VOTD : Kamal Swaroop on Om Dar-B-Dar

Posted: January 21, 2014 by moifightclub in cinema, Indie, video, VOTD
Tags: , , ,
2

Are you done with watching Om Dar-B-Dar? No? what are you doing here? Go, watch the film and then come back to this post. If you have seen the film, you can read this post by Varun Grover to clarify all your doubts. Read? Got it? Your mind has opened up a bit? Great. Now watch these 3 videos where Kamal Swaroop talks about the film and his idea of sense and nonsense.

Thanks to Deepti DCunha, she recorded these videos when the restored version of the film had its premiere at Rome Film Festival in November, 2013.

The video quality is not great but the audio is clear and we can promise that it’s worth it. So do watch.

Om Dar-B-Dar : The Only Answer is “कसप”

Posted: January 19, 2014 by moifightclub in cinema, Indie, Movie Recco, movie reviews, Must Watch, World Cinema
Tags: , , , , ,
3

Kamal Swaroop’s cult film Om Dar-B-Dar has been restored and its finally in the theatres. Don’t miss it.

DON’T .  MISS.   IT.

And we are going with the mood of the film, so recycling an old post by Varun Grover which was written 3/4 years ago. Don’t worry, it still reads new just like the film and its ideas. If you have seen the film and are still wondering what the real story is, this post got all your answers.

ODBD

Death and mythology in a small town

बबलू बेबीलॉन से, बबली टेलीफोन से  (Bablu calling from Babylon, Babli listening on telephone)

Om Dar-B-Dar.  Om here and there. Or more precisely, Om here and there, helpless. That’s the name of a film I first heard about around 10-years back. It sounded like a typical wannabe ‘Indian Parallel Cinema Movement’ film of the 80’s. Though the ‘movement’ never went beyond the occasional film festival screening in India then (and now, much later, beyond the difficult-to-find DVDs in malls with bad architecture and heavy security) – it did give the otherwise angry-for-no-reason 70’s and colored-clay-pot strewn 80’s some credibility. Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Basu Chatterjee, Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani and with a much lighter hand, Sai Paranjape made cinema which was sometimes as local as a small stretch of highway in north India (Uski Roti (Our Daily Bread), Mani Kaul, 1970) or a residential chawl in a Bombay suburb (Katha (The story), Sai Paranjpe, 1983). In fact, they were the only people making cinema with a very strict sense of time and place – love letters which started with a date and place on top.

But then, art cinema movement too had groupies trying to pass off as the real rockstar. Films with dim lights, grim faces, and half a social issue (invariably leftist in thought) would instantly be termed as ‘parallel’, get the government of India funding, and be sent to film festivals abroad. Om Dar-B-Dar sounded like that kind of film, especially after one article I had read which described the film as some kind of existential study into the life of a teenager in a small town of Rajasthan.

Watching it recently for the first time, I realized, it is anything but me-too. Or even close to ‘art cinema’, as we know it. It exists in a league of its own. And though that may not be intended as a high praise, but that’s the only way it can be described.

मिथ्या है संसार – माया है संसार  (The world is a lie – the world is an illusion)

Kamal Swaroop, a scientist with DRDO (Defense Research and Development Organization) of India, turned a filmmaker, graduating from FTII, Pune, to debut with Om Dar-B-Dar. He calls his only feature film to date a kind of spoof on ‘art films’ of the time. “If anything, I wanted to make an anti-intellectual film. I didn’t want to make a film on some social issue or sad people. I just wanted to make a film about a small town”, said Swaroop in a personal interaction after the screening a few months ago. Having stayed in Pushkar in Rajasthan, famous for its annual Hindu mela (fare), probably helped him nail the setting of the film. His love for science and mythology admittedly helped in deciding the next two important aspects – the central character of teenaged Om and the basic conflict points in the story.

But is there a story in Om Dar-B-Dar? Kamal Swaroop insists there is – though the group with which I watched the film was clueless. Swaroop calls it bad conditioning – looking for story and only story in cinema. He says cinema is not necessarily mass communication, it can be a personal expression too; a painting or a poem. Though many were not convinced, Swaroop claims that the film, when screened in small villages of Rajasthan, was completely ‘understood’ and enjoyed by the simple villagers. Reasons being – less conditioning and more connection to the vibes and idiosyncrasies of a small town.

