Now that you are in the US, you don’t go about terrorizing the Americans right away. First you get a job teaching Islamic Studies at an Ivy League University and get yourself called a Professor (apart from giving you some pocket money, this job will make you a cool terrorist. [To get the job you will need to have an excellent academic, teaching and publishing record. Also, what about a working visa? But again please overlook these for the moment and stay with me]). Now as you do long hours at the University, you let your new wife slowly discover that you are, well, a terrorist (how do you do that – put her in a trance make her stupid enough to walk into the neighbours’ house in the dead of the night, and, once she’s is there, have the neighbours discuss some big terror plans behind closed doors but loud enough for her to hear. Make her really dim so that she believes them and not laughs her head off… and then you make the ‘Im a Terrorist’ entry!). Professor Terrorist Dude.

You realize you have done not much in the terror department since you left Pakistan; now you need to get on with it and terrorize people – so you start forking people to death (yeah! the cutlery) and as this much action does not seem enough you pick a dead body lying in your basement and drive it to dispose it somewhere (don’t allow anyone to say hey, hold on! why not dig a fcu*#g hole in the basement, bury the body there itself. Yeah make sure the neighbour-terrorists too are dim, very dim indeed). Give the wheels of the car carrying the corpse to a dimmest of them all, make sure he takes a street where there is police surveillance; on being stopped the driver must start to make alarmed faces leaving the Yankee officer with no option but to ask you two to step out of the vehicle. Your action part starts here, you kill a few policeman as a warm up to actual act of terrorizing the city. By doing so you would have given the police enough leads to have yourself and the terrorist neighbours nabbed. So trust your boss to come to rescue here – he decides to go for the kill right away.

What do you do – you botch the whole thing up. No one is going to blame you though; it’s actually your wife who does you in. You see, the night before your D-day, she needed to get her hands on some terror information. She could have easily walked a few paces to the drawers in the living room where the papers with this information are kept. Instead this well-meaning but going dimmer-by-the-day soul takes a long circuited route (mildly recalls your own Pakistan-to-India and Find, Seduce & Marry NRI Girl routine). She first seduces you into going to bed with her, and as you sleep all tired, she tiptoes to the living room and gets the papers. The terror information is leaked out and you, on the other hand, get reminded how much you love her. As a result, none of the bombs go off in a way to do any real damage and all your terrorists friends get killed one by one. Again, not all of this is your fault. Some of your friends were dimwits, remember. They just forgot to blow themselves when they could easily have done so. Instead, they kept clicking their heels till the police could spot them,and then made a run, get caught and get killed.

All of this should not worry you because when you reach the last fifteen minutes of the story no one is going to care any longer for the implausibilities on how you went about the job, they’ll be too absorbed just trying to catch up with the action. Only don’t let the climax action pause even for an instant for you would risk being tied in knots by the endless, gaudy contrivances that you story is filled with. Just one last thing, die smiling and we’ll make sure there is a massive publicity campaign supporting your story. Deal? Deal. Now go give it a try (may Allah be with you).

Related posts:

1. Terror in Mumbai.
2. Terror at the Drive-in Show (The Making)
3. Kurbaan Movie Review : Kuch kuch terrorism hai?

Are you making your One minute Movie for PFCOne 2010?

Padmaja Thakore | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2009.
Post tags: Karan Johar, Kareena Kapoor, Kurbaan, Movie Review, Padmaja Thakore, Saif Ali Khan, UTV

Direction: Rensil D’Silva

Rating: One and a half stars

I desisted from writing an instant-noodle review of Kurbaan. I said I wouldn’t, there’s no point etc. Because it raised my hackles to the extent that I wondered whether I was responding to this travesty of a film as a critic or as a Muslim.

I saw the film again, reflected on its content as well as style, and so yes, though I had promised myself that I would ignore the film, here I am for whatever it’s worth giving my take on the widely publicised film (Some love stories have blood on them, went the poster catchline, whatever that means). Because silence at times from a critic should not mean approval or even acceptance.

The most shallow film of 2009, Kurbaan directed by Rensil D’Silva and produced by Karan Johar,borrows its skeletaql plot premise about urban terrorism from Hollywood’s Arlington Road (1999), a film which Johar wanted to adapt and direct some half a decade ago. Presumably he didn’t because he couldn’t put together a script to his personal satisfaction.

The scripting task, in Johar’s mind, has been achieved by D’Silva who had co-written the  superior but flawed Rang de Basanti. In its very concept, Kurbaan plays on dangerous ground. With several inevitable subtractions and additions, it morphs the original’s story about American terrorists operating from the deceptively calm suburbia. Only in this case, the terrorists are Muslims, endowed with rough stubbles, red hot eyes and the biggest cliché of them all, Om Puri as chief exterminator. If this is not irresponsible cinema, what is? Karan Johar credits himself with the story. Wonderful! If he ever adapts Red Riding Hood, he’s likely to take credit for that too.

Saif Ali Khan, as Ehsaan Khan, and all the terrorist baddies are Muslims. Still do note, Kareena Kapoor with those dead eyes and twitch-twitch mouth is Avantika — meaning a non-Muslim is about to expose a sleeper terrorist cell. Applause for the Avantikas of the world! Perhaps a Salma or Shehnaz ,as the deceived wife of Ehsaan, would not have washed with the majority community audience. D’Silva-Johar mistakenly believe that they know the formula. So what if every twist and turn in the dramaturgy is replete with contrived coincidences and are laughably illogical as well. The easy-as-pie manner,in which Ehsaan Khan is okayed by an American Unversity to take classes on the Muslim identity, is a ribtickler.

