what we are reading – EightandHalf
It’s always a great pleasure to hear the great directors. But it’s a pity that in our country we don’t have too many such events where one gets to hear the directors. And even if it happens, one hardly records the conversation.
At this year’s London Indian Film Festival, filmmaker Mani Ratnam was in conversation with director Peter Webber. And thankfully, they have recorded it too. So here’s the VOTD.
Since his commercial and critical hit Kahaani in 2012, Sujoy Ghosh has been missing in action. But here’s a pleasant surprise – he has directed a 14-minute short as part of Large Short Films.
Starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Tota Roy Chowdhury and Radhika Apte, this one is a smart spin on the story of Ahalya. Do watch.
If you didn’t notice, the names of the characters also gives you ample hit. And if you are still confused about the spin, click here to read the Ahalya’s story.
Film Writers Association (FWA) recently did a workshop on “pitching your story”. Filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane, screenwriter Shridhar Raghavan & Kamlesh Pandey, and producer Ram Mirchandani shared their ideas and experience about the process.
It’s great that FWA is finally taking some initiatives that will help the new writers. Just wish the video/audio was done professionally. And big thanks to the person who transcribed the entire video.
Watch the video or click here to read the transcript.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9LMw0moabQ
After having its screening at New York Indian Film Festival and International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, Prosit Roy’s short film Bloody Moustache is online now. Do check it out.
The film stars Jameel Khan, Priyanka Setia and Nisshan KP Nanaiah.
It’s written and directed by Prosit Roy.
Click here to read more about the film.
All of you who have asking us about the videos of Q and A with Dibakar Banerjee, here it is. And apologies for the delay. The first two parts were already out, the third part is out now. We are putting all the three parts here. Click on “PLAYLIST” tab on the top left corner of the video and select the part you want to see.
If you have seen Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, and liked/didn’t like it, the videos are a must watch. Because a good filmmaker always has a lot to deliver than just his film. Especially if it’s someone like Dibakar Banerjee. Also, it’s always nice to see a filmmaker who can see the problems in his films, accepts them, and doesn’t try to defend it always as its-my-baby-from-my-sperm-so-beautiful-how-can-it-have-problems.
Whenever there has been a film worth having a conversation, we have always tried to get the creative heads involved, and get them talking. We have been waiting for a long time to get Sriram Raghavan do the same. Finally, we got him for post-screening Q & A of Badlapur. Much thanks to Sriram, who not only obliged for it at a short notice, but he also got his co-writers Arijit Biswas and Pooja Ladha Surti for the discussion, whom we rarely get to hear.
Thanks to PVR Cinemas and Shiladitya Bora for the venue.
And a big thanks to Mihir Desai, Aniruddha Patankar & Anusha Singhania who recorded the entire event in poor light, edited it all, managed all the sound fuckups, and uploaded the videos for you all to see.
(PS – If you like our blog and are film fanatics like us, do like our FB page for all the cool cinema related stuff and discussions)
In our Sunday Shorts, today we are featuring Whiplash. The short film which was the pitch for the feature by the same title. This is also directed by Damien Chazelle.
Based on his own experiences, Damien wrote the script and it made to Black List of 2012. He then turned his script for feature length film into a short film script. The short was screened at Sundance Film Festival, got rave reviews, won the Short Film Jury Award, and the feature got funding as well.
Made in less than $5millon budget, and shot in just 19 days, the film went on to bag three Oscar Awards this years.
Click here to read a feature on Damien’s journey to the Oscars with Whiplash, his second feature film.
Tip – ShortFilmWindow
Terribly Tiny Talkies by Chintan Ruparel and Anuj Gosalia is a creative initiative which brings together a diverse pool of writers to create one tweet-sized story, everyday. This time, they have gone ahead and produced 5 shorts. The theme is “love”.
5 shorts, under 5 minutes, by 5 filmmakers. El’ayichi by Devashish Makhija, R.I.P (Romance In Peace) by Shlok Sharma, The Last Day by Adhiraj Bose, Bunny by Vasan Bala, and Deuce by Chitan Ruparel. Do watch them and VOTE for your favourite one.
EL’AYICHI by Devashish Makhija, stars Nimrat Kaur, Divyendu Sharma, Vibha Chibber and Dodo! A dead but clingy husband and grieving but annoyed wife lock horns over what chai should be made today – adrak or ilayichi.
Shlok Sharma’s R.I.P (ROMANCE IN PEACE) features veterans Tom Alter and Shiv Subramaniam It’s never too late to find love!
Adhiraj Bose’s film THE LAST DAY stars Namit Das and Tahir Raj Bhasin. It’s a story of 2 roommates, on the night one of them is moving out after 8 years. What do they want to say to each other? Can they say it all?
Vasan Bala’s BUNNY has Sayani Gupta and Sunny Kaushal. A boy and a girl pop sleeping pills around a fireplace in a forest. You won’t believe what happened next!
Chintan Ruparel’s film DEUCE features Mandira Bedi and Rohan Shah. A never ending game about love, insecurities, and acceptance; told around an intense match of table tennis between a mother and a son. VOTE for your favourite short!
It was an open bet. If Navjot Gulati‘s world-famous-in-vacuous-versova short film gets a million hit, we will feature it in our world-famous-in-vacous-versova blog. Fuck knows what we were drinking that day!
And thanks to his relentless social media marketing skills, the film really managed to cross the mark. And so, here is the film. Enjoy!
ps – Never take a bet with Navjot if it involves any promotional skills 😛
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).
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 