To me style is just the outside of content, and content the inside of style, like the outside and the inside of the human body. Both go together, they can’t be separated.- Jean Luc Goddard

If i  had  to  pick  one  movie  that  was  completely  representative  of  Michael  Mann’s style  of  direction,  for me it  would  be  The  Insider.  For  quite  some time,  Michael  Mann,  was  seen  as  a  director, whose  movies  were stylish,  containing  some  exemplary  camera  work,  brilliant   graphics, use  of  long  shots  and  close  ups.   But  then most of  the  movies  that  Mann  had  directed  earlier  were   urban  crime  thrillers(  Heat,  Manhunter, The  Thief),  or  epic  period  dramas(  Last  of  the  Mohicans).   Heat was  praised  for being  visually  stylish,  but  lacking in proper  content.  And while  critics  were  unanimous  in their  praise  for  Last  of  the Mohicans,  many  felt  it  was  more  an  epic  fantasy, nothing  else, in  fact  one  of  the  critics  while  praising  its  style,  called it  an  “MTV  version of the  James  Fenimore  Cooper’s  classic”. The  fact  is  like  Brian  De  Palma  and  David  Fincher,   Mann was  seen more  as  a stylist,  whose  movies  had  some  great  visual  work,  and were  engaging  but  pretty much  nothing  else.

Russel Crowe and Al Pacino in The Insider

The  Insider was   Michael  Mann’s  first  shot  at  a serious  subject,  that  was  based on a  real  incident.    It   was  the  story  of   Dr. Jeffrey  Wigand(  Russel  Crowe),    who   revealed  the  malpractices  indulged  in by the  top  Tobacco  firms  in  US,  to  Lowell  Bergman(  Al  Pacino), the  executive  producer of  CBS  60  Minutes show  where he promises  to  air   Dr. Wigand’s testimony,  live on TV.  However  concerned  about  the  damage  this could  result  to  their  image, the  tobacco  firms,  pressurize  CBS  to  edit out  the  interview,  and  in turn  run a   smear campaign  against   Dr. Wigand.   Considering  the  seriousness  of  the  topic  at  hand,  and  the  subject  matter  available,  would  Mann  sacrifice  his  trademark  visual  style  or  the  heated  exchanges  the  characters  in  his  movies  often  have?

Russel Crowe in The Insider

And  that  is  where  one  of  the  best  scenes  come  into  the picture.  After  CBS   edits  out  his  interview,  and   Bergman   is  forced  out  of  the  show,  by   the  TV  bosses,  Dr.Wigand  is  devastated.  He  had  put  everything  on the  line,  his  career,  his  family, his future,  his  reputation,  and  all of  a sudden   the  world  around  him  had  collapsed.   Believing  Bergman  to  be  the  cause  of  his  misfortune,  he  books  himself  into  a hotel  room,  and  sits  alone.    A very  poignant,  serious  moment,  and  how  does  Mann  depict it?  As  Russel  Crowe sits  alone  in the  hotel  room,  the  entire   background  morphs  into a  surrealistic  display  of images,  abstract  art,  whirling  around  with  trance  music  playing in  the  background.   Crowe  sits  devastated,  a  man  who  has  lost  everything,  as  images  of   happier  times  flash  by,   his  wife,  his  daughters  calling  out,  his  nice little  suburban  home,  intercut  with  a swirling  mass   of   visuals.   In  a  way  Crowe  has  cut  himself  off  from the  world,   his  thoughts  being  reflected  in  the  images  swarming  around  him.  And  then  Mann  intercuts  with  images  of  Pacino  desperately  trying  to  reach  out  for Crowe.  Now  again   consider  the  backdrop  for  Pacino’s  sequence,  the  vast  blue  ocean,  Pacino  standing  in the  waters,  trying  to  reach   Crowe,  the  whole  screen  taking  on a  bluish  hue.    Pacino  finally  gets  to  the hotel  staff,  who  open  Crowe’s   door,  and find  him in a daze.  They  are  afraid  to  disturb him,   and  then  he  asks  the  staff to  tell  him to get  on  the  “fucking phone”.   Watch  Crowe’s  reaction here,  furious,  seething,  says  nothing,  just  grabs  the  phone,  and  then  blurts  out  in  rage  “You manipulated me”. The  way  Crowe   blurts  out,  the  words,  slow,  but  you can  sense  the  rage,  rage maybe  at  having  been  jolted out  of his  dream,  the  only  hapiness  he  has in  life  now,  or  maybe  the  rage  at  the  feeling  of  being  manipulated.

You fought for me? You manipulated me! Into where I am now – staring at the Brown & Williamson building, it’s all dark except for the tenth floor. That’s the legal department, that’s where they fuck with my life!

That  seriously  has  to be  one  of  the  best  movie   sequences  i  have  ever  seen  in my life.   Depicting  the  mental  state  of  a  person,  through   visuals  and  abstract  graphics,  is  not  an  easy  take.  Wrongly  done,  it  could  end  up  as  a  cartoon,  but  here  Mann  perfectly   balances  the  brilliant  visual  effects,  with  the  context  of  what  is  going on.     The   Insider has  some  excellent visual  moments,  the  first  meeting  between  Pacino  and  Crowe  in  a  Japanese  restaurant,  shot  in  dim  light,   camera  zooming around  the  table,  inter cutting  between  the  2  characters,  and  yet  at  the  same   time,  wonderfully  setting  up their  motivations,  their  characteristics.  Crowe, calm, composed, thoughtful,  Pacino,  aggressive,  hyper, crusading.   The  Insider  to  me  remains  Mann’s   best  effort to date,  it  is  the  perfect  amalgam  of  style  and  substance,   while  the  movie  is  visually  stylish , it  ensures  that  the visuals  don’t  overshadow  the  subject  or  the  characters.   We  are  as  much  entranced by  the  surrealistic  images  swirling  around  Russel   Crowe  in the hotel  room,  as  we  are  by  his  fight  against  the  corporates.   It  proves  that  one  can  make a  socially  relevant  message  oriented  movie  that  can  engage  and  entertain.   And  add to it, the powerhouse  acting  from  Russel  Crowe  and  Al  Pacino,  though  i  must  say  that  this  was one  movie  where Crowe  actually  overshadowed  Pacino.  Not  a  mean  feat,  considering   that  Pacino has  a reputation for  chewing  up  the scenery.

Quite  often  it  is  said,  that  movie  makers  are  a product of  the  environment  and times   in  which  they grew  up.  They  generally  tend  to  imbibe  the  characteristics  of    their  neighborhood,    and   that  is  reflected  in  their  films.  Mann  grew  up  in  the  Chicago   neighborhood  of  Humboldt  Park, a  place  that  was  notorious  in the  70’s  for  it’s  Puerto  Rican  gangs,  street  fights,  crime  and  violence.  Growing up,  in the  60’s,  the  movie  that  influenced him the  most   was  Stanley  Kubrick’s   Dr. Strangelove.    For  him  it  was  the  kind  of  movie  that   could  wow the  critics  as well the  average  audience.    In  fact  i  feel  the  highly  visualized  nature  of  story  telling,  that  is  feature  of  Mann’s   movies,  does   show  a  strong  influence  of  Kubrick,  especially  the  abstract, surrealistic  imagery  that  quite  often   comes  across.   Also  the  fact  that  his  counterparts   in  London, where  he worked  as  an  ad  movie  maker,  were  Adrian Lyne,  Ridley  and  Tony  Scott,  directors   again  noted  for their  highly  visual  style  of  story  telling. While  i  have  not   seen   Mann’s   earlier   movies   The  Thief,  The  Keep ,  or  his  made  for  TV  movie  Jericho’s  Mile,   i  did  catch  some  episodes  of  Miami  Vice.   In  reality  Mann  was  only  the  executive  producer  for  the  iconic  TV  series,  but  his  distinctive  style  came through  in  it ’s  episodes.     Starting out  in  the  80’s  MTV  era,  where  the  emphasis  was  on  style  and  music,    Mann  bought  in  his  own  style  ,   especially  in  the choice of  colors  used,   or  the  80’s  rock  and pop  music  soundtracks.   As  one of  it’s  producers  remarked,  this  was  a  crime  series  for  the  MTV  generation,  where  the  emphasis  was  on  imagery  and  the  flow,  rather  on  the  plot  and content.