Now, cut back to the heroic heroine Avantika. She  is aided by a sidey-effect, Vivek Oberoi portraying a Muslim, but he’s more of an add-on than organic to the plot. As awkwardly Dia Mirza, as Reporter Rehana,goes up in smoke in an airplane blast. The sequence is so tackily picturised that you squirm in your seat. Indeed, you fret throughout the two-hour-40-minute film, a brazenly glossy, superficial and blinkered view of post-9/11 terrorism.

No effort is made to investigate the root causes (except for some wonky allusion to global oil prices..and groan, personal vendetta). No effort is made to touch upon the complexities, or the after-effects of the beastly, misguided madness. No effort is made to do anything but be hopelessy irrational. Take the terrorists murdering one of their own jehadi’s wife. Did they wake up one morning to conclude that her kheer and biryani were not up to the mark? Or did they have issues with her smiling beatifically? And what about Big Bad Mamma Jehadi (Kirron Kher doing an Irene Papas-like number) looking more venomous than Cruella Da Vil? More: And what about that giggle-inducing close-up of cyanide capsules? In case of trouble, terrorists are instructed to swallow immediately. Some of them don’t and so have to be pumped with bullets in sleazoid bars. Or at a smashed car’s steering wheel.What a hoot!

Strictly by comparison Jagmohan Mundra’s Shoot at Sight (with a near-similar plot) was good, Kabir Khan’s New York was much better, and with or without comparison, Shoaib Mansoor’s  Khuda Kay Liye was outstanding.

From the first frame to the last, Kurbaan is a lesson in how not to write a script and worse, how to direct it. The romance between the two dandily-garbed professors on a Delhi campus is embarrassing. By the way, a bookish professor sprouts up like a mushroom to display his terrorist fangs.So much bookwas really.

Saif, as Ehsaan on the FBI’s most wanted radar, coolly zips in and out of U S airports (he’s trimmed his beard, and maybe even has a fake massa somewhere). And Avantika turns out to be one ditzy damsel, staying on with Ehsaan even after she dhan ta na, she has learnt of his secret identity. Hello hello! Pregnant with his child, our Avantikaji  beds him to show off that poster-sized bare back. He’s shown bare -backed too, but in terms of screen sex appeal, both need some elementary lessons pronto. Chill!

The FBI agents come off as nerds, the terrorists strike you as puppets on the director’s loose strings, and the action like a car crash, are sloppy. Hemant Chaturvedi’s camerawork in a bid to be coolly stylish is much too obtrusive; as for the transition shots of homes and buildings, they become so excessive that for a moment you feel you’re watching a digest of architecture.

Vis-à-vis the Islamic elements, the kalima is much too randomly used (someone even stops saying it midway through) and precious words are bandied about, like Alhamdolillah, which must be used with care and pure faith. Did anyone care to re-re-authenticate the dialogue and lyrics?  Evidently not.

The tortoise-paced editing makes Kurbaan heavy on both the mind and the heart. And like it or not, the performances are nothing to write home, or anywhere,  about. Saif Ali Khan either looks super-smug or goes smirk-smirk. Kareena Kapoor is irritatingly cosmetic, wearing lip gloss even when she’s zzzzupposed to be in bed, asleep. Vivek Oberoi should stop tearing his eyes to convey shock. And Om Puri should reject such terrorist boss roles, please, please, please – pretty please?

In effect, then, Kurbaan is the sort of film that doesn’t have a clue about the complex subject it is dealing with. It set my teeth on edge. And ha ha , not only because it is revealed at the end that the real name of Saif Ali Khan’s terrorist happens to be Khalid. Thanks Karan, Rensil..I’d just like to see how you guys would respond if your names were used for heinous criminals on screen. Or even in graffiti. Try it.

Clearly the motive for such movies is sheer profit.  Who cares about responsible cinema? Certainly not Johar who plays with faith and terrorism as if they were toys, absolutely designer.

Related posts:

1. Kurbaan
2. Let’s fight movie terrorism!
3. Kurbaan : Trailer

Are you making your One minute Movie for PFCOne 2010?

Khalid Mohamed | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2009.
Post tags: Kareena Kapoor, Kurbaan, Kurbaan Movie Review, Movie Review, Om Puri, Rensil D’Silva, Saif Ali Khan

Related posts:

1. Danny Denzongpa Talks About “Frozen”
2. few pics from no-smoking – dec28
3. The Zing at Osian’s Cinefan : AK, Ayesha, Karthi & Alu Chat… – Part 1 (with 28 pics)

Are you making your One minute Movie for PFCOne 2010?

Nikhil V | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2009.
Post tags: DVD launch, event, frozen, Kenny, shivajee chandrabhushan

Aar Par onwards Johnny Walker and Abrar Alvi became essential parts of the films of Guru Dutt.

Abrar Alvi , like a true wordsmith provided the solid ground to the dreamy visions of Guru Dutt and their complementary combination created a wonderful cinematic world through the films Aar Paar, Mr and Mrs 55, Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Chaudvin ka Chand and Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam.
He directed SBG while few of the songs were directed by Guru Dutt himself.

Abrar Alvi was the last person who sat and talked with Guru Dutt few hours before he died.

Alvi Saab died yesterday.

May his soul rest in peace!

Related posts:

1. Guru Dutt : Genius ? Part II
2. Classics and Cash – Guru Dutt’s speaks !!!
3. Lost To Life: Guru Dutt

Are you making your One minute Movie for PFCOne 2010?

