The 2018 edition of the world’s most glamorous film festival, Festival de Cannes, kicks off on the French Riviera from Tuesday. Scheduled to run from May 8 to 19, the highly anticipated event is expected to bring many surprises this year as a whole lot of new-gen directors are in the running for the festival’s coveted honours.
India will be represented at the prestigious film jamboree by Nandita Das’s biographical drama Manto (starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the legendary Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto) and Rohena Gera’s Sir (starring Tillotama Shome as a domestic worker who falls for the son of her upper-class employers) in the Un Certain Regard and Critics Week categories respectively.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Tillotama Shome in ‘Sir’.
Interestingly, four National Award-winning regional films have also been hand-picked for screening by the official Indian delegation heading to Cannes 2018. With the aim of celebrating the exceptional talent in India’s regional cinema, these four films will be showcased at the festival’s India Pavilion, organised by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting along with FICCI.
Here are the four amazing regional films selected for Cannes 2018. If you haven’t seen them yet, check the out now!
A coming-of-age Assamese film written, edited, co-produced, and directed by self-taught fimmaker Rima Das, Village Rockstars is about a little girl in a village in Assam who wants to own a guitar and form a band. A story of hope and profound simplicity, this refreshingly original movie has been shot in the nondescript hamlet of Chhaygaon, with the cast being made up of mostly local villagers.
Incredibly, apart from winning the National Award 2018 for best film, Village Rockstars also won the awards for best editing, best location sound, and best child actor.
2. Bhayanakam
Made by ace Malayalam film-maker Jayaraj, Bhayanakam bagged three awards – best director, best adapted screenplay and best cinematography – at the 65th National Film Awards. The beautifully depicted film is based on a chapter in Kayar, the epci novel written by Jnanpith award-winning Malayalam writer Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai.
Through the life of a postman (played by Renji Panicker), Bhayanakam tells the story of Kuttanad in the pre-Independence era when youths in large numbers joined the British India army to fight in World War II.
3. Sinjar
Made in Jeseri (the dialect of Malayalam spoken in Lakshadweep) by short film director Sandeep Pampally, Sinjar bagged the titles of the Best Jeseri Film and the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Director at the 65th National Film Awards. The movie traces the journey of two housemaids in Iraq who are taken hostages by the ISIS along with the Yazidi women and flee from captivity only to end in a closed society.
Interestingly, the film takes its name from the Sinjar massacre of 2014, in which thousands of Yazidi men and women were targetted by ISIS terrorists.
4. Nagar Kirtan
Helmed by acclaimed director Kaushik Ganguly, Bengali film ‘Nagar Kirtan’ won big at the 65th National Film Awards, with four honours to its credit – Special Jury, Best Actor, Best Costume and Best Makeup Artist. The moving drama revolves around a flute player, played by Ritwik Chakraborty and a transgender, played by Riddhi Sen.
The movie also stars Manabi Bandyopadhyay, Bengal’s first transgender to complete a PhD and become a professor. She is also India’s first transgender college principal. Read more about her here.
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The amount of money that the Indian film industry makes is proof enough of our love for the movies. India’s film industry is known to be the largest in the world, with almost 1000 films being produced each year. For most avid moviegoers Fridays are sacrosanct, spent in the company of stars and popcorn.
We hang on to every word they say and believe every endorsement they make.
But while those of us in the cities and bigger towns have easy access to movies, many in villages do not. This inaccessibility could very well be one of the reasons why the industry loses so much money to piracy. A report in The News Minute, suggests that the Indian film industry loses around Rs 18,000 crore ($2.7 billion) and over 60,000 jobs every year because of piracy.
In a bid to make movie watching available for all and also help in curbing the piracy issues, Director Satish Kaushik, fondly remembered for his iconic role as ‘Calender’ in Mr India, is launching Mobile Digital Movie Theatre (MDMT).
Inaugurated by Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the mobile theatres (essentially refurbished trucks with a seating capacity of 150) will go from village to village – playing the latest movies.
These theatres are air-conditioned, fire-proof, and weather-proof. A ticket to watch a movie in this mobile theatre will cost between Rs 35 to Rs 75.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A view of the theatre Photo Source
The project is backed by entrepreneur Sushil Chaudhary, who is the founder of Picture Time, a company that runs these mobile theatres. Chaudhary wants to provide a cheaper movie experience to people in the remotest parts of the country, as reported by Times of India.
The publication further reported, “This is a revolutionary concept and can fulfil the aspirations of people in small towns. There is a shortage of movie theatres in the country as compared to USA and China. According to an estimate, there are around 2,200 multiplexes in India for a population of around 1.3 billion people, which is far below the density in developed countries.”
“The target group of this theatre is people who live in places were cinemas fail to reach,” said Kaushik.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A mobile theatre Photo Source
Regional films and those movies that don’t get a theatrical release will also be screened as Kaushik feels there’s a shortage of cinemas halls showing those films. “This moving cinema will be a good platform (for all of them),” he says, adding that the moving cinema’s live-streaming facility makes it highly versatile, as reported by Hindustan Times.
If you find this travelling theatre in your city or town, do write to us about your experience.
The second poster for Shaad Ali’s new biographical film, Soorma, is out. It speaks about the greatest “comeback story of the hockey legend Sandeep Singh”.
The biopic will be released on 13 July 2018 and features Diljit Dosanjh, the talented actor and singer in lead role, while Taapsee Pannu takes the role of “a daughter, a sportsperson, a brave spirit”. The choice of lead actors certainly excites us, but even more enthralling is the story of Sandeep Singh–the ex-captain of Indian national hockey team who survived a near-fatal gunshot and went on to win the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup for India just three years later.
Here is the story of Sandeep Singh in brief, although watching it on the silver screen would be a different experience altogether.
Sandeep was born in 1986 in Kurukshetra, Haryana. His elder brother, Bikramjeet Singh, is a field hockey player too. He was popularly known as “Flicker Singh” for his legendary drag-flick on the field. In 2010, he was said to be the fastest drag-flicker in the world at 145km/hr!
Soon enough, Sandeep rose up the ranks and started playing on an international platform.
In 2004, Sandeep made his international debut in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup held in Kuala Lumpur. He was part of the Indian Men’s hockey team when they took the second position in the 2010 Commonwealth Games. He even became the fifth highest-paid marquee at the inaugural Hockey India League auctions. In the same tournament, he went on to score 11 goals in the 12 games he played!
But that’s not all. His brilliance on the hockey field is evident from the kind of performance he has shown over several years.
However, one accidental gunshot could have stopped him from representing India–and prevented the country from having such a legendary player.
In 2006, Sandeep was travelling in the Delhi-Kalka Shatabdi Express to attend a national camp. A Railway Protection Force jawaan stationed on the way accidentally shot him. The bullet fractured Sandeep’s lowest rib, punctured his pancreas and damaged his kidneys and liver. To top it all, Sandeep’s spine took the force of the shot and was chipped. Flicker Singh collapsed and was on the verge of paralysis.
“A bullet wound went through all three organs and on the spot, I was paralysed, and for me it was the worst day of my life, I just wanted to go and play, whenever I saw the field, or whenever I saw the match on TV, I was crying from the inside to become a player again,” Sandeep told Free Press Journal.
His love for the game cannot be disputed.
“When I saw hockey for the first time after the gunshot, I said to my brother, bring my hockey stick, I want to sleep with my hockey stick, and I want to become a hockey player again,” Sandeep shared.
Slowly but steadily, the player recovered. Was it his determination to get on the field again, or fate or a mix of both is a matter of speculation. But, three years after the near-fatal injury, Sandeep was made the captain of the Indian hockey team. His talent on the field and as the captain of the Indian national team was reflecting right from the beginning.
Leading a team to international victory in the same year that the captaincy was changed is no easy feat. However, Sandeep proved his worth when he led the team to victory at the Sultan Azlan Shah Sup.
Soorma is set to bring to life, the struggles and achievements of the legendary Sandeep Singh. His grit and talent certainly deserve recognition from us and the box office.
If you google the word ‘Kamakshi’, you’ll see that it is a short film, gaining accolades in national and international film festivals.
Parvati Limbaji Suryawanshi, 78, is the lead character.
‘Kamakshi’ by Satindar Singh Bedi, is a black-and-white Marathi film that chronicles the journey of Kamakshi, an 80-year-old water-seller. She digs a well with her horse, Kafka, and oxen, Huuri, in a bid to turn the barren land green. Her expressions, as she digs deeper and deeper, in search of water will leave you spellbound.
The film is set in a dystopian timeless desert land.
According to an Indian Express report, the film was widely appreciated at Berlinale 2015, Indian Panorama at International Film Festival of India (IFFI) and even clinched four awards at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF).
But little does anybody know, that this woman who captured the attention of critics and juries at various national and international film festivals is, in fact, a waste picker at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Parubai in stills from Kamakshi. Source: YouTube
Well-versed in Marathi, 78-year-old ‘Parubai’ as she is fondly called, started earning her living at the film school, sifting through glass, metal, used papers and plastic to be sold as scrap.
Gradually, Parubai started picking up acting roles in student assignments and made her debut into the world of cinema.
This is her story.
The narrative of Kamakshi ties closely with the real-life story of Parubai. Perhaps this is why the waste-picker with no fancy degrees was able to make a mark in the film.
Parubai herself was a young married woman when the 1972 famine struck Maharashtra. She worked as a landless labourer along with her husband in the water-scarce region of Solapur. But when the drought hit, they were left with no work.
Parubai told The Indian Express, “There was no food. Our cows and calves died, we had no time for them as we struggled to feed ourselves.”
She had also lost three of her children to the famine.
And so she decided to leave her home with her family and started working as a labourer at well-construction sites.
They were all taken in a group, loaded in trucks, willing to give the contractor who hired them ‘cheap labour.’ The truck took them to Gujarat, where Parubai and her husband would work day and night. From breaking stones and carrying them over their heads to digging wells and harvesting crops, they did it all! Nights were spent in makeshift shelters or under the open sky with nowhere to go.
