Master Praz’s take on JOHNNY GADDARR (Hindi, 2007)

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The year 2007 has seen its fair share of thrillers released back-to-back, however, none of them have managed to leave much of an impact on me. That is until I saw JOHNNY GADDAAR which not only turns out to be the one of the year’s best films, but quite easily one of the best thrillers made in recent times. This isn’t too surprising given the director at the helm is Sriram Raghavan who made his debut with the near perfect EK HASINA THI.

Balaji yorker gives John Abraham a fracture!

(wonder why Balaji couldn’t go easy on the poor guy!)
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On Saturday afternoon, John Abraham fractured his right foot while playing cricket. The actor injured himself when Indian cricketer Laxmipathy Balaji bowled a fast one. The accident happened while shooting for Hook Ya Crook at the BPCL grounds in Chembur. The doctor has advised John complete rest for at least three weeks.

Rekha, Aamir get State honours

Okay, so I did attend this event yesterday that was held in Pune at the sprawling Balewadi Sports Complex.  This was the 46th year of the Marathi film awards, where winners are chosen by the Maharashtra Government. This year’s recipients for the prestigious Raj Kapoor Award were Rekha and Aamir Khan, who were awarded for excellence in cinema by CM Ashok Chauhan.

Footage from Shekhar Kapur’s shelved Time Machine (Aamir/Naseer/Raveena)

Bachchan — 404

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“But felt extremely good about the fact that I have never ever received this amount of comments from EF during my entire life with the blog. Thank you dear EF’s. Your generosity with the words and expressions you used, the conviction that you expressed and the support that you gave was historic. This does not by any means take away anything from those that opposed the motion. Contrary to belief some of the arguments given were most intelligent and one that could very well have turned the tide for me.”

Dil Se Once Again

(earlier post on this film here)

The great strength of his film despite some obvious narrative flaws is that Rathnam’s ‘heroine’ remains always totally foreign to his ‘hero’ and the latter’s ‘humanistic’ framework. There is simply nothing to be ’shared’ between the two. She does not remain foreign to him as ‘aberration’ but as totally other. Eventually he makes the decision to collapse his framework and simply ‘merge’ with her (the film is a perfect love story in this way and the climax only logical).

Re-appraising Scorsese’s Aviator

On an initial viewing I rather underrated this film but I now believe this might be Scorsese’s very strongest work in terms of visual texture with the possible exceptions of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. I love a certain kind of dynamism with the camera — Eisenstein over Tarkovsky, Kurosawa over Ozu and so on (not that I rate filmmakers only on these grounds) — and to my mind Aviator exhibits these qualities. Leaving aside the marvelous color tones of the film Scorsese is splendid in terms of filming Hughes filming Hell’s Angel (quite a meta-conceit here or cinematic trope if you will!). Then there is his usual restless camera capturing groups of people in crowded rooms, the montages etc.

Master Praz’s take on NISHABD (Hindi, 2007)

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A lot has been said about NISHABD since the movie’s release. Overall, critics have slammed the movie and the public has rejected the movie outright. There have also been quite a few strong reactions coming out against the movie, Amitabh Bachchan the director Ram Gopal Varma who have apparently crossed all boundaries of decency, and made a disgusting film, lost their minds etc. However, none of this negative feedback seems to have perturbed me from watching the movie as it would normally would with any other film.

India on the write path

From its elitist bearings, Indian Writing In English has successfully expanded in the last few years, not only adding great variety to its lists but creating a lucrative Indian mass fiction category as well

When best-selling author Chetan Bhagat saucily commented that he was determined to pull Indian Writing in English (IWE) from its high horse and bring it to the masses, one simply smiled.
IWE has been a niche affair for a long time; the bastion resting with expatriate writers- its only visible and known representatives. Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Jhumpa Lahiri, Amitav Ghosh and Anita Desai… all came with undeniable literary merit and brought a great deal of credibility to the genre of IWE very early on.
Its appeal in India, however, remained restricted to the wine glass-clinking literati. This had to be disconcerting to an independent observer, firstly because it didn’t seem fitting that authors residing in the first world – no matter how good – should be the presiding literary masters of the third world. But more importantly, one was left baffled at how a ballooning English speaking class in India was bereft of a wider palette in the IWE segment.

http://sandyi.blogspot.com/2009/05/is-india-on-write-path.html

Bollywood Memories from the 70s including a Filmfare and live performances

(Bachchan, Raj Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Rafi, Mukesh… more)

Rakesh Roshan on Kites

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First off, what kind of response did Kites get at Cannes?
The film received a very positive response, our goal was to establish a global presence and showcase the trailer of the film at Cannes. The media took to the film very strongly and we were surprised to see a turnout of 60-70 media people from all over the world at the press conference. After the conference got over, there were one-on-one interviews and they were highly impressed with the 9-minute trailer of the film.

