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Uruguayan Writer Eduardo Galeano Dies Age 74 in Montevideo

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The famed Uruguayan writer and journalist authored over 35 books, including the “Open Veins of Latin America.”

Uruguayan writer and journalist Eduardo Galeano died of lung cancer at age 74 in Montevideo. | Photo: teleSUR

Uruguayan writer and journalist Eduardo Galeano died of lung cancer at age 74 in Montevideo. | Photo: teleSUR

by teleSUR

Internationally awarded Uruguayan author and journalist Eduardo Galeano died Monday of lung cancer at age 75 in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, according to local newspaper Subrayado.

The writer of about 35 books, including the “Open Veins of Latin America,” which became a bestseller overnight after the late President Hugo Chavez handed the book over to his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama during the fifth Summit of the Americas in 2009, was born Sept. 3, 1940.

The confirmation of his death was also covered by Spanish daily El Pais and Europe Press.

Galeano is considered to be one of the most notable authors of Latin American literature.

Among his many works are “Memory of Fire Trilogy,” “The Following Days,” and “Guatemala, an Occupied Country.”

Galeano distinguished himself as a writer by transcending orthodox genres and by combining documentary, fiction, journalism, political analysis and history.

He once proclaimed his obsession as a writer, saying, “I’m a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia.”

He began his career at a very early age. At 14, he was already drawing political cartoons and began his career as a journalist as an editor for the weekly Marcha and later for the daily Epoca. After the 1973 coup in Uruguay, Galeano was briefly jailed and immediately after fled to Argentina, where he founded a cultural magazine called Crisis.

According to The Most Famous People website, Galeano is one of Latin America’s most cherished and admired literary figures, particularly because he raised his voice incessantly for human rights and social justice.

He was a severe critic of globalization and highlighted the dehumanizing facets of globalization in the contemporary world, the website added.

He was a severe critic of globalization and highlighted the dehumanizing facets of globalization in the contemporary world, the website added. “One of South America’s most renowned writers, he has been an ambassador of Latin American history and has provided the world an insight into their culture, heritage and struggles, through his passionate and honest writing,” they said.

On July 23, 2013, British newspaper The Guardian wrote an extensive story on Galeano, saying he had “become the poet laureate of the anti-globalization movement by adding a laconic, poetic voice to non-fiction.”

The Guardian quoted him as saying that, “This world is not democratic at all. The most powerful institutions, the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank, belong to three or four countries. The others are watching. The world is organized by the war economy and the war culture.”

His 1971 book “Open Veins of Latin America,” which is considered fundamental to understand regional politics, was translated to over 20 languages.

Many critics have said his books are a distinctive balance of Latin American history, while his fictional stories also have elements of Latin American culture and antiquity.

In 1978, he published the award-winning book, “Days and Nights of Love and War,” which revolves around the dictatorial regime in Uruguay in the 1970s.

Between 1982 and 1986, he came up with the “Memory of Fire Trilogy,” a collection that consisted of the books “Genesis,” “Faces and Masks” and “Century of the Wind.”

He latest book, “Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History,” was published in 2012 and was shaped like a calendar and had a story for each day. The objective of this book is to reveal moments from the past while contextualising them in the present. According to the Guardian, with this work he achieves “a kind of epigrammatic excavation, uprooting stories that have been mislaid or misappropriated, and presenting them in their full glory, horror or absurdity.”

His entry for July 1, for example, is entitled “One Terrorist Fewer,” and it reads, “In the year 2008, the government of the United States decided to erase Nelson Mandela’s name from its list of dangerous terrorists. The most revered African in the world had featured on that sinister roll for 60 years.”

His entry for Oct. 12 is entitled “Discovery” and starts that, “In 1492 the natives discovered they were Indians, they discovered they lived in America.”

Eduardo Galeano received many prizes for his works throughout his life. His book, “Days and Nights of Love and War” was the recipient of The Casa de las Americas Prize, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious literary awards given in Latin America.

Galeano was also a strident critic of Obama’s foreign policy. However, when he was voted in as president of the U.S., the Uruguayan author said, “I was very happy when he was elected, because this is a country with a fresh tradition of racism.”

