Parched, Review by Siraj Syed: Rani & Lajjo & Bijli & Thelma & Louise’s Rihaee

Get this right. Parched is not a remake. It is a nod to the soul of the 1988 film, Rihaee (Liberation, directed by Aruna Rajé), and a tribute to one of the most discussed climaxes in cinematic history: Hollywood’s Thelma and Louise, a 1991 milestone by Ridley Scott. One film old director Leena Yadav sets her tale in Rajasthan, enlists a youngish cast and a predominantly foreign crew, and tries to make a collage of several personal stories that she heard from real women. Stringing them together, she has the film getting unwieldy, uneven, even stencilesque. Nevertheless, the gender-based tragedy and the indomitable spirit of a few brave women provides a steady drizzle on the parched landscape.

Rani (Tannishtha Chatterjee), who was married at 15 and has been a widow for half her life, is trying very hard to get her son, Gulab (Riddhi Sen), married to a beautiful girl, Janki (Lehar Khan), from the neighbouring village. Her bosom friend is Lajjo (Radhika Apte), married to an abusive husband. They both are skilled and work for a local entrepreneur named Kishan (Sumeet Vyas), who runs a craft centre, along with his Manipuri wife, Naobi (Nancy Nisa Beso). Lajjo is childless and wants to conceive desperately, but fails. On top of this, her alcoholic husband, Manoj (Mahesh Balraj), batters her every night, branding her barren. The fourth woman in the story is Bijli (Surveen Chawla), a local erotic dancer, who performs in a tent. Working for a contractor, Sharma (Daddi Pandey), she doubles up as a prostitute.

Rani somehow raises Rs. 3-lakh as the price of her daughter-in-law, and Gulab is married. Janki has had a tormented past, and Gulab does not like her either, preferring to visit prostitutes. Lajjo is tired of the brutality of her husband, and Bijli is jealous of a new girl who might replace her. Kishan is hounded away from the village and Bijli is heart-broken after her professed lover Rajesh (Chandan Anand) reveals his plans of decamping with her, only to serve as her pimp. Having seen it all, the most devil-may-care of the lot, Bijli, takes the initiative, to help Lajjo conceive. She asks her friends to hop on a rickety, converted three-wheeler, and head for the hills. Not surprisingly, her prescription is no conventional medication. But with the only good man in the village having been shunted out, do these women stand a chance? Let’s leave the ending open.

The village is still plagued with old, age-ridiculed traditions, like forced child marriages, spousal and familial rape, and physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic husbands. Male-defined sexuality and sexploitation are to the fore here, with a conscious effort to stress the need for freedom of women in all these matters, as against the patriarchal, violent and abusive environment that they are forced to live in. Few films address these burning issues anywhere in the world. So, the concept is welcome. Before I discuss it further, let’s see what Rihaee and Thelma and Louise were all about.

Excerpt from the synopsis of Rihaee, “Like Jhumku there is a story behind every female character, and they have one problem or the other because of the fact that they are a woman.

The movie puts the double standard followed for men and women through various village characters. Mansukh's father, in the panchayat (village council), blames the women of the village to be punished, without saying anything about his son who was responsible for everything.” It was even more significant that a woman made the film, especially in 1988, when there were far fewer female directors.

Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise turns 25 this year, and to celebrate, stars Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis reunited on the talk show, Good Morning America, taking their seat in the distinctive 1966 Ford Thunderbird used in the film. Sarandon, who was 44 when Thelma and Louise was released, in 1991, is now 69, while Davis is 60.

An exhilarating and fierce tale of women’s liberation, the film told the story of two exploited and violated women who embark on a getaway road trip, after Louise (Sarandon) shoots a man who tried to rape her friend, Thelma (Davis). It won an Academy award for its female screenwriter, Syrian-American Carolyn Ann ‘Callie’ Khouri. “Let’s not get caught,” Thelma tells her best-friend-turned-partner-in-crime, after their run from the law appears to end and they are surely going to be caught. “Let’s keep going.” They then drive their dust-covered Thunderbird right into the Grand Canyon.

Teen Patti was a casting coup that raised expectations sky high: Amitabh Bachchan and Ben Kingsley and Madhavan. It’s fate became a liability for the debutant Yadav. Five years down the line, she has depended on dependable actors and completely eschewed stars. Moreover, her script is so deeply rooted in the soil that the costumes and landscapes provide perfect ambience.

Foreign productions have shown such a penchant for the north-western state that Rajasthan had become almost a picture postcard for authentic Indianness. You cannot fault Yadav on this count, because the subject is deeply rooted there. Where she falters is in her ambition to make it a dossier on all the problems and issues that affect village women: widowhood, alleged barrenness, earning a livelihood, dowry, child marriage, abusive and violent husbands, familial rape, prostitution, romantic dreams, wayward sons, borderline lesbianism, and more.

Most actors speak credible dialects, not all. Accents are sometimes uneven, ranging from Gujarati to Marathi. Adil Hussain is wasted in a role where he is barely recognisable, the scene having been shot mainly in blurred, silhouette-like images. Bijli’s entire track is more a showcase for the vibrant energy of the actress, and a plank for the introduction of Adil Hussain as the mystic lover, who is virility personified, than a well-written scenario. Of course, the anti-climax involving her quiet, macho admirer, none other than Sharma’s henchman Rajesh, deserves to be appreciated. Dialogue has an overdose of expletives, some for good effect, some over-the-top. For the rest, it is in the tone of the film.

Tannishtha Chatterjee (Island City, Gour Hari Dastaan, Angry Indian Goddesses, Gulaab Gang) is fluid as ever. Radhika Apte (Badlapur, Hunterrr, Manjhi - The Mountain Man) is unfettered. Surveen Chawla (Ugly, Hate Story 2, Welcome Back) turns in a spirited performance and wows the audience with unabashed causticity. Adil Hussain’s mystic (Ishqiya, English Vinglish, Life of Pi) is a caricature that could have been played by anybody. Though she has some diction issues, Lehar Khan (award for best child actress in Jalpari; now 16 years old) hits the right notes of expression and bewilderment. Riddhi Sen (from a Bengali family that has had many artistes; now 18) is the archetypal uncouth youth who keeps bad company and indulges in all bad habits. Sayani Gupta (Margarita with a Straw, Baar Baar Dekho) has such expressive eyes...and such a sympathy-drawing role. Mahesh Balraj just has to glower and rain blows. Good support comes from Sumeet Vyas (English Vinglish, Aurangzeb, Kajarya) and producer-turned-actress, Nancy Nisa Beso.

Others in the cast are Anuradha Adwani, Dinesh Pradhan, Kheerna Bhai, Ajay Gehlot, Priyanka Khan, Farrukh Jaffar, Kanwar Jagdish, Karandeep Singh and Tanya Sachdev.

Significant contributions come from Hitesh Sonik (from the Sonik-Omi family), Swanand Kirkire (lyrics; among the best songwriters around), Russell Carpenter (renowned cinematographer; incidentally, Leena’s husband, Aseem Bajaj, is a cinematographer too), Kevin Tent (Hollywood editor).

With such distinguished members in the team, Parched deserved better. You do root for the cause, and empathise with the predicaments of its protagonists. But in the end, you come out...no, not parched, just a little thirsty.

Rating: ** ½

Trailer: https://youtu.be/m69d-KNi2Q0

by Siraj Syed

June through December is film festival season in India. G5A flagged it off, running though June and July, followed by Jagran in September. October is for MAMI and November for IFFI. The year will end with the Third Eye Asian Film Festival. Of course, these are in addition to many smaller festivals, organised by Consular missions and cultural organisations.

IFFI stands for the International Film Festival of India, the only state-sponsored event, held annually in Goa. Some years ago, the Central Government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which had been organising the fest in its own for about 50 years, signed a joint venture agreement with the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), a Goa-state government enterprise, under which almost all local activities and infrastructure are assigned to ESG and the Directorate of Film festivals in the Ministry concerns itself with broader policy-making, technical issues and film selection.

This year, the 11-day programme has been curtailed by two days: it will begin on the 20th of November, as usual, but will end on the 28th, instead of the 30th, although the show has attracted 1,000 entries from over 100 countries.

The 47th IFFI already has a poster ready, as you have seen above.

Here is the lowdown on what to expect, as on 02 October:

*The Festival is to introduce the Centenary Award for best Debut Feature, a special competitive section for debut films of young and aspiring directors from all continents, carrying substantial prize money for the winning team!

*IFFI, in association with ICFT UNESCO will mark the beginning of the ICFT-Gandhi Award competitive section, which will feature films that promote peace and non-violence.

*A special section of films will be showcased as a Celebration of Masters in the art of film- making. The Masters include directors like Ken Loach, Fritz Lang, Vilmos Zsigmond, Stanley Kubrick, Andrej Wajda, Mohsin Makhmalbaf, Bertand Travinier, Im Kwon Taek, Wim Wenders, Lav Diaz, Asgar Farhadi, Dardene Brothers and Abbas Kiarostami. 

Master-Class and Workshops

The festival will have a delegation from Academy of Motion Pictures And Sciences (AMPAS), which will conduct Master-Classes and workshops on Direction, Documentary film-making, Editing, Art Direction, Cinematography, VFX and Animation and Action Direction.

Majid Majidi (Master-Class in Direction)

Iranian film director, film producer, and screenwriter, who is internationally acclaimed for films like The Colour of Paradise and Children of Heaven. His films have won and been nominated for numerous international awards like.

Rosalie Varda (Master-Class in Costume Designing)

Costume designer and French artistic director from Paris, Varda is an internationally acclaimed costume designer for film, theatre and opera; she is the artistic director for the Ciné-Tamaris company.

Rajko Grlić (Master-Class in Screen-writing)

Croatian film director and producer, Grlić is the recipient of numerous awards, like Golden Arena for Best Director and Tokyo Grand Prix. His film Bravo Maestro has been nominated for Palme d’Or in the Cannes Film Festival.

Lina Dhingra (Workshop on Film Publicity Management)

Lina is considered to be one of the most sought-after authorities on what is ‘chic’ and ‘au courant’, when it comes to producing corporate and social events, red carpet galas, publicity campaigns and charity fund-raisers. Starting with the considerable success of one of the first events that she ever organised, an after-party for none other than The Rolling Stones, she went on to stage Red Carpet Galas and Film Premieres for The Toronto International Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival, Moroccan Film Festival, Indian Filmfare Awards, Sundance Film festival and, yes, Cannes. She is Toronto-based, and runs an event company called karmaPRO

Namit Malhotra (Workshop on Animation and VFX)

Namit is the Founder, Executive Chairman and Global CEO of Prime Focus Limited, the world’s largest independent integrated media services company.

Paul Alexander: (Workshop in Film Celebrity Photography)

A world renowned celebrity photographer who is famous for his remarkable capability to create stunning “on-the-fly” portraiture, his class comes from having had the privilege of working with some of our generation’s brightest stars and executing global advertising campaigns for international brands, such as Miller Beer, Bacardi, Coca Cola, Motorola and Jack Daniels.

Richie Mehta

Canadian film director, his first feature film, Amal, was released in 2008, and was nominated for Best Motion Picture and Best Director at the 29th Genie Awards.

Roger Christian (Master Class in Film Making and Art Direction)

An English set decorator, production designer and feature film director, he won an Academy Award for his work on the original Star Wars, and was Oscar-nominated for his work on Alien.

Peter Hein (Master-Class in Action Direction)

Fight master/action choreographer, stunt co-ordinator, who has worked on many South Indian films, Hein became famous for his action sequences in films such as Sivaji (2007), Anniyan (2005), Ghajini (2008), Magadheera (2009), Enthiran (2010), Raavanan (2010), 7aum Arivu (2011), Kochadaiyaan (2014) and Baahubali (2015). He has been nominated for the noted Taurus World Stunt Award, against many big Hollywood names. He received a Filmfare Award for Best Action for his work in Ghajini (2008).

by Siraj Syed

If they care, they should reflect. Reflect hard. Empty halls, mismanaged shows and several films with far below par audio-visual quality, do not augur well for the Jagran Film Festival, now in its 7th edition, organised by a media giant, the Jagran Group. Jagran's Vision, as enunciated on its website: Just like the morning sun that dispels darkness and brings warmth to the world, the vision of Jagran is to transform lives through enlightening and enriching experiences. A step in this noble direction was to be the festival, held from 26 September to 02 October, in Mumbai, at the four screens of the Cinépolis (formerly Fun Republic) multiplex, in suburban Mumbai. Unfortunately, we had loads of darkness, and little light. To be fair, though, some outstanding films shone through and almost saved the day.

