what we are reading – EightandHalf
Like in the last few years, Rajeev Masand has done a series of roundtable discussions this year too. And the one which has the best panel and which interests us the most is the directors roundtable. This one had Vishal Bhardwaj (Haider), Rajat Kapoor (Ankhon Dekhi), Vikas Bahl (Queen), Imtiaz Ali (Highway), RajKumar Hirani (PK) and Abhishek Varman (2 States).
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.
Official Synopsis:
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.
Cast & Crew:
Title: Sulemani Keeda
International title: Writers
Writer & Director: Amit V Masurkar
Countries : India, USA
Year : 2014
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
DI: Post Blackbox
Line Producers: Deepak Arora, Arvinder Gill, Rakesh Singh, Navit Dutt
First Assistant Director: Omar Nissar Paul
Marketing Consultant: Rahul Merchant
Publicist: Mauli Singh
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.
Directed by: Manu Warrier
Produced by: Harish Amin
Written by: Sharath Parvathavani and Manu Warrier
Cast: Arjun Mathur, Sugandha Garg, Mohan Kapoor, Nandini Sen, Ishwari Bose-Bhattacharya
Co-Producers: Sharath Parvathavani, Rajeev Acharya, Nitin Chandrachud, Tess Joseph
Music and BG score: Prasad Ruparel
Cinematography: Yogesh Jaan
Editor: Anand Subaya
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.
Megha Ramaswamy’s documentary Newborns premiered at Toronto International Film Festival. And now it’s online for a limited time as part of Vimeo’s presentation of TIFF Short Cuts.
Watch it.
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
Watch the entire Short Cuts Online Program at: vimeo.com/channels/tiffshortcuts
Tip – ShortFilmWindow
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.
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.
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.
Here’s the new trailer of the film
If you are a regular follower of this blog, you must have noticed that the frequency of posts have gone down here. Apologies for that. The reason is most of us have got bit busy with our scripts and films. Anyway, we are starting a new section – Sunday Shorts. The idea is to feature some of the acclaimed shorts. They serve as great cv for feature filmmakers. And it’s a great way to look back at the early work done by directors who are now established.
We are starting with Gareth Edwards‘ Factory Farmed. It was an entry at Sci-Fi-London’s 48 Hr Film Challenge, and it went on to win the top award. The film had to be written, shot and edited in 48 hours, had to use a given prop (bottle with red/green liquid) and a line – I am required to carry out this task until completion: your orders do not override anything. 48Hr Film Challenge gives you these 3 conditions.
Edwards went to direct the indie hit Monster, and is now known as the director of new Godzilla.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 