In 1976, when he married for the third time to Helena Villagra, the regime of dictator Jorge Rafael Videla (1976-1981) took power in Argentina in a bloody military coup and Galeano’s name was added to the lists of those condemned by the death squads, forcing the Uruguayan writer to flee again. On this occasion he went to Spain, where he wrote his famous trilogy: “Memory of Fire.”

In early 1985, Galeano returned to Uruguay and founded yet another publication, the weekly Brecha. And following the victory of Tabare Vazquez (who recently won the presidential elections again) and the Broad Front alliance in the 2004 Uruguayan elections marking the first left-wing government in Uruguayan history, he wrote a piece for The Progressive titled “Where the People Voted Against Fear.”

Following the creation in 2005 of TeleSUR, a pan-Latin American television station based in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2005 Galeano along with other left-wing intellectuals such as Tariq Ali and Adolfo Perez Esquivel joined the network’s 36 member advisory committee.

His anthology “Women” is scheduled to be publicly presented in Spain on Thursday.

Renowned German author Günter Grass dies, aged 87

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Nobel Prize winner and taboo breaker: The German writer was an unruly spirit throughout his life. Grass was an engaged citizen seen by some as a “moral authority,” by others as a hypocrite. He passed away on April 13.

Gunter_Grass

by Cornelia Rabitz, Deutsche Welle

Günter Grass died of a lung infection on Monday, April 13, in the northern German city of Lübeck, the Steidl publishing house announced.

His life, full of ups and downs, moments of triumph and turmoil, began on October 16, 1927. Günter Grass grew up in a rather humble home: His parents ran a grocery store in Gdansk (then known as Danzig), but their customers were so poor that they couldn’t always pay the bills. The Catholic family lived in a very small apartment.

“A childhood between the Holy Spirit and Hitler,” is how biographer Michael Jürgs sums up the environment in which Grass spent his childhood. At the age of just 17, he witnessed the horrors of World War II as a member of the Hitler Youth. He later joined the Waffen-SS, a Nazi special forces unit. It would be decades until he would be able to talk openly about these experiences – which later caused a scandal. During his years as a teenager and a young man, he focused on how to survive the war.

Beginnings of a bestselling author

1952: the Federal Republic of Germany was still in its infancy, and so was the intellectual development of Grass. He was interested in art, studied sculpture and graphic design, joined a jazz band, and traveled a lot. In 1956, he settled down in Paris for some time, where he lived a rather modest life together with his first wife.

That’s where his brilliant career as an author began. Grass produced his first novel “The Tin Drum” in 1959, sparking an uproar in the rather conservative society of the former West Germany before it became a huge international success. The book was translated into numerous languages and adapted into a movie. Exactly four decades later, its writer received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Creative and productive

Günter Grass wrote dramas, poems, and especially fiction, the list of his works is very long, among them “Cat and Mouse” and “Dog Years,” which, together with “The Tin Drum” were part of his famous “Gdansk Trilogy;” “Local Anesthetic,” “The Flounder,” “The Rat,” “The Call of the Toad,” and “Crabwalk.” Most of his works dealt with political conditions and social upheaval, like the sinking of a refugee ship in the Baltic Sea in 1945, the role of intellectuals in the uprising in former East Germany in 1953, the student protests of 1968, federal election campaigns and political relations between the East and West.

As a native of Danzig, reconciliation between Germany and Poland always remained a particularly important topic to Grass. Despite some critics lamenting that Grass’ books were too heavy and political in nature, all of his works became very successful and sparked heated debates among literary circles in Germany. Yet none of them ever managed to match the enthusiasm created by the drumming Oskar Matzerath of Grass’ very first novel, “The Tin Drum.”

Morality and politics

Günter Grass was a multi-talented artist, not only a novelist and poet, but also a sculptor and designer who occasionally also designed the covers of his own books. Considered by some as a moral authority and by others as a radical leftist, his political views divided the nation. Since 1961, he committed himself to the Social Democrats (SPD) without being a party member, and he supported Willy Brandt in his election campaign in 1969. Later on, he did join the SPD – only to give up his membership a few years later in a row over alterations of the right to asylum.