Next question – does the film have a form, a structure? Swaroop’s crisp answer – even deform is a form. What about accessibility? Comprehension? Head and tail? Again – Swaroop’s answer – why should cinema be objective? Why a film should be only one of the two things – I got it or I didn’t get it?

That raises some very valid debate points – story, form, and accessibility in cinema. Indian cinema, traditionally has been a story-driven exercise in videography. Starting off with mythological tales in the 30’s and 40’s, and evolving into equally simplistic good vs. evil (Hero vs Villain) cinema of the 60’s and 70’s – there is a long and deeply ingrained history of accessible stories pushing ‘cinema’ more and more into the ever-expanding space of ‘mass-media’. Rumor has it, two of the greatest films of Hindi cinema (Mughal-e-Azam, Guide) had their endings tweaked to accommodate popular tastes. (Anarkali being given a safe passage by the emperor and rains arriving on Raju’s death respectively).

The third aspect – form or structure, was also rarely played with in popular cinema, with the most adventurous of the lot taking the ‘flashback’ route as the only standout narrative element. It can be noted here that most of the art cinema movement films too had a strong focus on story-accessibility couple – they differed majorly in the structure/form department. In addition to having more realistic settings and acting, they succeeded in creating a new cinematic-clock for themselves – a form where time moves slower and hence more details are visible, and vice versa.

And here lies the most distinct element of Om Dar-B-Dar – cinematic clock, here, moves as fast, if not faster than a regular commercial Hindi film while the other two aspects (story and accessibility) are given the least respect. In fact, it would be much enjoyable to watch it as 20 short films (a lot of them very funny, and an equal number completely nonsensical) about Om’s family and friends, stitched together with music, surreal dreams and a mythological back-story. So, for the math-minded – ODBD is an anti-art, anti-commercial film moving at the pace of a commercial film and having the details of an art-film.

टैडपोल से हम (We are like Tadpoles)

After the film screening is over, and after heated debates on whether it can even be called a film in the first place are done with, Kamal Swaroop smiles and asks whether anybody still wants to know the story. A few hands go up and Swaroop relents.

(SPOILERS) Om, a teenager, is blessed with a magical power and he can hold his breath for any desired duration of time. This results in him putting up a show at the holy place of Pushkar (ascribed as the only heaven on Earth in Hindu mythological texts), where he goes inside water and holds his breath. Once, to protest against Brahma, the Hindu God credited as the creator of the world, who has decided to remove the ‘heaven’ status of Pushkar, the locals decide to put up a non-cooperation movement against Brahma. The only non-cooperation they can do to Brahma is to stop breathing, as that’s the only gift he has given. But since Om’s natural tendency is to not breath, for him, the non-cooperation would be the act of breathing. At the time of protest, Om happens to be inside the pond where he puts up his show. He breathes, to support the non-cooperation, and dies. (spoilers end)

But then, one has to watch the film many times to get this story – and as I said, there are at least 20 more stories, all equally layered, and delivered at a crazy pace. At times, it looks like an MTV Production, with the kind of visual liberties, caricatures, and abrupt cutting involved. (No wonder, Swaroop later helmed the launch of Channel V in India, playing a crucial role in defining the ‘funky’ auro-visual space it’s known for now.)

 कसप (How do I know)

In a crucial scene in Hindi novelist Manohar Shyam Joshi’s ‘Kasap’, the male protagonist’s naada (thread of pajamas) gets stuck in a knot in front of the girl he is wooing. In Om Dar-B-Dar, a similar thing happens when a young man is about to start making love to his girlfriend. Funny, sad, frustrating, and deeply observational at the same time – moments like these make ODBD a watch to remember.

Whether it’s a film with story, structure, accessibility, or (latest buzzword) ‘take-homes’ is a debate worth drunken nights with friends. The film released in 1988, and has been getting buzz (positive, negative, both) at regular intervals. Though that doesn’t guarantee a great, path-breaking, or cult status to any work of art (or mass-media) – it surely means there are enough cinema crazies in the world.

As for whether you will like it, the only answer is ‘कसप’.

Being Llewyn Davis – Posters and Winners

Posted: January 18, 2014 by moifightclub in Contests, Hollywood, Poster, Posters, World Cinema
Tags: ,
0

Thanks to PVR, we were running a contest for Inside Llewyn Davis. The ticket winners were announced on daily basis. The poster contest was aimed at having some more fun and for true lovers of the film.

