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.
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Prashant Bhargava’s debut feature Patang has been doing the rounds of international film festivals since last year and the latest one was the prestigious Ebertfest.
It stars Seema Biswas, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sugandha Garg and Aakash Mahayera, and has been shot by Shanker Raman.
The film will be finally in US theatres from June 15th. And here’s a new trailer of the film.
And here’s the synopsis..
A family saga set against the colorful spectacle of the Uttarayan, India’s largest kite festival, The Kite is a kaleidoscopic whirlwind of energy, romance, and turmoil. A businessman arrives in Ahmedabad for a surprise visit to his once grand family home, bringing with him his daughter and some unexpected news for the family’s future. Amongst the flurry of preparations and the energy of the festival itself, the transformative and intersecting tales of six characters unfold.
Ah, finally. The way Viacom18, the producer of Gangs of Wasseypur, was reluctant to share even on location images of the film after the Cannes announcement, we were thinking if they were going to lay some golden eggs.
The trailer, poster and the official synopsis of the film is finally out. Let’s go one by one. First, the trailer.
Loot, coal mines, volatile people in volatile land, zindagi ka ek-e maksad – badla, jail, chop shop, Tishu, Bihar ke lala, cuss words, Richa attacking the same man who has been killing everyone, sex, goggles-wala-pyaar, dhoom-dhaam, more cuss words, more earthy and punchy dialogues, more abuses and some more dhaam-dhaam. And everything is inherited! E toh poora ka poora dabang hai – abki badke Kashyap ki baari.
But why is the text font so bland? Bad font always bores me.
As far as the trailer goes, this is as mainstream as it can be. But i think the trailer serves more masala than the film will offer. Might be wrong. But Kashyap without his indulgences? Jiyo o Bihar ke lala. The trailer doesn’t tell you much about the film but it gives the ambiance and the mood of the film and tells you what to expect – you connect the dots. And if you can’t, scroll down for the synopsis.
My fav bit – Pankaj Tripathy. Bahut-e kamaal ke actor hai. Agle Yashpal Sharma hai jo hame bahut-ey pasand hai.
Now, the poster.
Superb art work. Like the colours and the treatment. But why such a bad finish? The film posters on the right and left hand side looks so weird. As if at the last moment they asked some intern to put two posters. Just doesn’t gel with the rest.
And now the official synopsis…
Towards the end of colonial India, Shahid Khan loots the British trains, impersonating the legendary Sultana Daku. Now outcast, Shahid becomes a worker at Ramadhir Singh’s colliery, only to spur a revenge battle that passes on to generations. At the turn of the decade, Shahid’s son, the philandering Sardar Khan vows to get his father’s honor back, becoming the most feared man of Wasseypur. In contemporary times, the weed addicted grandson, Faizal Khan, wakes up to this vengeance that his family has inherited. Staying true to its real life influences, the film explores this revenge saga through the socio-political dynamic in erstwhile Bihar (North India), in the coal and scrap trade mafia of Wasseypur, through the imprudence of a place obsessed with mainstream ‘Bollywood’ cinema.
The film stars Manoj Bajpai, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Jaideep Ahlawat, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Aditya Kumar, Reemma Sen, Richa Chadda, Huma Qureshi, Piyush Mishra and Syed Zeeshan Qadri.
In the last few years Marathi cinema has done everything that Hindi cinema wasn’t doing. And most importantly, tackling subjects which are rooted. As they say, if we don’t tell our stories, who will? A good marathi film is not a surprise any more. The question is how good it is? Here’s a trailer of a new film called Pune 52. And it looks damn interesting.
To quote from the official release, Pune 52 is a noir thriller about a private detective living in Pune circa 1992, whose life undergoes a dramatic change when he takes up a case that is both dangerously complex and deeply personal.
Starring national award winning actor Girish Kulkarni, Sonali Kulkarni and Sai Tamhankar, Pune 52 is set to release by the end of 2012.
It’s produced by the makers of films such as Valu, Vihir, Deool and Harishchandrachi Factory and is the debut feature of writer/director Nikhil Mahajan.
Here’s a small note by the director on the making of the film..
Like most middle class Maharashtrian brahmin boys, I went to do engineering after std. 12th. Took me 2 years to realize that I suck at it and another 2 years to convince my parents that I have to get out of it. So I dropped out and went on to work at Ramu’s factory as a screenwriter on a project that never took off.