Grass always remained a very critical observer, an independent leftist who, making use of his reputation, interfered in political issues now and then. He spoke out against the deportation of Kurds, for the compensation of former forced laborers during the Nazi era, for human rights, for persecuted writers and against wars.

In 2006, he saw himself forced to admit that, during the Second World War, he himself had not been altogether innocent. His former membership in the notorious Waffen-SS, mentioned in his 2006 autobiography “Peeling the Onion,” caused a stir both in Germany and abroad, besmirching his reputation as a moral authority. Suddenly he who had always advocated stringently dealing with Germany’s Nazi past was accused of being a hypocrite.

A poem as a provocation

A rift seemed to grow between the writer and the public, a moral authority holding up a mirror to the Germans was no longer needed. Grass caused yet another international uproar in April 2012 after publishing a text entitled “What must be said.” The text, which he labeled a poem, contained thinly veiled criticism of Israeli policy with Grass warning of an Israeli nuclear strike against Iran and calling the state of Israel, its nuclear capabilities and its occupation policy a threat to world peace.

The pamphlet sparked outrage. Grass, accused of anti-Semitism, became persona non grata in Israel. Nevertheless, he remained a role model throughout his lifetime – not least for his younger fellow writers. Author and critic Uwe Tellkamp considered him “one of the strongest narrative powers in German literature,” while fellow author Moritz Rinke casually referred to him as “perhaps the most interesting and most versatile dinosaur.”

Movie Review: 'Ek Paheli Leela' is like a shabbily packaged old wine in a new bottle

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Ek Paheli Leela

Banner: Paper Doll Entertaiment
Producer: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Ahmed Khan & Shaira Khan
Director: Bobby Khan
Cast: Sunny Leone, Rajneesh Duggal, Jay Bhanushali, Mohit Alawat, Rahul Dev, Jas Arora, Shivani Tanksale, V J Andy, Daniel Weber, Ehsaan Qureshi, Kulvinder Bakshish, Nausheen Ahmed, Girish Thapar, Jitendra Baiswal & Arun Singh
Music: Meet Bros Anjjan, Amaal Mallik, Dr. Zeus, Tony Kakkar & Uzair Jaswal

Débutante director Bobby Khan tries his super best to rekindle & refresh the “reincarnation” movies memories in his debut offering ‘Ek Paheli Leela’ and one  must say that he does succeed to a great extent but…….! The 300 years old vintage voyeuristic carnival ‘EK Paheli Leela’ is aided & abetted by a promotional picturesque postcard, destinated & designated, journey from Milan to Jaisalmer. The oft repeated transitional jump from modern to rural and back to modernism is too frequent to be true. So much so that it leaves a jarringly jaded note of yawn inflicted boredom and the constant sexual innuendos is disguised as an entertainment spree, garnished with item numbers oriented songs galore, for the gullible cine goer.

Meera meets Leela  (Sunny Leone in a double role) 300 years apart. But certainly not in the same vein as ‘Sally Meets Harry’. Yes! Meera a topnotch model from Milan is scared shit of taking a flight so when her manager Andy (V J Andy) bags a modeling assignment for her in Jaisalmer he tries his own tricks to put Meera on flight en route to Jaisalmer. Out here she meets hunks left, right & centre before being enlightened by the 300 years old fabled past of Leela, her so called reincarnated “Humshakal”. There is Karan (Jay Bhanushali) who hallucinates about Leela his lover now Meera whom he could not marry in his past life due to the evil designs of Bhairav (Rahul Dev). There is Prince Ranveer (Mohit Ahlawat) who is so besotted by Meera that he finally ends up tying the knot with her even before Karan could reach Jaisalmer to stake his claim again. And last but not the least, there is Shravan (Rajniesh Duggal) who also hovers around Meera, not knowing exactly what he is upto.

The same is the case with the preview audiences who were not exactly sure of what they were upto in this entire confusion confounded mileu. Bobby Khan makes a welcome Bollywoodian debut with big brother choreographer Ahmed Khan at the productional helm of affairs in tandem with his spouse Shaira Khan, Krishan Kumar and above all T – Series head honcho Bhushan Kumar. Its all in the family (affair) as they say. Need I say more.

