And most of the times traditional) musical instruments weaved nicely in the presence of the vocal performer. The second was the lighting. Dull but not sad, and at times, the spotlight on the vocal lead. Looks like a concert, sounds like a studio, I thought to myself.
Then exploring began.
Most of the songs in Coke Studio Pakistan centered around Punjabi/Arabic/Urdu or a combination of these. That’s not entirely, is it? The artist set had a collective feel to it. You had folk singers from Balochistan and then you had new age ‘rockstars’ like Atif Aslam and Ali Zafar. Less popular guys with the popular ones did make a lot of impact (especiallly if you hear the likes of Season 1 rendition of Ali zafar’s allah hu along with Tufail Ahmed).
The obvious reaction was – Man! when are they coming to India? With the excessive incredible India overdose, I thought it would be amazing to see the various sounds we have in our beautiful country going at it with the popular guys to begin with.
Then I went to Coke Studio India sets.
Of course the expectations I had were at least 20 feet above the sky. There was a lot of positivity flowing in the air with artists trying variations to get it right…and the when they got it right, they tried to better it.
But why are they singing Bollywood numbers?
Especially when I heard Benny Dayal and Suzanne singing ‘kanchi rey kanchi rey’, I thought am I missing something? One reason that I could decipher was that they are changing the treatment of the song and giving the audience a familiar song to chew upon as they try to capture the mind space of the populists (because the other loyalists are already in place). The second and the final reason which came to my mind was that may be they will attempt to fuse a folk song and its ‘commercial’ counterpart in one composition and give us a hang of it.
This was proven right when the India version premiered with the folk and commercial composition interwoven in a beautiful ‘O mahi rey‘ by the folk singer (Mano) and Shaan (who should stop swaying on the mic with a smile. When you are ‘passionate’ you don’t get a smile…you just ‘be’)
Coke Studio at MTV
Of course there were hits and misses.
Am not sure why the lighting was going (at times) mad like it was a dance floor, and some camera movements (especially in the otherwise brilliant Tochi Raina and Magati song) had me confused.
Shankar mahadevan and Khagen Gogoi couldn’t touch me as yet. KK and Sabri brothers did strike a chord and that’s largely due to the fact that they were singing an old classic (chadhta suraj). Watching KK, I couldn’t help but feel that he is too ‘aware’ of his surroundings. Nope! not done. The only thing the coke studio in Pakistan singers/performers are aware is the microphone in front and NOTHING else.
Tochi, Kailash Kher, Chinnaponu, Bondu and Harshdeep Kaur managed to hit the right chord because none of these guys were aware of how their videos would come across when millions of fans would see it on youtube. Yes. That is passion. Hope we get to see that more in the forthcoming episodes…
Criticism
Coke Studio at MTV happened. Then loads of variations of the same happened tonight. People came out with loaded guns to shoot and tear it apart.
Let me try and organise my thoughts before ‘judging’ (Indian Idol isshtyle! by the way last I saw Abhijit sawant, he was doing comedy for a living. This is besides the point)
Criticism 1. Lot of bollywood influence – Hmm. This is true. I guess the endeavor is towards presenting us with the sound of our country from every nook and corner, and to mingle it with someone who is well known (bolly singers, I tell u!) and that’s not entirely bad. At least now we can bash the bolly singers better because they have their regional/folk contemporaries performing right next to them? The show opened with Shaan. But was it just Shaan? Who was singing along with him? Don’t google it. Also, when you are googling, ask yourself if you would have waited to see Coke Studio at MTV had there been 2 unknown singers going at it? (Remember the Pakistani Coke Studio had 2-3 familiar singers who were termed ‘besura‘ in India?)
Criticism 2 – Horrendous lighting, bad camera angels – Hmmm. This I will agree to. The exquisite performance by Tochi Raina (And Magathi, I guess) & Kailash Kher (with the tamil singer) was particularly spoiled by wayward camera movement and dinchak lighting.
Criticism 3 – A wanna be show – Hmmm. Aren’t we going on an overkill by expecting a little too much and benchmarking the first one hour episode against a show which is in it’s 3rd year? All of us spoiled Maggi when we first prepared, no? Anyway.
Criticism 4 – Couldn’t touch the soul – I guess it will continue to be this way for sometime. We are enamored by, and look forward to a lot of ‘Allah hu‘ like songs from Indian version from the first day. What is obviously clear is that Coke Studio at MTV will first premier all the ‘sounds’ from all parts of country (along with a popular voice) and then run a riot of ‘placing’ and ‘innovating’ within these genres more effectively.
It is a first step and I don’t say that Coke Studio at MTV is ‘Holier than thou’. We need to be a little patient and am sure that the Indian version will give us more reasons to smile than to crib about.
By the way my favorite from the night were Tochi Raina’s Mera yaar basenda mere wich and Harshdeep Kaur’s Hoo.
Wait a second! The above songs resemble (in theme and treatment) with the Coke Studio Pakistan version. Isn’t it?
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 