I then went to Sydney and graduated in Film and came back. Got a job with the Hinduja Group’s In Entertainment as a writer where I was writing Tamil superhero films for a living. As much as I enjoyed doing that, I had to write a film about someone who aspires to be a hero. So started writing Pune 52.
Girish was the first person I approached to act in the film. He had doubts because of the content, but still was game for it. They were still shooting Deool then. I went to around 40 producers who all turned it down because it was too adult for the conventional marathi audience’s taste. Eventually Umesh and Girish decided to produce it themselves. And luckily the script got selected at Primexchange at IFFI. Then there was no looking back.
Its being shot by Jeremy Reagan, my friend from Film School and is edited by Abhijeet Deshpande. Stars Girish Kulkarni and Sonali Kulkarni and has background score by Hyun Jung Shim ( who composed for Oldboy) The film has 2 songs, composed by Atif Afzal who has done the music of the soon to release Prague.
Sorry to flood the blog with so many back to back posts on Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely. But two reasons – Cannes doesn’t happen everyday. Nor do Indian films qualify there regularly. Also, the information is coming out bit by bit.
First came the news of its selection at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section. Then, the official synopsis and stills (Click here). And now the teasers of the film.
The much anticipated trailer of Dibakar Banerjee’s Shanghai is finally out. Have a look.
So far Dibakar’s record has been cent percent – 3/3. Will he deliver once again? Going by the trailer, it surely seems so. But then, political films are a different beast.
SEZ, activism, murder, accident, conspiracy theories and the mess and madness kicks in. And then a ball drops in – yeh khelne ki jagah hai kya? Aha, that Dibakar touch. So refreshing to see Emraan Hashmi getting out of his comfort factor and doing it without anything remotely sufiyana. Wouldn’t be surprised if he overshadows Abhay Deol. And Kalki looks perfectly vulnerable.
Strangely, the text doesn’t mention Khosla Ka Ghosla. It says “from the director of Oye Lucky Lucky Oye and Love Sex Aur Dhoka”. Why would you not mention KKG?
Kasam khoon ki khayee hai….yeh shahar nahi Shanghai hai – Ok, am sold. Now bring it on.
Writing credits include Urmi Juvekar and Dibakar Banerjee and unlike others it mentions the book Z by Vassilis Vassilikos.
At the end of it the only thing that doesn’t sound convincing is the title – Shanghai.
It was supposed to be Mallika Shehrawat’s international debut. The director had a world famous surname – Lynch. But by the time the film got released, the director, Jennifer Lynch claimed that she didn’t make Hisss. She was nowhere in sight too. During the release, it was Mallika and her good friend Govind Menon (director of Khawish, Kis Kiski Kismat, Bachke Rehna Re Baba) who handled everything. So what really happened? Did she quit or was she forced to? And if so, why and how?
A new documentary, Despite The Gods, seems to have all the answers. Penny Vozniak’s making-of documentary will premiere at HotDocs in Toronto.
Here’s the description from the official release..
Upscale Font Jennifer Lynch, daughter of cult film auteur David Lynch, made her auspicious directorial debut in 1993 with Boxing Helena at the Sundance Film Festival. A box office disaster, the film was viciously mauled by critics and became the focus of multiple lawsuits. Fifteen years later, a recovering addict and hard-working single mother, Lynch returns to the director’s chair with an ambitious project that will test her skills and the entire crew’s sanity.
Despite the Gods brings us behind the scenes on the set of Lynch’s Bollywood/Hollywood action film about a man-eating snake goddess. Out of her depth shooting on location with an Indian crew and two top Bollywood stars, Lynch turns her production into a vehicle for her own self-actualization, paying no regard to timeline, budget or reality. As the story in front of the camera derails, the story behind the camera explodes.
The theatrical trailer of Habib Faisal’s new film Ishaqzaade is out. It stars debutant Arjun Kapoor (Boney and Mona Kapoor’s son) and Parineeti Chopra. The credits include Hemant Chaturvedi (DoP), Amit Trivedi (Music), Kausar Munir (lyrics) and Aarti Bajaj (editor).