Performance wise it is Porn Queen Sunny Leone all the way who spells her own magic in her first ever double role, both in her glam quotient oriented as well as her first ever village belle avatar. Yet no cause for making merry as she still has to traverse millions of miles to reach her histrionics department. And above all the men in brief (roles) like Rahul Dev, Jas Arora, Mohit Ahlawat and above all Rajniesh Duggal are perfection personified as per the demand of their brief roles are concerned. The rest of the actors like Daniel Weber (Sunny Leone’s real life partner), Shivani Tanksale, V J Andy, Ehsaan Qureshi, Kulvinder Bakshish, Nausheen Ahmed, Girish Thapar, Jitendra Baiswal & Arun Singh just about fill in the blanks to make the film a complete or incomplete package. Take it whichever way you want, the choice structly rests with you.

Tail piece: ‘Ek Paheli Leela’ is strictly an adults fare meant only Sunny Leone and the beefy boys Jay Bhanushali, Mohit Alawat, Rahul Dev, Jas Arora & Rajniesh Duggal fans. Kids stay away.

Movie Review: ‘Dharam Sanket Mein' is an expose of the varied myths & facts of the 2 diverse religions namely Hinduism & Islam

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Dharam Sanket Mein

Producer: Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, Sajjad Chunawala & Shariq Patel
Director: Fuwad Khan
Cast: Paresh Rawal, Naseeruddin Shah, Annu Kapoor, Gippy Grewal, Auritra Ghosh, Sharat Sonu, Alka Kaushal, Murli Sharma, Mukesh, Rushita Pandey, Sophie Choudry, Hazel Keech, Suresh Venkataraman, Jagdish Rajpurohit, Jahangir Karkaria, Alka Mehta, Gagan Gupta et al
Music: Meet Bros Anjjan, Sachin Gupta, Jatinder Shah & D J Kiran
Pro: Raindrop Media

Fuwad Khan, an ace cinematographer turned débutante director, has tackled the varied myths & facts concerning the 2 most talked about religions namely Hinduism & Islam. But was it necessary for him to get blatantly inspired by a situational Brit comedy named ‘The Infidel’ based on the same subject of 2 diverse religions criss crossing each other albeit in hilariously comic way.

Dharampal Trivedi’s (Paresh Raval) Dharam (Read religious beliefs) gets really shaken the day he opens his departed mother’s bank locker. His entire world turns upside down and he faces an identity crises dilemma. He finds an affidavit in the locker which states his origin as being born to a Muslim father.  He wants to meet his long lost father who is on his death bed in a Muslim sanitarium, but the Maulana (Murli Sharma) of the Sanitarium bars the twain to meet unless Dharampal becomes a devout Muslim. Whereas his own biological son Amit wants him to be a devout Hindu and a disciple of Swami Neela Anand Baba (Naseeruddin Shah) simply to impress his son’s prospective father – in – law. Dharam is now totally confused in a dilamatic state. So he takes the help of his friend, his immediate neighbor, to learn to be a devout Muslim, who happens to be a Muslim lawyer by the name of Nawab Mehmood Nazeem Ali Shah Khan Bahadur (Annu Kapoor). And his son Amit brings in a pandit to help Dharam to be a devout Hindu. So Dharam seeing no escape starts learning the ‘mannerisms’ of both the religions simultaneously.

Débutante director Fawud Khan has tried his best to balance the sentiments of the 2 concerned religions but his appropriate directorial skills seriously lacks finesse. So the resultant effect is neither here nor there, rather than being tackled on a serious note or treated in an amusingly comic way it becomes way too preachy. In fact the entire episodic issue of Swami Neela Anand Baba was totally uncalled for.

And the sole brownie point goes to the one liner dialogues of Alpesh Dixit, Sanjay Sharma & Vijay Desai.