Rk | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2009.
Post tags: Aar Paar, Abrar Alvi, Chaudvin ka Chand, Guru Dutt, Johnny Walker, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Mr and Mrs 55, Pyaasa, Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam

Johnny (played by Sikandar Agarwal), the title character is a migrant kid who makes his living in Mumbai serving chai. His daily routine brings him closer to a few of his customers – a drug addict, Vishal (Karan Nath), a model/ actor, Preeti (Soha Ali Khan) and Parvez (Neil Nitin Mukesh). Johnny hopes that someday one of his customers would help him find a better life and facilitate his goal to work in Dubai. Sudhir wastes no time in providing rich topographical details of Mumbai, exposing the vagaries of a city fractured by the socio-economic class system. The characters of Vishal, Preeti and Parvez are introduced with an elaborate voice over from Johnny’s perspective. This is probably the only part that made the writing look a tad sloppy. Yes! I am indeed referring to the classic, cardinal rule – “Don’t Tell, Show! ”

Johnny’s customers include Begum, the trans-gender ‘madam’ operating a brothel (played by a ridiculously convincing Saurabh Shukla) and Chiple (Kay Kay Menon), a corrupt police officer. Parvez carries on an extramarital relationship with Chiple’s wife Divya (Shahana Goswami). With these characters as a backdrop, Parvez, with Johnny’s help carries out a heist from an apartment where Chiple stores his corrupt earnings from bribes.

Preeti and Vishal on the other hand share a dysfunctional live-in relationship. A TV Network owner exploits Preeti’s vulnerability (played by an extended Hitchcock-ian cameo by Sudhir himself). He obsessively stares at TV monitors only to pick out Preeti as his object of desire. I felt it was not rationale enough for me to question that – Why her? If you are still keeping up with me, here are a few more characters; Vishal’s client played by Aditya Bhattacharya whose business dealings are dubious and has for some reason employed henchmen whose only job is to collect money that he lends to others. Don’t ask me why he lends?

Begum has a love interest, a drug dealer. The drug dealer, besides giving blowjobs to Begum and using Johnny to push drugs plays a trivial role in the plot. Then there is Johnny’s friend, another struggling kid, whose only characterization in the movie is that a middle-aged man sexually abuses him. While we are with the subject of sexual abuse, Johnny himself comes close to getting raped by a police officer. I am not sure if Sudhir’s recurring references to the act of sodomy had anything to do with newly passed section 377 that has now decriminalized same sex intercourse.

So with this many characters in a movie, one might question if Johnny is indeed the protagonist? But, that’s where I was clearly mesmerized walking out of the theater – Johnny was able to sustain my interest, helping me sympathize with these characters, rooting for Johnny mostly and then be agitated about some of the other characters wanting them to fail in their motivations. And oh! did I forget to mention about Anurag Kashyap – he makes a cool cameo as well as Sudhir’s henchman.

I have to confess, the style of narration and Johnny’s character reminded me of Ramin Bahrani’s Chop Shop, a story about a tough Dominican kid in Queens who tries to provide a better life for himself and his 16 year old sister by stealing auto parts from cars parked near Shea Stadium. Of course, Ramin presented his unique sensibilities and grip of the subject in Chop Shop by keeping the camera very unobtrusive and almost giving it a neo-realistic texture.

All said and done, Sudhir’s Is Raat Ki Subah Nahi and Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi will still remain my top picks followed by Koya Koya Chaand. Johnny is slated to release in India in January and if you are a Sudhir Mishra fan, you will  walk away very pleased.

Related posts:

1. Khoya Khoya Chand – Tera Kya Hoga Sudhir?
2. Khoya Khoya Chand review: Bhansalification of Sudhir Mishra
3. An Evening With Sudhir Mishra

Are you making your One minute Movie for PFCOne 2010?

Girimohan Coneti | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2009.
Post tags: Anurag Kashyap, chopshop, giri coneti, girimohan coneti, johnny tere kya hoga, Movie Review, neil nitin mukesh, ramin bahrani, Soha Ali Khan, sudhir mishra, Tera Kya Hoga Johnny, Tera Kya Hoga Johnny movie Review

By making it an open public debate, there may be many a tendency to veer off the topic, pick on small points of others and go way off from what this debate is intended to achieve. Hence the commenters are strongly requested to passionately put forth their views and debate this sticky issue that seems to erupt on every Friday with every new film release.

Nikhil V
With all due respect to everyone , when will we stop reviewing the film before it releases? Really. Why don’t we just show it to the reviewers after the first cut and get it over with…

Vijay
Nikhil, the only way to stop early reviews is to have the press show on Thursday afternoons. You cannot stop the press from writing once you have given them access. So make sure the access is timed correctly.
It’s not just here. Look at the reviews for so many films on RT, and you will see how many critics write reviews weeks before the release of a film.

Nikhil
VIjay sir, I really think the press screening is hogwash. Let them watch it on a Friday. Buy tickets and see it. Why should they be shown the film early in any case? You have good things to say – say it on Saturday. Bad things – Saturday. The breathing space that any film requires to find any feet is almost over now – today, most of my friends already are not going to watch the paid previews we were planning because the lady very kindly almost lists out the entire plot too…this review, if I may be so bold as to say, is a marketing strategy review, as is the case probably with most of the reviews that come out weeks before the release of the film. Either planned like that or because someone trashed it after watching a screening so the producers have to counter it. But I still stand by – no shows for critics before the audience gets to see it.

oz
I’ve personally deleted portions of reviews from PFC’s authors blogs, (that they see at film festivals) – when Production houses or producers have come to us and  said it was revealing the plot of their unreleased movie. Well now comes the debate, why take it to festivals then? The moment you screen it in a festival or limited release or special release or whatever new kinds of releases we have, it comes into the public domain. I’m seriously confused here over the path to take, this needs to be debated in all seriousness, I personally do not reveal plots of movies I see at festivals in reviews except for one – Paanch, where I still did not reveal the twist in the end, but what it did was start a serious discussion with Anurag over what could have been done in some portions of the movie. I loved that debate.