Jagran Prakashan Ltd (JPL) is among India's leading media and communications companies, with its interests spanning Print, Radio, Out Of Home (OOH), Activations and Digital. Jagran group publishes 12 print titles, in 5 different languages, spread across 15 states, with over 100 editions. It follows that publicity and promotion should be a cinch, so they cannot blame the empty halls on the lack of advertising budget. Moreover, their Board of Directors includes some heavy weights in Public Relations and Advertising. Surely their services would be available to the Gupta family that runs the group.

It is not known whether they had a pre-event press conference, or any inaugural function, besides getting Arjun Kapoor as Chief Guest at the first screening. Most likely, they did not. It is known that they had an awards ceremony, but only they know why they held it mid-fest, and made sure that media was kept away. Media other than their in-house vehicles, that is. Budget constraints are always a good excuse, invariably a false one, so I hope they will not blame the poor show on pruned inflow.

It is also known that they had a retinue of students from the National Institute of Event Management (NIEM) getting their hands-on training, to augment the staff on duty. These students revealed that some of them were invited to the reception, where the guests included singers Udit Narayan Jha and Alka Yagnik, and aging villain Prem Chopra. And, lastly, they had three veterans at the helm of affairs: Former Entertainment Society of Goa CEO and former Deputy Director of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Manoj Srivastava, as Strategic Consultant, and veteran Hindi journalist, former PRO, and currently Films Editor at Dainik Jagran, the Hindi daily, the group’s flagship, on ‘deputation’, aided by Mayank Shekhar, film-critic and author. The two consultants chaired moderating duties at the various one-on-ones and other workshops/sessions.

One often found the audience count limited to under 20. A couple of Cuban films were of very poor technical quality (even allowing for the fact that these were part of a retrospective) and incongruous formats. When really needed, there was no one around for as far as one could see. Films scheduled were sometimes not shown, and no reasons given. There was a small lounge near the media registration desk that served as some kind of office cum interview room cum media centre. Except for old faithful Bharati Dubey, I never found any media-person there. No media access computers/laptops, and, not surprisingly, no wi-fi. One large-hearted lady from NIEM offered to bring me some desperately needed tea. A full 15 minutes later, what she put on the table was a cup of sweetened milk, and a tea bag in it that had no tea at all. I was not interested in enhancing my knowledge about that lukewarm concoction as flavoured tea. “That’s all we have,” she said, with an air of finality. A couple of TV cameras were spotted once. No brochure/catalogue was published. Many screening slots were left empty. South America, including Cuba, seemed to be the flavour of the day, available in Spanish and Portuguese toppings.

There were some positives, for sure, but rather than rest on those fragile laurels, it would serve the powers that be real well to treat 7th JFF Mumbai as a wake –up call.

Talking about positives, here’s the list of the 10 films I caught at JFF, in descending order of ratings. Most of them make the cut:

Chato—The King of Brazil, ****

Battlefield, Bolivia, ****

Madagascar (1994), Cuba, ***1/2

The First, The Last, Belgium, ***1/2 (with Michael Lonsdale and Max von Sydow in supporting roles)

Maynak Shekhar, Vani Tripathi (actress turned political activist-turned Censor Board member), Sudhir Mishra, Politician Sudhanshu Trivedi, and Kaveri Bamzai (critic)

Bawra Mann, India, *** (Documetary on Sudhir Mishra)

Mithila Makhaan, India, *** (In the Maithili language, spoken in some parts of Bihar, mainly by the Jha clan)

The Surprise, Italy, **1/2

Suite Havana, Cuba, **1/2

The Plants, Spain-Chile, *1/2

UTEL’s innovative technologies for fibre & copper systems at CommunicAsia2016

UTEL, a leading research and development company for telecommunications systems, showcased its latest technology at CommunicAsia 2016, Singapore, earlier this year. It exhibits the Robo-Cab--an innovative, fully managed automatic direction finder system, designed for the management of copper networks--and its innovative fibre-testing technology, Fast Light.

As a complete copper network management system, Robo-Cab fully automates the whole cabinet, including copper cross connect, VDSL splitter jumpering, copper line testing, VDSL DSLAM port testing, and cross connect testing.

“Robo-Cab takes speed and efficiency to the next level and has revolutionised the operation and management of FTTC,” said Frank Kaufhold, Managing Director of UTEL. “By automating the interconnect technology, Robo-Cab gives control back to operators by enabling them to deliver new services to customers on an almost on-demand basis.”

Robo-Cab allows for connection changes to be made and tested from remote locations, therefore significantly reducing OPEX. “By using Robo-Cab, costs, number of call-outs and the risk of human error are all drastically reduced,” Kaufhold added.

Also on display was UTEL’s unique Fast Light technology, which is used as the basis for a centralised G-PON fibre management system, and is the only existing technology in the world able to reliably detect ONT reflections through 128 split PONs, without expensive wavelength dependent reflectors.

In addition to Fast Light and Robo-Cab, delegates attending CommunicAsia also saw the latest Copper Test Access Solutions, which have already been implemented by a number of customers, including BT. Copper test heads, ETSI racks, Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) TASMs, Test Access Switches and Custom TASMs, were among these technologies on show at UTEL’s stand.

United Technologists Europe Limited (UTEL) is a founder-owned UK company, incorporated in 1993, by two R&D engineers, Frank Kaufhold and Paul Grafton. 

Cobham showcased award-winning SAILOR 60 GX at CommunicAsia 2016

Cobham, a global organisation with a wide range of aerospace and defence capabilities, with more than 80 years in business, displayed a range of flexible solutions, both commercial off the shelf or niche/specialist products at CommunicAsia 2016, Singapore.

Cobham SATCOM division

· GX Offering– Cobham SATCOM’s established EXPLORER 5075GX terminal for land users and SAILOR 100 GX for ships, is joined by the new, award winning SAILOR 60 GX terminal for smaller vessels. All Cobham SATCOM Global Xpress systems are designed to leverage the power of Inmarsat’s new constellation, to deliver reliable, high band-width communication and connectivity,  on land and at sea.

· EXPLORER range– Setting new levels of installation flexibility and failover capability, the brand-new EXPLORER 540 is the world’s only M2M (Machine-to-Machine) terminal to offer dual-mode operation, over BGAN or 3G/4G.

· The ultra-portable EXPLORER 510 BGAN terminal and the flagship EXPLORER 710 BGAN, in addition to the innovative EXPLORER 8100 VSAT ‘Comms-On-The-Pause’ terminal, which deploys unique stabilisation technology, to secure a reliable link to the satellite.

· SAILOR Fleet One– Delivering off-the-shelf, cost-effective Inmarsat connectivity, the SAILOR Fleet One is the smart Satcom choice for owners of small commercial and leisure craft

Cobham WIRELESS division

· idDAS (intelligent digital distributed antenna system) – A robust in-building coverage solution that allows operators and infrastructure providers to dynamically move capacity around an area to serve a number of needs, while also reducing both CAPEX and OPEX. idDAS provides a coverage solution that is right-sized for the application and can be dynamically changed depending on demand. No more hardwiring of capacity to provision for peak demand. No more building a network, where chunks of capacity remain unused, for a large proportion of the time. Capacity can ‘breathe’ and move with demand.

· New OnBoard solution– Cobham Wireless’ new generation digital OnBoard Repeater is a flexible multiband coverage solution, optimised for mobile wireless applications on board trains, vessels or other moving vehicles. The totally new design puts focus on today’s requirements: size to match with various installation environments even when space is limited, minimized power consumption and heat dissipation, multiple digital filters for sufficient splitting of multiple operators and technologies and fast algorithms for gain adaption and isolation control, fit for high speed train deployment.

Cobham

Cobham operates from manufacturing locations principally in the USA, UK and continental Europe, as well as satellite locations and sales offices across the world that provide a permanent presence in faster growth markets. In addition, Aviation Services operates from airport bases in Australia, the UK and elsewhere in the world. Headquartered in Dorset, UK, it is led by John Devaney, Chairman, and Bob Murphy, CEO.

CommunicAsia 2016 exhibitor Lightware appoints Abhishek Bajpai RM Mumbai

Lightware recently announced the appointment of Abhishek Bajpai as Regional Manager, to oversee strategy and field sales operations in Western India Region. Abhishek will play a key role in maximising growth opportunities in West and oversee Lightware’s investments in Mumbai, deepen Lightware’s engagements on the Region, and scale Lightware’s work across different markets.

"Mumbai is a strategic market within the India region, with high potential and strong momentum. I'm very pleased to have Abhishek joining our Indian leadership team, Lightware’s Initiative is perfectly aligned to accelerate this for the Western region, through locally relevant innovation, affordable access and skills development" said Raguvaran, Business Manager. 

"Abhishek's solid industry and management experience are very valuable to Lightware and to our customers. I am confident he will lead the Mumbai team to seize every great opportunity ahead and achieve greater success," added Ragu. 

“Creativity is what I love most about working and is what I hope to continue to help unlock and ignite across the Region — to see customers not just being empowered by technology but also building innovative solutions relevant for our markets,” Abhishek said. 

“We are honoured to have Abhishek serving as the new regional Manager for the Lightware’s Mumbai Region,” said Greg Vida, CEO & President of Lightware. "His wealth of first-hand, on-the-ground experience, with start-ups, Corporates, government bodies, Integrators and Consultants, has given him the insight into the exact challenges and opportunities we’re focussing on, through our global expansion plan. We are confident in his ability to move the initiative forward and refocus our efforts.” 

Lightware Visual Engineering

Lightware is a leading manufacturer of DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort matrix switchers, signal extenders and accessories for the professional AV market. Our goal is to recognize industry needs and develop performance-rich products of the highest quality by continuously consulting with integrators, rental technicians and design engineers.

To better serve the needs of the audiovisual technology market in India, Lightware has recently opened a new office in Kasturinagar, Bangalore.

According to Raguvaran Patel, Business Manager at Lightware India, "Next Generation technologies will play an integral role in our constantly connected world and our Bangalore office will work with our customers to create new solutions and frameworks to make a real difference on the market. We believe that the Bangalore facility will cater to the specific business needs of the Indian corporations aligning to their unique expectations, localising global business practices enhanced with native language support."

Gergely Vida, President & CEO, added that "Lightware India operates in a fast growing, emerging market, powering our growth. Lightware offers best-in-class services and vast global experience across multiple industries and domains. Our new office in India will have a key role in our global network of Lightware offices. It will strengthen our ability to drive innovation and growth for our clients in India. India’s talented workforce, a growing domestic market and a positive environment fostered by the local government make this country an attractive destination for us. We will continue to bring the best of our global expertise and experience to accelerate growth and development for our customers and the general public in India."

25G Hybrid Technology: 25G Hybrid Signal Management introduces a completely new concept to the AV industry. Innovative engineering and design has resulted in a unique new technology that allows managing, switching and extending of digital and analogue video, audio, Ethernet, and control with a new and inventive Multilayer technology. Designed to deliver exceptionally high resolution image quality and 24/7 reliability, the 25G Hybrid technology sets a new standard in the professional AV industry.

High Fidelity Signal Management: All of Lightware’s products utilise pixel by pixel signal transmission from A to B. No latency and no compression ensure the signal keeps its original quality. Lightware attains this through such proprietary technologies as Pixel Accurate Reclocking and Single Fibre Technology.

Research and Development: Lightware incorporates many professional features developed by our R+D centre in Budapest. These features are Lightware’s own Intellectual Property and some have now become industry standards for competing digital video products. Lightware products are solely developed and manufactured in the European Union, Hungary.

Trainings and Education: Lightware Visual Engineering is conducting educational seminars designed to provide an insight into the specifics, pitfalls and best practices when integrating the major digital video formats. Lightware trainers and engineers respond to questions, and show a deep insight behind the digital standards.

Pro-series matrix routers: The technology built into our Pro-series DVI matrix routers breaks many standard limitations; allowing 60 meters DVI cable on input, Advanced EDID Management, Pixel Accurate Reclocking, LAN, RS-232, RS-422 control, fibre cable powering and more. All signals from Single-Link to the highest resolution Dual-Link DVI can be managed by Lightware Pro-series routers which deliver the ultimate performance in signal conditioning, retransmission and easy system integration.