Hannibal Lecter's prison cell In Manhunter

The Serial Killer Dollarhyde from Manhunter

Much  before  The  Silence  of  the  Lambs,   Mann  bought  the  Hannibal  Lecter persona  on to the  screen with  Manhunter in  1986.     While  The  Silence  of  the  Lambs,   has  become  the  definitive  Hannibal  movie,  and  the  best  in  the  series,  Manhunter  to me  has  not  got  as  much  acclaim  as it   should  have  got.   I  have  not  seen  the  2002  on  screen  adaptation  of  Thomas  Harris  Red  Dragon,  but  Mann’s  adaptation  of   the  novel,  was  excellent  for  me.   I  feel  maybe  the  movie  suffered  in  comparison  to  Silence of  Lambs, while   Antony  Hopkins  portrayal  of   Dr.  Lecter,  was  more  flamboyant,  more like a modern  day  Count Dracula,   who hogs  the frame,  Brian Cox’s  portrayal  of  the  same  character,  was  more  subtler.   Mann’s  visual  kinethestics   come  into  full play,  as in the  scene,  when  the  Fed  Agent  Will Graham(  William  Peterson),   makes  a  visit  to  Lecter’s  prison  cell.  The  white  antiseptic  nature  of  Lecter’s  cell,   contrasts  with  the  discordant  colors  that  reflect   Graham’s  confused  state of  mind.  Or  the  glass  prism  shot  that  shows  a  grass  lawn  at  close  quarters,  reflecting  the  disoriented  world in  which  the  characters  exist.    Again  the  serial  killer  Dollarhyde( Tom Noonan) here  is shown to have a more  humane  side,   his  love  affair  with  a blind  woman  Reba(  Joan  Allen),  whom  he  imagines to be the  same  woman  that  appears  in  the  famous  William Blake  painting.  Manhunter  is a  movie to be  watched, if  not  for  anything  else,  just  to  see  where  Mann is coming  from.    His  belief  that a  movie  has  to be  watched, and  experienced,   as   he  takes  us  into  the  dark  recesses  of  the  human  mind,  of  people  confined  in their  own little  prisons,  trying  to break  out.

From  the  stiffing,  claustrophobic   environments  of  the  bleak  urban  landscape,   Mann  goes  back  in time,  and  into  the  open  countryside  in  his   1992 screen  adaptation  of  Last  of  the  Mohicans.    Based on  James  Fenimore  Cooper’s  novel,  the  movie  follows  the  adventures  of   Hawkeye(  Daniel  Day  Lewis),  the  adopted  White  guy  who  grows up  as an  Indian,  who   has  to  guide  a  team  of  Britishers  consisting  of   Major  Duncan Heyward,  Cora  Munro(  Madeleine  Stowe) and  her  sister  Alice,   to  the  safety  of   Cora’s  father  Col. Edmund Munro,  the  commander  of   a British  garrison.    Hawkeye  has  to  guard  the  Britishers  from a  fierce  attack  led  by  the  Huron  tribe  chief  Magua,   who  has  his  own  personal  revenge  against  Col. Munro.   And  during  the  adventure, a   passionate  romance   flowers  between  Hawkeye  and  Cora.

Anything for Ms.Stowe

The  Last  of  the  Mohicans,  is  exactly  the  kind  of  movie  that  Hollywood  quite often  does  well,  the  epic  historical  drama,  and  it  has  all the  necessary  ingredients  to  make  it  a  sure  fire  blockbuster,   passion,  romance,  jealousy,  heartbreak,  tragedy,  revenge, honor.  With  his  imposing  frame,  flowing  looks,  and  his  ability  to  slip  into  the larger  than  life kind of  roles,  Daniel Day Lewis,  makes  for  an  inspiring  Hawkeye,  while  Madeleine  Stowe is   perfect  as  the  fair  white  damsel, who  finds  herself  losing  her  heart  to  the  rugged  native.   Be  it  the  shots  of  the  North  American  forests,  the  battle  scenes,  the   passionate  smooch at  the  waterfall  between  Daniel Day  Lewis  and  Madeleine Stowe,  the  camera  work is  brilliant.   Mann  proves  that  he   is  as  adept   at  making period  epics,   as  he  is  at  gritty  crime  dramas.    The  detailing  is  excellent,  the  period   settings  are  perfect  taking  us  right  back  to  the days  of   the  British-French-Indian wars  in  the countryside.  And  while   the  Indians  are  the  villians,  Mann  humanizes  the  main antagonist  Magua,  by  bringing  his  background  into  detail.   Don’t    expect  too  many  insights  into  the  nature  of  the  Franco-British  wars  or  the  exploitation  of  the  native  Indians  though,  this  is  hard  core  Hollywood  pop corn( or  masala)  entertainment,  and  on  that  level  it  works  well.

1995  saw  Mann returning  back  to  his  favorite  urban  crime  genre,  with  his  highly  stylized  rendering of  the  classic  cops  and  robbers   tale.    Heat got  the  maximum  attention  for  the  two  lead  actors,   two  actors  who  dominated  and  scorched  up  the  screen,  from the  70’s  onwards  with their  sheer  intensity,  their  acting  styles,  their   charisma.   Two  performers  who  by  themselves had  the  habit  of  chewing  up  the  entire  scenery,  dominating  every  frame  of  the  movie,   two  people  who  answered  to  the  name  of    Al  Pacino  and Robert  De Niro. With  movies  like Taxi  Driver,  The  Godfather, Dog  Day  Afternoon,  And  Justice  For All,  Raging Bull, Scarface these  powerhouse  performers  had  redefined  acting,   created  their  own  niche,  and   hit  a level  that  would  be  quite  hard to  touch.   Heat  was  billed  as  the  “Clash of the Titans”,  while  Pacino  and  De Niro  had  earlier  appeared  in  the  second  part of  the  Godfather  trilogy,  they had no  scenes  together there.  Heat  would be  the  first  time, they  would  appear  face to face.  Now  putting  this  kind of  an effort  is  sort  of a  double edged  sword,   the  movie  could  either  end  up  as  a  memorable  classic  or  it  could  turn out  to be  one  big  clunker(  the  other  Pacino-De Niro  collaboration  Righteous  Kill was  that).     Mann  fortunately  does  not  let  the  reputation of  his  co  stars  awe  him  over,  while   giving  ample  space  to  Vincent  Hanna(  Al  Pacino),  the  obsessed, hyperactive   cop  and  Neil  Mc Cauley(  Robert  De  Niro),  the  cool, calculative  robber,  Mann ensures  that  the  support  characters  get  ample  space  too  be  it  Mc  Cauley’s  associate  Chris(  Val Kilmer), Hanna’s  neglected  wife  Justine(  Diane  Venora),  his  step  daughter  Lauren( Natalie  Portman).   What  actually  pushes  Heat  a notch  above  the  standard  cops  and robbers  story,  is  the  vast  amount  of  gray  that   Mann  explores.  Hanna  is  not  the  White  hero,  in  fact  there  seems  to  be nothing  really heroic  about him.  He  is  neurotic, insecure,  fidgety,  and  his  personal  life  is  one  royal  mess.   His  wife  from a  3rd  marriage   feels  neglected,  he  has  a strained  relationship  with  his   step  daughter,  and  only  his  work  life  keeps  him  going  along.   Not  that  the  personal  lives of  other  characters  are  any  better,    Chris  has a  stormy  relationship  with  his  wife  Charlene(  Ashley  Judd),  and she seeks  refuge    in  an  extra  marital  affair.   Ironically  its  Neil, the  reclusive  loner,  who  has  a fulfilling  love  affair  with   a  graphic  designer,  who  is  unaware  of  his   real  identity.

I would love to be a fly on that table.

The   much  awaited  Pacino-De Niro  encounter,  makes  one of  the  best  scenes  in  the  movie,  where  the  two  characters   meet  at  a restaurant.  Interestingly  for  two  people  who  are  constantly  at  loggerheads,  on  the opposite side  of  the  law,  who  have  no  love  lost  for  each  other,  their  encounter  is  quite  civil.  In  fact  it  seems  more  like a  tete  a tete,  than  a  fiery,  no  holds barred  fight,  that  we  expect  it to be. But  this  I  feel where  Mann  scores,   he  puts  it  across   that  the  men  have  a sort of  hidden  respect,   just  that  they  are not on the  same  side. The  difference  in  their  outlook,  their  own lives,  shows  up  in  the  moment, when each  tell about  themselves.

