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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Here’s the good new for film buffs. If you missed Chaitanya Tamhane’s much acclaimed debut feature, Court, at Mumbai Film Festival, you can catch it in theatres now. The film is all set to release on April 17th, 2015.
A new terrific trailer of the film is out too. Have a look.
It’s been doing the fest rounds for quite some time and bagged some of the international prestigious awards at Venice and other fests. At the recently announced National Awards, the film has been adjudged the Best Feature Film. For a debut feature filmmaker, this is a dream run and it can’t get better than this.
Cast & Crew
Cast: Vira Sathidar, Vivek Gomber, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Pradeep Joshi, Usha Bane
Directed by: Chaitanya Tamhane
Produced by: Zoo Entertainment
World Sales: Memento Film International – Artscope
Official Synopsis:
A sewerage worker’s dead body is found inside a manhole in Mumbai. An ageing folk singer is tried in court on charges of abetment of suicide. He is accused of performing an inflammatory song which might have incited the worker to commit the act. As the trial unfolds, the personal lives of the lawyers and the judge involved in the case are observed outside the court.
After having its premiere at the last edition of Mumbai Film Festival, Manu Warrier’s indie feature Coffee Bloom is all set to hit the screens on 6th March, 2015.
Directed by Manu and produced by Harish Amin, the film will now be receiving a major international release as it releases simultaneously in India, USA and Toronto.
Here’s the official synopsis of the film –
Coffee Bloom’ is the story of Dev Anand (Arjun Mathur), who is a self proclaimed wise man and has given up on life as a result of a love gone wrong. A life changing event takes him on a journey to a coffee plantation. There he meets Anika (Sugandha Ram), his long lost love, currently his boss. Love blooms in an idyllic setting, bringing Dev out of his self imposed funk and Dev finds a new reason to live. Coffee Bloom also stars veteran actor Mohan Kapoor and Bengali actress Ishwari Bose in supporting roles.
Starring Arjun Mathur, Sugandha Ram, Mohan Kapoor and Ishwari Bose, Coffee Bloom is all set to hit theatres in India (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune, Jaipur), US(San Francisco, LA, Seattle, New Jersey, Chicago) and Canada(Toronto).
After making his debut with Hindi feature Aurangzeb, and TV series, Powder, Atul Sabharwal is now coming out with a documentary titled “In Their Shoes”.
Centered on the shoe industry in Agra and the people who are engaged in it, this feature length documentary is set to get a limited release in 5 cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Agra and Pune) on March 13th, 2015, through PVR Director’s Rare and Long Live Cinema in five cities
And here’s the trailer
In the docu, filmmaker Atul Sabharwal goes on a quest to find out why his father pushed him away from
joining their family business of shoe material trading in Agra. With a runtime of 92 minutes, this film navigates through the narrow alleys, crowded slums and giant export houses of the historic city of Agra, India, exploring certain answers through the interviews of footwear artisans, traders, manufacturers, exporters and government officials. Through their voices this film pieces together the tale of the industry and the men who built it and sailed it through or got sunk with the global events like India-Pakistan Partition, rise of the USSR, Solidarnosc movement of Poland, the collapse of Berlin Wall, opening of trade economies.
Shot by Ansar Shah and edited by Parmananad Kumar, this film allows the filmmaker to unravel the history of the footwear industry in Agra, and discovers how the global events of his growing up years impacted his relationship with his father.
For more info, FB page is here. Twitter account is here.
‘Om Dar Ba Dar’ fame Kamal Swaroop is ready with his next documentary and if these teasers are any proof, then it looks quite fascinating.
Banaras, Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal, and the biggest democratic exercise on this planet – seen through the auteur vision of Kamal Swaroop should be a heady mix.
Finally. Chaitanya Tamhane’s much acclaimed debut film, Court, has finally got a trailer. If you are regular reader of the blog, you must be knowing that some of us managed to catch the film at Mumbai Film Festival and we really liked it. An assured debut, with no frills, and a vision without any compromise. No wonder it’s still doing the fests round. And much like the film, the trailer also maintains the minimalist approach – in tone and even in its font. Have a look.
