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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Sange Dorjee Thongdok’s Crossing Bridges is all set to release in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Bangalore on 29 August, via PVR Director’s Rare. It’s the first feature film ever to be made in Shertupken, a dialect and tribal community from Arunachal Pradesh. It previously showed at the Mumbai Film Festival and Dharamsala Film Festival where it was warmly received. Here’s the synopsis and trailer of the film:
Tashi, a man in his early thirties is forced to come back to his village in the remote northeast region of India after eight years when he loses his job in the city. As he stays in the village waiting for a new job in the city to go back to, he experiences the life and culture of his native place and his people, which he never paid attention to before. As he rediscovers love, friendship and his roots, when Tashi gets the news that he has found himself a new job in the city, he must decide whether to go away or stay back home for good.
You can read more about Crossing Bridges in these interviews with director Sange Dorjee Thongdok (here and here) and DOP Pooja Gupte.
The 2014 edition of Toronto International Film Festival has added 2 more Indian films in its schedule.
Margarita, with a Straw directed by Shonali Bose will have its world premiere Contemporary World Cinema section.
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.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.
Cast, Credit and other details
Country: India
Year: 2014
Language: Hindi/English
Premiere Status: World Premiere
Runtime: 100 minutes
Rating: 14A
Producer: Shonali Bose, Nilesh Maniyar
Production Company: Ishan Talkies, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Jakhotia Group
Principal Cast: Kalki Koechlin, Revathy, Sayani Gupta, William Moseley, Hussain Dalal
Screenplay: Shonali Bose, Nilesh Maniyar
Cinematographer: Anne Misawa
Editor: Monisha Baldawa
Sound: Resul Pookutty, Amrit Pritam
Music: Mikey McCleary, Prasoon Joshi
Production Designer: Somenath Pakre, Prasun Chakraborty
The second film is Megha Ramaswamy’s Newborns. It’s part of theinaugural Short Cuts International programme.
From fest site – A hauntingly beautiful documentary that follows female survivors of acid attacks, who bravely defy the trauma and fear that will always accompany them.
Cast, Crew and Other Details
Country: India
Year: 2014
Language: Hindi
Premiere Status: World Premiere
Runtime: 8 minutes
Rating: STC
Producer: Anand Gandhi, Sohum Shah, Ruchi Bhimani
Production Company: Recyclewala Labs
Principal Cast: Laxmi, Nasreen, Sapna, Daya Kishan, Usha, Rupesh Tillu, Heena Agrawal
Screenplay: Megha Ramaswamy
Cinematographer: Satya Rai Nagpaul
Editor: Anand Gandhi, Rohit Pandey
Sound: Ajit Rathore, Aditya Jadav
Production Designer: Megha Ramaswamy
Trailer
The Festival will run from September 4 to 14, 2014.
HumaraMovie’s short-film anthology Shuruaat Ka Interval is now playing in select cinemas in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Ahmedabad (see showtimes above). What’s more- there is also an Audience Choice Award for the favorite film of the viewers.
The winner of the Shuruaat Ka Interval festival 2014 will be chosen directly by the audience. After watching the films, you can either vote in the cinemas (you will be handed ballots for the same) or vote right here. The winner will be given a cash prize of 1 Lakh and this will be announced after the films complete their run at the cinemas. So do watch and vote for your favorites below:
Well known cinematographer Rajeev Ravi has been quietly directing Malyalam films. After Annayum Rasoolam, he is ready with another film – Njan Steve Lopez (I am Steve Lopez). And the good news is the film is releasing on 15th August in various cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Mysore, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and many more) with English subtitles.
Rajeev won the National award for the cinematography of Liar’s Dice which is directed by his wife Geetu Mohandas. He is known for his work in films like Dev D, Gangs Of Wasseypur 1 & 2 and has also shot the upcoming Bombay Velvet.
Njan Steve Lopez is a Collective Phase One presentation with a Jar Pictures production in association with M.R. Filmworks and Media Mill. E4 Entertainment, the national distributor of the film has Fox on board as the sub- distributor for certain regions outside Kerala.
Trailer
Synopsis
The film is set in capital city of the south Indian state of Kerala. Steve Lopez, a typical teenager is the son of an influential police officer. He leads an unruffled life, dominated by a relationship with Anjali, daughter of another police officer.
Steve happens to witness a fight between two rival gangs. He is involved in taking a fatally injured man to the hospital. This events leads him gradually into the lives of the gangsters who have nothing extraordinary in their lives except their acts of crime. Hari, the gang leader is captured by his father with his help, but he disappears from the police custody with no news. Steve is obsessed with the fate of Hari. In his quest to find what happened to Hari, he gradually comes to realise that the gangsters and the police including his father, are two faces of the same coin. There is an intricate web of interrelationships, bargains, trust and breach of trust between them. Steve’s quick glimpse of this network is enough to unsettle him. His fate too is sealed once he touches this web.
PVR Director’s Rare & HumaraMovie are presenting the short film festival/anthology Shuruaat Ka Interval, which includes 8 shorts from various filmmakers, chosen and mentored by filmmakers Imtiaz Ali, Vikramaditya Motwane, Anand Gandhi & Vikas Bahl. Shortlisted candidates had access to script consultants- Bijesh Jayarajan (Yudh), Ritesh Shah (Kahaani,D Day, City Lights), Rajashree ‘urf’ Raju and Kshiti Nijhawan Agrawal. They also had access to Mukesh Chhabra and his team for casting.
