Shanghai surprise

Dibakar Banerjee is not making a Byomkesh Bakshi in Bollywood. He is not doing a rom com with Imran Khan and Katrina Kaif either. After pushing the envelope further than any other filmmaker in B-town in 2010 with Love Sex … Read More

Slant Magazine reviews Mumbai Diaries

Everyone’s an artist in Mumbai Diaries, Kiran Rao’s Bombay-set network narrative—or at the very least aspires to be one. Part wrong-side-of-the-tracks romance, part portrait of the titular city, and part reflection on the class privilege of turning (mostly impoverished) life … Read More

Trailer of actor Aamir Bashir’s directorial venture ‘Harud’

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Show us a film, we’ll show you the money

Bollywood has never been more confused as now. Never been more unsure about the big stars/big film formula. Does this mean the movie game will change? Who and what will be the game-changer? Our correspondent talks to the biggest players … Read More

Trailer: Lafengey Parindey

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Trailer: We Are Family

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Teaser: David Fincher’s The Social Network

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Suno Aisha – Aisha

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I am not making movies to get marks from Amitabh: Mani Ratnam

In what can be seen as a sharp reaction to the remarks made by Amitabh Bachchan on ‘Raavan’, director of the film Mani Ratnam has said he is not making movies to get marks from Amitabh.

“That is his opinion. I am not bothered about it. And I am not here in the industry to get marks from Amitabh Bachchan. We have made a film after two years of hard work. Anyone can comment on it,” the ace filmmaker told a Tamil weekly.

Writing on his blog recently, the Big B expressed unhappiness over the film’s editing, which, according to him, ruined Abhishek’s performance.

“It’s sad, in the edit you only see the after-effect of that thinking process, hence inconsistent. In the edit, all the visual heads got cut and you see a confused Beera expression and wonder why?” Amitabh wrote.

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The Fate of Ranbir Kapoor

Fake Ranbir Kapoor wants to get under the skin of Kishore Kumar for his new movie. He’d like to research the role with Asha Bhosle. On Twitter, he asks the legendary singer if he can drop by her home, adding, … Read More

Living on the Edge

It gets my goat when people grumble about there being a dearth of talent in the film industry today. Maybe they live in caves, because the industry is overflowing with talented people who are doling out cutting edge work, people whose bold choices are being noticed and accepted today. Here’s my top ten list of cutting edge personalities to come out of the industry.

1. Dibakar Banerjee: Dibakar Banerjee’s genius stems from the fact that he doesn’t try to impress you, yet his films are so impressive. His strength as a director is directly related to his talent as a screenplay writer. His stories are interesting because his humour is organic and observational. With LSD, Dibakar does what few filmmakers dare to do; expose stories through a form of voyeurism that is creepy but true, adulterated, scintillating, and thoughtful. He knows how to provoke you and humour you with seemingly effortlessness.

2. Abhay Deol: There is a whole section of the urban audience who think Abhay Deol is a demi god, someone who refuses to conform to industry norms and regulations. He is experimental, quirky, intense, witty, and more importantly, doesn’t really care what you think of him. His performances speak for him, and it’s safe to say he isn’t capable of giving a bad one. A young producer in the making, Abhay had already learnt how to balance his films so that he’s doing a little of everything, without ever seeming burdened. His performance in Dev D may have reached cult status, but it’s Manorama Six Feet Under and Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! that show his range.

3. Vishal Bhardwaj : Vishal’s adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays resulted in Maqbool and Omkara, cinematic masterpieces both. While some in the industry felt he lacked originality, what people fail to notice is how wonderfully and organically he adapts masterpieces to fit our times, culture, and politics. Vishal has a great visual vocabulary, not to mention a remarkable ear for music. His compositions, both musically and cinematically are earthy and deep. Not one to try to wow you with accessories, Vishal focuses more on having fun with structure, narrative, and inspires actors to deliver career changing performances.

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First look at Deepika Neil starrer Lafangey Parindey

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Dibakar’s LOVE, SEX AUR DHOKHA receives worldwide acclaim

After earning significant commercial and critical acclaim in India, Alt Entertainment’s and Dibakar Banerjee directed LSD: LOVE, SEX AUR DHOKHA is ready to travel around the world, tripping film lovers.

The film is fast becoming a favorite amongst festival programmers … Read More

SRK-Chopra to work their magic again

After a gap of nearly six years, ace director Yash Chopra is all set to helm a project once again. The film, yet untitled, will star his favourite star, Shah Rukh Khan, in the lead.