Aha, who would have thought that one day even Yashraj Films would step into such dusty terrain. And not chiffon-ed too like they did with Bunty Aur Babli. That’s a refreshing change. Plus the distinct sights and sounds of the land. The guy looks confident and the girl scored big in a small role in Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl. Now bring it on!
There’s no official synopsis yet but here’s what the official release says…
Rising from the ashes of hooliganism and small town clan wars, comes the love story of a passion ignited by hatred.
Of two people. Born to hate. Destined to love.
One kingdom. One throne. Two wild animals… unpredictable Parma… ferocious Zoya. A battle… deafened by sounds of hate, revenge, bullets and deceit.
A story… about two fiery bloods played by Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra, and their fight for power and supremacy.
A story about love brewing in a small town burning with hatred.
Govind Nihalani and animation film? Why not? And so there’s a film called Kamlu. We had read about it but had no clue that it’s already complete. It’s about a baby camel called Kamlu who wants to fly. The first theatrical trailer is out.
This looks like any other desi animation film – as good or bad. Will our animation films ever look like theirs? And at a time when we are used to Pixar, is there a space for anything substandard? I doubt. What do you think?
Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar has been ready for quite sometime. And UTV has been sitting on it with no clue what to do with it. All kinds of reports were floating since a year or so. They sent it to few festivals abroad, intial reviews weren’t good, there was a plan to shelve it and then a direct-to-tv telecast. But with Saheb Biwi Ghulam’s success, it seems the film has got a new lease of life.
The problem is Tigmanshu Dhulia seems to be a completely unreliable filmmaker who can go any extreme – from a brilliant Haasil to a crapfest called Shagird and a SBG which is somewhere in between. If PST gets him back in the groove, we will be happy to be proved wrong.
The first look of Paan Singh Tomar is finally out. It stars Irrfan Khan and Mahie Gill. Have a look.
What’s wrong with the background music? There seems to be no sync between the visuals and the sound. What you don’t have in the visuals, you can’t compensate it with dhoom-dhaam-dhadaap. It looks tacky and nothing stays with you. Once over, you don’t feel like watching it again. Quite a disappointing trailer. If we still want to watch it, there’s only one reason – Irrfan Khan.
And here’s the official synopsis
Paan Singh Tomar is an untold true story of a simple farmer, a loyal soldier and a champion athlete who became one of India’s most dreaded dacoits!
Paan Singh was a small town lad who went on to win the steeplechase at the Indian National Games for 7 consecutive years! He broke the national record, a feat that was unsurpassed for 10 years! A series of life changing events however forced Paan Singh to give up athletics, pick up the gun and become the scourge of the infamous Chambal valley in central India. Filled with deep emotions and fateful twists, Paan Singh Tomar is a gritty, no holds barred action adventure set in the heart of India’s gangland, Chambal.
India doesn’t have anything to boast about at the ongoing Berlin Film Festival. Like any other cinema snob, if you don’t count Don2, Rajan Khosa’s Gattu is the only film in the official selection of Berlin. The film will be screened in the Generation section of the festival.
Since 1978, the Berlinale has devoted a section to children and young people: Generation. In two competitions, Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus, discoveries from state of the art world-cinema and on a par with young people are presented and the most outstanding of these are awarded the Crystal Bears. (from official release)
Gattu is produced by CFSI and the cast includes Mohammad Samad, Naresh Kumar and Bhura.
And here’s the official synopsis….
‘Truth with triumph in the end’ is the motto of the local school in the part of town where Gattu lives. But Gattu is too poor to go to school and he’s not always that truthful either. Gattu lives and works very hard at a scrap yard belonging to a man he simply calls ‘uncle’. Uncle bought him years ago from his sick father. Gattu is particularly inventive when it comes to thinking up excuses so he can slip away and indulge his passion for kite-flying. Day after day the children love to compete against each other with their kites. They’ve given the name Kali to one mysterious black kite that dominates the sky; strangely, nobody seems to know who owns it. If Gattu wants to win the next competition he’ll have to climb to the highest place in town. This is the school roof, of all places. Gattu manages to creep inside where he assumes command of a small but determined group of pupils. A dramatic battle of the skies ensues during which Gattu uses every trick in the book to claim the lead. But his greatest achievement is when, encouraged by his friendship with his new-found comrades, he decides to tell the truth.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 