Ram
unless the film has got a spoiler ending, what is the problem with revealing the plot.. anyways paper and screen never look the same … I guess the Production House said that to you that cause the review was negative.. If it were a positive one everyone would have been happy…

Vijay
Nikhil, I am with you man. I am all for doing away with press shows, and letting the movie take its initial based on the marketing. I would rather just send complimentary tickets to the press for the opening day. But the issue is not them. There is no written rule that there have to be press shows. But the producers want good reviews on Friday morning in the papers.

Oz, the second problem is that we don’t have critics. You think the Bombay press is bad, come to the south. Every review will reveal the plot in more detail than what even the director is privy to. And there will be one paragraph at the very end commenting on the movie. Either, the editors of publications have to crack a whip and demand good reviewing, or the writers have to learn to review without revealing plot details, or filmmakers have to get rid of press shows. At the end of the day, whether the plot is revealed on Friday or Saturday, what’s the difference?
Whether you screen your film at a festival or have a press show, you do it only for one reason – Exposure. You want the word to spread about your film and expect that in turn to translate into sales. When you do that, its fair game, whatever is said about your film. Filmmakers just need to accept that and move on.

oz
well, you’re right… the problem is the hint of arm twisting that comes into their communication when Production houses mention in their emails – ‘We will be forced to take legal action’… Maybe 10 years ago I would have slammed them for this sentence, shown them the finger cause there’s no legal case, it was shown at a festival, first amendment, California laws etc. etc… Now, I just let it pass. Many of these Production houses have done good and are backing indie cinema. But I would like to see how everyone sees and views this issue. This is a constructive debate I would like to see.

Nikhil
Ram sir – when you spend 5 months staring at a blank screen until drops of blood form on your forehead, you learn to appreciate plot as well  It’s like saying Carver’s stories are not as good because they don’t have a Maupassant twist ending :p But seriously, I have the same issue with our promo-makers…they seem to work on a simple principle – take best scenes of film – put in promo – put music – flash cut – rinse, repeat…no worries if the story is laid out completely…

(I know I have a very small idea about the whole fest scene but here goes) Well that’s a personal choice I guess – take it to a festival, then it’s out there in the open. If ‘Kurbaan’ was at a fest I have no problems with the review being out – also because in all probability a fest will have some lag time before the film releases. And festival reviews are not our hindi mainstream reviews and even that most people forget if the fest is a month before the film releases. And even that doesn’t work because sometimes films are planned to premier on certain festivals and then they are shown in India in a day or so. An example of that would be ‘What’s Your Rashee’ where the Variety critic was called in to view it and he said that it was more than 3.5 hours long…a good example would be ‘Fatso’ and ‘Raat gayi…’ both shown at SAIFF and both not on the radar as far as reviews go other than them being appreciated there.

My problem is with a review out on a Wednesday/Thursday when a film is out on a Friday. It doesn’t make marketing sense to show it to people and in the age of Twitter risk bad WOM getting around, and all because the reviewer/viewer didn’t get his or her plate of samosas at the screening as promised. It happens, really. You spend 5-10 crores on marketing a film and then a few days before it releases, reviews are out. What’s the point of spending that money then?! You market so people come to theaters, not so that they wait for reviews and come to theaters…
And Vijay sir, by exposure policies, don’t you think producers are merely jumping into it blindly – not planning it, just – keep a screening, let people talk about it. There are some films that should not be talked about like this. Some that need to spread their word in a different way. I’m sure of that.

oz
Very interesting views here. So far I’m viewing this as – if you don’t want your movie plot to be revealed before Friday, don’t show it anywhere until Friday and if you show it, show it to a focus group with legal docs signed that they don’t mention the movie to anyone.

Ram
Nikhil ji, I appreciate the bloot-letting, and dont reveal anything in what I write.. and the debate is not about importance of a plot, its about the choice of revealing it or not to prospective viewers..
In my view, film makers hate plots being revealed only on two occassions, mostly, exceptions are there, however they are not general examples
a) the plot is thin, beaten-to-death or unoriginal, where the producers stand the chance of losing audience… in other words they cannot fool the audience, who realize that acid factory is unknown only after sitting through two hours and spending 300 Rs per head in a theatres….
b) it has an O Henry ending..
otherwise, there is no need of hiding the plot….

Nikhil
I thought that was the way it was usually done…was stunned to walk into screenings with friends and walk out and be free to write about it…and it’s not about the plot as much as opinion of the movie that I’m concerned about…because as you know, most people are too lazy to form their own opinions, they like to piggyback on those of ‘experts’…the newest fad in town is to talk about the ’screenplay’ – even two coffee-shop guys were talking about ‘yaar, film ka screenplay weak hai’ at a mulitplex :p I am no snob but screenplay as the new buzzword is stunning. Especially since you see the film, not the screenplay.

Ram sir – I beg to differ  And with all due respect, most stories are beaten-to-death and unoriginal. Case in question – Dev.D It’s the treatment and the plotting of them that defines them. You’re probably referring to story when you say plots can be revealed. My bad

But yes, I still stand by – don’t reveal the plot – reveal the story.

Vijay
Nikhil, find me a producer other than Ronnie Screwvala who has any remote understanding of targeted marketing in India?
Ronnie saab identifies his target audiences, and sells hard to them. He has a different way of selling to each demographic. It’s not just about spending money. It’s about the work you put into it. The other producers who claim to be marketing gods are those who make films with huge stars, and mass market in a blanket strategy by pissing away crores. Give them a film without stars that they would have to market based on the content, and then we’ll see who has a clue about what to do.