Hybrid Modular Design: Lightware’s MX series router frames and I/O board family incorporate broad signal compatibility, precise switching, control, troubleshooting and signal measurement. AV professionals can choose various I/O sizes, video signal types and transport media options thanks to our Hybrid Modular Design. The MX series matrix backplanes are able to switch 12.8 Gigabit per second data rates allowing transportation of HDMI 1.4, 4K UHD, 3D and DisplayPort 1.1 video signals.

Lightware is headquartered in Budapest, Hungary.

Promise of high resolution and high storage at BroadcastAsia 2016

At BroadcastAsia2016 in Singapore, earlier this year, Promise Technology showcases its enhanced portfolio of products for professionals creating high resolution video and rich media content. It also demonstrated a range of solutions that bring blazing speed to the entire rich media workflow, from ingest and editing, to delivery and long term archiving.

Highlights of Promise’s display included new solutions built around the Thunderbolt 3™ interface, Pegasus3 and SANLink3, in addition to the new VTrak E5000 16G Fibre Channel storage array, and VTrak A5000 shared SAN appliance.

Promise featured solutions for single editors to large post-production houses, in demonstrations dedicated for each stage of the rich media workflow. Pegasus3 was highlighted in the ‘Ingesting’ workstation, where the power of Thunderbolt 3, which offers 40 Gbps (twice the bandwidth of its predecessor, Thunderbolt 2) in full display. The ‘Editing’ demonstration included the Promise Vess R2600 PRO, which is ideal for mid-sized businesses, requiring a rich media NAS solution that delivers enterprise RAID (redundant array of independent disk reliability) and performance, and SANLink3 which allows blazing fast data speeds to be realized from Thunderbolt 3 enabled workstations and laptops.

For large post-production studios, Promise had on offer the new 16G Fibre Channel VTrak A5000 shared SAN appliance, with the VTrak E5000 array and VTrak J5000 12G SAS JBOD expansion unit, as part of its ‘Delivery’ and ‘Long Term Archiving’ demonstrations. The new enterprise solutions deliver outstanding performance for multi-user workflows with high resolution (4K, 5K, 6K, 8K) footage for Post-Production and Broadcasting, House of Worship, Sports and Education environments.

“Promise designs blazingly fast post-production tools that simplify and accelerate the workflow of creative professionals,” said HC Chang, General Manager and COO, Promise Technology APAC (excluding China).

Promise demonstrated its range of solutions, including its complete shared storage solution featuring Thunderbolt 3 for 4K environments through its Pegasus3, SANLink 3 and VTrak A-Class offerings.

Soon after BroadcastAsia, the company announced that Apollo Cloud, its first consumer product, would now available for purchase at Apple stores and Apple.com. Apollo Cloud is a personal cloud appliance and app that gives users and their circles full control over storing and accessing digital content, from their own private space. Unlike other contemporary market products, Apollo Cloud is the first to let families, small business, home offices, or work groups easily, and privately store and share their digital content.

The immense volume of photos, videos and files quickly eating up space on devices means that managing data on phones, tablets and laptops is increasingly complicated. As technology evolves, files increase in size and number. With Apollo Cloud, users get four terabytes to manage, store, and share data both securely and privately, from wherever they happen to be, via iOS and other mobile devices, Macs and PCs. Apollo Cloud can be used by a group of up to 10 members, each with full sharing control over their own digital files. Apollo Cloud can save and share more than 440 hours of HD video, 220,000 photos and half a million songs.

It is a small device, with no recurring fees. Said James Lee, CEO, Promise Technology, “People are inundated with data, and they need a solution that offers convenient access and file sharing, without being weighed down by limitations, or having to sacrifice privacy and security. Apollo Cloud solves these storage headaches and brings customers an easy to use personal cloud appliance that offers security, flexibility, and affordability.”

Apollo Cloud was initially available in: Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA. Later, in August, new features were added and distribution expanded, with a free software upgrade that includes Time Machine® support, among other new features.

With the new software upgrade, all Apollo owners and members can use their Apollo Cloud as a Time Machine® disk, to store data from iPhones, iPads and Macs, securely and privately. The software upgrade includes other new features available to all Apollo Cloud users:

·        Search and sorting functions

·        Manage multiple Apollo Cloud devices with a single account

·        Password encryption of shared public links to data stored on Apollo Cloud

·        Expanded Distribution Worldwide

Apollo Cloud is now available at Apple stores worldwide and online, and is also available through Promise’s channel partners. In North America, Apollo Cloud is now also available through B&H Photo & Electronics, one of the largest photo and video equipment stores in the U.S.

About Promise Technology Inc.

Promise Technology is a global leader, with 28 years of experience in the storage industry. It was established in Taiwan, and currently has a major base in the USA.

Among its overseas branches is one in Mumbai, India, named Promise India, with Yogesh Sardana as Sales Manager. Sardana. Sardana, who was with Quantum and Tata Elxsi earlier, has completed two years with the company.

Siraj Syed reviews The Queen of Katwe: Chess champion comes from Ugandan slums

Madina Nalwanga, the Ugandan teenager who plays the titular role in The Queen of Katwe, was asked after the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) what she would like to do next. She replied, “I want to go back to school. And I want to continue with acting and also dancing.” Madina’s native tongue is Luganda, and she had to work very hard to speak the English required for the film. Likewise, the debutant actress would have had to get familiar with the characteristics of the medium, dance being the closest she had come to performing. On the other hand, Mira Nair, the Orissa-born, Delhi-raised Uganda-settled Indian film-maker is too much of a veteran, and making a biopic on the incredible story of a chess prodigy who rose from the slums of the under-developed African nation to grab international headlines, should have proved a routine exercise. Sadly, there are too many wrong moves in the film that do no credit to the much-lauded maker.

It’s been a phased project. First we had an article on Phiona Mutesi, then a book, then a short documentary and finally a docu-feature. Writes Kathleen Edwards, on Amazon, “Phiona Mutesi is one of the best chess players on earth. At 11, she was her country's junior champion, at 15 a national champion. Soon after, she travelled to Russia to participate in the Chess Olympiad, the most prestigious event in the Chess world. Only in her teens, she sat across the board from experts several years older, yet she played with an intensity and instinct that had more experience players struggling to keep the upper hand - and not always succeeding.

Her command of the game at such a young age certainly had people talking. Certainly she must have the best of coaches, the best education, and the best backing to be as good as she is. Certainly the best chess players have the best pedigree. Certainly...not.

Phiona Mutesi is from Uganda, a country at the bottom of the pecking order of African nations. And she lives at the bottom of the pecking order of Uganda itself. She's a child of Katwe - one of the worst slums in the world.

The Queen of Katwe, by Tim Crothers, former Senior Sports writer at Sports Illustrated, is a gritty inspiration. Crothers introduces us to a culture where human life is cheap. Where life, moment to moment, is not guaranteed. Where a teen girl's goal is to give herself to a man, or more than one man, in order to secure food and shelter - and hopefully support for children, when she gets pregnant. But in a country rampant with AIDs, it's not uncommon for that male support to succumb to the disease and leave his offspring homeless and scraping for food. This was the life that Phiona was born into. A world of mind-numbing destitution and hopelessness.

But while Phiona and other children like her fought to survive in the squalor that is Katwe, there were people who were determined to bring hope. People like Robert Katende who grew up in Katwe and fought his way out. A man of strong faith and a passion, to mentor and love the kids who found their way to the Sports Outreach Mission (SIM) every day, to get a bowl of porridge and learn chess.

The Queen of Katwe is an important book. We tend to forget how most of the world lives. Phiona's story is a moving reminder that every life holds value, and we have the opportunity to influence the endgame.”

J.R. Caldwell, “My copy of The Queen of Katwe (pronounced kaat-way) is amazing. I have met both Phiona and Robert and had them sign the book. I have played chess with Phiona and (of course) she beat me. She speaks Lugandan. In her language, there is no word for chess. Phiona had an amazing talent for it and the main reason her mother let Phiona go to the chess program is that they were giving them free food. In Katwe, it is total devastation. children care for children and there could be 5 people on one mattress.”

Tendo Nagenda, Walt Disney Studios' senior creative executive and of Ugandan descent, developed the project, along with ESPN Films, into production. With executive approval from studio president Sean Bailey, Nagenda went to visit Mira Nair at her Ugandan home. Nair was captivated by the story, stating, "I have always been surrounded by these local stories but hadn’t done anything in Uganda since 1991. I love any story about people who make something from what appears to be nothing." Nair then invited screen-writer William Wheeler to come to Kampala to conduct interviews with the principal figures, as a foundation for a screenplay.

Wheeler studied in the Playwrights Horizon program at NYU, where he immersed himself in classical drama— something he emphatically recommends for aspiring screenwriters.

Upon graduation from NYU, Wheeler’s thesis script, The Prime Gig, carried him to the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters Lab, where he is now a mentor/teacher. Wheeler wrote The Hoax, for director Lasse Hallstrom and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, about Pakistan.

“That was a project that was driven by Mira, really. She had somehow gotten hold of a script I’d written many years earlier, and thought, maybe, I was the writer for Fundamentalist. She sent me the book to see what I thought. We met. We hit it off. I first came on that project to just help develop it a little from the book it was based on, into this feature film, but it turned into almost two years. The script Mira read was called Bodyguard of Lies. It was a World War II spy piece about this real guy, a double agent, Juan Pujol. I wrote that in, say, 2002. She read it 10 years later!” She came back to Wheeler for The Queen of Katwe.

“I’m a white dude. I don’t really play chess. So even I wasn’t sure I was the right guy, but I was desperately curious and interested to try. I spent a couple of weeks hanging out with the real-life Phiona and Robert and Harriet, and I got more and more comfortable with the cultural differences, which are rarely insurmountable.”

(Wheeler’s mother was a Philadelphia news reporter on television).

(Culled from Writers Guild of America)

Wheeler’s work is undistinguished. While chess and poverty had to be the centrepieces, he might have erred in choosing which parts of the biography to leave out and which to focus on. Also, maybe he could have been able to sustain interest had he chosen to fictionalise the duller parts of the narrative. As it stands, every single trope found in sports biopics in the last 40 years finds place here, with the exception of sabotage and pure villainy. Dialogue is stilted and often unnatural. Phiona’s sister is called Night, and this is not registered at all. Too many pages in the screenplay are allotted to the maize-selling that is Phiona’s daily chore. The varying length of her is cleverly well-explained. Commendably, chess does not over-shadow the human drama.

Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake) now 60, is married to Mahmood Mamdani, a Ugandan (though Bombay-born), for 25 years, and this assignment should have been after her heart. She has delineated female characters with aplomb in many a Mirabai production. A host of things have gone wrong, though. Performances are way below par and often stagey in the first half hour, background music is uneven throughout—too loud in places, missing where it would have helped and over-done where it is not required. Somewhere in the middle, perhaps after an acting workshop, the actors awake and the script gives you a few emotional twists. Nair has not let the fact that her heroine is a great dancer influence her into adding non-essential dances in the story. One little gig suffices.

Madina Nalwanga as Phiona Mutesi is a delight, and one reason why you could watch the film. The casting search for ‘Phiona’ took six months, with nearly 700 girls auditioned. 15-year-old Ugandan dancer Madina in a community dance class. Said Nalwanga, “Lupita, she really helped me, like, to get into the character all the time. I could see her getting ready to be the character and then I copied her. I would copy everything that she does, but in a silent way because I never wanted her to see me doing what she was doing. ... We had tough scenes whereby we have to cry. And it was kind of hard to me to cry, but I saw her getting ready — she was exercising all the time.”

Lupita is of course Nyong'o, who plays Phiona’s mother. “I was loosening my jaw, like you know, with my hands. ... She came up to me and she asked me what I was doing and why, and I told her. I was loosening my jaw. ... Sometimes when you're nervous or something like that, your jaw gets caught up and then you can't really enunciate. Then she walked away, and then shortly after that I walked by the set when she was doing a scene without me and between takes she was loosening her jaw. Very sweet.” Lupita (12 Years a Slave, Star Wars) is reason number 2 why you could watch the film. She and Madina almost rescue the film, and the performances must be rated far above the merits of the film itself. David Oyelowo as Robert Katende Rise of the (Planet of the Apes, Jack Reacher, Interstellar) gets into his own as the film progresses.