Vincent Hanna: My life’s a disaster zone. I got a stepdaughter so fucked up because her real father’s this large-type asshole. I got a wife, we’re passing each other on the down-slope of a marriage – my third – because I spend all my time chasing guys like you around the block. That’s my life.
Neil McCauley: A guy told me one time, “Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.” Now, if you’re on me and you gotta move when I move, how do you expect to keep a… a marriage?

The  obsessed  cop,  with  a  screwed  up  personal  life,    and  the  cool  robber,  who is  smart  enough to know when to get  out.  Hanna  is  the  man  who  believes  in going on  even when  the  ship  is  sinking,  his  ethics  in  that  sense  are  old   fashioned.   Mc Cauley  on the  other  hand,  believes   that  when  the  ship  sinks,  jump  out,  he  does  not  believe  in  going on and on.   It  is  the  way  these  2  characters  are  delineated,  that  to me is  the  greatest  strength  of  Heat.  Something  i  believe  was  lacking  in  American   Gangster,  while  Denzel  Washington’s  character  was  well developed,  Russel  Crowe’s  character  was  too sketchy  to generate  interest.   Heat also  has  one of  the  finest  action  scenes  picturized,  a  gun battle  between  the  cops  and the robbers  on a crowded  LA Street,  that  lasts  for  around 10  minutes,   bullets  flying  around,  pedestrians  cowering  under fire,  glass windows  shattering,  no  music here, just  the sound of  the gunfire  and the  cars,  giving  the  whole  sequence  a  raw, realistic  feel,  it   gives  you  the  feeling of   being right  there.   One  brilliant  shot, shows  the  car  windows  being  shattered  one after another  by the  bullets,  excellent.    Also  the  climax  shootout  at  the  airport,  is  again shot  brilliantly, with  the  shaded  lighting, and  the final  shot  of  the  plane  zooming over.

There  is  quite  a lot  to cover  i  feel  about  Michael  Mann,   his  style  of  storytelling,  his  visual  aesthetics,  his  characterization.    I  would  be  having  a look  at  Mann’s  movies  this  decade- Ali, Collateral  and  Public  Enemies( have not  yet  seen  Miami  Vice, the  movie),  some time later.

Ratnakar Sadasyula | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2010.
Post tags: Al Pacino, Daniel Day Lewis, Hannibal Lecter, Heat, Last of the Mohicans., Manhunter, Miami Vice, michael mann, robert de niro, russel crowe, The Insider

“Whom the Gods love die young”   — Old Saying

When was the last time a movie hit you in stomach and knocked the wind out of your breath, wrenched your heart open and seared your spirit. Now compound that effect a hundred times and you have this, animation that transcends it’s two dimensional life and comes alive before your eyes. It’s been almost a week since I saw the movie, but the images have refused to part with me.

“Hotaru no Haka” translated as “Grave of the fireflies” deserves a place among the top list of any movie lover. It’s anime par excellence, and in my opinion anybody who has any misconceptions about the maturity of Japanese animation should take a look at this masterpiece before pronouncing any judgments.

The movie is an adaption of a book of the same name and narrates the tale of two children Seita, a young teen aged boy and his sister Setsuko a four year old during the closing months of World War II in Japan. It’s more specifically set in the aftermath of the Kobe Fire bombing raids. (One of the worlds most deadliest air raids on a civilian population). It details the ineffable misfortunes suffered by two innocents in a war that they had nothing to do with. It’s one of the most powerful anti war commentaries I have ever seen and stands out for it’s power to influence. Bereft of any political message, it intends to question the very purpose of a war rather than focus on the causes or villains and it’s what makes it’s appeal universal and transcendent.

Spoilers:

This feature is also worthy of bagging the award for one of the best and most innovative approaches to story telling, no there are no fancy camera tricks or magical editing  only the simplicity of a powerful narrative. Here the final tragic outcome of the story is also the first scene of the movie hence the entire movie is narrated in a sort of flashback by Seita, although the final outcome of the story is never in doubt, it’s tragic potential fails to deter the audience from strongly empathizing with the characters. From the start, we fall in love with the characters , the young and angelic Setsuko and the strong willed but immature Seita. The audience watches as the great bombing raids begin, the sibling’s mother is taken away by fate and their only shelter is destroyed, but even as the story moves towards it’s final tragic conclusion our resolve that everything would end on a happy note only deepens. Even when the final end approaches, you have this faint feeling that perhaps everything would go back to normal ,perhaps we would once again be able to see the smiling faces of these two kids, it’s this powerful longing which slowly rises up your throat leaving your eyes welled up in the final act.

Not for nothing are children considered the purest form of human spirits, they remind us of what it is like to be without fear, lies or deceit, and what it was like to be filled with wonder, joy and curiosity.Story tellers have used them since ages for creating that deep effect on audiences that adult actors seldom bring out, whether it’s Drew Barrymore from E.T or the innocent face of Durga from Pother Pachali. Seita although just a sketch on a paper, leaves you with a similar impression, her antics and expressions make it impossible for you not to fall in love with her, and when the end comes you feel impossibly drawn to the tragedy that befalls her. Hers is certainly one of the most profound characters ever written for the screen, I don’t know if  it’s possible to measure out a characters likeness but I guess when you feel more for a characters loneliness than the characters final demise you can be rest assured that the water has finally broken through, it is almost as if you feel happy at the realization that her death will finally relieve her of her sufferings.

Her brother Setsuko evokes similar feelings, his is a character at cross roads, torn between his desire to provide the best of care to his sister or to live a comfortable careless life. You watch him make mistakes but then you also realize that he is just another human being who is unable to make the most practical choices in his life. In the end his final sacrifice says a lot about his character, though capable of sustaining himself, he is unable to bear the loneliness of this world, devoid of the will to live any longer he longs to go meet his sister and  family once again, which makes the last and first scene both tragic and peaceful at the same time.

It’s a lost classic that has retained it’s power of impression in spite of all the advances in animation because at it’s heart it’s more than just technology, it’s human emotion. Twenty two years after it was made every frame of this movie deserves to be captured and framed.  I could perhaps go on writing about it but the profoundness of human emotion is measured not by an excess of words but by the lack of it. Perhaps it’s only fitting to end this with a question that Setsuko asks her brother.

Why do Fireflies have to die so soon ?

Vineet Roy | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2010.
Post tags: Anime, grave of the fireflies, hotaru no haka, japanese animation, Japanese Cinema, review grave of the fireflies

Lahore

Tip : Tejas

PFC Desktop | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2010.
Post tags: Aanaahad, Ashish Vidyarthi, Farouque Shaikh, K Jeeva, Kelly Dorji, Lahore, Lahore Trailer, mukesh rishi, Nafisa Ali, Nirmal Pandey, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan, Saurabh Shukla, Shraddha Das, Shraddha Nigam, Sushant Singh, Trailer, Warner Bros

Shamiana Launch At Ahmedabad

It’s been a long, eventful road since short films first came into the spotlight sometime around 2001 when Bombay saw perhaps the first dedicated short film club in India – The Blewnote Film Club. Born with an audience of just about 15 people at a teen café in Colaba, most of whom were friends and neighbors of yours truly, the club screened whatever short films and documentaries we could lay our hands on. I remember a time when we screened a documentary on the technique of animation rather than the animation film itself!

Shamiana Logo

But the time for this space had come and the audiences just multiplied… and voila! Short films were the flavour of the new season. Months passed by and in a bid to attract more audiences, the club screened at different venues once every last Saturday of the month. The films got better and finally there were a handful of local filmmakers who came up with short films.

It was sometime in 2003 when we launched the Mocha Film Club and that was perhaps the time when India seriously started looking at the genre. Poona, Bangalore, Delhi, Calcutta and various other cities started having screenings and suddenly it struck you that this is now a space that has the potential to get bigger.