Performance wise Paresh Rawal is a winner all the way and as the film rests heavily on his shoulders he has really, really delivered an absolutely honest, sincere & dedicated act. The next in line star performer is no doubt Annu Kapoor who has really left an impact with his brilliant performance. Whereas a veteran actor like Naseeruddin Shah disappoints totally. He is a total misfit in the entire mileu and his obnoxious geteup, coupled with his put off mannerisms, is an eyesore. While the rest of the actors like Gippy Grewal, Auritra Ghosh, Sharat Sonu, Alka Kaushal, Murli Sharma, Mukesh, Rushita Pandey, Sophie Choudry, Hazel Keech, Suresh Venkataraman, Jagdish Rajpurohit, Jahangir Karkaria, Alka Mehta, Gagan Gupta et al have proved to be an adequate support system just to carry the film forward.

Tail piece: If you have watched films like ‘OMG: Oh! My God’ & ‘PK’ based on similar themes, then taking a trip to a movie hall for watching ‘Dharam Sanket Mein’ will be a sheer waste of time.

Movie Review: 'It Follows' is a scariest film in the horror genre of recent times

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It Follows

Producer: Rebeca Green, Laura D Smith, David Robert Mitchell, David Kaplan & Eric Romesmo
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Star cast: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi & Lilki Sepe
Genre: Horror
Verdict: Very Good

Director David Robert Mitchell in his latest offering It Follows has treaded on a spiritually oriented horror genre and he succeeds in delivering a scariest fare in recent times.

Plot: A scary romantic date

Jay, a college student, goes to see a film with her boyfriend Hugh. In the theatre, Hugh points out a woman standing at the entrance whom Jay cannot see. Fearful, he demands that they leave. On another date, Hugh & Jay have sex in his car, after which Hugh incapacitates her with chloroform. She wakes up tied to a wheelchair, and Hugh explains that their sex has passed on a curse. And that she should pass on the curse by having sex with others in order to get rid of the curse.

Aces: Music & Performances

The strongest point of It Follows is its eerie sound track at the right opportune moment which enhances its mysterious suspense element. All the actors like Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi & Lilki Sepe have delivered their best & natural scary act.

Minuses: A few editing glitches

At times It is difficult to follow the exact goings on but those lapses are covered with David’s overall directorial finesse. if only the editor Julio C Perez IV’s editorial scissors had been more sharper.

Last Word: It Follows is a worth watch scare fare.

Screenwriters becoming obsolete in Hollywood

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Screenwriters

Of late Hollywood had plunged into the season of back – to – back awards and acceptance speeches, when every winner reminded one that filmmaking is a collaborative endeavor and not just one man’s individual efforts. In these recitations of all the collaborators, however, one noticeable point was that screenwriters are rarely if ever mentioned, which is ironic since the speeches usually are in need of a serious rewrite.

Such omissions have become increasingly apparent lately, since more & more films have either been written by the director or perhaps not written at all. One is convinced that no director named Anderson had ever hired a writer. Further on, ‘Birdman‘, with all its frenetic energy, plays like it was created scene – by – scene by its hyper – caffeinated cast for instance the director, Alejandro G. Inarritu, takes screenplay credit along with 3 other scribes, including 2 friends.

Arguably, the visually arresting ‘Interstellar’ would have been a far more better & satisfying film had a talented writer worked on its dialogues & plot, Chris Nolan and his brother, Jonathan, are listed as the writers. ‘Boyhood‘ was appreciably admired but, again, it plays as if the actors, year after year, invented scenes as they slowly aged.

The obsolescence of the screenwriter also is apparent in the trend towards what some critics call the “post – plot” movie. ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ is a prime example of a movie that offered great shtick and a wisecracking raccoon but no true narrative. “The movie encourages you to enjoy yourself even though you’re not sure what’s going on,” observed Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan, he’s a traditionalist, to be sure.

To the contemporary filmmaker – writer, panache and camera movement are more important than the compelling dialogues. Author Stephen Farber (another traditionalist) reminds one of Billy Wilder’s declaration: “I like to believe that narrative movement can be achieved eloquently & elegantly without shooting from a hole in the ground, without hanging the camera from a chandelier and without the camera dolly dancing a polka.”

The argument about writers & writers’ credits dates back at least to Andrew Sarris’ pronouncements in the ’60s about “auteur” filmmaking. Sarris had venerated directors like Alfred Hitchcock, who distrusted both writers & actors. Pauline Kael had then come along to advance the cause of Sidney Lumet, who ranged from ‘Network’ to ‘Serpico’, and who closely worked with prominent screenwriters.