Others in the cast are Martin Kabanza as Mugabi Brian, Taryn Kyaze as Night, Ivan Jacobo as Young Richard, Nicolas Levesque as Older Richard, Ronald Ssemaganda as Ivan

Ethan Nazario Lubega as Benjamin, Nikita Waligwa as Gloria, Edgar Kanyike as Joseph and Esther Tebandeke as Sara Katende.

If you do see the film, stay back for the end credits roll.

Rating: **

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4l3-_yub5A

Short documentary by ESPN:

Excerpt from the prologue of the book

She wins the decisive game, but she has no idea what it means.

Nobody has told her what’s at stake, so she just plays, like she

always does. She has no idea she has qualified to compete at the

Olympiad. No idea what the Olympiad is. No idea that her qualifying

means that in a few months she will fly to the city of Khanty-Mansiysk

in remote central Russia. No idea where Russia even is. When she learns

all of this, she asks only one question: “Is it cold there?”

She travels to the Olympiad with nine teammates, all of them a

decade older, in their twenties, and even though she has known many

of them for a while and journeys by their side for 27 hours across the

globe to Siberia, none of her teammates really have any idea where

she is from or where she aspires to go, because Phiona Mutesi is from

someplace where girls like her don’t talk about that.

19th sept. 2010

Dear mum,

I went to the airport. I was very happy to go to the airport. this was

only my second time to leave my home. When I riched to the airport I was

some how scared because I was going to play the best chess players in the

world. So I waved to my friends and my brothers. Some of them cried

because they were going to miss me and I had to go. so they wished me

agood luck. They told me that they will pray for me. So we board on europlane

to go from Uganda to Kenya. The Europlane flew up the sky. I saw

clouds looking niece. This time I thought that I was may be in heaven. I

asked God to protect me. because who am I to fly to the europlane. so it

was Gods power. We riched in kenya very well. I was very tired and they

gave me acake it was like abread. I had never tested that before but it was

very sweat and I liked it.

When we boad an europlane to Dubai it was very big. So they served

us very many eats. I was very hungry. I prayed to God to protect us very

well. and he did so. and we riched very well. What I surprised of people

which I went with. They were like my parents. they treated me well and

my coach treating me as if I was his babby. What I never expected before.

That was my first day.

When we riched in Dubai things were different. every was on his

own. After then we board the last europlane to take us in Roncha. we

prayed so that we rich well. An europlane flew. This time we were along

distance from the ground. I think this time I was nearly to tutch on

heaven. the clouds were looking niece. then they served me food which I

not seen and I was not used to that food. I felt bad. wanted to vomite. So

we riched very well. We were welcomed at the airport.

Then they gave us rooms.

The opening ceremony at the 2010 Chess Olympiad takes place

in an ice arena. Phiona has never seen ice. There are lasers and woolly

mammoths and dancers inside bubbles and people costumed as chess

pieces, queens and bishops and pawns, marching around on a giant

chessboard atop the ice. Phiona watches it all unfold with her hands

cupping her cheeks as if in a wonderland. She asks if this happens every

night in this place and she is told, no, that the arena normally serves as

a home for hockey, concerts, the circus. Phiona has never heard of any

of those things.

Queen of Katwe Sports Outreach Mission (SOM)

The Chess Academy and Mentoring Center began in the slums of Kampala, Uganda when SOM soccer coach, Robert Katende, noticed children watching from the sidelines of soccer matches he had organized. Robert started with only five children and now has over 300 who gather daily across five separate slum locations.

Siraj Syed reviews Tutak Tutak Tutiya: Horromedyance

What binds the Tutak Tutak Tutiya team is their south Indian connection. Most of the actors are either native to the lower regions of the country or got their breaks in films made there, before moving to their base to Mumbai. In addition, the story and direction are also credited to names that live there. It is a tri-lingual film though, milking the opportunity, and hoping to kill three birds with one stone. So, you have Devi in Tamil and Abhinetri in Telugu. After seeing the film, both the non-Hindi titles seem appropriate. In Hindi, what in heaven’s name made them title it Tutak Tutak Tutiya? Rarely has a title been so disingenuously chosen.

‘Tutak tutak tutak tutiyaan, Hey Jamaalo’ is a song by Malkit Singh, the 54 year-old UK-based Punjabi singer. He is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest selling bhangra solo artiste of all time, with sales of over 4.9 million records in his 20-year career. The song is the fastest-selling and most successful bhangra song of all time and has been incorporated in several Hindi films, as direct or lifted versions. Malkit has said that words are nonsense verse. Maybe the word Jamaalo is a reference to a woman by the name of Jamaalo, a proper noun. Some mischievous minds try and find a pun in tutiyaan, after dropping the ‘n’ at the end. There is nothing whatsoever to justify lifting this phrase as the title of the film.

Among the songs, ‘Tutak tutak’ had to feature, albeit in a medley version that also has ‘Kali teri choti te’, another cult favourite, often sung at Punjabi weddings. A modified version was a runaway hit after being placed in a Hindi film 25 years ago. Asa Singh ‘Mastana’, who died 1999, was the singer who immortalised it. His original went ‘Kali teri gut te’. Both are irresistible foot-tappers. Composers Sajid-Wajid pay tribute to legendary music-director duo Shankar-Jaikishan, by re-arranging ‘Aiyaya karoon main kya, Suku Suku’ (Mohammed Rafi, Junglee, 1961). The 136-minute film has a total of 29 minutes allotted to songs, and that, in itself, is not a problem, considering you have Prabhu Deva (rubber-man) as the lead actor, and out-to-prove I can dance too Tamannaah Bhatia and Sonu Sood. Problem is, the film is a comedy-horror, or a horror-comedy, but ends-up on the dance floor, a horror-comedy-dance alloy, inventing a new classification: horromedance.

Tutak Tutak Tutiya is the story of Krishna, a junior executive working in Mumbai, whose ambition in life is to marry an ultra modern girl. He has been rejected 30 times, but still hopes to win over a suitable girl. Unfortunately, he is summoned to his village in Coimbatore (TamilNadu, south India) to be at the bedside of his seriously ill grand-mother. There, much against his wishes, he ends up marrying a village girl, Devi, whose father is from the south but mother is Hindi-speaking. He brings her to Mumbai, but out of embarrassment at having married a village belle, he hides the news of his marriage, and moves into new apartment. After a few days, he starts noticing her behaving strangely and slowly realises that she is possessed by a spirit, whose unrealised ambition is to become an actress, and she starts using his wife’s body to fulfil her dream.

A.L. Vijay makes his Telugu and Hindi directorial debut, billing himself as only Vijay. He is part writer too. Ridden with bloomers, the script is a mish-mash. Jokes are mostly stale and puerile. Chintan Gandhi’s Hindi dialogue shows little command over language and nuances. As director, he gropes along. Literal finger-pointing, time-tested South India gesture, is a standard ploy that uses its surprise element by the time the surprise arrives. Cameos by Esha Gupta and Farah Khan are totally wasted. Thankfully, the special effects in the house, involving moving walls and doors, and a floating Tamannaah, are well-executed and judiciously handled.

For a man who made his debut in 1993, and earned the moniker of Indian Michael Jackson, Prabhu Deva (Kaadalan, Agni Varsha, ABCD, ABCD 2) has hardly aged, and the bones are still flexible as ever. His comic timing is good, his Hindi not so. The latter defect is parried by casting him as Coimbatore boy. Inside references to his body of work maybe lost on most viewers, but not tone fact that he is able to both retain public interest in his trade-mark moves, and add a few new ones. (He is one of the choreographers of the film). Gross over-acting and gazing vacuously are not what he should be asked to do, though. Producer of the Hindi version, Sonu Sood, (Yuva, Singh is King, Dabangg, Jodha Akbar, Shootout at Wadala) came into Hindi cinema through the southern route. He is cast as the reigning megastar, Raj Khanna. Six packs in six places adorn his physique, you are reminded more than once, and whaddya know? He can dance and sing too, never mind the parodying he resorts to, in one of the songs.

Tamannaah Bhatia, from South too, (Himmatwala, Humshakals, Entertainers, Bahubali) has been under the scanner for her emotive abilities. Some respite is well-earned in this outing. To make things easier, she is made walk-around in a trance for a number of shots; no histrionics required. Choreographers and Ms. Bhatia must have shaken many a leg to get the results on display. Vivacious and charged, she does ignite the dance floor. Andhra Pradesh-born Murali Sharma (ADCD 2, Wazir, Jai Gangajal) is usually cast in negative or conniving roles, partly due to his irregular face. He’s the slimy agent for superstar Sood here. Showing no signs of getting intimidated, he makes the most of the stereo-typical, half-written part. Amiable Amy Jackson (Ekk Deewana Tha, Singh is Bliing, Freaky Ali) another gift from the South, a British beauty Princess, is a sight for sore eyes. Esha Gupta (Raaz 3D, Humshakals, Baby) looks as foreign as Amy, but has a tiny little role, coming in at the end.

You are forced to wonder why is it necessary to keep logic at bay, and punctuate the narrative with songs, alternating with eardrum-blasting background score, to generate comedy and horror. But then you remember that comedy-writing is serious business, and not an easy genre to tackle, by any means.

Rating: **

Trailer: https://youtu.be/d6C9vO6YRm8

Siraj Syed reviews Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: Ymbrynes and the Deadly Hollows

Bookish and Burtonish, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children scores on many counts: good casting, wide span, consistent allegorical references and even pace. In print, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children has sold millions of copies, been translated into 40 languages, and has spent more than two years on the New York Times best-seller list. It has also been named one of "100 Young Adult Books to Read in a Lifetime" by Amazon.com. So, had it not been filmed, the obvious question would have been, “Why not?”

Sixteen-year-old Florida resident Jacob "Jake" Portman (Asa Butterfield)’s grand-father Abraham "Abe" Portman (Terrence Stamp), who had been telling him stories about his childhood, battling gruesome monsters and living in a home for unique children headed by the elusive Miss Peregrine, meets a horrific death. Jake discovers that his grandfather's stories are real and factual, sets off on a journey to a remote island off the coast of Wales, along with his father, Franklin (Chris O'Dowd), where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here—one of whom was his own grandfather—were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

As he arrives, he is greeted by Miss Peregrine (Eva Green), who explains that they live in a remote home within a time loop. Jake learns that there was another child named Victor Buntley (Louis Davinson) who lived at the home until he was killed by a monstrous creature known as a Hollowgast, or "Hollow", part of a group being led by a man named Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson). Barron, a Wight, is trying to recuperate his controversial experiment (that turned him and his comrades into Wights) again by kidnapping the guardians of Peculiar Children known as "Ymbrynes" (heard as ‘embranes’ on the sound-track), capable of turning into peregrine falcons, such as Miss Peregrine, from their time loops and consuming the eyes of their children, to regain human appearances. At the end of the day, Emma Bloom (Ella Purnell), one of the Peculiar Children (which is an aerokinetic teenager who can manipulate air and create liquid bubbles), who also developed a crush on Jake walks him to the cave from whence he came, just as another Ymbryne, Miss Avocet (Judi Dench), flies into them.

Ransom Riggs is the author of the 2011 book, and here is his intro, in his own words. “For five years, I had a gig as a daily blogger for mentalfloss.com, and I also wrote for their magazine, contributed to a few books they published through Harper Collins, and wrote for a couple of other publications here and there, as well. All of which turned into an opportunity to do some work for a small publisher, who knew my editors at mentalfloss. That was Quirk Books, who asked me if I was interested in writing a book about Sherlock Holmes for them. I jumped at the opportunity. That was The Sherlock Holmes Handbook. Next came Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, born out of my love for vintage photography and Bizarro stories, and I never looked back. I still love movies and I still make short films and one day I will make a feature -- when the time and the material are right. These days, though, I'm loving being a novelist, a photo collector, and an occasional short film-maker. I live in Los Angeles with my wife, the lovely and talented Tahereh Mafi -- who is also a writer, and if you haven't read her lovely and exciting Shatter Me books you're missing out -- and we type and travel and drink tea together and it's really quite wonderful.”

Riggs’ novel has been adapted for the screen by Jane Goldman (X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Kingsman: The Secret Service). Although it is an American novel, the film incarnation is British and continental. Restricting the confrontation scenes to the last quarter of the unfolding is a decision that works for the film, sustaining interest till the end of the 127 minutes it stays on screen. It is an expansion of the Young Adult demographics to a broader, more inclusive canvas, which might is a gamble, worth exploring though.         