Producers are not really bothered about a good review. They will give the press the free booze, the samosas, the white envelopes, simply to make sure they dont write anything scathing. As long as its not damaging, they dont care. Plot revelation is the least of their concerns.

But you cant ignore reader demands either. I used to review movies for a website while I was in college, before i found PFC. Every other critic on the team would have long drawnout passages detailing the story. I used to avoid doing that as much as possible. But the comments I used to get emailed to me from readers…75% complaining that I didn’t tell them enough about the story of the film, for almost every review I have written.
So now who can you blame?

Sethumadhavan
Ideally the reviews should at max come out earliest on friday mornings so that atleast people who have planned for the day will still go on to watch it.Better still could be to have press shows ( if required ) or press invites sent for regular shows on friday morning/afternoon so that the reviews anyways come out only by friday afternoon/evening.
But there is another problem to what I’m suggesting here.a lot of movies have the paid previews and the premieres happening around wednesday/thursday so how do we then stop the early reviews?Paid previews have turned out to be a great way to make money and generate buzz so not sure if people would put a stop to it.

oz
But Nikhil, you just can’t control anyone to toe your drawn out line “don’t reveal the plot before the release of the movie”… I’ll understand it, many here understand it, but it’s like the pirated movie or music online. you just can’t control everyone from clicking the download button.
I would say don’t release your movie to festivals or limited audience before friday… I’m saying this cause I’ve “surrendered” to the fact that you can’t control people to your point of view which is : if you see the movie, don’t reveal the plot online.

Ram
Nikhil ji, my plot can be revealed and yours cannot..  OK ji, take Dev D as an example, tell me what can be revealing in a review about that film.. nothing.. even if you write scene by scene on DEVD, with screenshots, people will go and watch it… thats the difference…

Vijay
You cannot change the fact that when you make your movie accessible to a group of people, it is bound to come under scrutiny, its details are bound to be revealed. Whatever further discussion happens on this issue, who ever we ask to change, it wont make a difference. Ethics evaluated and formulated by people based on what is advantageous to them.
You want journos to stop revealing your plots in their reviews, then make it worth their while. You give them white envelopes during the press show. Let them know through your PROs that if they refrain from revealing the plot in their reviews, they can swing by the production office and collect another white envelope.

Nikhil
Ram sir, people watch movies for the darndest reasons. I didn’t watch Dev D for the exact same reasons you mentioned :p Saw it much later, once the hype had died down. And I guess we are just too diametrically opposite POVs on this, so that’s that.

Vijay sir, I completely agree about Ronnie S versus the rest. I’ve been part of a massive budgeted film that opened to 10% audiences because no one figured out how to market the thing. So I’ve suffered at the hands of the other ‘marketing god’ producers – don’t even get me started :p Am not blaming you or anyone else for that matter – it’s just something that I and my wife gave very serious thought to and debate constantly even today. Because I came across someone on Twitter who was tweeting EVERY 5 MINUTES from a screening of a new movie. Inane stuff but it was constant. And most people are on the lookout for new movie reviews so that’s that. It gets around. I think my issue lies with the very basic premise that makes it OK to reveal details of the film before it is open to the general public, for which it was made. A concept that if, like you did, you don’t reveal the plot, people don’t like your reviews. And that is something you can only blame the reviewers for. Because they man that ship, they set that course.

Oz sir – I understand the helplessness you feel – one can only control one’s own stuff. The rest is like pirated music – they will download. So maybe the trick lies in figuring out how to counter piracy. Or at least make it a debatable issue. Have people say ‘piracy is bad’. Here it’s, like Vijay-san said, incumbent that you give out plot in the reviews. Almost like piracy is the way to go, yo! If you’re not on board, you’re an idiot.

Look at ‘Avatar’ – the ‘Avatar Day’ thing that the producers did so people could see and comment. That was a few months back(?) When fans heard Peter Jackson was making LOTR, they signed a petition to New Line to stop the film since the director had previously made only shlock horror movies like ‘Braindead’ and ‘Bad Taste’. Peter Jackson called a small bunch of these people on set, showed them around on the condition they didn’t take pictures unless allowed to and didn’t talk about the plot. The result – the group became theonering.net, which till date, is one of the most updated Peter Jackson site in the world, a place he drops in to himself often. If it’s done with the intent of expose, I can understand. If you’re taking it to a film fest, then you can’t really say ‘don’t reveal the plot’ – but mainstream ‘critics’ can, of course, have a policy of not talking about the film until release date? It’s a product in the end. Unlike a car that will go from 1 to 100 in 6 seconds for everyone, a film is very subjective. To not allow people to form their own opinions is criminal. And as an industry, Bollywood needs to understand that this is harming them more than helping them. So many movies are just swept under the carpet because most reviewers are dog-tired by the time they’ve seen the first movie and another looms large on the horizon and they need to see both on Thursday so both reviews also need to be written that very evening… We can’t keep doing this.

