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I would love to direct a film: Tom
6 Feb 2008, 0000 hrs IST,TNN
The days of daring and adventurous producers and directors are almost gone, laments the extremely versatile Tom Alter, who has merged into the Hindi film industry and television as a natural-born, despite his foreign origin.
Tom, who has been named for a Padma Shree by the government, has played an Englishman in several Hindi films as well as a villain.
Still remembered for his role of an Urdu poetry-loving English captain in Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977), Tom feels unhappy with the growing presence of corporate houses in filmdom. “They don’t believe in taking risks but in only making profits, which has led to a dearth in issue-based films, he says. “In those days, directors were the bosses. Now, a lot of people are giving their inputs and the director is no longer the boss. It is really difficult to find a film that really takes a stand. No corporate entity wants to lose money, so they don’t take risks; they take on safe subjects.”
It is only individual filmmakers who churn out pathbreaking movies, feels the actor. The veteran actor who has three films lined up for release this year — Photo, Cycle Kick and The Ocean Of the Old Man, says, “Only individuals like Aamir Khan, Vinod Chopra and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra have made great films in the recent past.
He misses the intelligence, creativity and genius of legends like Manoj Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Yash Chopra. The actor is not too impressed with the young brigade of actors either. “ I think they lack a sense of adventure; they don’t have individual personalities; they don’t think that deeply about the work they are doing. They don’t concentrate on the language, for instance. You see some of the finest actors are not the people with the greatest physique, some of them are ugly but are fantastic actors because they have got something to say,” Tom said.
Elaborating on his projects, he said, “Photo is made by a very dear friend of mine, Virendra Saini. It is the story of a young boy who lives in Ranikhet and wants to learn film direction. I play a librarian who is a film addict and teaches the boy about the history of films. It’s a very lovely role. The second is The Ocean Of The Old Man, a Hindi film with an English title. We shot this in the Andamans last year. Made by a young fellow from the film institute Rajesh Shera, it is the story of a man who runs a school in the Andamans for tribal children. He loses some of the children in the tsunami as well as his wife and daughter — how he deals with this tragedy is what the film is about. I play the teacher,” The third film Cycle Kick is made under the banner of Mukta Searchlights and is being directed by newcomer Shashi Sudigala.
“It is not based on football, but about a group of young boys in a small town who are trying to find their way in life. I play a football coach who convinces the boys to stop fighting with each other and play instead. Direction is also on Tom’s agenda, but he doesn’t know when it will happen. “I would love to direct a film. I have many subjects and am working on them. When anything happens I will let you know,” he said, signing off.
— IANS
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Agree with the above estimations (considering the movie works).
But Kudos to those Reliance guys who talked about expected 175-200 crores ...
Easy Recovery Plan,
India = 125 cr, 65 cr Share.(as its a Class and Mass movie and Hrithik works well everywhere)
Overseas ...
here are earlier reports
Reliance Big Pictures acquires distribution rights of biggest blockbusters
BIG Pictures to distribute Hrithik Roshan starrer Kites 
Those who understood meaning of "tumhe pyaar kab tak na karein bhala" will get the meaning of my last comment ...
Also I am the biggest fan of Nadeem-Shravan's music and I like his music more than some of ARR's songs! 
Plagiarism aside - as every famous music director has copied some song at some time
Rajesh Roshan has given some great ...
From music to cricket- I remember telling Rikky that on consistency Pathan junior is a much better batsmen ...
Qalandar 5 February 2008
09:07:55 am
Good interview this; am glad to see someone prick the self-congratulatory bubble that seems to envelop the media and Bollywood personalities these days, who love to pat each other on the back for how much more “different” and “daring” contemporary Hindi cinema is relative to the cinema of earlier generations — while mostly making fairly timid films.
rks 5 February 2008
09:12:29 am
I liked him in his non-caricatured (Villain) avatars. He has a very good commanding voice.
satyam 5 February 2008
11:04:36 am
Great stuff on the money. He’s totally on the money when talking about the younger breed.