“My husband was reluctant to take me along, but I insisted. We went wherever work took us: Gangthadi, Vapi, Navsari. My husband would lift big stones and put them on my head to carry. Bigger stones meant more money,” she says.
One cannot imagine the amount of hard work and persistence that went in for a meagre wage of Rs 10 a day. But it wasn’t long before the couple had to flee. They helped a co-worker whose family fled after taking an advance from the muqaddam. And when he started punishing them, Parubai’s family fled to escape the harassment.
Walking on foot for days, travelling in buses and trains, they eventually reached Pune to start a better life.
What followed instead were a string of menial jobs in the city until Parubai got employed as a waste picker with the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat in 1982.
Parubai continued to work as a waste picker ever since and was later employed at FTII.
With no training in acting whatsoever, this humble waste-picker has been a part of over 20 student films to date. While she is fluent in Marathi, she negotiates with the students who pay her small remunerations for the acting projects, in broken Hindi.
It’s been four years since cataract affected her vision, thus affecting her job as a waste picker. And so, many times, her sole source of income is the money she gets from students for her acting projects.
In 2009, she was paid Rs 11,000 for a diploma film. She used the money to build a makeshift tin-sheet shanty. While her husband died ten years ago, Parubai also lost one of her surviving sons. The one who lives with her currently is an alcoholic and was abandoned by his wife and children due to his vice.
She recalls how he sold off her copper utensils, the little furniture she had and also the tin roof of her shanty. But now they live in a small home in the Janata Vasahat slum.
“I don’t understand cinema at all,” confesses Parubai to the publication.
She says all she knows is to start acting once the director belts out a loud: ACTION!
Of the 20 films she has worked in, Parubai’s favourite film and character are Kamakshi, though she continues to scrunch her nose distastefully at how terrible she looks in it. “Almost like a witch,” she says.
She says, “That shoot really tired me out. The sequences were really difficult and tricky. I had to climb down the well, sleep in water and even chew stones. All this in one sari. I thought I would contract pneumonia. But you have to suffer. That’s how it is during a film shoot. Potachi khalgi bharnyasathi aamhi kaam karto (I continue to work, to be able to feed myself). There’s no one to support me. Even today, I don’t have electricity in my house.”
Her daily schedule includes walking four kms to the FTII campus from her home on the slope of the Paravati hill.
On the days she has no work on the campus, she still makes it a point to travel in the afternoon and spends her evenings there. She expresses how the students mean so much more to her than her own family.
“It’s here (FTII) I find some solace. I’m alive only because of these kids (students),” she says, signing off.
Parubai has now finished shooting for a commercial film in Pune and Latur. We can’t wait until the film hits the theatres. We hope it succeeds and helps this humble septuagenarian gain the limelight she truly deserves!
In the pantheon of legendary Indian film composers, Rahul Dev Burman stands apart. Even though it’s been two and a half decades since RD Burman (aka Pancham) has passed away, his music continues to captivate the imagination of musicians and music aficionados to this day.
The sheer breadth of his music, allied with a unique ability to not only make folk and classical music accessible to the modern listener, but present them in an original, yet contemporary manner for young listeners was, and remains, a game changer.
It has clearly influenced the modern masters of mainstream film scores like AR Rahman, Amit Trivedi, Vishal Bharadwaj, and Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy.
The melodies and harmonies he composed continue to captivate listeners even today. Although his music is steeped in a certain social context, it speaks to different generations.
A lot of it is down to his remarkable rhythms, which was a hallmark of his music, and the different themes he embraced. His rhythms steeped in African drums, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, madal, shakers, bongo and tabla, among other instruments, are irresistible. Those rhythms brought the school and college-going crowd in the 1960s and 70s into Hindi film music.
Unlike popular Western musicians, Indian film score composers have to not just work with other musicians, but directors and lyricists as well.
Thus, the themes associated with a lot of Pancham-produced songs are also down to lyrics written by the likes of Gulzar, vocal performances from immortal playback singers like Asha Bhonsle, Kishore Kumar and Bhupinder Singh, and even plot lines carved out by filmmakers of yore like Ramesh Sippy, Ramesh Behl and Nasir Hussain.
What Pancham did remarkably well, especially in his peak years, is to bring all these facets seamlessly together to compose music that remains eternal.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.RD Burman with legendary singer Asha Bhonsle, whom he married in 1979. (Source: Facebook/RD Burman)
His first big break was the 1966 film ‘Teesri Manzil’ starring Shammi Kapoor, which had smash hits like ‘Sona re Sona’, ‘O Hasina Zulfo Wali’ and ‘Aajaa Aajaa’. The rest, as they say, is history.
“Since Pancham, there hasn’t been another school of music that has come to invade. There isn’t a new amalgam, for example, a new genesis of a new kind of music like Pancham created way back in the mid-60s,” says Gautam Rajadhyaksha, a renowned photographer and music connoisseur in the 2008 documentary ‘Pancham Unmixed’.
Many fans of RD Burman have not watched many of those movies, but can instantly recognise the songs by their distinct percussive elements and sublime melodies. In fact, according to some listeners, they can identify a Pancham song just by listening purely to the rhythm section.
However, there are five distinct reasons why RD Burman stands head and above the rest:
Genius lies in simplicity
It’s often said that true genius lies in simplicity. No one embodied that spirit better than Pancham. There were incredibly intense and complex compositions like ‘Chingari Koi Bhadke’ from the super hit 1970 classic ‘Amar Prem’.
However, there were also songs like ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga’ from the film ‘1942: A Love Story’, which consists of one melody that repeats right through the song.
As the legendary lyricist Javed Akhtar once said:
“A certain minimal quality is what you’ll find only in the masters and only those artists who are totally self-confident. There is no room for desperation or fear. That’s all one needs.”
Using the human voice as an instrument
Some legendary composers of modern music consider the human voice as the best, most ideal and most magnificent instrument. Long before the advent of autotune and other recording technology, Pancham was doing some remarkable things with the human voice.
What made Pancham such an innovative producer is that he never limited vocal performances to just traditional singing. Songs like the immortal ‘Duniya Mein Logon Ko’ from the 1972 film ‘Apna Desh’ were game changers with RD’s unusual voice and unique rendering.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.RD Burman (Source: Facebook/RD Burman)
What we hear here is ‘scat singing’ (vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables) straight out of vocal jazz. Pancham made scat singing fashionable for future music composers.
Finding music and rhythm everywhere
What puts RD above and beyond everyone else is his ability to amalgamate genres from all over the world into his music.
Pancham’s mastery of classical music is well known, but he also religiously inculcated elements from rock, funk, jazz, disco, afrobeat, folk and a myriad of Latin American music forms into his songs for mainstream cinema and private albums.
Nowhere was this more apparent than in the 1975 Bollywood classic Sholay, where he composed and sang the immortal ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’. From a composition standpoint, it was yet another example of innovation and discovering sounds from everyday life.
In the initial rhythm segment of the song, what you’re hearing is musicians blowing rhythmically into half-filled beer bottles. Subsequently, you hear the Iranian santoor, but different from its traditional tone. Finally, you get to Pancham’s voice, and those distinct accentuated vocals come through.
Influence of Jazz
However, beyond individual songs, jazz music would a strong influence on his vocal delivery as a whole. Inspired by Jazz legend Louis Armstrong, Pancham developed his own distinct vocal delivery, according to film journalist Chaitanya Padukone in his book ‘R.D. Burmania’ (Panchamemoirs).
“He was fascinated by Louis [Armstrong] and didn’t want to be stereotyped as a conventional playback singer,” says Padukone. “He used to say: ‘Meri Awaaz Ki Koi Pehchaan Honi Chaahiye (my voice should have its own identity)’.”
Pancham fans should also listen to his own album ‘Pantera’, composed with Latin American musicians of the time and imbibed with elements of rock, jazz and funk. Released in 1987, it received good reviews in the West, while Indian audiences weren’t very receptive to it.
However, some of Pancham’s most prolific work was in Bengali, where he wrote, composed and sung compositions released before Durga Puja celebrations. A lot of these Pujo compositions were sung in his natural voice, unlike the stylized singing he usually did for Hindi films. One would require a book to capture the essence of his Bengali compositions.
Bringing the best out of those who worked with him
A fundamental quality of any great composer is his/her ability to enhance and accentuate an artist’s best qualities. In the hit documentary ‘Pancham Unmixed’, singers and fellow session musicians elaborately speak of an absence of ego while making music, despite his obvious gifts.
Receptive to new ideas, treating fellow artists with empathy and respect and constantly seeking inspiration from everyone around – working with Pancham was an exercise in collaborative brilliance.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.RD Burman with Kishore Kumar, Dev Anand, Sahir Ludhiyanvi, Yash Chopra (Source: Facebook/RD Burman)
Under his tutelage came out musicians of real calibre like Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Louis Banks, Ramesh Iyer, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo.
Legendary singers like Asha Bhonsle, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi and Bhopinder sang some of their most memorable songs with Pancham’s music backing them up.
And of course, there are the lyricists, whose words Pancham brought to life in his music. His partnership with the likes of Gulzar (Parichay, Ijaazat) and Anand Bakshi (Amar Prem) is the stuff of legends.
Reclaiming his mantle when the chips were down
Except for a few classic film scores, the 1980s and early 1990s were particularly difficult for RD Burman. Times had changed. Despite his legendary status, Pancham was unable to find much work in the film industry.
Other music directors had come into the picture, ways of getting work had changed, and the music in demand wasn’t the same anymore.
“Yes, Ab Main demand Mein Nahin Hoon, Log synthesisers Par music Banate Hain. I can’t do that. I need a full music arranger. I can’t cheat people. Also, I can’t sell myself. Sab Ko Pata Hai Main Kya Hoon, Kaisa music Banata Hoon, Ab Toh Woh singers Bhi Kahan Hain,” RD Burman said in an interview for TV Today, in late October 1993.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.(Source: Facebook/RD Burman)
His inability to find work had significantly affected his self-confidence, health and happiness.
