Posts Tagged ‘Amit Masurkar’

Amit Masurkar’s Newton & Amar Kaushik’s Aaba Won Awards At Berlinale, 2017

Posted: February 19, 2017 by moifightclub in cinema, Film Festival, Indie, News
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The 2017 edition of Berlin International Film Festival has come to an end and the awards were declared tonight. Some good news for two Indian films at the Berlinale – Amit Masurkar’s Newton and Amar Kaushik’s Aaba.

Newton was given the CICAE Art Cinema Award in the Forum section of the fest. The “Confédération Internationale des Cinémas d’Art et d’Essai” (C.I.C.A.E.), the International Confederation of Art House Cinemas, forms one jury for the Panorama and one for the Forum. Each jury awards one prize in its section. Pedro Barbadillo, Tanja Milicic and Rainer Wothe were in the jury panel for Forum section.

CICAE was founded in 1956 by the national art house cinema associations of Germany, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland as an international lobby or pressure-group in order to support the art cinema sector and to protect the cinematographic diversity against the supremacy of so-called commercial filmmaking. Since then it unites about 3000 independent as well as already nationally associated art house cinemas, 15 festivals and a certain number of film distributors from approximately 30 countries from all over the world in an international umbrella association.

The Art Cinema Award is awarded twelve times a year to art house films at certain cooperating festivals such as the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, Panorama and Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin and the Venice Film Festival.

Amar’s Kaushik’s Aaba has been awarded the Special Prize of the Generation Kplus International Jury for the Best Short Film. This includes cash award of  € 2,500 by the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk (The Children’s Charity of Germany). The jury noted that it tells a story of the circle of life in an elegiac and slow pace with a beautiful cinematography.

Amit Masurkar’s Newton – All The Berlin Buzz

Posted: February 12, 2017 by moifightclub in cinema, Film Festival, film review, Indie, movie reviews, reviews
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Amit Masurkar’s new film Newton had its world premiere at the ongoing Berlin International Film Festival. Here’s all the buzz about the film from the fest.

(click on any of the pic to start the slide show)

Rajkummar Rao, Anjali Patil, Pankaj Tripathi, Amit Masurkar
Manish Mundra, Rajkummar Rao, Anjali Patil, Pankaj Tripathi
Pankaj Tripathi, Anjali Patil, Rajkummar Rao
Pankaj Tripathi, Anjali Patil

Finding humour in the tenuous nature of democracy might be a hard task on the global stage at present; however, in Newton’s darkly comic exploration of one official’s attempt to uphold the election process in India, it’s simpler than it sounds. The second film from writer/director Amit V Masurkar bows in Berlinale’s Forum section with a sense of chaos and absurdity, while remaining aware of the drama of reality. When the feature emphasises either extreme, it proves engaging viewing.

–  From Screen Daily’s review. Click here to read the full review.

– Rajeev Masand’s video-blog on the film –

 

Newton is a very important film, despite its satirical tones, laced with a lot of humour and irony. It is a film that should make viewers think about how important their right to cast a vote is.

– from Aseem Chhabra’s report on the film. Click here to read the full report

Newton is a brave attempt. Because it uses the feature film format to tell a story about on-going violence and exploitation and cynical political aggrandisement : anytime you hear the words Naxal, or Maoist in a film, it falls into the tried and tested formula. Newton breaks that mould, refreshes hardened tropes, and makes us smile and think. Really hard. Because what effects India Interior today will one day ripple over and claw its way into our complacent urban, mall-infested enclaves.

– from Indian Express. Click here to read the full report.

– Some tweets on the film:

(pics taken from Twitter)

Amit Masurkar’s Newton and Haobam Paban Kumar’s Loktak Lairembee Selected For Berlinale, 2017

Posted: January 19, 2017 by moifightclub in cinema, film, Film Festival, Indie
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newton-poster-a-rgb-2500px

More good news coming from Berlin International Film Festival. Two more Indian features have been selected for this year’s edition.

Amit V Masurkar’s sophomore feature Newton is all set to make its World Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. The Drishyam Films produced feature will be screened in the ‘Forum’ section of the Berlinale which features ‘avant-garde, experimental works, political reportage and yet-to-be-discovered cinematic landscapes’.