We asked people to pose like Llewyn Davis – with their cat, dog, parrot, snake, dinosaur, or any pet they have, and if nothing, props will also do. Some entries were genuine, some just copy-pasted from net (so no prize), and some for fun which have been sent by friends. We are sharing some of the pics here.

Click on any image to start the slide show. You can see the person’s name/handle on left bottom. Or just right click to open individual pics in new window, you can see the contributor’s name on top. or just hold the cursor on the pic, you can see the names.

And here are the winners –

@adityamattoo

@AratiKadav

@cinemawalah

@kafucka and @sashaBCC  – one poster. Because love is all about sharing Coens film poster.

@psemophile

@nusratjafri and @sumit_roy_ – one poster. Because same reason as mentioned above.

@stwta

@varungrover

Congrats to everyone! Thanks for participating.

Here’s another good news. If you still haven’t seen the film, it is still in theatres in select cities in its second week.

PVR Ambience Mall Gurgaon 5:45 pm
PVR Forum Mall Koramangala Bangalore 4:10 pm
PVR Phoenix Lower Parel Mumbai 12:10 pm

Do watch and do spread the word so that we get to see more Coens films in our theatres.

Nagraj Popatrao Manjule’s “Fandry” gets an official trailer

Posted: January 18, 2014 by moifightclub in cast & crew, cinema, film, first look, Indie, Marathi, Movie Recco, News, Trailer, video
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
5

Fandry

Initially it was the title of the film that made us curious. And strangely, nobody knew the meaning because though it seems like a Marathi word, it isn’t. And then we saw the film at Mumbai Film Festival and loved it. It even featured in our best scenes of the year list.

The film has been written and directed by Nagraj Manjule. The makers have just released the official first trailer of the film. It perfectly captures the mood and the essence of the film. Have a look. And thankfully, it’s with English subtitles.

Official Synopsis

A mesmeric force pulls Jabya onto the other side. The rarest of rare Black Sparrow, he is told, is the cure to his problem. The hypnotic spell of the sparrow makes him wander relentlessly. Completely away from the magical world of Jabya, exists the callous reality of his parents who are working at the most oppressed level of the Indian Class Structure and assume him to do the same work which they have done all their life. The protagonist Jabya has to now struggle between his quest to find the magical sparrow and his parents’ expectations. Will Jabya be successful in his pursuit of the Black Sparrow? Will the magnetic power surpass the class differences between Jabya and Shalu created by centuries of customs.? Will Jabya break the fences and pass onto the other side?

Cast & Crew

Studio – Navalakha Arts and Holy Basil Combine

Director – Nagraj Manjule

Writer – Nagraj Manjule

Screenplay – Nagraj Manjule

Music – Alokananda Dasgupta

Producer – Nilesh Navalakha and Vivek Kajaria

Cast – Kishor Kadam, Chhaya Kadam, Somnath Avghade, Suraj Pawar, Rajshree Kharat,
Sakshi Vyavhare, Aishvarya Shinde, Pravin Tarde, Bhushan Manjule, Nagraj Manjule

– Click here to read our review note from MFF.

– Click here to read Varun Grover and Kushan Nandy’s take on their favourite scenes of the year, both from Fandry.

– Click here to visit film’s official FB page.

And do watch it. It’s releasing on 14h Feb.

Miss Lovely – Review by Connesieur of B & C Grade Movies

Posted: January 17, 2014 by moifightclub in cinema, film review, Indie, movie reviews, reviews, World Cinema
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
3

Aseem Chandaver, or Baba Jogeshwari or Gina Kholkar on Twitter or Neelouli on youtube, or by whatever name you might know him, he is hands down the baap of all B-C Grade movie buffs that we know of. Working in Mumbai as a copywriter, the man is responsible for sifting through tons and tons of campy movies, selecting clips, uploading and sharing them in his spare time, purely for the joy and love of B-C Grade cinema. We thought it would be fitting to post what he thought of Miss Lovely and requested him for a review. So here it goes, Aseem on Ashim’s film –

Miss Lovely1

Since the global connection of interconnected computer networks is presently imploding with acute interest, unanticipated awe and limitless curiosity for the once shadowy genre of B, C & D-grade films, I thought since the past one and a half years that director Ashim Ahluwalia’s film Miss Lovely will uphold a sense of equilibrium by retaining the novelty, cleansing the category of all its amassed gloss and prolonging fandom through unseen and unheard tales of cinematic obscurity.