There was one particularly humiliating experience with director Subhash Ghai, who had initially signed him up for ‘Ram Lakhan’ but later dropped him in favour of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. What had particularly angered Pancham was the lack of respect Ghai showed in not even informing him that he had been dropped.
All that changed with ‘1942: A Love Story’, in which Pancham reclaimed his mantle as one of the greatest film score producers India has ever seen.
It reminded the film industry of Pancham’s enduring genius and doubled up as the perfect riposte to anyone who thought he would fade away. The film had some of his best melodies in years, and it was a major box office success.
Unfortunately, he passed away days after the music for the film had released on January 4, 1994, at the age of 54. He left this earth on top of his game.
His music lives on in the hearts of millions. Anyone who is making music today in mainstream Indian cinema owes a debt of gratitude to RD Burman, whether they know it or not.
(Edited by Vinayak Hegde)
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These structures stood out in our cities at one time. Decked with movie posters, the iconic single-screen theatres or talkies, are slowly disappearing from our country’s landscape. There was something special about a single-screen theatre, screening either Bollywood or Hollywood movies. About the soft drink in small fountain cups or glass bottles, and the generic popcorn.
At that time, if you were unlucky, you’d have to shell out more than the ticket amount, to buy it in ‘black’, if legitimate tickets were sold out. In any case, single-screen theatres shaped our society in more ways than one.
These eight iconic single-screen movie halls from across India are reminiscent of that era.
1. Maratha Mandir, Mumbai Central, Mumbai:-
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Mumbai’s Maratha Mandir, is iconic, and ran Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge for 20 years. Image Credit: Mumbai Darshan
This iconic movie hall screened the Bollywood blockbuster ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge’, for 20 years, from 1995 to 2015. The first movie that was played here was the 1958 classic ‘Sadhna’, featuring Sunil Dutt and Vyjayanthimala, the year the hall opened. Another Bollywood classic, ‘Mughal-E-Azam’, was premiered here and ran here for a full six years. The theatre has truly seen some glorious days. To celebrate occasions, elephants and horses made an appearance, and Dilip Kumar once made a remarkable entry on a horse.
2. Lighthouse, Kolkata:-
This movie theatre was established in 1934 for screening Hollywood movies. It had a 70-year streak of being one of the most popular cinemas in Kolkata. One of the largest movie halls in India, it had a seating capacity of 1,396, which was later reduced to 600. The theatre is located in Humayun Place in New Market, a thriving shopping and street-food destination. Lighthouse started suffering heavy losses after 2000, and in February 2002, the management decided to close the hall. Lighthouse shut its doors for good on 22nd February 2002.
3. Liberty, Churchgate, Mumbai:-
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Liberty Cinema, Mumbai, is an art-deco theatre, and screened the Bollywood classic Mughal-e-Azam for 6 years. Image Credit: Dinakar Patnaik
This theatre is special because it was built in 1947, the year of India’s independence. The first movie to hit its screens was the Dilip Kumar, Nargis and Raj Kapoor starrer ‘Andaz’. One of Mumbai’s last art-deco theatres, it had a seating capacity of around 1,200. When the era of multiplexes dawned, Liberty found itself struggling, and space was given out to film shoots, musicals and stage events. It was only in 2016 that Liberty re-invented itself by installing a new sound system, a new projector and a silver screen as well as implementing an e-payment system for buying anything from tickets to refreshments.
4. Everest Talkies, Bengaluru:-
A major landmark in Bengaluru’s bustling Frazer Town area, this hall is more than 80 years old, the oldest in Bengaluru, and one of the last surviving examples of its kind. Today, India’s IT capital may have state-of-the-art multiplexes, but Everest is where it all started. The theatre belongs to one family with whom it has been since 1968. The theatre was originally built in 1932. Over the years, the theatre has lost its sheen, yet today, it still attracts audiences, as it is one of the only theatres that screens documentaries! In 2008, Everest got a much-needed facelift, and now screens Hindi, English and Kannada releases regularly.
5. Minerva Theatre, Mumbai:-
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Minerva, Mumbai, screened the Bollywood cult classic Sholay, for 5 years. Image Credit: Aap ki Pasand ki Filme Aur Kalakar
This hall is special, as its history is intertwined with one of Bollywood’s biggest blockbusters, ‘Sholay’. The film hit screens on 15th August 1975, and Minerva ran the movie for five straight years, from 1975 to 1980, with fans turning up in large numbers day after day. Minerva was founded in the late 1960s, and refurbished in the 1970s. The first movie to screen here after refurbishment was ‘Lal Patthar’ in 1971. Almost all big films at the time would hold their grand premier at Minerva, and the manager Sushil Mehra told LiveMint, that he remembers every big star from Amitabh Bachchan, to Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra and Hema Malini, walking down the portals of Minerva theatre.
6. Sheila Cinema, Delhi:-
This iconic movie theatre downed its shutters in April 2017, after failing to secure the rights to screen ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’. Uday Kaushik, the owner of the cinema, told Hindustan Times that the plans for shutting the movie hall were on for quite a while. The legendary movie was established in January 1961 and was the first cinema in the country to have a 70 mm screen. The owners wanted to turn Sheila into a multiplex with ten screens, but that would take time shared Kaushik.
7. Polo Victory Cinema, Jaipur:-
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Screening many a classic back in the day, the Polo Victory Cinema, in Jaipur, now has a modern facade. Image Credit: Lalchand Saini
This cinema hall bears a close connection with the sport it is named after. India won the Polo World Cup in 1933, and the owner of Polo Victory Cinema went to England with the Indian team in the same year, and to commemorate it, he created the eponymous cinema hall. The hall was interestingly inaugurated by Lord Mountbatten and was so popular that audiences had to wait for tickets for as long as 30 days. The cinema hall is close to Sindhi Camp bus station and was one of the first cinemas in the city to be renovated as per multiplex culture.
8. Sangeet Theatre, Hyderabad:-
This iconic cinema hall was constructed in 1969, and was ahead of its time, back in the day, thanks to the Ultra Stereo Optical Sound in 1994, a Digital Theatre System in 1995, and later the Xenon Lamp Projection with Platter System. The Hollywood classic ‘Camelot’ was the first film screened in the theatre, and the Bollywood blockbuster ‘Hum Aapke Hai Koun..!’ which released in 1994 was screened here for the entire year. Other legendary movies that Sangeet screened included ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Titanic’.
Since their glory days, some of these cinemas have closed down, while others have been converted into multiplexes. However, we shall never forget the days of the single-screen theatres, and all that they had to offer!
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Ocean’s 8 that released worldwide in June 2018 was a much-anticipated film. Featuring an ensemble cast dominated by women, the film is a heist comedy, and its plot revolves around a highly sophisticated robbery that the women execute by infiltrating the annual Met Gala in New York City. Their plan is to steal “the Toussaint,” a necklace worth $150 million designed by French luxury brand, Cartier.
But did you know what is so unique about the necklace that features in Ocean’s 8?
The necklace is called Jeanne Touissant and is named after a former creative director of Cartier. The designer, who died in 1976, was heavily inspired by Indian jewellery and many of her creations reflect that.
The design of the Toussaint is inspired by a necklace created for Jam Saheb Shri Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji Jadeja—the ruler of the princely state of Nawanagar from 1907 to 1933.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.(L) The necklace in the movie (source) and (R) the original (Source)
The original necklace was a magnificent piece of creation that also featured a blue-white 136.25-carat diamond called the Queen of Holland. Such was the beauty of the original necklace made for the Raja, that its designer, Jacques Cartier, describes it as “a superb realisation of a connoisseur’s dream.”
When the Raja was reportedly exiled, the precious necklace too was lost.
However, the sketches and photographs of it still remain, and that helped Toussaint design the necklace that features in Ocean’s 8.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.(L) The sketch of the original and (R) the recreated piece. Source: Cartier.
The recreation of The Toussaint took more than 4200 hours and the hard work of about 10-15 artisans! Cartier, the official jewellery partner of Ocean’s 8, featured the beautiful necklace in an exhibition as part of their promotions.
Ranjitsinhji himself has a fascinating history, one that will not only interest Hollywood movie buffs, now that his jewellery features in a major film, but also cricket fans in the country.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Raja Ranjitsinhji was a brilliant batsman. Source.
Ranjitsinhji was a brilliant test cricketer during his time. When studying in the Cambridge University, he played for the university and played county cricket for Sussex. He even played for the English Cricket team when the British were ruling India.
He reportedly had an unorthodox technique and brought in a new style to batting. If you are a hardcore cricket fan, you’d know that the Ranji Trophy, a first-class cricket tournament in India, is named in his honour.
Oh! Nalini open your eyes
Is sleep still to abandon its ply
See standing at your door
The rising sun’s first score
Hearing my morning song
See all around the shroud of sleep has gone.
—the English translation of an excerpt from Tagore’s poem Probhati.
Fondly referred to as ‘Kobiguru’, poet laureate and versatile genius Rabindranath Tagore lives on through his timeless literary work. But for many, his enduring legacy is nowhere better expressed than in his original songs, of which there are over 5,000.
Sung in living rooms, during festivals, and at the turn of every season, Rabindra Sangeet’s rich repertoire includes some outstanding odes to love.Take, for example, the song “Bhaalobese sokhi, nibhrite jatane” — “Do inscribe my name, my darling, with utmost care and affection, in the temple of your soul.”
Given this, it’s not very surprising that the Bengali icon is often also called the ‘poet of romance’. However, few know the story of Tagore’s love for Annapurna Turkhad of Bombay. As a 17-year-old, the future Nobel laureate had fallen in love with the young Marathi girl he would go on to immortalise in many of his poems.
