Archives for September 2016

Banner: Dharma Productions & Excel Entertainment
Producer: Hiroo Yash Johar, Karan Johar, Ritesh Sidhwani & Farhan Akhtar
Director: Nitya Mehra
Star Cast: Siddharth Malhotra, Katrina Kaif, Ram Kapoor et al
Music: Amaal Mallik, Badshah, Jasleen Royal, Bilal Saeed & Prem Hardeep

Debutant director Nitya Mehra who has been an assitant director on many big projects has made a complete mish mash of her debutant directorial offering namely Baar Baar Dekho. Perhaps she completely failed to grasp the correct meaning of the “Time Travel” genre of filmmaking. And once again it was wrong on her part to join the pieces of foreign films like The Family Man & Click and even Indian films like Love Story 2050, Fun2shh…….! & Acton Replayy.

The scripted scenario of Baar Baar Dekho kicks off with the birth of Jai Verma (Siddharth Malhotra) & Diya Kapoor (Katrina Kaif) in Delhi & London respectively. Post that, Diya Kapoor’s family settles down in India (Delhi, to be specific). As “time” progresses, Jai & Diya grow up together and fall in love with each other. After years of knowing each other, one day, when “painter” Dia proposes marriage to the “Maths obsessed Professor” Jai, he becomes petrified with the very thought of marriage. Right before their wedding day, Diya takes Jai to a plush house that is gifted to them by her rich father (Ram Kapoor). This gift not just hurts the self respect of Jai, but also makes him confess to Diya that he is just not ready for marriage because his main focus is his career. Hearing that, a heartbroken Diya leaves Jai promising never to return back. Post that, a grief-stricken Jai lands up gulping a full bottle of champagne. And when he wakes up next morning, he sees the world & “Timezone” around him totally changed. He sees himself transported into his future which shakes the ground below him completely. On one hand, while he sees himself resigning from a dream job at Harvard University (for which he had strived so hard), on the other hand, he sees his wife Diya divorcing him and moving on. If that wasn’t enough, Jai “lives through” many different crucial stages of his life.

So debutant director Nitya Mehra seriously needs to pick up some more crash course in direction to perfect her directorial skills before taking up any other film for independent direction and once again take the audiences for granted and take them on an unending and pointless merry go round of a “Time Travel” journey that too at the producer’s expense.

Performance wise Siddharth Malhotra is good in parts and bad in most of the parts especially in old age role and when he his constantly dashing to & fro in the “Time Machine”. Katrina Kaif disappoints big time, maybe its almost time for her to quit the Bollywood scenario soon enough before testing the audiences patience anymore. While all the other actors including Ram Kapoor also have failed to salvage the film.

Tail Piece: Baar Baar Dekho is a totally forgettable movie of 2016. Although the classy multiplex audience may visit the theatre for “Time Pass”. But it is certainly not a common man’s cup of tea not even as a “Time Pass”.

Banner: Rashmi Sharma Telefilms Limited
Producer: Rashmi Sharma & Shoojit Sircar
Director: Anirudha Roy Chaudhary
Star Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang, Angad Bedi, Piyush Mehra, Dhritiman Chatterjee et al
Music: Shantanu Moitra

Anirudha Roy Chaudhary is a celebrity director of Bengali films and he successfully makes his Bollywood debut with producer Rashmi Sharma & Shoojit Sircar’s Pink. There have been films galore woven around a courtroom drama, the recent one being the Akshay Kumar starrer Rustom, and Pink happens to be one more perfect addition to it.