Cast & Crew
Cast: Vira Sathidar, Vivek Gomber, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Pradeep Joshi, Usha Bane
Directed by: Chaitanya Tamhane
Produced by: Zoo Entertainment
World Sales: Memento Film International – Artscope
Official Synopsis:
A sewerage worker’s dead body is found inside a manhole in Mumbai. An ageing folk singer is tried in court on charges of abetment of suicide. He is accused of performing an inflammatory song which might have incited the worker to commit the act. As the trial unfolds, the personal lives of the lawyers and the judge involved in the case are observed outside the court.
Abhay Kumar’s documentary film, Placebo, just had its international premiere at the reputed International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA).
And the good news is the film has also been nominated for Best Film in “Competition for First Appearance” category. It’s competing with Always Together (Czech Republic) by Eva Tomanova, Drifter (Hungary/Germany) by Gábor Hörcher and Mother of the Unborn (Egypt/United Arab Emirates) by Nadine Salib.
Here’s the first look teaser of the film
Synopsis
After witnessing an act of brutal violence, a film maker starts following the lives of four students at one of the prmiere educational institutes of India. However, as the camera starts infiltrating this complex mindscape of ambition and restless youth, a startling new reality begins to emerge – one in which an implosion is taking place. In this world, what can be the cure?
We saw the film Sulemani Keeda at last year’s Mumbai Film Festival. To repeat what we had said, it’s the bonafide Versova indie – of versova, by versova, for versova (and hopefully beyond). It’s honest, charming, funny, and tells all those Versova tales which hardly travel beyond the walls of Aaram Nagar. If Luck By Chance was the big budget portrayal of the bollywood insanity, Sulemani Keeda is the opposite – of those who are on the fringes, of writers and their struggle with actors, producers, landlords.
And here’s the good news – PVR Director’s Rare will release the film on November 28th, 2014. Do check out the trailer.
In this slacker bro-mantic comedy, writing partners Dulal and Mainak dream of shaking up the Bollywood with their script “Sulemani Keeda”. When they’re not being rejected by producers who refuse to read their script, they lurk around bookstores and poetry slams shamelessly hitting on girls. They find some hope when the drug addled, cat-obsessed Gonzo Kapoor, the son of a famous B movie producer, hires them to write an art house film billed as “Tarkovsky with orgies” for his directorial debut. All seems well until Dulal meets Ruma, a beautiful photographer who makes him question his choices in life.
The film will open the South Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF) which runs from Nov 18-23, 2014. Interestingly, it’s 1 film with 11 segments directed by 11 filmmakers. The directorial bunch includes Sudhish Kamath (Good Night | Good Morning), Q (Gandu), Nalan Kumarasamy (Soodhu Kavvum), Suparn Verma (Aatma, Ek Haseena Ek Khiladi), Raja Sen, Sandeep Mohan (Love Wrinkle-Free), Pratim Gupta (Paanch Adhyay), Hemant Gaba (Shuttlecock Boys), Abhinav Shiv Tiwari Sankhnaad (Oass), Anu Menon (London Paris New York), and Rajshree Ojha (Aisha, Chaurahen). And this includes 3 film reviewers. If you don’t like the film, well, you get the drift.
Check out the first trailer of the film. And scroll down for detailed synopsis, cast & credits.
Official Synopsis :
Is man meant to stick to one woman? Is film meant to conform to one genre?
X is a one-of-its-kind film because eleven Indian filmmakers with disparate styles of filmmaking have come together to make different parts of the same film. In strikingly different styles as a bridge between the various cinemas of India. Mainstream, Arthouse, Popular, Underground, Regional and Global – all at the same time. NOT an anthology but a single story.
The story of K (Rajat Kapoor), a filmmaker with a mid life crisis, who meets a mysterious young girl (Aditi Chengappa) who reminds him of his first girlfriend at first, and subsequently, of every woman in his life. Who is she? Is she real or imaginary? A stalker or a ghost? His past catching up or a character from the script he is writing?
Each episode, directed by a different filmmaker (since every woman/story required a different genre) unravels the role of a different woman in his life. Every woman is different and through the lens of different filmmakers, X hopes to explore the role women play in shaping our lives.