Interestingly, this little-known romance is set to be revealed through an upcoming Bengali-Marathi movie called Nalini. Being produced by Priyanka Chopra’s production house Purple Pebbles Pictures, the film is based on written documents and will be narrated from the point of view of a young student in modern-day Shantiniketan who sees a picture of Annapurna captioned ‘Nalini’.
Here’s the story of Annapurna Turkhad, the girl Tagore fondly called ‘Nalini’ and from whom the movie draws its name.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Annapurna Turkhad
Also known as Anna or Annabai, Annapurna was the daughter of Atmaram Pandurang Turkhad, a Mumbai-based (then Bombay) doctor. Belonging to a highly educated family, Atmaram was also a dedicated social reformer who had founded the Prarthana Samaj.
As such, his circle of friends included reformists and eminent citizens from across the country. One among these acquaintances was Rabindranath Tagore’s elder brother, Satyendranath Tagore — the first Indian to have been inducted into the Indian Civil Service.
Hoping that his younger brother’s English would improve if he stayed with the anglicised Turkhund family, Satyendranath convinced 17-year-old Tagore to stay with the Turkhud family prior to his first voyage to Britain in 1878 (where he was going to pursue further studies).
So, for two months in mid-1878, a teenaged Tagore lived at Atmaram’s household, taking lessons in spoken English from Anna. About three years elder to Rabindranath, Annapurna had just returned from England and was comfortably conversant with the English language.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A young Rabindranath Tagore
It is believed that a mutual attraction developed between the two during these days, a platonic relationship that has been vividly described by Krishna Kripalani in his book Tagore—A Life.
According to this book, as affection bloomed between them, Tagore gave Anna the nickname ‘Nalini’ and wrote several poems inspired by her. However, the youthful love did not transform into a future together, with destiny willing otherwise.
After his two-month stay in Bombay ended, Tagore bid adieu to Anna and departed for England on a ship. Two years later, Annapurna married Harold Littledale, the Scottish vice-principal of Baroda High School and College. Subsequently, the couple left India for England and settled in Edinburgh. It was here that Annapurna died in relative obscurity in 1891 at the young age of 33.
Interestingly, evidence suggests that a marriage between Tagore and Annapurna was considered by Atmaram, but was rejected by Debendranath (Tagore’s father) due to his son’s young age and Annapurna’s being older than his son.
According to the book The Myriad Minded Man (written by Krishna Dutta and W. Andrew Robinson), Atmaram and Annapurna travelled to Calcutta in early 1879, where they paid a visit to Debendranath at Jorasanko Thakur Bari, the family residence of the Tagores.
What passed between them remains shrouded in mystery, but the authors believe that it is highly likely that it was then that the match was mooted and rejected.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A present-day picture of Jorashanko Thakur Bari, the ancestral home of the Tagores.
However, the fact that Annapurna continued to use ‘Nalini’ as her literary moniker and named one of her nephews as Rabindranath shows that it was not just a momentary flirtation for the two. Tagore too continued to write both poetry and prose where the name Nalini is taken in the most endearing of manners.
In fact, Tagore never forgot about Annapurna and would often reminisce about her in his old age. Recalling that ‘Nalini’ had once asked him never to let a beard hide the outline of his face, the Nobel laureate remarked at the age of 80,
“Everyone knows that I have not followed that advice. But she herself did not live to see my disobedience proclaimed upon my face.”
As such, it can be expected that this story will make for a memorable on-screen adaptation. Featuring Saheb Bhattacharjee as the young poet and Marathi actor Vaidehi Parashurami as Annapurna, the upcoming period film will be directed by National award winning filmmaker Ujjwal Chatterjee.
Chatterjee claims that ‘Nalini‘ is based on written documents and ‘extensive research’. However, he is aware of the sentiments involving an icon as big as Tagore. This is why he told the New Indian Express, he has had an eight-member experts panel (including Jnanpith award-winning poet Sankha Ghosh, an authority on Tagore) review the script before making changes accordingly.
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You can never underestimate the power of cinema in influencing your thoughts. Whether it is the notion of a ‘happily ever after’ or a romantic pursuit, movies play an important role in shaping our minds.
And when this powerful platform uses casual sexism, casteism or racism in its humour or as a norm, this idea too, gets affixed in the minds of the masses.
We are not saying that cinema is the only or the most powerful platform that infuses any idea in the masses, but think about this—how many people idolise actors and how many idolise someone from any other profession? The scale tips towards the former and as much as cinema is for entertainment; if it does away with social evils, maybe it will start reframing the set notions of sexism and racism in our minds.
The first step towards this is for powerful people from the industry to accept that maybe some things they portray in a film are wrong after all.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.(L) Rima Kallingal. Source. (R) Renji Panicker. Source.
Renji Panicker, a prominent director and screenwriter in the Malayalam film industry, is one such person who recently accepted that he promoted misogyny in his films, that he regrets it and that he is trying to be more sensitive now.
“I strongly feel that the dialogues, situations or scripts weren’t written consciously out of a strong gender prejudice. It was because I see the characters I have created as just characters. I will not ever accept it if someone says or tries to prove that I have gender prejudices. I am very clear that I am not. However, in the contemporary scenario, where new interpretations are given to whatever we do, I am very careful not to give anyone the space to interpret any of my writings as sexist or misogynistic,” he told the Times of India.
Perhaps this consciousness was generated through the scrutiny of media, and the public will set the wheels turning and make the casual misogyny in films a thing of the past.
“I feel I shouldn’t have written it. When I wrote it, I never thought of belittling women or even degrading the gender;
it was just contextual for the film… If I knew that what I was writing based on a situation will have a different interpretation in the future, I wouldn’t have written that. Definitely, I regret it.”
Rima Kallingal, a prominent actor, applauded his acceptance and maturity. Taking to social media, she said, “This is the beginning of a new wave… It takes immense courage to unlearn what you have been told all along and to bring about a new perspective. Kudos and cheers to Renji Panicker.”
And yes, like he said, all art will be scrutinised again and again in history. All art reflects the times we live in.
Let’s make art that stands the test of time. Let’s make art that will be revered by generations to come.”
Such support from popular figures in the industry will undoubtedly act as a significant catalyst to end the misogyny in the film industry. Going forward, if more actors refuse to work for films which promote regressive ideas and the masses refuse to watch the already produced movies, it will be a massive win for social equality.
Inspiring the millions of people, including youngsters, women, and aspiring actors who look up to her, Priyanka Chopra has made her mark in the Indian film industry, as well as Hollywood.
Whether it is the innocent Jhilmil or the fierce Mary Kom or even a struggling Meghna Mathur, our Piggy Chops is a phenomenal presence on screen. And now, after a short break from Bollywood, she is back with an inspiring story. This time, as Aisha Choudhary’s mother in “The Sky is Pink.”
This story, which is sure to make you emotional, is written by Shonali Bose and Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim will also reportedly star in it. Zaira will play the character of Aisha Choudhary.
Who is Aisha Choudhary and how will her story be an inspiration to viewers?
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Source: aisaes.org.
At a time when youngsters are still exploring themselves, when they know that they have infinite opportunities lying ahead of them and school, friends and hobbies engulf their lives entirely, Aisha was fighting a battle against her body. Aisha, a motivational speaker and writer of one book, had always lived a life full of challenges—but none of them were successful in pulling her down. Not until she breathed her last.
“Aisha was diagnosed (with Severe Combined Immuno-Deficiency or SCID) when she was six months old. And she had a bone marrow transplant in the United Kingdom… Basically, these children are born without an immune system so any disease can kill them, even the common cold,” Aditi Chaudhary, Aisha’s mother said at an INKtalk.
The doctor had given Aisha just one year to live unless she underwent a bone marrow transplant, and even then, the risk would not go away completely. Although the transplant helped Aisha with her SCID, it came with the strong risk of Pulmonary Fibrosis—a disease that occurs when lung tissues are damaged, making it difficult for your lungs to function properly.
“Aisha was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in January of 2010. Her lung capacity was only 35%, and as a result, she had trouble walking and navigating staircases. She would tire easily.”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Priyanka Chopra is reported to play the role of Aditi Choudhary (Above). Source: INKtalks.
While Aisha was struggling, and at her most vulnerable stage, her friends started straying away. “She was often not asked out by friends as she was getting slower and needed help with carrying heavy things. I think the more she suffered and the more she felt unaccepted by her peers, the more determined she became. I was blown away when she agreed to be a speaker at INK at the age of 14, but she said, “I must do it because I think I can’t,” Aditi recalls.
That became the turning point in Aisha’s life. A potentially fatal disease at the tender age of 13, a group of friends straying away from her and dropping out of school were not enough to dim her optimism or determination. Aisha took solace in painting and writing, and as she kept her spirits up while fighting for each breath, she suddenly became an inspiration to thousands of others who were struggling through life themselves.
“So if death is the ultimate truth, what should really matter most in life? I felt the only thing that really matters to me is being happy. And happiness is a choice one makes. It’s simply an attitude…
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Aisha giving her motivational speech. Source.
Now it’s not that by being miserable I’m going to get any better so I may as well choose to try and be happy and if I have to have pulmonary fibrosis, I choose to have a happy pulmonary fibrosis,” Aisha once said at a TEDx talk in Pune.
Her optimism was contagious. A young girl, going through the toughest times that one could imagine, was standing in front of a thousand people, sharing her story and motivating people to be happy even in the most challenging times!
Remembering his daughter, her father, Niren, told the Economic Times that he learned three lessons from her— giving back to society, gratitude and not to be overwhelmed by difficulties. “Find the highest mountains to climb. Despite her disability she wanted to enjoy life—something I tell myself each time I am overwhelmed. She also taught me the power of dreaming and aiming for the moon.”
But how did Aisha herself find the motivation to get up every day and go through her day without getting pulled down by her lungs?
“Aisha was bedridden since February 2014, and that’s when I found that she had started thinking a lot about life, death, happiness and pain,” Aditi told The Quint, adding that, “Every day she would say very profound things. I suggested that she write these thoughts down and she asked me, “Why? Who will read them?” So, I gave her a book called ‘Notes to Myself’ by Hugh Prather and told her that the book had sold a million copies. Aisha smiled and said, “I can write better than Hugh Prather!”