Well, I was wrong. Miss Lovely is definitely a new brand and flavor of soda pop, but without any strong hallmark fizz. An incredibly well-researched and chronicled film that leans on its experiential past without ever paying attention to the evidently weak screenplay and character extinguishes. A stalwart and his coerced unenthusiastic brother who falls in love with the struggling actress, asphyxiated in a subterranean world is not only captivating, but a ticking calm bomb set to explode when you least expect it. Instead of a pensive postmortem or even seeing the world through seedy filmmaking eyes, it does a staccato job of introducing you to half-baked and sometimes clichéd characters with anticlimax dialogues that literally deflate moments of visual narrative and accomplished story.

The film starts with a brilliant spook sequence, which even incorporates cleverly reconstructed POV shots from Director Baby’s B-Grade magnum opus House No. 13, a slight Desi rendition of the movie ‘The Poltergeist’. Ahluwalia’s profound knowledge of what the audience wanted and what psychoactive levels the filmmakers went to entertain those fantasies can be unmistakably seen here.

House No. 13 scene. Watch from 1:00:55 –

In the House No. 13 intro scene, just as the audience gets bored with the ghost being charred to flesh and dust, Ahluwalia reveals years old secret that made some of these films a runaway success. As the House No. 13 reel ends, there begins a Double X rated film which were in the 80s and intermittently in the 90s cut pasted all throughout the film. These double X films were either shot separately with a completely different cast or with the film’s cast continuing a lovemaking scene in the same film but with topless or semi-naked shots. Some insider moments like these keep springing in the first half of the film; two of the most memorable ones being the scenes from Wohin Bhayaanak Raat and a motleyed recreation of Khooni Panja & Hatyarin, where Ahluwalia unveils yet another fascinating tale of fetish based cinematic excellence – Spectrophilia/Necrophilia.

Wohin Bhayanak Raat – From 3.27 –

I think Ashim has been a lot around the sets of B-Auteur Vinod Talwar – The Dulhan Scene particularly motif from these two movies –

Khooni Panja – From 1:02:28

Hatyarin – From 11:23

In one scene, a newlywed bride is being ravished by a monstrous aberration in a sexually charged hypnotic trance which is depicted by Ahluwalia with a hysterical and precise recreation of the shooting style of Camp filmmakers; while in the other we have Kiran Kumar’s deep-fried chicken pakora avatar who ferociously sucks the blood out of female victims is superbly incorporated in the film as if it is made by the film’s lead pair The Duggal Bros (assuming it is made to sound like The Dhillon Bros, a famous B-movie duo).

There are several triumphs like these where the Director outshines and puts a wide smile on enthusiasts and novices alike. The entire movie is laced with a ‘Green Room-esque’ motif, and when you combine the moody direction with ace cinematographer Mohanan’s virtuosity, you are inadvertently left with a princely smack of Cuticura, the mentally depressing lights of the backstage and the impending doom of a wrathful breakdown from the funding Underworld Dons and unpredictably sinister Distributors. The music of the film is absolutely mind-blowing. Instead of lackadaisical 80s guitars and off-tune keyboard sonatas by less known music directors, the music has been perceptively compiled containing the best of post-disco pop such as Nazia Hassan & Biddu and even contains psychedelic compositions by Maestro Ilaiyaraja and Italian exploitation composers Egisto Macchi and Piero Umiliani of Manha Manha fame.

Dum Dum Dede – Miss Lovely Official Song

The musketeers of Miss Lovely are its stylized treatment, costumes, production design and lastly, Da Man Nawazuddin Siddiqui, an actor who rises like a phoenix from a deadpan screenplay and heightens his character even when he stands still, traumatized and sickeningly numb after a prison term, watching his heartless brother’s wife beseeching him not to enter her newly started life. An unforgettable scene where Nawazuddin lifelessly stands still and simply gives a smile, flummoxed at the heartlessness of the world. What masquerades as a dense narrative is actually an intensive lack of scenario. The story is about a forlorn and discontented bloke Sonu (Nawaz) who joins his slightly established B-movie filmmaker Vicky (Anil George) in the Camp movie-making business. After initial shocks and frustrations, he meets Pinky (Niharika Singh), an innocent struggler who hails from a strict family. Sonu pretends to be a filmmaker who promises her a lead role in his upcoming film titled Miss Lovely. After a brutal clash from the underworld and sundry financiers, Vicky lures Sonu into a last resort plan that forever exiles him to oblivion.