Bearing all the insignias of his style, Tim Burton (Batman Returns, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, Big Eyes) the film manages to re-create the ambience of a modern, young adult novel, with a balanced blend of acting stars and newcomers. He is not swayed by the temptation to let the big names take over, and lets the story dictate the footage allocation. Even in incredible situations, he manages to win over audiences’ suspension of disbelief. Some oversights and continuity issues are noticed; none that cannot be overlooked.

Eva Green (Casino Royale Vesper Lynd, 300: Rise of an Empire, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For) remains evergreen and a headmistress to kill for. Terence Stamp (Superman, Star Wars, Valkyrie) is quietly intense and can easily pass of as a persecuted Jew, as is implied. Judi Dench is probably an indulgent bit of casting. Nevertheless, she is too much of a veteran to get a foot wrong. Asa Butterfield is highly convincing. Ella Purnell as Emma Bloom, puts in an ‘aero-kinetic’ performance.

Samuel L. Jackson as Mr. Barron, the leader of the Wights, is himself, and different, within the confines of villainy. The hair helps in making him stand apart. Also, in a tale full of allegory about Nazis and super-villains, a black man as the despot is an interesting choice. (One of his disguises is the lady psychiatrist, Dr. Golan, who brainwashes the Portmans into setting off on the mission, to help Barron follow them and trace the Peregrine school). Rupert Everett (The Madness of King George, Shakespeare in Love, Shrek sequels) as an ornithologist, another disguise of Mr. Barron's, is passable, with just a couple of scenes. Chris O'Dowd (Festival, Bridesmaids, Thor: The Dark World) has a meaty role, acquitting himself well.

And it’s time now to meet the rest of the Peculiar children.

Lauren McCrostie as Olive Abroholos Elephanta, a pyrokinetic teenager.

Cameron King as Millard Nullings, an invisible boy (who has to around naked, if he does not want to be seen).

Pixie Davies as Bronwyn Buntley, a super-strong child.

Georgia Pemberton as Fiona Frauenfeld, a young girl who can control and maintain plants, and grows huge carrots on demand.

Finlay MacMillan as Enoch O'Connor, a boy who can resurrect those dead and bring to life unanimated objects, for a limited time.

Milo Parker as Hugh Apiston, a boy with bees in his stomach that he can thrust out at will.

Raffiella Chapman as Claire Densmore, a young girl with an extra mouth hidden behind her head, which can be both shocking and a boon.

Hayden Keeler-Stone as Horace Somusson, a boy with prophetic dreams.

Joseph and Thomas Odwell as the Twins, masked twin boys, who are gorgons.

Louis Davison as Victor Buntley, the late brother of Bronwyn Buntley, who died to a Hollow prior to the film.

Incidentally, try and look-up words ending in ‘grine’, or ‘uliar’!

You’ll find only two: peregrine and peculiar. Now if that is not peculiar, what is?

Rating: ***1/2

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV_IhWE4LP0

Imagine this: You decide to adapt an Israeli prisoner of war drama for Indian television audiences, and a few weeks before you are scheduled to go on air, there are serious engagements along the country’s border! What is a tragedy for the families of the soldiers killed in action may transform into large scale interest in the serial. POW (Bandi Yuddh Ke, in Hindi, a literal translation) is a STARPLUS production, based on the Israeli hit, Hatufim (literally ‘kidnapped’), written produced and directed by Gideon ‘Gidi’ Raff, who is currently directing the Priyanka Chopra—starrer, Quantico. An American version is also being aired, titled Homeland.

Raff revealed, "A lot of the changes came down to differences between the two countries. In Israel, we negotiate with terrorists to get prisoners released. The US don't, so one of the prisoners, Brody, had to be freed in a military operation. In Hatufim, I wanted to show broken soldiers, broken masculinity; whereas in Homeland, Brody comes back buffer, a poster boy." Initially shot as a 10-episode story, and aired in 2009. It got extremely popular, and returned the next season, to run until 2012.

As the locale moves to South Asia, the countries at conflict are India and Pakistan, and it is the Kargil face-off that happened, uncannily, in1999. Two young Indian personnel end up in Pakistani custody, and when they return 17 years later, everything has changed beyond recognition: their wives, their families and they, themselves. The serial is more about the personal and emotional price these characters pay, rather than victory or defeat in the battlefront. In feel, Bandi Yuddh Ke is closer to Hatufim than Homeland.

Director Nikkhil Advani (Kal Ho Na Ho, D-Day, Airlift) ventures into the small screen realm with this patriotic-reflective story, written for the Indian version by four writers--Aseem Arora, Aniruddha Guha, Gauravv  K. Chawla and Eisha Chopra. The main actors are Sandhya Mridul (Force, Ragini MMS 2, Angry Indian Goddesses), Satyadeep Misra (No One Killed Jessica, Ferrari Ki Sawari, Bombay Velvet), Amrita Puri (Aisha, Blood Money, Kai Po Che!), Purab Kohli (Rock On, Jal, Airlift), Manish Chaudhuri (Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, Band Baaja Baraat,  Mickey Virus, Bombay Velvet), Arun Bali (playing a Sikh/Sardaar for the umpteenth time). Tipped to be a 125 episode show, it has been in pipeline since 2014, and 106 days of shooting had been completed by October 7, 2016.

Telecast commences 14 October.

Trailer: http://www.hotstar.com/tv/pow-bandi-yuddh-ke/pow-bandi-yuddh-ke-trailer/1000152402

Star India has been around the Indian media landscape for over two decades and today is one of the country’s leading media conglomerates, reaching approximately 650 million viewers a month, across India, and more than 100 other countries. Star generates 20,000 hours of content every year, and broadcasts 40+ channels in 8 different languages, reaching 9 out of 10 Cable &Satellite TV homes in India.

The network’s entertainment channel portfolio includes Star Gold, Channel V, Star World, Star Movies, Star Utsav, Life OK, Movies OK and Star Plus, India's No. 1 Hindi General Entertainment Channel. It is also present in the Indian movie production and distribution space, through Fox Star Studios, an affiliate joint venture company.

Star India is a fully owned subsidiary of 21st Century Fox.

CommunicAsia 2016: Processing 5.2 Gb/sec--Huawei leads innovation  

At the Asia ICT Innovation Forum 2016 organised by Singapore Exhibition Services, and Huawei, as the strategic partner, attended by over 500 regional ministerial representatives, internationally renowned economists and global industry thought leaders and professionals, Huawei outlined its roadmap to accelerate ICT transformation to enable more people in Asia Pacific to reap the benefits of ICT and move towards a Better Connected World. To achieve technological and economic growth, countries must accelerate their digitisation process through open collaboration with stakeholders across the ICT ecosystem. Huawei also outlined the need for countries to measure and track their digitisation development, so as to steer the focus of ICT development roadmaps. The Forum was organised in conjunction with CommunuicAsia 2016.

“Today, building a Better Connected World has become the common aspiration of our entire industry. We are committed to the value propositions of Ubiquitous Broadband, Agile Innovation, and Inspired Experience and fully connecting people to people, people to things, and things to things,” said Zhou Jianjun, President of Carrier Business, Huawei Southern Pacific.

Consumers are increasingly expecting rich and inspiring experiences when interacting with content. For example, virtual reality (VR) has been applied in many areas, including gaming, shopping, tourism, and training. To deliver a perfect virtual reality experience, VR needs to process about 5.2 gigabytes of data every second, and have a latency of less than 20 milliseconds. To that end, ubiquitous ultra-broadband networks, with zero wait time and inspired experiences, are needed, which will drive constant changes and innovation of networks, and provide tremendous opportunities for industry development.

A Better Connected World will be a wellspring of opportunities for industries. These will include the 100-billion-dollar video industry, the one-trillion-dollar market for cloud transformation in enterprise IT, and the Internet of Things (IoT) industry, whose user base is expected to grow by a factor of 10.  

The Asia ICT Innovation Forum is the largest ICT trade event in the region, where Huawei showcases latest innovations and solutions together with 50 partners off-site. Visitors were able to design a unique fashion piece in virtual reality that may well be how the design process may turn out in the future. A Dancing Robot was brought on-site to interact and entertain with visitors.

(L-R) Lim Chee Siong - CMO of Huawei Southern Pacific, Zhou Jianjun – President of Carrier Business, Huawei Southern Pacific, Azhar HJ Ahmad - Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications, Brunei, Lindy Wee – Director of Singapore Exhibition Services, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim – Minister of Communications and Information, Singapore, Dato’ llango Kamruppannan – High Commissioner-Designate of Malaysia to Singapore and Lei Hui – CEO of Huawei Singapore. (Photo credit: Huawei.)

Huawei

Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider that has 170,000 employees worldwide, and its innovative ICT solutions, products and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over one-third of the world's population. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company, fully owned by its employees.

Siraj Syed reviews Fuddu: Fuddy Duddy Cuddy in the Nuddy

You wouldn’t use this f word if you called yourself a gentleman. In their wisdom, the makers of this misbegotten enterprise have named it Fuddu. Heaven knows why. I cannot recall even one occasion in the film when the word as mouthed, probably because the locale is Mumbai and the characters are all from Varanasi, where the culture is anything but Punjabi. Some Punjabis, and maybe Delhi-ites, who revel in the use of colourful language, may chuckle on reading the name, and move on to hurl a similar, genitalia-based adjective. Others, not endowed with such a large vocabulary, might cringe, never mind that fu is followed by ddu, and not ... Critics, who are the purveyors of film content and quality advisories, have to grin and bear it, as usual.  Not just the title, the whole film.

Official synopsis: Fuddu is an emotional turmoil faced by a boy who has just arrived from Banaras (Varanasi) to Mumbai. He is disturbed to see how so many people live in cramped houses. After his marriage, he finds it difficult to accept the reality as to how an entire family shares only one room. His entire world tilts upside down when his wife, whom he had loved the most, leaves him for reasons which are untrue. His family too discards him and disrespects him. Will he succeed in getting his love back in his life? Will he succeed in getting back the respect from his family who had once loved him a lot? To get the answers to these questions do come and watch our emotional film with a pinch of humour.

Pinch of humour? Rolling in the aisles is more like it. Ever heard of bathos as the source of comedy? No, not black comedy, normal comedy! Welcome to Fuddu.

The real story: Mohan comes to find a job in Mumbai. He is unaware that his two brothers, with their wives and children, live in a chawl (one room tenement). One of the brothers is a ‘balloon’ salesman (glorified epithet for condoms). I cannot recall what the eldest does for a living. Mohan gets a job in sales too, selling female underwear. All his colleagues are crackpots, particularly his boss and a colleague called Sam. Sam decides to introduce his virgin junior to sex, by taking him along to a brothel, where a spunky whore asks him to put on a cap (condom). He finds a hat lying there, and promptly dons it! When told that cap is slang for rubber, he brings out a packet of the real stuff. Okay. Now jump cut to Mohan’s family getting him married less than a month after he starts working. But the marriage is not consummated for days...weeks. Is he gay? Doesn’t he like her? No such problem. He just cannot get going, what with the two other couples within earshot and eyeshot! Wife thinks he is impotent (he’s not). Everybody feels the same, and father-in-law whisks away the daughter to her mayka (parental/mother’s home).

Written by Pawan Kumar Sharma (debut), the premise is valid and relevant. For 70 years or more, a humungous number of people live in cramped spaces, since real estate prices in Mumbai are sky-high. Millions have grown up watching their family members, including parents, and grand-parents, indulging in activity that they would not be allowed to witness even on screen until they turned 18. Some films have addressed the issue in the past, with subtlety and under-statement. Sharma takes the crude, rude, crassitude-laden route, and his protagonist is kitsch of a sassy go-getter and a Fuddu. The least obscene, and the only funny gag, is one wherein Mohan falls for the usual male toilet prank, and calls the number of ‘Kareena’ (sexy Indian film-star) scribbled on the wall. It turns out be Kareena Patil, a Police Constable.

Sunil Subramani (debut, assisted Anurag Basu for 20 years, in films like Gangster and Barfi) is given the ‘credit’ for direction. As if that is not enough of a cross to bear, one report said the film’s making was supervised by Basu himself! Back to basics, Sunil. Yes, we know it is a first film for him, and for most of the team. It is also clear that it was made on a G-string budget (I thought was supposed to be shoe-string, wasn’t it?) and has taken 3-4 years to make it to screens. No sympathy is deserved, on any count. Technical flaws, beginning with cinematography, editing and use of background score, are too numerous to list. On second thought, spare a thought for Shrikant Kelkar, the editor! Obvious mess ups in taking and angles have been salvaged, to make some sense. Of course one is hypothecating, yet there just must be a caché of found footage on a hard drive that he controlled, alternated and deleted.