So every day, Aisha started recording her thoughts on her cell phone, because she was still bedridden and could not get up. She typed down about 5000 words that were compiled in her book titled ‘My Little Epiphanies‘ that was published in January 2015. Unfortunately, just hours after the book was published, Aisha breathed her last, leaving a legacy of optimism and happiness.
Now, Shonali Bose is set to bring Aisha’s story to the silver screen, and we are sure that she will do justice to her incredibly brave life and the legacy that she has left behind.
Have you, like a million others, marvelled at the animation and special effects in movies like Beowulf, The Amazing Spider-Man, Watchmen, Hancock, Bewitched, The Smurfs 2, or Monster House? While watching these movies, it is hard for us to believe that the characters were developed in separate stages of production.
If you are a fan of these movies, the chances are that you are fawning over the work of Parag Havaldar—an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur from Pune, and an Oscar winner!
In 2017, Parag won the Academy Award for technical development. Speaking to the OC Register, Parag said,
“Typically, in the old days, the Academy gave out awards for cameras and film. But these days, because visual effects play such a big role in the film, they’re awarding technical advancement in the field.”
A release by the Academy said, “This pioneering system enabled the large-scale use of animation rig-based facial performance-capture for motion pictures, combining solutions for tracking, stabilisation, solving and animator-controllable curve editing.”
Parag’s vision in Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) brought down the production time of such films by a large margin, while also making the process more efficient.
He developed a technology that could read and replicate expression-based facial performances. Beowulf, which was directed by Robert Zemeckis with the help of Parag’s technology, could be filmed in just three weeks since the actors performed with sensors on their bodies. It was the post-production that took a long time.
Speaking to the Times of India, the Oscar-winner said, “Zemeckis is a visionary director. He was clear that he wanted only performances.
His idea was, ‘Why don’t we just capture the actors and get the emotions out? Everything else—clothing, make-up or lighting—can be done in post-production.'”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.James Franco – (L) real and (R) digital double (2006 – SONY Imageworks) Source.
Parag worked as a lead software designer and technical developer (for Imagemotion) for Beowulf. “What we tried to accomplish with Beowulf was ahead of its time,” Parag says.
Parag was a four-year-old when his family, which is originally from Pune, moved to Zambia. He grew up listening to African languages and picked them up with ease. At the age of 11, he, along with his family, returned to Pune and Parag was admitted in St Vincent’s. He finished his primary education in 1987 and got admitted in IIT-Kharagpur. In 1996, he acquired a PhD in Computer Graphics and Computer Vision from the University of Southern California.
In the years to come, Parag developed a revolutionary technology that would ease the production of animation films.
“If you are in the artistic side of things, understanding technology and how to harness it is very crucial. Similarly, coming from the technology side, you have to understand artistic requirements. Only then can you write software or processes that can be used by artists to create the art form that they want,” Parag told the University of Southern California.
In 1967, it had been 20 years since India had achieved independence. In the decade before 1967, India had witnessed the first television service (1959), Goa’s liberation from the Portuguese (1961), the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru’s death (1964) and India’s wars with China (1962) and Pakistan (1965). The country was growing up – amidst several iconic moments.
To mark India’s 20th “birthday,” the Films Division of India (FDI) had commissioned SNS Sastry, a renowned filmmaker, to shoot a documentary film featuring the youth of India. The idea was unique—one that would genuinely show India’s present and future.
Sastry was to interview youth turning 20 with India. Samanth Subramanian, a writer and a journalist writes, “Sastry, it turned out, had been guilty of mild sleight of hand. Stymied by his original mission of finding Indians born on August 15th 1947—the date India became independent—he enlarged his ambit to 20-year-olds in general, then to anybody born in the vicinity of 1947.”
With that in mind, Sastry visited several places in India to interview young Indians from various backgrounds.
The resulting documentary, “I am 20,” features a young mother who was married off at the age of 8, an ambitious scientist who wished to study meteorites and a farmer in Punjab who loves films, among others.
Shuttling between optimistic sorts who could not wait to work for India and those who highlighted the issues being faced by the country at the time, the documentary is a delightful insight into the psyche of the young in India in 1967.
At first glance, the documentary is merely a collection of footages of landscapes and portraits. But a closer look will show you that Sastry has captured a story of India overall — of farmers, railways, pilots, nature and the general vibe in 1967.
After a brief welcome, we are introduced to someone who receives maximum screen time—TN Subramanian. The only person to get a full introduction, he kick-starts the film by saying, “Maybe I am talkative and very loquacious, and I make my presence felt.
Possibly, I talk like a preacher or a politician but then, I am entitled to my opinions, and as the Lord said unto Moses, I am who I am.”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.TN Subramanian.
Perhaps a reflection of Sastry’s idea of India in 1967, the film begins not with a preamble to India or its youth but with this confident opinion by Subramanian. Through the 18 minutes and 46 seconds, Sastry then conveys, quite effortlessly, that India is a land full of ironies, diversity—not cultural, specifically, but more of situational—and certainly not a black or white image.
More than anything else, when you watch the film today, it showcases the fact that although India has experienced a massive change in the last 51 years, one thing remains intact— the psyche of its youth. Just like their counterparts in the 60s, Indians in their early 20s today are characterised by a mix of strong patriotism, healthy scepticism, an acceptance of things as they are, while also seeing the value in being an honest citizen.
Sastry’s questions don’t appear in the film, but from the answers he receives, you can certainly make an accurate guess. To what seems like a question about what India means to a 20-year-old, a pilot says,
“Well, I don’t know how you could ask me a question like that because I am an Indian and India means everything to me. I am part and parcel of India and India is a part of my life.”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The patriotic pilot.
This is immediately followed by a person saying in a straightforward fashion, “I don’t have any love for the country (you can hear Sastry exclaiming, ‘really?!’ in the background) and just that I don’t want to show off like other people that I’ve got love for the country. Whom shall I tell that I’ve got love? Shall I go on the streets and (say), ‘Oh I’ve got a love for the country?'”
If this doesn’t perfectly reflect the young energy in the country today, as well as 51 years ago, what else can?
While some, like the boy from Madhya Pradesh— who didn’t know who the Prime Minister or the President of India was but could correctly name the the collector of Ujjain—are happily living in their own bubble, there were others who proudly claimed that they have never so much as “bribed for a seat in a college or a school” and “only below average students resort to bribing.”
This student, like another in the frame preceding his, highlights the issue of corruption in the educational system. Corruption in a country where millions “have the freedom to starve, to go naked, to die of hunger and to go uneducated” and an industrial development that feeds off of the livelihood of farmers are some of the pressing issues that these young girls and boys of 20 years highlight in ‘I am 20.’ Sounds familiar, right?
It comes as a surprise then that the government released the film that was meant to celebrate India’s 20 years of freedom.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.SNS Sastry. Source.
But that’s the beauty of Sastry’s spectacular documentary. It neither intends to be a paean to the greatness of India nor a critique.
“Let me put it this way,” says Subramanian, “our achievement is that we have a hopeful tomorrow. Our failure is that our today is very precarious.”
Perhaps what captures the viewers’ attention best is that Sastry builds on one idea of India and smashes it within the next 10 seconds, building an entirely different idea.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Two of the many faces of India.
A young man, who earlier confesses that he wished to be an IAS officer, says that he loves being rich.
“My needs, of course, they’re more,” he says adding “I have more money to buy things. I see more things in the market, so I buy them.” Just as we are convinced of this idea of an upper-middle-class India with a wealthy living, Sastry’s frame shows a farmer sitting on his tractor saying that all he needs is a couple of blankets and two or three dresses.
All in all, ‘I am 20’ portrays India to its best capacity—a diverse nation unsatisfied with its present, where some youth are willing to work for its betterment, while some are not. Except for the fashion, the accent (still more British than Indian) and technological development, the documentary seems to be of the current generation, providing a blurred answer to the question—what is the youth of India?
To those of us who abide by the thought that no nation can be perfect in itself, Sastry gives a fitting end— again through the voice of Subramanian.
“As Kennedy put it, I think it’s a question of not to what the country can do for you as much as what you can do for the country. Of course, frustration is in fashion today, but I think deep within every Indian, despite all this frustration, we are underestimating him. He has the capacity to work… Let me put it this way that if all the people in this country who didn’t fancy their prospects in it were asked… were allowed to quit, and I think I’d stay. Because it’s something big, it’s a huge experiment, and I would like to be a part of it,” he concludes.
Every once in a while there comes a movie with a storyline so simple and yet stunning, that it will leave you yearning for more.
‘Village Rockstars’, an Assamese film does just that. This coming-of-age movie has been written, produced, edited, designed and put together beautifully by Rima Das.
Rima moved to Mumbai with aspirations of becoming an actor.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Multi-talented Ms Das Photo Source: Rima Das/Facebook
But as luck would have it, she ended up directing ‘Man with the binoculars: Antardrishti’, her first feature film, which was released in 2016.
‘Village Rockstars’ tells the tale of a ten-year-old girl with dreams to form her own rock band, who goes in search of an electric guitar in her village.
This comes as a huge honour for Rima as this is the second film from Assam to be selected as India’s submission to the Oscars.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Director in action Photo Source: Rima Das/Facebook
In a report published by The Indian Express, Rima says, “It is a big deal because when you don’t receive recognition, you feel things are not possible. It stops people from trying. Such news makes me feel that things are possible.”
Here are seven things you ought to know about Village Rockstars:
1. Rima Das, the director of this movie, is a one-woman army. Besides being its director she is also the screenwriter, executive producer, editor, production designer and cinematographer.
2. Rima took over three-and-a-half years to script ‘Village Rockstars’, which was then shot over a period of 130 days. This feature film was shot on a handheld camera and has used a cast of non-actors, sourced almost wholly from the village of Kalardiya in Assam’s Chayagaon.