The painful truth is that many of the films of Hollywood’s vintage years, despite their often pedestrian, studio – driven structure, were exceptionally well written in terms of plot & dialogues. One should take a week off and read his way through some old studio scripts crafted by the likes of Nunnally Johnson & Dalton Trumbo, who it seems had laboured in the old studio writers buildings, and one would be enormously impressed by their craftsmanship & richness of the dialogues. One should also take time out, and if one can lay their hands on,  and read unproduced scripts written by the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald & Ben Hecht, then it would become clear why they were never made, but they indeed deserved to be published.

Roddy McDowell, a keen student of studio history, had once advised to read some screenplays he’d collected that had been developed by studio chiefs explicitly as starring vehicles for their favoured mistresses. It was supposed to be a unique collection, superbly written scripts by top screenwriters that were never made, probably because their relationships usually blew up before the films got their green lights.

Of late one at last realizes that good writing doesn’t necessarily create good filmmaking. It’s more important today to capture the “big scene” rather than the elegant moment between characters. No doubt Superheroes don’t have to talk pretty or for that matter Raccoons in an outer galaxy are not expected to be eloquent.

But one can see why there’s discussion in at least one agency to change the title “motion picture lit agent” simply to “lit agent.” That way, they can remove the movie stigma.

Singer Nofel Izz to sue Facebook for $15 Million

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220571-launch-of-canadian-singer-nofel-izz-album.jpg

Facebook has disabled the personal account of well-known musician & entrepreneur Nofel Izz, who founded JobsinDubai.com, and as a result, Nofel Izz no longer has administrative access to manage his official Facebook page where he stays connected with fans & friends of his music, nor to the Jobs in Dubai Facebook page. In fact Nofel Izz is unable to communicate with the nearly 700,000 fans of his music page, or assist with the management of the Jobs in Dubai page, which has over 2.2 million fans.

The worst part is Nofel Izz claims to have no idea why this is happening. In a personal statement, Izz writes “To the very best of my knowledge, I didn’t violate any of Facebook’s terms of service. I did not post anything scandalous or engage in some kind of nefarious activity. One morning, I attempted to log into my account as usual, and I was greeted with an error message saying ‘We’ve determined that you are ineligible to use Facebook’. That’s it. No further explanation has been provided to me. I’ve filed a claim and taken all the steps I can to re – enable my account, but I am, sadly, doubtful of getting any response to my many inquiries.”

NofelIzz is not the first person this has happened to, Facebook account disabled with no warning & no explanation. There are multiple accounts of this happening to other people. From the many reports to be found online, when something like this happens, Facebook offers no response or resolution for its seemingly arbitrary actions. This doesn’t seem like a good business practice, especially in cases where the Facebook user runs a business page, as well, alienating one’s advertisers is unwise for a company that relies heavily on advertising income, reportedly earning over $1 billion per year in advertising revenue. NofelIzz claims to have paid “a fortune in advertising” on Facebook.

This also isn’t the only way that Facebook is interfering with and upsetting its users. Facebook has been on the watch with EU for privacy violations. In 2014, the company faced a US class action lawsuit for mining & sharing data from its users’ private messages. In the EU, there are current allegations that Facebook is tracking web users’ activity, even if they don’t have a Facebook account. Use of tracking cookies in this manner is a violation of European privacy laws.

Facebook is a service which billions of people rely on to stay connected, in both their personal & their business lives. When a person is locked out of his account, he is unable to recover the thousands of memories & experiences shared with friends & family. When a business owner & page administrator gets locked out of his personal Facebook account, he also no longer has administrative access to his Facebook business pages. According to Nofel Izz, the effect can be devastating and can cost millions, as he plans to sue: “This has an immediate & potentially irreparable impact on my career and the career potential of hundreds of thousands of Jobs in Dubai Facebook page fans. I am disappointed, confused, hurt & dumbfounded by Facebook’s actions, which are, in my mind, unprovoked & cruel.”