Only redeeming factors in the film are songs, and some performances. Songs are composed by Rana Mazumder and Sumeet Bellary, with background score by Sumeet Bellary. Lyrics come from the pens of Satya Khare, Rajeev Bali, Sharad Tripathi, Panchi (a typo, probably; Panchhi, meaning bird, is more like it; Panchi has no meaning) and Arbind. ‘Tu zaroorat naheen tu zaroori hai’ (clever line, taking liberties with language), featuring Sharman Joshi and Sunny Leone, is sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Gandharv Sachdev. It is a music video, and leaps out after the film is over, like a denouement. Classy in execution, the song indulgently plays with a lot of water and the two contoured and sinewy anatomies, almost as if to apologise for what preceded it.

Debutant Shubham sticks to his brief faithfully, and never does one sense a modicum of insincerity in his portrayal, even in the most awkward of situations. Anybody who can do so in this film has a bright future. Swati Kapoor (TV, plays the wife) remains flat and gropes around to find her bearings. Pritosh Sand (Monsoon Wedding, Saathiya, Force, Shahid) fits the persona of the big brother, overdoing the shouting bit, albeit at the director’s behest. Shalini Arora (sister-in-law, TV) has a couple of scenes, and passes muster. Pradeep Gupta as the Boss is supremely confident and revolting in equal measure. Is he the producer? That would explain the confidence part. Vikki/Vicky Ahuja (Wednesday, Force, Jal) is the middle brother, and acts well. Good work by the actress playing the prostitute and bad hamming by the guy who plays Sam. Gauhar Khan (Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, Game, Ishaqzaade) makes an item song appearance. Top stars Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif are acknowledged in the credit tiles. Sources reveal that they are not on screen but have been used in the promotion material.

Don’t confuse this Fuddu with Fuddu Boys, 2015, which is a short film.

Well, if you do make that mistake, you might actually end up happier.

I haven’t seen FB. So how can I make that statement? Like I said, FB is a short film.

Rating: *

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56YaswUnzDk

Siraj Syed reviews Beiimaan Love: Bed bet

It’s as old as the hills: rich brat leads a virtuous-but-sexy woman down the garden path, discards her like a soiled tissue, roles get reversed, hunter becomes prey, exploited heroine strikes back, lays out an elaborate game-plan, and ‘vengeance is mine’. Would you make a film on this theme with a former porn-star in the central role and her current husband as her comrade-in-arms? Not if you weighed the odds. Yes if you felt that those who come for the skin-show will stay back to admire Sunny Leone’s histrionics, however little maybe on offer.

Of the inestimable count of films that cashed in on this formula, two come to mind right away: the super successful Khoon Bhari Maang, with Rekha at her blazing best, and the damp squib, Bhula Na Dena, where dancing star Helen played a mother with a shady past trying to keep her daughter away from it all. Add to them Cruel Intentions, and here’s a threesome reference material. Beiimaan Love is catchy title, which should translate as Dishonest Love. (All similarity to the moniker of another film called Dangerous Husn—beauty—another film due for release shortly, starring Sunny and Daniel Weber, her husband, is purely so-incidental).

Beiimaan Love is a dark love story about the ‘beiimaani’ (betrayal/dishonesty; stylised spelling) of love. The story revolves around today’s strong, independent woman. It deals with human relationships and values of life. Sunny Leone plays the role of a young, ambitious, hard-working girl, Sunaina, whose world suddenly comes crashing down due to an elaborate seduction plan hatched by the son of her diamond merchant boss (played by Rajiv Verma), playboy Raj Malhotra (Rajniesh Duggall), and some harsh realities of her mother’s dark past life. Instead of breaking under the pressure, she reinvents herself, and returns with vengeance, in a new avatar, as a business tycoon! This time around, though, the tables have turned, with a new twist leading to an unpredictable, hard-hitting culmination!

Right from his beginnings as a film trade journalist, Rajeev Chaudhari has a passionate, multifaceted involvement with Bollywood and the audio-visual world of entertainment- television and cinema. He first worked for the Bombay-based weekly, Film Information, owned by producer Ramraj Nahata. In the late 80s, he moved on from being a film-trade analyst to become a Public Relations Officer, bagging a couple of big production houses, like Dev Anand and Rajshri Productions. In the mid-90s, he ventured into production of TV and film content, and set-up a production company, with his wife Aneesa: Avanti Arts Pvt. Ltd. After two feature films, Gunaah and Karzmukt, of which little is known, he has surfaced with his third feature.

Directed, produced and written by Rajeev Chaudhari (quaint spelling variation of the surname) Beiimaan Love is both amateurish and choppy. An effort is made to inculcate some sense of pace by flash-backs, where none were required. All characters are uni-dimensional. Three feminine parts are always displaying their ample anatomies, under the ‘flimsiest’ of excuses. The fourth one, a former ‘sex-worker’, who remains saree-clad, meets a gory end. We shall, of course, not refer to octogenarian grand-mother and the ‘septugenarian’ maid. All the men are either pre-occupied with trying to bed women, piling up filthy lucre, guzzling alcohol, or snorting drugs. All but...guess who? Daniel Weber, the American diamond baron who dotes over Sunaina. And are we forgetting Sunaina? She might be the stuff virgin whores are made of, but she won’t take it lying down when she discovers that the man who took her virginity was using the sacred moment to settle a bet. Sunaina may almost be a clever Indianisation of Karenjit Kaur Vohra’s ‘nom de porn’, even an ana...gram, for Sunny. Not enough excuse for having her name being shouted out every 30 seconds.

Sunny Leone (Jism 2, Shootout at Wadala, Ragini MMS 2, Ek Paheli Leela, Mastizaade, One Night Stand) still has miles to go before she can lay claim to acting talent. Two expressions are what she can come up with over two hours. Rajniesh Duggall (Dangerous Ishq, Samrat & Co., Ek Paheli Leela) who is really tall (Sunny is really short) and possesses very expressive eyes, with a convincing forlorn look, is wasted. Maybe Sunny wanted him to be paired with her again, after Ek Paheli Leela, because he made way for Daniel Weber to ‘stand-in’ in all the intimate scenes. He looks more Western than Indian, like her.

Daniel Weber, a guitarist and the owner of the couple’s production house, is soon to be seen in the lead role of a film called Dangerous Husn. After Beiimaan Love, Dangerous Dan is likely to pose danger at the box-office. News reports say that Weber whets all scripts and takes all decisions about Sunny’s portrayal on every film. Rajiv Verma, who’s began with television and has been around for 30 years, is all at sea, made to shout around pointlessly.

Chaudhari alleges that he had many reservations about this film, including the presence of buxom bombshell Zeisha Nancy alongside his wife, so some compromises were made, affecting the narrative. He also confided to this reviewer that his first choice was Kangana Ranaut, but she was booked for many months ahead, and he had to settle for Sunny. One can only conjecture whether the first choice would have impacted the end result. A considered guess is, “No.” Yuvraj S. Singh, cast as Raj’s brother-in-law, has been a DJ in more than 100 clubs, with stints in London, Paris and Amsterdam. In his first major role, he shows a penchant for villainy. Avtar Gill cuts a sorry figure, thanks to some intentionally funny dialogue, in an ill-executed scene. Rina Charaniya and Zeisha Nancy do their bits.

Editing by Samar Singh and Sadique Iqbal is often contrived and fails to give the film punctuated pace. Music by Ankit Tiwari, Raghav Sachar, Sanjeev Darshan, Manj Music, Amjad-Nadeem (from the family that gave us Sajid-Wajid) and Asad Khan is tuneful. Veteran Sameer Anjaan and Raqueeb Alam contribute two songs each. Sameer’s ‘Merey peechhey Hindustan hae’ is a high-voltage item-number.

Rating: * ½

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihMSnZKah5k

Films to be screened at Jio MAMI’s Mumbai Film Festival with STAR, 2016, Mumbai, October 20-27

Venues

PVR Icon, Versova, Andheri (Western suburb)

PVR ECX, Andheri

PVR Phoenix, Lower Parel (Central Mumbai)

PVR Phoenix Market City, Kurla (Eastern suburb)

PVR Nirmal Lifestyle, Mulund (Eastern suburb)

Le Reve (former Globus), Bandra West (earlier Western city limit, now part of city)

Regal Cinema, Colaba (South Mumbai, one of the oldest single screen cinemas of the city)

Competition Categories

·         India Gold

·         International Competition

·         Dimensions Mumbai

Non-Competition Categories

·         Country Focus (Turkey)

·         Rendezvous

·         World Cinema

·         India Story

·         Discovering India

·         Restored Classics

·         Excellence in Cinema Awards

·         Marathi Talkies

·         After Dark (horror/sex)

·         The New Medium

·         Half-ticket (children’s films)

·         MAMI Tribute (International & India)

Films

RAJWADE AND SONS

Fiction | Marathi Talkies | India

VAKRATUNDA MAHAKAAYA

Fiction | Marathi Talkies | India

VENTILATOR

Fiction | Marathi Talkies | India

BIOSCOPE

Fiction | Marathi Talkies | India

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Fiction | World Cinema | USA

INDIA IN A DAY

Documentary | Special Section | India

A DEATH IN THE GUNJ

Fiction | Opening Film | India

AGRAHARATHIL KAZHUTHAI

Fiction | The New Medium | India

AUTOHEAD

Fiction | India Gold | India

AHAMAQ (IDIOT)

Fiction | The New Medium | India

COLOURS OF INNOCENCE (SAHAJ PAATHER GAPPO)

Fiction | India Gold | India

CHHATRABHANG

Fiction | The New Medium | India

LADY OF THE LAKE (LOKTAK LAIREMBEE)

Fiction | India Gold | India

EVOLUTION OF A FILIPINO FAMILY

Fiction | The New Medium | Philippines

LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA

Fiction | India Gold | India

FAR FROM VIETNAM

Documentary | The New Medium | France

LOEV

Fiction | India Gold | India

GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE

Fiction | The New Medium | France, Switzerland

RAILWAY CHILDREN

Fiction | India Gold | India

KALPANA

Fiction | The New Medium | India

REMEMBERING KURDI

Documentary | India Gold | India

LIGHT MUSIC

Fiction | The New Medium | UK

THE CINEMA TRAVELLERS

Documentary | India Gold | India

MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA

Documentary | The New Medium | Russia

THE HIDDEN CORNER (HAANDUK)

Fiction | India Gold | India

MING OF HARLEM

Fiction | The New Medium | USA

THE NARROW PATH (OTTAYAAL PAATHA)

Fiction | India Gold | India

NOW!

Documentary | The New Medium | Cuba

YOU ARE MY SUNDAY (TU HAI MERA SUNDAY)

Fiction | India Gold | India

PARALLEL I-IV

Fiction | The New Medium | Germany

4 DAYS IN FRANCE (JOURS DE FRANCE)

Fiction | International Competition | France

SPACE IS THE PLACE

Fiction | The New Medium | USA

ALBA

Fiction | International Competition | Ecuador

VAMPIR CUADECUC

Documentary | The New Medium | Spain

DIAMOND ISLAND

Fiction | International Competition | Cambodia, France

DOG DAYS

Fiction | International Competition | China

ECHO (EHO)

Fiction | International Competition | Germany, Kosovo

EVERYTHING ELSE (TODO LO DEMÁS)

Fiction | International Competition | Mexico, USA

GODLESS (BEZBOG)

Fiction | International Competition | Bulgaria, Denmark, France

HOUNDS OF LOVE

Fiction | International Competition | Australia

OSCURO ANIMAL

Fiction | International Competition | Colombia

SAND STORM (SUFAT CHOL)

Fiction | International Competition | Israel

SHAMBLES (MAUDITE POUTINE)

Fiction | International Competition | Canada

THE LAND OF THE ENLIGHTENED

Documentary | International Competition | Belgium, Ireland

WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE

Documentary | International Competition | UK, Peru

AJEEB DASTAAN HAI YEH...

