Posts Tagged ‘synopsis’

guide gufraan official poster

This came in our mailbox. We don’t know anyone connected with this film, but it looks damn interesting – the poster and the trailer. So we are featuring the first look of this 50min long feature Guide Gufraan here. Directed by Ayushman Mitra, a graduate from Calcutta’s St Xavier’s  College. It’s made with the help of his friends from Xavier’s who have formed a group called Backgate Studio. Have a look.

Synopsis:

Raas, the cosmic meeting of opposite energies, is the cornerstone of all creation. Raas is widely illustrated as a celebration of love with an important involvement of dance and music. A few stories of love live beyond the boundaries of time and society; Krishna’s ‘raas’ is a timeless tale of erotica and passion. For most, he is more human than god. What is amazing is the acceptance that he receives from a conservative society like ours.

Guide Gufraan is Pasha’s journey from repression to acceptance of his own self. As he enters the city of Calcutta to retrace his past and seek spiritual asylum, where questions are asked and many are left unanswered, he begins an exploration of the self, the self he is desperately running away from, challenging his quest for peace. Finally, a city guide acts as the catalyst and pushes him to the limits till he embraces his true self. It is a celebration of acceptance, as people choose to live liberated lives shunning the social stigmas on love, sex and relationships. People come together and tear apart, some are fondly remembered, while some disappear into the chaotic rhythm of the ‘raas’. It is only natural that Krishna in the Mahabharata essays the role of a ‘sarathi’, in other words, a guide.

Cast & credit :

Cast: Ayushman Mitra, Sreemoyee Kasturi Banerjee, Neeraj Dugar, Sneha Ghosh, Zoheb Akbar, Yashodhara Basu Mallick, Sharmistha Jha, Urmila Subhadra Majumdar, Gautam Vir Prashad and Gosto Kumar

Director: Ayushman Mitra

Story & Screenplay: Ayushman Mitra , Sreemoyee Kasturi Banerjee

Director of Photography: Gairik Sarkar, Rusha Bose

Editor: Gairik Sarkar Creative

Producer: Rohini Ghosh

Music: Sambit Chatterjee, Yudhajit Biswas, Ronodeep Bose

Production Designer: Ayushman Mitra

Production Manager: Anirvan Sengupta

Costumes: Sneha Ghosh

Co-Producers: Sumit Mitra, Srijon Kaushik Banerjee

—> For any queries about the film, you can write to anirvansengupta91@gmail.com

For those who have been curious about Ritesh Batra’s Dabba, we have got the first look of the film. Here are some of the stills from the film which look really impressive. We do also have all the cast, credit and official synopsis details.

The film will have its international premiere at Cannes Festival in International Critics Week section.

(Click on any image to start the slide show in hi-res)

Though Nawaz was also in Paan Singh Tomar, but it looks like this film finally brings together two of the finest actors of our generation in full fledged roles. And is Irrfan Khan in Namesake avatar again? Bring it on!

Official Synopsis

A mistaken delivery in Mumbai’s famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an old man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox. Gradually, this fantasy threatens to overwhelm their reality.

Mumbai, a city of miracles.

One of Mumbai’s miracles is Mumbai’s Dabbawallahs – a community of 5000 dabba (lunchbox) deliverymen. It is a hereditary profession. Every morning the Dabbawallahs deliver hot meals from the kitchens of housewives to the offices of their husbands, and then return the empty lunchboxes back to the homes in the afternoon. For 120 years they have provided Mumbaikars with a taste of home in the office. They navigate through the overcrowded local trains and chaotic streets – that often have a namesake or more than one name. The Dabbahwallahs are illiterate, and instead rely on a complex coding system of colors and symbols to deliver dabbas in the labyrinth that is Mumbai. Harvard University analyzed their delivery system, concluding that just 1 in 8 million lunchboxes is ever delivered to the wrong address. Dabba is the story of that one lunchbox.

A mistakenly delivered lunchbox connects a housewife, Ila Singh, to Saajan Thomas, a lonely man in the dusk of his life. Ila lives in Dadar, the conservative middle class Hindu enclave. And Saajan lives in Ranwar village, Bandra, an old Christian neighborhood that is threatened by the new high rises in Mumbai. Very soon Saajan will retire and bid goodbye to a Mumbai that has crushed his dreams, took away his loved ones one by one, and turned his hair white. Just then Ila comes into his life. In the big city, that crushes dreams and recycles them every day, both find a dream to hold on to. Ila begins a fantastical affair with a mystery suitor, pouring her heart into cooking meals for him. And Saajan looks forward to lunch box deliveries from a mystery woman every day. They exchange notes via the lunchbox and create a fantasy life. As the lunchbox goes back and forth, this fantasy becomes so elaborate that it threatens to overwhelm their reality. The characters of The Lunchbox exist on the line between the Mumbai of reality and the Mumbai of fantasy.

