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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– Early buzz on Kanu Behl’s Titli : Titli is the most stunning, daring, solid Indian film i have seen this year. Nothing like Indian cinema has seen ever…not a single wrong frame. Too depressing and suffocating at times…but man, this MUST go international. Animal kingdom ka baap hai! And all actors just at their career best roles. (via a friend who saw it). Titli is produced by Dibakar Banerjee and Aditya Chopra. To know more about the film, click here.
– Kanu Behl’s Titli also won the DI Award for the Best Work-in-Progress Lab Project. The DI Award sponsors the completion of the Digital Intermediate process at Prasad Labs.
– New York-based BGP Film has picked up the North American rights of Gyan Correa’s film The Good Road.
– Abhay Deol will star in the UK-set thriller, Bounty Hunter, to be directed by brothers Sunandan and Yugesh Walia. They will also co-produce the film rough their UK-based production company Endboard Productions.
– Q to make English-language debut with Brahman Naman, to be produced by Steve Barron’s UK-based Riley Productions. Set in Bangalore in the 1980s, the film is a comedy about a 17-year-old who tops his class but also has whisky addiction, filthy mouth and a porn collection. Q’s Kolkata-based production company Overdose Joint will co-produce.
– France’s ASAP Films to produce Rajesh Jala’s The Spark (Chingari). It was selected for NFDC Screenwriters’ Lab and Co-production Market. The script also won the Incredible India award at Film Bazaar. The Award comes with a cash price of Rs. 1 mn for the best project in the Co-Production Market and is presented by the Ministry of Tourism.
– Ashim Ahluwalia’s film Miss Lovely is set to release in India in January 2014. This will be done through the start-up theatrical distributor Easel Films and Eagle Movies.
– Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment has announced two new films – Amit Kumar’s Give Me Blood and Vasan Bala’s Side Hero.
– Nikhil Mahajan (of Pune 52) has announced his new film Dainik which will star Rajkummar Rao (Yes, RajKumar Yadav is now Rao). DAR Motion Pictures, IME Motion Pictures and Nikhil Mahajan’s Blue Drop Films will co-produce Marathi action adventure Baji, starring Shreyas Talpade.
– Varun Grover’s film Maa Bhagwatiya IIT Coaching will be produced by Nikhil Mahajan. The script was selected for Screenwriters Lab.
– DAR Motion Pictures, IME Motion Pictures will co-produce Nikhil Mahajan’s Marathi Superhero film Baji starring Shreyas Talpade.
– After Qissa, filmmaker Anup Singh is working on adapting UK author Paul Pickering’s novel Over The Rainbow. The film will be produced by Switzerland-based Saskia Vischer Productions.
– Channel 4 has picked up four titles – The Good Road, Sulemani Keeda, Fandry and B.A. Pass.
Asia Pacific Screen Awards has announced its nomination list for this year. It includes 4 Indian films. The winners will be honoured in Brisbane on December 12, 2013.
The films include Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox, Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout, Shilpa Ranade’s Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya and Amit Virmani’sMenstrual Man (Singapore, India).
Ritesh Batra earned an APSA Nomination for Best Screenplay for The Lunchbox, which he also directed (India, Germany, France), alongside Asghar Farhadi (Le Passé [The Past]) and Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and Anisul Hoque (Television).
Rajeev Ravi earned an APSA Nomination for Achievement in Cinematography for Monsoon Shootout, directed by Amit Kumar (India, United Kingdom, Netherlands). Ravi has a distinguished body of work, including shooting Gangs of Wasseypur directed by Anurag Kashyap, which won the 2012 APSA Jury Grand Prize winner in 2012.
Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya (The World of Goopi and Bagha) directed by Shilpa Ranade, a delightful animation feature film produced by Children’s Film Society, India, earned an APSA Best Animated Feature Film Nomination.