Even with the leading characters’ galling complexities, insecurities and their escapades, the film battles between two worlds whether to tell the story of the B, C & D-Grade World through the eccentric mentation of Vicky and Sonu or try to salvage the maladroit storyline impediments of all three characters, leading to an inevitable Bhandarkar-esque situation. And yet the movie is sandwiched by some of the most painstakingly showcased cultural phenomena and developments of the late 80s and early 90s.

With all its narrative faults, Miss Lovely proved to be a commendable watch due to its spectacularly rich recreation of the first ever D-Grade Era, its uncompromisingly Pulp and Psychedelic 80s settings, the Behind-The-Scenes of extremely paltry budget films, dark humor of its characters and of course for the glory for Camp/Cult fanaticism.

P.S – I’m extremely angry as someone flagged my Qatil Chudail video as inappropriate and pulled it out from youtube.

(Editorial Team note – You can check out Aseem’s videos collection here, here and here. And click here for our 2012 rewind post in which we’d written about Miss Lovely)

Xclusive : Behind The Scenes of ‘Miss Lovely’ with director Ashim Ahluwalia

Posted: January 15, 2014 by moifightclub in Behind The Scenes, cinema, Xclusive
Tags: , , , , , , ,
1

Ashim Ahluwalia’s film Miss Lovely premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2012 and has been doing the fest rounds since then. Finally, it’s all set to release this friday.

The official synopsis describes the film as follows – Set in the lower depths of Bombay’s “C” grade film industry, MISS LOVELY follows the devastating story of two brothers who produce sex horror films in the mid-1980s. Some of us saw the film at Mumbai Film Festival and loved it. A great atmospheric film which makes you feel claustrophobic and displays great filmmaking craft which is so rare in Indian cinema.

In this post, Ashim takes us behind the scenes of the film and tells the story of making of the film through these 8 images. Do click on any of the pic to start the slide show and do watch the images in full size because even these stills capture the mood of the film so well.

PIC 1 – Nawaz (top left)

I was very lucky to cast Nawaz in his first leading role – he had struggled for ages and nobody would give him a lead, only character parts. I didn’t know who he was, but when he did the screen test he appeared so broken by the industry, so frustrated, with a lot of pent up anger, I was amazed. I realized that he was, in real life, just like my character Sonu Duggal – who is also very unfulfilled, working like a donkey for his dominating elder brother.

PIC 2 –  DoP, Horror film set (top right)

My DoP is Mohanan. He shot my first film, John & Jane. We are like brothers separated at birth. He gets me – we discuss stock, processing, colour temperature, texture, framing  – and we are almost always on the same page. Miss Lovely is in some ways about the end of celluloid, the end of cinema as we know it – so I didn’t want to shoot digital – it needed to be on film. I wanted Miss Lovely to look like it was shot on the (now unavailable) Indu stock of the 1980s. F**ked up, warm, grainy, with a very particular desi look. He thought I would ruin his career with all the Ramsay Brothers gels that we were using, but I think that he now feels very proud, like this is one of the more beautiful films he has shot.

PIC 3 – Cat fight. Crowd (2nd from top right)

We don’t have enough cat fights in our films anymore and I kind of miss that. This is a scene where two actresses – Poonam and Nadia – get rough with each other. Poonam is from a previous generation, she’s had her time, and Nadia is young and all set to replace her. Nadia is wearing an outfit straight out of a silk smitha film. Unfortunately, they actually started fighting and it got out of hand. Nawaz tried to separate them and got slammed into the mattebox of the camera. He was bleeding – it was stressful to shoot this scene.

PIC 4 – Movie on screen

Everything was shot on location. We were trying to recreate a Bombay of the mid-1980s that is also the Bombay of mid-1980s cinema. You will get it if you’re from a certain kind of background. I wanted quintessential Hindi cinema—the villains by the pool, the cabaret. Miss Lovely is an architectural film—it’s my kind of Bombay film, in a way.

It’s virtually impossible to recreate 1980s Bombay since there’s almost nothing left. Forty per cent of our locations have been knocked down.

The times were flash but also faded. We spent a lot of time dipping costumes into tea and deteriorating them. I wouldn’t let anybody take a shower or wash off make-up. I wanted things to look lived in.