The Lunchbox is the story of the life we dream of versus the life we live in, and of the courage it takes to turn out fantasies into reality.

Credits

director: Ritesh Batra
screenplay: Ritesh Batra
cinematography: Michael Simmonds
editing: John Lyons
sound: Michael Kaczmarek
production design: Shruti Gupte
music: Max Richter

Cast:
Irrfan Khan
Nimrat Kaur
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Denzil Smith
Bharati Achrekar
Nakul Vaid
Yashvi Puneet Nagar
Lillete Dubey
Sada (Dabbawala)

The film is produced by Sikhya Entertainment (India), Dar Motion Pictures (India), and co-produced by National Film Development Corporation (India), ASAP Films (France) and Roh Films (Germany).

Btw, Michael Simmonds? The DoP of Ramin Bahrani’s films? Chop Shop, Man Push Cart, Goodbye Solo and Plastic Bag. That’s a great talent to have on board.

To know more about the film and the filmmaker, click here to read his interview on DearCinema.

Director

Ritesh Batra is a writer/director based in Mumbai and New York. In 2009, Batra was selected for the Sundance Writers and Directors labs for his feature project “The Story of Ram”. He was also named the Sundance Time Warner Storytelling Fellow and an Annenburg Fellow. He was part of the Graduate Film Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, from which he dropped out in 2010. His short films have been presented in many international film festivals and fine arts venues. His recent short “Café Regular, Cairo” was featured in the 2012 Inter- national Film Festival of Rotterdam and 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. His upcoming short ‘The State of Siege’ is currently in post-production.

His feature screenplay THE LUNCHBOX was part of the 2011 Binger-NFDC Screenwriting Lab, it won an Honorable Mention from the Jury at the 2012 edition of the Cinemart at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam and was part of the Berlinale Talent Project Market.

(Cast/credit/synopsis/Director’s bio taken from various co-producers’ site)

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An interesting trailer of Ajay Bahl’s debut film “BA Pass” came out online recently. If you still haven’t seen it, click on the play button.

The cast includes Shilpa Shukla, Shadab Kamal, Rajesh Sharma, Dibyendu Bhattacharya and Geeta Agarwal.

And here’s the official synopsis of the film –

A young small town boy moves to Delhi to stay with his aunt and finish his college. Soon a mysterious married woman seduces him known to him as Sarika ‘Aunty’. Set amidst the neon-lit by lanes of Delhi’s Paharganj unfolds an erotic human drama between the two. A relationship based on lust, lies and deceit is forged. As the young boy gets more and more entrenched into his surroundings he discovers a city that thrives on corrupting even the most naive and innocent.

– The film is based on Mohan Sikka’s story “The Railway Aunty”, which was part of the anthology “Delhi Noir”. The story is available online. If you haven’t read it yet, click here.

– Click here to read an interview of the director on DearCinema.com.

– The film will have its next screening at New York Indian Film Festival which is scheduled from April 30th to May4th, 2013.

– To know more about the film, you can follow its Facebook page.

Gangoobai stars Sarita Joshi, Purab Kohli, Meeta Vasisht, Raj Zutshi, Gopi Desai, Rushad Rana, Nidhi Sunil, Behram Rana, Ankita Shrivastav & Aparna Khanekar. It’s written, edited & directed by Priya Krishnaswamy. The film is produced by NFDC.

The script was among the six short listed scripts for NFDC’s screenwriting lab at Locarno Film Festival in 2009.

And here’s the official synopsis…

GangoobaiGangoobai, a childless, elderly widow, has lived her whole life in the tiny colonial hill station of Matheran, set in the spectacularly beautiful Sahyadri mountain range about 4 hours’ drive from Mumbai.

Her world consists of tending to her beloved flowers and working as domestic help in a few homes, among them that of the wealthy Hodiwala family who own a weekend bungalow in Matheran, an eco-sensitive zone where no vehicles are allowed, not even bicycles.