The year 2005 saw NDTV collaborating with us to produce perhaps Asia’s first television show dedicated to short films. This was a time when film courses were beginning to get introduced in colleges and this only gave the short film industry a much needed impetus. Students made short films as part of their curriculum and the supply was now not just restricted to show reels by aspiring filmmakers or the FTII students. In fact students today make almost half of the really good short films in our country today.

There’s perhaps no real documentation of the number of short films made in India today so no one really knows the exact number but a rough estimate would be at least 10,000 per year. With all the film schools, institutes and academies, not to forget that India is full of aspiring filmmakers, it’s surely not surprising. And clearly with these numbers (and rising with every year), it’s too strong a calling to be ignored.

The Pune Shamiana Team

Short films may be a very new genre worldwide but it’s already being considered as the minefield for talent. Europe is perhaps taking it’s biggest bet on shorts and it’s not just evident in the growing importance being given to shorts over the last 30 years, its also apparent from the fact that the state is heavily funding tons of short films especially in UK, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. In fact a country like Estonia that is keenly looking at putting itself up on the world cinema map has set up a Film Council to encourage short films.

So the next time you see a chic, well made international shorts it’s only because the state has supported it in some way or the other.

Animated short films have been there for ages and though India has seen some brilliant animation shorts in the last few years, the sheer time and effort taken, cost incurred and lack of any kind of support has made it difficult for the growth of this genre.

Short films are here to stay and our time is NOW! No longer are shorts the poor cousins of mainstream films but a credible genre in itself that ought to be respected and celebrated. And with endeavors like the AIFF, shorts have truly and surely arrived!

Cyrus Dastur | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2010.
Post tags: Cyrus Dastur, Shamiana, short films

My mother, sometimes I call her Chintu, sometimes Shobha, sometimes Amma, depending on what we are talking about, so I didn’t mind much when Bombay was renamed as Mumbai, though I still prefer to call it Bombay, irrespective of whatever & whoever. I felt real bad when the ‘ownership’ issue was raised by the greedy politicos. Who the hell owns Bombay anyways? In the same vein, who the hell owns any city or state? By the way, is Pondicherry for sale?

But this post is about Chandan Arora’s Striker, a movie that I loved, as much as I love Bombay, almost. It couldn’t have been more topical at this moment. A few years back, I saw this ad campaign of DNA newspaper launch in Bombay… it had photos of various people, proudly claiming “I am a Mumbaikar, from Assam.” & other such. So currently, I am a Mumbaikar from Karnataka & all the Thackerays & their cousins can go fly kites or watch the paint dry, for all I care. Huh!

So let me start off by saying that Striker is in the league of Satya, Company, Vaastav, Johnny Gaddaar & any other movie that you can think of, thereby catapulting Chandan Arora in the gang of auteurs who I would love to assist, free of cost. I had almost convinced myself that I will save my $$$ for MNIK [SRK fanboy, what to say?] but when I came to know that Striker showcases the Bombay that I love, I gave in. I remember crying after my dad’s ‘dukaandaari’ went bust after Dutta Samant textile strike in Bombay, and I cried as much after I came out of Striker, both the times.

Had it not been for ‘beer-o-clock’ I would have seen it thrice, but anyways, I loved the movie for all that it gave me. Being the infamous ‘nostalgia ki godown’, memories came running through in the ‘khopdi ki jhopdi’. One such memory was that while I was packed in a Bombay local train, I was witness to an incident, that I wish to film someday. The train was chock-a-block, it was sometime after ‘Tere Naam’ was released, a dude, Sallu re-incarnate, with the Tere Naam hairstyle & the biceps intact, was with his ‘daav’ trying to get to Dadar.

The ‘daav’ complained “wo mujhe haath laga raha hai” to which the accused said “isko kaun haath lagaayega”. What ensued after I what you can see in Striker. The punch hits someone but you can feel the pain, someone else is bleeding, but you are hurt. Reality never got any real. Fuck you MTV Splitsvilla or Roadies. Let’s get real, shall we?

What is Striker & all this fuss about? Well this movie can be probably deciphered as an ‘underbelly’ version of Wake Up Sid or any other ‘coming of age yet candy floss’ film, but the best part is that it is as ‘Bombay as you can get’. I couldn’t even imagine in my wildest dream imagine that Monseiur Siddharth can pull of what he did & I salute to the degree of ‘Bombaiyya’ he portrayed.

Other than him, the guy who played Zaid rocked infinitely & Aditya Pacholi, despite his alleged link-up with a certain Ms. Ranaut, earned my respect. He did what was trademark Sanju Baba & with such elan that I was sold. Vidya Malwade was there too & did a neat job of the hero’s sister. Now coming on to Nicolette Bird. First watch this & hold your heart. Please. Baad mein mat bolna…

Anupam Kher & Seema Biswas added the required aura & gravity to a project of such magnitude and were as convincing as salted-fried-green-chilly with wada pav. Chandan Arora doffed his hat to Sholay more than once & earned more brownie points from your’s truly. What ’struck’ me was the fact that way the plot points were seamlessly put together, dealing with various issues, without sounding frivolous. Everything mattered. Even Nicolette in the ‘hijaab‘

Striker has everything that can warm the cockles of the hearts of anybody who is emotionally ‘Bombaiyya’ and also those others who can appreciate a story well told. The background music by Shree, used wonderfully and added immensely to the journey of Surya, from a kid to an incidental hero, who saved many people from communal terrorism.

Do give it a watch, if you haven’t already, Such films don’t come by often, such stories go unheard very often. Life goes on for you, but it’s not as simple for the Dreamer, Storyteller & The Auteur.

P.S.: Nobody owns Mumbai & before I say ‘alvida’ & ‘allah hafiz’ let me leave you with a song & the girl I love so very much…

Magik | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2010.
Post tags: Anupam Kher, Bombay, Chandan Arora, Nicolette Bird, Seema Biswas, Siddharth

Spoiler Alert

Tamizh Padam-

Our request to the audience

1.Please don’t laugh too long for the jokes. You’ll miss the next one.
2.Please don’t watch the movie more than 10 times. Allow others
a chance to get a ticket.
3. Shiva does not offer Bharatha Natyam classes.Please don’t keep calling him in this regard.
4. Please don’t try to imitate Shiva to become rich at breakneck speed.
5. Please don’t keep calling the director for the film’s story. We would tell you if we knew it

Ok if you are wondering what’s wrong with me, let me tell you that these lines are the exact reproduction of an ad for the movie Tamizh Padam. Now you’ll understand how serious the makers were in making a spoof on Tamil movies with this movie. As a spoof movie rightly should be, this one again has a plot that is begging for your attention otherwise you are likely to miss one too many elements easily. The movie begins in a village called Cinemapatti where the nattamai (the village chieftain played by Ponnambalam) gives a strange verdict that all male children born in the village must be immediately disposed off. The reason- well otherwise they would go on to migrate to Chennai, get into films and later become the C.M of the state.

So you find a boy ( the future hero ) being born and the father asks his mother/midwife (Paravai Muniyamma) to kill the baby. The lady tries to use kalli paal ( cactus milk which here comes in a branded tetra pack ) and that’s when the baby requests his grandmother not to kill him but to rather leave him in a dust-bin or even better, in a goods train which will take him to Chennai so that he can grow up to be a superstar. The grandmother decides to take the baby to Chennai herself and brings up the child. A few years later one day in Chennai, a group of thugs are seen to be harassing some poor people and the hero who is now a 10 year old boy rushes to his grandmother and tells her that he wants to help the downtrodden but wants to know when he will grow up for being able to do the same.

In return she asks him to ride a bicycle and as the wheel spins, the boy grows up and becomes the messiah of the poor and downtrodden, Shiva (RJ Shiva). In true superhero fashion Shiva bashes up the thugs, there is a mandatory intro song which follows and then we see Shiva quickly becoming popular. Shiva is seen usually hanging with his friends, Siddharth ( Manobala ), Nakul ( M.S.Bhaskar ) and Bharath ( Venniradai Murthy ) who are all college students , a take on middle aged comedians continuing to act as college students in Tamil movies.