Fiction | Dimensions Mumbai | India

BATCH NUMBER 70

Documentary | Dimensions Mumbai | India

BOMBAI

Documentary | Dimensions Mumbai | India

HUGGS

Fiction | Dimensions Mumbai | India

LANDLORD

Documentary | Dimensions Mumbai | India

MAATI

Fiction | Dimensions Mumbai | India

METER DOWN

Fiction | Dimensions Mumbai | India

MUMBAI'S MAHUVA.. MAHUVA'S MUMBAI

Documentary | Dimensions Mumbai | India

PEDALLING THROUGH THE WAVES

Fiction | Dimensions Mumbai | India

TICKET TO BOMBAY

Fiction | Dimensions Mumbai | India

YOURS LOVINGLY

Fiction | Dimensions Mumbai | India

ABULELE

Fiction | Half Ticket | Israel

AT EYE LEVEL (AUF AUGENHÖHE)

Fiction | Half Ticket | Germany

BLUE BICYCLE (MAVI BISIKLET)

Fiction | Half Ticket | Turkey

COLOURS OF INNOCENCE (SAHAJ PAATHER GAPPO)

Fiction | Half Ticket | India

HANG IN THERE, KIDS! (LOKAH LAQI!)

Fiction | Half Ticket | Taiwan

THE WORLD OF US (WOORIDEUL)

Fiction | Half Ticket | South Korea

VALDERAMA

Fiction | Half Ticket | Iran

WINDOW HORSES

Fiction | Half Ticket | Canada

A TOWN CALLED PANIC: BACK TO SCHOOL (LA RENTREE DES CLASSES)

Fiction | Half Ticket | France

BAMBOO TEMPLE STREET (BAMBUTEMPELSTRASSE)

Fiction | Half Ticket | Germany

FAMOUS IN AHMEDABAD (AMDAVAD MA FAMOUS)

Documentary | Half Ticket | India

IF I WAS GOD...

Fiction | Half Ticket | Canada

JONAS AND THE SEA (ZEEZUCHT)

Fiction | Half Ticket | The Netherlands

SING (MINDENKI)

Fiction | Half Ticket | Hungary

THE BEST SOUND IN THE WORLD (O MELHOR SOM DO MUNDO)

Fiction | Half Ticket | Brazil

WE MAKE IMAGES (HUM CHITRA BANATE HAI)

Fiction | Half Ticket | India

FANNY’S JOURNEY (LE VOYAGE DE FANNY)

Fiction | Half Ticket Collection | France

HEIDI

Fiction | Half Ticket Collection | Germany, Switzerland

MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI (MA VIE DE COURGETTE)

Fiction | Half Ticket Collection | France, Switzerland

MR. FROG (MEESTER KIKKER)

Fiction | Half Ticket Collection | The Nethelands

A LONG HOLIDAY (DE LONGUES VACANCES)

Fiction | Half Ticket Collection | Belgium

BAT TIME

Fiction | Half Ticket Collection | Germany

FULL OF DREAMS (HOOFDVOLDROMEN)

Documentary | Half Ticket Collection | The Netherlands

IN A CAGE (LA CAGE)

Fiction | Half Ticket Collection | France

SKY

Documentary | Half Ticket Collection | The Netherlands

THE DANCING LINE

Fiction | Half Ticket Collection | USA

THE HEAD VANISHES (UNE TÊTE DISPARAÎT)

Fiction | Half Ticket Collection | France, Canada

THE LITTLE PRINCE (LE PETIT PRINCE)

Fiction | Half Ticket Collection | France

AFTER THE STORM (UMI YORIMO MADA FUKAKU)

Fiction | World Cinema | Japan

FUKUSHIMA MON AMOUR (GRUSSE AUS FUKUSHIMA)

Fiction | World Cinema | Germany

AQUARIUS

Fiction | World Cinema | Brazil, France

GRADUATION (BACALAUREAT)

Fiction | World Cinema | Romania

BARAKAH MEETS BARAKAH (BARAKAH YOQABIL BARAKAH)

Fiction | World Cinema | Saudi Arabia

I, DANIEL BLAKE

Fiction | World Cinema | UK, France, Belgium

LANTOURI

Fiction | World Cinema | Iran

DEATH IN SARAJEVO (SMRT U SARAJEVO)

Fiction | World Cinema | France, Bosnia And Herzegovina

DON'T CALL ME SON (MÃE SO HA UMA)

Fiction | World Cinema | Brazil

MADLY

Fiction | World Cinema | USA, UK, India, Australia, Japan, Argentina

ENDLESS POETRY (POESIA SIN FIN)

Fiction | World Cinema | France, Chile

NAKOM

Fiction | World Cinema | Ghana, USA

NERUDA

Fiction | World Cinema | Chile, Argentina, France, Spain, USA

OLD STONE (LAO SHI)

Fiction | World Cinema | China

PARADISE (RAI)

Fiction | World Cinema | Russia, Germany

SAFARI

Fiction | World Cinema | Austria

SWISS ARMY MAN

Fiction | World Cinema | USA

THE BAULKHAM HILLS AFRICAN LADIES TROUPE

Documentary | World Cinema | Australia

CLASH (ESHTEBAK)

Fiction | World Cinema | Egypt, France

THE COMMUNE (KOLLEKTIVET)

Fiction | World Cinema | Denmark

LO AND BEHOLD, REVERIES OF THE CONNECTED WORLD

Documentary | World Cinema | USA

DONALD CRIED

Fiction | World Cinema | USA

MOSTLY SUNNY

Documentary | World Cinema | Canada

THE SALESMAN (FORUSHANDE)

Fiction | World Cinema | Iran, France

THE UNKNOWN GIRL (LA FILLE INCONNUE)

Fiction | World Cinema | Belgium, France

AUSTERLITZ

Fiction | World Cinema | Germany

THE WAR SHOW

Documentary | World Cinema | Denmark, Syria, Finland

HEMA HEMA: SING ME A SONG WHILE I WAIT

Fiction | World Cinema | Bhutan, Hong Kong

TOWER

Documentary | World Cinema | USA

UNA

Fiction | World Cinema | UK

LETTERS FROM WAR

Fiction | World Cinema | Portugal

THE LOVERS AND THE DESPOT

Documentary | World Cinema | UK

THE NEON DEMON

Fiction | World Cinema | France, Denmark, Sweden

THE ROAD TO MANDALAY

Fiction | World Cinema | Taiwan, France, Germany, Myanmar

FRANCA: CHAOS AND CREATION

Documentary | World Cinema | USA, Italy

APPRENTICE

Fiction | World Cinema | Singapore, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Qatar

THE UNTAMED (LA REGIÓN SALVAJE)

Fiction | World Cinema | Mexico, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland

GOODBYE BERLIN (TSCHICK)

Fiction | World Cinema | Germany

THE WOMAN WHO LEFT (ANG BABAENG HUMAYO)

Fiction | World Cinema | Philippines

CERTAIN WOMEN

Fiction | World Cinema | USA

THE BLIND CHRIST (EL CRISTO CIEGO)

Fiction | World Cinema | Chile, France

WHITE SUN (SETO SURYA)

Fiction | World Cinema | Nepal, USA, Qatar, Netherlands

WILD

| World Cinema | Germany

THOSE WHO MAKE REVOLUTION HALFWAY ONLY DIG THEIR OWN GRAVES (CEUX QUI FONT LES RÉVOLUTIONS À MOITIÉ N'ONT FAIT QUE SE CREUSER UN TOMBEAU)

Fiction | World Cinema | Canada

I CALLED HIM MORGAN

Documentary | World Cinema | Sweden, USA

IN THE SAME GARDEN

Fiction | World Cinema | Turkey, Romania, Hungary, USA, Australia, India, Spain, Italy, Sweden

BURQA BOXERS

Documentary | The India Story | India

CECILIA

Documentary | The India Story | India

AN INSIGNIFICANT MAN

Documentary | The India Story | India

ARUVI

Fiction | The India Story | India

LATHE JOSHI

Fiction | The India Story | India

MAN WITH THE BINOCULARS (ANTARDRISHTI)

Fiction | The India Story | India

MAROON

Fiction | The India Story | India

PERVERTED (VIKRIT)

Fiction | The India Story | India

MANTRA

Fiction | The India Story | India

CHRONICLES OF HARI (HARIKATHA PRASANGA)

Fiction | The India Story | India

PINKY BEAUTY PARLOUR

Fiction | The India Story | India

REVELATIONS

Fiction | The India Story | India

SHREE DEVI PHATAKA

Fiction | The India Story | India

THE GOLDEN WING (SONAR BARAN PAKHI)

Fiction | The India Story | India

THE TURTLE (KAASAV)

Fiction | The India Story | India

417 MILES

Fiction | Discovering India | USA

A BILLION COLOUR STORY

Fiction | Discovering India | India

FORCE OF DESTINY

Fiction | Discovering India | Australia, India

GOOD THOUGHTS, GOOD WORDS, GOOD DEEDS - THE CONDUCTOR ZUBIN MEHTA (ZUBIN MEHTA - DIRIGENT UND WELTBÜRGER)

Documentary | Discovering India | Germany

MANGO DREAMS

Fiction | Discovering India | USA

ANATOMY OF VIOLENCE

Fiction | Discovering India | Canada

MULTIPLE MANIACS

Fiction | Restored Classics | USA

ON THE SILVER GLOBE (NA SREBRNYM GLOBIE)

Fiction | Restored Classics | Poland

THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT (REKOPIS ZNALEZIONY W SARAGOSSIE)

Fiction | Restored Classics | Poland

TAIPEI STORY (QING MEI ZHU MA)

Fiction | Restored Classics | Taiwan

A JOURNEY THROUGH FRENCH CINEMA (VOYAGE À TRAVERS LE CINÉMA FRANÇAIS)

Documentary | Rendezvous | France

ELLE

Fiction | Rendezvous | France

LOST IN PARIS (PARIS PIEDS NUS)

Fiction | Rendezvous | France

MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE (MA VIE DE COURGETTE)

Fiction | Rendezvous | Switzerland, France

NOCTURAMA

Fiction | Rendezvous | France

SLACK BAY (MA LOUTE)

Fiction | Rendezvous | France, Germany

STAYING VERTICAL (RESTER VERTICAL)

Fiction | Rendezvous | France

THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV (LA MORT DE LOUIS XIV)

Fiction | Rendezvous | France

THE TOGETHER PROJECT (L’EFFET AQUATIQUE)

Fiction | Rendezvous | France

THINGS TO COME (L'AVENIR)

Fiction | Rendezvous | France, Germany

THE RED TURTLE (LA TORTUE ROUGE)

Fiction | Rendezvous | France, Belgium

PERSONAL SHOPPER

Fiction | Rendezvous | France

8 SECONDS (8 SANIYE)

Fiction | Country Focus: Turkey | Turkey, Germany

ALBUM (ALBÜM)

Fiction | Country Focus: Turkey | Turkey

BLUE BICYCLE (MAVI BISIKLET)

Fiction | Country Focus: Turkey | Turkey

DUST (TOZ)

Fiction | Country Focus: Turkey | Turkey, Afghanistan

EMBER (KOR)

Fiction | Country Focus: Turkey | Turkey, Germany

MY MOTHER'S WOUND (ANNEMIN YARASI)

Fiction | Country Focus: Turkey | Bosnia, Serbia, Turkey

SNOW PIRATES (KAR KORSANLARI)

Fiction | Country Focus: Turkey | Turkey

THE BRIDE

Fiction | Country Focus: Turkey | Turkey

WHISPER IF I FORGET (UNUTURSAM FISILDA)

Fiction | Country Focus: Turkey | Turkey

WINTER SLEEP (KIS UYUKSU)

Fiction | Country Focus: Turkey | Turkey

A TOUCH OF SIN (THIAN ZHU DING)

Fiction | Excellence in Cinema Awards | China

UNKNOWN PLEASURES (REN XIAO YAO)

Fiction | Excellence in Cinema Awards | China

THE GREASY STRANGLER

Fiction | After Dark | USA

THE LURE (CORKI DANCINGU)

Fiction | After Dark | Poland

THE SIMILARS (LOS PARECIDOS)

Fiction | After Dark | Mexico

THE WAILING (GOKSUNG)

Fiction | After Dark | South Korea

UNDER THE SHADOW

Fiction | After Dark | Jordan, Qatar, UK

by Siraj Syed

Assam-born Rima Das’s first feature, Man with the Binoculars, which was screened at Cannes in the Marche (Market) du Film section on May 18, finds its place in the programmes of two prestigious festivals in successive months. First, it is the Jio MAMI Mumbai International Film Festival with STAR, which starts this week, and then it will be part of Tallinn’s Black Nights 20th year.