What is it that makes us tick or stop? What is it that keeps us anchored or free falling? What is it that makes us move or let go? Are we products of our past or present? What is that X factor that defines who we are?
Cast & Crew
Cast: Aditi Chengappa, Bidita Bag, Gabriella Schmidt, Huma Qureshi, Neha Mahajan, Parno Mitra, Pia Bajpai, Pooja Ruparel, Radhika Apte, Richa Shukla, Rii Sen and Swara Bhaskar with Anshuman Jha and Rajat Kapoor
Directed by: Abhinav Shiv Tiwari, Anu Menon, Hemant Gaba, Nalan Kumarasamy, Pratim D Gupta, Q, Raja Sen, Rajshree Ojha, Sandeep Mohan, Sudhish Kamath and Suparn Verma
Written by: Abhinav Shiv Tiwari, Anu Menon, Hemant Gaba, Pratim D Gupta, Q, Raja Sen, Rajshree Ojha, Sandeep Mohan, Sudhish Kamath, Suparn Verma and Thiagarajan Kumararaja
Directors of Photography: Anuj Dhawan, Aseem Bajaj, Dinesh Krishnan, Gairik Sarkar, Katyayani Mudholkar, Maeve O Connell, Q, Ravi K Chandran, Sandeep Mohan, Siddhartha Nuni, Sidharth Kay and Viraj Sinh Gohil
Manu Warrier’s debut feature Coffee Bloom is having its India premiere at the Mumbai Film Festival 2014 in the ‘New Faces of Indian Cinema’ section. Coffee Bloom stars Arjun Mathur, Sugandha Garg and Mohan Kapoor among others. We have the debut trailer for the film right here, take a look:
Here is the synopsis of the film, along with information on the cast and crew:
SYNOPSIS:
Dev sells his family coffee estate as a statement underlining his renunciation of the world. When his mother dies heartbroken, he vows to prove worthy of her before scattering her ashes, little realizing that that involves confronting the world he shunned and his turbulent past.
Co-Producers: Sharath Parvathavani, Rajeev Acharya, Nitin Chandrachud, Tess Joseph
Music and BG score: Prasad Ruparel
Cinematography: Yogesh Jaan
Editor: Anand Subaya
Casting By: Tess Joseph
Sound Design: David Stevens
If you are attending MFF 2014, you can catch the film at 3:30 pm on Monday, October 20th at Cinemax Infiniti Mall, Versova and 10 am on Tuesday, October 21st at PVR Citi Mall, Andheri.
The first trailer of Shonali Bose’s film Margarita With A Straw is out. The film will have its premiere in Contemporary World Cinema section at Toronto International Film Festival. Have a look.
From fest site – In this inspirational love story, a Delhi university student and aspiring writer afflicted with cerebral palsy (Kalki Koechlin, Dev.D, That Girl in Yellow Boots) leaves India for New York University, where she falls for a fiery young activist.
Unusual only because it’s so rarely seen on screen, Margarita, with a Straw is an exceptional portrait of a woman discovering what she wants, and how to get it.
Laila (Kalki Koechlin) is a student and aspiring writer, crafting lyrics and electronic sounds for an indie band at her Delhi university. Her cerebral palsy doesn’t much get in the way of her life, although it sometimes does for others. When Laila’s band wins a local contest, the condescending host says to her, “It must have been so hard for you. Can you share something with us?” Laila shares her middle finger.
Always seeking more freedom and new experience, Laila wins a place at New York University and leaves India with her mother (Revathy) for Manhattan. There she meets a fiery activist, Khanum (Sayani Gupta), who challenges her beliefs, sparks her creativity, and, eventually, takes her to bed. For these two women, it’s the beginning of a remarkable love story.
The programme presents the latest works of some of the most provocative and important voices in cinema from around the globe. Bose’s debut film Amu had also been screened at Toronto in 2005.
For cast, credits and other details, click here. Though we noticed a strange thing in the credit roll of the trailer, even the casting director gets a credit (because he is producer, writer and director too? That too three credits in one plate!) but the (Hindi) dialogue writer doesn’t have a credit. How strange? We have never been to able to understand why people become so insecure and chindi when it comes to credits?
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 