Can you tell us something about the film?
The film revolves around a love story between an Indian boy born and brought up in Las Vegas and a Spanish girl from Mexico. Both of them don’t speak each others respective languages and the film is about how love triumphs even with the barrier of communication between the two.

What should people expect from the film?
A love story is a universal story and love is the most common feature in any part of the world. We have put our heart and soul into the film and have taken a step ahead in matters of the design and look of the movie. It is very different from any other film ever made.

Franz Osten’s A Throw of Dice (an Indian Silent from 1929)

(Info on Franz Osten here)

[Philip French]
A Throw of Dice is a remarkable silent movie, a co-production between India, Germany and Britain, made in Rajasthan in 1929 and telling an exciting story of two Indian kings – one honest and benevolent, the other treacherous and charming, both obsessive gamblers in love with the beautiful daughter of a wise recluse. It was one of several made by a prolific German director, Franz Osten, and Indian actor-producer, Himansu Rai (who plays the wicked king), and the black-and-white photography is ravishing and crystal-clear in this restored version.

Bachchan — 403 (Bachchan refuses Queensland honor)

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“I am simply overwhelmed by the volume of response that has come my way in the shape of comments and in the shape of votes to the POLL question. My gratitude has no bounds. I am without sufficient words or expression. I feel today like the elder in the family – a family that has lived and grown with me through strife and struggle and happiness and joy. You are an amazing community ! And I am truly blessed to have you with me.”

JayShah’s Saturday Box Office Column – 99 performing decently…

Note all numbers are from Trade Guide

Reporting Methodology

1) New films most of the time where possible will be benchmarked against other films ‘in the same range’. The gross used for the older films will be one’s I have computed in the past
2) Films currently playing – I will always do some trending analysis. This is always against the ‘week before’
3) To compute subsequent week grosses I will always benchmark against ‘the first week’. Before it was always the preceding week, but Week 1 is always the best base because it gives maximum centres to use
4) Going forward I will show ONE example in FULL and show the results of the remaining scenarios

New Releases

Detective Naani

Detective Naani, a whodunit mystery directed by debutant Romilla Mukherjee and starring Ava Mukherjee had a poor first week showing. Opening poorly and carrying weak reviews, the film mustered up only 0.4-0.5Cr at the box office.

Past Releases

99

99 had a good second week following on from its promising first week. Considering the multiplex strike, 99 has done well so far and can be counted as decent performer.

First look: Yash Raj’s Pyaar Impossible

Mughal-e-Azam in 3-D

(what next with this one? Virtual reality?!)
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Be ready to fall in love with Madhubala all over again as her smile might get more attractive in the film Mughal-E-Azam. The all time classic will soon release worldwide in a a 3D format early next year.

Top 10 Bollywood Smooches of all times

Top 10 Bollywood Smooches of all times

Sometimes it’s just a peck and sometimes a seductive love making scene. Bollywood has its own style of showing the kissing scenes. Take a look at the best smooches, Bollywood style…

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Contra Hollywood

I find most of Hollywood a bit overrated. The reason is not because the films are not often good or even ‘classics’ if you will but because the terms of the debate often change when one jumps from Hollywood to other kinds of cinema. I think Hollywood has always been much too commercial a system, and was always much too dominated by the studio hegemony during its golden and silver periods to really generate the sorts of artistic works that are praised elsewhere. Producing ‘classics’ is one thing, this term can in any case be rather expansive. But the shift occurs precisely when one jumps from a ‘classic’ to a Fellini. One is not comparing like for like.

Why you can count me out of Guillermo del Toro’s vision of the future (Guardian)

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Following the old-school auteurist bump’n'grind of this year’s Cannes, the timing was interesting for Guillermo del Toro to announce that he had seen the future of cinema. Interesting because his vision presented quite the contrast with the brand-name parade of Von Trier and Tarantino; because, with his ability to flit between muted Spanish civil-war ghost stories and big dumb comicbook spectaculars, Del Toro may just be the most accomplished straddler of the gulf between art and commerce in film today; and because, in truth, it’s not always easy to find someone prepared to commit to the idea of cinema having a future at all.

Bachchan — 402

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“I mean no disrespect to the Institution that honors me, but under the present circumstances, where citizens of my own country are subjected to such acts of inhuman horror, my conscience does not permit me to accept this decoration from a country that perpetrates such indignity to my fellow countrymen. And here is where I need your inputs. Am I right in thinking so. And if yes then is my act of refusing the honor justified or not. I shall put this up as my POLL question and shall feel obliged if EF can indicate to me their opinion, for me to be ale to take the correct action.”