Ram
Nikhil Ji, yes maybe opposite in our views…
But a question that I would like to pose to everyone who are in this debate
Name a few good films which have failed due to downriding reviews or revealing reviews?
Many good ones have failed due to bad marketing, but that doesn’t need to counted here… The point is that bad films fail due to revealing reviews because they are bad films.. it is correct that they failed…
If we believe that there are film which are good and it failed because of revealing or downriding reviews, then I have nothing to add and agree to your points about not revealing the plot…

Nikhil
Ram sir – how many films have failed and flopped miserably due to piracy? But that doesn’t make piracy right, does it?  
But then that’s my POV. I guess most people would want the plot revealed. I wouldn’t, and I’m the lesser for it. But such is life:) I hope you are not taking this personally – I am a bit old-fashioned in I like to keep the wonder of watching a movie intact. A revealed plot does it for me, even the promos  
And everyone – my first reaction was and still is a problem with the review being out today, a full day before the film releases. Revealing plot and everything else is a detour…

Ram
No Nikhilji.. its never taken at a personal level … the only thing that really baffles me is when film makers look for all sorts of reason for failure, but never admit that they have made a bad film and it was supposed to fail… I stand by reviewers who impartially admonish such films and help the viewers in making a good choice… after all the monetary resources of the viewer is also limited
There are reviewers who go by ‘white covers’ and keep mum about mediocre films, or even syndicated ones who praise a bad film ….
Some are of the opinion that let audience decide for themselves, what is good and what is bad.. but suggesting an analysis is not harmful, right? when it comes from a well-analyzed platform, the value of the suggestion increases..
It can never be compared to piracy…
Agree that all good films need not be box office sucess… but it is not due to reviews, in fact, they get brilliant reviews… the audience are not mature enough to stand good cinema.. that is an accepted fact..
Similiarly all bad films are not failure,… like our own 2012 is collecting 250 million in 4 days…inspite of bad criticism all over the world in every forum will all the plot points revealed… so the fate of the film seldom depends on the review.. it can definitely save some hapless souls who might walk into a bad one inadvertently

Sudhir
I am not in favour of putting reviews before Friday. But if you do want to review, then it’s ok in by me if it’s a positive review. If it’s a bad review then putting it before Friday really means that you are hell bent on spoiling the movie’s chances.
One thing I like about YRF movies is that they don’t have any press screenings before the movie releases. So there’s no chance of anybody writing earlier.
And what I really hate is writing in all the points or doing a detailed scene analysis while writing a review. It’s ok to do an in depth analysis after a month or so after a movie releases. When I read a review, I just want to know what the writer thought of the movie. I don’t want to know all about a movie via a review.
Having said this, in the age of microblogs like Twitter, there is no way one can control the flow of info. In our site, we may be able to make some rules, but from a producers’ point of view, it’s very difficult to stop stories or spoilers from coming out on the day of the movie release.

Ratnakar
Nikhil, in the age of Twitter, and when every other person, has his/her own private blog, how exactly can we put this restriction.
Sure CNN-IBN might give a directive to Rajeev Masand not to review any movie before Sunday, but it can’t stop him from sharing his thoughts on his own personal Blog or via Twitter or maybe on his FB page. I got to know of Rajeev’s views on MAMK and Tum Mile much before the movies were released, when he was all over on Twitter sharing his thoughts with people who followed him.
I think reviews affect mostly the “In Between” movies. If you are speaking of a movie like Luck or Blue or Do Knot Disturb, they have a hard core fan base, who will watch the movies, come what may. People who watch Transformers would most likely be fans of the series, or those who like special effects Bling, so they don’t really care much for the critics. Now if it’s a movie by Tarantino, Anurag Kashyap, Vishaal, Lynch, these are directors who have their own dedicated fan base again, and critical acclaim is the additional motivation.
The problem comes for movies like Aagey Se Right, not directed by a very well known director, nor having big stars. Did not receive favorable reviews, and died out at the BO, because in such cases people do take a look at the reviews and make a decision. Again if we do try to put a clause that such kinda movies, should not be reviewed till Sunday, its like entering into a grey area.

Nikhil
Ratnakar-san, that was a point I made some time back too – at least let us debate this and question the ability of ‘reviewers’ to share reviews on blogs before the film releases…and I’m saying, for the industry as a whole, not just ‘in-between’ but any type of movie should not be reviewed beforehand. Producers are to blame because they have these screenings so I’m not saying have no reviews or ban reviewers. The idea was to rethink the entire strategy of these screenings before release. God forbid if critics had hated Dev.D and trashed it on Thursday night, where would we be? Actually, Taran Adarsh gave it 1 star and called it ‘No Smoking 2′! Rajeev Masand called it average but said watch it and decide for yourself. Now, all these, if they came out on a Friday morning – plus a few more – and I’m certain Dev. D would also be under a lot of pressure. Now I’m not certain how the reviews came out that day but I’m just giving an example – even with a ‘fan base’ no director is ever safe. Roland Emmerich died with The Day after Tomorrow and 10000 BC from what I know. And Jackie Brown was no feather in Tarantino’s cap…Lynch had his ‘Inland Empire’.

But that’s there – I’m talking about, and basing all this, on how we do our reviews nowadays. And all I’m saying is – give a film a day at least to breathe. Let people discover it and then accept or reject it. And don’t have reviewer screenings. Don’t give the power to dismiss a film to a bunch of people who have no real authority to do so. Because you and I might not pay heed to reviewers and take their opinions as just that, but for most people – that’s the gospel truth. Because it’s someone with a position of authority, writing in newspapers or putting it out on TV who is doing so. And that is enough for the general populace to consider that person an expert.

wb
Nikhil bhayya – Vox populi.
Oz – Can we take this to main?

Ratnakar
Nikhil, in that case the call has to be taken either by the Professional Movie Reviewers or the Movie Industry. Now i am not sure movie websites like Indiafm.com, Idlebrain.com or IndiaGlitz.com, would fore go an opportunity to not publish the movie reviews on Friday, that’s the time they get the maximum hits.
Or the producers decide to do away completely with paid previews, pre release screenings, get it released on Friday, and ensure that reviews come out say on Sunday or Monday, giving some “breathing space” as you say.