 PIC – 5, 6, 7 (Nawaz on bed, Anil George with crowd, Legs on top)

Shooting a fake porn scene at the Darukhana ship breaking yard was not easy. We didn’t have permission and while we were shooting the police raid where Sonu gets arrested, all the dock workers showed up to watch the shoot. They saw cops (who were actors in costume) chasing a woman covered only in a bedsheet and a guy in his underwear and thought that there was something serious going on. They thought we were TV crews covering the real event. I decided to include the actual crowd in the scene without them realizing it – it was total madness, an almost riot-like situation, but I am most happy with this scene.

PIC – 8 (Niharika on the sets)

Both Nawaz and Niharika were frustrated with the industry when I met them. I didn’t know either – I just screen tested them. Niharika had shot two Himesh Reshimmiya films that had been shelved. She was fed up waiting to be a heroine and was ready for something new. Her character Pinky is a struggling actor, who is also very exhausted trying to make it – so like Nawaz her real life overlapped a lot with her character in the film.

 – To know more about the film, cast and crew, click here.

What happened with Coke Studio (Pakistan) Season 6?

Posted: January 15, 2014 by moifightclub in music, WTF
Tags: , , ,
1

Our regular music contributor Rohwit is angry. He is in full Hulk mode. Here’s why.

Coke-Studio-Season-6

Background

Like every year, the entire commune of music lovers (and cynics) waited for the new season of Coke Studio Pakistan to air, and despite so many delays, it finally did. The modus operandi was different this time. It was to showcase what ‘logistics proof’ fusion can achieve thanks to technology. The melodies were handpicked by the studio and were given a twist by recording a part of it live in Pakistan and add to the same with musicians outside Pakistan, by way of post production.

The result

Clearly communicated in their press events and in Pakistan local media, the season was expected to have 8 episodes. However, much to everyone’s surprise, after episode 5 came an abrupt announcement that it was the last episode of the season.

The hate

Not many liked the new sound because of many reasons. Some were logical (stating they missed the wholesome feel to it and so forth). What took my goat was when I heard few really stupid stuff from the so called musicians who I used to adore. Calling the producer of Coke Studio a ‘corporate douchebag’ and venting out their venomous reaction seemed kind of ‘khattey angoor’ish to me because they haven’t been invited to the Studio thus far.

Anyway, here are some really stupid ‘reasons’ doing rounds with our modest replies to them. Feel free to add your reply or questions

1.       The local musicians were ignored by collaborating with outside musicians

Yes, you are right. After all it is only Coke Studio Pakistan’s duty to put the entire country’s musicians on the world map. Everyone else can continue aping this movement and sing the same old compositions with shoddy camera work. More so, when the studio communicated right from the beginning that this time they will attempt next level of fusion by mixing their sound with foreign musicians, they should have totally ignored foreign musicians. Makes sense. Isn’t it?

2.       In one of the song, the local musicians’ footage was cut. Blasphemy!

Very sad that in the final edit the musician got edited out. Can you ask that musician to return the cheque because apparently he was looking at a TV appearance, and couldn’t make the final cut?

3.       Imagine! For listening to music we now have to see T.V.!  (click here)

Err what? Please read the point allegation number 2 above. It wasn’t supposed to be about T.V, yet people are up roaring against this? Confusing. Can you repeat the question please? This time without being in the influence of substance abuse? Thank you.

 4.       Non musician corporate douchebag shouldn’t be the project manager of such a movement.

Absolutely right. To us he looks like a failed corporate executive. I mean why give out the music for free when you can make money by selling it? Right?

Our Submission

Coke Studio Pakistan has always been about music, and the fun the band has been creating with that music. Of course, this year they went a step ahead and tried to present their music to the world at large by treating it differently with ‘foreign musicians’. We feel the season went great and was pleasantly different from what we have all accustomed ourselves whenever a mention of Coke Studio Pakistan is made. They tried something new this year, just like they tried something new when they kick started season 1. Rather than jumping up and down literally forcing them to pre-end the season and keeping us all devoid of the experiments that Coke Studio is known for, we could have allowed them to go on.

Our folk music will always be a treasure trove. The art is to produce it and arrange it in a way that it reaches maximum people. For that, sitting with a 12Kbps file will not help. Let the art out. Let it be explored. Let people mix classical with new, serious with silly…let it all flow. Somehow whatever is good will stick. That’s the beauty of art in any form.

Like we read in an article somewhere – Past all borders, music begs for us to look deeper, when understanding the idea of what is ours. Can we do that? Or is it too tough?