The scripted scenario of Pink kick starts as a simple story about the complex problems & issues like the inequities & the hypocrisies the women in India face everyday. Meenal Arora (Taapsee Pannu), Falak Ali (Kirti Kulhari) & Andrea (Andrea Tariang) are introduced in a tensed up ambience, alongside the “silent” introduction of a tired & retired advocate Deepak Sehgal (Amitabh Bachchan). Meenal, Falak & Andrea live together as paying guests in Delhi, earning their respective livelihoods. These girls lose their smiles & peace of mind because of a terrible incident that threatens their lives. The incident takes place when Rajveer (Angad Bedi) forces himself upon Meenal & she hits him hard with a glass bottle injuring him seriously. After this incident, the girls come under attack from all sides as Rajveer happens to be a poltician’s nephew. Soon his friends start threatening the girls. When the incident gets registered with the police, it leads to an array of investigations, interrogations & character assassination of the 3 girls. With no lawyer ready to represent their case, the girls find their sole ray of hope in advocate Deepak Saigal, who volunteers to fight their case, despite having given up his law practice.

Debutant director Anirudha Roy Chaudhary’s excellent directorial treatment embellishes profound interest in the entire proceedings of Pink. Besides he has extracted a very superlative performance from his entire starcast. Not to speak of the superb support he got from his entire team of technicians including some of his Bengali brethren.

Performance wise the outstandingly towering performance has been delivered by none other than Amitabh Bachchan. He is in superb form once again as he literally lives the role of a lawyer fighting tooth & nail for the justice against molestation of 3 innocent girls. Next in line is of course Taapsee Pannu who delivers a heartfelt act of a seriously wronged girl. Her act is certainly worthy of many awards. Kirti Kulhari is picture perfect as one the girl. Andrea Tariang is impressive. Angad Bedi is terrific as the molester. Watch out for this young dude in the villianous role in future Bollywood projects. Piyush Mishra proves that he is way beyond perfection. And moreover Dhritiman Chatterjee delivers a sincere act in his brief role.

Tail Piece: Pink is a compelling film which also happens to be a realistic cinema and moreover a celebration of justice for womanhood.

Tannishtha Chatterjee who is often referred by the Indian media as the Princess of Parallel Cinema is known for her power packed performances and has won many awards for her work. Tannishtha talks about her experiences about her working on the film Parched with Shaheen Raaj.

How did Parched happened to you?

Well! Actually Leena and I we were like good friends. We were thinking of doing something together. One day I was sitting with her having dinner and I told her a story which is the character I actually played in the film whom I had met during Dev Benegal’s film and she liked the story and she was like you take me to this whole region and I took her there where she met all the other women and then she wrote fast. That’s how it started.

Tell us about the character you portrayed in the movie?

I play Rani a 32 year old woman who is a widow. She became a widow when she was like 15 or 16 year old and it’s been many years since she has not had a man in her life. Her son is getting married now. So she has lived a very sought of strict life in terms of her desires & sexuality you know. That sought of a life. That’s where the story starts and then what happens to this character is something that you will see in the film.

You have been a part of a lots of film festivals. This is not the first time. Why not commercial Cinema?

Ask the commercial film directors this question. I want to do it. If there is a good role for me I am absolutely open to it.

Do you feel film festivals are a medium to push or celebrate this kind of cinema to tell the story you want to tell?

Absolutely I think that all kinds of films need some kind of validation. This kind of cinema which is you know arthouse or film festival type will definitely give a validation big well known film festivals. So yes they are a platform.

The film has been beautifully embraced by the people around the world and received several awards. What do you feel about it?

It’s fantastic and now I think like we are really excited to show it to the people about whom the film is. Set in India it is about India it is made with Indian actors & Indian director. Yaa we are very happy with all the validations that we have got across the globe. But I think the biggest validation that we can get is from our own country. We are very excited to show it to the Indian audience now.

Is there any dream role that you are waiting for?

Every role is a dream role and every next role is a dream role. I think there are so many media guys who ask this question many times. I think there are so many things that I want to do. There is not just one dream role. One dream role means that I want to get it over as an actor. I don’t like to think like that. I like to believe that there are many many things that I would like to do.

You have worked with several National & International directors. How was your experience so far?

I think Parched was very unique because Leena and I chucked the idea together as it was a story and idea that came from me. Then slowly Leena started writing and it became a film which is a collaborative process. It’s a very special experience because Leena allowed a lot of inputs from the actors then we improvised and explored a lot of things about all our characters.