Newton was part of the Co-Production Market (CPM) at Film Bazaar, 2015 and also one of the Film Bazaar Recommends titles at Film Bazaar 2016. The film stars Rajkummar Rao in the title role and is a sharp political black comedy that takes place on an election day in Central India. Rajkummar Rao plays Newton, a rookie clerk on election duty in a conflict-ridden jungle of Chhattisgarh, who tries his best to conduct free and fair voting despite the apathy of security forces and the looming fear of an attack by Maoist rebels. The supporting cast includes Anjali Patil, Pankaj Tripathi and Raghubir Yadav. 

lady of the lake

The second film, Haobam Paban Kumar’s Manipuri film Loktak Lairembee (Lade Of The Lake) is also selected in the same ‘Forum’ section of the fest. The film has been doing the fest rounds for quite some time now and was also the winner of top prize in the India Gold section of Mumbai Film Festival.

Haobam has 5 National Film Awards and 5 Indian Panorama Selections to his credit. The film Loktak Lairembee (Lady of the lake) is his debut fiction feature film.

Here’s the official synopsis of the film –

Loktak Lake is a unique ecosystem where fishermen lived in huts built on floating biomasses. In 2011, the authorities, in the name of protecting serenity of the ecosystem, burnt down the huts leaving thousands of fishermen homeless. Tomba, one of the victims, lives with a harrowing nightmare of looming displacement since then. He is haunted by seamless fear of further intervention of authorities that would make him homeless forever. Confined in his makeshift hut, Tomba senses the spirit of evil around, while his wife Thambalsang works hard to make their living. One fine morning Tomba accidentally finds a gun hidden within the biomass. He marvels with the gun as his power of self-protection. He transforms himself to an assertive man who is looking for an appropriate offense. One day, an old lady who mysteriously wanders in the lake, knocks at his door in the middle of the night. Fearful Tomba, anticipating the lady as the spirit of all evils, chases her and commits an unintended crime.

Trailer

WATCH : 5 “Mother’s Day” Shorts by Terribly Tiny Talkies. VOTE for your favourite

Posted: May 10, 2015 by moifightclub in cinema
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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. Like their previous shorts centered on the theme of “Love”, this time they have produced 5 more shorts on the ocassion of “Mother’s Day”.

5 shorts, under 5 minutes, by 5 filmmakers.  L by by Amit Masurkar, Cuddly by Karan Shetty, Cheers by Piyush Raghani, Arey Baba by Surya Balakrishnan, and Mamta Tonic by Srinivas Sunderrajan. Do watch them and VOTE for your favourite one.

L by Amit Masurkar, stars Tanistha Chatterjee, Pankaj Tripathi and Svar Kamble. A mother’s dream of riding a scooter is not as easy as it seems.

CUDDLY by Karan Shetty stars Neena Kulkarni and Shruti Vyas. Necessity is the mother of invention. But can it replace mother’s love?

CHEERS by Piyush Raghani stars Ali Fazal and Anju Mahendru. 10 years ago, a boy abandoned his alcoholic mother. Now a man, he returns to meet her.

ARRE BABA by Surya Balakrishnan stars Girish Kulkarni and Gauri Deshpande. Little Devika has a problem her father may not understand.

MAMTA TONIC by Srinivas Sunderrajan stars Suhita Thatte. A travelling saleswoman. 3 potential customers. She weighs the pros of her homemade tonic against the cons of making tough choices in life.

VOTE for your favourite short!

Sulemani Keeda – माँ के हाथ की करारी और ज़ायकेदार (Indie)-भिन्डी !

Posted: December 4, 2014 by moifightclub in bollywood, cinema, film, film review, Indie, Movie Recco, movie reviews
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What happens you see a story on screen which seems like pages from your life? You hate it? You love it? Over to Navjot Gulati who writes about Amit Masurkar’s film Sulemani Keeda.

Sulemani Keeda

Disclaimer: I’m a struggling writer/filmmaker for over six years now, so I will be biased towards a film that tells my story, and in the process, will overlook its shortcomings because….

…I’m Vacuous Versova too!

So here it goes. I will now list some incidents which have happened with me or my writers friends lives as it is shown in Sulemaani Keeda. And this should be reason enough for you to not miss Sulemaani Keeda at any cost.

because This SHIT is REAL BRO!