Gangoobai’s quiet life is suddenly disrupted when, one day, she sees the Hodiwala’s teenage daughter wearing a magnificent designer Parsi sari of white Chinese motifs embroidered on a background of purple silk.

The old woman falls instantly in love with this exotic, expensive, custom-made creation — and longs to own one herself.

Driven by this unlikely obsession, Gangoobai manages, against all odds, to save the money over 4 years of hard work and despite some wrong judgments, and finally finds herself in the big, polluted, overcrowded city of Mumbai — an urban nightmare she is utterly unprepared for.

Here, filled with fears and misgivings, she is pleasantly surprised to find that people are the same everywhere, despite all outward appearances to the contrary, and that even the hardest heart can be transformed by kindness and love.

Finally, one day, Gangoobai collects her designer sari and attains her dream, only to face ultimate failure and betrayal at home by one whom she holds closest to her heart.

Yet, her essential goodness and unfailing generosity to life redeem the destruction of her dreams, and set her life on a path that surpasses anything that she could ever have imagined.

Disney-UTV has announced its slate for 2013. While most of us knew about their releases, what’s most interesting for me is the official synopsis of all the films. For example we have been hearing about Chennai Express’ pitch in hush-hush tone for a long time. This one just makes it official.  Do check it out. Wish they had given out writers name with all the films too. And i hope other studios could also do something on similar lines.

chennaiexpress

RACE 2

Realease Date : 25th January

Producers : UTV Motion Pictures and TIPS Industries

Director : Abbas Mustan

Music : Pritam

Cast : Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ameesha Patel

Synopsis : The story of Race 2 is set in the lush locales of exotic Europe, with a backdrop of gambling and Casinos. A fast paced thriller that takes the legacy of “Race1”forward, with high octane action, combined with thrills and twists that have a roller coaster effect, and edge of the seat excitement.

ABCD – ANYBODY CAN DANCE

Release Date : 8th February

Producer : UTV Spotboy

Director : Remo D’Souza

Music Director : Sachin-Jigar

Cast : Prabhudheva, Ganesh Acharya, Dance India Dance winners like Salman Khan, Dharmesh, Prince, Mayuresh and Vrushali and Lauren Gottlieb, the finalist of the popular international television dance talent show So You Think You Can Dance

Synopsis : For Vishnu (Prabhudheva), widely regarded as India’s best dancer, dance is more than a passion – it’s the reason he lives! So when he finds himself thrown out from the swish dance academy he himself set up, by his manipulative business partner, it feels like the oxygen has been sucked out from the air he breathes. Heart-broken, Vishnu decides to give up dance and leave Mumbai forever. However the night before his departure he witnesses a most amazing sight – a group of dancers preparing for the upcoming Ganpati Dance Battle – an annual festival that pits Mumbai’s best dance groups against each other. Watching the raw talent of these amazing dancers helps Vishnu arrive at a decision – he will take this disparate group under his wing, help them overcome their personal rivalries and past demons and turn them into India’s best dance squad!. From India’s biggest film studio, UTV Motion Pictures, and renowned choreographer & director, Remo D’souza comes India’s first dance film in 3D– a spectacular entertainer that proves yet again that if you dare to dream, impossible is nothing!

KAI PO CHE!

Release Date : 22nd February

Producer : UTV Spotboy

Director : Abhishek Kapoor

Music Director : Amit Trivedi

Cast : Sushant Singh Rajput, RajKumar Yadav, Amit Sadh, Amrita Puri

Synopsis : Best friends Ishaan, Omi and Govind – young, ambitious and restless – are trying to make a mark in the India of the early 2000’s. These are exciting times – a new millennium has just dawned, India is a nuclear power and ostensibly shining – a perfect place for the 3 Ahmedabad boys to start a business that could be their ticket to fame and riches. In a country where cricket is religion, they hit upon a brilliant plan – to start a training academy that could produce India’s next sporting superstars! What follows is without doubt the greatest adventure of their lives, as they attempt to navigate the big hurdles in the path of fulfilling their dreams. Based on Chetan Bhagat’s bestselling novel “The Three Mistakes of My Life”, Kai Po Che (meaning a triumphant yell in Gujarati) is an unforgettable ode to friendship and the magical moments one shares with one’s closest pals – celebrating festivals, drunken dancing, watching cricket matches together, strategizing on how to catch the attention of the cute neighborhood girl, being there to watch each other’s back in troubled times and to celebrate one’s successes by screaming “Kai Po Che”!