– Rohwit

Om Dar B Dar – It’s Raining Frogs!

Posted: January 14, 2014 by moifightclub in cinema, Indie, Poster, Posters, World Cinema
Tags: , , , ,
0

1507938_10152164416485350_1695984920_n

Few years back when i was searching for a copy of Om Dar B Dar, every search ended in disappointment. Everyone had heard about the film, few had seen it and nobody had a copy. As the chain spread through friends, and their friends and more friends, we finally got to know someone who had a copy of the film. But he wasn’t willing to give it to us for the screening. He said he will come with the copy, screen the film and take it back. And that made sense because who would part away with something so rare. This is what you call a cult classic.

Thanks to NFDC and PVR Directors Rare, the film has been restored and is getting a release this friday. Don’t miss this one in theatres. Can bet that you haven’t seen anything like this in Indian cinema. As i keep repeating myself, i remember it as mixed media art installation. It’s esoteric, funny, trippy and yet completely accessible. If you have any apprehensions, don’t worry, just enjoy the ride. And remember, Kamal Swaroop made frogs cool much before P T Anderson discovered them.

Recently Kamal Swaroop posted a status on FB asking for fan posters. And entries have been pouring since then. We are sharing some of the fan posters. The last one is the official poster of the film. Click on any pic to start the slide show.

– To check out more fan posters, click here to go to its FB page.

– To check out the film’s new trailer and more info about it, click here.

Who Is Jared Leto?

Posted: January 14, 2014 by moifightclub in cinema, Hollywood
Tags: , , ,
4

You know JLo, you also know JLaw, but do you know JLe or JLeto? Well, If you were watching Golden Globes and heard the name Jared Leto, and are still wondering who is this guy, @SilverlightGal has got the answer for you.

JL

It’s that time of the year again when actors and actresses make space in their (perhaps already crowded or perhaps nearly empty) shelves to store little statuettes that recognize their contribution to the world of films. The BAFTAs, the Golden Globes, and the Academys, all will follow one another. And this year, besides rooting for the usual suspects, the one person whom I am strongly rooting for is, Jared Leto. Yes, you heard that right.

Who’s Jared Leto, you may ask?

A man who is perfectly sober plays a heroin addict convincingly.

A man who is scrawny and looks harmless on first sight plays a serial killer with such conviction that it send a chill down your spine.

A man who is scrawny gains enough weight in real life without using prosthetics to imply bulk.

A man who is sane and socially active plays a socially awkward, unstable, and deranged murderer.

A man who is perfectly straight plays a transgender woman.

That’s Jared Leto for you.

From playing a heroin addict Harry Goldfarb in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream to playing the bloated deranged Mark Chapman who assassinates John Lennon to playing a scrawny yet chilling killer Raymond Fernandez, he’s done a wide range of roles. Yet received comparatively less recognition as compared to the other A-list actors. People often go into raptures citing Christian Bale’s commitment and dedication to a role (I myself have been guilty of that at times) and yet ignore Leto’s similar preparations for a role. While the likes of Bale instantly gain worldwide acclaim and popularity, actors like Leto get sidelined and their contributions to cinema often overlooked.

To play Harry Goldfarb, Jared Leto lost 28 pounds and to play Chapman, he gained a whopping 67 pounds. And it’s not just about losing or gaining weight. Pushing himself to extremes, he sinks into the character he’s supposed to play. In Lonely Hearts, he teamed up with Salma Hayek to play a serial killer. On a normal day if someone had told you this skinny and funny looking guy could play a character that chops up a woman into pieces, you would laugh right out into their faces. But it was Leto who had the last laugh when he played the role with immense conviction.

Despite winning critical acclaim for his roles, the awards have mostly eluded him. He’s been nominated several times but hardly won any big awards. Hopefully, this year, his performances as a HIV positive transgender woman in Dallas Buyers Club will change that. The 2014 Golden Globes have arrived with a big bang and they have brought good tidings for Leto with a Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture award.

Pitted against Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), Daniel Brühl (Rush), Bradley Cooper (American Hustle), and Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave), Jared Leto held his own and emerged the dark horse winner. Dark horse because a lot of people’s money was on Michael Fassbender or even Bradley Cooper for his scintillating portrayal of a wild FBI agent.

So, what’s Dallas Buyers Club about?