Of course Shiva falls in love with a rich girl Priya (Disha Pandey) and the romance follows the pattern seen in so many movies like Mouna Ragam, Kadhalukku Mariyadhai, Run, Mozhi, Kadhalan etc. Of course the trouble comes in the form of the father of the heroine who refuses the alliance as Shiva is poor. But Shiva is made of sterner stuff and all in the time span required for a song, does so many things and becomes a rich man overnight. This is of course a throwback to Rajnikant movies like Annamalai and Padayappa. And while all this happens one sees Shiva silently killing a series of baddies in hilarious fashion, all of whom work for ‘D’.

Now we get to see that Shiva is actually an undercover cop (a la Pokiri) and is trying to nab D. While vacationing in Pondichery with Priya, they are attacked and Priya is kidnapped. So how does Shiva rescue Priya, tackle ‘D’ and also re-unite with his parents is what the rest of the movie is all about. The climax is a great example of how the movie never attempts to be taken seriously and is a laugh riot all the way. In fact the references to other films is done in a very imaginative manner and without really hurting any individual. Nirav Shah’s camera work is top notch and captures the ‘superhero’ in the ‘required angles’. Kannan’s music suits the movie very well and director C.S Amudhan deserves all credit for coming up with such a brilliant concept and credit to producer Dayanidhi Alagiri for backing this movie. Of course this movie works mainly due to Shiva who is brilliant as the superhero. His dead pan expressions and dialogue delivery keeps the audience in splits. A refreshing film that deserves wide patronage indeed.

Goa

The movie starts in Pannayapuram where 3 youngsters- Ramarajan (Vaibhav), Vinayagam ( Jai ) and Samikannu ( Premji Amaran ) are seen to be whiling away their time carelessly and growing tired of their antics, the village panchayat orders that they shouldn’t be together anymore. The 3 of them decide to run away to Madurai for a week and end up meeting Vinayagam’s friend who is now married to a foreigner (whom he befriended in Goa) and is about to leave for London. Seeing this, the trio decide that they would also go to Goa and try their luck in getting hitched to a foreigner and going abroad.

To make matters worse Samikannu had innocently brought with him the village temple’s jewels and this makes the trio all the more serious about going to Goa and escaping the wrath of the villagers. While in Goa the trio come across Jack (Arvind Akash in a 6 pack avatar ), a hotelier. Jack and his partner Danny (Sampath)- who are in a relationship, provide shelter to the trio and even help them in getting a makeover done.

Roshni ( Piaa) a singer in the hotel there starts liking Vinayagam while Samikannu is lucky to meet Jessica (Melanie), the foreigner he had fallen for in Madurai. Ramarajan in the meanwhile gets acquainted with Suhasini (Sneha) a rich casino owner and later on even gets married to her. But now his life is akin to hell as he realizes how tough it is to be living with Suhasini. Do Samikannu and Vinayagam get lucky in love? Does Ramarajan get out of the mess and what happens to Jack and Danny is what the rest of the tale is all about. The film has a lot of hilarious moments like Premji doing a spoof on Vijay’s ‘puli urumudhu’ sequence ( Vettaikaran ) or the Kangal Irandal track used on Premji and Melanie.

In fact it is such moments which work for the movie. There’s even a reference to Dasavatharam in the form of an actor portraying multiple roles in this movie. Venkat Prabhu should be appreciated for portraying a gay couple in a convincing manner without making caricatures of the people involved. While Jai and Vaibhav are decent, Premji impresses but its Arvind Akash and Sampath (especially) who steal the thunder. For Sampath who is usally seen in loud baddie roles, this is a complete change of image indeed. Yuvan Shankar Raja strangely disappoints with a dull soundtrack. Apart from the soundtrack the length of the movie is another big concern. For a fun filled entertainer, this movie stretches one’s patience in the 2nd half. And it’s very clear that the script was probably improvised on location going by the leisurely way things unfold.

Some Points To Ponder

A week after the two movies have released its very clear that these movies at least stand different from the standard Tamil movie. Finally we have learnt to laugh at our own super heroes and their films, some of them being iconic as well. Though Goa is not being as widely accepted as Tamizh Padam, the spoofs in the movie and the way the gay relationship is portrayed will be enough to make the movie remain in public memory. Tamizh Padam on the other hand is fast on the way to emerge a trendsetter and that’s reflected by the way in which the audience and trade is responding to the movie. Whether the so called super hero mass movie style of movie making in Tamil Cinema will witness any change or not cannot be said so soon. But what is clear is that the audience is now certainly more receptive to things which bring in a fresh perspective and for that these two movies (especially Tamizh Padam) certainly score high. It takes guts to break all norms and come up with something refreshing and acceptable as well.Hoping to see more such refreshing movies in the rest of the year.

Sethumadhavan N | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2010.
Post tags: C.S.Amudhan, Dayanidhi Alagiri, Goa, Goa Movie Review, Movie Review, Nirav Shah, Premji Amaran, Sampath, shiva, Tamizh Padam, Tamizh Padam Movie Review, Venkat Prabhu, Yuvan Shankar Raja

I must confess straightaway that I’ve liked Harishchandrachi Factory so very much, from the deepest recesses of my heart, that I see no point in trying to write an intelligent-sounding review. This film is so wonderful at so many levels that attempting to provide an intellectual assessment would do a disservice to how I felt while watching it. Felt. That’s the keyword. “Note mat karo. Feel karo,” as Goga Kapoor said in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa.
How did I feel while watching the film? Euphoric. Ecstatic. Emotional. Couldn’t stop smiling and laughing. Occasionally wondered about the genius of Paresh Mokashi.
Calling this film inspiring would be a gross understatement. Just take a second and think about the premise. What must it have been like to try to make the very first Indian film way back in 1911? When nobody knew what motion pictures were. When people ran away from tigers on screen. When women didn’t act. When even prostitutes looked down upon actors.
How would you like to make a movie out of this concept? What kind of treatment would you give it? The EPIC STRUGGLE treatment seems like an obvious choice, doesn’t it? The dream, followed by obstacles, disillusionment, struggles, family hardships, despair, resolve and finally a big triumph accompanied by a huge orchestra playing in the background. Just the kind of stuff the Oscars seem to love. I couldn’t resist quoting the Oscar ceremony spoof in Naked Gun 33 1/3. “Here are the nominations for best supporting actress:
Mary Lou Retton, “Fatal Affair”,
One woman’s ordeal to overcome the death of her cat, set against the background of the Hindenburg disaster.
Morgan Fairchild, “Final Proposal”, one courageous pioneer woman’s triumphant victory over bulimia, set against the background of the Donner Party Crossing.
Shannen Doherty, “Basic Analysis”, one woman’s triumph over a yeast infection, set against the background of the tragic Buffalo Bill season”

Harishchandrachi Factory could easily have been, “A film about one man’s determination and struggle against all odds to realise his dream of making the first Indian feature, set against the backdrop of British rule.” After all, it IS a true story of one stubborn man’s efforts.
Screw all that, Paresh Mokashi must’ve said. I’m going to make this one of the funniest, most entertaining, most feel-good, most inspiring movies of all time. Of course, I don’t really know whether he said exactly this, but what I can say for sure is that I am going to watch Harishchandrachi Factory many, many more times and will show it to all my friends and family. I don’t know which film will win the Oscar for best foreign language film this year, and it really doesn’t matter, because I believe that several years down the road, almost everyone in the world who is involved in the film industry will have watched Harishchandrachi Factory and most of them will have fallen in love with it. (Except perhaps those who think that cinema without intense pain and suffering isn’t cinema at all.) And I also believe that many, many people in India, irrespective of their region or language, will have watched it too.
So let’s not be too obssessed with the Oscars, says Paresh Mokashi in this interview. All awards are subjective, and factors other than merit also count.