Sid 5 February 2008
02:12:59 pm
Tom Alter’s hindi diction is the best I have heard personally (i am not talking about in movies but in person)
akshay shah 5 February 2008
02:21:39 pm
Tom Alter rocks…..I Love his performances in
KARMA: He mouthes the classic line “Kheri Din Keshti”…and lets off a evil laugh….he thinks NAsser is dea dand Nasser wakes up , screams REXONNNNNNN and shots him point blank!
Another memorable performance is KUDRAT, he plays the ex British soldier who recognizes Madhav, hes a a knockout in the courtroom sequences.
A.Shah
Qalandar 5 February 2008
02:33:06 pm
Yes, Alter’s diction is excellent — another actor with superb diction is Rishi Kapoor…Naseer too (his son, the pompous Imad Shah, also had great diction in Dil Dosti etc.)
Aditya 5 February 2008
02:37:00 pm
speaking of good diction, i also include actors like raajkumar and ashutosh rana
akshay shah 5 February 2008
02:53:22 pm
Aditya: I was just thinking about you..did you reccommend APNA ASMAAN to me? Review above! Interesting film…..
Q: DIL DOSTI etc i’m dying to check out..whats your take on it?? Mini review ho sakta hai?:)
A.Shah
Qalandar 5 February 2008
03:24:31 pm
Dil Dosti etc. is quite watchable, but never especially engaging. That is, individual memorable scenes do not add up here to a memorable movie. Much of this is because neither Imaad Shah’s character nor Imaad Shah himself evokes any particular empathy; the youngster is assured on debut, but seems to have inherited his dad’s smugness. The wider socio-political points sound interesting on paper, but the usual “English-medium” versus “Hindi medium” bit seemed a bit stereotyped to me. That being said, here’s what the film gets right: (i) the “feel” of the university, dorms, etc., and an academic culture “marked” by a sense of disadvantage, in that the wealthiest always seem to have the option of seceding from the system and going abroad; (ii) Shreyas Talpade, in an endearing performance. I wouldn’t have considered him a natural for the part of heartland “bhaiyya”, but he acquits himself admirably (I didn’t find the film’s end convincing) as the sort of youngster I imagine going on to big things in politics one day; (iii) the Dum Lagaa song, perhaps because of Shreyas’ antics…
akshay shah 5 February 2008
03:30:13 pm
Thanks Q! Shreyas is proving to be quiet a wonder boy:)!
Qalandar 5 February 2008
03:31:04 pm
PS– overall the film should certainly be watched, it is better than many others.
akshay shah 5 February 2008
03:40:51 pm
Thanks Q! Will get it for sure….this one ended up being a surprise hit from what ive read!
zero 5 February 2008
08:09:48 pm
[Spoiler alert for Dil Dosti Etc., etc.]
Q,
Just curious, what did you find “unconvincing” in the film’s end?
I liked the film only as much you seem to have liked it, but the other day, I was thinking of the now-trademark denouements of many Tamil films, contriving a very unfortunate or terrible accident and “use” it to accentuate the motifs of the film. I picked this film as a good example of a film which has an abrupt ending but doesn’t set out to “explain” it.
FloydRulez 5 February 2008
10:58:26 pm
Zero,
Right, reminds us of “Kalloori” in recent times..
Qalandar 6 February 2008
07:41:39 am
[Spoiler alert for Dil Dosti]
Re: “Just curious, what did you find “unconvincing” in the film’s end?”
Specifically, the fate of Shreyas Talpade’s character. I do agree that it was a good thing in my book that the ending was unexplained — but in this case the abruptness, the actual on-screen event, was unconvincing. Not to suggest that a real character in Talpade’s position wouldn’t have acted that way, but up to that point in the film the characterization wasn’t strong enough to take Talpade’s character out of the realm of the “been there done that”, and given that backdrop I just didn’t “see” him acting in that manner. [Perhaps Talpade is "intimidated" by class privilege, but I can't say the film itself suggests that.]
Rocky 6 February 2008
07:54:00 am
Dil Dosti etc, totally reminded me of My cleege days at SRCC in The Delhi University, North Campus.
Lekin my generation missed the bus. when it was our time India was not happening as it is now !!LOL !!!
I have a sevnen year old daughter, may be I should not be talking like this !!