Menstrual Man directed by Amit Virmani (Singapore, India) earned an APSA Nomination for Best Documentary Feature Film (feature-length documentary), produced by Amit Virmani and Seah Kui Luan. It is on Muruganantham, a school dropout, who realizes that a majority of Indian women cannot afford sanitary pads, and trains women to make and use them, improving feminine hygiene, as well as creating livelihoods.
Shyam Benegal heads the APSA International Jury, and film curator and critic Meenakshi Shedde was on the APSA Nominations Council 2013 that decided the nominees for Best Feature Film and other categories, for films from 70 countries in Asia. The APSA International Jury also includes Sri Lankan actress Malini Fonseka, Korean director Kim Tae-yong and Hong Kong producer Albert Lee.
To read the complete list of nominations, click here.
Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox (Dabba) and Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout had their premiere screenings at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival. Lunchbox is selected in International Critics Week section and Monsoon Shootout had a midnight screening. Some early reviews of both the films have been pouring in. For curious folks like us, here are the excerpts and links to the reviews.
A feel-good movie that touches the heart while steering clear of expectation, “The Lunchbox” signals a notable debut from tyro helmer-scripter Ritesh Batra. The ingredients on their own are nearly fail-proof, yet it’s the way Batra combines food with an epistolary romance between a nearly retired number cruncher and a neglected wife that hits all the right tastebuds. An indie Indian pic with the crossover appeal of “Monsoon Wedding,” it’s sure to be gobbled up by audience-friendly fests before heading into niche cinemas.
A wistful, elegant love story played out across the streets of Mumbai, The Lunchbox is an unexpectedly aromatic charmer from first-time film-maker Ritesh Batra. Eschewing the pitfalls of what appears, on face value, to be a highly schematic set-up, Batra infuses his film with warmth and humanity, while cameraman Michael Simmonds steps up to deliver delicate visuals of modern Mumbai.
There’s hardly a shot, line or gesture out of place in The Lunchbox, a hugely impressive feature debut by Mumbai-born, partly New York-based Ritesh Batra that starts out like a foodie film but spins a simple idea into a whole mini-universe of feelings.
– To watch the presentation ceremony video, click here
It’s a moody, broody downbeat drama for most of the time, a rainy noir. But along with the plot trickery, there are some unexpected turns…..It’s an entertaining popcorn-movie with a twist, for which commercial success is on the cards. There should be space for pictures like it in Cannes.
A cunningly intricate first film from India, Monsoon Shootout combines the best of two worlds – a ferocious Mumbai cops and gangsters drama, and a satisfyingly arty plot that turns in on itself to examine the outcome of three possible choices a rookie cop might make when he confronts a ruthless killer. Three times the story returns to a key moment: a boy with a gun uncertain whether to pull the trigger. Though the idea of Dirty Harry meeting Sliding Doors may sound abstract, writer-director Amit Kumar pulls it off gracefully, without losing the sense of heightened drama that earned the film a Midnight Movie slot in Cannes. The Fortissimo release should make good headway in territories open to India and exotic genre fare and put Kumar on festival radar.
Serving up a portion of Rashomon with a side of Sliding Doors, this tasty Mumbai crime story offers multiple outcomes of one fateful decision in a rookie cop’s professional life. Though it sounds like a potentially experimental premise, Monsoon Shootout is a glossy ethical drama designed to appeal equally to more upscale Indian audiences and worldwide genre fans.
The Upside: Nicely photographed; boasts decent enough lead performances, specifically the presence of Thapa as Adi’s beau; sound editing is also strikingly effective
The Downside: Aspirations towards existentialism don’t pay off well because it lazily recycles some grand ideas, but without the same level of ingenuity and entertainment value; atrocious editing stifles the action beats, which are themselves too sparse and brief to satisfy.
“Monsoon Shootout” is a racy mash-up of Tarantino-esque ultra-violence and-gritty but-hip contempo Indian actioners. Amit Kumar invests a schematic police-thriller structure with a compelling moral dilemma hinging on a standoff between a cop and his suspect.
