Posts Tagged ‘Deepa Mehta’

After its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, the next stop for Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children is the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival. Earlier four clips from the film were released. And now the official trailer of the film is finally out. Click on the play button and have a look

The trailer looks and feels nice with the correct mood and tone. But why this English Vinglish? Seems odd and out of place.

The film is based on Salman Rushdie’s acclaimed novel of the same name. The film stars stars Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Shabana Azmi, Soha Ali Khan, Darsheel Safary, Rajat Kapoor, Seema Biswas, Shriya Saran, Siddharth, Ronit Roy, Rahul Bose, Samrat Chakrabarti, Sarita Choudhury, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Anupam Kher, Anita Majumdar and Zaib Shaikh.

And if you missed it earlier, here’s the official synopsis…

Midnight’s Children is an epic film from Oscar-nominated director Deepa Mehta, based on the Booker Prize winning novel by Salman Rushdie. At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, as India proclaims independence from Great Britain, two newborn babies are switched by a nurse in a Bombay hospital. Saleem Sinai, the illegitimate son of a poor woman, and Shiva, the offspring of a wealthy couple, are fated to live the destiny meant for each other. Their lives become mysteriously intertwined and are inextricably linked to India’s whirlwind journey of triumphs and disasters.

 From the unlikely romance of Saleem’s grandparents to the birth of his own son, Midnight’s Children is a journey at once sweeping in scope and yet intimate in tone. Hopeful, comic and magical — the film conjures images and characters as rich and unforgettable as India herself.

The BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its complete line-up for 2012. And there are quite a few Indian films in the list.

– The only film with desi connect which is in official competition section is Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children. Click here for more details.

– After its TIFF premiere, Anand Gandhi’s Ship Of Theseus is going to compete for “The Sutherland Award” in The First Feature competition category. To know more about the film click here and here.

– Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalis had its world premiere at the Venice Festival. Now it will have its Gala in the “Dare” segment at LFF. More details about the film here.

– After Cannes and Toronto, Peddlers continues its fest run with screening in “Dare” segment of the fest. Click here and here for more details.

– Rani Mukherjee and Prithviraj starrer Aiyya will have its world premiere at the fest. This is Sachin Kundalkar first Hindi feature film.

– Prakash Jha’s Chakravyush will have a Gala in the Thrill segment and Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar will have a screening in “Treasures” seection.

– The official website of the festival also lists two more films in Indian segment – Save Your Legs and Sri Lankan production With you, Without You.

– To know more about the film festival, films and the screening schedule, click here.

With the announcement of its world premiere at TIFF, the official website of Midnight’s Children has also been launched. Click here to go to the site.

Though the trailer is not out yet, four clips of the film have been uploaded. Click on the play button and enjoy.

1. Killing fields

2. Emerald meets the General –  starts with General Zulfikar arriving at Sinai family residence

3. Tell me a poem – Amina and Nadir chatting in her parent’s basement

4. Saleem and Parvati kissing

The film stars stars Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Shabana Azmi, Soha Ali Khan, Darsheel Safary, Rajat Kapoor, Seema Biswas, Shriya Saran, Siddharth, Ronit Roy, Rahul Bose, Samrat Chakrabarti, Sarita Choudhury, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Anupam Kher, Anita Majumdar and Zaib Shaikh.

– To quote from the official release, here’s the synopsis….

“Born in the hour of India’s freedom. Handcuffed to history.”

Midnight’s Children is an epic film from Oscar-nominated director Deepa Mehta, based on the Booker Prize winning novel by Salman Rushdie. At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, as India proclaims independence from Great Britain, two newborn babies are switched by a nurse in a Bombay hospital. Saleem Sinai, the illegitimate son of a poor woman, and Shiva, the offspring of a wealthy couple, are fated to live the destiny meant for each other. Their lives become mysteriously intertwined and are inextricably linked to India’s whirlwind journey of triumphs and disasters.

From the unlikely romance of Saleem’s grandparents to the birth of his own son, Midnight’s Children is a journey at once sweeping in scope and yet intimate in tone. Hopeful, comic and magical – the film conjures images and characters as rich and unforgettable as India herself.

So what’s common between all three? Desi connect and all female directors. Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) unveiled it’s official selection list for this year. And here are more details about these three films.

One of the most anticipated films of the year is Deepa Mehta’s adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children. It stars Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Rajat Kapoor, Seema Biswas, Shriya Saran, Siddharth, Ronit Roy, Rahul Bose, Anita Majumdar and Zaib Shaikh. The 148-minute long film has a screenplay by Rushdie himself. And here are some new stills. Click on one of the pics to view the slide show and make the images bigger.

To quote from the TIFF page…

Spanning decades and generations, celebrated Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s highly anticipated adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Booker Prize®–winning novel is an engrossing allegorical fantasy in which children born on the cusp of India’s independence from Britain are endowed with strange, magical abilities.

If Deepa Mehta is here, can Mira Nair be far behind? She is also ready with her new film – an adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s acclaimed book, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. The principal cast includes Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schreiber and Nelsan Ellis. The film is also opening the Venice Film Festival.

To quote from the TIFF page…

Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schreiber and Kate Hudson co-star in this adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s international best-selling novel, about a young Pakistani man (Riz Ahmed) whose pursuit of corporate success on Wall Street leads him on a strange path back to the world he had left behind.

And the third film which is completely desi is debutant Gauri Shinde’s English Vinglish starring Sridevi, Adil Hussain, Mehdi Nebbou and Priya Anand. To quote from the official release…

Legendary Indian actress Sridevi returns to the screen after a fifteen-year absence in this funny and touching story about an Indian woman who struggles to learn the English language in order to help provide for her family.

But fest insider tells us that isn’t all. There’s more to come in TIFF 2012! We will keep you posted about all the Desi connect.

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We are bit late on this news. But if you still haven’t read enough, here it is – Deepa Mehta has completed the shooting of Midnight’s Children, the film based on Salman Rushdie’s novel by the same name. Some clips from the film were shown at the recently concluded Toronto International Film Festival.

The adaptation has also been written by Rushdie.  The film stars Satya Bhabha, Siddharth, Shriya Saran, Shahana Goswami,  Rajat Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Ronit Roy, Darsheel Safary, Rahul Bose, and Samrat Chakrabarti.

Click on the play button to check out Salman Rushdie talking about the adaptation. TIFF’s Cameron Bailey moderated the session.