Archives for April 2018

Islam is about friendship, kindness and peace, and far from roughness and terrorism that it has been lately associated it, avers Majid Majidi, the globally acclaimed Iranian director who once attempted to change the “false” perception of the religion with the film “Muhammad: The Messenger of God”. But he realised that the path is full of thorns.

For Majidi, cinema has the power to bring people together.
“Cinema for me is a bridge between cultures. Cinema has great potential to bring different cultures together because cinema doesn’t have any borders. It can travel around the world and have a great effect on human beings around the world. Cinema can show different rituals, different cultures to different countries visually in the best way,” Majidi told IANS through a translator on phone from Mumbai.

“I made ‘Muhammad: The Messenger of God’ with this vision…. Because in these years some people have created a false face of Islam, a wrong interpretation of this religion. I wanted to show the truth of that,” Majidi said.

“Muhammad: The Messenger of God”, which traces the life of Prophet Muhammed, and was also Iran’s nomination for best foreign language Oscar in 2015, had music by Indian composer A.R. Rahman.

Some radicals issued a “fatwa” against Majidi and Rahman in 2015 for the film, which was planned as a trilogy but there’s no update on it.

Majidi recalled that it was a project close to his heart and he gave seven years of his life to make it.

“ISIS and Taliban are wrong and completely lying about Islam… Western countries and Saudi Arabia are showing the wrong face of Islam. I gave seven years for research in filmmaking to show just a small part of real Islam.

“Islam is a religion of friendship, kindness and peace, which is completely far from this concept such as roughness and terrorism. I tried to open a small window to show what is real Islam.

“But radical Muslim groups, mostly from Saudi Arabia… were scared to show this real part of Islam; so they banned this film, calling it not to be shown in different countries.”

The Oscar-nominated filmmaker says he wanted to put focus on both parts of Islam — Shia and Sunni.

“After long research around both parts of Islam — Shia and Sunni — talking with the religious people of both… I tried to make a film to get unity between these two.”

But he was disappointed when his film was labelled as “haram” (forbidden).

“In different times and occasions, I asked all those religious leaders to come and watch the film because they called it “haram” and gave it a fatwa without watching the film.”

Majidi, known for masterpieces like “Children of Heaven”, “The Colour of Paradise” and “Baran”, is confident that “Muhammad: The Messenger of God” will find its “own way”.

But will he continue on his mission to change the perception about Islam?

“Working and filmmaking in this path is very difficult. I gave seven years of my life to this film. And what I did was open a path. The path is now open and I hope others will continue on it,” added the director, who says he is influenced by Indian legends like Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal.

As a director, Majidi says he wants to become the voice of the “lower class of society”.

“I always tried to show the issues of the lower class of society. I always want to be the voice of all those who have no power to voice their concerns.”

And he has done so in his own way via his maiden India-set project “Beyond The Clouds”, which explores the underbelly of Mumbai and introduces Ishaan Khatter and Malavika Mohanan.

The film is about how a brother and sister find happiness in separation and turbulent times. Produced by Zee Studios and Namah Pictures, it is set for release on Friday.

(IANS)

Film: “Truth and Dare”; Director: Jeff Wadlow; Cast: Lucy Hale, Violett Beane, Tyler Posey, Hayden Szeto, Landon Liboiron, Sophia Ali, Nolan Gerard Funk; Rating: **1/2

Director Jeff Wadlow’s “Truth or Dare” is more of a lukewarm, predictable thriller than a horror film.

It is about a group of friends who reluctantly get drawn into a web of danger while playing a harmless game of “Truth or Dare.”

The film takes a cliched route following Olivia (Lucy Hale) who is coaxed by her best friend Markie (Violett Beane) to join their group of closest friends on a trip to Mexico during their spring break before “life tears us apart”.

While the group is having fun at a bar lounge, Olivia meets a stranger — a hunky dude named Carter (Landon Liboiron) who convinces her and her friends to accompany him to an abandoned castle.

He draws them into playing the game of Truth or Dare. The rules are simple; “Tell the truth or you die. Do the dare or you die. If you refuse to play, you die.”

Horrified, the teens confront him, after which he admits to trapping them in some strange curse. He confesses to doing this because, “I’m okay with strangers dying so that I can live.”

Back in their college campus, the group, after bouts of hallucinations realise that the game has followed them back home through some kind of supernatural evil. They realise that both the truths and the dares are tailored to the players which are designed to ruin their relationships or kill them trying.

The commands of the game are delivered by familiar faces that contort into evil smiles, looking, as one character puts it, “like a messed up Snapchat filter”.

Soon, Lucy realises, “what you see is not real only the consequences are real”. They also realise that “we are not playing it, it is playing us.”

But, by the end of it, the entire process; by-the-numbers, of trying to save themselves from being killed becomes staid, foreseeable and unintentionally silly.

While the performances are perfunctory and lacklustre, the production values inclusive of the CGI effects, definitely reek of a low-budget film.

Overall, coming from the makers who gave us horror films like “Get Out”, “Insidious”, “The Purge”, “Split”, “Paranormal Activity” “Sinister” and “The Gift”, this one is a mediocre-fare and childish diversion, which does not seem original or exciting.