The film is essentially about two friends – Dulaal (Naveen Kasturia) and Mainak (Mayank Tewari) trying to make it as screen-writers in Bollywood, where you really need one talent to be big – to be someone’s son/nephew. If you are an outsider, then all the best. Allah hi aapka maalik hai.

SPOILERS ALERT (But they hardly matter. Read it anyway)

Dulaal gets a call from the girl he is in love with, and she tells him, ‘I met someone’. Boom! His world comes crashing down.

Earlier this year, something similar happened with a friend of mine. He was madly in love with a girl and they were in a complex relationship where the girl would never commit to him, and keep giving him hope that one day they will be together as a couple. But then his world came crashing down just like Dulaal’s. One day she told him, ‘I met someone’, and life was never the same for him. He did use her as an inspiration in many of his stories just like Dulaal did.

The film has a hilarious appearance by Anil ‘Gadar’ Sharma and he sends Mainak and Dulaal to meet Gonzo Kapoor, the son of Sweety Kapoor, who wants to get launched in a film that is East European in sensibility.

Not long ago, a friend of mine was in a similar position. He was called to write the debut vehicle of a famous filmmaker of yesteryear who wanted to launch his son in a cool and contemporary love story (basically it involved a rich boy, poor girl and a college in Mumbai as the backdrop). I hope you get the contradiction – A cool and contemporary love story about a Rich Boy and Poor Girl. My friend was not talented enough to write it, so he said no. They did make it, and surprise – the film BOMBED!

Mainak goes to a party where he meets Oona from Poona, played brilliantly by Ruksaana Tabassum. She asks him to drop her home after the party. Mainak thinks he will finally get some action. But….

Aah, well. What follows next – A hot stud is waiting for Oona (from Poona) inside her house. Mainak’s dreams of getting laid are shattered. Yet again. I’m sure this has happened with almost every guy reading this.

The white handkerchief used as a metaphor for life.

Go hang out in any coffee shop in Versova, or Adarsh Bar, or even the (not so) new hangout of (wannabe) film people – WTF. You will find many out of work stalwarts who can change your life instantly with their pop philosophy, however they have not been able to change their own life.

Mainak and Dulaal are asked to go to a farmhouse to write the screenplay.

Farmhouse writing?

Yes? Yes!

This remains an unfulfilled dream. Once upon a time, a B-grade filmmaker of an unreleased film offered me to come to his farmhouse for fifteen days. He said lets finish the script and then he will take me to Aditya Chopra. Yeah. Right. I guess he meant in his dreams. In reality they won’t even let him cross the security gate of YRF.

Mainak and Dulaal have an argument with their tv-writer friends.

TV writers make a LOT of money but ALL of them want to write films. Film writers want to make a LOT of money but CAN’T write TV. #TrueStoryBro

Dulaal is asked, “which film have you written?” He says, “ek likh raha hoon..Aamir Khan kay liyein..bas milna baaki hai unsey”.

The identity of a filmmaker/writer in this B-town is only from the work that has come out. Spare a thought for thousands of us who have been working our asses off to get that one film made. And trust me, to have a solo film credit as a writer is nothing less than a miracle. After years of trying, one miracle happened in my life which is yet to get released. If there are no fault in my stars, hopefully, it should release next year. I wait that day when I can tell people that I’m the writer of that good film that you saw. And not only me. I’m sure everyone reading this is itching for such a thing to happen.

These are some of the similarities between the film and the life we lead.  However, our lives are not as funny as the film. Kudos to the writer-director Amit Masurkur and his team for making it look so real and yet so funny. The performances by Naveen, Mayank and Aditi Vasudev are exemplary. The writing is brilliant. Efficient direction by Amit. And yes, even the songs are really good. I love the one sung by Namit Das. It’s called the Colaba song. That’s so rare in a desi indi-bhindi!

To cut the long story short, Sulemaani Keeda is one of the best Indie films made in India, and it deserves your ticket money so that people like Shiladitya Bora (of PVR Directors Rare) can continue to support films made with heart and not just ones with big budgets and bigger stars.

(P.S – I know the film will have difficult show timings and high ticket prices but please do watch it. If you don’t have the money, ask me. I will book the ticket for you. I can surely spare 300 rupees from my hard earned money to make sure people see what we go through everyday 😛 )

Offer Valid for 10 tickets only, on first come first serve basis.

– Navjot Gulati

SKeeda