The Traumas of “Hereafter”

Beware of spoilers…

There couldn’t have been a better director for this film. Clint Eastwood has for some time now brought to his moviemaking a visual approach that’s somewhat monochromatic, achieving an austere and perhaps even funereal tone. Hereafter deals with what lies beyond life, what happens to us after we die. And Eastwood’s somber, shadowy visual predilections fit the world of this beautiful, very moving film like a glove. Perhaps more here than anywhere else.

The Art of Hammer (Guardian)

LINK

for more follow the link…

India Today cover story on Salman Khan (including Aamir on Salman)

thanks to Iamthat…

The biggest paycheck in Bollywood this year has landed. It reached a star who’s 5-foot 9-3/4 inches and weighs 78 kg. He dresses in clothes chosen by his two sisters and lives a floor below his parents. He sleeps for three hours a day and eats five meals daily. He’s Salman Khan. And he’s made Rs 170 crore and still counting from Dabangg, Rs 24 crore from Bigg Boss 4, and Rs 15 crore from three endorsements signed earlier this year. He is at the top of the entertainment game, measured in the only language Mumbai understands: money.

Michael Wood on Social Network

LINK

David Fincher’s The Social Network, which tells the story of Facebook, is fast and intelligent and mean, a sort of screwball comedy without the laughs. It’s written by Aaron Sorkin, whose credits include The West Wing and A Few Good Men, and based on a novelised history by Ben Mezrich, The Accidental Billionaires. As long as it stays with the details of its tale – the faces, the clothes, the dialogue, the rooms, the parties, the sleek restaurants – the movie seems both restrained and sure-footed, willing to leave the thinking and the conclusions to us. But its larger plot movements are strangely dedicated to an insistence on two intriguing but evasive fables. One says that genius needs humiliation to get it going: so much so that the humiliation may be more important than the genius, a nicely faux-democratic message. The other says you can only make real money, money beyond dreams as distinct from just a lot of ordinary money, if you don’t care about wealth at all. Genius doesn’t calculate, even when it’s a computational genius.

RGV Ki Revenge….. RAKTA CHARITRA-1 (Hindi, 2010)

As far back as I can remember I’ve always been a Ram Gopal Varma fan. He’s the kind of maverick who has the ability to ALWAYS bounce back, and a certain section of the audience have faith and expectations in him. I’ve always said….RGV is either a mad man…or a genius, and there’s a very thin line between the two. RAKTA CHARITRA sounded like Varma’s most ambitious film in a while, a 2-part revenge drama soaked in blood, based on a true story, with a consistently interesting cast RAKTA CHARITRA is indeed Varma’s best efforts in a long time. If one has been following Varma closely enough, you’ll know he’s always said there’s no such thing as originality and that all his films were remakes of each other. SHIVA was Varma’s debut film, a violent, gritty thriller about street violence, heroism and power. Since then Varma has defined a genre entirely to himself consisting of a number of terrific moments from SATYA, COMPANY, SARKAR, SARKAR RAJ and not to forget some of his marvellous productions like AB TAK CHAPPAN and D. It would be fair to say right from the start that RAKTA CHARITRA is a double shot cocktail mix of homage (to himself and countless others), violence in style (to perhaps even get a nod from Sergio Leone), drama and dialogue-baazi (taking an obvious inspiration from the SARKAR series) as well as his own all time favourite THE GODFATHER.

LINK

A handful of small films & the pre-Diwali non-box office!

last week’s thread

Images from RGV’s Rakta Charitra & Rattha Charitram (updated)

Best of Bollywood @TIME

Best of Bollywood

As the South Asian International Film Festival kicks off in New York City, feed your Bollywood fever with TIME’s list of the best Bollywood classics — as well as our Five Essential Bollywood movies to Netflix

Whether you find them incredibly annoying or incredibly satisfying, Bollywood films will always provide you with that feel-good family drama — not to mention some great music. The rest of the world is noticing, too: Indian superstar Shahrukh Khan made the TIME 100, while composer A.R. Rahman crossed over to the mainstream with his Slumdog Millionaire score. You can feed your Bollywood fever with TIME’s list of the best Bollywood classics, as well as our Five Essential Bollywood movies to Netflix.

Read more

Quick thoughts on PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 (English 2010)

The first PARANORMAL ACTIVITY surprised me, it wasn’t particularly a great movie, but it was an innovative one which relied more on “reality” styled horror and pure atmosphere than SFX, gore, violence and scary faces. It fed off the audiences own imagination and the silence of the movie became it’s greatest asset. The low quality “reality” style camera gave it a unique touch creating the kind of cinematic “terror” one hasn’t experienced since THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. The sequel had a bigger budget and I was somewhat sceptical if it would recreate the same magic, however scepticisms aside, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 is a winner.

LINK

Kadhal 2 Kalyanam teaser

This is the film Baradwaj Rangan co-wrote….

Michael Jackson’s Thriller set for big screen resurrection

LINK

Hollywood studios are set to fight it out for the chance to produce a new film based on Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking Thriller video and song. Kenny Ortega, the High School Musical director who oversaw plans for Jackson’s ill-fated comeback tour and the film that chronicled rehearsals for it, This Is It, is in line to take charge of the cameras.

Rajesh Khanna, Raakhee, Sharmila Tagore on Filmfare (Feb 11, 1972)

Rabbit Hole trailer

Beautiful People with Neetu Singh

Balki’s next with Abhishek

thanks to Ted..
LINK

It is now going to be either Big B or Junior B in a film. Not the two of them together. At least not for a long time. And not unless something truly worthy of the father-son’s presence comes along. In his next directorial venture Department, Ram Gopal Varma will manage to get the Big B and Abhishek to share screen space together. But not as father and son. Varma’s Department would be the last film in a long time where we’ll get to see the two Bachchans together in the same frame.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAYSHAH … (AND ASIN)

Hey Jay Many Many Happy Returns of the day and may all ur wishes come true. Few wishes for ya..

1. let spurs win at old trafford this week
2. and hopefully u are there in crowd!!
3. but i hope chicharito scores in defeat for us

The decline of Mumbai’s single screen cinemas

The decline of Mumbai’s single screen cinemas
By Prachi Pinglay

Many years back, Niranjan Patwardhan zipped through crowded by-lanes and railway tracks in the southern Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) to make it in time for a new film.

On the way, he broke his arm, but instead of going to a doctor, he still went to the movie.

Mr Patwardhan is part of that cinema-crazy crowd who did whatever it took to catch a new Bollywood release in the cinema.

In those pre-internet download days, there were no DVD players and television with one state-run channel offered little choice.

Going to a cinema then was the only real entertainment for many in the city of Mumbai.

And cinemas in those days were large single screens with a seating capacity of 600 to 1,000.

Read more

Golmaal 3 trailers (updated)

Images from Guzaarish (updated)

A few frames from Udaan…

The great conflict in Udaan is one between nature and industry. “Industry” here is that which is artificial—that which not only stands in opposition to the natural world, but also against the inner nature of men.