One thing you want the people to take back home once they leave the theatre?

I think it’s something that it’s not one thing that’s why the film is about women & sexuality; desires & female bonding. There are many Issues that revolve around women. The film sort of talks about all those things through the different stories and I think that’s what everyone who comes to watch the film should take home, you know from the theatre. And one thing that star producer Ajay Devgan says that every man should watch the film.

How did you prepare for your character? Did you go through any research?

Like I said it was a very organic process because Rani’s story was a story which stayed with me for a very long time. I had met her even before Leena wrote the film and her eyes stayed with me and in the process of writing you know the every draft that Leena wrote we used to read & share notes . I don’t even know when I prepared. It was sort of becoming the character and of course in terms of the dialects & costumes and all those external things when we went to Kutch and there was Nain Rana who was a specialist of the dialect who incorporated a flavour of Kutchi dialect in our dialogues.

Do you feel the presence of cinematographer Russell Carpenter? Did it make a difference to the film?

Yes absolutely because he was like a dream cinematographer to work with as his presence was almost invisible. That is the most beautiful thing that a cinematographer can ever do. He never told us that this is your frame, you can move only this much and that’s all you can do. It’s like an actor dreams to work with such cinematographers where they don’t restrict you at all and they let you do whatever you want to do as a character and Russell was just capturing those moments. So it was a very beautiful experience.

“I didn’t want to make a sad film about women. I wanted to celebrate their spirit that makes us a wife and that gives us hope” says Leena Yadav about the project which she could make happen after so many struggles. Director Leena Yadav who talks about her internationally acclaimed upcoming film Parched.

Tell us about your upcoming film Parched?

What do you want to know (Laughs). It started off as a discussion with lots of women about varied issues and finally what I found very interesting was that I found that in the villages women speak much more freely about sex, much more evolved & honest than we do and we think we are more progressive in the cities. So just breaking that myth of you know that they are more backward and we are more progressive. But there is so much more honesty & reality there, so it started from there and then we had many more conversations with women than I wrote the first draft of the script and send it to my friends across the world and I realized that the subject matters that we were talking about in Parched had a universal reservance. My friends didn’t even react to it like a script they wrote back more stories that I know this women in New York. Her story is just like Lajjo’s story, or her story is just like Bijli’s story or Rani’s story. So that’s how the film started expanding. Two things happened one is that it starts getting more & more rooted in the village but in terms of the idea and what it was saying it expanded a lot.

Why the title Parched?

Parched means thirst. And initially since we were going to start with our film festivals I wanted the English title which people could connect with. So we got the name Parched. We always had the intention of keeping a Hindi name later whenever we would release in India but the thing is that Parched itself became a brand and people knew that whatever little awareness there was, it was about Parched so we didn’t want to change the name ultimately. So people are calling it Parche, Paarchad and then all kinds of things but its fine. I think we have introduced a new word into people’s vocabulary. But Parched was so correct for the story which was about thirst for freedom, thirst for sexuality and thirst for liberation.

So this is your 1st International film?

I don’t know what is an international film. It’s an Indian film which has traveled a lot internationally and released in lots of countries and got a great reaction.

What challenges you faced while capturing the essence & the beauty of a village?

They were not challenges. It was beautiful and one just wanted to do justice to it and we had such an amazing cinematographer Russell Carpenter who shot Titanic. The fact that he had never been to these kinds of villages there was such a unique thing for him so he saw that with a lot of love and he saw a lot of design in everything. So I think he brought that love that he felt for that visual into his visuals.

You traveled to an area Kutch in the west of India in Gujarat and striked a conversation with women about their lives there? Tell us one story that moved you to tears or that confirmed your decision of making this film?

So again & again I keep saying though I did start my research there. The research expanded to the whole of India. I got lots of stories from Mumbai also and from across the world. So Kutch was just the beginning of the story telling. The film is not rooted there. One such story I remember is about a women that we met who had a lot of bruises. And we were all sitting and having fun & laughing and I asked her does your husband beat you up? Why are you bruised? She says ahhh lets not talk about that we are having so much fun right now. Then I realized this is the spirit that I want to capture in my film. I don’t want to make a sad film about women. I want to celebrate this spirit that makes us a wife, that makes us hope.