The Man with the Binoculars is Rima Das' tender and poignant slice-of-life debut film about love, desire, responsibilities, struggles, differences, loneliness, coming-of-age, introspection, realisations and the inner conflicts and angst of the chief protagonist. The film is the story of Chaudhury, a retired geography teacher from a small village in Assam, whose life starts turning upside down when his son, a musician by profession, who has come for a visit, gifts him a pair of binoculars.

Rima says about the film, “Coming from a remote village in Assam (Northeast India) and growing up before satellite TV, I knew nothing of World Cinema. In Mumbai to explore my talents as an actor, I got exposed to the larger film universe. My interest veered towards film-making. A short film I made in 2009, Pratha, was officially selected at the Chicago short film festival, and this boosted my morale. One day at a friend's place, a binocular fascinated me. That his father living in a village previously owned it intrigued me further. Back in my village, an idea took seed and I began writing The Man with the Binoculars (Antardrishti).

To me, the binocular is a metaphor for the bitter reality of human loneliness, struggles, regrets, differences, our constant desire to control others and our surroundings, and our lack of perspective where small things perceived through the binocular of our consciousness makes it excessively large while we ignore the big right in front of us. Chaudhury, addicted to his binoculars, like most of us, laments the many boats he has missed in life, even as things around him break apart. Armed with a binocular, peering into nature, he struggles to bring his past into perspective even as the present of the poetic landscape around him watches him with impassioned eyes.

With little money, a tiny team, and crew and actors, the three years it has taken to make this film seem like an interesting and not easy journey. But then I remind myself that often that is what life is sometimes made of - fragments of an impossible reality.”

Director, producer, screen-writer Rima Das commutes between Mumbai and Assam. The Man with the Binoculars is her first feature film. Village Rock-stars, her second feature film, is in post-production stage.​

101 minutes in duration, The Man with the Binoculars is produced, written and directed by Rima Das. Bishnu Kharghariya plays the title role, supported by Jumi Das. Sound design is by Amrit Pritam, who recently won the coveted Golden Reel Award. Director of photography is Ratnajit Roy, and the editor is Suresh Pai. Colourist Sid Meer and music composer Anurag Saikia round off the credits. The Man with the Binoculars is co-produced by Jaya Das.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybstv4exukw

Faiz 

Restored Pak-Indo classic dropped from Jio MAMI’s 18th Mumbai Film Festival with STAR

At Jio MAMI’s 18th Mumbai Film Festival with STAR, which kicks off in two days’ time, of particular interest to film historians and cineastes in general was the Pakistani film, Jago Hua Savera (Day Shall Dawn). It was the only film from that country to find place in the programme. The inclusion sparked off controversy in the wake of hostilities along the border and several prominent Indians urging the boycott of anything Pakistani, including participation of Pakistani talent on art and media. Several Pakistani actors, music composers and singers are working in India for many years now, but demand for their boycott has been growing. Releases of some films have been stalled and the foreign artistes have been asked to go back. But it was hard to imagine that this outcry would impact Jago Hua Savera, made in 1958-59, by a Pakistani director with Indian talent.

Yesterday, there were reports of a Mumbai-based organisation, Sangharsh, filing a complaint against the organisers, and threatening to protest against the film at its screening. Its president, Prithvi Mhaske, had said the film is “likely to flare outrage among people”. His stand follows the directives issued by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (a political party, founded by Raj Thackeray, nephew of the ultra right-wing politician, late Balasaheb Thackeray, Supremo of the Shiv Sena. MNS was supported by Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association (IMPPA) and the Cinema Exhibitors Association (CEA) in its stand against Pakistani talent and technicians in Indian films, in the wake of the India-Pakistan political skirmishes.

A one-line press release was issued today by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), the organising body, citing the “current situation”. When asked to elaborate, by the prestigious Hindu daily, Festival Director Anupama Chopra, a TV journalist of good standing, refused to comment further, saying, “We said what we had to in the press release”.

Jago Hua Savera would have been the pièce de résistance of the festival, opined the Hindu, and for good reason.

Famous Pakistani film-maker and director Akhtar J. (AaeJay) Kardar, kid brother of Indian legend A.R. (Mianjee) Kardar and cousin of Pakistani cricketer Abdul Hafeez Kardar, made this film in 1959. It had Bengali actress Tripti Mitra in the lead, with many first-timers, and was shot in East Pakistan (now BanglaDesh, over 48 days, at the banks of the river Meghna. Based on a 1930s Bengali story by Indian writer Manik Bandopadhyaya, Padma Nadir Majhi (Boatman of the River Padma), it had dialogue and lyrics by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and music by Indian maestro Timir Baran. A.J. spent his childhood in Mumbai, with his brother, who was already an established film-maker and studio-owner.

Faiz and A.J. often worked together after Jago Hua Savera. A.J. also made a documentary on the great sub-continent poet, Iqbal, and several others in Pakistani painters. He even made a film on Inder Sabha (1972). A great Indophile, A. J. had made a film on Budhha, in the 80s, and Mianjee had asked me if I could help market that in India, since there was little interest in the subject at home. After serving on Pakistan’s National Film Development Corporation (NAFDC, to avoid confusing it with India’s NFDC), he moved to the UK, where died in 2002, aged 76. Jago Hua Savera was possibly the only feature he ever made, but for one docu-feature, and though it was a commercial disaster, it won eleven international awards, including one at the Moscow Film Festival. It was also Pakistan’s entry at the Oscars.

Day Shall Dawn’s reappearance on the big screen has been brought about largely by Anjum Taseer, son of Nauman Taseer, the businessman who produced the film. Anjum tenaciously dug out the prints from storage in France, London and Karachi. Thereafter, screenings at the Three Continents festival in Nantes in 2007, and New York in 2008, followed. In 2009, painstaking restoration was begun, frame by frame. The film was screened in Kolkata, at the ICCR auditorium, as part of a tribute to Faiz, on his birth centenary at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, in January 2012.

Wrote the BBC, in June 2016:

General Ayub Khan had become the first military dictator of the country in a coup only months earlier, positioning the country firmly in the American camp, during the Cold War.

"Three days before the release of the film, the government asked my father not to go ahead with it," Anjum Taseer told the BBC.

"The government branded the young artists and writers involved in the making of the film as Communists."

It did not help that iconic poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz, who was a known revolutionary, had written the script, lyrics and dialogue of the film."Gen Ayub Khan imprisoned my father and many other artists," said Faiz Ahmad Faiz's daughter Salima Hashmi.

It was decided to premiere the film in London, but the military government instructed the Pakistan high commission to boycott the event. "But on that day, then high commissioner and his wife defied the order," Mr Taseer said.

Inspired by the early works of iconic Indian director Satyajit Ray, Jago Hua Savera is moulded in neo-realism, a genre shaped by Italian greats like Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica. The film portrays the hardships of a fishing community in Saitnol village, near Dhaka, which is at the mercy of loan sharks. It presents an unusual collaboration between Pakistani and Indian professionals, only a decade after the bloody partition.

Bengali actor Tripti Mitra and her husband Shombhu Mitra were both members of the Left-leaning Indian People's Theatre Association of the 1940s. With Faiz, Baran and Mitra on board, the producer commissioned British cinematographer Walter Lasally, who later won an Oscar for his work on Zorba the Greek.

Within weeks, everybody, including its makers, forgot about the film. A classic that belonged alongside films like La Strada, The Bicycle Thief and Pather Panchali, was, instead lost to the world of cinema. Nobody talked about it for another 50 years, until two French brothers Philippe and Alain Jalladeau, founders of the Three Continents Film Festival in Nantes, France, decided to screen a retrospective of Pakistani films in 2007.

"It was then that Shireen Pasha (Pakistani documentary filmmaker and head of the department of film at the National College of Arts, Lahore) said, “You can't have a retrospective of Pakistani films without Jago Hua Zavera," says Philippe Jalladeau. What followed was a frantic search for a print of the film that took Taseer (his father died in 1996) across Pakistan and Bangladesh, and film archives in the western Indian city of Pune, London and Paris.

One week before the festival, Taseer found some reels of the film with a French distributor, some in London and the rest in Karachi, eventually putting them together for a "showable print". After the Nantes festival, Taseer took on the task of properly restoring the film and sent a copy to a lab in the Indian city of Chennai. "It took six months to get the copy released by the Indian customs," says Taseer, who then, exasperated by the delay, decided to take the film to London for restoration, in 2008, instead. It was finally completed in 2010.

On an unusually warm Sunday morning on 15 May, Taseer joined Faiz's daughter Hashmi and Philippe Jalladeau to present the film in the Bunuel theatre, at the Palais des Festivals venue of Cannes. The hall was half empty - there were no Pakistani film critics, and only four Indian journalists were present.

Many more were looking forward to the privilege at Jio MAMI’s 18th Mumbai Film Festival with STAR. That day did not come, and this dawn, turned out be a dream. 

Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, First Look at18th Jio MAMI Film Festival with STAR

After watching the National Award winning film Baahubali, everyone was left with the same question, “Why did Kattappa kill Baahubali?” They had to wait for the sequel to get the answer. Or else head for the Jio MAMI Movie Mela (fair) with Star, which is two days dedicated to popular Indian cinema. One of the major highlights there is the first look of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, which will be showcased on October 22, 2016, the first day of the two-day event, at Rang Mandir, Bandra.

The Movie Mela will host the cast of Baahubali 2 who will share their experiences on the making of the movie, a historical fiction, directed by S. S. Rajamouli, which has garnered an unbelievable fan following. There, the Baahubuli team will also launch the teaser to a virtual reality spin-off film, set around the world of Baahubali, and give the audience a sneak-peak into a game and comic, based on the epic franchise.

Expected to be present on the occasion are

 Director, SS Rajamouli

 Producer, Shobu Yarlagadda

 Protagonist, Prabhas who plays the role of Shivudu/Baahubali

 Rana Daggubati, who plays the role of Bhallala Deva/Pallvalathevan

 Anushka Shetty, who plays the role of Devasena

 Tamannaah, who plays the role of Avanthika

 Raja Koduri, who heads the VFX Department

Baahubali: The Beginning became one of the biggest, top grossing movies of 2015. The Telugu version of the movie bagged the Best Feature Film-Golden Lotus Award, and the Best Special Effects at the 63rd National Film Awards. Baahubali is India’s biggest motion picture and is the largest worldwide release of any Indian film, in different languages.

India’s tiny northern neighbour Bhutan at Jio MAMI’s 18th Mumbai FF with Star

A nine-member Bhutanese delegation, led by Dasho Karma W Penjor, Honourable Secretary of Ministry of Information and Communications, will participate in the Mumbai. Other members will include important members of Department of Information and Media, and members from the Bhutan Film Association. Bhutan is known as ‘The Land of the Thunder Dragon’ at the Festival.

Supported by government officials, the cinema of Bhutan is a small but emerging industry, standing at the threshold of its international breakthrough. Bhutan has a massive appetite for entertainment and the local movie industry also takes inspiration from Indian cinema.

Khyentse Norbu’s newest film, ‘Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait’ will be screened as part of the World Cinema category. In this Buddhist-themed, intriguing Bhutanese drama, a group of people don masks and come together in the woods for fifteen days of liberating and transgressing anonymity.

Khyentse Norbu is a Bhutanese Buddhist teacher and film-maker who received worldwide fame in 1999, with his first film, ‘The Cup’.

Festival Director, Jio MAMI with Star Film Festival, Anupama Chopra said, “Bhutan is one of my favourite places on the planet, and it gives me great pleasure to have the Bhutanese delegation at our festival. It’s an honour for us. I hope this is the beginning of an enduring cultural exchange.”

The contingent will comprise:

1. Mr. Dasho Karma W Penjor- The Honorable Secretary of Ministry of Information and

Communications

2. Mr. Thinley Dorji- Librarian, Department of Information and Media

3. Mr. Phub Wangdi- Assistant Information and Media, Department of Information and

Media

And members from the Bhutan Film Association:

1. Mr. Tashi Gyeltshen- Filmmaker

2. Mr. Thukten Yeshi- Film Writer & Director/ Consultant

3. Mr. Pema Rinzin- Filmmaker, Sound Designer, Editor, Cinematographer & Archer

4. Mr. Chencho Dorji- Actor/Producer

5. Ms. Tsokye Tsomo Karchung- Actor (Miss Bhutan 2008)

6. Ms. Lhaki Dolma- Actor, writer (Post Graduate in Development & Management from Royal Institute of Management)