Upperstall Blogs

platform no. nine and three-quarters

Batul Mukhtiar — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:34:04 +0000

After a long day filled with chatter, horns, heat, money, receipts, polite conversations, organization, it took me a while to settle into Amit Dutta’s ‘Aadmi Ki Aurat aur Anya Kahaniyan‘. The story of a man and his room near a tree (Pedh par Kamra by Vinod Kumar Shukla) shared by rats, pigeons, kites, crows, squirrels and [...]

Villain no more!

Punjab-da-puttar — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:23:15 +0000

He’s 90 now and easily the greatest villain that Hindi cinema has even seen. Such was his impact as the baddie that a survey among Indian schools in the 1970s showed there were no children named Pran! One has been totally taken in by his performances in several films – Afsana (1951), Bahar (1951), Halaku [...]

The Ring

Deepa Gahlot — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:04:14 +0000

Reading recent pieces, and Karan Johar’s comments about the importance of publicists and stylists in Bollywood, you are reminded of the time, not so long ago, when the relationship between stars and the media was not so complicated. Stars used to have a secretary, who was an all-rounder, doing everything from negotiating contracts to fixing appointments [...]

This loathsome thing called the IPL.

Omar Ali Khan — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:59:05 +0000

I know this is a blog entry that is going to provoke the most hideous retribution, yet it is a burden I need to off load and so I place my neck on the platter and await a mass chopping. I have no regrets; First off, I utterly loathe almost everything about the entire concept [...]

Alfred Hitchcock: The Manipulator as Pop-psychologist

Ranjan Das — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:17:43 +0000

Catching up with Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound after nearly 10 years and watching his Marnie next day for the first time reaffirmed my faith in the master as a storyteller; but somehow I could not escape the feeling this time that his films looked a little cold. It set me thinking for a [...]

Every Man’s Land: A Traveler’s Random Thoughts on Turkey

Filmbear — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:55:00 +0000

Ayasofya, Istanbul’s defining landmark at the heart of the city in history-soaked Sultanahmet is often referred in guidebooks as one of the greatest monuments a traveler will ever see. From the outside it isn’t very impressive – its exposed brickwork and peeling façade only downplaying and readying you for the dizzying effect it has upon [...]

Suriya: Shining Through…

Punjab-da-puttar — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:50:32 +0000

It was with the Tamil film Vaaranam Aayiram (2008), which I saw in April sometime last year, that I discovered Suriya. Actually, three years before that I had seen a song, Ennai Konjam Matre, which I was told was from a film called Kaakha Kaakha (2003) and that the actors were Suriya and Jyothika. [...]

What it Takes to Review a Bollywood Film

Filmbear — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:59:25 +0000

Our new critic, Upperstall’s flyingrodent heroically volunteered to review YRF’s latest Pyaar Impossible. Five minutes into the movie he called me and after a bucketful of incomprehensible insults, stated that he’s going to be continually texting me through the film. It seemed I had to endure it as well. Except for some cussword starring and [...]

Three Unseen Kurosawas

Ranjan Das — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:27:48 +0000

When you are in doubt and not sure what to watch from amongst the DVD collection that you have acquired over the years, and you are not willing to take chances because you are feeling miserable for whatever reason, there is no better bet than old wine. So I decided to [...]

The Last Kannada Superstar.

Ramchandra PN — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:15:51 +0000

When I had first heard about a film actor called Vishnuvardhan, I was already a die hard fan of ‘our’ Rajkumar. Not that I had seen much of Rajkumar’s films, but he was the undisputed favorite. Vishnuvardhan was the guy who had accidentally pulled the trigger of a rifle during the shooting of the film [...]