3. The film touches upon many scenarios that one continues to encounter in India’s villages. For example, it unflinchingly tackles the disturbing manner in which village elders force girls who reach puberty to suddenly sit at home and have little contact with the outside world. How the protagonist’s mother reacts to this is one of the highlights of the film.
4. The protagonist, played by child actor Bhanita Das, has also been awarded a National Award.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A still from the movie Photo Source: United News of India-UNI/Facebook
This makes her the first-ever Assamese child actor to receive this honour. Bhanita happens to be Rima’s cousin sister.
5. In 2017, ‘Village Rockstars’ was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. The natural elements in the movie – like the unseen locations, an authentic cast, and organic story-telling helped the movie win critical appreciation nationally and internationally.
6. ‘Village Rockstars’ is the second Assamese feature film to win the National Award.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The official movie poster
The first one was ‘Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai’ by Jahnu Barua, which bagged the award 29 years ago.
7. ‘Village Rockstars’ is India’s official nomination for the 2018 Academy Awards. 29 films – including blockbusters like Raazi, Padmaavat, Hichki, October, Love Sonia, Gulabjaam, Mahanati, Pihu, Kadvi Hawa, Bhogda, Revaa, Bioscopewala, Manto, 102 Not out, Padman, Bhayanakam, Ajji, Nude, Gali Guliiyan – were considered.
Here’s hoping that this movie from Assam makes us all proud. The Academy Awards are scheduled on February 24, 2019.
Kumudlal Ganguly was born in 1911 to a simple Bengali family in Bhagalpur in the Bengal Presidency of British India (now in Bihar). Kunjlal, his father, was a lawyer and wanted his eldest son to follow in his footsteps. However, destiny had far more glitzier plans for the young man!
Kumudlal’s younger sister, Sati Devi was the wife of Sashadar Mukherjee, who held a senior position in the technical department of Bombay Talkies. Thanks to him, Kumudlal was had become interested in the technical aspects of film-making.
However, owing to parental pressure, decided to appear for his law exams. After failing them, Kumudlal decided to live with his sister for a few months, to avoid conflict with his father.
This seemingly innocuous decision would prove to be a turning point in his life.
Kumudlal reached Mumbai, and once he was ensconced at his sister’s home, he requested his brother-in-law to find him a job in Bombay Talkies. Soon, Kumudlal, who was working as a laboratory assistant and enjoying his work. He even managed to convince his father to allow him to abandon his law studies.
In 1936, the shooting of the film, Jeevan Naiyya was under production when the lead lady, Devika Rani eloped with the male lead, Najmul Hassan. Devika Rani was already married to the studio head, Himanshu Rai. When she returned to her husband, Rai fired Hassan and decided to cast the lab assistant, Kumudlal in the lead role instead.
It was common for actors at that time to work under pseudonyms in the film industry, and this is how Kumudlal Ganguly became Ashok Kumar.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Ashok Kumar and Devika Rani in Achhut Kanya. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Although he was a reluctant actor, Kumar worked hard on his craft (even though this didn’t necessarily reflect on screen) and came to be widely regarded as the pioneer of ‘method’ or natural acting in the film industry. Jeevan Naiyya was followed by Acchut Kanya, in which he paired up with Devika Rani once again. The film went on to become one of the early blockbusters of Hindi cinema, and the duo became everyone’s new favourite on-screen couple.
Over the course of his career, Ashok Kumar worked in several hit films and even won the Dadasaheb Phalke Award—the highest honour presented to film personalities by the Government of India. In 1998, the veteran actor received the Padma Bhushan, given his contribution to the Indian film industry.
What was his contribution?
Besides being a legend himself, Ashok Kumar was responsible for introducing phenomenal talents like Madhubala, Kishore Kumar and Dev Anand, among others.
In 1948, writer Ismat Chughtai and her husband, Shaheed Latif were planning their movie, Ziddi, with Kumar in the lead role. But Kumar, who was also a producer with Bombay Talkies, insisted they replace him with Dev Anand—a one-film-old struggler at the time, who had trained at the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA). Kumar had spotted Anand hanging around the Bombay Talkies studio and believed he would be better suited for the lead role than him. Chughtai and Latif agreed, and as they say, a star was born.
The same film had the legendary actor, Pran in the antagonist’s role. Pran, too, was suggested to the producers by Kumar.
Kishore Kumar, who is regarded as one of the most versatile and brilliant playback singers in the Indian film industry, also started his career with Ziddi. ‘Marne Ki Duayen Kyon Mangu’ became Kishore’s debut song, that later took him places.
It is interesting to note here that Kishore Kumar was Ashok’s younger brother (Abhas Ganguly).
In 1949, India’s first reincarnation thriller—Mahal—directed by Kamal Amrohi, which also starred Ashok Kumar and was made under his watch at Bombay Talkies, launched the careers of two legendary artistes—actor Madhubala, and singer, Lata Mangeshkar.
Apart from this, Ashok Kumar is also instrumental in welcoming SD Burman to the industry. He was also the first actor to become a part of the “1-crore club,” when his film Kismet grossed Rs 1 crore at the box office.
In the 1980s, he anchored India’s first soap opera called Hum Log.
Be it stepping into the shoes of the male lead, reluctantly, or giving up a huge role when he became a seasoned actor, Ashok Kumar is a legend in his own right. An actor and mentor par excellence, a registered homoeopathy practitioner, and a talented painter, “Dadamoni” (jewel of an elder brother) spearheaded an incomparable legacy, and will forever be an inspiration to generations of actors.
“Mummy pregnant hai meri,” an embarrassed Nakul tells his girlfriend.
A 25-year-old man, well settled at his job, with a teenaged brother ten years younger, Nakul can be any one of us. His family, the Kaushiks, are as typical as can be.
The mother-in-law finds fault in everything that her bahu does but her precious son could not be better. The brothers barely talk to each other–they only taunt, provoke and show off.
But Badhaai Ho features another beautiful relationship–the love between parents that hides behind societal approval and the “norms” for a middle-aged couple IRL. This couple, cute as a button, would have been “goals” if they were any younger.
But how can they be, if all their love is displayed only in secret?
The focus of the film is that a 50-something mother of two gets pregnant. Badhaai Ho takes this highly “uncomfortable” subject of middle-aged people having sex and makes it light, fun even.
It opens us to the fact that sex is not a thing for the youth alone. The story has two couples, and both pairs are equally in love and sexually active.
The older couple, played by Neena Gupta and Gajraj Rao decide that they don’t want to abort the child, even when they have a slight window of opportunity. A short 5-7 minute conversation between them seals their decision. The husband says, “It’s your body and your pain. If you wish to keep the baby, it’s your choice.”
It’s as simple as that.
But it’s everyone else who makes the pregnancy their own business–even when they speak about it in hushed tones, behind the couple’s backs or as an instruction to how they “should have thought about the relatives” before engaging in such a blasphemous act.
I booked the tickets for the movie because the trailer was promising. But what I saw left me wondering if we ever look at our parents as anything more than our birth-givers and guardians?
They are, after all, someone’s partners but the very thought can be discomforting for us. Add to that the idea that they have sex?
Even as we speak about the liberation of sex from its stigmatised misconception, aren’t we largely making it out to be an activity for the youth?
I remember when I was in class 4 and saw my mother crying in her room, all alone. When I asked her what happened, she could not stop herself and said that she needed to get operated “on her stomach”. I was a child, oblivious of sex and how babies are conceived. All I knew was that they “come from a mother’s belly”. So I casually asked her if that’s what it was.
She answered in the affirmative and told me “don’t speak about it to anyone.”
Only years later, when I finally understood sex that I connected the dots. That my father had returned home for a short vacation and that weeks later, my mother needed to get an abortion. I shut my ears and eyes and forced myself to think about something, anything, other than the knowledge that my parents had had sex.
If you watch Badhaai Ho, you’ll understand that it wasn’t. Not really.
My colleague Rinchen Norbu Wangchuk recalls the call he received at the boarding school from his parents. He was 13 and was told that parents were expecting a child. Albeit a teenager, this news did not sound embarrassing or awkward to him. He was just happy that he’ll finally get a sibling to play with!
The film is basically a lesson to go from how I reacted to how Norbu did.
Why must sex–in one’s youth, among middle-aged people, among unmarried couples be a taboo at all?
Everyone does it, whether in hotel rooms, tiny bedrooms or mansions. Then why must we live in the bubble that it is only us who are entitled to be free to have intercourse, to express our love?
This acceptance will have a ripple effect on conversations on sex.
If we, as a family, accept this as a natural expression between two loved ones, maybe parents will be able to communicate with their kids about sex much more easily.
Maybe then, subjects like contraceptives, safe sex, the consequences, wouldn’t be giggling topics that a straight-faced teacher recites to her students in a sex education class. Maybe then it will also be a normal discussion within a family.
And think about how empowering it will be for society as a whole. Teenagers wouldn’t have to hide their romantic interests from their parents, couples will be able to rent flats with ease, and kids will be able to help out their parents just as parents help their children.
A great example of this is Sanhita Agarwal, who at the age of 25, found love for her widowed mother and got them married. A heartwarming story that goes beyond finding love for a lonely lady; the more you read through it, the more inspiring it becomes.
Maybe Badhaai Ho will be that conversation starter (or at least eye-opener) that we as a societal unit need right now. I saw a mixed crowd of teenagers, young pregnant couples and old couples watch the movie with me. This is already a good sign.
Now all I hope is that they thought about this topic just like I did and allow it to come out of the closed, locked and sealed doors.
Movies are arguably one of the best options for entertainment that we have. They transcend the boundaries of age, cultural background and choices, and it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that watching a movie in a dimly-lit theatre is the favourite pastime for millions of people.
The tragedy is that while urban areas are teeming with multiplexes that run several shows in a single day, thousands of villages still wait for that one opportunity in several months to watch a movie.