All the films are based on one theme: ‘Interval’, which has been interpreted in a different, unique way by each filmmaker. Watch the trailer and read the synopsis of each short film below:
SYNOPSES of the Short Films:
1. August by Shishir Jha: Good and Evil, Yin and Yang… The continuous dichotomy of life. The path is not always a choice. A subtle interpretation of this paradox. Does the butcher only kill?
2. The Last Audition by Krishan Hooda: Anand Kumar is a struggling actor consumed by the struggle. The attempt to land a role, and the effects of the audition take over his life. He live, breathes, sleeps this process. In this obsessed role, does Anand land himself the ticket to stardom? Or does this obsession lead to his ruin? A dark tale of one’s life when you cannot differentiate life and camera!
3. No Exit by Ankit Tripathi: Is life a burden? Is memory the only thing which binds us together? Is that the reason for our misery? Cycle of life and death- is there an exit option?
4. Ayan by Amrit Raj Gupta: In the best traditions of farce- what happens when your main character disappears during the interval of a play. Do you rework the play? Can you rework the play? How do the other characters react? A laugh fest when the characters of Ramayan become real backstage.
5. Interval 3D by Palash Vaswani: What happens when a character from a Ramsay Brothers-style B Grade horror flick meets the audience? Shock, awe, funny- a ridiculous scenario from which you can only laugh your way out!
6. Bubbles and Stars by Rukhshana Tabassum: If the characters of a play were to indulge in their reverie, would their interactions be meaningful? Shot completely in black & white, a beautiful tale which reminds you of films of the silent era and what actually makes us love films
7. Final Interval by Aarti Bagdi: This is the story of a housewife, a mother, a mother-in-law, a grandmother, a superwoman. She binds the extended family together. And she needs a break!
8. Gatekeeper by Atanu Mukherjee:Gatekeeper revolves around the life of a man who guards a railway crossing. His only source of excitement in life is watching the trains passing by. Is there something which intrudes in this monotony? Or can this monotony be enjoyable?
Shuruaat Ka Interval releases in select cinemas in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune on 15 August, 2014.
With Recyclewala Films presenting Gulabi Gang and Anurag Kashyap putting his might behind The World Before Her, we are seeing a great new trend of documentary release in India. And this is what is required to push those small gems which don’t have the big marketing budget. Hope more well known filmmakers and production houses will come forward for this kind of endeavor. The latest one is Phantom Films presenting Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar’s documentary Katiyabaaz. The film will hit the screens of 22nd August, 2014. It has lyrics by our Varun Grover.
Official synopsis – The film highlights the issues faced by the city of Kanpur due to power cuts and failures from the perspective of Loha Singh, a local katiyabaaz who, with an almost vigilante like attitude, steals electricity for the locals of the town.
If the synopsis sounds serious, don’t go by it. Trust our words – it’s a fun film. Though it looks staged at many places but it’s worth a watch. The film also bagged the National Award for the Best Investigative film at the 61st National Awards, won the India Gold for Best film at the Mumbai Film Festival, 2013, and received a grant from the prestigious Sundance Institute.
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:
Kanu Behl’s Titli is all set to premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. And the makers have just released the poster and the first trailer of the film. It looks so intense, and so unlike any other YRF film ever. Have a look.
And here’s the Offficial Synopsis –
In the badlands of Delhi’s dystopic underbelly, Titli, the youngest member of a violent car-jacking brotherhood plots a desperate bid to escape the ‘family’ business.
His struggle to do so is countered at each stage by his indignant brothers, who finally try marrying him off to ‘settle’ him.
Titli, finds an unlikely ally in his new wife, caught though she is in her own web of warped reality and dysfunctional dreams. They form a strange, beneficial partnership, only to confront their inability to escape the bindings of their family roots. But is escape, the same as freedom?
Cast and Crew
Directed by: Kanu Behl
Produced by: Dibakar Banerjee and Yashraj Films
Music by: Karan Gour
Written by: Sharat Katariya & Kanu Behl
– Starring Ranveer Shorey, Amit Sial and introducing Shashank Arora
– Earlier Varun Grover wrote about Titli in this post.
After Leaving Home and Baavra Mann, filmmaker Jaideep Varma has directed one more documentary – I Am Offended. According to official post, it’s a documentary about stand up comedy in India within the context of Indian humor and growing intolerance in the country today. Featuring some of the brightest talents, in stand up comedy in India.
After Titli, one more Indian film is going to Cannes this year. Gitanjali Rao’s 19 min animation short film True Love Story has been selected for Canes Critics Week.
Her earlier short film Printed Rainbow premiered in the same section of Cannes in 2006 and had won three awards. She was also on the jury of Critics Week Short films in 2011.
In her words, True Love Story is a journey through the seductive, treacherous streets of Bombay. In a city soaked in Bollywood dreams, it moves from the fantastical to the viscerally real. True Love Story is a painted ode to romance.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 