HIMMATWALA

Release Date : 29th March

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures and Puja Entertainment

Director : Sajid Khan

Music Director : Sajid Wajid

Cast : Ajay Devgan, Tammannah

Synopsis : The biggest remake of the 80s Bollywood cult classic “Himmatwala” is a story of a poor and wronged mothers son who comes to the village to avenge his father.

GHANCHAKKAR

Release Date : 21st June

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures

Director : RajKumar Gupta

Music Director : Amit Trivedi

Cast : Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan

Synopsis : When Sanju (Emraan Hashmi), a suave, master safe cracker wants to retire from a career in crime, he decides to team up with two dangerous criminals to commit one last heist. A bank robbery that will ensure that he never has to worry about money again! Everything goes according to plan. Sanju is given the task of hiding the money till things cool down and the booty can be split. Two months later the associates return to collect their share of the loot, but Sanju refuses to even recognize them! What dangerous game is Sanju playing? Ghanchakkar is a crazy, quirky rollercoaster suspense ride that will surprise, shock and entertain the audience at every turn.

SATYAGRAHA

Release Date : 15th August

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures and Prakash Jha Productions

Director: Prakash Jha

Cast : Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpayee

Synopsis : The film deals with the movement of the middle-class to re-negotiate democracy. It’s the story of a man who is a firm believer of Gandhian principles, an ambitious entrepreneur who represents the modern India shining philosophy, a social activist who aims to be a politician, a fearless political journalist and a wily politician who uses every means to break the system.

CHENNAI EXPRESS

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures and Red Chillies Entertainment

Release Date : To be announced

Director : Rohit Shetty

Music Director : Vishal Shekhar

Cast : Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone

Synopsis : The story is about a man’s journey from Mumbai to Rameshwaram and what happens during the journey.

TAMIL

SETTAI

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures

Release date : February, 2012

Director : R. Kannan

Music Director : S. Thaman

Cast : Arya, Anjali, Santhanam, Premji Amaren and Hansika Motwani

Synopsis : Settai is a remake of the 2011 Bollywood comedy, Delhi Belly.

IVAN VERAMADHIRI (He is different)

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures & N. Lingusamy of Thirrupathi Brothers

Release Date : June, 2013

Director : M. Saravanan

Music Director : Sathya

Cast : Vikram Prabhu and others

Synopsis : It is about a common man’s anger on the criminals and demonstrating the commitment of youth to reform the society

SIGARAM THODU (Scale the peak) December

Producer : UTV Motion Pictures

Release Date : December, 2013

Director : Gaurav

Music director: D. Imman

Cast : Vikram Prabhu, Sathyaraj, Yamini Gautam and others

Synopsis : It is about father & son’s relationship. A son’s desire to fulfill the desire of his father.

Bejoy Nambiar is ready with his new film, David. Interestingly, this film is in both Hindi and Tamil, and strangely, there’s a mismatch in the number of Davids in the two versions; while the Hindi one has three, Tamil version has only two Davids.

The hindi one has Vikram, Tabu, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vinay Virmani, Lara Dutta, Isha Sharvani and Monica Dogra in the lead. The Tamil version has almost the same cast but has Jeeva instead of Vinay and Neil.

First, the hindi trailer

And now, the Tamil Trailer

The trailers look very interesting. And though they don’t tell you much about the story but the visual montage looks powerful. What we saw in Shaitan, seems Nambiar is going to deliver more of it in this film – those slo-mo action sequences drenched in blood, rain and bullets. Also, the romantic portions bear a clear stamp of Ratnam-ish playfulness, and more so in the Tamil version.

And here are the two posters…

David Tamil Davivd Hindi

And the official synopsis (Hindi version)….

The story revolves around the lives of 3 Davids in 3 different parts of the world in 3 different eras.

1975 London- 30 year old David works for Iqbal Ghani, a dreaded Mafia don who controls the entire Asian community. He is a protege who is poised to take over the empire until a revelation which changes the course of his future.

1999 Mumbai- 19 year old David is a musician born into a family of devout Christians. A happy go lucky teenager who loses all semblance of his peaceful existence when his family gets dragged into a political issue.

2010 Goa – 40 year old David is a fisherman living in the small fishing village of Betul in Goa. He falls in love with the deaf and mute Roma- the only hitch is that she is engaged to be married to his best friend Peter in 10 days!