Food, clothing and shelter might be the basic necessities of man, but entertainment should not be ignored. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, after all.
So, Sushil Chaudhary, an engineer by profession decided to fill this void through his initiative, PictureTime!
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Courtesy: Mallika Kakra/ PictureTime.
Started in October 2015, PictureTime takes movies to the remote parts of India, through mobile movie theatres.
Speaking to The Better India, he says, “Cable television and the digital revolution definitely played a role in the decline of movie theatres in India. However, in my view, the main reason for the decline is that the single-screen cinema theatre business could not adapt itself to the changing times— particularly so in rural India. While multiplexes have taken over the market in the metros and mini metros, they have not penetrated rural India, as a result of which the people are deprived of a grand cinematic experience. I wanted a platform that was portable, independent of real-estate, low on regulatory compliances as well as ready to showcase the latest films. PictureTime, was thus, the perfect solution.”
For many people, an experience at a multiplex is a luxury in itself, thanks to the high prices and in many cases, the distance they have to travel to reach the theatre.
However, Chaudhary’s PictureTime entertains the masses at a fraction of the cost. The Mobile Digital Movie Theatre, called Digiplex, is completed with a Dolby surround sound system and an air-conditioned, inflated theatre room.
Under the project, Chaudhary and his team travel from Himachal Pradesh in the north to Andhra Pradesh in the south.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Courtesy: Mallika Kakra/ PictureTime.
“PictureTime provides unique dual benefits to the rural population of India—a state-of-the-art cinema experience as well as a medium of outreach for both social messaging and private advertising—all under a single umbrella. By offering low-cost mobile cinema halls, the venture will help address the severe cinema theatre crunch by increasing the screen count in remote parts of the country,” he told YourStory.
Tying up with film-industry experts like Satish Kaushik and Kulmeet Makkar, PictureTime is all set to go in the right direction.
“We have covered 14 states as of now like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and others. We do a maximum of 4 shows every day in the tier 3 cities of these states and use 2K and E-cinema projectors and Qube/UFO servers for cinema projection,” says Chaudhary.
Explaining how the mobile theatre works, he told the Daily News and Analysis, “Within two-and-a-half hours, the mobile Digiplex cinema theatre can be made fully functional, complete with seating arrangements and world-class high-definition digital projectors and 5.1 Dolby surround sound for a high-quality cinema experience.”
And the entire theatre (once deflated) can fit into one truck!
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Courtesy: Mallika Kakra/ PictureTime.
What started as a source of entertainment, eventually became a tool to educate the masses. A mobile theatre with air-conditioning and high-quality visuals is bound to attract people, and Chaudhary used this curiosity to impart social awareness within the rural population.
“Our aim is to use technology to not only provide high-quality entertainment to rural India but to also use our mobile Digiplex cinema theatres as an outreach vehicle to generate awareness on educational and government schemes on initiatives around Digital India, Skill India and Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan,” he states.
With about four shows in 14 states in India currently, the founder and CEO hopes to increase the numbers by leaps and bounds, in the near future.
Speaking to the New Indian Express, he says, ” Most of the families are excited to see PT bringing new releases to their vicinity and offering multiplex par experience. Our milestone for this financial year is 120 units and the target for the next three years is 3,000 units up and running.”
With PictureTime, movies are no longer restricted to only the urban elites. With all the amenities of a multiplex but rates that are incredibly affordable, PictureTime is what you can call the perfect entertainment package!
Every now and then, there comes a film that hits the bull’s eye with every emotion it evokes. Whether an evergreen comedy, a thriller that has you sitting on the edge of your seat, or a drama which makes you wonder about the state of the world, a great film has the power to move you deeply.
2018, for example, was a barrier-shattering year for several Bollywood films that scored a perfect 10 with the audience and critics. Even as we believe that the movies churned out by Hindi-film industry are mass entertainers and one needs to forget the idea of logic while watching them, it is also true that it has produced gems that are recognised not just in India, but all over the world.
Here, we bring you a list of 10 such films that were recognised as some of the world’s best by international platforms.
1. The Apu Trilogy (1950-1959)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Source: Wikipedia.
Made between 1950 and 1959, Satyajit Ray’s trilogy won top prizes at Cannes, Venice and London.
Pather Panchali, Aparajito and The World of Apu follow the story of Apu, a poor boy from a Brahmin family. The films shifts focus between the family’s struggle to gather enough money to either repay their debt, repair their house or purchase clothes, and the difference in the upbringing of Apu and his sister Durga. Ray tries to portray the role of technology that improves life and the role of religion when Durga dies and the poverty-stricken family must cope with it.
Ranked number 2 on The Time Magazine’s All-time 100 movie list, the trilogy is a classic.
2. Charulata (1964)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Source: Wikipedia.
Another masterpiece by Satyajit Ray, the film is about Charu, a lonely woman whose husband, Bhupati, has time only for his work. Things turn controversial when Bhupati’s younger brother Amal comes home on a break and gets close to Charu. Soon enough, their conversations result in Charu falling in love with Amal.
The film set in the 1870s saw Ray introducing the western style of films to India. It scored 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, an American review-aggregation website for film and television, and was listed at number 56 in the Sight & Sound critic’s poll.
3. Pyaasa (1957)
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Scoring a full 100% on the Tomatometer, this drama set in the post-independent India, Pyaasa is about two outcasts—Vijay, whose talent in poetry is underappreciated and Gulabo, a prostitute.
Vijay is a sensitive poet who writes from his heart although no one, including his loved ones, appreciates his talent. When he is betrayed by his love, Vijay ends up meeting Gulabo—the prostitute with a heart of gold. The drama takes a twist when a dead beggar to whom Vijay gave his coat and whom he tries to save unsuccessfully from the path of a running train is mistaken for Vijay.
For the world, the poet is dead, and Gulabo takes this opportunity to publish his poetry as a book, which becomes a bestseller.
Directed by Guru Dutt and starring him as Vijay and Waheeda Rehman as Gulabo, the classic is listed at number 77 on The Time Magazine’s All-time 100 movie list.
Considered as India’s answer to ‘The Godfather’ and enlisted at number 65 on Time’s All time 100 movies, this Mani Ratnam film is based on a true story about the underworld.
Nayakan (or Nayagan) is Sakthivelu Nayakar’s (played by Kamal Hassan) story. Sakthivelu was born in a family of an activist, an anti-government union leader. He is arrested by corrupt police who make him believe that they are actually his friends and mean no harm. In reality, they are using the young boy to locate his father. When the police release him from custody, the innocent boy meets his father. The police, who are following him closely, kill the activist.
Betrayed and angry, Sakthivelu ends up killing the policeman and flees to Mumbai to become a Mafia don.
Scoring an average of 8.8 stars from over 22,000 reviews, Drishyam is a Malayalam crime drama about a simple, middle-class family.
Georgekutty’s elder daughter Anju is secretly filmed while changing her clothes and the culprit, Varun, comes to their house.
Varun, a confident, vile teenager is the son of a police inspector. He starts blackmailing Anju and her mother, Rani. Things escalate when the mother-daughter duo accidentally kill the boy.
When Rani tells Georgekutty about this incident, he must move heaven and earth to protect his beloved from the law. The story is about how the simple family goes about setting the perfect alibi, to show the investigating team that they weren’t at the place of murder at the time.
Remade in Hindi two years after the release in Malayalam, the movie is a roller coaster ride that has you sitting on the edge of your seat throughout. It is also listed as one of the world’s best crime dramas.
6. Rang De Basanti (2006)
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Six “good for nothing” friends find themselves in acting in a documentary written and directed by a British woman, Sue. Sue’s grandfather worked in British India and had documented the story of five freedom fighters—Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Shivaram Rajguru, Ashfaqulla Khan, and Ram Prasad Bismil.
While the friends believe that in this day and age, the country is not worth fighting or sacrificing for, Sue tries to change their mindsets through her documentary film.
When another one of their close friends, Flight Lieutenant Ajay Rathod, an Air Force pilot who genuinely believes in serving the country dies protecting hundreds of innocent villagers, the politicians brush off the incident as the pilot’s error as opposed to the fault in his MiG-21 plane.
That’s when the six friends decide that they must right this wrong and attempt to secure justice for their friend.
Scoring an 8.2 rating on IMDB, this comedy-drama ranks 99 on the globally popular movies database’s list of Top 250 movies.
7. Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)
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Directed by Anurag Kashyap and starring the likes of Manoj Bajpayee, Pankaj Tripathi, Piyush Mishra and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Gangs of Wasseypur is an action comedy beloved by critics.
The story stretches from the 1940s to the 1990s. Kashyap has used semantics perfectly to define the era that the particular scene is based in without always having to specify it with text. Centred around the coal mafia in Jharkhand and the politics and power struggles that three criminal families get tied up in, GoW is a raw representation of the underworld in Bihar and Jharkhand.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Source: Wikipedia.
An emotional whirlwind of a story, Taare Zameen Par is sure to make you feel differently about everything from the schooling system, the mental health of children, and the emotional bonding between parents and children.
Ishaan, a dyslexic child, is made fun of at school and is scolded frequently by his strict father. While his elder brother is everything that their parents dream of, Ishaan is a quiet boy who finds solace in art, imagination and all things creative.
When he is enrolled in a boarding school as a punishment for performing very poorly in his tests, Ishaan meets Ram Shankar Nikumbh—an art teacher who sees beyond the syllabus and encourages his students to explore the vast realm of their own imagination.
The film shows the power of art and imagination through the life of a dyslexic, misunderstood child. IMDb lists it as a must watch and 44th on its list of Top 250 movies.
9. Dangal (2016)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Source: Wikipedia.
Loosely based on the Phogat family, Dangal narrates the story of Mahavir Singh Phogat, an amateur wrestler, who trains his daughters Geeta and Babita to become India’s first world-class female wrestlers.
This is another one of Aamir Khan’s movies to be listed in IMDb’s Top 250 and this time, at number 24.