Speaking of awards, Paresh Mokashi, who actually mortgaged his house to raise money for the film, much like Dadasaheb Phalke himself, has won the Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Foundation award for the best debutant director. (This happens to be the one award that Aamir Khan, who won it last year, personally collected. He never attends award ceremonies otherwise. There’s a myriad of reasons why several industry stalwarts stay away from the ‘pan masala and talcum powder awards’ (Naseeruddin Shah’s term), but that’s another topic altogether.)
I haven’t said anything about the film itself, have I? Actually, it’s a case of jitni tareef ki jaaye kam hai. I would first single out the extraordinary writing-directing-editing combo. This film is very funny, it’s very detailed, and it’s very fast. Not a dull moment in sight. Then without a doubt, Nandu Madhav, who plays Dadasaheb Phalke. Again, jitni tareef ki jaaye kam hai. And then there’s Vibhawari Deshpande, who was equally marvelous in the fantastic Natrang. There’s the art department, which recreates 1911 Mumbai. The music is absolutely spot-on.
Cynics and critics can go ahead and find faults with the film. It’s a free country. Me, given a choice between a repeat viewing of a perfectly made painful tale of human suffering and struggle, and Harishchandrachi Factory, I’d rather watch the film which makes me laugh and feel good for a while. Guess which.
Here’s the trailer. I hope someone at UTV puts in subtitles! Watching it makes me want to watch the whole film again. I guarantee you, it’s not a case of the best parts being in the trailer.

It doesn’t matter if you understand Marathi or not. Take my humble word for it, and just go and watch Harishchandrachi Factory. Several theatres are showing subtitled versions. If you don’t live in Maharashtra, then do buy the DVD when it comes out. I most certainly will.

Natrang

I consider myself really lucky to be in Mumbai at a time when superb films like Harishchandrachi Factory and Natrang are being released in theatres.
Last week, I had the experience of watching Natrang in a houseful theatre, and gladly joined in the loud applause at the film’s end credits.
Set in rural Maharashtra a few decades ago, Natrang is the story of a poor agricultural labourer named Guna who turns to folk theatre, tamasha, to make a living. When they fail to find a man to play the part of a pansy, Guna is compelled to take it up himself.
Atul Kulkarni is a strong contender along with Nandu Madhav for a bucketload of awards. One of the most remarkable aspects of his performance in this film is that he visibly loses weight. In the first part, he’s built like a wrestler, and in the second, he has very visibly thinned down. Word has it that he had to lose 15 kg in 45 days for this role.
Natrang starts out almost like a rural Indian version of The Full Monty, but serious drama too is woven into it, and it also touches on several social issues.
It’s very obvious that Marathi cinema has no dearth of amazing actors. The entire cast of Natrang has acting chops to spare. Vibhawari Deshpande plays the wife of a driven man here too, but what a difference in tone! While we’re bombarded with PR stories of X and W actresses working on Y fitness regimen and Z diet to lose weight for their two-piece bikini appearances, here’s an actress who actually does something useful – she acts well! What a concept! And then there’s Kishore Kadam, whom some of us might remember from his police officer turn in Black Friday (“Baith!”)
The world and the story of Natrang are so fascinating in themselves that I don’t really feel like voicing any negatives, but I thought the pacing could be much tighter in the first half, and the background music in just two or three places was a little jarring.
The end credits had pictures of real life tamashas and tamasha artists accompanied by some really skillful beats on some kind of dholak – I don’t know what exactly it’s called.

This is one year when the higher-ups have got the choice of Oscar entry absolutely right. Remember when Jeans was sent?
The tremendous success of Harishchandrachi Factory and Natrang should hopefully pave the way for more films, in various languages, which actually have ideas to share and stories to tell, not stars to bare and products to sell.

And what has mainstream “Bollywood” been up to?

Kenny Basumatary | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2010.
Post tags: Atul Kulkarni, Harishchandrachi Factory, Marathi cinema, Natrang, Paresh Mokashi, Ravi Jadhav

There is a dialogue from one of my all time favourite film Black Hawk Down- When Josh Hartnett says “Nobody asks to be a hero, it just sometimes turns out that way.”
John Rabe is one such person, who became a hero not because he had powers but he because he had the determination to oppose the unjust powers.

John Rabe-The Hero among Villains

It is strange, but school history textbooks always mention dates of war, but it does not give adequate information on soldiers who fought war, it always generalizes, with victors being always praised. John Rabe is a story about many such men, who have been lost in the maze of generalization.

The movie directed by Florian Gallenberger, is a bio-pic on John Rabe, the source of inspiration being his diaries which were discovered only in 1997. The movie is based on the time period during World War 2, when Japanese forces were responsible for killings of as many as 3, 00,000 Chinese citizens in few weeks. John Rabe at the beginning of the movie is shown to be an admirer of Japan and is a Nazi Party Member.

A scene from John Rabe

The Movie begins with establishing the fact that Japanese having established their control over Shangai are now advancing towards Nanking .Personally John Rabe(Tukur) is disheartened as a visiting Nazi official delivers the message that Siemens China Co has to be closed , and Rabe’s expertise is needed in Germany.

On the night of his farewell party, while delivering his speech the Japanese start to bombard the city of Nanking. Using his presence of mind, he orders the gate of the factory to be opened and allows the Chinese to come inside the premises of factory, he unfurls Nazi flag and shelters all people under them. As Japan was ally of Germany, they would not bombard assets of Germany. This scene was one of the best highlights in the movie, alas such moments were few and far in the whole movie. I guess this was the first time when I saw Nazi Flag was associated with saving people’s life. I guess it also helps that in 1937 Nazis and Hitler had yet not showed the world how evil they were.

A German Jew and diplomat Dr. Georg Rosen (Daniel Bruhl) suggests establishing a Nanking Safety Zone for civilians to protect them from war. Valerie Dupres (Anne Consigny), the French director of the Girl’s College supports his idea, and nominates Rabe as its chairman .John Rabe’ appointment is opposed by American Robert Wilson (Steve Buscemi) , but as soon as John Rabe is elected , he nominates the American as his deputy. The rest of the film follows how Rabe set up the zone, and protected live’s of more than 2,50,000 Chinese.

To expect any movie based on history, to be accurate cent percent would be expecting the impossible. My Knowledge of this incident is very limited and to be honest I did not knew of someone called John Rabe till I saw the movie. When I asked some of the Germans present for the screening, if the movie was true to it’s source they told me that some of the parts were dramatized and there was some historical inaccuracies with dates .Of course there are scenes like the last boat from Nanking, which I guess have been inserted in the movie, to give exercise to your tear glands. For a movie which talk about atrocities by the Japanese there is mention of rape but not a victim shown. There is a particular incident when a Chinese girl with a camera clandestinely trips and not only endangers her life and many more. During one such night when Japanese soldiers try to rape her, the movie suddenly changes into Hollywood thriller mode. We can’t blame Florian as his last film was set in India, the whole sequence end ups a scene from an action movie. There are scenes in movie which are there to showcase Japanese as evil but they fall flat, the violence in the movie is tame by standards of any Hollywood war movie. The Chinese characters in the movie are there just as extras. Instead of focusing on John Rabe’s Relation with Chinese people it shows how he negotiates with Japanese forces. The movie has its moments. But the problem is that Florian could have done so much with the material he had. In the end I left the cinema hall with a feeling of reading a boring textbook accompanied by some great visuals.

Acting wise, this film has ensemble cast, Ulrich Tukur as John Rabe is outstanding and he carries the film on his shoulders even when the screenplay falters. It also helps that he has uncanny resemblance to John Rabe. Steve as an American doctor is a delight to watch, the chemistry between him and John Rabe and their banter are lively and mesmerizing to watch. Daniel Burhl tries to bring life into his half baked character of German Jew, who I guess is accommodated in screenplay to have the views of German Jews.

Given the limited budget Florian has done a commendable job. The sets are opulent and grand, cinematography by Juergen Juerges is avant grade. The editing by, Hansjoerg Weissbrich is also good, though I felt the movie could have been shorter by ten minutes. The music by Laurent Petitgirard, Annette Focks was one of the highpoints of the movie. There is also an Indian Connection to movie; the second unit director of the movie is an Indian by name Amit Kumar. The movie has not done well at the German Box office.

To sum up, I would say anyone who is not familiar with this incident of History, should watch this movie. It is not a bad movie and it certainly is a very good movie technically and acting wise, but it flatters in screenplay department, this movie could have been great, but remains good due to direction and screenplay.

Northface-

The boast of Healdry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth ever gave.
Awaits alike the’ inevitable hour,
The paths of glory lead but to the grave
Thomas Gray

Let me begin with, a honest confession, I have not seen Cliffhanger nor Vertical Limit, or that matter any mountain adventure movies, the only cinematic exposure to mountain Climbing for me is from MI-2 and closer home Lakshya.