The film has a lot of dark subjects but at the same time it is hopeful & lighter also? How did you balance that?

That’s because of that woman whom I met who told me that oh I don’t want to talk about that. It happens every day. We are having so much fun right now let’s have fun. And I think we are all like that. Just because we are going through a bad time does not mean we sit sadly at home. We try to find happiness. That’s what life is all about. It is a very difficult tone to create which is what everybody in the world over has reacted that you are saying so many dark things but you are saying with so much of lightness & celebration. That we have never seen such a combination. So while scripting it also I was very apprehensive because you have a scene where that girl is being beaten and in the next scene she is laughing with her friends. But I wanted that so it was very tricky and I didn’t know till the end whether it will work but it obviously did work.

How did you convinced your cinematographr Russell Carpenter to come on board?

I had sent my script to Russell’s partner Donna who is also a novelist, a beautiful writer. Russell ended up reading the script and he reacted very sensitively to the script. He was very encouraging and he says films like this need to be made. I don’t think we could have afforded Russell Carpenter. It’s not that kind of a budget film. He was very gracious enough to afford us because he reacted so beautifully to the content. So anybody in the film has actually come on board because of the script.

How was the experience of working with him?

Outstanding. I say the least. It was an extremely learning experience for me. I have done my 1st two films with my husband who is also a brilliant cinematographer. But this time since Aseem was going to produce the film. He said I don’t think I should be doing both the roles together. So I was very upset with that because we have a great working relationship. And he said I will bring somebody on the job who I admire so you will not have any reason to complain. And he managed to get Russell carpenter to do the film. So it is amazing.

What challenges did you face while making the project?

I faced many challenges like I remember going to a lot of villages whenever they saw me. They said we won’t allow you to shoot here. Because they said if more women like you come here, our women will get corrupted. Because they will see women can be like this also. They don’t have to put a ghunghat and hide behind a man. So they were very threatened by this female presence. They were not happy to let their women see this side of women. So I was rejected from lots & lots of villages till we finally found a village in Rajasthan where we shot the film. Starting from that I think every film has challenges not just on a big scale but also on a day to day level. So we had all those challenges. Also shooting completely in the back & beyond in a village where people are not very familiar with shooting happening. But I had such a brilliant team that I think we just moved beyond the challenges. We were all so passionate about wanting to make the film.

Your husband and you invested all your life savings into the film. It was a kind of gamble. Tell us about that?

This is the most beautiful gamble that I have done in my life. I think once you started nothing could have stopped us. I think once in your life when you find “The” thing that is coming from the heart and which has all your honesty in it. I think you have to put everything up at stake.

How did you get Bollywood actor & director Ajay Devgan to support you when so many people were not ready to finance this kind of cinema?

Aseem has worked a lot with Ajay over the years and I also have the fortune of knowing him. At one point I was writing a script which he was going to direct which never happened finally. So we have been interacting with him over the years. There is a lot of love & mutual respect between us. So I think Aseem spoke to him initially that we are going to do this. I am sure he thought it was the craziest thing we were doing by making this film with no support & nothing. So he came on board and said if I can be of help. Not only did he come on board but he also gave the seed money to start pre-production and said tell people I am associated with the project so that it will give the project a little more weight. And then we found Investors like Gulab Singh Tanwar & Rohan Jagdale who are not traditional film people. They are private investors who actually came on board because they believed in the vision of this film and they believed that this film should be made. So actually we attracted all the right energies & the right people into this project who from the time had come on board they just have been a huge amount of support to all of us.

Your journey was not easy, it was full of thorns and now the film is finally releasing. People all over the world are appreciating it. So how do you feel about it?