10. Andhadhun (2018)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Source: Wikipedia.
Still in the news for its sheer brilliance, Andhadhun is a gripping edge-of-your-seat thriller, that will also leave you in splits.
Akash, a blind pianist falls right in the middle of a murder plot purely by accident. The artist, who has a secret of his own, wants to report the crime but falls further down the rabbit hole when he discovers that the investigating officer was an accomplice in the murder.
From a relatively light plot where Akash’s young neighbour pranks him to check to see if he is, in fact, visually impaired, to an organ harvesting scam that the pianist becomes a part of, the story is all kinds of unimaginable.
A semi-blind rabbit, a seemingly sociopathic trophy wife, an innocent daughter of a cafe owner and a suspicious schoolboy—all unrelated characters come together in this movie to make a flawless crime drama that shot up to number 5 on IMDb’s best crime films.
For Veteran Bengali filmmaker Mrinal Sen, the personal was always political.
One of the forerunners of parallel cinema in India, Sen had the penchant for telling tales with a deep socio-political context.
Arrested at the age of eight for participating in a protest march, Sen’s bent on depicting the personal as political had its seeds sowed deep since his childhood. This was the same year when he watched his first film, Kid by Charlie Chaplin, and discovered his interest in cinema.
Although he never went on to make any Chaplin-esque films or any based on politics, his films, nevertheless, were always political.
And, Bhuvan Shome, one of his prominent works, which won him the National Award for Best Film and Director, recently came to light as a major influencer for the Oscar-nominated film, Lagaan by Ashutosh Gowariker.
Filmmaker Hardik Mehta, paying his tribute to Sen, recently shared a trivia on his Facebook page, elaborating on the relationship between the two films, and how Lagaan was a tribute to the veteran filmmaker.
Mrinal Sen, the iconic Indian Filmmaker is no more. During my initial brush with cinema, I read that he made a film that…
Bhuvan Shome, featuring Utpal Dutt and Suhasini Mulay, not only initiated a new wave of cinema, but also brought to the fore the two prominent artists–the genius of a cinematographer K K Mahajan, and the baritone of Amitabh Bachchan, much before he began his career as an actor.
An influencer for many more directors and films to come, this film also ushered the New Wave of Indian cinema in the 1970s.
His first film in Hindi, it was made on a shoestring budget of less than Rs 2 lakh and was funded by the Film Finance Corporation, which was the predecessor of the National Film Development Corporation. It was a tale of a stout and proud widower Bhuvan (Utpal Dutt) whose tryst into the simple world shows him the reflection of his true self.
95-year-old Sen who breathed his last on Sunday, December 30, at 10:30 am, after 65 years of contributing to the merging of the reel and the real lives on celluloid, concretised the end of the golden age of Indian cinema.
From satires to socio-political critiques, Sen, much like his contemporaries, Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, has transformed the face of Indian cinema.
This eventually led him to a journey of pathbreaking films, sprinkled with another distinct feature–open-ended conclusions. He believed that much like life, cinematic narratives need not have all their knots tied up in the end.
And, today with yet another knot untied, we bid a heartfelt farewell to Mrinal Da.
From the streets to the celluloid, this rapper duo’s powerful socio-political verses are soon going to be adapted into a Bollywood film, Gully Boy, starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt.
Naezy and Divine, of the Mere Gully Meinfame, are two literally gully (lane)-grown local talents, whose rap-to-riches stories are truly inspiring.
This duo, together and individually, redefined Indian rap and hip-hop, dragging it out of the cliches around cars, girls and alcohol, to the real stories of the streets, dipped in politics and poverty.
A form of protest music/poetry, ‘rap’ emerged from violence, racism, discrimination and poverty in the West. And in India, the movement, through these artists, is bound for yet another resurrection.
26-year-old Divine, aka Vivian Fernandes, lives in the slums of Andheri’s JB Nagar, a place from where his angry and unrelenting music bubbled into the world in 2011. It led him to make history by becoming the first Indian rapper (in freestyle Hindi) for BBC 1 radio show host and celebrity rapper Charlie Sloth’s prominent Fire in the Booth series.
The award-winning rapper rose to fame after the collaborative track Mere Gully Mein with the other gully boy, Naezy aka Naved Sheikh.
Vivian’s solo Jungli Sher currently has 80 lakh views!
“It has been an interesting journey from the days when Indian hip-hop was underground, to now, where it is starting to become nationally known. However, we still have far to go,” Vivian told the Asian Age.
On the other hand, Naved Sheikh began his rapping journey at the age of 13 after being inspired by Sean Paul’s Temperature. He had heard the track for the first time during a DJ event in his Kurla chawl (locality) and soon found himself printing the lyrics to memorise them.
In 2014, Naved aka Naezy unleashed his musical wrath, Aafat shot on zero-budget on an iPad, amassing more than 30 lakh views on YouTube.
Naezy soon became the subject of a documentary Bombay 70, and he landed himself a deal with Only Much Louder, which is one of India’s most prominent alternative culture promoter and management agencies.
Now with Gully Boy, the film by Zoya Akhtar in place, Naezy is going to collaborate on the lyrics with poet and lyricist Gulzar, as reported by The Times of India.
Adding to the new wave of rap and hip-hop, Divine told TOI, “Delhi had a bustling Punjabi rap hip-hop scene. But they made songs about cars, alcohol, girls. We rapped about our gully, our city. It was genuine, authentic Indian hip-hop.”
With raw words in the local dialect, these young rappers have ushered in a strong Indian literature of bhasha (language) rap. They talk about the government, poverty, corruption, exploitation by the police, and family issues. These are topics that are understandable and relatable to everyone, be it a teen sitting behind his laptop screen, a rickshaw puller or a vegetable seller at the corner of a street.
“Hip-hop ek aisa zariya hai jo hamare desh main bhi badlav la sakta hai (Hip-hop is a way to bring about a change in our country). The masses think that hip-hop is about daaru (alcohol), nasha (intoxication), bling and swag, but if you really look at hip-hop’s antecedents, it was used to bring about a revolution. I want to remove people’s misconceptions and rewrite the history of Indian hip-hop,“ Naezy told TOI.
In the movie poster, the tagline Apna Time Ayega (Our time will come), depicts the tale of the gully boy, Ranveer Singh, who plays an underground Indian rapper and his journey to fame, with his earthy and authentic rapping style. The film is set to release on February 14, 2019.
Homosexuality is not new in Bollywood in the broad sense. In films like ‘Fire’, ‘Margarita with a Straw’, ‘Fashion’, ‘Aligarh’ and ‘Kapoor and Sons’, homosexual characters are played in a positive or neutral light.
Movies about overtly-excited Punjabi families, grand scenes from the heartland of Punjab, a girl being stalked by her hero, a one-sided love story, a love triangle, and even a love story between a Hindu and a Muslim are as old as Bollywood itself.
So what makes ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aida Laga’, by director Shelly Chopra Dhar and screenplay writer Gazal Dhaliwal, unique?
Note: Dhaliwal, a transwoman, has had an inspiring journey to becoming a screenplay writer and you can read all about her here.
The latest Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Rajkummar Rao starrer movie kicks off with a narrative not too different from what Bollywood film fans love.
Sonam’s character, Sweety, is a Punjabi girl in love with the idea of love and marriage from a very young age. Her family is equally obsessed with getting her married.
There are enough ‘normal’ (read: stereotypical) scenes to make the mainstream Bollywood fan comfortable. While for some this is a deal breaker, for most it is the perfect opportunity to leave stress outside the theatre halls and enjoy the drama.
Most moviegoers are comfortable with this idea. And that’s why they come to watch it over and over again. And it is precisely this aspect that I wish to highlight about ELKDTAL.
The normality aside, from the very first trailer, we all knew there was something unique about this. The end of the trailer featured a shot of Sweety running, offering her hand to a girl running with her.
This shot, and a few other subtle dots scattered throughout the film hint at the actual plot. This isn’t a story about a loud Punjabi family and a shy Sikh girl eventually falling in love with a Muslim playwright.
It’s a lesbian love story—packaged within precisely the kind of setting, style and drama that appeals to so many millions of India’s filmgoers.
So ELKDTAL, in its simplest sense, will attract the attention of tens of thousands (if not lakhs) of mainstream Bollywood fans to the lives and challenges of the LGBTQ+ community – and the perfectly relatable stigma they face looking for love.
And if packaged ‘right’, there is nothing Indians love more than a love story against the odds.
Films that are based on social issues like gender and sexuality are important for sure. But they mainly attract an audience that already supports the cause. This is due to many factors – low budget, a tone that appropriately reflects the dire seriousness of the subject matter and a general style that is at odds with the usual fare on offer.
While this in no way undermines the importance of such films, ELKDTAL is one of the few (along with than the recent ‘Kapoor and Sons’) that has the potential of spreading this crucial message to non-supporters or those on the fence – by simply making it fun to watch.
You watch it because it seems fun and you learn something while having fun. It is not a classroom lecture. It is just ‘recreation’ that has the potential of going very far indeed.
Interestingly, beneath this, the movie has another message for movie makers and filmgoers as well.
We spoke to 25-year-old Siddhant Kodlekere who identifies as a cis-gendered gay man about the film. “I feel if the entire topic of homosexuality is taken up like this, maybe there are chances of it coming into the mainstream popular cinema, without making it awkward for everyone else, or without shoving it in their faces.
But if you bring the entire topic of LGBTQIA+ into the mainstream perspective, it will just put it one step forward that ‘this is as normal as any other film you watch’.
I think the stellar cast of the movie, also with someone of Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla stature and respect related to this, will surely help the industry in relation to the upcoming movies for the LGBTQ+ community,” he told us.
Bollywood fans have already been treated to gems like Badhaai Ho, Manto, Raazi, Hichki etc. in 2018 – subtle yet powerful in their messages.
With ELKDTAL, 2019 seems to be a promising year as well, with inspiring movies that you must watch- whether for its masala or its message.
(Edited by Vinayak Hegde)
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