Nikhil
Ratnakar-san – I’ve stopped reading reviews other than for sport. Some of them are so bizarre they are entertaining, like the TOI one today. All we can do is when we make movies, try and get the producer on our side and not have the screenings and paid-previews. Asking movie sites to not review is really like Oz-san said, asking people not to download from the net. If it’s out there, they are in their full rights to review. Because there is no ‘unsaid’ rule about giving a film a breathing space. Heck, no one even listens to written rules here…
Read the ‘Backlash’ article here – quite interesting http://www.reelviews.net/reelthoughts.php?identifier=616

Ratnakar
assuming most of the reviews are misleading, and reviewers are jokers, the question remains WHO WILL BELL THE CAT? Obviously not the sites or the media where those reviews are published, so it has to be done by the movie makers themselves. Now are they willing to put their differences aside, and put in an agreement with Professional Critics, stating that movie reviews must be published 2 days after the movie is released.

Ram
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/masands-movie-review-dev-d-not-for-fainthearted/84673-8.html
Rajeev Masands review of Dev D.. he says its tiresome and boring…what was its impact?

Ratnakar
Ram, Dev D was aggressively marketed by UTV, and also promoted a lot on PFC, plus the soundtrack made a huge difference, if not for nothing, people went in for “Emoshional Atyaachar”.

Nikhil
Ram-san, this review, if I’m not mistaken, came out that Friday night – Feb.7 . It was just an illustrative example – what if this was on a Friday morning?
And my point was this too – we spend crores marketing, then why get the reviewers in a couple of days before?! It doesn’t make marketing and business sense! Even if the reviews don’t matter.
And Ratnakar-san is absolutely right – UTV are gods as far as marketing goes – other than a few off days, they’ve been bang-on every film these past couple of years.

Ram
My argument is simple.. if you have confidence in your product.. go for reviews before release.. It will boost up the marketing…
If there is less confidence, let your defense tactics in…

Ratnakar
I guess this is the best approach
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4741259.stm
No hassles here. Kya bolte hai.

Sethumadhavan
In this age where everything happens instantly its going to be tough to say no to reviews till friday/sat.While even I’ve mentioned earlier that its nice to have the reviews coming out by friday eve if not later- how do we ensure the same.
Dharma Productions has arranged for mind boggling number of paid previews for Kurbaan across the country later tonite.So anyways by midnite a huge number of people would have watched the movie.So by tonite you ( Dharma Productions ) are anyways going to open the floodgates , so what happens?Maybe here they are very confident of the product and so they dont mind facing the risk.

Satish Kasetty
Interesting discussion.. but what i fail to understand is, what difference does it make if the review comes on Friday or Monday…is the film maker going to recover all the money in that two days.
the effect of the reviews are very little, there are films with bad reviews doing good at the box office and films with good reviews doing badly at Box- office.
It is the promotion of the film which decides the fate of the film.. if the right audience come to see your film the word will spread. If the film is really bad then no one can help it. That is when the film maker blames the reviews for its failure, because he thinks he made a good film…( Every guy who is making a movie thinks, that he is making a good film. Otherwise he won’t be making it.)
I feel 85% of the success of your film depend on promoting the film and telling the audience, what the film is about, and expect the right audience to come to see it. If the wrong audience come to see your film, then the reviewer has written your epitaph.. sorry to say he is also a part of the audience with a unique power of his position….
I like to see a film on the first day, that is when you get to see these crazy fans, film buffs, and people like me, to whom films are a passion. Both In the break time and after the film is over, I keep my ears really open. People in the cafeteria, in the toilets, in the corridors, everywhere, are on their cell phones, spreading their opinions. First half is good, comedy is good, interval bang is good, songs are good, hero is good and heroin is bad. They even decide, it is a one week film two week film, three week film. They will be talking to a guy in another district where the show must be over, and trying to know how the second half is.. it is crazy… in the days of such communication the word spreads fast, real fast.

That is why I keep saying and I am saying it again, get the right kind of audience for your film… tell what the film is about, ell what to expect from your film.that alone will decide the fate of the film, follow it by strong PROMOTION…

@Sethu- KVM was shown to the press fifteen days before the release of the film, but the reviews came only on Friday evening. it is possible if you have a good PRO. at least it is possible here.

Sethumadhavan
Satish- I’m really happy to know that you were able to manage the same for KVM.I’ve heard of similar things happening in Mumbai as well in the past.Dont think such things happen these days there though.

Pic courtesy:

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Are you making your One minute Movie for PFCOne 2010?

oz | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2009.
Post tags: Debate

Director : Werner Herzog

Writer: William Finkelstein

Release Date: 20 November 2009 ( USA )

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer

Producers: Edward R.Pressman, Stephen Belafonte, Alan Polsky, Gabriel Polsky, John Thompson ( IV )

Music: Mark Isham

Cinematography: Peter Zeitlinger

Film Editing: Joe Bini

Vote your reactions for the movie below. Click on the number of stars you would like to give to the movie and add your short reaction in the comment block

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© PassionforCinema, 2009.
Post tags: Alan Polsky, Bad Lieutenant Port Of Call New Orleans, Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans Movie Review, Edward R.Pressman, Eva Mendes, Gabriel Polsky, Joe Bini, John Thompson ( IV ), Mark Isham, Movie Reviews, Nicolas cage, Peter Zeitlinger, Stephen Belafonte, Val Kilmer, Werner Herzog, William Finkelstein

Director : Rensil D’Silva

Writers: Karan Johar ( Story ), Rensil D’Silva ( Screenplay ), Anurag Kashyap, Niranjan Iyengar ( Dialogues )

Release Date: 20 November 2009 ( India )

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi

Producers: Karan Johar, Hiroo Yash Johar

Music: Salim- Sulaiman

Cinematography: Hemant Chaturvedi

Film Editing: Asif Ali Shaikh

Vote your reactions for the movie below. Click on the number of stars you would like to give to the movie and add your short reaction in the comment block