On top of the world ( Laughs). It feels like everything was worth it. That’s why when you asked me about the challenges. I know when I was living it they were big mountains we were climbing every day. But now when I look back seeing when you reach a rightful and deserving end to something you really forget you know memories are very interesting. When you are living it, it’s the worst thing that is happening to you. But when you reach a better space you say it was not that difficult. Similarly with Parched I know we climbed a lots of mountains to make the film but like I said because we had the most beautiful team & the most beautiful support from all the producers. It does not feel like we had too much of a problem now. Because of all the love we have got across the world.

The audience these days is very impatient. What all efforts did you make to get them hooked or engaged onto the screen?

I didn’t do anything. I have not made this film keeping the audience in mind and keeping anything & everything in mind. I have made a really honest film from my heart and from all our hearts. Because film is a very collaborative process. It’s not one person’s journey. It is so many people’s journey. So we have just put in our best and I think now I can say it is not a gamble anymore for me. Because I have seen this film with audiences across half the world literally. I have been travelling for a whole year with this. I am very confident. This film speaks to people. If this film speaks to people in Sweden who have nothing to do with our culture and people come out saying this is my story how can it not speak to audience in India.

Are film festivals a better way to promote such kind of Cinema?

Not promote. I would say it is educating for a filmmaker to be able to go and see your own product from another perspective. So firstly it is an educating journey for the makers to see the product which is so rooted from a small gaon ki kahani from India. But somebody across the world the way people are reacting to it. So it makes you realize that films can actually transcend all boundaries of language and everything else. Because it’s a pure language of emotions. So if you connect with that you could be watching a Turkish Film and feel that it is happening in your backyard. And yes it creates awareness and you can realize that the world is a really small place.

When people leave the theatre after watching the film. What do you want them to take back home?

I want them to discuss things amongst themselves. Our film is not at all a blame game. The villain in the film is our conditioning. Things that we have just accepted generations after generations. For example a daughter-in-law who gets ill treated by her mother-in-law the moment she becomes a mother-in-law she does the same things to her daughter-in-law. We need to break those cycles. Come out and talk about it honestly. Like it or hate it. Just discuss it & come out of it. Celebrate yourselves as human beings beyond any specified gender of men & women. Let’s all just unite in humanity.

K. Asif’s Mughal-E-Azam starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar & Madhubala, which was the most expensive film made at the time (in 1960), is still considered the greatest Indian motion picture ever made.

Acclaimed director Feroz Abbas Khan, known for his award-winning film Gandhi, My Father and successful plays like Tumhari Amrita, Salesman Ramlal & Mahatma VS Gandhi, will soon helm Mughal-E-Azam, a Broadway-style musical play, which will be a tribute to the original film and is being prepared on a grand scale to be performed at the NCPA (National Centre For Performing Arts), where it will play daily from21st Oct, 2016 till 1st week of Nov, 2016 for a limited engagement of 2 weeks followed by the staging in the end of Nov, 2016 for another 2 weeks into Dec, at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi and later on in other Metro Cities.

The musical play will not only be made on a grand scale like the film, but will also feature 8 songs from the film to be performed as part of the narrative! Needless to say, this project will be the grandest musical live theatrical production witnessed in India and is expected to set a new benchmark for Indian theatre.

Director Feroz Abbas Khan avers, “Mughal-E-Azam is apt because even the film was inspired by a play, Anarkali, which K. Asif saw and borrowed passages of dialogues from. It’s a dramatic father-son story with the nation at stake. In its writing skills & mounting, it was close to perfection with great dialogues & emotional story-telling, complemented by eye-catching visuals and a terrific musical score.”

The upcoming musical has another connection with the original cult classic, the musical play will be co-produced by none other than Shapoorji Palanji, the 150 year old business conglomerate that had funded K. Asif’s Mughal-E-Azam with a budget of 3 million dollars in 1960, making it the most expensive film made at the time.

Apart from Feroz Abbas Khan, other names attached to this ambitious project are costume designer Manish Malhotra, award-winning lighting designer David Lander, Emmy award nominee projection designer John Narun, production designer Neil Patel & choreographer Mayuri Upadhya.