Our source said, “Yash Chopra, … Read More

Big B, Ajay Devgn and Manoj Bajpayee in Prakash Jha’s Aarakshan

His last film Raajneeti is still running in the theatres but filmmaker Prakash Jha has already moved on to his next big project titled Aarakshan. The film is based on the issue of Job Reservations and Student Politics and stars … Read More

Cinematic moment: Car chase scene in Children of Men.

I found the film emotionally gripping; it was provocative, disturbing yet grimly beautiful. The realistic overtones to characters make them engaging and moving. Moreover I was particularly impressed with the cinematography, have not seen any scene so beautifully captured in … Read More

They think it’s all over for Tom Cruise. Is it?

Tom Cruise has been written off more times than the English football team, so perhaps we shouldn’t be too concerned by the brickbats currently being thrown at new comedy thriller Knight and Day, in which he co-stars with Cameron Diaz. … Read More

The final scene in ‘The 400 Blows’

Was watching ’400 Blows’ in the afternoon (Courtesy: UTV World Movies ). The final scene is a gem.Francois Truffaut’s brilliance at play. Conveyed through visuals and a haunting background score, Antoine’s delectation at the newly discovered freedom that he has … Read More

Shobhaa De: ‘Raavan’ – One head is better than ten!

What a disaster, Sirji!

Such a pity, the much-awaited ‘Dus Sarwalla’ turned out to be an unmitigated disaster! If only Mani Sir had made better use of his own ‘sar’, perhaps ‘Raavan’ would have fared better. A friend from Bangalore … Read More

Indianauteur on Raavan

One of the best pieces on Raavan I believe. Yet to see the film but some of the readings (Both positive and negative) on Raavan have made me lot curious than I was before.

It is important to comprehend what … Read More

Will we get our Mani back, please?

An Open Letter to Mani Ratnam

Dear Mani Sir,

You don’t know me. It makes more sense for me to be faceless. I could be any of those Ekalavyas for whom you have been the Dronacharya for over two decades. Whose celebrations, analyses, discussions, tributes, imitations and anticipations filled the gaps in your filmography. Whenever you came from your hiatus with a new offering, we readjusted benchmarks, redefined ingenuity and found ourselves with newer worlds to dream about. I, therefore, am any one of those whose admiration, respect and awe is fully expressed in those two words: “Mani Sir”.

I still remember the evening when I caught on TV the sequence of Shah Rukh whispering to Manisha in the dark corridor of AIR Studio; interrupted by streaks of light and greetings whenever a passer-by opens the door. Never before had I experienced such a use of light and sound- or rather their absence. I couldn’t catch even a single dialogue then, but was instantly taken into the melancholic world of Amar and Meghna. It was almost a year later that I could see Dil Se, but I think that evening was when you became “Mani Sir” to me.

The long gaps between your movies didn’t really bother us. We knew you would come up with a treat we had never tasted before- effervescent romances, clever writing and pioneering technical grandeur. You rarely repeated yourself, but the underlying themes were always apparent- ordinary people caught in the midst of extraordinary circumstances, and some glimpses of contemporary society. The stories had firm roots in the soil where they unfolded- be it the rustic Tamil Nadu villages, snow clad Kashmir, Bombay suburbs or war-torn Sri Lanka.

This authenticity of geography inevitably rubbed off on the characters too- Dil Se’s Amar worked with All India Radio, Kannathil Muthamittaal’s Thiruchelvan was an engineer who wrote under the pseudonym Indira while his wife read news on TV, Alaipayuthe’s Karthik ran a software start-up while Shakti studied MBBS and had community service postings at relief camps. Underneath the technical wizard you are supposed to be, it was this firm foundation of authentic detailing, these fine nuances that defined Mani Ratnam for me. Yeah, I know you always cheated with the locations of filming- Mankulam was actually Kerala and Pondichery- but that’s fine. When it comes to on-screen realism in mainstream cinema, your films were our textbooks.

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Ramayana Reloaded

Towards the end of Mani Ratnam’s long-awaited Raavan (2010), one of the characters looks at the camera and says “You shouldn’t have turned back”. He might well have been talking to the person behind the camera. Raavan is a visual … Read More

Lamha – Theatrical Trailer

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Why Bollywood’s film about Hitler is profoundly misguided

A first-time Indian director, Rakesh Ranjan Kumar, has announced that he will make a movie about Adolf Hitler. Dear Friend Hitler stars Indian actors Anupam Kher and Neha Dhupia as Hitler and Eva Braun, and will focus on what the … Read More

Hoax Office Hardsell

“What would you do if your mobile number was disclosed on the worldwide web?” I’m asked this rather odd question by Bollywood PR consultant Dale Bhagwagar. “I’ll ask the service provider to change it at once,” I reply matter-of-factly. But … Read More