"My upcoming film 'Main Hoon Ek Raaz' is a women centric author backed film belonging to the horror genre": Ravi Kumar Nivoria

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Ravi Kumar & Sanjrani Nivoria

Débutante writer & director Ravi Kumar Nivoria’s upcoming film ‘Main Hoon Ek Raaz’ falls in the genre of the age old trend of HORROR films. So Ravi Kumar Nivoria can also be added to the list of horror filmmakers a la Ramsay Brothers, Vikram Bhatt and others of their ilk. Incidentally speaking ‘Main Hoon EK Raaz’ happens to be a family affair as it is being produced by Ravi Kumar Nivoria’s spouse Sanjurani Nivoria. The duo hopes to continue making good films, with top cast & crew, but not necessary falling in the horror genre.

To kickstart the session tell us what is your upcoming film ‘Main Hoon Ek Raaz’ all about?

My upcoming film ‘Main Hoon Ek Raaz’ is a women centric author backed film belonging to the horror genre. When I started writing the story I just fell in love with it. I just liked it so much that I decided to direct it myself.

Please continue…….!

So ‘Main Hoon Ek Raaz’ narrates the saga of a restless female ghost who is still seeking salvation, mukti for her soul and in the process she goes on a rampage scaring the wits out of everyone around her.

And what according to you are the highlights of ‘Main Hoon Ek Raaz’?

First & foremost my film ‘Main Hoon Ek Raaz’ is more scarier than other films of the HORROR genre of course not to forget its special effects which I am sure will make the viewers even more scarier.

And what else?

Not only the horror element but I have alo packaged ‘Main Hoon Ek Raaz’ with full dose of entertainment & suspense. Music & lyrics are by Surendra Saathi who has earlier written the lyrics of most of the films of Mahesh Bhatt. Believe me he has composed some of the most beautiful & melodious songs for ‘Main Hoon Ek Raaz’. One special number is an item song ‘Angooribai’ picturised on Laxmi Verma & Mehtab Guzar.

Lastly give us an insight into the cast & credits of ‘Main Hoon Ek Raaz’.

The main cast of ‘Main Hoon Ek Raaz’ comprises of Ragini Verma enacting the central character of the restless ghost along with Nadeem Mansoori, Raza Murad, Ramesh Goyal, Mahendra Sharma et al. The story-screenplay-dialogues-direction is by me and it has been produced by my wife Sanjurani Nivoria under the banner of our home production namely Shiv Devi Kala Kendra Films.

VHP calls for ban on Kamal Haasan's 'Uttama Villain'

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Uttama Villain

Chennai: Members of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have called for a ban on actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan-starrer Tamil drama “Uttama Villain”, claiming it will affect the religious sentiments of Hindi people.

In their statement to the commissioner of police on Monday, the group alleged that the song “Iraniyan Nadagam”, about the disparaged conversation between Prahalad and Hiranyakashipu, will hurt the sentiments of Hindus.

“The lyrics of the song will upset followers of Lord Vishnu. It belittles the conversation between Prahalad and Hiranyakashipu. Hence, we demand a ban on the film,” K.L Sathiyamoorthy, member of VHP, told IANS.

Directed by Ramesh Aravind, the movie is about an 8th century theatre artist and a modern-day superstar.

(IANS)

Movie Review: 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshi' is superb, mesmerizing, riveting, intriguing sans entertainment quotient

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Detective-Byomkesh-Bakshy

Banner: Yash Raj Films & Dibakar Banerjee Productions
Producer: Aditya Chopra & Dibakar Banerjee
Director: Dibakar Banerjee
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Anand Tiwari, Swastika Mukherjee, Divya Menon, Neeraj Kabi, Meiyang Chang, Aryann Bhowmik, Moumita Chakraborty, Mark Bennington, Arindol Bagchi, Manoshi Nath, Anindya Banerjee, Tirtha Mallick, Prasun Gayen, Peter Wong, Prashant Kumar, Dr. Kaushik Ghosh, Takanori Kikuchi, Piyali Ray, Pradipto Kumar Chakraborty, Sandip Bhattacharya, Shivam, Nishant Kumar, Shaktipada Dey & Lauren Gottlieb
Music: Various Artists
Cinematographer: Nikos Andritsakis
Editor: Manas Mittal & Namrata Rao
Pro: Spice

Director Dibakar Bannerjee in his latest offering namely ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshi’ has knowingly treaded on a dark & mysterious genre. But was it necessary to take the plot, shrouded in deepening mystery, to the extreme level of confusion confounded. Seriously speaking it ultimately bores you to death to the point of no return. Incidentally speaking the film is based on the fictional character of a detective named Byomkesh Bakshi which has been created by the famed Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay.