Ron Woodroof a Texas-based  electrician and rodeo cowboy finds his freewheeling life turned upside  down when he discovers he’s H.I.V.-positive and given 30 days to live. However, he refuses to accept the death sentence. He begins a daredevil journey into smuggling alternative medicines into the U.S where they weren’t available earlier. It is in the course of this journey that he comes across Rayon, a transgender woman who is also a fellow AIDS patient. Together, they establish the Dallas Buyers Club through which AIDs patients get access to the smuggled medicines by paying a monthly fee. Slowly, buyt surely, they build a collective, a community, of fellow patients who all want a little more of life, dignity, and acceptance.

To play the transgender woman, Rayon, Jared had to wax his whole body including his eyebrows, learn the appropriate styles and mannerisms to portray a transsexual person without appearing demeaning or derogatory in any way. He has been quoted on how he went deep into that character so much that he hopes to take away some of the good elements of Rayon into his own life.

In an interview with Rolling Stone in November 2013, he spoke about how he’s always been awarded and recognized for his music than his acting and that he did so wish people would value his film performances too.

With the Golden Globe safely tucked under his arm, here’s hoping that he goes on to win all the other awards too that he’s been nominated for.

Let’s hear it for Jared Leto!

(@SilverlightGal is passionate about cinema and is always eager for any discussions pertaining to cinema.)

(Note – To make life bit simpler, now you don’t need to fill in all the details to post comments. If you are already logged into Facebook or Twitter, just log in with your FB/T account. Click on comment box, you can see the small (FB/T) icon below the comment box, click on FB/T, a pop up will appear, authorize the app and you are done)

Win “Inside Llewyn Davis” Tickets & Posters

Posted: January 12, 2014 by moifightclub in cinema, Contests, Hollywood, Posters
Tags: , , , ,
3

ILDPic

Coen Brothers latest film Inside Llewyn Davis has just released in India. The film won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival and has been getting rave reviews since then. If you still haven’t seen the film, here’s your chance to win tickets. And if you have seen the film and loved it, here’s your chance to win posters. We are running this contest with the help of PVR Cinemas.

For “Inside Llewyn Davis” Tickets

Just answer these 3 simple Questions. We are not looking for right answers (at least for the first two questions). We are looking for interesting answers. The more creative you can be, better is your chance of winning.

1. In Inside Llewyn Davis, why is the cat called Ulysses? (we don’t want correct wiki answers, think of a new reason and tell us)

2. If you were one of the Coens, what would you have named the cat? And why? Put your Coen cap on.

3. What’s your favourite Coens film and why. Tell us in one line.

– Mail us the answers to these 3 Questions and just write “ILD” in subject. Our mail id is moifightclub@gmail.com

– We will be giving away free tickets everyday, for Monday-Thursday shows of the film. If the answers are really good, there is not limit to the number of tickets to be won.

– Since the film has released in just 6 cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad) so you have to in one of the cities to participate and win. For theatre listing, scroll down. If the response is good, PVR plans to release it in other cities in second week.

– For the tickets, do scroll down and check out the theatre listing. Along with your entries, do let us know your preference for the city/date/theatre/show. Give us at least 2 choices. We will try to give you the tickets for the same.

For Inside Llewyn Davis Posters

To win the film’s posters, it’s a much easy contest. If you have seen the film, then pose with your cat like Llewyn Davis. It can be from any scene of the film. If you haven’t seen the film, just google “Inside Llewyn Davis + cat”, you will see enough images. Get your cat and pose exactly like that. If you don’t have a cat, try it with your dog, parrot, dinosaur or whatever pet you have.

– Click the pic, tweet it and tag us – @NotSoSnob and @ShiladityaBora. We are not obsessed with the moronic idea of trending dumb hashtags, so not asking for the same. If you are not on twitter, mail us at moifightclub@gmail.com with subject “ILD PIC”.

– If you don’t have a cat or dog or dinosaur or any such pet, you can try it with your or your friend’s kid or even any prop/object.

– The interesting the pic, the more creative you can be, the closer it looks like Inside Llewyn Davis pose, better is your chance of winning the poster.

– For any queries or doubts, comment here or write to us at moifightclub@gmail.com

– Thanks to PVR Cinemas for getting the film here and for the contest.

And even if you don’t win tickets, don’t miss this film. Click here for our recco post on the film and click here for a terrific review of the film by A O Scott.

ILD

Older Entries
Newer Entries