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PFC Desktop | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2009.
Post tags: Anurag Kashyap, Asif Ali Shaikh, Hemant Chaturvedi, Hiroo Yash Johar, Karan Johar, Kareena Kapoor, Kurbaan, Kurbaan Movie Review, Movie Reviews, Niranjan Iyengar, Rensil D’Silva, Saif Ali Khan, Salim-Sulaiman, vivek Oberoi

The films screened at the festival will undoubtedly have much written and reviews of all stripes published in the weeks that follow. For me they are united in forging a path and not following one, expressions of bold creativity rather than conformity. Having missed most screenings due to meetings, here I wish to paint pictures of just a handful of faces in the sparkling crowd of talented individuals who caught my eye in ways that was easy to acknowledge.

To have a mega Director from Bombay cross the room saying “I have to say hi” to folks standing on the other side – some of whom lucky to be in the same room, was a lesson in charm and honest humility worn lightly as can be! Anurag Kashyap caught me completely unawares – and looked much younger in real life, might I add.

Then there was the thrill of reliving the Kolkata connection. Here I go more than a bit communal in expressing my delight in speaking and hearing the language of aunts and uncles living on a distant shore that one has not been privy to in several years, now. A treat, for which I thank the duo from the City of Joy – Suman Mukhopadhyay and Aniruddha RC for being here. Both talented as they are unassuming and likeable.

Meanwhile, so humbly sweet was the polite discomfort of the brilliant – and fearless – filmmaker at having admit to a native of Los Angeles how that city by the sea, was not a good venue for screening the sensitive, brave new films that he shall be known for, for a long time to come. Shame on us Angelinos! Here’s a director that deserves better. Next time, Onir, have them screened at Arclight, not Artesia, I suggest to him shamefacedly. LA will not let me down, I hope.

Another first – an eye-opener to the charm and humility one does not expect but was treated to, when a couple of “stars” from the Bollywood that ruled all things cinema in the seventies, eighties and nineties when one was growing up. To have them sit down to dinner with you and laugh and chat leads one to commend the true effortless charm and easy going camaraderie of individuals. Individuals who, even though part of the old studio “star” system (for those that want to subscribe to it) still blow you away as great dinner companions. These talented and beautiful ladies are a breath of fresh air. Thank you, Deepti Naval and Manisha Koirala. To you, I owe an altered perception of Bollywood stardom – which may or may not lead to frustrated expectations down the road but for now I am happy to be bathed in the warmth that was their delightful company.

Compare this with, being told to your face by any man he just “looked through you”, right after being formally introduced to him the evening before – and you get a taste in your mouth, a tad unsavory. At the tip of one’s tongue are words like – “I accede, Mr. Award Winning Actor, mine is not a famous face but in my experience it is one that is not easily consigned to the realm of the invisible, in any social setting. Unless, you are talking about my professional face, that was out that evening. Either way, the action to ‘look through’ me was your choice for reasons best known to you”. But for now one shall desist from rolling out words just because one can. For now one has a movie to make and a team to assemble. Don’t you just hate it when your social face gets in the way of your efforts to conduct serious professional business? Or vice versa? However what is inescapable is the head scratching over why the individual otherwise known as Mr. Blackberry would choose to, in my particular case, not leave a message at my hotel room when he supposedly called that morning, to confirm (or cancel?) a meeting that was as good as set up a while ago but in his mind, perhaps never meant to be. And then this rather bizarre follow up by “He who is the sensitive new face of Indian cinema” has one unamused. Pardon me for assuming there was an explanation of sorts lurking somewhere that evening – waiting to be delivered. One wonders if fame is supposed to be inversely proportional to accountable behavior. If the answer is yes – who am I do dispute it? I shall puzzle not, why in weeks prior, the same individual’s acknowledged interest in my movie based on the value of my script (which also happens to be an award winning one) ended in serving up a thinly veiled insult. I dare say no one is unaware of the process that goes into setting up meetings across coasts and working around schedules to execute several meetings, the rest of which proceeded relatively smoothly. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned there. One shall figure that one out after one finishes the movie, no doubt. Meanwhile one has decided one had best dismiss all this as window dressing and move on.

See you all at IFFLA 2010 – I hope. Keep smiling, all.

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Tori Roy | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2009.
Post tags: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Anurag Kashyap, Deepti Naval, film festival, IFFLA, Los Angeles, Manisha Koirala, MIAAC, New York, onir, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Tori Roy

I didn’t believe it. I thought he was done and out. I would only carry memories of some of those impactful hitting me right on the head stories and even trailers he’d made ever since I started watching his movies in 1990. I still can’t get over the long Shiva trailer (the first one) where he’d only followed the back of Zutshi as he was running from people chasing him to kill him. Just the back of the actor through out the length of the trailer, nothing else. I was hooked. Who was this guy?

Well maybe its time to reaffirm the faith… and if the stills of Rakta Charitra are anything to go by, I’m sold on it. Of course there’s the devil’s distance between mere pictures and the actual movie, but nevertheless I’ve got my blood pumping up again, for I haven’t been grabbed by stills of Ram Gopal Varma’s movies since Company.

These pics were produced on Varma’s blog here, that he revealed today… damn impressed… will a new style of visuals and story telling emerge from him or this is just wishful thinking?

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Are you making your One minute Movie for PFCOne 2010?

oz | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2009.
Post tags: Pictures, Rakta Charitra, ram gopal varma, Stills

tip: Nitin Shitole

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Are you making your One minute Movie for PFCOne 2010?

oz | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2009.
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