(IANS)

Raj Amit Kumar’s provocative directorial debut, Unfreedom, starring Adil Hussain & Victor Banerjee, has recently been released internationally by Netflix, making it one of the boldest & the most controversial Indian films to release on the platform.

Unfreedom is a contemporary thriller based in a society torn apart by political, religious & sexual turmoil. Alternating between New York & New Delhi, the film combines 2 powerful stories about religious fundamentalism & intolerance. One of which follows a Muslim terrorist Husain (Bhanu Uday), attempting to silence a liberal Muslim scholar Fareed (Victor Banerjee).

The other story is about a young woman Leela (Preeti Gupta), who defies her devout father Devraj (Adil Hussain) & escapes an arranged marriage because she is secretly involved in a taboo lesbian romance with Sakhi (Bhavani Lee).

Through these stories, the film creates a powerful portrait of the troubled times we live in and depicts the lengths to which the protagonists go in order to hold on to their strong & conflicting viewpoints on freedom, faith, family & love.

Unfreedom is based on an original story by Raj Amit Kumar and marks his directorial feature film debut. He has also produced the film under the banner of Dark Frames & co-written the screenplay with Damon J Taylor.

The film’s technical team comprises of Oscar-winner Resul Pookutty (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) who has done the sound design for the film and was nominated for the Motion Picture Sound Editors’ 63rd annual Golden Reel Awards.

The film is shot by award winning cinematographer Hari Nair (of Shutter & Kerala Café fame) & edited by Atanu Mukherjee, who debuted as a director with the acclaimed film, Rukh in the year 2017.

Unfreedom was banned by the India’s Censor Board of Film Certification, (CBFC) in 2015 (which was then headed by ex – producer & Director Pahlaj Nihalani) who was of the opinion that the film will ignite unnatural (read homosexual) passions & incite rapes & communal violence in India. Initially the film was under review by Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) who wanted director Raj Amit Kumar to cut crucial elements from the film in order to be shown to the Indian public.

Not to be bogged down by their demands, Raj Amit Kumar appealed before the Indian Government’s Information & Broadcasting Appellate Tribunal, (FCAT). And in response, the FCAT banned the film without any possibility of cutting or further appeals.

Later on Raj Amit Kumar & his team ran a campaign for a year during which they did around 100 screenings of the film globally in India & US amongst other countries. The film was screened to immensely encouraging audience response in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata,
Los Angeles & New York. Following this, the film was recently released internationally by Netflix.

Talking about the film’s release by Netflix, director Raj Amit Kumar averred, “I am glad that Unfreedom finds such a popular platform like Netflix after the ban in India and the efforts of censorship guardians in India to stop the film. It also exposes the hypocrisy & the divide between the reality & the fantasy of censorship system in India. There is no way they can control & censor content in digital age, yet, they try their best to choke filmmakers like me who have something relevant to say that makes them feel threatened.”

Elaborating on the film’s ban by Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) and it being labeled as one of the boldest Indian films ever, Raj Amit Kumar stated, “The boldness of something is always defined by what you are allowed to say or not in a society. The boldness of an artist is always defined by what others artist around him have not said or what they are not allowed to express. Thus, it is not the content in my film per se makes it bold, but it the context of a society in which it is told, it is the fact that we have become such a weak & conservative society where we are asked to shut up all the time. Our voices are being crushed unless we are chanting slogans that the powers to be & moral guardians are ok with.”

Raj Amit Kumar concluded by saying, “And in today’s time our art is being crushed in much more violent ways than ever before. Journalists are getting killed, films are getting banned for the slightest of transgressions and the whole mediascape is turned into a trumpet sound. Any other vision, voice, expression has to be curtailed. So I guess it is the boldest film ever because I did not give a damn about anyone or anybody. I didn’t care & I don’t think I will care in future as well. Unless artists take that approach and risk their well being, we will soon be living in a world where everybody is frightened to say anything truthful.”

Raj Amit Kumar graduated in Masters of Arts in Cinema & Media Studies from City University of New York (CUNY) in the year 2006, where he received the George Custen Memorial Award for Academic Excellence. Raj Amit Kumar finished his Ph.D. coursework in Cinema & Media studies at Southern Illinois University (SIUC) before beginning work on his 1st ever feature film, originally titled as Blemished Light, the script of which won the 1st ever Prize in Faculty Screenwriting Award at University of film & Video Association (UFVA) in the year 2009.
Also a media academic, teacher & writer, Raj Amit Kumar has taught cinema theory & history at both his alma maters, City University of New York & Southern Illinois University College from the yeafr 2005 to the year 2009 and his writings & research papers have been published & presented at varied conferences.
In early 2012, Raj Amit Kumar established Dark Frames as a development & production company. Its primary goal is to develop & produce provocative independent films.
Unfreedom is produced by Dark Frames, which is a new film & web Series development & production company set up by Raj Amit Kumar which is dedicated to bringing high-quality, independent films to international audiences.

The company is recently in production with its 2nd feature film Brown which is also directed by Raj Amit Kumar. And it is a pre-production of Black Boots, a story of the 1st ever Black Marines who went to World War II. The movie has a backing & support of Montford Point Marine Association & USA Marines. The company has also acquired Erotomania, a Novella by Francis Levy to be made as a Sex -Comedy in India.