The scenario of ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshi’ opens in Calcutta, present day Kolkatta, in a British-ruled India, where a student Byomkesh Bakshi (Sushant Singh Rajput) is approached by Ajit Bandyopadhyay (Anand Tiwari) whose father Bhuvan Banerjee has been missing for more than 2 months. Byomkesh firmly & strongly believes that he has been killed and his dead body has been kept hidden somewhere. And he was so right as they discover Bhuvan’s corpse in a broiler of an abandoned chemical factory. During the investigations, he finds that Bhuvan Banerjee’s murder is part of a bigger mystery involving the local Political leaders, the Chinese drug smugglers & the Japanese army, fighting the war against the British in South-East Asia.

Director Dibakar Bannerjee has aptly presented the war torn Calcutta of 1943 with a backdrop of a mystery & a Detective. In fact ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshy’ is entirely based on the early exploits of India’s 1st ever true-blue detective, created by Bengali bestseller writer Saradindu Bandyopadhyay. Dibakar Banerjee, has set the film in the 2nd World War torn Calcutta during the 1940s and follows the 1st adventure of Byomkesh Bakshy, fresh out of college, as he pits himself against an evil genius who is out to destroy the world. Using his wits against the most villainous arch criminal the world has ever seen, in a world of murder, international political intrigue & seduction. The director deserves full marks topped with brownie points as far as the minutest periodic detailing, of the war torn Calcutta of the 1940’s, is concerned but only to be bogged down by his own script in lieu with Urmi Juvekar. Hats off to Aditya Chopra and his Yash Raj Films banner for backing such an offbeat subject strewn together in a most clichéd manner, not to forget the sleep walking editors Manas Mittal &
Namrata Rao. And lastly a special well deserving mention goes to cinematographer Nikos Andritsakis for his brilliant presentation of such a dark & mysterious war torn Calcutta of the 1940s era.

Performance wise all the actors can be analyzed in just one word for instance Sushant Singh Rajput as & in an author backed title role of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy: a young Bengali private detective is “Perfect”, Anand Tiwari as Ajit Bandyopadhyay: the sidekick of Byomkesh Bakshy, also an author is “Charming”, débutante Swastika Mukherjee as Anguri Devi: a dancer & a spy looks “Confusing”, Divya Menon as Satyawati: the silent love interest of Byomkesh Bakshy is “Disappointing”, Neeraj Kabi as Dr. Anukul Guha is “Excellent”, Meiyang Chang as Kanai Dao alias Chang Lee is “Interesting” and then Aryann Bhowmik as Clinic Boy, Moumita Chakraborty as Leela, Mark Bennington as Deputy Commissioner Wilkie, Arindol Bagchi as Ashwini Babu, Manoshi Nath as Ruby, Anindya Banerjee as Prafulla Ray, Tirtha Mallick as Atanu Chandra Sen, Prasun Gayen as a scribe, Peter Wong as the Underboss, Prashant Kumar as Factory Watchmen, Dr. Kaushik Ghosh as Gajanan Sikdar, Takanori Kikuchi as Dr. Watanabe, Piyali Ray as Watanabe’s Receptionist, Pradipto Kumar Chakraborty as Puntiram, Sandip Bhattacharya as Officer in Charge, Shivam as Sukumar, Nishant Kumar as Factory Watchmen, Shaktipada Dey as Nibaran Da & Lauren Gottlieb in a special appearance in the song titled “Calcutta Kiss” are all “Adequate” and they all try their level best to carry the “Snail’s Space” almost dragging storyline forward.

Tail Piece: ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshi’ may be a hardcore critics & multiplexes elite cine goer’s delight but on the contrary it will be hardly appealing for a film goer who frequents a single theatre.

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