Production companies: Yaffle Films, Sikhya Entertainment in association with Pardesi Films AKFPL, Dar Motion Pictures
Cast: Vijay Varma, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Neeraj Kabi, Geetanjali Thapa
Director: Amit Kumar
Screenwriter: Amit Kumar,
Producers: Trevor Ingman, Guneet Monga, Martijn De Grunt
Co-producers: Anurag Kashyap, Arun Rangachari
Director of photography: Rajeev Ravi
Production designer: Mayur Sharma
Editor: Atanu Mukherjee, Ewa Lind
Music: Gingger Shankarv Sales Agent: Fortissimo Films
88 minutes
(Pics taken from various online sources/social media)
Update: TWITTER BUZZ…
Since reviews for Indian films are scarce, we decided to add some tweets into the mix.
On The Lunchbox:
THE LUNCHBOX (R Batra): Like a bonsai tree, modest but magnificent. Standout performances. Bit cloying, but only if you want to find faults. — @bgji May 20, 2013
A very well-deserved, sustained, standing ovation for The Lunchbox at Cannes. Congratulations, Ritesh!! — @Shripriya May 19, 2013
On Monsoon Shootout:
MONSOON SHOOTOUT is the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ of crime actioners. I’m not completely convinced, but I do respect the ambition. #Cannes— @RylandAldrich May 19, 2013
MONSOON SHOOTOUT (D-) 3 versions of the same story, except it’s not as the filmmakers abandon the logic of the conceit. Morally dubious too — @CSkinner May 19, 2013
MONSOON SHOOTOUT does somehow seem to have become the defining film of the Festival. #cannes2013— @JonathanRomney May 18, 2013
MONSOON SHOOTOUT (A Kumar): Thoroughly ordinary. Heavy handed 3 pronged narrative structure/metaphor. More imagination re: Bombay, please. — @bgji May 19, 2013
Monsoon Shootout is the Sliding Doors of cop thrillers. Fleetingly entertaining but the alt-outcomes narrative wears thin… #Cannes2013— @totalfilm May 19, 2013
Monsoon Shootout – 2/5. Slumdog Millionaire meets Run Lola Run (Run Slumdog Run?) in fecklessly bloodless gimmick thriller #Cannes2013— @ShaunMunroFilm May 19, 2013
MONSOON SHOOTOUT is the Indian RUN LOLA RUN if RUN LOLA RUN were a predictable cop drama. #Cannes2013#cannes— @FredTopel May 19, 2013
On Ugly:
UGLY (A Kashyap): A Blaft-like pulp thriller with @ankash1009 bravely pushing his style to the limits. Depressingly hilarious & brilliant. — @bgji May 18, 2013
And finally…
UGLY and MONSOON SHOOTOUT taught me not to be a person who works for, needs help from, or who is wanted by police in India. #cannes2013— @marshalclark) May 19, 2013
Amit Kumar’s debut feature Monsoon Shootout has been selected to have its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Apart from Bombay Talkies, which is part of tribute to 100 years of Indian cinema, Amit’s film is the only Indian film to be in the official list so far.
We thought it’s a good time to look back at his work. So here’s a terrific short film by him – The Bypass. It stars Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Made in 2003, it did quite a bit of fests round then when both the actors were really not so big on films radar.
(PS – 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)
Cannes Film Festival has just announced its official selection list. And as expected not too many Indian films at fest this year.
As part of tribute to 100 years of Indian Cinema, Bombay Talkies will have its Gala premiere at the fest. It’s a collection of four short films directed by Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar and Zoya Akhtar.
Another selection is Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout which is in Midnight Screenings section. It stars Vijay Varma, Nawazuddin Siddiqi, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Neeraj Kabi, Geetanjali Thapa.
And here’s the official synopsis – A rookie cop faces a suspected gangster in a dead-end alley and has to decide whether to shoot or not to shoot. Three separate scenarios explore the impact of his decision on other people’s lives.
Amit had earlier directed a terrific short called Bypass which won many awards. Click here and here to watch the film in two parts.
Also, Indian actor and director Nandita Das is part of the CineFoundation and Short Film Jury.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 