The world has had the pleasure of two ‘luminaries’ of Indian cinema—Mahesh Bhatt and Amitabh Bachchan reinforce their views on ‘plagiarism’ and ‘originality’. Bhatt saab has long maintained that nobody is original; while the ever gracious Bachchan saab went further “Originality is the art of hiding your source”. With such cocky but effete statements coming from seemingly popular people in the bigger “We are Family” fraternity,... 

As soon as the first trailer of Dabangg hit the marquee, Salman entered the ‘cool’ bracket almost overnight. By ‘cool’ bracket I mean the hipsters’ conversations. I’ll give you a better idea. In the mid 90’s when David Dhawan and Govinda were on a roll, the ‘cool’ bunch always derided them. They called them cheap, crass and anyone who…  Read More →

Jairaj and Renuka Devi in Bhabhi (1938) In Awara (1951), Raj Kapoor famously tells Nargis that it is not her fault that she initially mistakes him for a vagabond—actually, there is something about his face that makes him look like one: “Is mein tumhara kasoor nahin, meri soorat hi aisi hai.” This memorable apology followed by Nargis warming up to Raj is quite the staple of the Raj-Nargis romance. More than a decade earlier, in... 

Today I watched Peepli [Live]. Today I froze at the sight of the common man reduced to a non-entity in my great country of India. Today I was shaken at the never-ending height of opportunism, power, and wealth sought by those to whom, ironically, the likes of Natha have given the power. Today I discuss animatedly about the disgusting state of the farming sector; about the dis-connect between the English speaking elite and the back-bone breaking... 

Usually movies come with ratings and reviews which either takes us towards the movie or away from it. But Aamir Khan’s movies come with ‘compulsion’; a ‘must watch’ tag. When Aamir puts himself behind a movie, then all ratings and reviews fly out of the window; and people just want to watch the product at least once. And when that product turns out to be what ‘Peepli [Live]‘ is, we understand what differentiates Aamir from the... 

Thanks to the general decline in the standard of new movies, I visit the multiplex less and less nowadays. Very few films inspire an urge to catch it in the first week. While there are some films one has to see on the big screen, like ‘Avatar’ for example, others can wait. They will turn up one day or the other on television. Meanwhile I satisfy my craving for good films by borrowing from the library or catch them on the English film channels. ... 

Take One: OMG Kya Natha marega? [My buddy's take] I don’t know any other movie which is called as producers’ movie so much as this one under discussion. In Hollywood big superstars step into the shoes of Executive Producers quite often but I don’t think even their movies get such big notices as this– an Aamir Khan movie – is getting. The movie is written by Anusha Rizvi and directed by Anusha Rizvi with Mahmood Farooqui. Anusha... 

Hollywood has been on a media reboot spree for a while now. By ‘reboot’, I mean taking an old piece of media content, usually one that is well past its prime and is generating limited revenue, and launching it in a  fresh, updated form, often on a different media channel. Transformers, Star Trek, A Team, GI Joe, Karate Kid, Incredible Hulk, Superman, Nightmare on Elm…  Read More →

“Mission District” is a culturally rich neighborhood in San Francisco, and has become home to many Latin American immigrants over the last century. Many streets of this neighborhood have murals that depict stories of life left behind in the Latin American land. Some of these murals are highly evocative, and we started thinking of ways to imbibe the murals into a film. There was an announcement about a short film festival of San Francisco... 

My teenager cousin told me that her friend was shocked by Love Sex Aur Dhokha (LSD) because it showed everything. What exactly this meant, I didn’t prod at that time. Now when I think about it, she probably meant the blurred out sex scene. On a news channel a few weeks back, the Censor Board Chairperson Sharmila Tagore commented on the absurdity of the director of the film, Dibakar Banerjee, wanting a ‘U/A’ certificate for it. She said... 

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a piece entitled, Plot Change: Foreign Forces Transform Hollywood Films . The article discusses the growing importance of foreign box office sales for US film studios. More and more of their money is coming from international, rather than US, sales. In view of this, the studios are looking at ways to ‘internationalise’ their content in terms of themes, locations, actors etc. Studios are even steering... 

Dharmveer Bharti’s epic novel ‘Gunaahon Ka Devta’ had more than the obvious (psychological!) effects on me:  I decided to make a movie titled ‘Seema’ (name of the female protagonist). So I designed a poster for it and played casting director and my friend Vikas did the same and then we compared notes. I don’t remember my list but I remember that my cast had better actors than his and I never let him forget... 

When icons become iconoclastic by Ravi Shanker Kapoor What do the believers do when the idols of their temple start talking blasphemously? They are shocked, they become incredulous, even enter the state of denial. This was, at any rate, the fate of Saeed Naqvi when he interviewed Naseeruddin Shah (NewsX, July 20). He could not believe when Naseer, an icon of parallel cinema, said that Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand, and Dara Singh were his favorite... 

Cast : Ajay Devgan, Akshaye Khanna Director :  Priyadarshan Producer : Kumar Mangat Interestingly, the trailer says ‘from the director of Virasat & Gardish’ and not ‘Hera Pheri & Khatta Meetha’ ; thereby giving the film a serious look. Also, the movie was earlier titled ‘Garam Hawa’ I believe; but Imdb neither lists ‘Garam Hawa’ nor ‘Aakrosh’ among line-up of future projects... 

The information and content has not been written by the author, but has been pasted here, with permission from the official sources, to spread the news to as many people possible for the upcoming event. Directors who make film making possible give humankind a reason to look at the mirror image of their own emotions. Ironically, they never get the attention as compared to the stars they create through their movies. In an attempt to salute the... 

Please Note: This is not a promotional/marketing gimmick. I have created something and am already advertising on Facebook for that. I am here to share the experience with like-minded creative people. Hello everyone. My name is Pratik Arora. After I completed college  (Bachelors in Business Economics) last year (I am 21 now) I did not run after an MBA degree like most of my friends. Nor a job. I really wanted to do something creative and created... 

Or for that matter Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay, Hrithik or any of the stars in our film industry. Let me explain. For instance, take the case of a recent love story that has hit the bulls-eye. Imagine if whatever you saw on screen came to you in the form of words on paper, be it a novel or a script (all 20 pages of it). Or maybe a young good looking director narrating to you excitedly what an exciting story it is. Would you as an audience,... 

I am a big fan of Raag Darbaari by Srilal Shukla, perhaps the finest satire ever written in Hindi literature, I would eve suggest in entire Indian literature. I would rank it right alongside Joseph Heller’s Catch -22 in terms of sheer breadth and depth. The subject of Raag Darbari is Indian village life, the type portrayed by Shyam Benegal in Sajjanpur and Well Done Abba, except the tone is sharper and humor far more loopier. I appreciate... 

The flight begins anew… Disclaimer: This post is not a review of Vikramaditya Motwane’s brilliant directorial debut Udaan, just an expression of the memories that came gushing out, the moment I walked out of the CineMandir. Sometime in the year 1999, outside my school building, standing with my best friend Sumit Jain (miss you bro) I innocently claimed “Yaar apne school ke oopar ek film banaayenge”. That was when the... 

Vitthal Of around 1000 movies that are made in India in a year, very few movies cater to the needs of children. Even fewer are the movies on children. It feels very bad when you see a toddler tagging along with his/her parents for a movie like Kambhakt Ishq. Also its a proof of how we do not make an effort to understand our children. Vitthal, a short film, is a brilliant display of how we force things on our children without even making an effort...