what we are reading – EightandHalf
The hype, the excitement, the wait ends today.
Sriram Raghavan’s Andhadhun releases. And everyone is eager to watch it to know the answers to the questions the trailer raised.
Meanwhile, why not give a viewing to the short that is supposed to have given Sriram Raghavan the core idea of the movie?
Here’s French short The Piano Tuner, by Olivier Treiner.
Bad news first – Large Short Films continues to be moronic and is still peddling Chaitanya Tamhane’s name in all their communication, even in their medianet promotions.
And the good news – Somnath Pal’s gorgeous looking animated short is out. It’s beautifully evocative. Do watch it. Also, the posters are so striking, we are sharing all of them here.
And here’s the short
Remember the saying, you never get a second chance to make the first impression. Well, that’s true for films too. If you can score well in your first film, that’s like a dream run. Also, because the journey to the first film is always the most difficult.
One of our favourite books on cinema is My First Movie. Do read it if you haven’t. There is a desi version too – Directors’ Diaries: The Road to Their First Film. We haven’t read it though. If anyone has, do let us know.
Film critic Anupama Chopra has started a new segment on similar lines – My First Film, for her web show, Film Companion. And the first guest is RajKumar Hirani who talks about the making of Munnabhai MBBS. The film was both critically and commercially blockbuster.
Do watch.
At the recently concluded Indian Screenwriters Conference, veteran journalist and author P Sainath delivered the keynote address. The annual conference is organised by Film Writers Association.
If you missed the conference, we have embedded the video. Do watch.
And if you want to read, Mirror carried excerpts from his speech. Click here to read.
David Sandberg’s horror feature, Lights Out, has released in theatres this week. And if you are not aware, it was actually a short film by Sandberg and his wife, Lotta Losten, that led to this feature.
The short is online. We are embedding it here. Do watch it.
Click here to read an article about the journey from this short to the feature film, how a complete stranger from other part of the world landed up in Hollywood to make his feature debut.
And do click here to read his interview.
Abhishek Chaubey’s Udta Punjab has been topic of much discussion, both pre and post-release. Navjot Gulati and Mihir Desai got the director-writer duo to talk about the film in a post-screening session.
Do watch.
Its been a while since we have posted a new film in our Sunday Shorts segment. But this week, we got a new short by writer and filmmaker Devashish Makhija. This film has Manoj Bajpayee in the lead, and he is in terrific form here, even if it is just a glance here, and a reaction there. Music is by Nucleya. Watch it.
And if you didn’t get the film, the description on the youtube page dissects it all. Here you go..
Head constable Tambe isn’t having the best of days.
His wife slams doors in his face.
His little daughter won’t speak to him.
His only friends, havaldaars Sawant and Shilwant, feel cheated by him.
And to make matters worse, he’s been given nightlong Ganpati visarjan bandobast duty.
The lights are blinding.
The drums are deafening.
Explosions.
Clanging.
Flashing.
Thrashing.
His senses are being attacked from every which way.
Every screaming face seems to be mocking him tonight.
His blood…
slowly…
rises…
to a…
boil…
Until he snaps, plunges into the crowd, pulls his gun out, and as jaws drop around him…
he unleashes a TAANDAV!
Bikas Mishra’s debut feature Chauranga is all set to release this friday. The film bagged the top award in the section of Indian films at last year’s Mumbai Film Festival. And it seemed like a good time to look back at his earlier film – short titled Naach Ganesh (Dance Of Ganesha).
The film was screened at Busan, Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand and few other international film festival.
About the film
An Indian folk dancer is caught in his daily struggle of survival in an automobile factory. The burden to earn a living for his family and preserve his family tradition of ritual Ganesha dancing is humongous. His two roles – the sole bread winner of the family and the magnificent elephant god Ganesha, are so diverse that his journey from factory to village looks like time travel and his existence schizophrenic! Ganesha, the dancer lives in the fear of the day when he will have to choose between livelihood and art/tradition
We love year end lists. It’s great fun to see who thinks what about which film at the end of the year. Rajeev Masand does a year end roundtable with actors and directors.
In this year’s roundtable, he has six filmmakers who talk about some of the newsy topics and the challenges they faced. The directors are Sriram Raghavan (Badlapur), Anand L Rai (Tanu Weds Manu Returns), Zoya Akhtar (Dil Dhadakne Do), Shoojit Sircar (Piku), Sharat Katariya (Dum Laga Ke Haisha), and Kabir Khan (Bajrangi Bhaijaan).
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 