Northface was on my must watch movies list, as soon as I had read about its synopsis. Northface is based on a true story and recollects the attempt of two German climbers, Toni Kurz (Benno Fürmann) and Andi Hinterstoisser (Florian Lukas), to scale the Eiger’s 5,900-foot near-vertical north wall, then unconquered, in mid-July 1936., but if you are looking for historical facts, then this movie has twisted it more for sake of convenience of director, than cinematic liberties.

The movies begins in1936, when Germany is going to host the Olympics. Apart from the mad frenzy to win medals and show their supremacy over the nations, Nazis encourage German Climbers to conquer the Northface of Eiger, which was unconquered till then. The movie has five principal characters, Andreas (Florian Lukas), Toni (Benno Furman), Luise (Johanna Wokalek) who are Childhood Friends La Bollywood style, Andreas and Toni were lovers at first. The fourth is Luise’s Boss played by Henry (Ulrich Tukur), who represents the ugly and bad Side of media and above all North-Wall of Eiger.

I would not like to divulge the story, as it would rob the fun while watching the movie.The cinematography by Kolja Brant is visual feast to your eyes, infact you feel too close to characters and setting for my comfort, there was a time in movie I myself asked why would anybody in right sense want to put themselves in danger. I remember British climber George Mallory when asked why he wanted to ascend Mount Everest said that: “Because it’s there.” .The cinematography is brilliantly aided by wonderful musical score by Christian Kolonovits which reaches its crescendo in the climax, both of them just takes this movie a few notches higher, their contribution in Climax scenes are undeniable. I do not know if they have used CGI for the movies, if they have then they’ve used it imaginatively and intelligently.

The screenplay is taut and thrilling and the second half of the movie keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. The screenplays sets the mood for drama, in the beginning I was curious to know if they will they ascend the mountain, by mid way I was praying for their survival. Direction by Philipp Stolzl is superb, although he messed up the historical facts, the characterization of actors seems to be influenced by Hollywood or Bollywood, he throws childhood friends, childhood sweetheart, and misunderstaning between lovers, but he places them in milieu which is unlike Bollywood or Hollywood, with a climax, which could not have been better. Again kudos to the director, who manages to create an experience with a budget which is a fraction of Hollywood Movies. The way he captures the dangers of mountaineering in the 30’s, the cynical media, the political turmoil and above all, without losing the focus of story, which is about courage, sacrifice and discovering Heroes among ourselves is commendable. At no point, the characters are treated as Legend, which was one of the sore point of John Rabe, where everybody treated him as a legend, where as here we saw there follies, there desperation for survival and Vulnerability.

Special Mention should be also given to Philipp for driving across points subtly, e.g. the media tamasha around the hotel, unaware of the dangers faced by the climbers. There is a beautiful Dialogue in the movie said by Henry “. A retreat without conquering the peak would only be good for a few lines of coverage in the third page” which sums up the attitude of media towards people they demonize and idolize people at their will. Other Scene which establishes the fact that the reason Andi and Toni are climbing is not for Nazi Pride, but for their passion is evident when the duo are going for the ascent in cycle and when they are greeted by salutations of ‘Heil Hitler’ by follow soldiers they just reply with just a goodbye.

The direction is not with flaws, one major flaw is showing the Austrians as caricatures , I could not bring myself to believe that if they were rivals , because they just follow foot steps pf Andi and Toni while climbing, historically the four people climbed together in a group.

Acting wise, everyone does justice to their Role, my favourite again being Ulrich Tukur who brings life to Henry Auro, whom you just love to hate.Barring historical inaccuracies, the movie works on all fronts. This movie has everything, love, friendship, scarfice, patriotism and quest for human glory.

This is a must watch, not for history, but for the adrenaline rush it provides, and the engrossing climax,

Ashwin Varma | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2010.
Post tags: Benno Furmann, Black Hawk Down, Bollywood, Cliffhanger, Eiger, Florian Gallenberger, Florian Lukas, George Mallory, german cinema, John Rabe, Lakshya, MAMI 2009, Nazi, Northface, Philipp Slozl, Ulrich Tukur, World War 2

If the theory was supposed to affect people of those times, there was no way Charles Darwin himself could have casually discovered some patterns and then cheerfully arrived at a theory which ripped apart our very faith in the presence of the basic human ‘divinity’. He wasn’t some crazy mad scientist who didn’t care a hoot about people. He was infact a very sensitive, loving and caring human being not necessarily very religious. When his theory slowly started taking shape, he was shaken. His faith in human goodness was questioned. His very existence came under scrutiny. Such questions don’t easily let go a person. But still he lived with those questions cheerfully like a kid struck by wonder. Life and death of organisms became objects of his daily observations, thus installing in him a certain sense of objectivity and detachment towards life and death. Once he takes his kids to the jungle and makes them witness a fox killing a rabbit. Seeing this, one of his daughters starts crying, “That’s not fair!!” But his other daughter, Annie, whom Charles sees as his special child, explains, “The fox is supposed to kill the rabbit. If the fox doesn’t, the babies of the fox would die of hunger.” Annie is Charles’ perfect student. She understands him in a very special way. Annie is also a sort of manifestation of the child inside Charles. And thus there is a ‘soul-mate’ attachment between them.

Then one day Anne becomes sick and her sickness extends over several months and then finally she dies. When Anne was born, Charles used to make notes daily of her physiological progress every day. His wife used to casually allege him of treating the child as a specimen. And now, the child, who had grown up to become a bright 10 years old, had died. Charles is shattered, apparently beyond repair. Years pass by, but still Charles can’t get over Annie’s death. His wife has come to terms with the death and has already turned her focus to the other kids showering them with equal affection. Charles has lost faith in God long ago, whereas his wife is a devout Christian and here is where one of the most potent questions arises regarding science and religion. Religion has surely seeped deep inside us and maybe affected our evolution. May be we have evolved to become more sensitive beings because of millions of years of God worship. Can our scientific awareness erase that sensitiveness in matter of a few hundred years? Can we do away with the need of God, not in terms of support system, but in terms of just plain faith in a superior power? If science does seep deep inside, will we turn into robot-like creatures in another million years? If that seems to far fetched, answer this. Can we reduce a human being to just a mere functional organism like others around us. How much does our human consciousness weigh in the cycle of nature? The scope of the questions spiral up from science vs religion to human vs nature.

Let us analyze (theorise?) how the film goes about in raising the human vs nature question. One day Charles meets up a pigeon breeder who reveals his secret of breeding evolved pigeons in just about 4-5 generation breeding. He tells Charles that he inter breeds his birds, brothers with sisters. The risk here is that the resultant birds could be weak and he would loose a couple of them. As a human with strong scientific inclinations, Charles marries his first cousin and gives birth to their first child under the belief that he is making a ‘special’ child. But nature has its own ways, and Anne dies at a very tender age of 10. This guilt of his contributes majorly to his inability to get over Annie’s death. Along with it, he is persuaded by a publisher to immediately gather his notes and come up with a book explaining comprehensively his ‘Origin of Species’ theory and thus wipe of all mankind’s notions about God.

This was what THE Charles Darwin had to go through while coming up with his theory. He was torn between his human instincts, his human tendencies and his fool-proof theory about the natural creation of humans. His own theory, though a pretty evidenced truth, lead to his eventual breakdown. But the characteristic human dogged determination and the love for wife and kids helped him rise from the pits, and finally publish ‘Origin of Species’. It was indeed a triumph. Triumph, of course of a revolutionary idea but also the triumph of our very human existence.

End of theory lesson :|

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© PassionforCinema, 2010.
Post tags: charles darwin, creation, Origin of species, Review

Cast: Siddharth, Ankur Vikal

Director: Chandan Arora

Rating: Three stars

Scream, life’s no dream. When his sister is killed in a communal riot, he is outraged to the point of crying out to the gods. In fact, whenever the carrom champ lets his frustrations out, he comes across as the New Age angry man – without possessing a stupendous height, powder keg muscles and savage snarls. He’s quite real, as vulnerable as any wayfarer on the street.

Quite clearly, the characterisation of the carrom-board gambler is the most unvarnished element of Chandan Arora’s Striker; the other uncompromised factor is the use of  indoor as well as outdoor locations, devoid of the artifice of glamour lighting and floral set décor. A booze joint almost emits the stink of santra-mosambi country liquor. And there are authentic allusions like the one to the Najeevan Society terrace in the heart of central Mumbai, which was once reported to be the hotbed of illicit matka, card games and miscellaneous underworld sport.