All 3 Davids are about to take a step which is going to change their lives forever.
3 LIVES, 3 DESTINIES, CONNECTED BY 1 NAME – ‘DAVID’.

And like everyone else, if you are still wondering about this 3 and 2 Davids, the director clarified about it to Anurag Kashyap on Twitter..

@ankash1009 the 3rd one (neil’s) didn’t fit into the tamil mileu. Would have had to re imagine it completely which was not feasible.

The first trailer of Vishal Bhardwaj’s new film Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola is out. The film stars Imran Khan, Anushka Sharma, Pankaj Kapoor and Shabana Azmi.

Now, this looks like Entertainment, Entertianment, Entertainment. (Ok, blame that overdose on Vidya Balan) It surely looks like great fun – mad characters, rustic setting, colourful elements and dhinchak music.

But what is it about? It says almost nothing.

If it’s a Vishal Bhardwaj, it just can’t be boy-meets-girl, right? Some of us have read the script and the same two words comes to mind again – great fun. Only issue is the hotchpotch climax.

We can also tell you that there is a serious political issue in it but the trailer has masked it completely. Because they want your bums on the seats in the first weekend itself.

So see the trailer again. And see if can you connect the dots and guess the basic plot.

Pairon Talle, written & directed by Sidharth Srinivasan, will finally have a theatrical release in India on 5th October. The film is released via PVR Director’s Rare.

To quote from the official release, it tells the story of a simple watchman, who is so devoted to protecting his master’s property, that he has lost the very ability to safeguard himself. When realization of his enslavement finally dawns on him, it does so at a bloody price. Will the watchman take destiny into his own hands or will justice be denied him forever?

The stark contrasts of the rapidly urbanizing NCR (National Capital Region) provide the violent backdrop to the film – this is a Delhi you’ve never been shown before.

– It stars Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Saba Joshi, Avtar Sahni and Geeta Bisht in lead roles.

– The film received the prestigious Hubert Bals Fund from Rotterdam Fest and it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010.

And here’s the trailer of the film…

– To know more about the film, click here for it FB page. And to know more about the director, click here.

– Here’s a recco for the film : Film fest curator Meenakshi Shedde calls it “a savage stab at the Shining India myth.”

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.

We have been hearing a lot about Anand Gandhi’s debut feature Ship Of Theseus, and for a long time. Having seen his shorts, Right Here Right Now and Continuum, we can easily bet that he is an exciting talent to watch out for. The film is going to have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this year.

The poster, few stills and official synopsis of the film is out. Read it, have a look and you can decide if it looks/sounds exciting or not.

And here’s the official synopsis…

If the parts of a ship are replaced, bit-by-bit, is it still the same ship?

An unusual photographer, celebrated for her intuitive work, successfully captures the essence of her experience in her photography. However, she also struggles with insecurities over authorship in the context of larger questions about subjectivity and intent in art.

An erudite monk, who is an ideologue and practitioner of non-violence, and involved in animal rights activism, is forced to make a choice between death and medicine – medicine that is either derived from, or tested on animals. As death closes in, he re-questions all the ideas that he has always taken for granted.

A young stockbroker has a frictional relationship with his grandmother, whom he nurses in a hospital. When it is discovered that a neighbouring patient has had his kidney stolen, he starts out on a trail that leads him to a kidney tourism racket. Altruism and concern leads him to confront the recipient of the kidney, eventually making him discover how intricate morality could be.

Following the separate strands of their philosophical journeys, and their eventual convergence, Ship of Theseus explores questions of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death.

The cast and the credit list…

Director: Anand Gandhi

Language: English, Hindi, Arabic

Runtime: 139 minutes

Exec. Producer: Mitesh Shah, Ruchi Bhimani

Producer: Mukesh Shah

Production Co.: Recyclewala Films

Principal Cast: Neeraj Kabi, Sohum Shah, Aida Elkashef, Faraz Khan, Vinay Shukla, Amba Sanyal

Screenplay: Anand Gandhi

Cinematographer: Pankaj Kumar

Editor: Adesh Prasad, Sanyukta Kaza, Satchit Puranik, Reka Lemhenyi

Sound: Gábor Erdélyi, Tamás Székely

Music: Rohit Sharma, Naren Chandavarkar, Benedict Taylor

Prod. Designer: Rakesh Yadav, Pooja Shetty

Int. Sales Agent: Fortissimo Films