The plot hinging on two buddies, Surya (Siddharth) and Zaid (Ankur Vikal), is evidently inspired by a real life story, and in a way almost Martin Scorsesean. The mean streets of Malvani, a distant suburb of Mumbai, as depicted by Arora has no option but to breed losers. And when the desperadoes play too fast-`n’-furiously, tragedy is endemic. Perhaps in recent years, in Bombay-produced cinema Mahesh Manjrekar’s Vaastav has stated this, with an unequalled lacerating effect. Arora’s effort does leave an impact but the wallop is  not as strong as it could have been. A pity.

Surprisingly, this appears to be because of the frequent obscure and confusing editing. Arora is a professional editor who turned to direction with Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon and Main Meri Patni aur Woh .Without getting into their  merits – or the lack of them – suffice it to say that at least they were sharply cut and narrated coherently. Um, what happened? The shift back from the 1992-’93 communal riots to an earlier decade is, alas, much too choppy. So at some point, you quit figuring out the logistics, to concentrate on the meat and potatoes of the story, and ignore the swirling gravy. Burp.

After the convoluted opening reels, you do go with Surya and Zaid, facing their private hells, at home and outside. Surya has been cool at the carrom board since his pre-teenage days. He is now hustled into showdowns with tough-guy contestants at low as well high stake games masterminded by one of those scarfaced underworld dons (Aditya Pancholi, with a Y-shaped gash across his cheek). Carrom as a near-gladiator sport, you are told without mincing any words, thrives alongside a parallel cocaine trade.

Plus, no mealy-mouthed apologies are made. Surya is a hard-drinker and Zaid is deep into the drug world. Their friendship, never exaggerated or trivialised, is believable, ridden with violent quarrels and what-the-hell-let’s-patch-up moments.

So far, so tough. Arora falters though, when he shows Surya so violently upset one night that he rapes the booze joint girl (Padmapriya, quite Tabu-like). Very fantasy-like, he marries her soonest.  Abracadabra. Is life in the demi-monde truly that simple? In addition, the  sub-strand about the communal riots is left dangling, tackled mainly through the attempts by an upright cop (Anupam Kher, credible) to control the volatile situation by barking orders at drunken and politically engineered police subordinates. Oof.

Too much is being sought to said here; more than sufficient comments on theconditions in Malvani could have been asserted through the politics of the carrom board tournaments. And woe-ho-ho, the suspense and tension of the board game aren’t exploited to the degree of pushing the viewer to the edge of the seat.

Reservations abound. On the upside, Arora demonstrates that he can extract edgy visuals from his cinematographer P S Vinod. The dialogue is correctly colloquial throughout.

In the difficult lead role Siddharth is excellent, eschewing glamour, sporting cheap flashy shirts, and going ballistic when he has to. As his buddy, Ankur Vikal, is absolutely extraordinary – where was this natural-born actor hiding all these years?

As the mandatory mom in the kitchen, Seema Biswas is wasted. Vidya Malvade as Surya’s sister and Anup Soni as the Mohnish-Behl-like Big Brother are impressive, and Aditya Pancholi strikes a subtle degree of menace.

All said and seen, Striker lets off steam, like a pressure cooker come to boil. Now only if it had been smoothly edited, you would have said, “Wow.” In its current shape, you end up saying, “Hey, not bad”  about this Carrom-a- Cola.

So, do it again Chandan Arora…but look at the final edit objectively. Please.

Khalid Mohamed | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2010.
Post tags: Chandan Arora, Khalid Mohamed, Movie Review, Siddharth, Striker, Striker Movie Review

[ Transcribed from an exclusive talk with PFC ]

Part I of this Guest Blog is here

We are lead by this ideology of not putting all the eggs in one basket but I couldn’t have found a better film than Striker to do this. Chandan and I met soon after RDB in Chennai and he told me about the research he has been doing in Malvani for Striker. The research consumed us and we wanted to make a ghetto film. If I were to explore the landscape of Striker, I’d like to mention the films of Spike Lee, Scorsese or even John Singleton who have taken the demographic of the ghetto lifestyle and blown it up so that the audience gets to smell, hear and taste the ghetto.  I keep referring to a lot of Scorsese in my discussion about Striker because Striker is an amalgamation of Good Fellas and Raging Bull, in terms of genre. It’s a biopic and it’s about sports as in Raging Bull and also about the Ghetto as in Good Fellas. Chandan’s rhythm and grammar is so honest, he is making a film that is entertaining based purely on the basis of his understanding of entertainment. I am proud that I found a collaborator like Chandan at this early stage of my career. It’s one man’s vision not to give into convention and stick by his principles of cinema.

The film is set in 80s ghetto where carom was iconic. People’s lack of drive and exposure lead them to playing carom. So boys and teens from the ghetto would leave their houses empty handed and return home with 15000 rupees, which in those times was quite a lot. Suryakant, the character is simply not afraid to stand in line. He doesn’t make his own line or break the line. He just stands there in the line adamant and saying “mera number aayega” .  Aur jab uska number nahin aata to wo Striker ki kahani hai. It’s the story of an adolescent man who is completely in control of his destiny and slowly learns that nothing is in your hands, all that he will ever need to do is “play”. It’s his ultimate hope of survival and he must go on. The most amazing line in the film is “Break zindagi ne le hai, abhi apne ko khelne ka hai, Sala ab apni baari hai”. Suryakant takes control of his life in the third act of the film and the only way he knows how to do it is through carom, which becomes his weapon.

For the first time we will have an Indian film being distributed on YouTube. The YouTube experiment is as exciting as it is scary. I have never had a worldwide release for my film. The strongest centers for my films apart from Andhra Pradesh are Bangalore, Virginia, Washington and the Bay area. I have ensured that my film has a theatrical release in these centers. When I watched Striker, I felt this could be any good International film coming from South America to Taiwan. So for me its like if Striker gets a release on YouTube for no cost and even at least 1000 people watch it in South America, then the risk is worth it. It has been two years since Striker finished principle shoot (Read recession, industry strike and the overall lack of people’s belief in good films) and now its out.

I have also produced the music for Striker, which would include compiling the album structure, the composer list and being in all sessions from scratch to mix. When I first heard the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction, I have always wanted to make an ensemble score. So with Striker, I had conceived the idea of getting different composers to watch the film, get inspired enough to compose one track each.  Striker is a film about a ghetto milieu which is a complicatedly interwoven microcosm of society. When different composers from different backgrounds come together and react to the same circumstance, that’s when the true essence of the ghetto would come alive.  It’s not a conventional background score. Chandan and I come from different background score schools. Chandan is more of ambient school and I more of melody school (which is why I grew up on Illayaraja). Chandan would set the mood for the whole film first, select sounds that come from ambient dialogue and then compile a fabric score for the film. So we had Shri, who is popular in the London underground scene alongside Talvin Singh, Nitin Sawhney and DJ Badmarsh.  He has influences of contemporary Jazz and a lot of Rhythm and Base that fuses comfortably with the ambient of the film.  The background is primarily the sound of the ghetto. I had initially spoken to a Turkish orchestra to compose for the film. We wanted to get 80 musicians from the rural heartlands of Turkey. We had sent Striker with the first scratch sound of the Turkish orchestra to Sundance and other festivals and the response was phenomenal. But Shri’s score blows it out of the water with its realistic depiction of cinema.  Shree is more from the schoolyard of his friends Sanjay Maurya and Allwyn Rego.

I am known by my friends as one who lives his life in pursuit of posterity. So I’d like to think of my life as how it is analyzed after I am dead. It may seem morbid than I intend it to be but I believe in it. At the age of 30, whatever happens today, on February 5^th, Striker will always be remembered as a defining moment of my film career. I have put all of my beliefs in to this film, as to why I came here in the first place.

PFC Desktop | Permalink |
© PassionforCinema, 2010.
Post tags: Background score, Chandan Arora, Ghetto, Good Fellas, Guest Blogger, John Singleton, Raging Bull, scorsese, Shri, Siddharth, Spike Lee, Striker